blessed to be under the Love of Christ p. 881. Excitations Desires p. 182. 3. Communion with Angels and Saints by reception p. 188 More of the good of Vnion and Communion as distinct from singular Propriety p. 190. 5. The constitutive Reasons from our heavenly Practice p. 195. Better works for us there than here proved What they are in general What particularly I. Concordant praising God Excitations and Petitions p. 169. II. The blessed probably used for the good of men and things below p. 198. Their Opinion rejected that assert the cessation of sense proof Objection from Bruits answered The concluding Application p. 202. A Breviate of the helps of Faith Hope and Love for a dying Man I. The Gospel Evidence on 1 Tim. 3. 16. p. 260. II. A Breviate of the proof of supernatural Revelation and the Truth of Christianity p. 262. III. The difference between the World which I am leaving and the World which I am going to With Reasons of my comfortable hope p. 283. IV. More Reasons and Helps of my Faith and Hope p. 289. V. A discourse of the sensible manifestation of the Kingdom of Christ at his Transfiguration which is expounded and applied for the help of Faith and Patience p. 300. VI. Short Meditations on Rom. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. Of the shedding abroad of God's Love on the Heart that we may rejoice in hope of the Glory of God p. 360. THe exercise of Three sorts of LOVE to God to Others and to my Self afford me a Threefold satisfaction conjunct to be vvilling to depart I. I am sure my departure vvill be the fulfilling of that Will vvhich is Love it self vvhich I am bouâ—d above all things to Love and Please and vvhâ—â—â— is the beginning rule Antonineâ—ould â—ould hence fetch good Thoughts of Death II. The World dieth not vvith me vvhen I die nor the Church nor the Praise and Glory of God vvhich he vvill have in and from this World unto the end And if I love others as my self their Lives and Comforts vvill novv be to my Thoughts as if I vvere to live my self in them God vvill be praised and honoured by Posterity vvhen I am dead and gone Were I to be annihilated this vvould comfort me novv if I lived and died in perfect Love III. But a better and glorious World is before me into vvhich I hope by Death to be translated vvhither all these Three sorts of Love should rap up the desires of my ascending Soul even the Love of my self that I may be fully happy the Love of the triumphant Church Christ Angels and glorified Man and the Glory of all the Universe vvhich I shall see and above all the Love of the most Glorious God Infinite Life and Light and Love the ultimate Amiable Object of Man's Love in vvhom to beperfectly pleased and delighted and to vvhom to be perfectly pleasing for ever is the chief and ultimate end of me and of the highest vvisest and best of Creatures Amen THE INTRODUCTION PHIL. 1. 23. For I am in a streight between two c. I Write for my self and therefore supposing the sense of the Text shall only observe what is useful to my Heart and Practice It was a happy state into which Grace had brought this Apostle who saw so much not only tolerable but greatly desirable both in living and dying To live to him was Christ that is Christ's interest or work To die would be gain that is His own interest and reward His streight was not whether it would be good to live or good to depart Both were good But which was more desirable was the doubt I. Quest But was there any doubt to be made between Christ's interest and his own Ans No if it had been a full and fixed competition But by Christ or Christ's interest he meaneth his work for his Churches interest in this World But he knew that Christ also had an interest in his Saints above and that he could raise up more to serve him here Yet because he was to judge by what appeared and he saw a defect of such on Earth this did turn the Scales in his Choice and for the work of of Christ and his Churches good he more inclined to the delay of his reward by self-denial Yet knowing that the delay would tend to its increase It 's useful to me here to note That even in this World short of Death there is some good so much to be regarded as may justly prevail with Believers to prefer it before the present hastning of their reward I the rather note this that no temptation carry me into that extream of taking nothing but Heaven to be worthy of our minding or regard and so to cast off the World in a sinful sort on pretence of mortification and a heavenly mind and life I. As to the sense the meaning is not that any thing on Earth is better than Heaven or simply and in itself to be preferred before it The end is better than the means as such And perfection better than imperfection But the present use of the means may be preferred somtimes before the present possession of the end And the use of means for a higher end may be preferred before the present