she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater then Solomon doth by his messengers preach to them The King of Nineve shall rise up in Judgment with them and shall condemn them for he repented at the preaching of Jonas but when Jesus Christ sendeth his Embassadors to these men they will sarce go to hear them Mat. 12.41 42. And though they know that the Scripture is the very Law of God by which they must live and by which they must be acquit or condemned in Judgment and that it is the property of every blessed man to delight in this law and to meditate in it day and night Psal. 1.2 Yet will they not be at the pains to read a chapter once in a day nor to acquaint their families with this doctrine of Salvation But if they carry a Bible to Church and let it lye by them all the week this is the most use that they make of it And though they are commanded to pray without ceasing 1 Thes. 5.17 And to pray alwayes and not waxe faint Luk. 18.1 2 3 c. to continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving Col. 4.2 Yet will they not be brought to pray constantly with their families or in secret Though Daniel would rather be cast to the Lyons then he would forbear for a while praying openly in his house where his enemies might hear him three times a day yet these men will rather venture to be an eternal prey to that roaring Lyon that seeks to devour them then they will be at the pains thus to seek their safety You may hear in their houses two oathes for one prayer Or if they do any thing this way it is usually but the running over a few formal words which they have got on their tongues end as if they came on purpose to make a jest of prayer and to mock God and their own souls If they be in distress or want any thing for their bodies they want no words to make known their mind but to a Physitian when they are sick to a griping Landlord when they are oppressed to a wealthy friend when they are in want they can lay open their case in sad complaints and have words at will to press home their requests Yea every beggar at their door can crave relief and make it their daily practice and hold on with importunity and take no denyal necessity filleth their mouthes with words and teacheth them the most natural prevailing Rhetorike These beggars will rise up Judgment against them and condemn them Doubtless if they felt but the misery and necessities of their souls they would be as forward to beg relief of God and as frequent as fervent as importunate and as constant till they were past their streights But alas he that only reades in a book that he is miserable and what his soul stands in need of but never felt himself miserable nor felt particularly his several wants no wonder if he must also fetch his prayer from his book only or at furthest from the strength of his invention or memory Solomons request to God was That what prayer or Supplication soever should be made by any man or by all the people when every man shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands before God that God would then hear and forgive c. 2 Chron. 6.29 30. If these men did thus know and feel every one the sore and the grief of his own soul we should neither need so much to urge them to prayer nor to teach them how to perform it and what to say Whereas now they do invite God to be backward in giving by their backwardness in asking and to be weary of relieving them by their own being weary in begging relief and to be seldome and short in his favors as they are in their prayers and to give them but common and outward favors as they put up but common and outside requests Yea their cold and heartless prayers do invite God to a flat denial for among men it is taken for granted that he who askes but slieghtly seldom cares not much for that he askes Do not these men judge themselves unworthy of Heaven who think it not worth their more constant and earnest requests If it be not worth asking for it is worth nothing And yet if you should go from house to house through Town and Parish and enquire at every house as you go whether they do morning and evening call their family together and earnestly and reverently seek the Lord in prayer how few would you finde that constantly and conscionably practice this duty If every door were marked where they do not thus call upon the name of God that his wrath might be powred out upon that family our towns would be as places overthrown by the plague the people being dead within and the marke of judgment on the door without I fear where one house would escape ther 's ten would be marked out for death and then they might teach their doors to pray Lord have mercy on us because the people would not pray themselves But especially if you could see what men do in their secret chambers how few should you finde in a whole Town that spend one quarter of an hour morning and night in earnest supplication to God for their souls O how little do these men set by this eternall Rest Thus do they slothfully neglect all endeavors for their one welfare except some publike duty in the congregation which custom or credit doth engage them to Perswade them to read good books and they will not be at so much pains perswade them to learn the grounds of Religion in some Catechisme and they think it a toilsome slavery fitter for Schoolboyes or little children then for them Perswade them to Sanctifie the Lords day in holy exercises and to spend it wholly in hearing the word and repeating it with their families and prayer and meditation c. and to forbear all their worldly thoughts and speeches And what a tedious life do they take this to be and how long may you preach to them before they will be brought to it as if they thought that heaven were not worth all this ado Christ hath been pleading with England these fourscore yeers and more by the word of his Gospel for his worship and for his Sabbaths and yet the inhabitants are not perswaded Nay he hath been pleading these six yeers by threatnings and fire and sword and yet can prevaile but with very few And though these bloody arguments have been spread abroad and brought home to people from Parish to Parish almost as far as the word hath gone so that there is scarce a Parish in many counties where blood hath not been shed the bodies of the slain have not been left yet the generality of England is no more perswaded then they were the first day
it The Lords Day What fitter day to ascend to heaven then that on which our Lord did arise from earth and fully triumph over death and hell and take possession of Heaven before us The fittest temper for a true believer is to be in the spirit on the Lords Day This was Saint Johns temper on that day And what can bring us to this ravishment in the spirit but the spiritual beholding of our ravishing glory Surely though an outward ordinance may delight the ear or tickle the fancy yet it is the viewes of God that must ravish the soul. There is a great deal of difference betwixt the receiving of the word with joy Mat. 13.20 and being in the spirit on the Lords Day Rev. 1 10. Two sorts of Christians I would entreat to take notice of this especially 1. Those that spend the Lords day only in publique worship either through the neglect of this spiritual duty of Meditation or else by their overmuch exercise of the publique allowing no time to private duty Though there be few that offend in this last kinde yet some there are and a hurtful mistake to the soul it is They will grow but in gifts and common accomplishments if they exercise but their gifts in outward performances 2. Those that have time on the Lords day for idleness and vain discourse and finde the day longer then they know how well to spend Were these but acquainted with this duty of contemplation they would need no other recreation nor pastime they would think the longest day short enough and be sorry that the night hath shortned their pleasure Whether this day be of positive Divine Institution and so to us Christians of necessary observation is out of my way to handle here I refer those that doubt to what is in Print on that subject especially Master George Abbot against Broad and above all Master Cawdrey and Master Palmer their Sabbatum Redivivum It s an encouragment to the doubtful to finde the generality of its rational opposers to acknowledg the usefulness yea necessity of a stated day and the fitness of this above all other days I would I could perswade those that are convinced of its morality to spend a greater part of it in this true spirituality But we do in this as in most things else think it enough that we believe our duty as we do the articles of our faith and let who will put it in practice VVe will dispute for duty and let others perform it As I have known some drunkards upon the Ale bench will plead for godly men while themselves are ungodly So do too many for the observation of the Lords day who themselves are unacquainted with this spiritual part of its observation Christians let heaven have some more share in your Sabbaths where you must shortly keep your everlasting Sabbath As you go from stair to stair till you come to the top so use your Sabbaths as steps to glory till you have passsed them all and are there arived Especially you that are poor men and servants that cannot take time in the week as you desire see that you well improve this day Now your labor lies not â—o much upon you now you are unyoaked from your common business Be sure as your bodyes Rest from their labors that your spirits seek after Rest with God I admonish also those that are possessed with the censorious divel that if they see a poor Christian walking privately in the fields on the Lords Day they would not Pharisaically conclude him a Sabbath breaker till they know more It may be he takes it as the opportunest place to withdraw himself from the world to God Thou seest where his body walkes but thou seest not where he is walking in the spirit Hannah was censured for a woman drunk till Eli heard her speak for her self and when he knew the truth he was ashamed of his censure The silent spiritual worshipper is most lyable to their censure because he gives not the world an account of his worship Thus I have directed thee to the fittest season for the ordinary performance of this heavenly work SECT V. 2. FOr the extraordinary performance these following are seasonable times 1. When God doth extraordinarily revive and enable thy spirit When God hath kindled thy spirit with fire from above it is that it may mount aloft more freely It is a choice part of a Christians skill to observe the temper of his own spirit and to observe the gales of grace and how the spirit of Christ doth move upon his VVithout Christ we can do nothing Therefore let us be doing when he is doing and be sure not to be out of the way nor asleep when he comes The sails of the wind-mill stir not without the wind therefore they must set them a going when the wind blowes Be sure that thou watch this wind and tide if thou wouldst have a speedy voyage to Heaven A little labor will set thy heart a going at such a time as this when another time thou mayest study and take pains to little purpose Most Christians do sometime finde a more then ordinary reviving and activeness of spirit take this as sent from heaven to â—alse thee thither And when the spirit is lifting thy heart from the earth be sure thou then lift at it thy self As when the Angel came to Peter in his prison and Irons and smoâ—e him on the side and raised him up saying Arise up quickly gird thy self â—inde on thy sandals and cast thy garment about thee and follow me And Peter arose and followed till he was delivered Act. 12.7.8 c. So when the spirit finds thy heart in prison and Irons and smites it and bids thee Arise quickly and follow me be sure thou then arise and follow and thou shalâ— finde thy chains fall off and all doors will open and thou wilt be at Heaven before thou art aware SECT VI. 2. WHen thou art cast into perplexing troubles of minde through suffering or fear or care or temptations then is it seasonable to address thy self to this duty VVhen should we take our cordials but in our times of fainting When is it more seasonable to walk to heaven then when we know not in what corner on earth to live with comfort or when should our thoughts converse above but when they have nothing but grief to converse with below Where should Noahs Dove be but in the Arke when the waters do cover all the earth and she cannot finde Rest for the sole of her foot What should we think on but our fathers house when we want even the husks of the world to feed on Surely God sends thee thy afflictions to this very purpose Happy thou poor man if thou make this use of thy poverty and thou that art sick if thou so improve thy sickness It is seasonable to go to the Promised Land when our burdens and taskes are increased in Egypt and when we endure
he will have us live by faith and not by sight Oh fellow Christians what a day will that be when we who have been kept prisoners by sin by sinners by the grave shall be fetcht out by the Lord himself When Christ shall come from heaven to plead with his enemies and set his Captives free It will not be such a Coming as his first was in meanness and poverty and contempt He will not come to be spit upon and buffeted and scorned and crucified again He will not come oh careless world to be slighted and neglected by you any more And yet that coming which was necessarily in Infirmity and Reproach for our sakes wanted not its Glory If the Angels of heaven must be the messengers of that Coming as being tydings of Joy to all people And the Heavenly Hoast must go before or accompany for the Celebration of his Nativity and must praise God with that solemnity Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men Oh then with what shoutings will Angels and Saints at that day proclaim Glory to God and Peace and Good will toward men If the stars of heaven must lead men from Remote parts of the world to come to worship a child in a manger how will the Glory of his next appearing constrain all the world to acknowledg his Soveraignty If the King of Israel riding on an Ass be entertained into Jerusalem with Hossana's Blessed be the King that comes in the Name of the Lord Peace in Heaven and Glory in the Highest Oh with what Proclamations of blessings Peace and Glory will he come toward the New Jerusalem If when he was in the form of a Servant they cry out What manner of man is this that both wind and sea obey him What will they say when they shall see him Coming in his Glory and the Heavens and the Earth obey him Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory Oh Christians it was comfortable to you to hear from him to believe in him and hope for him What will it be thus to see him The promise of his coming and our deliverance was comfortable What will it be to see him with all the Glorious attendance of his Angels come in person to deliver us The mighty God the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the Rising of the Sun to the going down thereof Out of Sion the perfection of Beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him He shall call to the Heavens from above and to the Earth that he may judg his people Gather my Saints together to me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness for God is Judg himself Sclah Psal. 50. from vers 1. to 6. This Coming of Christ is frequently mentioned in the Promises as the great Support of his peoples spirits till then And when ever the Apostles would quicken â—o duty or comfort and encourage to patient waiting they usually do it by mentioning Christs Coming Why then do we not usâ— more this cordial consideration when ever we want support and comfort To think and speak of that Day with Horror doth well beseem the impenitent Sinner but ill the beleeving Saint Such may be the voyce of a Beleever but it 's not the voyce of Faith Christians what do we beleeve and hope and wait for but to see that Day This is Pauls encouragement to moderation to Rejoycing in the Lord alway The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.4 5. It is to all them that Love his Appearing that the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give the Crown of Righteousness at that Day 2 Tim. 4.8 Dost thou so long to have him come into thy Soul with comfort and life and takest thy self but for a forlorn Orphan while he seemeth absent And dost thou not much more long for that Coming which shall perfect thy Life and Joy and Glory Dost thou so rejoyce after some short and slender enjoyment of him in thy heart Oh how wilt thou then Rejoyce How full of Joy was that Blessed Martyr Mr Glover with the Discovery of Christ to his Soul after long doubting and waiting in sorrows so that he cryes out He is come He is come If thou have but a dear friend returned that hath been far and long absent how do all run out to meet him with Joy Oh saith the Childe My Father is come saith the Wife My Husband is come And shall not we when we behold our Lord in his majesty returning cry out He is come He is come Shall the wicked with unconceiveable horror behold him and cry out Oh yonder is he whose blood we neglected whose Grace we resisted whose counsels we refused whose Government we cast off And shall not then the Saints with unconceiveable gladness cry out Oh yonder is he whose Blood redeemed us whose Spirit cleansed us whose Law did Govern us Yonder comes he in whom we trusted and now we see he hath not deceived our Trust He for whom we long waited and now we see we have not waited in vain Oh cursed Corruption that would have had us turn to the world and present things and give up our hopes and say Why should we wait for the Lord any Longer Now we see that Blessed are all they that wait for him Beleeve it fellow Christians this Day is not far off For yet a little while and he that comes will come and will not tarry And though the unbeleeving world and the unbelief of thy heart may say as those Atheistical Scoffers Where is the Promise of his Coming Do not all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Yet let us know The Lord is not slack of his Promise as some men count slackness One day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day I have thought on it many a time as a small Emblem of that day when I have seen our prevailing Army drawing towards the Towns and Castles of the Enemy Oh with what glad hearts do all the poor prisoners within hear the news and behold our approach How do they run up to their prison windows and thence behold us with Joy How glad are they at the roaâ—ing report of that Cannon which is the Enemies terror How do they clap each other on the back and cry Deliverance Deliverance While in the mean time the late insulting scorning cruel Enemies begin to speak them fair and beg their favor But all in vain for they are not at the dispose of Prisoners but of the General Their fair usage may make their conditions somewhat the more easie but yet they
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
the goats on the left and so on as you may read in the Text. But why tremblest thou Oh humble gracious Soul Cannot the enemies and slighters of Christ be foretold their doom but Thou must quake Do I make sad the Soul that God would not have sad Doth not thy Lord know his own sheep who have heard his voyce and followed him He that would not lose the family of one Noah in a common deluge when him onely he had found faithful in all the earth He that would not over-look one Lot in Sodom nay that could do nothing till he were forth Will he forget thee at that day Thy Lord knoweth now to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished He knoweth how to make the same day the greatest for terror to his foes and yet the greatest for joy to his people He ever intended it for the great distinguishing and separating day wherein both Love and Fury should be manifested to the highest Oh then let the Heavens rejoyce the Sea the Earth the Floods the Hills for the Lord cometh to judg the Earth With Righteousness shall he judg the World and the People with Equity But especially let Sion hear and be glad and her children rejoyce For when God ariseth to judgment it is to save the meek of the Earth They have judged and condemned themselves many a day in heart-breaking confession and therefore shall not be judged to condemnation by the Lord For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Shall the Law Why whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law but we are not under the Law but under Grace For the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Or shall Conscience Why we were long ago justified by faith and so have peace with God and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God It is God that justifieth who shall condemn If our Judg condemn us not who shall He that said to the Adulterous woman Hath no man condemned thee neither do I condemn thee He will say to us more faithfully then Peter to him Though all men deny thee or condemn thee I will not Thou hast confessed me before men and I will confess thee before my Father and the Angels of Heaven He whose first coming was not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I am sure intends not his second coming to condemn his people but that they through him might be saved He hath given us Eternal Life in Charter and Title already yea and partly in possession and will he after that condemn us When he gave us the knowledg of his Father and himself he gave us Eternal Life And he hath verily told us That he that heareth his word and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Indeed if our Judg were our enemy as he is to the world then we might well fear If the Devil were our Judg or the Ungodly were our Judg then we should be condemned as Hypocrites as Heretiques as Schisinatiques as proud or covetous or what not But our Judg is Christ who dyed yea rather who is risen again and maketh request for us For all power is given him in Heaven and in Earth and all things delivered into his hands and the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man For though God judg the world yet the Father immediately without his Vicegerent Christ judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father Oh what inexpressible joy may this afford to a Beleever That our Dear Lord who loveth our Souls and whom our Souls love shall be our Judg Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend By a Brother By a Father Or a Wife by her own Husband Christian Did he come down and suffer and weep and bleed and dye for thee and will he now condemn thee Was he judged and condemned and executed in thy stead and now will he condemn thee himself Did he make a Bath of his blood for thy sins and a garment of his own Righteousness for thy nakedness and will he now open them to thy shame Is he the undertaker for thy Salvation and will he be against thee Hath it cost him so dear to save thee and will he now himself destroy thee Hath he done the most of the work already in Redeeming Regenerating and Sanctifying Justifying preserving and perfecting thee and will he now undo all again Nay hath he begun and will he not finish Hath he interceded so long for thee to the Father and will he cast thee away himself If all these be likely then fear and then rejoyce not Oh what an unreasonable sin is unbelief that will charge our Lord with such unmercifulness and absurdities Well then fellow Christians let the terror of that day be never so great surely our Lord can mean no ill to us in all Let it make the Devils tremble and the wicked tremble but it shall make us to leap for Joy Let Satan accuse us we have our answer at hand our surety hath discharged the debt If he have not fulfilled the Law then let us be charged as breakers of it If he have not suffered then let us suffer but if he have we are free Nay our Lord will make answer for us himself These are mine and shall be made up with my Jewels for their transgressions was I stricken and cut off from the earth for them was I bruised and put to grief my Soul was made an offering for their sin and I bore their transgressions They are my seed and the travel of my Soul I have healed them by my stripes I have justified them by my knowledg They are my sheep who shall take them out of my hands Yea though the humble Soul be ready to speak against it self Lord when did we see thee hungry and feed thee c. yet will not Christ do so This is the day of the Beleevers full Justification They were before made just and esteemed Just and by Faith justified in Law and this evidenced to their consciences But now they shall both by Apology be maintained Just and by Sentence pronounced Just actually by the lively voyce of the Judg himself which is the most perfect Justification Their Justification by Faith is a giving them Title in Law to that Apology and Absolving
