pleased to discover better things to you so as to make you renounce your former ways and to make choice of another way in which your souls have found other maner of comforts and satisfactions and contentments then ever you did before bless God as David did Blessed be the Lord that hath given me counsel and made me to understand aright So may such a soul say for had I been left to the counsels of mine own heart I know what should have become of me I have as vile a heart as any and my heart did take as much delight in the flesh as any and I should have gone on God knows whither and might by this time have plunged my self into the bottomless pit my friends would have given me other counsels to harden me in my ways of sinful pleasure but blessed be God that hath over-powered my heart How many do I see every day whose parts of nature exceed mine and yet they are mistaken in the things that concern their everlasting welfare they minde no other things but the pleasures of the flesh and stumble at the meanness of Gods people and this hides the beauty of godliness from their eyes and what a great mercy is this that God hath taken this stumbling block from me and that he hath opened mine eyes to see pearls though wrapped up in rotten rags and to see the excellency of godliness notwithstanding all afflictions that do attend upon them Certainly it is no other but a beam of Gods own light from Heaven that hath shined into thy heart It is a remarkable passage that we have Esay 44. 20 21. where God shewing the difference between those who forsook the true God and his people who chose him to be their God stirs up his people to remember for ever this mercy of God towards them that they should be delivered from the deceit and vanity whereby others were deluded and guided in a right and safe way to be the servants of the blessed God As for the Idolater he feedeth upon ashes a deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand Now mark what follows Remember these O Jacob and Israel for thou art my servant c. As if he should say Do you see how others have left God and God hath left them They feed upon ashes a seduced heart hath deceived them but it is otherwise with you God hath put it into your hearts to be my servants to choose me for your God Remember for ever these things O Jacob here is a mercy indeed never to be forgotten How comes it to pass that your hearts should not be so seduced as theirs it is Gods free grace and rich mercy towards you And his mercy is the greater in that it is in such a weighty thing that the Lord hath given thee counsel to make a right choice in If a man makes an ill choice in a matter that is of moment that will bring him trouble in his life how is he grieved as in marriage when he is to make choice in that one thing upon which he knows the comfort or trouble of his life does much depend if the Lord hath so provided for him that he hath made a good choice onely in that how does he bless God it is that which sweetens all his life If it be such a mercy to be guided to make a good choice in marriage what a mercy is it to be guided to make a good choice for ones soul to be happy to all eternity if the Lord should leave a soul in that choice what a lamentable condition had the soul been in And therefore those that have any savour of godliness if they be to change the condition of their lives they will seek God and be earnest that God would guide them and not leave them to themselves and take advantage to punish their former sins in their choice now If you be to make a choice that concerns the outward comforts of your lives you will earnestly desire God not to leave you there Now you are to make your choice for your eternal condition if God should leave you now what a lamentable condition would you be in as he does leave most in the world As soon as we come to years of discretion we come to make our choice to go on in the ways of God or in the ways of death How many yong ones make a woful choice in the beginning and go on and are hardened in their choice and perish for ever And hath the Lord looked upon you and considered how like you would be to fail in your choice And hath the Lord been pleased to come in with his Spirit and a light from Heaven to shew you the way Have you heard a voyce from heaven saying This is the way walk in it Though God should leave you in all outward things yet you are made for ever and therefore thou mayest say as Judas not Iscariot Lord wherefore is it that thou revealest thy self to us and not to the world Lord wherefore is it that in this great business of my choice that concerns my eternal estate thou art pleased to reveal thy self to me a poor contemptible creature rather then to the world 1. Hence it is because thou art one of the chosen ones of the Lord because the Lord hath made a choice of thee and hath separated thee from all eternity to do good to thy soul hence it is manifest that thou art the chosen one of the Lord when thou seest most in the world to follow the pleasures of the world if God hath given thee a heart to choose his ways upon any terms take this as an argument that thou art a chosen vessel of God Reciprocal signs of Gods grace are the most sweet as if I love God this is an argument God loves me if Gods honor be dear to me then my soul is near to God so if I choose God then God hath chosen me 2. This choice is that for which thousands of Gods people have blessed God upon their death-beds they counted it a blessed time and blessed the means the Word and the Instrument that God was pleased to work by to incline their hearts to such a choice as this 3. Yea this choice of thine though it be suffering affliction it is that thou shalt bless God for to all eternity in the highest Heavens it is such a great mercy as this little poor span-long life of ours is not sufficient to give God glory for it therefore there is an eternity reserved to praise God for it when thou shalt see what good comes of thy choice then thou shalt bless God indeed Certainly God takes it well at thy hands now Jer. 2. 2. I remember the kindeness of thy youth and the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness God takes it kindely that men will choose him and his