possession of a lower end And every thing hath its season Planting and Sowing and Building are not so good as Reaping and Fruit gathering and Dwelling But in their season they must be first done II. Quest But what is there so desirable in this Life Ans 1. While it continueth it is the fulfilling of the will of God who will have us here And that 's best which God willeth II. The life to come dependeth upon this As the life of Man in the World upon his Generation in the Womb Or as the reward upon the work or the Runners or Souldiers Prize upon his Race or Fighting Or as the Merchants gain upon his Voyage Heaven is won or lost on Earth The possession is there but the preparation is here Christ will judge all men according to their works on Earth Well done good and faithful Servant must go before Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course goeth before the Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give All that ever must be done for Salvation by us must here be donc It waron Earth that Christ himself wrought the work of 〈◊〉 Redemption fulfilled all Righteousness became our Ransom And paid the Price of our Salvation And it 's here that our part is to be done And the bestowing of the reward of God's work who we are sure will never fail There is no place for the least suspicion or fear of his misdoing or failing in any of his undertaken work But the danger and fear is of our own miscarrying lest we be not found capable of receiving what God will certainly give to all that are disposed Receivers To distrust God is heinous sin and
is here but as in the Seed the perfect union and communion is hereafter Earth and Heaven must be distinguished We must not extend our hopes or pretensions here beyond the Capacity of our Natures As perfect Holiness and Knowledge so perfect Unity and Concord is proper to Heaven and is not here to be expected The Papal pretensions of an impossible Union in one Governour of all the Earth is the means to hinder that Union which is possible But the state of Perfection is the state of perfect union communion Hasten then upwards O my Soul with the ferventest desires and breath after that state with the strongest Hopes where thou shalt not be rich and see thy Neighbours poor about thee nor be poor while they are rich nor be well while they are sick or sick while they are well But their Riches their Health their Joy will be all thine and thine will be all theirs as the common Light and none will have the less for the participation of the rest Yea Communion will be part of every ones felicity It constitueth the very being of the City of God This Celestial Communion of Saints in one holy Church above what is here to be attained is now an Article of our Belief But believing will soon end in seeing and enjoying V. The Constitutive Reasons from the heavenly Life or Practice § 1. Seeing and Loving will be the heavenly Life But yet it seemeth that besides these there will be EXECUTIVE Powers and therefore some answerable PRACTICE There are GOOD WORKS in Heaven and far more and better than on Earth For 1. There will be more Vital Activity and therefore more exercise of it For the Power is for Action 2. There will be more Love to God and one another And Love is active 3. There will be more likeness to God and our Redeemer who is communicative and doth good as he is good 4. Our Union with Christ who will be everlastingly beneficent as well as benevolent will make us in our places also beneficent 5. Our Communion in the City of God will prove that we shall all bear our part as the Members of the Body in contributing to the welfare of the whole and in the common returns to God § 2. But What are the heavenly Works we must perfectly know when we come thither In general we know 1. That they will be the works of love to God and to his Creatures that is such as Love inclineth us to exercise 2. And they will be works of Obedience to God that is such as we shall do to please his will and because he willeth them to be our duty 3. They will be useful works to others 4. They will be pleasant to our selves and part of our felicity 5. And they will carry all to God our End § 3. And somwhat of them is particularly described in the holy Scriptures As 1. We shall in Concord with the whole Society or Chore give Thanks and Praise to God and our Redeemer Rev. 19. 5. 1 Pet. 4. 11. Rev. 7. 4. 4. 7 11. 5. 13. 7. 12. 19. 