Sentence which at that Day they shall Actually receive from the mouth of Christ. By which Sentence their sin which before was pardoned in the sence of the Law is now perfectly pardoned or blotted out by this ultimate Judgment Act. 3.19 Therefore well may it be called the Time of Refreshing as being to the Saints the perfecting of all their former Refreshments He who was vexed with a quarrelling Conscience an Accusing World a Cursing Law is solemnly pronounced Righteous by the Lord the Judg. Though he cannot plead Not Guilty in regard of fact yet being pardoned he shall be acquit by the proclamation of Christ. And that 's not all But he that was accused as deserving Hell is pronounced a member of Christ a Son of God and so adjudged to Eternal Glory The Sentence of pardon past by the spirit and conscience within us was wont to be exceeding sweet But this will fully and finally resolve the question and leave no room for doubting again for ever We shall more rejoyce that our names are found written in the Book of Life then if men or Devils were subjected to us And it must needs affect us deeply with the sense of our mercy and happiness to behold the contrary condition of others To see most of the world tremble with Terror while we triumph with Joy To hear them doomed to everlasting flames and see them thrust into Hell when we are proclaimed heirs of the Kingdom To see our neighbors that lived in the same Towns came to the same Congregation sate in the same seats dwelt in the same houses and were esteemed more honorable in the world then our selves to see them now so differenced from us and by the Searcher of hearts eternally separated This with the great magnificence and dreadfulness of the day doth the Apostle pathetically express in 2 Thess. 1.6 7 8 9 10. It is Righteous with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming fire taking vengeance on then that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power c. And now is not here enough to make that day a welcom day and the thoughts of it delightful to us But yet there 's more We shall be so far from the dread of that Judgment that our selves shall become the Judges Christ will take his people as it were into Commission with him and they shall sit and approve his Righteous Judgment Oh fear not now the reproaches scorns and censures of those that must then be judged by us Did you think Oh wretched worldlings that those poor despised men whom you made your dayly derision should be your Judges Did you beleeve this when you made them stand as offenders before the Bar of your Judgment No more then Pilate when he was judging Christ did beleeve that he was condemning his Judg Or the Jews when they were whipping imprisoning killing the Apostles did think to see them sit on twelve Thrones Judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Do you not know saith Paul that the Saints shall judg the world Nay Know you not that we shall judg Angels Surely were it not the Word of Christ that speaks it this advancement would seem incredible and the language arrogant Yet even Henoch the seventh from Adam prophecyed of this saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoke against him Jude 14. Thus shall the Saints be honored and the Righteous have dominion in the morning O that the careless world were but wise to consider this and that they would remember this latter end That they would be now of the same minde as they will be when they shall see the Heavens pass away with a noise and the elements melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein to be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 When all shall be on fire about their ears and all earthly Glory consumed For the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3.7 But alas when all is said the wicked will do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand But the wise shall understand Rejoyce therefore O ye Saints yet watch and what you have hold fast till your Lord come Revel 2.25 and study that use of this Doctrine which the Apostle propounds 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness Looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements melt with fervent heat But go your way keep close with God and wait till your change come and till this end be for you shall Rest and stand in the Lot at the end of the days Dan. 12.13 SECT IV. THe fourth Antecedent and highest step to the Saints Advancement is Their solemn Coronation Inthronizing and Receiving into the Kingdom For as Christ their head is anointed both King and Priest so under him are his people made unto God both Kings and Priests for Prophecy that ceaseth to Reign and to offer praises for ever Revel 5.10 The Crown of Righteousness which was layd up for them shall by the Lord the Righteous Judg be given them at that day 2 Tim. 4.8 They have been faithful to the death and therefore shall receive the Crown of Life And according to the improvement of their Talents here so shall their rule and dignity be enlarged Mat. 25.21 23. So that they are not dignified with empty Titles but real Dominions For Christ will take them and set them down with himself in his own Throne and will give them power over the Nations even as he received of his Father Revel 2.26 27 28. And will give them the morning Star The Lord himself will give them possession with these applauding expressions Well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Matt. 25.21 23. And with this solemn and blessed Proclamation shall he Inthrone them Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Every word full of Life and Joy Come This is the holding forth of the golden Scepter to warrant our approach unto this Glory Come now as neer as you will fear not the Bethshemites Judgment for the enmity
I fear he will not know my soul But especially when we come to die and must immediately appear before this God and expect to enter into this Eternal Rest then the difference will plainly appear Then what a joy will it be to think I am going to the place that I daily conversed in to the place from whence I tasted so frequent delights to that God whom I have met in my Meditations so oft My heart hath been at Heaven before now and tasted the sweetness that hath oft revived it and as Jonathan by his honey if mine eyes were so illightened and my minde refreshed when I tasted but a little of that sweetness what will it be when I shall feed on it freely On the other side what a terror must it be to think I must die and go I know not whither from a place where I am acquainted to a place where I have no familiarity or knowledg O Sirs it is an unexpressible horror to a dying man to have strange thoughts of God and Heaven I am perswaded there is no cause so common that makes death even to godly men unwelcome and uncomfortable Therefore I perswade thee to frequency in this duty That seldomness breed not estrangedness from God 2. And besides that seldomness will make thee unskilful in the work and strange to the duty as well as to God How unhandsomly and clumsily do men set their hands to a work that they are seldom imployed in Whereas frequency will habituate thy heart to the work and thou wilt better know the way which thou daily walkest yea and it will be more easie and delightful also The Hill which made thee pant and blow at the first going up thou maist run up easily when thou art once accustomed to it The heart which of it self is naturally backward will contract a greater unwillingness through disuse And as an untamed Colt not used to the hand it will hardly come to hand when thou shouldst use it 3. And lastly Thou wilt lose that heat and life by long intermissions which with much ado thou didst obtain in duty If thou eat but a meal in two or three days thou wilt lose thy strength as fast as thou gettest it if in holy Meditation thou get neer to Christ and warm thy heart with the fire of Love if thou then turn away and come but seldom thou wilt soon return to thy former coldness If thou walk or labor till thou hast got thee heat and then sit idle all day after wilt thou not surely lose thy heat again especially it being so spiritual a work and so against the bent of nature we shall be still inclining to our natural temper If water that is heated be long from the fire it will return to its coldness because that is its natural temper I advise thee therefore that thou be as oft as may be in this soul-raising duty least when thou hast long rowed hard against the stream or tide and winde the boat should go further down by thy intermission then it was got up by all thy labor And least when thou hast been long rolling thy stony heart towards the top of the hill it should go faster down when thou dost slack thy diligence It s true the intermixed use of other duties may do much to the keeping thy heart above especially secret prayer but Meditation is the life of most other duties and the veiws of heaven is the Life of Meditation SECT III. 3. COncerning the Time of this duty I advise thee that thou chuse the most seasonable Time All things are beautiful and excellent in their season Unseasonableness may lose thee the fruit of thy labor It may rise up disturbances and difficulties in the work Yea it may turn a duty to a sin when the seasonableness of a duty doth make it easie doth remove impediments doth embolden us to the undertaking and doth ripen its fruit The seasons of this duty are either first extraordinary or secondly ordinary 1. The ordinary season for your daily performance cannot be particularly determined by man Otherwise God would have determined it in his word But mens conditions of imployment and freedom and bodily temper are so various that the same may be a seasonable hour to one which may be unseasonable to another If thou be a servant or a hard laborer that thou hast not thy self nor thy time at command thou must take that season which thy business will best afford thee Either as thou sittest in the shop at thy work or as thou travellest on the way or as thou lyest waking in the night Every man best knows his own time even when he hath least to hinder him of his business in the world But for those whose necessities tye them not so close but that they may well lay aside their earthly affaires and chuse what time of the day they will My advice to such is that they carefully observe the temper of their body and minde and mark when they finde their spirits most active and fit for contemplation and pitch upon that as the stated time Some men are freest for all duties when they are fasting and some are then unfittest of all Some are fit for duties of humiliation at one season and for duties of exaltation at another Every man is the meetest judg for himself Only give me leave to tender you my observation which time I have alway found fittest for my self and that is The evening from Sun setting to the twilight and sometime in the night when it is warm and clear Whether it be any thing from the temperature of my body I know not But I conjecture that the same time would be seasonable to most tempers for several natural reasons which I will not now stand to mention Neither would I have mentioned my own experience in this but that I was encouraged hereunto by finding it suit with the experience of a better and wiser man then my self and that is Isaac for it is said in Gen. 24.63 That he went to Meditate in the field at the eventide and his experience I dare more boldly recommend unto you then my own And as I remember Doctor Hall in his excellent Treatise of Meditation gives you the like account of his own experience SECT IIII. 2. THe Lords day is a time exceeding seasonable for this exercise When should we more seasonably contemplate on Rest then on that day of Rest which doth typâ—fie it to us Neither do I think that typifying use is ceased because the Antitype is not fully yet come However it being a day appropriated to Worship and spiritual duties me thinks we should never exclude this duty which is so eminently spiritual I think verily this is the chiefest work of a Christian Sabbath and most agreeable to the intent of its positive institution What fitter time to converse with our Lord then on that day which he hath appropriated to such imployment and therefore called
Glory VVhy think then with thy self If this grain of Mustard seed be so precious what is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God If a spark of life which will but strive against corruptions and flame out a few desires and groans be so much worth how glorious then is the Fountain and End of this life If we be said to be like God and to bear his Image and to be holy as he is holy when alas we are pressed down with a body of sin Sure we shall then be much liker God when we are perfectly holy and without blemish and have no such thing as sin within us Is the desire after Heaven so precious a thing what then is the thing it self which is desired Is the love so excellent what then is the beloved Is our joy in foreseeing and believing so sweet what will be the joy in the full possessing O the delight that a Christian hath in the lively exercise of some of these affections VVhat good do's it to his very heart when he can feelingly say He loves his Lord what sweetness is there in the very act of loving yea even those troubling Passions of Sorrow and Fear are yet delightful when they are rightly exercised How glad is a poor Christian when he feeleth his heart begin to melt and when the thoughts of sinful unkindness will dissolve it Even this Sorrow doth yield him matter of Joy O what will it then be when we shall do nothing but know God and love and rejoyce and praise and all this in the highest perfection what a comfort is it to my doubting soul when I have a little assurance of the sincerity of my graces when upon examination I can but trace the Spirit in his sanctifying works How much more will it comfort me to finde that this Spirit hath safely conducted me and left me in the arms of Jesus Christ what a change was it that the Spirit made upon my soul when he first turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God To be taken from that horrid state of nature wherein my self and my actions were loathsom to God and the sentence of death was past upon me and the Almighty took me for his utter enemy and to be presently numbred among his Saints and called his Friend his Servant his Son and the sentence revoked which was gone forth O what a change was this To be taken from that state wherein I was born and had lived delightfully so many yeers and was rivetted in it by custom and engagements when thousands of sins did lie upon my score and if I had so died I had been damned for ever and to be justified from all these enormous crimes and freed from all these fearful plagues and put into the title of an Heir of Heaven O what an astonishing change was this Why then consider how much greater will that glorious change then be Beyond expressing beyond conceiving How oft when I have thought of this change in my Regeneration have I cryed out O blessed day and blessed be the Lord that I ever saw it why how then shall I cry out in Heaven O blessed Eternity and blessed be the Lord that brought me to it Was the mercy of my conversion so exceeding great that the Angels of God did rejoyce to see it Sure then the mercy of my salvation will be so great that the same Angels will congratulate my felicity This Grace is but a spark that is raked up in the ashes it is covered with flesh from the sight of the world and covered with corruption sometime from mine-own sight But my Everlasting glory will not so be clouded nor my light be under a bushel but upon a hill even upon Sion the Mount of God SECT XIIII 12. LAstly compare the joyes which thou shalt have above with those foretastes of it which the Spirit hath given thee here Judg of the Lyon by the Paw and of the Ocean of Joy by that drop which thou hast tasted Thou hast here thy strongest refreshing comforts but as that man in Hell would have had the water to cool him a little upon the tip of the finger for thy tongue to taste yet by this little thou maist conjecture at the quality of the whole Hath not God sometime revealed himself extraordinarily to thy soul and let a drop of glory fall upon it Hast thou not been ready to say O that it might be thus with my soul continually and that I might always feel what I feel sometimes Didst thou never cry out with the Martyr after thy long and doleful expectations He is come he is come Didst thou never in a lively Sermon of Heaven nor in thy retired contemplations on that blessed State perceive thy drooping spirits revive and thy dejected heart to lift up the head and the light of Heaven to break forth to thy soul as a morning Star or as the dawning of the day Didst thou never perceive thy heart in these duties to be as the childe that Elisha revived to wax warm within thee and to recover life VVhy think with thy self then what is this earnest to the full Inheritance Alas all this light that so amazeth and rejoyceth me is but a Candle lighted from Heaven to lead me thither through this world of darkness If the light of a Star in the night be such or the little glimmering at the break of the day what then is the light of the Sun at noontide If some godly men that we read of have been overwhelmed with joy till they have cryed out Hold Lord stay thy hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot endure too great a light O what will then be my joyes in Heaven when as the object of my joy shall be the most glorious God so my soul shall be made capable of seeing and enjoying him and though the light be ten thousand times greater then the Suns yet my eyes shall be able for ever to behold it Or if thou be one that hast not felt yet these sweet foretastes for every beleever hath not felt them then make use of the former delights which thou hast felt that thou maist the better discern what hereafter thou shalt feel And thus I have done with the fifth part of this Directory and shewed you on what grounds to advance your Meditations and how to get them to quicken your affections by comparing the unseen delights of Heaven with those smaller which you have seen and felt in the flesh CHAP. XII How to manage and watch over the Heart through the whole Work SECT 1. SIxthly The sixt and last part of this Directory is To guide you in the managing of your hearts through this work and to shew you wherein you have need to be exceeding watchful I have shewed before what must be done with your hearts in your preparations to the work and in your setting upon it I shall now shew
shall the Ark of God come to us Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God Who shall approach and dwell with the consuming fire Imperfect or none must be thy Service here Oh take thy Sons excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak CHAP. V. The four great Preparatives to our Rest. SECT I. HAving thus opened you a window toward the Temple and shewed you a small Glimpse of the Back-parts of that Resemblance of the Saints Rest which I had seen in the Gospel Glass It follows that we proceed to view a little the Adjuncts and blessed properties of this Rest. But alass this little which I have seen makes me cry out with the Prophet Isa. 6.5 6 7. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean Lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hoasts Yet if he will send and touch my lips with a coal from the Altar of his Son and say thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged I shall then speak boldly and if he ask Whom shall I send I shall gladly answer Here am I Send me Vers. 8. And why doth my trembling heart draw back Surely the Lord is not now so terrible and inaccessible nor the passage of Paradise so blocked up as when the Law and Curse reigned Wherefore finding Beloved Christians that a new and Living way is consecrated for us through the vail the flesh of Christ by which we may with boldness enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus I shall draw neâ—r with the fuller Assurance and finding the flaming Sword removed shall look again into the Paradise of our God and because I know that this is no forbidden fruit and withal that it is good for food and pleasant to the Spiritual Eyes and a tree to be desired to make one truly wise and happy I shall take through the assistance of the Spirit and eat thereof my self and give to you according to my power that you may eat For you Christians is this food prepared this wine broached this fountain opened And the message my Master sends you is this Hearty Welcom which you shall have in his own words Eat O Friends Drink yea Drink abundantly O Beloved And surely it 's neither manners nor wisdom for you or me to draw back or to demur upon such an Invitation And first let us consider of the eminent Antecedents the great Preparations that notable Introduction to this Rest For the Porch of this Temple is exceeding Glorious and the gate of it is called Beautiful And here offer themselves to our distinct observation these four things as the four Corners of this Porch 1. The most Glorious Coming and Appearing of the Son of God 2. His powerful and wonderful raising of our Bodies from the Dust and uniting them again with the Soul 3. His publick and solemn Proceedings in their Judgment where they shall be justified and acquit before all the world 4. His solemn Celebration of their Coronation and his Inthronizing of them in their Glory Follow but this four-fold Stream unto the Head and it will bring you just to the Garden of Eden SECT I. 1. ANd well may the Coming of Christ be reckoned in to his peoples Glory and annumerated with those ingredients that compound this precious Antidote of Rest For to this end is it intended and to this end is it of apparent Necessity For his peoples sakes he sanctified himself to his office For their sakes he came into the world suffered dyed rose ascended And for their sakes it is that he will Return Whether his own exaltation or theirs were his primary Intention is a Question though of seeming usefulness yet so unresolved for ought I have found in Scripture that I dare not scan it for fear of pressing into the Divine Secrets and approaching too near the inaccessible Light I find Scripture mentioning both ends distinctly and conjunctly but not comparatively This is most clear that to this end will Christ come again to receive his people to himself that where he is there they may be also John 14.3 The Bridegrooms departure was not upon divorce He did not leave us with a purpose to return no more He hath left pledges enough to assure us We have his Word in pawn his many Promises his Sacraments which shew forth his death till he Come and his Spirit to direct sanctifie and comfort till he Return We have frequent tokens of Love from him to shew us he forgets not his Promise nor us We behold the forerunners of his coming foretold by himself dayly come to pass We see the figtree put forth her branches and therefore know the Summer is nigh We see the fields white unto Harvest And though the Riotous World say Our Lord will be long a coming Yet let the Saints lift up their heads for their Redemption draweth nigh Alas fellow Christians what should we do if our Lord should not Return What a case are we here left in What Leave us among Wolves and in the Lyons den among a generation of Serpents and here forget us Did he buy us so dear and then cast us off so To leave us sinning suffering groaning dying dayly and come no more at us It cannot be Never fear it It cannot be This is like our unkind dealing with Christ who when we feel our selves warm in the world care not for coming at him But this is not like Christ dealing with us He that would come to suffer will surely come to Triumph And he that would come to purchase will surely come to possess Alas where else were all our hopes What were become of our faith our prayers our tears and our waiting What were all the patience of the Saints worth to them Were we not left of all men most miserable Christians hath Christ made us forsake all the world and be forsaken of all the world to hate all and be hated of all and all this for him that we might have him in stead of all and wil he think you after all this forget us forsake us himself Far be such a thought from our hearts But why stayed he not with his people while he was here Why must not the Comforter be sent Was not the work on earth done Must he not receive the Recompence of Reward and enter into his Glory Must he not take possession in our behalf Must he not go to prepare a place for us Must he not intercede with the Father and plead his sufferings and be filled with the Spirit to send forth and receive authority and subdue his enemies Our abode here is short If he had stayed on earth what would it have been to enjoy him for a few days and then dye But he hath more in Heaven to dwell among even the spirits of the Just of many Generations there made perfect Beside
For no man can give this Rest to us and none can take our Joy from us Joh. 16.22 SECT V. 5. ANother Rule is this That is ever better or best which maketh the owner or possessor himself better or best And sure according to this Rule there 's no state like Heaven Riches honor and pleasure make a man neither better nor best Grace here makes us better but not best That is reserved as the Prerogative of Glory That 's our Good that doth us Good and that doth us Good which makes us Good Else it may be Good in it self but no good to us External Good is at too great a distance to be our Happiness It is not bread on our Tables but in our stomacks that must nourish nor blood upon our clothes or skin but in the Liver heart and veins which is our Life Nay the things of the world are so far from making the owners Good that they prove not the least impediments thereto and snares to the best of men Riches and honor do seldom help to humility but of pride they occasionally become most frequent fomentors The difficulty is so great of conjoyning Graciousness with Greatness that it's next to an impossibility And their conjunction so rare that they are next to inconsistent To have a heart taken up with Christ and Heaven when we have health and abundance in the world is neither easie nor ordinary Though Soul and Body compose but one man yet they seldom prosper both together Therfore that 's our chief Good which will do us Good at heart and that 's our true Glory that makes us all Glorious within and that the Blessed day which will make us holy and blessed men which will not onely beautifie our House but cleanse our Hearts nor onely give us new Habitations and new Relations but also new Souls and new Bodies The true knowing living Christian complains more frequently and more bitterly of the wants and woes within him then without him If you over-hear his prayers or see him in his tears and ask him what aileth him he will cry out more Oh my dark understanding Oh my hard my unbeleeving heart rather then Oh my dishonor or Oh my poverty Therefore it is his desired place and state which affords a relief suitable to his necessities and complaints And surely that is onely this Rest. SECT VI. 6. ANother Rule is That the Difficulty of obtaining shews the Excellency And surely if you consider but what it cost Christ to purchase it what it costs the Spirit to bring mens hearts to it what it costs Ministers to perswade to it what it costs Christians after all this to obtain it and what it costs many a half-Christian that after all goes without it You will say that here 's Difficulty and therefore Excellency Trifles may be had at a Trivial rate and men may have damnation far more easily It is but lie still and sleep out our days in careless laziness It is but take our pleasure and minde the world and cast away the thoughts of Sin and Grace and Christ and Heaven and Hell out of your mindes and do as the most do and never trouble our selves about these high things but venture our Souls upon our presumptuous conceits and hopes and let the vessel swim which way it will and then stream and wind and tyde will all help us apace to the gulph of perdition You may burn an hundred houses easier then build one and kill a thousand men easier then make one alive The descent is easie the ascent not so To bring diseases is but to cherish sloth please the appetite and take what most delights us but to cure them will cost bitter pills loathsom potions tedious gripings absteinious accurate living and perhaps all fall short too He that made the way and knows the way better then we hath told us it is narrow and strait and requires striving And they that have paced it more truly and observantly then we do tell us it lies through many tribulations and is with much ado passed through Conclude then it is sure somewhat worth that must cost all this SECT VII 7. ANother Rule is this That is Best which not onely supplieth necessity but affordeth abundance By necessity is meant here that which we cannot live without and by abundance is meant a more perfect supply a comfortable not a useless abundance Indeed it is suitable to a Christians state and use to be scanted here and to have onely from hand to mouth And that not onely in his corporal but in his spiritual comforts Here we must not be filled full that so our emptiness may cause hungering and our hungering cause seeking and craving and our craving testifie our dependance and occasion receiving and our receiving occasion thanks-returning and all advance the Glory of the Giver But when we shall be brought to the Well-head and united close to the overflowing Fountain we shall then thirst no more because we shall be empty no more Surely if those Blessed Souls did not abound in their Blessedness they would never so abound in praises Such Blessing and Honor and Glory and Praise to God would never accompany common mercies All those Alleluja's are not sure the language of needy men Now we are poor we speak supplications And our Beggars tone discovers our low condition All our Language almost is complaining and craving our breath sighing and our life a laboring But sure where all this is turned into eternal praising and rejoycing the case must needs be altered and all wants suppplied and forgotten I think their Hearts full of Joy and their mouthes full of thanks proves their estate abounding full of Blessedness SECT VIII 8. REason concludes that for the Best which is so in the Judgment of the Best and wisest men Though it 's true the Judgment of imperfect man can be no perfect Rule of Truth or Goodness Yet God revealeth this Good to all on whom he will bestow it and hides not from his people the end they should aim at and attain If the Holiest men are the Best and Wisest then their Lives tell you their Judgments and their unwearied labor and sufferings for this Rest shews you they take it for the perfection of their Happiness If men of greatest experience be the wisest men and they that have tryed both estates then surely it 's vanity and vexation that 's found below and solid Happiness and Rest above If dying men are wiser then others who by the worlds forsaking them and by the approach of Eternity begin to be undeceived then surely Happiness is hereafter and not here For though the deluded world in their flourishing prosperity can bless themselves in their fools paradise and merrily jest at the simplicity of the Saints yet scarce one of many even of the worst of them but are ready at last to cry out with Balaam Oh that I might dye the death of the righteous
