body which in the Platonical opinion is but a Prison in the Apostolical is a Temple when it is in Christ When our Lord possesses and governs it he elevates the condition of this vile body even while it is upon the earth He makes it a place where God dwells where God is worshipped and glorified where God appears and manifests himself What a strong invitation is this to all that believe to turn from every evil way and to be holy as he that hath called us is holy in all manner of conversation Whereby they will be turned into such beautiful and glorious Tabernacles as to become the habitation of God through the Spirit 4. And what can more powerfully move us than all these considerations to be stedfast and unmoveable in the work of the Lord if any temptation assault us and begin to shake the constancy of our Christian resolution The Apostle might well beseech us to stand fast as a body doth that is firmly seated upon a good basis and foundation for we know saith he that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. As we know that the temptations which flatter us are very inviting to our fleshly appetites as we feel the allurements of the pleasures and advantages of this world so we know if we be believers that there are infinitely better things to counter-ballance and weigh down the fairest of all the temptations which sollicite us We are assured if we keep our station and preserve our selves holy and undefiled that we have a building with God that is unmoveable and cannot be shaken Let us keep our selves therefore in our seat let us not be moved by any of the enticements of the world nor by any shock which violent hands may give us for we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets who were sent by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 20. 2 Tim. 1. 1. Our hope stands fast let us do so too and building up our selves in our most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep our selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 20 21. There are but these three things my beloved to be done for the attaining of this heavenly condition First Strongly to believe that there is such an happy state Secondly To believe that they only shall enjoy it who love God and live in obedience to the Gospel of Christ And Thirdly To be led by this faith and act according to the necessary direction of it Now how easie is that when we have convinced our selves thoroughly of the two former All the difficulty and labour is to believe seriously and stedfastly to perswade our selves of the truth of those things which God hath prepared for those that love him When they are become sensible to us and we look constantly for the mercy of our Lord unto eternal life we cannot chuse but endeavour to attain them more than the best condition that this world affords And when we see that they cannot be possessed without an holy life what should hinder us from having our fruit unto holiness whose end is everlasting life It is manifest that as the nature of man is formed to chuse that which is deemed good and to leave and eschew that which is apprehended to be evil so it is made to preferr a great good before a little and to abandon a trifling enjoyment if by that means we may escape a sore mischief and gain a more noble and illustrious happiness Now it is no less apparent that a Royal Pallace is more desirable in all mens eyes than a little hovel of Turf and Straw an everlasting building that will need no repairs nor ever fall to the ground to be chosen before a tottering frame which every gust of wind shakes and must shortly tumble into the dust upon which it stands What is the matter then that men preferr the condition of a Beggar before that of a Prince That they set their hearts upon that which is built upon a dung-hill before that whose foundations are in Heaven and stands upon the immutable Promise and Power of God I mean that the pleasures and enjoyments of this life gain an higher esteem in their thoughts than the delitious joyes of the world to come And the dull entertainments of this body are advanced and lifted up to an higher place in their affections than all the entertainments of the soul yea and those which God hath provided for the body it self if we would manage and order all its desires according to his holy will There can no cause be assigned of this preposterous choice but only this that they feel these present things but have no feeling of those that are to come They let sense prevail above faith and what here addresses it self to them they receive with a greater affection than they do the reports of those heavenly things which our Saviour hath brought to light by his Gospel They taste the pleasures of meat and drink and all the enjoyments of a fleshly Nature but have little or no rellish at all of those delights which are spiritual for the hope of which our Lord and his Apostles despised the other as not worthy to be compared with the pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore They feel this Body wherein they now are and though it be heavy and burdensome in some conditions of life yet it is better a great deal than none at all And such the heavenly building seems to be because our souls are not united to it and have no sense of it but look upon it as a thing that is not and never shall be bestowed on them We must perswade our selves then of the reality and certainty of the state which is to come we must labour to touch it and live in a constant sense and expectation of it By faith we must bring our minds to some such union and conjunction with that house not made with hands as they have with this tabernacle wherein they now inhabit We must let our thoughts as they say dwell upon it for though a thing be never so certain in it self yet if we do not apprehend it so to be it will no more move us than if it were not at all And according as the reasons and motives that we have of faith are little or great so will our perswasisions be weak and feeble or strong and powerfull If we would have our Faith then do any thing worthy of the Gospel and produce any good effects in our hearts we must firmly lay the grounds of it and keep them alwayes visible naked and bare to our eye and we must often look upon them and diligently consider them else all that we build upon it will shake and waver and be apt upon every temptation to be overthrown That is we must constantly represent to our selves the Lord Jesus as