1. Phil. 4 20. Whether there be any Voice or only such Spiritual activity and exultation as to Man in Flesh is not to be clearly understood is not fit for us here to presume to determine It will be somwhat more high and excellent than our vocal Praise and Singing is and of which this beareth some analogical resemblance or signification As all Passions earnestly desire vent and exercise so specially do our holy affections of Love Joy and Admiration of God Almighty And there is in us a desire of communion with many in such affections and expressions Methinks when we are singing or speaking God's praise in the great Assemblies with joyful and fervent Souls I have the liveliest foretast of Heaven on Earth And I could almost wish that our Voices were loud enough to reach through all the World and unto Heaven itself Nor could I ever be offended as many are at the Organs and other convenient Musick soberly and seasonably used which excite and help to tune my Soul in so holy a work in which no true assistance is to be despised No work more comforteth me in my greatest sufferings none seemeth more congruous and pleasant to me while I wait for Death than Psalms and words of Praise to God nor is there any exercise in which I had rather end my life And should I not then willingly go to the heavenly Chore where God is praised with perfect Love and Joy and harmony Had I more of a Praising frame of Soul it would make me long more for that Life of Praise For I never find my self more willing to be there than when I most joyfully speak or sing God's praise Though the Dead praise not God in the grave and dust doth not give him thanks yet living Souls in Heaven do it joyfully while their fleshly cloathing turns to dust Lord â—une my Soul to thy Praises now that sweet experience may make me long to be where I shall do it better I see where any excellent Musick is Nature maketh men flock to it and they that are but Hearers yet join by a concurrent phantasie and delight Surely if I had once heard the heavenly Chore I should Eccho to their holy Songs though I could not imitaâ— them and I should think it the truest Blessedness to be there and bear my part My God the voice of thy comforting Spirit speaking thy Love effectually to my Soul would make such holy Musick in me that would incline me to the Celestial consort and without it all these thoughts and words will be in vain It is the inward Mâ—lody of thy Spirit and my Conscience that must tune me to desire the hâ—avenly Melody O speak thy love first to my Heart and then I shall joyfully speak it to my Brethren and shall ambitiously seek that communion of them that praise thee better than sinful groaning Mortals can And though my sins here make a loathed jar and discord in my Songs I hope my groans for these sins and their effects will make no discord Sighs and Tears have had the honour to be accepted by thee who despisest not a contrite Soul But if thy Spirit will sing and speak within me and help me against the discordant murmurs of my unbelieving Heart and pained Flesh I shall offer thee that which is more suitable to thy Love and Grace I confess Lord that daily Tears and Sighs are not unsuitable to the Eyes and Voice of so great a Sinner who is under thy correcting Roâ— What better could I expect when I grieved thy Spirit than that it should prove my grief Yea this is far better than the genuine effects of sin But this is not it that is meeâ—est to be offered to the God of Love He that offereth Praise doth glorifie thee And is not this the Spiritual Sacrifice acceptable through Christ for which we were made Priests to God
yet Man's internal Sense is far more excellent than the Bruits and thereby is an advantage to our Intellection Volition and Joy here in the Flesh And that in Heaven we shall have not less but more even more excellent Sense and Affections of Love and Joy as well as more excellent Intellection and Volition but such as we cannot now clearly conceive of § 13. Therefore there is great reason for all those Analogical collections which I have mentioned in my Book called The Saints Rest from the present operarations and pleasures of the Soul in Flesh to help our Conceptions of its future pleasures And though we cannot conclude that they will not unconceivably differ in their manner from what we now feel I doubt not but feel and rejoice we shall as certainly as Live and the Soul is Essential Life and that our Life and Feeling and Joy will be unconceivably better The Concluding Application § 1. I am convinced that it is far better to depart and be with Christ than to be here But there is much more than such conviction necessary to bring up my Soul to such desires Still there resisteth 1. The natutural averseness to Death which God hath put into every Animal and which is become inordinate and too strong by sin II. The remnants of Unbelief taking advantage of our darkness here in the Flesh and our too much familiarity with this visible World III. The want of more lively fortasts in a heavenly mind and love through weakness of Grace and the fear of Guilt These stand up against all that is said and words will not overcome them what then must be done Is there no remedy § 2. There is a Special sort of the Teaching of God by which we must learn so to number our Days as to apply our Hearts to Wisdom Without which we shall never effectually practically