and my last end might be like his Never take heed therefore what they think or say now for as sure as they shall dye they will one of these days think and say clean contrary As we regard not what a drunken man says because it is not he but the drink and when he hath slept he will awake in another minde so why should we regard what wicked men say now who are drunk with security and fleshly delights When we know before hand for certain that when they have slept the sleep of death at the furthest they will awake in another minde Onely pity the perverted understandings of these poor men who are beside themselves knowing that one of these days when too late experience brings them to their right mindes they will be of a far different Judgment They ask us What are you wiser then your fore-fathers then all the Town besides then such and such Great men and learned men And do you think in good sadness we may not with better reason ask you What are you wiser then Henoch and Noah then Abraham Isaac Jacob Samuel then David and Solomon then Moses and the Prophets then Peter Paul all the Apostls and all the Saints of God in all Ages and Nations that ever went to Heaven yea then Jesus Christ himself Men may be deceived but we appeal to the unerring Judgment of Wisdom it self even the wise All-Knowing God whether a day in his Courts be not better then a thousand elsewhere and whether it be not better to be door-keepers there then to dwell in the Tents of wickedness Nay whether the very Reproaches of Christ even the scorns we have from you for Christs sake and the Gospel be not greater riches then all the Treasures of the World If Wisdom then may pass the sentence you see which way the cause will go and Wisdom is justified of all her children SECT IX 9. LAstly Another Rule in Reason is this That Good which containeth all other Good in it must needs it self be best And where do you think in Reason that all the streams of Goodness do finally empty themselves Is it not in God from whom by secret springs they first proceed Where else do all the Lines of Goodness concenter Are not all the sparks contained in this fire and all the drops in this Ocean Surely the time was when there was nothing besides God and then all Good was onely in him And even now the creatures essence and existence is secondary derived contingent improper in comparison of his who Is and Was and Is to Come whose Name alone is called I AM. What do thine eyes see or thy heart conceive desireable which is not there to be had Sin indeed there is none but darest thou call that good Worldly delights there are none for they are Good but for the present Necessity and please but the bruitish Senses Brethren do you fear losing or parting with any thing you now enjoy What do you fear you shall want when you come to Heaven shall you want the drops when you have the Ocean or the light of the Candle when you have the Sun or the shallow Creature when you have the perfect Creator Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shalt There finde it Lay abroad thy tears thy prayers pains boldly and unweariedly as God is true thou dost but set them to usury and shalt receive an hundred fold Spare not man for State for Honor for Labor If Heaven do not make amends for all God hath deceived us which who dare once imagine Cast away Friends House Lands Life if he bid thee Leap into the Sea as Peter if he command thee Lose thy life and thou shalt save it everlastingly when those that saved theirs shall lose them everlastingly Venture all man upon Gods Word Promise There 's a Day of Rest coming will fully pay for all All the pence and the farthings thou expendest for him are contained with infinite advantage in the massie Gold and Jewels of thy Crown When Alexander had given away his Treasure and they asked him where it was he pointed to the poor and said in scriniis in my chests And when he went upon a hopeful expedition he gave away his Gold and when he was asked what he kept for himself he answers spem majorum meliorum The hope of greater and better things How much more boldly may we lay out all and point to Heaven and say it is in scriniis in our everlasting treasure and take that hope of greater and better things in stead of all Nay lose thy self for God and renounce thy self and thou shalt at that day finde thy self again in him Give him thy self and he will receive thee upon the same terms as Socrates did his Schollar Aeschines who gave himself to his Master because he had nothing else accipio sed ea lege ut te tibi mâ—liorem reddam quam accepi that he may return thee to thy self better then he received thee So then this Rest is the Good which containeth all other Good in it And thus you see according to the Rules of Reason the transcendent Excellency of the Saints Glory in the General We shall next mention the particular Excellencies CHAP. VII The Excellencies of our Rest. SECT I. YEt let us draw a little neerer and see more immediately from the pure fountain of the Scriptures what further Excellencies this Rest affordeth And the Lord hide us in the Clefts of the Rock and cover us with the hands of indulgent Grace while we approach and take this view and the Lord grant we may put off from our feet the shoes of unreverence and fleshly conceivings while we stand upon this holy ground SECT I. 1. ANd first it 's a most singular honor and ornament in the stile of the Saints Rest to be called the Purchased Possession That it is the fruit of the Blood of the Son of God yea the chief fruit yea the end and perfection of all the fruits and efficacy of that Blood Surely Love is the most precious ingredient in the whole composition and of all the flowers that grow in the Garden of Love can there be brought one more sweet and beautiful to the Garland then this Blood Greater Love then this there is not to lay down the life of the Lover And to have this our Redeemer ever before our Eyes and the liveliest Sense and freshest Remembrance of that dying-bleeding-Love still upon our Souls Oh how will it fill our Souls with perpetual Ravishments To think that in the streams of this Blood we have swam through the violence of the world the snares of Satan the seducements of flesh the curse of the Law the wrath of an offended God the accusations of a Guilty Conscience and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbeleeving heart and are passed through all and here arrived safely at the brest of God!
living is not contemptible As every one of them now knows his own sore and his own grief so shall every one then feel his own Joy and if they can now call Christ their own and call God their own God how much more then upon their full possession of him For as he takes his people for his inheritance so will he himself be the inheritance of his people of ever SECT IV. A Fourth comfortable adjunct of this Rest is that it is in the fellowship of the Blessed Saints and Angels of God Not so singular will the Christian be as to be solitary Though it be proper to the Saints only yet is it common to all the Saints For what is it but an Association of Blessed spirits in God A corporation of perfected Saints whereof Christ is the head the communion of Saints compleated Nor doth this make those joyes to be therefore mediate derived by creatures to us as here For all the lines may be drawn from the center and not from each other and yet their collocation make them more comely then one alone could be Though the strings receive not their sound and sweetnes from each other yet their concurrence causeth that harmony which could not be by one alone For those that have prayed and fasted and wept and watcht and waited together now to joy and enjoy and praise together methinks should much advance their pleasure Whatsoever it will be upon the great change that will be wrought in our natures perfected sure I am according to the present temperature of the most sanctified humane affections it would affect exceedingly And he who mentioneth the qualifications of our happiness of purpose that our joy may be full and maketh so oft mention of our consociation and conjunction in his praises sure doth hereby intimate to us that this will be some advantage to our joyes Certain I am of this Fellow-Christians that as we have been together in the labour duty danger and distress so shall we be in the great recompence and deliverance and as we have been scorned and despised so shall we be crowned and honored together and we who have gone through the day of sadness shall enjoy together that day of Gladness and those who have been with us in persecution and prison shall be with us also in that palace of consolation Can the willful world say If our forefathers and friends be all in Hell why we will venture there too and may not the Christian say on better grounds seeing my faithful friends are gone before me to Heaven I am much the more willing to be there too Oh the Blessed day Dear friends when we that were wont to enquire together and hear of heaven and talk of heaven together shall then live in Heaven together When we who are wont to complain to one another and open our doubts to one another and our feares whether ever we should come there or no shall then rejoyce with one another and triumph over those doubts and feares when we who were wont formerly in private to meet together for mutual edification shall now most publikely be conioyned in the same consolation Those same disciples who were wont to meet in a private house for fear of the Jews are now met in the Celestial habitations without fear and as their fear then did cause them to shut the door against their enemies so will Gods Justice shut it now Oh when I look in the faces of the pretious people of God and believingly think of this day what a refreshing thought is it shall we not there remember think you the pikes which we passed together here our fellowship in duty and in sufferings how oft our groanes made as it were one sound our conjunct teares but one stream and our conjunct desires but one prayer and now all our prayses shall make up one melody and all our Churches one Church and all our selves but one body for we shall be one in Christ even as he and the father are one It s true we must be very carefull in this case that in our thoughts we look not for that in the Saints which is alone in Christ and that we give them not his own prerogative nor expect too great a part of our comfort in the fruition of them we are prone enough to this kinde of Idolatry But yet he who Commands us so to love them now will give us leave in the same subordination to himself to love them then when himself hath made them much more lovely And if we may love them we shall surely reioyce in them for love and enjoyment cannot stand without an answerable Joy If the forethoughts of sitting down with Abraham Isaac Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God may be our lawful Joy then how much more that real fight and actual possession It cannot chuse but be comfortable to me to think of that day when I shall joyn with Moses in his song with David in his Psalms of praise and with all the redeemed in the song of the Lamb for ever When we shall see Henoch walking with God Noah enjoying the end of his singularity Joseph of his Integrity Job of his patience Hezekiah of his uprightness and all the Saints the end of their faith Will it be nothing conducible to the compleating of our comforts to live eternally with Peter Paul Austin Chrysostom Jerome Wickliffe Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza Bullinger Zanchius Pareus Piscator with Hooper Bradford Latimer Glover Saunders Philpot with Reignolds Whitaker Cartwright Brightman Bayne Bradshaw Bolton Ball Hildersham Pemble Twisse Ames Preston Sibbes O faelicem diem said old Grynoeus quum ad illud animorum concilium proficiscar ex hac turba Colluione discedam O happy day when I shall depart out of this crown and sink and go to that same counsell of soules I know that Christ is all in all and that it is the presence of God that maketh Heaven to be Heaven But yet it much sweeteneth the thoughts of that place to me to remember that there are such a multitude of my most dear and pretious friends in Christ with whom I took sweet counsell and with whom I went up to the house of God who walked with me in the fear of God and in integrity of their hearts in the face of whose conversations there was written the name of Christ whose sweet and sensible mention of his Excellencies hath made my heart to burn within me To think of such a friend died at such a time and such a one at another time such a pretious Christian slain at such a fight and such a one at such a fight oh what a number of them could I name and that all these are entered into rest and we shall surely go to them but they shall not return to us It s a Question with some Whether we shall know each other in Heaven or no Surely there shall no knowledg cease which now
of Life and the naked to be cloathed from above for the children to come to their Fathers house and the dis-joyned members to be conjoyned with their Head me thinks this should be seldom unseasonable When the Atheistical world began to insult and question the Truth of Scripture promises and ask us Where is now your God where is your long lookt for glory where is the promise of your Lords coming O how seasonable then to convince these unbelievers to silence these scoffers to comfort the dejected waiting believer will the appearing of our Lord be we are oft grudging now that we have not a great share of comforts that our deliverances are not more speedy and eminent that the world prospers more then we that our prayers are not presently answered not considering that our portion is kept to a fitter season that these are not always Winter fruits but when Summer comes we shall have our Harvest We grudg that we do not finde a Canaan in the VVilderness or cities of Rest in Noahs Ark and the songs of Sion in a strange Land that we have not a harbor in the main Ocean or finde not our home in the middle way and are not crowned in the midst of the fight have not our Rest in the heat of the day and have not our inheritance before we are at age and have not Heaven before we leave the Earth and would not all this be very unreasonable I confess in regard of the Churches service the removing of the Saints may sometimes appear to us unseasonable therefore doth God use it as a Judgment and therefore the Church hath ever prayed hard before they would part with them and greatly laid to heart their loss Therefore are the great mournings at the Saint departures and the sad hearts that accompany them to their graves but this is not especially for the departed but for themselves and their children as Christ bid the weeping women Therefore also it is that the Saints in danger of death have oft begged for their lives with that Argument What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the Pit Psal. 30.9 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness Psal. 88.10 for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6.5 And this was it that brought Paul to a streight because he knew it was better for the church that he should remain here I must confess it is one of my saddest thoughts to reckon up the useful instruments when God hath lately called out of his Vineyard when the Loyterers are many and the Harvest great and very many Congregations desolate and the people as sheep without shepherds and yet the laborers called from their work especially when a door of Liberty and opportunity is open we cannot but lament so sore a judgment and think the removal in regard of the Church unseasonable I know I speak but your own thoughts and you are too ready to over-run me in application I fear you are too sensible of what I speak and therefore am loath to stir in your sore I perceive you in the posture of the Ephesian Elders and had rather abate the violence of your passions our applications are quicker about our sufferings then our sins and we will quicklier say This loss is mine then This fault is mine But O consider my dear friends hath God any need of such a worme as I cannot he a 1000 wayes supply your wants you know when your case was worse and yet he provided Hath he work to do and will he not finde instruments And though you see not for the present where they should be had they are never the further off for that Where was the world before the creation and where was the promised seed when Isaac lay on the Altar Where was the Land of Promise when Israels burden was increased or when all the old stock save only two were consumed in the Wilderness Where was Davids Kingdom when he was hunted in the Wilderness or the Glory of Christs Kingdom when he was in the Grave or when he first sent his 12. Apostles How suddenly did the number of Labourers encrease immediately upon the Reformation by Luther and how soon were the rooms of those filled up whom the rage of the papists had sacrificed in the flames Have you not lately seen so many difficulties overcome and so many improbable works accomplished that might silence unbelief one would think for ever But if all this do not quiet you for sorrow and discontent are unruly passions yet at least remember this suppose the worst you fear should happen yet shall it be well with all the Saints your own turnes will shortly come and we shall all be hous'd with Christ together where you will want your Ministers and friends no more And for the poor world which is left behind whose unregenerate state causeth your grief why consider shall man pretend to be more merciful then God Hath not he more interest then we both in the Church and in the world and more bowels of compassion to commiserate their distress There is a season for Judgment as well as for mercy and if he will have the most of men to perish for their sin and to suffer the eternal tormenting flames must we question his goodness or manifest our dislike of the severity of his judgments I confess we cannot but bleed over our desolate congregations and that it ill beseems us to make light of Gods indignation but yet we should as Aaron when his sons were slain hold our peace and be silent because it is the Lords doing And say as David If I and his people shall finde favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me them and his Habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do with me as seemeth good unto him I conclude then that whatsoever it is to those that are left behinde yet the Saints departure to themselves is usually seasonable I say usually because I know that a very Saint may have a death in some respect unseasonable though it do translate him into this Rest. He may dye in Judgment as good Josiah he may die for his sin For the abuse of the Sacrament many were weak and sickly and many fallen asleep even of those who were thus Judged and chastened by God that they might not be condemned with the world He may die by the hand of publike Justice or die in a way of publike scandal He may die in a weak degree of grace and consequently have a less degree of glory He may die in smaller improvements of his talents and so be Ruler but
commonly understood of our own inherent renewed nature figuratively called Divine or rather of Christs Divine Nature without us properly so called wherof we are also made partakers I know not But certainly were not our own in some sort Divine the enjoyment of the true Divine Nature could not be to us a suitable Rest. 2. It is suitable also to the desires of the Saints For such as their natures such be their desires and such as their desires such will be their Rest. Indeed we have now a mixed Nature and from contrary principles do arise contrary desires As they are flesh they have desires of flesh and as they are sinful so they have sinful desires Perhaps they could be too willing whilest these are stirring to have delights and riches and honor and sin it self But these are not their prevailing Desires nor such as in their deliberate choice they will stand too therefore is it not they but sin and flesh These are not the desires that this Rest is suited to for they will not accompany them to their Rest. To provide contents to satisfie these were to provide food for them that are dead For they that are in Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof But it is the Desires of our renewed Nature and those which the Christian will ordinarily own which this Rest suited too Whilest our desires remain corrupted and misguided it is a far greater Mercy to deny them yea to destroy them then to satisfie them But those which are Spiritual are of his own planting and he will surely water them and give the increase Is it so great a work to raise them in us and shall they after all this vanish and fail To send the Word and Spirit Mercies and Judgments to raise the sinners desires from the Creature to God and then to suffer them so raised all to perish without success this were to multiply the Creatures misery And then were the work of Sanctification a designed preparative to our torment and tantalizing but no way conducible to our happy Rest. He quickened our hungering and thirst for Righteousness that he might make us happy in a full satisfaction Christian this is a Rest after thine own heart it containeth all that thy heart can wish that which thou longest for prayest for laborest for there thou shalt finde it all Thou hadst rather have God in Christ then all the world why there thou shalt have him O what wouldst thou not give for assurance of his love why there thou shalt have assurance beyond suspicion Nay thy desires cannot now extend to the height of what thou shalt there obtain Was it not an high favor of God to Solomon to promise to give him whatsoever he would ask why every Christian hath such a promise Desire what thou canst and ask what thou wilt as a Christian and it shall be given thee not onely to half of the Kingdom but to the enjoyment both of Kingdom and King This is a life of desire and prayer but that is a life of satisfaction and enjoyment O therefore that we were but so wise as to limit those desires which we know shall not be satisfied and those which we know not whether or no they will be satisfied and especially those which we know should not be satisfied and to keep up continually in heat and life those desires which we are sure shall have full satisfaction And O that sinners would also consider That seeing God will not give them a felicity suitable to their sensual desires it is therefore their wisdom to endevor for desires suitable to the true felicity and to direct their Ship to the right Harbor seeing they cannot bring the Harbor to their Ship 3. This Rest is very suitable to the Saints necessities also as well as to their natures and desires It contains whatsoever they truly wanted not supplying them with the grosse created comforts which now they are forced to make use of which like Sauls Armor on David are more burden then benefit But they shall there have the benefit without the burden and the pure Spirits extracted as it were shall make up their Cordial without the mixture of any drossie or earthly substance It was Christ and perfect Holiness which they most needed and with these shall they here be principally supplied Their other necessities are far better removed then supplied in the present carnal way It is better to have no need of meat and drink and cloathing and creatures then to have both the need and the Creature continued Their Plaister will be fitted to the quality of the sore The Rain which Elias prayer procured was not more seasonable after the three yeers drought then this Rest will be to this thirsty Soul It will be with us as with the diseased man who had lien at the waters and continued diseased thirty eight yeers when Christ did fully cure him in a moment or with the woman who having had the issue of blood and spent all she had upon Physicians and suffered the space of twelve yeers was healed by one touch of Christ. So when we have lien at Ordinances and Duties and Creatures all our life time and spent all and suffered much we shall have all done by Christ in a moment But we shall see more of this under the next head SECT VIII EIghtly Another excellency of our Rest will be this That it will be absolutely perfect and compleat and this both in the sincerity and universality of it We shall then have Joy without sorrow and Rest without weariness As there is no mixture of our corruption with our Graces so no mixture of sufferings with our solace there is none of those waves in that Harbor which now so toss us up and down VVe are now sometime at the Gates of Heaven and presently almost as low as Hell we wonder at those changes of Providence toward us being scarcely two days together in a like condition To day we are well and conclude the bitterness of death is past to morrow sick and conclude we shall shortly perish by our distempers to day in esteem to morrow in disgrace to day we have friends to morrow none to day in gladness to morrow in sadness naâ— we have VVine and Vinegar in the same Cup and our pleasantest Food hath a taste of the Gall. If Revelations should raise us to the third Heaven the messenger of Satan must presently buffet us and the prick in the flesh will fetch us down But there is none of this unconstancy nor mixtures in Heaven If perfect Love cast out fear then perfect Joy must needs cast out sorrow and perfect happiness exclude all the reliques of misery There will be an universal perfecting of all our parts and powers and a universal removal of all our evils And though the positive part be the sweetest and that which draws the other after it even as the
