buried in Oblivion And thus having laid him in his Grave let us read his Epitaph made by the same Hand Epitaphium Jos Cooper qui obiit Anno Aetatis 41. 16â—â— Here lye's a Saint call'd hence to company With chanting Quires and winged Hierarchy Cooper's Name Ambassadour Divine Nature's great Torch and Learning's Magazine The EPISTLE To the CANDID READER THOUGH all Men by an Innate Appetite do desire Blessedness and have that before them as their * Vivere Omnes beate volunt sed ad Perridendum quid sit quod Beatam Vitam efficiam Caligant Sen. de vit Beat cap 1. pag. 627. Ultimate End in some kind of general undistinct and confus'd Intention Yet iâ—possible it is for any Man ever to enjoy Blessedness and to have it in full Fruition if not Guided thereunto by a Light from Heaven True Happiness is not to be discerned by Nature's Dim Eye Though it be a Tree of Life yet the Fruit thereof grows so High that Nature's Hand can never Reach it As the Sun that glorious Eye of the World is not to be Seen but by it's own proper Light Ten Thousand Torches though Lighted up and uniting All their Beams in One Flame cannot shew us the Sun So it is not all the Natural Reason in the World though Clarified and Improved to the utmost Reach of all Humane Understanding that can bring us to any Saving Acquaintance with God as our Happiness and Reward without some bright shining Beam of Divine Revelation from Himself Nature may shew Men some Dark and Cloudy Discoveries of Happiness at a distance just as that Blind Person who when his Sight began to return saw Men walking like Trees But to give Men a Clear Prospect of this Fruitful Land and to Direct them sufficiently in their Way thither This Nature can no more do than a Star of the least Magnitude can make Day in the World Happiness is indeed the Harbour for which We are all bound but we shall certainly Lose ourselves and Miserably make Ship-wreck by the way if ever we put to Sea without ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexan. Admonit ad Gent. p. 19. our Card and Compass of Wisdom from above to help us in Steering a right Course towards this wished Shore There is nothing that can ever lead us to God as our End but that which comes from God as the Beginning of our Strength in the Saving Knowledge of our chiefest Good In every Man there are Two Prime Faculties aâ— Understanding capable of more Truth and a Will desirous of more Good than what the universal Confluence of all Created Beings can possibly afford God therefore who is the First Truth and the Chiefest Good must first Enlighten the Understanding with the Saving Knowledge of Himself before ever the Will can tell how to Move Regularly towards Him as her Center or Enjoy Him for her full Satisfaction He must Guide the Soul by his Counsel on Earth or else she can never come to Heavenly Glory Psal 73.24 We are sure to lye down in Darkness and to Dye in the Wilderness of our own Folly if the Lord direct us not as by a Pillar of Fire through the Night and Thick Darkness of all our Ignorance into the Heavenly Canaan of true Happiness There is no Proportion betwixt a Natural Eye and a Supernatural Happiness and so no possibility that such an Object should be seen by such an Organ The great God hath Ordained Man to a far more Noble End than what his Natural Faculties can either Merit for him or Discover to him That Glorious and Ultimate End in the Acquisition whereof and not otherwise the Heart of Man can rest Satisfied it 's as far above the Reach of our most Soaring and Sublimated Thoughts as it is for Worth and Excellency beyond all our Deserts Since the Infernal Raven pick'd out the Eyes of our Understanding with a Splinter of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil we have all like the Sodomites been Groping in the Dark for the Tree of Life Deut. 32.32 But should never have been able to Distinguish It from the Vine of Sodom all whose Grapes are Grapes of Gall and Clusters Bitter had not God himself given us a Taste thereof from Heaven by the Hand of Christ The Patrons of Universal Grace I confess would turn the whole World into an Eden and have the Tree of Life to be found in every Garden as well as in the Paradise of God But the Vanity of that Opinion is Written in Legible Characters upon that confused Chaos that heap and crowd of Contradictions about the Summum Bonum in the Ruines whereof the most improved Reasons of the Heathen Philosophers and the most raised Wisdom of the World 's Learned Sages lyes Buried to this Day 'T was the common Aim of all the Philosophers as ‖ Omnium Philosophorum commune studium erat quaeâ—endo studendo disputando vivendo Beatitudinem apprehendere Aug. Tom. 6. Tract de Epicur et Stoic Cap. 4. Austin hath Observed of all the Heathen Sages by Seeking Studying Disputing and Living to find out and lay hold upon Happiness But yet so Dreadful were their Misapprehensions about it and the Means conducing thereto that if Varro may be Credited or * Aug. de Civit. Dei Lib. 19. Cap. 1. Austin after him they Disputed themselves into no less than Two Hundred Eighty and Eight Sects some placing Happiness in this thing and some in that according to their several Inclinations Humours and Conditions together with the different Projects they had to drive on in the World So that there is no Possibility of finding out the way to True Happiness at Athens amongst the Philosophers who sought it only by Human Reason but in Jerusalem amongst the Prophets and Apostles Men inspired with Divine Wisdom from Heaven they will tell us the Truth That our Happiness stands not in the Quint-Essence of Any nor in the general Collection of All Created Good Things but in the having of the Lord JEHOVAH for our Portion and our exceeding great Reward MEN may Fancy much Happiness where Garners are Full affording all manner of Store where their Flocks are Fruitful and their Oxen are Strong to Labor where there is no Breaking in nor Complaining in their Streets But David a Man after God's own Heart by an holy Epanonthesis Contradicts that gross Mistake Psal 144.15 and stands like a Beacon upon an Hill to give Aim at the Mark of True Blessedness pronouncing that People alone to be Happy whose God is the Lord. Let Men dive into the bottom of Nature's Sea yet they will be able to bring up from thence nothing but Hands full of Sand and Gravel this One Pearl of Great Price is no where Engendred in the Bowels of the Earth When the Enquiry was Where shall Wisdom be found and Where is the place of Vnderstanding The Depth said It is not in me and the Sea said It is not with me
