Mal. 3.17 The world is the shrine or Cabinet where God locks up these jewels for a time The world is yours it was made for you The creation is but a theatre to act the great work of Redemption upon The world is the field the Saints are the corn the ordinances are the showers the mercies of God are the Sunshine that ripens this corn death is the sickle that cuts it down the Angels are the harvesters that carry it into the barn The world is yours God would never have made this field were it not for the corn growing in it What use then is there of the wicked They are as an hedge to keep the corn from forrain invasions though oft-times they are a thorn-hedge Quest. But alas a childe of God hath oft the least share in the world how then is the world his Answ. If thou art a believer that little thou hast though it be but an handfull of the world it is blest to thee If there be any consecrated ground in the world that is a believers The world is yours Esau had the venison but Iacob got the blessing a little blest is sweet A little of the world with a great deal of peace is better then the revenues of unrighteousnesse Every mercy a childe of God hath swims to him in Christs blood and this sauce makes it relish the sweeter Whatever he tastes is seasoned with Gods love he hath not only the mercy but the blessing So that the World is a Believers An Unbeliever that hath the World at will yet the World is not his he doth not taste the quintessence of it Thornes and thistles doth the ground bring forth to him He feeds upon the fruit of the curse I will curse your blessings he eats with bitter herbs So that properly the World is a Believers He only hath a Scripture-tenure and that little he hath turnes to creame Every mercy is a present sent him from heaven 2. All things that fall out in the World are for your good 1. The want of the World all is for your good 2. The hatred of the World all is for your good 1. The want of the World is for your good By wanting the honours and revenues of the World you want the temptations that others have Physicians observe that men die sooner by the abundance of blood then the scarcity 't is hard to say which kills most the sword or surfet A glutton with his teeth digs his own grave The world is a silken net the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Him whom I shall kisse saith Judas take him so whom the world kisseth it often betrayes The want of the world is a mercy 2. The Hatred of the world is for your good Wicked men are instruments in Gods hand for good albeit they mean not so they are flails to thresh off our husks files to brighten our graces leeches to suck out the noxious blood Out of the most poisonful drug God distils his glory and our salvation A childe of God is beholding even to his enemies The ploughers ploughed upon my back if they did not plough and harrow us we should bear but a very thin crop After a man hath planted a tree he prunes and dresseth it Persecutors are Gods pruning-hook to cut off the excrescencies of sin and evermore the bleeding vine is most fruitful the envy and malice of the wicked shall do us good God stirred up the people of Egypt to hate the Israelites and that was a meanes to usher in their deliverance The frownes of the wicked make us the more ambitious of Gods smile their incensed rage as it shall carry on Gods decree for while they sit backward to his command they shall row forward to his decree so it shall have a subserviency to our good Every crosse winde of providence shal blow a believer neerer to the port of glory What a blessed condition is a child of God in kill him or save him alive it is all one The opposition of the world is for his good The world is yours §. 3. Shewing That life is a believers 3. The next thing is Life is yours Hierome understands it of the life of Christ. It is true Christs life is ours the life which he lived on earth and the life which he now lives in heaven his satisfaction and his intercession both are ours and they are of unspeakable comfort to us But I conceive by life in the text is meant Natural life that which is contradistinguished to death So Ambrose But how is life a Beleevers Two wayes 1. The priviledge of life is his 2 The comfort of life is his 1. The priviledge of life is a believers that is life to a childe of God is an advantage for heaven this life is given him to make provision for a better life Life is the porch of Eternity here the Believer dresseth himself that he may be fit to enter in with the Bridegroome We cannot say of a wicked man unlesse catachrestically that life is his Though he lives yet life is not his he is dead while he lives He doth not improve the life of nature to get the life of grace he is like a man that takes the lease of a farm and makes no benefit of it Diu fuit in mundo non vixit he hath been so long in the world as Seneca speaks but he hath not lived He was borne in the Reigne of such a King his father left him such an estate he was of such an age and then he died there 's an end of him his life was not worth a prayer nor his death worth a tear But life is yours 't is a priviledge to a Believer while he hath natural life he layes hold upon eternal life how doth he work out his salvation what a do is there to get his evidences sealed what weeping what wrastling how doth he even take heaven by storme So that life is yours It is to a childe of God a season of grace the seed-time for eternity the longer he lives the riper he grows for heaven The life of a believer spends as a lamp he doth good to himselfe and others the life of a sinner runs out as the sand it doth little good The life of the one is as a figure ingraven in marble the life of the other as letters written in dust 2. The â—â—â—fort of life is a beleevers rejoycingâ—ake â—ake a childe of God at the 〈◊〉 disadvantage let his life be â—ver-cast with clouds yet if there be any comfort in life the believer hath it Our life is oft imbecill and weake but the spiritual life doth administer comfort to the natural Homo componitur ex mortali rationali Man saith Augustine is compounded of the mortal part and the rational part the rational serves to comfort the mortal So I may say a Christian consists of a natural life and a
