How they are called an Heritage for ever III. How they are so taken by Believers IV. How far they are their Joy I. In God's Covenant or Testimonies there is 1. The Author 2. The Mediator 3. The applying Agent 4. The ascertaining Revelation 5. The Donative or Benefit given 6. The Guiding Doctrine and Law 7. And the Persons or Subjects connoted to whom all this is suited to be an Heritage for ever and the rejoycing of their hearts 1. The Author is God the Lord of us and all in whose hand and will is our Soul and Body our Life and Death our Health and Sickness our Joy and Sorrow whose loving-kindness is life and better than life Psal 63.3 who if he will can make us whole and happy and who hath told us what he will do by his Covenant He wanteth not Love for he is Love it self Essential Infinite Self love communicating to his creatures such Love as his Wisdom seeth meet for them to receive The Love that gave us the Mediator and the Covenant will certainly perform it It was of mercy that he promised It is now of mercy and justice that he perform it He wanteth not Wisdom to Rule the world by Truth and Goodness and needeth not deceit and falshood hereunto nor to flatter such worms as we into obedience Nor doth he that maintaineth Heaven and Earth want power to make good all his Word nor is there any adverse power to make it difficult and hazard the success Indeed he that seriously considereth the Divine Perfection will think it were more strange and incredible that God should not bless and glorifie the faithful according to his Word If it be credible that the Sun sends forth its illuminating and enlivening beams so far and wide to so many millions of various creatures though it scorch the unsuitable objects that are too neer it is credible that God who is Infinite Goodness should bless the capable with heavenly Glory And did we not see that sin maketh many uncapable it would be harder to reason to believe that all shall not be blessed by such a God than that all the faithful shall be blessed And we find that though both be hard to unbelievers they are of the two more hardly brought to believe the Threatnings than the Promises of God What wonder is it that Infinite Power Wisdom and Love should make some of his creatures blessed by communication and Man in special when he hath made him capable of it And what greater satisfaction and security can a fearful troubled dying man have than the Infallible word of the most gloririous God Sure he that firmly believeth it to be his Word can hardly choose but believe that it is true and meet for our most quieting trust 2. The Angel and Moses were the Mediators of the Jewish Law But the Eternal Word incarnate is the Mediator of the New Covenant promised only before to Abraham David c. yea to Adam but sent when made man in the fulness of time Gal. 4.4 And it must needs be a sure and excellent Covenant which is made and confirmed by such a Mediator named in the Prophecy Isa 9.6 Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of whose Government and Peace there is no end he is the heir of all things by whom the Worlds were made the Brightness of God's Glory the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the word of his power made better than Angels having by Inheritance obtained a more excellent name whom all the Angels of God do worship and for whom they disdain not to minister to the Faithful It is a sure and comfortable Doctrine which must have such a Preacher sent from Heaven and a certain Covenant which hath such a wonderful Mediator 3. But it is not like the powerless word of man but the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son undertaketh to accompany it and as the Arm of God to set it home and make it effectual to its proper ends We have not only heard this word but felt it As we hear and feel the powerful Winds though we see them not and perceive not whence they come or whither they go All have felt this who are born of the Spirit Joh. 3.8 God spake not like man when he said Let there be light Gen. 1. And he teacheth not like man when his Spirit by his Word doth quicken illuminate and regenerate Souls It is a sure Covenant that hath such an inward Mediator such an Agent and Advocate and Witness of Christ speaking operatively from God to man and speaking prevailingly in man to God 4. And the sure manner of Revelation doth make it fit to be our Trust and Joy As it beareth on it self the Image or Impress of God's Power Wisdom and Goodness so by powerful Miracles and manifold Wisdom and unmeasurable Goodness it hath been delivered sealed defended and propagated And by a communicated Spirit of Life Light and Love in all sound Believers confirmed to this day 5. And what is it that with such glory and certainty is delivered to us from Heaven It is a Deed of Gift thus sealed by Christ's Blood and Spirit of Grace and Glory of Christ to be our Head and Lord and Husband and Life in and with him John 5.10 12. of the free pardon of all our sins how many and great soever and of reconciliation with God and of justification by the blood and righteousness of our Redeemer and of the continued teaching preserving sanctifying strengthening comforting aid of the Holy Spirit of adoption and title to the Heavenly Inheritance that being Sons and having the Spirit of the Son by it we shall be sealed up to Glory and be made the Habitation and Temples of God In a word it is a promise of this Life so far as that all things shall work together for our good Rom. 8.28 and of the life which is to come where we shall live in Glory with Christ for ever This is the sure and blessed Covenant of God 6. And what is the Doctrine and Laws of God are they not also suited to our Trust and Joy Is it not a delightful thing to read that which no meer man could tell us How God made Man and all the World and what Laws he gave him How sin came into the world and death by sin How God hath governed the World from the beginning and how he hath redeemed us What Christ is and what he hath done and what he will do And what man is and what he should be and what he shall be and do and have for ever And what is there in God's Laws but that which is our safety and should be our joy If good Laws be the safety and honour of Kingdoms are not God's Laws so to all the World What an ugly Dungeon were the World without them and what a worse than bruitish thing were man O how happy were Man were
