called Christians so named from him do remain Thus far Josephus a Jew by Nation and Religion who wrote this about eighty six years after Christ and fourteen years before the death of St. John Himself being born about five or six years after Christ. 20. Consider also how that every Age hath afforded multitudes of VVitnesses who before were most bitter and violent enemies And divers of these men of note for Learning and place in the world How mad was Saul against the Truth Surely it could be no favour to the Cause nor over-much credulity that caused such men to witness to the death the truth of that for which they had persecuted others to the death but a little before Nor could childish Fables or common flying Tales have so mightily wrought with men of Learning and Understanding For some such were Christians in all Ages 21. Nay observe but the Confessions of these Adversaries when they came to believe How generally and ingenuously they acknowledg their former ignorance and prejudice to have been the cause of their unbelief 22. Consider also how unable all the enemies of the Gospel have been to abolish these sacred Records They could burn the Witnesses by thousands but yet they could never either hinder their succession or extinguish these Testimonies 23. Nay the most eminent Adversaries have had the most eminent ruine As Antiochus Herod Julian with multitudes more This stone having faln upon them hath ground them to powder 24 It were not difficult here to collect from unquestioned Authors a constant succession of VVonders at least to have in several Ages accompanied the Attestation of this Truth and notable judgments that have befaln the persecutors of it And though the Papists by their Fictions and Fabulous Legends have done more wrong to the Christian Cause then ever they are able to repair yet unquestionable History doth afford us very many Examples And even many of those actions which they have deformed with their fabulous additions might yet for the substance have much truth And God might even in times of Popery work some of these wonders though not to confirm their Religion as it was Popish yet to confirm it as the Christian Religion for as he had then his Church and then his Scripture so had he then his special Providences to confirm his Church in their belief and to silence the several enemies of the Faith And therefore I advise those who in their inconsiderate zeal are apt to reject all these Histories of Providences meerly because they were written by Papists or because some Witnesses to the Truth were a little leavened with some Popish errors that they would first view them and consider of their probability of Truth or Falshood that so they may pick out the Truth and not reject all together in the lump least otherwise in their zeal against Popery they should injure Christianity And now I leave any man to judg whether we have not had an infallible way of receiving these Records from the first VVitnesses Not that every of the particulars before mentioned are necessary to the proving or certain receiving the Authentick Records without depravation for you may perceive that almost any two or three of them might suffice and that divers of them are from abundance for fuller confirmation SECT IV. ANd thus I have done with this first Argument drawn from the Miracles which prove the Doctrine and VVritings to be of God But I must satisfie the Scruples of some before I proceed First Some will question whether this be not 1. To resolve our faith into the Testimony of man 2. And so to make it a Humane faith And so 3. To jump in this with the Papists who believe the Scripture for the Authority of the Church and to argue Circularly in this as they To this I Answer First I make in this Argument the last Resolution of my faith into the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine If you ask why I believe the Doctrine to be of God I Answer because it was confirmed by many undeniable Miracles If you ask why I believe those Miracles to be from God I Answer because no created power can work a Miracle So that the Testimony of man is not the Reason of my believing but onely the means by which this matter of Fact is brought down to my Knowledg Again Our Faith cannot be said to be Resolved into that which we give in Answer to your last Interrogation except your Question be onely still of the proper grounds of Faith But if you change your Question from what is the Ground of my Faith to what is the means of conveying down the History to me Then my faith is not Resolved into this means Yet this means or some other equivalent I acknowledg so necessary that without it I had never been like to have believed 2. This shews you also that I argue not in the Popish Circle nor take my faith on their common Grounds For First When you ask them How know you the Testimony of the Church to be Infallible They prove it again by Scripture and ther 's their Circle But as I trust not on the Authority of the Romish Church onely as they do no nor properly to the Authority of any Church no nor onely to the Testimony of the Church but also to the Testimony of the enemies themselves So do I prove the validity of the Testimony I bring from Nature and well known Principles in Reason and not from Scripture it self as you may see before 3. There is a Humane Testimony which is also divine and so an Humane Faith which is also divine Few of Gods extraordinary Revelations have been immediate The best Schoolmen think none of all but either by Angels or by Jesus himself who was man as well as God You will acknowledg if God reveal it to an Angel and the Angel to Moses and Moses to Israel this is a divine Revelation to Israel For that is called a divine Revelation which we are certain that God doth any way Reveal Now I would fain know why that which God doth naturally and certainly Reveal to all men may not as properly be called a Divine Revelation as that which he Reveales by the Spirit to a few Is not this Truth from God That the Senses apprehension of their Object rightly stated s certain as well as this Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin c. Though a Saint or Angel be a fitter Messenger to Reveal the things of the Spirit yet any man may be a Messenger to reveal the things of the flesh An ungodly man if he have better Eyes and Ears may be a better Messenger or Witness of that matter of Fact which he seeth and heareth then a godlier man that is blinde or deaf especially in cases wherein that ungodly man hath no provocation to speak falsly and most of all if his Testimony be against himself I take that Revelation whereby I know
