and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives and then they shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psal. 23.6 Oh Christians beleeve and consider this Is Sun and Moon and Stars and all creatures called upon to praise the Lord What then should his people do Surely they are nearer him and enjoy more of him then the bruits shall do All his works praise him but above all let his Saints bless him Psal. 145.10 Oh let them speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power To make known to the sons of men his mighty Acts and the Glorious Majesty of his Kingdom Vers. 11.12 Let his praise be in the Congregation of his Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people and will beautifie the meek with salvation Psal. 149.1 2 5 6 4. This is the light that is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal. 97.11 Yea this honour have all his Saints Psalm 149.9 If the estate of the Devils before their fall were not much meaner then this and perhaps lower then some of their fellow Angels surely their sin was most accursed and detestable Could they yet aspire higher And was there yet room for discontent What is it then that would satisfie them Indeed the distance that we sinners and mortals are at from our God leaves us some excuse for discontent with our estate The poor soul out of the depth cries and cries aloud as if his Father were out of hearing sometime he chides the interposing clouds sometime he is angry at the vast gulf that 's set between sometime he would fain have the vail of mortality drawn aside and thinks death hath forgot his business he ever quarrels with this Sin that separates and longs till it be separated from his Soul that it may separate God and him no more Why poor Christian be of good chear the Time is Near when God and thou shall be Near and as Near as thou canst well desire Thou shalt dwell in his family is that enough It 's better to be a door-keeper in his house then enjoy the portion of the wicked Thou shalt ever stand before him about his Throne in the room with him in his presence chamber Wouldst thou yet be nearer Thou shalt be his child and he thy Father thou shalt be an heir of his Kingdom yea more the Spouse of his Son and what more canst thou desire Thou shalt be a member of the body of his Son he shall be thy Head thou shalt be one with him who is one with the Father Read what he hath desired for thee of his Father John 17.21 22 23. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us and the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me What can you desire yet more except you will as some do abuse Christs expression of oneness to conceive of such a union as shall Deifie us Which were a sin one step beyond the aspiring Arrogancy of Adam and I think beyond that of the Devils A Real Conjunction improperly called Union we may expect And a true Union of Affections A Moral Union improperly still called Union And a true Relative Union such as is between the members of the same political body and the Head yea such as is between the husband and the wife who are called one flesh And a real communion and Communication of Real Favors flowing from that Relative Union If there be any more it is acknowledged unconceiveable and consequently unexpressable and so not to be Spoken of If any can conceive of a proper Real Union and Identity which shall neither be a unity of Essence nor of person with Christ as I yet cannot I shall not oppose it But to think of Such a Union were high Blasphemy Nor must you think of a Union as some do upon natural Grounds following the dark mistaking principles of Plato and Plotinus If your thoughts be not guided and limited by Scripture in this you are lost Quest. But how is it we shall enjoy God Ans. That 's the fifth and last we come to SECT V. 5. THis Rest containeth A Sweet and constant Action of all the Powers of the Soul and Body in this fruition of God It is not the Rest of a stone which ceaseth from all motion when it attains the Center The Senses themselves as I judg are not only Passive in receiving their object but partly Passive and partly Active Whether the external Senses such as now we have shall be continued and imployed in this work is a great doubt For some of them it 's usually acknowledged they shall cease because their Being importeth their use and their use implyeth our estate of Imperfection As there is no use for eating and drinking so neither for the taste But for other Senses the Question will be harder For Job saith I shall see him with these eyes But do not all senses imply our imperfection If Job did speak of more then a Redemption from his present distress as it 's like he did yet certainly these eyes will be made so Spiritual that whether the name of Sense in the same sence as now shall befit them is a question This body shall be so changed that it shall no more be flesh and blood for that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 but a spiritual body vers 44. That which we sow we sow not that body that shall be But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own Body 1 Cor. 15.37 38. As the Oar is cast into the fire a stone but come forth so pure a mettal that it deserves another name and so the difference betwixt it and the Gold exceeding great So far greater will the change of our bodies and senses be even so great as now we cannot conceive If Grace make a Christian differ so much from what he was that the Christian could say to his Companion Ego non sum ego I am not the man I was how much more will Glory make us differ We may then say much more This is not the body I had and these are not the senses I had But because we have no other name for them let us call them Senses call them Eyes and Ears Seeing and Hearing But thus much conceive of the difference That as much as a Body Spiritual above the Sun in Glory exceedeth
afford that solid comfort as the converting of a few sinners by our unwearied compassionate exhortations Two men in a frosty season come where a company of people are ready to starve the one of them laps himself and taketh shelter for fear lest he should perish with them the other in pity falls to rub them that he may recover heat in them and while he laboreth hard to help them he getteth far better heat to himself then his unprofitable companion doth 7. With many also pride is a great impediment If it were to speak to a great man they would do it so it would not displease him But to go among the poor multitude and to take pains with a company of ignorant beggars or mean persons and to sit with them in a smoaky nasty cottage and there to instruct them and exhort them from day to day where is the person almost that will do it Many will much rejoyce if they have been instruments of converting a Gentleman and they have good cause But for the common multitude they look not after them As if God were a respecter of the persons of the rich or the souls of all were not alike to him Alas these men little consider how low Christ did stoop to us When the God of Glory comes down in flesh to wormes and goeth Preaching up and down among them from City to City Not the sillyest woman that he thought too low to confer with Few rich and noble and wise are called It is the poor that receive the glad tidings of the Gospel 8. Lastly With some also their Ignorance of the duty doth hinder them from performing it Either they know it not to be a duty or at least not to be their duty Perhaps they have not considered much of it nor been prest to it by their teachers as they have been to hearing and praying and other duties If this be thy case who readest this that meer Ignorance or inconsiderateness hath kept thee from it then I am in hope now thou art acquainted with thy duty thou wilt set upon it Object O but saith one I am of so weak parts and gifts that I am unable to manage an exhortation especially to men of strong natural parts and understanding Answ. First Set those upon the work who are more able Secondly Yet do not think that thou art so excused thy self but use faithfully that ability which thou hast not in teaching those of whom thou shouldst learn but in instructing those that are more ignorant then thy self and in exhorting those that are negligent in the things which they do know If you cannot speak well your self yet you can tell them what God speaketh in his word It is not the excellency of speech that winneth souls but the authority of God manifested by that speech and the power of his word in the mouth of the instructer A weak woman may tell what God saith in the plain passages of the word as well as a learned man If you cannot preach to them yet you can turn to the place in your Bible or at least remember them of it and say Thus it is written One of mean parts may remember the wisest of their duty when they forget it David received seasonable advice from Abigail a woman When a mans eyes are blinded with passion or the deceits of the world or the lusts of the flesh a weak instructer may prove very profitable for in that case he hath as much need to hear of that he knoweth as of that which he doth not know Object It is my superiour that needeth advice and exhortation and is it fit for me to teach or reprove my betters must the wife teach the husband of whom the Scripture biddeth them learn or must the childe teach the parents whose duty it is to teach them Answ. First It is fit that husbands should be able to teach their wives and parents to teach their children and God expecteth they should be so and therefore commandeth the inferiours to learn of them But if they through their own negligence do disable themselves or through their own wickedness do bring their souls into such misery as that they have the greatest need of advice and reproof themselves and are objects of pity to all that know their case then it is themselves and not you that break Gods order by bringing themselves into disability and misery Matter of meer order and manners must be dispensed with in cases of flat necessity Though it were your Minister you must teach him in such a case It is the part of parents to provide for the children and not children for the parents and yet if the parents fall into want must not the children relieve them It is the part of the husband to dispose of the affaires of the family and estate and yet if he be sick or besides himself must not the wife do it The rich should relieve the poor but if the rich fall into beggery they must be relieved themselves It is the work of the Physitian to look to the health of others and yet if he fall sick some body must help him and look to him So must the meanest servant admonish his master and the childe his parents and the wife her husband and the people their Minister in cases of necessity Secondly yet let me give you these two cautions here 1. That you do not pretend necessity when there is none out of a meer desire of teaching There is scarce a more certain discovery of a proud heart then to be forwarder and more desirous to Teach then to Learn especially toward those that are fitter to Teach us 2. And when the Necessity of your superiors doth call for your advice yet do it with all possible humility and modesty and meekness Let them discern your reverence and submission to their superiority in the humble maner of your addresses to them Let them perceive that you do it not out of a meer teaching humor or proud self-conceitedness An Elder must be admonished but not rebuked If a wife should tell her husband of his sin in a masterly railing language or if a servant reprove his master or a childe his father in a sawcie disrespective way what good could be expected from such reproof But if they should meekly and humbly open to him his sin and danger and intreat him to bear with them in what God commandeth and his misery requireth and if they could by teares testifie their sense of his case What father or master or husband could take this ill Object But some may say This will make us all Preachers and cause all to break over the bounds of their callings every boy and woman then will turn preacher Ans. 1. This is not taking a Pastoral charge of souls nor making an office or calling of it as Preachers do 2. And in the way of our callings every good Christian is a Teacher and hath a charge of his neighbors soul. Let
people may discern that you are in good sadness and mean as you speak and that you are not stageplayers but preachers of the doctrine of Salvation Remember what Cicero saith that if the matter be never so combustible yet if you put not fire to it it will not burn And what Erasmus saith that a hot Iron will pierce when a cold one will not And if the wise men of the world account you mad say as Paul If we are besides our selves it is to God And remember that Christ was so busie in doing good that his friends themselves begun to lay hands on him thinking he had been besides himself Mark 3. SECT VII 2. THe second and chief word of advice that I would give you is this Do not think that all your work is in your studies and in the Pulpit I confesse that is great but alas it is but a small part of your task You are Shepheards and must know every sheep and what is their disease and mark their strayings and help to cure them and fetch them home If the paucity of Ministers in great congregations which is the great unobserved mischief in England that cryes for reformation did not make it a thing impossible in many places I should charge the Ministers of England with most notorious unfaithfulness for neglecting so much the rest of their work which calleth for their diligence as much as publike Preaching O learn of Paul Act. 20.19 20 31. to preach publikly and from house to house night and day with tears Let there not be a soul in your charge that shall not be particulary instructed and watched over Go from house to house daily and enquire how they grow in knowledg and holiness and on what grounds they build their hopes of salvation and whether they walk uprightly and perform the duties of their severall relations and use the means to increase their abilities See whether they daily worship God in their families and set them in a way and teach them how to do it Confer with them about the doctrines and practice of Religion and how they receive and profit by publike teaching and answer all their carnal objections keep in familiarily with them that you may maintain your interest in them and improve all your interest for God See that no seducers do creep in among them or if they do be diligent to countermine them and preserve your people from infection of Heresies or Schismes or if they be infected be diligent to procure their recovery Not with passion and lordliness but with patience and condescension As Musculus did by the Anabaptists visiting them in Prison where the Magistrate had cast them and there instructing and relieving them and though they reviled him when he came and called him a false prophet and Antichristian seducer that thirsted for their blood yet he would not so leave them till at last by his meekness and love he had overcome them and recovered many to the truth and to unity with the Church Have a watchful eye upon each particular sheep in your flock Do not do as the lazy separatists that gather a few of the best together and take then only for their charge leaving the rest to sink or swim and giving them over to the Divel and their lusts and except it be by a Sermon in the Pulpit scarce ever endeavoring their salvation nor once looking what becomes of them O let it not be so with you If any be weak in the faith receive him but not to doubtful disputations If any be too careless of their duties and too little savor the things of the Spirit let them be pittied and not neglected If any walk scandalously and disorderly deal with them for their recovery with all diligence and patience and set before them the hainousness and danger of their sin If they prove obstinate after all then avoid them and cast them off But do not so cruelly as to unchurch them by hundreds by thousands and separate from them as so many Pagans and that before any such means hath been used for their recovery If they are ignorant it may be your fault as much as theirs and however they are fitter to be instructed then rejected except they absolutely refuse to be taught Christ will give you no thanks for keeping or putting out such from his School that are unlearned when their desire or will is to be taught I confesse it is easier to shut out the ignorant then to bestow our pains night and day in teaching them but wo to such slothful unfaithful servants Who then is a faithful and a wise servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them their meat in due season according to every ones age and capacity Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall finde so doing O be not asleep while the woolfe is waking Let your eye be quick in observing the dangers and strayings of your people If jealousies heart burnings or contentions arise among them quench them before they break out into raging unresistible flames As soon as you discern any turn worldly or proud or factious or self-conceited or disobedient or cold and slothful in his duty delay not but presently make out for his recovery Remember how many are loosers in the loss of a soul. SECT VIII DO not dawb or deal sleightly with any some will not tell their people plainly of their sins because they are great men and some because they are godly as if none but the poor and the wicked should be plainly dealt with Do not you so but reprove them sharply though differently and with wisdom that they may be sound in the Faith When the Palsgrave chose Pitiscus for his Houshold Chaplain he charged him that without fear he should discharge his duty and freely admonish him of his faults as the Scriptures do require Such incouragement from great ones would embolden Ministers and free themselves from the unhappiness of sinning unreproved If Gentlemen would give no more thanks to Doegs and Accusers of the Ministers then Wigandus his Prince did to that flattering Lawyer who accused him for speaking to Princes too plainly they would learn quickly to be silent when they had been forced as Hamans themselves to clothe Mordecai and set him in honor However God doth sufficiently encourage us to deal plainly He hath bid us speak and fear not He promised to stand by us and he will be our security He may suffer us to be Anathema secundum dici as Bueholtzer said but not secundum esse He will keep us as he did Husse's heart from the power of the fire though they did beat it when they found it among the ashes they may burn our bones as Bucers and Phagius his or they may raise lyes of us when we are dead as of Luther Calvin and Oecolampadius but the soul feeleth not this that is rejoycing with his Lord In the mean time
the duty When thou hast perhaps but an hours time for thy Meditation the time will be spent before thy heart will be serious This doing of duty as if we did it not doth undo as many as the flat omission of it To rub out the hour in a bare lazie thinking of Heaven is but to lose that hour and delude thy self Well what is to be done in this case why do here also as you do by a loitering servant keep thine eye always upon thy heart look not so much to the time it spendeth in the duty as to the quantity and quality of the work that is done You can tell by his work whether your servant hath been painful ask what affections have yet been acted how much am I yet got neerer Heaven Verily many a mans heart must be followed as close in this duty of Meditation as a Horse in a Mill or an Ox at the Plow that will go no longer then you are calling or scourging If you cease driving but a moment the heart will stand still and perhaps the best hearts have much of this temper I would not have thee of the judgment of those who think that while they are so backward it is better let it alone and that if meer love will not bring them to the duty but there must be all this violence used to compel it that then the service is worse then the omission These men understand not first That this Argument would certainly cashiere all Spiritual obedience because the hearts of the best being but partly sanctified will still be resisting so far as they are carnal Secondly Nor do they understand well the corruptness of their own natures Thirdly Nor that their sinful undisposedness will not baffle or suspend the commands of God Fourthly Nor one sin excuse another Fifthly Especially they little know the way of God to excite their Affections and that the love which should compel them must it self be first compelled in the same sense as it is said to compel Love I know is a most precious grace and should have the chief interest in all our duties But there be means appointed by God to procure this love and shall I not use those means till I can use them from love that were to neglect the means till I have the end Must I not seek to procure love till I have it already There are means also for the increasing of love where it is begun and means for the exciting of it where it lieth dull And must I not use these means till it is increased and excited Why this reasoning considering-duty that we are in hand with is the most singular means both to stir up thy love and to increase it and therefore stay not from the duty till thou feel thy love constrain thee that were to stay from the fire till thou feel thy self warm but fall upon the work till thou art constrained to love and then love will constrain thee to further duty My jealously least thou shouldst miscarry by these sotish opinions hath made me more tedious in the opening of its error Let nothing therefore hinder thee while thou art upon the work from plying thy heart with constant watchfulness and constraint seeing thou hast such experience of its dulness and backwardness let the spur be never out of its side and when ever it slacks pace be sure to give it a remembrance SECT III. 3. AS thy heart will be loitering so will it be diverting It will be turning aside like a carless servant to talk with every one that passeth by When there should be nothing in thy minde but the work in hand it will be thinking of thy calling or thinking of thy afflictions or of every bird or tree or place thou seest or of any impertinency rather then of Heaven Thy heart in this also will be like the Husbandmans Ox or Horse if he drive not he will not go and if he guide not he will not keep the furrow and it is as good stand still as go out of the way Experience will tell thee thou wilt have much ado with thy heart in this point to keep it one hour to the work without many extravagancies and idle cogitations The cure here is the same with that before to use watchfulness and violence with your own imaginations and as soon as they step out to chide them in Say to thy heart What did I come hither to think of my business in the world to think of places and persons of news or vanity yea or of any thing but Heaven be it never so good what canst thou not watch one hour wouldst thou leave this world and dwell in Heaven with Christ for ever and canst thou not leave it one hour out of thy thoughts nor dwell with Christ in one hours close Meditation Ask thy heart as Absalom did Hushai Is this thy love to thy friend Dost thou love Christ and the place of thy Eternal Blessed abode no more then so When Pharaohs Butler dreamed That he pressed the ripe Grapes into Pharaohs Cup and delivered the Cup into the Kings hand it was a happy dream and signified his speedy access to the Kings presence But the dream of the Baker That the Birds did eat out of the Basket on his head the baked meats prepared for Pharaoh had an ill omen and signified his hanging and their eating of his flesh So when the ripened Grapes of Heavenly Meditation are pressed by thee into the Cup of Affection and this put into the hands of Christ by delightful praises if thou take me for skilful this is the interpretation That thou shalt shortly be taken from this prison where thou liest and be set before Christ in the Court of Heaven and there serve up to him that Cup of praise but much fuller and much sweeter for ever and for ever But if the ravenous fowls of wandring thoughts do devour the Meditations intended for Heaven I will not say flatly it signifieth thy death but this I will say That so far as these intrude they will be the death of that service and if thou ordinarily admit them That they devour the life and the joy of thy thoughts and if thou continue in such a way of duty to the end It signifies the death of thy soul as well as of thy service Drive away these birds of prey then from thy sacrifice and strictly keep thy heart to the work thou art upon SECT IV. 4. LAstly Be sure also to look to thy heart in this That it cut not off the work before the time and run not away through weariness before it have leave Thou shalt finde it will be exceeding prone to this like the Ox that would unyoke or the Horse that would be unburdened and perhaps cast off his burden and run away Thou maist easily perceive this in other duties If in secret thou set thy self to pray is not thy heart urging thee still to cut it short dost thou not
Truth and saved you from the spirit of Giddiness Levity and Apostacy of this age who hath preserved you from those scandals whereby others have so hainously wounded their profession and hath given you to see the mischief of Separation and Divisions and made you eminent for Vnity and Peace when almost all the Land is in a flame of contention and so many that we thought godly are busily demolishing the Church and striving in a zealous ignorance against the Lord. Beloved though few of you are rich or great in the world yet for this riches of mercy towards you I must say Ye are my Glory my Crown and my Joy And for all these rare favors to my self and you as I have oft promised to publish the praises of our Lord so do I here set up this stone of remembrance and write upon it Glory to God in the highest Hitherto hath the Lord helped us My flesh and my heart failed but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever But have all these Deliverances brought us to our Rest No We are as far yet from it as we are from Heaven You are yet under oppression and troubles and I am yet under consuming sickness And feeling that I am like to be among you but a little while and that my pained body is hastening to the dust I shall here leave you my best advice for your immortal souls and bequeath you this counsel as the legacy of a dying man that you may here read it and practise it when I am taken from you And I beseech you receive it as from one that you know doth unfainedly love you and that regardeth no honors or happiness in this world in comparison of the welfare and salvation of your souls yea receive it from me as if I offered it you upon my knees beseeching you for your souls sake that you would not reject it and beseeching the Lord to bless it to you yea as one that hath received authority from Christ to command you I charge you in his name as ever you will answer it when we shall meet at judgment and as you would not have me there be a witness against you nor all my labors be charged against you to your condemnation and the Lord Jesus your Judg to sentence you as rebellious that you faithfully and constantly practise these ten directions 1. Labor to be men of knowledg and sound understandings A sound judgment is a most precious mercy and much conduceth to the soundness of heart and life A weak judgment is easily corrupted and if it be once corrupt the will and conversation will quickly follow Your understandings are the in-let or entrance to the whole soul and if you be weak there your souls are like a Garison that hath open or il-guarded Gates and if the enemy be once let in there the whole City will quickly be his own Ignorance is virtually every error therefore let the Bible be much in your hands and hearts Remember what I taught you on Deut. 6.6 7. Read much the writings of our old solid Divines such as Perkins Bolton Dod Sibbs especially Doctor Preston You may read an able Divine when you cannot hear one especially be sure you learn well the Principles of Religion Begin with the Assemblies lesser Catechism and then learn the greater and next Master Balls with the Exposition and then Doctor Ames his Marrow of Divinity now Englished or Ushers If you see men fall on Controversies before they understand these never wonder if they are drowned in errors I know your povertie and labors will not give you leave to read so much as others may do but yet a willing minde will finde some time if it be when they should sleep and especially it will spend the Lords day wholly in these things O be not ignorant of God in the midst of such light as if the matters of your salvation were less worth your study then your trading in the world 2. Do the utmost you can to get a faithful Minister when I am taken from you and be sure you acknowledg him your Teacher Overseer and Ruler 1 Thess. 5.12 13. Acts 20.28 Heb. 13.7 17. and learn of him obey him and submit to his doctrine except he teach you any singular points and then take the advice of other Ministers in trying it Expect not that he should humor you and please your fancies and say and do as you would have him that is meer Independencie for the people to rule themselves and their Rulers If he be unable to Teach and Guide you do not chuse him at first if he be able be ruled by him even in things that to you are doubtful except it be clear that â—e would turn you from the truth if you know more then he become Preachers your selves if you do not then quarrel not when you should learn especially submit to his private over-sight as well as publike Teaching It is but the least part of a Ministers work which is done in the Pulpit Paul taught them also from house to house day and night with tears Acts 20.20 31. To go daily from one house to another and see how you live and examine how you profit and direct you in the duties of your families and in your preparation for death is the great work Had not weakness confined me and publike labors forbidden me I should judg my self hainously guiltie in neglecting this In the Primitive times every Church of so many souls as this Parish had many Ministers whereof the ablest speakers did preach most impublike and the rest did the more of the less publike work which some mistake for meer Ruling Elders But now Sacriledg and Covetousness will scarce leave maintenance for one in a Church which is it that hath brought us to a loss in the nature of Government 3. Let all your Knowledg turn into Affection and Practice keep open the passage between your heads and your hearts that every Truth may go to the quick Spare not for any pains in working out your salvation Take heed of loitering when your souls lie at the stake Favor not your selves in any slothful distemper Laziness is the damnation of most that perish among us God forbid you should be of the mad opinion of the world That like not serving God so much nor making so much ado to be saved All these men will shortly be of another minde Live now as you would wish you had done at death and judgment Let no scorns dishearten you nor differences of opinion be an offence to you God and Scripture and Heaven and the Way thither are still the same It will do you no good to be of the right Religion if you be not zealous in the exercise of the Duties of that Religion Read oft the fifth and sixt Chapters of the third part of this Book 4. Be sure you make conscience of the great Duties that you are to perform in your families Teach your
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
want that sense by which God must be clearly known I stand and look upon a heap of Ants and see them all with one view very busie to little purpose They know not me my being nature or thoughts though I am their fellow creature How little then must we know of the great Creator though he with one view continually beholds us all Yet a knowledg we have though imperfect and such as must be done away A Glimpse the Saints behold though but in a glass Which makes us capable of some poor general dark apprehensions of what we shall behold in Glory If I should tell a Worldling but what the holiness and Spiritual Joys of the Saints on earth are he cannot know it for grace cannot be clearly known without grace how much less could he conceive it Should I tell him of this Glory But to the Saints I may be somewhat more encouraged to speak for Grace giveth them a dark knowledg and slight taste of Glory As all Good whatsoever is comprised in God and all in the creature are but drops of this Ocean So all the Glory of the blessed is comprised in their enjoyment of God and if there be any mediate Joys there they are but drops from this If men and Angels should study to speak the blessedness of that estate in one word what can they say beyond this That it is the nearest enjoyment of God Say they have God and you say they have all that 's worth a having O the full Joys offered to a beleever in that one sentence of Christs I would not for all the world that one verse had been left out of the Bible Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me John 17.24 Every word full of Life and Joy If the Queen of Sheba had cause to say of Solomons Glory Happy are thy men happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom then sure they that stand continually before God and see his Glory and the Glory of the Lamb are somewhat more then happy To them will Christ give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 And to eat of the hidden Manna vers 17. Yea he will make them Pillars in the Temple of God and they shall go no more out and he will write upon them the Name of his God and the name of the City of his God New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from his God and his own New Name Rev. 3.12 Yea more if more may be he will grant them to sit with him in his Throne Rev. 3.21 These are they who come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them And the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of water and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Rev. 7.14 15 17. And may we not now boast with the Spouse This is my Beloved O daughters of Jerusalem and this is the Glory of the Saints Oh blind deceived world Can you shew us such a Glory This is the City of our God where the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his poople and God himself shall be with them and be their God Rev. 21.3 The Glory of God shall lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Vers. 24. And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads These sayings are faithful and true and these are the things that must shortly be done Rev. 22.3 4 6. And now we say as Mephihosheth Let the world take all besides if we may but see the face of our Lord in peace If the Lord lift up the light of his countenance on us here it puts more gladness in our hearts then the worlds encrease can do Psal. 4.6 7. How much more when in his light we shall have light without darkness and he shall make us full of Joy with his countenance Rejoyce therefore in the Lord O ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright of heart and say with his servant David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance The Lines are fallen to me in pleasaent places yea I have a goodly heritage I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For he will not leave me in the grave nor suffer me for ever to see Corruption He will shew me the path of life and bring me into his presence where is fulness of joy and at his right hand where are pleasures for evermore Psal. 16.5 6 8 9 10 11. Whom therefore have I in heaven but him or in earth that I desire besides him My flesh and my heart have failed and will fail me but God is the strength of my heart and will be my Portion for ever He shall guide me with his counsel and afterward receive me to glory And as they that are far from him perish so is it Good the chief Good for us to be near to God Psal. 73.24 25 26 27 28. The Advancement is exceeding high What unreverent damnable presumption would it have been once to have thought or spoke of such a thing if God had not spoke it before us I durst not have thought of the Saints preferment in this life as Scripture sets it forth had it not been the express truth of God What vile unmannerliness to talk of being sons of God speaking to him having fellowship and communion with him dwelling in him and he in us if this had not been Gods own Language How much less durst we have once thought of being brighter then the Sun in Glory of being coheirs with Christ of judging the world of sitting on Christs Throne of being one with him if we had not all this from the mouth and under the hand of God But hath he said it and shall it not come to pass Hath he spoken it and will he not do it Yes as true as the Lord God is true thus shall it be done to the man whom Christ delights to honour The eternal God is their Refuge and underneath are the everlasting Arms And the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover them all the day long and he shall dwell between their shoulders Deut. 33 27 12. Surely goodness