lightsome heavenly and spiritual according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself 1 Cor. 15. 49. Phil. 3. 21. VI. And this truly they knew as well as any thing else that he lives for evermore and can make good his kind intentions and gracious promises According to his own words which he spake to St. John when he appeared to him Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and Death That he promised such glorious things they were very certain for they heard him speak them with their own ears That it was his goodness and kindness alone which moved him to engage himself in those promises they were well assured for nothing else could perswade him to it And that his power was equal to his will they had abundant demonstration for they saw him open the eyes of him that was born blind and raise Lazarus out of his Grave to behold the light of the Sun and all the beauties of this world Now what reason had they to imagine that his goodness was lessened when his Glory was encreased since there is no good man but is still growing better Or how could they suspect any defect in his power now that he was made Lord of all and they felt him also every where present to work such wonders at their word that they raised the dead to life again as he himself had done What greater evidence could they desire of his ability to make good all his promises of raising up themselves to a more glorious life They might very well trust his word that as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself John 5. 26. that be came that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly John 10. 10. and that because he lived they should live also John 14. 19. VII Especially since they knew by the strange change that he had wrought already in every one of their souls that he could easily do as much for their bodies It was no harder for him they knew to give a luminous body than it was so marvellously to illuminate their minds to turn this earthly house into an heavenly than to fill the spirits of common men with the Spirit and Wisdom of God That pureness agility and incorruption of the body which they looked for was as easie to be effected in the twinkling of an eye as it was for their souls to receive on a sudden such quickness of thoughts the light of Prophecy the gift of Languages and all the other excellent endowments which they found themselves possessed of He that had converted their minds into a kind of Angelical understanding they knew could raise them still to what degree he pleased and convert their other part into as high a glory So that the Angels should as much admire the change of the one as they did of the other and as now they desired to look into the goodly state of the Christian Church so hereafter they should be very much surprized with the greater splendor of it when they saw the dead raised and made equal to themselves Marcion indeed and other ancient Hereticks vilified the body so much that they thought it unworthy of the Care of God But as Tertullian smartly replyed they loved it too well though they despised and undervalued it so much and as for God he will never despise the work of his own hands And it is not one of his ordinary works neither but the work of his Counsel The receptacle of a noble Spirit that which ministers to the Most High and doth him service that which is offered and sacrificed to him by the holy Martyrs that which the Son of God himself did not despise Therefore Absit absit ut Deus ingenii sui curam c. Far be it from God far be it from him to abandon and cast away the care of his Counsel and admirable contrivance the receiver of his breath the Queen of his Creation the Heir of his Liberality the Priest and Minister of his Religion the Souldier of his Testimony which witnesses to him by sufferings and in one word the Sister of Christ Jesus which he hath purchased also with his blood He will not forsake it and leave it for ever in its ruines He will make it the subject of more of his care and bestow on it more of his Counsel He will make it far better and turn it into a Nobler Being And though the Apostles did not now feel the beginning of a change in it as they did in their Spirits yet the wonderful advancement which they felt in them forced them to conclude that he could as easily raise and improve their mortal bodies And it was a proof also that he would for one Promise being fulfilled of sending the Spirit upon them it was an earnest of the other Promise that he would turn these earthly bodies into heavenly Planè accepit hîc Spiritum Caro sed arrabonem as the same Tertullian speaks The Flesh it self also hath plainly here received the Spirit but as an earnest only What God poured out upon their souls was a pledge of his love to their bodies Their flesh hereby received a testimony that it should be made spiritual and incorruptible VIII To conclude they knew likewise there had been some alteration already made upon occasion in the body of some of them and that others also felt an higher elevation of their soul As for the body St. Steven's face was seen as it had been the face of an Angel Acts 6. ult Angelicum jam fastigium induer at as the fore-named Author speaks he had already put on the Angelical state and dignity he was arrayed for a time with their brightness and glory It was not the Author of this Religion only which was transfigured but his followers also in some measure And as that transfiguration of our Saviour on the holy Mount was to fore-shadow his glory in the Heavens so might this of St. Steven's be to shew what God would do for his faithful servants there St. Paul was more than ordinarily assured of it for he was lifted up in soul at least to the third Heavens and carried likewise into Paradise as he tells us in Chap. 12. of this Epistle In which places he heard among the heavenly company there unexpressible words which it was not possible for him to utter and relate to others when he came down to conceive with his brain and speak with his tongue again But this ecstasie of Spirit or translation of his thither gave him a high fore-taste of the bliss of the coelestial inhabitants And clearly demonstrated what unspeakable joy and pleasures our souls are capable of when they remove into those Mansions and to what a pitch of glory both soul and body shall be promoted at the resurrection of the dead It was manifest
