redeemed both and we have offered and given both Let us glorify him with both Both with our bodies and with our Spirits for they are his Let us hold to that Rule of the Apostle which is or ought to bee the great Rule of every Christians life whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we doe let us do all to the Glory of God so shall we never do amisse but the peace of God shall be with us and preserve us for ever Gloria Trinuni Deo ΠΑΡΑΚΛΗΣΙΣ AN Exhortation to the pursuance of the CHEIFEST GOOD WITH A breif Review of the Opinions concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. MATH VI. 19 20 33. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theives break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven to which adde v. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse IT is a certain truth that in every Man there is an innate desire of good and it is as true that very few attain to the Good that they desire For as Maximus Tyrius in his 19th Discourse hath ingeniously express't it It happeneth to us in this dark and muddy Region of the lower world as it doth to those who scramble for gold or silver in a dark night who while they want a light to distinguish what they feek after and only guesse at it by deceitfull circumstances fall together by the Ears for they know not what For he that hath gotten any thing will not part with it for fear he should have already gotten the desireable thing neither will he abstain from further scrambling for fear it should be yet to seek Here is all the Tumult and the strife the Clamors and the noise the sighs and the groanes the rapine and the suits and all the hurry of the overbusy world This is the same thing that is intimated by K. David in his fourth Psalm There be many that say who will shew us any good Not Many only but All even the whole world pretend to be and really are in the pursuance of this good But as St Paul observed concerning the Jews that they obtained not to Righteousnesse because they sought it where it was not to bee found So the Masse of Mankind attain not to the Possessron of Happinesse because they seek it where it is not They search for the living among the Dead The Psalmist had observ'd concerning the Joy of the vulgar that it was such a delight as did alwayes ebbe and flow according to the increase or decrease of their Corne and Wine and Oyl For in these lay their Treasures and upon their Treasures they laid their Hearts but he had setled his Eye upon the true Joy His hope was the hope of Heaven His expectation was the Expectation of the beatifick Vision His desire was to have the face of God eternally reconciled to Him The light of Gods countenance was more to Him then was the Joy of the Worldly man When his Corne and his Wine and his Oyl increased Psalm 4.6 7 8. This was the Happinesse of David the Man after Gods own heart who had an understanding whereby He was enabled to call Good Good and Evill Evill and was guided by the Spirit of God to have his Will and affections rightly placed which the greater part of the world neither had then nor have to this Day Philosophers Historians Poets and all observers of human Manners and Nature have taken notice of a vast variety in human inclinations All pretend and all seek yet in all this variety of Pretenders and seekers few have designed few have sought the greatest good Some place their happinesse in Luxury and Ryot others in Parsimony and thrift The Merchant in his gold the Drunkard in his Wine the effeminate in his Loves The witty Man in pleasant Conversation the Orator in fine and well adorned speech the Martiall man in fights and triumphs some sportive men have been so vain as to think there could be no greater Happinesse upon Earth then to bee a renowned Victor in the Olympique Games and to get a branch of Olive as a Trophee of Mastery in those feats of Activity Sardanapalus I 'le watrant you thought himself a pretty Man and a Prince indeed when he was curl'd and dress't and richly cloath'd and shut up in his Palace among his concubines but few others have thought that a design of life well chosen for so great an Emperor Xerxes thought himself little lesse then the God he worship't if indeed his pride then allow'd him to worship any when he 〈…〉 his fetters upon the Sea and joynd Europe and Asia with a bridge not considering how short should be the Glory of that Action and that it should suddenly end in being utterly overthrown There are no things done from the great Atcheivments of Alexander and Caesar to those little Arts that are not worthy to be named in a pulpit that are not practiced with some design of good But this is the misery of our Condition that in all this variety the Ends we design are generally if not Base and Wicked yet poor and mean and yet though poor and mean and eagerly pursued are seldome notwithstanding sufficiently attained But it is more worth our Notice and Admiration that Philosophy it self the great Mistresse of Curiosity should professe to correct the Aims of the Vulgar and to design so Wisely and yet should fail as notoriously as any other profession of doing any thing worthy of all her anxious Disquisitions That it should challenge