and height of my spirit discover my title to this promised land shall I be the adopted Son of God and coheir with Christ of that blessed inheritance and daily look when I am put into possession and shall not this be seen in my joyful countenance What if God had made me commander of the earth What if the mountains would remove at my command What if I could heal all diseases with a word or a touch What if the infernal spirits were all at my command Should I not rejoyce in such priviledges and honors as these yet is it my Saviours command not to rejoyce that the divels are subject to us but in this to rejoyce that our names are written in heaven I cannot here enjoy my parents or my neer and beloved friends without some delight especially when I did too freely let out my affections to my friend how sweet was that very exercise of my love O what will it then be to live in the perpetual love of God! For brethren here to live together in Unity how good and pleasant a thing is it To see a family live in love husband wife parents children servants doing all in love to one another To see a Town live together in love without any envyings brawlings heart-burnings or contentions scornes law-suits factions or divisions but every man loving his neighbor as himself and thinking they can never do too much for one another but striving to go beyond each other in love O how happy and delectable a sight is this O sweetest bands saith Seneca which binde so happily that those that are so bound do love their binders and desire still to be bound more closely and even reduced into one O then what a blessed society will be the Family of Heaven and those peaceable Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem where is no division nor dissimilitude nor differing Judgments nor disaffection nor strangeness nor deceitful friendship never an angry thought or look never a cutting unkinde expression but all are one in Christ who is one with the Father and live in the love of Love himself Cato could say That the soul of a Lover dwelleth in the person whom he loveth and therefore we say The soul is not more where it liveth and enlighteneth then where it loveth How neer then will my soul be closed to God and how sweet must that conjunction be when I shall so heartily strongly and uncessantly love him As the Bee lies sucking and satiating her self with the sweetness of the Flower or rather as the childe lies sucking the Mothers brest inclosed in her arms and sitting in her lap even so shall my loving soul be still feeding on the sweetness of the God of Love Ah wretched fleshly unbelieving heart that can think of such a day and work and life as this with so low and dull and feeble joyes But my enjoying Joyes will be more lively How delectable is it to me to behold and study these inferior works of God to read those Anatomical Lectures of Du Bartas upon this great dissected body what a beautiful fabrick is this great house which here we dwell in The floor so drest with various Herbs and Flowrs and Trees and watered with Springs and Rivers and Seas the roof so wide expanded so admirably adorned Such astonishing workmanship in every part The studies of an hundred Ages more if the world should last so long would not discover the mysteries of divine skill which are to be found in the narrow compass of our bodies What Anatomist is not amazed in his Search and Observations What wonders then do Sun and Moon and Stars and Orbs and Seas and VVindes and Fire and Aire and Earth c. afford us And hath God prepared such a house for our silly sinful corruptible flesh and for a soul imprisoned and doth he bestow so many millions of wonderful rarities even upon his enemies O then what a dwelling must that needs be which he prepareth for pure refined spiritual glorified ones and which he will bestow onely upon his dearly beloved children whom he hath chosen out to make his mercy on them glorified and admired As far as our perfected glorified bodies will excel this frail and corruptible flesh so far wil the glory of the New Jerusalem exceed all the present glory of the creatures The change upon our Mansion will be proportionable to the change upon our selves Arise then O my soul by these steps in thy Contemplation and let thy thoughts of that glory were it possible as far in sweetness exceed thy thoughts of the excellencies below Fear not to go out of this body and this world when thou must make so happy a change as this but say as Zuingerus when he was dying I am glad and even leap for joy that at last the time is come wherein that even that mighty Jehovah whose Majesty in my search of Nature I have admired whose Goodness I have adored whom in faith I have desired whom I have sighed for will now shew himself to me face to face And let that be the unfained sense of thy heart which Camerarius left in his VVill should be written on his Monument Vita mihi mors est mors mihi vita nova est Life is to me a Death Death is to me a new Life Moreover how wonderful and excellent are the works of Providence even in this life to see the great God to engage himself and set a work his Attributes for the safety and advancement of a few humble despicable praying persons O what a joyful time will it then be when so much Love and Mercy and VVisdom and Power and Truth shall be manifested and glorified in the Saints glorification How delightful is it to my soul to review the workings of Providence for my self and to read over the Records and Catalogues of those special mercies wherewith my life hath been adorned and sweetned How oft have my prayers been heard and my tears regarded and my groaning troubled soul relieved and my Lord hath bid me Be of good cheer He hath healed me when in respect of means I was uncurable He hath helped me when I was helpless In the midst of my supplications hath he eased and revived me He hath taken me up from my knees and from the dust where I have lain in sorrow and despair even the cries which have been occasioned by distrust hath he regarded what a support are these experiences to my fearful unbelieving heart These clear Testimonies of my Fathers Love do put life into my afflicted drooping spirit O then what a blessed day will that be when I shall have all mercy perfection of mercy nothing but mercy and fully injoy the Lord of Mercy himself When I shall stand on the shore and look back upon the raging Seas which I have safely passed when I shall in safe and full possession of glory look back upon all my pains and troubles and feares and tears and upon all the
Truth and saved you from the spirit of Giddiness Levity and Apostacy of this age who hath preserved you from those scandals whereby others have so hainously wounded their profession and hath given you to see the mischief of Separation and Divisions and made you eminent for Vnity and Peace when almost all the Land is in a flame of contention and so many that we thought godly are busily demolishing the Church and striving in a zealous ignorance against the Lord. Beloved though few of you are rich or great in the world yet for this riches of mercy towards you I must say Ye are my Glory my Crown and my Joy And for all these rare favors to my self and you as I have oft promised to publish the praises of our Lord so do I here set up this stone of remembrance and write upon it Glory to God in the highest Hitherto hath the Lord helped us My flesh and my heart failed but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever But have all these Deliverances brought us to our Rest No We are as far yet from it as we are from Heaven You are yet under oppression and troubles and I am yet under consuming sickness And feeling that I am like to be among you but a little while and that my pained body is hastening to the dust I shall here leave you my best advice for your immortal souls and bequeath you this counsel as the legacy of a dying man that you may here read it and practise it when I am taken from you And I beseech you receive it as from one that you know doth unfainedly love you and that regardeth no honors or happiness in this world in comparison of the welfare and salvation of your souls yea receive it from me as if I offered it you upon my knees beseeching you for your souls sake that you would not reject it and beseeching the Lord to bless it to you yea as one that hath received authority from Christ to command you I charge you in his name as ever you will answer it when we shall meet at judgment and as you would not have me there be a witness against you nor all my labors be charged against you to your condemnation and the Lord Jesus your Judg to sentence you as rebellious that you faithfully and constantly practise these ten directions 1. Labor to be men of knowledg and sound understandings A sound judgment is a most precious mercy and much conduceth to the soundness of heart and life A weak judgment is easily corrupted and if it be once corrupt the will and conversation will quickly follow Your understandings are the in-let or entrance to the whole soul and if you be weak there your souls are like a Garison that hath open or il-guarded Gates and if the enemy be once let in there the whole City will quickly be his own Ignorance is virtually every error therefore let the Bible be much in your hands and hearts Remember what I taught you on Deut. 6.6 7. Read much the writings of our old solid Divines such as Perkins Bolton Dod Sibbs especially Doctor Preston You may read an able Divine when you cannot hear one especially be sure you learn well the Principles of Religion Begin with the Assemblies lesser Catechism and then learn the greater and next Master Balls with the Exposition and then Doctor Ames his Marrow of Divinity now Englished or Ushers If you see men fall on Controversies before they understand these never wonder if they are drowned in errors I know your povertie and labors will not give you leave to read so much as others may do but yet a willing minde will finde some time if it be when they should sleep and especially it will spend the Lords day wholly in these things O be not ignorant of God in the midst of such light as if the matters of your salvation were less worth your study then your trading in the world 2. Do the utmost you can to get a faithful Minister when I am taken from you and be sure you acknowledg him your Teacher Overseer and Ruler 1 Thess. 5.12 13. Acts 20.28 Heb. 13.7 17. and learn of him obey him and submit to his doctrine except he teach you any singular points and then take the advice of other Ministers in trying it Expect not that he should humor you and please your fancies and say and do as you would have him that is meer Independencie for the people to rule themselves and their Rulers If he be unable to Teach and Guide you do not chuse him at first if he be able be ruled by him even in things that to you are doubtful except it be clear that â—e would turn you from the truth if you know more then he become Preachers your selves if you do not then quarrel not when you should learn especially submit to his private over-sight as well as publike Teaching It is but the least part of a Ministers work which is done in the Pulpit Paul taught them also from house to house day and night with tears Acts 20.20 31. To go daily from one house to another and see how you live and examine how you profit and direct you in the duties of your families and in your preparation for death is the great work Had not weakness confined me and publike labors forbidden me I should judg my self hainously guiltie in neglecting this In the Primitive times every Church of so many souls as this Parish had many Ministers whereof the ablest speakers did preach most impublike and the rest did the more of the less publike work which some mistake for meer Ruling Elders But now Sacriledg and Covetousness will scarce leave maintenance for one in a Church which is it that hath brought us to a loss in the nature of Government 3. Let all your Knowledg turn into Affection and Practice keep open the passage between your heads and your hearts that every Truth may go to the quick Spare not for any pains in working out your salvation Take heed of loitering when your souls lie at the stake Favor not your selves in any slothful distemper Laziness is the damnation of most that perish among us God forbid you should be of the mad opinion of the world That like not serving God so much nor making so much ado to be saved All these men will shortly be of another minde Live now as you would wish you had done at death and judgment Let no scorns dishearten you nor differences of opinion be an offence to you God and Scripture and Heaven and the Way thither are still the same It will do you no good to be of the right Religion if you be not zealous in the exercise of the Duties of that Religion Read oft the fifth and sixt Chapters of the third part of this Book 4. Be sure you make conscience of the great Duties that you are to perform in your families Teach your