promises of direction says Christ Take no thought when you are called before rulers for my names sake how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak Thirdly there are promises of assistance I will be with you to the end of the world Fourthly there is a promise of acceptance He that forsaketh houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life Fifthly a promise of blessing Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all maner of evil falsly on you for my sake Sixthly a promise of a Kingdom If we suffer with him we shall likewise reign with him Luke 22. 28 29. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me the appointing of a Kingdom follows upon their continuing with Christ in temptation Brethren God promises much to those that shall be sensible of the reproaches of others much more when thou thy self sufferest in the cause of Christ In Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn Assembly time was when the solemn Assemblies of Gods people their gathering together to hear a Sermon was their reproach and they were contemned by many were you ever in any place where the Assemblies of Gods people were reproachful and was this a burthen to your souls and grievous to you mark the blessed promise I will gather them together but to be reproached our selves and to bear our reproaches in a Christian maner great and rich promises are made unto it Seventhly in reproaches and sufferings for Christ there are rich consolations never such consolation let out to a gracious heart as when it is under reproaches and sorest persecutions if ever Christ does turn water into wine it is the tears of Gods people that are turned into wine of consolation Basil in his Oration for Barlaam that famous Martyr says He delighted in the close Prison as in a pleasant green meadow and he took pleasure in the several inventions of tortures as in several sweet flowers And Vincentius the Martyr speaking of the great things he suffered for Christ hath this expression I have always desired these dainties Luther reports of that Martyr St. Agatha that as she went to Prisons and Tortures she said she went to Banquets and Nuptails And Iames Bainham said when they kindled the fire at his feet Me thinks you strew roses before me And Mr. Saunders hath a most full expression of his consolation he felt a wonderful sweet refreshment flow from his heart unto all the members of his body and from all the parts of his body to his heart again And that Martyr Hawks lifts up his hands above his head and claps them together when he was in the fire as if he had been in a triumph this is a special fruit of the Spirit of God and of glory of which St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye suffer reproaches happy are ye the Spirit of God and glory rests upon you and one consolation one beam of Gods face is worth all the riches of the world The Sun enlightens the world says Cyprian but he that made the Sun is a greater light to you in prison that darkness which is the horrible deadly darkness of the place of punishment to others he irradiates to you with his bright and eternal light Vobis idem qui Solem fecit majus in carcere lumen fuit horribiles caeteris atque funest as paenalis loci tenebr as aeterna illa candida luce radiante Cyp. Ep. 16. Eighthly in reproaches and sufferings there are riches of glory both before the day of Judgement and after riches of glory before if so be that opinion of some be true which I dare not altogether deny of Christs coming to reign in the world here before the day of Judgement though I will not affirm it as a truth yet if there be not a truth in it I confess I cannot make any thing of many places of Scripture Rev. 20. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years I know this is ordinarily interpreted of the resurrection from sin to grace and reigning with Christ a thousand years that is reigning with him in Heaven but this cannot be the meaning of the Text this thousand years must be before the day of Judgement because Satan must be loosed after now if this prove to be true O the riches of glory that those that suffer for Christ shall have all those that have suffered for Christ they especially shall be raised up to reign with Christ on the earth and therefore you have it in ver 4. And I saw thrones and they sate upon them and judgement was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and reigned with Christ a thousand years Suppose it to be so then the more any do suffer for withdrawing himself from Antichrist the more glory they shall have when Christ comes to reign upon the earth Some are loth to receive the mark of the Beast upon their foreheads openly to appear for Antichrist yet they will have the mark of the Beast in their hands but here is a promise to them that shall refuse both and it is not meant onely of those