Now we are stupified with vile and sensless hearts that can hear all the story of this Bloody Love and read all the dolors and sufferings of Love and hear all his sad complaints and all with dulness and unaffected He cries to us Behold and see Is it nothing to you O all ye that pass by Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow Lamen 1.12 and we will scarce hear or regard the dolorous voyce nor scarce turn aside to view the wounds of him who turned aside and took us up to heal our wounds at this so dear a rate But Oh then our perfected Souls will feel as well as hear and with feeling apprehensions flame again in Love for Love Now we set his picture wounded and dying before our eyes but can get it no neerer our hearts then if we beleeved nothing of what we read But then when the obstructions between the eye and the understanding are taken away and the passage opened between the head and the heart surely our eyes will everlastingly affect our heart and while we view with one eye our slain-revived Lord and with the other eye our lost-recovered Souls and transcendent Glory these views will eternally pierce us and warm our very Souls And those eyes through which folly and lust hath so often stole into our hearts shall now be the Casements to let in the Love of our dearest Lord for ever Now though we should as some do travel to Jerusalem and view the Mount of Olives where he prayed and wept and see the Dolorons way by which he bare his Cross and enter the Temple of the Holy Grave yea if we should with Peter have stooped down and seen the place where he lay and behold his Relicts yet these Bolted doors of sin and flesh would have kept out the feeling of all that Love But Oh! that 's the Joy we shall then leave these hearts of stone and Rock behinde us and the sin that here so close besets us and the sottish unkindness that followed us so long shall not be able to follow us into that Glory But we shall behold as it were the wounds of Love with eyes and hearts of Love for ever Suppose a little to help our apprehensions that a Saint who hath partaked of the Joys of Heaven had been translated from as long an abode in Hell and after the experience of such a change should have stood with Mary and the rest by the Cross of Christ and have seen the Blood and heard the Groans of his Redeemer What think you Would love have stirred in his Brest or no Would the voyce of his dying Lord have melted his heart or no Oh that I were sensible of what I speak With what astonishing apprehensions then will Redeemed Saints everlastingly behold their Blessed Redeemer I will not meddle with their vain audacious Question who must needs know whether the glorified body of Christ do yet retain either the wounds or scars But this is most certain that the memory of it will be as fresh and the impressions of Love as deep and its workings as strong as if his wounds were still in our eyes and his complaints still in our ears and his blood still streaming afresh Now his heart is open to us and ours shut to him But when his heart shall be open and our Hearts open Oh the Blessed Congress that there will then be What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first sinful silly woman that he appears to How doth Love struggle for expressions and the straitned fire shut up in the brest strive to break forth Mary saith Christ Master saith Mary and presently she clasps about his feet having her heart as neer to his heart as her hands were to his feet What a meeting of Love then will there be between the new glorified Saint and the Glorious Redeemer But I am here at a loss my apprehensions fail me and fall so short Onely this I know it will be the singular praise of our inheritance that it was bought with the price of that blood and the singular Joy of the Saints to behold the purchaser and the price together with the possession Neither will the views of the wounds of Love renew our wounds of sorrow He whose first words after his Resurrection were to a great sinner Woman why weepest thou knows how to raise Love and Joy by all those views without raising any cloud of sorrow or storm of tears at all He that made the Sacramental Commemoration of his Death to be his Churches Feast will sure make the real enjoyment of its blessed purchase to be marrow and fatness And if it afforded Joy to hear from his mouth This is my Body which is given for you and This is my Blood which was shed for you What Joy will it afford to hear This Glory is the fruit of my Body and my Blood and what a merry feast will it be when we shall drink of the fruit of the Vine new with him in the Kingdom of his Father as the fruit of his own Blood David would not drink of the waters which he longed for because they were the blood of those men who jeoparded their lives for them and thought them fitter to offer to God then to please him But we shall value these waters more highly and yet drink them the more sweetly because they are the Blood of Christ not jeoparded onely but shed for them They will be the more sweet and dear to us because they were so bitter and Dear to him If the buyer be judicious we estimate things by the price they cost If any thing we enjoy were purchased with the life of our dearest friend how highly should we value it Nay if a Dying Friend deliver us but a token of his Love how carefully do we preserve it and still remember him when we behold it as if his own name were written on it And will not then the Death and Blood of our Lord everlastingly sweeten our possessed Glory Methinks England should value the plenty of the Gospel with their Peace and Freedom at a higher rate when they remember what it hath cost How much precious blood How many of the Lives of Gods worthies and our most dear friends besides all other cost Methinks when I am with freedom preaching or hearing or living I see my dying friends before mine eyes whose blood was shâ—d for this and look the more respectively on them yet living whose frequent dangers did procure it Oh then when we are rejoycing in Glory how shall we think of the blood that revived our Souls and how shall we look upon him whose sufferings did put that Joy into our hearts How carefully preserve we those prizes which with greatest hazard we gained from the enemy Goliahs sword must be kept as a Trophie and layd up behinde the Ephod and in a time of need David says There 's none to that Surely when
