Imprimatur THOMAS WYKES Octob. 9. 1638. THE MAN FOR HEAVEN A Sermon Preached at the Court to his Majesties Houshold Anno Domini 1637. By IOHN GORE Rector of Wenden-lofts and Preacher of S. Peters in Cornhill LONDON LONDON Printed by R. Bishop for Thomas Alchorn and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Green Dragon in Pauls Church-yard 1639. The Man for Heaven PHILIP 3. 20. Our conversation is in Heaven from whence also wee looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ YEE Honourable and Honoured Courtiers here is a Text of Scripture fit for persons of your rank and quality A text that will learn you so to demean your selves so to order your Conversation in this World that after you have been Courtiers on Earth you may be Courtiers in Heaven after you have conversed with men you may converse with God after you have served and attended our gracious King and Queene below you may be preferred and taken up by the Angels of Heaven to accompany and attend the King of Glory above Certainly if there be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Heaven upon Earth an Estate of Majesty Height and Glory Heare it is and you are those that are advanced and enstated in it Let mee only advise you as a poore unworthy Messenger of Christ to take heed and beware of Capernaums Doome Mat. 11. 23. And thou Capernaum which art exalted to Heaven shalt be thrown down to Hell Oh pray to God that ye may escape that wofull praecipitium that dismal that dolefull that deadly Down-fall Rather as Salomon saith let your way be upward direct your steps and courses to Heaven-wards and labour every day to arise in your care in your zeale in your devotions to God that you may come neerer to Heaven at night than you were in the morning that so even while you live and converse on Earth you may be truly and rightly said to have your conversation in Heaven For so speakes my Text of some and God grant it may bee spoken of us all that Our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ In which words there are two generall parts to be observed First the excellency of the Saints they have their conversation in Heaven Secondly the expectation of sinners from thence also we looke for the Saviour c. First what is meant by conversation Secondly how we that live and converse on earth can bee said in proper sence to have our conversation in Heaven The first of these may be considered in foure circumstances 1. That a mans conversation is Res continuata a constant a setled continued thing It is not one or two or some few particular actions that do denominate a mans conversation but the generall course and current of his life which if it be rightly ordered as it ought to bee then it is termed an Honest Conversation 2 Peter 2. 12. Have your conversation honest among the Gentiles if otherwise it be idly and unprofitably mispent then it is termed a vaine conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. yee are redeemed from your vaine conversation That which brings a man no profit no credit no comfort in the end that 's a vaine conversation And God forbid that any Christians conversation should be so vaine This we know that as there is no man so bad but he may do some particular actions that are right and good as God said of Abimelech Gen. 20. I know thou hast done this thing in the integrity of thy heart that one thing he did well though his conversation went another way so on the contrary there is no man so good but he may do some particular actions that are vile and bad as t is said of David he was upright in all things save only in the matter of Vriah In that one thing hee failed exceedingly though the whole streame of his life and conversation went right to God-ward It is with a Christian in this world as with a Ship that goes to Sea They are bound for such a Coast that way they sayle and thither they direct their voyage now there may come many a contrary storm that may turne them cleane back or drive them quite another way which for the present is a great trouble and griefe unto them but as soone as ever the storme is over and the Sea is calme they hale and toyle and never are at rest till they have recovered themselves and are gotten into the right way againe So fares it with a Christian soule such a one is bound for Heaven that 's his home that 's his harbour that 's the Heaven where he would be now there may come and daily there doth come many a crosse many a corruption many a pleasing or unpleasing temptation that turnes him cleane another way into the way of sinne and wickednesse or turnes him clean back from the way of Grace and goodnesse which for the present like the divisions of Ruben Iudg. 5. must needs cause great sighings and thoughts of heart and indeed hee is never at quiet in his mind nor at peace in his conscience till by the mercy of God he have recovered himselfe by repentance and come back to his old comfort and conversation againe So the meaning of the Text is this that it is not enough for a man to look to Heaven at some particular times as in the time of sicknesse of sorrow of extreme adversity as the manner of the world is for then the wickedest man that is will peradventure have an eye to Heaven Iust as you see a Hog that never looks to Heaven till he be over-turned and cast upon his back then he looks to Heaven and cryes whereas if you do but let him loose that he gets upon his leggs againe hee returnes with his snowt to the earth and looks to Heaven no more so fares it I feare me with many a carnall man that seldom or never looks to Heaven till hee bee overturned in his credit overthrown in his estate or cast upon his back on the bed of sicknesse and death then he lisis up his eyes to those Hils from whence commeth his help as David speaketh whereupon if God do but set him at liberty and restore him to his health that he get upon his legs againe hee returnes like a Hog to his old swinish disposition looks no more after Heaven till he be castdown again into the like distresse Thus it is but thus it should not be If you desire to have comfort from Heaven in your sicknesse let your conversation be there in your health and that not for a fit or a brunt but in a constant setled and continued course of life that like as it is said of God Deut. 11. 12. that his eyes are upon the land from the beginning of the yeare to the end thereof so let thine eyes be upon God from the beginning of the day of the weeke of the yeare even to