again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Can the Head live and the body or members remain Dead Oh write those sweet words upon thy heart Christian Because I Live Ye shall Live also As sure as Christ lives we shall live And as sure as he is risen we shall rise Else the Dead perish Else what is our Hope what advantageth all our duty or suffering Else the sensual Epicure were one of the wisest men and what better are we then our beasts Surely our knowledg more then theirs would but encrease our sorrows and our dominion over them is no great felicity The Servant hath oft-times a better life then his Master because he hath few of his Masters Cares And our dead Carcasses are no more comely nor yeeld a sweeter savour then theirs But we have a sure ground of Hope And besides this Life we have a Life that 's hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. Oh let not us be as the purblinde world that cannot see afar off Let us never look at the Grave but let us see the Resurrection beyond it Faith is quick-sighted and can see as far as that is yea as far as Eternity Therefore let our hearts be glad and our Glory rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope for he will not leave us in the Grave nor suffer us still to see Corruption Yea therefore let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as we know our Labor is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 It 's a Question much debated Whether a Resurrection be onely an effect of Christs Death and Resurrection And whether there should have been any Resurrection if Christ had not come Some that maintain the Negative of the last Question do also maintain That the Sin under the Covenant of Nature or Works did deserve onely the separation of Soul and Body and not Eternal Torments Whence also follows that the Soul is or at least then was Mortal or that it hath no Being or no Sense when it 's separated from the Body As also that Christ dyed to Redeem us onely from the Grave and not from Hell And so their Doctrine of Universal Redemption in this sence asserted doth neither so much honor the merits of Christ nor advance his mercy as they pretend For it maketh him to raise us onely from the Grave and bring all the world into a Capacity of Eternal Torment He fore-knowing the same time that most would certainly reject him and so perish But as I confess these of weight and difficulty so having professed in this Discourse to handle matters less controverted I pretermit them This sufficeth to the Saints Comfort That Resurrection to Glory is onely the fruit of Christs Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure All that are in the Graves shall hear his voyce and come forth Joh. 5.28 And this is the Fathers will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should Raise it up at the last Day Joh. 6.39 And that every one that beleeveth on the Son may have Everlasting Life and he will raise him up at the last Day Vers. 40. If the prayers of the Prophet could raise the Shunamites Dead Childe and if the dead Souldier revive at the touch of the Prophets bones How certainly shall the will of Christ and the power of his death raise us That voyce that said to Jairus Daughter Arise and to Lazarus Arise and come forth can do the like for us If his death immediately raised the dead bodies of many Saints in Jerusalem If he gave power to his Apostles to raise the Dead Then what doubt of our Resurrection And thus Christian thou seest that Christ having sanctified the Grave by his burial and conquered Death and broke the Ice for us a dead Body and a Grave is not now so horrid a spectacle to a beleeving Eye But as our Lord was neerest his Resurrection and Glory when he was in the Grave even so are we And he that hath promised to make our bed in sickness will make the dust as a bed of Roses Death shall not dissolve the Union betwixt him and us nor turn away his affections from us But in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the stone and unseal our Graves and reach us his hand and deliver us alive to our Father Why then doth the approach of Death so cast thee down O my Soul and why art thou thus disquieted within me The Grave is not Hell if it were yet there is thy Lord present and thence should his Merit and Mercy fetch thee out Thy sickness is not unto death though I dye but for the Glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified thereby Say not then He lifteth me up to cast me down and hath raised me high that my fall may be the Lower But he casts me down that he may lift me up and layeth me low that I may rise the higher An hundred experiences have sealed this Truth unto thee That the greatest dejections are intended but for advantages to thy greatest dignity and thy Redeemers Glory SECT III. THe third part of this Prologue to the Saints Rest is the publick and solemn process at their Judgment where they shall first themselves be acquit and justified and then with Christ judg the World Publick I may well call it for all the world must there appear Young and old of all estates and Nations that ever were from the Creation to that day must here come and receive their doom The judgment shal be set and the books opened the book of Life produced and the Dead shall be judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and whosoever is not found written in the book of Life is cast into the lake of fire O Terrible O Joyful Day Terrible to those that have let their Lamps go out and have not watched but forgot the coming of their Lord Joyful to the Saints whose waiting and hope was to see this day Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of the Lord on them who perish severity but to his chosen goodness When every one must give account of his stewardship And every Talent of Time Health Wit Mercies Afflictions Means Warnings must be reckoned for When the sins of youth and those which they had forgotten and their secret sins shall all be layd open before Angels and men When they shall see all their Friends wealth old delights all their confidence and false hopes of Heaven to forsake them When they shall see the Lord Jesus whom they neglected whose Word
souls Did I not let passe my time and forget my God and soul as well as they And was I not born in sin and wrath as well as they Oh who made me to differ Was my heart naturally any readier for Christ then theirs Or any whit better affected to the Spirits perswasions Should I ever have begun to love if God had not begun to me or ever been willing if he had not made me willing or ever differed if he had not made me to differ Had I not now been in those flames if I had had mine own way and been let alone to mine own will Did I not resist as powerful means and lose as fair advantages as they And should I not have lingered in Sodom tâ—ll the flames had seized on me if God had not in mercy carryed me out Oh how free was all this Love and how free is this enjoyed Glory Doubtless this will be our everlasting admiration That so Rich a Crown should fit the head of so vile a Sinner That such high advancement and such long unfruitfulness and unkindness can be the state of the same person and that such vile rebellions can conclude in such most precious Joys But no thanks to us nor to any of our duties and labors much less to our neglects and laziness we know to whom the praise is due and must be given for ever And indeed to this very end it was that infinite Wisdom did cast the whole design of Mans Salvation into this mould of PVRCHASE and FREENES that the Love and Joy of man might be perfected and the Honor of Grace most highly advanced that the thought of Merit might neither cloud the one nor obstruct the other and that on these two hinges the gates of Heaven might turn So then let DESERVED be written on the door of Hell but on the door of Heaven and Life THE FREE GIFT SECT III. THirdly The third comfortable Attribute of this Rest is That it is the Saints prop and peculiar possession It belongs to no other of all the sons of men not that it would have detracted from the greatness or freeness of the gift if God had so pleased that all the world should have enjoyed it But when God hath resolved otherwise that it must be enjoyed but by few to finde our names among that number must needs make us the more to value our enjoyment If all Egypt had been light the Israelites should not have had the less but yet to enjoy that light alone while their neighbors live in thick darkness must make them more sensible of their priviledg Distinguishing separating Mercy affecteth more then any Mercy If it should rain on our grounds alone or the Sun shine upon our alone habitations or the blessing of Heaven divide between our flocks and other mens as between Jacobs and Labans we should more feelingly acknowledg Mercy then now while we possess the same in common Ordinariness dulleth our sense and if Miracles were common they would be slighted If Pharoah had passed as safely as Israel the Red Sea would have been less remembred If the first-born of Egypt had not been slain the first-born of Israel had not been the Lords peculiar If the rest of the World had not been drowned and the rest of Sodom and Gomorrah burned the saving of Noah had been no wonder nor Lots deliverance so much talked of The lower the weighty end of the ballance descends the higher is the other lifted up and the falling of one of the sails of the Wind-Mill is the occasion of the rising of the other It would be no extenuation of the Mercies of the Saints here if all the world were as holy as they and the communication of their Happiness is their greatest desire yet it might perhaps dull their thankfulness and differencing grace would not be known But when one shall be illightened and another left in darkness one reformed and another by his lusts enslaved it makes them cry out with the Disciple Lord what is it that thou wilt reveal thy self to us and not unto the world When the Prophet shall be sent to one Widow onely of all that were in Samaria and to cleanse one Naaman of all the Lepers the Mercy is more observable O that will sure be a day of passionate sense on both sides when two shall be in a Bed and two in the field the one taken and the other forsaken For a Christian who is conscious of his own undeserving and il-deserving to see his companion in sin perish his Neighbor Kinsman Father Mother Wife Childe for ever in Hell while he is preferred among the Blessed To see other mens sins eternally plagued while his are all pardoned To see those that were wont to sit with us in the same seat and eat with us at the same Table and joyn with us in the same Duties now to lie tormented in those flames while we are triumphing in Divine Praises That Lot must leave his sons in law in the flames of Sodom and the wife of his bosom as a Monument of Divine Vengeance and escape with his two Daughters alone Here is chusing distinguishing Mercy Therefore the Scripture seems to affirm That as the damned souls shall from Hell see the Saints Happiness to increase their own torments so shall the Blessed from Heaven behold the wickeds misery to the increase of their own Joy And as they looked on the dead bodies of Christs two Witnesses slain in their streets and they that dwell on the Earth rejoyced over them and made merry and as the wicked here behold the calamities of Gods people with gladness so shall the Saints look down upon them in the burning lake and in the sense of their own happiness and in the approbation of Gods just proceedings they shall rejoyce and sing Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast thus judged For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy Alleluja Salvation and Glory and Honor and Power to our God for true and righteous are his Judgments And as the command is over Babylon so will it be over all the condemned souls Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her By this time the impenitent World will see a reason for the Saints singularity while they were on Earth and will be able to answer their own demands Why must you be more holy then your neighbors even because they would fain be more happy then their neighbors And why cannot you do and live as the World about you Even because they are full loath to speed as those others or to be damned with the VVorld about them Sincere singularity in Holiness is by this time known to be neither Hypocrisie nor Folly If to be singular in that Glory be so desirable surely to be singular in godly
make its first entrance at the understanding which must be satisfied first of its Truth secondly and of its goodness before it finde any further admittance If this porter be negligent it will admit of any thing â—hat bears but the face or name of Truth and Goodness But if it be faithfull able and diligent in its office it will examine strictly and search to the 〈◊〉 what is found deceitfull it casteth out that it go no furthâ—◠〈…〉 what is found to be sincere and currant it letteth in to the very heart where the Will and Affections do with wellcome entertain it and by concoction as it were incorporate it into their own substance Accordingly I have been hitherto presenting to your understandings First the excellency of the Rest of the Saints in the first part of this book and then the verity in the second part I hope your understandings have now tasted this food and tryed what hath been expressed Truth fears not the light This perfect beauty abhorreth darkness Nothing but Ignorance of its worth can disparage it Therefore search and spare not Read and read again and then Judge What think you Is it good Or is it not Nay is it not the chiefest good And is there any thing in goodness to be compared with it And is it true or is it not Nay is there any thing in the world more certain then that there remaineth a Rest to the people of God Why if your understandings are convinced of both these I do here in the behalf of God and his Truth and in the behalf of your own souls and their Life require the further entertainment hereof and that you take this blessed subject of Rest and commend it as you have found it to your wills and affections Let your hearts now cheerfully embrace it and improve it as I shall present it to you in its respective Uses And though the Laws of Method do otherwise direct me yet because I conceive it most profitable I will lay close together in the first place all those uses that most concern the ungodly that they may know where to finde their lesson and not to pick it up and down intermixt with Uses of another straine And then I shall lay down those Uses that are more proper to the Godly by themselves in the end Use First Shewing the unconceivable misery of the ungodly in their losse of this Rest. SECT II. ANd first if this Rest be for none but this people of God What doleful tidings is this to the ungodly world That there is so much Glory but none for them so great joys for the Saints of God while they must consume in perpetuall sorrowes Such Rest for them that have obeyed the Gospel while they must be Restless in the flames of hell If thou who Readest these words art in thy soul a stranger to Christ and to the holy nature and life of his people and art not one of them who are before described and shalt live and dye in the same condition that thou art now in Let me tell thee I am a messenger of the saddest tidings to thee that ever yet thy ears did hear That thou shalt never partake of the joyes of Heaven nor have the least tast of the Saints eternall Rest I may say to thee as Eâ—ud to Eâ—gon I have a message to thee from God but it is a mortall message against the very life and hopes of thy soul That as true as the word of God is true thou shalt never see the face of God with comfort This sentence I am commanded to pass upon thee from the word Take it as thou wilt and scape it if thou canst I know thy humble and hearty subjection to Christ would procure thy escape and if thy heart and life were throughly changed thy relations to Christ and eternity would be changed also he would then â—â—â—nowledge thee for one of his people and justifie thee from all things that could be charged upon thee and give thee a portion in the inheritance of his chosen And if this might be the happy successe of my message I should be so faâ— from repining like Jonas that the threatnings of God are not executed upon thee that on the contrary I should bless the day that ever God made me so happy a Messenger and return him hearty thanks upon my knees that ever he blessed his Word in my mouth with such desired success But if thou end thy days in thy present condition whether thou be fully resolved never to change or whether thou spend thy days in fruitless purposing to be better hereafter all is one for that I say if thou live and die in thy unregenerate estate as sure as the heavens are over thy head and the earth under thy feet as sure as thou livest and breathest in this air so sure shalt thou be shut out of the Rest of the Saints and receive thy portion in everlasting fire I do here expect that thou shouldest in the pride and scorn of thy heart turn back upon me and shew thy teeth and say Who made you the door-keeper of heaven when were you there and when did God shew you the Book of Life or tell you who they are that shall be saved and who shut out I will not Answer thee according to thy folly but truly and plainly as I can discover this thy folly to thy self that if there be yet any hope thou mayest recover thy understanding and yet return to God and live First I do not name thee nor any other I do not conclude of the persons individually and say This man shall be shut out of heaven and that man shall be taken in I onely conclude it of the unregenerate in general and of thee conditionally if thou be such a one Secondly I do not go about to determine who shall repent and who shall not much less that thou shalt never repent and come in to Christ These things are unknown to me I had far rather shew thee what hopes thou hast before thee if thou wilt not sit still and lose them and by thy wilful carelesness cast away thy hopes And I would far rather perswade thee to hearken in time while there is hope and opportunity and offers of Grace and before the door is shut against thee that so thy soul may return and live then to tell thee that there is no hope of thy repenting and returning But if thou lye hoping that thou shalt return and never do it if thou talk of repenting and believing but still art the same if thou live and die with the world and thy credit or pleasure nearer thy heart then Jesus Christ In a word If the foregoing description of the people of God do not agree with the state of thy soul Is it then a hard question whether thou shalt ever be saved Even as hard a question as whether God be true or the Scripture be his Word Cannot I certainly tell that
his name there was scorning at his worship and swearing by his name And now Hell must therefore be their habitation for ever where they shall never be troubled with that worship and duty which they abhorred but joyn with the rest of the damned in blaspheming that God who is avenging their former impieties and blasphemies Can it probably be expcted that they who made themselves merry while they lived on earth in deriding the persons and families of the godly for their frequent worshiping and praising God should at last be admitted into the Familie of Heaven and joyn with those Saints in those more perfect praises Surely without a sound change upon their hearts before they go hence it is utterly impossible It is too late then to say Give us of your oyl for our Lamps are out Let us now enter with you to the marriage feast let us now joyn with you in the joyfull Heavenly melody You should have joyned in it on earth if you would have joyned in Heaven As your eyes must be taken up with other kinde of sights so must your hearts be taken up with other kinde of thoughts and your voices turned to another tune As the doors of heaven will be shut against you so will that joyous imployment be denied to you There is no singing the songs of Zion in the land of your thraldome Those that go down to the pit do not praise him Who can rejoyce in the place of sorrows And who can be glad in the land of confusion God suits mens imployments to their natures The bent of your spirits was another way your hearts were never set upon God in your lives you were never admirers of his Attributes and works nor ever throughly warmed with his love you never longed after the enjoyment of him you had no delight to speak or to hear of him you were weary of a Sermon or Prayer an hour long you had rather have continued on earth if you had known how you had rather yet have a place of earthly preferment or lands and lordships or a feast or sports or your cups or whores then to be interessed in the Glorious Praises of God and is it meet then that you should be members of the Celestiall Quire A Swine is fitter for a Lecture of Philosophy or an Ass to build a City or govern a Kingdom or a dead Corps to feast at thy Table then thou art for this work of Heavenly Praise SECT VI. FOurthly They shall also be deprived of the Blessed society of Angels and glorified Saints Instead of being companions of those happy spirits and numbred with those Joyful and Triumphing Kings they must now be members of the corporation of hell where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality While they lived on earth they loathed the Saints they imprisoned banished them and cast them out of their societies or at least they would not be their companions in labour and in sufferings And therefore they shall not now be their companions in their Glory Scorning them and abusing them hating them and rejoycing in their calamities was not the way to obtain their blessedness If you would have shined with them as Stars in the Firmament of their Father you should have joyned with them in their holiness and faith and painfulness and patience you should have first been ingraffed with them into Christ the common stock and then incorporated into the fraternity of the members and walked with them in singleness of heart and watched with them with oyl in your Lamps and joyned with them in mutuall exhortation in faithfull admonitions in conscionable reformation in prayer and in praise you should have travelled with them out of the Egypt of your naturall estate through the Red Sea and Wilderness of humiliation and affliction and have cheerfully taken up the Cross of Christ as well as the name prefession of Christians and rejoyced with them in suffering persecution and tribulation All this if you had faithfully done you might now have been triumphing with them in glory and have possessed with them their masters joy But this you could not you would not endure your souls loathed it your flesh was against it and that flesh must be pleased though you were told plainly and frequently what would come of it and now you pertake of the fruit of your folly and endure but what you were foretold you must endure and are shut out of that company from which you first shut out your selves and are separated but from them whom you would not be joyned with You could not endure them in your houses nor in your Towns nor scarce in the Kingdom you took them as Ahab did Elias for the troublers of the land and as the Apostles were taken for men that turned the world upside down If any thing fell out amiss you thought all was long of them When they were dead or banished you were glad they were gone and thought the Countrey was well rid of them They molested you with their faithfull reproving your sin Their holy conversations did trouble your consciences to see them so far excell your selves and to condemn your loosness by their strictness and your prophaness by their conscionable lives and your negligence by their unwearyed diligence You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families but it was a vexation to you And you envyed their liberty in the worshipping of God And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter I have heard of those that have said that if the Puritans were in Heaven and the good fellows in Hell they had rather go to Hell then to Heaven And can they think much to have their desires granted them The day is neer when they will trouble you no more betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set that those that would pass from thence to you if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water cannot neither can they pass to them who would go from you for if they could there would none be left behinde Luk. 16.26 Even in this life while the Saints were imperfect in their passions and infirmities cloathed with the same frail flesh as other men and were mocked destitute afflicted and tormented yet in the judgment of the Holy Ghost they were such of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37 38. Much more unworthy are they of their fellowship in their Glory CHAP. II. The aggravations of the loss of Heaven to the ungodly SECT I. I Know many of the wicked will be ready to think If this be all they do not much care they can bear it well enough what care they for losing the perfections above What care they for losing God his favor or his presence they lived merrily without him on earth and why should it be so grievous to be without him hereafter And what care they for being deprived of that Love and Joy and
exhortation which they were wont to hear will be hot burning words to their hearts upon this sad review It cost the Minister dear even his daily study his earnest prayers his compassionate sorrows for their misery his care his sufferings his spending weakning killing pains But O how much dearer will it cost these rebellious sinners His lost tears will cost them blood his lost sighs will cost them eternall groans and his lost exhortations will cause their eternall lamentations For Christ hath said it that if any City or people receive not or welcome not the Gospel the very dust of the messengers feet who lost his travaile to bring them that glad tidings shall witness against them much more then his greater pains And it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement then for that City That Sodom which was the shame of the world for unnaturall wickedness the disgrace of mankind that would have committed wickedness with the Angels from Heaven that were not ashamed to prosecute their villany in the open street that proceeded in their rage against Lots admonitions yea under the very miraculous judgement of God and groped for the door when they were stricken blinde That Sodom which was consumed with fire from Heaven and turned to that deadly Sea of waters and suffers the vengeance of eternall fire Jud. 7. even that Sodome shall scape better in the day of Judgment then the neglecters of this so great Salvation It will somewhat abate the heat of their torment that they had not those full and plain offers of grace nor those constant Sermons nor pressing perswasions nor clear convictions as those under the sound of the Gospel have had I beseech thee who Readest these words stay here a while and sadly think of what I say I professe to thee from the Lord it is easier thinking of it now then it will be then What a dolefull aggravation of thy misery would this be that the food of thy soul should prove thy bane And that That should feed thy everlasting torment which is sent to save thee and prevent thy torments SECT XI SIxthly Yet further it will much add to the torment of these wretches to remember that God himself did condescend to intreat them That all the intreatings of the Minister were the intreatings God How long he did wait How freely he did offer how lovingly he did invite and how importunately he did solicite them How the spirit did continue striving with their hearts as if he were loath to take a denyall How Christ stood knocking at the door of their hearts Sermon after Sermon and one Sabbath after another crying out Open sinner open thy heart to thy Saviour and I will come in and sup with thee and thou with me Rev. 3.20 Why sinner â— Are thy lusts and carnall pleasures better then I Are thy worldly Commodities better then my everlasting Kingdom Why then dost thou resist me Why dost thou thus delay What dost thou mean that thou dost not open to me How long shall it be till thou attain to innocency How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Wo to thee O unworthy sinner wilt thou not be made clean Wilt thou not be pardoned and sanctified and made happy When shall it once be O that thou wouldst hearken to my word and obey my Gospel Then should thy peace be as the river and thy righteousness as the waves of the Sea though thy sins were as red as the Crimson or Scarlet I would make them as white as the Snow or Wooll O that thou were but wise to consider this and that thou wouldest in time remember thy latter end before the evil dayes do come upon thee and the yeers draw nigh when thou shalt say of all thy vain delights I have no pleasure in them Why sinner Shall thy Maker thus bespeak thee in vain shall the God of all the world beseech thee to be happy and beseech thee to have pitty upon thy own soul and wilt thou not regard him Why did he make thy ears but to hear his voice VVhy did he make thy understanding but to consider Or thy heart but to entertain the Son in obedientiall Love Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider thy wayes O how all these passionate pleadings of Christ will passionately transport the damned with self-indignation That they will be ready to tear out their own hearts How fresh will the remembrance of them be still in their minds launcing their souls with renewed torments What self-condemning pangs will it raise within them to remember how often Christ would have gathered them to himself even as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but they would not Then will they cry out against themselves O how justly is all this befallen me Must I tire out the patience of Christ Must I make the God of Heaven to follow me in vain from home to the Assembly from thence to my Chamber from Alehouse to Alehouse Till I had wearied him with crying to me Repent Return Must the Lord of all the world thus wait upon me and all in vain O how justly is that Patience now turned into fury which falls upon my soul with irresistible violence when the Lord cryed out to me in his word How long will it be before thou wilt be made clean and holy My heart or at least my practice answered Never I will never be so precise And now when I cry out How long will it be till I be freed from this torment and saved with the Saints How justly do I receive the same answer Never Never O sinner I beseech thee for thy own sake think of this for prevention while the voice of mercy soundeth in thine ears Yet patience continueth waiting upon thee Canst thou think it will do so still yet the offers of Christ and life are made to thee in the Gospel and the hand of God is stretched out to thee But will it still be thus The spirit hath not yet done striving with thy heart But dost thou know how soon he may turn away and give thee over to a reprobate sense and let thee perish in the stubbornness and hardness of thy heart Thou hast yet life and time and strength and means But dost thou think this life will alwayes last O seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is neer He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what Christ now speaketh to his soul. And to day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest he swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest. For ever blessed is he that hath a Hearing heart and ear while Christ hath a Calling voice SECT XII SEventhly Again it will be a most cutting consideration to these damned sinners to remember on what easie tearms they might have escaped their miserie and on what
people to this beliefâ— so is it the hardest task almost that we meet with to convince men 〈◊〉 the ungroundedness of this belief and to break that peace 〈…〉 maintaineth in their souls Neither do I know a 〈…〉 of mens destruction then such a misbelief Who will â—eek for that which he believes he hath already This is the great engine of Hell to make men go merrily to their own perdition I know men cannot believe Christ or believe in or upon Christ either too soon or too much But they may believe or judg that themselves are pardoned adopted and in favour with God too soon and too much For a false judgment is always too much and too soon As true grounded Faith is the master grace in the Regenerate and of greatest use in the Kingdom of Christ so is a false ungrounded faith the master vice in the unregenerate soul and of greatest use in the Kingdom of Satan Why do such a multitude sit still when they might have pardon for the seeking but that they verily think they are pardoned already Why do men live so contentedly in the power of the devil walk so carelesly in the certain way to Hel but that they think their way wil have no such end and that the Divel hath nothing to do with them they defie him they spit at the mention of his name If you could aske so many 1000 as are now in Hell What madness could cause you to come hither voluntarily or to follow Satan to this place of torment when you might follow Christ to the land of Rest They would most of them answer you VVe believed that we had followed towards Salvation and that the way which we were in would have brought us to Heaven VVe made sure account of being saved till we found our selves damned and never feared Hell till we were suddenly in it we would have renounced our sinfull courses and companions but that we thought we might have them and heaven too VVe would have sought after Christ more heartily but that we thought we had part in him already VVe would have been more earnest seekers of Regeneration and the power of godliness but that we verily thought we were Christians before O if we had known as much as now we know what lives would we have led what persons would we have been But we have flattered our selves into these unsufferable torments VVe were told of this before from the word of God but we would not believe it till we felt it and now there is no remedy Reader do but stop and think here with thy self how sad a Case this is That men should so resolutely cheat themselves of their Everlasting Rest The Lord grant it never prove thy own case I would be very loath to weaken the true faith of the meanest Christian or to perswade any man that his faith is false when it is true God forbid that I should so disparage that pretious grace which hath the stamp of the spirit or so trouble the soul that Christ would have to be comforted But I must needs in faithfullness tell thee that the confident belief of their good estate and of the pardon of their sins which the careless unholy unhumbled multitude amongst us do so commonly boast of will prove in the end but a soul-damning delusion It hath made me ready to tremble many a time to hear a drunken ungodly unfaithful Minister as confidently in his formall prayers in the Pulpit give God thanks for Vocation Justification Sanctification and assured hope of Glorification as if he had been a most assured Saint when it may be his Sermon was intended to reproch the Saints and to jeer at Sanctification Me thoughts I even heard the Pharisee say I thank thee that I am not as other men Or Corah Are not all the people holy every one How commonly do men thank God for these which they never received nor ever shall do How many have thanked God for pardon of sin who are now tormented for it and for Sanctification and assured hope of Glory who are now shut out of that Inheritance of the Sanctified I warrant you ther 's none of this believing in hell nor any perswasions of pardon or happiness nor any boasting of their honesty nor justifying of themselves This was but Satans stratagem that being blindfold they might follow him the more boldly but then he will uncover their eyes and they shall see where they are SECT III. 2. ANother addition to the misery of the damned will be this That with the loss of heaven they shall lose also all their hopes In this life though they were threatned with the wrath of God yet their hope of escaping it did bear up their hearts And when they were wounded with the terrors of the Word they lick't all whole again with their groundless hopes but then they shall part with their hopes and heaven together We can now scarce speak with the vilest Drunkard or Swearer or covetous Wordling or scorner at Godliness but he hopes to be saved for all this If you should go to all the Congregation or Town or Countrey and ask them one by one whether they hope to be saved how few shall you meet with that will not say yea or that make any great question of it But O happy world if Salvation were as common as this Hope Even those whose hellish nature is written in the face of their conversation that he that runs may read it whose tongues plead the cause of the devil and speak the language of hell and whose delight is in nothing but the works of the flesh yet these do strongly hope for heaven though the God of heaven hath told them over and over again in his Word that no such as they shall ever come there Though most of the world shall eternally perish and the Judg of the world himself hath told us that of the many that are called yet but few are chosen yet almost all do hope for it and cannot endure any man that doth but question their hopes Let but their Minister Preach against their false hopes or their best friend come to them and say I am afraid your present hopes of heaven will deceive you I see you minde not your soul your heart is not set upon Christ and heaven you do not so much as pray to God and worship him in your Family and the Scripture gives you not the least hope of being saved in such a condition as this is How ill would they take such an admonition as this and bid the Admonisher look to himself and let them alone he should not answer for them they hope to be saved as soon as these preciser men that pray and talk of heaven so much Nay so strong are these mens hopes that they will dispute the case with Christ himself at Judgment and plead their eating and drinking in his presence their Preaching in his Name and casting out devils and these are