and savingly learn either this or any the most common and obvious easie Lesson When we have read and heard and spoken and written the soundest Truth and certainest Arguments we know yet as if we knew not and believe as if we believed not with a slight and dreaming kind of apprehension till God by a special Illumination bring the same things clearly to our Minds and awaken the Soul by a special suscitation to feel what we know and suit the Soul to the Truth revealed by an influx of his Love which giveth us a pleasing sense of the Amiableness and Congruity of the things proposed Since we separated our selves from God there is a hedge of separation between our Senses and our Understandings and between our Understandings and our Wills and Affections so that the communion between them is violated and we are divided in our selves by this Schism in our Faculties All men still see the demonstrations of Divine Perfections in the World and every part thereof and yet how little is God known All men may easily know that there is a God who is Almighty Omniscient Goodness itself Eternal Omnipresent the Maker Preserver and Governour of all who should have our whole Trust and Love and Obedience and yet how little of this knowledge is to be perceived in mens Hearts to themselves or in their Lives to others All men know that the World is Vanity that Man must die that Riches then profit not that time is precious and that we have only this little time to prepare for that which we must receive hereafter And yet how little do men seem to know indeed of all such things as no Man doubts of And when God doth come in with his powerful awakening Light and Love then all these things have another appearance of affecting reality than they had before as if but now we began to know them Words Doctrines Persons Things do seem as newly known to us All my best Reasons for our Immortality and future Life are but as the New-formed Body of Adam before God breathed into him the Breath of Life It is he that must make them Living Reasons To the Father of Lights therefore I must still look up and for his Light and Love I must still wait as for his blessing on the Food which I have eaten which must concoct it into my living substance Arguments will be but undigested Food till God's effectual influx do digest them I must learn both as a Student and a Beggar when I have thought and thought a Thousand times I must beg thy Blessing Lord upon my Thoughts or they will all be but dulness or self-distraction If there be no Motion Light and Life here without the Influx of the Sun what can Souls do or receive or feel without thy influx This World will be to us without thy Grace as a Grave or Dungeon where we shall lie in Death and Darkness The eye of my Understanding and all its Thoughts will be useless or vexatious to me without thine illuminating Beams O shine the Soul of thy Servant into a clearer knowledge of thy Self and Kingdom and Love him into more Divine and heavenly love and then he will willingly come to thee § 3. 1. And why should I strive by the fears of Death against the common course of Nature and against my only hopes of Happiness Is it not appointed for all men once to die Would I have God to alter this determinate Course and make sinful Man immortal upon Earth When we are sinless we shall be immortal The love of life was given to teach me to preserve it carefully and use it well and not to torment me with the continual troubling foresight of Death Shall I make my self more miserable than the Vegetatives and Bruits Neither they nor I do grieve that my Flowers must fade and die and that my sweet and pleasant Fruits must fall and the Trees be uncloathed of their beauteous leaves until the Spring Birds and Beasts and Fishes and Worms have all a self-preserving fear of Death which urgeth them to fly from danger But few if any of them have a tormenting fear arising from the fore-thoughts that they must die To the Body death is less troublesom than sleep For in sleep I may have disquieting pains or dreams And yet I fear not going to my bed But of this before If it be the misery after Death that 's feared O what have I now to do but to receive the free reconciling Grace which is offered me from Heaven to save me from such misery and to devote my self totally to him who hath promised that those that come to him he will in no wise cast out § 4 But this cometh by my selfishness Had I studied my duty and then remembred that I am not mine own and that it is God's part and not mine to determine of the duration of my life I had been quiet from these fruitless fears But when I fell to my self from God I am faln to care for my self as if it were my work to measure out my Days and now I trust not God as I should do
