and spent that 't is like the shadow of a Dream and proportionably their Joy is lessened Honours like Perfumes by custom are less sensible to those that carry them But the Saints above always consider and feel the excellent difference between their suffering and triumphant state They never lose that ravishing part of felicity the vivid sense of past evils Their reflections are always as strong on the Misery from whence they were rais'd to the pitch of Happiness as in their first glorious Translation In what an Extasy of wonder and pleasure will they be from the fresh memory of what they were and the joyful sense of what they are I was says the admiring Soul poor blind and naked but O miraculous and happy Alteration I am full of Light enrich'd with the Treasures of Heaven adorn'd with Divine Glory I was under the tyrannous power of Satan but he is bruised under my feet I was sentenc'd to an everlasting separation from the Presence of God my only Life and Joy but now am possest of my supream Good O how transporting is the comparison of these wide and contrary extreams How beautiful and pleasant is the Day of Eternity after such a dark tempestuous Night How does the remembrance of such Evils produce a more lively and feeling fruition of such Happiness How strangely and mightily does Salvation with Eternal Glory affect the Soul This gives a spritely accent to their everlasting Hallelujahs This preserves an affectionate Heat in their Thanksgivings to their Victorious Deliverer And thus their Happiness is always the same and always new Their pleasure is continued in its perfection Lastly The Blessedness of the Saints is without end This makes Heaven to be it self There is no satiety of the present no solicitude for the future Were there a possibility or the least suspicion of losing that happy state it would cast an aspersion of bitterness upon all their delights they could not enjoy one moments repose but the more excellent their Happiness is the more stinging would their fear be of parting with it But the Inheritance reserved in Heaven is immortal undefiled and fades not away And the tenure of their Possession is infinitely firm by the Divine Power the true Support of their everlasting Duration With God is the Fountain of Life They enjoy a better Immortality than the Tree of Life could have preserved in Adam The Revolutions of the Heavens and Ages are under their Feet and cannot in the least alter or determin their Happiness After the passing of millions of Years still an entire Eternity remains of their enjoying God O most desireable State where Blessedness and Eternity are inseparably united O joyful Harmony when the full Chorus of Heaven shall sing This God is our God for ever and ever This adds an infinite weight to their Glory This redoubles their unspeakable Joys with infinite sweetness and security They repose themselves in the compleat Fruition of their Happiness God reigns in the Saints and they live in him for ever CHAP. III. The Mercy of God the Original Cause of his designing and preparing Heaven for his People The Obedience of Christ the meritorious Cause Some Qualifications are required in those that shall possess it The holy Change of Man's Nature indispensibly requisite in order to his Reception into Heaven The Reasons of it specified HAving such a Revelation of Heaven in the Gospel that all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them in comparison are but as a Glow-worm to the Light of the Sun with what inflamed desires should we seek and strive for that unchangeable Happiness In order to this we shall consider the causes of it and the means whereby 't is obtain'd The Original moving Cause is the pure rich Mercy of God that prepared it for his People and prepares them for it The procuring Cause is the meritorious efficacy of Christ's Obedience and Sufferings This is expresly declared by the Apostle The wages of Sin is Death but the gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I. The designing the preparation and actual bestowing of the Heavenly Glory is from the Mercy of God This will appear by considering 1. That it is absolutely impossible that a meer Creature though perfect should deserve any thing from God For enjoying its being and powers of working from his Goodness the product of all is entirely due to him And the payment of a Debt acquires no Title to a Reward He is the Proprietary and Lord of all by Creation Hence 't is clear that in the order of distributive Justice nothing can be challenged from him 2. Besides such is the infinite Perfection of God in Himself that no benefit can redound to him by the service of the Creature When you have done all say you are unprofitable Servants for we have done what we ought to do The neglect of our duty justly exposes to punishment but the performance of it deserves no Reward because no advantage accrues to God by it Who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompensed to him again He challenges all Creatures even of the highest order To speak strictly therefore When God crowns the Angels with Glory he gives what is meerly his own and does not render what is theirs If he should leave them in their pure Nature or deprive them of their Being he were no loser nor injurious to them For what Law binds him to enrich them with Immortal Glory who are no ways profitable to him or to preserve that being they had from his unexcited Goodness No Creature can give to him therefore none can receive from him by way of valuable Consideration 3. There is no proportion between the best works of Men and the excellency of the Reward much less an equivalence 'T was the just and humble acknowledgment of Jacob to God I am less than the least of all thy Mercies those that common Providence dispenses for the support and refreshment of this temporal Life But how much less than the glorious Excellencies of the supernatural Divine Life wherein the Saints reign with God for ever The most costly the most difficult and hazardous Services are equally nothing in point of Merit with the giving but a Cup of cold Water to a Disciple of Christ there being no correspondence in value between them and the Kingdom of Heaven The Apostle tells us I count the Sufferings of the present Life are not to be compar'd to the Glory that shall be revealed in us And suffering is more than doing God rewards his faithful Servants not according to the dignity of their Works but his own Liberality and Magnificence As Alexander having ordered fifty Talents of Gold to be given to a Gentleman in Poverty to supply his want and he surpris'd with that immense Bounty modestly said ten were enough He replied If fifty are too much for you to receive ten are too little for me to give therefore do you receive as Poor
afraid lest the belief of those terrible Truths should enter into their Breasts therefore are utterly careless of what may convince them of their danger and will not foresee what they shall certainly suffer This is obstinate and the most incurable Infidelity An instance whereof we have in the Pharisees who rejected our Saviour Though all the Characters of the Messiah were conspicuous in his Person though his Doctrines were confirmed by Miracles yet they would not yeild up themselves to that omnipotent conviction so strong were their carnal prejudices against his humble State and holy Doctrines That reproach is more justly due to Infidels under the Gospel than to Israel in the Prophet Who is blind as my Servant The Heathens who are blind from their Birth and have only some glimmering apprehensions that Eternity succeeds Time are less culpable than those who have infinitely more reason to believe it and yet believe it less The Plea for them will be a terrible Accusation against such Unbelievers If a blind Person falls it moves compassion but if one voluntarily shuts his Eyes against the Sun and refuses the direction of the Light and falls from a Precipice his Ruin is the just consequence of his Folly Simple Ignorance excuses as to the degrees of the Fault but affected wilful Ignorance now Reason and Revelation with united Beams give so clear a prospect into the Eternal World aggravates the Guilt and Sentence of such Unbelievers 'T is in vain to offer Arguments to convince them for they are as deaf as Adders to the wisest Instructions till Sense extort a belief from them They have hardned their Hearts and Faces against all Reproofs and by an open contempt of Scripture-Threatnings are past reclaiming There are many degrees of Sins many steps in the descent to Hell but the lowest and nearest the Gates of that infernal Prison is the scornful derision of God's terrible preparations for the Wicked hereafter Besides the most who are Believers in Title are Infidels in Heart Our Saviour tells the Jews who pretended the highest Veneration to the Writings of Moses That if they had believed Moses they would have believed him for Moses wrote of him If Men did seriously believe such an excellent Reward as the Gospel propounds would it be a cold unpersuasive motive to them The depravation of the Will argues a correspondent defect in the Mind though not absolute total Infidelity yet such a weakness and wavering in the Assent that when Temptations are present and urgent and it comes to actual choice Sense prevails over Faith This will be clear by Universal Experience in temporal things The probable hope of Gain will make those who are greedy of Gold prodigal of their Lives and venture through tempestuous Seas to accomplish their Desires And if the belief were equal would not Men do or suffer as much for obtaining what is infinitely more valuable A firm Assent would produce adherence and Faith in the Promises Fidelity in obeying the Commands of Christ. Tertullian proprounds it as a powerful incentive to the Martyrs Quis ergo non libentissimè tantum pro vero habeat erogare quantum alii pro falso Who would not joyfully sacrifice Life and all it sindearments to obtain true Blessedness which others do for the vain Appearance of it On the contrary the fear of a present destructive Evil will controul the most eager Appetites 'T is recorded that when the Army of Israel were in pursuit of the Philistins Saul to compleat his Victory forbad upon pain of Death that any should taste Food till the Sun was down In the chase of their Enemies they past through a Wood abounding with Honey yet notwithstanding their Hunger and Faintness and the easy Provision before them no Man so much as tasted it for the People feared the King's Oath And did Men truly believe and fear the Law of God threatning Hell for Sin would they dare to commit it though invited by pleasant Temptations Nay not only a strong fear but the meer suspicion of great danger will restrain the most vehement desires of Nature What Person though inflamed with Thirst would drink a Glass of cool