Fourth Whether he had not Observed the Ecclipses He answered the King No I have so much to do upon Earth that I have no leisure to look up to Heaven Thus the Generality of Men have so much to do upon Earth and are so deeply engaged in their Secular Affairs that they have no leisure to spend their Thoughts upon Heaven and it's Glory Lactantius * Hinc utique Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellarunt quod sursum spectet Ipsi ergo sibi renunciant seque Hominum Nomine abdicant qui non Sursum aspiciunt sed deorsum Lact. lib. 2. Instit Cap. 1. p. 140. will have those guilty of Degrading themselves into the Shapes of Brutes and unworthy the Names of Men who lye Grovelling here below never fixing their Thoughts on Eternal Concernments nor setting their Affections on Things above And yet how are Multitudes every where Grovelling in the Dust of Earthly Vanities never sending up a Look a Desire a Thought no nor so much as one Hearty Groan after Heaven Natural Bodies they follow the tendency of that Element which is Predominant in them a Stone moves down-ward it would be at the Center Thus those in whom the Love of the World is Predominant they cannot but move Downward the Earth is their Center and that they will make towards let come of Heaven and Glory what will come Possibly whilst Religion is in Credit and the way to Heaven lyes through the Fortunate Islands the Arabia Foelix or through the Golden Streams of the Lydian Pactolus these Men may have their Faces that way and seem to Steer their Course Heaven-ward But if once Religion be under Hatches in the World if once a Life of serious Scripture Holiness be counted Faction and all things are at such a pass that there is no getting to Canaan but through a Barren Wilderness no coming at the fair Havens of True Happiness but through the Straits of Poverty Reproach and Affliction they have Wit enough such as it is to set Sails for another Wind and will think Heaven it self for a Golden-Mine a very easy Morgage Many there be who whilst Religion walks in Stately Equipage will be Reteiners to her But if at any time the Watch-men Wound her and the Keepers of the Walls take away her Veil you may presently see them very Shy of if not Ashamed to wear so much as her Livery What * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens saith of a certain Friend That he was not his but his Riches Kinsman This is true of many Professors who if Religion had not Riches in her Left-hand would never pretend neither Kindness or Kin to her Such Men who thus design their own Profit Honour and Promotion in the World by that pitiful Religion which they have they are just like the Lapis Chelidonius which say Naturalists will retain it's Virtue no longer than whilst you keep it inclos'd in Gold The Upper Springs of Grace and Glory which God always gives in Dowry with his Daughter Achsah True Godliness cannot make a Worldly Heart fall in Love with Her unless God will give him the Nether Springs also such as Riches Honours and earthly Possessions he will never be brought to Match with her nor is the Match ever made so sure upon this Account but if at any time God dry up these Nether Springs now the Stream of this Muck Worm's Affections will wholly fail such a Nabal will God's own Daughter Religion I mean find him that he will be sure to turn her upon her Father not forbearing so much as one Night to thrust her out of Doors When the Ark came into the House of Obed-Edom and they saw that it brought a Blessing upon him and his whole House then every one no doubt could think it worth their Entertainment But when Judgments attended the Ark of God almost every Man thought it a Burden and by all means would turn it off so that in such a time the Ark of God finds no Rest they send it from Gath to Ekron from Ekron to Askalon 1 Sam. 5. counting him the Happy Man that could well rid his hands of it Thus every Man will own Religion Prospering a Blessing Ark But where is he that will own Religion under Worldly Disadvantages that will entertain the Ark of God when Persecuted when Banished when Dangerous and Un-doing to those that meddle with it However the Love of the World do thus eat out the Heart of Religion with those who have their Portion in this World yet certainly it becomes not you Christians whose Treasure is in Heaven thus to have the Wayes of God in Admiration for Advantage sake Thus to Morgage your eternal Inheritance to keep the poor Cottage of an earthly Estate wherein you are but Tenants at Will Their Condition of all Mens is most Miserable who go from Heaven to Hell From the Heaven I mean of Wordly Prosperity to the Hell of Endless Destruction in the World to come The very Life of every Worldling is wrapt up in the Bundle of his outward Enjoyments And therefore not having made sure of Heaven they must needs as it was once said to a great Lord be great Losers when they Dye AND shall such miserable Caitives as these Christians be the Men to Tread out the Way for your Feet to Walk in when every Step alas that they take sinks as low as Hell Have you no other Copy to Write after but that which is Written in Blood Will no other Path serve the turn but that of Men Selling the Riches of Heaven and Glory for a little thick Clay which inevitably leads to Destruction Such an Errour ¶ Versatque nos praecipitat Traditus per manus Error alienisque perimus exemplis Sen. de vit Beat. Cap. 1 pag. mihi 628. though Received by Tradition is enough to throw you head-long into Tophet nor can you chuse but Perish Eternally if you will make the Examples of such Misers the Rule of your Living Why cannot you as †{inverted †}†Sinite sapientes hujus saeculi alia sapientes et terram lingentes sapienter descendere in Infernum Bernard de vit solit Bernard hath it suffer the Wise Men of this World who like the Serpent lick the Dust of the Earth to go Wisely down to Hell Is it not better as a Divine of ours wittily that we choose to Arrive at Heaven with Tatter'd Sails than to Ruffle towards Hell with Cleopatra's Silken Tacklings Let others Admire the Gaudy Tulip which closeth with every approaching Night and cold Blast that comes yet Christians they should be like the Herb Semper-vivum retaining their Verdure and Greeness in the hardest Winter What thô others will not have the Golden Apples of Glory if not placed in the Silver Pictures of Worldly Contentments will you therefore Throw away those Apples of Gold because the Silver Pictures of your Secular Enjoyments may get a Crack and are Broken in pieces Heaven it self is a