that suffer death in their lives the death in our liberties and death in our estates and other kinde of deaths shall not go unrewarded it is a point that was spoken of in the Primitive times and afterward it was condemned upon this ground because many grew to be sensual and thought the Kingdom of Christ should be for a thousand years in pleasure to the flesh but take the Kingdom of Christ to be spiritual in the glory of his Ordinances as I am confident that Christ shall reign Personally in his flesh I will not say but Spiritually farre more gloriously then he hath done But then at the day of Judgement O the glory of those that suffer for Christ they shall have Crowns upon their heads and Palms in their hands and all their persecutors stand as base creatures before them O the imbracings that there shall be then If a father send his childe abroad about business and the childe meet with much difficulty and comes home in a rainy tempestuous day how gladly his father receives him and all are
jewel O any one truth is rich we should prize it above our lives O that faith that was once delivered to the Saints how should we prize it Buy the truth sell it not Buy it at any rate sell it not upon any terms The truth is that that the blood the lives of so many dear and precious Saints of God that were the glory of the world have been laid out for the maintenance of and well laid out too For though God does esteem of the blood of his Saints and precious in his eyes is the death of the Saints yet God esteems highlier of his truth that is worth the blood of all that have been spilt for the defence of it The truth of God is the especial end for which the Son of God came into the world and took mans nature upon him to testifie to the truth The truth is more worth then rubies and all precious stones then gold and silver Whatsoever thou canst desire is not to be compared to it and though there be so many riches in the truth of God yet how many are there that will rather betray the truth of God lose the truth of God rather then suffer reproaches Thirdly is it not a rich thing to enjoy communion with God It was an expression of that truly noble Marquis Galeacius that parted with all for Christ when his friends that were very rich offered him bags of gold and silver to return to them again he put them all away with this expression of indignation Cursed is that man that counts all the gold and silver in the world worth the enjoyment of communion with Jesus Christ This is riches yet some had rather lose this then endure reproaches Fourthly is not the blessing of God upon us the protection of God over us the love of God unto us the care of God for us and the brightness of the face of God shining upon us and brightning all our ways are not these riches and yet behold how many are there that are so far from counting reproaches riches as they will lose these riches rather then bear reproaches Fifthly is not the inheritance of the Saints that kingdom of glory that incorruptible undefiled crown that is reserved for them riches and yet how many are so far from esteeming reproaches riches as they will venture the loss of that too rather then they will endure reproaches Lastly are not the Ordinances of God riches that are the especial conduits and means of conveyance of the choice mercies of God unto his people those mercies that have such an immediate dependance upon eternity are not these riches worth all the world yet how many are so far from counting reproaches riches as will rather lose all the riches of the Ordinance then be reproached Though their conscience tell them You might enjoy abundance of blessing in the Ordinances were it that you might have them in the power of them and they have a good minde to them Ah but my friends will scorn me and upon this ground they forbear coming to the Ordinances And thus they are so far from counting the reproaches they shall endure riches as they deprive themselves of all the riches in the Ordinances of God rather then they will endure them Like unto Asa in 1 Kings 15. 18. he took all the gold and silver and riches of the treasure of God to send them unto Benhadad that he might free him from the King of Israel So men are willing to part with the gold and silver and all the riches of Gods house and of Gods Ordinances so they may be freed from reproaches and sufferings and from enduring trouble was there ever delusion like this delusion to lose such riches rather then endure that which in it self is riches were it that reproaches were as great evils as you can imagine suppose you might go to live where you might enjoy the Ordinances though it were in such a place as Job speaks of in Job 22. 10. A land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadows of death without any order and where the light is as darkness yet that subjection that your souls do owe to God does call for a willingness to yield to that and to yield to reproaches and sufferings though there were no good in them but now when there is so much good such glorious things mingled together with reproaches for you now to be so afraid of reproaches as to be willing to lose so much riches rather then to endure them how is your heart besotted Suppose reproaches had such shame in them as you think they have cannot God put honor upon them man can put honor upon mean things As the Garter that is counted an ornament of the highest Nobility that Kings wear about their necks as an ensign of their princely order A Garter fell from a Lady and she blushed for shame the King