I can account them blessed that never having enjoyed any good as the reward of their vertue have even perished for vertue its self Wherefore it is consequent that this present state is only intended for trial to the spirits of men in order to their attainment of a better state in a better world That is that inasmuch as the infinitely wise and blessed God had given being to such a creature as man in which both words the material and the immaterial did meet And who in respect of his Earthly and Spiritual natures had in him somewhat suitable to each And whereas this Creature had lost with his interest his very inclination to the Spiritual Objects and enjoyments of the purer immaterial world wherein alone his true blessedness could consist suffered a vile depression of his Spirit unto this gross corporal world and hereby brought himself under a necessity of being miserable his nobler part having nothing now to satisfie it but what it was become unsuitable and disaffected to His merciful Creatour being intent upon his restitution thought fit not to bring it about by a suddain and violent hand as it were to catch him into Heaven against his will But to raise his Spirit into its just Dominion and Soveraignty in him by such gradual Methods as were most suitable to a rational and intelligent nature That is to discover to him that he had such a thing as Spirit about him whence it was fall'n how low it was sunk to what state it was yet capable to be rais'd and what he had design'd and done for its happy recovery And hence by the secret and powerful insinuations of his own Light and Grace to awaken his drowsie slumbering reason and incline his perverse and wayward will to the consideration and choice of such things as that felicity consists in which that better world can afford and his better part enjoy And while he propounds such things to him how reasonable and agreeable was it that he should keep him sometime under a just probation yea how much was there in it of a gracious and compassionate indulgence often to renew the trial whether he would yet bestir himself and having so great hopes before him and such helps and aids afforded him and ready to be afforded apply at last his intellectual and elective powers to mind and close with so gracious overtures in order to his own eternal advancement and blessedness Nor was it an unreasonable expectation that he should do so For however the temporal good and evil that may constantly affect his sensitive part and powers be present and near but the eternal misery or blessedness of his Soul future and remote Yet inasmuch as he is capable of understanding the vast disproportions of time and eternity of a mortal flesh and an immortal Spirit How preposterous a course were it and unworthy of a man Yea how dishonourable and reproachful to his Maker should he prefer the momentary pleasures of narrow incapatious sence to the everlasting enjoyments of an inlarged comprehensive Spirit Or for the avoiding the pains and miseries of the former kind incur those of the latter Whence also the holy God doth not expect and require onely that men should make that wiser choice But doth most justly lay the weight of their eternal states upon their doing or not doing so And in that day when he shall render to every one according to their works make this the Rule of his final judgment To allot to them who by a patient continuance in well doing seek for honour glory and immortality eternal life To the rest indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish c. and that whether they be Jews or Gentiles Nor is it a new thing in the world that some among the children of men should in this comply with the righteous will of God and so judge and chuse for themselves as he is pleased to direct and prescribe 'T is a course approved by the concurrent suffrage of all them in all times and ages into whose minds the true light hath shined and whom God hath inspired with that wisdom whereby he maketh wise to salvation That numerous Assembly of the perfected Spirits of the just have agreed in this common resolution And did in their several generations ere they had past this state of tryal with an Heroique magnanimity trample this present World under their feet and and aspire to the glory of the world to come Relieving themselves against all the grievances they have fuffered from such whose portion is in this life with the alone hope and confidence of what they were to enjoy in another And hereof we have an eminent and illustrious instance in this Context were the ground is laid of the following Discourse THE BLESSEDNESSE OF THE RIGHTEOVS Psal. 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness CHAP. I. A reflection upon some foregoing verses of the Psalm by way of Introduction to the Text. A consideration of its somewhat various readings and of its literal importance A discussion of its real importance so far as is necessary to the settling the subject of the following discourse THe Title speaks the Psalm a Prayer of David The matter of the Prayer is preservation from his enemies Not to go over the whole Psalm we have â—n the 13. and 14. verses the sum of his deâ—ires with a description of the Person he prayes to be delivered from in which Description every Character is an Argument to enforce his prayer From the Wicked q. d. They are equally enemies to thee and me not more opposite to me by their cruelty then by their wickedness they are to thee Vindicate then at once thy selfe and deliver me Thy sword thy hand Thou