is no Doctrine concerning heaven in all the Scripture that can give thee any comfort but upon the supposal of thy conversion What comfort is it to thee to hear that there is a Rest remaining for the people of God except thou be one of them Nay what more terrible then to read of Christ and Salvation for others when thou must be shut out Therefore except thou wouldest have a Minister to preach a lye it is all one to thee for any comfort thou hast in it whether he Preach Heaven or Hell to thee His Preaching Heaven and Mercy to thee can be nothing else but to intreat thee to seek them and not neglect or reject them but he can make thee no promise of it but upon the condition of thy obeying the Gospel and his preaching Hell is but to perswade thee to avoid it And is not this Doctrine fit for thee to hear Indeed if thou were quite past hope of escaping it then it were in vaine to tell thee of hell but rather let thee take a few merry hours whilst thou maist but as long as thou art alive there is some hope of thy recovery and therefore all means must be used to awake thee from thy Lethargy O that some Jonas had this Point in hand to cry in your ears Yet a few days and the Rebellious shall be destroyed till you were brought down on your knees in sackcloth and in ashes Or if some John Baptist might cry it abroad Now is the Ax laid to the root of the Tree every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire O that some son of Thunder who could speak as Paul till the Hearers tremble were now to Preach this Doctrine to thee Alas as terribly as you think I speak yet is it not the thousand part of what must be felt for what heart can now possibly conceive or what tongue can express the dolours of those souls that are under the wrath of God Ah that ever blinde sinners should wilfully bring themselves to such unspeakable misery You will then be crying to Jesus Christ O mercy O pitty pitty on a poor soul Why I do now in the name of the Lord Jesus cry to thee O have mercy have pitty man upon thine own soul shall God pitty thee who wilt not be intreated to pitty thy self If thy horse see but a pit before him thou canst scarcely force him in Balaams Ass would not be driven upon the drawn Sword and wilt thou so obstinately cast thy self into hell when the danger is foretold thee O who can stand before the Lord and who can abide the fierceness of his anger Nah. 1.6 Methinks thou shouldest need no more words but presently cast away thy soul-damning sins and wholly deliver up thy self to Christ. Resolve on it immediately man and let it be done that I may see thy face in Rest among the Saints The Lord perswade thy heart to strike this Covenant without any longer delay but if thou be hardened unto death and there be no remedy yet do not say another day but that thou wast faithfully warned and that thou hadst a friend that would fain have prevented thy damnation CHAP. V. The Second Vse Reprehending the general neglect of this Rest and exciting to diligence in seeking it SECT I. I Come now to the Second Use which I shall raise from this Doctrine of Rest. If there be so certain and glorious a Rest for the Saints why is there no more industrious seeking after it in the world One would think that a man that did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained and did believe what he heareth to be true should be transported with the vehemency of his desires after it and should almost forget to eat or drink and should minde and care for nothing else and speak of and enquire after nothing else but how to get assurance and possession of this Treasure and yet people who hear of it daily and profess to believe it undoubtedly as a fundamental Article of their Faith do as little minde it or care or labour for it and as much forget and disregard it as if they had never heard of any such thing or did not believe one word that they hear And as a man that comes into America and sees the Natives regard more a piece of Glass or an old Knife then a piece of Gold may think sure these people never heard of the worth of Gold or else they would not exchange it for toyes so a man that looked onely upon the lives of most men and did not hear their contrary confessions would think either these men never heard of Heaven or els they never heard of its excellency and glory when alas they hear of it till they are weary of hearing and it is offered to them so commonly that they are tired with the tidings and cry out as the Israelites Numb 11.6 Our soul is dried away because there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes And as the Indians who live among the golden Mynes do little regard it but are weary of the daily toyl of getting it when other Nations will compass the world and venture their lives and sayl through storms and waves to get it So we that live where the Gospel groweth where heaven is urged upon us at our doors and the Manna falls about our tents do little regard it and wish these Mynes of gold were further from us that we might not be put upon the toyl of getting it when some that want it would be glad of it upon harder tearms Surely though the Resurrection of the Body and Life everlasting be the last Article in their Creed it is not the least nor therefore put last that it should be last in their desires and endeavors SECT II. I shall apply this Reproof more particularly yet to 〈◊〉 several sorts of men First To the carnal worldly-minded man who is so taken up in seeking the things below that he hath neither heart nor time to seek this Rest. May I not well say to these men as Paul to the Galathians in another case Foolish sinners who hath bewitched you It is not for nothing that Divines use to call the world a Witch for as in VVitchcraft mens lives senses goods or cattle are destroyed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secret unseen power of the Devill of which a man can give no natural Reason so here men will destroy their own souls in a way quite against their own knowledg and as VVitches will make a man dance naked or do the most unseemly unreasonable actions so the world doth bewitch men into bruit beasts and draw them some degrees beyond madness VVould not any man wonder that is in his right wit and hath but the spiritual use of Reason to see what riding and running what scrambling and catching there is for a thing of naught while eternal Rest lyes by neglected what contriving and caring what
fighting and bloodshed to get a step higher in the world then their brethren while they neglect the Kingly dignity of the Saints what insatiable pursuit of fleshly pleasures whilest they look upon the Praises of God which is the joy of Angels as a tiring burden what unwearied diligence there is in raising their posterity in enlarging their possessions in gathering a little silver or gold yea perhaps for a poor living from hand to mouth while in the mean time their Judgment is drawing neer and yet how it shall go with them then or how they shall live eternally did never put them to the trouble of ones hours sober consideration what rising early and sitting up late and labouring and caring year after year to maintain themselves and their children in credit till they dye but what shall follow after that they never think on as if it were onely their work to provide for their bodies and onely Gods work to provide for their souls whereas God hath promised more to provide for their bodies without their care then for their souls though indeed they must painfully serve his Providence for both and yet these men can cry to us May not a man be saved without so much ado And may we not say with more reason to them May not a man have a little Air or Earth a little credit or wealth without so much ado or at least may not a man have enough to bring him to his grave without so much ado O how early do they rowse up their servants to their labour up come away to work we have this to do or that to do but how seldom do they call them Up you have your souls to look to you have Everlasting to provide for up to prayer to reading of the Scripture Alas how rare is this language what a gadding up and down the world is here like a company of Ants upon a Hillock taking uncessant pains to gather a treasure which death as the next passenger that comes by will spurn abroad as if it were such an excellent thing to dye in the midst of wealth and honors or as if it would be such a comfort to a man at death or in another world to think that he was a Lord or a Knight or a Gentleman or a Rich man on earth For my part whatever these men may profess or say to the contrary I cannot but strongly suspect that in heart they are flat Pagans and do not believe that there is an eternal glory and misery nor what the Scripture speaks of the way of obtaining it or at least that they do but a little believe it by the halves and therefore think to make sure of Earth lest there be no such thing as Heaven to be had and to hold fast that which they have in hand lest if they let go that in hope of better in another world they should play the fools and lose all I fear though the Christian Faith be in their mouths lest that this be the faith which is next their hearts or else the lust of their Senses doth overcome and suspend their Reason and prevail with their Wils against the last practical conclusion of their Understanding What is the excellency of this Earth that it hath so many Suiters and Admirers what hath this World done for its Lovers and Friends that it is so eagerly followed and painfully sought after while Christ and Heaven stand by and few regard them or what will the world do for them for the time to come The common entrance into it is through anguish and sorrow The passage through it is with continual care and labor and grief the passage out of it is with the greatest sharpness and sadness of all What then doth cause men so much to follow affect it O sinful unreasonable bewitched men Will mirth and pleasure stick close to you Will gold and worldly glory prove fast friends to you in the time of your greatest need will they hear your cries in the day of your calamity If a man should say to you at the hour of your death as Elias did to Baals Priests Cry aloud c. O Riches or Honor now help us will they either answer or relieve you will they go along with you to another world and bribe the Judg and bring you off clear or purchase you a room among the blessed why then did so rich a man want a drop of water for his tongue or are the sweet morsels of present delight and honor of more worth then the eternal Rest and will they recompense the loss of that enduring Treasure Can there be the least hope of any of these why what then is the matter Is it onely a room for our dead bodies that we are so much beholden to the world for why this is the last and longest courtesie that we shal receive from it But we shal have this whether we serve it or no and even that homely dusty dwelling it will not afford us alwayes neither It shall possess our dust but till the great Resurrection day Why how then doth the world deserve so well at mens hands that they should part with Christ and their salvation to be its followers Ah vile deceitful world How oft have we heard thy faithfullest servants at last complaining Oh the world hath deceived me and undone me It flattered me in my prosperity but now it turns me off at death in my necessity Ah if I had as faithfully served Christ as I have served it He would not thus have cast me off nor have left me thus comfortless and hopeless in the depth of misery Thus do the dearest friends and favorites of the world complain at last of its deceit or rather of their own selfâ—deluding folly and yet succeeding sinners will take no warning So this is the first sort of neglecters of Heaven which fall under this Reproof SECT III. 2. THe second sort to be here reproved are the prophane ungodly presumptuous multitude who will not be perswaded to be at so much pains for salvation as to perform the common outward duties of Religion Yea though they are convinced that these duties are commanded by God and see it before their eyes in the Scripture yet wil they not be brought to the constant practice of them If they have the Gospel preached in the town where they dwell it may be they will give the hearing to it one part of the day and stay at home the other or if the master come to the congregation yet part of his family must stay at home If they want the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel how few are there in a whole Town that will either be at cost or pains to procure a Minister or travell a mile or two to hear abroad Though they will go many miles to the market for provision for their bodies The Queen of the South shall rise up in Judgment with this generation and condemn them for
of their warning and they have not heard the voice of the rod which hath cryed up and down their streets Yet O England will ye not sanctifie my Sabbaths nor call upon my name nor regard my word nor turn from your worldliness and wickedness God hath given them a lash and a reproof a wound and a warning he hath as it were stood in their blood with the sword in his hand and among the heapes of the slain hath he pleaded with the living and said What say you Will you yet worship me and fear me and take me for your Lord And yet they will not Alas yet to this day England will not Let me here write it and leave it upon record that God may be justified and England may be shamed and posterity may know if God do deliver us how ill we deserved it or if he yet destroy us how wilfully we procured it And if they that passe by shall ask Why hath God done thus to a flourishing and prosperous land You may give them the true though sad answer They would not hear they would not regard He smit them down he wounded them he hewed them as wood and then he beseeched the remainder to consider and return but they never would do it They were weary of his wayes they polluted his Sabbaths they cast his word and worship out of their families they would not be at the pains to learn and obey his will nay they abhorred his Ministers and servants and holy paths and all this to the last breath When he had slain five thousand or eight thousand at a fight the rest did no more reform then if they had never heard of it Nay such a spirit of slumber is faln upon them that if God should proceed and kill them all save one man ask that one man Wilt thou yet seek me with all thy heart he would rather slight it Lord have mercy upon us What is gone with mens understanding and sense Have they renounced Reason as well as Faith Are they dead naturally as well as spiritually Can they not hear nor feel though they cannot believe That sad judgment is falâ— upon them mentioned in Isai. 42.24 25. Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel England to the robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned For they would not walk in his wayes neither were they obedient to his Laws Therefore he hath poured upon them the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set them on fire round about yet they knew it not it burned them yet they laid it not to heart Yea this much more let us leave upon Record against England They have been so far from Reforming and taking up the Worship of God with delight after all this that they have contrarily abhorred it at the very heart and fought against it as long as they could stand and when they have been wounded and overthrown in one Fight they have been as forward to the next and when they have been quite subdued in all parts of the Land they are as ready again for another war as if they had never felt the hand of God at all and to root out the sincere Worshippers and Worship of God they are ready to dye to the last man Lord how hast thou deserved so much ill at these mens hands what harm hath praying and reading and preaching painfully and sanctifying the Sabbath and fearing to offend done to England Have they suffered for these or for their enmity to these what evil do these wretches discern in the everlasting Kingdom that they do not only refuse to labor for it but so detest and resist the holy way that leads to it It is wel for them that they live in Gospel times when the patience of God doth wait on sinners and not in those severer days when fire from heaven destroyed the Captaines and their Companies that were commanded by the King to bring but one Prophet before him or when the Lyons destroyed fourty two children for calling a Prophet of God Bald-head Or rather it had bin better for these men to have lived in those times that though their temporal Judgments had been greater yet their eternal plagues might have bin the less Yet this much more let me leave upon Record to the shame of England That all this is not meerly through idleness because they will not be at the pains to serve God but it is out of a bitter enmity to his Word and wayes for they will be at more pains then this in any way that is evil or in any worship of mans devising They are as zealous for Crosses and Surplices Processions and Perambulations reading of a Gospel at a cross way the observation of Holidays and Fasting days the repeating of the Letany or the like forms in the Common Prayer the bowing at the naming of the word Jesus while they reject his Worship the receiving of the Sacrament when they have no right to it and that upon their knees as if they were more revererent and devout then the true laborious servants of Christ with a multitude of things which are onely the traditions of their Fathers I say they are as zealous for these as if eternal life consisted in them Where God forbids them there they are as forward as if they could never do enough and where God commands them they are as backward to it yea as much against it as if they were the commands of the Devil himself and for the discipline of Christ though all parts of the world have much opposed it yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted The Lord grant that this hardned wilful malicious Nation fall not under that heavy doom Luke 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me SECT IV. 3. THe third sort that fall under this Reproof are those self-couzening formal lazie Professors of Religion who will be brought to any outward duty and to take up the easier part of Christianity but to the inward work and more difficult part they will never be perswaded They will Preach or hear or read or talk of heaven or pray customarily and constantly in their Families and take part with the persons or causes that are good and desire to be esteemed among the godly but you can never bring them to the more spiritual and difficult duties as to be constant and fervent in secret Prayer to be conscionable in the duty of self-examination to be constant in that excellent duty of Meditation to be heavenly minded to watch constantly over his heart and words and wayes to deny his bodily senses their delights to mortifie the flesh and not make provision for it to fulfil its lusts to love and heartily forgive an enemy to prefer his brethren heartily before himself and to think meanly of his own gifts and worth and to take it well
and we play with our clothes and look upon them when we should put them on and wear them we hang upon Ordinances from day to day but we stir not up our selves to seek the Lord I see a great many very constant in hearing and Praying and give us some hopes that their hearts are honest but they do not hear and prâ—y as iâ— it were for their lives O what a frozen stupidity hath benummed us The judgment of Pharaoh is among us we are turned into Stones and Rocks that can neither feel nor stir The plague of Lots wife is upon us as if we were changed into liveless unmoveable Pillars we are dying and we know it and yet we stir not we are at the door of eternal Happiness or Misery and yet we perceive it not Death knocks and we hear not Christ calls and knocks and we hear not God cries to us To day if you will hear my voyce harden not your hearts work while it is day for the night cometh when none shall work Now ply your business now labour for your lives now lay out all your strength and time now do it now or never and yet we stir no more then if we were half asleep What haste doth Death and Judgment make how fast do they come on they are almost at us and yet what little haste make we what haste makes the Sword to devour from one part of the Land to another what haste doth Plague and Famine make and all because we will not make haste The Spur of God is in our sides we bleed we groan and yet we do not mend our pace The Rod is on our backs it speaks to the quick our lashes are heard through the Christian world and yet we stir no faster then before Lord what a sensless sottish earthly hellish thing is a hard heart that we will not go roundly and cheerfully toward heaven without all this ado no nor with it neither where is the man that is serious in his Christianity Methinks men do every where make but a trifle of their eternal state they look after it but a little upon the by they do not make it the taske and business of their lives To be plain with you I think nothing undoes men so much as complementing and jesting in Religion O if I were not sick my self of the same disease with what teares should I mixt this Ink and with what groans should I express these sad complaints and with what hearts-grief should I mourn over this universal deadness Do the Magistrates among us seriously perform their portion of the work Are they zealous for God Do they build up his House and are they tender of his Honor Do they second the Word and encourage the Godly and relieve the Oppressed and compassionate the Distressed and let fly at the face of sin and sinners as being the disturbers of our peace and the onely cause of all our miseries Do they study how to do the utmost that they can for God to improve their power and parts and wealth and honor and all their interests for the greatest advantage to the Kingdom of Christ as men that must shortly give account of their Stewardship or do they build their own houses and seek their advancements and stand upon and contest for their own honors and do no more for Christ then needs they must or then lyes in their way or then is put by others into their hands or then stands with the pleasing of their friends or with their worldy interests which of these two courses do they take and how thin are those Ministers that are serious in their work Nay how mightily do the very best fail in this above all things Do we cry out of mens disobedience to the Gospel in the evidence and power of the Spirit and deal with sin as that which is the fire in our Towns and houses and by force pull men out of this fire Do we perswade our people as those that know the terrors of the Lord should do Do we press Christ and Regeneration and Faith and Holiness as men that believe indeed that without these they shall never have Life Do our bowels yearn over the Ignorant and the Careless and the obstinate Multitude as men that believe their own Doctrine that our dear people must be eternally damned if they be not timely recovered When we look them in the faces do our hearts melt over them lest we should never see their faces in Rest Do we as Paul tell them weeping of their fleshly and earthly disposition and teach them publikely and from house to house night and day with tears And do vve intreate them as if it were indeed for their lives and salvation that vvhen vve speak of the Joys and Miseries of another world our people may see us affected accordingly and perceive that we do indeed mean as we speak Or rather do vve not study vvords and neat Expressions that vve may approve our selves able men in the judgment of critical Hearers and speak so formally and heartlesly of Eternity that our people can scarcely think that vve believe our selves or put our tongues into some affected pace and our language into some forced Oratorical strain as if a Ministers business were of no more weight but to tell them a smooth tale of an hour long and so look no more after them till the next Sermon Seldom do vve fit our Sermons either for Matter or Manner to the great end our peoples salvation but we sacrifice our studies to our own credit or our peoples content or some such base inferiour end Carnal discretion doth controll our fervency It maketh our Sermons like beautiful Pictures which have much pains and cost bestowed upon them to make them comely and desirable to the eye but life or heat or motion there is none Surely as such a conversation is an Hypocritical conversation so such a Sermon is as truly an hypocritical Sermon O the formal frozen lifeless Sermons which we daily hear preached upon the most weighty piercing Subjects in the world How gently do we handle those sins which will handle so cruelly our poor peoples souls And how tenderly do we deal with their careless hearts not speaking to them as to men that must be wakened or damned We tell them of heaven and hell in such a sleepy tone and sleighty way as if we were but acting a part in a Play so that we usually preach our people asleep with those subjects which one would think should rather endanger the driving of some besides themselves if they were faithfully delivered Not that I commend or excuse that reall indiscretion and unseemly language and nauseous repetitions and ridiculous gestures whereby many do disgrace the work of God and bring his ordinances in contempt with the people nor think it fit that he should be an Embassador from God on so weighty a business that is not able to
did not Christ dye to save sinners Never trouble your head with these thoughts but believe and you shall do well Thus do they follow the Soul that is escaping from Satan with restless cries till they have brought him back Oh how many thousands have such chaâ—ms kept a sleep in deceit and security till death and Hell have awaked and better informed them The Lord calls to the sinner and tells him The Gate is strait the way is narrow and few find it Try and examine whether thou be in the faith or no give all diligence to make sure in time And the world cries out clean contrary Never doubt Never trouble your selves with these thoughts I intreat the sinner that is in this strait to consider That it is Christ and not their fathers or mothers or neighbors or friends that must judge them at last and if Christ condemn them these cannot save them and therefore common Reason may tell them that it is not from the words of Ignorant men but from the word of God that they must fetch their comforts and hopes of Salvation When Ahab would enquire among the multitudes of flattering Prophets it was his death They can flatter men into the snare but they cannot tell how to bring them out Oh take the counsel of the Holy Ghost Ephes. 5.6 7. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them And Act. 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation SECT VIII 3. BUT the greatest hinderances are in mens own hearâ—s 1. Some are so Ignorant that they know not what Self-Examination is nor what a Minister means when he perswadeth them to Try themselves Or they know not that there is any Necessity of it but think every man is bound to Believe that God is his Father and that his sins are pardoned whether it be true or false and that it were a great fault to make any Question of it Or they do not think that Assurance can be attained or that there is any such great differences betwixt one man and another but that we are all Christians and therefore need not to trouble our selves any further Or at least they know not wherein the difference lies nor how to set upon this searching of their hearts nor to find out its secret motions and to judge accordingly They have as gross Conceits of that Regeneration which they must search for as Nicodemus had John 3.5 And when they should Try whether the Spirit be in them they are like those in Act. 19.2 That knoew not whether there were a Holy Ghost to be received or no. 2. Some are such Infidels that they will not Believe that ever God wil make such a difference betwixt men in the life to come and therefore will not search themselves whether they differ here Though Judgment and Resurrection be in their Creed yet they are not in their Faith 3. Some are so Dead-hearted that they perceive not how neerly it doth concern them let us say what we can to them they lay it not to heart but give us the hearing and there 's an end 4. Some are so possessed with Self-love and Pride that they will not so much as suspect any such danger to themselves Like a proud Tradesman who scorns the motion when his friends desire him to cast up his Books because they are afraid he will Break. As some fond Parents that have an over-weening conceit of their own Children and therefore will not believe or hear any evil of them such a fond Self-love doth hinder men from suspecting and trying their states 5. Some are so guilty that they dare not try They are so fearful that they shallâ—find their estates unsound that they dare not search into them And yet they dare venture them to a more dreadful Tryal 6. Some are so far in love with their sin and so far in dislike with the way of God that they dare not fall on the Tryal of their ways least they be forced from the course which they love to that which they loath 7. Some are so Resolved already never to change their present state that they neglect Examination as a useless thing Before they will turn so precise and seek a new way when they have lived so long and gone so far they will put their Eâ—ernal state to the venture come of it what will And when a man is fully resolved to hold on his way and not to turn back be it right or wrong to what end should he enquire whether he bâ— right or no 8. Most men are so taken up with their worldly affairs and are so busie in driving the trade of providing for the flesh that they cannot set themselves to the Trying of their title to Heaven They have another kind of happiness in their eye which they are pursuing which will not suffer them to make sure of Heaven 9. Most men are so clogged with a Laziness and Slothfulness of Spirit that they will not be perswaded to be at the paines of an hours Examination of their own hearts It requireth some labour and diligence to accomplish it throughly and they will rather venture all then set about it 10. But the most common and dangerous impediment is that false Faith and Hope commonly called Presumption which bears up the hearts of the most of the world and so keeps them from suspecting their danger Thus you see what abundance of difficulties must be overcome before a man can closely set upon the Examining of his heart I do but name them for brevity sake SECT IX AND if a man do break through all these impediments and set upon the Duty yet assurance is not presently attained Of those few who do enquire after Marks and Means of Assurance and bestow some pains to learn the difference between the sound Christian and the unsound and look often into their own hearts yet divers are deceiv'd and do miscarry especially through these following causes 1. There is such a Confusion and darkness in the Soul of man especially of an unregenerate man that he can scarcely tell what he doth or what is in him As one can hardly finde any thing in a house where nothing keeps his place but all is cast on a heap together so is it in the heart where all things are in disorder â—specially when darkness is added to this disorder so that the heart is like an obscure Cave or Dungeon where there is but a little crevise of light and a man must rather grope then see No wonder if men mistake in searching such a heart and so miscarry in judging of their estates 2. And the rather because most men do accustom themselves to be strangers at home and are little taken up with observing the temper and motions of their own hearts All their studies are imployed without them and they are no where less
Condition and to enlighten thee in thy whole progress in the work 3. Make choyce of the most convenient Time and Place I shall not stand upon the particular Directions about these because I shall mention them more largely when I come to direct you in the duty of Contemplation Only thus in brief 1. Let the Place be the most private that you may be free from distractions 2. For the Time thus 1. When you are most solitary and at leasure You cannot cast accounts especially of such a nature as these either in a croud of company or of imployments 2. Let it be a set and choâ—en Time when you have nothing to hinder you 3. But if it may be let it be the present Time especially if thou have been a stranger hitherto to the work There is no delaying in matters of such weight 4. Especially when you have a more special call to search your selves as in publique calamities in time of sickness before Sacrament c. 5. When God is Trying you by some Affliction and as Job saith is searching after your sin then set in with him and search after them your selves 6. Lastly You should specially take such a Time when you are most fit for the work when you are not secure and stupid on one hand nor yet under deep desertions or Melancholly on the other hand for else you will be unfit Judges of your own states 4. When you have thus chosen the fittest Time and Place then draw forth either from thy Memory or in writing the forementioned Marks or Gospel-Conditions or Descriptions of the Saints Try them by Scripture and convince thy Soul throughly of their infallible Truth 5. Proceed then to put the Question to thy self But be sure to state it right Let it not be Whether there be any Good in thee at all for so thou wilt err on the one hand Nor yet Whether thou have such or such a degree and measure of Grace for so thou wilt err on the other hand But Whether such or such a Saving Grace be in thee at all in sincerity or not 6. If thy heart draw back and be loath to the work suffer it not so to give thee the slip but force it on Lay thy command upon it let Reason interpose and use its authority Look over the fore-going Arguments and press them home Yea lay the Command of God upon it and charge it to obey upon pain of his displeasure Set Conscience a work also let it do its office till thy lazy heart be spurred up to the work For if thou suffer it to break away once and twice c. it will grow so head-strong that thou canst not master it 7. Let not thy Heart trifle away the Time when it should be diligently at the work Put the Question to it seriously Is it thus and tâ—us with me or no Force it here to an Answer suffer it not to be silent nor to jangle and think of other matters If the Question be hard through the darkness of thy Heart yet do not give it over so but search the closer and study the case the more exactly And if it be possible let not thy Heart give over till it have Resolved the Question and told thee off or on in what case thou art Ask it strictly as Joseph examined his Brethren Gen. 43.7 how it stands affected Do as David Psal. 77.6 My spirit made Diligent Search If thy Heart strive to break away before thou art resolved wrestle with it till thou hast prevailed and say I will not let thee go till thou hast Answered He that can prevail with his own Heart shall also be a prevailer with God 8. If thou finde the work beyond thy strength so that after all thy pains thou art never the more resolved then seek out for help Go to some that is Godly experienced able and faithful and tell him thy case and desire his best advice and help Not that any can know thy heart so well as thy self But if thou deal faithfully and tell him what thou knowest by thy self he can tell thee whether they be sound Evidences or not and shew thee Scripture how to prove them so and direct thee in the right use of such Evidences and shew thee how to conclude from them Yea when thou canst get no further the very Judgment of an able Godly man should take much with thee as a probable Argument as the Judgment of a Physician concerning the state of thy body Though this can afford thee no full certainty yet it may be a great help to stay and direct thee But be sure thou do not make this a pretence to put off thy own duty of Examining But onely use it as one of the last remedies when thou findest thy own endevors will not serve Neither be thou forward to open thy case to every one or to a carnal flattering unskilful person But to one that hath wisdom to conceal thy secrets and tenderness to compassionate thee and skill to direct thee and faithfulness to deal truly and plainly with thee 9. When by all this pains and means thou hast discovered the truth of thy state then pass the Sentence on thy self accordingly A meer examination will do thee little good if it proceed not to a Judgment Conclude as thou findest Either that thou art a true Beleever or that thou art not But pass not this Sentence rashly nor with self-flattery nor from Melancholly terrors and fears But do it groundedly and deliberately and truly as thou findest according to thy Conscience Do not conclude as some do I am a good Christian or as others do I am a Reprobate or a Hypocrite and shall be damned when thou hast no ground for what thou sayst but thy own fancy or hopes or fears nay when thou art convinced by Scripture and Reason of the contrary and hast nothing to say against the Arguments Let not thy Judgment be any way by assed or bribed and so fore-stalled from sentencing aright 10. Labor to get thy heart kindly Affected with its discovered condition according to the sentence passed on it Do not think it enough to know but labor to feel what God hath made thee see If thou finde thy self undoubtedly graceless Oh get this to thy heart and think what a doleful Condition it is To be an Enemy to God! to be unpardoned unsanctified and if thou shouldst so dye to be Eternally damned One would think such a thought should make a heart of stone to quake On the contrary If thou finde thy self renewed and sanctified indeed Oh get this warm and close to thy heart Bethink thy self What a blessed state the Lord hath brought thee into To be his Childe his Friend to be pardoned justified and sure to be saved Why what needest thou fear but sinning against him Come war or plague or sickness or death thou art sure they can but thrust thee into Heaven Thus follow these Meditations till they have left
