24. They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me 4. Hence we may know the true cause and ground of Discouragement and Despondency under our Troubles to wit our want of Faith in and our not minding of eternal invisible things They that believe not the Crown can never comfortably bear the Cross The way to forget our Misery is seriously and believingly to remember and consider our Felicity Rom. 8. 17. The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us Our Burdens would not be so heavy as they are if our Hearts were more heavenly than they are If we could get more above and converse more with God our Troubles would not be so troublesome as they are Nil sentit in Nervo cum anima sit in Coelo Oh let us pray for more acquaintance with God and thereby good all good shall come unto us Let us cry out with the Divine Poet O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee Converse with God and Christ will sweeten every bitter Cup and lighten every heavy Burden 5. Hence also we may inferr the Necessity of Patience under all our Afflictions which are designed to prepare us for Glory and that no otherwise than as we do by Faith and Patience live in the expectation of that Glory Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Heb. 10. 36. Unless we patiently bear our Troubles they are not like to produce those blessed effects it is only through Faith and Patience that we inherit the Promises 6. The Misery of all Unbelievers then is very great whatever they posse's in this World for they must needs meet with Troubles also in this Life and must meet with the King of Terrors at last And what possibly can support them having no interest in God and Christ and no good grounds of hope that they shall enjoy those invisible eternal good things hereafter Part they must with all visible temporal good things and that for ever and cannot look on God and Glory and Heaven as theirs because not regenerated not united to Christ not effectually called surely their case is most sad for then also all their vain hopes and groundless confidences shall perish 7. The mischief of Earthly-mindedness also appears hence Inordinate minding earthly things whether Friends or Foes Ease or Pain Loss or Gain c. this very much hinders our Comfort and Support Oh pray against it watch against it Now to take us off from this inordinate minding of these Earthly things let us take these Helps 1. Let us urge and press the express Command of God upon our Hearts Col. 3. 1 2. Set your affections upon things above and not upon things below Let this sway with us It is as much our Duty as any other and there is as much Divine Authority in this Command as in any other and as much of the Power of Religion and Truth of Grace lies in the Practice of this as of any other Duty and by the consciencious performance of this Duty we do as much evidence the sincerity of our Love and Obedience as by any other 2. If we be true Christians we are of an high noble heavenly extraction and original begotten and born of God Jam. 1. 17 18. John 3. 3 5. born from above Heaven-born therefore we should mind heavenly things As is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly 3. If we be true Christians we have an invisible eternal Life in us Christ is our Life and our Life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3 4. We have invisible eternal Principles of Life in us Christ formed in our Hearts Phil. 4. 19. The incorruptible Seed of God in us the Spirit of Jesus in us the Divine Nature in us all which dispose and encline us to look upwards and to mind invisible and eternal things 4. Your Hopes are grounded and fixed on invisible eternal things 1 Cor. 15. 19. If our hope were only in this life we should be of all men most miserable Our hopes are not here we hope for what we see not Rom. 5. 2. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 1 John 3. 3. It is invisible glory the glory that is to be revealed at the Coming of Christ That when Christ shall appear you may appear with him in glory and may see him as he is and may be like him You hope for infinitely better things than this World can afford Tit. 2. 13 14. Phil. 3. 21. You look for the Coming of Jesus in glory who shall make your vile bodies like unto his glorious body and then you that look for such things in Heaven surely you should have your Conversations in Heaven 5. Your Actings and Workings here in this life are for invisible ends and purposes not to be seen of Men not to have your Reward here but you seek Honour and Glory and Immortality and Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7 8. Your sowing here is to reap Life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. It is an invisible incorruptible Crown an everlasting Kingdom an Heavenly Inheritance that you are seeking 1 Pet. 1. 4 5. You labour not for that meat which perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life John 6. 27. You are seeking a City which hath foundations and travelling home to your Father's House therefore needs must your thoughts and affections be set upon things above 6. Let us consider that all our best Friends and dearest Relations are above invisible and unseen to us here below There is our Heavenly Father there our dear Redeemer sitting at his right hand there are all our pious Friends and dear Relations that dyed in Christ there they are together praising and enjoying God 7. If you be true Christians you have enlightned Minds Eyes of Faith Spiritual Understandings given you to discern and apprehend those invisible eternal things 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. you are spiritual persons 8. You esteem value and love those heavenly things most and best if you be true Christians your Hearts are in Heaven for there is your Treasure 1 Pet. 1. 8. 9. You have invisible Supports Influences and Experiences a Well of Living Water springing up in you unto eternal life John 4. 14. which no others but you have and from those spiritual Principles which the Spirit of Christ plants in his People good thoughts and heavenly Meditations are continually bred and fed 10. You are in Heaven already in Christ your Head Ephes 2. 6. Risen with Christ And this Heavenly-mindedness the Apostle makes the true evidence of our being risen with Christ Col. 3. 1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Set your affections on things above And it is the very distinguishing Character of one in Christ Rom. 8. 1. They that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the
