For he that hath Heaven for his Haven must be infinitely peevish if he quarrels at a rough Sea and doth nor bless the Storms and Winds that are driving him thither And thus I have proved to you at large that the Commands of God are not grievous and that both because they are easie in their own Nature and are made much more easie by our Blessed Lord and Saviour But after all that hath been said I do foresee a material Objection that will be made against this Discourse and that is this That it contradicts the universal Experience of Mankind For do not the Generality of those Men that have attempted a religious Life find by Experience a great deal of difficulty Are they not forced to strive and wrastle with themselves and to do the greatest Violence to their own Inclinations Are they not forced to keep themselves under a severe Discipline to pray earnestly and watch diligently to prevent the Surprises and Incursions of those Temptations that continually way-lay them wheresoever they are and whatsoever they are about And do they not many times find the difficulties so great as that they are quite beaten off and utterly disheartned by them All this I confess is very true and may very well be so without any Prejudice to the Argument in hand for we have not been discoursing of what Religion may accidentally be but of what it really is in it self The Light in it self is pleasant to the Eye but yet it may accidentally be grievous if the Eye be sore or weak and not able to endure its Splendor And so Religion though in its self extremely easie yet it may and often doth become accidentally difficult to us by Reason of those sinful Prejudices against it which we do too often contract in the Course of a sinful Life But 't is an unreasonable Thing for Men to measure the Easiness of God's Laws not by their own intrinsick Nature but by the Reluctancy and Opposition which they find in their own Hearts against them For to a Man in a Fever every Thing is bitter but yet the Bitterness is not in the Honey he tasts but in the Gall that overflows his own Palate And so to a vicious Man every Virtue is a Burthen but the Burthensomness is not so much in the Virtue as in his own Repugnancy to bear it For I have already proved at large that Religion is every way agreeable to humane Nature and therefore there can be no other Reason why it should not agree with us unless it be that we disagree with our selves We spoil our own Natures and do degenerate from the humane Nature into the brutal or diabolical and what wonder is it that the Religion of a Man should be a Burthen to the Nature of a Beast or a Devil But if we would take but a little Pains to retrieve our selves and weed out those unnatural Habits with which our Nature is over-grown we should find that our Religion and That would very well accord and then that which is our Burthen would become our Recreation I confess before this can be accomplished we must take a great deal of Pains with our selves we must watch and pray and strive and contend and undergo the severe Discipline of a sorrowful Repentance if ever we mean to recover our Natures again But for God's sake consider Sirs there is now no Remedy for this and you may thank your selves for it for you must undergo great Difficulties take which side you please If you resolve to continue as you are you must be most wretched Slaves to your own Lusts you must tamely submit to all their tyrannical Commands and run and go on every Errand they send you and though they countermand each other and one sends you this Way and another the quite contrary though Sloth pulls you back and Ambition thrusts you forwards and Covetousness bids you save and Sensuality bids you spend though Pride bids you strut and Flattery bids you cringe and there is as great a Confusion in their Wills and Commands as there was in the Language of the Brick-layers of Babel and though in such a Huddle of Inconsistencies you are frequently at your Wits end and know not what to do yet you must be contented to endure the Hurry and if you cannot do all at once you must do what you can and when you have done so 't is a thousand to one but there will be as many of your Lusts dissatisfied as satisfied And in the mean time while you are thus hurried about in the Crowd of your own sinful Desires your wretched Conscience will ever and anon be alarming you with its ill-boding Horrors and griping and twinging you with many an uneasie Reflection Thus like miserable Gally-Slaves you must tug at the Oar work against Wind and Tyde and row through the Storms and Tempests of your own Conscience and all this to run your selves upon a Rock and invade your own Damnation So that considering all I dare say the Toil of being wicked is much more insupportable than that of a holy Life and which is sad to consider it hath no other Issue but eternal Ruin for the wages of Sin saith the Apostle is death Rom. vi 23 And methinks it should be very uncomfortable for a Man to work so hard for nothing but Misery and even to earn his Damnation with the sweat of his Brows especially considering that the Toil and Drudgery of a sinful Life hath no End For though Custom and Habit renders all other Things easie yet by accustoming our selves to do Evil we add to our Toil and render those cruel Taskmasters our Lusts more tyrannical and imposing for still the more we gratify them the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denyal and so by working for them we shall but increase our own Toil and still acquire new Degrees of Labour and Drudgery But as for the main Difficulty of Religion it chiefly lies in the Entry to it for there we must shake hands with all our darling Lusts and bid them adieu for ever and to persuade our selves throughly to this is the main Difficulty of all for then to be sure they will cling fastest about us and use their utmost Oratory to stagger our Resolution and the old Love we have born them and the dear Remembrance of the Pleasures which they have administred to us will make our Hearts relent and our Bowels yearn towards them But if with all those mighty Arguments wherewith our Religion and our Reason furnishes us and all those divine Assistances which we are encouraged to ask and if we do are assured to obtain we can but conquer our Reluctancies and heartily persuade our selves to part with them this is the sharpest Brunt in all our spiritual Warfare for now if we do but keep the ground that we have gotten and maintain our Resolution against the Temptations that assault it our Lusts will every day grow weaker and
are let alone to enjoy our Sins is a Contradiction and so not the Object of any Power no not of Omnipotence it self For Sin it self is the greatest Misery that human Nature is liable to 't is this that convulses all its Faculties that racks and stretches them out of Joint and distorts them into an unnatural Figure and Position 't is this that makes us our own Reverse transposes our Head with our Feet and makes our Reason truckle to our Sense our intellectual Faculties that were made to govern to serve those brutish Passions and Appetites which Nature designed to be their Vassals which is such a barbarous Violence to the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature as will whensoever we recover out of our lethargick Stupidity be as sensibly dolorous to our Souls as Racks or Wheels or Catasta's to our Bodies So that for God to save us from Misery whilst he suffers us to continue in our Sins is altogether as impossible as it is to save us from burning whilst he suffers us to continue weltring in the Flames of Fire and to make us well in Sickness or easie in Diseases are not more repugnant to the Nature of Things than 't is to make us happy in our Sins and yet this is the only Matter we complain of that God will not allow us a free Dispensation to be wicked in that which is the Condition of our Salvation O blessed God! How is it possible thou shouldst ever please such froward peevish and ungrateful Creatures who will never be satisfied unless thou performest Impossibilities and makest Contradictions to be true for their sakes For shame therefore let us no longer complain that the Condition of our Salvation is too hard and