in so comfortable a work as to plead and write for Love Peace and Concord and to vouchsafe me so much success therein as he hath done notwithstanding the general prevalency of the contentious military Tribe Mercy I have had in Peace and Liberty in times of Violence And Mercy I have had in Wars living two years in safety in a City of defence in the very midst of the Land Coventry and seeing no enemy while the Kingdom was in Wars and Flames and only hearing of the common Calamities round about And when I went abroad and saw the effects of humane folly and fury and of God's displeasure he mercifully kept me from hurting any one and being hurt by any How many a time hath he preserved me by Day and Night in difficulties and dangers from the Malice of Satan and from the Wrath of Man and from accidents which threatned sudden Death While I beheld the ruines of Towns and Countreys and the Fields covered with the Carkasses of the slain I was preserved and returned home in Peace And O how great was the mercy which he shewed me in a teachable tractable peaceable humble unanimous People So many in number and so exemplary in quality who to this Day keep their Integrity and Concord when violence hath separated me from them Twenty two years Yea the like Mercy of acceptance and success beyond my expectation he hath shewed me every where I have had opportunity of free ministration even where there were many Adversaries I have had an open Door in the midst of humane Wrath and Rage he hath preserved my Liberty beyond expectation and continued my acceptance and success When I might not speak by Voice to any single Congregation he enabled me to speak by Writings to many and for the success of my plainest popular writings which cost me least I can never be sufficiently thankful Some of which he sent to preach abroad in other Languages in forreign Lands When my Mouth with Eighteen hundred or Two thousands more had been many years stopped he hath since opened them in some degree and the sufferings intended us by men have been partly put by and partly much alleviated by his Providence and the hardness of our Terms hath not so much hindâ—ed the success of faithful Labours as we feared and as others hoped it would have done I have had the comfort of seeing some Peace and Concord and Prosperity of Truth and Piety kept up under the utmost opposition of diabolical and humane Power Policy and Wrath When I have been sent to the common Jail for my service and obedience to him he hath there kept me in peace and soon delivered me He hath made the Mouths of my greatest Enemies who have studied my defamation and my ruine to become my Witnesses and Compurgators and to cross their own designs How wonderful is it that I should so long dwell in so much peace in the midst of those that seemed to want neither Power nor Skill and much less Will to tread me down into contempt and misery And O how many a danger fear and pain hath he delivered this frail and languishing Body from How oft hath he succoured me when Flesh and Heart and Art have failed He hath cured my consuming Coughs and many a time stayed my flowing Blood he hath eased my pained Limbs and support'd a weary macerat'd Skeleton He hath fetcht me up from the Jaws of Death and reversed the Sentence which men have passed on me How many Thousand weary days have been sweetned with his pleasant work And how many Thousand painful weary Nights have had a comfortable Morning How many Thousand strong and healthful Persons have been taken away by Death whilst I have been upheld under all this weakness Many a time have I cryed to the Lord in my trouble and he hath delivered me out of my distress I have had Forty years added to my Daies since I would have been full glad of Hezekiah's promise of Fifteen Since the day that I first preached his Gospel I expected not of long time to live above a Year and I have lived since then Forty years when my own Prayers were cold and unbelieving how many Hundreds have prayed for me And what strange deliverances encouraging Fasting and Prayer have I oft had upon their importunate requests My Friends have been faithful and the few that proved unfaithful have profitably taught me to place no confidence in Man and and not to be inordinately affected to any thing on Earth for I was forsaken by none of them but those few that I excessively valued and overloved My Relations have been comfortable to me contrary to my deserts and much beyond my expectations My Servants have been faithful My Neighbours have been kind My Enemies have been impotent harmless or profitable My Superiours have honoured me by their respectful words and while they have afflicted me as supposing me a remora to their designs they have not destroyed but protected me To my inferiours God hath made me in my low capacity somwhat helpful I have been protected in ordinary health and safety when the raging Pestilence came near my Habitation and consumed an Hundred thousand Citizens My dwelling hath been safe when I have seen the glory of the