Liquor if he suspected that deadly Poison were mixt with it And if Men were persuaded that Sin is attended with Death would they drink in Iniquity like Water The Devils themselves are not able to conquer the Fear of Judgment to come they believe and tremble Therefore when it is not active upon the Conscience it is either because Men do not believe the thing it self or that Holiness is necessary to prepare for it Indeed even in true Believers the apprehension of Eternal Things has such great allays that temporal things are over-valued and over-feared A strong Faith in the Truth and Power of God would make the glorious World so sure and near in our Thoughts that with indifferent Affections we should receive good or evil things here rejoice as if we rejoiced not and mourn as if we mourned not Our Lives would be so regular and pure as if the Judg were to come the next hour as if the Sun did now begin to be darkned and the Trumpet of the Arch-angel were sounding and the noise of the dissolving World were universally heard Infidelity deads the Impression and suppresses the reigning Power of Eternal Things in our Hearts In short Men are heavenly or earthly in their Choice and Conversation as they are directed by the sincere Light of Faith or misled by the false beams of Sense CHAP. IX Consideration is requisite in order to a wise Choice How it must be managed that it may be effectual It must be serious frequent and with application to the Soul Motives to it The true Causes why Carnal Men are averse from it THE second thing requisite in order to a wise Choice is Consideration For as by Faith the virtue of the Reward is diffused through all the Faculties and the Powers of the World to come are felt in the Soul so by consideration Faith is exercised and becomes effectual This unites and reinforces the beams of Eternal Truth and inflames the Affections As the Psalmist expresses himself My Heart was hot within me while I was musing the Fire burned Heaven is a Felicity so glorious and attractive that if duly considered no Man can possibly refuse it and Hell is a Misery so extream and fearful that if seriously laid to Heart none can possibly choose it The last End is to be conceived under the notion of an infinite Good without the least mixture of Evil to which the human Will has a natural tendency The liberty of indifference is with respect to some particular good Things which may be variously represented so as to cause inclination or aversion That Men who believe Eternal Life is the Reward of Holiness yet with a careless inadvertency pass over their Duty and that Eternal Death is the Wages of Sin yet securely continue in it is more wonderful than to see
all that call upon him in Truth But to tell Sinners who securely proceed in an habitual course of evil that they may be saved at last and notwithstanding their presumptuous repulses of Gods calls to his Service yet they may come into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour and be rewarded is to give countenance and protection to Sin and to harden them to Destruction Poison is not cured by giving Food but Antidotes that put Nature into a Passion till it be expell'd The Terrours of the Lord can only prove medicinal to such depraved Souls To conclude this Discourse Let us seriously consider the Revelation God has made of himself in the Gospel as a Father and a Judg that Justice and Holiness as well as Mercy are essential to his Nature that our Affections may be accordingly moved towards him If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Presumption and Despair are very dishonourable to God and pernicious to the Soul the one destroys the Fear the other the Love of God But Hope contemper'd with fear hath an excellent influence in the Christian Life As the Ballast and the Wind are both necessary that the Ship may go safely and regularly without the Winds the Ship can make no way and without Ballast 't is in danger of oversetting by every gust Thus Hope and Fear are very useful to bring us safely to Eternal Felicity Fear without Hope stupifies the vigour and alacrity of the Soul that it cannot come to God and Hope without Fear makes it vain and careless of its Duty and liable to be overthrown by every pleasing temptation Briefly let us rightly understand the tenour of Evangelical Promises of Pardon and Grace they are conditional and applicable only to penitent Believers And unfeigned Faith the condition of our Justification purifies the Heart works by Love and is the living Principle of universal Obedience And Repentance unto Life is productive of all good Fruits in their Season Be not deceived God is not mocked as a Man Sows so shall he Reap He that sows to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting CHAP. VI. Our Choice must be Constant. Perseverance in a holy Life absolutely required in order to attaining the Reward The various Temptations that assault Christians to divert them from the pursuit of Heaven The Reason why Perseverance is necessary Cautions against Presumption and a vicious dejection of Spirit I Shall proceed next to consider that our Choice must be firm and lasting victorious over all Temptations The two principal Rules of the Spiritual Life are to begin and end well to fix and establish the main design for Everlasting Happiness and from a determinate Resolution and ratified purpose of Heart to pursue it with firmness and constancy to live for Heaven and with readiness and courage to dye for it if the Glory of God so require Perseverance is indispensably necessary in all that will obtain the Eternal Reward For the clearing this most important Point I will first represent from Scripture the Idea of Perseverance that is attended with Salvation Secondly Confider why 't is so strictly required I. Saving Perseverance includes the permanent residence of Grace in the Soul 'T is composed of the whole Chain of Graces the union of holy habits that are at first infused into a Christian by the sanctifying Spirit When Eternal Life is promised to Faith or Love or Hope 't is upon supposal that those Graces being planted in the Heart shall finally prosper He that is faithful to the Death shall inherit the Crown of Life 'T is Love that never fails that shall enter into Heaven 'T is hope firm unto the end that shall be accomplished in a glorious Fruition If Grace be disseised by a usurping Lust Apostacy will follow and the forfeiture of our right in the Kingdom of Heaven 2. Grace must be continually drawn forth into exercise according to our several states and duties and the various occasions that happen in our course through the World Those who are light in the Lord are commanded to walk as Children of the Light to signify the excellency and purity of the Christian Life Those who live in the Spirit must walk in the Spirit that is by a conspicuous course of Holiness declare the vigour and efficacy of the divine principle that is communicated to them Paulum sepultae distat inertiae celata virtus Virtue that breaks not forth into visible Actions is not worthy of the Name The meer abstaining from evil is not sufficient but all the positive acts of the holy Life are to be constantly done In discharging both these parts of our Duty compleat Religion is exprest and the power of Grace consists 3. Perseverance includes not only continuance in well-doing but fervour and progress towards Perfection There are two fixt States the one in Heaven the other in Hell The blessed Spirits above are arrived to the height of Holiness The Devil and damned Spirits are sunck to the lowest extremity of Sin But in the middle state here Grace in the Saints is a rising growing Light and Sin in the Wicked improves every day like Poison in a Serpent that becomes more deadly by his Age. We are injoined not to remain in our first Imperfections but to follow Holiness to the utmost issue of our Lives to its intire consummation For this end all the dispensations of Providence must be improved whether prosperous or afflicting And the Ordinances of the Gospel were appointed that in the use of them we may be changed into the divine Image from Glory to Glory 4. Perseverance is required notwithstanding all Temptations that may allure or terrify us from our Duties what ever affects us one way or other while we are cloathed with frail Flesh. 'T is the fundamental Principle of Christianity declared by our Saviour If any Man will come after me that is be my Disciple and Servant let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me even to be crucified with him rather than wilfully forfeit his Integrity and Loyalty to Christ. He must by a sacred fixt resolution devest himself of all things even the most valued and desireable in the present World and actually forsake them nay entertain what is most distasteful and resist unto Blood rather than desert his Duty 1. He must with unfainting Patience continue in doing his Duty notwithstanding all Miseries and Calamities Losses Disgraces Torments or Death it self which wicked Men and greater Enemies the Powers of Darkness can inflict upon us To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life is promised He that endures to the End notwithstanding the most terrible Sufferings to which he is exposed for Christ's sake shall be saved In this a Christian must be the express