rigorous but since God hath been pleased to condescend so low to us as to indulge us whatsoever is consistent with our Salvation let us admire and adore his Goodness and with our Souls inflamed with Love and Gratitude to him chearfully undertake what he hath so mercifully enjoyned us JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life I Am now upon the latter Part of this Text that whosoever believeth in him c. In which there are two great Instances of God's Goodness to us First his imposing upon us such a gentle and merciful Condition that whosoever believeth in him Secondly his proposing to us so vast a Reward upon the Performance of it should not perish but have everlasting Life The first of these I have handled already and now I proceed to the second viz. the vast Reward he hath proposed to us upon the Performance of this merciful Condition And in this you have First the negative Part of it that whosoever believeth in him might not perish Secondly the positive One but have everlasting Life I. I begin with the first of these that whosoever believeth in him might not perish In prosecution of which Argument I shall do these three Things 1. Shew you what is meant by perishing here 2. By what Right we were concerned in and obliged to it 3. What unspeakable Goodness God hath discovered to us in freeing and absolving us from this Obligation 1. What is meant by perishing here or not perishing That whosoever believeth in him should not perish that is that whosoever believes in him might be pardoned or absolved from the obligation of perishing for ever to which his Sins have rendred him justly liable For that by this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should not perish or be destroyed is not meant the Annihilation or Destruction of our Beings as the Socinians and some others imagin is evident by its being opposed to everlasting Life which as I shall shew you hereafter doth not denote our mere Continuance in Life and Being for ever but our Continuance in a most blissful and happy Life for ever and consequently the Destruction that is here opposed to it must not denote our eternal Discontinuance to be and live but our living most wretchedly and miserably for ever And indeed wheresoever Death or Destruction is spoken of in Opposition to eternal Life this is apparently the Sense of it So Rom. vi 23 The wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that by Death here is understood a State of endless Misery and Suffering in Opposition to that State of endless Happiness which eternal Life implies is evident because he cannot mean the first Death which consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body for though this were originally the Wages of Sin yet in it self it is not so now but the necessary Condition of our Nature for whether we Sin or no we must undergo it being obliged to it by the irreversible Decree of our Maker But the Death here spoken of is the Effect of our own personal Sin without which we are not liable to it as you may plainly see v. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things i. e. those Sins whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things or Sins is Death Wherefore since it cannot be meant of the first it must be meant of the second Death which St. John makes mention of Rev. 2.11 He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death And what that is the same Author tells you Rev. 20.14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second Death that is this Lake of Fire or the Torments and Miseries which condemned Sinners endure in it is the second Death for so he explains himself v. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever And this is that Death which is opposed to the immortal Rewards of the Blessed as you may see Rev. 21.7 8. He that overcometh shall inherit all things that is all those immortal Recompences which God has prepared for virtuous Souls But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstrone Which is the second Death And as Death when opposed to eternal Life denotes a State of endless and continued Misery so doth Destruction also So Mat. 7.13 14. Broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction Narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life By the later of which it is granted on all hands he means Life eternal and that by Destruction he means a State of endless Misery is evident from Matth. 10.28 but fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell which according to St. John's Exposition Rev. 20.10 is to torment them Day and Night for ever and ever And this destroying in Hell our Saviour elsewhere expresses by casting into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched which is as plain
Obedience to Superiors and Contempt of the World of Patience and Courage and Meekness and Resignation to the Will of God that so by his Example we might be excited to the Exercise of all those passive Virtues which are not only most glorious but most difficult to human Nature and that by beholding how mean and yet how good he was we might all become more ambitious of being good than great in the World Now what an amazing Instance of God's Goodness is this that meerly for our sakes and to promote our Happiness he should depress his own Son into such a miserable Condition that he who was in the Form of God who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should by the Appointment of his own Father to whom he was so infinitely dear make himself of no Reputation take on him the Form of a Servant become a Man of sorrows and acquaint himself with Griefs and all this to put himself into a better Capacity of doing good to the World Good God! When I consider with my self that once there was a Time when thou didst send thy blessed Son from Heaven to assume my Nature that therein he dwelt upon this Earth and conversed with such poor Mortals as my self that he suffered himself to be despised and persecuted and by thy own Appointment wandred about like a poor Wretch naked and destitute of all those Comforts which I abundantly enjoy and all this that he might the more effectually do good to a World of ill-natured Sinners methinks this wonderous Prodigy of Love not only puzles my Conceit but outreaches my Wonder and Admiration And though it be a Love that exceeds my largest Thoughts such as I have infinite Cause to rejoyce in but could never have had the Impudence to expect yet while I stand gazing on it methinks I am like one that is looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even oversets my Reason 6 thly And lastly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of miserable Sinners and this is plainly implied in that Expression he gave his only begotten Son For in the two Verses foregoing the Text our Saviour foretells his own Death for as Moses saith he lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life and then it immediately follows for God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that is he gave him to be lifted up upon the Cross even as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness that so by his precious Death and Sacrifice he might make an Atonement for the Sins of the World And accordingly he is said to be delivered up for our offences Rom. iv 25 even as the Sacrifice was delivered up at the Door of the Tabernacle to propitiate God for the Sins of the Offerer For to compleat the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law three Things were requisite first the offering of it at the Door of the Tabernacle the slaying of it and the presenting of its Blood either within the Holy of Holies or elsewhere all which were found in the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour First he offered himself to God as a willing Victim for the Sins of the World Hence Joh. xvii 19 for this cause saith he do I sanctify my self that is offer up my self as a Sacrifice to thee for so in Levit. xxii 2 3. and sundry other places to hallow or sanctify any Thing to the Lord denotes the offering it to him in Sacrifice And accordingly we find that that Prayer by which Christ consecrated himself to the Lord Joh. xvii was much like that by which the High Priest did consecrate