real Union of the Saints with the Blessed God and the Blessed Jesus such a Union as is between the Head and the Members and between Husband and Wife yea such as is between God and Christ and a participation of the same Glory that Christ himself doth possess and an enjoyment of the same Love that Christ himself doth enjoy yea the Saints shall then be made like unto Christ both in Soul and Body Lord help me to believe all this and to be fully perswaded of it that my Heart may be kindly affected and filled with enflamed affections towards my Blessed Jesus who hath purchased all this Glory for us with his most precious Blood Oh let me attain the full assurance of my true Title thereto that I may praise thee and may long for the full possession of it O my base unbelieving Heart Lord subdue my unbelief Oh what pains should we take to be assured of this Glory and how patiently and cheerfully should we bear our Afflictions that are designed to prepare us for it But I cannot break off here This weight of Glory is by the Holy Ghost in the Scripture represented to us by all the most excellent and delightful things among Men speaking to our Capacities and after the manner of Men. Hence it is called a Kingdom It is your Father's good pleasure saith our Lord to give you a Kingdom I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me a kingdom The Kingdom of Heaven a Kingdom that cannot be moved a Kingdom of Glory a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Life Christ hath made us Kings and Priests to God Here in this World the Saints have the Cross Fire Faggot Halters Gibbets c. let them wait but a while and they shall hear the Judge of the whole World say unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world Now you are abused reproached imprisoned impoverished despised shortly you shall all be crowned This Glory is called the Inheritance of the Saints in light an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you You that now may have no House nor Home of your own no certain Dwelling-place and you that now dwell in Houses of Clay tottering every moment being the Children of God you shall shortly enter into everlasting Habitations and possess those glorious Mansions in the Father's House you shall shortly inhabit that House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens God hath prepared for you a City that hath Foundations of his own building and making Hold out Faith and Patience you shall shortly be translated into the Paradise of GOD above the reach of Men and Devils Moreover for methinks it is good to be here when Christ who is our Life shall appear we shall also appear with him in Glory with Palms in our Hands and Crowns on our Heads and with everlasting Joy and Songs of Praises in our Hearts and Mouths This Glory is called Life Everlasting Life Eternal Salvation Everlasting Peace and Everlasting Rest the purchased Possession that which cost the most precious Blood of the only Son of God to procure surely it must be a far more exceeding weight of Glory that cost such a price this Glory is the Fruit of Christ's Blood and of all his cruel Sufferings Oh that some Beams of it might be darted in upon my dark Heart by the Spirit while I am writing this to quicken and enlarge it It is Everlasting Rest Rest from all Sin the greatest burden to a gracious Soul and from all Sufferings from all doubts of God's love from all sense of God's Displeasure from all Temptations of Satan of the World and Flesh Rest from all Persecutions Now they that have suffered with Christ shall be glorified with him no Prisons Banishments Burnings Hangings Quarterings then Rest from all our sad and sinful Divisions and from all our personal Sufferings Pains Diseases Losses of dear Relations ill Tydings Rest from all Vain Thoughts from all the pain of Duty from all our Labours Let us a little further consider I. The Preparatives to this Glory and II. The Properties of it that so our Hearts may be the more affected with it and the more carried out with all Love and Desires after him that purchased it for us and with all labour and diligence to secure our title to it and may also the better bear all our Afflictions which prepare us for it and lead us to it I. Of the Preparations to this Glory and these are 1. The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 13. Our blessed Lord will most certainly come again from Heaven with Power and great Glory attended by his mighty Angels to receive his People to himself that where he is there they may be also Joh. 14. 3. to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all those that believe 2 Thess 1. 10. Alas what Comfort should we have in this life if it were not for the Hope of Christ's second coming He will not leave us here still sinning suffering groaning dying no no the day of our full Redemption will come our Lord will come again and set all his poor Captives free but a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He will come for our Salvation Heb. 9. 28. And for our great Comfort let us know and believe that however we now live as Lambs amongst Wolves when our glorious Lord Jesus the Lord of Glory and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth the chief Shepherd shall appear we shall receive a crown of glory that fedeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. It should be then the Character of a Christian as it is his Duty to love to long and look and wait for the Son of God from â—eaven even Jesus whom he raised from the dead which by bearing the most dreadful Wrath of his Father hath delivered us from the Wrath to come 1 Thess 1. 10. Act. 1. 12. And while we are on Earth we should have our conversations in Heaven and from thence look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body Phil. 3. 20 21. being assured that then we shall receive that Crown of Righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give at that day to all those that love his appearing 2 Tin 4. 8. Oh then seeing we look for such things what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness giving all diligence that we may be found of him in Peace without spot and blameless O what unspeakable Comfort will the Coming of Christ bring to all his poor suffering Saints the fore-thoughts of which should support us under all our present Troubles Although it may be now we are destitute of all Creature-comforts our
