Love and Obedience which the Son yeelds to the Father So the Hapiness and Glory of the Life to come is not only a sufficient but a superabundant Recompence of all that the Saints of God either do or suffer for him Fourthly Because often in Scripture the phrase or denomination of an Inheritance is used pro quavis regratâ et acceptâ So Psal 16. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a goodly Heritage Now the Hapiness and Glory of the Life to come may be called an Inheritance because it is the most acceptable desirable delightful thing that God himself could bestow upon the Creature Fiftly An Inheritance it is a free gift No Son can claim the Inheritance at his Fathers hands by way of merit indeed a man may by his demerit forfeit his Inheritance and deserve to be disinherited but no child can challenge the Inheritance of men but must receive it of free gift And the Child yet ows all love and all service and all duty to his Father though he have never a peny of Inheritance to leave him and though he hath and should not leave it to him but leave it to some other yet still the child ows all Love and Duty to his Father and the Inheritance that is left him it is his Fathers love and good-will and not his desert So the Happiness and Glory of the Life to come though as I said before in the third Particular it is a sufficient super-abundant reward of all the Love Duty Service and Sufferings of Believers yet it is not the wages of their Service but it is the Grace of God the free Gift of the good Will and Pleasure of God And that leads me to the second Doctrine That the Heavenly Inheritance it is a Gift So Scripture expresly speaks Luke 12.32 It is your Fathers good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death indeed is due wages deserved wages but eternal Life the Heavenly Inheritance is a Gift a free gift a meer gift so in many other places and needs it must be so I will but use the Apostle's disjunction Rom. 4.4 Either it must be of Grace or of Debt of debt it cannot be And therefore it must needs be of Grace That the Heavenly Inheritance or Reward cannot be of Debt I prove First That what ever it be that makes another indebted unto me it must be in debitum unto him For by doing that which is a due debt in me and which I am obliged to do I can never make him for whom I do it indebted unto me Now all our Service and Obedience to God it is but due debt in us unto God it is that we are obliged to and therefore all our Service can never oblige God or make him indebted unto us Upon this account it is our Saviour teacheth us Luke 17.10 When ye have done all these things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable Servants we have done that which was our duty to do Secondly This cannot be of debt because there must be a proportion between the Work and the Reward to make the Reward due of debt A man that works in your Fields for you a day why he may come at night and claim twelve or fourteen pence for a dayes work as a due debt but if he should challenge an hundred or a thousand pound for one dayes work you would look upon him as unreasonable and impudent There is infinitely more difference between all our Service and the heavenly Inheritance than there is between a pound for a dayes hedging or ditching in your Fields It cannot be that Heaven should be a debt it must then be a Gift not of Debt but of Grace Seeing then that Heaven is an Inheritance and therefore of Gift not of Merit because an Inheritance Let this teach us to abhor that proud Popish doctrine of Merit and admire and adore the free Grace of God in Jesus Christ The Reward of Heaven and Glory it is not a Purchase but an Inheritance Among men there is a great deal of difference between a Purchase and an Inheritance For a Purchase a man layeth down a valuable price but an Inheritance comes to him freely it costs nim nothing possibly it might cost another man much that purchased it for him but if it descend unto him by Inheritance it costs him nothing O my Brethren Heaven the Happiness and Glory of the Life to come it is not our Purchase but our Inheritance we pay nothing for it indeed it cost Christ our elder Brother dear to purchase it not for himself for He was Heir by birth but to purchase this Inheritance for us it cost him dear but it cost us nothing Christ bequeathed it unto us of free Gift it is to us not of purchase but Inheritance therefore it is not of Merit but of Grace Yea Heaven is not only said to be our Inheritance but we are said to be made Heirs So Tit. 3.7 We are not born Heirs of Heaven but born Heirs of Hell but we are made Heirs of Heaven by the Grace of Adoption yea we are not only made Heirs of Heaven by the Grace of Adoption but we are made fit for Heaven by the Grace of Sanctification unto Acceptation So that here all is of Grace The Inheritance of Grace our Right and Tittle to it is of Grace our Fitting and Preparing for it is of Grace all of Grace nothing of Merit all of God nothing of our selves Secondly this That Heaven is an Inheritance which God freely gives This should teach all of us 1. To set our minds upon this Inheritance A man that hath but possibilities or expectations of an Inheritance to befal him by the death of such or such a one though it be but a poor slender paltry matter yet how hardly can he keep his mind from running upon it from thinking long till he come to the possession of it from even almost wishing sometimes the party dead whose the present possession is Filius ante diem Patrios inquirit in annos Many a graceless Child is even weary of his Father and sick of his Mother only because his mind runs so much upon the Patrimony the Inheritance and he thinks so long for it Pupillumice utinam quem proximus Haeres Impello ex pungam saith another O my Brethren did we look upon the state and happiness of the life to come as an Inheritance as our Inheritance it would be so with us we could not keep our minds from running out upon the happiness and glory of the life to come our thoughts would be running upon it our hearts would be longing and wishing for the possession of it and here we may give our thoughts and desires line scope to the utmost Indeed in our thoughts of and desires after earthly inheritances we had need set bounds to our