(a) Nos tamen in praemijs non oportet consistere sed loâ—gius spectare ad gloriam dei ut quamvis nulla 〈◊〉 proponerentur tamen velimus recte facere Though we may look to the Recompence of Reward yet we must not stay there but must look beyond it to God's Glory resolving that though he should never Reward us yet in well-doing we would glorify him A Child is bound in duty to obey his Parents though they have no Portion no Riches no Inheritance to bestow upon him because they are his Parents Thus Christians though there were no Heaven no Happiness no reward of Eternal Life for God to bestow upon you yet doubtless you were bound to obeâ— him even because he is God over all blessed for ever (b) Pluribus de causis in solidum omnia opera nostra bonâ— sunt debita deo ita ut possit omnia exigere etiamsi praemium nuâ—lum dare volit Bern. in Serm. de Quadruped FOR sundry respects whatever good works we do or can do they are all of them due to God and therefore saith Bernard he might require them of us and we accordingly were bound to perform them though he should never render to us for them the reward of Eternal Life 2. THAT though we thus owe Obedience to God and are bound to serve him were there no Reward to be expected yet such is the infinite condescention and goodness of God that he hath provided an Eternally glorious Reward for all such as walk sincerely in Obedience before him He might exact Obedience at our hands upon terms of absolute Sovereignty but such is his matchless condescention that he only desires it upon Terms of Bounty and remunerative Goodness (c) Quamvis deus qui omnium Conditor est et dominus pro suo in nos jure et impio voluntatis suae praecepta simpliciter proponere et a nobis obedientiam maga authoritate exgiere possit patris tamen ingenium potius quam severi et immitis domini mores imitari vult una cum praeceptis suis amplissimas omnis generis bonorum promissiones proponens quo facilius a nobis obedientiam impetret qui tot tamque graves sentimus Remoras quae a via salutis revocant Gualther in 1. Johan 4.18 Pag. 61. THE Lord though in regard of his absolute Sovereignty over us he might yet such is his remunerative Goodness that he will not suffer any thing which we do for him to go unrewarded but will certainly Crown it with Eternal Glory AS Christ commanded the broken Meat to be gathered up not suffering the least fragment to be lost So the Lord will gather an exact account of all our Performances and will never suffer us to lose so much as a Prayer as a Sigh as a Tear no nor so much as a Cup of Cold Water by him Mat. 10.24 God's People are now indeed by those that have their Hope in this Life counted of all Men most miserable But when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired of all those that believe then shall the Wicked themselves be convinced that verily there is a Reward for the Righteous Psal 58.11 Wicked Men think it in vain to serve God they can see no profit in keeping his Ordinances but however if we walk uprightly abounding in the work of the Lord we shall find that our labour will not be in vain with the Lord and that in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal 19.11 1 Cor. 15.5 8. (d) Nullum etenim bonum irremuneratum deus relinquit Carthusian in Luke 16. God will never forget our labour of Love nor suffer any good thing that we do for him to go unrewarded 'T IS storied of Caius the Emperour that after he came to be Emperour the first thing he did was to prefer Agrippa who for wishing him that Imperial Dignity had suffered Imprisonment to whom he gave a Chain of Gold full as heavy as the Chain of Iron which Agrippa had worn in Prison for his sake Thus to be sure when the Lord comes to sit upon the Throne of his Glory the first thing he will do shall be to Reward all those that have done or suffered any thing for his sake then he sets upon their Heads a Crown of Righteousness then he puts them in full Possession of Eternal Glory then he calls them up into Everlasting Communion with God in Heaven saying Come ye Blessed of my Father Mat. 25.34 Pharoah's (e) Vtcunque homines pactum mercedem detinere et negare solent Christus tamen id nec faciet unquam nec facere potest Titus 1.2 Daevenant in Col. c. 3. v. 24. p. 479. Butler may forget the Kindness of Joseph but the Lord will never forget our Labour of Love nor suffer any thing that we do for him to go unrewarded Heb. 6.10 We have the Promise of God who cannot Lie for our Security that if by Patient continuance in well-doing we seek for Glory Honour and Immortality he will certainly Crown us at length with Life everlasting Rom. 2.7 CHAP. III. The Doctrine explain'd shewing what it is to have a Respect to the Recompence of the Reward in Six Particulars I. THESE things premised I come now to shew you What it is to have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward And that I shall indeavour to do in these few Particulars 1. STEDFASTLY to believe that there is a Reward for the Righteous and that our Labour shall never be in Vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15.5.6 Faith is the Eye of the Soul that gives it a sight of those eternal good things which are not seen So that when in our Obedience we get as it were upon the top of Mount Pisgah thence taking by the Eye of Faith a Prospect of the Heavenly Canaan where after our wearisom Pilgrimage we shall have an everlasting glorious Rest then we have respect to the recompence of the Reward MEN may possibly discourse of Heaven and Glory telling you to Admiration how incorruptible the Crown is how everlasting the Joy and how transcendently Glorious the Happiness which God hath provided for those that Love him But till they stedfastly believe the Truth of all this till by Faith they can look within the Vail till by Faith they can Antedate Heaven and bring down the bright Reflections of eternal Glory into their own Hearts they have no respect to the Recompence of the Reward For how can he have respect to Heaven and Glory to eternal Life and Happiness in the World to come who Believes them not THE Sun is a Glorious Body but that 's undiscernable to a Blind Man who wants an Eye to behold the Lustre and Splendour of it So though the Recompence of Reward be transcendently Glorious and ten thousand times more Radiant than the Sun in it's Noon-day brightness yet an Unbeliever can have no respect to it as wanting an Eye of Faith to discern all