And seldom doth a Minister live to see the ripeness of his people but one soweth and planteth another watereth and a third reapeth and receiveth the increase Yet were all this Duty delightful had we but a due proportion of strength But to informe the old ignorant sinner to convince the stubborne and worldly wise to perswade a wilful resolved wretch to prick a stony heart to the quick to make a rock to weep and tremble to set forth Christ according to our necessity and his Excellency to comfort the soul whom God dejecteth to clear up dark and difficult Truths to oppose with convincing Arguments all gainsayers to credit the Gospel with exemplary Conversations when multitudes do but watch for our halting O who is sufficient for these things So that every Relation State Age hath variety of Duty Every conscientious Christian cryes out O the burden or O my weakness that makes it so burdensom But our remaining Rest will ease us of the burden Then will that be sound Doctrine which now is false that the Law hath no more to do with us that it becomes not a Christian to beg for pardon seeing all his sins are perfectly pardoned already that we need not fast nor mourn nor weep nor repent and that a sorrowful Countenance beseems not a Christian Then will all these become Truths SECT XVIII 10. ANd lastly we shall Rest from all those sad affections which necessarily accompany our absence from God The trouble that is mixt in our desires and hopes our longings and waitings shall then cease We shall no more look into our Cabinet and miss our Treasure look into our hearts and miss our Christ nor no more seek him from Ordinance to Ordinance and enquire for our God of those we meet our heart will not lie in our knee nor our souls be breathed out in our requests but all concluded in a most full and blessed Fruition But because this with the former are touched before I will say no more of them now So you have seen what we shall Rest from SECT XIX NInthly The ninth and last Jewel in our Crown and blessed Attribute of this Rest is That it is an Eternal Rest. This is the Crown of our Crown without which all were comparatively little or nothing The very thought of once leaving it would else imbitter all our joys and the more would it peirce us because of the singular excellencies which we must forsake It would be a Hell in Heaven to think of once loosing Heaven As it would be a kinde of Heaven to the damned had they but hopes of once escaping Mortality is the disgrace of all sublunary delights It makes our present life of little value were it not for the reference it hath to God and Eternity to think that we must shortly lay it down How can we take delight in any thing when we remember how short that delight would be That the sweetness of our Cups and Morsels is dead as soon as they are once but paâ—â— our taste Indeed if man were as the beast that knows not his suffering or death till he feel it and little thinks when the knife is whetting that it is making ready to cut his throat then might we be merry till death forbids us and enjoy our delights till they shall forsake us But alas we know both good and evil and evil foreknown is in part endured And thus our knowledg encreaseth our sorrows Eccles. 1.18 How can it chuse but spoil our pleasure while we see it dying in our hands how can I be as merry as the jovial World had I not mine eye fixed upon eternity when methinks I foresee my dying hour my friends waiting for my last gasp and closing mine eyes while tears forbid to close their own Methinks I hear them say He is dead Methinks I see my Coffin made my Grave in digging and my Friends there leaving me in the dust And where now is that we took delight in O but methinks I see at the same view that Grave opening and my dead revived Body rising Methinks I hear that blessed voyce Arise and live and die no more Surely were it not for eternity I should think man a silly piece and all his life and honor but contemptible I should call him with David A vain shadow and with the Prophet Nothing and less then nothing and altogether lighter then vanity it self It utterly disgraceth the greatest glory in mine eyes if you can but truly call it Mortal I can value nothing that shall have an end except as it leads to that which hath no end or as it comes from that love which neither hath beginning nor end I speak this of my deliberate thoughts And if some ignorant or forgetful soul have no such sad thoughts to disturb his pleasure I confess he may be merrier for the present But where is his mirth when he lieth dying Alas it s a poor happiness that consists onely in the Ignorance or Forgetfulness of approaching misery But O blessed eternity where our lives are perplexed with no such thoughts nor our joys interrupted with any such fears where we shall be pillars in Gods Temple and go out no more O what do I say when I talk of Eternity Can my shallow thoughts at all conceive what that most high expression doth contain To be eternally blessed and so blessed Why surely this if any thing is the resemblance of God Eternity is a piece of Infiniteness Then O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Days and Nights and Yeers Time and End and Death are words which there have no signification nor are used except perhaps to extol eternity as the mention of Hell to extol Heaven No more use of our Calendars or Chronology All the yeers of our Lord and the yeers of our lives are lost and swallowed up in this Eternity While we were servants we held by lease and that but for the term of a transitory life but the Son abideth in the House for ever Our first and earthly Paradise in Eden had a way out but none that ever we could finde in again But this eternal paradise hath a way in a milky way to us but a bloody way to Christ but no way out again For they that would pass from hence to you saith Abraham cannot A strange phrase would any pass from such a place if they might Could they endure to be absent from God again one hour No but upon supposal that they would yet they could not O then my soul let go thy dreams of present pleasures And loose thy hold of Earth and Flesh. Fear not to enter that estate where thou shalt ever after cease thy Fears Sit down and sadly once a day bethink thy self of this Eternity Among all thine Arithmetical numbers study the value of this infinite Cypher which though it stand for nothing in the vulgar account doth yet contain all our Millions
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
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
tittle SECT VIII 8. BUt the great aggravation of this misery will be its Eternity That when a thousand millions of ages are past their Torments are as fresh to begin as the first day If there were any hope of an end it would ease them to foresee it but when it must be for ever that thought is intollerable much more will the misery it self be so They were never weary of sinning nor ever would have been if they had lived eternally upon earth And now God will not be weary of plaguing them They never heartily repented of their sin and God will never repent him of their sufferings They broke the Lawes of the eternal God and therefore shall suffer eternal punishment They knew it was an Everlasting Kingdom which they refused when it was offered them and therefore what wonder if they be everlastingly shut out of it It was their immortall souls that were guilty of the trespass and therefore must immortally suffer the pains O now what happy men would they think themselves if they might have layen still in their graves or continued dust or suffered no worse then the gnawing of those worms O that they might but there lye down again What a mercy now would it be to dye And how will they call and cry out for it O death whither art thou now gone Now come and cut off thâ—s doleful life O that these pains would break my heart and end my being O that I might once at last dye O that I had never had a beeing These groanes will the thoughts of Eternity wring from their hearts They were wont to think the Sermon long and prayer long how long then will they think these Endless torments What difference is there betwixt the length of their pleasures and of their paines The one continued but a moment but the other endureth through all eternity O that sinners would lay this thought to heart Remember how Time is almost gone Thou art standing all this while at the door of Eternity and death is waiting to open the door and put thee in Go sleep out yet but a few more nights and stir up and down on earth a few more dayes and then thy nights and dayes shall end thy thoughts and cares and pleasure sand all shall be devoured by eternity thou must enter upon that state which shall never be changed As the Joyes of Heaven are beyond our conceiving so also are the pains of Hell Everlasting Torment is unconceivable Torment SECT IX BUt I know if it be a sensuall unbeliever that readeth all this he will cast it by with disdain and say I will never believe that God will thus Torment his Creatures What to delight in their torture And that for everlasting And all for the faults of a short time It is incredible How can this stand with the infiniteness of his mercy I would not thus Torment the worst enemy that I have in the world and yet my mercifulness is nothing to Gods These are but threats to awe men I will not believe them Answ. Wilt thou not believe I do not wonder if thou be loath to believe so terrible tidings to thy soul as these are which if they were believed and apprehended indeed according to their weight would set thee a trembling and roaring in the anguish of horror day and night And I do as little wonder that the Devil who ruleth thee should be loath if he can hinder it to suffer thee to believe it For if thou didst believe it thou wouldest spare no cost or pains to escape it But go to If thou wilt read on either thou shalt believe it before thou stirrest or prove thy self an Infidel or Pagan Tell me then Dost thou believe Scripture to be the word of God If thou do not thou art no more a Christian then thy horse is or then a Turk is For what ground have we besides Scripture to believe that Jesus Christ did come into the world or dye for man If thou believe not these I have nothing here to do with thee but refer thee to the second part of this book where I have proved Scripture to be the word of God But if thou do believe this to be so and yet dost not believe that the same Scripture is true thou art far worse then either Infidel or Pagan For the vilest Pagans durst hardly charge their Idol Gods to be lyars And darest thou give the lye to the God of Heaven And accuse him of speaking that which shall not come to pass and that in such absolute threats and plain expressions But if thou darest not stand to this but dost believe Scripture both to be the word of God and to be true then I shall presently convince thee of the truth of these eternall Torments Wilt thou believe if a Prophet should tell it thee Why read it then in the greatest Prophets Moses David and Isaiah Deut. 32.22 Psal. 11.6 9 17. Isai. 30.33 Or wilt thou believe one that was more then a Prophet Why hear then what John Baptist saith Mat. 3.10 Luk. 3.17 Or wilt thou believe if an Apostle should tell thee Why hear what one saith Jud. 7.13 where he cals it the vengeance of eternall fire and the blackness of darness for ever Or what if thou have it from an Apostle that had been rapt up in Revelations into the third Heaven and seen things unutterable Wilt thou believe then Why take it then from Paul 2 Thess. 1.7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And 2 Thess. 2.12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness So Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10. Or wilt thou believe it from the beloved Apostle who was so taken up in Revelations and saw it as it were in his visions Why see then Rev. 20.10 15. They are said there to be cast into the lake of fire and tormented day and night for ever So Rev. 21.8 So 2 Pet. 2.17 Or wilt thou believe it from the mouth of Christ himself the judg Why reade it then Mat. 7.19 13.40 41 42 49 50. As therefore the Tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world the Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth c. So Mat. 18.8 9. So Mark 9.43 44 46 48. Where he repeateth it three times over Where their worm never dyeth and their fire is not quenched And Mat. 25.41 46. Then shall he say to
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
the Gospel or our disobeying it upon the Painfulness or the Slothfulness of our present Endeavors I think it is time for us to bestir our selves and to leave our trifling and complementing with God SECT III. 2. COnsider Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the work which we have to do as well as to the Ends of it Now the Works of a Christian here are very Many and very Great The Soul must be renewed Many and great Corruptions must be mortified Custom and Temptations and worldly Interests must be conquered Flesh must be mastered Self must be denyed Life and friends and credit and all must be slighted Conscience must be upon good grounds quieted Assurance of Pardon and Salvation must be attained And though it is God that must give us these and that freely without our own merit yet will he not give them so freely as without our earnest Seeking and Labour Besides there is a deal of knowledg to be got for the guiding of our selves for the defending of the Truth for the direction of others and a deal of skill for the right managing of our parts Many Ordinances are to be used and duties performed ordinary and extraordinary Every Age and year and day doth require fresh succession of duty Every place we come in every person that we have to deal with every change of our own Condition doth still require the renewing of our labour and bringeth duty along with it Wives Children Servants Neighbours Friends Enemies all of them call for duty from us And all this of great importance too so that for the most of it if we miscarry in it it would prove our undoing Judg then your selves whether men that have so much business lying upon their hands should not bestir them and whether it be their Wisdom either to Delay or to Loiter SECT IV. 3. COnsider Our diligence should be somewhat quickned because of the shortness and uncertainty of the Time allotted us for the performing of all this work and the many and great impediments which we meet with Yet a few days and we shall be here no more Time passeth on Many hundred diseases are ready to assault us We that now are preaching and hearing and talking and walking must very shortly be carryed on mens backs and laid in the dust and there left to the worms in darkness and corruption we are almost there already It is but a few days or moneths or years and what is that when once they are past We know not whether we shall have another Sermon or Sabbath or hour How then should those men bestir them for their Everlasting Rest who know they have so short a space for so great a work Besides every step in the way hath its difficulties the gate is straight and the way narrow The righteous themselves are scarcely saved Scandals and discouragements will be still cast before us And can all these be overcome by slothful Endeavors SECT V. 4. MOreover Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the diligence of our Enemies in seeking our destruction For if we sit still while they are plotting and labouring or if we be lazy in our defence while they are diligent in assaulting us you may easily conceive how we are likely to speed How diligent is Satan in all kind of temptations Therefore be sober and vigilant saith 1 Pet. 5.8 because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith How diligent are all the Ministers of Satan False Teachers scorners at godliness malicious persecutors all unwearied And our inward Corruption the most busie and diligent of all Whatever we are about it is still resisting us depraving our duties perverting our thoughts dulling our Affections to good exciting them to evil And will a feeble resistance then serve our turn Should not we be more active for our own preservation then our Enemies for our ruine SECT VI. 5. OUr Affections and Endeavors should bear some proportion with the Talents which we have received and means which we have enjoyed It may well be expected that a horseman should go faster then a footman and he that hath a swift horse faster then he that hath a slow one More work will be expected from a sound man then from the sick and from a man at age then from a Child And to whom men commit much from them they will expect the more Now the Talents which we have received are many and great The means which we have enjoyed are very much and very precious What people breathing on earth have had plainer Instructions or more forcible Perswasions or more constant Admonitions in season and out of season Sermons till we have been weary of them and Sabbaths till we prophaned them Excellent Books in such plenty that we knew not which to read but loathing them through abundance have thrown by all What people have had God so near them as we have had or have seen Christ as it were crucified before their eyes as we have done What people have had Heaven and Hell as it were opened unto them as we Scarce a day wherein we have not had some spur to put us on What speed then should such a people make for Heaven And how should they fly that are thus winged and how swiftly should they sail that have wind and tyde to help them Believe it Brethren God looks for more from England then from most Nations in the World and for more from you that enjoy these helps then from the dark untaught Congregations of the Land A small measure of grace beseems not such a people nor will an ordinary diligence in the work of God excuse them SECT VII 6. THe Vigour of our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the great cost bestowed upon us and to the deep engaging mercies which we have received from God Surely we owe more service to our Master from whom we have our maintenance then we do to a stranger to whom we never were beholden Oh the cost that God hath been at for our sakes The riches of Sea and Land of Heaven and Earth hath he powred out unto us All our lives have been filled up with Mercies We cannot look back upon one hour of it or one passage in it but we may behold Mercy We feed upon Mercy we wear Mercy on our backs we tread upon Mercy Mercy within us common and special Mercy without us for this life and for that to come Oh the rare Deliverances that we have partaked of both national and personal How oft how seasonably how fully have our prayers been heard and our fears removed What large Catalogues of particular Mercies can every Christian draw forth and reherse To offer to number them would be an endless task as to number the stars or the sands of the shore If there be any difference betwixt Hell where we should have been
If the Law of the Land did punish every breach of the Sabbath or every omission of family duties or secret duties or every cold and heartless prayer with Death If it were Felony or Treason to be ungodly and negligent in Worship and loose in your lives What manner of persons would you then be and what lives would you lead And is not Eternal death more terrible then temporal 3 Quest. If it were Gods ordinary course to punish every sin with some present Judgment so that every time a man swears or is drunk or speaks a lye or back-biteth his neighbor he should be struck dead or blind or lame in the place If God did punish every cold prayer or neglect of duty with some remarkable plague what manner of persons would you then be If you should suddenly fall down dead like Ananias and Saphira with the sin in your hands or the plague of God should seize upon you as upon the Israelites while their sweet morsels were yet in their mouths If but a Mark should be set in the forehead of every one that neglected a duty or committed a sin What kind of lives would you then lead And is not Eternal Wrath more terrible then all this Give but Reason leave to speak 4 Quest. If one of your old acquaintance and companions in sin should come from the dead and tell you that he suffereth the Torments of Hell for those sins that you are guilty of and for neglecting those duties which you neglect and for living such a careless worldly ungodly life as you now live should therfore advise you to take another course If you should meet such a one in your Chamber when you are going to bed and he should say to you Oh take heed of this carnal unholy life Set your self to seek the Lord with all your might neglect not your Soul Prepare for Eternity that you come not to the place of Torment that I am in How would this take with you and what manner of persons would you afterwards be It is written in the life of Bruno that a Doctor of great note for learning and godliness being dead and being brought to the Church to be buried while they were in their Popish Devotions and came to the words Responde mihi the Corps arose in the Beir and with a terrible voyce cryed out Justo Dei Judicio accusatus sum I am accused at the Just Judgment of God At which voyce the people run all out of Church affrighted On the morrow when they came again to perform the Obsequies at the same words as before the Corps arose again and cryed with a hideous voyce Justo Dei Judicio Judicatus sum I am Judged at the righteous Judgment of God Whereupon the people run away again amazed The third day almost all the City came together and when they came to the same words as before the Corps rose again and cryed with a more doleful voyce then before Justo Dei Judicio Condemnatus sum I am Condemned at the Just Judgment of God The consideration whereof that a man reputed so upright should yet by his own confession be damned caused Bruno and the rest of his companions to enter into that strict order of the Carthusians If the voyce of the dead man could affright them into Superstition should not the warnings of God affright thee into true Devotion 5 Quest. If you knew that this were the last day you had to live in the world how would you spend this day If you were sure when you go to bed that you should never rise again would not your thoughts of another life be more serious that night If you knew when you are praying that you should never pray more would you not be more earnest and importunate in that prayer Or if you knew when you are preaching or hearing or exhorting your sinful acquaintance that this were the last opportunity you should have would you not ply it more closely then usually you do Why you do not know but it may be the last and you are sure your last is near at hand 6 Quest. If you had seen the general dissolution of the world and all the pomp and glory of it consumed to ashes If you saw all on a fire about you sumptuous buildings Cities Kingdoms Land Water Earth Heaven all flaming about your ears If you had seen all that men labored for and sold their Souls for gone friends gone the place of your former abode gone the history ended and all come down what would such a sight as this perswade you to do Why such a sight thou shalt certainly see I put my Question to thee in the words of the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should say We cannot possibly conceive or express what manner of persons we should be in all holiness and godliness when we do but think of the sudden and certain and terrible dissolution of all things below 7 Quest. What if you had seen the process of the Judgment of the great day If you had seen the Judgment set and the Books opened and the most stand trembling on the left hand of the Judg and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects and remembring them of all their former slightings of his grace and at last condemning them to perpetual perdition If you had seen the godly standing on the right hand and Jesus Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience and adjudging them to the possession of the Joy of their Lord What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this Why this sight thou shalt one day see as sure as thou livest And why then should not the fore-knowledg of such a day awake thee to thy duty 8 Quest. What if you had once seen Hell open and all the damned there in their easeless Torments and had heard them crying out of their sloathfulness in the day of their visitation and wishing that they had but another life to live and that God would but try them once again One crying out of his neglect of duty and another of his loitering and trifling when he should have been labouring for his life What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this What if you had seen Heaven opened as Stephen did and all the Saints there triumphing in Glory and enjoying the End of their labours and sufferings What a life would you lead after such a sight as this Why you will see this with your eyes before it be long 9 Quest. What if you had lien in Hell but one year or one day or hour and there felt all those Torments that now you do but hear of