Land in flames and after beheld the dismal ruines When violence separated me from my too much beloved Library and drove me into a poor and smoaky House I never had more help of God nor did more difficult work than there What pleasant retirements and quietness in the Countrey have been the fruits of persecuting Wrath And I must not forget when I had more publick liberty how he saved me and all my Hearers even by a wonder from being buried in the ruines of the Fabrick where we were and others from the Calamitous Scandal and Lamentations which would else have followed And it is not a Mercy to be extenuated that when the Tongues and Pens of all Sects among us and of proâ—d self-exalters and of some worthy Pious differing Brethren have been long and vehemently bent against me when my infamy hath been endeavoured by abundance of Volumes by the backbiting of angry dividers of all sorts and by the calumniating accusations of some that were too high to be gain-said and would not endure me to answer them and vindicate my innocency yet all these together were never able to fasten their accusations and procure any common belief nor to bring me under the designed contempt much less to break my comforts encouragements or labours These all these and very many more than these are my Experiences of that wondrous MERCY which hath measured my Pilgrimage and filled up my daies Never did God break his Promise with me Never did he fail me nor forsake me Had I not provoked him by rash and wilful sinning how little Interruption of my peace and comforts had I ever been likely to have had And shall I now distrust him at the last Shall I not
misery make them intollerable to themselves But it is not because they have seen a glimpse of Heaven on Earth or tasted the sweetness of Holy society and work but because their Bodies are in Health their Purses full their Appetites pleased and their inferiours do their wills and honour them This is all the Heaven that they love and to leave all this is the Death which they abhor and fear And they will not hear God and the experience of all Mankind befooling them till near the Night that their Souls shall be required and then Whose will all their Treasure be § 28. But yet it was a greater part of Peter's dotage to think of Tabernacles for Christ Moses and Elias and of detaining of heavenly Inhabitants upon Earth If you should offer the lowest Saint in Heaven an earthly Kingdom in exchange for his Condition with what disdain would he despise the offer Christ's Kingdom was not of this World nor would Moses and Elias change their lot with Alexander or Caesar Poor trifles allure us and seem somwhat to us as toys to Children while we are dreaming in the Flesh but if once we be delivered and see what the Celestial Glory is what a change will it make upon our judgments We fear now in the dark to go unto that World of Light and are loth to put off the rags of Flesh and to depart from a known though a dirty falling habitation But if we get to Heaven we shall be loth to return to Earth again and to be so coursly cloathed When once we are there a World would not hire us to come back into this corruptible Body till God will make it Spiritual and Incorruptible Our Friends whose Death we passionately lamented would be loth now to change their company for such as we are or their abode for such a wicked World as this or their work for the best of ours on Earth No wonder that departed blessed Souls appear not to their friends on Earth Most Apparitions are of Devils or miserable Souls to whom it is no loss or condescension Were I once in Heaven could I possibly be willing to be turned again into a Bedlam World and laid under the Feet of blinded pride and raging madness and live among Sodomites called Christians whose God is their Belly and who glory in their filthiness and shame and mind nothing with love but earthly things and are bitter Enemies not only to the Cross but to the Government of Christ Would I be again among Dogs and Swine Yea Devils in Flesh who hate and persecute the Regenerate Seed and all that will not receive their mark and be as mad bad as they would I again be groaning here in pain or tired with a weary Body and more with a feeble sinful Soul weak in Faiâ—h Cold in Love of doubtful Hope and imperfect Duty Would I be here again in the prospect of a Grave with fear of dying as strange as now to the heavenly Felicity Lazarus will not come from Abraham's bosom for the rich Man's Wealth and Belly-pleasure no not to warn his sensual Brethren Had Peter seen Heaven as he saw the Glory on the Mount he would never have made so blind a motion for Christ Moses and Elias to continue there who have so much better a habitation § 29. But this glorious Apparition was but short As the Glory of God's back parts to Moses which did but pass by Presently a cloud cometh and separateth the company and ends the