so great a Name and procure so little Good that they should erre so widely in their searches after the Summum Bonum or cheifest Happinesse For I do not find that they had the good luck to attain to any thing that might give them just Occasion to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it And those who seem to bee the adepti and to have gotten most considerable attainments contented themselves generally with a very mean Quarry a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximus Tyrius Dissett 19 ad Finem Ad vos nunc refero quem sequar◠c. Cicero Academ Q. l. 4. It hath been anciently observed that Pythagoras his Learning ended in a few Musicall Iingles Thales's Wisedome in some uncertain Astronomicall Phansies Heraclitus's Contemplations concluded in solitude and weeping Socrates his renowned Philosophy led Him to the practice of unnaturall lust Diogenes his sharpenesse of wit to use his Body to endure all manner of nastinesse and course labor E. picurus's Inventions and Discourses of which he boasts so proudly set Him down contented with any kind of Pleasure We shall do Aristippus no wrong at all if we joyn Him with the more renowned Epicurus And why may not the Stoicks and Peripateticks Clubb also who are both represented to make the bare Action or vertue its own Reward Such are the Ends and so great is the
of seeing it is generally true that he observeth 2 Esdras 7.21 that Men now in this present time live in Heavinesse and after death they look for punishment Here we are subject to all sorts of pains bodily and mentall and after the Resurrection as there shall be conditions of greater joy so also there shall be conditions of greater sorrow than are any of those to which we are here obnoxious Man is indeed born to pain naturally as the spark flyes upward And God that ordained all things ordained these pains and sorrows and every one must look to have his share of them And yet it is piously beleived that it is not Gods delight either in this world or in the next to afflict or greive the children of Men. It may seem a paradox to some that pains or greifs should be good for any thing and yet it is the Opinion of the best Philosophers and I beleive as true as it is strange that the pains which men feel in hunger in thirst and in all sorts of sicknesses and also that all those Naturall cares that arise from naturall appetites are by God appointed for necessary and excellent Ends. We learn from divines that the paines and cares of this world were intended to wean us from it and to prompt and dispose us to look after a better But we learn also from our Philosophers that they serve even in this as usefull meanes for the conservation of Man in his present estate and Nature Were it not for the pains of Hunger and thirst It is beleived that some men would be so retchlesse as to forget to provide meat Admirari nosdeâ— cet eam fuisse solertiam sapienâ—issimi Naturae opificis qui quia omnis Operatio sutura ex se laberiosa erat etiam quae naturalis foret testante Aristotele idirco omnem Operationem blandimento voluptatis condivit ac tanto vehementiorem voluit esse voluptatem quanto ipsa Operatio erat magis necessaria futura sive ad totius generis sive ad Animalis cujusque singularis conservationem Scilicet Animalia aut non curarent aut obliviscerentur neque adverterent quibus par foret temporibus seu conjugio operam dare propagando generi seu comedere bibereque producendae vitae Individui nisi inditi essent stimuli quibus molestiam creantibus instigantibusque admonerentur ejus actionis cujus voluptas talem molestiam sedatura sit comes unde ad illam eliciendam feruntur Gassendus in 10. Diogenis Laertii librum De morali Phil. Epicuri and that were not hunger and thirst greater pains some would be so lasy as to account it a pain to eat and drink and so death would probably evertake them in their inconsideratenesse before they would mind to replete their exhausted Bodies And in like manner it may be asserted that there is a necessary use in all the pains of sicknesse For sicknesses are certainly contrary to our Natures and corruptive of them And therefore It is the concern of our lives to find them out which we cannot easily do without the sense of pain The Apoplexy is a dreadfull disease unto us even upon this very account because it kills and gives no warning and evey other disease would be as suddenly fatall had it no pains to forerun or to accompany it It must therefore be granted that even the pains of sicknesse are here usefull to us they are stimuli necessarii they put us in mind that our health and life is concern'd Pains make us sensible of the morbifick cause and so do direct and provoke us to endeavor the Cure of the Disease And the same thing may be said of the greatest Cares that are incident to Man that they have their great Ends also We know that the present world subsists only by the maintenance of a succession of Generations And if these successions must be maintained Men must besides the present sustenance of their families take care to lay up let me use the Phrase of the Psalmist some remainder of their substance for their Babes But to apply this to our present argument There can be no more