his Victims before the Altar on the great day of Expiation for as he before he slew the Sacrifice did first commend himself and his own Family then the Family of Aaron and the whole Congregation to the Lord so our Saviour in this excellent Prayer whereby he sanctified himself to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World first commended himself to him then his Apostles then all those who should afterwards believe in his Name which having done he went forth presently to the Place where he was apprehended and carried to Judgment and condemned to Death Then as a propitiatory Sacrifice he was slain for our sins for so St. Peter tells us Ephes. ii 24 he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that is that natural Evil of a most shameful and painful Death was inflicted on him for our Sins that so he might make an Expiation for them and free us from the Guilt and Punishment that was due to them Hence in that Prophecy of him Isa. liii we often meet with such Expressions as these surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows he was Wounded for our Transgressions he was Bruised for our Iniquities The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are Healed The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all For the transgression of my people was he stricken Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin and he shall bear their Iniquities He was numbered with the Transgressors and he bare the sin of Many and made intercession for the Transgressors All which Expressions do plainly imply that what he suffered he suffered for our Sins as a Sacrifice substituted in the Room of us who were the Offenders that so he might make Expiation for us and obtain our Pardon from his Father And accordingly in the New Testament he is said to be made a Curse for us to be our Ransom and Propitiation to redeem and reconcile us and obtain the Remission of our Sins by his Blood to die for us and for our Sins and to be our Propitiation all which Expressions being applyed to the Sacrifices of Atonement under the Law and from them derived upon our Saviour do plainly denote him to be a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Sins of the World And then lastly there is the presenting of his Blood for us in Heaven and in the Virtue thereof his interceeding for us with his Father And hence the Blood of Christ as it is now presented in Heaven is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. xii 24 In which he plainly alludes to the High Priest's sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Christs presenting his Blood for us in Heaven as you may see Heb. ix 7 compared with the 11th and 12th Verses Verse 7th he tells us that the High Priest entered not into the Holy of Holies without blood But then Verse 12th it is said that Christ with his own blood entred in once into the holy
so as to receive you into Grace and Favour But when by sending his own Son to die for us he had given us so plain a Proof of the Sincerity of his Affection towards us with what face can we suspect his Kindness For is it likely that he who was so good as to give his Son for us whilst we were in Impenitence should be so implacable as to deny his Love to us upon our Repentance and Amendment Was it not a much higher Act of Love to give his Son for Sinners than to receive poor prostrate Penitents into Favour He then who was so free to do the former we might well imagin would be much more free to do the latter Or lastly Dare we plead for our selves that considering the Anxiousness and Jealousy of guilty Minds God had not given us such Security of his Readiness to pardon and be reconciled to us as was requisite to dispel all those Fears and Doubts by which we were discouraged from Repentance and Amendment But how weak and groundless this Plea is will soon appear to all the World when it shall be considered what an effectual Course God took to obviate all our Doubts and Fears by pardoning us in our own Method namely upon the Motive of a Sacrifice and Intercession of a Mediator especially of such a Sacrifice and Mediator as his own Son For let him be never so severe and stern yet 't is impossible he should be inexorable to the vocal Blood and importunate Intercessions of that dear Person whom he loves above all the World And now when God had so contrived the Method of his pardoning us as to take from us all Occasion either of presuming upon his Mercy whilst we continue impenitent when he hath taken such an effectual Course to raise both our Hopes and Fears which are the Springs of our Action to their highest Pitch and Capacity and given us the greatest Certainty that the Nature of the Thing will bear that he will punish us for ever if we Sin on and pardon and receive us into Favour if now at last we will repent and return what can we say for our selves if in Despite of all this we will run from Mercy whilst its Arms are open to embrace us and leap into Hell with our Eyes open and we see it gaping ready to devour us JOHN III. 16 But have everlasting Life I Am now upon the last Branch of the Text which is to shew you the great Goodness of God to us in promising to us such a vast Reward upon our performing such an easie Condition as our believing in Jesus Christ in which Reward there is first the privative Part of it or the Misery it rescues us from that whosoever believeth in him should not perish Secondly the positive or the Happiness it instates us in but have everlasting Life In the management of which I shall do these two Things 1. Shew you why this Reward is termed Everlasting Life 2. How unspeakably good God hath been to us in proposing to us such a vast Reward 1. Why this Reward is stiled by the Name of Everlasting Life For it is very usual with Scripture to express all the Blessings it promises to Men by the Name of Life for thus by Life the Old Testament very frequently expresses those temporal Blessings which are therein promised and proposed So Deut. xxx 15 See I have set before thee this day Life and Good and Death and Evil in which he plainly refers to those temporal Blessings and Curses which he had proposed to and denounced against them Chap. xxviii for so v. 19 of this Chapter he explains himself I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Therefore chuse Life that both Thou and thy Seed may live So Levit. xviii 5 Ye shall keep my Statutes and my Judgments Which if a Man do he shall live in them that is he shall enjoy all those temporal Blessings which I have therein promised For so Ezek. xx 21 their living in them is opposed to his pouring out temporal Judgments upon them And hence the Statutes of the Mosaic Law are called the statutes of Life in which whosoever walks shall surely Live and not Die Ezek. xxxiii 15 And as these temporal Blessings promised in the Old Testament are commonly expressed by Life so those eternal Blessings promised in the New Testament are very frequently expressed by Life also So Mat. xviii 8 It is better for thee to enter into Life halt or maimed rather than having two Hands or two Feet to be cast into everlasting Fire So also Mat. xix 17 If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments And Joh. iii. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life And he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him And because the Blessings which the Gospel proposes are not temporal but eternal therefore that Life by which they are expressed is stiled eternal everlasting and immortal For so 2 Tim. i. 10 We find Life and Immortality joyned together and Rom. vi 22 Ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life and Vers. 23. The gift of God is eternal Life Now that it is not called eternal Life merely as it is a State of endless Being and Existence is evident because Being and Existence are indifferent Things abstracted from all sense of Happiness and Misery but eternal Life is proposed to us as a Thing that is infinitely desirable in self as being the Crown and Reward of all our Obedience for which Reason it is called the crown of Life Jam. i. 12 And therefore the Reason why the everlasting Blessings of the Gospel are expressed by Life are First Because of the inestimable Worth and Value of Life Secondly Because Life is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and Happiness Thirdly Because it is the Principle of all our Activity 1. The everlasting Blessings of the Gospel are called Life because Life is the most inestimably precious of all the Blessings we enjoy For without Life there is nothing can be a real Blessing to us nothing that we can tast relish or enjoy And this the Devil knew well enough when he pronounced so confidently Skin for Skin yea all that a Man hath will he give for his Life Job ii 4 Now it is usual with Scripture to describe the Blessings of the future State by Things that are of the greatest Value among Men by Riches and Treasure by a Crown and a Kingdom by a Paradise or a Garden of Pleasure but as if all these were too faint and dim to represent the true Value of that blessed State it is stiled Life also which is much more valuable than either yea than all those Things together And hence the Apostle calls it a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. iv 17 2. It is called Life