of this that thou art an Heir of Heaven arm thy self against the sears of Death let Death be terrible to those whose portion is solely and wholly in this life whom Death separates from all the good they have and hope for As for thee who art a Child of God an Heir of Heaven why shouldst thou fear Death that doth but put thee into the actual possession of thy Inheritance Ejus est mortem timere qui ad Christum nolit ire ejus est ad Christum nolle ire qui se non credit cum Christo incipere regnare saith Cyprian Let him fear Death that is unwilling to go to Christ let him be unwilling to go to Christ that doth not believe he is a Joynt-Heir with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven The same Cyprian speaks of a man that when he lay a dying with some unwillingness and lothness to dye had a Vision of one like the Son of Man appearing by him saying to him with some kind of indignation Pati timetis exire non vultis quid faciam pro vobis You are afraid to suffer you are not willing to depart what shall I do for you O think what a shame it is for those who when they do hope for this Inheritance to be so unwilling and loth to die as that Jesus Christ should have occasion thus to speak unto them A fourth Duty we should learn from hence is To walk worthy of this Inheritance And so First Far be it from those who profess and believe themselves to be Heirs of Heaven to be eager and covetous and greedy of earth and earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If a King saith Chrysostom should take a Beggar from the Dunghil and make him the Heir of his Crown and be after this should go up and down a begging from door to door and be as solicitous about his raggs and patched clothes as he was before he was adopted to that Inheritance would not this be a disgrace to himself and to the King that had adopted him and would not all the World condemn him as a man of a base and dunghil spirit unworthy of that Honour and that Inheritance that was cast upon him For thee that art a Christian whom God hath taken from the Dunghil and made an Heir of Heaven for thee to be as greedy of the world as gripple of a half-peny or a peny as if thou wert one of the Worlds beggars still this is a base ignoble thing unworthy of such an Heir as thou dost pretend thy self to be Therefore abhor it away with it Secondly If thou be an Heir of Heaven labour to be content with thy present condition whatever it be in expectation and assurance of that Inheritance thou hopest for There is many a great Heir when he is in his minority lives in a pretty mean condition and makes nothing of it bears it all with patience he knows it will be better with him one day when he comes to Age there is a fair Estate coming to him and in the thoughts of that he comforts himself in his present condition So thou that art an Heir of Heaven though at the present thou livest barely and goest near the wind yet content and comfort thy self with this Thou hast a rich and glorious Inheritance reserved for thee in the highest Heavens when once thou comest to the enjoyment of that thou shalt be full and want nothing This was it which made the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob content with a poor pilgrim life and condition a wandring state and condition because they looked for a better Country and when this took up their hearts then they could chearfully sit down in their Tents they could dwell in strange Countries they could go on in obedience to God what way soever he called them readily and so should we Thirdly Never fret nor repine at the happiness and prosperity of the Wicked When we see them swimming and bathing in all that affluence of good things which Job or David expresseth Job 21. and Psalm 73. They have Corn and Wine and Oyl and Gold and Silver and House and Lands and Children to inherit them Thou poor thou hast none of these things but hast thou Heaven though but in reversion never trouble thy self thy portion is an hundred thousand times better than theirs Was it any grief of heart think ye to Isaac to see the sons of Keturah have great gifts bestowed upon them by Abraham one of them it may be so many thousand Yoak of Oxen another so many thousand Sheep and Camels a third so many Talents of Gold and Silver as long as Isaac had the Inheritance this was no grief of heart to him Much good may it do them thinks he as long as the Inheritance is mine So say thou Much good may it do the World with all their Wealth and Riches as long as Heaven is mine I envy them not Thus much for the two first things Heaven is an Inheritance This Inheritance is a Gift I come now to the third and that is this That God gives the Inheritance of Heaven to his Children