Flesh and Fleshly Relations fail us our Outward-man perisheth daily our Bodily strength decays our Friends fail us our own Hearts fail us this should comfort us that our Lord is gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us and he is now preparing us for that place by his Spirit by his Word and Rod and when he hath prepared us he will come again and take us to himself that where he is we may be also And where is that but at his Father's right hand in Glory Col. 3. 3 4. 2. The second Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is that great and glorious Work of Christ in raising our Bodies from the Dust and uniting them again to our Souls the wonderful Effect of Almighty Power and Love Read 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thess 4. 15. Death shall not dissolve the Union between Christ and us not turn away his Affections from us but in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the Stone and unseal our Graves and awake us out of our long sleep and call us forth to receive our own Souls again and oh what a joyful Meeting will that be and what unspeakable comfort will that produce The Devil had the power of Death till he was overcome by Death Heb. 2. 14 15. but he that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore hath now the Keys of Death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. The Saints Resurrection to Glory is only the fruit of Christ's Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure Joh. 5. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth Joh. 6. 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day So Ver. 40. Joh. 14. 19. As sure as Christ is risen we shall rise also because he lives we shall live also Besides this mortal life we now live we have a life that 's hid with Christ in God And when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. Oh then beloved Fellow-christians Let us be stedfast unmovable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Let us never look at the Grave but let us look to the Resurrection beyond it Let us contentedly commit these Carcasses to the Dust that dark Prison shall not long contain them Let us lye down in Peace and take our Rest it will not be an everlasting Night nor endless Sleep no no there will come a most joyful and glorious Morning What if we go out of the Stirs and Troubles of this World and enter into those Chambers of Dust and the Doors be shut upon us and we hide our selves as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast as sure as we awake in the morning after we have slept out the night so sure shall we then awake And what if in the Grave we become loathsome Dust cast out of the sight of Men as not fit to be endured among the Living What if our Bones be digged up and scattered about the Pits brink and Worms consume our Flesh yet we know our Redeemer liveth and we shall see him with these Eyes And why should we be loth to lay down these Bodies of Flesh how comely or fair soever they are they have been but the Prisons of our Souls Clogs and Hinderances to our Souls in the Work of God and Way to Heaven What care labour grief and sorrow have they cost us How many a weary painful tedious Day and Night Grudge not O my Soul that God should disburthen thee of all this and free thee from thy Fetters and break open thy Prison door remember that when this Earthly House of thy Tabernacle is dissolved thou hast a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens O my Soul labour now to have thy part in the first Resurrection now labour to get into Christ and to live in him by Faith and Love now labour to know O my Soul the Power of his Death and Resurrection in thy dying to Sin and living to Righteousness now act thy Faith on Jesus and thy Love to him and let Jesus live in thee and manifest his Life in thy mortal Flesh and let thy Thoughts and Affections be set on things above let thy Conversation be in Heaven and let thy Heart be where thy Treasure is now live to him that dyed for thee and rose again and then fear not Death but be confident that as sure as Jesus dyed and rose again so sure shall all they that sleep in Jesus rise also and that altho' thy Body be sown in Dishonour it shall be raised in Glory 1 Cor. 15. 43. This is the Second Preparative 3. The Third Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is that great Assize and general Judgment when the Lord Jesus shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory with all the innumerable Host of glorious Angels about him and all the Sons and Daughters of Men that ever lived upon Earth shall stand before him Rom. 2. 16. 14. 10. to be judged by him and to receive their final Doom Rev. 20. 12 13. Matth. 25. 31. at which time there will be made an exact separation between the Sheep and the Goats between the precious and the vile and then the Saints shall be first acquitted and justified and then with Christ shall judge the World Those that have truly repented and sincerely believed in the Lord Jesus they that have chosen the Lord for their God and Chief Good and Portion placing all their Happiness in him and have unfeignedly accepted of the Lord Jesus for their only Lord and Saviour and have unfeignedly given themselves wholy up to his Government by his Word and Spirit and entred cordiasly into Covenant with him and became entirely his these shall sit on his Right hand these have often judged themselves iâ— Heart-breaking Confessions and therefore shall not be then judged to Condemnation by the Lord for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh hut after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect Shall the Law These are not under the Law but under Grace their Surely hath fulfilled and satisfied the Law for them the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of Sin and Death it is God that justifieth who shall condemn The Judge himself hath said That he that believeth is him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life he shall not come into condemnation Joh. 3. 16 17 36. but will say to all such You have confessed me before men and