said of his Friend or Father Si bene essem sine te nunquam venirem ad te If I could bee well without thee I would never come at thee It is our illnesse and our weaknesse our lamenesse and our sicknesse that makes us to repaire unto Christ or else I am afraid wee would seldome or never come at him As for the Holy Ghost David cals him a Loving Spirit Psal 143. 10. a Spirit that loves the company and the conduct of a poore sinner let thy loving Spirit lead mee into the land of Righteousnesse it is not only a leading Spirit but a loving Spirit a Spirit that loves to lead us and to carry us into all truth into all goodnesse and to guide our sinfull feet into the way of peace wee read of divers that were condemned in Scripture for having to doe with Familiar Spirits and justly for what gracelesse wretches were they that durst bee familiar with those evill spirits that were the mortall enemies of their soules that durst to harbour those hellish Serpents in their bosomes that stung their Soules to death eternall And oh what a blessed and a happy thing it were if we were but halfe so desirous of the familiaritie and acquaintance of the Good Spirit as they were of the evill ones then as Iob speakes in the place fore-named Inde proventus erit bonus thereby good shall come unto thee Good to thy estate thou shalt prosper by it Good to thy children they shall flourish by it Good to thy name thou shalt have credit and reputation by it Good to thy body thou shalt have health and protection by it but speciall good shall come to thy Soule thou shalt have mercy and peace and salvation by it Thou shalt have his good Word to instruct thee his good Angels to guard thee his good Spirit to comfort thee and above all his good Kingdom to receive thee Therefore if thou lovest thy selfe and tenderest thy owne good let thy conversation with God bee Res familiaris a free a frequent and a familiar thing Lastly if wee take the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the native and proper sense as it signifies the traffiquing and trading that one Merchant or one Citizen hath with another then it affords us this consideration That to converse or to have commerce with God is Res quest uosa the gainfulest trade and the richest marchandise under Heaven For if wee beleeve the Apostle Godlinesse is no vile commodity but exceeding gainfull yea gaine it selfe yea and great gaine too if not to the purse yet to the Conscience if not to the estate yet to the soule it is for it hath the promises not only of the life that now is but of that which is to come There bee many that say saith David Psal 4. 6. Who will shew us any good It is not the saying of one man or of some men but of many and of most men who will shew us any Good all their desire is to listen and inquire who can tell them of any good purchase any good bargaine any good fortune that may concerne them or come to their hands let the party that shewes it bee who hee will if hee shewes any good wee love him wee thank him for it Behold here is one Saint Paul by name that shewes us Summum Bonum the Greatest Good the truest and surest Gaine that is to be had in all the Christian World and that is to keep a Factory in Heaven as it were by the meanes and mediation of Jesus Christ to deale betwixt God and our own Soules in a secret and a sacred commerce to exchange our Prayers for his Favours our duties for his Mercies and so to drive a Spirituall trade in the City of God And this will bring us into such a way of profit that wee shall gaine Wisdome and Grace and Comfort and Credit in this life and a Crowne of Eternall Glory in the life to come and now judge your selves whether to have our conversation in Heaven bee not Res quaestuosa a gainfull thing I come now to the second generall proposition of my Text which is this How wee that live and converse upon Earth can bee said in proper sense to have our Conversation in the Heavens I shall answer it foure waies 1. Per Elevationem By lifting up our hearts and minds and Soules to God Wee read Levit. 11. 21. that those Reptilia those Fowls or other Creatures that crept on all foure were Abomination in Moses Law the people might not eat nor touch them but those that had legges and wings to leape withall and to lift up themselves from the Earth toward Heaven those were cleane in Gods account This was certainely a symbolicall type to signifie unto us that those Christians that are alwayes creeping as it were and crawling and groveling upon the Earth alwayes minding earthly things and setting their hearts upon the muck of this World they are uncleane and Abomination to the Lord But they that have the legges and wings of Faith and fervent Prayer to leape as it were from the Earth and to lift up themselves towards Heaven in their ejaculations and devotions to God they are those whom God accepts An Angell once cried Revel 8. 13. Woe woe woe to the inhabitants of the Earth Inhabitantibus non Accolis saith a Father not to the sojourners and strangers of the Earth as all good Christians are whose Home is Heaven and the Earth but a place of their pilgrimage for a time But the woes are to the setled Inhabitants of the Earth who so fixe their hearts on the Earth that they make it their Heaven like that Cardinall that would not change his part in Paris for his part in Paradise or like the Children of Reuben and Gad Numb 32. 