this in Heaven Our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such lights as at Worcester Edg-hil Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn Castle York Naseby Langport c. We shall then have the conquest without the calamity Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the carkasses of the slain Our black Ribbands and mourning Attire will then be turned into the white Robes and Garments of gladness O how hardly can my heart now hold when I think of such and such and such a dear Christian Friend slain or departed O how glad must the same heart needs be when I see them all alive and glorified But a far greater grief it is to our Spirits to see the spiritual miseries of our Brethren To see such a one with whom we took sweet councel and who zealously joyned with us in Gods worship to be now fallen off to sensuality turned drunkard worldling or a persecutor of the Saints And these trying times have given us too large occasion for such sorrows To see our dearest and most intimate friends to be turned aside from the Truth of Christ and that either in or neer the Foundation and to be raging confident in the grossest Errors To see many neer us in the flesh continue their neglect of Christ and their souls and nothing will waken them out of their security To look an ungodly Father or Mother Brother or Sister in the face To look on a carnal Wife or Husband or Childe or Friend And to think how certainly they shall be in Hell for ever if they die in their present unregenerate estate O what continual dolors do all these sad sights and thoughts fill our hearts with from day to day And will it not be a blessed day when we shall rest from all these what Christian now is not in Pauls case and cannot speak in his Language 2 Cor. 11.28 29. Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not What heart is not wounded to think on Germanies long desolations O the learned Universities The flourishing Churches there that now are left desolate Look on Englands four yeers blood a flourishing Land almost made ruined hear but the common voyce in most Cities Towns and Countreys through the Land and judg whether here be no cause of sorrow Especially look but to the sad effects and mens spirits grown more out of order when a most wonderful Reformation by such wonderful means might have been well expected And is not this cause of astonishing sorrows Look to Scotland look to Ireland look almost every where and tell me what you see Blessed that approaching day when our eyes shall behold no more such sights nor our ears hear any more such tidings How many hundred Pamphlets are Printed full of almost nothing but the common calamities So that its become a gainful trade to divulge the news of our Brethrens sufferings And the fears for the future that possessed our hearts were worse then all that we saw or suffered O the tidings that run from Edghil fight of York fight c. How many a face did they make pale and how many a heart did they astonish nay have not many died with the fears of that which if they had lived they had neither suffered nor seen It s said of Melancthon That the miseries of the Church made him almost neglect the death of his most beloved Children to think of the Gospel departing the Glory taken from Israel our Sun setting at Noon day poor souls left willingly dark and destitute and with great pains and hazard blowing out the Light that should guide them to salvation What sad thoughts must these be To think of Christ removing his Family taking away both worship and worshippers and to leave the Land to the rage of the merciless These were sad thoughts Who could then have taken the Harp in hand or sung the pleasant Songs of Zion But blessed be the Lord who hath frustrated our fears and who will hasten that rejoycing day when Sion shall be exalted above the Mountains and her Gates shall be open day and night and the glory of the Gentiles be brought into it and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve her shall perish When the sons of them that afflicted her shall come bending unto her and all they that despised her shall bow themselves down at the soles of her feet and they shall call her The City of the Lord the Sion of the holy One of Israel When her people also shall be all Righteous even the Work of Gods hands the Branch of his planting who shall inherit the Land for ever that he may be glorified When that voice shall sound forth Rejoyce with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her Rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourn for her That ye may suck and be satisfied with the brests of her consolation that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory Thus shall we Rest from our participation of our Brethrens sufferings SECT XVI 8. WE shall Rest also from all our own personal sufferings whether natural and ordinary or extraordinary from the afflicting hand of God And though this may seem a small thing to those that live in continual ease and abound in all kinde of prosperity yet me thinks to the daily afflicted soul it should make the fore-thoughts of Heaven delightful And I think we shall meet with few of the Saints but will say That this is their own case O the dying life that we now live As full of sufferings as of days and hours We are the Carkasses that all Calamities prey upon As various as they are each one will have a snatch at us and be sure to devour a morsel of our comforts When we bait our Bulls and Bears we do but represent our own condition whose lives are consumed under such assaults and spent in succession of fresh encounters All Creatures have an enmity against us ever since we made the Lord of all our enemy And though we are reconciled by the blood of the Covenant and the price is paid for our full deliverance yet our Redeemer sees it fit to leave this measure of misery upon us to make us know for what we are beholden and to minde us of what we would else forget to be serviceable to his wise and gracious designes and advantagious to our full and final Recovery He hath sent us as Lambs among Wolves and sure there is little Rest to be expected As all our Senses are the inlets of sin so are they become the inlets of our sorrow Grief creeps in at our eyes at our ears and almost every where It seiseth upon our head our hearts our flesh our Spirits and what part doth escape it Fears do devour us and
and drinking marrying and giving in marriage till the day that Noah entered into the Ark and knew not till the Flood came and took them all away So will the coming of Christ be and so will the coming of their particular judgment be For saith the Apostle when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travel upon a woman with childe and they shall not escape 1 Thes. 5.3 O cruel Peace which ends in such a War Reader If this be thy own case if thou hast no other peace in thy Conscience then this ungrounded self-created peace I could heartily wish for thy own sake that thou wouldst cast it off As I would not have any humble gratious soul to vex their own consciences needlesly nor to disquiet and discompose their spirits by troubles of their own making nor to unfit themselves for duty nor interrupt their comfortable communion with God nor to weaken their bodies or cast themselves into Melancholy distempers to the scandal of Religion so would I not have a miserable wretch who lives in daily and hourly danger of dropping into Hell to be as merry and as quiet as if all were well with him It is both unseemly and unsafe more unseemly then to see a man go laughing to the Gallows and more unsafe then to favor the Gangren'd member which must be cut off or to be making merry when the enemy is entring our Habitations Mens first peace is usually a false peace it is a second peace which is brought into the soul upon the casting out of the first which will stand good and yet not alway that neither for where the change is by the halves the second or third peace may be unsound as well as the first as many a man that casteth away the peace of his Prophaness doth take up the peace of meer Civility and morality or if he yet discover the unsoundness of that and is cast into trouble then he healeth all with outward Religiousness or with a half Christianity and there he taketh up with peace This is but driving Satan out of one room into another but till he be cast out of possession the peace is unsound Hear what Christ saith Luke 11.21.22 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger then he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and devideth his spoils The soul of every man by nature is Satans Garrison all is at peace in such a man till Christ comes when Christ storms this heart he breaks the peace he giveth it most terrible Alarms of Judgment and Hell he battereth it with the Ordnance of his Threatnings and Terrors he sets all in a combustion of Fear and Sorrow till he have forced it to yield to his meer mercy and take him for the Governor and Satan is cast out and then doth he establish a firm and lasting Peace If therefore thou art yet but in that first peace and thy heart was never yet either taken by storm or delivered up freely to Jesus Christ never think that thy peace will indure Can the soul have peace which is at enmity with Christ or stands out against him or thinks his Government too severe and his Conditions hard Can he have peace against whom God proclaimeth war I may say to thee as Jehu to Joram when he asked Is it peace What peace while the whordoms of thy mother Jezabel remain So thou art desirous to hear nothing from the mouth of a Minister but peace but what peace can there be till thou hast cast away thy wickedness and thy first peace and made thy peace with God through Christ Wilt thou believe God himself in this Case Why read then what he saith twice over Isai. 48.22 and 57.21 There is no peace saith my God to the wicked And hath he said it and shall it not stand Sinner Though thou maist now harden and fortifie thy heart against Fear and Grief and Trouble yet as true as God is true they will batter down thy proud and fortified spirit and seize upon it and drive thee to amazement This will be done either here or hereafter My counsel therefore to thee is that thou presently examine the grounds of thy peace and say I am now at ease and quiet in my minde but is it grounded and will it be lasting Is the danger of eternal Judgment over Am I sure my sins are pardoned and my soul shall be saved If not alas what cause of peace I may be in hell before the next day for ought I know Certainly a man that stands upon the Pinacle of a Steeple or that sleeps on the top of the main Mast or that is in the heat of the most bloody fight hath more cause of peace and carelesness then thou Why thou livest under the wrath of God continually thou art already sentenced to eternal death and maist every hour expect the execution till thou have sued out a pardon through Christ. I can shew thee a hundred threatnings in Scripture which are yet in force against thee but canst thou shew me one Promise for thy safety an hour What assurance hast thou when thou goest forth of thy doors that thou shalt ever come in again I should wonder but that I know the desperate hardness of the heart of man how a man that is not sure of his peace with God could eat or drink or sleep or live in peace That thou art not afraid when thou liest down lest thou shouldst awake in hell or when thou risest up lest thou shouldest be in hell before night or when thou sittest in thy house that thou still fearest not the approach of death or some fearful Judgment seizing upon thee and that the threats and sentence are not alwayes sounding in thy ears Well if thou were the nearest friend that I have in the world in this case that thou art in I could wish thee no greater good then that God would break in upon thy careless heart and shake thee out of thy false peace and cast thee into trouble that when thou feelest thy heart at ease thou wouldest remember thy misery that when thou art pleasing thy self with thy estate or business or labours thou wouldest still remember the approaching wo that thou wouldest cry out in the midst of thy pleasant discourse and merry company O how neer is the great and dreadful change that what ever thou art doing God would make thee read thy sentence as if it were still written before thine eyes and which way soever thou goest he would still meet thee full in the face with the sense of his wrath as the Angel did Balaam with a drawn sword till he had made thee cast away thy groundless peace and lye down at the feet of Christ whom thou hast resisted and say Lord what wouldest thou have me to do and so receive from him a surer and better peace