future State where the Misery is extream and nothing remains to allay it that the Damned should be in love with the unhappy good of simple being and not choose an absolute extinction if it might be If any one should be so foolish to think that custom will render that State more tolerable he may find a terrible confutation of his vain Fancy Indeed continuance under light Evils may arm the Mind with patience to bear them but in great extremities it makes the Evil more ponderous and intolerable He that is tortured with the Stone or on the Rack the longer the Torture continues the less able he is to sustain it In short as the Joy of Heaven is infinitely more ravishing that the Blessed are without fear of losing it so the Misery of Hell is proportionably tormenting that the Damned are absolutely destitute of hopes of a release O 't is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who lives for ever and can punish for ever Now the serious Consideration of this Misery is the most proper and powerful means to awaken indulgent Sinners and make them resolved to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right Eye to part with the dearest Lusts rather than be exposed to it According to the judgment of Sense would any one in his Wits choose the enjoyment of the most intense and exquisite Pleasures for a Year and afterwards be content to burn in a Fornace for a Day much less to enjoy them for a Day and to burn for a Year what stupid Beasts are they who for momentary Delights incur the Fiery and Eternal Indignation of God Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy are we stronger than he Try but the Finger with the Flame of a Candle or touch but a hot Coal you will soon discover your weakness But alas how hardly are Men induc't to exercise their Minds on this terrible Object He thinks least of Hell who has most reason to consider it so unwilling is the carnal Heart to have represented to it the evil to come Yet this is the first Motive that compels Sinners to change their course and turn from Sin to Holiness from the Creatures to God The Joys of Heaven being Spiritual and Divine as was before observed have no attractive influence upon their Affections would never convert and reform any but the torment of Fire being most evident and vehement to Sense is strongly represented by the Imagination and affects carnal Men. How many abound with vicious obstinate habits that by solemn and believing thoughts of the unquenchable Fire have felt the Miracle upon the three Children in the Fornace renewed in themselves their strong Cords burnt asunder and all their Powers restored to the freedom of Duty the blessed liberty of Obedience The Truth is if God had not formed Hell for the Punishment of Sin and only prepared the Celestial Kingdom for the Reward of Holiness the blessed Angels would be the sole Possessors of it and Heaven would be as empty of human Souls as 't is full of Glory so foolishly and violently is the corrupt nature of Man drawn by what is pleasing to Sense though with the certain loss of the most precious and eternal good things in the Divine Treasury But the belief that within a little time nothing will remain of their sinful Pleasures but the never dying Worm and ever living Flames makes them considerative of their imminent danger and as it were by necessity to seek the Kingdom of Heaven as a secondary Object to escape from Hell As the vertue of the Load-stone when encompast and arm'd with Iron is increast and draws a far greater weight than when 't is single thus the attractives of Heaven are more powerful to move our obdurate Hearts when enforc'd from the terrors of Hell In this respect the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom of the active and best Wisdom that directs us in the way to Blessedness CHAP. XIII The last Direction Earnest Prayer to God to inlighten our Minds to believe the Eternal World and effectually turn our Wills to desire and prosecute the Blessedness to come HAving a discovery so clear and certain in the Holy Scriptures of the everlasting recompences in the next World of the Kingdom of Heaven prepared by God to shew his excellent Glory to his faithful Servants where Love and Peace and Joy dwell for ever and of the infernal Prison where despair and Rage and Sorrow and whatever is signified under the terrible allusions of Fire and Brimstone are ordained by Divine Justice for the Wicked it might be justly hoped that all Men would by a holy violence take Heaven and by the swiftest Motion flee from the Wrath to come The instinct of Nature and the light of Reason excite them to secure their most precious Interest Can there be an Expectation Desire or Capacity in Man of enjoying a Blessedness beyond what is Infinite and Eternal And can there be any Evil so formidable as Everlasting Misery Now both these Objects are set before Men and propounded to their Choice And we are infallibly assured from God himself that all who are sincere and constant in their Choice and Pursuit shall obtain Heaven and that none shall be cast into Hell but those who choose it and therefore most worthily suffer it But O astonishment if with a serious Eye we regard the course of Mens Actions 't is visible that incomparably the greatest number of Christians in Profession love Death and hate Eternal Life Not that 't is possible for the reasonable Creature to do this directly with an explicit aim but virtually and by interpretation They intend Happiness but choose Misery For he that voluntarily breaks the Law of God chooses the known Penalty of its Violation He that prefers this perishing World before Heaven rejects it in the most contumelious manner And such is the depravation of Man since his Fall the Mind being diverted by vain Thoughts and the Heart prepossessed with sensual Desires that till the Spirit of his Mind be renewed and his original Affections to the Supream Good be revived and restored by Divine Grace he is regardless of it and only applies himself to what is pleasing to Sense Therefore a most necessary Duty incumbent upon us is by humble and fervent Prayer to address our selves to God for his Spirit to enlighten our Minds that we may believe the reality and greatness of the Eternal Reward and to reform our Wills that we may feel its attractive Force Both these acts of the Spirit are requisite that the Love of God as our chief Felicity may be the regent Principle of our Hearts and Lives 1. For this end the Holy Spirit convinces Men thorowly of the reality and greatness of an invisible Happiness Indeed the Heathens saw something of this as it were in a Dream they had some transient Glances and volatile Wishes concerning it but miserably weak and ineffectual And in the most of
him for ever The most conspicuous difference of Men in this World is that of the Victorious over the Vanquisht prostrate at his Feet But Death makes them equal Then the wretched Captive shall upbraid the proud Conqueror Art thou become weak as we art thou become like us 'T is no wonder then that the wise Preacher despises all the States of the present Life as Vanity For the Fabric cannot be more solid than the Foundation nor the Accident more real than the Being on which it depends On every side Death is in our view and the Shadow of it approaching darkens our brightest Days 'T is no wonder then that he equals the Fool with the Wise. For all that Wisdom that is confin'd to mortal things dies with them Nay he confounds Man with the Beast One thing befals them as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one Breath so that Man has no preeminence above them While we regard him only with the Eye of Sence what shall we see in his Life but Folly mixt with Anxieties and Cares and what in his Death but wasted Spirits the Springs of Motion disordered and at last the living Frame dissolved into the Earth from whence it came But if we consider the Soul that carries in it the clear marks of its Original from God by the same reason that every thing shall be reunited to its Principle that shall return to God that gave it and remain for ever The Felicity therefore to which it naturally aspires must be parallel to its duration From these Considerations 't is above all doubt that Man was designed by his Maker for a higher End than the enjoyment of the present World 2. The consummate Happiness of Man is in his Communion with God For God is a Spiritual Good suitable to the Nature of his better and divine part and communicates Himself to the Spiritual Faculties the Understanding and Will the principles of Man's eminent Operations and most capable of enjoying Felicity God is an infinite Good and can so fully appease all the rational Appetites that nothing is wanting to his entire Blessedness God is an unchangeable Good not to be lost with this Life but may be securely enjoyed to Eternity In the Knowledg and Love in the Imitation and Enjoyment of his Excellencies the highest elevation and compleat satisfaction of the rational Nature consists As Man by applying himself to unworthy things is degraded into a lower Order and his Thoughts and Affections that are Spiritual in respect of their Principles are Sensual and Perishing in respect of their Object so when the noble Faculties are exercised in a perfect manner on their Soveraign Good he is advanc't to an equality of Perfection and Joy with the Angels The more refined Heathens had a glimpse of this Happiness some streaks of it run through their Philosophy But till God was pleased to reveal it the World sat in Darkness and slept securely in the shadow of Death unconcerned for an invisible future Felicity 'T is necessary therefore to inquire into his Word what that blessed State is wherein the final Happiness of Man consists CHAP. II. The clear Revelation of Man's final Happiness by the Gospel 'T is set forth by sensible Representations to make it more intelligible It includes an exemption from all Evils sinful and penal The concurrence of all positive Excellencies to intire Blessedness The Body shall be raised in Glory The Soul shall be made perfect The Vnderstanding shall clearly contemplate the most excellent Objects The Will be inflamed with the perfect Love of God The highest Satisfaction arises from Vnion with God by Knowledg and Love The full Joy of Heaven shall be perpetual 'T Is the peculiar honour of the Gospel that by it Life and Immortality are brought to Light 'T was not wholly concealed from Men that only saw the Creator in his visible Works 'T was more fully discovered by the Law but with incomparable more Clearness by the Gospel The Nature of it is now revealed 'T is a pure and holy Felicity in everlasting Communion with the blessed God The subject of it is the intire Man for this End the Body shall be awakened out of its dead sleep and quickned to an Immortal Life The place is the highest Heavens fram'd by the Divine Hand for the seat of his Majesty the Kingdom of his Love wherein the glorious Communications of himself are to his Favourites The causes of it are the infinite Mercy of God and the meritorious Obedience of his Son in Man's Nature The Means whereby 't is obtained are a lively purifying Faith that unites us to Christ and entitles us to an Inheritance purchased by his most precious Blood And to confirm our Hopes of this Supernatural Happiness Our Saviour exhibited a perfect example of this in himself rising from the Grave crown'd with Immortality and in the presence of his Apostles ascending to Heaven where he sits at the right Hand of God the Head of the Church from whom Glory will descend to his Members To make this supernatural Blessedness more easy and intelligible to us the Scripture describes it by sensible Representations For while the Soul is cloath'd with Flesh Fancy has such a Dominion that we can conceive of nothing but by Comparisons and Images taken from material Things 'T is therefore set forth by a Feast and a Kingdom to signify the Joy and Glory of that State But to prevent all gross conceits it tells us that the Bodies of the Saints shall be spiritual not capable of hunger and thirst nor consequently of any refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those Appetites The Objects of the most noble Senses Seeing and Hearing the pleasure of which is mix'd with Reason and not common to the Brutes are more frequently made use of to reconcile that glorious State to the proportion of our Minds Thus sometimes the Blessed are represented plac'd on Thrones with Crowns on their Heads sometimes cloathed in White with Palms in their Hands sometimes singing Songs of triumph to Him that sits on the Throne and to their Saviour But the reality of this Blessedness infinitely exceeds all those faint Metaphors Heaven is lessened by Comparisons from earthly things The Apostle who was dignifi'd with the revelation of the Successes that shall happen to the Church till Time shall be no more tells us It does not appear what we shall be in Eternity The things that God has prepar'd for those that love him are far more above the highest ascent of our Thoughts than the Marriage-Feast of a great Prince exceeds in splendor and magnificence the imagination of one that has always liv'd in an obscure Village and never saw any Ornaments of State nor tasted Wine in his Life We can think of those things but according to the poverty of our Understandings But so much we know that is able to sweeten all the bitterness and render insipid all the sweetness of this World