out more after God to love God more to fear to please to follow after God more it is in love If thou are more fearful of Sinning against God and more careful to glorifie him it is in love Psal 116. 1 2 3 4 5. 2. If you enjoy the gracions Presence of God with you in your Affliction his teaching strengthning sanctifying quieting satisfying humbling comforting Presence with you then you may conclude it is in love Isa 43. 2. Psal 94. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 16. when your inward man is renewed as your outward perisheth 3. If your Afflictions make you more conformable to Christ in Meekness Humility Heavenlyness Patience Self-denyal c. 4. If you be taught by the Spirit and Word when afflicted by the Rod how to hate Sin more to dye to Self and the Vanities of the World more how to dye to all Relations and Creature-Comforts mâ—re and how to list up Christ more and love him more to prepare for Death more and mind Heaven more then you are afflicted in Love Blessed are they that are thus taught by Affliction Psal 94. 12. 5. If God lay no more on you than he enables you to bear Isa 27. 8. Jer. 30. 11. 46. 28. 1 Cor. 10. 13. 6. If you can be willing to lye in the Furnace until your dross be consumed Job 23. 10. Mic. 7. 9. Can you cry out Lord remove the Cause rather than the Effect take away my Corruption rather than my Affliction A Cure Lord a Cure of the Distempers of my vile Heart good Lord a Cure 7. If you can live by Faith on the Promises in your Affliction Isa 41. 10. 43. 1 2 3. 57. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Psal 50. 15. Joh. 10. 17 27 28. Isa 26. 3. Matth. 11. 28 29. Heb. 12. 10. Hos 2. 14. Heb. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 28. Zech. 13. 9. Psal 34. 8. 84. 11. Let us labour to find these sweet Fruits of God's Fatherly Love to us in our Afflictions and then we shall not grow weary 2 Obj. But my Afflictions have been long upon me Ans 1. Not so long as thy Mercies have been Canst thou number the days of thy Health Have not thy good days been many more than thy evil days 2. Nor so long as thy Sins have been Thou hast been a Transgressor from the Womb a Sinner from thy Conception Psal 51. 5. 3. Nor so long as the Afflictions of others it may be far better than you See the 77th and 88th Psalms Gen. 15. 12 13. Four hundred years Exod. 12. 40 41. Job 21. 25. Some have not had a day of health or pleasure many years no not in their Lives Oh how should this quiet us under our Troubles that we may not complain that they are long 4. The longer thy Afflictions have been on thee the sweeter will Heaven at last be to thee Psal 126. 1 2 5 6. compared The longer the Storm the sweeter the Calm the longer in the Tempest the more welcome the Harbour 5. Thy Afflictions are not long but short if compared with that Eternity of Glory reserved in Heaven for you as in the Text Everlasting Habitations Eternal Life a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Have an Eye fixed on the Crown while thou bearest the Cross One moments being in the Bosom of Christ will make thee forget all thy Misery oh long for that good hour 6. The longer you are in Afflictions the more spiritual Experiences you have of the Love and Care of Christ towards you 2 Cor. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 5. O the Love-tokens that Christ sends his Spouse in the Furnace of Affliction then he speaks most kindly to her The blessed Martyn found it so 7. Long Afflictions are but Preparatives sometimes to long-liv'd Mercies as in Joseph and David Isa 54. 11 12 13 14. If by my long Affliction God make more room in my Heart for himself Son and Spirit his Word if he crucifie my Affections more to the World and make me more conformable to Christ I shall for ever bless his Name for them 8. The more Afflictions here the more Glory hereafter 2 Cor. 4. 16. Matth. 5. 10. For 1st the more Affliction the more Grace is exercised and the more Grace here the more Glory hereafter 2dly The more Afflictions the more religious Duties will be performed Psal 109. 4. Isa 26. 16. Psal 42. 1 2 3. Now God will reward every into according to his works though not for them 1 Cor. 15. last 2 Cor. 9. 6. 9. Impatience will but lengthen our Affliction God's time is the best for deliverance Affliction shall last no longer than need Act. 27. 13 15. Psal 23. 1 2. 94. 9. Rom. 8. 28. Moreover that we may bear up as Christians and not grow weary and so may find that all our Afflictions are blessed to us to prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory let us dwell on a few more Considerations 1. That these our Troubles are all the Hell we shall have 2. Think much on the real spiritual Advantages we shall have by Affliction Have we not had some bless God for them 3. Your choicest and chiefest Treasure is safe your God your Christ your Portion your Crown your Inheritance is safe your Graces your Souls are safe 4. Consider it is our unmortified Lust that is the sting of all our Afflictions its Sin adds gall to our wormwood Let us set our selves in earnest to the mortifying of our Sins apply the Blood of Christ beg his Spirit Rom. 8. 13. 5. That all our Afflictions come to us through the Covenant of Grace Psal 89. 30 c. 6. That they do but reach our worser our baser part our Bodies 2 Cor. 4. 6. our Souls may grow better 7. Labour to live by Faith and keep it as much in exercise as possible for Faith in exercise 1st shews the extreme vanity of all earthly things for the Soul by Faith seeth them as God seeth them to be all vanity and vexation and so it overcometh the World 1 Joh. 5. 4. 2dly Faith presents to the Soul greater sweeter better things in God and Christ than can possibly be found in the Creature Faith looks and feeds on Invisibles 3dly By enabling the Soul to center it self on God and to be satisfied with the naked enjoyment of him God is All to the Soul that trusteth in him Joh. 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. Phil. 3. 8 9. 8. Labor every day to be more humble low and little in your own Eyes Who am I I am not worthy of the least of God's Mercies I have forfeited all I have improved none it is Pride only that brings Discontent 9. Consider the worst that God doth to his People here is but to do them good in the latter end Hos 2. 14. Heb. 12. 10. 10. What God wills is best God is Wisdom it self and he is Goodness it self when he sends Sickness Sickness is best 11. That God will be with us