we do divide the spoil and partake of the prize which our Lord so dearly won we shall say indeed There 's none to that How dear was Jonathans Love to David which was testified by stripping himself of the Robe that was upon him and giving it David and his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle and also by saving him from his fathers wrath How dear for ever will the Love of Christ be then to us who stripped himself as it were of his Majesty and Glory and put our man Garment of flesh upon him that he might put the Robes of his own Righteousness and Glory upon us and saved us not from cruel injustice but from his Fathers deserved wrath Well then Christians as you use to do in your Books and on your Goods to write down the price they cost you so do on your Righteousness and on your Glory write down the price The Precious Blood of Christ Yet understand this rightly Not that this highest Glory was in strictest proper sense purchased or that it was the most immediate Effect of Christs death We must take heed that we conceive not of God as a Tyrant who so delighteth in cruelty as to exchange mercies for stripes or to give a Crown on condition he may torment men God was never so pleased with the sufferings of the Innocent much lesse of his Sonne as to sell his mercy properly for their sufferings Fury dwelleth not in him nor doth he willingly correct the sons of men nor take pleasure in the death of him that dieth But the sufferings of Christ were primarily and immediatly to satisfie the justice that required blood and to bear what was due to the sinner and to receive the blow that should have fallen upon him so to restore him to the life he lost and the happiness he fell from But this dignity which surpasseth the first is as it were from the redundancy of his merit or a secondary fruit of his death The work of his Redemption so well pleased the Father that he gave him power to advance his chosen to a higher dignity then they fell from and to give them the glory which was given to himself and all this according to his counsell and the good pleasure of his own will SECT II. 2. THe Second Pearl in the Saints Diadem is that It 's Free This seemeth as Pharoahs second Kine to devour the former and as the Angell to Balaam To meet it with a drawne sword of a full opposition But the seeming discord is but a pleasing diversity composed into that harmony which constitutes the Melody These two Attributes Purchased and Free are the two chaines of Gold which by their pleasant twisting doe make up that wreath for the heads of the Pillars in the Temple of God It was deare to Christ but free to us When Christ was to buy silver and gold was nothing worth Prayers and Tears could not suffice nor any thing below his Blood But when we come to buy the price is fallen to just nothing Our buying is but receiving we have it freely without money and without price Nor doe the Gospell-conditions make it lesse Free or the Covenant tenor before mentioned contradict any of this If the Gospell-conditions had been such as are the Laws or payment of the debt required at our hands the freeness then were more questionable Yea if God had said to us Sinners if you will satisfie my Justice but for one of your sins I will forgive you all the rest it would have been a hard condition on our part and the Grace of the Covenant not so Free as our disability doth necessarily require But if all the Condition be our cordiall acceptation surely we deserve not the name of Purchasers Thankfull accepting of a free acquittance is no paying of the Debt If life be offered to a condemned man upon condition that he shall not refuse the offer I think the favour is never the lesse free Nay though the condition were that he should begge and wait before he have his pardon and take him for his Lord who hath thus redeemed him All this is no satisfying of the justice of the Law Especially when the condition is also given as it is by God to all his chosen surely then here 's all free If the Father freely give the Son and the Son freely pay the debt and if God do freely accept that way of payment when he might have required it of the principall and if both Father and Sonne do freely offer us the purchased life upon those fair conditions and if they also freely send the Spirit to inable us to perform those conditions then what is here that is not free Is not every Stone that builds this Temple Free-Stone Oh the everlasting admiration that must needs surprize the Saints to think of this Freenesse What did the Lord see in me that he should judge me meet for such a State That I who was but a poor diseaâ—ed despised wretch should be clad in the brightnesse of this Glory That I a silly creeping breathing worm should be advanced to this high dignity That I who was but lately groaning weeping dying should now be as full of joy as my heart can hold Yea should be taken from the grave where I was rotting and stinking and from the dust and darkness where I seemed forgotten and here set before his Throne that I should be taken with Mordecai from captivity to be set next unto the King and with Daniel from the Den to be made ruler of Princes and Provinces and with Saul from seeking Asses to be advanced to a Kingdom Oh who can fathom unmeasurable Love Indeed if the proud hearted selfe-ignorant selfe-admiring sinners should be thus advanced who think none so fit for preferment as themselves perhaps instead of admiring free Love they would with those unhappy Angels be discontented yet with their estate But when the selfe-denying selfe-accusing humble soule who thought himselfe unworthy the ground he trod on and the aire he breathed in unworthy to eat drink or live when he shall be taken vp into this Glory He who durst â—carce come among or speak to the imperfect Saints on earth because he was unworthy he who durst scarce hear or scarce read the Scripture or scarce pray and call God Father oâ— scarce receive the Sacraments of his Covenant and all because he was unworthy For this soul to finde it self rapt up into heaven and closed in the armes of Christ even in a moment Do but think with your selves what the transporting astonishing admiration of such a soule will be He that durst not lift up his eyes to heaven but stood a farre off smiting on his brest and crying Lord be mercifull to me a sinner now to be lift up to heaven himself He who was wont to write his name in Bradfords stile The unthankâ—full the hard-hearted the unworthy sinner And was wont to