took it up Well says he I will make this an honorable ornament ere long and upon that came the Order of the Garter If man can put an honor upon that which is mean surely God can do it And therefore Calvin speaking of sufferings and reproaches says They are the ensigns of heavenly nobility and if God hath put this honor upon them shall you be so shy of them as to lose so much rather then to endure them First if they were evil you are to endure them in regard of your subjection to God Secondly if there were nothing lost by your drawing from them and your unwillingness to endure them it should be a great deal of evil but first considering that there is good in them and so much lost by your unwillingness to endure them what folly is here there is an art and skill in Christian Religion that would shew you other things then you see You would never have such low esteem of reproaches if you had the skill of Christianity If a man did fling bags of pearls and gold at a dog he would be afraid of them and run away but a man would not but be ready to catch them and so men of the world and base hearts that are not acquainted with this skill of Christianity they will run way at reproaches and sufferings but a heart that knows what they are does not run away But are you shy of sufferings and run away what a difference is there between the disposition of your hearts and the disposition of the most worthy servants of God in all ages you are afraid of them as if they were evil like hell it self Gods people earnestly desire them I remember a speech of Jerome upon that Blessed are you when men speak evil of you and revile you says he Who would not be willing to suffer who would not wish to be persecuted for righteousness sake who would not desire to be reviled O would all the rout of unbelievers did persecute and trouble me for the name of my Lord and
is a woful choice that many make Most people are offended at the afflictions of Gods people their hearts are set upon pleasure and delight and pleasure they must have pleasure to the flesh is that they choose and that they follow after but as for the afflicted ways of godliness they cannot relish them their carnal sensual hearts do turn aside from them they give themselves up to the pleasures of the flesh and satisfie themselves in the enjoyment of their hearts desires and God does give them up likewise to their own lusts to let them have their choice so that they shall spend their time in mirth and jollity in eating and drinking and gaming and in this they bless themselves as those who have wisely provided for themselves to make their lives so full of comfort and soul-content as they imagine these are set upon carnal frothy sensual things as if the chief good and happiness of man consisted in them and therefore they give themselves liberty in them to the utmost That wherein a mans happiness consists he may desire infinitely and he cannot but do it it is as natural for him to do it as for the fire to burn or the stone to descend and because men put happiness in the pleasures of the flesh therefore their hearts are set infinitely upon them that is to set as they give themselves liberty without any bounds and desire that if it were possible no limits might be set either by God or man If they have means they account the chief good of what they have is in that they may have larger opportunities then others to satisfie the flesh in the sensual pleasures of it and hence is the infinite excess of meats and drinks and carnal delights in those whose means afford them opportunities thereunto Luther speaking of this excess hath this expression If Adam should now rise again and see this madness of all sorts of men I believe he would be so amazed at it that he would stand as a stone A. Gellius tells of Caligula that he made one supper that cost three hundred thousand Crowns I have read also of Vitellius the Emperor that at one supper he was served with Two thousand sorts of fishes and Seven thousand several fowls In such profuse expences for the satisfying of the flesh how many do glory as if it were the highest happiness attainable upon the earth And the baser sort of people seeing the great ones set upon such a kinde of life in satisfying the flesh they think there is no other happiness to be had therefore all their care thoughts endeavors are how they may live jocundly and give satisfaction to their lusts Clemens Alexandrinus tells of a fish that hath the heart in the belly differing from other living Creatures which the Philosophers call the Sea-Ass This is like sensual men whose hearts are onely set upon the things of the belly so as it may be said of many in regard of satisfying the flesh as Aurelianus said of one Bonoses He was born not that he might live but that he might drink So do these seem to be born not that they might live but that they might eat and drink and pamper the flesh the whole world is too strait to some for the pampering their bellies Oh how beneath is this to the true excellency of a rational and immortal soul What pity is it that an immortal reasonable soul should be of no other use then to keep the body alive to taste the sweet of the flesh of beasts and of the fruit of the earth How many draw all their substance thorow their throats and their belly their houses lands yea and devour their posterity like Cannibals when men in company spend their estates their wives and children wanting bread at home what do they but even drink the very blood of their wives and children It was the prophaneness of Esau for which God hath branded him That he sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage yet that was in the time of extreme hunger these men sell God and Heaven and all for drink not to satisfie thirst but their lust But O thou vain man know thou art utterly mistaken in thy choice if thou continuest in this way of thine that thou hast chosen to satisfie thy flesh in thou art undone for ever thou wilt ere long cry out of this thy choice most bitterly and curse thy self for it most fearfully It is a seduced heart that hath deceived thee and thou feedest upon ashes and thou canst not say Is there not a lye in my right hand Esay 44. 