because Life is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and Happiness For without Life we are nothing else but a Lump of stupid and insensible Flesh incapable of perceiving either Pleasure or Pain So that all Sensation being founded in Life and all Pleasure a sweet and grateful Sensation by a very easie Figure the natural Effect and Operation of Life is expressed by Life And indeed all the Advantage of living consists in living in a Sense of Pleasure and therefore it hath been very much disputed among Philosophers whether this temporary State of ours in which there is so great an Intermixture of Pain with Pleasure and Misery with Happiness doth not better deserve the Name of Death than Life and those of them who thought it more liable to Misery than Happiness affirmed it to be a State of Death and strictly maintained this Paradox that at our Birth we die into a worse State than Non-existence and at our Death are born into a true and proper State of Life But they who counted our present Life to be intermixt with more Pleasure than Misery esteemed our present Existence a Priviledge deserving the Name of Life which is an Argument that both placed all the Priviledge of living in those pleasant Perceptions that are founded in it And thus also according to the Scripture Philosophy to live as it imports Advantage to us is to live in a State of Joy and Pleasure so Psal. xxii 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied They shall praise the Lord that seek him your Heart shall live for ever that is you shall so abound with Matter of Joy and Praise that your Hearts shall be satisfied and contented for ever So Joh. xiv 19 Because I live ye shall live also that is because I rise from the Dead and live for ever ye shall rejoyce and be glad So also 1 Thes. iii. 8 For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord that is we rejoyce in your Constancy and Perseverance for so it follows immediately after For what thanks can we render to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God How properly therefore may the future State be expressed by Life since 't is the proper Scene of Happiness where Joy and Pleasure doth for ever abound where there is an inexhaustible Spring of pure unmingled Delights issuing forth in Rivers of Pleasure from God's right Hand for ever So that if there be any Thing worthy of the Name of Life it is the blisful State of those happy Souls above who live in the continued Sense of all those unspeakable Joys and Comforts that an everlasting Heaven imports 3 dly And lastly it is called Life because Life is the Principle of all Activity 'T is this that inlivens all our Instruments of Action and communicates Motion to all our Faculties and Powers And hence the State of Heaven may well be called the State of Life because 't is a State of the highest Activity wherein all our Faculties act with unspeakable Vigour are freed from all that Weight of Sin and Matter that here do continually clog and incumber them and entertained with such agreeable Objects as do perpetually imploy and exercise them to the utmost of their Strength and Activity Where infinite Truth and infinite Goodness being always in our View and Prospect will continually draw forth the utmost Force of our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections in the most rapturous Contemplation Fruition and Embracements of that all-glorious Object in which we behold them So that we shall not only Act suitably to the Genius of our rational Natures but in every Act shall exert our utmost Activity and know and love and rejoyce and delight as much as ever we are able Wherefore since in that blessed State we shall be all Life and Spirit and Wing since all our rational Faculties shall be most incessantly and vigorously imployed about the most agreeable and consentaneous Objects we being converted as it were into pure Acts of Knowledge and Love and Joy and Satisfaction our State and Condition may be very well expressed by Life which is a most vigorous Principle of Activity So that as Life is the most inestimable Jewel we have as it is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and the Principle of all our Activity it doth most properly express the infinite Value Pleasure and Activity of that blisful State which God hath prepared to reward our Obedience And so I have done with the First Thing proposed which was to shew you for what Reason the eternal Rewards of the Blessed are so frequently expressed by everlasting Life 2. I proceed now to shew you in the second Place how unspeakably good God hath been to us in proposing such a vast Reward upon the Performance of such an easie Condition In the Management of which I shall first discourse of this Reward absolutely and shew you how great it is in it self Secondly comparatively and shew you how great it is in Respect of the Condition upon which it is promised 1. We will consider it absolutely how great it is in its self And here I do not pretend to give you a perfect Map of all the Beatitudes of that heavenly State for that is a Talk fit only for an Angel or a glorified Spirit all I aim at is to give you such an imperfect Account of it as God hath thought fit to impart to Mortals in the Scripture which though it fall infinitely short of the Thing it self yet is doubtless the best and utmost that our narrow Capacities can bear In short therefore concerning this blessed State God hath revealed to us that it includes these six Things 1. A perfect Freedom from Evil and Misery 2. A most intimate Enjoyment of himself 3 A most endearing Fruition of our glorified Saviour 4. A most delightful Conversation with Angels and glorified Spirits 5. The infinite Glory and Delightfulness of the Place wherein all these Felicities are to be enjoyed 6. The endless Duration of this most blessed and happy State 1. Everlasting Life includes a most perfect Freedom from Evil and Misery For so we find the State of the Blessed in Heaven described that they hunger no more neither thirst any more that the Sun lights not on them nor any heat that is that they are no longer liable to the scorching Heats of Persecution but that God hath wiped away all tears from their Eyes Rev. vii 16.17 And hence also Heaven is called a State of Rest Heb. iv 9 11. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest Which denotes this State to be a perfect Sabbath and Jubile of Redemption from all Evil and Misery For as soon as the Souls of good Men depart out of this corporeal State in which they now live they are immediatly released from all those bodily Passions of Hunger and Thirst and Pain and Diseases whereunto they