dark and our faith in him exceeding feeble so is our love to him but little and therefore are our desires after him so dull SECT IV. 3. IT appears we are little weary of sinning when we are so unwilling to be freed by dying Did we take sin for the greatest evil we should not be willing of its company so long did we look on sin as our cruellest enemy and on a sinful life as the most miserable life sure we should then be more willing of a change But O how far are our hearts from our doctrinal profession in this point also We preach and write and talk against sin and call it all that naught is and when we are called to leave it we are loth to depart We brand it with the most odious names that we can imagine and all far short of expressing its vileness but when the approach of death puts us to the tryal we chuse a continuance with these abominations before the presence and fruition of God But as Nemon smote his Souldier for railing against Alexander his enemy saying I hired thee to fight against him and not to rail against him So may God smite us also when he shall hear our tongues reviling that sin which we resist so slothfully and part with so unwillingly Christians seeing we are conscious that our hearts deserve a smiting for this let us joyn together to chide and smite our own hearts before God do judg and smite them O foolish sinful heart Hast thou been so long a sink of sin a cage of all unclean lusts a fountain uncessantly streaming forth the bitter and deadly waters of transgression and art thou not yet aweary Wretched Soul hast thou been so long wounded in all thy faculties so grievously languishing in all thy performances so fruitful a soyl for all iniquities and art thou not yet more weary Hast thou not yet transgressed long enough nor long enough provoked thy Lord nor long enough abused love wouldst thou yet grieve the Spirit more and sin against thy Saviours blood and more increase thine own wounds and still lie under thy grievous imperfections Hath thy sin proved so profit able a commodity so necessary a companion such a delightful employment that thou dost so much dread the parting day Hath thy Lord deserved this at thy hands that thou shouldst chuse to continue in the Suburbs of â—ell rather then live with him in light and rather stay and drudg in sin and abide with his and thy own professed enemy then come away and dwell with God May not God justly grant thee thy wishes and seal thee a lease of thy desired distance and nail thy ear to these doors of misery and exclude thee eternally from his glory Foolish sinner who hath wronged thee God or sin who hath wounded thee and caused thy groans who hath made thy life so woful and caused thee to spend thy days in dolor is it Christ or is it thy corruption and art thou yet so loth to think of parting shall God be willing to dwell with man and the Spirit to abide in thy peevish heart and that where sin doth straiten his room and a cursed inmate inhabit with him which is ever quarrelling and contriving against him and shall man be loth to come to God where is nothing but perfect Blessedness and Glory Is not this to judg our selves unworthy of everlasting Life If they in Acts 13.46 who put the Gospel from them did judg themselves unworthy do not we who flie from life and glory SECT V. 4. IT shews that we are insensible of the vanity of the Creature and of the vexation accompanying our residence here when we are so loth to hear or think of a removal VVhat ever we say against the world or how grievous soever our complaints may seem we either beleeve not or feel not what we say or else we should be answerably affected to it VVe call the world our enemy and cry out of the oppression of our Task-masters and groan under our sore bondage but either we speak not as we think or else we imagine some singular happiness to consist in the possession of worldly things for which all this should be endured Is any man loth to leave his prison or to remove his dwelling from cruel enemies or to scape the hands of murderous robbers Do we take the world indeed for our prison our cruel spoyling murderous foe and yet are we loth to leave it Do we take this flesh for the clog of our spirits and a vail that 's drawn betwixt us and God and a continual in dwelling traitor to our souls and yet are we loth to lay it down Indeed Peter was smitten by the Angel before he arose and left his prison but it was more from his ignorance of his intended deliverance then any unwillingness to leave the place I have read of Josephs long imprisonment and Daniels casting into the Den of Lyons and Jeremies sticking fast in the Dungeon and Jonahs lying in the belly of the VVhale and David from the deep crying to God but I remember not that any were loth to be delivered I have read indeed That they suffered cheerfully and rejoyced in being afflicted destitute and tormented yea and that some of them would not accept of deliverance But not from any love to the suffering or any unwillingness to change their condition but because of the hard terms of their deliverance and from the hope they had of a better resurrection Though Paul and Sylas could sing in the stocks and comfortably bear their cruel scourgings yet I do not beleeve they were unwilling to go forth nor took it ill when God relieved them At foolish wretched soul Doth every prisoner groan for freedom and every Slave desire his Jubilee and every sick man long for health and every hungry man for food and dost thou alone abhor deliverance Doth the Seamen long to see the Land doth the Husbandman desire the Harvest and the laboring man to receive his pay doth the traveller long to be at home and the runner long to win the prize and the Souldier long to win the field And art thou loth to see thy labors finished and to receive the end of thy Faith and sufferings and to obtain the thing for which thou livest Are all thy sufferings onely seeming have thy gripes thy griefs and groans been onely dreams if they were yet methinks we should not be afraid of waking Fearful dreams are not delightful Or is it not rather the worlds delights that are all meer dreams and shadows Is not all its glory as the light of a Glow-worm a wandering fire yielding but small directing light and as little comforting heat in all our doubtful and sorrowful darkness or hath the world In these its latter days laid aside its ancient enmity Is it become of late more kinde hath it left its thorny renting nature who hath wrought this great change and who