be indeed the Justice of God The everlasting flames of Hell will not be thought too hot for the Rebellious and when they have there burned through millions of Ages he will not repent him of the evil which is befaln them O wo to the soul that is thus set up for a Butt for the wrath of the Almighty to shoot at and for a Bush that must burn in the flames of his Jealousie and never be consumed SECT III. 3. THe torments of the damned must needs be extream because they are the effect of Divine Revenge Wrath is terrible but Revenge is implacable When the great God shall say I will now be righted for all the wrongs that I have born from rebellious creatures I will let out my wrath and it shall be staied no more you shall now pay for all the abuse of my Patience Remember now how I waited your leasure in vain how I stooped to perswade you how I as it were kneeled to intreate you did you think I would alwayes be slighted by such miscreants as you O who can look up when God shall thus plead with them in the heat of Revenge Then will he be revenged for ever mercy abused for his creatures consumed in luxury and excess for every hours time mispent for the neglect of his word for the vilifying of his messengers for the hating of his people for the prophanation of his ordinances and neglect of his worship for the breaking of his Sabbaths and the grieving of his Spirit for the taking of his Name in vain for unmerciful neglect of his servants in distress O the numberless bils that will be brought in And the charge that will overcharge the soul of the sinner And how hotly Revenge will pursue them all to the highest How God will stand over them with the rod in his hand not the rod of fatherly chastisement but that Iron rod wherewith he bruiseth the rebellious and lay it on for all their neglects of Christ and grace O that men would foresee this And not put themselves under the hammer of revenging fury when they may have the treasure of happiness at so easie rates And please God better in preventing their woe SECT IIII. SECT IIII. 4. COnsider also how this Justice and Revenge will be the delight of the Almighty Though he had rather men would stoop to Christ and accept of his mercy yet when they persist in rebellion he will take pleasure in their execution Though he desire not the death of him that dyeth but rather that he repent and live yet when he will not repent and live God doth desire and delight in the execution of Justice conditionally so that men will repent he desires not their death but their life Ezek 33.11 yet if they repent not in the same place he uttereth his resolution for their death vers 8.13 He tels us Isai. 27.4 That fury is not in him yet he addeth in the next words Who would set the bryers and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together What a doleful case is the wretched creature in when he shall thus set the heart of his Creator against him and he that made him will not save him and he that formed him will not have mercy upon him Isai. 27.11 How heavy a threatning is that in Deut. 28.63 As the Lord Rejoyced over you to do you good so the Lord will Rejoyce over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought Wo to the soul which God Rejoyceth to punish Yea he tels the simple ones that love simplicity and the scorners that delight in scorning and the fools that hate knowledg That because he called and they refused he stretched out his hand and no man regarded but set at nought all his counsel and would none of his reproof therefore he will also laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh when their fear cometh as desolation and their destruction as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon them Then shall they call upon him but he will not answer they shall seek him early but shall not finde him for that they hated knowledg and did not choose the fear of the Lord Prov. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29. I would intreat thee who readest this if thou be one of that sort of men that thou wilt but view over seriously that part of the Chapter Prov. 1. from the 20. verse to the end and believe them to be the true words of Christ by his Spirit in Solomon Is it not a terrible thing to a wretched soul when it shall lie roaring perpetually in the flames of Hell and the God of mercy himself shall laugh at them When they shall cry out for mercy yea for one drop of water and God shall mock them in stead of relieving them When none in Heaven or earth can help them but God he shall rejoyce over them in their calamity why you see these are the very words of God himself in Scripture And most just is it that they who laughed at the Sermon and mocked at the Preacher and derided the people that obeyed the Gospel should be laughed at and derided by God Ah poor ignorant Fools for so this Text cals them they will then have mocking enough till their heart ake with it I dare warrant them them for ever making a jeast of Godliness more or making themselves merry with their own slanderous reports It is themselves then that must be the woful objects of derision and that of God himself who would have crowned them with glory I know when the Scripture speaks of Gods laughing and mocking it is not to be understood literally but after the maner of men but this may suffice us that it will be such an act of God to the tormenting of the sinner which vve cannot more fitly conceive or express under any other notion or name then these SECT V. 5. COnsider who shall be Gods Executioners of their Torment and that is First Satan Secondly Themselves First He that was here so successful in drawing them from Christ will then be the Instrument of their punishment for yielding to his temptations It was a pittiful sight to see the man possessed that was bound with chains and lived among the Tombs and that other that would be cast into the fire and into the water but alas that was nothing to the torment that Satan puts them to in Hel That is the reward he wil give them for all their service for their rejecting the commands of God and forsaking Christ and neglecting their souls at his perswasion Ah if they had served Christ as faithfully as they did Satan and had forsaken all for the love of him he would have given them a better reward Secondly and it is most just also that they should there be their own tormentors that they may see that their whole destruction is of themselves and they
thou hast a building with God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 2. It would therefore better become thee earnestly to groan desiring to be cloathed upon with that house Is thy flesh any better then the flesh of Noah was And yet though God saved him from the common deluge he would not save him from common death Or is it any better then the flesh of Abraham or Job or David or all the Saints that ever lived Yet did they all suffer and dye Dost thou think that those Souls which are now with Christ do so much pity their rotten or dusty corps or lament that their ancient habitation is ruined and their oneâ— comely bodies turned into earth Oh what a thing is strangeness and disacquaintance It maketh us afraid of our dearest friends and to draw back from the place of our only happiness So was it with thee towards thy chiefest friends on earth While thou wast unacquainted with them thou didst withdraw from their society but when thou didst once know them throughly thou wouldst have been loath again to be deprived of their fellowship And even so though thy strangeness to God another world do make thee loath to leave this flesh yet when thou hast been but one day or hour there if we may so speak of that Eternity where is neither day nor hour thou wouldst be full loath to return into this flesh again Doubtless when God for the Glory of his Son did send back the Soul of Lazarus into its body he caused it quite to forget the Glory which it had enjoyed and to leave behind it the remembrance of that happiness together with the happiness it self Or else it might have made his life a burden to him to think of the blessedness that he was fetched from and have made him ready to break down the prison doors of his flesh that he might return to that happy state again Oh then impatient Soul murmur not at Gods dealings with that body but let him alone with his work and way He knows what he doth but so dost not thou He seeth the End but thou seest but the beginning If it were for want of love to thee that he did thus chastise thy body then would he not have dealt so by all his Saints Dost thou not think he did not love David and Paul or Christ himself Or rather doth he not chasten because he loveth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Believe nor the Fleshes reports of God nor its commentaries upon his Providences It hath neither Will nor Skill to interpret them aright Not Will for it is an enemy to them They are against it and it is against them Not Skill for it is darkness It savoreth only the things of the flesh but the things of the Spirit it cannot understand because they are spiritually discerned Never expect then that the flesh should truly expound the meaning of the rod. It will call Love Hatred and say God is destroying when he is saving and murmur as if he did thee wrong and used thee hardly when he is shewing thee the greatest mercy of all Are not the foul steps the way to Rest as well as the fair Yea are not thy sufferings the most necessary passages of his providence And though for the present they are not Joyous but Grievous yet in the End do they bring forth the Quiet fruits of Righteousness to all those that are exercised thereby Hast thou not found it so by former experience when yet this flesh would have perswaded thee otherwise Believe it then no more which hath mis-informed thee so oft For indeed there is no believing the words of a wicked and ignorant enemy Ill-will never speaks well But when malice viciousness and Ignorance are combined what actions can expect a true and fair interpretation This flesh will call Love Anger and Anger Hatred and Chastisements Judgments It will tell thee That no mans case is like thine and if God did Love thee he would never so use thee It will tell thee That the promises are but deceiving words and all thy prayers and uprightness is vain If it find thee sitting among the ashes it will say to thee as Jobs wife Dost thou yet retain thine integrity Job 2. 8 9 10. Thus will it draw thee to offend against God and the generation of his Children It is a party and the suffering party and therefore not fit to be the Judg. If your Child should be the Judg when and how oft you should chastise him and whether your chastisement be a token of fatherly love you may easily imagine what would be his Judgment If we could once believe God and Judg of his dealings by what he speaks in his Word and by their usefulness to our Souls and reference to our Rest and could stop our ears against all the clamours of the flesh then we should have a truer Judgment of our Afflictions SECT VII 6. LAstly Consider God doth seldom give his people so sweet a fore-taste of their Future Rest as in their deep Afflictions He keepeth his most precious cordials for the time of our greatest faintings and dangers To give such to men that are well and need them not is but to cast them away They are not capable of discerning their working on their worth A few drops of Divine Consolation in the midst of a world of pleasure and contents will be but lost and neglected as some precious spirits cast into a vessel or river of common waters The Joys of Heaven are of unspeakable sweetness But a man that overflows with earthly delights is scarce capable of tasting their sweetness They may easilier comfort the most dejected Soul then him that feeleth not any need of comfort as being full of other comforts already Even the best of Saints do seldom-taste of the delights of God and pure spiritual unmixed Joys in the time of their prosperity as they do in their deepest troubles and distress God is not so lavish of his choice favours as to bestow them unseasonably Even to his own will he give them at so fit a time when he knoweth that they are needful and will be valued and when he is sure to be thanked for them and his people rejoyced by them Especially when our sufferings are more directly for his cause then doth he seldom fail of sweetening the bitter cup. Therefore have the Martyrs been possessors of the highest Joys and therefore were they in former times so ambitious of Martyrdom I do not think that Paul and Silas did ever sing more Joyfully then when they were sore with scourgings and were fast in the inner prison with their feet in the stocks Acts 16.24 25. When did Christ preach such comforts to his Disciples and leave them his Peace and assure them of his providing them mansions with himself but when he was ready to leave them and their hearts