their impression on thy heart 11. Be sure to Record this Sentence so passed write it down or at least write it in thy Memory At such a time upon through Examination I found my state to be thus or thus This Record will be very useful to thee hereafter If thou be ungodly what a damp will it be to thy presumption and security to go and read the Sentence of thy Misery under thy own hand If thou be godly what a help will it be against the next Temptation to doubting and fear to go and read under thy hand this Record Mayst thou not think If at such a time I found the Truth of Grace is it not likely to be now the same and these my doubts to come from the Enemy of my Peace 12. Yet would I not have thee so trust to once discovery as to Try no more Especially if thou have made any foul Defection from Christ and play'd the backslider See then that thou renew the Search again 13. Neither would I have this hinder thee in the dayly Search of thy ways or of thy increase in Grace and fellowship with Christ It is an ill sign and desperate vile sin for a man when he thinks he hath found himself Gracious and in a happy state to let down his watch and grow negligent of his heart and ways and scarce look after them any more 14. Neither would I have thee give over in discouragement if thou canst not at once or twice or ten times trying discover thy Case But follow it on till thou hast discovered If one hours labor will not serve take another If one day or moneth or year be too little follow it still If one Minâ—ster cannot direct thee sufficiently go to another The Issue will answer all thy pains There is no sitting down discouraged in a work that must be done 15. Lastly above all take heed if thou finde thy self to be yet unregenerate that thou do not conclude of thy Future estate by thy present nor say Because I am ungodly I shall dye so or because I am an Hypocrite I shall continue so No thou hast another work to do And that is To resolve presently to cleave to Christ and break off thy Hypocrisie and thy Wickedness If thou finde that thou hast been all this while out of the way do not sit down in despair but make so much the more haste to turn into it If thou have been an Hypocrite or ungodly person all thy life yet is the promise offered thee by Christ and he tendereth himself to be thy Lord and Saviour Neither canst thou possibly be so Willing to Accept of him as he is to Accept thee Nothing but thy own unwillingness can keep thy Soul from Christ though thou hast hitherto abused him and dissembled with him Object But if I have gone so far and been a professor so long and yet finde my self an Hypocrite now after all what hope is there that I should now become sincere Answ. Dost thou heartily Desire to be Sincere Thy Sincerity doth lie especially in thy Will As long as thou art unwilling I confess thy case is sad But if thou be willing to receive Christ as he is offered to thee and so to be a Christian indeed then thou art sincere Neither hath Christ restrained his Spirit or Promises to any set time or said to thee Thou shalt finde grace if thou sin but so much or so long But if thou be heartily Willing at any time I know not who can hinder thy happiness Yet is this no diminution of the sin or danger of delaying Thus I have given you these Directions for Examination which conscionably practised will be of singular advantage and use to discover your states But it is not the bare reading of them that will do it I fear of many that will approve of this advice there will but few be brought to use it However those that are willing may finde help by it and the rest will be left more unexcuseable in Judgment SECT III. I Will not digress further to warn you here of the false Rules and Marks of Tryal which you must beware having opened them to you fullier when I preached on that subject But I will briefly adjoyn some Marks to try thy Title to this Rest by referring you for a fuller discovery to the Description of the People of God in the first part of the Book But be sure you search throughly and deal plainly or else you will but lose your labor and deceive your selves 1. Every Soul that hath Title to this Rest doth place his chiefest Happiness in it and make it the chief and ultimate End of his Soul This is the first Mark which is so plain a Truth that I need not stand to prove it For this Rest consisteth in the full and glorious enjoyment of God And he that maketh not God his chief Good and ultimate End is in heart a Pagan and vile Idolater and doth not take the Lord for his God Let me ask thee then Dost thou truly in Judgment and Affection account it thy chiefest Happiness to enjoy the Lord in Glory or dost thou not Canst thou say with David Psal. 16.5 The Lord is my Portion And as Psa. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom in earth that I desire in comparison of thee If thou be an heir of Rest it is thus with thee Though the flesh will be pleading for its own delights and the world will be creeping into thine affections and thou canst not be quite freed from the Love of it Yet in thy ordinary setled prevailing Judgment and Affections thou preferrest God before all things in the world 1. Thou makest him the End of thy Desires and Endevors The very reason why thou hearest and prayest why thou desirest to live and breathe on earth is chiefly this That thou mayst seek the Lord and make sure of thy Rest. Thou seekest first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness Though thou dost not seek it so desirously and zealously as thou shouldst yet hath it the chief of thy desires and endevors and nothing else is desired or preferred before it Mat. 6.33 So that thy very heart is thus far set upon it Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 2 3. 2. Also thou wilt think no labor or suffering too great to obtain it And though the flesh may sometime shrink or draw back yet art thou resolved and content to go through all Mat. 7.13 2 Tim. 2.5 Rom. 8.17 Luk. 14.26 27. 2 Tim. 2.12 Luk. 14.24 3. Also if thou be an heir of Rest thy valuation of it will be so high and thy affection to it so great that thou wouldst not exchange thy Title to it and hopes of it for any worldly Good whatsoever Indeed when the Soul is in doubts of enjoying it perhaps it may possibly desire rather the continuance of an earthly happiness then to depart out of the body with fears of going to Hell But
then we do wilfully afflict it our selves Suppose thou be in poverty It is thy flesh only that is pinched If thou have sores or sicknesses it is but the flesh that they assault If thou dye it is but that flesh that must rot in the grave Indeed it useth also to reach our hearts and Souls when the body suffereth but that is because we pore upon our evils and too much pity and condole the flesh and so we open the door and let in the pain to the heart our selves which else could have gone no further then the flesh God smites the flesh and therefore we will grieve our spirits and so multiply our grief as if we had not enough before Oh if I could but have let my body have suffered alone in all the pining paining sicknesses which God laid upon it and not have foolishly added my own self-tormenting fears and cares and sorrows and discontents but have quieted and comforted my Soul in the Lord my Rock and Rest I had escaped the far greater part of the Afflictions Why is this flesh so precious in our eyes Why are we so tender of these dusty carcasses Is flesh so excellent a thing Is it not our prison and what if it be broken down Is it not our Enemy yea and the greatest that ever we had and are we so fearful lest it be overthrown Is it not it that hath so long hampered and clog'd our Souls and tyed them to earth and ticed them to forbidden lusts and pleasures and stoln away our hearts from God Was it not it that longed for the first forbidden fruit and must needs be tasting what ever it cost And still it is of the same temper It must be pleased though God be displeased by it and our selves destroyed It maketh all Gods mercies the occasion of our transgressing and draweth poyson from the most excellent objects If we behold our food it inticeth to gluttony if drink to drunkenness if apparel or any thing of worth to pride if we look upon beauty it ticeth to lust if upon money or possessions to Covetousness It causeth our very spiritual love to the godly to degenerate into carnal and our spiritual Zeal and Joy and other graces It would make all carnal like it self What are we beholden to this flesh for that we are so loath that any thing should ail it Indeed we must not wrong it our selves for that is forbidden us Nor may we deny it any thing that is fit for a Servant that so it may be useful to us while we are forced to make use of it But if God chastise it for rebelling against him and the Spirit and it begin to cry and complain under this chastisement shall we make the suffering greater then it is and take its part against God Indeed the Flesh is very near to us we cannot chuse but condole its sufferings and feel somewhat of that which it feeleth But is it so near as to be our chiefest part Or cannot it be sore but we must be so sorry or cannot it consume and pine away but our peace and comfort must consume with it What if it be undone are we therefore undone or if it perish and be destroyed do We therefore perish Oh fie upon this carnality and unbelief which is so contradictory to the principles of Christianity Surely God dealeth the worse with this Flesh because we so over-value and Idolize it We make it the greatest part of our care and labour to provide for it and to satisfie its desires and we would have God to be of our mind and to do so too But as he hath commanded us to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the desires or lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 So will he follow the same rule himself in his dealings with us and will not much stick at the displeasing of the flesh when it may honour himself or profit our Souls The flesh is aware of this and perceives that the Word and Works of God are much against its desires and delights and therefore is it also against the Word and Works of God It saith of the Word as Ahab of Micaiah I hate it for it doth not speak good concerning me but evil There is such an Enmity betwixt this flesh and God That they that are in the flesh cannot please him and the carnal mind is Enmity against him for it is not subject to his Law nor indeed can be So inconsistent is the pleasing of the flesh and the pleasing of GOD That he hath concluded That to minde the things of the flesh or to be carnally minded is Death and if we live after the flesh we shall dye but if by the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Rom. 8. vers 4 5 6 7 8 13. So that there is no likelihood that ever Gods dealings should be pleasing to the flesh no more then its works are pleasing to God Why then O my Soul dost thou side with this Flesh and say as it saith and complain as it complaineth It should be part of thine own work to keep it down and bring it in subjection and if God do it for thee shouldst thou be discontented Hath not the pleasing of it been the cause of almost all thy spiritual sorrows Why then may not the displeasing of it further thy Joys Should not Paul and Silas sing because their feet were in the stocks and their flesh yet sore with the last days scourgings Why their spirits were not imprisoned nor scourged Ah unworthy Soul Is this thy thanks to God for his tenderness oâ— Thy good and for his preferring thee so far before the body Art thou turned into flesh thy self by thy dwelling a few years in flesh That thy Joys and thy Sorrows are most of them so fleshly Art thou so much a debter to the flesh that thou shouldst so much live to it and value its prosperity Hath it been so good a friend to thee and to thy Peace Or is it not thy Enemy as well as Gods Why dost thou look so sadly on those withered limbs and on that pining body Do not so far mistake thy self as to think its Joys and thine are all one or that its prosperity and thine are all one or that thou must needs stand or fall together When it is rotting and consuming in the grave then shalt thou be a companion of the perfected Spirits of the Just And when those bones are scattered about the Church-yard then shalt thou be praising God in Rest. And in the mean time hast not thou food of consolation which the flesh knoweth not of and a Joy which this stranger meddleth not with And do not think that when thou art turned out of this body that thou shalt have no habitation Art thou afraid thou shalt wander destitute of a Resting place Is it better Resting in flesh then in God Dost thou not know that when this house of earth is dissolved
to be sorrowful because of his departure When did he appear among them and say Peace be unto you but when they were shut up together for fear of the persecuting Jews When did the room shake where they were and the Holy Ghost come down upon them and they lift up their voyces in praising God but when they were imprisoned convented and threatened for the Name of Christ Acts 4.24 31. When did Stephen see Heaven opened but when he was giving up his life for the testimony of Jesus Acts 7.55 And though we be never put to the suffering of Martyrdom yet God knoweth that in our natural sufferings we need support Many a Christian that hath waited for Christ with Simeon in the Temple in duty and holiness all his days yet never finds him in his arms till he is dying though his Love was fixed in their hearts before and they that wondered that they tasted not of his comforts have then when it was needful received abundance And indeed in time of prosperity that comfort which we have is so mixed according to the mixt causes of it that we can very hardly discern what of it is carnal and what is spiritual But when all worldly comforts and hopes are gone then that which is left is most likely to be spiritual And the Spirit never worketh more sensibly and sweetly then when it worketh alone Seeing then that the time of Affliction is the time of our most pure spiritual heavenly Joy for the most part why should a Christian think it so sad a time Is not that our best estate wherein we have most of God Why else do we desire to come to Heaven If we look for a Heaven of fleshly delights we shall find our selves mistaken Conclude then that Affliction is not so bad a state for a Saint in his way to Rest as the flesh would make it Are we wiser then God Doth not he know what is good for us better then we Or is he not as careful of our Good as we are of our own Ah wo to us if he were not much more and if he did not love us better then we love either him or our selves SECT VIII BUT let us hear a little what it is that the flesh can object 1. Oh saith one I could bear any other Affliction save this If God had touched me in any thing else I could have undergone it patiently but it is my dearest friend or child or wife or my health it self c. I Answer It seemeth God hath hit the right vein where thy most inflamed distempered blood did lie It 's his constant course to pull down mens Idols and take away that which is dearer to them then himself There it is that his Jealousie is kindled and there it is that thy Soul is most endangered If God should have taken from thee that which thou canst let go for him and not that which thou canst not or have afflicted thee where thou canst bear it and not where thou canst not thy Idol would neither have been discovered nor removed this would neither have been a sufficient Tryal to thee nor a Cure but have confirmed thee in thy Soul-deceit and Idolatry Object 2. Oh but saith another if God would but deliver me out of it yet I could be content to bear it but I have an uncureable sickness or I am like to live and dye in poverty or disgrace or the like distress I answer 1. Is it nothing that he hath promised it shall work for thy Good Rom. 8.28 and that with the affliction he will make a way to escape that he will be with thee in it and deliver thee in the fittest manner and season 2. Is it not enough that thou art sure to be delivered at death and that with so full an advancing deliverance Oh what cursed Unbelief doth this discover in our hearts That we would be more thankful to be turned back again into the stormy tumultuous Sea of the World then to be safely and speedily landed at our Rest And would be gladder of a few years inferiour mercies at a distance then to enter upon the Eternal Inheritance with Christ Do we call God our chief Good and Heaven our Happiness and yet is it no Mercy or Deliverance to be taken hence and put into that possession Object 3. Oh but saith another if my Affliction did not disable me for Duty I could bear it but it maketh me useless and utterly unprofitable Answ. 1. For that Duty which tendeth to thy own personal benefit it doth not disable thee but is the greatest quickening help that thou canst expect Thou usest to complain of coldness and dulness and worldliness and security If affliction will not help thee against all these by warming quickening rouzing thy spirit I know not what will Sure thou wilt repent throughly and pray fervently and minde God and Heaven more seriously either now or never 2. And for Duty to others and for thy service to the Church it is not thy Duty when God doth disable thee He may call thee out of the Vineyard in this respect even before he call thee by death If he lay thee in the grave and put others in thy place to do the service is this any wrong to thee or doth it beseem thee to repine at it Why so if he call thee out before thy death and let thee stand by and see others do the work in thy stead shouldst thou not be as well content Must God do all the work by thee Hath he not many others as dear to him and as fit for the employment But alass what deceitfulness lieth in these hearts When we have time and health and opportunity to work then we loyter and do our Master but very poor service But when he layeth Affliction upon us then we complain that he disableth us for his work and yet perhaps we are still negligent in that part of the work which we can do So when we are in health and prosperity we forget the publique and are careless of other mens miseries and wants and minde almost nothing but our selves But when God Afflicteth us though he excite us more to Duty for our selves yet we complain that he disableth us for Duty to others As if on the sudden we were grown so charitable that we regard other mens Souls far more then our own But is not the hand of the flâ—sh in all this dissimulation Secretly thus pleading its own cause What pride of heart is this to think that other men cannot do the work as well as we Or that God cannot see to his Church and provide for his people without us Object 4 Oh but â—aith another It is the godly that are my afflictâ—rs they disclaim me and will scarce look at me they censure me and backbite me and slander me and look upon me with a disdainful eye If it were ungodly men I could bear it easily I look for no better at their hands but when
it If in case of his bodily distress you must not bid him go and come again to morrow when you have it by you and he is in want Prov. 3.27 28. how much less may you delay the succor of his Soul If once death snatch him away he is then out of the reach of your Charity SECT VI. 3. LEt thy Exhortation proceed from Compassion and Love and let the manner of it clearly shew the person thou dealest with that it hence proceedeth It is not jeering or scorning or reproaching a man for his faults that is a likely way to work his reformation Nor is it the right way to convert him to God to rail at him and vilifie him with words of disgrace Men will take them for their enemies that thus deal with them And the words of an enemy are little perswading Lay by your Passion therefore and take up compassion and go to poor sinners with tears in your eyes that they may see you indeed believe them to be miserable and that you do unfeignedly pity their case Deal with them with earnest humble intreatings Let them see that your very bowels do yearn over them and that it is the very desire of your hearts to do them good Let them perceive that you have no other end but the procuring of their everlasting Happiness and that it is your sense of their danger and your love to their Souls that forceth you to speak even because you know the terrors of the Lord and for fear lest you should see them in eternal torments Say to them Why friend you know it is no advantage of my own that I seek The way to please you and to keep your friendship were to sooth you in your way or to speak well of you or to let you alone but Love will not suffer me to see you perish and be silent I seek nothing at your hands but that which is necessary to your own happiness It is your self that will have the gain and comfort if you come in to Christ c. If men should thus go to every ignorant wicked neighbor they have and thus deal with them Oh what blessed fruits should we quickly see I am ashamed to hear some lazy hypocritical wretches to revile their poor ignorant neighbors and separate from their company and communion and proudly to judg them unfit for their society before ever they once tryed with them this compassionate Exhortation Oh you little know what a prevailing course this were like to prove and how few of the vilest drunkards or swearers would prove so obstinate as wholy to reject or despise the Exhortations of Love I know it must be God that must change mens hearts But I know also that God worketh by means and when he meaneth to prevail with men he usually fitteth the means accordingly and stirreth up men to plead with them in a prevailing way and so setteth in with his grace and maketh it successful Certainly those that have tryed can tell you by experience that there is no way so prevailing with men as the way of Compassion and Love So much of these as they discern in your Exhortation usually so much doth it succeed with their hearts And therefore I beseech those that are faithful to practise this course SECT VII 4. ANother Direction I would give you is this Do it with all possible plainness and faithfulness Do not dawb with men and hide from them their misery or danger or any part of it Do not make their sins less then they are nor speak of them in an extenuating language Do not encourage them in a false hope or faith no more then you would discourage the sound hopes of the righteous If you see his case dangerous tell him plainly of it Neighbor I am afraid God hath not yet renewed your Soul and that it is yet a stranger to the great work of Regeneration and Sanctification I doubt you are not yet recovered from the power of Satan to God nor brought out of the state of wrath which you were born in and have lived in I doubt you have not chosen Christ above all nor set your heart upon him nor unfeignedly taken him for your Soveraign Lord. If you had sure you durst not so easily disobey him you could not so neglect him and his worship in your family and in publique you could not so eagerly follow the world and talk of almost nothing but the things of this world while Christ is seldom mentioned or sought after by you If you were in Christ you would be a new Creature old things would be passed away and all things would become new you would have new thoughts and new talk and new company and new endeavors and a new conversation Certainly without these you can never be saved You may think otherwise and hope better as long as you will but your hopes will all deceive you and perish with you Alas it is not as you will nor as I will who shall be saved but it is as God will and God hath told us That without holiness none shall see him and except we be born again we cannot enter into his Kingdom and that all that would not have Christ raign over them shall be brought forth and destroyed before him Oh therefore look to your state in time Thus must you deal roundly and faithfully with men if ever you intend to do them good It is not hovering at a distance in a general discourse that will serve the turn It is not in curing mens Souls as in curing their bodies where they must not know their danger lest it sadden them and hinder the cure They are here agents in their own cure and if they know not their misery they will never bewail it nor know how much need they have of a Saviour If they know not the worst they will not labour to prevent it but will sit still or loiter till they drop into perdition and will trifle out their time in delays till it be too late And therefore speak to men as Christ to the Pharisees till they knew that he meant them Deal plainly or you do but deceive and destroy them SECT VIII 5. ANd as you must do it Plainly so also Seriously Zealously and Effectually The exceeding stupidity and deadness of mens hearts is such that no other dealing will ordinarily work You must call loud to awake a man in a Swoun or Lethargy If you speak to the common sort of men of the evil of their sin of their need of Christ of the danger of their Souls and of the necessity of Regeneration they will wearily and unwillingly give you the hearing and put off all with a sigh or a few good wishes and say God forgive us we are all sinners and there 's an end If ever you will do them good therefore you must sharpen your exhortation and set it home and follow it with their hearts till you have rouzed them up and made
him more eminently then in the saving of Souls He that will pronounce you blessed at the last day and sentence you to the Kingdom prepared for you because you fed him and clothed him and visited him c. in his Members will sure pronounce you blessed for so great a work as is the bringing over of souls to his Kingdom and helping to drive the match betwixt them and him He that saith The poor you have always with you hath left the ungodly always with you that you might still have matter to exercise your Charity upon O if you have the hearts of Christians 〈◊〉 or of men in you let them yearn towards your poor ignorant ungodly neighbors Alas there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seise on them and if they dye unregenerate they are lost for ever Have you hearts of Rock that cannot pitty men in such a case as this If you believe not the Word of God and the danger of Sinners why are you Christians your selves If you do believe it why do you not bestir you to the helping of others Do you not care who is damned so you be saved If so you have as much cause to pitty your selves for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with Grace should you not rather say as the Leapers of Samaria Is it not a day of glad tidings and do we sit still and hold your peace Hath God had so much mercy on you and will you have no mercy on your poor neighbours You need not go far to finde objects for your pitty Look but into your streets or into the next house to you and you will probably finde some Have you never an ignorant unregenerate neighbor that sets his heart below and neglecteth Eternity O what blessed place do you live in where there there is none such If there be not some of them in thine own Family it is well and yet art thou silent Dost thou live close by them or meet them in the streets or labor with them or travel with them or sit and talk with them and say nothing to them of their souls or the life to come If their houses were on fire thou wouldest run and help them and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of Hell If thou knewest but a Remedy for their Diseases thou wouldest tell it them or else thou wouldest judge thy self guilty of their death Cardan speaks of one that had a Receipt that would suddenly and certainly dissolve the stone in the Bladder and he concludes of him that he makes no doubt but that man is in hell because he never revealed it to any before he dyed What shall we say then of them that know of the remedy for curing souls and do not reveal it nor perswade men to make use of it Is it not Hypocrisie to pray daily for their Conversion and Salvation and never once endeavor to procure it And is it not Hypocrisie to pray That Gods Name may be Hallowed and never to endeavor to bring men to Hallow it nor hinder them from prophaning it And can you pray Let thy Kingdom come and yet never labor for the coming or increase of that Kingdom Is it no grief to your hearts to see the Kingdom of Satan so to flourish and to see him lead captive such a multitude of souls You take on you that you are Souldiers in Christs Army and will you do nothing against his prevailing enemies You pray also daily That his Will may be done and should you not daily then perswade men to do it and disswade them from sinning against it You pray That God would forgive them their sins and that he would not lead them into Temptation but deliver them from evil And yet will you not help them against Temptations nor help to deliver them from the greatest evil nor help them to Repent and Believe that they may be forgiven Alas that your Prayers and your Practice should so much disagree Look about you therefore Christians with an eye of compassion on the ignorant ungodly sinners about you be not like the Priest or Levite that saw the man wounded and passed by God did not so pass by you when it was your own case Are not the souls of your neighbors faln into the hands of Satan Doth not their misery cry out unto you Help help As you have any compassion towards men in the greatest misery Help As you have the hearts of men and not of Tygers in you Help Alas how forward are Hypocrites in their Sacrifice and how backward to shew mercy How much in Praying and duties of worship and how little in plain Reproof and Exhortation and other duties of compassion And yet God hath told them That he will have mercy and not sacrifice that is mercy before sacrifice And how forward are these Hypocrites to censure Ministers for neglecting their duties yea to expect more duty from one Minister then ten can perform and yet they make no conscience of neglecting their own Nay how forward are they to separate from those about them and how censorious against those that admit them to the Lords Supper or that joyn with them and yet will they not be brought to deale with them in Christs way for their recovery As if other men were to work and they only to sit by and Judge Because they know it is a work of trouble and will many times set men against them therefore no perswasion will bring them to it They are like men that see their neighbors sick of the plague or drowning in the water or taken captive by the enemy and they dare not venture to relieve him themselves but none so forward to put on others So are these men the greatest expecters of duty and the lest performers SECT II. BUt as this duty lyeth upon all in general so upon some more especially according as God hath called or qualified them thereto To them therefore more particularly I will address my exhortation Whether they be such as have more opportunity and advantages for this work or such as have better abilities to perform it or such as have both And these are of severall sorts 1. All you that God hath given more learning and knowledg to and endued with better parts for utterance then your neighbors God expecteth his duty especially at your hand The strong are made to help the weak and those that see must direct the blind God looketh for this faithfull improvement of your parts and gifts which if you neglect it were better for you that you never had received them for they will but further your condemnation and be as useless to your own Salvation as they were to others SECT III. 2. ALl those that have special familiarity with some ungodly men and that have interest in them God looks for this duty at their hands Christ himself did eat and
them that theirs must be go not to law with your people nor quarrel with them if you can possibly avoid it If they wrong you forgive them For evil language give them good and blessing for their cursing Let go your right rather then let go your hopes and advantages for the winning of one soul. Suffer any thing rather then the Gospel and mens souls should suffer Become all things lawful to all men if by any means you may win some Let men see that you use not the Ministery only for a trade to live by But that your very hearts are wholly set upon the welfare of their souls Whatsoever meekness humility condescention or self-deniall you teach them from the Gospel O teach it them also by your undissembled leading example This is to be Guides and Pilots and Governors of the Church indeed Be not like the Orators that Diogenes blamed that studied benè dicere non benè facere Nor like the sign at the Inn door that hangs out in the rain it self while it shews others where they may have shelter and refreshing Nor like a fencer that can offend but not defend as Cicero said of Caelius that he was a good right hand-man but an ill left-hand man See that you be as well able to defend your selves when you are tempted by Satan or accused by men to be proud covetous or negligent as to tel others what they should be O how many heavenly doctrines are in some peoples eares that never were in the preachers heart Too true is that of Hilary Sanctiores sunt aures plebis quam corda sacerdotum Alas that ever pride emulation hypocrisie or covetousness should come into a pulpit They are hateful in the shops and streets but more hatefull in the Church but in the Pulpit most of all What an odious sight is it to see pride and ambition stand up to preach humility and hypocrisie to preach up sincerity and an earthly minded man to preach for a heavenly conversation Do I need to tell you that are Teachers of others that we have but a little while longer to preach and but a few breaths more to breath and then we must come down and be accountable for our work Do I need to tell you that we must dye and be judged as well as our people or that justice is most severe about the Sanctuary and judgment beginneth at the house of God and revenge is most implacable about the Altar and jealousie hottest about the Arke Have you not learned these lessons from Eli Corah Nadah and Abihu Vzzah and the Bethshemites c. though I had said nothing Can you forget that even some of our tribe shall say at judgment Lord we have taught in thy Name who yet must depart with I know you not Do you learn nothing by the afflictions that now lye upon you You see what hath been done against the Ministery of England how some have been laid hold on by the hand of justice and some by the hand of violence and injustice and how all are lashed and reproached by the wanton tongues of ignorant insolent Sectaries neither Prelaticall Presbyterian nor meer Independent now spared it being the very calling it self that now they set against How they rob the Church of her due maintenance and make no more of it then Dionisius did of robbing Aesculapius of his golden beard quia barbatus erat filius at pater Apollo non ita or then the same Dionisius did of robbing Jupiter Olympius of the golden Coate that Hieron had given saying that a Coate of Gold was too heavy for Summer and too cold for VVinter but cloth would be suitable to both Or then he did of robbing the Images of the vessels of gold which they held in their hands saying he did but take what they offered and held forth to him Or then the same Dionisius did of robbing the temple of Proserpina when afterwards his ships had a prosperous winde Videtis inquit quam prospera navigatio a dijs immortaâ—ibus detur sacrilegis Ex hoc colligens aut non esse deos aus illis non esse molesta Sacrilegia Sirs doth God lay all this on the Church and Ministery for nothing Doth not the world know what an ignorant lazy superstitious Ministery had lately possessed most Churches in the land And how many such are yet remaining and those that are better alas how far from what we should be either in knowledg or practice And yet how unwilling are they to learn what they know not Even as unwilling as their people are to learn of them if not much more O see your errors by the glass of your Afflictions And if the words of God will not serve the turn let the tongues of enemies and Sectaries shew you your transgressions Of whom I may say to you as Erasmus of Luther Deus dedit huic postremae aetati propter morborum multitudinem acrem medi cum And as the Emperor Charles of the same Luther Si sacri ficuli frugi essent nullo indigerent Luthero Yet let not any Papist catch at this as if our Ministery were unlearned and vicious in comparison of theirs the contrary for the common sort is well known And though the Jesuits of late have been so industrious and learned yet I could tell them out of Erasmus of some that proved heriticks must be killed from Pauls Haereticum hominem devita i. e. de vita tolle And of Hen. Stephanus his priest of Artois that would prove that it belonged to his parishoners to pave the Church and not to him from Jeremies Paveant illi non paveam ego Or if these seem partial witnesses I could tell them what Bellarmine saith of the ninth Age Seculo haec nullum extitit indoctius aut infaelicius quo qui mathematicae aut Philosophiae operam dabat magus vulgò putabatur And as Espencaeâ—s saith ut Graecè rosse suspectum fuerit Haebraicè prope haereticum I could tell them also what a Clergy was found in Germany and in England at the Reformation what barbarous ignorance beastly uncleanness and murders of the children begotten in whoredome was found among them I could tell them who have been turned from their Church by a meer journey to Rome there seeing the wickedness of their chiefest Clergy And what Petrarâ—h Mantuan with multitudes more say of it And if the most horrid murders were not become vertues with them and did they not think they did God service by killing his servants I should minde them of all the burnings in England and of all the unparalleled bloody Massacres in France and the inquisition of Spain which their Clergy yet manage and promote If any say that I speak this but upon reports we have seen no such thing I answer as Pausanias when he was blamed for dispraising a Physitian that he had never made tryal of Si periculum fecissem nequaquam viverem If we had fallen into their hands