3. that desired to make their stay on this side Jordan and let their brethren if they listed passe over into the Land of promise for their owne parts they liked well of the place where they were and did not desire to remove because it was a place fit for their Cattell In like sort they that make more account of their cattell than they doe of their conscience and doe more esteeme the pleasures and profits of a life temporall than the incomprehensible joyes of the life eternall they that so love the Earth that by their good wills they would not leave it for Heaven Woe bee to them three wayes first woe to them in life secondly woe to them in death thirdly woe to them after death or thus woe to their bodies woe to their soules and woe to both body and soule together in that woefull place of torment In a word therefore if we desire to escape this threfold woe and that it may bee well with us both here and hereafter let us doe by our afâ—ections as Husband-men do by their corne if it lie low in a damp room it is in danger to putrifie and corrupt and stink therefore
they convey it and carry it up into some higher room that is farther from the Earth and neerer to Heaven and there it is safe Such a damp place is this sinfull World therfore if thou wouldst preserve thy affections from stench and corruption carry them up on high list them up to Heaven by divine contemplations and by a divine conversation and then they are out of danger We should frame our affections in forme of a ship which is close downwards and open upwards in an hearty desire of a Heavenly condition One saith well It is with Men as it is with the Moone When the Moone decreaseth it is close above and open below Contrarily when it increaseth it is open above and close below So if our minds as Nature hath framed our hearts bee close downwards using the World as if wee used it not and enlarged upwards in seeking and sighing after the things that bee above then t is a happy signe of our increase in grace and favour with God and an infallible evidence to our soules that though our abode bee below on Earth yet our conversation is above in Heaven 2. Per Anticipationem you that desire to have Heaven hereafter must begin your heaven here by Anticipation and that three waies first take direction from Heaven in all your wayes and actions doe as ship-men doe at Sea because they have no common Road nor beaten Path to sayle by they take their direction from the starres and guide themselves by the Heavens so because in this World which is as brinish with sinne as the Sea is with salt and as dangerous to the Soule as the Sea is to the ship there is no common Road as I may say no beaten path to Heaven so few there bee that goe that way let every one that desires to walke safely take heed of walking rashly and following the lusts devices and desires of his own heart but let him looke up to Heaven for direction and desire God to be his guide and conduct saying and praying in the words of the Prophet David Psal 48. 14. Thou O. God art my God for ever oh bee thou my guide unto the day of death Secondly learne the language of Heaven while yee are here as one that is to travell into a forraine Country will if hee can possible learne some part of the language of that countrey before-hand that he may not be altogether to seeke when hee comes into a strange place So if Heaven bee as I hope it is the Countrey and the Kingdome that yee all desire to live in bee carefull then while yee are here to inure your selves to the language of Heaven ere ye come there that is to blesse God and praise him and speake good of his Name for as terrene and sordid and base discourse is the language of the World and lying and lewd and profane discourse is the language of Hell So pious and profitable and divine discourse that savoureth and rellisheth of the Grace and good Spirit of God that 's the language of Heaven learne that Thirdly labour to get a Temper and a disposition fit for Heaven As God hath given the fowles a Temper fit to live in the ayre and fishes a Temper fit for the water and creeping things a Temper fit for the Earth so desire of God to frame thy heart to an Heavenly disposition and to give thee a Temper fit for Heaven Certainly Carnall Men mistake Heaven taking it to bee only a place of Rest but not a place of righteousnesse a place of happinesse but not a place of holinesse so that if a Carnall man should bee admitted to peepe into Heaven to see what is there adoing to see how the Glorified Soules and Spirits are alwayes lauding and magnifying their God and Saviour alwayes taken up with Holy and Heavenly exercises and employments hee would loath no place so much as Heaven as being no wayes agreeable but altogether contrary to his temper and disposition He that is weary of one Sabbath here how will hee brooke an eternity of Sabbath hereafter if the Foot-men have tyâ—ed him as Ieremy speakes in another case Ierem. 12. 