lapst and miserable was in his view he chose some to be Vessels of Mercy and by priviledg separated them from the rest that finally perish Now what induc't him to place a singular Love on the Elect There was nothing in them to incline his Compassion being equally guilty and depraved with the rest of the Progeny of Adam This difference therefore is to be resolved into his unaccountable and adorable Will as the sole cause of it Thus God declares it to be his glorious Prerogative I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion And this is no unjust acceptance of Persons For as a Benefactor he may dispense his own Favors as he pleases A Gift from meer and arbitrary Bounty may be bestowed on some and not on others without injustice But there are other actions of God for which there is an evident reason in Men on whom they are terminated Thus as the supreme Judg without respect of Persons he will judg and reward every Man according to his Works The Evangelical Law as was toucht on before is the rule of eternal Judgment and gives a right from the gracious Promise of God to all penitent Believers in the Kingdom of Heaven and excludes all impenitent Infidels Divine Justice will illustriously appear then in distinguishing Believers from Unbelievers by their Works the proper Fruits either of Faith or Infidelity All the thick Clouds of Disgraces Calumnies Persecutions that often oppress the most sincere Christians here shall not then darken their Holiness and all the specious appearances of Piety which the most artificial Hypocrites make use of to deceive others shall not conceal their Wickedness And accordingly the one shall be absolved and glorified the others condemned and punisht for ever In short without violation of his own righteous establishment in the Gospel God cannot receive the unholy into his Glory 3. Besides the Legal Bar that excludes unsanctified Persons from the beatifick vision of God there is a moral incapacity Suppose that Justice should allow Omnipotence to translate such a Sinner to Heaven would the Place make him happy Can two incongruous Natures delight in one another The happiness of Sense is by an impression of Pleasure from a suitable Object The happiness of intellectual Beings arises from an entire conformity of dispositions So that unless God recede from his Holiness which is absolutely impossible or Man be purified and changed into his likeness there can be no sweet Communion between them Our Saviour assigns this Reason of the necessity of Regeneration in order to our admission into Heaven That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit According to the quality of the Principle such is what proceeds from it The Flesh is a corrupt Principle and accordingly the Natural Man is wholly carnal in his propensions operations and end The Disease is turn'd into his Constitution He is dead to the Spiritual Life to the actions and enjoyments that are proper to it Nay there is in him a surviving Principle of Enmity to that Life not only a mortal coldness to God but a stiff aversation from him a perpetual resistance and impatience of the Divine Presence that would disturb his voluptuous enjoyments The Exercises of Heaven would be as the Torments of Hell to him while in the midst of those pure Joys his inward inclinations vehemently run into the lowest Lees of Sensuality And therefore till this contrariety so deep and predomanant in an unholy Person be removed 't is utterly impossible he should enjoy God with satisfaction As it was necessary that God should become like Man on Earth to purchase that Felicity for him so Man must be like God in Heaven before he can possess it Holiness alone prepares Men for Celestial Happiness that is against the corruption and above the perfection of meer Nature CHAP. IV. Faith in the Redemer is required of all that will obtain Salvation The choice of Supernatural Happiness previous to our obtaining it The choice must be sincere early and constant The sincerity of the Heavenly Choice declared by its Qualities and Effects I Shall now proceed to consider more particularly what is requisite in order to our obtaining of Heaven 1. Faith in the Redeemer is absolutely required of all that will partake of the Salvation purchased by him God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have Eternal Life This is the Spirit and Substance of the Gospel therefore I will briefly unfold it The Son of God having assumed the human Nature and performed what was necessary for the expiation of Sin the Father was so pleased with his Obedience that from his lowest State he rais'd him to Divine Glory and gave him supream Authority and all-sufficient Power to communicate that Glory to others Thus our Saviour declares Thou hast given him i. e. the Son power over all Flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And he exhorts the People Labour for that Meat that endures unto Eternal Life which the Son of Man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed Now this glorious Life is not given to all but only to those who are united to him As Adam the principle of the carnal corrupt Nature derives Guilt and Death to all his Progeny so Jesus Christ who is opposed to him the Head and Prince of the renewed State communicates Life and Glory to his People The Apostle expresses it As in Adam all dye his natural Descendants are involv'd in his Condemnation even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is all that are spiritually united to him shall partake of his glorious Resurrection And St. John tells us He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life The having the Son upon which our right to Eternal Life depends is believing in him Faith has a principal Efficiency in receiving Christ therefore 't is exprest by that Act But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God and consequently Heirs of Glory to as many as believed on his Name And Christ is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith This is not a meer assent to the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning the Dignity of his Person that he is in so high and glorious a Relation of being the Eternal Son of God and the infinite value of his Merits whereby he is able to save all that come unto God by him and his merciful compassionate Nature to embrace returning Sinners and the excellency of the benefits purchased by him but such a Belief as sways the Will and Affections to receive him upon God's terms for our Salvation Faith is seated in the whole Soul in the Mind and
sound and perfect Health that being the End of his Art He that seeks for Honour or Riches is not content with a mediocrity of Success but drives on his Affairs to the full period of his Desires An ardent Lover of Learning with a noble jealousy strives to excel others in Knowledg In short no Man designs and longs for a thing as his Happiness but will use all diligence to gain the present and full Possession of it Therefore it cannot be imagined that any Person sincerely propounds the injoyment of Heaven as his End but Love will make him fervent and industrious to be as Heavenly as is possible here He will strive by blessed and glorious Gradations to ascend to the perfection of his aims and desires to be holy as God is holy in all manner of Conversation to be pure as Christ is pure We have an admirable instance of this in St Paul who declares Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus His Progress was great yet that did not make him slack in the prosecution of his End He laboured to attain the President of our Saviour to feel the Power of his Death and Life to apprehend Christ intirely and perfectly as Christ had apprehended him He was very diligent to improve the Divine Image in his Heart and Life From hence we may discover the vanity of their Hopes that are of luke-warm Affections in Religion the abhorr'd character of Laodicea who esteem it a prudent Principle as convenient for their carnal ease and interest not to be earnest in following Holiness Vices in mediocrity are tolerable with them only the excess is condemned They content themselves with a mediocrity in Religion and are presumptuous and secure as the Church that said I am rich and have need of nothing They boast as if they had found out the temperate Region between the burning Line and the frozen Pole They account all that is above their degrees in Religion to be furious or indiscreet Zeal and all below to be dead cold Profaneness They censure those for Hypocrisy or unnecessary Strictness who are visibly better and stand upon proud comparisons with those who are visibly worse And thus set off themselves by taxing others But how easily do Men deceive and damn themselves Can we have too much of Heaven upon the Earth Can we become too like God when a perfect conformity to him is our Duty and Felicity Indeed Moral Vertue consists in a Mediocrity not of the habitual Quality but of the Affections and Actions between the vicious extremities Fortitude consists in the mean between Cowardise and rash Boldness but how much the more confirm'd the couragious Habit is so much the more a Man excells in that Virtue Liberality consists between an indiscreet Profuseness and sordid Avarice Patience between a soft Delicacy and stupid Insensibility Thus Philosophic Virtue glories in its Beauty as pure and intire between two vicious Deformities And the Religion of many is Paganism drest up in a Christian Fashion But this mediocrity only belongs to inferiour Vertues that respect things of created limited goodness and is determined according to the worth of their Nature But divine Graces respect an object supreamly Good and their perfection consists in their most excellent degrees and the most intense Affections and