one with another and Calvins Exposition which is the summ of all I have said q. d. Danda est vobis opera non tantum ut salsi intus sitis sed etiam ut saliatis alios Quia tamen sal acrimoniâ suâ mordet ideo statim admonet sic temperandam esse condituram ut pax interim salva maneat SECT XI 6. THe last whom I would perswade to this great Work of helping others to the Heavenly Rest is Parents and Masters of Families All you that God hath intrusted with Children or Servants O consider what Duty lyeth on you for the furthering of their Salvation That this Exhortation may be the more effectual with you I will lay down these several Considerations for you seriously to think on 1. What plain and pressing commands of God are there that require this great Duty at your hands Deut. 6.6 7 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up So Deut. 11. And how well is God pleased with this in Abraham Gen. 18.19 Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord c. And it is Joshuaes Resolution That he and his Houshold will serve the Lord. Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Ephes 6.4 Bring up your children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Many the like Precepts especially in the Book of Proverbs you may finde So that you see it is a Work that the Lord of heaven and earth hath laid upon you and how then dare you neglect it and cast it off 2. It is a duty that you ow your children in point of Justice from you they received the defilement and misery of their natures and therefore you ow them all possible help for their recovery If you had but hurt a stranger yea though against your will you would think it duty to help to cure him 3. Consider how neer your children are to you and then you will perceive that from this Natural Relation also they have interest in your utmost help your children are as it were parts of your selves If they prosper when you are dead you take it almost as if you lived and prospered in them If you labor never so much you think it not ill bestowed nor your buildings or purchases too dear so that they may enjoy them when you are dead and should you not be of the same minde for their everlasting Rest 4. You will else be witnesses against your own souls your great care and pains and cost for their bodies will condemn you for your neglect of their pretious souls you can spend your selves in toyling and caring for their bodies and even neglect your own souls and venture them sometimes upon unwarrantable courses and all to provide for your Posterity and have you not as much reason to provide for their souls Do you not believe that your children must be everlastingly happy or miserable when this life is ended and should not that be fore-thought of in the first place 5. Yea All the very bruit creatures may condemn you Which of them is not tender of their young How long will the Hen sit to hatch her Chickens and how busily scrape for them and how carefully shelter and defend them and so will even the most vile and venemous Serpent and will you be more unnatural and hard-hearted then all these will you suffer your children to be ungodly and profane and run on in the undoubted way to damnation and let them alone to destroy themselves without controll 6. Consider God hath made your children to be your charge yea and your servants too Every one will confess they are the Ministers charge and what a dreadful thing it is for them to neglect them when God hath told them That if they tell not the wicked of their sin and danger their blood shall be required at that Ministers hands and is not your charge as great and as dreadful as theirs Have not you a greater charge of your own Families then any Minister hath Yea doubtless and your duty it is to reach and admonish and reprove them and watch over them and at your hands else will God require the bloud of their souls The greatest charge it is that ever you were entrusted with and we to you if you prove unfaithful and betray your trust and suffer them to be ignorant for want of your teaching or wicked for want of your admonition or correction O â—ad account that many parents will make 7. Look into the dispositions and lives of your children and see what a work there is for you to do First It is not one sin that you must help them against but thousands their name is Legion for they are many It is not one weed that must be pulled up but the field is overspread with them Secondly And how hard is it to prevail against any one of them They are Hereditary diseases bred in their Natures Naturam expellâ—s furea c. They are aâ— neer them as the very heart and how tenacious are all things of that which is natural how hard to teach a Hare not to be fearful or a Lyon or Tiger not to be fierce Besides the things you must teach them are quite above them yea clean contrary to the interest and desires of their Flesh how hard is it to teach a man to be willing to be poor and despised and destroyed here for Christ to deny themselves and displease the flesh to forgive an Enemy to love those that hate us to watch against temptations to avoid occasions and appearance of evil to believe in a crucified Saviour to rejoyce in tribulation to trust upon a bare word of Promise and let go all in hand if call'd to it for something in hope that they never saw nor ever spake with man that did see to make God their chief delight and love and to have their hearts in heaven while they live on earth I think none of this is easie they think otherwise let them try and Judg yet all this must be learned or they are undone for ever If you help them not to some Trade they cannot live in the world but if they be destitute of these things they shall not live in heaven If the Marriner be not skilful he may be drowned and if the Souldier be not skilful he may be slain but they that cannot do the things above mentioned will perish for ever For without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 O that the Lord would make all you that are Parents sensible what a work and charge
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
fruit perhaps we should be sooner drawn unto them and we should itch as the Bethshemites to be looking into this Ark. Sure I am where God hath forbidden us to place our thoughts and our delights thither it is easâ—y enough to draw them If he say Love not the World nor the things of the World we dote upon it never the less We have love enough if the world require it and thoughts enough to pursue our profits How delightfully and unweariedly can we think of vanity and day after day imploy our mindes about the Creature And have we no thoughts of this our Rest How freely and how frequently can we think of our pleasures our friends our labors our flesh our lusts our common studies or news yea our very miseries our wrongs our sufferings and our seats But vvhere is the Christian vvhose heart is on his Rest Why Sirs vvhat is the matter vvhy are vve not taken up vvith the vievvs of Glory and our souls more accustomed to these delightful Meditations Are vve so full of joy that vve need no more or is there no matter in Heaven for our joyous thoughts or rather are not our hearts carnal and blockish Earth vvill to Earth Had vve more Spirit it vvould be othervvise with us As the Jews use to cast to the ground the Book of Esther before they read it because the Name of God is not in it And as Austin cast by Ciceroes writings because they contained not the Name of Jesus So let us humble and cast dovvn these sensual hearts that have in them no more of Christ and Glory As we should not own our duties any further then somewhat of Christ is in them so should we no further own our hearts And as we should delight in the creatures no further then they have reference to Christ and Eternity so should we no further approve of our own hearts If there were little of Christ and Heaven in our mouths but the world were the onely subject of our speeches then all would account us to be ungodly why then may we not call our hearts ungodly that have so little delight in Christ and Heaven A holy tongue will not excuse or secure a profane heart Why did Christ pronounce his Disciples eyes and eares so blessed but as they were the doors to let in Christ by his Works and Words into their hearts O blessed are the eyes that so see and the ears that so hear that the heart is thereby raised to this blessed heavenly frame Sirs so much of your hearts as is empty of Christ and heaven let it befilled with shame and sorrow and not with ease SECT II. BUt let me turn my Reprehension to Exhortation That you would turn this Conviction into Reformation And I have the more hope because I here address my self to men of Conscience that dare not wilfully disobey God and to men whose Relations to God are many and neer and therefore methinks there should need the fewer words to perswade their hearts to him Yea because I speak to no other men but onely them whose portion is there whose hopes are there and who have forsaken all that they may enjoy this glory and shall I be discouraged from perswading such to be heavenly-minded why fellow Christians if you will not hear and obey who will well may we be discouraged to exhort the poor blinde ungodly world and may say as Moses Exod. 6.12 Behold the Children of Israel have not hearkned unto me how then shall Pharoah hear me Who ever thou art therefore that readest these lines I require thee as thou tendrest thine Allegiance to the God of Heaven as ever thou hopest for a part in this glory that thou presently take thy heart to task chide it for its wilful strangeness to God turn thy thoughts from the pursuit of Vanity bend thy soul to study Eternity busie it about the life to come habituate thy self to such contemplations and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory but settle upon them dwell here bathe thy soul in heavens Delights drench thine affections in these rivers of pleasure or rather in this sea of Consolation and if thy backward soul begin to flag and thy loose thoughts to fly abroad call them back hold them to their work put them on bear not with their lasiness do not connive at one neglect and when thou hast once in obedience to God tried this work and followed on till thou hast got acquainted with it and kept a close guard upon thy thoughts till they are accustomed to obey and till thou hast got some mastery over them thou wilt then finde thy self in the suburbs of Heaven and as it were in a new world thou wilt then finde indeed that there is sweetness in the work and way of God and that the life of Christianity is a life of Joy Thou wilt meet with those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed and panted and groaned after and which so few Christians do ever here obtain because they know not this way to them or else make not conscience of walking in it You see the work now before you This this is it that I would fain perswade your souls to practise Beloved friends and Christian neighbors who hear me this day let me bespeak your consciences in the name of Christ and command you by the Authority I have received from Christ that you faithfully set upon this weighty duty and fix your eye more stedfastly on your Rest and daily delight in the fore-thoughts thereof I have perswaded you to many other duties and I bless God many of you have obeyed and I hope never to finde you at that pass as to say when you perceive the command of the Lord that you will not be perswaded nor obey if I should it were high time to bewail your misery Why you may almost as well say we will not obey as sit still and not obey Christians I beseech you as you take me for your Teacher and have called me thereto so hearken to this Doctrine if ever I shall prevail with you in any thing let me prevail with you in this to set your heart where you expect a Rest and Treasure Do you not remember that when you called me to be your Teacher you promised me under your hands that you would faithfully and conscionably endeavor the receiving every truth and obeying every command which I should from the Word of God manifest to you I now charge your promise upon you I never delivered to you a more apparent Truth nor prest upon you a more apparent duty then this If I knew you would not obey what should I do here preaching Not that I desire you to receive it chiefly as from me but as from Christ on whose Message I come Me thinks if a childe should shew you Scripture and speak to you the Word of God you should not dare to disobey it Do not wonder that I perswade you so earnestly though
indeed if we were truly reasonable in spiritual things as we are in common it would be a real wonder that men should need so much perswasion to so sweet and plain a duty but I know the emplyment is high the heart is earthly and will still draw back the temptations and hinderances will be many and great and therefore I fear before we have done and laid open more fully the nature of the Duty that you will confess all these perswasions little enough The Lord grant they prove not so too little as to fail of success and leave you as they finde you Say not we are unable to set our own hearts on heaven this must be the work of God onely and therefore all your Exhortation is in vain for I tell you though God be the chief disposer of your hearts yet next under him you have the greatest command of them your selves and a great power in the ordering of your own thoughts and for determining your own wills in their choice though without Christ you can do nothing yet under him you may do much and must do much or else it will be undone and you undone through your neglect Do your own parts and you have no cause to distrust whether Christ will do his Do not your own consciences tell you when your thoughts fly abroad that you might do more then you do to restrain them and when your hearts lye flat and neglect Eternity and seldom minde the Joys before you that most of this neglect is wilful If you be to study a set Speech you can force your thoughts to the intended Subject if a Minister be to study a Sermon he can force his thoughts to the most saving Truths and that without any speciall grace might not a true Christian ther minde more the things of the life to come if he did not neglect to exerciâ—e that authority over his own thoughts which God hath given him especially in such a work as this where he may more confidently expect the assistance of Christ who useth not to forsake his people in the work he sets them on If a carnal Minister can make it his work to study about Christ and heaven through all his life time and all because it is the trade he lives by and knows not how to subsist without it why then me thinks a spiritual Christian should study as constantly the Joys of heaven because it is the very business he lives for and that the place he must be in for ever If the Cook can finde in his heart to labor and sweat about your meat because it is the trade that maintains him though perhaps he taste it not himself Me thinks then you for whom it is prepared should willingly bestow that daily pains to taste its sweetness and feed upon it and if it were about your bodily food you would think it no great pains neither a good stomack takes it for no great labor to eat and drink of the best till it be satisfied nor needs it any great invitation thereto Christians if your souls were sound and right they would perceive incomparably more delight and sweetness in Knowing Thinking Believing Loving and Rejoycing in your future Blessedness in the fruition of God then the soundest stomack findes in its food or the strongest senses in the enjoyment of their objects so little painful would this work be to you and so little should I need to press you to it it s no great pains to you to think of a friend or any thing else that you dearly love and as little would it be to think of Glory if your love and delight were truly there if you do but see some Jewel or Treasure you need not long exhortations to stir up your desires the very sight of it is motive enough if you see the fire when you are cold or see a house in a stormy day or see a safe harbor from the tempestuous seas you need not be told what use to make of it the sight doth presently direct your thoughts you think you look you long till you do obtain it Why should it not be so in the present case Sirs one would think to shew you this Crown and Glory of the Saints should be motive enough to make you desire it to shew you that Harbor where you may be safe from all dangers should soon teach you what use to make of it and should bend your daily studies towards it but because I know while we have flâ—sh about us and any remnants of that carnal minde which is enmity to God and to this noble work that all motives are little enough And because my own and others sad experiences tell me how hardly the best are drawn to a constancy and faithfulness in this duty I vvill here lay down some moving Considerations vvhich if you vvill but vouchsafe to ponder throughly and deliberately vveigh vvith an impartial judgment I doubt not but they vvill prove effectuall vvith your hearts and make you resolve upon this excellent duty I pray you friends let them not fall to the ground but take them up and try them and if you finde they concern you make much of them and obey them accordingly SECT III. 1. COnsider a heart set upon heaven will be one of the most unquestionable evidences of thy sincerity and a clear discovery of a true work of saving grace upon thy soul. You are much in enquiring after Marks of sincerity and I blame you not its dangerous mistaking when a mans salvation lies upon it You are oft asking How shall I know that I am truly sanctified Why here is a mark that will not deceive you if you can truly say that you are possessed of it Even a heart set upon Heaven Would you have a sign infallâ—ble not from me or from the mouth of any man but from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself which all the enemies of the use of Marks can lay no exception against Why here is such a one Mat. 6.21 Where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Know once assuredly where your heart is and you may easily know that your treasure is there God is the Saints Treasure and happiness Heaven is the place where they must fully enjoy him A heart therefore set upon heaven is no more but a heart set upon God desiring after this full enjoyment And surely a heart set upon God through Christ is the truest evidence of saving grace External actions are easiest discovered but those of the heart are the surest evidences When thy learning will be no good proof of thy grace when thy knowledg thy duties and thy gifts will fail thee when Arguments from thy tongue and thy hand may be confuted yet then will this Argument from the bent of thy heart prove thee sincere Take a poor Christian that can scarce speak true English about Religion that hath a weak understanding a failing memory a stammering tongue yet his heart is set on God
same and if we took the right course for fetching in our comfort from these sure our comforts would be more setled and constant though not always the same Whoever thou art therefore that Readest these lines I intreat thee in the name of the Lord and as thou valuest the life of constant Joy and that good conscience which is a continual feast that thou wouldest but seriously set upon this work and learn this Art of Heavenly-mindedness and thou shalt finde the increase a hundred fold and the benefit abundantly exceed thy labor But this is the misery of mans Nature Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow and loves the most merry and joyful life yet few do love the way to Joy or will endure the pains by which it is obtained they will take the next that comes to hand and content themselves with earthly pleasures rather then they will ascend to heaven to seek it and yet when all is done they must have it there or be without it SECT VI. 4. COnsider A heart in heaven will be a most excellent preservative against temptations a powerful means to kill thy corruptions and to save thy conscience from the wounds of sin God can prevent our sinning though we be careless and keep off the temptation which we would draw upon our selves and sometime doth so but this is not his usual course nor is this our safest way to escape When the minde is either idle or ill imployed the devil needs not a greater advantage when he finds the thoughts let out on Lust Revenge Ambition or Deceit what an opportunity hath he to move for Execution and to put on the Sinner to practise what he thinks on Nay if he finde the minde but empty there 's room for any thing that he will bring in but when he finds the heart in heaven what hope that any of his motions should take Let him entice to any forbidden course or shew us the baite of any pleasure the soul will return Nehemiaes Answer I am doing a great work and cannot come Neh. 6.3 Several ways will this preserve us against Temptations First By keeping the heart imployed Secondly By clearing the Understanding and so confirming the Will Thirdly By prepossessing the Affections with these highest delights Fourthly And by keeping us in the way of Gods blessing First By keeping the heart employed when we are idle we tempt the devil to tempt us as it is an encouragement to a Thief to see your doors open and no body within and as we use to say Careless persons make Theeves or as it will encourage an High-way Robber to see you unweaponed so may it encourage Sathan to find your hearts idle but when the heart is taken up with God it cannot have while to hearken to Temptations it cannot have while to be lustful and wanton ambitious or worldly If a poor man have a suit to any of you he will not come when you are taken up in some great mans company or discourse that 's but an ill time to speed If you were but busied in your lawful Callings you would not be so ready to hearken to Temptations much less if you were busied above with God Will you leave your Plow and Harvest in the Field or leave the quenching of a fire in your houses to run vvith children a hunting of Butterflies vvould a Judg be perswaded to rise from the Bench vvhen he is sitting upon life and death to go and play among the Boys in the streets No more will a Christian vvhen he is busie vvith God and taking a survey of his eternal Rest give ear to the alluring charms of Sathan Non vacat exiguis c. is a Character of the truly prudent man the children of that Kingdom should never have vvhile for trifles but especially vvhen they are imployed in the affairs of the Kingdom and this employment is one of the Saints chief preservatives against temptations For as Gregory saith Nunquam Dei amor otiosus est operatur enim magna si est Si verò operari renuit non est amor The Love of God is never idle it vvorketh great things vvhen it truly is and vvhen it vvill not vvork it is not love Therefore being still thus working it is still preserving Secondly A heavenly minde is the freest from sin because it is of clearest understanding in spiritual matters of greatest concernment A man that is much in conversing above hath truer and livelyer apprehensions of things concerning God and his soul then any reading or learning can beget Though perhaps he may be ignorant in divers controversies and matters that less concern salvation yet those truths vvhich must stablish his soul and preserve him from temptation he knows far better then the greatest Scholars he hath so deep an insight into the evil of sin the vanity of the creature the brutishness of fleshly sensual delights that temptations have little power on him for these earthly vanities are Satans baites which though they may take much with the undiscerning world yet with the clear-sighted they have lost their force In vain saith Salomon the net is spread in the sight of any bird Pro. 1.17 And usually in vain doth Satan lay his snares to entrap the soul that plainly sees them when a man is on high he may see the further we use to set our discovering Centinels on the highest place that 's neer unto us that he may discern all the motions of the Enemy In vain doth the Enemy lay his Ambuscado's when we stand over him on some high Mountain and clearly discover all he doth When the heavenly-minde is above with God he may far easier from thence discern every danger that lyes below and the whole method of the devil in deceiving Nay if he did not discover the snare yet were he likelier far to escape it then any others that converse below A net or baite that 's laid on the ground is unlikely to catch the bird that flyes in the Air while she keeps above she 's out 〈◊〉 of the danger and the higher the safer so is it with us Sathans temptations are laid on the earth earth is the place and earth the ordinary baite How shall these ensnare the Christian who hath left the earth and walks with God But alas we keep not long so high but down we must to the earth again and then we are taken If conversing with wise and learned men is the way to make one wise and learned then no wonder if he that converseth with God become wise If men that travel about the earth do think to return home with more experience and wisdom how much more he that travels to heaven As the very Air and Climate that we most abide in do work our bodies to their own temper no wonder if he that is much in that sublime and purer Region have a purer soul and quicker sight and if he have an understanding full of light who liveth with
believing Saint shall be there in person and is frequently there in Spirit and hath seen it also in the Glass of the Gospel Why then do you value their company no more and why do you enquire no more of them and why do you relish their discourse no better Well for my part I had rather have the fellowship of a Heavenly minded Christian then of the most learned Disputers or Princely Commanders SECT X. 8. COnsider There is no man so highly honoreth God as he who hath his conversation in Heaven and without this we deeply dishonor him Is it not a disgrace to the Father when the Children do feed on Husks and are cloathed in rags and accompany with none but Rogues and Beggers Is it not so to our Father when we who call our selves his Children shall feed on Earth and the garb of our souls be but like that of the naked World and when our hearts shall make this clay and dust their more familiar and frequent company who should always stand in our Fathers presence and be taken up in his own Attendance Sure it beseems not the Spouse of Christ to live among his Scullions and Slaves when they may have daily admittance into his presence Chamber he holds forth the Scepter if they will but enter Sure we live below the rates of the Gospel and not as becometh the Children of a King even of the great King of all the World We live not according to the height of our Hopes nor according to the plenty that is in the Promises nor according to the provision of our Fathers house and the great preparations made for his Saints It is well we have a Father of tender Bowels who will own his Children even in dirt and rags It is well the foundation of God stands sure and that the Lord knoweth who are his or else he would hardly take us for his own so far do we live below the honor of Saints If he did not first challenge his interest in us neither our selves nor others could know us to be his people But O when a Christian can live above and rejoyce his soul in the things that are unseen how doth God take himself to be honored by such a one The Lord may say Why this man beleeves me I see he can trust me and take my Word He rejoyceth in my promise before he hath possession he can be glad and thankful for that which his bodily eyes did never see This mans rejoycing is not in the flesh I see he loves me because he mindes me his heart is with me he loves my presence and he shall surely enjoy it in my Kingdom for ever Because thou hast seen saith Christ to Thomas thou hast beleeved but blessed are they that have not seen and yet have beleeved John 20.29 How did God take himself honored by Caleb and Joshuah when they went into the promised Land and brought back to their Brethren a taste of the Fruits and gave it commendation and encouraged the people And what a promise and recompence do they receive Numb 14.24 30. For those that honor him he will honor 1 Sam. 2.30 SECT XI 9. COnsider If thou make not conscience of this duty of diligent keeping thy heart in Heaven First thou disobeyest the flat commands of God Secondly Thou losest the sweetest parts of Scripture Thirdly And dost frustrate the most gratious discoveries of God God hath not left it as a thing indifferent and at thy own choice whether thou wilt do it or not He hath made it thy duty as well as the means of thy comfort that so a double bond might tie thee not to forsake thy own mercies Col 3 1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above set your affections on things above not on things on earth The same God that hath commanded thee to believe and to be a Christian hath commanded thee to set thy affections above The same God that hath forbidden thee to murder to steal to commit adultery incest or Idolatry hath forbidden thee the neglect of this great duty and darest thou wilfully disobey him Why makest thou not conscience of the one as well as of the other Secondly besides thou losest the most comfortable passages of the VVord All those most glorious descriptions of heaven all those discoveries of our future blessedness all Gods Revelations of his purposes towards us and his frequent and pretious promises of our Rest what are they all but lost to thee Are not these the stars in the Firmament of the Scripture and the most golden lines in that Book of God Of all the Bible Me thinks thou shouldest not part with one of those Promises or Predictions no not for a world As Heaven is the perfection of all our mercies so the Promises of it in the Gospel are the very soul of the Gospel That VVord whâ—ch was sweeter to David then the honey and the honey comb and to Jeremy the Joy and rejoycing of his heart Jer. 15.16 The most pleasant part of this thou losest Thirdly Yea thou dost frustrate the preparations of Christ for thy Joy and makest him to speak in vain Is a comfortable word from the mouth of God of so great worth that all the comforts of the world are nothing to it and dost thou neglect and overlook so many of them Reader I intreat thee to ponder it why God should reveal so much of his Counsel and tell us before hand of the Joyes we shall possess but onely that he would have us know it for our Joy If it had not been to make comfortable our present life and fill us with the delights of our foreknown blessedness he might have kept his purpose to himself and never have let us know it till we come to enjoy it nor have revealed it to us till death had discovered it what he meant to do with us in the world to come yea when we had got possession of our Rest he might still have concealed its Eternity from us and then the fears of losing it again would have bereaved us of much of the sweetness of our Joyes But it hath pleased our Father to open his Counsel and to let us know the very intent of his heart and to acquaint us with the eternal extent of his Love and all this that our Joy may be full and we might live as the heirs of such a Kingdom And shall we now over-look all as if he had revealed no such matter Shall we live in earthly cares and sorrows as if we knew of no such thing And rejoyce no more in these discoveries then if the Lord had never writ it If thy Prince had sealed thee but a Patent of some Lordship how oft wouldst thou be casting thine eye upon it and make it thy daily delight to study it till thou shouldst come to possess the dignity it self And hath God sealed thee a Patent of Heaven and dost thou let it
lye by thee as if thou hadst forgot it O that our hearts were as high as our Hopes and our Hopes as high as these infallible Promises SECT XII 10. COnsider It is but equal that our hearts should be on God when the heart of God is so much on us If the Lord of Glory can stoop so low as to set his heart on sinful dust sure one would think we should easily be perswaded to set our hearts on Christ and Glory and to ascend to him in our daily affections who vouchsafeth to condescend to us O If Gods delight were no more in us then ours is in him what should we do what a case were we in Christian dost thou not perceive that the Heart of God is set upon thee and that he is still minding thee with tender Love even when thou forgettest both thy self and him Dost thou not finde him following thee with daily mercies moving upon thy soul providing for thy body preserving both Doth he not bear thee continually in the arms of Love and promise that all shall work together for thy good and suit all his dealings to thy greatest advantage and give his Angels charge over thee And canst thou finde in thy heart to cast him by and be taken up with the Joyes below and forget thy Lord who forgets not thee Fye upon this unkinde ingratitude Is not this the sin that Isaiah so solemnly doth call both heaven and earth to witness against The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider If the Ox or Ass do straggle in the day they likely come to their home at night but we will not so much as once a day by our serious thoughts ascend to God When he speaks of his own respects to us hear what he saith Isai. 15.16 When Zion saith The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me But when he speaks of our thoughts to him the case is otherwise Jer. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my People have forgotten me days without number As if he should say you would not forget the cloathes on your backs you will not forget your braveries and vanities you will not rise one morning but you will remember to cover your nakedness And are these of more worth then your God or of more concernment then your eternal life and yet you can forget these day after day O brethren give not God cause to expostulate with us as Isai. 65.11 Ye are they that have forsaken the Lord and that forget my holy Mountain But rather admire his minding of thee and let it draw thy minde again to him and say as Job 7.17 What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment ver 18. So let thy soul get up to God and visit him every morning and thy heart be towards him every moment SECT XIII 11. COnsider Should not our interest in Heaven and our Relation to it continually keep our hearts upon it Besides that excellency which is spoken of before VVhy there our Father keeps his court Do we not call him our Father which art in Heaven Ah ungratious unworthy children that can be so taken up in their play below as to be mindless of such a Father Also there is Christ our Head our Husband our Life and shall we not look towards him and send to him as oft as we can till we come to see him face to face If he were by Transubstantiation in the Sacraments or other ordinances and that as gloriously as he is in Heaven then there were some reason for our lower thoughts But when the Heavens must receive him till the restitution of all things let them also receive our hearts with him There also is our Mother For Jerusalem which is above is that mother of us all Gal. 4.26 And there are multitudes of our elder Brethren There are our friends and our ancient acquaintance whose society in the flesh we so much delighted in and whose departure hence we so much lamented And is this no attractive to thy thoughts If they were within thy reach on earth thou wouldst go and visit them and why wilt thou not oftner visit them in Spirit and rejoyce beforehand to think of thy meeting them there again Saith old Bullinger Socrates gaudet sibi moriendū esse propterea quod Homerum Hesiodum alios praestantissimos viros se visurum crederet quanto magis ego gaudeo qui certus sum me visurum esse Christum servatorem meum aeternum Dei filium in assumtâ carne praeterea tot sanctissimos eximios Patriarchas c. Socrates rejoyced that he should die because he believed he should see Homer Hesiod and other excellent men how much more do I rejoyce who am sure to see Christ my Saviour the eternal Son of God in his assumed flesh and besides so many holy and excellent men When Luther desired to dye a Martyr and could not obtain it he comforted himself with these thoughts and thus did write to them in prison Vestra vincula mea sunt vestri carceres ignes mei sunt dum confiteor praedico vobisque simul compatior congratulor Yet this is my comfort your Bonds are mine your Prisons and Fires are mine while I confess and Preach the Doctrine for which you suffer and while I suffer and congratulate with you in your sufferings Even so should a Believer look to heaven and contemplate the blessed state of the Saints and think with himself Though I am not yet so happy as to be with you yet this is my daily comfort you are my Brethren and fellow Members in Christ and therefore your joyes are my joyes and your glory by this neer relation is my glory especially while I believe in the same Christ and hold fast the same Faith and Obedience by which you were thus dignified and also while I rejoyce in Spirit with you and in my daily meditations congratulate your happiness Moreover our house and home is above For we know if this earthly house of our Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Why do we then look no oftner towards it and groan not earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Sure if our home were far meaner we should yet remember it because it is our home You use to say Home is homely be it never so poor and should such a home then be no more remembred If