this There is a dark Mist upon Eternity to all Unbelievers they are led by carnal Reason and will therefore believe no more than what Sense discovers but now Faith that gives a present Subsistence to future Glory and is the convincing Evidence of things hoped for of Heaven and eternal Felicity though as yet unseen Heb. 11.1 SENSE cannot out-see time nor look beyond the Grave but Faith gives the Soul a clearer Prospect of Eternity and shews it under all Afflictions a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 So then when by Faith we can look into another World believing that verily there is a Reward for the Righteous when by Faith we can assure our hearts of the Glory to come believing that he who Sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit Reap Life everlasting then we have Respect to the Recompence of the Reward 2. FIDVCIALLY to apply it to our selves as that which we believe shall be the Recompence wherewith the Lord will eternally Crown us Thus Moses whilst he refused to be called the Son of Pharoah's Daughter esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt doubtless he looked upon the Lord Jehovah as his Portion upon the Kingdom of Heaven as his own Inheritance upon Life Happiness and Eternal Glory as things prepared for himself and so he had Respect unto the Recompence of the Reward To come unto the Lord in ways of Obedience believing him to be a plentiful Rewarder of all that diligently seek him is something but when we appropriate God for a Portion to our selves saying with Thomas My Lord and my God and believe him to have prepared for us in particular such Eternally Glorious Things as eye never saw nor ear heard nor could the Heart of Man ever yet conceive of then we have Respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward THE Church of Rome I confess hath Anathematized all those who urge it upon Believers as their duty to appropriate God and Christ and eternal Glory in Heaven to their own Souls and they call us by way of Reproach Specialists for maintaining that the Object of saving Faith is the special Mercy of God Remission of Sins for me and Justification through the Blood of Christ for me and a Crown of Life laid up for me and a Kingdom of Eternal Glory to be expected by me in Particular this they declaim against as the first-born of all Absurdities But believe it Christians without this particular Appropriation of God and Christ and Eternal Glory to our selves our Faith will bring us no more Peace no more Comfort no more Joy in the Holy Ghost than for Lazarus to hear there was Food enough in Dives's House when he might not so much as taste of the Crumbs that fell from that Rich Man's Table Hagar had a Well of Water hard by her but for all that she sits weeping so long as she saw it not Thus Christian though God and Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven with all the Glory thereof lye before thee yet so long as thou lookest not upon God as thy Portion upon Christ as thy Saviour and upon the Kingdom of Heaven as thy Eternal Inheritance no wonder though thou weep and go mourning from day to day For 't is only respect to God and Christ to Heaven and Eternal Glory as things wherein we our selves have an Interest that can effectually comfort our Souls and make us rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory STRIVE we then to look upon Heaven and Eternal Glory as prepared for us in Particular to look upon a Crown of Righteousness as laid up for us and then we have respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward Though Christian thou canst not say Riches are thine yet see that thou canst say Grace and Glory are thine and that is much better When once the Soul can say though now I Sow in Tears yet anon I shall Reap in Joy though now I walk in Sackcloth yet I shall shortly be cloathed upon with the White Robes of eternal Glory though be now Poor in this World yet for all that I am Rich in Faith and Heir-apparent to the most glorious Kingdom that ever eye beheld though I now lie amongst the Pots mourning like the Doves of the Valley yet looking towards Heaven can say above yonder Heavens must I dwell for ever above yonder Heavens hath the Lord prepared for me a Crown of Righteousness a Mansion of eternal Glory all fulness of Joy in his Presence and unperishing Pleasures at his own Right Hand for evermore When thus I say the Soul can Appropriate the Happiness the Glory and the Royalties of the World to come to it self then it hath a due respect to the Recompence of the Reward 3. SERIOVSLY to consider of Heaven and Glory and often to be meditating upon them 'T is not a sudden motion nor now and then a transient thought about eternal Life and Happiness in another World that will prove a Man to have due respect to the Recompence of the Reward But there must be serious Thoughts and fixed Meditations upon them so that the Mind may be delightfully busied about and wholly taken up in the sweet Contemplation of them Zacheus being a Man of low Stature could not see Christ but by climbing up into the Sycamore-Tree (f) Necesse est igitur in animo frequenter versare coelestia nemo enim quaerit illud de quo non rogitat Davenant in Colos c. 3. v. 1. Pag. 244. Thus Christians unless you climb up into the high Sycamore of Heavenly Meditation seriously fixing your Thoughts in all your Obedience upon that Crown