without being overcharged with their Weight and Number 3 dly Everlasting Life includes a most endearing Fruition of our glorified Saviour And certainly this is none of the smallest Ingredients of that blisful State that we shall ever be with our blessed Lord as the Apostle expresses it 1 Thes. iv 17 For herein it is evident the same Apostle placed one great Advantage of his future State for so he tells us he had a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. i. 23 And indeed 't is impossible but it must be a vast Addition to the Happiness of all vertuous and grateful Souls to see this blessed Friend and Benefactor who came down from the Bosom of his Father and for their Sake exposed himself to a miserable Life and shameful Death to see him sitting at his Father's right Hand crowned with Majesty and Honour surrounded with the whole Choir of Angels and Saints like a Sun in the midst of a Circle of Stars How must it needs rejoyce the Hearts of all the Lovers and Followers of this blessed Lamb to see such a happy Change of his Circumstances To see him that was formerly despised and spit on and so unworthily treated by an ill-natured World adored and worshiped praised and admired by all the Court of Heaven and celebrated with the Songs of Cherubins and Seraphims of Arch-angels and Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to behold him that hung upon the Cross and poured out his Blood there in Groans and Agonies meerly to make miserable Sinners happy advanced to the highest Pitch of Splendor and Dignity and made Head and Prince of all the Hierarchy of Heaven Verily methinks though I were excluded from that happy Place and had only the Priviledge to look in and see my blessed Lord and Saviour it would be a most heavenly Consolation to me to behold the Glory and Honour and Happiness with which he is surrounded though I were sure never to partake of it and the Communion I should have in the Joys of my Master the sweet Sympathy in all his Pleasures would be a Heaven at second Hand to me and I should feel my self unspeakably happy in being a Spectator of his Felicity and Advancement But Oh! When that dear and blessed Person shall not only permit me to see his Glory but introduce me into it when his blessed Mouth shall bid me Welcome and pronounce my Euge bone Serve well done Good and Profitable Servant enter into thy Masters Joy when I shall not only see his beloved Face but be admitted into his sweet Conversation and dwell in his Arms and Embraces for ever when I shall hear him record the wondrous Adventures of his Love through how many woful Stages he past to rescue me from endless Misery how will my Heart spring with Joy and burn with Love and my Mouth overflow with Praises and Thanksgivings O blessed Jesu How happy will the Day be when I who am loaded with so many vast Obligations to love thee shall be introduced into thy Presence to see thy Glories and Sympathize in thy Joys as thou didst in my Miseries to thank and praise thee Face to Face for all those Wonders of Love with which thou hast obliged me and to bear a Part in that heavenly Song Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing who hast redeemed us to God by thy blood our of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation Rev. v. 9 12. 4 thly Everlasting Life includes a most delightful Conversation and Society with Angels and glorified Spirits For when we come to the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem the Apostle tells us what our Society will be viz. an innumerable company of Angels the general Assembly and Church of the first-born God the judge of all the Spirits of just Men made perfect and Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant Heb. xii 22 23 24. Lord what glorious Society is here Society in which there is nothing intermingled but what is Heavenly and Divine it being altogether composed of the best and wisest and noblest Beings in the World For as for the blessed Saints and Angels they are all most perfectly refined from all that Folly and Peevishness Disguize and Dissimulation which is the Bane of humane Conversation their Understandings are exceeding large and comprehensive and their Charity and Goodness is full as extensive as their Knowledge And in such a Conjunction of Wisdom with Goodness what an excellent Society must there needs be produced For as their great Goodness must needs render their Conversation most free and amiable so must their great Knowledge and Wisdom render it no less profitable and delightful and as the latter must needs instruct them in all the wise Arts of Endearment so the former must needs oblige them to use and improve them to the utmost O how heavenly therefore must their Conversation needs be whilst 't is thus managed by pure Wisdom and most perfect Love whilst the most glorious Knowledge is the Scope and the most ardent Friendship the Law of all their Converse Who would not be willing to leave a foolish froward and ill-natured World for the blessed Society of those wise Friends and perfect Lovers And what greater Happiness can we desire than to spend an Eternity in such sweet Conversation Where we shall hear the deep Philosophy of Heaven freely communicated in the wise and amicable Discourses of Angels and glorified Spirits who mutually impart the Treasures of each others Knowledge without any Reserve or Affectation of Mystery and freely philosophize without wrangling Disputes or peevish Contentions for Victory where Wisdom is the Entertainment and Love and mutual Endearments the Welcome where there is Harmony without Discord Communication without Disputes and everlasting Discourse without Wrangling O happy Day When I shall depart from this impertinent and unsociable World and all my good old Friends that are gone to Heaven before me shall meet me on the Shores of Eternity and congratulate my Arrival to that blessed Society Where I shall freely converse with the Patriarchs and Prophets the Apostles and Martyrs and be most intimately acquainted with all those brave and generous Souls who have recommended themselves to the World by their glorious Examples where Angels and Arch-angels shall be my familiar Friends and all those illustrious Courtiers of the great King of Heaven shall own me for their Brother and bid me welcome to their Masters Joy and none will disdain my Company though never so much above me in Glory and Perfection but from the highest to the lowest will all receive and entertain me with the tenderest Indearments of heavenly Lovers 5 thly Everlasting Life includes also the infinite Glory and Delightfulness of the Place wherein all these Felicities are to be enjoyed For though the very State of the Blessed be sufficiently glorious to transform
the most dismal Place into a Paradise and to create a Heaven in the darkest Dungeon of Hell yet such hath been the Goodness of God that he hath prepared a Place proportionably glorious to that blessed State which according to the Sciripture Account is the highest Heaven or the upper and purer Tracts of the Aether For so our Saviour tells the penitent Thief to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. xxiii 43 and where this Paradise is St. Paul informs us 2 Cor. xii for Vers. 2. he tells us of his being caught up to the third Heaven which in the 4th Vers. he calls Paradise where he heard unspeakable Words Now that by the Third Heaven he means the uppermost viz. that Heaven of Heavens which is the Throne of God's most glorious Residence where Jesus sits at his right Hand among the holy Miriads of Angels and glorious Spirits is evident from this because according to the Jewish Philosophy to which he here alludes Heaven was divided into three Regions viz. the Cloud-bearing Star-bearing and Angel-bearing Region the last of which they called the Third Heaven in which they placed the Throne of the Divine Majesty And that by Paradise he means the same Place is as evident because by this Name the Jews in whose Language he speaks were wont to call it the Third Heaven or Angel-bearing Region And hence Rab. Menachem on Leviticus tells us it is apparent that the Reward of our Obedience is not to be enjoyed in this Life Verum post dissolutionem Justus adipiscitur Regnum quod dicitur Paradisus fruiturque conspectu divino i. e. but after Death the Just shall obtain that Kingdom which is called Paradise and there enjoy the beatifical Vision And 't is very usual for them to express the Blessings of the future Life by enjoying the Delights of Paradise and therefore is this heavenly Region of Angels called by the Name of Paradise in Allusion to the earthly Paradise of Eden denoting to us that as that was the Garden of this lower World which of all other Places did most abound with