might Solomon say Better is the day of a mans death then the day of his birth Death is the spiritual man's preferment why then should he fear it Death I confesse hath a grimme visage to an impenitent sinner so it is ghastly to look upon it is a pursuivant to carry him to hell but to such as are in Christ Death is yours It is a part of the Joincture Death is like the Pillar of cloud it hath a dark-side to a sinner but it hath a light-side to a believer Deaths pale face looks ruddy when the blood of sprinkling is upon it in short Faith gives us a propriety in Heaven Death gives us a possession Feare not your priviledge the thoughts of death should be delightfull Iacob when he saw the Chariots his spirits revived Death is a Waggon or Chariot to carry us to our Fathers house What were the Martyrs flames but a fiery Chariot to carry them up to Heaven How should we long for Death This world is but a Desart we live in Shall we not be willing to leave it for Paradise We say It is good to be here we affect an earthly eternity but grace must curb nature Think of the priviledges of Death The Planets have a proper motion and a violent by their proper motion they are carried from the West to the East but by a violent motion they are over-ruled by the Primum Mobile and are carried from the East to the West So though naturally we desire to live here as we are made up of flesh yet grace should be as the primum mobile or master-wheele that swayes our will and carries us in a violent motion making us long for death Saint Paul desired to be dissolved and 2 Corinth 5.2 In this we groane earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven we would put off the earthly cloathes of our body and put on the bright robe of immortality we groane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is a Metaphor taken from a mother who being pregnant groanes and cries out for delivery Austine longed to die that he might see that head which was once crowned with thornes We pray Thy Kingdome come and when God is leading us into his Kingdome shall we be afraid to go The times we live in should me thinks make us long for death we live in dying times we may heare as it were Gods passing Bell ringing over these Nations Foelix Nepotianus qui haec non videt as Hierome said in his time Nepotian is an happy man that doth not see the evils which befall us they are wel that are out of the storm and are gotten already to the haven To me to die is gaine Quest. But who shall have this priviledge Answ. death is certaine but there are only two sorts of Persons to whom we may say Death is yours 'T is your preferment 1. Such as die daily We are not borne Angels die we must Therefore we had need carry alwayes a deaths-head about us The Basilisk if it see a man first it kills him but if he see it first it doth him no hurt The Basilisk death if it sees us first before we see it 't is dangerous but if we see it first by meditating upon it it doth us no hurt study death often walke among the Tombs It is the thoughts of death before-hand that must do us good In a dark night one Torch carried before a man is worth many Torches carried after him one serious thought of death before-hand one teare shed for sinne before death is worth a thousand shed after when it is too late 'T is good to make Death our familiar and in this sense to be in Deaths oft that if God should presently seal a lease of ejectment if he should send us a Letter of Summons this night to surrender we might have nothing to do but to die Alas how do we adjourne the thoughts of death 'T is almost death to think of it There are some that are in the very threshold of the grave who have one legge in the earth and another legge in hell yet put farre from them the evil day I have read of our Lysicrates who in his old age dyed his gray hairs black that he might seeme young againe When we should be building our Tombes we are building our Tabernacles die daily lest you die eternally The holy Patriarchs in purchasing for themselves a burying place shewed us what thoughts they still had of Death Ioseph of Arimathea erected his Sepulchre in his Garden we have many that set up the Trophies of their victories others that set up their Scutchions that they may blaze their honour but how few that set up their Sepulchres who erect in their hearts the serious thoughts of death Oh remember when you are in your gardens in places most delicious and fragrant to keep a place for your Tomb-stone die daily There is no better way to bring sinne into a Consumption then by oft looking on the pale horse and him that sits thereon By thinking on death we begin to repent of an evil life and so we disarme death before it comes and cut the lock where its strength lies 2. Such as are in Heaven before they die death is yours If we will needs be high-minded let it be in setting our minde upon heavenly things Heaven must come down into us before we go up thither A childe of God breaths his faith in Heaven his thoughts are there When I awake I am still with thee Psal. 139.17 David awaked in Heaven his conversation is there Philip. 3.20 For our conversation is in Heaven The Believer often ascends Mount Tabor and takes a prospect of glory O that we had this celestial frame of heart When Zacheus was in the croud he was too low to see Christ therefore he climbed up into the Sycomore-Tree When we are in a croud of worldly businesse we cannot see Christ Climb up into the tree by divine contemplation If thou wouldest get Christ into thy heart let Heaven be in thy eye Set your affections upon things above Colos. 3.2 There needs no exhortation to set our hearts upon things below How is the curse of the Serpent upon most men Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life Those that feed onely upon dust Golden dust will be unwilling to returne to dust Death will be terrible The tribes of Reuben and Gad desired Moses that they might stay on this side Iordan and have their portion there it being a place convenient for their Cattel It seems they minded their Cattel more then their passage into the holy Land so many Christians if they may have but a little grazing here in the world in their Shops and in their Farms they art content to live on this side the River and minde not their passage into the Land of Promise you that are in heaven