20. It is true not onely of Idolators but of all other ways of evil thou feedest upon ashes they are but ashes thou feedest upon and delightest in and it is a seduced heart hath turned thee aside from the ways of God that makes thee offended at them it is the God of this world that hath blinded thy eyes so that thou shouldest not see the glorious excellencies and beautiful pleasures and sweet delights that are in the ways of God but that thou shouldest please thy self in those ways that tend to death What hath the whole course of thy life been but playing with the Devils bait under which is a hook that will snatch thee into the sorrows of eternal death Howsoever those that live in jollity and delight in the flesh may bless themselves yet Gods people whose eyes God hath opened would not be in their condition one quarter of an hour for a thousand worlds There are divers sorts that come under this use of reprehension for that ill and woful choice they have made First such as choose to satisfie themselves in such pleasures as are in themselves sinful such who take pleasure in filthiness and ungodliness these are the dregs of men these are the basest of all that can take delight in the very act of sin it self All that is said concerning the dreadful evils of sin and that venome and curse that there is in sin is so far from making sin to be bitter to them as they account more pleasure to be had in many sinful ways then there is to be had in the enjoyment of all the glory that there is in God and Jesus Christ in Heaven and Eternity O cursed heart and cursed choice is this that when God hath revealed in his Word so much concerning the evil of sin that might make any heart in the world tremble at it that thou shouldst not onely not apprehend the evil of it or not taste any bitterness that is in it but shouldst count it delightful yea shouldst esteem so much pleasure to be had in the act of sin it self more then there is to be had in God in Christ or in the Promises or in Heaven or Eternity Surely a cursed seduced heart hath deceived thee these are infinitely out of the way What is there in sin that is thy pleasure that thou choosest as
the chief contentment of thy soul Is it possible that the chief contentment of a creature should be in sinning against an infinite God That thy chief contentment should be in departing from God in striking at God So thou doest in the way of sin That thy chief contentment should be in incensing the wrath of an infinite Deity against thy soul That thy chief contentment should be in putting thy self under the everlasting curse that bindes thee over to eternal death That thy chief contentment should be in that which being committed if ever it comes to be pardoned must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth Thou goest out in the morning and goest into thy company and countest thy self happy that thou hast money to spend and so takest thy pleasure This day thou hast done that which if ever it be pardoned it must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth There must be a price paid more worth then a thousand worlds to purchase the pardon of it Canst thou choose that for thy chief contentment which was such a dreadful but then to Jesus Christ that made the soul of Christ to be heavy to the very death that squeazed out clods of blood from him What is the chief pleasure and delight of thy soul in that which a true enlightened gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments in the world then do it If so be it were put to him either such a sin must be committed or else all the tortures that can be devised by all the world must be inflicted upon him A gracious heart had rather choose all the tortures that can be inflicted then do that which thou makest the great pleasure of thy soul What an infinite difference is between thy base heart and a gracious heart Thy wretched heart doth choose this deliberately as the great pleasure of thy life which a gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments of the world then be brought to do it To delight in sins against conscience is the most desperate folly in the world No man rejoyces in any error or fault in other things but is rather ashamed onely in the errors in the rule of life and obedience men owe to God they rejoyce in Secondly those come under this reprehension who though they do not choose things for their chief pleasures that are sin yet do choose to themselves pleasures that come in by sin and though this be not so ill as the other yet ill enough that is those that shall strain their consciences to get something in the world to raise their estates and when they have got estates and money and things well about them then they can be merry then their tables are furnished and they can eat and drink and this they delight in O poor deluded heart what is this that can give thee so much content Thou