canst as easily command and manage them as a man may weild his sword or move his hand Wilt thou suffer thine own sword thine own hand to destroy thine own Servant Men of the world which have their portion in this life Time and this lower World bound all their hopes and fears They have no serious believing apprehensions of any thing beyond this present life therefore have nothing to withhold them from the most injurious violence if thou withhold them not Men that believe not another world are the ready Actors of any imaginable mischiefes and Tragoedies in this Whose belly thou fillest i. e. Their sensual appetite As oftentimes that term is used With thy hid Treasures viz. the riches which either God is wont to hide in the bowels of the earth or lock up in the repository of Providence dispensing them at his own pleasure They are full of Children So it appears by that which followes it ought to be read and not according to that grosse but easie mistake of some Transcribers of the Seventy As if in all this he had pleaded thus Lord thou hast abundantly indulged those men already what need they more They have
Title to thy Estate would'st thou not think it reasonable to inquire into thy case and is it not much more desirable in a matter of this consequence to be at some certainty and prudent to indeavour it if it may possibly be attain'd Whence let me further ask Fourthly Canst thou pretend it to be impossible Hath God left thee under a necessitated ignorance in this matter or denied thee sufficient means of knowing how 't is with thee in respect of thy Spiritual Estate Though he have not given thee a List or told thee the Number or Names of his Sanctified ones yet hath he not sufficiently described the persons and given thee characters by which they may be known And hath he not furnish't thee with a self reflecting power by which thou art inabled to look into thy self and discern whether thou be of them or no Doth he not offer and afford to serious diligent souls the assisting light of his blessed Spirit to guide and succeed the inquirie And if thou find it difficult to come to a speedy clear issue to make a present certain judgment of thy case ought not that to ingage thee to a patient continued diligence rather then a rash despairing madness to desist and cast off all In as much as the difficultie though great is not insuperable and the necessity and advantage incomparably greater And though divers other things do confessedly fall in the principal difficultie lies in thy aversation and unwillingness Thou art not put to traverse the Creation to climb Heaven or dig through the Earth but thy work lies nigh thee in thy own heart and Spirit and what is so nigh or should be so familiar to thee as thy self 'T is but casting thy eye upon thy own soul to discern which way 't is inclin'd and bent thou art urged to Which is that we propounded next to discover Viz. 2. That we are to judge of the hopefulness of our enjoying this blessedness by the present habitude or disposedness of our spirits thereto For what is that righteousness which qualifies for it but the impress of the Gospel upon the minds and hearts of men The Gospel-revelation is the onely Rule and Measure of that righteousness It must therefore consist in conformity thereto And look to the frame and design of the Gospel-revelation and what doth so directly correspond to it as that very habitude and disposedness of spirit for this blessednesse whereof we speak Nothing so answers the Gospel as a propension of heart towards God gratifi'd in part now and increasing till it find a full satisfaction a desire of knowing him and of being like him 'T is the whole design of the Gospel which reveals his glory in the face of Jesus Christ to work and form the spirits of men to this They therefore whose spirits are thus wrought and framed are righteous by the Gospel-measure and by thâ—t righteousness are evidently entituled and fitted for this blessedness Yea that righteousness hath in it or rather is the elements the first Principles the seed of this blessedness There can therefore be no surer Rule or Mark whereby to judge our states whether we have to do with this blessedness may expect it yea or no than this How stand we affected towards it in what disposition are our hearts thereto Those fruits of righteousnesse by which the soul is qualified to appear without offence in the day of Christ the several graces of the Sanctifying Spirit are nothing else but so many holy Principles all disposing the soul towards this blessednesse and the way to it Mortification Self-denial and godly sorrow take it off from other objects the World Self and Sin Repentance â—that part of it which respects God turns the course of its motion towards God the end Faith directs it through Christ the way Love makes it more freely desire earnestly joy pleasantly hope confidently humility evenly fear circumspectly patience constantly and perseveringly All conspire to give the Soul aright disposition towards this blessedness The result of them all is heavenliness an heavenly temper of spirit For they all one way or other as so many Lines and Rayes have respect to a blessedness in God which is heaven as the point at which they aim and the cuspis the point in which they meet in order to the touching of that objective point is heavenliness This is the ultemate and immediate disposition of heart for this blessedness the result the terminus productus of the whole work of righteousness in the Soul by which 't is said to be as it were