use of these cares or of these pains when We shall once be well landed into Heaven For first in Heaven there shall be no sin and therefore there shall be no need of any pains so bee the punishment of Sin Secondly there shall be no death and therefore there shall be no need of hunger or thrist or of the pains of sicknesse to warn us that we are in danger of Death or to direct us to do those things that concern our life Nor shall there be any use of those ordinary Cares that are now most Naturall and usefull to admonish to make provision for our selves and our families because God shall there make such provisions for us that all these worldly Cares shall be for ever uselesse Our lives shall not as in this world depend upon the continuall accession of fresh Nourishment nor our Immortality upon the establishment of life and estate upon our Name and issue And as there is no finall cause nor use of those cares and pains in Heaven so is there no possible place for no materiall no efficient cause of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There shall be no internall matter there that may within us bee suscipient or capable of Diseases nor external Occasion to produce them In this world we complain that we are subject to innumerable sicknesses and that the immediate causes of them are almost infinite but all those causes and occasions are inconsistent with the Revealed state of Glory First many diseases there are that arise from a Weaknesse or defect in some part or Organ Thus Palsies Epilepsies and Apoplexyes are by some Physitians judg'd to arise from some Weaknesse or defect in the Brain and Nerves If a Man hath got the Jaundice or the dropsy then the weaknesse of the liver is accused And the Spleen and the Lungs and every other part hath its proper weaknesses also whence severall and distinct diseases commonly arise But this is the comfort of the good Christian that his Body shall be subject to no weaknesse nor defect in Heaven St Paul assureth us 1 Cor. 15.43 That our Bodies which are sowen in weaknesse shall be raised in strength and power Secondly besides these of Weaknesse there are sorts of Diseases which happen even to the strongest Men such are those pestilentiall sicknesses that are caused by poisonous and corruptive vapors which corrupt and infect the blood though before never so pure and defecate Against these no strength of our earthy Natures can be any preservative But the strength of a glorified body is above them all And St Paul in the Text above cited 1 Cor. 15.43 is our witnesse in this particular Our Bodies that are sowed in corruption shall be raised in incorruption Our Corruptible must put on Incorruption and so our Mortall shall put on Immortality We shall have
this world you will easily beleive that it is free from the pains of the other world also Heaven were not Heaven if there could be any danger of the second Death or if the pains of Hell might interrupt the delights and Gloryes of the Blessed there The prophet Esay telleth us indeed that there is a Tophet prepared of Old Esay 30.33 and our Savior that there is an everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels Math. 25.41 a Torment that as St John speaks shall neither have End nor Intermission Rev. 14.11 The smoke of their Torment saith he shall ascend up for ever and ever and they shall have no Rest day nor night The Eternity of this Torment is sufficiently asserted and proved by the Fathers in Opposition to the Heresy of Origen which same proofs may serve to convince all Hereticks and Men of loose principles that now endeavor to Renew the same pernicious doctrine I gave you a particular of them with Answers to the matters objected in another Discourse when I commended unto you the fear and dread of God even of that God who as our Savior declareth is able to cast both Soul and Body into Hell fire And I shall not repeat now what I delivered then It then being granted that the condition of the second Death and the pains of Hell therein are very dreadfull it will be a doctrine worthy of our acceptance that those who are accounted worthy to wear the livery of Christ and to be Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem shall have security from those pains also David speaks it as well of Himself as of Christ Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell For the Souls of the Just are all in the hand of God and no Torment shall touch them Wisd 3.1 The Plagues of Egypt shall not bee seen in Goshen Our Savior who knowes it best hath described unto us the management of that whole affaire and the different portions of the good and the bad Math. 25.30 When saith he the son of Man shall come in his glory and all his Angels with Him All Nations shall be gathered before his Throne and He shall separate the good from the bad as a shepheard separates his sheep from the Goates The good he shall blesse and receive into his own kingdome but unto the wicked shall this sentence be Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels so these shall go into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into life everlasting Give me leave to adde one Observation more It is this That though the damned shall