Beleever he is to be valued according to that which is in reversion Things to come are his If you were to take an estimate of a man's Estate would you value it by that which hee hath in his House or by his Land Perhaps he hath little in his house little money or plate but he is a landed man There lies his Estate While we are in this House of Clay we have but little Many a Christian can hardly keepe life and soule together but hee is a landed man things to come are his then be content with the lesse of things present If wee have but a small fore-crop we shall have a great after-crop it is sufficient if we have but enough to beare our charges till we come to Heaven An Heire that hath a great Estate beyond Sea though hee hath but a little money for his voyage thither he will bee content If a Christian hath but enough to pay for his passage till he comes at Heaven it is sufficient as Seneca said to his friend Polibius Never complaine of thy hard fortune as long as Caesar is thy friend So I say to a Beleever Never complaine as long as Christ is thy friend hee is preparing the Heavenly Mansions for thee If thou complainest of any thing let it be of thy complaining Should not Hagar have been content though the water were spent in her Bottle when there was a Well so neare God hath made a Deed of gift he hath given Christ to a Believer and in him all things things present and to come Grace and Glory is not here enough to make him content But saith the Christian I want present comforts Consider the Angels in Heaven are rich yet they have no money thou hast things to come Angels riches such as cannot stand with reprobation bee content then with the lesse of things present The Philosophers who never understood one syllable of this Charter did contemne riches and preferr'd a contemplative life what poore contemplations were those certainly a man that lives by faith may have more sweet content in his soule by the meditation of things to come then a worldly man by the enjoying things present 4. Labour for such an high degree of faith as to make these things to come present Faith and Hope are two Sisters and are very like they differ thus Hope looks at the excellency of the Promise faith at the certainty of it now faith looking at the infallible truth of him that promiseth thus it makes things to come present Faith doth antedate glory it doth substantiate things not seen Faith alters the Tenses it puts the Future into the Present Tense Psalm 60.6 Gilead is mine Manasseh is mine Ephraim is the strength of my head c. Those places were not yet subdued but God had spoken in his holinesse he had made David a promise and he beleeved it therefore hee looked upon them as already subdued Gilead is mine c. So saith faith God hath spoken in his holinesse hee hath made me a promise of things to come therefore Heaven is mine already When one hath the reversion of an house saith hee This house is mine Oh that wee had this Art of Faith thus to anticipate Heaven and make things to come present Thou who art a Beleever Heaven is thine now thy head is already glorified nay heaven is begun in thee thou hast some of those joyes which are the primitiae the first-fruits of it A Christian by the eye of faith through the Perspective-glass of the promise may see into Heaven Faith sees the Promise fulfilled before it be fulfilled Faith sets to its hand Item Received so much before it be paid Had we a vigorous faith we might be in Heaven before our time That which a weake beleever hopes for a strong beleever doth in some kinde possesse Oh that wee could often take a prospect of the Heavenly Paradise Walke about Sihon and go round about her tell the towers thereof mark ye well her bulwarks consider her Palaces So Walke into the Heavenly Mount see what a glorious situation it is go tell her Towers see what an inheritance you have see your beauty and Nobility behold your Scutchion Oh that wee could thus breath our faith up this Mount of Heaven every day Do not say All this shall be mine but It is mine already my Head is there my faith is there my heart is there could we thus living up to the height of our faith reallize and antedate things to come how would all present thing vanish if a man could live in the Sunne the earth would not appear when Saint Paul had been wrapped up into the third Heaven the earth did hardly appeare ever after see how he scornes it I am crucified to the world it was a dead thing to him hee had begun Heaven already thus it is with a man that is Heavenlized You Saints that are earthly the eye of your faith is blood-shot it is the character of a sinner he cannot see afarre off 2 Pet. 1.9 like a man who hath bad eyes that can see but just before him Faith carries the heart up to Heaven and brings Heaven downe into the heart 5. If all things to come are yours then walke chearfully with God put on your white robes hath a Beleever a title to Heaven what and sad Wee rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 It is but a while 't is but putting off the earthly clothes of our body and wee shall bee clothed with the bright robes of glory and can a Beleever bee sad See how Christ doth secretly check his Disciples for this Luke 24.17 What manner of communications are these while you walke and are sad What sad and Christ risen So I say to beleevers Things to come are yours why walke ye and are sad let them bee out of heart who are out of hope Oh rejoyce in God when the lead of the flesh begins to sink let the cork of faith swim above How doth the heir rejoyce in hope of the Inheritance How doth the Apprentice rejoyce to think of coming out of his time Here we are kept under by sinne and a childe of God is forced sometimes to do the devils work but shortly death will make us free there is an eternall Jubile coming therefore rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Can wicked men rejoyce that have their portion in this life and cannot hee rejoyce that hath a reversion of Heaven Are the waters of Abanah and Pharpar like to the waters of Iordan O ye Saints think into what a blessed condition you are now brought is it not a sweet thing to have God appeas'd is it not a matter of joy to be an heire of the promise Adam in Paradise had choice of all the trees one only excepted The Promises are the trees of life thou may'st walk in the garden of the Bible and pluck from all these trees Who should