gnota ad gloriam begotten to the eternal inheritance Concerning this therefore chiefly institute thy inquiry Demand of thy self is my soul yet made heavenly bent upon eternal blessednesse or no And here thou mayest easily apprehend of how great concernment it is to have the right notion of heaven or future blessedness as was urged under the foregoing Rule For if thou take for it another thing thou missest thy mark and art quite beside thy business But if thou retain a right and scriptural state and notion of it the Rule thou art to judge by is sure They shall have heaven whose hearts are intent upon it and framed to it Scripture is every where pregnant and full of this The Apostle plainly intimates this will be the rule of Gods final judgment Certainly it cannot be unsafe for us to judge our selves by the same Rule He tells us when God shall judge every one according to his works the great business of the judgment day eternal life shall be the portion of them who by patient continuance in well doing sought glory and honour and immortality which are but other expressions of the same thing what can be more plain They shall have eternal life and glory that seek it whose hearts are towards it Again speaking of true Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in a way of contradiction from Pseudo-Christians such as he saith were enemies of the Crosse he gives us among other this brand of these latter that they did mind earthly things and tells us their end would be destruction but gives us this opposite character of the other our conversation is in heaven our trade and business our daily negotiations as well as the priviledges of our Citizen-ship lie there as his expression imports and thence intimates the opposite end of such whence we look for a Saviour not destruction but salvation And in the same Context of Scripture where they that are risen with Christ and who shall appear with him in glory are requir'd to fet their mind on things above not on things on the earth That we may understand this not to be their duty onely but their character we are immediately told they who do not so mortifie not their earthly members those lusts that dispose men towards the earth and to grovel in the dust as the graces of the Spirit dispose them heaven-ward and to converse with glory
the notice and observation of the world Moreover how can it escape thy serious reflection that if thou pretend it otherwise with thee 't is but to adde one sin to another and cover thy Carnality with Hypocrisie and Dissimulation yea while thou continuest in that temper of Spirit not to desire this blessedness as thy Supreme end the whole of thy Religion is but an empty shew an artificial disguise it carries an appearance and pretence as if thou wast aiming at God and Glory while thy heart is set another way and the bent of thy soul secretly carries thee a counter-course Hath not Religion an aspect towards Blessedness what mean thy Praying thy Hearing thy Sacramental Communion if thou have not a design for Eternal Glory what makest thou in this way if thou have not thy heart set towards this end Nor is it more dishonest and unjust then it is foolish and absurd that the disposition and tendency of thy soul should be directly contrary to the only design of the Religion thou professest and doest externally practice Thy profession and practice are nothing but self-contradiction Thou art continually running counter to thy self outwardly pursuing what thou inwardly declinest Thy real end which can be no other then what thou really desirest and settest thy heart upon and thy visibly way are quite contrary So that while thou continuest the course of Religion in which thou art engaged having taken down from before thine eyes the end which thou should'st be aiming at and which alone Religion can aptly subserve Thy Religion hath no design or end at all none at least which thou would'st not be ashamed to profess and own Indeed this temper of heart I am now pleading against an undesirousness or indifferencie of Spirit towards the eternal glory renders Religion the vainest thing in the world For whereas all the other actions of our lives have their stated proper ends Religion hath in this case none at all none to which it hath any designation in its nature or any aptness to subserve This monstrous absurdity it infers and how strange is it that it should not be reflected on That whereas if you ask any man of common understanding what he doth this or that action for especially if they be stated actions done by him in an ordinary course he can readily tell you for such and such an end But ask him why he continues any practice of Religion he cannot say in this case for what For can any man imagine what other end Religion naturally serves for but to bring men to blessedness which being no other thing then what hath been here described such as are found not to desire it really and Supremely as their end can have no real attainable end of their being religious at all To drive on a continued course and series of actions in a visible pursuit of that which they desire not and have no mind to is such a piece of folly so fond and vain a trifling that as I remember Cicero reports Cato to have said concerning the South-sayers of his time he did wonder they could look in one anothers faces and not laugh being conscious to each others impostures and the vanity of their profession so one would as justly wander that the generality of carnal men who may shrewdly guess at the temper of one