them And how like she was to Job who prayed and sacrificed for his Children when they were merry and feasting together fearing lest they should forget God and sin against him XVII This kind of life which I have described was her calling and trade and in a manner her only business in the World It was not now and then in a good mood like a Feast or Recreation but as she knew that one thing is needful so she chose that better part which never was nor will be taken from her She so lived as if she had but this one thing to mind and do in the world to please God by obeying him and to cleave to Christ and to do good and to be saved Nothing else seemed to be much in her mind thoughts care and business her life seemed to be but this one thing But I must confess that poor and tempted Persons that are under many worldly wants crosses and employments cannot be expected to reach her measure in this Though one thing be their best and portion they may be tost with many troublesome cares and businesses But God gave her both mind opportunity and help to live in as even a course of constant holiness in a Family as Monks can pretend to or hope for in their Community or solitude Religion was her very life XVIII In this life she had also a Constant peace of Conscience bewailing her imperfections but not living in melancholy despair hard thoughts of God or an uncomfortable sort of Religion I have oft heard her speak of her lamented weakness of Faith Love and heavenly desires and joy but never that I remember one doubting word of her own sincerity and salvation But her ordinary speech was lamenting that we were all so weak in our belief of the Word of God and the unseen World and what execellent Persons we should be if herein we had a stronger Faith that were liker unto sight and how much it should be the business of all believers to pray and labour for an increased powerful belief hereof as that which would set all right in us XIX Her patience under her bodily infirmities also was exemplary Her weakness made her so lyable to dangerous Coughs while she was in London air that by this she was constrained to live much from home And most of all her life she was tormented with a frequent head-ach But in her patience in all this She did possess her Soul and patience furthered experience and experience hope and she learnt more the quiet fruits of righteousness by being much exercised herein XX. And as by this She daily learned to dye so the expectation and preparation for death was her continual work and state She lived and heard and prayed and wrote her Letters to her Children as at the brink of the Grave and the Door of Eternity Not that her Diseases did seem to us to be very mortal or threaten this sudden change But she knew the brevity of mans life and that Death is ready to remove us all and what a moment it is till that certain hour And as she lived holily and in peace with God and man so she dyed with ease and little likelyhood of the ordinary miseries of Fear or Pain A little soreness and swelling of her Leg and pain towards the Hip turned to two swooning fits and in the third or fourth having been in quiet discourse with her Husband she as quietly sunk and dyed away desiring that I should be sent to pray with her she was dead before I came without any signs of nature striving And she had said to her Daughter after her former fits she did not think that one could have dyed so easily as she had almost done A death thus expected and thus prepared for is not to be called sudden Thus God can make death easie to some of us that are apt to over-fear the antecedent pain And now what can be more almost desired in this World than such a life and such a death Our dear Friend is at home with Christ and Gods will which is Goodness and Love it self is so fulfilled even that will which must dispose of all things and in which only we must seek our rest And having described this true Copy of the Text I may boldly speak of it to several sorts I. I may again ask both Quakers and Scorners Whether the Holy Spirit do not dwell and work in such among us as our dear Friend now deceased was II. I may ask Vnbelievers and Sadduces Whether these operations of the spirit of God on Believers be not a sign that God owneth the Gospel by which he thus worketh And that Christ liveth and reigneth who can thus still send a sanctifying Spirit into Believers Souls And whether it be not blasphemy to think and say either that these excellent endowments of Souls are not of God or that he giveth them all in vain and that Believers are all deceived by God and labour and hope all their days for that which hath no being and that the better God maketh them the more deluded vain and frustrate he maketh them and ruleth and amendeth the world by falshood III. I may ask the Papists with what Face they can say as they use to do That they never heard of a Protestant Saint And whether we may not be as Religious in the places that God hath set us in as if we turned Recluses Monks or Nuns and shut up our selves from doing any good in the world IV. I may ask the Malignant that call all serious Godliness Hypocrisie whether such a life as this doth savour of dissimulation And whether such Seriousness and Hypocrisie are not contraries and Hypocrisie be not a Profession without that Seriousness which is sincerity And whether they that in Baptism solemnly vow to take God for their God and Christ for their Lord and Saviour and the Holy Ghost for Christs Advocate and Witness and their Sanctifier and Comforter and to renounce the Flesh the World and the Devil and when they have done perform none of this which they vowed but live to the Flesh and World which they renounced and take a holy life as needless yea and hate it I say whether these be not the impudent Hypocrites that vow and profess that holiness which they abhor rather than they that with all their deligence perform the holy Vow which they have made And if Wives promise Fidelity to their Husbands Servants to their Masters and Subjects to their Princes are they the Hypocrites that are serious and keep their promise Or they that were never serious in it but scorn the keeping of it V. And as to those malignant persons that take this strict and serious diligence for mens souls to be but scrupulosity or the Character of some over-zealous Bigots or Puritans who are most inclined to Schism and to be troublesom or dangerous to States I ask them 1. What is there in all the description which I have here truly given