rich 14. Consider also the happy consequences of this work where it is faithfully done To name some 1. You may be instrumental in that blessed work of saving souls a work that Christ came down and died for a work that the Angels of God rejoyce in for saith the holy Ghost If any of you do erre from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5 19 20. And how can God more highly honor you then to make you instruments in so great a work 2. Such souls will bless you here and hereafter They may be angry with you at first but if your words prevail and succeed they will bless the day that ever they knew you and bless God that sent you to speak to them 3. If you succeed God will have much glory by it He will have one more to value and accept of his Son on whom Christs bloud hath attained its ends He will have one more to love him and daily worship and fear him and to do him service in his Church 4. The Church also will have gain by it There will be one less provoker of wrath and one more to strive with God against Sin and Judgment and to engage against the Sinners of the Times and to win others by Doctrine and Example If thou couldest but convert one persecuting Saul he might become a Paul and do the Church more service then ever thou didst thy self however the healing of Sinners is the surest method for preventing or removing of Judgments 5. It is the way also to the purity and flourishing of the Church and to the right erecting and executing the Discipline of Christ if men would but do what they ought with their neighbours in private what a help would it be to the success of the Publike endeavors of the Ministry and what hope might we have that daily some would be added to the Church and if any be obstinate yet this is the first course that must be taken to reclaim them who dare separate from them or excommunicate them before they have been first throughly admonished and instructed in private according to Christs Rule Matth. 18.15 16. 6. It bringeth much advantage to your selves First It will increase your graces both as it is a course that God will bless and as it is an acting of them in this perswading of others He that will not let you lose a cup of water which is given for him will not let you lose these greater works of Charity Besides those that have practised this duty most conscionably do finde by experience that they never go on more speedily and prosperously towards heaven then when they do most to help others thither with them It is not here as with worldly treasure the more you give away the less you have but here the more you give the more you have The setting forth Christ in his fulness to others will warm your own hearts and stir up your love The opening of the evil and danger of sin to others will increase your hatred of it and much engage your selves against it Secondly And it seemeth that it will increase your Glory as well as your Grace both as a duty which God will so reward For those that convert many to Righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 and also as we shall there behold them in heaven and be their associates in blessedness whom God made us here the instruments to convert Thirdly However it will give us much peace of Conscience whether we succeed or not to think that we vvere faithful and did our best to save them and that vve are clear from the bloud of all men and their perishing shall not lye upon us Fourthly Besides that is a vvork that if it succeed doth exceedingly rejoyce an honest heart He that hath any sense of Gods Honor or the least affection to the soul of his brother must needs rejoyce much at his conversion vvhosoever be the Instrument but especially vvhen God maketh our selves the means of so blessed a vvork If God make us the Instuments of any temporal good it is very comfortable but much more of eternal good There is naturally a rejoycing followeth every good work answerable to the degree of its goodness â—e that doth most good hath usually the most happy and comfortable life If men knew the pleasure that there is in doing good they vvould not seek after their pleasure so much in evil for my own part it is an unspeakable comfort to me that God hath made me an instrument for the recovering of so many from bodily diseases and saving their natural lives but all this is yet nothing to the comfort I have in the success of my labors in the conversion and confirmation of souls it is so great a joy to me that it drowneth the painfulness of my daily duties and the trouble of my daily languishing and bodily griefs and maketh all these with all oppositions and difficulties in my work to be easie and as nothing and of all the personal mercies that ever I received next to his love in Christ and to my soul I must most joyfully bless him for the plenteous success of my endeavors upon others O what fruits then might I have seen if I had been more faithful and plied the work in private and publike as I ought I know we have need to be very jealous of our deceitful hearts in this point lest our rejoycing should come from our pride and self-ascribing Naturally we would every man be in the place of God and have the praise of every good work ascribed to our selves but yet to imitate our Father in goodness and mercy and to rejoyce in that degree we attain to is the part of every childe of God I tell you therefore to perswade you from my own experience that if you did but know what a joyful thing it is to be an instrument for the converting and saving of souls you would set upon it presently and follow it night and day through the greatest discouragements and resistance Fifthly I might also tell you of the honorableness of this work but I will pass by that lest I excite your pride instead of your zeal And thus I have shewed you what should move and perswade you to this duty Let me now conclude with a word of Intreaty First to all the godly in general Secondly To some above others in particular to set upon the conscionable performance of this most excellent Work CHAP. XII An advice to some more specially to help others to this Rest prest largely on Ministers and Parents SECT I. UP then every man that hath a tongue and is a Servant of Christ and do something of this your Masters Work Why hath he given you a tongue but to speak in his Service And how can you serve
it had been too late to complain Quia me vestigia terrent Omnia in adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum And some tast of the fruit of their projects we have lately had in England by which paw we may sufficiently conjecture of the Lyon So that as bad as we are our adversaries have little cause to reproach us But yet brethren let us impartially judg our selves for God will shortly Judg us impartially VVhat is it that hath occasioned so many Novices to invade the Ministery who being puffed up with pride are fallen into the snare of the devil 1 Tim. 3.6 and bring the work of God into contempt by their ignorance Hath not the ungodliness ambition of those that are more learned by bringing learning it self into contempt been the cause of all this Alas who can be so blinded by his charity as not to see the truth of this among us How many of the greatest wits have the most graceless hearts And relish Cicero Demosthenes or Aristotle better then David or Paul or Christ And even lothe those holy wayes which customarily they preach for That have no higher ends in entering upon the Ministery then gain and preferment And when the hopes of preferment are taken away they think it but folly to chuse such a toilsome and ungrateful work And thus the ball of reproach is tossed between the well meaning ignorants and the ungodly learned and between these two how miserable is the Church The one cryes out of unlearned Schismaticks The other cryes out of proud ungodly persecutors and say These are your learned men that study for nothing but a benefice or a Bishoprick that are as strange to the Mysteries of Regeneration and a holy life as any others And O that these reproaches were not too true of many God hath lessoned Ministers of late one would think sufficiently to beware of ambition and secular avocations But it is hard to hear God speak by the tongue of an enemy or to see and acknowledg his hand where the Instrument doth miscarry If English Examples have lost their force as being so neer your eyes that you cannot see them remember the end of Funcius that learned Chronologer who might have lived longer as a Divine but died as a Princes Counsellor and his Distich pronounced at his death Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi Et fuge ceu pestem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like fate of Justus Jonas I.C. Son of that great Divine of the same name the next year whose last Verses were like the former Quid juvat innumeros scire at que evolvere casus si facienda fugis fi fugienda facis Study not therefore the way of rising but the way of righteousness Honesty will hold out when Honors will deceive you If your hearts be once infected with the fermentation of this swelling humour it will quickly rise up to your brain and corrupt your intellectuals and then you will be of that opinion which your Flesh thinks to be good and not that which your judgment thought to be true and you will fetch your Religion from the Statute Book and not from the Bible as the jest went of Agricola who turned from a Protestant to an Antinomian and being convinced of that error turned Papist into the other extream and Pebugius and Sidonius Authors of the Interim Chrysma ab eis oleum pontificium inter alia defenduntur ut ipsi discederent unctiores because they obtained Bishopricks by it O what a doleful case is it to see so many brave wits and men of profound Learning to be made as useless and hurtful to the Church of God by their pride and ungodliness as others are by their pride and Ignorance were a clear understanding conjoyned with an holy heart and heavenly life and were they as skilful in Spiritual as Humane Learning what a glory and blessing would they be to the Churches SECT X. 5. LAstly Be sure that you study and strive after Unity and Peace if ever you would promote the Kingdom of Christ and your peoples Salvation do it in a way of Peace and Love Publike wars and private quarrels do usually pretend to the Reformation of the Church to the vindicating of the Truth and the welfare of souls but they as usually prove in the issue the greatest means to the overthrow of all It is as natural for both wars and private contentions to produce Errors Schisms contempt of Magistraâ—y Ministry and Ordinances as it is for a dead carrion to breed Worms and Vermine Believe it from one that hath too many years experience of it both in Armies and Garrisons It is as hard a thing to maintain even in your godly people a sound understanding a tender consciences a lively gracious heavenly frame of spirit and an upright life in a way of war and contention as to keep your candle lighted in the greatest Storms or under the waters The like I may say of perverse and fierce Disputings about Baptism and the Circumstantials of Discipline or other Questions that are far from the foundation they oftener lose the Truth then finde it A Synod is as likely and lawful a means as any for such decisions and yet Nazianzen saith Se hactenus non vidisse ullius Synodi utilem 〈…〉 aut in quâ res male se habentes non magis exacerbaâ—â— quam 〈◊〉 fuerint With the vulgar he seems to be the Conqueror that hath the last word or at lest he that hath the most plausible deportment the most affecting tone the most earnest and confident expressions the most probable arguments rather then he that hath the most naked demonstrations He takes with them most that speaks for the Opinion which they like and are inclined to though he speak Non-sense and he that is most familiar with them and hath the best opportunities and advantages to prevail especially he that hath the greatest interest in their affections so that a disputation before the vulgar even of the godly is as likely a means to corrupt them as to cure them usually the most erroneous seducers will carry out their Cause with as good a face as fluent a tongue as great contempt and reproach of their opposers and as much confidence that the truth is on their side as if it were so indeed Paraeus his Master taught him that Certo certius in qualibet minutissima panis portione vere substantialiter integrum corpus Christi esset item in apud cum sub minutissima vini guttula adesset integer sanguis dominicus what confidence was here in a bad cause And if you depend on the most reverend and best esteemed Teachers and suffer the weight of their reputation to turn the Scales you may in many things be never the neerer to the Truth How many learned able men hath the name and authority of Luther mislead in the point of consubstantiation Vrsine was caried away with it a while till he was turned