anothers minds do not laugh at each other that they are joyntly engaged in such exercises of Religion to the design whereof the common and agreed temper of their Spirits do so little correspond As if all were in very good earnest for Heaven when each one knows for himself and may possibly with more Truth then Charity suppose of the rest that if they might alwayes continue in their earthly stations they had rather never come there And therefore that they desire it not Supremely and so not as their end at all consider it then that thy no-desire of this blessed state quite dispirits thy Religion utterly ravishes away its Soul leaves it a dead foolish vain thing renders it an idle impertinency not a mean to a valuable end This desire is that life of Religion all duties and exercises of piety are without it but empty Formalities Solemn pieces of Pageantrie Every service done to God but the Sacrifice of a Fool if not animated by the desire of final blessedness in him and be not part of our way thither a means designed to the attainment of it Which nothing can be that we are not put upon by the vertue of the desired end Without this Religion is not it self A continuance in well doing is as it were the body of it and therein a seeking honor glory and immortality the Soul and Spirit The desire of an Heavenly Country must run through the whole course of our Earthly Pilgrimage It were otherwise a continued errour an uncertain wandring no steady tending towards our end So that thou art a meer Vagrant if this desire do not direct thy course towards thy Fathers house And methinks all this should make thee even ashamed of thy self if thou canst not find this desire to have a settled residence and a ruling power in thy Soul then 2. Sense of praise should signifie something too as the Apostle Whatsoever things are pure lovely c. if there be any vertue any praise think of these things And hath not the eternal glory those characters upon it of purity and loveliness beyond all things Is it not a laudable and praise-worthy thing to have a mind and heart set upon that The blessed God puts a note of excellency upon this temper of Spirit But they desire a better Country that is an Heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God c. This renders them a people worthy of him who hath called them to his kingdom and glory fit for him to own a relation to Had they been of low terrene Spirits he would have accounted it a shame to him to have gone under the name and cognisance of their God But in as much as they desire the Heavenly Country have learned to trample this terrestrial world cannot be contained within this lower Sphere nor satisfie themselves in earthly things they now discover a certain excellency of Spirit in respect whereof God is not ashamed to own a relation to them before all the world to be called their God to let men see what account he makes of such a Spirit Yea this is the proper genuine Spirit and temper of a Saint which agrees to him as he is such He is begotten to the eternal inheritance A disposition and therein a desire to it is in his very nature the new nature he hath received implanted there from his original He is born Spirit of Spirit and by that birth is not intituled onely but adopted and suited also to that pure and Spiritual state of blessedness That grace by the appearance whereof men are made Christians teaches also instructs unto this very thing to
som big words or to give a faint or seeming assent to such as speak them in the names but t is impossible they should be in good earnest or believe themselves in what they say and profess And what reply then should we be able to make for who can think that any who acknowledge a God and understand at all what that name imports should value at so low a rate as we visibly do the eternal fruition of his glory and a present Sonship to him the pledge of so great an hope He that is born Heir to great Honours and Possessions though he be upon great uncertainties as to the enjoyment of them for how many interveniencies may prevent him yet when he comes to understand his possibilities and expectancies how big doth he look and speak what grandieur doth he put on His hopes form his Spirit and Deportment But is it Proportionably so with us Do our hopes fill our hearts with joy our mouths with praise and clothe our faces with a cheerful aspect and make an holy alacrity appear in all our conversations But let not the design of this discourse be mistaken 'T is â—oâ— a presumptuous confidence I would encourage nor a vain ostentation nor a disdainful overlooking of others when we fancie our selves to excel Such things hold no proportion with a Christian Spirit His is a modest humble exaltation a serious severe joy suitable to his solid stable hope His Spirit is not puft up and swol'n with air 't is not big by an inflation or a light and windy humour but 't is really fill'd with effectual pre-apprehensions of a weighty glory His joy accordingly exerts it self with a steady lively vigour equally removed from vain lightness and stupidity from conceitedness and insensibleness of his blessed state He forgets not that he is less then the least of Gods mercies but disowns not his title to the greatest of them He abases himself to the dust in the sense of his own vileness but in the admiration of Divine Grace he rises as high as Heaven In his humiliation he affects to equal himself with worms in his joy and praise with angels He is never unwilling to diminish himself but affraid of detracting any