have a sight of Heaven and of the state of Glory yet that sight shall be so far from being any comfort or refreshment to them that it shall greatly augment their torment For that sight shall Cause envy and we know that Envy naturally causeth greif There shall be as our blessed redeemer testifieth weeping and gnashing of Teeth when they shall see Abraham and Isaak and Jacob in the kingdome of God and themselves thrust out This very Circumstance of their seeing Abraham and Isaak and Jacob and the whole company of the professors of Religion men whom they formerly contemned and despised in the possession of that Glorious Happinesse and themselves with all their wisdome and Policy thrust out and excluded this uncomfortable Contemplation shall cause no small accession to their torment Secondly though the blessed have seen sorrow for the time past and shall then see the horror of Hell before their eyes Yet both the Remembrance of the one and the sight of the other shall be so far from causing greif and sadnesse in them that these Contemplations shall greatly augment their Joy Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora Nautis E Terrâ alterius magnum spectare laborem Non quia Vexari quenquam est jucunda voluptas Sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est It is a delight saith Lucretius for one that hath escaped to the shore to look back upon the Tempest and to see it break the masts and tear the Sails and create trouble to the mariners who are yet toss't like a Tennis on the waves Not that it is a pleasure for one man to see another toyld but a joy to stand in security and to view so great a danger that He himself in his own particular hath so neerly escaped So likewise the Blessed in Heaven when they are secured in their own particulars then shall they with pleasure remember all the troubles and greifs that they have waded through in the life past and with pleasure look upon the pains of Hell which they see other plunged into but themselves have by the Mercy of God so strangely escaped and thence even from this consideration shall they take Occasion to sing praises to Him who hath placed them in a blessed estate not obnoxious to any of their former greifs and hath also redeemed them from the dreadfull Region of darknesse and brought them to his own marvellous light And now the summe of what I have discours'd is this That there is nothing more desireable to mankind in generall than joy or Happinesse That the greater joy is by all wise men to be prefer'd before the lesse That to the greatest possible joy besides other requisites the absence of all greif is required That the estate of Glory hath this requisite First it is free from all those cares and greifs and pains to which we are here obnoxious by reason of our Bodies For the proof of which I shewed you in particular That though the usuall cares and pains to which we are here obnoxious by reason of our mortality are of Use and necessity in this present world Yet they have no Use nor place nor possibility in the state of Glory Then I shewd you that there shall be none of those pains in Heaven that are purely mentall and last of all That though after this life there is a Tophet of everlasting punishment prepar'd yet that the pains thereof shall not touch the blessed but that the contemplation of them shall even augment their Joy All this have I done to prove that the first condition namely Indolence or security from greifs is one part of the portion of Religious and good men in Heaven But this is but the Negative part but the removing of the Rubbish that there may be a good foundation laid for the superstructure of Happinesse When I shall draw the next Curtain I shall shew You that I may further provoke You to the practice of a Religious and Vertuous life The Glory of the Mansion it self the joy of Heaven the fullnesse of that joy the pleasures of that state even those pleasures that the Psalmist affirmes shall last for evermore Now let the great God of his infinite mercy pardon our sins and purify our hearts and make us first as desirous of his Rewards in Heaven as they are worthy of our Desire then let Him
the greatest quantity possible though not of so grosse a kind that there is fullnesse of Joy and Glory in Heaven I might instance in other similitudes as where it is compared to the possession of a great treasure which to some men is a most great and sensuall delight but I shall chuse to passe to the last particular The Measure or duration of the greatest Happinesse And truely I think the learned Fathers of the primitive Church were sound Philosophers in this point with whom it is a frequent assertion that such a life cannot be most happy which is not secure of its own Eternity If therefore any thing be designed for the full satisfaction of human Nature it must be a delight that shall last for ever and that is such that it must needs be satisfactory seeing no man can wish for more than eternall Happinesse Eternity hath no end at all neither is there any duration nor can be in Nature no nor can be projected in Human Phancy longer than for ever nay the Imagination cannot extend so far The power and goodnesse of God hath provided for us