by his Word Therefore the Gift of this Inheritance is in part ascribed to the Word Which is able to build you up and give you an Inheritance A Father gives such or such an Inheritance to his Child by Testament or by Instrument in writing The Word of God it is Testamentum it is Instrumentum whereby God conveyeth the Inheritance of Heaven to his Saints and Children First God reveals by his Word that there is such an Inheritance reserved in the Heavens which were it not that God had revealed it in his Word the weak heart of sinful and fallen man could have no true notions or conceptions of For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The poor Heathens did stumble upon the Notion of Eternal rewards and punishments but alas fell as far short of the true Notion of those rewards and punishments as Earth is of Heaven But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 that is by his Spirit in his Word Secondly As God reveals this Inheritance to us by his Word so secondly God makes offer of this Inheritance to us in his Word and invites and calls us to the participation of it 2 Thess 2.13 14. God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvution whereunto he called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly As God revealeth this Inheritance and calls and invites to the participation of it so God in his Word specifies who and what manner of persons they are upon whom he will bestow it Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven which the righteous Judge shall give and not to me only but to all that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8
I would fain before wepart commend you to God and leave you in the Arms of His everlasting Mercy and the Bosome of his infaite Love And O that I could do this with comfort and with confidence concerning every one of you Concerning some of you I profess I can and that upon the same account that the Apostles commended the Churches unto God in Acts 14.23 They commended them to the Lord on whom they believed Well might the Apostles and with holy boldness commend these Christians to the Lord whom they knew to be Believers whom they knew not only to have given up their names to Christ in an open and visible profession but to have believed in him by a true and lively Faith and to have received him for their LORD and KING as well as for their Priest and Prophet A Minister may deliver up such a People to God with as much confidence and assurance as a man can deliver up his child into the arms of his own dearest and most indulgent father And such are some of you and through Grace many of you Believers not in name only and profession but indeed and in truth and in power Such I can heartily confidently and confortably commend unto God and leave with him in full assurance that He will never leave you nor forsake you in full assurance that however things go in Dedhaw however things go in England however things go with your selves as to the concernments of this life it shall be well with you to Eternity O that I could think thus and speak thus and hope thus of you all But are there not with you even with you also sinners against the Lord are there not some among you whom if a Minister should deal with according to Gosple Rule he should rather deliver to Satan than commend to God Are there not some among you whose Crime and Character if not Name may be found in that black Bill of men excommunicate in Heaven and from Heaven which the Apostle presents you 1 Cor. 6.9 where he reckons up ten several sorts of sinners that are excluded from the Kingdom of God Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Coveteous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And are there not some such as these amongst you Are there not some that walk of whom I have told you often and now even tell you weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose belly is their god whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3.18 Do you think a poor Minister after above twenty years spent amongsuch a People in fruitless and unsuccesful labours can with confidence commend such unto God O Sirs what shall I say to you what shall I do for you Parents when they lye a dying and are about to commend as their own souls so their children to God put a difference between good and bad between gracious and graceless children Look over Gen. 49. and you shall and that good old Jacob doth not commend Reuben Simeon and Levi to God in such a manner as he commends Judah Joseph and Benjamin and some other of his children And I have heard of a Godly Parent that having several children whereof one was notoriously wicked and prophane when the Parent lay a dying all the Children were called together to attend at his death and there the Parent gave several Prayers and Blessings to the several Children commending them to God But as for you saith the Parent to one that was wicked and graceless Child as for you I can look for no other but to glorifie God in your just condemnation to Hell at the Day of Judgment A sad speech for a dying Parent to leave at his last words to a poor Child which yet God in infinite mercy turned to good Should I speak thus concerning any of you it would be more grievous to my self than to some of you it may be But the Lord knows this will be the portion of many of God's Ministers in that Great Day the Lord grant it be not mine But many of God's Ministers will be called out as bitter witnesses in that Day against their Peoples