his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Hovv long Lord Hovv long SECT XX. 11. COnsider vvhat if God should grant thy desire and let thee live yet many yeers but vvithal should strip thee of the comforts of life and deny thee the mercies vvhich thou hast hitherto enjoyed Would this be a blessing vvorth the begging for Might not God in judgment give thee life as he gave the murmuring Israelites Quails or as he oft times gives men riches and honor when he sees them over-earnest for it Might he not justly say to thee Seeing thou hadst rather linger on earth then come away and enjoy my presence seeing thou art so greedy of life take it and a curse with it never let fruit grow on it more nor the Sun of comfort shine upon it nor the dew of my blessing ever water it Let thy table be a snare let thy friends be thy sorrow let thy riches be corrupted and the rust of thy silver eat thy flesh Go hear Sermons as long as thou wilt but let never Sermon do thee good more let all thou hearest make against thee and increase the smart of thy wounded spirit If thou love Preaching better then Heaven go and preach till thou be aweary but never profit soul more Sirs what if God should thus chastise our inordinate desires of living were it not just and what good would our lives then do us Seest thou not some that spend their days on their cowch in groaning and some in begging by the high-way sides and others in seeking bread from door to door and most of the world in laboring for food and rayment and living onely that they may live and loosing the ends and benefits of life Why what good would such a life do thee were it never so long when thy soul shall serve thee onely in stead of Salt to keep thy body from stinking God might give thee life till thou art weary of living and as glad to be rid of it as Judas or Ahitophel and make thee like many miserable Creatures in the world who can hardly forbear laying violent hands on themselves Be not therefore so importunate for life which may prove a judgment in stead of a blessing SECT XXI 12. COnsider how many of the precious Saints of God of all ages and places have gone before thee Thou art not to enter an untrodden path nor appointed first to break the Ice Except onely Henoch and Elias which of the Saints have scaped death And art thou better then they There are many millions of Saints dead more then do now remain on Earth What a number of thine own bosome friends and intimate acquaintance and companions in duty are now there and why shouldst thou be so loth to follow Nay hath not Jesus Christ himself gone this way hath he not sanctified the grave to us and perfumed the dust with his own body And art thou loth to follow him too O rather let us say as Thomas Let us also go and die with him or rather let us suffer with him that we may be glorified together with him Many such like Considerations might be added as that Christ hath taken out the sting How light the Saints have made of it how cheerfully the very Pagans have entertained it c. But because all that 's hitherto spoken is also conducible to the same purpose I pass them by If what hath been said will not perswade Scripture and Reason have little force I have said the more on this subject finding it so needful to my self and others finding that among so many Christians who could do and suffer much for Christ there 's yet so few that can willingly die and of many who have somewhat subdued other corruptions so few have got the conquest of this This caused me to drawforth these Arrows from the quiver of Scripture and spend them against it SECT XXII I Will onely yet Answer some Objections and so conclude this Use. 1. Object O If I were but certain of Heaven I should then never stick at dying Answ. 1. Search for all that whether some of the forementioned câ—uses may not be in fault as well as this 2. Didst thou not say so long ago Have you not been in this song this many yeers if you are yet uncertain whose fault is it you have had nothing else to do with your lives nor no greater matter then this to minde Were you not better presently fall to the tryal till you have put the Question out of doubt Must God stay while you trifle and must his patience be continued to cherish your negligence If thou have played the loyterer do so no longer Go search thy soul and follow the search close till theâ— come to a clear discovery Begin to night stay not till the next morning Certainty comes not by length of time but by the blessing of the Spirit upon wise and faithful tryal You may linger out thus twenty yeers more and be still as uncertain as now you are 3. A perfect certainty may not be expected we shall still be deficient in that as well as in other things They who think the Apostle speaks absolutely and not comparatively of a perfect assurance in the very degree when he mentions a Plerophory or Full assurance I know no reason but they may expect perfection in all things else as well as this VVhen you have done all you will know this but in part If your belief of that Scripture which saith Beleeve and be saved be imperfect and if your knowledg whether your own deceitful hearts do sincerely beleeve or not be imperfect or if but one of these tvvo be imperfect the result or conclusion must needs be so too If you vvould then stay till you are perfectly certain you may stay for ever if you have obtained assurance but in some degree or got but the grounds for assurance said it is then the speediest and surest vvay to desire rather to be quickly in Rest For then and never till then vvill both the grounds and assurance be fully perfect 4. Both your assurance and the comfort thereof is the gift of the Spirit vvho is a free bestovver And Gods usual time to be largest in mercy is vvhen his people are deepest in necessity A mercy in season is the svveetest mercy I could give you here abundance of late examples of those vvho have languished for assurance and comfort some all their sickness and some most of their lives and vvhen they have been neer to death they have received in abundance Never fear death then through imperfections of assurance for that 's the most usual time of all vvhen God most fully and svveetly bestovvs it SECT XXIII OBject 2. O but the Churches necessities are great and God hath made me useful in my place so that the loss vvill be to many or else me thinks I could vvillingly die Answ. This may be the case of some but
yet remember the heart is deceitful God is oft pretended vvhen our selves are inâ—ended But if this be it that sticks vvith thee indeed consider VVilt thou pretend to be vviser then God doth not he knovv hovv â—o provide for his Church Cannot he do his vvork vvithout thee or finde out instruments enough besides thee Think not too highly of thy self because God hath made thee useful Must the Church needs fall when thou art gone Art thou the foundation on which its built Could God take away a Moses an Aaron David Elias c. and finde supply for all their places and cannot he also finde supply for thine This is to derogate from God too much and to arrogate too much unto thy self Neither art thou so merciful as God nor canst love the Church so well as he As his interest is infinitely beyond thine so is his tender care and bounty But of this before Yet mistake me not in all that I have said I deny not but that it is lawful and necessary for a Christian upon both the forementioned grounds to desire God to delay his death both for a further opportunity of gaining assurance and also to be further serviceable to the Church But first This is nothing to their case who are still delaying and never willing whose true discontents are at death it self more then at the unseasonableness of dying Secondly Though such desires are sometimes lawful yet must they be carefully bounded and moderated to which end are the former considerations We must not be too absolute and peremptory in our desires but cheerfully yield to Gods disposal The rightest temper is that of Pauls to be in a streight between two desiring to depart and be with Christ and yet to stay while God will have us to do the Church the utmost service But alas we are seldom in this streight Our desires run out all one way and that for the flesh and not the Church Our streights are onely for fear of dying and not betwixt the earnest desires of dying and of living SECT XXIV OBject But is not death a punishment of God for sin Doth not Scripture call it the King of fears And Nature above all other evils abhor it Answ. I le not meddle with that which is controversal in this Whether Death be properly a punishment or not But grant that in it self considered it may be called Evil as being naturally the dissolution of the Creature Yet being sanctified to us by Christ and being the season and occasion of so great a Good as is the present possession of God in Christ it may be welcomed with a glad submission if not with desire Christ affords us grounds enough to comfort us against this natural Evil And therefore endues us with the principle of Grace to raise us above the reach of nature For all those low and poor Objections as leaving House Goods and Friends leaving our children unprovided c. I pass them over as of lesser moment then to take much with men of Grace SECT XXV LAstly Understand me in this also That I have spoke all this to the faithful soul. I perswade not the ungodly from fearing death It s a wonder rather that they fear it no more and spend not their days in continual horror as is said before Truly but that we know a stone is insensible and a hard heart is dead and stupid or else a man would admire how poor souls can live in ease and quietness that must be turned out of these bodies into everlasting flames Or that be not sure at least if they should die this night whether they shall lodg in Heaven or Hell the next especially when so many are called and so few chosen and the Righteous themselves are scarcely saved One would think such men should eat their bread with trembling and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking in the night and they should fall presently a searching themselves and enquiring of others and crying to God That if it were possible they might quickly be out of this danger and so their hearts be freed from horror For a man to quake at the thoughts of death that looks by it to be dispossessed of his happiness and knoweth not whether he is next to go this is no wonder But for the Saints to fear their passage by Death to Rest this is an unreasonable hurtful Fear CHAP. III. Motives to a Heavenly Life SECT I. WE have now by the guidance of the Word of the Lord and by the assistance of his Spirit shewed you the nature of the Rest of the Saints and acquainted you with some duties in relation thereto We come now to the close of all to press you to the great duty which I chiefly intended when I begun this subject and have here reserved it to the last place because I know hearers are usually of slippery memories yet apt to retain the last that is spoken though they forget all that went before Dear friends its pity that either you or I should forget any thing of that which doth so neerly concern us as this Eternal Rest of the Saints doth But if you must needs forget something let it be any thing else rather then this let it be rather all that I have hitherto said though I hope of better then this one ensuing Use. Is there a Rest and such a Rest remaining for us Why then are our thoughts no more upon it why are not our hearts continually there why dwell we not there in constant contemplation Sirs Ask your hearts in good earnest what is the cause of this neglect are we reasonable in this or are we not Hath the Eternal God provided us such a Glory and promised to take us up to dwell with himself and is not this worth the thinking on Should not the strongest desires of our hearts be after it and the daily delights of our souls be there Do we beleeve this and can we yet forget and neglect it What 's the matter will not God give us leave to approach this light or will he not suffer our souls to tast and see Why then what means all his earnest invitations why doth he so condemn our earthly-mindedness and command us to set our affections above Ah vile hearts If God were against it we were likelier to be for it When he would have us to keep our station then we are aspiring to be like God and are ready to invade the Divine Prerogatives But when he commands our hearts to Heaven then they will not stir an inch like our Predecessors the sinful Israelites When God would have them march for Canaan then they mutiny and will not stir either they fear the Gyants or the walled Cities or want necessaries or something hinders them but when God bids them not to go then will they needs be presently marching and fight they will though it be to their overthrow If the fore-thoughts of glory were forbidden