Words and Actions have reference to invisible eternal things If they be good and holy they have reference to eternal glory if bad and wicked they have reference to eternal Misery for such as is our Heart and Life here such shall be our eternal state hereafter 3 Direct Thirdly Be much in the Meditation of Heavenly Things if we firmly believe and are fully perswaded that there are indeed such great and glorious such excellent things in the other World as the God of Truth assures us of in the Word of Truth and if we believe or have good ground to hope that we have a title to them and shall shortly enjoy them why are they not more in our Thoughts why do we not more meditate on them Our frequent fixed Meditations on Heavenly things will so sweeten and delight our Souls and yield such satisfaction to us as to take off our Minds from Earthly things And to Meditation add Prayer That God would raise and lift up your Hearts to mind things above 4 Direct Fourthly Discourse frequently and feelingly of the vanity and emptiness of visible temporal things and of the reality and excellency of invisible eternal things If Heaven and Glory be in your Hearts they will be in your Mouths Consider also the shortness of the time you have to converse with visible temporal things 1 Cor. 7. 31. and study a crucified Christ more by that you will come to be crucified to the World and the World to you Gal. 6. 14. 5 Direct Fifthly Consider you that are Christians are not at home you are in a strange Country you are but on your Journey in your passage to your Father's house to your long home and therefore you should not much mind the things of this World 6 Direct Sixthly Consider what you lose all the while you are inordinately minding earthly things you lose not only your precious time but much inward joy and peace and much sweet communion with God which you might have in minding of and meditating upon Heavenly things Psal 63. 4 5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marâ—â—â— and fatness When I remember thee open my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches 7 Direct Seventhly Let us work a few more serious Considerations into our Hearts and Minds to take them from Earthly things 1. That whatever any Man or Woman hath of visible temporal things Death will put a full end to them all and after Death they all shall partake of invisible and eternal things Matth. 25. 46. The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal 2. That every Man and Woman in the World is either made for ever or undone for ever as they are related and entituled unto the invisible eternal good things or evil things of the other World they are made for ever if related and entituled to the invisible God and Glory and undone for ever if not So that our Eternal Happiness or Misery depends not on our relation or title to visible but to invisible things 3. Such as is our Title and Estate now to the one or other such it will be to all Eternity As the tree falls so it lies as death leaves us so will judgment find us 4. This looking off from earthly things is the way to grow and encrease in Grace for Worldly Cares do choak deaden and weaken Grace cloying the Affections entangling and encumbring the Thoughts much hindring the exercise of Faith and Love which are the principal Graces whereby holy Souls enjoy Communion with God 5. By this you will have more Communion with God for the less we look downward the more we shall look upward and the more we look upward to God and Christ in the actings of our Faith and Love the more will God and Christ manifest themselves and their love to our Souls 6. This will support us in Affliction and comfort us in a dying hour when our Affections are crucified to the World we shall not be unwilling to part with it Col. 3. 3. We are dead saith the Apostle that is to the World And this supported those in this Chapter they were crucified to all visible temporal things therefore they could easily part with them 3 Vse Thirdly by way of Examination By this gracious frame of Spirit we may know our spiritual state whether we be born of God or no whether in Christ or no to wit by this Whether our Hearts and Minds are more set on God Christ and Heaven or on the World Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus they are safe come Plague Sword Fire Faggot But who are in Christ Jesus He tells us They that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So Ver. 5 6. They that are spiritually minded they that have their conversation in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. Col. 3. 1 2. They are risen with Christ So Psal 73. 25 26. If we be born from Heaven we are bound for Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is as good an Evidence for Heaven as any is and Earthly-mindedness is as ill a Character as can be Let us now try our selves by this Where are our Hearts and Minds and Affections mostly set on Heaven or Earth on Christ or the Creature Let our Consciences speak Surely this one Rule of Tryal will help us to know in what state we are Lastly For Consolation to Believers in respect of outward Losses and Troubles that they are all visible and temporal things that we can lose and but temporal things that we can suffer which are but light and short as we have seen but our invisible eternal Mercies they are all sure and can never be lost If we had enjoyed our earthly Comforts a little longer it could have been but a little longer they and we must have parted All visible things are but temporal our fairest Flowers are fading our sweetest earthly Mercies are perishing And here is our Comfort that if we be in Christ we shall be delivered from Eternal Death from Everlasting Destruction from the Wrath to come If we have our part in the first Resurrection the Second Death shall have no power on us Let this comfort us that the Comforts we lose here are but temporal Comforts and the Troubles we suffer here are but temporal Troubles And this brings us to the second Point observed from the Text which was 2 Doct. That a right and true Judgment of earthly things will help to support the Lord's Services under their Afflictions Of which I shall speak but briefly because much of what hath been said in the former point 〈◊〉 confirm this Heb. 10. 34. They took joyfully the 〈…〉 their Goods And why but because 〈…〉 in themselves they had in Heaven 〈…〉 a more enduring substance They 〈…〉 Judgment both of Earth and Heaven 〈…〉 Earthly and of Heavenly Things and 〈…〉 infinite worth and value of 〈…〉 they knew that Heavenly things were 〈…〉 real the most substantial the most