hast cause to look upon thy table and every morsel that thou eatest as having death in it and every draught you drink as having the curse of God in it Little cause thou hast if thou knewest all to rejoyce in these pleasures that come in by sin certainly there can be no good that comes in by sin as sin I know God may turn sin to the good of some but that which sin brings in of it self it is impossible good should come of it that which thou takest pleasure in that which thou art merry and jocund in delighting thy self withal is it may be the calamity and misery of others and how hard is that heart that can make that his mirth and joy that is the sorrow and distress of his brother Chrysostom in a Sermon against luxury and excess cryes out against those who riot in those things that they have got by making others miserable and says It is the most grievous thing that can be Thirdly those who do neither of these they choose not to themselves the pleasures that are sin nor the pleasures that come in by sin but such pleasures in the enjoyment of which they do sin though the pleasures be in themselves lawful they choose to let out their hearts unto them and spend the strength of their spirits on them they think because there is no hurt in them in themselves therefore they may give liberty to themselves there is a great deal of mistake in this we may sin exceedingly in things that are lawful when men shall spend so much time as many that are professors do in giving themselves content in some sports and delights to the flesh as they cut God short of his time that time that should be spent in examining their hearts humbling their souls seeking the face of God is spent in some slight vain idle sport Many are guilty of this especially those that have means and their callings do not require such a necessity of continual attendance How is that time spent wherein you have liberty from your callings Certainly no good account can be given of that time much might be gained to your souls in it and much converse and communion you might have with God and what ill choice do you make when as many poor Christians would bless God if they could have a little liberty from their callings On the one side there is this liberty for you to enjoy communion with God and furnish your souls with heavenly excellencies On the other side there is a little vain delight and carnal content and ease to the flesh and you rather choose this It may be though God hath helped you in the main you chose right yet be convinced this day of the evil of this particular choice in giving such inordinate contentment to your selves in giving that ease to your bodies liberties to the sluggishness of your spirits and reform You have not honored God as you ought and therefore your lives are not so beautiful In the general you continue in the ways of Religion but there is not that convincing lustre and beauty in your lives you do not draw others to that love of godliness because your hearts become so vain and so slight in choosing inordinate liberties to your selves in spending your times and strength in the pleasures of the flesh and therefore when you come to spiritual employment you have no strength but your hearts are dead I appeal to your consciences when you have given your selves leave to have content to the flesh when you come to communion with God what dead flat hearts have you Let me speak to such this day from the Lord this liberty you take to your selves in the pleasures of the flesh hath been the root of the Apostacy of many as 2 Pet. 2. 18. those who fell off were allured through the lusts of the flesh even though they are said to be clean escaped from them who live in error yet through wantonness they were drawn aside Wanton professors seldom prove lasting professors at least in any power of godliness Take this one note
the end of things that are but for a season were present they could not satisfie Now a gracious heart makes the end of all things that are but for a season to be really present If grace enables a man to make the things of God and eternal things to be present much more will grace in the heart make the end of all worldly things to be really present Now a gracious heart being wise and considering and looking upon these things that are but for a season as if the end now were hence it is that it hath the same judgement of things that are but for a season now as it shall have when the end of all shall be Now when the end of all things we enjoy for a season is come then every man will see the vanity of them and cry out of them and say they will not satisfie Yea we shall not onely see the vanity of them but in some respect see it a greater misery then if we had never enjoyed them now that thing which will not onely fail us but when it shall fail us it will be a greater vexation to us that we had them then if we had never enjoyed it certainly they which know this cannot be satisfied with it Eighthly a gracious heart makes use of all the experiences that it hath had of the vanity of the creature of all things that are but for a season when God in the way of his providence gives to one that is gracious experience of things he will treasure up his experience vain light hearts though God do give them experience of the vanity of the creature and of things that are but for a season they do not treasure up their experiences but though they cry out of the vanity of the creature at some time yet they run out again as greedily in their desires after it as before but a gracious heart