souls and God will say unto them Did not such and such live under your Ministry did you not warn them of their sins of their drunkenness fornication uncleanness lying swearing worldliness security neglect of holy Duties Did you not remonstrate to them the evil of their wayes did you not call them invite exhort perswaede them to repentance did you not foretel them of this Day and of the Wrath and Vengeance prepared for sinners did you not acquaint them with my Name did you not promise them Pardon and Forgiveness Heaven and Happiness upon condition of their Repentance Faith and new Obedience O my Brethren when God in the presence of his holy Angels and Saints shall put these interrogatories to-us his poor Ministers that have spoken to you in his Name What shall we say what can we say Must we can we dare we think you to excuse or extenuate your wickednesses lye against the Truth and to our own souls and say we have not warned you we have not admonished you exhorted perswaded you when our consciences know we have and your consciences know it too We must say Lord thou knowest all things and thou knowest we have in some measure of truth through Grace though with much human infirmity sought and desired and endeavoured the salvation of these mens souls as of our own We have many and many a time warned them and that with tears but they would not be warned We have perswaded them with all the arguments our reason helped by thy Grace could invent but they would not be perswaded we have entreated them with all the most urgent and affectionate importunity we could use but they would not be entreated Then will the Lord say unto us his poor Ministers I pronounce you pure and innocent from the blood of these men O blessed O joyful Word for us But as for you He will say unto you Your destruction be upon your own heads Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels O doleful word for you to hear and doleful for us now to think of while we are in this flesh But let me tell you all creature relations and affections shall in the Saints be so swallowed up in the Glory of God and in the joy of their own Salvation that Saints and Angels shall rejoyce in the condemnation of all wicked and ungodly men and with loud acclamations shall sing Hallelujahs Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God for True and Righteous are his Judgments But Ah Brethren my hearts desire and prayer is for you all that you may all be saved Shall I therefore be bold with you yea Brethren let me be bold with you in the Lord. I have heard of a very holy and eminently learned and pious man that lying upon his death-bed and having his Children about him Mr. Bolion among other things he used this remarkable expression I charge you saith he that none of you dare to appear before me in the Day of Judgment in an unconverted condition Intimating that if they did he should be one of the first that should stand up as a witness against them Give me leave to use a like expression unto you I a poor unworthy Minister of Jesus Christ yet his Minister unto you I hope for good that have often heretofore admonished and charged you in his Name being now by His Providence to leave you never more to see you faces nor to speak to you in His Name any more I charge you all from the highest to the lowest from the least to the greatest I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at His Appearing and before all the holy Angels who are present and Witnesses to these words I charge you That none of you appear in the Day of Judgment in an unconverted condition lest even these words of mine be brought in on that Day as a Witness against you And now Brethren I commend you to God having thus admonished you thus warned you thus charged you you that are yet in your sins I now commend you to God O that God would make this last Warning this last Admonition this last Charge these last Words more effectual than a thousand others have been That as Sampson slew more Philistines at his death than in all his life so I might be the happy Instrument to save more Souls now at my departure from you than in all my life before I can do no more but commend you to God that God who gives being to things that are not who is able to raise the dead who is able even of stones to raise up children unto Abraham That great and mighty and almighty God shew his Saving Power to you and in you Those that are dead in their sins and trespasses God Almighty quicken you you that are yet hardened in your sins God Almighty humble you soften you change you make you of stones the sons and danghters of Abraham And as for you my dearly beloved Brethren that are converted and in the state of Grace already I commend you to God as unto a gracious reconciled tender merciful indulgent alsufficient Father he will be unto you a little Sanctuary Ezek. 11.16 He will be unto you a place of broad Rivers and Streams Isa 33.21 He hath begun a good Work in you and will perform it to the Day of Christ I am confident Philip. 1.6 Be not anxiously careful what you shall do what shall become of you take heed of Security Luke-warmness leaving your First-Love Remember former Times Do your first Works strengthen the things that remain that are ready to dye And God he is able to keep you and he is faithful and will keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy Jude 24 25. Now to Him that is able to do this to GOD onely Wise be Glory Majesty Dominion and Power both now and for ever Amen FINIS