for ought thou knowest to the contrary thy case hereafter may be as bad as his I know not what thou thinkest of thy own state but for my part did I not know what a desperate blind dead piece a carnal heart is I should wonder how thou dost to forget thy misery and to keep off continual horrors from thy heart And especially in these cases following 1. I wonder how thou canst either think or speak of the dreadful God without exceeding terror and astonishment as long as thou art uncertain whether he be thy Father or thy Enemy and knowest not but all his Attributes may be imployed against thee If his Saints must rejoyce before him with trembling and serve him in fear If they that are sure to receive the unmoveable Kingdom must yet serve God with reverence and godly fear because he is a consuming fire How then should the remembrance of him be terrible to them that know not but this fire may for ever consume them 2. How dost thou think without trembling upon Jesus Christ when thou knowest not whether his blood hath purged thy Soul or not and whether he will condemn thee or acquit thee in Judgment nor whether he be set for thy rising or thy fall Luk. 2.34 nor whether he be the corner Stone and Foundation of thy happiness or a stone of stumbling to break thee and grind thee to powder Mat. 21.44 Methinks thou shouldst be still in that tune as Job 31.23 Destruction from God is a terror to me and by reason of his Highness I cannot endure 3. How canst thou open the Bible and read a Chapter or hear a Chapter read but it should terrifie thee Methinks every leaf should be to thee as Belshazzars writing upon the wall except only that which draws thee to try and reform If thou read the Promises thou knowest not whether ever they shall be fulfilled to thee because thou art uncertain of thy performance of the Condition If thou read the Threatnings for any thing thou knowest thou dost read thy own sentence I do not wonder if thou art an enemy to plain preaching and if thou say of it and of the Minister and Scripture it self as Ahab of the Prophet I hate him for he doth not prophecy good concerning me but evil 1 Kings 22.8 4. I wonder how thou canst without terror approach God in prayer or any duty When thou callest him thy Father thou knowest not whether thou speak true or false When thou needest him in thy sickness or other extremity thou knowest not whether thou hast a friend to go to or an enemy When thou receivest the Sacrament thou knowest not whether thou take thy blessing or thy bane And who would wilfully live such a life as this 5. What comfort canst thou find in any thing which thou possessest Methinks friends and honors and house and lands should do thee little good till thou know that thou hast the love of God with all and shalt have Rest with him when thou leavest these Offer to a prisoner before he know his sentence either musick or clothes or lands or preferment and what cares he for any of these till he know how he shall scape for his life and then he will look after these comforts of life and not before for he knows if he must dye the next day it will be small comfort to dye rich or honorable Methinks it should be so with thee till thou know thine eternal state Dost not thou as Ezek. 12.18 Eat thy bread with quaking and drink thy drink with trembling and carefulness and say Alas though I have these to refresh my body now yet I know not what I shall have hereafter Even when thou liest down to take thy rest methinks the uncertainty of thy Salvation should keep thee waking or amaze thee in thy dreams and trouble thy sleep and thou shouldst say as Job in a smaller distress then thine Job 7.13 14. When I say My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me through dreams and terrifiest me through visions 6. Doth it not grieve thee to see the people of God so comfortable when thou hast none thy self and to think of the Glory which they shall inherit when thou hast no assurance thy self of ever enjoying it 7. What shift dost thou make to think of thy dying hour Thou knowest it is hard by and there 's no avoyding it nor any medicine found out that can prevent it Thou knowest it is the King of terror Job 18.14 and the very inlet to thine unchangeable state The godly that have some assurance of their future welfare have yet much ado to submit to it willingly and find that to dye comfortably is a very difficult work How then canst thou think of it then without astonishment who hast got no assurance of the Rest to come If thou shouldst dye this day and who knows what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 thou dost not know whether thou shalt go straight to Heaven or to Hell And canst thou be merry till thou art got out of this dangerous state Methinks that in Deut. 28.25 26 27. should be the looking-glass of thy heart 8. What shift dost thou make to preserve thy heart from horror when thou remembrest the great Judgment day and the Everlasting flames Dost thou not tremble as Felix when thou hearest of it and as the Elders of the Town trembled when Samuel came in it saying Comest thou peaceably So methinks thou shouldst do when the Minister comes into the Pulpit And thy heart when ever thou meditatest of that day should meditate terror Isai. 33.18 And thou shouldst be even a terror to thy self and all thy friends Jer. 20.4 If the keepers trembled and became as dead men when they did but see the Angels Mat. 28.3 4. how canst thou think of living in Hell with Devils till thou hast got some sound assurance that thou shalt escape it Or if thou seldom think of these things the wonder is as great what shift thou makest to keep these thoughts from thy heart and to live so quietly in so doleful a state Thy bed is very soft or thy heart is very hard if thou canst sleep soundly in this uncertain case I have shewed thee the danger let me next proceed to shew thee the Remedy SECT II. IF this general uncertainty of the world about their Salvation were constrained or remediless then must it be born as other unavoidable miseries and it were unmeet either to reprove them for it or exhort them from it But alas the Common Cause is Wilfulness and Negligence Men will not be perswaded to use the Remedy though it be easie and at hand prescribed to them by God himself and all necessary helps thereunto provided for them The great means to conquer this Uncertainty is Self-Examination or the Serious and diligent trying of a mans heart and state by the rule of Scripture This Scripture
to pass and he worshipped Daniel and offered oblations to him because he foretold them When Christ had told his Disciples that one of them should betray him how desirous are they to know who it was though it were a matter of sorrow How busily do they enquire when Christs Predictions should come to pass and what were the Signs of his coming With what gladness doth the Samaritan woman run into the City saying Come and see a man that hath told me all that ever I did though he told her of her faults When Ahaziah lay sick how desirous was he to know whether he should live or dye Daniel is called a man greatly beloved therefore God would reveal to him things that long after must come to pass And is it so desireable a thing to hear Prophecies and to know what shall befall us hereafter and is it not then most especially desireable to know what shall befall our Souls and what place and state we must be in for ever Why this you may know if you will but faithfully Try. 2. But the Comforts of that Certainty of Salvation which this Tryal doth conduce toward are yet far greater If ever God bestow this blessing of Assurance on thee thou wilt account thy self the happiest man on earth and feel that it is not a Notional or empty mercy For 1. What sweet thoughts wilt thou have of God All that Greatness and Jealousie and Justice which is the terror of others will be matter of encouragement and Joy to thee As the son of a King doth rejoyce in his fathers Magnificence and Power which is the awe of Subjects and terror of Rebels When the thunder doth roar and the lightening flash and the earth quake and the signs of dreadful omnipotency do appear thou canst say All this is the effect of my Fathers power 2. How sweet may every thought of Christ and the blood that he hath shed and the benefits he hath procured be unto thee who hast got this Assurance Then will the Name of a Saviour be a sweet Name and the thoughts of his gentle and loving nature and of the gracious design which he hath carried on for our Salvation will be pleasing thoughts Then will it do thee good to view his wounds by the eye of faith and to put thy finger as it were into his side when thou canst call him as Thomas did My Lord and my God! 3. Every passage also in the Word will then afford thee Comfort How sweet will be the Promises when thou art sure they are thine own The Gospel will then be Glad Tydings indeed The very threatnings will occasion thy Comfort to remember that thou hast escaped them Then thou wilt cry out with David Oh how I love thy Law It is sweeter then honey More precious then gold c. And as Luther That thou wilt not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible When thou wast in thy sin this Book was to thee as Micaiah to Ahab It never spoke Good of thee but Evil and therefore no wonder if then thou didst hate it But now it is the charter of thy Everlasting Rest how welcom will it be to thee and how beautiful the very feet of those that bring it 4. What boldness and comfort then mayst thou have in prayer When thou canst say Our Father in full Assurance and knowest that thou art welcom and accepted through Christ and that thou hast a promise to be heard when ever thou askest and knowest that God is readier to grant thy requests then thou to move them With what comfortable boldness mayst thou then approach the Throne of Grace Especially when the case is weighty and thy necessity great this Assurance in prayer will be a sweet priviledg indeed A despairing Soul that feeleth the weight of Sin and Wrath especially at a dying hour would give a large price to be partaker of this Priviledg and to be sure that he might have Pardon and Life for the asking for 5. This Assurance will give the Sacrament a sweet relish to thy Soul and make it a refreshing feast indeed 6. It will multiply the sweetness of every mercy thou receivest when thou art sure that all proceeds from Love and are the beginnings and earnest of Everlasting Mercies Thou wilt then have more comfort in a morsel of bread then the world hath in the greatest abundance of all things 7. How comfortably then mayst thou undergo all Afflictions When thou knowest that he meaneth thee no hurt in it but hath promised that All shall work together for thy Good when thou art sure that he chasteneth thee because he loveth thee and scourgeth thee because thou art a Son whom he will receive and that out of very faithfulness he doth afflict thee What a support must this be to thy heart and how will it abate the bitterness of the Cup Even the Son of God himself doth seem to take comfort from this Assurance when he was in a manner forsaken for our sins and therefore he cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And even the Prodigal under his guilt and misery doth take some Comfort in remembring that he hath a Father 8. This Assurance will sweeten to thee the fore-thoughts of death and make thy heart glad to fore-think of that entrance into Joy when a man that is uncertain whither he is going must needs dye with horror 9. It will sweeten also thy fore-thoughts of Judgment when thou art sure that it will be the day of thy absolution and Coronation 10. Yea the very thoughts of the flames of Hell will administer matter of Consolation to thee when thou canst certainly conclude thou art saved from them 11. The fore-thoughts of Heaven also will be more incomparably delightful when thou art certain that it is the place of thine Everlasting abode 12. It will make thee exceeding lively and strong in the Work of the Lord With what courage wilt thou run when thou knowest thou shalt have the prize and fight when thou knowest thou shalt conquer It will make thee always abound in the work of the Lord when thou knowest that thy labour is not in vain 13. It will also make thee more profitable to others Thou wilt be a most chearful encourager of them from thine own experience Thou wilt be able to refresh the weary and to strengthen the weak and speak a word of Comfort in season to the troubled Soul Whereas now without Assurance in stead of comforting others thou wilt rather have need of support thy self So that others are losers by thy Uncertainty as well as thy self 14. Assurance will put life into all thy Affections or Graces 1. It will help thee to Repent and melt over thy sins when thou knowest how dearly God did Love thee whom thou hast abused 2. It will enflame thy Soul with Love to God when thou once knowest thy near Relation to him
be an Ignorant carnal person that you have to deal with who is an utter stranger to the Mysteries of Religion and to the work of Regeneration on his own Soul the first thing you have to do is to acquaint him with these Doctrines Labour to make him understand wherein mans chief Happiness doth consist and how far he was once possessed of it and what Law and Covenant God then made with him and how he broke it and what penalty he incurred and what misery he brought himself into thereby Teach him what need men had of a Redeemer and how Christ in mercy did interpose and â—ear the penalty and what Covenant now he hath made with man and on what terms only Salvation is now to be attained and what course Christ taketh to draw men to himself and what are the riches and priviledges that Believers have in him If when he understandeth these things he be not moved by them or if you find that the stop lieth in his will and affections and in the hardness of his heart and in the interest that the flesh and the world have got in him Then shew him the excellency of the Glory which he neglecteth and the intolerableness of the loss of it and the extremity and eternity of the torments of the damned and how certainly they must endure them and how just it is for their wilful refusals of grace and how hainâ—us a sin it is to reject such free and abundant mercy and to tread under foot the blood of the Covenant Shew him the certainty nearness and terrors of death and judgment and the vanity of all things below which now he is taken up with and how little they will bestead him in that time of his extremity Shew him that by nature he himself is a child of wrath and enemy to God and by actual sin much more Shew him the viâ—e and hainous nature of sin the absolute necessity he standeth in of a Saviour the freeness of the promise the fulness of Christ the sufficiency of his Satisfaction his readiness to receive all that are willing to be his the Authority and Dominion which he hath purchased over us Shew him also the absolute necessity of Regeneration Faith and Holiness of life how impossible it is to have Salvation by Christ without these and what they are and the true nature of them If when he understandeth all this you find his Soul inthralled in presumption and false hopes perswading himself that he is a true Believer and pardoned and reconciled and shall be saved by Christ and all this upon false grounds or meerly because he would have it so which is a common case Then urge him hard to examine his state shew him the necessity of trying the danger of being deceived the commonness and easiness of mistaking through the deceitfulness of the heart the extream madness of putting it to a blind adventure or of resting in negligent or wilful uncertainty Help him in trying himself Produce some undenyable Evidences from Scripture Ask him Whether these be in him or not Whether ever he found such workings or dispositions in his heart Urge him to a rational answer do not leave him till you have convinced him of his misery and then seasonably and wisely shew him the remedy If he produce some common gifts or duties or works know to what end he doth produce them If to joyn with Christ in composing him a Righteousness shew him how vain and destructive they are If it be by way of Evidence to prove his title to Christ shew him how far a common work may reach and wherein the Life of Christianity doth consist and how far he must go further if he will be Christ's disciple In the mean time that he be not discouraged with hearing of so high a measure shew him the way by which he must attain it be sure to draw him to the use of all means set him a hearing and reading the Word calling upon God accompanying the godly perswade him to leave his actual sin and to get out of all ways of temptation especially to forsake ungodly company and to wait patiently on God in the use of means and shew him the strong hopes that in so doing he may have of a blessing this being the way that God will be found in If you perceive him possessed with any prejudicate conceits against the godly and the way of holiness shew him their falshood and with wisdom and meekness answer his Objections If he be addicted to delay the duties he is convinced of or laziness and stupidity do endanger his Soul then lay it on the more powerfully and set home upon his heart the most piercing considerations and labour to fasten them as thorns in his conscience that he may find no ease or rest till he change his estate SECT IV. BUt because in all works the manner of doing them is of greatest moment and the right performance doth much further the success I will here adjoyn a few Directions which you must be sure to observe in this work of Exhortation for it is not every advice that useth to succeed nor any manner of doing it that will serve the turn Observe therefore these Rules 1. Set upon the work sincerely and with right intentions Let thy Ends be the Glory of God in the parties Salvation Do it not to get a name or esteem to thy self or to bring men to depend upon thee or to get thee followers Do not as many carnal Parents and Masters will do viz. rebuke their Children and Servants for those sins that displease them and are against their profit or their humors as disobedience unthriftiness unmannerliness c. and labour much to reform them in these but never seek in the right way that God hath appointed to save their Souls But be sure thy main end be to recover them from misery and bring them into the way of eternal Rest. SECT V. 2. DO it Speedily As you would not have them Delay their returning so do not you Delay to seek their return You are purposing long to speak to such an Ignorant neighbor and to deal with such a scandalous sinner and yet you have never done it Alas he runs on the score all this while he goes deeper in debt wrath is heaping up Sin taketh rooting Custom doth more fasten him Engagements to sin grow stronger and more numerous Conscience grows seared the heart grows hardened while you delay the Devil rules and rejoyceth Christ is shut out the Spirit is repulsed God is dayly dishonored his Law is violated he is without a Servant and that service from him which he should have the Soul continueth in a doleful state time runs on the day of visitation hasteth away death and judgment are even at the door and what if the man dye and miss of Heaven while you are purposing to teach him and help him to it What if he drop into hell while you are purposing to prevent
them begin to look about them Let them know that thou speak not to them of indifferent things not about childrens games or worldlings vanities or matters of a few days or years continuance nor yet about matters of uncertainty which perhaps may never come to pass But it is about the saving or damning of their Souls and bodies and whether they shall be Blessed with Christ or tormented with Devils and that for ever and ever without any change It is how to stand before God in Judgment and what answer to give and how they are like to speed And this Judgment and eternal state they shall very shortly see they are almost at it yet a few more nights and days and they shall presently be at that last day a few more breathes they have to breathe and they shall breathe out their last and then as certainly shall they see that mighty change as the Heaven is over their heads and the earth under their feet Oh labour to make men know that it is mad jesting about Salvation or Damnation and that Heaven and Hell be not matters to be playd with or passed over with a few careless thoughts Is it most certain that one of these days thou shalt be either in everlasting unchangeable Joy or Torments and doth it not awake thee Is there so few that find the way of life so many that go the way of death so hard to escape so easie to miscarry and that while we fear nothing but think all is well and yet do you fit still and trifle Why what do you mean what do you think on The world is passing away its pleasures are fading its honours are leaving you its profits will prove unprofitable to you Heaven or Hell are a little before you God is Just and Jealous his Threatenings are true the great day of his Judgment will be terrible your time runs on your lives are uncertain you are far behind hand you have loitered long your case is dangerous your Souls are far gone in sin you are strange to God you are hardened in evil customs you have no assurance of pardon to shew if you dye to morrow how unready are you and with what terror will your Souls go out of your bodies And do you yet loiter for all this Why consider with your selves God standeth all this while waiting your leasure his patience beareth his Justice forbeareth his Mercy intreateth you Christ standeth offering you his blood and merits you may have him freely and life with him the Spirit is perswading you Conscience is accusing and urging you Ministers are praying for you and calling upon you Satan stands waiting when Justice will cut off your lives that he may have you This is your time Now or Never What! had you rather lose Heaven then your profits or pleasures had you rather burn in Hell then repent on Earth had you rather howl and roar there then pray day and night for mercy here or to have Devils your Tormentors then to have Christ your Governor Will you renounce your part in God and Glory rather then renounce your cursed sins Do you think a holy life too much for Heaven or too dear a course to prevent an endless misery Oh friends What do you think of these things God hath made you men and endued you with Reason do not renounce your Reason where you should chiefly use it In this manner you must deal roundly and seriously with men Alas it is not a few dull words between Jest and earnest between sleep and waking as it were that will waken an ignorant dead-hearted sinner When a dull hearer and a dull speaker meet together a dead heart and a dead exhortation it is far unlike to have a lively effect If a man fall down in a Swoun you will not stand trifling with him but lay hands on him presently and snatch him up and rub him and call loud to him If a house be on fire you will not in a cold affected strain go tell your neighbor of it nor go make an oration of the nature and danger of fire but you will run out and cry Fire Fire Matters of moment must be seriously dealt with To tell a man of his sins so softly as Eli did his sons or reprove him so gently as Jehosaphat did Ahab Let not the King say so doth usually as much harm as good I am perswaded the very manner of some mens reproof and exhortations hath hardened many a sinner in the way of destruction To tell them of Sin or of Heaven or Hell in a dull easie careless language doth make men think you are not in good sadness nor do mean as you speak but either you scarce think your selves such things are true or else you take them for small indifferent matters or else sure you would never speak of them in such a slight indifferent manner Oh Sirs deal with Sin as Sin and speak of Heaven and Hell as they are and not as if you were in Jest. I confess I have failed much in this my self the Lord lay it not to my charge Loathness to displease men makes us undo them SECT IX 6. YEt lest you run into extreams I advise you to do it with Prudence and discretion Be as serious as you can but yet with Wisdom And especially you must be wise in these things following 1. In choosing the fittest season for your Exhortation not to deal with men when they are in passion or drunk or in publique where they will take it for a disgrace Mâ—n should observe when sinners are fittest to hear instructions Physick must not be given at all times but in season Opportunity advantageth every work It is an excellent example that Paul giveth us Gal. 2. â— He communicated the Gospel to them yet privately to them of reputation lest he should run in vain Some men would take this to be a sinful complying with their Corruption to yield so far to their pride and bashfulness as to teach them only in private because they would be ashamed to own the Truth in Publique But PAVL knew how great a hinderance mens reputation is to their entertaining of the Truth and that the remedy must not only be fitted to the disease but also to the strength of the Patient and that in so doing the Physician is not guilty of favoring the disease but is praise-worthy for taking the right way to cure and that learners and young-beginners must not be dealt with as open professors Moreover means will work easily if you take the opportunity when the Earth is soft the Plow will enter Take a man when he is under affliction or in the house of mourning or newly stirred by some moving Sermon and then set it home and you may do him good Christian Faithfulness doth require us not onely to do good when it falls in our way but to watch for opportunities of doing good 2 Be wise also in suiting your Exhortation to the quality and