excellency and highest concernment And saith the Apostle we that are Gospel-christians we look to these things upon these we spend our most serious thoughts and our best affections these possess our hearts and minds and we live in the continual prospect of these unseen and eternal things Before I come to the Reasons of the Point a little more to open this Act of gracious Souls and the Object of it I. For the Act Looking which may note these things 1. It notes Reality it is no Fancy Dream or empty Imagination but we look we see we behold them the Eyes of our Understandings being enlightned and our Minds illuminated by the Spirit of God and having the Spirit of Faith in us we discern and behold those invisible and eternal things Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen We do as fully believe them as if they were visible to our Bodily Eyes 2. It notes Certainty what we see with our Eyes we are certain of we are fully perswaded of them Heb. 11. 13. hence this Sight is called Knowledge 2 Cor. 5. 1. 3. Fixedness it is not glancing or casting an Eye on them but we look on them that is fixedly and stedfastly we aim at them we lock on them as our Mark and End Thus for the Act. II. For the Object they are things that are not seen What they are hath been showed the Properties are these 1. They are spiritual things so in their Nature and revealed by the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 8. and they are spiritually discerned and not otherwise 2. They are all high great and glorious things yea the highest the greatest and the most glorious things All other things are but Dross and Dung in comparison of them 3. They are the choicest and the best things most worthy of our Hearts and Minds and of our choicest Affections What is the Chaff to the Wheat What is the Dross to the Gold What is Earth to Heaven or the Creature to God 4. They are Heart-transforming Heart-gladding Heart-elevating Heart-strengthning things 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. 1 Pet. 1. 8. These things looked unto by the Eye of Faith will change the Heart and cause joy unspeakable and glorious 5. They are real solid substantial things not Shadows as visible temporal things are Hebr. 10. 34. They joyfully took the spoiling of their goods for they were but Shadows Trifles because they had in Heaven substantial things The things of this World are all vain lying Vanities things that are not Prov. 23. 5. 6. They are Soul-satisfying and Heart-contenting things such as have them shall never thirst more John 4. 14. that is inordinately and immoderately after Earthly things 7. And Lastly They are eternal things permanent abiding lasting everlasting things eternal Life eternal Glory everlasting Consolation everlasting Rest We shall ever be with the Lord. O my Soul Can I be a true Christian and be a Stranger to this Practice of conversing with those invisible eternal things Can I be regenerate born of God born from above and be a Stranger to this Practice Can I be quiet in Conscience so long as I live in the neglect of this Can I groundedly hope to live and converse with God and Christ for ever hereafter and be such a Stranger to this converse with him here Can I have any Support in Trouble without this Can I have any true Comfort in Life or Death or bid Sickness or Death welcome and be a Stranger to this Certainly no Therefore O my Soul labour for more familiar Acquaintance with those invisible eternal things and exercise thy self more in the Meditations of them The Grounds and Reasons of the Point Why gracious Souls do most seriously mind intend and aim at invisible eternal things Reas I. Because they are commanded so to do Col. 3. 1 2. Set your affections upon things above not on things below Mat. 6. 19 20. Lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven not in Earth 1 Tim. 6. 19. II. Because truly-gracious Souls are endued with invisible divine and eternal Principles which do encline dispose and suit them to those invisible and eternal things Jam. 1. 17 18. They are begotten of God born of God their extraction is heavenly 1 Pet. 1. 23. 2 Pet. 1. 4. They must needs mind God for they are begotten of him He is their Father they have his Image on them and they must needs mind Christ for he is formed in them and the Spirit for they are born of the Spirit Heaven is their Father's House their own Home their Inheritance the Principles of the Divine Nature enclines and disposeth them to mind things above As they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh so they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit for this is the characteristical difference between the carnal and the spiritual man Rom. 8. 5 6. 1 John 5. 4. Every thing acts according to its Principles If Men and Women have no other Principles in them but such as they brought into the World with them which are only earthly and have no other Spirit than the Spirit of the World iâ— them they cannot mind heavenly things for such as is the earthly such are they that are earthly Heavenly things are contrary to their Natures and to their Principles and therefore they cannot mind them But holy Souls have Principles of the Divine Life and they live the Life of God III. Because their Hopes are set grounded fixed on those invisible eternal things their hopes are not in this Life but in God in Christ Glory Heaven and Eternal Life are the Objects of the hopes of all truly-gracious Souls 1 Cor. 15. 19. Rom. 5. 2. Heb. 6. 18 19. Tit. 2. 14. Tit. 1. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 13. 1 John 3. 3. We must needs mind them and set our Affections upon them because we hope to enjoy them for ever Phil. 3. 20 21. IV. Because the People of God have had experience in some measure of the sweet and powerful Influences and Operations of those invisible eternal things on their own Hearts and Spirits they have tasted that the Lord is gracious they have had fellowship with the Father and the Son in some degree they have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost in many saving fruits and effects on them they have felt the power efficacy and comfort of the Word and Promises and they have in some measure received the first-fruits and earnest of their Inheritance Rom. 8. 23. Eph. 1. 13 14. V. Because by all these things gracious Souls live and in all these things is the Life of their Souls Their Life is hid with Christ in God and should they not mind God and Christ Christ liveth in them and they in him Gal. 2. 20. They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit Gal. 5. They live by and live upon the Promises Job 23. 12. They live by Faith in the purchased