tell me what difference between this fools expressions and thy affections I doubt not but thou hast more wit then to speak thy minde just in his language but man remember thou hast to do with the searcher of hearts It may be thou holdst on in thy course of duty and prayest as oft as thou didst before it may be thou keepest in with good Ministers and with godly men and seemest as forward in Religion as ever But what is all this to the purpose Mock not thy soul man for God will not so be mocked What good may yet remain in thee I know not but sure I am thy course is dangerous and if thou follow it on will end in dolor Methinks I see thee befooling thy self and tearing thy hair and gnashing thy teeth when thou hearest thy case laid open by God Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul from thee and then whose are all these things Certainly so much as thou delightest and restest on Earth so much is abated of thy delights in God Thine earthly minde may consist with thy profession and common duties but it cannot consist with this Heavenly duty I need not tell thee all this if thou wouldst deal impartially and not be a traitor to thy own soul thou knowest thy self how seldom and cold how cursory and strange thy thoughts have been of the joyes hereafter ever since thou didst trade so eagerly for the world Methinks I even perceive thy conscience stir now and tell thee plainly that this is thy case hear it man O hear it now least thou hear it in another maner when thou wouldest be full loth O the cursed madness of many that seem to be religious who thrust themselves into multitude of employments and think they can never have business enough till they are loaded with labors and clogged with cares That their souls are as unfit to converse with God as a man to walk with a mountain on his back and till he hath even transformed his soul almost into the nature of his drossie carkass and made it as unapt to soare aloft as his body is to leap above the Sun And when all is done and they have lost that Heaven they might have had upon Earth they rake up a few rotten arguments to prove it lawful and then they think that they have salved all though these sots would not do so for their bodies nor forbear their eating or drinking or sleeping or sporting though they could prove it lawful so to do though indeed they cannot prove it lawful neither They miss not the pleasures of this Heavenly Life if they can but quiet their Consciences while they fasten upon lower and baser pleasures For thee O Christian who hast tasted of these pleasures I advise thee as thou valuest their enjoyment as ever thou wouldst taste of them any more take heed of this gulf of An earthly minde For if once thou come to this that thou wilt be rich thou fallest into temptation and a snare and into divers foolish and hurtful lusts it is Saint Pauls own words 1 Tim 6.9 Set not thy minde as Saul on the Asses when the Kingdom of Glory is before thee Keep these things as thy upper Garments still loose about thee that thou maist lay them by when ever there is cause But let God and Glory be next thy heart yea as the very blood and spirits by which thou livest Still remember that of the Spirit The friendship of the World is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is the enemy of God Jam. 4.4 And 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him This is plain dealing and happy he that faithfully receives it SECT III. 3. A Third hinderance which I must advise thee to beware is The company of ungodly and sensual men Not that I would disswade thee from necessary converse or from doing them any office of Love especially not from endeavouring the good of their souls as long as thou hast any opportunity or hope Nor would I have thee conclude them to be Dogs and Swine that so thou maist evade the duty of Reproof Nor yet to judg them such at all as long as there is any hope of better or before thou art certain they are such indeed much less can I approve of the practice of those who because the most of the world are naught do therefore conclude men Dogs or Swine before ever they faithfully and lovingly did admonish them yea or perhaps before they have known them or spoke with them and hereupon they will not communicate with them in the Lords Supper but separate from them into distinct Congregations I perswade thee to no such ungodly separation As I never found one word in Scripture where either Christ or his Apostles denied admittance to any man that desired to be a Member of the Church though but onely prosessing to Repent and Believe so neither did I ever there finde that any but convicted Hereticks or scandalous ones and that for the most part after due admonition were to be avoided or debarred our fellowship And whereas it is urged That they are to prove their interest to the priviledges which they lay claim to and not we to disprove it I Answer if that were granted yet their meer professing to Repent and Believe in Christ is a sufficient evidence of their interest to Church member-ship and admittance thereto by Baptism supposing them not admitted before and their being Baptized persons or members of the universal visible Church into which it is that they are Baptized is sufficient evidence of their interest to the Supper till they do by Heresie or Scandal blot that Evidence which Evidence if they do produce yea though they are yet weak in the Faith of Christ who is he that dare refuse to receive them And this after much doubting dispute and study of the Scriptures I speak as confidently as almost any truth of equal moment So plain is the Scripture in this point to a man that brings his Understanding to the model of Scripture and doth not bring a model in his brain and reduce all he reades to that model The door of the visible Church is incomparably wider then the door of heaven and Christ is so tender so bountiful and forward to convey his grace and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all that surely Christ will keep no man off if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ they shall be welcome If they will come but onely to a visible Profession he will not deny them admittance there because they intend to go no further but will let them come as neer as they will and that they come no further shall be their own fault and so it is not his readiness to admit such nor the openness of the door of his visible Church
and the Spirit will help me to suck them from the brests of the promise and to walk for them daily to the face of God It was an established Law among the Argi That if a man were perceived to be idle and lazy he must give an account before the Magistrate how he came by his victuals and maintenance And sure when I see these men lazy in the use of Gods appointed means for comfort I cannot but question how they come by their comforts I would they would examine it throughly themselves for God will require an account of it from them Idleness and not improving the Truth in painful duty is the common cause of mens seeking comfort from Error even as the people of Israel when they had no comfortable answer from God because of their own sin and neglect would run to seek it from the Idols of the Heathens So when men-were falshearted to the Truth and the Spirit of Truth did deny them comfort because they denied him sincere obedience therefore they will seek it from a lying spirit A multitude also of professors there are that come and enquire for Marks and signs How shall I know whether my heart be sincere and they think the bare naming of some mark is enough to discover but never bestow one hour in trying themselves by the marks they hear So here they ask for directions for a Heavenly Life and if the hearing and knowing of these directions will serve then they will be heavenly Christians But if we set them to task and shew them their work and tell them they cannot have these delights on easier tearmes then here they leave us as the young man left Christ with sorrow How our comforts are only in Christ and yet this labor of ours is necessary thereto I have shewed you already in the beginning of this book and therefore still refer you thither when any shall put in that objection My advice to such a lazie sinner is this As thou art convict that this work is necessary to thy comfortable living so resolvedly set upon it If thy heart draw back and be undisposed force it on with the command of Reason and if thy Reason begin to dispute the work force it with producing the command of God and quicken it up with the consideration of thy necessity and the other Motives before propounded And let the enforcements that brought thee to the work be still in thy minde to quicken thee in it Do not let such an incomparable treasure lye before thee while thou lyest still with thy hand in thy bosom Let not thy life be a continual vexation which might be a continual delightful feasting and all because thou wilt not be at the pains When thou hast once tasted of the sweetness of it and a little used thy heart to the work thou wilt finde the pains thou takest which thy backward flesh abundantly recompensed in the pleasures of thy spirit Only â—it not still with a disconsolate spirit while comforts grow before thine eyes like a man in the midst of a Garden of Flowers or delightful Medow that will not rise to get them that he may partake of their sweetness Neither is it a few formal lazy running thoughts that will fetch thee this consolation from above No more then a few lazy formal words will prevail with God in stead of fervent prayer I know Christ is the fountain and I know this as every other gift is of God But yet if thou ask my advice How to obtain these waters of consolation I must tell thee There is something also for thee to do The Gospel hath its conditions and work though not such impossible ones as the Law Christ hath his yoak and his burden though easie and thou must come to him weary and take it up or thou wilt never finde Rest to thy soul. The well is deep and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be refreshed and delighted with it What answer would you give a man that stands by a Pump or draw-Well and should ask you How shall I do to get out the water Why you must draw it up or labor at the Pump and that not a motion or two but you must pump till it comes and then hold on till you have enough Or if a man were lifting at a heavy weight or would move a stone to the top of a mountain and should ask you How he should get it up Why what would you say but that he must put to his hands and put forth his strength And what else can I say to you in directâ—ing you to this Art of a Heavenly Life but this You must deal roundly with your hearts and drive them up and spur them on and follow them close till the work be done as a man will do a lazy unfaithful servant who will do nothing longer then your eye is on him or as you will your horse or ox at his labor who will not stir any longer then he is driven And if your heart lye down in the midst of the work force it up again till the work be done and let it not prevaile by its lazy polâ—â—es I know so far as you are spiritual you need not all this striving and violence but that is but in part and in part you are carnal and as long as it is so there is no talk of ease Though your renewed 〈◊〉 do delight in this work yea no delight on earth so great 〈…〉 so far as it is freshly and unrenewed will draw back and rest and necessitate your industry It was the Parthians custome the none must give their children any meat in the morning before thâ— saw the sweat on their faces with some labor And you shall finde this to be Gods most usual course not to give his children the tastes of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them Therefore lay them both together and judg whether a heavenly 〈◊〉 or thy carnal ease be better and as a wise man make thy choice accordingly Yet this let me say to encourage thee Thou needâ—st not expend thy thoughts more then thou now dost it is but only to employ them better I press thee not to busie thy minde much more then thou dost but to busie it upon better and more pleasant objects As Socratâ—s said to a lazy fellow that would fain go up to Olympus but that it was so far off Why saith he walk but as far every day as thou dâ—st up and down about thy house and in so many dayes thou wilt be at Olympus So say I to thee Imploy but so many serious thoughts every day upon the excellent glory of the life to come as thou now imployest on thy necessary affairs in the world nay as thou daily losest on vanities and impertinencies and thy heart will be at heaven in a very short sâ—ace To conclude this As I have seldom known Christians perplexed with doubts of their estate for want
clay to totter Look on thy glass and see how it runs Look on thy watch how fast it getteth what a short moment is between us and our Rest what a step is it from hence to Everlastingness While I am thinking and writing of it it hasteth neer and I am even entring into it before I am aware While thou art reading this it pâ—steth on and thy life will be gone as a tale that is told Mayst thou not easily foresee thy dying time and look upon thy self as ready to depart It s but a few dayes till thy friends shall lay thee in the grave and others do the like for them If you verily believed you should dye to morrow how seriously would you think of Heaven to night The condemned prisoner knew before that he 〈◊〉 dye and yet he was then as Jovial as any but when he hears the sentence and knows he hath not a week to live then how it sinkes his heart within him So that the true apprehensions of the neerness of Eternity doth make mens thoughts of it to be quick and piercing and put life into their fears and sorrowes if they are unfitted and into their desires and Joyes if they have assurance of its glory When the Witches Samuel had told Saul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this quickly worked to his very heart and laid him down as dead on the earth And if Christ should say to a believing soul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this would be a working word indeed and would bring him in spirit to Heaven before As Melanchton was wont to say of his uncertain station because of the persecution of his enemies Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio 40. annos et nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse i. e. I have now been here this fourty yeers and yet could never say or be sure that I shall tarry here for one week so may we all say of our abode on earth As long as thou hast continued out of heaven thou canst not say thou shalt be out of it one week longer Do but suppose that you are still entring in it and you shall finde it will much help you more seriously to minde it SECT IV. 4. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is To be much in serious discoursing of it especially with those that can speak from their hearts and are seasoned themselves with an heavenly nature It s pitty saith Mr. Bolton that Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in Heaven or the way to it before they part Its pitty so much pretious time is spent among Christians in vain discourses foolish janglings and useless disputes and not a sober word of Heaven among them Methinks we should meet together of purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our Rest. To hear a Minister or private Christian set forth that blessed Glorious State with power and life from the Promises of the Gospel Methinks should make us say as the two Disciples Did not our hearts burn within us while he was opening to us the Scripture while he was opening to us the windows of Heaven If a Felix or wicked wretch will tremble when he hears his judgment powerfully denounced why should not the believing soul be revived when he hears his Eternal Rest revealed Get then together fellow Christians and talk of the affairs of your Country and Kingdom and comfort one another with such words 1 Thess. 4.18 If Worldlings get together they will be talking of the World when Wantons are together they will be talking of their Lusts and wicked men can be delighted in talking of wickedness and should not Christians then delight themselves in talking of Christ and the heirs of heaven in talking of their Inheritance This may make our hearts revive within us as it did Jacobs to hear the Message that called him to Goshen and to see the Chariots that should bring him to Joseph O that we were furnished with skil and resolution to turn the stream of mens common discourse to these more sublime and pretious things And when men begin to talk of things unprofitable that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven and say as Peter of his bodily food Not so for I eat not that which is common and unclean this is nothing to my eternal Rest O the good that we might both do and receive by this course If it had not been needful to deter us from unfruitful conference Christ would not have talked of giving an account of every idle word at judgment say then as David when you are in conference Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest mirth And then you shall finde the truth of that Prov. 15.4 A wholsom tongue is a Tree of Life SECT V. 5. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is this Make it thy business in every duty to winde up thy affections neerer Heaven A mans attainments and receivings from God are answerable to his own desires and ends that which he sincerely seeks he findes Gods end in the institution of his Ordinances was that they be as so many stepping stones to our Rest and as the staires by which in subordination to Christ we may daily ascend unto it in our affections Let this be thy end in using them as it was Gods end in ordaining them and doubtless they will not be unsuccessful though men be personally far asunder yet they may even by Letters have a great deal of entercourse How have men been rejoyced by a few lines from a friend though they could not see him face to face what gladness have we when we do but read the expressions of his Love or if we read of our friends prosperity and welfare Many a one that never saw the fight hath triumphed and shouted made Bonefires and rung Bels when he hath but heard and read of the Victory and may not we have entercourse with God in his Ordinances though our persons be yet so far remote May not our spirits rejoyce in the reading those lines which contain our Legacy and Charter for heaven with what Gladness may we read the expressions of Love and hear of the state of our Celestial Country with what triumphant shoutings may we applaud our Inheritance though yet we have not the happiness to behold it Men that are separated by sea and land can yet by the meer entercourse of Letters carry on both great and gainful trades even to the value of their whole estate and may not a Christian in the wise improvement of duties drive on this happy trade for Rest Come not therefore with any lower ends to duties Renounce Formality Customariness and Applause When thou kneelest down in secret or publike prayer let it be in hope to get thy heart neerer God before
thou risest off thy knees when thou openest thy Bible or other Books let it be with this hope to meet with some passage of Divine truth and some such blessing of the Spirit with it as may raise thine affections neerer Heaven and give thee a fuller taste thereof when thou art setting thy foot out at thy door to go to the publike Ordinance and Worship say I hope to meet with somewhat from God that may raise my affections before I returne I hope the Spirit will give me the meeting and sweeten my heart with those celestial delights I hope that Christ will appear to me in that way and shine about me with light from heaven and let me hear his instructing and reviving voyce and causa the scales to fall from mine eyes that I may see more of that glory then I ever yet saw I hope before I return to my house my Lord will take my heart in hand and bring it within the view of Rest and set it before his Fathers presence that I may return as the Shepherds from the heavenly Vision glorifying and praising God for all the things that I have heard and seen Luke 2.20 and say as those that behold his Miracles We have seen strange things to day Luke 5.26 Remember also to pray for thy Teacher that God would put some Divine Message into his mouth which may leave a heavenly relish on thy spirit If these were our ends and this our course when we set to duty we should not be so strange as we are to heaven When the Indian first saw the use of Letters by our English they thought there was sure some spirit in them that men could so converse together by a paper If Christians would take this course in their duties they might come to such holy fellowship with God and see so much of the Mysteries of the Kingdom that it would make the standers by admire what is in those Lines what is in that Sermon what is in this praying that fils his heart so full of joy and that so transports him above himself Certainly God would not fail us in our duties if we did not fail our selves and then experience would make them sweeter to us SECT VI. 6. ANother help is this Make an advantage of every object thou seest and of every passage of Divine providence and of every thing that befals in thy labor and calling to minde thy soul of its approaching Rest. As all providences and creatures are means to our Rest so do they point us to that as their end Every creature hath the name of God and of our final Rest written upon it which a considerate believer may as truly discern as he can read upon a post or hand in a cross way the name of the Town or City which it points to This spiritual use of creatures and providences is Gods great End in bestowing them on man And he that overlooks this End must needs rob God of his chiefest praise and deny him the greatest part of his thanks The Relation that our present mercies have to our great Eternal mercies is the very quintessence and spirits of all these mercies Therefore do they loose the very spirits of their mercies and take nothing but the huskes and bran who do overlook this Relation and draw not forth the sweetness of it in their contemplations Gods sweetest dealings with us at the present would not be half so sweet as they are if they did not intimate some further sweetness As our selves have a fleshly and a spiritual substance so have our mercies a fleshly and spiritual use and are fitted to the nourishing of both our parts He that receives the carnal part and no more may have his body comforted by them but not his soul. It is not all one to receive six pence meerly as six pence and to receive it in earnest of a thousand pound though the sum be the same yet I trow the relation makes a wide difference Thou takest but the bear earnest and overlookest the maine sum when thou receivest thy mercies and forgettest thy crown O therefore that Christians were skilled in this Art You can open your Bibles and read there of God and of Glory O learn to open the creatures and to open the several passages of providence and to read of God and Glory there Certainly by such a skilful industrious improvement we might have a fuller tast of Christ and Heaven in every bit of bread that we eat and in every draught of Beer that we drink then most men have in the use of the Sacrament If thou prosper in the world and thy labor succeed let it make thee more sensible of thy perpetual prosperity If thou be weary of thy labors let it make thy thoughts of Rest more sweet If things go cross hard with thee in the world let it make thee the more earnestly desire that day when all thy sorrows and sufferings shall cease Is thy body refreshed with food or sleep Remember thy unconceivable refreshings with Christ. Dost thou hear any news that makes the glad Remember what glad tydings it will be to hear the sound of the trump of God and the absolving sentence of Christ our Judg. Art thou delighting thy self in the society of the Saints Remember the Everlasting amiable fraternity thou shalt have with perfected Saints in Rest. Is God communicating himself to thy spirit Why remember that time of thy highest advancement when thy Joy shall be full as thy communion is full Dost thou hear the raging noise of the wicked and the disorders of the vulgar and the confusions in the world like the noise in a crowd or the roaring of the waters Why think of the blessed agreement in Heaven and the melodious harmony in that Quire of God Dost thou hear or feel the tempest of wars or see any cloud of blood arising Remember the day when thou shalt be housed with Christ where there is nothing but calmness and amiable union and where we shall solace our selves in perfect Peace under the wings of the Prince of Peace for ever Thus you may see what advantages to a Heavenly Life every condition and creature doth afford us if we had but hearts to apprehend and improve them As it s said of the Turkes that they 'l make bridges of the dead bodyes of their men to passe over the trenches or ditches in their way So might Christians of the very ruines and calamities of the times and of every dead body or misery that they see make a bridge for the passage of their thoughts to their Rest. And as they have taught their Pigeons which they call carriers in divers places to bear letters of entercourse from friend to friend at a very great distance so might a wise industrious Christian get his thoughts carried into Heaven and receive as it were returns from thence again by creatures of slower wing then Doves by the assistance of the Spirit the Dove of God
This is the right Daedalian flight and thus we may take from each bird a feather and make us wings and fly to Christ. SECT VII 7. ANother singular help is this Be much in that Angelical work of Praise As the most heavenly Spirits will have the most heavenly imployment so the more heavenly the imployment the more will it make the Spirit heavenly Though the heart be the Fountain of all our actions and the actions will be usually of the quality of the heart yet do those actions by a kinde of reflexion work much on the heart from whence they spring The like also may be said of our speeches So that the work of praising God being the most heavenly work is likely to raise us to the most heavenly temper This is the work of those Saints and Angels and this will be our own everlasting work if we were more taken up in this imployment now we should be liker to what we shall be then When Aristotle was asked what he thought of Musick he answers Jovem neque canere neque citharam pulsare That Jupiter did neither sing nor play on the Harp thinking it an unprofitable art to men which was no more delightful to God But Christians may better argue from the like ground that singing of praise is a most profitable duty because it is so delightful as it were to God himself that he hath made it his peoples Eternal work for they shall sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. As Desire and Faith and Hope are of shorter continuance then Love and Joy so also Preaching and Prayer and Sacraments and all means for confirmation and expression of Faith and Hope shall cease when our Thanks and Praise and triumphant expressions of Love and Joy shall abide for ever The liveliest embleme of Heaven that I know upon Earth is When the people of God in the deep sense of his excellency and bounty from hearts abounding with Love and Joy do joyn together both in heart and voice in the cheerful and melodious singing of his praises Those that deny the lawful use of singing the Scripture Psalms in our times do disclose their unheavenly unexperienced hearts I think as well as their ignorant understandings Had they felt the heavenly delights that many of their Brethren in such duties have felt I think they would have been of another minde And whereas they are wont to question whether such delights be genuine or any better then carnal or delusive Surely the very rellish of Christ and Heaven that is in them the example of the Saints in Scripture whose spirits have been raised by the same duty and the command of Scripture for the use of this means one would think should quickly decide the controversie And a man may as truly say of these delights as they use to say of the testimony of the Spirit That they witness-themselves to be of God and bring the evidence of their heavenly parentage along with them And whereas they allow onely extemporate Psalms immediately dictated to them by the Spirit When I am convinced that the gift of extemporate singing is so common to the Church that any man who is spiritually merry can use it Jam. 5.13 And when I am convinced that the use of Scripture Psalms is abolished or prohibited then I shall more regard their judgment Certainly as large as mine acquaintance hath been with men of this Spirit I never yet heard any one of them sing a Psalm ex tempore that was better then Davids yea or that was tolerable to a judicious hearer and not rather a shame to himself and his opinion But sweet experience will be a powerful Argument and will teach the sincere Christian to hold fast his exercise of this soul-raising duty Little do we know how we wrong our selves by shutting out of our prayers the praises of God or allowing them so narrow a room as we usually do while we are copious enough in our Confessions and Petitions Reader I entreat thee remember this Let praises have a larger room in thy duties Keep ready at hand matter to feed thy praise as well as matter for Confession and Petition To this end study the excellencies and goodness of the Lord as frequently as thy own necessities and vileness study the mercies which thou hast received and which are promised both their own proper worth and their aggravating circumstances as often as thou studiest the sins thou hast committed O let Gods praise be much in your mouths for in the mouths of the upright his praise is comely Psal. 33.1 Seven times a day did David praise him Psal. 119.164 Yea his praise was continually of him Psal. 71.6 As he that offereth praise glorifieth God Psal. 50.23 So doth he most rejoyce and glad his own soul. Psal. 98.4 Offer therefore the sacrifice of praise continually Heb. 13.15 In the midst of the Church let us sing his praise Heb. 2.12 Praise our God for he is good sing praises unto his Name for it is pleasant Psal. 135.3 and 147.1 Yea let us rejoyce and triumph in his praise Psal. 106.47 Do you think that David had not a most heavenly Spirit who was so much imployed in this heavenly work Doth it not sometime very much raise your hearts when you do but seriously read that divine Song of Moses Deut. 32. And those heavenly iterated praises of David having almost nothing sometime but praise in his mouth How much more would it raise and refresh us to be skilled and accustomed in the work our selves I confess to a man of a languishing body where the heart doth faint and the spirits are feeble the cheerful praising of God is more difficult because the body is the souls instrument and when it lies unstringed or untuned the musick is likely to be accordingly but dull Yet a spiritual cheerfulness there may be within and the heart may praise if not the voice But where the body is strong the spirits lively the heart cheerful and the voice at command what advantage have such for this heavenly work with what alacrity and vivacity may they sing forth praises O the madness of healthful youth that lay out this vigor of body and minde upon vain delights and fleshly lusts which is so fit for the noblest work of man And O the sinful folly of many of the Saints who drench their spirits in continual sadness and wast their days in complaints and groans and fill their bodies with wasting diseases and so make themselves both in body and minde unfit for this sweet and heavenly work That when they should joyn with the people of God in his praises and delight their souls in singing to his Name they are questioning their worthiness and studying their miseries or raising scruples about the lawfulness of the duty and so rob God of his praise and themselves of their solace But the greatest destroyer of our comfort in this duty is our sticking in the carnal
delight thereof and taking up in the tune and melody and suffering the heart to be all the while idle which must perform the chiefest part of the work and which should make use of the melody for its reviving and exhilerating SECT VIII 8. IF thou wouldest have thy heart in Heaven keep thy soul still possessed with true believing thoughts of the exceeding infinite love of God Love is the attractive of love No mans heart will be set upon him that hates him were he never so excellent nor much upon him that doth not much love him There is few so vile but will love those that love them be they never so mean No doubt it is the death of our heavenly life to have hard and doubtful thoughts of God to conceive of him as a hater of the Creature except onely of obstinate Rebels and as one that had rather damn us then save us and that is glad of an opportunity to do us a mischief or at least hath no great good will to us This is to put the Blessed God into the similitude of Satan And who then can set his heart and love upon him When in our vile unbelief and ignorance we have drawn the most ugly picture of God in our imaginations then we complain that we cannot love him and delight in him This is the case of many thousand Christians Alas that we should thus belie and blaspheme God and blast our own joyes and depress our spirits Love is the very essence of God The Scripture tells us That God is Love it telleth us That Fury dwelleth not in him that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he repent and live Much more hath he testified his love to his chosen and his full resolution effectually to save them O if we could always think of God but as we do of a friend as of one that doth unfeignedly love us even more then we do our selves whose very heart is set upon us to do us good and hath therefore provided us an everlasting dwelling with himself it would not then be so hard to have our hearts still with him Where we love most heartily we shall think most sweetly and most freely And nothing will quicken our love more then the belief of his love to us Get therefore a truer conceit of the loving Nature of God and lay up all the experiences and discoveries of his love to thee and then see if it will not further thy heavenly-mindedness SECT IX 9. ANother thing I would advise you to is this Be a careful observer of the drawings of the Spirit and fearful of quenching its motions or resisting its workings If ever thy soul get above this earth and get acquainted with this living in heaven the Spirit of God must be to thee as the Chariot to Elijah yea the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend O then grieve not thy Guide quench not thy Life knock not off thy Chariot-wheels if thou do no wonder if thy soul be at a loss and all stand still or fall to the earth you little think how much the life all your Graces and the happiness of your souls doth depend upon your ready and cordial Obedience to the Spirit When the Spirit urgeth thee to secret prayer and thou refusest obedience when he forbids thee thy known transgressions and yet thou wilt go on when he telleth thee which is the way and which not and thou wilt not regard no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange if thou wilt not follow the Spirit while it would draw thee to Christ and to thy duty how should it lead thee to heaven and bring thy heart into the presence of God O what supernatural help what bold access shall that soul finde in its approaches to the Almighty that is accustomed to a constant obeying of the Spirit And how backward how dull and strange and ashamed will he be to these addresses who hath long used to break away from the Spirit that would have guided him Even as stiffe and unfit will they be for this Spiritual motion as a dead man to natural I beseech thee Christian Reader learn well this lesson and try this course let not the motions of thy body onely but also the very thoughts of thy heart be at the Spirits beâ—k Dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impulsion to retire from the world and draw neer to God O do not now disobey but take the offer and hoâ—se up sail while thou mayst have this blessed gale When this wind blows strongest thou goest fastest either forward or backward The more of this Spirit we resist the deeper will it wound and the more we obey the speedier is our pace As he goes heaviest that hath the wind in his face and he easiest that hath it in his back SECT X. 10. LAstly I advise as a further help to this heavenly work That thou neglect not the due care for the health of thy body and for the maintaining a vigorous cheerfulness in thy spirits nor yet over-pamper and please thy flesh Learn how to carry thy self with prudence to thy body It is a useful servant if thou give it its due and but its due It is a most devouring tyrant if thou give it the mastery or suffer it to have what it unreasonably desireth And 〈◊〉 as a blunted Knife as a Horse that is lame as thy Ox that is famished if thou injuriously deny it what is necessary to its support When we consider how frequently men offend on both extreams and how few use their bodies aright we cannot wonder if they be much hindered in their heavenly conversing Most men are very slaves to their sensitive appetite and can scarce deny any thing to the flesh which they can give it on easie rates without much shame or loss or grief The flesh thus used is as unfit to serve you as a wilde colt to ride on When such men should converse in Heaven the flesh will carry them to an Alehouse or to their sports to their profits or credit or vain company to wanton practices or sights or speeches or thoughts It will thrust a whore or a pair of Cards or a good bargain into their mindes in stead of God Look to this specially you that are young and healthful and lusty As you love your souls remember that in Rom. 13.14 which converted Austin Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires and that Rom. 8.4 5 6 7 8 12 13 14. Some few others do much hinder their heavenly joy by over rigorous denying the body its necessaries and so making it unable to serve them But the most by forfeiting and excess do overthrow and disable it You love to have your knife keen and every instrument you use in order when your horse goes lustily how cheerfully do you travel As much need hath the soul of a sound and cheerful body If they who