that Kingdom that eternal weight of Glory which God hath prepared for those that love him you can never have any due respect to the Recompence of the Reward WHEN God would have Abraham take a view of Canaan he called him up into the Mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah So would we ever take a Prospect of the Holy Land the Promised Canaan the Heavenly Jerusalem as that which must be the Reward of all our Labours the way is to go up unto the Mountain of Nebo even to the highest Pisgah of Heavenly Meditations Such is the Power of Holy Meditation that it sets a Man upon the Shoar of Eternity it carries him with Paul up into the Third Heaven and brings him notwithstanding any flaming Sword of Worldly opposition to keep him out into the Paradise of God so that now he can see the Beauties taste the Pleasures and clearly take a view of the Glories of the World to come Whilst Stephen was stedfastly looking towards Heaven he saw the Glory of God and Christ standing at his Right Hand Thus Christians we never get so full a Prospect of God and Christ and Eternal Glory as when we seriously meditate Heaven stedfastly fixing our thoughts on the World to come We Read of Elijah that he was carried up to Heaven in
Life Whilst Christians you seek after in the ways of Obedience the Recompence of the Reward why you have then a due respect unto it and shall therefore in no case lose your Rewards THUS you see what it is to have respect to the Recompence of the Reward you must stedfastly believe that there is a Reward for the Righteous you must fiducially apply it to your selves as that which you in particular shall be Crowned with you must often meditate upon and be spending your Thoughts about Heavenly Glory you must earnestly long after Life Eternal desiring to be cloathed upon with your House which is from Heaven you must take incouragement from the Glory that shall shortly be revealed in you to keep close with God in ways of Obedience whatever it cost you and you must also by patient continuance of well-doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality making this the great end of your Lives that you may work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling and so doing you need not doubt but you have a due respect unto Heavenly Glory and have rightly fixed your eyes upon that eternal Recompence of Reward which God hath set before you CHAP. IV. The Doctrine explain'd further shewing how we must have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward In Six other Particulars II. THAT which according to the Method at first resolved upon comes next to be cleared is The manner how you are to have respect to the Recompence of the Reward which with all plainness I shall endeavour to explicate in these subsequent Propositions 1. WE are to have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward not Principally but Secondarily and with due Subordination to God's Glory Heaven and Glory may be the subordinate ground and end of our Obedience but they are not to be made the supream ground nor the ultimate end of our Obedience (n) Mercedem oportet non spectari ut principale motivum sed deum ejusque gloriam tanquam ultimum finem respiciendum nostram vero beatificam visionem ut finem sub fine ideo enim appetere debemus mercedem beatitudinis ut securius et ardentius deum diligamus in aeternum Davenant Col. 1.5 p. 4. 6. We may eye them secondarily and with subordination to God's Glory but not primarily before nor supreamely and above the Glory of God GOD hath indeed so inseperably conjoyned his own Glory and Man's Salvation together that they cannot possibly be divided nor put asunder but yet as 't is said of them in the Resurrection God will have every thing in it's own order we may intend the Salvation of our own Souls making that an inferiour and subordinate end in our Obedience however that which we ought to make the supream and the ultimate end of all is the glory of God For the glory of God you must know it 's the greatest good 't is the Perfection and united splendour of all the glorious Rayes of his other Attributes infinitely surpassing the glory of all Created Excellencies and therefore more to be preferred than the Salvation of the whole World better all the World should be Damned and go to Hell for ever than that God over all blessed for ever should not be Glorified And truly when we go about to subordinate the glory of God to our own Salvation making eternal Life and Happiness our ultimate end and God's Glory subservient to that we commit an act of the grandest Sacriledge as doing what in us lyes to take the Crown from God and set it upon our own heads GOD is willing to give us Heaven to give us Life and Immortality with any thing that may conduce to our eternal Happiness but his own Glory and that he professeth he will not give to any other The Benefit the Comfort the eternal Recompence of all our Obedience shall be our own but the Glory and Praise that doth wholly belong to God and must more be regarded than our own Salvation What Pharoah said to Joseph having set him over all the Land of Aegypt In the Throne will I be greater than thou the like methinks God saith to us Though I have set you over the works of my hands vouchsafing you eternal Life and Happiness with all the good things of Heaven that lye before you yet on the Throne will I be greater than you and my glory you must seek in the first place endeavouring to set the Crown upon my head Gen. 41.40 (o) Neque hoc satis est ut quis dixerit se velle rectè agendo et praemium consequi propositum et deo eadem operâ parêre videre autem oporteat ne mercedi et praemio primas partes dederit quia semper inter fines ut earum quaeque natura sua praestantior est illa priori loco haberi debet Pet. Martyr in Lib. Jud. 