pleasant sight When Christians receive some extraordinary sense of the Love of God some sweet foretasts of promised happiness they must not look that this should be ordinary or always so When some fervent Prayer is extraordinarily answered and a Sacrament sweetned with unusual drops of heavenly sweetness or a holy Discourse or Meditation hath raised us higher than ever before we must not expect that this should be our constant diet and God should thus feast us all the Year The times of fasting also have their turn Moses did not dwell on Mount Horeb nor Mount Nebo or Pisgah from whence he saw the Land of Promise God's Children do not always laugh and sing while they have their sinning times they will have their suffering and crying times How suddenly doth the Lark come down to the Earth who before was soaring out of sight and singing pleasantly in the higher Air as if it had been aspiring towards the Sun A luscious diet is not best for such as we that have so many corruptions to be cured by cleansing means Cordials must not be all our Physick unwarrantable expectations of greater or more continued Joys then we are meet for is injurious both to God and to our selves Desires of more we may and must have But those desires must look up to Heaven where indeed they may be satisfied 30. The joy of these Spectators was turned into Fear saith the Text when they entered into the Cloud No wonder The change was sudden and great from a sight of the Kingdom of God in Power unto a dark Cloud Just now they seemed almost in Heaven and presently they knew not where they were From glorious Light to a kind of Prison of obscurity Such changes here we are liable to The same Soul that lately tasted of transporting joy may lie in terrour hardly resisting temptations to despair The same Person that was confident of the Love of God may be quickly not only doubting of it but sinfully denying it The same that had assuring evidence of sincerity may shortly conclude that all was but Hypocrisie The same that was triumphing in the sense of Love may cry out O miserable Man that I am And the same that magnified the Grace of Christ may say The day of Grace is pastâ— Especially if either the Tempter get the advantage of a Melancholy Body or of casting the Soul in to renewed guilt of some wounding sin or into impatient discontents with the things that befal it in the World There is a stability in the Essentials of Holiness It 's Life eternal that is here begun But alas the degrees of Grace the exercise of it the evenness and integrity of our obedience and accordingly our Comforts are lamentably liable to change Even as all worldly things are mutable to the ungodly though their harden'd Hearts are too little changeable Expecting nothing but joy from God or expecting more than we are meet for maketh our dejections the greater and more grievous None are cast lower with terrour trouble and almost despair than some that have been most transported with joy When some other Christians of an even conversation have an evenness and constancy of Holy Peace though no such joys § 31. The Cloud separated the Company Moses and Elias are seen no more no nor the Glory of Christ But yet Christ is not separated from them His ordinary presence still abideth with them Christ doth not leave the Soul when extraordinary joys do leave it It loseth not
his saving Grace nor the presence of his Spirit as oft as it loseth heavenly delight Desire sheweth Love to him and to his Holiness And he never forsaketh those that love him As long as the Soul breatheth after Christ and after more communion with God and conscious of its imperfection would fain be perfect and resolveth to continue waiting for increase of Faith and Holiness in the use of the means which Christ hath appointed it is not forsaken Christ by his Spirit dwelleth and worketh in that Soul It may enter into a Cloud and Christ may be unseen and seem quite lost but the Cloud will vanish and he will appear and he will first find us that we may seek and find him If he appear to us but as in his humiliation and as crucified and thereby humble us and crucifie to us the World and the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof and cause us but to seek first his Kingdom and Righteousness he will raise us higher and shew us his Glory when Grace and Conquest and Perseverance have prepared us We are in a cloudy World and Body and our sins are yet a thicker Cloud between God's glorious Face and us But as God is God and Heaven is Heaven so Christ is Christ and Grace is Grace when we see it not but fear that we are undone and entring into outer darkness And at Sun rising all our darkness all our doubts fears will vanish § 32. Luke 9. 