yet remember the heart is deceitful God is oft pretended vvhen our selves are inâ—ended But if this be it that sticks vvith thee indeed consider VVilt thou pretend to be vviser then God doth not he knovv hovv â—o provide for his Church Cannot he do his vvork vvithout thee or finde out instruments enough besides thee Think not too highly of thy self because God hath made thee useful Must the Church needs fall when thou art gone Art thou the foundation on which its built Could God take away a Moses an Aaron David Elias c. and finde supply for all their places and cannot he also finde supply for thine This is to derogate from God too much and to arrogate too much unto thy self Neither art thou so merciful as God nor canst love the Church so well as he As his interest is infinitely beyond thine so is his tender care and bounty But of this before Yet mistake me not in all that I have said I deny not but that it is lawful and necessary for a Christian upon both the forementioned grounds to desire God to delay his death both for a further opportunity of gaining assurance and also to be further serviceable to the Church But first This is nothing to their case who are still delaying and never willing whose true discontents are at death it self more then at the unseasonableness of dying Secondly Though such desires are sometimes lawful yet must they be carefully bounded and moderated to which end are the former considerations We must not be too absolute and peremptory in our desires but cheerfully yield to Gods disposal The rightest temper is that of Pauls to be in a streight between two desiring to depart and be with Christ and yet to stay while God will have us to do the Church the utmost service But alas we are seldom in this streight Our desires run out all one way and that for the flesh and not the Church Our streights are onely for fear of dying and not betwixt the earnest desires of dying and of living SECT XXIV OBject But is not death a punishment of God for sin Doth not Scripture call it the King of fears And Nature above all other evils abhor it Answ. I le not meddle with that which is controversal in this Whether Death be properly a punishment or not But grant that in it self considered it may be called Evil as being naturally the dissolution of the Creature Yet being sanctified to us by Christ and being the season and occasion of so great a Good as is the present possession of God in Christ it may be welcomed with a glad submission if not with desire Christ affords us grounds enough to comfort us against this natural Evil And therefore endues us with the principle of Grace to raise us above the reach of nature For all those low and poor Objections as leaving House Goods and Friends leaving our children unprovided c. I pass them over as of lesser moment then to take much with men of Grace SECT XXV LAstly Understand me in this also That I have spoke all this to the faithful soul. I perswade not the ungodly from fearing death It s a wonder rather that they fear it no more and spend not their days in continual horror as is said before Truly but that we know a stone is insensible and a hard heart is dead and stupid or else a man would admire how poor souls can live in ease and quietness that must be turned out of these bodies into everlasting flames Or that be not sure at least if they should die this night whether they shall lodg in Heaven or Hell the next especially when so many are called and so few chosen and the Righteous themselves are scarcely saved One would think such men should eat their bread with trembling and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking in the night and they should fall presently a searching themselves and enquiring of others and crying to God That if it were possible they might quickly be out of this danger and so their hearts be freed from horror For a man to quake at the thoughts of death that looks by it to be dispossessed of his happiness and knoweth not whether he is next to go this is no wonder But for the Saints to fear their passage by Death to Rest this is an unreasonable hurtful Fear CHAP. III. Motives to a Heavenly Life SECT I. WE have now by the guidance of the Word of the Lord and by the assistance of his Spirit shewed you the nature of the Rest of the Saints and acquainted you with some duties in relation thereto We come now to the close of all to press you to the great duty which I chiefly intended when I begun this subject and have here reserved it to the last place because I know hearers are usually of slippery memories yet apt to retain the last that is spoken though they forget all that went before Dear friends its pity that either you or I should forget any thing of that which doth so neerly concern us as this Eternal Rest of the Saints doth But if you must needs forget something let it be any thing else rather then this let it be rather all that I have hitherto said though I hope of better then this one ensuing Use. Is there a Rest and such a Rest remaining for us Why then are our thoughts no more upon it why are not our hearts continually there why dwell we not there in constant contemplation Sirs Ask your hearts in good earnest what is the cause of this neglect are we reasonable in this or are we not Hath the Eternal God provided us such a Glory and promised to take us up to dwell with himself and is not this worth the thinking on Should not the strongest desires of our hearts be after it and the daily delights of our souls be there Do we beleeve this and can we yet forget and neglect it What 's the matter will not God give us leave to approach this light or will he not suffer our souls to tast and see Why then what means all his earnest invitations why doth he so condemn our earthly-mindedness and command us to set our affections above Ah vile hearts If God were against it we were likelier to be for it When he would have us to keep our station then we are aspiring to be like God and are ready to invade the Divine Prerogatives But when he commands our hearts to Heaven then they will not stir an inch like our Predecessors the sinful Israelites When God would have them march for Canaan then they mutiny and will not stir either they fear the Gyants or the walled Cities or want necessaries or something hinders them but when God bids them not to go then will they needs be presently marching and fight they will though it be to their overthrow If the fore-thoughts of glory were forbidden
