Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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B01765
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Happiness at hand. Or A plain and practical discourse of the joy of just mens souls in the state of separation from the body. For the instruction of weak Christians, and for the comfort of the afflicated. / By J. B. Rector of Finchamsted in the county of Berks.
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Brandon, John, b. 1644 or 5.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing B4250; ESTC R170761
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60,226
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213
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thing almost than the holy truths thereof that most concern them that say in their Hearts their Tongues are their own and are not affraid of that fearfull Sin to despise Government and speak evil of Dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 Jude 8. That drink as if they were made only to swallow and keep Company in their usual course till they are unfit for any Company that love to raise themselves by the ruines of others and spare not the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless to gratifie their greedy humours and please their proud malicious Minds that spight at the very Appearances of Piety and rail at the most upright and inoffensive Livers when they have put some hated Names upon them as the Heathens of old baited Christians with Dogs when they covered them all over with the Skins of wild Beasts that go about doing mischief in abundance inventing a company of ugly silly reproachfull tales to set us at a distance from each other and destroy the sacred Bonds of Peace and Love that have so desperately debauched themselves and overcome their consciences as to follow without fear or shame such courses as the Heathens would cry out against that provoke the most high in the most horrible manner and imprecate on themselves on the smallest occasions the wrath of that great God which the proudest Devils tremble at That these and such like are not the Just and Righteous ones that the Scripture promiseth Salvation to is very evident in it self And I need no more to prove it than to prove a Dunghill is not a Star. If therefore such People should have never so good thoughts of their States yet in the day of God's Visitation they shall see their Vanity and understand with shame enough that the holy one remembreth all their Wickedness Hos 7.2 And now I shall endeavour to shew what a Man may have and yet not be a truly Just and Righteous Person and afterwards add the Character of such a one in various propositions For the former A Person may have outward peace and prosperity and yet not be a Just Person he may have very much of all earthly good and not be good himself Though prosperity is promised to the Godly so far as the Divine Wisdom sees fittest yet it commonly cometh to many of the Wicked Ps 73.12 Behold these are the ungodly these prosper in the World. Yea the Tabernacles of Robbers did prosper Job 12.6 2 A Man may have as outward prosperity so inward peace and yet not be a Righteous Man. That guilt may not much afflict the conscience here which hereafter may sink the Soul into the horrid depths of endless sorrows The French Historian tells us that two of the veriest Villains that ever that great Nation held were observed to die very quietly though they shewed no signs of true Repentance and St. Paul tells us of the wicked that when they say Peace and Safety then sudden Destruction cometh upon them 1 Thes 5. 3. One may have a fair outside and a good profession be a moral honest Man as they call it and so far from scandalous in the Worlds Eye as to escape their severer censures and yet not be a just Man indeed and in a Scripture sense It would be in comparison at least a very Happy Age if all that seem good were so indeed if all that are not scandalous in the sight of the World were Righteous in the sight of God. The Scribes and Pharisees whom we must surpass in goodness if ever we would see the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.20 These I say had many of them a fair outside and could not have gained such a Reputation for Piety as we know they had if they had come short of moral Men and sober Livers and indeed they were somewhat more than such for 't is not easie to conceive a more curious frame of Religion as to the outward part of it than they had witness their Praying and Fasting their Alms and Observation of the Sabbath in Mat. 6. and elsewhere Yet they were not spoken of as the Righteous Servants of God yea that very Text Mat. 5.20 shews plainly that they came short of Heaven notwithstanding all their pretences and performances And if a Man may be morally honest and outwardly Religious and yet not be Righteous and Religious indeed O then Christian Reader what shall we think of those that are Scorners of Religion and have scarce any shews of goodness in them that value the Scripture no more than a Play Book and an Orthodox Sermon than an idle Story that act contrary to the great Rules of Morality and Sober Reason dishonouring their God and themselves at once by horrid Oaths and Imprecations by Hellish Railings Lyes and Slanders in their ordinary course that call themselves People of the Church of England and live as if they were made to disgrace it saying once in a month or two I Believe in God yet behaving themselves daily as if they Believed there is no God boasting very frequently of the Loyalty of their principles yet seldom coming to Church to pray for their King in a word grinding the Faces of the poor and needy in the grossest manner treating them with terrible threatnings and discoursing them with Luciferian Loftiness when they humbly beg the money that they have honestly earned of them and beseech it for their necessities sake O how far are these from the Just Man's path And though at present they may have a false peace yet when Conscience is awakened they may be forced to consider with confusion enough that their God is not to be mocked and that he knoweth how to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished 2 Pet. 2.9 4. A Man may have some kind of good motions and good desires and yet not be a truly Just and Righteous Person Pharaoh himself desired Moses to pray for him and 't is said of Simon Magus that he Believed Acts. 8.13 which must needs imply some good thoughts of the Christian Faith and some motion of his mind towards it And those to whom the Holy Prophet was as a pleasant Song which argues that they had some delight in his Ministery and some desire after it yet are not spoken of as God's Righteous Servants for 't is added They hear thy words but do them not Ezech. 33.32 Divines I acknowledge use to put a good Interpretation upon good desires and speak often of their Acceptance in the sight of God when they write for the comfort of afflicted Consciences But then those good desires are supposed to be sound and well grounded and attended with suitable endeavours and an upright inoffensive Conversation in the main But as for those good desires that too many are apt to content themselves with as when they content themselves to live ill in Sottish Profane Malicious and Injurious practices and yet satisfie themselves with this that they wish in some sort that they could do better and so hope