Pleasures and Delights so this is the Paradise of the whole Creation the most fruitful and delightful Region within all this boundless Space of the World Nor indeed can it be imagined to be otherwise it being the Imperial Court which the great Monarch of the World hath chosen for his special Residence and which he hath prepared to receive and lodge the glorified humane Nature of his own eternal Son and to entertain his Friends and Favourites for ever For if these Out-Rooms of the World are so royal and magnificent how infinitely splendid must we needs imagin the Presence-Chamber of the great King to be the Glory of whose Presence will render it more lightsome and illustrious than the united Beams of ten thousand Suns And therefore though the Scripture hath nowhere given us an exact Description of this glorious Place because indeed no humane Language can describe it yet since God hath chosen it for the everlasting Theater of Bliss and Happiness we may reasonably conclude that he hath most exquisitely furnished it with all Accomodations requisite for a most happy and blisful Life and that the House is every way suitable to the Entertainment Whensoever therefore a pure and vertuous Soul gets free from this Cage of Flesh away it flies under the Conduct and Protection of Angels through the Air and Aether beyond the Firmament of Stars and never stops till it is arrived to those blessed Abodes where God and Jesus Saints and Angels dwell where being come with what unspeakable Delight will it contemplate that Scene of Things When all of a suddain it shall see it self surrounded with an infinite Splendor and Brightness so that which way soever it casts its Eyes it is entertained with new Objects of Wonder and Delight then shall it say as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon's Court alas How faint and dim how short and imperfect were all humane Conceits and Descriptions of this blessed Place For though I have heard great and mighty Things of it yet now I find that not one Half of its real Glory and Magnificence hath ever been reported to me 6 thly And lastly Everlasting Life includes the endless Duration of this most blessed and happy State Thus Joh. vi 27 he calls his Doctrine the meat which endureth unto everlasting Life which the Son of Man shall give unto you and Vers. 40. he tells them that this was the will of his Father that every one that believeth on him might have everlasting Life and Vers. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting Life and Vers. 51 54 58. he promises them that upon their believing in him they should live for ever But because Everlasting Life and For ever doth in Scripture sometimes signify a long but not an endless Duration therefore he hath taken Care to express this Article in such Words as must necessarily denote an endless Duration of Bliss for he not only tells them Chap. vi 50 that they who believed his Doctrine should not die but that whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die Joh. xi 26 yea and not only so but that they should never see death Joh. viii 51 that is should never come within Ken or Prospect of it Nay and Luk. xx 36 he tells them neither can they die any more for they are equal to the Angels If then our future Life be so everlasting as that it neither can nor shall be terminated by Death it must necessarily be a Life without End whose Duration is parallel to Eternity Now what a mighty Addition must this needs make to the Joys of the Blessed to consider that they are such as shall never expire when the Soul shall reflect upon her happy State and think thus with her self O blessed for ever be a good God! I am as happy now as ever my Heart can hold every Part of me is so thronged with Joy that I have no room for any more and that which compleats and crowns them all is that they shall be renewed to all Eternity and Millions of Millions of Ages hence be as far from a period as they were the first moment wherein I enjoyed them For our Lives and our Happiness shall be co-eternal to one another our God shall live for ever and we shall live for ever to enjoy him and in the Enjoyment of such an infinite Good we need not doubt to find Variety enough still to renew our Joys and to keep them fresh and flourishing for ever For as we shall always know God so we shall always know him more and more and every new Beauty that infinite Object discovers to us will kindle a new Flame of Love and that a new Rapture of Joy and that a new Desire of knowing and discovering more and so for ever round again there will be knowing and loving and rejoycing more and more to all
could we but stand a while in the Mid-way between Heaven and Earth and at one Prospect see the Glories of both how faint and dim would all the Splendors of this World appear to us in Comparison with those above How would they sneak and disappear in the Presence of that eternal Brightness and be forced to shroud their vanquished Glories as Stars do when the Sun appears And whilst we interchangably turned our Eyes from one to t'other with what Shame and Confusion should we reflect upon the wretched groveling Temper of our own Minds what poor mean-spirited Creatures we are to satisfy our selves with the impertinent Trifles of this World when we have all the Joys of an everlasting Heaven before us and may if we please after a few Moments Obedience be admitted into them and enjoy them for evermore Ah! foolish Creatures that we are thus to prefer a far Countrey where we live on nothing but Husks before an everlasting Festivity that is celebrated in our Father's House where the meanest Creature hath Bread enough and to spare To chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness Could the blessed Saints above divert so much from their more happy Employments as to look down a little from their Thrones of Glory and see how busy poor Mortals are in scrambling for this wretched Pelf which within a few Moments they must leave for ever how they jostle and rencounter defeat defraud and undermine one another what a most ridiculous Spectacle would it appear to them with what Scorn would they look on it or rather with what Pity to see a Company of heaven-born Souls capable of and designed for the same Glory and Happiness with themselves groveling like Swine in Dirt and Mire one priding it self in a gay Suit a nother hugging a Bag of glistering Earth a third stewing and dissolving it self in Luxury and Voluptuousness and all imployed at that poor and mean and miserable Rate as might justly make these blessed Spirits ashamed to own their Kindred and Alliance To tell you truly and seriously my Thoughts I cannot imagine but if when we are thus extravagantly concerned about the pitiful Trifles of this World the blessed Spirits do see and converse with us it is a much more ludicrous and ridiculous Sight in their Eyes to see us thus sillily concerned and imployed than it would be in us to see a Company of Boys with mighty Zeal and Concern wrangling and crying striving and scrambling for a Bag of Cherry-stones Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs let us not expose our selves any longer to the just Derision of all the World by our excessive Dotage upon the trifling Vanities of this Life but let us seriously consider that we are all concerned in Matters of much higher Importance even in the unspeakable Felicity of an everlasting Life 3 dly Hence I infer how unreasonable it is for good Men to be afraid of Dying since just on t'other side the Grave you see there is a State of endless Bliss and Happiness prepared to receive and entertain them so that to them Death is but a dark Entry out of a Wilderness of Sorrow into a Paradise of eternal Pleasure And therefore if it be an unreasonable Thing for sick Men to dread their Recovery for Slaves to tremble at their Jubilee or for Prisoners to quake at the News of a Goal-delivery how much more unreasonable is it for good Men to be afraid of Death which is but a momentary Passage from Sickness Labour and Confinement to eternal Health and Rest and Liberty For God's sake consider Sirs what is there in this World that you have Reason to be fond of what in the other that you need be afraid of Suppose that now your