Operations that are leading to it Faith in its Obedience Hope in its Assurance Love in its Ardour can never exceed When the Object is Infinite a mediocrity is vicious Humility can never descend too low nor Love ascend too high for reflecting upon our natural and moral Imperfections that we were raised from nothing that we are defiled and debased with Sin we cannot have too low thoughts of our selves And since God the Soveraign Being infinite in Perfections and infinitely amiable is the Object no bounds or measure must be set to our Affections but with all our united Powers all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind and with all the Strength we must love him and please him and endeavour to be beloved of him There are others will acknowledg their defects and tell you they do not pretend to eminent Sanctity to the Graces of the Apostles and Martyrs nor aspire to their degrees in Glory they are content with a lower place in Heaven and less strict Religion is sufficient for their purpose This deceit is strengthned by Popery that enervates and dissolves many of our Saviour's Precepts by teaching they are not Laws obliging all Christans to Obedience that will attain to eternal Life but Counsels of Perfection if they are not done 't is no Sin and the performance of them meritoriously intitles to a richer Crown And though Men by impure Indulgencies please their sensual Affections yet by tasting Purgatory in the way they may come to Heaven on easier terms than a universal respect to God's Commands and an equal care to observe them But Death will confute all these feeble wretched Pretences for though the Saints above shine with an unequal brightness as the Stars differ in Glory yet none are there but Saints And those who do not mourn under their Imperfections and unfeinedly desire and endeavour to be better were never really good The sloathful Servant that did not waste but neglect to improve his Talent was cast into outer darkness There are different degrees of punishments in Hell but the least miserable there are miserable for ever In short 't is a perfect contradiction a Prodigy for any Man to think he is sincere in his Choice and prepar'd in his Affections for the pure glorious Felicity in Heaven that does not labour to cleanse himself from all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God CHAP. V. The Choice of Heaven must be early The Pretences of Mens delaying Repentance The infinite danger of it Secondly THe choice of Eternal Felicity must be early in the prime of our days The rule of our Duty and Reason binds us to remember our Creatour in our Youth to pay to him the first fruits of our Time and Strength When we are surrounded with inticing Objects and the Sense are entire and most capable to enjoy them when the electing Powers are it their vigour then 't is just we should live to God obey him as our Law-giver and prefer the fruition of him in Heaven the reward of Obedience before as the pleasures of Vanity 'T is very honourable and pleasing to God to give the Heart to him when the Flesh and the World strongly solicit to withdraw it 'T is a high endearment of the Soâ— to him when his excellencies are prevalent in the Esteem and Affections above all the charms of the Creatures And 't is an unspeakable satisfaction to the Spirit of a
Man to declare the Truth and Strength of his love to God by despising all Temptations when they are most inviting and he is most receptive of them But alas how many neglect their Duty and defer their Happiness They think it too soon to live for Heaven before the evil days come wherein they shall have no Pleasure when they cannot Sin and fondly presume they can Repent The infinite danger of this I will briefly lay open The Devil is a Sophister in perfection and his ordinary and successful Artifice to elude the force of present conviction and wrap Men in Sin and Damnation is to induce them to delay the great work of the Soul till afterwards He is not so foolish to tell them as he did our first Parents ye shall not die for the Temptation is so palpable that it could deceive none Though the evidence and certainty of supernatural Truths that disturb the security of Sinners is sometimes obscur'd by affected doubts yet there is no artifice that can resist the full and strong conviction in Mankind That Death is inevitable Though Nature recoils from it with abhorrence yet this sad Truth is so visible that it forces an assent from all Those who are titular Gods are not so vain as to pretend to an exemption by privilege from that fatal necessity not to fancy that they may be imbalm'd alive and Nature made incorruptible by Art The Pallace is as near the Grave as the Cottage Therefore the Devil cherishes in Men fond hopes of long Life As some Optick Glasses deceive the sight and make a superficial representation in Colours on a Wall but two or three steps distance appear a long deep Gallery Thus the Tempter by a dangerous artifice presents to the imagination the fatal term at a great distance and since he cannot weaken the certainty of Death in Mens Belief he removes the Image of it out of their Memories to lessen the impression that it is capable to make on their Spirits They dare not venture to die as they live careless of Salvation and unprepared for their accounts with God therefore to suspend the workings of Conscience by a seeming compliance the Tempter insinuates there will be a long interval between the present time and the last hour that shall decide their state for ever that it will be a convenient season to prepare for the other World when they have done with this as if Repentance were best at last when there are no Temptations and therefore no danger of retracting it And the Heart of Man is a great Flatterer very subtile to deceive and ruin him with vain resolutions of a devout retirement and becoming seriously Religious hereafter and thus by an easy permission he gratifies the present desires of the Flesh and goes in a Circuit from one Vanity to another till Death surprise the Presumer 'T is very applicable to this purpose what is related of Alcaeus the Poet who from every season of the Year took Arguments to give a new title to his intemperance The Spring requir'd liberal drinking in sign of Joy for the renovation of Nature The Summer to temper the heat and refresh our draught 'T was due to Autumn as dedicated to the Vintage and Winter requir'd it to expel the Cold that would congeal the Blood and Spirits Thus he pleaded for the allowance of his Excess And thus Men in the several Ages of Life which are correspondent to the seasons of the Year have some Excuses to delay Repentance and give some colour to their contumacy in neglecting Salvation The Vanity of Childhood the Pleasures of Youth the Business of Middle Age the Infirmities of old Age are plausible pretences to put off the seeking the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof Now to excite us to a present choice and pursuit of eternal Happiness Let us consider 1. This Life is the only season allowed us for preparation in order to Immortallity As we improve or neglect it we shall be for ever 'T is observ'd concerning the Straights where the Sea is but a few miles broad yet from thence it pours it self into the vast Ocean that extends to both the Indies So this Life that is confin'd within the straits of Time issues it self into a boundless Eternity of Good or Evil. From a few years well or ill spent here tam immensa soeculorum vastitas panditur Millions of Ages follow of Happiness or Misery If Men now set their affections on things above and earnestly seek them they shall joyfully ascend to the Inheritance of the Saints in Light for the preparation for Happiness is here the perfection of it hereafter But if they are carnally minded and the main design of their lives be to enjoy the present World when the parting hour is come and Death shall make a separation between them and it their Misery is irrecoverable as the Grave Indeed if we had two lives in succession allowed us for tryal and having err'd in our choice of Happiness in the first might correct our errour in a second Life there were some pretence for security but since immediately after Death a private judgment passes upon the Soul without appeal to a more favourable Tribunal since then the errour is unpardonable for ever there is no stupidity equals the present neglect of Salvation 2. Let us consider the desperate uncertainties upon which Men build their Hopes of a future Repentance and Divine Acceptance 1. Men are flattered with the Presumption of long Life But what is more uncertain 'T is the Wisdom and Goodness of God to keep concealed in his own Counsels the time of our sojourning here for if Men though liable to Death every hour and therefore should be under a just fear lest it surprise them unprepared yet against so strong a curb run with that exorbitant vehemence after the Vanities of the World how much more licentious would they be if secur'd from sudden Death But none can promise to himself one day Death comes not according to the order of Nature but the Divine Decree How many in the flower of their Youth and Strength thought themselves at as great a distance from Death as the East is from the West when there was but a step between them and Death between them and Hell The Lamp suddenly expires by a blast of Wind when there is plenty of Oil to feed it The rich Man pleas'd himself with designs of sensual enjoyments for many Years yet did not see the dawning of the next Morning Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee This Sentence is now pronounc'd in Heaven against thousands that are alive this day conversant in the Vanities and Businesses of the World Eating and Drinking Playing and Trading and all unconcerned as to Dying yet shall breath their last before to Morrow and their unwilling Souls be rent from the embraces of the Body In various manners Men die suddenly from inward and outward causes An Apoplexy