beyond the utmost stretch of our own Conceits For he hath meted out the duration of our Glory by no other measure than that infinite Eternity My text comes home to the proof of this point also For it asserts That in the presence of God there are pleasures even for evermore Merito Philosophorum non obscurus Euclides qui fuit conditor Megaricorum disciplâ—nae dissentiens a caeteris id esse summum bonum dixit quod simile sit idem semper Intellexit profectò quae sit natura summi boni licet id non explicaverit quid sit id est autem immortalitas nec aliud omnino quicquam quia sola nec imminui nec augeri nec immutari porest Senecâ— quoque imprudens incidit ut fateretur nullum esse aliud virtutis praemium quam immortalitatem Laudans enim virtutem in eo lâ—bro quem de immatura morte conscripsit Una inquit res est virtus quae nos immortalitate donare possit pares Diis facere sed Stoici quos fecutus est negant fine virtute effici quenquam beatum posse Eâ—go virtutis praemium beat a vita est fi virtus ut recte dictum est beatam vitam facit Non est igitur ut aiunt propter seipsam virtus experenda sed propter vitam beatam quae virtutem neceslario sequitur Quod argumentum docere eos potuit quod esset summum bonum Haec autem vita praesens corporalis beata esse non potest quia malis est subjecta per corpus Epicurus Deum beatum vocat quia incorruptus quia simpiternus est Beatitudo enim perfecta esse debet ut nihil sit quod vexare ac minuere aut immutare possit Nec aliter quicquam existimari beatum possit nisi fuerit incorruptum Incorruptum autem nihil est nisi quod est immortale Solaerga Immortalitas beata est quia Coâ—rumpi ac dissolvi non potest Quod si cadit in hominem virtus quod negare nullus potest cadit Beatiâ—udo Non potest enim fieri ut sit miser qui est virtute praeditus si cadit beatitudo ergo immortalitas cadit in hominem quae beata est Summum igitur bonum sola immortalitas invenitur quae nec aliud animal nec corpus attingit nec potest cuiquam sine scientia ac virtute id est sine Dei cognitione ac justitia obvenire cujus appetitio quam vera quà m recta sit ipsa vitae hujusce cupiditas indicat quae licet sit temporalis labore plenissima expetitur tamen ab omnibus optatur hanc enim tam senes quam pueri tam Reges quam Infimi tam denique sapientes quam stulti cupiunt Tanti est ut Anaxagorae visum est contemplatio coeli ac lucis ipsius ut quasâ—unque miserias libeat sustinere Cum igitur laboriosa haec brevis vita non tantum hominum sed etiam caeterorum Animantium consensu magnum bonum esle ducatur manifestum est eandem summum ac perfectum fueri bonum si fine careat omni malo Denique nemo nunquam extitisset qui hanc ipsam brevem contemneret aut subiret m rtem nisi spe vitae longioris c. apud Lactantium de falsa sap lib. 3. c. XII ubi etiam concludit Summum Bonum quod facit beatos non posse esse nisi in eá Religione ac doctrina cui spes immortalitatis adjuncta est Cui simule est iliud St Augustini Beatissima Vita effe non poterit nisi quae fuerit de aeternitate suâ certissima De Civitate Dei lib. 10. c. 30. Cujus est illud Quicquid ad hoc corpus spectat immortalitatis est expers vanum sit necesse est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Posidippus And here all our Comparisons are outgone Our feastings are for an hour our Weddings for a day a Week or a Moneth the enjoyment of Riches honours kingdoms with us in this world are but short and momentarie but in heaven there shall be not only a Feast but an eternall Feast an Eternall Appetite and eternall satisfaction to it The Iubilation of the Lambs Nuptials shall not be measured by a day or dayes by a Moneth or Moneths but shall be extended to the vast duration of the eternity of God There shall be new Epithalamiums and new songs the Gayety shall be everlasting the Lamb and the Bride shall alwaies marry and shall alwaies be given in marriage There shall be glory that shall be alwayes fresh that shall not grow into oblivion or disrepute there are those Crownes and garlands to honour our Mastery that are as St Paul speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as fade not away there only are those everlasting kingdomes and those stately pallaces which cannot be removed but do stand fast for ever There only are those treasures which are eternally secure where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and were Thieves cannot breake through and steal And thus much being led by severall texts of scripture I have adventured to speake by way of Metaphor concerning that blessednesse and I think I have evinced that it is an estate not only of security from griefs but of the most great and most full delights and of delights that shall last for evermore But here give me leave to interrupt you with an advertisement Namely that those expressions and scripturall Resemblances of heavenly Joy to the delights of sense are only intended to expresse the grandeur and compleatnesse but not the Nature or kind of the Joy of Heaven otherwise the Paradise we expect might be thought as sensuall as that of Mahomet is commonly represented And indeed it was the great goodnesse and Wisdome of God to use unto us such familiar Resemblances for we are earthy constitutioned men