thing from the love of God or the issues of that love But most of all he magnifies as he hath cause this its last and most perfect issue And by how much he apprehends his own unworthiness he is the more rapt up into a wondering joy that such blessedness should be his designed portion But now how little do we find in our selves of this blessed frame of spirit How remote are we from it Let us but enquire a little into our own Souls Are there not too apparent Symptomes with us of the little joy we take in the forethoughts of future blessedness For First How few thoughts have we of it what any delight in they remember often 'T is said of the same person that his delight is in the Law of the Lord and that in his Law he doth meditate day and night And when the Psalmist professes his own delight in Gods statutes he adds I will not forget thy Word Should we not be as unapt to forget Heaven if our delight were there But do not dayes pass with us wherein we can allow our selves no leasure to mind the eternal glory when yet vanities throng in upon us without any obstruction or check And what is consequent hereupon How seldom is this blessed state the subject of our discourse How often do Christians meet and not a word of Heaven O heavy carnal hearts Our home and eternal blessedness in this appears to be forgotten among us How often may a person converse with us e're he understand our relation to the Heavenly Country If Exiles meet in a Forraign Land what pleasant discourse have they of home They suffer not one another to forget it Such was their remembrance of Sion who sate together bemoaning themselves by the Rivers of Babylon a making mention of it as the Phrase is often used And methinks even as to this remembrance it should be our common resolution too If we forget thee O Jerusalem If we forget to make mention of thee O thou City of the living God Let our right hand forget her cunning our tongue shall sooner cleave to the roof of our mouth and so it would be did we prefer that Heavenly Jerusalem above our chief joy Again how little doth it weigh with us It serves not to out-weigh the smallest trouble if we have not our eternal desire in every thing gratified if any thing fall out cross to our inclinations this glory goes for nothing with us Our discontents swallow up our hopes and joyes and heaven is reckon'd as a thing of naught If when outward troubles afflict or threaten us we could have the certain prospect of better dayes that would sensibly revive and please us Yea can we not please our selves with very uncertain groundless hopes of this kind without promise or valuable reason But to be told of a recompense at the resurrection of the just of a day when we shall see the face of God and be satisfied with his Likeness this is insipid and without favor to us and affords us but cold comfort The uncertain things of time signifie more with us then the certain things of eternity Can we think t is all this while well with us can we think this a tollerable evil or suffer with patience such a distemper of Spirit Methinks it should make us ever weary of our selves and solicitous for an effectual speedy redress The redress must be more in our own doing striving with our souls and with God for them then in what any man can say Most of the considerations under the foregoing rule are with little variation applicable to this present purpose I shall here annex only some few subordinate directions which may lead us into this blessed state of life and give us some joyful foretasts of the future blessedness according as our spirits shall comply with them But expect not to be cured by prescriptions without using them or that heavenly joy can be the creature of mortal unregarded breath we can onely prescribe means and methods through which God may be pleased to descend and in which thou art diligently to insist and wait And because I cannot well suppose the ignorant where much is said to this purpose I shall therefore say little 1. Possess thy soul with the apprehension that thou art not at liberty in this matter but that there is a certain spiritual delectation which is incumbent on thee as indispensable duty Some whose moroser tempers do more estrange them from delights think themselves more especially concern'd to banish every thing of that kind from their religion and phansie it onely to consist in sowr and rigorous severities Others seem to think it arbitrary and indifferent or that if they live in a continual sadness and dejection
that its tendencie thereto is direct and certain In the present case both these are obvious enough at the first view For as to the former of them all the world will agree without disputing the matter that the last end of man i. e. which he ultimately propounds to himself is his best good and that he can design no further good to himself then satisfaction nothing after or beyond that and what can afford it if the vision and participation of the Divine Glory do not As to the latter besides all that assurance given by Scripture-constitution to the righteous man concerning his future reward let the Consciences be consulted of the most besotted sinners in any lucid interval and they will give their suffrage Balaam that so earnestly followed the reward of unrighteousness not excepted that the way of righteousness is that only likely way to happiness and would therefore desire to die at least the righteous mans death and that their latter end should be like his So is wisdom I might call it righteousness too the wicked man is