an Imposthume a Flux of Rhume stopping Respiration kills the Body without any presaging signs of Death As if the Roof and all the Chambers should fall within the House whiles the Walls are standing And how many unforseen Accidents and therefore inevitable put a sudden period to Life Is it not then the truest Wisdom to be early in our work for Heaven when the season is certainly short and uncertainly continued and the omission is irreparable Therefore the Gospel represents the coming of our Judg under different images of surprisal of a Thief that by the favour of the Night breaks into the House of a Master that returns from abroad unexpected to call his Servants to an account Of a Bridegroom that makes his Nuptial entrance at an unthought of hour when the wise and foolish Virgins were asleep Conscience was slumbred in the Good and stupified in the Bad to keep us always vigilant and prepared for that hour that is the end of Time and beginning of Eternity 2. Suppose Life be continued yet Sinners can have no rational hopes that they shall sincerely repent For 1. Saving Repentance is the Gift of God And is it likely that those who have been insensible of the loud and earnest calls of the Word that have been inflexible to the gracious methods of Providence leading them to repentance should at last obtain converting Grace The gales of the Spirit are very transient and blow where he pleases and can it be expected that those who have wilfully and often resisted his pure Motions should by an exuberant Favour receive afterwards more powerful Grace to overrule their stubborn Wills and make them obedient Our Saviour tells us To him that hath shall be given but to him that neglects the improving spiritual Treasures that which he hath shall be taken away There are special seasons of Grace as the passing of Christ in the way where the blind men sate which neglected are irrecoverably lost God has threatned that his Spirit shall not always strive with rebellious Sinners and then their state is remediless This may be the case of many even in this Life who are insensible of their Misery As Consumptive Persons decline by degrees lose their Appetite Colour and Strength till at last they are hopeless so the withdrawings of the Spirit are gradual his motions are not so frequent nor strong and upon the continued provocations of Sinners finally leaves them under that most fearful doom He that is filthy let him be filthy still He that is unrighteous let him be unrighteous still and thus punishes them on this side Hell as he does the damned by giving them over to Sin Nothing therefore is more dangerous than the usual excuses for the delays of Repentance 'T is written as with a Sun beam that God will graciously pardon repenting Sinners but 't is no where promised that he will give repentance to those who securely break his Laws upon a corrupt confidence they will repent at last 'T is a bloody adventure to indulge their carnal Affections as if they had infallible assurance the word of God confirm'd by his Oath that they should not dye in an impenitent state 2. Supposing the Holy Spirit be not totally withdrawn yet by every days continuance in an evil course the Heart is more hardened against the impressions of Grace and more incapable of returning to God 'T is therefore the subtilty of the old Serpent to make the entrance of Sin easy for he knows that after sometime it will plead a right by prescription and with difficulty be ejected Custom is a second Nature and has a mighty power either in that which is good or evil Can the Aethiopian change his Skin can the Leopard change his spots then may you who are accustomed to do evil do good If Sin in its infancy can make such resistance that the Spirit of Grace is foil'd in his Motions to rescue the Soul from its bondage how much more when 't is grown into a confirm'd habit Therefore the Apostle urges so emphatically to day while it is called to day hear the voice of God lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin 3. How uncertain is it whether God will accept the Addresses of such at last We are commanded to seek the Lord while he maybe found and to call upon him while he is near The limitation implies if the season be neglected he will hide his Face for ever Now in cases of great moment and hazard what diligence what caution should be used 1. How derogatory is it to his Majesty to offer to him the dregs of our Age the reliques of a licentious careless Life spent in the works of Vanity Is this to give Glory to God Contempt provokes Superiors as much as actual Injuries And how vilifying is it of his excellent Greatness that Men lavishly wast the best of their time upon their Lusts and the World and when through weakness of Age or the violence of a Disease they can no more relish the pleasures of Sin then only to seek his favour and presume upon it as if he could not be happy without them and it were his interest to receive them If ye offer the blind for a Sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and the sick is it not evil Offer it now to thy Governour will he be pleased with thee to accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts 2. Consider what Sincerity or moral Value is in Religion that meerly proceeds from bitter constraint 'T is a rule in Law falsum est eam peperisse cui mortuae Filius extractus est 'T is not a natural Birth when the Child is extracted from the dead Mother 'T is not Genuine Piety that is only extorted by the Rack whilst the Heart full of aversion and reluctancy does not truly consent Pure Religion flows uncompell'd from love to God 'T is the Dreggs that come forth with pressing 'T is observed of the Israelites that when God slew them they sought him and returned and enquired early after God But 't is added Nevertheless they did flatter him with their Mouths and they lied to him with their Tongues for their Hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant When Sinners are plunged in deep distress when the shadow of Death sits upon their Eye-lids they may with plentiful effusions of Prayers and Tears desire God to receive them to Heaven not to serve him there not to enjoy the Divine Presence but as a Sanctuary from revenging Justice as a Refuge from Hell And will such Desires prevail what swells the Confidence of Sinners but unworthy Notions of God as if a forc'd and formal Expression to him were sufficient to reconcile his offended Majesty 3. There is nothing renders Men more unworthy of Mercy than continuance in Sin upon presumption of an easy Pardon at last This is the most common deceitful Principle upon which they build their Hopes
be discovered by constancy in Obedience under all Tryals Blessed is the Man that endures Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The Law required unsinning Obedience as the condition of Life the Gospel accepts of Sincerity but if that be wanting there is no Promise that gives right to the Reward Now Sincerity implies such an entire Love of God as makes a Person submit to all Duties commanded in his Law and all Trials appointed by his Providence A high Example we have of this in Abraham when he was commanded to offer up his only Son Isaac and by his own Hands for a burnt Offering This was to kill a double Sacrifice at one blow for the Life of Abraham was bound up in Isaac he lived in him more dearly than in himself all his Joy all his Posterity by Sarah had dyed in Isaac What resentments what resistance of Nature did he suffer yet presently he addrest himself to perform his Duty Who ever saw a more glorious Victory over all the tender and powerful Passions of human Nature O unexampled Obedience being an Original without any Precedent to imitate and without a Copy to succeed it After this clear infallible Testimony of his Sincerity the Angel declar'd from Heaven Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me And 't is said concerning the Followers of the Lamb that they loved not their Lives unto the Death The Love of Christ that animated them in all their Sufferings was sweeter than Life and stronger than Death Indeed there was a wonderful difference in the Behaviour of the Martyrs under Sufferings but in all the same Persevering Grace was evident though working variously Some in the most beautiful Flower of their Age encounter'd Fire and Sword Tormentors and Torments with that sensible Joy with those Songs of Praise to Christ as if they saw the Heavens open with St. Stephen and their Saviour ready to receive and crown them But many others as Chrysostom testifies went to the Tribunals to the Theatres to Death with many Appearances of Fear Upon hearing the wild Beasts roar they were struck with horrour at the sight of the Executioners and the Instruments of Torment they were pale and trembling The Flesh seem'd to cry out O let this Cup pass from me yet weak and faint it followed the Spirit that corrected the natural desire with not my will but thine be done As the Moon in Eclipse though obscure yet goes on in a regular course as when 't is full of Light by the reflection of the Sun So those desolate Martyrs though as it were forsaken and deprived of the bright Beams of Comfort yet persever'd in their Profession of the Truth When one word to renounce Christianity would have saved them no Torments could force it from them but they patiently endured all Now in these the Combate of Nature was visible and the admirable Power of Grace They first overcame their own Fears the reluctancy of the carnal part their Affections to what ever is desireable in the World which is the noblest Victory and then the Cruelty of their Persecutors In them was verified the Testimony of the Spirit Here is the patience of the Saints Here are they that keep the Command of God and the Faith of Jesus But how many appear faithful while their Faith is not to be shewed by difficult Works and proved by Sufferings The Seed that fell on the stony Ground sprang up as hopeful as the Seed in the good Ground at first but when Tribulation came it wither'd away wanting the Root of Sincerity And that which was sown among Thorns was choakt by the Cares and Pleasures of the World Some Lust in the Heart interweaves with the Affections and causes Apostacy How many from glorious Beginnings have made a lamentable End not only Mercenaries in Religion whose Zeal is a foraign Complexion not springing from an inward Principle of Life and Health relinquish even the profession of Godliness when their gain ceases but some who have thought themselves sincere yet in times of danger their resolutions like sick Feathers dropt away As the foolish Builder that computed not the charges of his designed Work began to raise a magnificent Structure but unable to finish it laid the Foundation in his own Shame They repented their choice of Heaven when they saw what it must cost them and would save the World with the loss of their Souls Others that began in the Spirit and with raised Affections set out in the ways of Godliness yet by the allurements of sensual Lusts and Temptations and therefore with greater Guilt leave their first Love and end in the Flesh. They fall from high Professions but received by soft Pleasures feel not the fall These were never sincere and never had a right to Heaven They took up sudden Resolutions not grounded in serious and deep Thoughts and for a Flash were hot and active but with great levity return to their former Lusts. The Apostle tells us of such it had been better for them they had not known the way of Righteousness than to turn back and voluntarily to forsake it 'T is observed that boiling Water taken off from the Fire congeals more strongly than that which was never heated because the subtile parts being evaporated by the Fire the more terrestrial parts remaining are more capable of Cold. So those who have felt the power of the Word in their Affections and afterwards lose that holy heat become more harden'd in their Sins God justly withdraws his Grace and the evil Spirit that was expell'd for a time returns with seven worse and aggravates his Tyranny To conclude Since the certainty of Salvation is conditional if we persevere in a holy State let us beware of a corrupt Confidence and a vicious Dejection of Spirit the trusting in our selves or distrusting God To prevent the trusting in our selves Consider 1. The most excellent Creatures are by the instability of Nature liable to defection subject to a corruptive change Of this the fallen Angels are a dreadful Example who of their own motion untempted sinned in Heaven 2. The danger is greater of falling away when they are urged and solicited by a violent or grateful Temptation Thus our first Parents fell and lost more Grace in an Hour then can be recovered by their Posterity in all Ages to the end of the World 3. When there is supervenient Corruption in the Creature that inclines them with earnest propensity to forbidden Things and takes Flame from every Spark the danger is extream Like a besieged City that is in great hazard of taking by Assaults from without and Conspiracies from within Let us therefore be very watchful over our Hearts and Senses and keep as much as is possible at a safe distance from Temptations And be very diligent in the use of all holy means to