Souls were on the Wing mounting upwards to the celestial Abodes and that at some convenient Stand between Heaven and Earth from whence you might take a Prospect of both you were now making a Pause to survey and compare them with one another that having viewed over all the Glories above and tasted the beatifical Joys and heard the ravishing Melodies of Angels you were now looking down again with your Minds filled with these glorious Ideas upon this miserable World and that all in a View you beheld the vast Numbers of Men and Women that at this Time are fainting for Want of Bread of young Men that are hewn down by the Sword of War of Orphans that are weeping over their Fathers Graves of Mariners that are shrieking in a Storm because their Keel dashes against a Rock or bulges under them of People that are groaning upon Sick-Beds or racked with Agonies of Conscience that are weeping with Want mad with Oppression or desperate by too quick a Sense of a constant Infelicity Would you not do you think upon such a Review of both States be infinitely glad that you are gone from hence that you are out of the Noise and Participation of so many Evils and Calamities Would not the sight of the Glories above and the Miseries beneath you make you a Thousand Times more fearful of returning hither than ever you were of going hence Yes doubtless it would Why then should not our Sense of the Misery here and our Belief of the Happiness there produce the same Effect in us make us willing to remove our Quarters and exchange this Wilderness for that Canaan 'T is true indeed the Passage from one to t'other is commonly very painful and grievous but what of that In other Cases we are willing enough to endure a present Pain in order to a future Ease and if a few mortal Pangs will work a perfect Cure on me and recover me into everlasting Bliss and Life methinks the Hope of this blessed Effect should be sufficient to sweeten and indear that Agony and render it easy and desirable But alass To die is to leave all our Acquaintance to bid adieu to our dearest Friends and Relations to pass into an unknown State to converse with Strangers whose Laws and Customs we are not acquainted with why now all that looks sad in this is a very great mistake for I verily hope that I have more Friends and Acquaintance and Relatives in Heaven than I shall leave behind me here on Earth and if so I do but go from worse Friends to better for one Friend there is worth a Thousand here in Respect of all those endearing Accomplishments that render a Friend a Jewel But if I die a good Man I shall carry into Eternity with me the Genius and Temper of a glorified Spirit and that will recommend me to the Society of Heaven and render the Spirits of those just Men whose Names I never heard of as dear Friends to me in an Instant as if they had been my ancient Cronies and Acquaintance But why should I grieve at parting with my Friends below when I shall go to the best Friend I have in all the World to God my
Truth as there have in attesting Lies and Falshoods Why should so many have been struck dumb or dead in the Act of Perjury and not one that we ever heard of suffer the like Calamity in witnessing the Truth In a word why should so many bad Men have suffered such Calamities as were plain Retaliations in Kind of their cruel and unjust Actions as Adonibezeck for instance did in the cutting off his Thumbs and great Toes whilst so few if any for doing Justice upon others have by any such casual and irregular Providence been exposed to the Evils they inflicted Since therefore in every Age of the World there have happened such Goods to righteous Men as have the plainest Characters of divine Rewards upon them and such Evils to the Wicked as do evidently bespeak themselves intended for divine Punishments God hath hereby sufficiently declared his Love of the one and his Hatred of the other For by their Rewards and Punishments all Lawgivers do declare their Love and Hatred of the Facts they are annexed to and therefore to be sure if the Supreme Law giver had not loved Righteousness and hated the contrary he would never have so eminently rewarded the one and punished the other as he hath apparently done 2 dly Another Supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his making so many Revelations to the World for the promoting of Righteousness and discountenancing of Sin That God hath made sundry Revelations to the World is evident in Fact because there are sundry Revelations which have been sufficiently demonstrated by those miraculous Effects of the divine Power which have accompanied the Ministration of them such are those contained in the five Books of Moses and the Prophets which have been almost amply confirmed both by the Miracles which were wrought by the inspired Authors of them and by the exact Accomplishments of the several Predictions contained in them and such is also that last and best Revelation contained in the New Testament which both by the Types and Predictions contained in the Law and the Prophets and by the infinite Miracles wrought by Jesus and his Followers who were the immediate Ministers of it together with its own inherent Goodness is so effectually demonstrated divine that no Man who weighs the Proof of it can suspect it unless he be infinitely prejudiced against it Now if you consult these several divine Revelations you will plainly perceive that the main Drift and Design of them is to promote Righteousness and suppress whatsoever is contrary to it that the several Revelations made to Abraham and his Children were all but one repeated Covenant of Righteousness that the Law of Moses consisted partly of ceremonious Rights which were either intended for divine Hieroglyphicks to instruct the dull and stupid Jews in the Principles of inward Purity and Goodness or else for Types and sacred Figures of the holy Mysteries of the Gospel partly of Precepts of moral Righteousness together with some few prudential ones that were suitable to the Genius and Polity of that People and partly of such Promises and Threats as were most apt to oblige them to the Practice of those righteous Precepts As for the Prophets the Substance of their Revelations was either Reprehensions of Sin together with severe Denunciations against it or Invitations to Righteousness together with gracious Promises of Rewards to follow it or Predictions of the Messias and that everlasting Righteousness which should be introduced by him And then as for the Gospel all the Duties of it consist either in Instances or Means of Righteousness and all the Doctrines of it are nothing else but powerful Arguments and Motives to persuade us to the Practice of those Duties Thus Righteousness you see is the main Center to which all true Revelation tends the Mark at which the righteous Lord hath continually levelled and directed it What a plain Demonstration therefore is this of the unfeigned Love and Respect he bears it that he did not think it sufficient to imprint a Law of Righteousness upon our Natures and stamp upon our Beings so many Indications of his Love to it but seeing us swerve and deviate from it hath from time to time by so many loud and reiterated Voices from Heaven invited and called us back again so that if he be cordial and sincere in what he says as it would be absurd and impious to suspect the contrary we cannot doubt but he heartily loves that which by so many immediate Revelations he hath so earnestly importuned us to embrace 3 dly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his sending his own Son into the World to transact such mighty Things for the Encouragement of it and persuading Men to it For to advance Righteousness was the main Design of all those mighty Things which the Son of God did and suffered in this World the Design of all that holy and innocent Life which he led was to propose to our Imitation a perfect Example of Righteousness that so treading our Way before us we might have not only the Line of his Precepts but also the Print of his Foot-steps to direct us and that by beholding so fair a Draught of Righteousness drawn so exquisitely to the Life and in every Part so exactly answering to the sweetest and most amiable Ideas of it we