old Hiltenius said of Rome Est proprium Romane potestatis ut sit ferreum licet digiti minorentur ad parvitatem acus tamen manent ferrei It is proper to the Romane power to be of iron and though the fingers of it be diminished to the smalness of a needle yet they are iron still The like may I say of our earthly cares It is their property to be hard and troublous and so they will be when they are the least Verily if we had no higher hopes then what 's on earth I should take man for a most silly creature and his work and wages all his travel and his felicity to be no better then dreams and vanity and scarce worth the minding or mentioning especially to thee a Christian should it seem so whose eyes are opened by the Word and Spirit to see the emptiness of all these things and the pretious worth of the things above O then be not detained by these silly things but if Satan present them to thee in a temptation send them away from whence they came as Pellicanus did send back the silver bowl which the Bishop had sent him for a token with this answer Astricti sunt quotquot Tyguri cives inquilini bis singulis annis solenni juramento ne quis eorum ullum munus ab ullo principe accipiat All that are Citizens and Inhabitants of Tigurum are solemnly sworn twice a yeer not to receive any gift from any Prince abroad so say thou we the Citizens and Inhabitants of heaven are bound by solemn and frequent Covenants not to have our hearts enticed or entangled with any forraign honors or delights but only with those of our own Countrey If thy thoughts should like the laborious Bee go over the world from flower to flower from creature to creature they would bring thee no Honey or sweetness home save what they gathered from their relations to Eternity Object But you will say perhaps Divinity is of larger extent then onely to treat of the life to come or the way thereto there are many controversies of great difficulty which therefore require much of our thoughts and so they must not be all of heaven Answ. For the smaller controversies which have vexed our Times and caused the doleful divisions among us I express my minde as that of Graserus Cum in visitatione aegrotorum ad emigrationem ex hac vita beatam praeparatione daeprehendisset controversias illas Theologicas quae scientiam quidem inflantem pariunt conscientias vero fluctuantes non sedant quaeque hodie magna animorum contentione agitantur magnos tumultus in rebuspub excitant nullum prorsus usum habere quinimo conscientias simpliciorum non aliter ac olim in Papatu humana figmenta intricare Caepit ab eis toto animo abhorrere in publicis concionibus tantum ca proponere quae ad fidem salvificam in Christum accendendam ad pietatem veram juxta verbum Dei exercendam veramque consolationem in vita morte praestandam faciebant When he had found in his visiting the sick and in his own preparations for well dying that the Controversies in Divinity which beget a swelling knowledg but do not quiet troubled consciences and which are at this day agitated with such contention of spirits and raise such tumults in Commonwealths are indeed utterly useless yea and moreover do intangle the consciences of the simple just as the humane inventions in Popery formerly did he begun with full bent of minde to shun or abhor them and in his publike Preaching to propound onely those things which tended to the kindling a true faith in Jesus Christ and to the exercise of true godliness according to the Word of God and to the procuring of true consolation both in life and at death I can scarce express my own minde more plainly then in this Historians expressions of the minde of Graserus While I had some competent measure of health and look't at death as at a greater distance there was no man more delighted in the study of controversie but when I saw dying men have no minde on 't and how unsavory and uncomfortable such conference was to them and when I had oft been neer to death my self and found no delight in them further then they confirmed or illustrated the Doctrine of eternal Glory I have minded them ever since the less Though every Truth of God is pretious and it is the sin and shame of Professors that are no more able to defend the Truth yet should all our study of controversie be still in relation to this perpetual Rest and consequently be kept within its bounds and with most Christians not have the twentieth part of our time or thoughts Who that hath tried both studies doth not cry out as Summerhard was wont to do of the Popish School Divinity Quis me miserum tandem liberabit ab ista rixosa Theologia Who will once deliver me wretch from this wrangling kinde of Divinity And as it s said of Bucholcer Cum eximiis a Deo dotibus esset decoratus in certamen tamen cum rabiosis illius seculi Theologis descendere noluit Desii inquit disputare caepi supputare quoniam illud dissipationem hoc collectionem significaet Vidit enim ab iis controversias moveri quas nulla unquam amoris Dei seintilla calefecerat vidit ex diuturnis Theologorum rixis utilitatis nihil detrimenti plurimum in ecclesias redundâsse i. e. Though he was adorned by God with excellent gifts yet would he never enter into contention with the furious Divines of that age I have ceased saith he my Disputations and now begin my Supputation for that signifieth Dissipation but this Collection For he saw that those men were the movers of Controversies who had never been warmed with one spark of the love of God he saw That from the continual brawls of Divines no benefit but much hurt did accrue to the Churches and it is worth the observing which the Historian addes Quapropter omnis ejus cura in hoc erat ut auditores fidei suae commissos doceret bene vivere beate Mori Et annotatum in adversariis amici ejus repererunt permultos in extremo agone constitutos gratias ipsi hoc nomine egisse quod ipsius ductu servatorem suum Jesum agnovissent cujus in cognitione pulchrum vivere mori vero longe pulcherrimum ducerent Atque haud scio annon hoc ipsum longe Bucholcero coram Deo sit gloriosius futurum quam si aliquet contentiosorum libellorum myriadas posteritatis memoriae consecrasset i. e. Therefore this was all his care That he might teach his hearers committed to his charge To live well and die happily And his friends found noted down in his Papers a great many of persons who in their last agony did give him thanks for this very reason That by his direction they had come to the knowledg of Jesus their Saviour in
but make it stay to hear its sentence If once or twice or thrice will not do it nor a few days of hearing bring it to issue follow it on with unwearied diligence and give not over till the work be done and till thou canst 〈◊〉 knowingly off or on either thou art or art not a member of Christ either that thou hast or that thou hast not yet title to this Rest. Be sure thou rest not in wilful uncertainties If thou canst no◠dispatch the work well thy self get the help of those that are skilful go to thy Minister if he be a man of experience or go to some able experienced friend open thy case faithfully and wish them to deal plainly And thus continue till thou hast got assurance Not but that some doubtings may still remaine but yet thou maist have so much assurance as to master them that they may not much interrupt thy peace If men did know Heaven to be their own inheritance we should less need to perswade their thoughts unto it or to press them to set their delight in it O if men did truly know that God is their own Father and Christ their own Redeemer and Head and that those are their own Everlasting habitations and that there it is that they must abide and be happy for ever how could they chuse but be ravished with the forethoughts thereof If a Christian could but look upon Sun and Moon and Stars and reckon all his own in Christ and say These are the portion that my Husband doth bestow These are the blessings that my Lord hath procured me and things incomparably greater then these what holy raptures would his spirit feel The more do they sin against their own comforts as well as against the Grace of the Gospel who are wilful maintainers of their own doubtings and plead for their unbelief and cherish distrustful thoughts of God and scandalous injurious thoughts of their Redeemer who represent the Covenant as if it were of works and not of grace and represent Christ as an enemy rather then as a Savior as if he were glad of advantages against them and were willing that they should keep off from him and dye in their unbelief when he hath called them so oft and invited them so kindly and born the hell that they should bear Ah wretches that we are that be keeping up Jealousies of the Love of our Lord when we should be rejoycing and bathing our souls in his love That can question that love which hath been so fully evidenced and doubt still whether he that hath stooped so low and suffered so much and taken up a nature and office of purpose be yet willing to be theirs who are willing to be his As if any man could chose Christ before Christ hath chosen him or any man could desire to have Christ more then Christ desires to have him or any man were more willing to be happy then Christ is to make him happy Fie upon these injurious if not blasphemous thoughts If ever thou have harboured such thoughts in thy brest or if ever thou have uttered such words with thy tongue spit out that venome vomit out that rancor cast them from thee and take heed how thou ever entertainest them more God hath written the names of his people in heaven as you use to write your names in your own books or upon your own Goods or set your Marks on your own sheep And shall we be attempting to rase them out and to write our names on the doors of hell But blessed be our God whose foundation is sure and who keepeth us by his mighty power through Faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Well then this is my second advice to thee that thou follow on the work of self-examination till thou hast got assurance that this rest is thy own and this will draw thy heart unto it and feed thy spirits with fresh delights which else will be but tormented so much the more to think that there is such Rest for others but none for thee SECT III. 3. ANother help to sweeten thy soul with the foretasts of Rest is this Labor to apprehend how neer it is Think seriously of its speedy approach That which we think is neer at hand we are more sensible of then that which we behold at a distance When we hear of war or famin in another country it troubleth not so much or if we hear it prophesied of a long time hence so if we hear of plenty a great way off or of a golden age that shall fall out who knows when this never rejoyceth us But if Judgments or Mercies begin to draw neer then they affect us If we were sure we should see the golden Age then it would take with us When the plague is in a Town but twenty miles off we do not fear it nor much prehaps if it be but in another street but if once it come to the next door or if it seaze on one in our own family then we begin to think on it more feelingly It is so with mercies as well as Judgments VVhen they are far off we talk of them as marvells but when they draw close to us we rejoyce in them as Truths This makes men think on Heaven so insensibly because they conceit it at too great a distance They look on it as twenty or thirty or fourty yeers off and this is it that duls their sense As wicked men are fearless and senseless of judgment because the sentence is not speedily executed Eccles. 8.11 So are the godly deceived of their comforts by supposing them further off then they are This is the danger of putting the day of death far from us VVhen men will promise themselves longer time in the world then God hath promised them and judg of the length of their lives by the probabilities they gather from their Age their health their constitution and temperature this makes them look at heaven as a great way off If 〈◊〉 the rich fool in the Gospel had not expected to have lived many yeers he would sure have thought more of providing for Eternity and less of his present store and possessions And if we did not think of staying many yeers from Heaven we should think on it with far more piercing thoughts This expectation of long life doth both the wicked and the godly a great deal of wrong How much better were it to receive the sentence of death in our selves and to look on Eternity as neer at hand Surely Reader thou standest at the door and hundreds of diseases are ready waiting to open the door and let thee in Is not the thirty or fourty years of thy life that is past quickly gone Is it not a very little time when thou lookest back on it And will not all the rest be shortly so too Do not dayes and nights come very thick Dost thou not feel that building of flesh to shake and perceive thy house of