to make an Experiment whether any satisfaction could be found in it at last sadly declares that all things here below are but several kinds and ranks of Vanities as ineffectual to make Men happy as counterfeit Jewels of several Colours are to enrich the Possessor Nay they are not only Vanity but Vexation an empty show that has nothing real but the vexation of disappointment And shall we not value the judgment of Men when they are best instructed and give credit to their Testimony when they are sincere Certainly in their Approaches to the Divine Judgment they are most considerate and serious they have the truest and justest thoughts of Things and most freely declare them O the astonishing Folly of Men the will not be convinc'd of the error of their ways till they come to the end of them and the Sun is set and no time remains for their returning into the way of Life CHAP. VIII The stedfast belief of Eternal Things requisite to direct our Choice The power of Faith illustrated Infidelity total or partial the cause of Mens neglecting Eternal Salvation I Shall proceed to shew further what is necessary to direct us in our choice that we may not fall into the double Misery of being deceived with a false Happiness for a little time and deprived of true Happiness for ever Three things are requisite for this 1. A sound and stedfast belief of unseen Eternal Things 2. Serious Consideration of the vast difference between things that are the objects of Sight and that are the objects of Faith 3. Humble and ardent Prayer to God that he would turn away our Eyes and Hearts from Vanity to the solid durable Good First The sound and stedfast belief of Eternal Things is requisite to direct our choice aright Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen It assures us of their reality and worth as if they were before our Eyes and in our actual Possession This Divine Light governs and conducts the Will to choose wisely and excites all the practick Powers for the prevening the greatest Evils and the obtaining perfect Felicity When the Devil the deadly Flatterer by inviting representations of the World intices the Heart the serious belief of the future reward so glorious and eternal disgraces the most splendid Temptations and makes them ineffectual This is the Victory that overcomes the World even our Faith If tempted to Lasciviousness by the allurements of an earthly Beauty Faith represents the angelical lustre of the Saints when they shall come with the unspotted Lamb in his glorious appearance and this unbinds the Charm and makes the tempting Person an object not of Desire but Aversation If tempted with Honour to a sinful compliance Faith represents so convincingly the Glory which all those who preserve their Conscience and Integrity inviolable shall receive at the universal Judgment in the presence of God and the holy Angels as our Saviour has promis'd He that serves me him will my Father honour and the confusion wherein the most honourable Sinners shall then be cover'd that with a generous disdain all secular honours will be despised And it is as powerful to enervate the Temptation of temporal Profit We read of Moses that by Faith when he was come to Years and therefore more capable to understand and enjoy what Felicity the brightest Honours and greatest Riches could afford refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh ' s Daughter chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of Reward And all the Evils which a wicked World inspir'd with rage from Satan can threaten to fright us from our Duty Poverty Disgrace Banishment nay Torments and Death those terribles visu formae so heightned by the carnal Fancy are easily overcome by a sincere and strong Believer Thus some who were urged by such motives to renounce their Religion told the Persecutors that Life was not sweet to them if they might not live Christians nor Death bitter if they must die for Christ. A lively firm persuasion of the excellence and eternity of the Reward what miraculous effects would it produce Nothing would be impossible within the compass of our Duty either to do or suffer in order to a glorious Immortality Faith has a celestial Power a magnetick Virtue to draw up the Heart from the Earth and fastens it to things above It is not imaginable that a clear sighted Soul that sees a Good infinitely great should reject it for mean things to please the lower Desires We may as probably imagine that a skilful Jeweller would part with the richest Oriental Pearls for Cherry Stones to play with Children From hence we may discover the true cause of the neglect of the great Salvation offered in the Gospel the Word preached does not profit not being mixt with Faith in them that hear it It is astonishing to consider that Earth should contend with Heaven for our Affections and prevail against it that Vanity should turn the Scale against the exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that Men should pursue fleeting Shadows and neglect the most excellent Realities as if they could be happy here and continue for ever and hereafter there were neither Happiness nor Eternity But this releases the wonder that all Men have not Faith Eternal Things are not of conspicuous moment in the carnal Ballance Some are Infidels in Profession openly declaring themselves to be without Religion without God and have the same credit of the Heaven and Hell discovered in the Gospel as of the Elysian Fields and Stygian Lake the Fables of the Poets These live as if they should never die and die as if they should never live in the other World as if Death caused so deep a sleep that the Voice of the Son of God could not awaken them at the last day Their unbelief is not from reason but vicious opposite Affections for the truth of the Eternal State is so clearly revealed and strongly establisht in the Gospel that the sincere Mind must readily assent to it But the Wicked cannot delight in the discovery of that for which they are unprepared and therefore try all ways to elude the force of the most satisfying Arguments They do not fear Hell but are afraid they should be fearful of it This is such a piece of Folly as that of the West Indians who at the first Invasion by the Spaniards were so terrified with the glittering of their Swords that they presently fled and very advisedly resolved to hide themselves in the day and assault their Enemies in the night They were fearful to see their Danger and rash to encounter it and fighting in the dark were killed in the dark The Threatnings of Eternal Death are the brandishings of God's glittering Sword before he strikes and sensual Infidels are
Learning with Diligence and Delight is intent in his Studies and though ingaged in other Affairs yet his Thoughts are still conversant about Learning In short the fear of Hell may be only a natural Affection that recoils from what is tormenting to the Body and is consistent with the Love of Sin but the hope of Heaven as 't is revealed in the Scripture is a spiritual Affection and always joined with the hatred of Sin Now the great design of the Gospel is by the fear of Hell as a powerful preparative to make way for the love of Heaven If carnal indulgent Sinners are not roused by a quick apprehension of Hell they will securely enjoy their pernicious Pleasures and grow old in Sin and at last die impenitent No offers of Mercy will prevail till they are storm'd by the Terrors of the Lord. But when the fear of eternal Misery has made a breach divine Grace victoriously enters and takes Possession The convinced and contrite Sinner most humbly and willingly embraces the precious Promises wherein not only Pardon and Indemnity is offered but the richest favour the advancing him into a State of Eternal Glory Thus the sweetest Hopes succeed tormenting Fears and the Obedience which before had a mixture of involuntary flows from the intire consent of the Soul with filial Freedom Before the particular Description of the pains of the Damned I shall observe in General That the full representation of Hell is beyond all human Expression nay our most fearful Thoughts cannot equal the Horror of it Who knows the Power of thine Anger What are the prepared Plagues by infinite Justice and Almighty Wrath for obstinate Sinners It is impossible for the most guilty and trembling Conscience to inlarge its sad apprehensions according to the degrees of that Misery The Lord will shew forth his Wrath and make his Power known in the Vessels fitted for Destruction None can tell what God can do and what Man shall suffer when made capable to endure such Torments for ever as now would presently consume him As the Glory of Heaven cannot be fully understood till enjoyed so the Torments of Hell cannot be comprehended till felt But we may have some discovery of those unknown Terrors by the following Considerations 1. The Wisdom of God requires that the Punishment threatned in his Law as it must so be firmly decreed that all obstinate Rebels shall of necessity undergo it so it must incomparably exceed all temporal Evils to which Men may be exposed for their Obedience to the divine Commands Otherwise the threatning would not be an effectual restraint from Sin For the propinquity of an Evil makes a strange impression on the Mind and present Fear makes a Person sollicitous to