of war and the unpleasing life of a Souldier and after so many yeers groaning under the Churches unreformedness and the great fears that lay upon us and after so many longings and prayers for these days Have I not thought of them with too much content and been ready to say Soul take thy rest Have not I comforted my self more in the fore-thoughts of enjoying these then of coming to Heaven and enjoying God What wonder then if God cut me off when I am just sitting down in this supposed Rest and hath not the like been your condition Many of you have been Souldiers driven from house and home endured a life of trouble and blood been deprived of Ministry and Means longing to see the Churches setling Did you not reckon up all the Comforts you should have at your return and glad your hearts with such thoughts more then with the thoughts of your coming to Heaven Why what wonder if God now somewhat cross you and turn some of your joy into sadness Many a servant of God hath been destroyed from the Earth by being overvalued and overloved I pray God you may take warning for the time to come that you rob not your selves of all your mercies I am perswaded our discontents and murmurings with an unpleasing condition and our covetous desires after more are not so provoking to God nor so destructive to the sinner as our too sweet enjoying and Rest of Spirit in a pleasing State If God have crossed any of you in Wife Children Goods Friends c. either by taking them from you or the comfort of them or the benefit and blessing Try whether this above all other be not the cause for wheresoever your desires stop and you say Now I am well that condition you make your god and engage the jealousie of God against it Whether you be friends to God or enemies you can never expect that God should wink at such Idolatrie or suffer you quietlie to enjoy your Idols SECT V. 4. COnsider if God should suffer thee thus to take up thy Rest here it were one of the forest plagues and greatest curses that could possibly befall thee It were better for thee if thou never hadst a day of ease or content in the world for then weariness might make thee seek after the true Rest But if he should suffer thee to sit down and rest here where were thy rest when this deceives thee A restless wretch thou wouldst be through all eternitie To have their portion in this life and their good things on the Earth is the lot of the most miserable perishing sinners And doth it become Christians then to expect so much here Our Rest is our Heaven and where we take our Rest there we make our Heaven And wouldst thou have but such a Heaven as this Certainly as Sauls Messengers found but Michols man of Straw when they expected David So wilt thou finde but â— Rest of Straw of Wind of Vanitie when thou most needest Rest. It will be but as a handful of water to a man that 's drowning which will help to destroy but not to save him But that is the next SECT VI. 5. COnsider thou seekest Rest where it is not to be found and so wilt lose all thy labor and if thou proceed thy souls eternal Rest too I think I shall easily evince this by these clear demonstrations following First Our Rest is onely in the full obtaining of our ultimate end But that is not to be expected in this life therefore neither is rest to be here expected Is God to be enjoyed in the best Reformed Church in the purest and powerfullest Ordinances here as he is in Heaven I know you will all confess he is not How little of God not onely the multitude of the blinde world but sometimes the Saints themselves do enjoy even under the most excellent Means let their own frequent complainings testifie And how poor comforters are the best Ordinances and Enjoyments without God the truly Spiritual Christian knows Will a stone rest in the Air in the midst of its fall before it comes to the Earth No because its center is its end Should a Traveller take up his rest in the way No because his home is his journeys end VVhen you have all that Creatures and Means can afford have you that you sought for Have you that you beleeved pray suffer for I think you dare not say so VVhy then do we once dream of resting here VVe are like little Children strayed from home and God is now fetching us home and we are ready to turn into any house stay and play with every thing in our way and sit down on every green bank and much ado there is to get us home Secondly As we have not yet obtained our end so are we in the midst of labors and dangers and is there any resting here VVhat painful work doth lie upon our hands Look to our Brethren to godly to ungodly to the Church to our souls to God and what a deal of work in respect of each of these doth lie before us and can we rest in the midst of all our labors Indeed we may take some refreshing and ease our selves sometimes in our troubles if you will call that Rest But that 's not the setling Rest we now are speaking of we may rest on Earth as the Ark is said to have rested in the midst of Jordan Josh. 3.13 A short and small Rest no question or as the Angels of Heaven are desired to turn in and rest them on Earth Gen. 18.4 They would have been loath to have taken up their dwelling there Should Israel have setled his Rest in the VVilderness among Serpents and enemies and weariness and famine Should Noah have made the Ark his home and have been loth to come forth when the waters were faln Should the Marriner chuse his dwelling on the Sea and settle his rest in the midst of Rocks and Sands and raging Tempests though he may adventure through all these for a Commodity of worth yet I think he takes it not for his rest Should a Souldier rest in the midst of fight when he is in the very thickest of his enemies and the instruments of death compass him about I think he cares not how soon the battle is over And though he may adventure upon war for the obtaining of peace yet I hope he is not so mad as to take that instead of Peace And are not Christians such Travellers such Marriners such Souldiers Have we not fears within and troubles without are we not in the thickest of continual dangers we cannot eat drink sleep labor pray hear confer c. but in the midst of snares and perils and shall we sit down and rest here O Christian follow thy work look to thy dangers hold on to the end win the field and come off the ground before thou think of a setling rest I read indeed that Peter on the mount when
certainly at least immediatly after yet do they labor with patience and rest themselves on these Expectations Or if God do take away both present injoyments and all hopes of ever recovering them how do we search about from creature to creature to finde out something to supply the room and to settle upon in stead thereof Yea if we can finde no supply but are sure we shall live in poverty in sickness in disgrace while we are on earth yet will we rather settle in this misery and make a Rest of a wretched Being then we will leave all and come to God A man would think that a multitude of poor people who beg their bread or can scarce with their hardest labor have sustenance for their lives should easily be driven from Resting here and willingly look to heaven for Rest and the sick who have not a day of ease nor any hope of recovery leâ—t them But O the cursed aversness of these souls from God We will rather account our misery our happiness yea that which we daily groan under as intolerable then we will take up our happiness in God If any place in hell were tolerable the soul would rather take up its Rest there then come to God Yea when he is bringing us over to him and hath convinced us of the worth of his wayes and service the last deceit of all is here we will rather settle upon those wayes that lead to him and those ordinances which speak of him and those gifts which flow from him then we will come clean over to himself Christian marvel not that I speak so much of Resting in these Beware least it should prove thy own case I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of Riches and Honor and carnal pleasure that thou canst more easily disclaim these and it s well if it be so but for thy more spiritual mercies in thy way of profession thou lookest on these with less suspicion and thinkest they are so neer to God that thou canst not delight in them too much especially seeing most of the world despise them or delight in them too little But do not the encrease of these mercies dull thy longings after heaven If all were according to thy desire in the Church wouldst thou not sit down and say I am well Soul take thy Rest and think it a judgment to be removed to heaven Surely if thy delight in these excel not thy delight in God or if thou wouldst gladly leave the most happy condition on earth to be with God then art thou a rare man a Christian indeed Many a one of us were more willing to go to heaven in the former dayes of persecution when we had no hopes of seeing the Church reformed and the Kingdom delivered But now we are in hopes to have all things almost as we desire the case is altered and we begin to look at heaven as strangely and sadly as if it would be to our loss to be removed to it Is this the right use of Reformation Or is this the way to have it continued or perfected should our deliverances draw our hearts from God O how much better were it in every trouble to fetch our chief arguments of comfort from the place where our chiefest Rest remains and when others comfort the poor with hopes of wealth or the sick with hopes of health and life let us comfort our selves with the hopes of heaven So far rejoyce in the creature as it comes from God or leads to him or brings thee some report of his love So far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances as God doth accompany them with quickning or comfort or gives in himself unto thy soul by them Still remembring when thou hast even what thou dost desire yet this is not Heaven yet these are but the first fruits Is it not enough that God alloweth us all the comforts of travellers and accordingly to rejoyce in all his mercies but we must set up our staff as if we were at home While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord and while we absent from him we are absent from our Rest. If God were as willing to be absent from us as we from him and if he were as loth to be our Rest as we are loth to Rest in him we should be left to an Eternal Restless seperation In a word as you are sensible of the sinfulness of your earthly discontents so be you also of your irregular contents and pray God to pardon them much more And above all the plagues and judgments of God on this side hell see that you watch and pray against this Of settling any where short of Heaven or reposing your souls to Rest on any thing below God Or else when the bough which you tread on breaks and the things which you Rest upon deceive you you will perceive your labor all lost and your sweetest contents to be preparatives to your wâ— and your highest hopes will make you ashamed Try if you can perswade Satan to leaâ—e tempting and the world to cease both troubling and seducing and sin to cease inhabiting and acting if you can bring the Glory of God from above or remove the Court from Heaven to earth and secure the continuance of this through Eternity then settle your selves below and say Soul take thy rest here But till then admit not such a thought CHAP. II. USE VII Reproving our unwillingness to Dye SECT I. IS there a Rest remaining for the people of God Why are we then so loth to dye and to depart from hence that we may possesse this Rest If I may judg of others hearts by my own we are exceeding guilty in this point We linger as Lot in Sodome till God being merciful to us doth pluck us away against our wills How rare is it to meet with a Christian though of strongest parts and longest profession that can dye with an unfeigned willingness Especially if worldly calamity constrain them not to be willing Indeed we sometime set a good face on it and pretend a willingness when we see there is no remedy and that our unwillingness is only a disgrace to us but will not help to prolong our lives But if God had enacted such a law for the continuance of our lives on earth as is enacted for the continuance of the Parliament that we should not be dissolved till our own pleasure and that no man should dye till he were truly willing I fear Heaven might be empty for the most of us and if our worldly prosperity did not fade our lives on earth would be very long if not eternal We pretend desires of being better preâ—aâ—eâ— and of doing God some greater service and to that end we beg on yeer more and another and another but still our promised preparation and service is as far to seek as ever before and we remain as unwilling to dye as we were when we begged our first Râ—pâ—â—vall
hath made this reconciliation Surely not the great Reconciler He hath told us in the world we shall have trouble and in him onely we shall have peace VVe may reconcile our selves to the world at our peril but it will never reconcile it self to us O foolish unworthy soul who hadst rather dwell in this land of darkness and rather wander in this barren wilderness then be at rest with Jesus Christ who hadst rather stay among the VVolves and daily suffer the Scorpions stings then to praise the Lord with the Hosts of Heaven If thou didst well know what Heaven is and what Earth is it would not be so SECT VI. 5. THis unwillingness to dye doth actually impeach us of high Treason against the Lord Is it not a chusing of Earth before him and taking these present things for our happiness and consequently making them our very God If we did indeed make God our God that is our End our Rest our Portion our Treasure how is it possible but we should desire to enjoy him It behoves us the rather to be fearful of this it being utterly inconsistent with saving Grace to value any thing before God or to make the Creature our highest End Many other sins foul and great may possibly yet consist with sincerity but so I am certain cannot that But concerning this I have spoke before SECT VII 6. ANd all these defects being thus discovered what a deal of dissembling doth it more over shew We take on us to believe undoubtedly the exceeding eternal weight of Glory We call God our chiefest Good and say we love Him above all and for all this we fly from Him as if it were from Hell it self would you have any man believe you when you call the Lord your onely Hope and speak of Christ as All in All and talk of the Joy that is in Presence and yet would endure the hardest life rather then dye and come unto him What self-contradiction is this to talk so hardly of the world and flesh to groan and complain of sin and suffering and yet fear no day more then that which we expect should bring our finall freedom what shameless gross dissembling is this to spend so many hours and dayes in hearing Sermons reading Books conferring with others and all to learn the way to a place which we are loth to come to To take on us all our life-time to walk towards Heaven to run to strive to fight for Heaven which we are loth to come to What apparent palpable hypocrysie is this to lye upon our knees in publike and private and spend one hour after another in prayer for that which we would not have If one should over-hear thee in thy daily devotions crying out Lord deliver me from this body of death from this sin this sickness this poverty these cares and feares how long Lord shall I suffer these and withall should hear thee praying against death can he believe thy tongue agrees with thy heart except thou have so far lost thy reason as to expect all this here or except the Papists Doctrine were true that we are able to fulfil the Law of God or our late Perfectionists are truly enlightned who think they can live and not sin but if thou know these to be undoubtedly false how canst thou deny thy gross dissembling SECT VIII 7. COnsider how do we wrong the Lord and his Promises and disgrace his ways in the eyes of the world As if we would actually perswade them to question whether God be true of his Word or no whether there be any such glory as Scripture mentions when they see those who have professed to live by Faith and have boasted of their hopes in another world and perswaded others to let go all for these hopes and spoken disgracefully of all things below in comparison of these unexpressable things above I say when they see these very men so loth to leave their hold of present things and to go to that glory which they talked and boasted of how doth it make the weak to stagger and confirm the world in their unbelief and sensuality and make them conclude sure if these Professors did expect so much glory and make so light of the world as they seem they would not themselves be so loth of a change O how are we ever able to repaiâ— the wrong which we do to God and poor souls by this scandal And what an honor to God what a strengthning to Believers what a conviction to Unbelievers would it be if Christians in this did answer their professions and chearfully welcome the news of Rest SECT IX 8. IT evidently discovers that we have been careless loyterers that we have spent much time to little purpose and that we have neglected and lost a great many of warnings Have we not had all our life time to prepare to die So many years to make ready for one hour and are we so unready and unwilling yet VVhat have we done why have we lived that the business of our lives is so much undone Had we any greater matters to minde Have we not foolishly wronged our souls in this would we have wished more frequent warnings How oft hath death entered the habitations of our neighbors how oft hath it knockt at our own doors we have first heard that such a one is dead and then such a one and such a one till our Towns have changed most of their Inhabitants And was not all this a sufficient warning to tell us that we were also Mortals and our own turn would shortly come Nay we have seen death raging in Towns and Fields so many hundred a day dead of the Pestilence so many thousands slam of the Sword and did we not know it would reach to us at last How many distempers have vexed our bodies frequent Languishings consuming Weaknesses wasting Feavers here pain and there trouble that we have been forced to receive the sentence of death and what were all these but so many Messengers sent from God to tell us we must shortly dye as if we had heard a lively voyce bidding us Delay no more but make you ready And are we unready and unwilling after all this O careless dead hearted Sinners unworthy neglecters of Gods Warnings faithless betrayers of our own souls All these hainous aggravations do lye upon this sin of unwillingness to dye which I have laid down to make it hateful to my own soul which is too much guilty of it as well as yours And for a further help to our prevailing against it I shall adjoyn these following Considerations SECT X. 1. COnsider not to dye were never to be happy To escape death were to miss of blessedness Except God should translate us as Henoch and Elias which he never did before or since If our hopeth in Christ were in this life onely we were then of all men most miserable The Epicure hath more pleasure to his Flesh then
he hath chosen him for his Portion his thoughts are on Eternity his desires there his dwelling there he cryes out O that I were there he takes that day for a time of imprisonment wherein he hath not taken one refreshing view of Eternity I had rather dye in this mans condition and have my soul in his souls case then in the case of him that hath the most eminent gifts and is most admired for parts and dutie whose heart is not thus taken up with God The man that Christ will finde out at the last day and condemn for want of a wedding Garment will be he that wants this frame of heart The question will not then be How much you have known or professed or talked but How much have you loved and where was your heart Why then Christians as you would have a sure testimony of the love of God and a sure proof of your title to Glory labor to get your hearts above God will acknowledg that you really love him and take you for faithful friends indeed when he sees your hearts are set upon him Get but your hearts once truly in Heaven and without all question your selves will follow If sin and Satan keep not thence your affections they will never be able to keep away your persons SECT IIII. 2. COnsider A heart in Heaven is the highest excellency of your spirits here and the noblest part of your Christian disposition As there is not only a difference between men and beasts but also among men between the Noble and the Base so there is not only a common excellency whereby a Christian differs from the world but also a peculiar nobleness of spirit whereby the more excellent differ from the rest And this lyes especially in a higher and more heavenly frame of spirit Only man of all inferior creatures is made with a face directed heaven-ward but other creatures have their faces to the earth As the Noblest of Creatures so the Noblest of Christians are they that are set most direct for Heaven As Saul is called a choice and goodly man higher by the head then all the company so is he the most choice and goodly Christian whose head and heart is thus the highest Men of noble birth and spirits do mind high and great affairs and not the smaller things of low poverty Their discourse is of the councels and matters of State of the Government of the Common-wealth and publike things and not of the Countrey-mans petty imployments O to hear such an heavenly Saint who hath fetcht a journey into heaven by faith and hath been wrapt up to God in his contemplations and is newly come down from the veiws of Christ what discoveries he will make of those Superior regions What ravishing expressions drop from his lips How high and sacred is his discourse Enough to make the ignorant world astonished and say Much study hath made them mad And enough to convince an understanding hearer that have seen the Lord and to make one say No man could speak such words as these except he had been with God this This is the noble Christian. As Bucholcers hearers concluded when he had preached his last Sermon being carried between two into the Church because of his weakness and there most admirably discoursed of the Blessedness of souls departed this life Caeteros concio naetores a Bucholcero semper omnes illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum That Bucholcer did ever excel other preachers but that day he excelled himself so may I conclude of the heavenly Christian He ever excelleth the Rest of men but when he is neerest Heaven he excelleth himself As those are the most famous mountains that are highest and those the fairest trees that are talest and those the most glorious Pyramides and buildings whose tops do reach neerest to Heaven so is he the choisest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there If a man have lived neer the King or have travelled to see the Sultan of Persia or the great Turk he will make this a matter of boasting and thinks himself one step higher then his private neighbors that live at home What shall we then judg of him that daily travels as far as Heaven and there hath seen the King of Kings That hath frequent admittance into the Divine presence and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life For my part I value this man before the ablest the richest the most learned in the world SECT V. 3. COnsider A heavenly minde is a joyful minde This is the neerest and the truest way to live a life of comfort And without this you must needs be uncomfortable Can a man be at the fire and not be warm or in the Sun-shine and not have light Can your heart be in Heaven and not have comfort The countreys of Norway Island and all the Northward are cold and frozen because they are farther from the power of the Sun But in Egypt Arabia and the Southern parts it is far otherwise where they live more neer its powerful rayes What could make such frozen uncomfortable Christians but living so far as they do from heaven And what makes some few others so warm in comforts but their living higher then others do and their frequent access so neer to God When the Sun in the Spring draws neer our part of the earth how do all things congratulate its approach The earth looks green casteth off her mourning habit the trees shoot forth the plants revive the pretty birds how sweetly sing they the face of all things smile upon us and all the creatures below reioyce Beloved friends if we would but try this life with God and would but keep these hearts above what a Spring of joy would be within us and all our graces be fresh and green How would the face of our souls be changed and all that is within us rejoyce How should we forget our winter sorrows and withdraw our souls from our sad retirements How early should we rise as those birds in the spring to sing the praise of our Great Creator O Christian get above Believe it that Region is warmer then this below Those that have been there have found it so and those that have come thence have told us so And I doubt not but that thou hast sometime tryed it thy self I dare appeal to thy own experience or to the experience of any soul that knows what the true Joys of a Christian are When is it that you have largest comforts Is it not after such an exercise as this when thou hast got up thy heart and converst with God and talkt with the inhabitants of the higher world and veiwed the mansions of the Saints and Angels and filled thy soul with the forethoughts of Glory If thou know by experience what this practice is I dare say thou knowest what spiritual Joy is David professeth that the light of Gods countenance would make his
will not let us have our wils Sirs believe it this is the great reason of our mistakes impatience and censuring of God of our sadness of spirit at sickness and at death because we gaze on the evill it self but fix not our thoughts on what 's beyond it We look only on the blood and ruine and danger in our wars but God sees these with all the benefits to Souls Bodies Church State and Posterity all with one single view We see the Ark taken by the Philistines but see not their god falling before it and themselves returning it home with gifts They that saw Christ only on the Cross or in the Grave do shake their heads and think him lost but God saw him dying buryed rising glorified and all this with one view Surely faith will imitate God in this so far as it hath the glass of a promise to help it He that sees Joseph only in the pit or in the prison will more lament his case then he that sees his dignity beyond it Could old Jacob have seen so far it might have saved him a great deal of sorrow He that sees no more then the burying of the Corn under ground or the threshing the winnowing and grinding of it will take both it and the labour for lost but he that foresees its springing and increase and its making into bread for the life of man will think otherwise This is our mistake we see God burying us under ground but we foresee not the spring when we shall all revive we feel him threshing and winnowing and grinding us but we see not when we shall be served to our Masters table If we should but clearly see Heaven as the end of all Gods dealings with us surely none of his dealings could be so grievous Think of this I intreat thee Reader If thou canst but learn this way to Heaven and get thy soul acquainted there thou needest not be unfurnished of the choisest Cordials to revive thy spirits in every affliction thou knowest where to have them when ever thou wantest thou mayst have arguments at hand to answer all that the devil or flesh can say to thy discomfort Oh if God would once raise us to this life we should finde that though heaven and sin are at a great distance yet heaven and a prison or remotest banishment heaven and the belly of a Whale in the Sea heaven and a Den of Lions a consuming sickness or invading death are at no such distance But as Abraham so far off saw Christs day and rejoyced so we in our most forlorn estate might see that day when Christ shall give us Rest and therein rejoyce I beseech thee Christian for the honor of the Gospel and for the comfort of thy soul that thou be not to learn this heavenly Art when in thy greatest extremity thou hast most need to use it I know thou expectest suffering dayes at least thou lookest to be sick and dye thou wilt then have exceeding need of consolation why whence dost thou think to draw thy comforts If thou broach every other vessel none will come its only heaven that can afford thee store the place is far off the well is deep and if then thou have not wherewith to draw nor hast got thy soul acquainted with the place thou wilt finde thy self at a fearfull loss It s not an easie nor a common thing even with the best sort of men to die with Joy As ever thou wouldst shut up thy dayes in peace and close thy dying eyes with comfort dye daily live now above be much with Christ and thy own soul and the Saints about thee shall bless the day that ever thou tookst this Councell When God shall call thee to a sick bed and a grave thou shalt perceive him saying to thee as Isa. 26.20 Come my people enter into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast It s he that with Stephen doth see heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God who will comfortably bear the storm of stones Acts 7.56 Thou knowest not yet what tryals thou mayst be called to The Clouds begin to rise again and the times to threaten us with fearfull darkness Few Ages so prosperous to the Church but that still we must be saved so as by fire 1 Cor. 3.15 and go to heaven by the old road Men that would fall if the storm should shake them do frequently meet with that which tryes them Why what wilt thou do if this should be thy case Art thou fitted to suffer imprisonment or banishment to bear the loss of goods and life How is it possible thou shouldst do this and do it cordially and chearfully except thou hast a tast of some greater good which thou lookest to gain by losing these will the Merchant throw his goods overboard till he sees he must otherwise lose his life And wilt thou cast away all thou hast before thou hast felt the sweetness of that Rest which else thou must lose by saving these Nay and it is not a speculative knowledg which thou hast got onely by Reading or Hearing of heaven which will make thee part with all to get it as a man that onely heares of the sweetness of pleasant food or reads of the melodious sounds of Musick this doth not much excite his desires but when he hath tried the one by his taste and the other by his ear then he will more lay out to get them so if thou shouldst know onely by the hearing of the ear what is the glory of the inheritance of the Saints this would not bring thee through sufferings and death but if thou take this Trying tasting course by daily exercising thy soul above then nothing will stand in thy way but thou wouldest on till thou were there though through fire and water What State more terrible then that of an Apostate when God hath told us If any man draw back his soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Because they take not their pleasure in God and fill not themselves with the delights of his wayes and of his heavenly paths which drop fatness Psal. 65.11 Therefore do they prove backsliders in heart and are filled with the bitterness of their own wayes Prov. 14.14 Nay If they should not be brought to trial and so not actually deny Christ yet they are still interpretatively such because they are such in disposition and would be such in action if they were put to it I assure thee Reader for my part I cannot see how thou wilt be able to hold out to the end if thou keep not thine eye upon the recompence of reward and use not frequently to taste this cordially or the less thy diligence is in this the more doubtful must thy perseverance needs be for the Joy of the Lord is thy strength and that Joy must he fetcht from the place of thy Joy and if