and height of my spirit discover my title to this promised land shall I be the adopted Son of God and coheir with Christ of that blessed inheritance and daily look when I am put into possession and shall not this be seen in my joyful countenance What if God had made me commander of the earth What if the mountains would remove at my command What if I could heal all diseases with a word or a touch What if the infernal spirits were all at my command Should I not rejoyce in such priviledges and honors as these yet is it my Saviours command not to rejoyce that the divels are subject to us but in this to rejoyce that our names are written in heaven I cannot here enjoy my parents or my neer and beloved friends without some delight especially when I did too freely let out my affections to my friend how sweet was that very exercise of my love O what will it then be to live in the perpetual love of God! For brethren here to live together in Unity how good and pleasant a thing is it To see a family live in love husband wife parents children servants doing all in love to one another To see a Town live together in love without any envyings brawlings heart-burnings or contentions scornes law-suits factions or divisions but every man loving his neighbor as himself and thinking they can never do too much for one another but striving to go beyond each other in love O how happy and delectable a sight is this O sweetest bands saith Seneca which binde so happily that those that are so bound do love their binders and desire still to be bound more closely and even reduced into one O then what a blessed society will be the Family of Heaven and those peaceable Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem where is no division nor dissimilitude nor differing Judgments nor disaffection nor strangeness nor deceitful friendship never an angry thought or look never a cutting unkinde expression but all are one in Christ who is one with the Father and live in the love of Love himself Cato could say That the soul of a Lover dwelleth in the person whom he loveth and therefore we say The soul is not more where it liveth and enlighteneth then where it loveth How neer then will my soul be closed to God and how sweet must that conjunction be when I shall so heartily strongly and uncessantly love him As the Bee lies sucking and satiating her self with the sweetness of the Flower or rather as the childe lies sucking the Mothers brest inclosed in her arms and sitting in her lap even so shall my loving soul be still feeding on the sweetness of the God of Love Ah wretched fleshly unbelieving heart that can think of such a day and work and life as this with so low and dull and feeble joyes But my enjoying Joyes will be more lively How delectable is it to me to behold and study these inferior works of God to read those Anatomical Lectures of Du Bartas upon this great dissected body what a beautiful fabrick is this great house which here we dwell in The floor so drest with various Herbs and Flowrs and Trees and watered with Springs and Rivers and Seas the roof so wide expanded so admirably adorned Such astonishing workmanship in every part The studies of an hundred Ages more if the world should last so long would not discover the mysteries of divine skill which are to be found in the narrow compass of our bodies What Anatomist is not amazed in his Search and Observations What wonders then do Sun and Moon and Stars and Orbs and Seas and VVindes and Fire and Aire and Earth c. afford us And hath God prepared such a house for our silly sinful corruptible flesh and for a soul imprisoned and doth he bestow so many millions of wonderful rarities even upon his enemies O then what a dwelling must that needs be which he prepareth for pure refined spiritual glorified ones and which he will bestow onely upon his dearly beloved children whom he hath chosen out to make his mercy on them glorified and admired As far as our perfected glorified bodies will excel this frail and corruptible flesh so far wil the glory of the New Jerusalem exceed all the present glory of the creatures The change upon our Mansion will be proportionable to the change upon our selves Arise then O my soul by these steps in thy Contemplation and let thy thoughts of that glory were it possible as far in sweetness exceed thy thoughts of the excellencies below Fear not to go out of this body and this world when thou must make so happy a change as this but say as Zuingerus when he was dying I am glad and even leap for joy that at last the time is come wherein that even that mighty Jehovah whose Majesty in my search of Nature I have admired whose Goodness I have adored whom in faith I have desired whom I have sighed for will now shew himself to me face to face And let that be the unfained sense of thy heart which Camerarius left in his VVill should be written on his Monument Vita mihi mors est mors mihi vita nova est Life is to me a Death Death is to me a new Life Moreover how wonderful and excellent are the works of Providence even in this life to see the great God to engage himself and set a work his Attributes for the safety and advancement of a few humble despicable praying persons O what a joyful time will it then be when so much Love and Mercy and VVisdom and Power and Truth shall be manifested and glorified in the Saints glorification How delightful is it to my soul to review the workings of Providence for my self and to read over the Records and Catalogues of those special mercies wherewith my life hath been adorned and sweetned How oft have my prayers been heard and my tears regarded and my groaning troubled soul relieved and my Lord hath bid me Be of good cheer He hath healed me when in respect of means I was uncurable He hath helped me when I was helpless In the midst of my supplications hath he eased and revived me He hath taken me up from my knees and from the dust where I have lain in sorrow and despair even the cries which have been occasioned by distrust hath he regarded what a support are these experiences to my fearful unbelieving heart These clear Testimonies of my Fathers Love do put life into my afflicted drooping spirit O then what a blessed day will that be when I shall have all mercy perfection of mercy nothing but mercy and fully injoy the Lord of Mercy himself When I shall stand on the shore and look back upon the raging Seas which I have safely passed when I shall in safe and full possession of glory look back upon all my pains and troubles and feares and tears and upon all the