avoid the incursion of a danger ready to seize on him without forecasting to prevent an evil look'd on at a distance Therefore that the sanction of the divine Law may preserve the Precepts inviolable that there may be a continual reverence of it and a fixed resolution in the Heart of Men not to transgress the penaly threatned must be in its own nature so terrible that the fear of it may conquer the apprehension of all present Evils that can be inflicted to force us to Sin As on the other side to confirm our purpose to please God in all things the Reward of Obedience must be of infallible assurance that all and only those who serve him faithfully shall enjoy in the future State and so excellent that all the allurements of the World may in comparison with it be of no consideration to divert us from our Duty They command the Heart and have its most prevailing Respects from whom is expected the most desireable Good and feared the most terrible Evils Therefore our Saviour warns his Disciples Fear not them that can kill the Body make that part die that is mortal but fear him that after he has killed has power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him All the exquisite Tortures that the most cruel contriving and powerful malice of wicked Men can inflict is so much less than the Wrath to come that avoid the one and venture on the other is more brutish Stupidity than that of the Horse or Mule that starts at the shadow of a Bush and springs over a Precipice 2. The Judgments of God executed here are light and tolerable in comparison of the punishment of Sinners in the next Life 1. Temporal Evils of all kinds and degrees as Pestilence Famine War are designed for the bringing of Men to a sight and sence of their Sins and are common to Good and Bad here And if his anger be so terrible when he chastises as a compassionate Father what is his fury when he punishes as a severe Judg If the correcting Remedies ordered by his Wisdom and Love for the conversion of Sinners be so sharp what is the deadly revenge of his irreconcileable Hatred 2. The Miseries of the present State are allayed with some enjoyments None are so universally afflicted so desolate but something remains to sweeten the sence of their Sufferings Judgments are tempered with Mercies No Man is tortur'd with all Diseases nor forsaken of all Friends nor utterly without Comfort And when the Affliction is irremediable yet if our grief produces Sympathy in others 't is some ease to the troubled Mind and by that assistance the Burthen is made lighter But in Hell the Damned are surrounded with Terrors encompast with Flames without any thing to refresh their Sorrows not a drop of Water to a Lake of Fire All that was esteemed Felicity here is totally withdrawn Death puts a period to their Lives and the Pleasures of Sin for ever For 't is most just that those Objects which were abused by their Lusts and alienated their Hearts from their Duty and Felicity should be taken away And which is extream Misery in their most pitiful State they are absolutely unpitied Pity is the cheap and universal Lenitive not denied to the most guilty in their Sufferings here for the Law of Nature instructs us to pity the Man when the Malefactor suffers But even this is not afforded to the Damned All their Agonies and Crys cannot incline the Compassion of God and the blessed Spirits in Heaven towards them for they are not compassionable Objects their Misery being the just effect of their perverse obstinate Choice And in Hell all human tender Affections are extinguisht for ever Now 't is the perfection of Misery the excess of desolation to be deprived of all good things pleasing to our Desires and to suffer all Evils from which we have the deepest aversation and abhorrence As in Heaven all good is eminently comprised and nothing but Good so in Hell all Evil is in excessive degrees and nothing but Evil. 3. Temporal Evils are inflicted by the mediation of second causes that are of a limited power to hurt but in the next World he more immediately torments the Damned by
that makes them grow the faster And that a Mercy so ready to pardon did not produce in them a correspondent affection of grateful obedient Love but by the most unworthy provocations they pluckt down the Vengeance due to obstinate Rebels will so enrage the Damned against themselves that they will be less miserable by the Misery they suffer than by the conviction of their torn Minds that they were the sole Causes of it What Repentings will be kindled within them for the stupid neglect of the great Salvation so dearly purchased and earnestly offered to them What a fiery addition to their Torment that when God was so willing to save them they were so willful to be Damned They will never forgive themselves that for the short and mean Pleasures of Sense which if enjoyed a thousand years cannot recompence the loss of Heaven nor requite the pains of Hell for an Hour they must be deprived of the one and suffer the other for ever 4. The Sorrow and Rage will be increased by Dispair for when the wretched Sinner sees the Evil is peremptory and no Outlet of Hope he abandons himself to the violence of Sorrow and by cruel Thoughts wounds the Heart more than the fiercest Furies in Hell can This Misery that flows from dispair shall be more fully opened under the distinct consideration of the Eternity of Hell And as from Dispair the condemned Creature turns Enemy to himself so to God 'T is said of the Worshippers of the Image of the Beast that they gnawed their Tongues for Pain and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their Pains The Torment and Blasphemies of those impenitent Idolaters are a representation of the state of the Damned where the just and dreadful Wrath of God upon Men and the impious Rage of Men against God is in the highest degrees For when the guilty Sufferers are so weak that they neither by Patience can sustain their Torments nor by Strength resist the Power that inflicts them yet are wicked and stubborn they are irritated by their Misery and foam out Blasphemies against the righteous Judg. They hate God with a direct Enmity and are always under his invincible tormenting Power Hatred takes pleasure in Revenge either real or imaginary The Damned Wretches were they as Omnipotent to Effect as they are malicious to Desire would dethrone God and destroy his Being But he is infinitely above the transports of their Fury All their rancorous cursed imprecations are reflexively pernicious to themselves like Arrows shot up against the Sun that fall down upon their Heads that shot them Now what more inrages a stubborn malicious Spirit than to be utterly unable to reach and hurt an irreconcileable Enemy the object of its habitual detestation Briefly as the blessed Spirits are in Heaven and Heaven is in them by those holy and joyful Affections that are always exercised in the Divine Presence so the Damned are in Hell and Hell is in them by those fierce and miserable Passions that continually prey upon them 4. The Eternity of their Misery makes it above all other Considerations intollerable Our Saviour repeats it thrice in the space of a few Verses to terrify those who spare some favourite Corruption that in Hell their Worm dies not and the Fire is never quenched God will never reverse his Sentence and they shall never change their State How willingly would carnal Men raze the Word Eternal out of the Scriptures but to their grief they find it joined with the Felicity of Heaven and the Torments of Hell The second Death has all the terrible qualities of the first but not the ease and end it brings to Misery All the Tears of those forlorn Wretches shall never quench one spark of the Fire Where are the delicious Fair the Musick the Purple and all the carnal Delights of the rich Man they are all changed into a contrary state of Misery and that state is fixt for ever From his vanishing Paradise he descended into an everlasting Hell In this the Vengeance of God is infinitely more heavy than the most terrible execution from Men. Human Justice and Power can inflict but one Death that will be soon dispatcht upon a Malefactor worthy to suffer a hundred Deaths if he be condemned to the Fire they cannot make him live and die together to burn and not be consumed But God will so far support the Damned in their Torments that they shall always have Strength to feel though no Strength to endure them Those extream Torments which would extinguish the present Life in a Moment shall be suffered for ever This Consideration infinitely aggravates the Misery For the lost Soul rackt with the fearful Contemplation of what it must suffer for ever feels as it were at once all the Evils that shall torment it in its whole duration The perpetuity of the Misery is always felt by prevision This is as the cruel breaking of the Bones upon the Wheel when the Soul is tormented by the foresight of Misery that without allays shall continue in the circulation of Eternal Ages To make this more sensible let us consider that pain makes the Mind observant of the passing of the hours In Pleasures Time with a quick and silent motion insensibly slides away but in Troubles the Hours are tedious in violent pains we reckon the minutes as long 'T is observable how passionately the afflicted Psalmist complains Will the Lord cast off for ever Will he be favourable no more Doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath he forgotten to be gracious Hath he in anger shut up his tender Mercies In what various pathetic forms does he express the same Affection Though he had assurance that the gracious God would not be always severe yet his anguish forc'd from him complaints as if the moment of his Trouble were an Eternity But what strains of Sorrow are among the Damned who besides the present sence of their Misery have always in their Thoughts the vast Eternity wherein they must suffer it When three terrible Evils were propounded to David's choice pining Famine for three years or bloody War for three Months or devouring Pestilence for three days he chose the shortest though in it self the heaviest Evil. Many sad Days must pass under the other Judgments where Death by anticipation in such variety of Shapes would be presented to the Mind that the lingring expectation of it would afflict more than the sudden stroke whereas the fury of the Pestilence would be soon over But the Damned have not this relief but shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever How earnestly do they seek for Death but cannot find it what a favour would they esteem it to be annihilated For certainly if when the Evils in the present State are so multiplyed that no Comfort is left or so violent that the afflicted Person cannot enjoy them and refresh his sorrowful Spirit Death is chosen rather than Life it cannot be imagined that in the