I could converse more with God and have my Conversation more above Thus holy Souls pant and breath after God and Heavenly things 4. In esteeming prizing valuing those invisible eternal things above all earthly temporal things Psal 30. In God's favour is life Psal 63. 3. His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us This will put gladness into our hearts more than the encrease of corn and wine 5. In applying and appropriating these invisible eternal things to our own Souls My Lord and my God my Jesus The kingdom prepared for me the crown belongs to me 6. In frequent conversing with them by meditation contemplation consideration spreading and spending our most serious Thoughts and our most fixed and deepest Cogitations on them and never leave thinking and thinking pondering musing ruminating and dwelling on them until our Hearts be warmed and our Affections kindled our Desires enlarged and our Delights raised Psal 37. 5. Delight thy self in the Lord. Psal 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet Alas we have so few and such short and inconstant and unfixed Thoughts of God and Christ of Heaven and Glory that our Hearts are not affected nor raised and enflamed 7. And lastly In a conversation suitable to those invisible eternal things Phil. 3. 20. the Apostles and Primitive Christians had their Conversations in Heaven This alone is true real minding of and conversing with those Heavenly things when we live the life of God live like God like Jesus walk in the Spirit to be holy in all manner of conversation 2 Pet. 3. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. To be like Christ in Meekness and Humility Matth. 11. 28. and in Purity 1 John 3. 3. in contempt of the World and Vanities of it in Heavenly-mindedness And thus we ought to look unto and mind invisible and eternal things and this will bring true Joy and perfect Peace Isa 26. 3. Psal 112. 6 7. Moreover I conceive that the Apostle and Primitive Christians did look also unto the invisible eternal Evil things and spent some Thoughts upon them as The Terrour of the Lord Everlasting Destruction Eternal Death the Wrath to come c. These things they minded two ways 1. By way of Praise and Thanksgiving admiring the Love and Grace of God in Christ by which they were delivered from those invisible eternal Miseries which their Sins had deserved as we find often in their Praises 2. In their Diligence to escape those eternal Evils labouring for the assurance of their full deliverance from them constantly exhorting all men to give all Diligence that they might not fall short of their Everlasting Rest But principally I think they looked unto those invisible eternal Good things to secure their Title to them and Interest in them and so minding them as still to press forward towards the Mark of the Price of the high Calling and with the fore-thoughts and fore-sights of them did support their Spirits under their Troubles and sweeten their passage through this present evil World So much for the Doctrinal part The Application First For Information 1 Inference Hence appears the extream Folly and Madness of People by Nature who look at mind and aim only at visible temporal things but totally neglect Invisible eternal things God Christ Heaven is not in all scarce in any of their Thoughts Lovers of themselves of their own things of Profits and Pleasures more than of God Phil. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 4. that make themselves the Mark they aim at but the Glory and Honour of God the pleasing and enjoying him are strange things to them things they never minded never thought on God complains of this against the Jews Hos 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of my Law but they counted them as strange things So may Jesus Christ justly complain of Men under the Gospel I have revealed the great and glorious Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven the Mysteries of Salvation the unsearchable Riches of the Grate and Love of God in the Gospel Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel the true and only way to Heaven and Eternal Life to Everlasting Happiness is clearly made known in the Gospel the only Means to get an Interest in the great God in Jesus Christ in the New Covenant how to get Pardon of Sin Peace with God how to be justified saved and glorified for ever All these things are fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel The invisible eternal things of the World to come which are the greatest Realities and Excellencies the choicest greatest and best things But woe and alas how little are those things minded It is Corn Wine and Oyl Who will shew us any good any visible temporal good Now is not this extream Folly and Madness for reasonable Creatures made for God made capable of enjoying God and all those invisible eternal good things for them thus to labour and pant after the Dust of the Earth to spend their Thoughts Minds and Strengths upon that which cannot satisfie which will not endure but thus to waste precious Time and Breath and Spirits for perishing fading things and neglect invisible eternal things the incorruptible Crown that fadeth not away the undefiled Inheritance the everlasting Kingdom eternal Life and Salvation not to look on those nor mind them nor labour for them Yet this is the common neglect of the World It is amazing Madness astonishing Folly Thus God expresseth Jer. 2. 11 12 13. Be astonished O ye heavens at this be ye horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Prov. 1. 20 21 22. Yet such is the Madness of all by Nature and it is greatly to be lamented This shews also the blindness and darkness of Men by Nature that they cannot see the excellency of those invisible eternal things nor their own absolute necessity of them and concernment in them The God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them This glorious light shines upon them and shines into many of their Heads this Light they cannot resist but it shines not into their Hearts to transform and change them as it doth into the Hearts of God's Elect and it 's greatly to be lamented 2 Cor. 4. 4. 2. Inf. Secondly Hence appears the beguiling bewitching nature of the World that it should so strangely win and gain the Hearts and Affections of Men and Women and so easily prevail with them while God and Christ are offered to them and are not embraced Heaven gates are opened to them and they invited entreated perswaded by Promises by Threatnings commanded to come and enter but they will not they make light of it no