Praises here on Earth For it was the design of Christ to bring his People into a nearer Union with each other as well as himself that they may be one as we are one John 17.22 And those Arguments Divines bring for the Saints knowledge of one another after the Resurrection may seem almost as strong for their Souls Acquaintance with one another in their absence from their Bodies The Scripture speaking of the death of the faithfull says that therein they are gathered to their Fathers the holy Patriarchs and other their Religious Predecessours But they are not gathered to them in respect of their Bodies therefore in respect of their Souls 4. Holy Souls after Death shall be with Christ Phil. 1.23 When absent from the Body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 And oh what a thing is this 1. To be with Christ in his special and blisfull presence to know love and enjoy him fully clearly continually as the same Apostle maketh it the Crown of all Comforts To be for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 Thus I say to be with Christ must needs be a matter of purest and persectest Joy to a Christian's Soul. Oh that thou couldest fully understand good Reader the preciousness of such a privilege But Alas I want words to express it much more a heart to conceive it I am my self too little a Christian to tell thee the sweetness of this Consolation to discover the depths of this purest River of the Water of Life If the holy Apostle could solace himself in the hope of having the Company of his converts at Rome If the Lord Chancellour of England in the Reign of King Henry the 8th was so much delighted to see in London the Florentine Merchant that in some difficult cases had befriended him beyond Sea the expressions of whose joy and gratitude were so memorable that the Learned Dr. Hakwell thought good to record them in his Apology of God's power and providence If the Hearts of the weak have gathered strength and revived to admiration at the coming of some eminent unexpected Friends though these were but dying Dust and had not any degree of comfort absolutely at their command How unspeakably then must a gracious Soul be refreshed and most superlatively satisfied by the presence and favour of that immortal Majesty who suffered Death and the Curse to make it happy Surely it must needs be an inestimable benefit to be in the happiest manner present with him who is the King of Glory the Consolation of Israel the joy of Angels and the Saviour of the World. This therefore as he was a Mediatour was his great desire for his People That they might be with him where he is John 17.24 The joy of which we may a little guess at by the things that shall accompany this their Presence with him As 1. a full Deliverance from all Doubts and Fears and all things that may cause or occasion them Here how hard a thing was it for them to get an assurance of their interest in Christ and Salvation by him and when they had it t' was no easie matter to maintain and preserve it yea the best on Earth are not so privileged but that if they be not carefull and watchfull over themselves they may fall into such sins as may darken all their evidences for Heaven and deprive them of the Joy of their Salvation It was David's case Psal 51. But when once their Souls come to dwell with Christ then they shall be ever secured from all possibility of doubting about their spiritual and eternal welfare no such sad mist can cloud that Soul which lives under the Rayes of the Sun of Righteousness Here as they may have assurance so they may loose it again But to be with Christ is far better in that respect and they then Rest from their Labours from all that may be tedious and tiresome unto them Rev. 14.13 2. Their Presence with the Lord in St. Paul's sense will set them free from all manner of cares not only from disorderly and distrustfull cares but also from all natural necessary and prudential cares which their present state doth expose them to And the reason is plain because then their Souls are above all wants and necessities They want not for Monies when they are fully possest of the riches of Christ They want for no Friendship and good Company when they are happily joyned to the whole Family of Heaven They take no care for Food or Sleep when they enjoy him who is the Bread of Life and partake of that eternal Rest which he hath purchased for them 3. In a word Then they shall be freed from taking any care about doing their Duty and pleasing their God For the Difficulty of Duty will then be over and the Comfort of it only shall remain When they thus dwell with the holy one they shall be fully framed to his holy Will. To love God in perfection and delight in him without which Heaven it self cannot make us happy These things I say will be as natural and easie to holy Souls after death as it is to a thirsty man to drink or to the eye to behold the desired Light There being no sin then remaining in them to alienate and estrange them from their gracious God as hath been already proved And as their Being with Christ secureth them from all Trouble so it shall afford them the truest and strongest Consolation and that on these following grounds 1. Because they shall then see Christ to be their Own for ever And in all their knowledge of him they shall know him to be Theirs Propriety is in it self a pleasant thing with what content do Men many times speak even of those outward insufficient comforts which they can truly call their own My Mony and my Lands my Relations and my Friends c. Do usually sound with an Accent of Pleasure O what blessed Delight then must a pious Soul be elevated with when it dwells with Christ in a better World What Triumphant exultation will it be filled with when it can say with full assurance My Rock and my Refuge my Lord and my King my God and my Saviour my great High Priest and my Redeemer 2ly When they are with Christ in the sense aforesaid they shall possess the eternal Treasure and know perfectly the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.19 The very Being with him necessarily implies the enjoying of his Love as the Departing from him imports the want of it Mat. 7.23 And how great a Happiness must that be And though I cannot comprehend it yet I may fitly take occasion to consider it and it shall be the substance of the following Section SECT XIII Shewing the Greatness of the Love of Christ which the Souls of his People shall enjoy after Death WIthout this my small Book would be too small and would speak me guilty of too great an oversight to be handsomly excused For how should I make