findes when God takes away the creature wherein it had placed a great deal of confidence God hath shewed it how fading it was and the setled condition of it is nothing but vanity and so the experience of the vanity of former things does take off his heart from any thing that it looks upon as abiding for a season Lastly that which is but for a season does want an especial ingredient in it which is required for satisfaction the special ingredient unto satisfaction is security that there may be soul-safe security Augustine says The soul cannot enjoy any thing freely with satisfaction unless it can enjoy it with security Now when the soul enjoys a thing for a season it cannot be satisfied because it must be solicitous to provide something when that is gone which it hath for the present So that these arguments being put together you may see evidently Nothing that is for a season can give satisfaction to a gracious heart Having laid these things in the explication of the point all that we have to do is to apply it Hence we may see the excellency of a true gracious spirit where there is grace in the soul it puts a wonderful excellency upon the soul as in many other respects so this one does wonderfully declare the excellency of a gracious heart that it is so raised so enlarged so greatned that nothing that is for a season can satisfie it but it looks for things beyond a season Let all the world the things that are in Heaven and Earth present themselves to the soul to satisfie it the soul will say What are you temporal or eternal If the answer be given temporal the soul rejects them and puts them off as too mean things to be satisfaction for it If you had brought eternity with you says the soul I could have embraced you and closed with you and have been satisfied in the enjoyment of you but if the inscription of eternity be not in you you are too mean for me my happiness is not here I must look higher I am lost for ever if I do not look higher then these things When Basil was offered money and preferment to tempt him he answers Give money that may last for ever and glory that may eternally flourish CHAP. XXVI Perswasions to take off the heart from temporal things SEcondly hence let us all make use of this Argument to take off our spirits from all earthly things that are here below Let us look upon all things in the world as under this notion that they are but for a season and let us improve this argument to the utmost that possibly we can for the working our hearts off from the things of this world The beauty of all worldly things is but as a fair picture drawn upon the Ice that melts away with it The fashion of this world passeth away When Alexander saw himself wounded and in danger of death he then saw the vanity of those flatterers that would have perswaded him he was a God So when we see those things upon which we set our hearts as if our chief good as if a Deity were in them to be wounded and ready to perish let us learn to alter our thoughts of them to take off our hearts from them Much may be done in the improving of this argument of the fading vanishing nature of creature-comforts the Scripture makes much use of it to take off the hearts of People from them Why wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not Riches have wings and will fly away It charges them that have riches that they trust not in uncertain riches Man that is made in honor abides not They sing to the Tabret and Harp and make merry and in a moment they go down to hell This Moses argument is the strong Scripture argument there is nothing but uncertainty mutability vanity upon every creature that is here below The fashion of the world passeth away and the lustre of it there is no enduring substance here Those in the Hebrews were content to part with any thing that endured but for a season so they might have an enduring substance and so Abraham looked for a City that had foundations Heb. 11. 10. these cities have no foundations All earthly things are like the earth it self it hangs upon nothing Job 26. 7. and therefore there can be no certainty in them no continuance in the enjoyment of them neither will the things of this world abide they perish in the using of them and that which perishes in the using we must not set our hearts upon It s the expression of Gregory Nyssen The things of the world are as if a man were writing upon the water with his finger as any thing is written the impression vanishes and nothing appears not as one were writing upon the sand or dust which although any little wind blows smooth yet it stays a while till the wind riseth So the creature is not vain onely because it leaves us after a while but the comfort of the creature
of the glorious reward fills the heart with precious liquor that you may set it by the fire and put it into troubles it will not break As a Gyant refreshed with wine hath great strength to undertake any thing so the soul that is filled with this comfort of the hope of Heaven and glory can go forth as a Gyant refreshed with wine and make nothing of those things that others make great matters of When the heart is filled with joy hope of believing and so filled with light within whatsoever darkness is abroad it cares not As Oecolampadius when he was to dye and they spoke of the light without says he What is the light without I have light enough within And so a gracious heart says there is enough within to strengthen me let there be without what there will When Alexander gave away great things almost all he had one of his