circumstances though to some they may seem small things doth much conduce to our hinderance or our help Christ himself thought it not vain to direct in this circumstance of private duty Mat. 6.4 6 18 If in private prayer we must shut our door upon us that our Father may hear us in secret so is it also requisite in this Meditation How oft doth Christ himself depart to some mountain or wilderness or other solitary place For occasional Meditation I give thee not this advise but for this daily set and solemn duty I advise that thou withdraw thy self from all society yea though it were the society of godly men that thou mayest a while enjoy the society of Christ If a student cannot study in a crowd who exerciseth only his invention and memory much lesse when thou must exercise all the powers of thy soul and that upon an object so far above nature When thy eyes are filled with the persons and actions of men and thine ears with their discourse its hard then to have thy thoughts and affections free for this duty Though I would not perswade thee to Pythagoras his Cave nor to the Hermets Wilderness nor to the Monks Cell yet I would advise thee to frequent solitariness that thou mayest sometimes confer with Christ and with thy self as well as with others We are fled so far from the solitude of superstition that we have cast off the solitude of contemplative devotion Friends use to converse most familiarly in private and to open their Secrets and let out their affections most freely Publike converse is but common converse Use therefore as Christ himself did Mark 1.35 to depart sometimes into a solitary place that thou maist be wholly vacant for this great employment See Mat. 14.23 Mark 6.47 Luke 9.18 36. John 6.15 16. We seldom read of Gods appearing by himself or his Angels to any of his Prophets or Saints in a throng but frequently when they were alone And as I advise thee to a place of retiredness so also that thou observe more particularly what place and posture best agreeth with thy spirit Whether within doors or without whether siting still or walking I beleeve Isaacs example in this also will direct us to the place and posture which will best suit with most as it doth with me viz. His walking forth to meditate in the field at the eventide And Christs own example in the places forecited gives us the like direction Christ was used to a solitary Garden that even Judas when he came to betray him knew where to finde him John 18.1 2. And though he took his Disciples thither with him yet did he separate himself from them for more Secret devotions Luke 22.41 And though his meditation be not directly named but onely his praying yet it is very clearly implied Matth. 26.38 39. His soul is first made sorrowful with the bitter meditations on his death and sufferings and then he poureth it out in prayer Mark 14.34 So that Christ had his accustomed place and consequently accustomed duty and so must we Christ hath a place that is solitary whither he retireth himself even from his own Disciples and so must we Christs meditations do go further then his thought they affect and pâ—erce his heart and soul and so must ours Onely there is a wide difference in the object Christ meditates on the suffering that our sins had deserved that the wrath of his Father even passed through his thoughts upon all his soul But the meditation that we speak of is on the glory he hath purchased that the love of the Father and the joy of the Spirit might enter at our thoughts and revive our affections and overflow our souls So that as Christs meditation was the sluce or flood-gate to let in Hell to overflow his Affections so our meditation should be the sluce to let in Heaven into our affections SECT IX SO much concerning the Time and Place of this duty I am next to advise thee somewhat concerning the preparations of thy heart The success of the work doth much depend on the frame of thy heart When mans heart had nothing in it that might grieve the Spirit then was it the delightful habitation of his Maker God did not quit his residence there till man did expel him by unworthy provocations There grew no strangeness till the heart grew sinful and too loathsom a dungeon for God to delight in And were this soul reduced to its former innocency God would quickly return to his former habitation yea so far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit and purged of its lusts and beautified with his Image the Lord will yet acknowledg it his own and Christ will manifest himself unto it and the Spirit will take it for his Temple and Residence So far as the soul is qualified for conversing with God so far it doth actually for the most part enjoy him Therefore with all diligence keep thy heart for from thence are the issues of life Prov 4.23 More particularly when thou fettest on this duty First Get thy heart as clear from the world as thou canst wholly lay by the thoughts of thy business of thy troubles of thy enjoyments and of every thing that may take up any room in thy soul. Get thy soul as empty as possibly thou canst that so it may be the more capable of being filled with God It is a work as I have said that will require all the powers of thy soul if they were a thousand times more capacious and active then they are and therefore you have need to lay by all other thoughts and affections while you are busied here If thou couldst well perform some outward duty with a piece of thy heart while the other is absent yet this above all I am sure thou canst not Surely if thou once address thy self to the business indeed thou wilt be as the covetous man at the heap of Gold that when he might take as much as he could carry away lamented that he was able to bear no more So when thou shalt get into the Mount in contemplation thou wilt finde there as much of God and Glory as thy narrow heart is able to contain and almost nothing to hinder thy full possession but onely the uncapableness of thy own Spirit O then wilt thou think that this understanding were larger that I might conceive more that these affections were wider to contain more it is more my own unfitness then any thing else which is the cause that even this place is not my Heaven God is in this place and I know it not This Mount is full of the Angels of God but mine eyes are shut and cannot see them O the words of love that Christ hath to speak O the wonders of love that he hath to shew But alas I cannot bear them yet Heaven is here ready at hand for me but my uncapable heart is unready for Heaven Thus wouldst thou lament that the
the remaining Work is onely to direct you how to use your hands and mouth to feed your stomack I mean how to use your â—nderstandings for the warming of your Affections and to fire your Hearts by the help of your Heads And herein it will be necessary that I observe this Method First to shew you what instrument it is that you must work by Secondly VVhy and how this way of working is like to succeed and attain its end Thirdly VVhat powers of the soul should here be acted and what are the particular Affections to be excited and what objective Considerations are necessary thereto and in what order you should proceed Fourthly By what acts you must advance to the height of the work Fifthly VVhat advantages you must take and what helps you must use for the facilitating your success Sixthly In what particulars you must look narrowly to your hearts through the whole And I will be the briefer in all left you should loâ—e my meaning in a crowd of words or your thoughts be carried from the VVork it self by an over-long and tedious Explication of it SECT II. 1. THe great Instrument that this Work is done by is Ratiocination Reasoning the case with your selves Discourse of minde Cogitation or Thinking or if you will call it Consideration I here suppose you to know the things to be considered and therefore shall wholly pass over thaâ— Meditation of Students which tends onely to Speculation or Knowing They are known Truths that I perswade you to consider for the grossly ignorant that know not the Doctrine of everlasting Life are for the present uncapable of this duty Mans soul as it receives and retains the Idea's or Shapes of things so hath it a power to chuse out any of these deposited Idea's and draw them forth and act upon them again and again even as a Sheep can fetch up his meat for rumination otherwise nothing would affect us but while the sense is receiving it and so we should be somewhat below the Bruits This is the power that here you must use To this choice of Idea's or subjects for your Cogitation there must necessarily concur the act of the Will which indeed must go along in the whole Work for this must be a voluntary not a forced Cogitation Some men do consider whether they will or no and are not able to turn away their own thoughts so will God make the wicked consider of their sins when he shall set them all in order before them Psal. 50.21.22 And so shall the damned consider of Heaven and of the excellency of Christ whom they once despised and of the eternal joyes which they have foolishly lost But this forced Consideration is not that I mean but that which thou dost willingly and purposely chose but though they will be here requisite yet still Consideration is the instrument of the Work SECT III. 2. NExt let us see what force Consideration hath for the moving of the affections and for the powerful imprinting of things in the heart Why First Consideration doth as it were open the door between the Head and the Heart The Understanding having received Truths layes them up in the Memory now Consideration is the conveyer of them from thence to the Affections There 's few men of so weak Understanding or Memory but they know and can remember that which would strangely work upon them and make great alterations in their spirits if they were not locked up in their brain and if they could but convey them down to their hearts Now this is the great work of Consideration O what rare men would they be who have strong heads and much learning and knowledge if the obstructions between the Head and the Heart were but opened and their Affections did but correspond to their Understandings why if they would but bestow as much time and pains in studying the goodness and the evil of things as they bestow in studying the Truth and Falshood of Enunciations it were the readiest way to obtain this he is usually the best Scholar who hath the quick the clear and the tenacious apprehension but he is usually the best Christian who hath the deepest piercing and affecting Apprehension He is the best Scholar who hath the readiest passage from the Ear to the Brain but he is the best Christian who hath the readiest passage from the Brain to the Heart now Consideration is that on our parts that must open the passage though the Spirit open as the principal cause inconsiderate men are stupid and senseless SECT IV. 2. MAtter 's of great weight which do neerly concern us are aptest to work most effectually upon the Heart now Meditation draweth forth these working Objects and presents them to the Affections in their worth and weight The most delectable Object doth not please him that sees it not nor doth the joyfullest news affect him that never hears it now Consideration presents before us those Objects that were as absent and brings them to the Eye and the Ear of the soul Are not Christ and Glory think you affecting Objects would not they work wonders upon the soul if they were but clearly discovered and strangely transport us if our apprehensions were any wâ—it answerable to their worth why by Consideration it is that they are presented to us This is the Prospective Glass of the Christian by which he can see from Earth to Heaven SECT V. 3. AS Consideration draweth forth the weightiest Objects so it presenteth them in the most affecting way and presseth them home with enforcing Arguments Man is a Rational Creature and apt to be moved in a Reasoning way especially when Reasons are evident and strong Now Consideration is a reasoning the case with a mans own heart and what a multitude of Reasons both clear and weighty are always at hand for to work upon the heart VVhen a Believer would reason his heart to this heavenly work how many Arguments do offer themselves from God from the Redeemer from every one of the Divine Attributes from our former Estate from our present Estate from Promises from Seals from Earnest from the Evil we now suffer from the Good we partake of from Hell from Heaven every thing doth offer it self to promote our joy now Meditation is the Hand to draw forth all these as when you are weighing a thing in the Ballance you lay on a little more and a little more till it weigh down so if your Affections do hang in a dull indifferency why due Meditation will add Reason after Reason till the scales do turn Or as when you are buying any thing of necessity for your use you bid a little more and a little more till at last you come to the sellers price so when Meditation is perswading you to Joy it will first bring one Reason and then another till it have silenced all your distrust and sorrows and your cause to rejoyce lyes plain before you If another mans reasons will
or the frequency of the understandings apprehensions this Truth doth make a deeper impression so is longer retained which impâ—â—ssion and retention we call memory And as truth is thus variously presented to the understanding and received by it so also is the goodness of the object variously represented to the will which doth accordingly put forth its various acts When it appeareth only as good in it self and not good for us or suitable it is not the object of the will at all but only this Enuntiation It is good is passed upon it by the Judgment and withal it raiseth an admiration at its excellency If it appeare evil to us then we Nill it But if it appear both good in it self and to us or suitable then it provoketh the affection of Love If the good thus loved do appear as absent from us then it exciteth the passion of Desire If the good so Loved and Desired do appear possible and feasible in the attaining then it exciteth the passion of Hope which is a compound of Desire and Expectation when we look upon it as requiring our endeavor to attain it and as it is to be had in a prescribed way then it provokes the passion of courage or boldness and concludes in resolution Lastly if this good be apprehended as present then it provoketh to delight or Joy If the thing it self be present the Joy is greatest If but the Idea of it either through the remainder or memory of the good that is past or through the fore-apprehension of that which we expect yet even this also exciteth our Joy And this Joy is the perfection of all the rest SECT II. SO that by this time I suppose you see both what are the objects that must move our affections and what powers of the soul apprehend these objects you see also I doubt not what affections you must excite and in what order it is to be done Yet for your better assistance I will more fully direct you in the several particulars 1. Then you must by cogitation go to the memory which is the Magazine or Treasury of the understanding thence you must take forth those heavenly doctrines which you intend to make the subject of your Meditation for the present purpose you may look over any promise of eternal life in the Gospel any description of the glory of the Saints or the very Articles of the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting some one sentence concerning those Eternal Joyes may afford you matter for many yeers Meditation yet it will be a point of our wisdom here to have always a stock of matter in our memory that so when we should use it we may bring forth out of our treasury things new and old For a good man hath a good Treasury in his heart from whence he bringeth forth good things Luke 6.45 and out of this abundance of his heart he should speak to himself as well as to others Yea if we took things in order and observed some Method in respect of the matter and did Meditate first on one Truth concerning Eternity and then another it would not be amiss And if any should be barren of Matter through weakness of memory they may have notes or books of this subject for their furtherance SECT III. 2. WHen you have fetcht from your memory the matter of your Meditation your next work is to present it to your Judgment open there the case as fully as thou canst set forth the several ornaments of the Crown the several dignities belonging to the Kingdom as they are partly laid open in the beginning of this Book Let judgment deliberately view them over and take as exact a survey as it can Then put the question and require a determination Is there happiness in all this or not Is not here enough to make me blessed Can he want any thing who fully possesseth God Is there any thing higher for a creature to attain Thus urge thy judgment to pass an upright sentence and compel it to subscribe to the perfection of thy Celestial happiness and to leave this sentence as under its hand upon Record If thy senses should here begin to mutter and to put in a word for fleshly pleasure or profits let judgment hear what each can say weigh the Arguments of the world and flesh in one end and the Arguments for the preheminence of Glory in the other end and judg impartially which should be preferred Try whether there be any comparison to be made which is more excellent which more manly which is more satisfactory and which more pure which freeth most from misery and advanceth us highest and which dost thou think is of longer continuance Thus let deliberate judgment decide it and let not Flesh carry it by noise and by violence And when the sentence is passed and recorded in thy heart it will be ready at hand to be produced upon any occasion and to silence the flesh in its next attempt and to disgrace the world in its next competition Thus exercise thy Judgment in the contemplation of thy Rest thus Magnifie and Advance the Lord in thy heart till a holy admiration hath possessed thy Soul SECT IV. 3. BUt the great work which you may either promise or subjoyn to this as you please is To exercise thy belief of the truth of thy Rest And that both in respect of the truth of the Promise and also the truth of thy own Interest and Title As unbelief doth cause the languishing of all our Graces so Faith would do much to revive and actuate them if it were but revived and actuated it self Especially our belief of the verity of the Scripture I conceive as needful to be exercised and confirmed as almost any point of Faith But of this I have spoken in the Second Part of this Book whither I refer thee for some confirming Arguments Though few complain of their not believing Scripture yet I conceive it to be the commonest part of unbelief and the very root of bitterness which spoileth our Graces Perhaps thou hast not a positive belief of the contrary nor dost not flatly think that Scripture is not the Word of God that were to be a down-right Infidel indeed And yet thou maist have but little belief that Scripture is Gods Word and that both in regard of the habit and the act It s one thing not to beleeve Scripture to be true and another thing positively to beleeve it to be false Faith may be idle and suspend its exercise toward the Truth though it do not yet act against the Truth It may stand still when it goes not out of the way it may be asleep and do you little service though it do not directly fight against you Besides a great deal of unbelief may consist with a small degree of Faith If we did soundly beleeve That there is such a Glory that within a few days our eyes shall behold it O what passions would it
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. â— WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the â—â—anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou
canst and say to it Behold the Ancient of days the Lord Jehovah whose name is I am This is he who made the Worlds with his Word this is the Cause of all Causes the Spring of Action the Fountain of Life the first Principle of the Creatures Motions who upholds the Earth who ruleth the Nations who disposeth of events and subdueth his foes who governeth the depths of the great Waters and boundeth the rage of her swelling Waves who ruleth the Winds and moveth the Orbs and causeth the Sun to run its race and the several Planets to know their courses This is he that loved thee from Everlasting that formed thee in the Womb and gave thee this Soul who brought thee forth and shewed thee the Light and ranked thee with the chiefest of his earthly Creatures who endued thee with thy understanding and beautified thee with his gifts who maintaineth thee with life and health and comforts who gave thee thy preferments and dignified thee with thy honors and differenced thee from the most miserable and vilest of men Here O here is an object now worthy thy love here shouldst thou even pour out thy soul in love here thou maist be sure thou caust not love too much This is the Lord that hath blest thee with his benefits that hath spred thy table in the sight of thine enemies and caused thy cup to overflow This is he that Angels and Saints do praise and the Host of Heaven must magnifie for ever Thus do thou expatiate in the Praises of God and open his Excellencies to thine own heart till thou feel the life begin to stir and the fire in thy brest begin to kindle As gazing upon the dusty beauty of flesh doth kindle the fire of carnal love so this gazing on the Glory and Goodness of the Lord will kindle this Spiritual love in the-soul Bruising will make the Spices odoriferous and rubbing the Pomander will bring forth the sweetness Act therefore thy soul upon this delightful object toss these cogitations frequently in thy heart rub over all thy Affections with them as you will do your cold hands till they begin to warm What though thy heart be Rock and Flint this often striking may bring forth the fire but if yet thou feelest not thy love to work lead thy heart further and shew it yet more shew it the Son of the living God whose name is Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God The Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace shew it the King of Saints on the Throne of his Glory who is the first and the last who is and was and is to come who liveth and was dead and behold he lives for evermore who hath made thy peace by the blood of his Cross and hath prepared thee with himself an Habitation of Peace His office is to be the great Peace-Maker his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Peace his Gospel is the Tydings of Peace his Voice to thee now is the Voice of Peace Draw neer and behold him Dost thou not hear his voyce He that called Thomas to come neer and to see the print of the Nailes and to put his finger into his Wounds He it is that calls to thee Come neer and view the Lord thy Saviour and be not faithless but believing Peace be unto thee fear not It is I He that calleth Behold me behold me to a rebellious people that calleth not on his Name doth call out to thee a Believer to behold him He that calls to them who pass by to behold his Sorrow in the day of his Humiliation doth call now to thee to behold his Glory in the day of his Exaltation Look well upon him Dost thou not know him why it s He that brought thee up from the pit of hell It s He that reversed the sentence of thy Damnation that bore the Curse which thou shouldest have born and restored thee to the blessing that thou hadst forfeited and lost and purchased the Advancement which thou must inherit for ever And yet dost thou not know him why his Hands were pierced his Head was pierced his Sides were pierced his Heart was pierced with the sting of thy sins that by these marks thou mightest always know him Dost thou not remember when he found thee lying in thy blood and took pitty on thee and drest thy wounds and brought thee home and said unto thee Live Hast thou forgotten since he wounded himself to cure thy wounds and let out his own blood to stop thy bleeding Is not the passage to his heart yet standing open If thou know him not by the face the voyce the hands if thou know him not by the tears and bloody sweat yet look neerer thou maist know him by the Heart That broken-healed heart is his that dead-revived Heart is his that soul-pittying melting Heart is his Doubtless it can be none 's but his Love and Compassion are its certain Signatures This is He even this is He who would rather dye then thou shoulst dye who chose thy life before his own who pleads this blood before his Father and makes continual intercession for thee if he had not suffered O what hadst thou suffered what hadst thou been if he had not Redeemed thee whether hadst thou gone if he had not recalled thee there was but a step between thee and Hell when he stept in and bore the stroak He slew the Bear and rescued the prey he delivered thy soul from the roaring Lyon And is not here yet fuell enough for Love to feed on Doth not this Loadstone snatch thy heart unto it and almost draw it forth of thy breast Canst thou read the History of Love any further at once Doth not thy throbbing heart here stop to ease it self and dost thou not as Joseph seek for a place to weep in or do not the tears of thy Love bedew these lines Go on then for the field of Love is large it will yield thee fresh contents for ever and be thine eternal work to behold and love thou needest not then want work for thy present Meditation Hast thou forgotten the time when thou wast weeping and he wiped the tears from thine eyes when thou wast bleeding and he wiped the blood from thy soul when pricking cares and fears did grieve thee and he did refresh thee and draw out the Thorns Hast thou forgotten when thy folly did wound thy soul and the venomous guilt did seize upon thy heart when he sucked forth the mortal poyson from thy soul though therewith he drew it into his own I remember it s written of good Melancthon that when his childe was removed from him it pierced his heart to remember how he once sate weeping with the Infant on his knee and how lovingly it wip't away the tears from the fathers eyes how then should it pierce thy heart to think how lovingly Christ hath wip't away thine O how oft hath he found thee sitting weeping like Hagar
while thou gavest up thy state thy friends thy life yea thy soul for lost and he opened to thee a Well of Consolation and opened thine eyes also that thou mightest see it How oft hath he found thee in the posture of Elias sitting down under the tree forlorn and solitary and desiring rather to dye then to live and he hath spread thee a Table of relief from Heaven and sent thee away refreshed and encouraged to his VVork How oft hath he found thee in the trouble of the Servant of Elisha crying out Alas what shall we do for an Host doth compass the City and he hath opened thine eyes to see more for thee then against thee both in regard of the enemies of thy soul and thy body How oft hath he found thee in such a passion as Jonas in thy peevish frenzy aweary of thy life and he hath not answered passion with passion though he might indeed have done well to be angry but hath mildely reasoned thee out of thy madness and said Dost thou well to be angry or to repine against me How oft hath he set thee on watching and praying on repenting and beleeving and when he hath returned hath found thee fast asleep and yet he hath not taken thee at the worst but in stead of an angry aggravation of thy fault he hath covered it over with the mantle of Love and prevented thy over-much sorrow with a gentle excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak He might have done by thee as Epaminondas by his Souldier who finding him asleep upon the VVatch run him through with his Sword and said Dead I found thee and dead I leave thee but he rather chose to awake thee more gently that his tenderness might admonish thee and keep thee watching How oft hath he been traduced in his Cause or Name and thou hast like Peter denied him at lest by thy silence whilst he hath stood in sight yet all the revenge he hath taken hath been a heart-melting look and a silent remembring thee of thy fault by his countenance How oft hath Law and Conscience haled thee before him as the Pharisees did the adulterous woman and laid thy most hainous crimes to thy charge And when thou hast expected to hear the sentence of death he hath shamed away thy Accusers and put them to silence and taken on him he did not hear thy Inditement and said to thee Neither do I accuse thee Go thy way and sin no more And art thou not yet transported and ravished with Love Can thy heart be cold when thou think'st of this or can it hold when thou remembrest those boundless compassions Remembrest thou not the time when he met thee in thy duties when he smiled upon thee and spake comfortably to thee when thou didst sit down under his shadow with great delight and when his fruit was sweet to thy taste when he brought thee to his Banqueting House and his Banner over thee was Love when his left hand was under thy head and with his right hand he did embrace thee And dost thou not yet cry ouâ— Stay me comfort me for I am sick of Love Thus Reader I would have thee deal with thy heart Thus hold forth the goodness of Christ to thy Affections plead thus the case with thy frozen soul till thou say as David in another case My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal. 39.3 If these forementioned Arguments will not rouse up thy love thou hast more enough of this nature at hand Thou hast all Christs personal excellencies to study thou hast all his particular mercies to thy self both special and common thou hast all his sweet and neer relations to thee and thou hast the happiness of thy perpetual abode with him hereafter all these do offer themselves to thy Meditation with all their several branches and adjuncts Only follow them close to thy heart ply the work and let it not cool Deal with thy heart as Christ did with Peter when he asked him thrice over Lovest thou me till he was grieved and answers Lord thou knowest that I love thee So say to thy Heart Lovest thou thy Lord and ask it the second time and urge it the third time Lovest thou thy Lord till thou grieve it and shame it out of its stupidity and it can truly say Thou knowest that I love him And thus I have shewed you how to excite the affection of Love SECT VI. 2. THe next Grace or Affection to be excited is Desire The Object of it is Goodness considered as absent or not yet attained This being so necessary an attendant of Love and being excited much by the same forementioned objective considerations I suppose you need the less direction to be here added and therefore I shall touch but briefly on this If love be hot I warrant you desire will not be cold When thou hast thus viewed the goodness of the Lord and considered of the pleasures that are at his right hand then proceed on with thy Meditation thus Think with thy self Where have I been what have I seen O the incomprehensible astonishing Glory O the rare transcendent beauty O blessed souls that now enjoy it that see a thousand times more clearly what I have seen but darkly at this distance and scarce discerned through the interposing clouds What a difference is there betwixt my state and theirs I am sighing and they are singing I am sinning and they are pleasing God I have an ulcerated cancrous soul like the lothsome bodyes of Job or Lazarus a spectacle of pitty to those that behold me But they are perfect and without blemish I am here intangled in the love of the world when they are taken up with the love of God I live indeed amongst the means of grace and I possess the fellowship of my fellow-believers But I have none of their immediate views of God nor none of that fellowship which they possess They have none of my cares and fears They weep not in secret They languish not in sorrows These tears are wiped away from their eyes O happy a thousand times happy souls Alas that I must dwell in dirty flesh when my Brethren and companions do dwell with God! Alas that I am lapt in earth and tyed as a mountain down to this inferior world when they are got above the Sun and have laid aside their lumpish bodyes Alas that I must lye and pray and wait and pray and wait as if my heart were in my knees when they do nothing but Love and Praise and Joy and Enjoy as if their hearts were got into the very breast of Christ and were closely conjoyned to his own heart How far out of sight and reach and hearing of their high enjoyments do I here live when they feel them and feed and live upon them What strange thoughts have I of God What strange conceivings What strange affections I am fain
make use of discovering Signs drawn from the Nature Properties Effects Adjuncts c. 4. So far as this Trial hath discovered thy neglect and other sins against this Rest proceed to the reprehension and censuring of thy self chide thy heart for its Omissions and Commissions and do it sharply till it feel the smart as Peter Preached Reproof to his Hearers till they were pricked to the heart and cried out And as a Father or Master will chide the childe till it begin to cry and be sensible of the fault so do thou in chiding thy own heart This is called a use of Reproof Here also it will be very necessary that thou bring forth all the aggravating Circumstances of the sin that thy heart may feel it in its weight bitterness and if thy heart do evade or deny the sin convince it by producing the several Discoveries 5. So far as thou discoverest that thou hast been faithful in the duty turn it to Incouragement to thy self and to Thanks to God where thou maist consider of the several aggravatiors of the mercy of the Spirits enabling thee thereto 6. So as it respects thy duty for the future consider how thou maist improve this comfortable Doctrine which must be by strong and effectual perswasion with thy heart First By way of Dehortation from the forementioned sins Secondly By way of Exhortation to the severall duties And these are either first Internal or secondly External First Therefore admonish thy heart of its own inward neglects and contempts Secondly And then of the neglects and trespasses in thy practice against this blessed state of Rest. Set home these severall Admonitions to the quick Take thy heart as to the brink of the bottomless pit force it to look in threaten thy self with the theatnings of the Word tell it of the torments that it draweth upon it self tell it what joyes it is madly rejecting force it to promise thee to do so no more and that not with a cold and heartless promise but earnestly with most solemn asseverations and engagements Secondly The next and last is to drive on thy soul to those positive duties which are required of thee in relation this to Rest As first to the inward duties of thy heart and there first To be diligent in making sure of this Rest secondly To Rejoyce in the expectation of it This is called a use of Consolation It is to be furthered by first laying open the excellency of the State and secondly the certainty of it in it self and thirdly our own interest in it by clearing and proving all these and confuting all sadning objections that may be brought against them thirdly So also for the provoking of Love of Hope and all other the Affections in the way before more largely opened And secondly press on thy heart also to all outward duties that are to be performed in thy way to Rest whether in worship or in civil conversation whether publike or private ordinary or extraordinary This is commonly called A use of Exhortation Here bring in all quickning Considerations either those that may drive thee or those that may draw which work by Fear or which work by Desire These are commonly called Motives but above all be sure that thou follow them home Ask thy heart what it can say against them Is there weight in them or is there not and then what it can say against the duty Is it necessary is it comfortable or is it not when thou hast silenced thy heart and brought it to a stand then drive it further and urge it to a Promise As suppose it were to the duty of Meditation which we are speaking of Force thy self beyond these lazy purposes resolve on the duty before thou stir Enter into a solemn Covenant to be faithful let not thy heart go till it have without all halting and reservations flatly promised thee That it will fall to the work write down this promise shew it to thy heart the next time it loiters then study also the Helps and Means the Hinderances and the Directions that concern thy duty And this is in brief the exercise of this Soliloquy or the Preaching of Heaven to thy own Heart SECT III. BUt perhaps thou wilt say Every man cannot understand this Method this is for Ministers and learned men every man is not able to play the Preacher I Answer thee First There is not that ability required to this as is to the work of publike Preaching here thy thoughts may serve the turn but there must be also the decent Ornaments of Language here is needful but an honest understanding heart but there must be a good pronunciation and a voluble tongue here if thou miss of the Method thou maist make up that in one piece of Application which thou hast neglected in another but there thy failings are injurious to many and a scandal and disgrace to the Work of God thou knowest what will fit thy own heart and what Arguments take best with thy own Affections but thou art not so well acquainted with the dispositions of others Secondly I answer further Every man is bound to be skilful in the Scriptures as wel as Ministers Kings and Magistrates Deut. 17.18 19 20. Josh. 1.8 And the people also Deut. 6.6 7 8. Do you think if you did as is there commanded Write it upon thy heart lay them up in thy soul binde them upon thy hand and between thine eyes meditate in them day and night I say if you did thus would you not quickly understand as much as this See Psal. 1.3 Deut. 11.18 6.6 7. Doth not God command thee to teach them diligently to thy children and to talk of them when thou sittest in thy house when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up And if thou must be skilled to teach thy children much more to teach thy self and if thou canst talk of them to others why not also to thine own heart Certainly our unskilfulness and disability both in a Methodical and lively teaching of our Families and of our selves is for the most part meerly through our own negligence and a sin for which we have no excuse You that learn the skil of your Trades and Sciences might learn this also if you were but willing and painful And so I have done with this particular of Soliloquy SECT IV. 2. ANother step to arise by in our Contemplation is from this speaking to our selves to speak to God Prayer is not such a stranger to this duty but that ejaculatory requests may be intermixed or added and that as a very part of the duty it self How oft doth David intermix these in his Psalmes sometime pleading with his soul and sometime with God and that in the same Psalme and in the next verses The Apostle bids us speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and no doubt we may also speak to God in them this keeps the soul in minde of the Divine Presence