the dolors of a greivous wilderness Believe it Reader if thou knewest but what a cordial in thy griefs and care the serious views of glory are thou wouldst less fear these harmles troubles and more use that preserving reviving Remedy I would not have thee as Mountebanks take poyson first and then their Antidote to shew its power so to create thy affliction to try this remedy But if God reach thee forth the bitterest cup drop in but a little of the Tastes of Heaven and I warrant thee it will sufficiently sweeten it to thy spirit If the case thou art in seem never so dangerous take but a little of this Antidote of Rest and never fear the pain or danger I will give thee to confirm this but the Example of David and the Opinion of Paul and desire thee throughly to consider of both In the multitude of my thoughts within me saith David thy comforts delight my soul Psal. 94.19 As if he should say I have multitudes of sadding thoughts that crowd upon me thoughts of my sins and thoughts of my foes thoughts of my dangers and thoughts of my pains yet in the midst of all this crowd one serious thought of the comforts of thy Love and especially of the comfortable life in Glory doth so dispel the throng and scatter my cares and disperse the clouds that my troubles had raised that they do even revive and delight my soul. And Paul when he had cast up his full accounts gives thee the sum in Rom. 8 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Study these words well for every one of them is full of life If these true sayings of God were truly and deeply fixt in thy heart and if thou couldst in thy sober Mediditation but draw out the comfort of this one Scripture I dare them it would sweeten the bitterest cross and in a sort make thee forget thy trouble as Christ saith A woman forgets her travail for joy that a man is born into the world yea and make thee rejoyce in thy tribulation I will add but one Text more 2 Cor 4.16.17 For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal SECT VII 3. ANother fit Season for this heavenly duty is When the Messengers of God do summon us to die when either our gray hairs or our languishing bodies or some such like forerunners of death do tell us that our change cannot be far off when should we most frequently sweeten our souls with the believing thoughts of another life then when we finde that this is almost ended and when Flesh is raising fears and terrors Surely no men have greater need of supporting joyes then dying men and those joyes must be fetcht from our eternal joy Men that have earthly pleasures in their hands may think they are well though they taste no more but when a man is dying and parting with all other pleasures he must then fetch his pleasure from Heaven or have none when health is gone and friends lye weeping about our beds when houses and lands and goods and wealth cannot afford us the least relief but we are taking our leave of earth for ever except a hole for our bodies to rot in when we are daily expecting our final day it s now time to look to heaven and to fetch in comfort and support from thence and as heavenly delights are sweetest when they are unmixed and pure and have no earthly delights conjoyned with them so therefore the delights of dying Christians are oft-times the sweetest that ever they had Therefore have the Saints been generally observed to be then most Heavenly when they were neerest dying what a Prophetical blessing hath Jacob for his sons when he lay a dying And so Isaac what a heavenly Song what a Divine Benediction doth Moses conclude his life withal Deut. 32. 33. Nay as our Saviour increased in Wisdome and Knowledg so did he also in their blessed expressions and still the last the sweetest what a heavenly prayer what heavenly advice doth he leave his Disciples when he is about to leave them when he saw he must leave the world and go to the Father how doth he weane them from worldly expectations How doth he minde them of the Mansions in his Fathers House and remember them of his coming again to fetch them thither and open the union they shall have with him and with each other and promise them to be with him to behold his Glory There 's more worth in those four Chapters John 14.15.16.17 then in all the Books in the world beside When Blessed Paul was ready to be offered up what heavenly Exhortation doth he give the Philippians what advice to Timothy what counsel to the Elders of the Ephesian Church Acts 20. How neer was S. John to heaven in his banishment in Patmos a little before his translation to Heaven what heavenly discourse hath Luther in his last sickness How close was Calvin to his Divine studies in his very sickness that when they would have disswaded him from it He answers Vultisne me otiosum a domino apprehendi What would you have God finde me idle I have not lived idly and shall I dye idly The like may be said of our famous Reignolds When excellent Bucholcer was neer his end he wrote his Book De Consolâ—tiâ—ne Decumbentium Then it was that Tossianus wrote his Vade mecum Then Doctor Preston was upon the Attributâ—s of God And then Mr Bolton was on the Joyes of Heaven It were end less to enumerate the eminent examples of this kinde It is the general temper of the spirits of the Saints to be then most Heavenly when they are neerest to Heaven As we use to say of the old and the weak that they have one foot in the grave already so may we say of the godly when they are neer their Rest they have one foot as it were in Heaven already When should a Traveller look homewards with joy but when he is come within the sight of his home It s true the pains of our bodies and the fainting of our spirits may somewhat abate the liveliness of our joy but the measure we have will be the more pure and spiritual by how much the less it is kindled from the Flesh. O that we who are daily languishing could learn this daily heavenly conversing and could say as the Apostle in the forecited place 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18 O that every gripe that our bodies feel might make us more sensible of future ease and that every
to superscribe my best services as the blinde Athenians To the unknown God when they are as well acquainted with him as men that live continually in his house and as familiar in their holy praises as if they were all one with him What a little of that God that Christ that spirit that life that love that joy have I and how soon doth it depart and leave me in sadder darkness Now and then a spark doth fall upon my heart and while I gaze upon it it strait goes out or rather my cold resisting heart doth quench it But they have their light in his light and live continually at the spring of Joyes Here are we vexing each other with quarrels and troubling our peace with discontents when they are one in heart and voice and daily sound forth their Hallelujah's to God with full delightful Harmony and concent O what a Feast hath my faith beheld and O what a famine is yet in my spirit I have seen a glympse into the Court of God but alas I stand but as a begger at the doors when the souls of my companions are admitted in O blessed souls I may not I dare not envye your happiness I rather rejoyce in my brethrens prosperity and am glad to think of the day when I shall be admitted into your fellowship But I cannot but look upon you as a childe doth on his brother who sits in the mothers lap while himself stands by and wish that I were so happy as to be in your place not to displace you but to Rest there with you Why must I stay and groan and weep and wait My Lord is gone he hath left this earth and is entered into his Glory my Brethren are gone my friends are there my house my hope my All is there and must I stay behinde to sojourn here what precious Saints have left this earth of whom I am ready to say as Amerbachius when he heard of the death of Zuingerus Piget me vivere post tantum virum cujus magna fuit doctrina sed exigua si cum pietate conferatur It is irksome to me to live after such a man whose learning was so great and yet compared with his godliness very small If the Saints were all here if Christ were here then it were no grief for me to stay if the bridegroom were present who could mourn But when my soul is so far distant from my God wonder not what aileth we if I now complain An ignorant Micah will do so for his idol and shall not then my soul do so for God And yet if I had no hope of enjoying I would go and hide my self in the deserts and lye and howl in some obscure wilderness and spend my days in fruitles wishes But seeing it is the promised land of my Rest and the state that I must be advanced to my self and my soul draws neer and is almost at it I will love and long I will look and desire I will breathe out blessed Calvins Motto Vsquequo Domine How long Lord How long How long Lord Holy and True wilt thou suffer this soul to pant and groan and wilt not open and let him in who waits and longs to be with Thee Thus Christian Reader let thy thoughts aspire Thus whet the desires of thy soul by these Meditations Till thy soul long as Davids for the waters of Bethlehem and say O that one would give me to drink of the wells of salvation 2 Sam. 23.15 and till thou canst say as he Psal. 119.174 I have longed for thy salvation O Lord. And as the mother and brethren of Christ when they could not come at him because of the press sent to him saying Thy mother and brethren stand without desiring to see thee send thou up the same message tell him thou standest here without desiring to see him he will own thee 〈…〉 neer relations for he hath said They that hear 〈…〉 and do it are his mother and brethren And thus I have â—neâ—ted you in the acting of your desire after your Rest. SECT VII 3. THe next Affection to be acted is Hope This is of singular use to the soul. It helpeth exceedingly to support it in sufferings it encourageth to adventure upon the greatest difficulties it firmly establisheth it in the most shaking tryals and it mightily enlivens the soul in duties and is the very spring that sets all the wheels a going Who would Preach if it were not in hope to prevail with poor sinners for their Conversion and Confirmation who would pray but for his hope to prevail with God who would beleeve or obey or strive or suffer or do any thing for Heaven if it were not for the hope that he hath to obtain it Would the Marriner sail and the Merchant adventure if they had not hope of safety and success would the Husbandman plough and sow and take pains if he had not hope of increase at Harvest would the Souldier fight if he hoped not for victory Sureâ—io man doth adventure upon known impossibilities Therefore it is that they who pray meerly from custom or meerly from conscience considering it as a duty onely but looking for no great matters from God by their prayers are generally formal and heartless therein whereas the Christian that hath observed the wonderful success of prayer and as verily looks for benefit by it and thriving to his soul in the use of it as he looks for benefit by his labors and thriving to his body in the use of his food how faithfully doth he follow it and how cheerfully go through it O how willingly do we Ministers study how cheerfully do we Preach What life doth it put into our instructions and exhortations when we have but hope that our labor will succeed when we discern a people attend to the Word and regard the Message and hear them inquire what they shall do as men that are willing to be ruled by God and as men that would fain have their souls to be saved you would not think how it helpeth us both for invention and expression O who can chuse but pray heartily for and preach heartily to such a people As the sucking of the young one doth draw forth the milk so will the peoples desire and obedience draw forth the Word So that a dull people make dull Preachers and a lively people make a lively Preacher So great a force hath hope in all our duties As hope of speeding encreaseth so doth diligence in seeking encrease besides the great conducement of it to our joy Even the false hope of the wicked doth much support and maintain a kinde of comfort answerable to their hope though its true their hope and joy will both die with them How much more will the Saints hopes refresh and support them All this I have said to shew you the excellency and necessity of this Grace and so to provoke you to the more constant acting of it If