Officers aked him what he would have left for himself says he Hope so says a gracious heart though all things be gone yet it is enough to fill my heart with joy that I have hope of the glory that is to be reveald A natural chearful spirit can be able to undergo great things that one that is naturally timorous cannot the Wise man saith The Spirit of a man shall sustain his infirmities A man that hath a natural chearful spirit is able to sustain many infirmities that others cannot As for melancholy spirits every thing that comes cross to them is ready to sink them and they cannot undergo those troubles which a chearful spirit can because they want the sweetness within What strength is there then in the filling the heart with joy in believing of these things As a man that hath his bones filled with marrow and hath abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body he can endure to go with less cloathes then another because he is well lined within so it is with a heart that hath a great deal of fat and marrow joy and peace within though such a one hath not many cloathes and outward comforts to strengthen him he will go through troubles well enough Proverbs 14. 14. A good man is satisfied from himself And it is enough for good men to know within themselves that they have an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. A tree that hath a great deal of sap within can bear great weights and burthens that others cannot and that is the fifth ground because the hope of these things does fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A sixth thing wherein the power of having respect to the recompence of reward appears is in that it hath a great deal of power to resist any temptation of Satan and to quench the fiery darts of Satan In Ephes 6. where the spiritual armor is spoken of the helmet the armor that is for the head and keeps that from being hurt with any stroke is the hope of salvation and the hope of glory so that whatsoever temptations of the Devil comes by this helmet they are kept off that they do not so much as take the judgement As we might instance in the several temptations that the Devil hath to keep one from sufferings as when he comes and says Why will you undo your selves in such a way as this Presently the hope of salvation is held up and the soul answers It is so far from undoing of me that it is the onely way to provide for my self He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it If the Devil comes with this temptation Surely God does not require such things of his people to be brought into such straits and suffer such hard things The soul that hath the hope of his glory holds it up and makes this answer Why seeing the Lord hath laid up such glorious things hereafter why should I not think that God may require hard things for the present If he comes with this temptation Why will you go on in a singular way from others A gracious heart upon this argument answers I expect choice and singular mercies from God and why should I think much to go on in a way that is singular though others do otherwise it may be they shal never be partakers of such singular things If the Devil comes and say Surely God does not love you if he did he would not suffer such great calamities and sore troubles to befal you and if it were his cause he would assist you in it the soul answers Hath the Lord laid up such glorious things for me hereafter and shall I call Gods love in question because I am deprived of these mean things and undergo such afflictions as these certainly those things that God hath laid up for me shall so uphold my heart as that I shall never call in question Gods love though I suffer never so much here and that is the sixth particular Seventhly there is a great deal of power in this argument to help on the soul in a way of suffering because by looking at this recompence of reward the soul comes to see what glorious things sufferings do prepare for hasten unto and work to the encrease of First what glorious things sufferings prepare for As it is a notable expression Mr. Hawks hath in a Letter he writ to encourage Mr. Philpot being cast into the Bishops Cole-house says he This Bishops Cole-house is but to scour you and make you bright and to fit you to be set up upon the high shelf meaning Heaven as when you would set up vessels of brass or iron you first take cinders or ashes and scour them and by rubbing them with such things they are fit to be set up so all sufferings are but the means that God uses to scour his people to make them bright to set them up on high God will not set up his servants on the high shelf till first he hath made them bright and he uses this way to do it and then they hasten to great things the more one suffers the nearer he comes to glory and to Heaven Let the world do the worst it can it can but take away your estates and meat and drink and put you in the cold and hasten death and the hastening of death is the hastening of glory The greatest sufferings of Gods people are but as the fiery Chariots to carry Gods people home in This was the answer of Basil to the Emperors Lieutenant when he threatned death to him Death is a benefit to me it will send me sooner to God to whom I live to whom I desire to hasten And then they do encrease glory it is but a trade of less things to encrease greater all sufferings are the seeds of glory Eighthly there is a great deal of power in this to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because it does mightily enflame the soul with love to God