'T IS not sufficient that in well-doing we profess our selves willing by the same act of Obedience both to obtain for our selves the Recompence of Reward and also to promote the glory of God but we must here solicitously beware that we make not the Recompence of Reward our ultimate end giving that the preheminence of God's glory For where there are divers ends subordinate to each other that which of it's own nature is the most excellent must always be accounted of in the first place and most chiefly had regard unto (p) Magis convertendus est oculus mentis ad dei honorem quam ad propriam mercedem potiusque induci debemus ad bene agendum ac patiendum ex divino amore quam remunerationis desiderio aliter essemus mercenarij non servi fideles neque amici Carthusian in Locum THE eye of the Soul saith Carthusian in all our Obedience is rather to be fixed upon God's glory than our own Reward and we should rather be induced to do well and to suffer by an impulse of divine Love than by the desire of a Recompence otherwise we should shew ourselves to be Mercenaries and neither faithful Friends nor Servants As they say of the Moon and Stars they have an innate light of their own but it 's nothing in comparison of that mutuatitious light which they receive from the Sun So God's People they have and lawfully may have an eye to their own Salvation in what they do but that which they make the principal and most noble end of all their Obedience is the glory of God (q) Servus domini in rebus agendis non tam intuetur successum et fructum operum quam ut fiat in ipsis omne illud quod spectat ad gloriam dei THE Servant of the Lord saith the devout Granatensis Lib. de Perfect Amoris dei c. 13. p. 156. in what he doth looks not so much at the Recompence of his good Works as that every thing may be found in them conducing to the greatest advancements of God's glory Though then Christians you may have
an eye to your own Salvation to eternal Happiness to the Recompence of Reward making that the end of all your Obedience yet remember 't is but an inferiour end that which you ought to make the ultimate and chiefest end of all is the glory of God If a Man should stop at a Colon and give over Reading there before he came to a Full-point the Sentence would be imperfect Thus Christians your Salvation is but a Colon at first God's glory is the Full-point if therefore you stop at your own Salvation not looking beyond it to the Glory of God why let me tell you there is not one perfect Sentence to speak for you in the whole contexture of all your Obedience but they are every one of them imperfect and will signify nothing at all before God's Tribunal when you shall come to read them as Evidences of your interest in Heaven and eternal Glory (r) Si salus nostra famula et gloria dei domina non oportet posteriori loco nos dominam ponere ac famulam iniquo jure praeferre GOD will not have us make the Mistress wait on the Handmaid make a Tabernacle the Temple make our own Salvation which is but a secondary matter our principal end as if worthy to be valued more highly than the glory of God it self which yet is the most noble and principal end of all We never shoot so far beside the mark as when we aim more at our own Blessedness than the glory of God over all blessed for ever In other miscarriages we violate God's holy Law but in this we violate his glorious Dignity endeavouring as much as in us lyes to Un-god him and Idolatrously to sit down ourselves upon the Throne of his Glory When ever therefore you are tempted with Sacrilegious hands to lay hold upon God's glory preferring your own Salvation before that why repel the Temptation as Joseph once did the unchaste importunity of his amorous Mistress The Lord hath commited all that he hath to my hand there is none greater amongst all his Creatures than my self the Lord hath given me his own Son out of his Bosome he hath given me grace he hath given me the hope of Life of Heaven and eternal Happiness neither hath he kept back any good thing from me but his own glory because that only belongs to him How then shall I do this great wickedness How shall I lay Sacriligious hands upon his glory How shall I prefer my own Salvation my own Life my own Happiness before it and sin against God REMEMBER Christians though you may seek your selves you may seek Heaven and Life and eternal Happiness yet not in the first place the honour of God why that must lye next your heart and the glory of God must be most in your eye as not being a subordinate end like your own Salvation but the principal end of all God's glory must be the Terminus Reductivus to which all our Obedience must be reduced as the ultimate end of it Every Christian is a Spiritual Archer and God's glory must be the mark that he shoots at He is a Spiritual Traveller and though he may take up his lodging at his own Salvation yet God's glory must be the end of his Journey He is in a word a Spiritual Navigator and though he may cast forth the Anchor of hope at his own eternal Happiness yet he is like to make Shipwreck of himself if he go about to put in any where else for harbour but at the fair haven of God's glory As all the Rivers run into the Sea and all the Lines meet in the Center so all our actions and all the Rivers of our own Happiness they must meet together Concentring themselves in God's glory And certainly Christians we never attain the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls better than when Faith and Salvation both are referred to the glory of God as their ultimate end We never come sooner to that Rest which remains for the People of God than when God's glory is made the Center not only of the works which we do but also of the Rest it self which we look for as the eternal Reward of them We are never in a word more sure to hit the mark of our own Salvation than when we aim most directly at God's glory For then your respect to the Recompence of Reward is such as God would have it to be when you principally seek for Heaven and eternal Glory that God himself may thereby be glorified 2. WE are to have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward not singly but joyntly and in conjunction with God's Glory If we may not principally have respect to Heaven in our Obedience preferring that before God's glory much less may we think it lawful to make Heaven the sole end of our Obedience not regarding but wholly neglecting his glory that prepared it If we may not prefer our own Happiness before God's glory much less may we wholly leave off the care of God's glory and exclude it out of our thoughts in seeking to make our selves happy Since God in seeing his own Glory did also