you prefer not any other pleasure in your esteem and choice and seeking If so you shew that you truly believe and trust to the faithfulness of God's Word though yet you reach not what you seek Desire is the first-fruit of Faith and Love and holy joy is the flower and perfection 2. Cannot you say that it is this Word that maketh you hope that there is for man a better life and that you shall not perish like the Beasts And that your fears and sorrows are somewhat abated by the promises of God 3. Cannot you say that you perceive a pleasing goodness in the Word of God which maketh it welcome and acceptable to you By what I have mentioned you may find 1. That the Word hath not been in vain unto you when it hath caused such effects 2. And that the same spirit is in you which wrote the Word or else you would not love and desire it and take it for suitable food and pleasure yea your heritage and joy 3. And you may hence perceive that you are not without the love of God himself though you see him not and have not such sensible conceptions of him as you have of men and things which you have seen For if you love truth and goodness and holiness in Gods Word because it is such you sure love best the greatest truth goodness and holiness and that is God 4. And hence you may perceive that though our nature love not death and a weak faith will not overcome all fears when we think of coming into an unseen world yet really you are lovers of Heaven in that you are lovers of that which constituteth Heaven and is its desirableness to man even holiness and Gods Love and glorious presence and our perpetual joy herein If you desire this you desire Heaven though the fear of death do make you doubt of it 5. And hence you may find that you are not Worldly Hypocrites else it is not Gods Promises and Law that you would take for your heritage and joy but worldly prosperity and fleshly pleasure and God and Heaven should have but the leavings of the flesh for fear of an after reckoning at death 6. And though your joy be small you may know that it is of the right kind when it is chiefly sought in God's Love and Promises and you would not let go the word of God and lose your part in it for all the vanities of this World III. Hence also you may learn why all true Christians so much value the Testimonies or Word of God Why they so much read it think of it talk of it and hear of it and are loath that Papists should corrupt it or conceal it in an unknown Tongue or that any should deny them the necessary use of it or silence the Ministers that preach it to them who would willingly be deprived of his heritage or heart rejoycing IV. Yea indeed hence we see how much we should set by it and use it how dear it should be to us How strictly we should obey it With what delight we should read it and meditate in it How diligent we should be to confirm our belief of it and how we should fetch our hope and comfort from it in life and at our death V. And You may see hence that it is no wonder that the Devil and all his Servants in the World are Enemies to the Word of God because they are Enemies to our heritage and joy And there are few better signs while many pretend to be for Christ to know who are really for him and who are against him and his greatest Enemies than to judge of men as they further or hinder Love or Hate the Word of God as to its proper use as the heritage and joy of holy souls VI. But the chief part of my application is to commend this wise and holy choice and solid comfort to you all and to beseech you presently to imitate David and turn away from all inconsistent pleasures If you live in sorrow or deceit and die in desperation it is not for want of an offer from God of better things Have you lived hitherto as thus resolved If you have the Lord confirm you and be sure such hopes shall not deceive you If you have not what will you now choose and do If you live not to some end you live not like men according to reason If you have chosen what end to live for and seek what is it Consider I be-beseech you of these things following before it be too late 1. What will you take for your heritage or your best if not the future promised joyes and what will you take for your security but Gods Word What is it that you place your chiefest hopes in shall health and wealth and pleasure to the flesh and honour among men be taken for your heritage Dare you under your hands make a Covenant for these to quit all your hopes of the life to come if not which is that you prefer and which would you quit if one must be hazarded or lost which hath the nearest and highest place in your hearts which seek you first and make all other things give place to O Sirs it is a shame to our stupid hearts that we have need to be so oft told by Preachers that we must dye and that our flesh must shortly lie neglected in dust and darkness till the resurrection and that we and all the deceitful trifles of this World are ready to part for ever It is a shame that we must be oft told that which every Fool and Child at the use of reason may know how poor and how short an heritage or pleasure all those have who have no better than this World can give them What say you Will you die in Hope or in Despair If Unbelief make you hope that there is no Hell yet Hope of Heaven you can have none unless you trust the Word of God The light of Nature indeed is such a natural Word or Revelation as may tell us much of a future life of retribution but Gods supernatural revelation is so much clearer that we cannot expect that he will see by a lesser who wilfully rejects a greater light sure all men would live for ever if they could and all would be for ever happy you would not sure die like Dogs without any hope of a better life hereafter if you could have good security for such hopes And what better security is there to be found by mortal men than the Promises of God confirmed by Christs Blood and Miracles and by the Seal of his holy Spirit In a word without all doubt Either Heaven must be your Heritage or you must have none that is worthy of a serious thought and enough to keep a man from wishing that he had never been born or been a Brute that had not reason to know the matter of his griefs and fears And either Gods Word seconding the light of Nature must