it you in respect of the time of performance Our chief work will here be to discover to you the danger and that will direct you to the fittest remedy Let me therefore here acquaint you beforehand That when ever you set upon this Heavenly employment you shall finde your own hearts your greatest hinderer and they will prove false to you in one or all of these four degrees First They will hold off that you will hardly get them to the work secondly or else they will betray you by their idleness in the work pretending to do it when they do it not or thirdly they will interrupt the work by their frequent excursions and turning aside to every object or fourthly they will spoil the work by cutting it short and be gone before you have done any good on it Therefore I here forewarn you as you value the unvaluable comfort of this work that you faithfully resist these four dangerous evils or else all that I have said hitherto is in vain 1. Thou shalt finde thy heart as backward to this I think as to any work in the world O what excuses it will make what evasions it will finde out and what delays and demurs when it is never so much convinced Either it will question whether it be a duty or not or if it be so to others yet whether it be so to thee It will rake up any thing like reason to plead against it it will tell thee That this is a work for Ministers that have nothing else to study on or for Cloysterers or persons that have more leisure then thou hast If thou be a Minister it will tell thee This is the duty of the people it is enough for thee to meditate for the instructing of them and let them meditate on what they have heard as if it were thy duty onely to cook their meat and serve it up and perhaps a little to taste the sweetness by licking thy fingers while thou art dressing it for others but it is they onely that must eat it digest it and live upon it Indeed the smell may a little refresh thee but it must be digesting it that must maintain thy strength and life If all this will not serve thy heart will tell thee of other business thou hast this company stayes for thee or that business must be done It may be it will set thee upon some other duty and so make one duty shut out another for it had rather go to any duty then to this Perhaps it will tell thee that other duties are greater and therefore this must give place to them because thou hast not time for both Publike business is of more concernment to study to preach for the saving of souls must be preferred before these private contemplations As if thou hadst not time to see to the saving of thy own soul for looking after others or thy charity to others were so great that it draws thee to neglect thy comfort and salvation or as if there were any better way to fit us to be useful to others then to make this experience of our doctrine our selves Certainly Heaven where is the Father of Lights is the best fire to light our candle at and the best book for a Preacher to study and if they would be perswaded to study that more the Church would be provided of more heavenly lights And when their Studies are Divine and their Spirits Divine their preaching will then be also Divine and they may be fitly called Divines indeed Or if thy heart have nothing to say against the work then it will trifle away the time in delayes and promise this day and the next but still keep off from the doing of the business Or lastly If thou wilt not be so baffled with excuses or delayes thy heart will give thee a flat denial and oppose its own unwillingness to thy Reason Thou shalt finde it come to the work as a Bear to the stake and draw back with all the strength it hath I speak all this of the heart so far as it is carnal which in too great a measure is in the best for I know so far as the heart is Spiritual it will judg this work the sweetest in the world Well then what is to be done in the forementioned case wilt thou do it if I tell thee Why what wouldst thou do with a servant that were thus backward to his work or to thy beast that should draw back when thou wouldst have him go forward Wouldst thou not first perswade and then chide and then spur him and force him on and take no denial nor let him alone till thou hadst got him closely to fall to his work Wouldst thou not say Why what should I do with a servant that will not work or with an Ox or Horse that will not travel or labor Shall I keep them to look on Wilt thou then faithfully deal thus with thy heart If thou be not a lazie self deluding Hypocrite say I will by the help of God I will Set upon thy heart roundly perswade it to the work take no denial chide it for its backwardness use violence with it bring it to the service willing or not willing Art thou master of thy flesh or art thou a servant to it hast thou no command of thy own thoughts cannot thy will chuse the subject of thy Meditations especially when thy judgment thus directeth thy will I am sure God once gave thee mastery over thy flesh and some power to govern thy own thoughts Hast thou lost thy authority art thou become a slave to thy depraved nature Take up the authority again which God hath given thee command thy heart if it rebel use violence with it if thou be too weak call in the Spirit of Christ to thine assistance He is never backward to so good a work nor will deny his help in so just a cause God will be ready to help thee if thou be not unwilling to help thy self Say to him Why Lord thou gavest my Reason the command of my Thoughts and Affections the authority I have received over them is from thee and now behold they refuse to obey thine authority Thou commandest me to set them to the work of Heavenly Meditation but they rebel and stubbornly refuse the duty Wilt thou not assist me to execute that authority which thou hast given me O send me down thy Spirit and Power that I may enforce thy commands and effectually compel them to obey thy Will And thus doing thou shalt see thy heart will submit its resistance will be brought under and its backwardness will be turned to a yielding compliance SECT II. 2. WHen thou hast got thy heart to the work beware least it delude thee by a loitering formality Least it say I go and go not least it trifle out the time while it should be effectually meditating Certainly the heart is as likely to betray thee in this as in any one particular about
frequently finde a motion to have done art thou not ready to be up as soon almost as thou art down on thy knees Why so it will be also in thy contemplations of Heaven As fast as thou gettest up thy heart it will be down again it will be weary of the work it will be minding thee of other business to be done and stop thy Heavenly walk before thou art well warm Well what is to be done in this case also why the same authority and resolution which brought it to the work and observed it in the work must also hold it to it till the work be done Charge it in the Name of God to stay do not so great a work by the halves say to it VVhy foolish heart If thou beg a while and go away before thou hast thy alms dost thou not lose thy labor if thou stop before thou art at the end of thy journey is not very step of thy travel lost Thou camest hither to fetch a walk to Heaven in hope to have a sight of the glory which thou must inherit and wilt thou stop when thou art almost at the top of the Hill and turn again before thou hast taken thy survey Thou camest hither in hope to speak with God and wilt thou go before thou hast seen him Thou camest to bathe thy self in the streams of Consolation and to that end didst uncloath thy self of thy Earthly thoughts and wilt thou put a foot in and so be gone Thou camest to spie out the Land of Promise O go not back without the bunch of Grapes which thou maist shew to thy Brethren when thou comest home for their Confirmation and Encouragement till thou canst tell them by experience That it is a Land flowing with Wine and Oyl with Milk and Honey Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Wine by the gladness of thy heart and that thou hast been anointed with the Oyl by the cheerfulness of thy countenance Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Milk of the Land by thy feeding and by thy milde and gentle disposition and of the Honey by the sweetness of thy words and conversation The views of Heaven would heal thee of thy sinfulness and of thy sadness but thou must hold on the Plaister that it may have time to work This Heavenly fire would melt thy frozen heart and refine it from the dross and take away the earthy part and leave the rest more spiritual and pure but then thou must not be presently gone before it have time either to burn or warm Stick therefore to the work till something be done till thy graces be acted thy affections raised and thy soul refreshed with the delights above or if thou canst not obtain these ends at once ply it the closer the next time and let it not go till thou feel the blessing Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Matth. 24.46 CHAP. XIII The Abstract or Sum of all for the use of the weak SECT I. THus I have by the gracious assistance of the Spirit directed you in this work of Heavenly Contemplation and lined you out the best way that I know for your successful performance and lead you into the path where you may walk with God But because I would bring it down to the capacity of the meanest and help their memories who are apt to let slip the former particulars and cannot well lay together the several branches of this method That they may reduce them to practice I shall here contract the whole into a brief sum and lay it all before you in a narrower compass But still Reader I wish thee to remember that it is the practice of a duty that I am directing thee in and therefore if thou wilt not practise it do not read it The sum is this As thou makest conscience of praying daily so do thou of the acting of thy Graces in Meditation and more especially in meditating on the joyes of Heaven To this end Set apart one hour or half hour every day wherein thou maist lay aside all worldly thoughts and with all possible seriousness and reverence as if thou were going to speak with God himself or to have a sight of Christ or of that blessed place so do thou withdraw thy self into some secret place and set thy self wholly to the following work If thou canst take Isaacs time and place who went forth into the Field in the Evening to meditate But if thou be a servant or poor man that cannot have that leisure take the fittest time and place that thou canst though it be when thou art private about thy labors When thou setst to the work look up toward Heaven let thine eie lead thee as neer as it can remember that there is thine Everlasting Rest study its excellency study its reality till thy unbelief be silenced and thy Faith prevail If thy judgment be not yet drawn to admiration use those sensible helps and advantages which were even now laid down Compare thy heavenly joyes with the choicest on earth and so rise up from Sense to Faith If yet this meer consideration prevail not which yet hath much force as is before expressed then fall a pleading the case with thy heart Preach upon this Text of Heaven to thy self convince inform confute instruct reprove examine admonish encourage and comfort thy own soul from this Celestial Doctrine draw forth those several considerations of thy Rest on which thy several affections may work especially that Affection or Grace which thou intendest to act If it be Love which thou wouldst act shew it the loveliness of Heaven and how suitable it is to thy condition if it be Desire consider of thy absence from this lovely object if it be Hope consider the possibility and probability of obtaining it if it be Courage consider the singular assistance and encouragements which thou maist receive from God the weakness of the enemy and the necessity of prevailing if it be Joy consider of its excellent ravishing glory of thy interest in it and of its certainty and the neerness of the time when thou must possess it Urge these considerations home to thy heart whet them with all possible seriousness upon each affection If thy heart draw back force it to the work if it loyter spur it on if it step aside command it in again if it would slip away and leave the work use thine authority keep it close to the business till thou have obtained thine end Stir not away if it may be till thy Love do flame till thy Joy be raised or till thy Desire or other Graces be lively acted Call in assistance also from God mix Ejaculations with thy Cogitations and Soliloquies Till having seriously pleaded the case with thy heart and reverently pleaded the case with God thou have pleaded thy self from a clod to a flame from a forgetful sinner to a mindful lover from a lover of
tryal of this world Dost thou finde it agree with thy nature or desires are these common abominations these heavy sufferings these unsatisfying vanities suitable to thee or dost thou love for interest and neer relation Why where hast thou better interest then in heaven or where hast thou neerer relation then there Dost thou love for acquaintance and familiarity Why though thine eyes have never seen thy Lord yet he is never the further from thee If thy son were blinde yet he would love thee his father though he never saw thee Thou hast heard the voice of Christ to thy very heart thou hast received his benefits thou hast lived in his bosome and art thou not yet acquainted with him It is he that brought thee seasonably and safety into the world It is he that nursed thee up in thy tender infancy and helped thee when thou couldst not help thy self He taught thee to go to speak to read to understand He taught thee to know thy self and him he opened thee that first window whereby thou sawest into heaven Hast thou forgotten since thy heart was careless and he did quicken it and hard and stubborn and he did soften it and made it yeeld when it was at peace and he did trouble it and whole till he did break it and broken till he did heal it again Hast thou forgotten the time nay the many very many times when he found thee in secret all in tears when he heard thy dolorous sighes and groans and left all to come and comfort thee when he came in upon thee and took thee up as it were in his armes and asked thee Poor soul what doth aile thee dost thou weep when I have wept so much Be of good cheer thy wounds are saving and not deadly It is I that have made them who mean thee no hurt Though I let out thy blood I will not let out thy life O me thinks I remember yet his voice and feel those embracing armes that took me up How gently did he handle me how carefully did he dress my wounds and binde them up Me thinks I hear him still saying to me Poor sinner though thou hast dealt unkindly with me and cast me off yet will not I do so by thee though thou hast set light by me and all my mercies yet both I and All are thine what wouldst thou have that I can give thee and what dost thou want that I cannot give thee If any thing I have will pleasure thee thou shalt have it If any thing in heaven or earth will make the happy why it is all thine own Wouldst thou have pardon thou shalt have it I freely forgive thee all the debt wouldst thou have grace and peace thou shalt have them both wouldst thou have my self why behold I am thine thy friend thy Lord thy brother thy husband and thy head wouldst thou have the Father why I will bring thee to him and thou shalt have him in and by me These were my Lords reviving words These were the melting healing raising quickening passages of love After all this when I was doubtful of his love me thinks I yet remember his overcoming and convincing Arguments Why sinner have I done so much to testifie my Love and yet dost thou doubt Have I made thy believing it the condition of enjoying it and yet dost thou doubt Have I offered thee my self and love so long and yet dost thou question my willingness to be thine VVhy what could I have done more then I have done At what dearer rate should I tell thee that I love thee Read yet the story of my bitter passion wilt thou not believe that it proceeded from love Did I ever give thee cause to be so jealous of me Or to think so hardly of me as thou dost Have I made my self in the Gospel a Lyon to thine enemies and a Lamb to thee and dost thou so over-look my Lamb like nature Have I set mine arms and heart there open to thee and wilt thou not believe but they are shut why if I had been willing to let thee perish I could have done it at a cheaper rate what need I then have done and suffered so much what need I follow thee with so long patience and intreating what dost thou tell me of thy wants have I not enough for me and thee and why dost thou foolishly tell me of thy unworthiness and thy sin I had not died if man had not sinned if thou wert not a sinner thou wert not for me if thou wert worthy thy self what shouldst thou do with my worthiness Did I ever invite the worthy and the righteous or did I ever save or justifie such or is there any such on earth Hast thou nothing art thou lost and miserable art thou helpless and forlorn dost thou believe that I am a sufficient Saviour and wouldst thou have me why then take me Lo I am thine if thou be willing I am willing and neither sin nor devils shall break the match These O these were the blessed words which his Spirit from his Gospel spoke unto me till he made me cast my self it his feet ye into his arms and to cry out My Saviour and my Lord Thou hast broke my heart thou hast revived my heart thou hast overcome thou hast wone my heart take it it is thine if such a heart can please thee take it if it cannot make it such as thou wouldst have it Thus O my soul maist thou remember the sweet familiarity thou hast had with Christ therefore if acquaintance will cause affection O then let out thy heart unto him it is he that hath stood by thy bed of sickness that hath cooled thy heats and eased thy pains and refreshed thy weariness and removed thy fears He hath been always ready when thou hast earnestly sought him He hath given thee the meeting in publike and in private He hath been found of thee in the Congregation in thy house in thy chamber in the field in the way as thou wast walking in thy waking nights in thy deepest dangers O if bounty and compassion be an attractive of Love how unmeasurably then am I bound to love him All the mercies that have filled up my life do tell me this all the places that ever I did abide in all the societies and persons that I have had to deal with every condition of life that I have passed through all my imployments and all my relations every change that hath befaln me all tell me That the Fountain is Overflowing Goodness Lord what a summ of love am I indebted to thee and how doth my debt continually increase how should I love again for so much love But what shall I dare to think of making thee requital or of recompencing all thy love with mine will my mite requite thee for thy golden Mines my seldom wishes for thy constant bounty or mine which is nothing or not mine for thine which is infinite and thine own shall I
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 corruptions quite removed and my soul perfected and my body also raised to so high a state as I now can neither desire nor conceive Surely as health of body so health of soul doth carry an unexpressible sweetness along with it VVere there no reward besides yet every gracious act is a reward and comfort Never had I the least stirring of Love to God but I felt a heavenly sweetness accompanying it even the very act of loving was unexpressibly sweet VVhat a happy life should I here live could I but love as much as I would and as oft and as long as I would Could I be all love and always loving O my soul what wouldst thou give for such a life O had I such true and clear apprehensions of God and such a true understanding of his words as I desire Could I but trust him as fully in all my streights Could I have that life which I would have in every duty Could I make God my constant desire and delight I would not then envy the world their honors or pleasures nor change my happiness with a Caesar or Alexander O my soul what a blessed state wilt thou shortly be in when thou shalt have far more of these then thou canst now desire and shalt exercise all thy perfected graces upon God in presence and open sight and not in the dark and at a distance as now And as there is so much worth in one gracious soul so much more in a gracious society and most of all in the whole body of Christ on earth If there be any true beauty on earth where should it be so likely as in the Spouse of Christ It is her that he adorneth with his Jewels and feasteth at his table and keepeth for her always an open house and heart he revealeth to her his secrets and maintaineth constant converse with her he is her constant guardian and in every deluge incloseth her in his Ark He saith to her Thou art all beautiful my beloved And is his Spouse while black so comely Is the afflicted sinning weeping lamenting persecuted Church so excellent O what then will be the Church when it is fully gathered and glorified VVhen it is ascended from the valley of tears to Mount Sion VVhen it shall sin no more nor weep nor groan nor suffer any more The Stars or the smalest candle are not darkened so much by the brightness of the Sun as the excellencies of the first Temple will be by the celestial Temple The glory of the old Jerusalem will be darkness and deformity to the glory of the New It is said in Ezr. 3.12 that when the foundations of the second Temple were laid many of the ancient men who had seen the first house did weep i.e. because the second did come so far short of it what cause then shall we have to shout for joy when we shall see how glorious the heavenly Temple is and remember the meaness of the Church on earth But alas what a loss am I at in the midst of my contemplations I thought my heart had all this while followed after but I see it doth not And shall I let my Understanding go on alone or my tongue run on without Affections what life is in empty thoughts and words Neither God nor I finde pleasure in them Rather let me turn back again and look and finde and chide this lazy loytering heart that turneth off from such a pleasant work as this Where hast thou been unworthy heart while I was opening to thee the everlasting Treasures Didst thou sleep or wast thou minding something else or dost thou think that all this is but a Dream or Fable or as uncertain as the predictions of a presumptuâ—ous Astrologer Or hast thou lost thy life and rejoycing power Art thou not ashamed to complain so much of an uncomfortable life and to murmur at God for filling thee with sorrows when he offereth thee in vain the delights of Angels and when thou treadest under foot these transcendent pleasures Thou wilfully pinest away in grief and art ready to charge thy Father with unkindness for making thee onely a vessel of displeasure a sink of sadness a skinful of groans a snow ball of tears a channel for the waters of affliction to run in the fuell of fears and the carcass which cares do consume and prey upon when in the mean time thou mightest live a life of Joy Hadst thou now but followed me close and believingly applyed thy self to that which I have spoken and drunk in but half the comfort that those words hold forth it would have made thee revive and leap for joy and forget thy sorrows and diseases and pains of the flesh but seeing thou judgest thy self unworthy of comfort it is just that comfort should be taken from thee Lord what 's the matter that this work doth go on so heavily Did I think my heart had been so backward to rejoyce If it had been to mourn and fear and despair it were no wonder I have been lifting at this stone and it will not stir I have been pouring Aqua Vitae into the mouth of the dead I hope Lord by that time it comes to heaven this heart by thy Spirit will be quickned and mended or else even those Joyes will scarce rejoyce me But besides my darkness deadness and unbelief I perceive there is something else that forbids my full desired Joyes This is not the time and place where so much is given The time is our Winter and not our Harvest The place is called the Valley of tears there must be great difference betwit the Way and the End the Work and Wages the small foretastes and full fruition But Lord Though thou hast reserved our Joyes for Heaven yet hast thou not so suspended our Desires They are most suitable and seasonable in this present life therefore O help me to desire till I may possess and let me long when I cannot as I would rejoyce There is love in Desire as well as in Delight and if I be not empty of Love I know I shall not long be empty of Delight Rowse up thy self once more then O my soul and try and exercise thy spiritual Appetite though thou art ignorant and unbelieving yet art thou reasonable and therefore must needs desire a Happiness and Rest Nor canst thou sure be so unreasonable as to dream of attaining it here on earth Thou knowest to thy sorrow that thou art not yet at thy Rest and thy own feeling doth convince thee of thy present Unhappiness and dost thou know that thou art restless and yet art willing to continue so Art thou neither happy in deed nor in Desire Art thou neither well nor wouldest be well when my flesh is pained and languisheth under consuming sickness how heartily and frequenly do I cry out O when shall I be eased of this pain when shall my decaying strength be recovered Ther 's no dissembling nor formality in these Desires
I have in my Books my friends and in thine Ordinances till thou hast given me a taste of something more sweet my soul will be loth to part with these The Traveller will hold his Cloak the faster when the windes do bluster and the storms assault him but when the Sun shines hot he will cast it off as a burthen so will my soul when thou frownest or art strange be lother to leave this garment of flesh but thy smiles would make me leave it as my prison but it is not thy ordinary discoveries that will here suffice as the work is greater so must be thy help O turn these fears into strong desires and this lothness to dye into longings after thee while I must be absent from thee let my soul as heartily groan under thine absence as my pained body doth under its want of health And let not those groans be counterfeit or constrained but let them come from a longing loving heart unfeignedly judging it best to depart and be with Christ And if I have any more time to spend on earth let me live as without the world in thee as I have sometime lived as without thee in the world O suffer me not to spend in strangeness to thee another day of this my Pilgrimage while I have a thought to think let me not forget thee while I have a tongue to move let me mention thee with delight while I have a breath to breathe let it be after thee and for thee while I have a knee to bend let it bow daily at thy Footstool and when by sickness thou confinest me to my Couch do thou make my bed and number my pains and put all my tears into thy Bottle And as when my spirit groaned for my sins the flesh would not second it but desired that which my spirit did abhor so now when my flesh doth groan under its pains let not my spirit second it but suffer the flesh to groan alone and let me desire that day which my flesh abhorreth that my friends may not with so much sorrow wait for the departure of my soul as my soul with joy shall wait for its own departure and then let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be as his even a removall to that Glory that shall never end Send forth thy Convoy of Angels for my departing soul and let them bring it among the perfected spirits of the Just and let me follow my dear friends that have died in Christ before me und when my friends are weeping over my Grave let my spirit be reposed with thee in Rest and when my Corps shall lye there rotting in the dark let my soul be in the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And O thou that numberest the very hairs of my head do thou number all the dayes that my body lyes in the dust and thou that writest all my members in thy Book do thou keep an account of all my scattered bones and hasten O my Saviour the time of thy return send forth thine Angels and let that dreadful joyful Trumpet sound delay not lest the living give up their hopes delay not lest earth should grow like hell and lest thy Church by division be crumbled all to dust and dissolved by being resolved into individual unites Delay not lest thine enemies get advantage of thy Flock and lest Pride and Hypocrisie and Sensuality and Unbelief should prevail against thy little Remnant and share among them thy whole Inheritance and when thou comest thou finde not Faith on the earth Delay not lest the Grave should boast of Victory and having learned Rebellion of its guest should plead prescription and refuse to deliver thee up thy due O hasten that great Resurrection Day when thy command shall go forth and none shall disobey when the Sea and Earth shall yield up their Hostages and all that slept in the Graves shall awake and the dead in Christ shall first arise when the seed that thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible and Graves that received but rottenness and retained but dust shall return thee glorious Stars and Suns therefore dare I lay down my carcass in the dust entrusting it not to a Grave but to Thee and therefore my flesh shall rest in Hope till thou raise it to the possession of the Everlasting REST. Return O Lord how long O let thy Kingdom come Thy desolate Bride saith Come for thy Spirit within her saith Come who teacheth her thus to pray with groanings after thee which cannot be expressed The whole Creation saith Come waiting to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Thy Self hast said Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come LORD IESVS The Conclusion THus Reader I have given thee my best advice for the attaining and maintaining a Heavenly Conversation The maner is imperfect and too much mine own but for the main matter I dare say I received it from God From him I deliver it thee and his charge I lay upon thee That thou entertain and practise it If thou canst not do it methodically and fully yet do it as thou canst onely be sure thou do it seriously and frequently If thou wilt believe a man that hath made some small tryal of it thou shalt finde it will make thee another man and elevate thy soul and clear thine understanding and polish thy conversation and leave a pleasant savor upon thy heart so that thy own experience will make thee confess That one hour thus spent will more effectually revive thee then many in bare external duties and a day in these contemplations will afford thee truer content then all the glory and riches of the Earth Be acquainted with this work and thou wilt be in some remote sort acquainted with God Thy joyes will be spiritual and prevalent and lasting according to the nature of their Blessed Object thou wilt have comfort in life and comfort in death VVhen thou hast neither wealth nor health nor the pleasure of this world yet wilt thou have comfort Comfort without the presence or help of any Friend without a Minister without a Book when all means are denied thee or taken from thee yet maist thou have vigorous real comfort Thy graces will be mighty and active and victorious and the daily joy which is thus fetcht from Heaven will be thy strength Thou wilt be as one that standeth on the top of an exceeding high Mountain he looks down on the world as if it were quite below him How small do the Fields and VVoods and Countreys seem to him Cities and Towns seem but little spots Thus despicably wilt thou look on all things here below The greatest Princes will seem below thee but as Grashoppers and the busie contentious coveteous world but as a heap of Ants. Mens threatnings will be no terror to thee nor the honors of this world any strong enticement Temptations will be more harmless as
having lost their strength and Afflictions less grievous as having lost their sting and every Mercy will be better known and relished Reader it is under God in thine own choice now whether thou wilt live thus blessed or not and whether all this pains which I have taken for thee shall prosper or be lost If it be lost through thy laziness which God forbid be it known to thee thou wilt prove the greatest looser thy self If thou value not this Heavenly Angelical life how canst thou say that thou valuest Heaven And if thou value not it no wonder if thou be shut out The power of godliness lieth in the actings of the soul Take heed that thou stick not in the vain deluding form O man VVhat hast thou to minde but God and Heaven Art thou not almost out of this world already Dost thou not look every day when one disease or other will let out thy soul Doth not the Bier stand ready to carry thee to the Grave and the VVorms wait to feed upon thy face and heart What if thy Pulse must beat a few strokes more and what if thou have a few more breathes to fetch before thou breathe out thy last and what if thou have a few more nights to sleep before thou sleep in the dust Alas what will this be when it is gone And is it not almost gone already Very shortly thou wilt see thy glass run out and say thy self My life is done my time is gone its past recalling there 's nothing now but Heaven or Hell before me O where then should thy heart be now but in Heaven Didst thou but know what a dreadful thing it is to have a strange and doubtful thought of Heaven when a man lies dying it would sure rowze thee up And what other thoughts but strange can that man have that never thought seriously of Heaven till then Every mans first thoughts are strange about all things Familiarity and acquaintance comes not in a moment but is the consequent of Custom and frequent Converse And strangeness naturally raiseth dread as familiarity doth delight What else makes a Fish or a wilde Beast flie from a man when domestick Creatures take pleasure in his company So wilt thou flie from God if thou knewest how who should be thy onely happiness if thou do not get this strangeness removed in thy life time And is it not pity that a childe should be so strange to his own Father as to fear nothing more then to go into his presence and to think himself best when he is furthest from him and to flie from his face as a wilde Creature will do from the face of a man Alas how little do many godly ones differ from the world either in their comforts or willingness to die and all because they live so strange to the place and Fountain of their comforts Besides a little verbal or other outside duties or talking of controversies and doctrines of Religion or forbearing the practice of many sins how little do the most of the Religious differ from other men when God hath prepared so vast a difference hereafter If a word of Heaven fall in now and then in their conference alas how slightly is it and customary and heartless And if their Prayers or Preaching have heavenly expressions they usually are fetcht from their meer invention or memory or Books and not from the experience or feeling of their hearts O what a life might men live if they were but willing and diligent God would have our joyes to be far more then our sorrows yea he would have us to have no sorrow but what tendeth to joy and no more then our sins have made necessary for our good How much do those Christians wrong God and themselves that either make their thoughts of God the in-let of their sorrows or let these offered joyes lie by as neglected or forgotten Some there be that say It is not worth so much time and trouble to think of the greatness of the joyes above so we can make sure they are ours we know they are great But as these men obey not the Command of God which requireth them to have their Conversation in Heaven and to set their Affections on things above so do they wilfully make their own lives miserable by refusing the delights that God hath set before them And yet if this were all it were a smaller matter if it were but the loss of their comforts I would not say so much But see what abundance of other mischiefs do follow the absence of these Heavenly Delights First It will damp if not destroy our very love to God so deeply as we apprehend his bounty and exceeding love to us and his purpose to make us eternally happy so much will it raise our love Love to God and delight in him are still conjunct They that conceive of God as one that desireth their blood and damnation cannot heartily love him Secondly It will make us have seldom and unpleasing thoughts of God for our thoughts will follow our love and delight Thirdly And it will make men to have as seldom and unpleasing speech of God For who will care for talking of that which he hath no delight in What makes men still talking of worldliness or wickedness but that these are more pleasant to them then God Fourthly It will make men have no delight in the service of God when they have no delight in God nor any sweet thoughts of Heaven which is the end of their services No wonder if such Christians complain That they are still backward to Duty that they have no delight in Prayer in Sacraments or in Scripture it self If thou couldst once delight in God thou wouldst easily delight in duty especially that which bringeth thee into the neerest converse with him But till then no wonder if thou be weary of all further then some external excellency may give thee a carnal delight Doth not this cause many Christians to go on so heavily in secret duties like the Ox in the Furrow that will go no longer then he is driven and is glad when he is unyoaked Fifthly Yea it much endangereth the perverting of mens judgments concerning the ways of God and means of Grace when they have no delight in God and Heaven Though it be said Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum That Judgment perisheth when things pass into Affection yet that is but when Affection leadeth the Judgment and not when it followeth Affection holdeth its object faster then bare Judgment doth The Soul will not much care for that Truth which is not accompanied with suitable goodness and it will more easily be drawn to believe that to be false which it doth not delightfully apprehend to be good which doubtless is no small cause of the ungodlies prejudice against the ways of God and of many formal mens dislike of extemporate Prayers and of a strict observation of the Lords day Had they a true