my Aphorisms of Justification shew which I wrote to cut the unobserved Sinews of Antinomianism and open the true Scripture Mean in that point and which I am more confirmed in the truth of now then ever by the weakness of all that I can yet hear against it and yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others and seek to make a partie for it and disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear lest I should prove a fire-brand in Hell for being a fire-brand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I here charge you That if God should give me up to any factious Church-rending course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step And for Peace with one another follow it with all your might If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 mark this When you feel any sparks of discontent in your brest take them as kindled by the Divel from Hell and take heed you cherish them not If the flames begin to break forth in Censoriousness Reproaches and hard Speeches of others be as speedy and busie in quenching it as if it were fire in the Thatch of your houses For why should your houses be dearer to you then the Church which is the house of God or then your souls which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost If any heart-burnings arise do not keep strange but go together and lovingly debate it or pray together that God would reconcile you or refer the matter to your Minister or others and let not the Sun go down on your wrath Hath God spoke more against any sin then unpeaceableness If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you which made Endovicus Crocius say That this is the measure and essential propertie of the lest degree of true Faith Syntag. lib. 4. cap. 16. If you love not each other you are no Disciples of Christ nay if you love not your enemies and bless not them that curse you and pray not for them that hurt and persecute you you are no Children of God The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated c. Jam. 3.17 O remember that piercing example of Christ who washed his Disciples feet to teach us that we must stoop as low to one another Sure God doth not jest with you in all these plain Scriptures I charge you in the Name of Christ if you cannot have peace otherwise That you suffer wrongs and reproaches that you go and beg peace of those that should beg it of you yea that you beg it on your knees of the poorest beggar rather then lose it And remember Rom. 16.17 18. 7. Above all be sure you get down the pride of your hearts Forget not all the Sermons I preached to you against this sin No sin more natural more common or more deadly A proud man is his own Idol onely from pride cometh contention There is no Lâ—ving in peace with a proud person Every disrespect will cast them into a Feaver of discontent If once you grow wise in your own eyes and love to be valued and preferred and love those best that think highliest of you and have secret heart-risings against any that disregard you or have a low esteem of you and cannot endure to be flighted or spoke evil of never take your selves for Christians if this be your case To be a true Christian without Humilitie is as hard as to be a man without a Soul O poor England How low art thou brought by the Pride of Ignorant Zealots Dear Friends I can foretel you without the gift of prophecy That if any among you do fall from the Truth mark which are the proudest that cannot endure to be contradicted and that vilifie others and those will likely be they And if ever you be broke in pieces and ruined Pride will be the cause 8. Be sure you keep the mastery over your flesh and senses Few ever fall from God but flesh-pleasing is the cause Many think that by flesh the Scripture means onely our in-dwelling sin when alas it is this sensitive appetite that it chargeth us to subdue Nothing in the world damneth so many as flesh-pleasing while men generally chuse it as their Happiness in stead of God O remember who hath said If ye live after the flesh ye shall die and Make no provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires Rom 8.5 6 7. and 13.14 Think of this when you are tempted to drunkenness and gluttony and lustfulness and worldliness and when you would fain have your dwellings and states more delightful You little think what a sin it is even to please your flesh further then it tends to help you in the service of God 9. Make conscience of the great duty of reproving and exhorting those about you Make not your souls guilty of the oaths ignorance and ungodliness of others by your silence Admonish them lovingly and modestly but be sure you do it and that seriously This is the first step in Discipline Expect not that your Minister should put any from the Sacrament whom you have not thus admonished once and again Punish not before due process 10. Lastly Be sure to maintain a constant delight in God and a seriousness and spirituality in all his Worship Think it not enough to delight in Duties if you delight not in God Judg not of your duties by the bulk and number but by this sweetness You are never stable Christians till you reach this Never forget all those Sermons I preached to you on Psal 37.4 Give not way to a customary dulness in duty Do every duty with all thy might especially be not slight in secret Prayer and Meditation Lay not out the chief of your zeal upon externals and opinions and the smaller things of Religion Let must of your daily work be upon your hearts Be still suspicious of them understand their mortal wickedness and deceitfulness and trust them not too far Practise that great duty of daily watching pray earnestly That you be not lead into temptation Fear the beginings and appearances of sin Beware lest Conscience once lose its tenderness Make up every breach between God and your consciences betime Learn how to live the life of Faith and keep fresh the sense of the love of Christ and of your continual need of his Blood Spirit and Intercession And how much you are beholden and engaged to him Live in a constant readiness and expectation of death and be sure to get acquainted with this Heavenly Conversation which this Book is written to direct you in which I commend to your use hoping you will be at the pains to read it as for your sakes I have been to write it And I shall beg for you of the Lord while I live on this Earth That he will perswade