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
but make it stay to hear its sentence If once or twice or thrice will not do it nor a few days of hearing bring it to issue follow it on with unwearied diligence and give not over till the work be done and till thou canst 〈◊〉 knowingly off or on either thou art or art not a member of Christ either that thou hast or that thou hast not yet title to this Rest. Be sure thou rest not in wilful uncertainties If thou canst no◠dispatch the work well thy self get the help of those that are skilful go to thy Minister if he be a man of experience or go to some able experienced friend open thy case faithfully and wish them to deal plainly And thus continue till thou hast got assurance Not but that some doubtings may still remaine but yet thou maist have so much assurance as to master them that they may not much interrupt thy peace If men did know Heaven to be their own inheritance we should less need to perswade their thoughts unto it or to press them to set their delight in it O if men did truly know that God is their own Father and Christ their own Redeemer and Head and that those are their own Everlasting habitations and that there it is that they must abide and be happy for ever how could they chuse but be ravished with the forethoughts thereof If a Christian could but look upon Sun and Moon and Stars and reckon all his own in Christ and say These are the portion that my Husband doth bestow These are the blessings that my Lord hath procured me and things incomparably greater then these what holy raptures would his spirit feel The more do they sin against their own comforts as well as against the Grace of the Gospel who are wilful maintainers of their own doubtings and plead for their unbelief and cherish distrustful thoughts of God and scandalous injurious thoughts of their Redeemer who represent the Covenant as if it were of works and not of grace and represent Christ as an enemy rather then as a Savior as if he were glad of advantages against them and were willing that they should keep off from him and dye in their unbelief when he hath called them so oft and invited them so kindly and born the hell that they should bear Ah wretches that we are that be keeping up Jealousies of the Love of our Lord when we should be rejoycing and bathing our souls in his love That can question that love which hath been so fully evidenced and doubt still whether he that hath stooped so low and suffered so much and taken up a nature and office of purpose be yet willing to be theirs who are willing to be his As if any man could chose Christ before Christ hath chosen him or any man could desire to have Christ more then Christ desires to have him or any man were more willing to be happy then Christ is to make him happy Fie upon these injurious if not blasphemous thoughts If ever thou have harboured such thoughts in thy brest or if ever thou have uttered such words with thy tongue spit out that venome vomit out that rancor cast them from thee and take heed how thou ever entertainest them more God hath written the names of his people in heaven as you use to write your names in your own books or upon your own Goods or set your Marks on your own sheep And shall we be attempting to rase them out and to write our names on the doors of hell But blessed be our God whose foundation is sure and who keepeth us by his mighty power through Faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Well then this is my second advice to thee that thou follow on the work of self-examination till thou hast got assurance that this rest is thy own and this will draw thy heart unto it and feed thy spirits with fresh delights which else will be but tormented so much the more to think that there is such Rest for others but none for thee SECT III. 3. ANother help to sweeten thy soul with the foretasts of Rest is this Labor to apprehend how neer it is Think seriously of its speedy approach That which we think is neer at hand we are more sensible of then that which we behold at a distance When we hear of war or famin in another country it troubleth not so much or if we hear it prophesied of a long time hence so if we hear of plenty a great way off or of a golden age that shall fall out who knows when this never rejoyceth us But if Judgments or Mercies begin to draw neer then they affect us If we were sure we should see the golden Age then it would take with us When the plague is in a Town but twenty miles off we do not fear it nor much prehaps if it be but in another street but if once it come to the next door or if it seaze on one in our own family then we begin to think on it more feelingly It is so with mercies as well as Judgments VVhen they are far off we talk of them as marvells but when they draw close to us we rejoyce in them as Truths This makes men think on Heaven so insensibly because they conceit it at too great a distance They look on it as twenty or thirty or fourty yeers off and this is it that duls their sense As wicked men are fearless and senseless of judgment because the sentence is not speedily executed Eccles. 8.11 So are the godly deceived of their comforts by supposing them further off then they are This is the danger of putting the day of death far from us VVhen men will promise themselves longer time in the world then God hath promised them and judg of the length of their lives by the probabilities they gather from their Age their health their constitution and temperature this makes them look at heaven as a great way off If 〈◊〉 the rich fool in the Gospel had not expected to have lived many yeers he would sure have thought more of providing for Eternity and less of his present store and possessions And if we did not think of staying many yeers from Heaven we should think on it with far more piercing thoughts This expectation of long life doth both the wicked and the godly a great deal of wrong How much better were it to receive the sentence of death in our selves and to look on Eternity as neer at hand Surely Reader thou standest at the door and hundreds of diseases are ready waiting to open the door and let thee in Is not the thirty or fourty years of thy life that is past quickly gone Is it not a very little time when thou lookest back on it And will not all the rest be shortly so too Do not dayes and nights come very thick Dost thou not feel that building of flesh to shake and perceive thy house of
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
the dolors of a greivous wilderness Believe it Reader if thou knewest but what a cordial in thy griefs and care the serious views of glory are thou wouldst less fear these harmles troubles and more use that preserving reviving Remedy I would not have thee as Mountebanks take poyson first and then their Antidote to shew its power so to create thy affliction to try this remedy But if God reach thee forth the bitterest cup drop in but a little of the Tastes of Heaven and I warrant thee it will sufficiently sweeten it to thy spirit If the case thou art in seem never so dangerous take but a little of this Antidote of Rest and never fear the pain or danger I will give thee to confirm this but the Example of David and the Opinion of Paul and desire thee throughly to consider of both In the multitude of my thoughts within me saith David thy comforts delight my soul Psal. 94.19 As if he should say I have multitudes of sadding thoughts that crowd upon me thoughts of my sins and thoughts of my foes thoughts of my dangers and thoughts of my pains yet in the midst of all this crowd one serious thought of the comforts of thy Love and especially of the comfortable life in Glory doth so dispel the throng and scatter my cares and disperse the clouds that my troubles had raised that they do even revive and delight my soul. And Paul when he had cast up his full accounts gives thee the sum in Rom. 8 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Study these words well for every one of them is full of life If these true sayings of God were truly and deeply fixt in thy heart and if thou couldst in thy sober Mediditation but draw out the comfort of this one Scripture I dare them it would sweeten the bitterest cross and in a sort make thee forget thy trouble as Christ saith A woman forgets her travail for joy that a man is born into the world yea and make thee rejoyce in thy tribulation I will add but one Text more 2 Cor 4.16.17 For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal SECT VII 3. ANother fit Season for this heavenly duty is When the Messengers of God do summon us to die when either our gray hairs or our languishing bodies or some such like forerunners of death do tell us that our change cannot be far off when should we most frequently sweeten our souls with the believing thoughts of another life then when we finde that this is almost ended and when Flesh is raising fears and terrors Surely no men have greater need of supporting joyes then dying men and those joyes must be fetcht from our eternal joy Men that have earthly pleasures in their hands may think they are well though they taste no more but when a man is dying and parting with all other pleasures he must then fetch his pleasure from Heaven or have none when health is gone and friends lye weeping about our beds when houses and lands and goods and wealth cannot afford us the least relief but we are taking our leave of earth for ever except a hole for our bodies to rot in when we are daily expecting our final day it s now time to look to heaven and to fetch in comfort and support from thence and as heavenly delights are sweetest when they are unmixed and pure and have no earthly delights conjoyned with them so therefore the delights of dying Christians are oft-times the sweetest that ever they had Therefore have the Saints been generally observed to be then most Heavenly when they were neerest dying what a Prophetical blessing hath Jacob for his sons when he lay a dying And so Isaac what a heavenly Song what a Divine Benediction doth Moses conclude his life withal Deut. 32. 33. Nay as our Saviour increased in Wisdome and Knowledg so did he also in their blessed expressions and still the last the sweetest what a heavenly prayer what heavenly advice doth he leave his Disciples when he is about to leave them when he saw he must leave the world and go to the Father how doth he weane them from worldly expectations How doth he minde them of the Mansions in his Fathers House and remember them of his coming again to fetch them thither and open the union they shall have with him and with each other and promise them to be with him to behold his Glory There 's more worth in those four Chapters John 14.15.16.17 then in all the Books in the world beside When Blessed Paul was ready to be offered up what heavenly Exhortation doth he give the Philippians what advice to Timothy what counsel to the Elders of the Ephesian Church Acts 20. How neer was S. John to heaven in his banishment in Patmos a little before his translation to Heaven what heavenly discourse hath Luther in his last sickness How close was Calvin to his Divine studies in his very sickness that when they would have disswaded him from it He answers Vultisne me otiosum a domino apprehendi What would you have God finde me idle I have not lived idly and shall I dye idly The like may be said of our famous Reignolds When excellent Bucholcer was neer his end he wrote his Book De Consolâ—tiâ—ne Decumbentium Then it was that Tossianus wrote his Vade mecum Then Doctor Preston was upon the Attributâ—s of God And then Mr Bolton was on the Joyes of Heaven It were end less to enumerate the eminent examples of this kinde It is the general temper of the spirits of the Saints to be then most Heavenly when they are neerest to Heaven As we use to say of the old and the weak that they have one foot in the grave already so may we say of the godly when they are neer their Rest they have one foot as it were in Heaven already When should a Traveller look homewards with joy but when he is come within the sight of his home It s true the pains of our bodies and the fainting of our spirits may somewhat abate the liveliness of our joy but the measure we have will be the more pure and spiritual by how much the less it is kindled from the Flesh. O that we who are daily languishing could learn this daily heavenly conversing and could say as the Apostle in the forecited place 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18 O that every gripe that our bodies feel might make us more sensible of future ease and that every
it tends also exceedingly to quicken and raise it so that as God is the highest Object of our Thoughts so our viewing of him and our speaking to him and pleading with him doth more elevate the soul and actuate the Affections then any other part of Meditation can do Men that are careless of their carriage and speeches among children and Ideots will be sober and serious with Princes or grave men so though while we do but plead the case with our selves we are careless and unaffected yet when we turn our speech to God it may strike us with awfulness and the holiness and Majesty of him whom we speak to may cause both the matter and words to pierce the deeper Isaac went forth to pray saith the former Translation To Meditate saith the latter The Hebrew Verb saith Paraeus in loc signifieth both ad Orandum Meditandum The men of God both former and later who have left their Meditations on Record for our view have thus intermixed Soliloquy and Prayer sometime speaking to their own hearts and sometime turning their speech to God And though this may seem an indifferent thing yet I conceive it very sutable and necessary and that it is the highest step that we can advance to in the Work Object But why then is it not as good take up with Prayer alone and so save all this tedious work that you prescribe us I Answer They are several duties and therefore must be performed both Secondly We have need of one as well as the other and therefore shall wrong our selves in the neglecting of either Thirdly The mixture as in Musick doth more affect the one helps on and puts life into the other Fourthly It is not the right order to begin at the top therefore Meditation and speaking to our selves should go before Prayer or speaking to God want of this makes Prayer with most to have little more then the name of Prayer and men to speak as lightly and as stupidly to the dreadful God as if it were to one of their companions and with far less reverence and affection then they would speak to an Angel if he should appear to them yea or to a Judg or Prince if they were speaking for their lives and consequently their success and answers are often like their prayers O speaking in the God of Heaven in prayer is a weightier duty then most are aware of SECT V. THe Ancients had a Custom by Apostrophe's and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak as it were to Angels and Saints departed 〈…〉 it was used by them I take to be lawful but what they spoke in Rhetorical Figures were interpreted by the succeeding Ages to be spoken in strict propriety and Doctrinal Conclusions for praying to Saints and Angels were raised from their speeches Therefore I will omit that course which is so little necessary and so subject to scandalize the less-judicious Readers And so much for the fourth part of the Direction by what steps or Acts we must advance to the height of this Work I should clear all this by some examples but that I intend shall follow in the end CHAP. XI Some Advantages and Helps for raising and affecting the Soul by this Meditation SECT I. FIfthly The fifth part of this Directory is To shew you what advantages you should take and what helps you should use to make your Meditations of Heaven more quickening and to make you taste the sweetness that is therein For that is the main work that I drive at through all that you may not stick in a bare thinking but may have the lively seâ—â—e of all upon your hearts And this you will finde to be the most difficult part of the work and that its easier barely to think of Heaven a whole day then to be lively and affectionate in those thoughts one quarter of an hour Therefore let us yet a little further consider what may be done to make your thoughts of Heaven to be piercing affecting raising thoughts Here therefore you must understand That the meer pure work of Faith hath many disadvantages with us in comparison of the work of Sense Faith is imperfect for we are renewed but in part but Sense hath its strength according to the strength of the flesh Faith goes against a world of resistance but Sense doth not Faith is supernatural and therefore prone to declining and to languish both in the habit and exercise further then it is still renewed and excited but Sense is natural and therefore continueth while nature continueth The object of Faith is far off we must go as far as Heaven for our Joyes But the object of Sense is close at hand It is no easie matter to rejoyce at that which we never saw nor ever knew the man that did see it and this upon a meer promise which is written in the Bible and that when we have nothing else to rejoyce in but all our sensible comforts do fail us But to rejoyce in that which we see and feel in that which we have hold of and possession already this is not difficult Well then what should be done in this case Why sure it will be a point of our Spiritual Prudence and a singular help to the furthering of the work of Faith to call in our Sense to its assistance If we can make us friends of these usual enemies and make them instruments of raising us to God which are the usual means of drawing us from God I think we shall perform a very excellent work Sure it is both possible and lawful yea and necessary too to do something in this kinde for God would not have given us either our Senses themselves or their usual objects if they might not have been serviceable to his own praise and helps to raise us up to the apprehension of higher things And it is very considerable How the Holy Ghost doth condescend in the phrase of Scripture in bringing things down to the reach of Sense how he sets forth the excellencies of Spiritual things in words that are borrowed from the objects of Sense how he describeth the glory of the New Jerusalem in expressions that might take even with flesh it self As that the Streets and Buildings are pure Gold that the Gates are Pearl that a Throne doth stand in the midst of it c. Revel 21. and 22. That we shall eat and drink with Christ at his Table in his Kingdom that he will drink with us the fruit of the Vine new that we shall shine as the Sun in the Firmament of our Father These with most other descriptions of our glory are expressed as if it were to the very flesh and sense which though they are all improper and figurative yet doubtless if such expressions had not been best and to us necessary the Holy Ghost would not have so frequently used them He that will speak to mans understanding must speak in mans language and speak that which he is capable
The delight which a pair of special faithful friends do finde in loving and enjoying one another is a most pleasing sweet delight It seemed to the Philosophers to be above the delights of Natural or Matrimonial friendship and I think it seemed so to David himself so he concludes his Lamentation for him I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 Yea the soul of Jonathan did cleave to David Even Christ himself as it seemeth had some of this kinde of love for he had one Disciple whom he especially loved and who was wont to lean on his brest why think then if the delights of close and cordial friendship be so great what delight shall we have in the friendship of the most High and in our mutual amity with Jesus Christ and in the dearest love and consort with the Saints Surely this will be a closer and stricter friendship then ever was betwixt any friends on earth and these will be more lovely and desirable friends than any that ever the Sun beheld and both our affections to our Father and our Saviour but especially his affection to us will be such as here we never knew as Spirits are so far more powerful then Flesh that one Angel can destroy an Host so also are their affections more strong and powerful we shall then love a thousand times more strongly and sweetly then now we can and as all the Attributes and Works of God are incomprehensible so is the attribute and work of Love He will love us many thousand times more then we even at the perfectest are able to love him what joy then will there be in this mutuall Love SECT VII 5. COmpare also the Excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the Creation which our eyes do now behold What a deal of wisdom and power and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise Observer What a deal of the Majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabrick of the world surely his Works are great and admirable sought out of them that have pleasure therein This makes the study of natural Philosophy so pleasant because the Works of God are so excellent VVhat rare workmanship is in the body of a man yea in the body of every beast which makes the Anatomical studies so delightful what excellency in every Plant we see in the beauty of Flowers in the nature diversity and use of Herbs in Fruits in Roots in Minerals and what not But especially if we look to the greater works if we consider the whole body of this earth and its creatures and inhabitants the Ocean of waters with its motions and dimensions the variation of the Seasons and of the face of the earth the entercourse of Spring and Fall of Summer and Winter what wonderful excellency do these contain Why think then in thy Meditations if these things which are but servants to sinful man are yet so full of mysterious worth what then is that place where God himself doth dwell and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ VVhen thou walkest forth in the Evening look upon the Stars how they glissen and in what numbers they bespangle the Firmament If in the day time look up to the glorious Sun view the wide expanded encompassing heavens and say to thy self what glory is in the least of yonder Stars what a vast what a bright resplendent body hath yonder Moon and every Planet O what an unconceiveable glory hath the Sun Why all this is nothing to the glory of Heaven yonder Sun must there be laid aside as useless for it would not be seen for the brightness of God I shall live above all yonder glory yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Fathers House I shall be as glorious as that Sun my self yonder is but as the wall of the Pallace-yard as the Poet â—aith If in Heavens outward Court such beauty be What is the glory which the Saints do see So think of the rest of the Creatures This whole earth is but my Fathers footstool this Thunder is nothing to his dreadful voice these winds are nothing to the breath of his mouth So much wisdom and power as appeareth in all these so much and far much more greatness and goodness and loving delights shall I enjoy in the actual fruition of God Surely if the Rain which rains and the Sun which shines on the just and unjust be so wonderful the Sun then which must shine on none but Saints and Angels must needs be wonderful and ravishing in glory SECT VIII 6. COmpare the things which thou shalt enjoy above with the excellency of those admirable works of Providence which God doth exercise in the Church and in the World What glorious things hath the Lord wrought and yet we shall see more glorious then these Would it not be an astonishing sight to see the Sea stand as a Wall on the right hand and on the left and the dry Land appear in the midst and the people of Israel pass safely through and Pharoah and his people swallowed up what if we should see but such a sight now If we had seen the ten Plagues of Egypt or had seen the Rock to gush forth streams or had seen Manna or Quails rained down from Heaven or had seen the Earth open and swallow up the wicked or had seen their Armies slain with Hailstones with an Angel or by one another Would not all these have been wondrous glorious sights But we shall see far greater things then these And as our sights shall be more wonderful so also they shall be more sweet There shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled we shall not then cry out as David Who can stand before this Holy Lord God Would it not have been an astonishing sight to have seen the Sun stand still in the Firmament or to have seen Ahaz Dyal go ten degrees backward Why we shall see when there shall be no Sun to shine at all we shall behold for ever a Sun of more incomparable brightness Were it not a brave life if we might still live among wonders and miracles and all for us and not against us if we could have drought or rain at our prayers as Elias or if we could call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies or raise the dead to life as Elisha or cure the diseased and speak strange languages as the Apostles Alas these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God! and all those wonders of Goodness and Love We shall possess that Pearl and Power it self through whose vertue all these works were done we shall our selves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies then any of these Jonas was raised but from a three days burial from the belly of the Whale in the deep Ocean but