I have in my Books my friends and in thine Ordinances till thou hast given me a taste of something more sweet my soul will be loth to part with these The Traveller will hold his Cloak the faster when the windes do bluster and the storms assault him but when the Sun shines hot he will cast it off as a burthen so will my soul when thou frownest or art strange be lother to leave this garment of flesh but thy smiles would make me leave it as my prison but it is not thy ordinary discoveries that will here suffice as the work is greater so must be thy help O turn these fears into strong desires and this lothness to dye into longings after thee while I must be absent from thee let my soul as heartily groan under thine absence as my pained body doth under its want of health And let not those groans be counterfeit or constrained but let them come from a longing loving heart unfeignedly judging it best to depart and be with Christ And if I have any more time to spend on earth let me live as without the world in thee as I have sometime lived as without thee in the world O suffer me not to spend in strangeness to thee another day of this my Pilgrimage while I have a thought to think let me not forget thee while I have a tongue to move let me mention thee with delight while I have a breath to breathe let it be after thee and for thee while I have a knee to bend let it bow daily at thy Footstool and when by sickness thou confinest me to my Couch do thou make my bed and number my pains and put all my tears into thy Bottle And as when my spirit groaned for my sins the flesh would not second it but desired that which my spirit did abhor so now when my flesh doth groan under its pains let not my spirit second it but suffer the flesh to groan alone and let me desire that day which my flesh abhorreth that my friends may not with so much sorrow wait for the departure of my soul as my soul with joy shall wait for its own departure and then let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be as his even a removall to that Glory that shall never end Send forth thy Convoy of Angels for my departing soul and let them bring it among the perfected spirits of the Just and let me follow my dear friends that have died in Christ before me und when my friends are weeping over my Grave let my spirit be reposed with thee in Rest and when my Corps shall lye there rotting in the dark let my soul be in the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And O thou that numberest the very hairs of my head do thou number all the dayes that my body lyes in the dust and thou that writest all my members in thy Book do thou keep an account of all my scattered bones and hasten O my Saviour the time of thy return send forth thine Angels and let that dreadful joyful Trumpet sound delay not lest the living give up their hopes delay not lest earth should grow like hell and lest thy Church by division be crumbled all to dust and dissolved by being resolved into individual unites Delay not lest thine enemies get advantage of thy Flock and lest Pride and Hypocrisie and Sensuality and Unbelief should prevail against thy little Remnant and share among them thy whole Inheritance and when thou comest thou finde not Faith on the earth Delay not lest the Grave should boast of Victory and having learned Rebellion of its guest should plead prescription and refuse to deliver thee up thy due O hasten that great Resurrection Day when thy command shall go forth and none shall disobey when the Sea and Earth shall yield up their Hostages and all that slept in the Graves shall awake and the dead in Christ shall first arise when the seed that thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible and Graves that received but rottenness and retained but dust shall return thee glorious Stars and Suns therefore dare I lay down my carcass in the dust entrusting it not to a Grave but to Thee and therefore my flesh shall rest in Hope till thou raise it to the possession of the Everlasting REST. Return O Lord how long O let thy Kingdom come Thy desolate Bride saith Come for thy Spirit within her saith Come who teacheth her thus to pray with groanings after thee which cannot be expressed The whole Creation saith Come waiting to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Thy Self hast said Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come LORD IESVS The Conclusion THus Reader I have given thee my best advice for the attaining and maintaining a Heavenly Conversation The maner is imperfect and too much mine own but for the main matter I dare say I received it from God From him I deliver it thee and his charge I lay upon thee That thou entertain and practise it If thou canst not do it methodically and fully yet do it as thou canst onely be sure thou do it seriously and frequently If thou wilt believe a man that hath made some small tryal of it thou shalt finde it will make thee another man and elevate thy soul and clear thine understanding and polish thy conversation and leave a pleasant savor upon thy heart so that thy own experience will make thee confess That one hour thus spent will more effectually revive thee then many in bare external duties and a day in these contemplations will afford thee truer content then all the glory and riches of the Earth Be acquainted with this work and thou wilt be in some remote sort acquainted with God Thy joyes will be spiritual and prevalent and lasting according to the nature of their Blessed Object thou wilt have comfort in life and comfort in death VVhen thou hast neither wealth nor health nor the pleasure of this world yet wilt thou have comfort Comfort without the presence or help of any Friend without a Minister without a Book when all means are denied thee or taken from thee yet maist thou have vigorous real comfort Thy graces will be mighty and active and victorious and the daily joy which is thus fetcht from Heaven will be thy strength Thou wilt be as one that standeth on the top of an exceeding high Mountain he looks down on the world as if it were quite below him How small do the Fields and VVoods and Countreys seem to him Cities and Towns seem but little spots Thus despicably wilt thou look on all things here below The greatest Princes will seem below thee but as Grashoppers and the busie contentious coveteous world but as a heap of Ants. Mens threatnings will be no terror to thee nor the honors of this world any strong enticement Temptations will be more harmless as
delight in God and heavenly Things it would rectifie their judgments better then all the arguments in the world Lose this delight once and you will begin to quarrel with the Ordinances and Ways of God and to be more offended at the Preachers imperfections then profited by the Doctrine Sixthly And it is the want of these Heavenly Delights in God that makes men so entertain the delights of the flesh This is the cause of most mens voluptuousness and flesh-pleasing The Soul will not rest without some kinde of delights If it had nothing to delight in either in hand or in hope it would be in a kinde of Hell on Earth vexing it self with continual sorrow and despair If a Dog have lost his Master he will follow somebody else Men must have their sweet Cups or delicious Fare or gay Apparel or Cards or Dice or Fleshly Lasts to make up their want of delight in God How well these will serve in stead of God our fleshly youths will be better able to tell me when we meet at Judgment If men were acquainted with this Heavenly Life there would need no Laws against Sabbath breaking and riotousness nor would men need to go for mirth to an Alehouse or a Tavern They would have a far sweeter pastime and recreation neerer hand Seventhly also This want of Heavenly Delights will leave men under the power of every Affliction they will have nothing to comfort them and ease them in their sufferings but the empty uneffectual pleasures of the flesh and when that is gone where then is their delight Eighthly Also it will make men fearful and unwilling to die For who would go to a God or a place that he hath no delight in or who would leave his pleasure here except it were to go to better O if the people of God would learn once this Heavenly Life and take up their delights in God whilest they live they would not tremble and be disconsolate at the tidings of death Ninthly Yea this want of Heavenly Delight doth lay men open to the power of every Temptation A little thing will tice a man from that which he hath no pleasure in Tenthly Yea it is a dangerous preparative to total Apostacy A man will hardly long hold on in a way that he hath no delight in nor use the means if he have no delight in the end But as a Beast if you drive him a way that he would not go will be turning out at every gap If you be Religious in your actions and become over to God in your outward Conversaâ—ion and not in your delight you will shortly be gone if your trial be strong How many young people have we known who by good education or the perswasion of friends or for fear of Hell have been a while kept up among Prayers and Sermons and good company as a Bird in a Cage when if they durst they had rather have been in an Alehouse or at their sports and at last they have broke loose when their restraint was taken off and have forsaken the way that they never took pleasure in You see then that it is not a matter of indifferency whether you entertain these Heavenly Delights or not nor is the loss of your present comfort all the inconvenience that follows the neglect And now Christian Friends I have here lined you out a Heavenly precious Work would you but do it it would make you men indeed To delight in God is the work of Angels and the contrary is the work of devils If God would perswade you now to make conscience of this duty and help you in it by the blessed influence of his Spirit you would not change your lives with the greatest Prince on the Earth But I am afraid if I may judg of your hearts by the backwardness of my own that it will prove a hard thing to perswade you to the work and that much of this my labor will be lost Pardon my jealousie it is raised upon too many and sad experiments What say you Do you resolve on this Heavenly course or no Will you let go all your sinful fleshly pleasures and daily seek after these higher delights I pray thee hear shut the Book and consider of it and resolve on the duty before thou go further Let thy Family perceive let thy Neighbors perceive let thy Conscience perceive yea let God perceive it that thou art a man that hast thy daily Conversation in Heaven God hath now offered to be thy daily delight Thy neglect is thy refusal What Refuse delight and such a Delight If I had propounded you onely a course of Melancholy and Fear and Sorrow you might better have demur'd on it Take heed what thou dost Refuse this and refuse all Thou must have Heavenly Delights or none that are lasting God is willing that thou shouldst daily walk with him and fetch in consolations from the Everlasting Fountain if thou be unwilling even bear thy loss And one of these days when thou liest dying then seek for comfort where thou canst get it and make what shift for contentment thou canst Then see whether thy fleshly delights will stick to thee or give thee the slip and then Conscience in despight of thee shall make thee remember That thou wast once perswaded to a way for more excellent pleasures that would have followed thee through death and have lasted thee to Everlasting What man will go in rags that may be clothed with the best or feed on pulse that may feed of the best or accompany with the vilest that may be a companion to the best and admitted into the presence and favor of the greatest And shall we delight so much in our clothing of flesh and feed so much on the vain pleasures of Earth and accompany so much with sin and sinners When Heaven is set open as it were to our daily view and God doth offer us daily admittance into his presence O how is the unseen God neglected and the unseen Glory forgotten and made light of and all because they are unseen and for want of that Faith which is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things that are not seen But for you sincere Beleevers whose hearts God hath weaned from all things here below I hope you will value this Heavenly Life and fetch one walk daily in the New Jerusalem I know God is your Love and your desire and I know you would fain be more acquainted with your Saviour and I know it is your grief that your hearts are not more neer him and that they do no more feelingly and passionately love him and delight in him As ever you would have all this mended and enjoy your desires O try this Life of Meditation on your Everlasting Rest Here is the Mount Ararat where the fluctuated Ark of your Souls must Rest. O let the World see by your Heavenly Lives That Religion lieth in something more then Opinions and Disputes and a