the Scripture-Fool and the righteous the wise man justified not by her children only but by her enemies also And sure 't is meet that she should be more openly justified by her Children and that they learn to silence and repress those misgiving thoughts Surely I have washed my hands in vain c. And be steadfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as they know their labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XV. Two other Inferences from the Consideration of the season of this blessedness The former That in as much as this blessedness is not attained in this life The present happiness of Saints must in a great part consist in hope The latter That great is the wisdom and sagacity of the righteous man which waves a present temporary happiness and chuses that which is distant and future IN as much as the season of this blessedness is not on this side the Grave nor expected by Saints till they awake we may further infer Ninthly That their happiness in the mean time doth very much consist in hope Or that hope must needs be of very great necessity and use to them in their present state for their comfort and support It were not otherwise possible to subsist in the absence and want of their highest good while nothing in this lower world is as to kind and nature suitable to their desires or makes any colorable overture to them of satisfaction and happiness Others as the Psalmist observes have their portion in this life that good which as to the species and kind of it is most grateful to them is present under view within sight And as the Apostle Hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for it But those whose more refined spirits having received the first fruits of the holy Spirit of God prompt them to groan after something beyond time and above this Sublunarie Sphere of them the Apostle there tell us that they are saved by hope They as if he should say subsist by it they were never able to hold out were it not for their hope And that an hope too beyond this life as is the hope of a christian if in this life only we had hope in Christ c. the hope of a Christian as such is suitable to its productive cause the resurrection of Christ from the dead begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection c. Thence is it the hope of a renewed never dying life the hope of a blessed immortality whereof Christs resurrection was a certain argument and pledge Indeed the new creature is ab origine and all along an hoping creature both in its primum and its porro esse 'T is conceived and formed and nurst up in hope In its production and in its progress towards perfection 't is maniâ—â—â—â—ly influenc't thereby In the first return of the soul to God hope being then planted as a part of the holy gracious Nature now manifestly discovers it self when the soul begins to act as turning after the reception of the Divine influence is its act hope insinuates it self into or induces rather that very act Returning is not the act of a despairing but hoping soul. 'T is God apprehended as reconcileable that attracts and wins it while he is look't upon as an implacable enemy the soul naturally shuns him and comes not nigh till drawn with those cords of a man the bands of love While it says there is no hâ—pe it says with all desperately enough I have loved strangers and after them will I go But if there be any hope in Israel concerning this thing If it can yet apprehend God willing to forgive then Let us make a covenant c. This presently draws the hovering soul into a closure and league with him And thus is the union continued unsteadfâ—stness in the Covenant of God is resolved into this not setting or fixing of hope in him or which amounts to the same setting of hope in God is directed as a means to steadfastness of spirit with him and a keeping of his Covenant Râ—volting souls are encouraged to return to the Lord upon this conâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 that salvation is hâ—â—ed for in vain â—â—om any other The case being indeed the sâ—me in all after conversions as in the first God â—s multiplying 〈◊〉 pâ—rdâ—n and still retaining the same name the Lord the Lord grâ—ciâ—â—◠〈…〉 which name in all the seâ—â—rails that compose and make it up is in his Christ invites back to him the backsliding sinner and renews its thoughts of returning And so is he afterwards under the teachings of grace led on by hope thorough the whole course of Religion towards the future glory Grace appears teaching sinners to deny ungoodliness c. in the looking for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God c. So do they keep themselves in the love of God Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Thus is the new creature formed in hope and nourisht in hope And if its eye were upon pardon at first 't is more upon the promised glory afterwards And yet that last end hath in a degree its attractive influence upon it from the first formation of it 't is even then taught to design for glory 'T is begotten to the lively hope where though hope be taken objectively as the apposition shews of the following words to an inheritance yet the act is evidently connoted for the thing hoped for is meant under that notion as hoped for And its whose following course is an aiming at glory a seeking glory honâ—ur immortality c. Thus is the work of Sanctification carried on He that hath this hope â—urisieth himself Thus are losses sustained The spoiling of goods taken joyfully through the expectation of the better and enduring