might be both invited and instructed to copy and imitate it in our Actions For what he saith of that illustrious Act of Charity and Humility his washing his Disciples Feet is truly applicable to the whole Course of his Actions For I have given you an Example that you should do as I have done unto you Joh. xiii 15 And as his Life was an Example of Righteousness so his Death was a most urgent Motive to it for hereby he made Expiation for our Sins and obtained an Act of Pardon and Indemnity for every Rebel that would lay down his Arms and return to his Duty and Allegiance and by obtaining this he hath given us infinite Encouragement to return since if we do so we have most ample Assurance that we shall be received into Grace and Favour And though I cannot deny but if God had pleased he might have granted such an Act of Pardon to us without the Consideration of Christ's Death and Sacrifice yet I am sure if he had it could never have been such an effectual Motive as it was to oblige us to Righteousness for the future For should he have granted us Pardon merely upon our Repentance without any other Motive or Consideration he would have discovered so much seeming Easiness and Indulgence in such a Procedure as would have very much imboldened such disingenuous Creatures as we to presume upon his Lenity and turn his Grace into Wantonness And if to prevent our presuming upon his Lenity it was necessary that he should have some other Motive to pardon us besides that of our Repentance then it was no less necessary that this other Motive
should be such as did clearly argue and evince his righteous Severity for otherwise it would have no Force in it to prevent our Presumption And what Motive of Pardon could better evince his Severity than the Suffering of some other in our Room especially the Suffering of his own Son the greatest and dearest Person in the whole Creation For not to be moved to grant a publick Pardon to us upon our hearty Repentance unless this blessed Person would engage to die for us whose infinite Greatness gave such an inestimable Value to his Sufferings as rendred them adequate to what we had deserved to suffer was as great an Argument of his inflexible Severity against Sin as if he should have destroyed at one Blow the whole World of Sinners So that as he hath expressed an infinite Mercy to us in admitting his own Son to die for us so in refusing to pardon us upon any less Motive than his precious Death he hath expressed an infinite Hatred to our Sins and so that very Death which moved God to pardon us moves us to stand in Awe of his Severity the Death of the Son of God upon which we are pardoned being the most terrible Instance that ever was of the Desert of our Sin and God's Displeasure against it Thus our blessed Lord hath not only given us the greatest Encouragement by procuring our Pardon to return from our Iniquities but by procuring it in such a formidable way he hath given us the most dreadful Warning of God's Severity against them So that now we cannot think upon the Reason for which our past Offences are forgiven without being vehemently moved to future Obedience And thus the main Design you see both of Christs Life and Death was to recal us from Sin to the Practice of Righteousness And hence he is said to have given himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Tit. ii 14 And then he arose again from the Dead to confirm that righteous Doctrine which he had revealed to the World and visibly ascended into Heaven to give us an ocular Demonstration of the heavenly Rewards of Righteousness and there he now sits at the right Hand of God to assure us that if we persevere in Righteousness we shall be continually befriended in the Court of Heaven through his all-powerful Intercession and hath assured us that at the End of the World he will come to Judgment and faithfully distribute those Rewards and Punishments which here he promised and threatned to righteous and unrighteous Persons Thus the main Drift you see of all these great Transactions of our Saviour was to advance the Interest of Righteousness and true Goodness What a mighty Evidence therefore is this of God's great Love of Righteousness that he should send his own most blessed Son upon its Errand to transact such mighty Things on its Behalf For by sending Christ into the World and exposing him to Misery for Righteousness Sake he did in Effect declare that he valued the Interest of Righteousness more than the present Happiness and Enjoyment of his most dearly beloved and only begotten Son and we may most certainly conclude that had not Righteousness been infinitely dear to him he would never have authorized his dearest Son to take such infinite Pains to promote it 4 thly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his promising such vast Rewards to us upon it and denouncing such fearful Punishments against us if we despise and neglect it For besides all those temporal Rewards he hath proposed to us if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof he hath erected a Heaven of immortal Joys and Felicities to crown and entertan it a Heaven that contains in it all the Beatitudes that humane Nature is capable of all that Truth that the most capacious Mind can comprehend and all that Good that the vastest Affections can either crave or contain In a word a Heaven whose Blisses are all as large as our immense Desires and all as lasting as our immortal Beings For 't is a Heaven which consists in an eternal Fruition of the Fountain of infinite Truth and Goodness whose everflowing Streams are abundantly sufficient to quench the Thirst and make glad the Heart of every Being that understands and loves How much therefore God loves Righteousness you may easily guess by these vast Preparations he hath made to entertain it For he built Heaven on purpose to lodge righteous Souls and that they may see he thinks nothing too dear for them he is himself their Feast there as well as their Entertainer He feeds them with his own Perfections and they live for ever as happily as their Hearts can wish upon the Sight and Love and Imitation of his Beauties So vehemently is his Heart set upon Righteousness that he will have every righteous Soul dwell with him and live upon him and partake of all those heavenly Joys in which his own Beatitude consists But as for Vnrighteousness how much his Soul abhors it is evident by those dire Punishments he hath denounced against it by those dark and dismal Abodes which he hath condemned unrighteous Souls to to languish out a woful Eternity to burn in Flames there that never consume and be gnawn with Worms which never devour them to be scared and haunted with Devils without and Furies within and perpetually worried Day and Night without any Ease or Intermission with all the Horrors Griefs and Vexations that an everlasting Hell imports O thou merciful Father of Beings How couldst thou have found in thy Heart to condemn thy Creatures to so wretched a State had not their unrighteous Practices been infinitely odious in thine Eyes No certainly the good God would never have made Hell for a Trifle for the sake of any Thing that his Nature could have endured or dispensed with nor would he ever have cast any unrighteous Creature into it were it not for the implacable Abhorrence he hath to all Unrighteousness And therefore since he hath not only made Hell but warns us of and threatens us with it we may be sure he infinitely abominates that for which he made and threatens it and consequently that he is infinitely concerned for the Cause and Interest of Righteousness 5 thly And lastly Another supernatural Indicaton of God's Love of Righteousness is his granting his blessed Spirit to us to excite us to and assist us in our Endeavours after Righteousness First he sent his Son to propagate Righteousness by his Ministry his Life and Death and upon his Return to Heaven he sent his Spirit to supply his Room and carry on that dear Design of which his Son had already laid the Foundation For in Christ's personal Absence his Spirit acts in his Stead and was sent down from the Father by Virtue of his Intercession to be his Vicegerent in the World to promote and inlarge his heavenly Kingdom to conquer our