designs and labours They slighted and trod upon all other things in compare with this which they valued infinitely above all the contentments and satisfactions of this present life There were none of them that studied to make any purchases in this world to lay to their earthly house They had no designs to grow rich and great to provide themselves with fair estates or to raise themselves a Name and a praise among men They did not follow the pleasures of this world nor contrived how their body might enjoy its ease and take its fill of sensual delights No though they wrought Miracles with a word of their mouth they never employed any of them for their temporal gain and advantage Silver and Gold they had none though they were inriched with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost They healed all manner of Diseases but received nothing for the Cure They spoke with Tongues taught Mysteries instructed men in heavenly knowledge but freely they received and freely they gave to all their Disciples None of them sought to advance himself to the degree of a Noble man or a Ruler of this world None of them laboured so much as to settle himself in a competent Estate but they went up and down as their Master did and had no certain dwelling-place They sought only for this building of God which is above the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us This was all the possessions that they aimed at They had nothing in their thoughts but to go to Jesus and to carry others along with them to those coelestial Mansions where he is A great token of the sincerity of their belief a manifest demonstration that they thought themselves sure of what they preached For otherwise they would not have been so foolish and unthrifty as not to have made some present temporal benefit of that great knowledge and power wherewith they were endowed IV. But more than this they were so sure of this building of God in the Heavens that they endured all sorts of miseries and pains in this life meerly in hopes and expectations of it So St. Paul tells us as I noted before in the fore-going Chapter and gives us a more particular account of his sufferings whereby he approved himself a Minister of God Chap. 6. 4 5 8 9 10. and afterward a larger Catalogue of them Chap. 11. 23 24 25 26 27. Which when you have read you will not doubt but that they knew whom they had trusted as he speaks in another place 2 Tim. 1. 12. and were perswaded that he was able to keep that which they had committed unto him against that day They exposed this house I mean this Body wherein they were to all the injuries and violence of an angry world They regarded not what breaches were made in it by cruel hands They suffered it to be rifled and spoiled of all its goods They let it be ripped up and laid bare that men might see into the sincerity of their hearts in this belief Nay they cared not though it were pulled down and laid even with the ground They let fire be set to it and contentedly saw it turn'd to ashes Which they could never have consented unto if they had not been assured of a better habitation a building of God eternal in the Heavens Were they think you the only fools who knew not what was good for themselves Were men of so great knowledge can you imagine destitute of so much Wit as not to understand the value of life Were they so grosly ignorant as not to know that pleasure is better than pain And a poor house better than none at all What should make them then forsake the common sense of mankind who by all means labour to preserve life and seek to maintain the comforts and enjoyments of it unless it were this belief which I speak of that they should gain a more happy life by leaving this and make an exchange of a mean and contemptible dwelling for one more honourable and glorious It was not a fancy that could prevail with such wise men as they appeared against sense and bodily feeling Though fools may carelesly throw themselves into dangers yet we cannot conceive how men of such divine reason could support themselves by meer imagination under so many dreadful sufferings We must rather conclude that it was the presence and real possession of some great good infinitely surpassing all others which made them quit so easily that which others hold so fast and endure so constantly that which others so solicitously labour to avoid And it is considerable that they not only suffered all the torments the world could inflict but under-went them with great patience and admirable quiet of mind Nay they endured not only with patience but with joy nay counted it all joy when they fell into divers tryals And more than this they gloried in tribulations nay esteemed it as a gift on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer also for his sake As if they had looked on their sufferings with the same eye that they did on their coelestial habitations which they made account were a gift a grace and favour of God to them Nor was there any of them otherwise minded but they all departed from the presence of the Council where they had been beaten rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name Acts 5. 41. and as St. Paul testifies of himself none of these things moved them neither counted they their lives dear unto themselves so that they might finish their course with joy Acts 20. 24. There was not one of them that shrank back when his life was in danger and would not leave his possessions here which we may well think would have hapned if they had not verily believed as they spake Some or other of them would have discovered the fraud if they had gone about to abuse the world A Rack would have made them speak the truth a Gibbet the Fire or some other torture would have drawn from them another confession if they could have said any thing but this that the crucified Jesus was alive again and was gone to Heaven and lived for evermore and had all power in Heaven and Earth and would receive their Spirits and raise their dead bodies that they might live and reign for ever with him in the high and holy place where he is But in this they all agreed to lay down their lives and suffer themselves to be cast out of their present dwellings which was a sign they had good security given them of enjoying everlasting habitations as our Saviour calls them Luke 16. 9. which no power on earth can touch And that brings me to the last thing the Apostle took his security to be so unquestionable that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have a building of God V. They were so sure of this that it seemed to them as if