5. how will hee doe to hold pace with the Horse-men Hee that thinkes too much of that little holinesse that God requires in his Saints on Earth how will hee comply with that excellency of holinesse that is in the Saints and blessed Soules in Heaven In a word then as wee all hope to have Carnem Angelisicatam as Tertullian speakes to have Angell-like bodies hereafter so let us labour and pray that we may have Animas Angelisicatas Angell-like Soules while wee are here that wee may wholly addict and give our minds to doe Gods will on Earth as it is done in Heaven that we may begin our Heaven here in Grace and perfect it hereafter for ever in Glory 3 A man that lives on Earth may bee said to have his conversation in Heaven Per Charitatem by holy Charity which is nothing else but a divine love to God and to all Goodnesse Hee that is a truly Charitable man on Earth is in ultima proxima dispositione in the last and likest and neerest disposition to the Glorified Saints in Heaven For this wee know that most of those other vertues wherein men excell on Earth do faile and cease when the Soule returnes to Heaven Our Faith that shall cease for wee shall then see the beatificall face of God and the blessed reward of the Godly which we now beleeve unseene Our Hope that shall cease for wee shall then enjoy the good things wee hoped for no more need of Anchour when wee are past the Sea of this world and landed upon the shoare of Heaven So likewise Patience shall cease for there shall be no more pain and Continency for there shall be no more temptations and Mercy for there shall bee no more objects of misery Only Charity that remaynes and abides and accompanies the soule into the kingdom of Christ and of God that 's a Grace that is begun on earth and never ceaseth in Heaven it is a celestiall a heavenly quality whether it bee in men or women in persons of noble or of meaner rank It is true all have not meanes alike to expresse their charity to those that are poore and needy therefore you must know that Charity is twofold there is the outward charity of the hand and the inward charity of the heart this later is that which God requireth equally of all both rich and poore It is like that Tribute of the Sanctuary Exod. 30. 15. wherein there was an equall Rate set for the Ransome of their lives that the poore paid as much as the Rich so a poore man may have as Charitable an heart as a Rich man though God have straitned him in his means that he cannot have so charitable an hand you see 1. Cor. 13. that Charity which the Apostle so magnifies and extolls above all other gifts is only this inward
Charity Charity envieth not is not easily provoked seeketh not her own but hopeth all things beleeveth all things indureth all things c. all this reflects upon the heart and therein a poore man may abound as well as a rich In a word then if God have clipt thy wings and cut short thy estate that thou canst not have a charitable hand yet howsoever retaine a charitable heart and what thou wantest in substance make up in prayer This is the third way whereby a man that lives on earth may be truly said to have his conversation in heaven 4. The fourth and last way is per Claritatem by brightnesse and shining in Grace and good works Heaven is a shining place full of splendour lusture and glory and such are all the soules that dwell therein The Prophet tell us Dan. 12. 3. they that be wise shall shine as the firmament and they that turne many to Righteousnesse shall shine as the stars for evermore The firmament that shines by day and the stars they shine by night the meaning is that they which are truly vertuous and wise eruditi erudientes the practisers and the teachers of wisdome they that are wise themselves and they that make others wise shall shine as the Firmament in the day-time of their life and as the Starres in the night when they are dead and gone they shall shine in Grace here and in Glory hereafter Though for a time they bee over-clouded as it were with Crosses and Corruptions which darkens and obscures the lustre that is in them yet the time will come that all these Clouds these Crosses and Corruptions shall bee blowne away and they shall shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father When Moses conversed with God his face shined Exod. 34. there 's no good man that converseth with God but his face shines too that is hee hath a venerable aspect insomuch as they that will not imitate him cannot but honour him Iohn was a burning and a shining light saith the Gospell Iohn 5. 35. burning with zeale inwardly to God shining by a good life outwardly to the World You that desire to shine in Heaven must begin your shining here on Earth Let your light so shine saith our Saviour that men may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven True Faith is in the heart like a candle in a lanterne which must not nay cannot be altogether hid but discovers it selfe by its own shining light Astronomers observe that the Galaxia or the Milky way as they call it is a Glorious Circle and possesseth a great part of Heaven and yet is all of so little Starres as have no name nor knowledge taken of them by Astrologers So no doubt there are many Saints in Heaven that shine as the Starres in the Kingdome of God that were none of those great magnitudes that the World should take notice of them but good and blessed Soules that have honestly performed the duties of their inferiour calling and behaved themselves soberly righteously and godly in this World and so glimmered in a poore estate like a Diamond that glisters in the dust In a word as wee all beleeve and hope that God will one day change our vile bodies as the Apostle rightly calls them and make them like unto the Glorious of our blessed Lord and Saviour so let us now desire and beg of God to change our vile Soules that they may in some measure bee like the pure and precious Soule of our deare Iesus that all the fogges and fumes of our unsavoury noysome lusts may bee dispersed and done away that wee may so shine on Earth by a godly life and conversation that wee may bee rewarded with shining in Heaven in a state of immortallity and incorruption Which GOD of his mercy Grant for JESUS CHRIST his sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost bee given and ascribed all honour praise and glory bee done and performed all service obedience and duty from this time forth for ever-more Amen FINIS