is in the Face of God If the very feet of the Messengers of these tidings of Peace be beautiful how beautiful is the face of the Prince of Peace If the word in the mouth of a fellow servant be so pleasant what is the living Word himself If this Treasure be so pretious in earthen Vessels what is that Treasure laid up in Heaven Think with thy self If I had heard but such a Divine Prophet as Isaiah or such a perswading moving Prophet as Jeremy or such a worker of Miracles as Elijah or Elisha how delightful a hearing would this have been If I had heard but Peter or John or Paul I should rejoyce in it as long as I lived but what would I give that I had heard one Sermon from the mouth of Christ himself sure I should have felt the comfort of it in my very foul why but alas all this is nothing to what we shall have above O blessed are the eyes that see what there is seen and the ears that hear that things that there are heard There shall I hear Elias Isaiah Daniel Peter John not preaching to an obstinate people in imprisonment in persecution and reproach but triumphing in the praises of him that hath advanced them Austin was wont to wish these three wishes first That he might have seen Christ in the flesh secondly That he might have heard Paul Preach thirdly That he might have seen Rome in its glory Alas these are small matters all to that which Austin now beholds there we see not Christ in the form of a servant but Christ in his Kingdom in Majesty and Glory not Paul Preach in weakness and contempt but Paul with millions more rejoycing and triumphing not pesecuting Rome in a fading glory but Jerusalem which is above in perfect and lasting glory So also think what a joy it is to have access and acceptance in Prayer that when any thing aileth me I may go to God and open my case and unbosom my soul to him as to my most faithful friend especially knowing his sufficiency and willingness to relieve me O but it will be a more surpassing unspeakable joy when I shal receive all blessings without asking them and when all my necessities and miseries are removed and when God himself will be the portion and inheritance of my soul. What consolation also have we oft received in the Supper of the Lord what a priviledge is it to be admitted to sit at his Table to have his Covenant sealed to me by the outward Ordinance and his special Love sealed by his Spirit to my heart Why but all the life and comfort of these is their declaring and assuring me of the comforts hereafter their use is but darkly to signifie and seal those higher mercies when I shall indeed drink with him the fruit of the vine renewed it will then be a pleasant feast indeed O the difference between the last Supper of Christ on earth and the marriage Supper of the Lamb at the great day Here he is in an upper roome accompanied with twelve poor selected men feeding on no curious dainties but a Paschal Lamb with sowâ—e Herbs and a Judas at his table ready to betray him But then his room will be the Glorious Heavens his attendants all the host of Angels and Saints no Judas nor unfurnished guest comes there but the humble believers must sit down by him and the Feast will be their mutual Loving and Rejoycing Yet further think with thy self thus The communion of the Saints on earth is a most delectable mercy What a pleasure is it to live with understanding and heavenly Christians â— Even David saith they were all his delight O then what a delightful society shall I have above The Communion of Saints is there somewhat worth where their understandings are fully cleared and their affections so highly advanced If I had seen but Job in his sores upon the Dunghil it would have been an excellent sight to see such a mirror of patience what will it be then to see him in glory praising that power which did uphold and deliver him If I had heard but Paul and Sylas singing in the stocks it would have been a delightful hearing what will it be then to hear them sing praises in heaven If I had heard David sing praises on his Lute and Harp it would have been a pleasing Meloâ—dy and that which drove the evil spirit from Saul would sure have driven away the dulness and sadness of my spirit and have been to me as the Musick was to Elisha that the Spirit of Christ in joy would have come upon me why I shall shortly hear that sweet Singer in the heavenly Chore advancing the King of Saints and will not that be a far more melodious hearing If I had spoke with Paul when he was new come down from the third Heavens and he might have revealed to me the things which he had seen O what would I give for an hours such conference how far would I go to hear such an Narration why I must shortly see those very things my self yea and far more then Paul was then capable of seeing and yet shall I see no more then I shall possess If I had spoke but one hour with Lazarus when he was risen from the dead heard him describe the things which he had seen in another world if God would permit and enable him thereto what a joyful discourse would that have been How many thousand books may I read before I could know so much as he could have told me in that hour If God would have suffered him to tell what he had seen the Jews would have more thronged to hear him then they did to see him O but this would have been nothing to the sight it self and to the fruition of all that which Lazaâ—us saw Once again think with thy self what a soul raising imployment is the praising of God especially in consort with his affectionate Saints What if I had been in the place of those Shepherds and seen the Angels and heard the multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men Luke 2.13 14. what a glorious sight and hearing would this have been but I shall see and hear more glorious things then this If I had stood by Christ when he was thanking his Father Joh 17. I should have thought mine ears even blessed with his voyce how much more when I shall hear him pronounce me blessed If there were such great joy at the bringing back of the Ark 2 Sam. 6.15 and such great joy at the reedifying the material Temple Nehe. 12.43 what joy will there be in the New Jerusalem why If I could but see the Church here in Unity and Prosperity and the undoubted Order and Discipline of Christ established and his Ordinances purely and powerfully administred what an unspeakable joy to my soul it would
death the next day that they might not change their resolution lest he should miss of his expectation What thanks then shall I give my Lord for removing me from this loathsome prison to his Glory and how loth should I be to be deprived thereof When Luther thought he should dye of an Apoplexy it comforted him and made him more willing because the good Duke of Saxony and before him the Apostle John had died of that disease how much more should I be willing to pass the way that Christ hath passed and come to the glory where Christ is gone If Luther could thereupon say Feri Domine feri clementer ipse paratus sum quia verbo tuo a peccatis absolutus Strike Lord strike gently I am ready because by thy Word I am absolved from my sins how much more cheerfully should I cry come Lord and advance me to this glory and repose my weary soul in Rest SECT XII 10. COmpare also the Glory of the Heavenly Kingdom with the glory of the imperfect Church on earth and with the Glory of Christ in his state of Humiliation And you may easily conclude If Christ under his fathers wrath and Christ standing in the room of sinners were so wonderful in excellencies what then is Christ at the Fathers right hand And if the Church under her sins and enemies have so much beauty something it will have at the marriage of the Lamb. How wonderful was the Son of God in the forme of a servant When he is born the Heavens must proclaime him by miracles A new Star must appear in the firmament and fetch men from remote parts of the world to worship him in a manger The Angels and Heavenly host must declare his Nativity and solemnize it with praising and glorifying God When he is but a childe he must dispute with the Doctors and confute them VVhen he sets upon his office his whole life is a wonder Water turned into wine thousands fed with five loaves and two fishes multitudes following him to see his miracles The lepers cleansed the sick healed the lame restored the blinde receive their sight the dead raised if we had seen all this should we not have thought it wonderful The most desperate diseases cured with a touch with a word speaking the blinde eyes with a little clay and spittle the Devil departing by Legions at his command the windes and the seas obeying his VVord are not all these wonderful Think then How wonderful is his Celestial Glory If there be such cutting down of boughs and spreading of Garments and crying Hosanna to one that comes into Jerusalem riding on an Asse what will there be when he comes with his Angels in his Glory If they that heard him preach the Gospel of the Kingdom have their hearts turned within them that they returne and say Never man spake like this Man Then sure they that behold his Majesty in his Kingdom will say There was never glory like this Glory If when his enemies come to apprehend him the word of his mouth doth cast them all to the ground if when he is dying the earth must tremble the vail of the Temple rent the sun in the firmament must hide its face and deny its light to the sinful world and the dead bodies of the Saints arise and the standers by be forced to acknowledge Verely this was the Son of God O then what a day will it be when he will once more shake not the Earth only but the Heavens also and remove the things that are shaken when this Sun shall be taken out of the firmament and be everlastingly darkened with the brightness of his Glory when the dead must all arise and stand before him and all shall acknowledge him to be the Son of God and every tongue confess him to be Lord and King If when he riseth again the Grave and Death have lost their power and the Angels of Heaven must roll away the stone and astonish the watchmen till they are as dead men and send the tidings to his dejected Disciples If the bolted doors cannot keep him forth If the sea be as firme ground for him to walk on If he can asend to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples and send the Angels to forbid them gazing after him O what Power and Dominion and Glory then is he now possessed of and must we for ever possess with him Yet think further Are his very servants enabled to do such miracles when he is gone from them Can a few poor fishermen and tent-makers and the like Mechanicks cure the lame and blinde and sick open their prisons destroy the disobedient raise the dead and astonish their adversaries O then what a world will that be where every one can do greater works then these and shall be highlier honoured then by the doing of wonders It were much to have the Devils subject to us but more to have our names written in the book of Life If the very preaching of the gospel be accompanied with such power that it will pierce the heart and discover its secrets bring down the proud and make the stony sinner tremble If it can make men burne their books sel their lands bring in the price and lay it down at the Preachers feet If it can make the spirits of Princes stoop and the Kings of the Earth resigne their Crownes and do their homage to Jesus Christ If it can subdue Kingdome and convert thousands and turn the world thus upside down If the very mention of the Judgment and Life to come can make the Judge on the bench to tremble when the prisoner at the bar doth preach this Doctrine O what then is the Glory of the Kingdom it self What an absolute Dominion hath Christ and his Saints And if they have this Power and Honour in the day of their abasement and in the time appointed for their suffering and disgrace what then will they have in their full advancement SECT XIII 11. COmpare thy mercies thou shalt have above with the mercies which Christ hath here bestowed on thy soul and the glorious change which thou shalt have at last with the gracious change which the Spirit hath wrought on thy heart Compare the comforts of thy glorification with the comforts of thy sanctification There is not the smallest grace in thee which is genuine and sincere but is of greater worth then the riches of the Indies not a hearty desire and groan after Christ but is more to be valued then the Kingdoms of the VVorld A renewed nature is the very Image of God Scripture calleth it by the name of Christ dwelling in us and the Spirit of God abiding in us It is as a beam from the face of God himself it is the Seed of God remaining in us it is the onely inherent beauty of the rational soul it innobleth man above all nobility it fitteth him to understand his Makers pleasure to do his VVill and to receive his
the world to a thirster after God from a fearful coward to a resolved Christian from an unfruitful sadness to a joyful life In a word What will not be done one day do it the next till thou have pleaded thy heart from Earth to Heaven from conversing below to a walking with God and till thou canst lay thy heart to rest as in the bosom of Christ in this Meditation of thy full and Everlasting Rest. And this is the sum of these precedent Directions CHAP. XIV An Example of this Heavenly Contemplation for the help of the unskilful There remaineth a Rest to the people of God SECT II. REst How sweet a word is this to mine ears Methinks the sound doth turn to substance and having entred at the ear doth possess my brain and thence descendeth down to my very heart methinks I feel it stir and work and that through all my parts and powers but with a various work upon my various parts to my wearied senses and languid spirits it seems a quieting powerful Opiate to my dulled powers it is spirit and life to my dark eyes it is both eye-salve and a prospective to my taste it is sweetness to mine ears it is melody to my hands and feet it's strength and nimbleness Methinks I feel it digest as it proceeds and increase my native heat and moisture and lying as a reviving cordial at my heart from thence doth send forth lively spirits which beat through all the pulses of my soul. Rest Not as the stone that rests on the earth nor as these clods of flesh shall rest in the grave so our beast must rest as well as we nor is it the â—atisfying of our fleshly lusts nor such a rest as the carnal world desireth no no we have another kinde of rest then these Rest we shall from all our labors which were but the way and means to Rest but yet that is the smallest part O blessed Rest where we shall never rest day or night crying Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaths when we shall rest from sin but not from worship from suffering and sorrow but not from solace O blessed day when I shall rest with God when I shall rest in the Arms and Bosome of my Lord when I shall reâ—t in Knowing Loving Reâ—oycing and Praising when my perfect soul and body together shall in these perfect actings perfectly enjoy the most perfect God! when God also who is Love it self shall perfectly love me yea and rest in his Love to me as I shall rest in my love to him and rejoyce over me with joy and singing as I shall rejoyce in him How neer is that most blessed joyful day it comes apace even he that comes will come and will not tarry Though my Lord do seem to delay his coming yet a little while and he will be here What is a few hundred years when they are over How surely will his sign appear and how suddenly will he seize upon the careless world Even as the lightning that shines from East to West in a moment He who is gone hence will even so return Methinks I even hear the voyce of his foregoers Methinks I see him coming in the clouds with the attendants of his Angels in Majesty and in Glory O poor secure sinners what will you now do where will you hide your selves or what shall cover you mountains are gone the earth and heavens that were are passed away the devouring fire hath consumed all except your selves who must be the fuel for ever O that you could consume as soon as the earth and melt away as did the heavens Ah these wishes are now but vain the Lamb himself would have been your friend he would have loved you and ruled you and now have saved you but you would not then and now too late Never cry Lord Lord too late too late man why dost thou look about can any save thee whether dost thou run can any hide thee O wretch that hast brought thy self to this Now blessed Saints that have Believed and Obeyed This is the end of Faith and Patience This is it for which you prayed and waited Do you now repent your sufferings and sorrows your self-denying and holy walking Are your tears of Repentance now bitter or sweet O see how the Judg doth smile upon you there 's love in his looks The titles of Redeemer Husband Head are written in his amiable shining face Heark doth he not call you He bids you stand here on his right hand fear not for there he sets his Sheep O joyful Sentence pronounced by that blessed mouth Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world see how your Saviour takes you by the hand go along you must the door is open the Kingdom 's his and therefore yours there 's your place before his Throne The Father receiveth you as the Spouse of his Son he bids you welcome to the Crown of Glory never so unworthy crowned you must be this was the project of free redeeming Grace and this was the purpose of eternal Love O blessed Grace O blessed Love O the frame that my soul will then be in O how Love and Joy will stir but I cannot express it I cannot conceive it This is that Joy which was procured by Sorrow this is that Crown which was procured by the Cross my Lord did weep that now my tears might be wip't away he did bleed that I might now rejoyce he was forsaken that I might not now be forsaken he did then dye that I might now live This weeping wounded Lord shall I behold this bleeding Saviour shall I see and live in him that dyed for me O free Mercy that can exalt so vile a wretch free to me though dear to Christ Free Grace that hath chosen me when thousands were forsaken when my companions in sin must burn in hell and I must here rejoyce in Rest here must I live with all these Saints O comfortable meeting of my old acquaintance with whom I prayed and wept and suffered with whom I spoke of this day and place I see the Grave could not contain you the sea and earth must give up their dead the same love hath redeemed and saved you also This is not like our Cottages of Clay nor like our Prisons or earthly Dwellings This voyce of Joy is not like our old complainings our groans our sighes our impatient moans nor this melodious praise like our scorns and revilings nor like the oathes and curses which we heard on earth this body is not like the body we had nor this soul like the soul we had nor this life like the life that then we lived we have changed our place we have changed our state our cloathes our thoughts our looks our Language we have changed our company for the greater part and the rest of our company is changed it self Before a Saint was weak and despised so full of
pride and peevishness and other sins that we could scarce oft-times discern their graces But now how glorious a thing is a Saint where is now their body of sin which wearyed themselves and those about them Where are now our different Judgments our reproachful titles our divided spirits our exasperated passions our strange looks our uncharitable censures Now we are all of one judgment of one name of one heart of one house and of one glory O sweet reconcilement O happy Union which makes us first to be one with Christ and then to be one among our selves Now our differences shall be dashed in our teeth no more nor the Gospel reproached through our folly or scandall O my soul thou shalt never more lament the sufferings of the Saints never more condole the Churches ruines never bewail thy suffering freinds nor lye wailing over their death-beds or their graves Thou shalt never suffer thy old temptations from Satan the vvorld or thy ovvn flesh Thy body vvill no more be such a burden to thee thy pains and sicknesses are all novv cured thou shalt be troubled vvith vveakness and vveariness no more Thy head is not novv an aking head nor thy heart novv an aking heart Thy hunger and thirst and cold and sleep thy labor and study are all gone O vvhat a mighty change is this From the dunghill to the throne from persecuting sinners to praising Saints from a body as vile as the carrion in the ditch to a body as bright as the Sun in the firmament from complainings under the displeasure of God to the perfect enjoyment of him in Love from all my doubts and fears of my condition to this possession vvhich hath put me out of doubt from all my fearful thoughts of death to this most blessed Joyful life O vvhat a blessed change is this Farevvell sin and suffering for ever Farevvell my hard and rocky heart farevvell my proud and unbelieving heart farewell atheistical idolatrous vvorldly heart farewell my sensual carnal heart And novv welcome most holy heavenly nature vvhich as it must be imployed in beholding the face of God so is it full of God alone and delighted in nothing else but him O vvho can question the love vvhich he doth so sweetly taste or doubt of that which with such joy he seeleth Farewell repentance confession and supplication farewel the most of hope and faith and welcome love and joy and praise I shall now have my harvest without plowing or sowing my wine without the labor of the vintage my joy without a Preacher or a promise even all from the face of God himself That 's the sight that 's worth the seeing that 's the book that 's worth the reading What ever mixture is in the streams there is nothing but pure joy in the fountain Here shall I be incircled with Eternity and come forth no more here shall I live and ever live and praise my Lord and ever ever ever praise him My face will not wrinkle nor my haire be gray but this mortal shall have put on immortality and this corruptible incorruption and death shall be swallowed up in victory O death where is now thy sting O grave where is thy victory The date of my lease will no more expire nor shall I trouble my self with thoughts of death nor loose my joyes through fear of losing them When millions of ages are past my glory is but beginning and when millions more are past it is no neerer ending Every day is all noontide and every moneth is May or harvest and every yeer is there a jubilee and every age is full manhood and all this is one Eternity O blessed Eternity the glory of my glory the perfection of my perfection Ah drowsie earthy blockish heart How coldly dost thou think of this reviving day Dost thou sleep when thou thinkest of eternal Rest Art thou hanging earthward when heaven is before thee Hadst thou rather sit thee down in dirt and dung then walk in the court of the Palace of God Dost thou now remember thy worldly business Art thou looking back to the Sodom of thy lusts Art thou thinking of thy delights and merry company wretched heart Is it better to be there then above with God is the company better are the pleasures greater Come away make no excuse make no delay God commands and I command thee come away gird up thy loines ascend the mount and look about thee with seriousness and with faith Look thou not back upon the way of the wilderness except it be when thine eyes are dazled with the glory or when thou wouldst compare the Kingdom with that howling desert that thou mayest more sensibly perceive the mighty difference Fix thine eye upon the Sun it self and look not down to Earth as long as thou art able to behold it except it be to discern more easily the brightness of the one by the darkness of the other Yonder far above yonder is thy Fathers glory yonder must thou dwell when thou leavest this Earth yonder must thou remove O my soul when thou departest from this body And when the power of thy Lord hath raised it again and joyned thee to it yonder must thou live with God for ever There is the glorious New Jerusalem the Gates of Pearl the foundations of Pearl the Streets and Pavements of transparent Gold Seest thou that Sun which lighteth all this world why it must be taken down as useless there or the glory of Heaven will darken it and put it out even thy self shall be as bright as yonder shining Sun God will be the Sun and Christ the Light and in his Light shalt thou have light What thinkest thou O my soul of this most blessed state What! Dost thou stagger at the Promise of God through unbelief Though thou say nothing or profess belief yet thou speakest so coldly and so customarily that I much suspect thee I know thy infidelity is thy natural vice Didst thou beleeve indeed thou wouldst be more affected with it Why hast thou not it under the hand and seal and oath of God Can God lie or he that is the Truth it self be false Foolish wretch What need hath God to flatter thee or deceive thee why should he promise thee more then he will perform Art thou not his Creature a little crum of dust a scrawling worm ten thousand times more below him then this flie or worm is below thee wouldst thou flatter a flea or a worm what need hast thou of them If they do not please thee thou wilt crush them dead and never accuse thy self of cruelty Why yet they are thy Fellow Creatures made of as good mettal as thy self and thou hast no Authority over them but what thou hast received How much less need hath God of thee or why should he care if thou perish in thy folly Cannot he govern thee without either flattery or falshood cannot he easily make thee obey his will and as easily make thee suffer