to them by all these means that he that hath the Son i. e. effectually believes in Christ and is his faithful follower hath life And these things they have written unto us that believe on the Name of the Son of God that we may know that we have eternal life 1 John 5. 12 13. For faith is a certain and sure way of knowledge as well as any else And our Faith relies you see on the Testimony of the Men of God who did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known the power and coming of our Lord Jesus but were eye witnesses of his Majesty c. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17. And as St. Paul speaks in Ver. 2. of the fore-going Chapter had renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God There appeared nothing of fraud and guile in any of their speeches or actions but the greatest simplicity ingenuity and singleness of heart that can be imagined They abominated all dishonest dealing and did not pretend to receive things from the Lord when they were but the devices or dreams of their own brains But as the Apostle tells them in this Epistle Chap. 12. 12. the signs of his being sent of God were wrought among them in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds That which they had heard which they had seen with their eyes which they had looked upon and their hands had handled of the word of life they declared unto the world For the life was manifested saith St. John and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1. John 1. 1 2 3. Let us not therefore be faithless but believe the testimony of men so well assured For to think that there is no habitation for us in the Heavens after we depart from these earthly houses because we were never there is as foollish and senseless as if a man but poorly bred and that had never stirred beyond the door of his Cottage should imagine that all the goodly buildings he hears of at London or which are shown him from the top of an Hill some Miles distance from it are but so many Clouds and phantasms in the Air and have no real being Let us but a little awaken our souls to look beyond this house of clay Let us but go out of doors in our thoughts and meditations stretching our minds further than the things of sense and we shall clearly discern in this light of God which hath shone from Heaven upon us that there is a far more glorious state in a building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For these things saith the Amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the Creation of God Rev. 3. 14. These things say the Servants of Christ the Stewards of the Mysteries of God in all things approving themselves to be his Ministers 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2. 6. 4. We ought therefore to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip How shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will 2 Heb. 1. 3 4. II. And that you may be moved to the greater attension to these things and not to slight the report of our Lord himself and of men chosen of God to be his witnesses give me leave to speak a few words of the other remaining Heads mentioned at the beginning which will add some strength and force to what you have heard It is considerable then that this was a matter generally known a thing wherein they were all agreed They had a knowledge as I have told you of them and not a meer opinion It was not only a probable but a certain truth which they preached to the world And yet an opinion that is not private but common is very much respected and carries no small Authority with it We are all very much over-awed by that which is universally received and inclined to follow that which is every where had in reverence How much more then is this to be regarded and worthy of all acceptation which stands upon such solid foundations and to which there was also a common consent They were all satisfied that this was the very truth of God there was no dispute or division among them about this Doctrine It was the thing which they had heard from the beginning that this is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life 1 John 2. 24 25. This was every Apostles sense this they all preached this every Christian believed It was the common Faith of Gods elect the common hope of their heavenly calling and in one word the common salvation Titus 1. 1 2 4. Ephes 4. 4. Jude 3. It was not the belief of St. Paul alone he was not the only man that published this glad tydings to the world But they all heard the voice of Christ they all beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father they all were witnesses of his resurrection and all felt the same miraculous change wrought in their souls and as our Lord prayed that they might be one as he and the Father were John 17. 9. so they unanimously delivered that which they received 1 Cor. 15. 3. 11. and preached this hope of the Gospel to every creature which is under heaven Col. 1. 23. teaching every man in all wisdom that they might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Whereunto I also labour saith the same Apostle striveing according to his working which worketh in me mightily Ib. V. 28 29. This shews that they had no slight and superficial thoughts of the life to come but that they were exceeding serious in the belief of it being rooted and grounded in this truth Which will more fully appear if you go on to consider III. That they knew these things so clearly and were so abundantly satisfied in the certainty of them that they made them their scope and their aim to which they directed and at which they levelled all their desires and endeavours This the Particle FOR puts us in mind of which sends our thoughts back to the words before and gives us an account of that character which we there find of the Apostles of our Lord who looked * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not at the things which were seen but at the things which were not seen They were so perswaded of this happy state hereafter that it was alwayes in their eye and they made it the mark to which they bent all their thoughts