your souls to this blessed Work and that when death comes it may finde you so imployed that I may see your faces with joy at the Bar of Christ and we may enter together into the Everlasting Rest. Amen Your most affectionate though unworthy Teacher Rich. Baxter Kederminster Jan. 15. 1649. To the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Rous Baronet with the Lady Jane Rous his VVife Right Worshipful THis First Part of this Treatise was written under your Roof and therefore I present it not to you as a gift but as your own Not for your Protection but for your Instruction and Direction for I never perceived you possessed with that evil spirit which maketh men hear their Teachers as their Servants to censure their Doctrine or be humored by them rather then to learn Nor do I intend this Epistle for the publishing of your Vertues You know to whose judgment you stand or fall It is a small thing to be judged by mans judgment If you be sentenced as Righteous at the Bar of Christ and called by him the Blessed of his Father it matters not much by what name or title you are here called All Saints are low in their own esteem and therefore thirst not to be highly esteemed by others He that knows what Pride hath done in the World and is now doing and how close that hainous sin doth cleave to all our Natures will scarce take him for a friend who will bring fewel to the fire nor that breath for amicable which will blow the coal Yet he that took so kindly a womans box of oyntment as to affix the History to his Gospel that where-ever it was read that good Work might be remembred hath warranted me by his example to annex the mention of your Favors to this Treatise which have many times far exceeded in cost that which Judas thought too good for his Lord. And common ingenuity commandeth me thankfully to acknowledg That when you heard I was suddenly cast into extream weakness you sent into several Counties to seek me in my quarters and missing of me sent again to fetch me to your house where for many moneths I found a Hospital a Physitian a Nurse and real Friends and which is more then all daily and importunate Prayers for my recovery and since I went from you your kindnesses still following me in aboundance And all this for a man that was a stranger to you whom you had never seen before but among Souldiers to burden you And for one that had no witty insinuations for the extracting of your favors nor impudency enough to return them in flatteries yea who had such obstructions betwixt his heart and his tongue that he could scarce handsomly express the least part of his thankfulness much less able to make you a requital The best return I can make of your love is in commending this Heavenly Duty to your Practice wherein I must intreat you to be the more diligent and unwearied because as you may take more time for it then the poor can do so have you far stronger temptations to divert you it being extreamly difficult for those that have fulness of all things here to place their happiness really in another life and to set their hearts there as the place of their Rest which yet must be done by all that will be saved Study Luke 12.16 to 22. and 16.19 25. Matth. 6.21 How little comfort do all things in this world afford to a departing soul My constant prayer for you to God shall be That all things below may be below him in your heart and that you may throughly master and mortifie the desires of the flesh and may daily live above in the Spirit with the Father of Spirits till you arrive among the perfected Spirits of the Just. Your much obliged Servant Rich. Baxter The Contents of the First Part. CHAP. I. THE Text explained pag. 1 2 3 Qu. Doth this Rest remain to a determinate number of persons Elect Or only to believers in generall p. 4 Qu. Is it theirs only in possibility or in certainty p. 5 Chap. 2. The definition of Rest And of this Rest. p. 6 Qu. Whether to make the obtaining of Rest and avoiding misery the end of our duties be not Legall or Mercenary Answered p 8 9 Chap. 3. Twelve things which are presupposed to this Rest. p. 12 c. Chap. 4. What this Rest containeth 1. Cessation from all that motion which is the means to attain the end p. 20 2. Perfect freedom from all evill p. 21 3. The highest-degree of personall Perfection p. 22 4. Our nearest fruition of God the chief Good p. 23 5. A sweet and constant action of all the powers in this fruition p 28 As 1. Of the Senses and Tongue and whole Body p. 29 2. Of the Soul And 1. Vnderstanding As 1. Knowledg p. 30 2. Memory p. 33 2. Affections As by Love p. 35 2. By Joy p. 39 This Love and Joy will be mutuall p. 41 Chap. 5. The four great antecedents and preparatives to this Rest. p. 44 1. The coming of Christ. p. 45 2. Our Resurrection p. 51 3. Our justification in the great Judgment p. 57 4. Our solemn Coronation and Inthroning p. 65 Chap. 6. This Rest tryed by nine Rules in Philosophy or Reason and found by all to be the most excellent state in generall p. 69 Chap. 7. The particular excellencies of this Rest. p. 76 1. It s the fruit of Christs blood and enjoyed with the purchaser ibid. 2. It is freely given us p. 78 3. It is the Saints peculiar p. 81 4. In association with Angels and perfect Saints p. 83 5. Yet its Joys immediate from God p. 87 6. It will be a seasonable Rest. p. 91 7. And a sutable Rest 1. To our Natures 2. Desires 3. Necessities p. 97 8. A perfect Rest 1. In the sincerity of it 2. And universality p. 101 1. Of good enjoyed 2. And of the evill we are freed from ibid. We shall Rest 1. From sin and that 1. Of the Vnderstanding p. 102 2. From sin of Will Affection and Conversation p. 105 2. From suffering Particularly 1. From all doubts of Gods love p. 106 2. From all sense of his displeasure p. 107 3. From all Satans Temptations p. 108 4. From temptations of the world and flesh p. 110 5. From Persecutions and abuses of the world p. 112 6. From our own divisions and dissentions p. 116 7. From participating in our brethrens sufferings p. 121 8. From all our own personall sufferings p. 125 9. From all the labour and trouble of duty p. 128 10 From the trouble of Gods absence p. 129 9. As it will be thus perfect so Everlasting p. 129 c. Chap. 8. The People of God described The severall parts of the description opened and therein many weighty controversies briefly touched And lastly the description applyed by way of examination p. 134. to 164 The Contents of the Second Part. CHAP. I. THE Certain truth