glory that Everlasting Rest in the full and perfect enjoyment of the Blessed God for ever thought on minded and laboured after more but because these things are not fully believed O cursed Unbelief Men believe that Life Liberty Health Honour Estate c. are good things and therefore they mind them and labour after them and count no Pains too much to obtain them labouring as it were in the Fire to get those things Those that believed those better things in the other World counted those visible temporal things of this World but Toyls and Trifles Heb. 10. 34. 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4. So Heb. 11. throughout It is our Unbelief is the cause why God and Christ and Heaven have so little of our hearts and minds so little of our thoughts and affections Oh let us all bitterly bewail our Unbelief Lord subdue and pardon it These are the Hinderances II. The Means to help us to this Work that we may most seriously and most heartily mind invisible eternal things 1. First We must labour clearly to know and understand the Truth and Reality the exceeding Greatness and Excellency of those invisible eternal things as was hinted before Our ignorance of them is much the cause why we mind them no more Ignoti nulla Cupido No man minds or loves what he knows not Let us set our Hearts in earnest to consider what it is to enjoy God who is All-fulness what it is to have Fellowship with the Father and the Son what it is to have Communion with the Holy Ghost to have the gracious Presence of the Holy Spirit to feel the Work the Witness the Sealing the Joy the Consolation of the Holy Spirit all which all true Christians know and feel in some measure and rejoice in them Consider also what it is to live in Christ and to have Christ to live in us to dwell in our Hearts to manifest his Love to us to come in to us to sup with us and we with him to take up his Abode with us what it is to know the Power of his Death and the Vertue of his Resurrection to be made one with him joyned married to him made one Spirit with him and what it is to be made like him here and what it is to be made like him hereafter both in Soul and Body â—ad to appear with him in Glory at last and to be for ever glorified with him what it is to see this Face and to dwell in his presence for ever Oh chese are the only things that are worthy of all our Hearts and Minds most worthy of all our Affections and Desires of all our Labourings Longings Pantings Breathings Hungrings and Thirstings of Soul Oh shame on us all that we spend our Affections on Toys and Trifles on Dreams Fancies and Shadows Oh that such Folly and Madness such Brutishness should possess us Let us lament and lament it And let us labour to know and understand those high and excellent things and let us be fully perswaded of them and of their infinite worth and value These things are worth glorying and rejoycing in Jer. â—â— 23 24. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Let us consider also the exceeding-great and precious Promises and what our Blessed Jesus hath purchased and what God hath prepared for his People in the other World and let us ponder upon and by Meditation work these things into our Hearts and Minds Labour for a distinct knowledge of all those things Labour to prove your particular Right and Title to all those invisible eternal good things and then you will mind them indeed A bare Knowledge of them without an Interest in them will do you no good No wise man will much mind those things in which he hath no Interest let us then search and try whether we have any true Title to these things whether we have any good and solid ground to hope that we shall one day be possest of them and shall certainly enjoy them Then we shall think of them and speak of them with Joy and Comfort when we can say with Paul There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness And we know that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens We all hope to enjoy that promised purchased Inheritance all hope to see God in Glory and to be happy but let us try our Title by the Word of God by that Word which must judge us all at the last day We may easily deceive our selves as those in Matth. 7. 21 22. and as the foolish Virgins no Deceit so easie nor so common nor so dangerous for it is irrecoverable and a little serious tryal might prevent this Self-deceiving Self-searching may prevent Self-deceiving and Self-undoing Briefly then let us ask our selves Is Jesus Christ ours Then All is ours All depends on this If Christ be ours God is ours Pardon Life Salvation Heaven and Earth is ours 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. Are we Christ's really and sincerely his Then He is ours My beloved is mine and I am his Are we his all we are his Hearts Heads Tongues Time Talents are we all his Are we new Creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Mark it a new Creature all old things are pass'd away and behold all things are become new new Insides new Out-sides new Principles new Ends new Affections new Desires new Delights new Company new Language all new if new Creatures Have we the Spirit of Christ in us If any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Doth Christ live in us Is Christ most precious to us Do we believe in him Let us try the truth of our Faith doth it purifie our Hearts Doth it work by Love by Love to Christ to all that hath the Image of Christ on it Doth it overcome the World Doth it support under Trouble Let us see that it be Faith unfeigned the Faith of God's Elect. Have we with all our Hearts chosen the Lord for our Portion and placed our Happiness in him fixed our best Loves Desires and Delights in him and have we resigned up our whole selves cordially and unreservedly to him Have we broken our League with all Sin and with all the Idols of our Hearts Do we hate and detest all Sin and do we keep a continual watch and war against all Sin Have we an equal respect to all God's Commandments Can we deny our selves and part with all things for Christ Are we the Heirs of the Promises If we be really Christ's then are we Heirs of the Promises Gal. 3. 29. Are we the Children of God If Children