15. There came a Voice out of the Cloud This is my beloved Son hear him Had I heard such a Testimony from Heaven would it not have set my Faith above all doubts and unbelief For the Voice that thus owned Christ and his Word might embolden me fully to trust all his Promises as it bindeth me to obey his Precepts God's Love is effective and communicative and as his Life and Light cause Life and Light so his Love causeth Love and Christ that is called his Beloved Son is likest him in Love None loveth us so much as God our Father and his Beloved Son who is also as God Essential Love And shall I think with cold or little Love of such a God and such a Saviour It is as unreasonable to fly from God or Christ as fearing that he wanteth Love to a capable Soul as to fly from the Sun as wanting heat or light O what an unruly froward thing is the corrupted Soul of Man When we think of God's judgment and how we are in his hands as to all our hopes for Soul Body we fear and are uncomfortable lest he have not so much Love and Mercy as should cause us confidently to trust him We could trust some Friends with Life and Soul were we in their power but infinite love itself and a loving Saviour we can hardly trust so far as to quiet us in Pain or Death And yet when Christ to cure this distrust hath manifested his Love by the greatest Miracles that ever God shewed to mortal men even by Christ's Incarnation his Life his Works his Death Resurrection Intercession and the advancement of humane Nature in him above Angels the greatness of this Incomprehensible Love occasioneth the difficulty of our believing it as if it were too great and wonderful to be credible Thus dark and guilty Sinners hardly believe our Fathers Love whether it be exprest by ordinary or by the most wonderful effects § 33. As Christ is called the Son of God so also are all his Members We have so far the same title that we might partake of the same comforts He is God's only Son by Eternal Generation and the hypostatical union upon his miraculous conception But through him we are Sons by Regeneration and Adoption And shall not the love of such a Father be trusted and the presence and pleasing of such a Father be desired If Manoah's Wife could say If he would have killed us Re would not have accepted a Sacrifice of us I may say If he would have damned me or forsaken my departing Soul he would not have Adopted me nor made and called me his Son Christ was made his Incarnate Son that we might be made his Adopted Sons And we are made his Adopted Sons for the sake and by the Grace of Christ his Natural Son § 34. The Command Hear him is Relative as to Moses and Elias 1. Hear him whom the Law and the Prophets typified and foretold and were his Servants and Preparatory Instructors to lead us to him 2. Hear him before Moses and the Prophets where his Coming and Covenant abrogateth the Law of Moses and as a greater Light he obscureth the less He hath revealed more than they revealed and the same more clearly Life and Immortality is more fully brought to light by him His Gospel is as the Heart of the Holy Bible We use the Old Testament Books especially as the Witnesses of Christ § 35. And whom should we hear so willingly so obediently as Christ Abraham sent not Dives's Brethren to the King or to the High-priest to know what Religion he should choose or what he should do to escape Hell torments But it was Moses and the Prophets that they must hear But God from Heaven hath sent us yet a better Teacher and commanded us to hear Him Moses was faithful in God's House as a Servant but Christ as a Son His Authority is above Kings and High-priests and they have no Power now but from him and therefore none against him or his Laws All commands are null to Conscience which contradict him The examples in Da. 3. 6. and of the Apostles tell us whether God or Man should be first obeyed Therefore it is that the Bible is more necâ—ssary to be searcht and learned than the Statute Book or Canons Were Man to be heard before Christ or against him or as necessarily as he why have we not Law Preachers every Lord's day to expound the Statutes and Canons to all the People And why are they not Catechized out of the Book of Canons or Law as well as out of the Bible And sure if we must hear Christ and his Gospel before Priests or Princes or before our dearest friends much more before our fleshly Lusts and Appetites and before a profane and foolish Scorner and before the temptations of the Devil O had we heard Christ warning us when we hearkned to the Tempter and to the Flesh how safely had we lived and how comfortably might we have died § 36. But this word Hear him is as comfortable as obligatory Hear him Sinner when he calls thee to repent and turn to God Hear him when he calleth thee to himself to take him for thy Lord and Saviour to believe and trust him for Pardon and Salvation Hear him he when calleth Come to me all ye that are weaty and heavy laden Ho every every one that thirsteth come whoever will let him drink of the Water of Life freely Hear him when he commandeth and hear