consult the Happiness and eternal Salvation of our Souls why 't were a point of the greatest ingratitude in the World for us in seeking our Salvation not also to consult his Honour endeavouring that whilst we are saved his Name may be glorified 'T is unlawful to Dogmatize that we must be willing to be damned that God may be glorified or else we are still but Hypocrites and were never sufficiently humbled but to be willing to have God himself dishonoured and lose his glory that we may be saved is most wicked and abominable For betwixt the glory of God and our own Salvation the 〈…〉 is so strong and inseparable that 't is impossible for any Man rightly to seek the Salvation of his own Soul who doth not also intend God's glory as his ultimate end He that doth not take aim before he shoots can never hit the mark So Christians if you only look at your selves not taking in all your Obedience a right aim at God's glory you can never hit the mark of your own Salvation If you separate the Soul from the Body it 's no longer a living Creature but a dead Carcass Thus if a due respect to God's glory which is the very Soul of all our Obedience be separated from the care which we seem to have of our own Salvation it 's no longer a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God but a dead service that will nothing at all avail us to Life and eternal Happiness THE Moon when in the full looking directly upon the Sun is a glorious Creature but if once the Earth interpose it self betwixt her and the Sun she becomes a dark obscure Body of whom we may say That there is no form nor beauty nor comeliness in her that we should desire her Thus Christians whilst in our
out of Ecclesiastical History of Christians incouraging themselves by the Recompence of Reward to run the hazard of Reproach Persecution and sorest Afflictions in the World for the sake of Christ and his Cause I shall not lose my Life saith one Martyr being led out to suffer but change it for a better instead of Coals I shall have Pearls And with this Consideration he died comfortably Another Dr. Taylor by name being asked by the Sheriff as he drew nigh to the place of Execution How do you Sir Never better reply'd that holy Man for now I know I am almost at home Meaning Heaven where he should be with the Lord for ever With this also Athanasius incouraged the Christians to perseverance in the Faith under the Arrian Persecution That Affliction was but Nubeculo citò transitura a Storm or rather a little Cloud that being quickly blown over would end in a glorious Sun-shine Like unto him was the Practice of holy Mr. Bradford who taking up a Fagot at the Stake and kissing it turned his Head to the Young Man that suffered with him and said Be of good Comfort Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord this Night Justin Martyr also tells us of the Christians in his Day That they who before their Conversion had pleasure in Uncleanness did now wholly imbrace Chastity they that had sometimes used Magical Arts did now dedicate themselves to the good and eternal God they that e'er-while set an higher Estimate upon their Money and earthly Possessions than upon any thing else did now bring all into the common Treasury that distribution might be made according to every one's Necessity they who formerly hated each other and betwixt whom there were Heart-burnings and deadly Animosities did now Lovingly live together and familiarly converse with one another praying for their very Enemies and beseeching those that were their most cruel Persecutors to break off their Sins by Repentance and live holy And he gives in this as the reason of all that they together with such as had sometimes despitefully used them living holy might have good Hope and everlasting Consolation thrô Christ receiving from God at length the reward of eternal †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Apol. 2. pag. 47. 20. 30. Glory Much to the same purpose I find a Speech in ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catechis 18. pag. 223. A. Cyril who tells us That true Christians did all of them by all holy Conversation and Godliness seek the Kingdom of God not making the empty and unsatisfying Injoyments of the world their End but indeavouring to lay hold upon eternal Life BUT waving these and the like Examples as being not altogether so Cogent and Authentical we shall conclude the Argument with holy Moses from whose Practice the Doctrine it self was deduced Moses though as we said of Paul a man so ambitiously desirous of and passionately zealous for God's Glory that rather than the least Dishonour should reflect upon him he could wish himself blotted out of God's Book of Life in respect of whose Glory he seems careless of his own Salvation Yet thought it no impeachment of his Ingenuity to steal a look from Glory to peep within the Vail to cast an eye upon the Recompence of Reward for his incouragement to all upright self-denying and holy walking before the God of Heaven * Fidei suae oculos attollebat ad bona coelestia quae deus cultoribus suis pro mercede ac praemio piorum laborum se redditurum promisit Estius He had Heaven in his eye expecting a Crown of Glory after all his Sufferings and that made him walk on so cheerfully in Heaven's way Being therefore compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses why should we any longer count it unlawful or think it a forfeiture of our uprightness and ingenuity to have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward If persons so eminently Holy have gone before us without contracting either spot or blemish or any such thing in having an eye to the Recompence of the Reward why should we Hesitate about or scruple the Lawfulness of following after them To be sure Christians if respect to Heaven and Glory did not forfeit the Sincerity of a David of a Moses of Paul it can never prove any forfeiture of your Integrity For where the Pattern it self is Holy and Just and Good conformity therewith will never make any man Disingenuous and Unholy If the Spirit of God record it as Praise worthy in others that in keeping God's Commandments they had Respect to the Recompence of Reward he will never upbraid us as Persons Disingenuous and Mercenary for the like holy Practise For certainly whatever incouragements to Obedience the Lord formerly afforded his People to this day he allows them the same or greater So that whenever we have Respect in our Obedience to Heaven and Glory we do no more forfeit our Integrity nor prove ourselves Mercenary and Disingenuous by so doing than Self-denying Moses Upright David Zealous Paul and all God's Faithful People have done before us 3. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because not only the Children of God but our blessed Lord himself had an eye thereunto We may imitate the People of God so far as their Actions run parallel with and do clearly paraphrase upon his holy Will But now the Life of Christ it 's an authentick Copy of Holiness it 's an ¶ Deus in carne se manifestans exemplar sanctae nobis vitae proposuit ne quis sanctam vitam detrectans ad carnis confugeret excusationem Gerh. Med. 30. unblottable Draught of perfect Piety it 's nothing else but the Wilt of God incarnate and made manifest in our mortal Flesh So that if Christ had Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward we need no longer stand Questioning the Lawfulness of such a Practise but are bound to look upon it as Holy and Just and Good For every one will acknowledge the Actions of a Deity to be Indeficient and confess it a thing Praise-worthy in all men to Write after so fair a Copy Now that Christ himself had Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward we find written in legible Characters by the unerring Hand of that blessed Apostle where he tells us That for the Joy which was set before him Christ indured the Cross and despised the Shame Heb. 12.2 As Christ in the dayes of his Flesh did truly and properly obey God the Father notwithstanding the Hypostatical Union and the Absolute Perfection of his inward habitual Holiness wholly determing all indifferency and undeterminateness which some Schoolmen would have to be constitutive of Liberty Why so if we consider him as Man He was to have Rational Comforts and Humane Incouragements in all his Obedience that the Frailties of his Humane Nature being relieved with such Spiritual
Cordials he might the more Cheerfully go through with the great work of our Redemption which the Father had given him to finish Isa 53.10 Hence we find God the Father in that Federal Transaction that was betwixt Him and God the Son from all Eternity concerning the Redemption of Lost Man Indenting with the Lord Jesus Christ and promising him in case he would undertake the Work both a blessed Success therein and also to Crown him afterward with an everlastingly Glorious Reward In case he would make his Soul an Offering for Sin then the Lord promises That he shall see his Seed and prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall not Labour in vain nor spend his Strength for naught and in vain but shall be so gloriously successful in the discharge of his Mediatory Function that we shall obtain thereby an everlasting Kingdom and find his Sufferings like a fruitful womb bringing forth many Sons and Daughters unto God In case he would bear the Iniquities of the People then the Lord promises that he shall see of the Travail of his Soul and be satisfied and shall be abundantly well pleased with all his Sufferings and all his bitter Agonies they shall turn to most sweet Satisfaction when the Lord being reconciled to lost Sinners and their Souls everlastingly Saved he himself shall sit down on the right hand of God in glory In case to be short he shall pour out his Soul unto Death and make Intercession for Transgressors then the Lord promises to divide him a portion with the great and that he will cause him to divide the Spoil with the Strong Christ shall not always be held a Captive of Death but having satisfied divine Justice he had the Promise for his incouragement of a glorious Victory and of an everlasting joyful Triumph over all his Enemies So that that which made the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 110. drink so cheerfully of the Brook in the way was the Assurance he had to lift up his Head with everlasting Rejoycing That which made him so cheerfully humble himself and become of no Reputation amongst men Phil. 2.7 was the Assurance which he had that God at length would most highly exalt him and give him a name above every name That in a word which made him so cheerfully Suffer induring the Cross and despising the Shame was the Assurance which he had that having once suffered in the Flesh he should enter into Heaven and there sit down upon a Throne of Glory Luke 24.26 And shall we then that are the Members of his Body be afraid to imitate Christ our Head thinking it unlawful to have Respect in our Obedience to Heaven and Glory when the Lord Jesus himself that indeficient Pattern of all Righteousness hath done the same before us leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps 1. Pet. 2.22 Sancta Christi vita est perfectissima virtutum idea omnis Christi actio est etiam nostra institutio Gerha Med. 30. Jesus Christ is the Rule according to which we must Walk He is the Copy according to which we are to Write He is the grand Pattern according to which we must indeavour to Live God's People they must never be followed without a Quatenus any further than they follow Christ But now Christ must be followed without any such Proviso we may follow him ad caecam obedientiam and yet never miscarry so long as we walk as He walked we are still taking Steps towards Heaven and Glory The best of God's People they are like the Pillar of Cloud that went along with the Israelites in which there was a dark side and a light side the light side of the Cloud we may follow but not the dark side But now Christ is a Sun of Righteousness always shining with such spotless and unblemishable Splendor that walking in his Light we need never be afraid of enveloping ourselves in the darkness of any Sin The Works of Christ are our Rule as well as his Word his Actions were a living Decalogue clearly Paraphrasing upon the whole Mind of God therein his Life was a constant Exercitation of the Power of Godliness and all his Performances they were nothing else but Religion exemplified and adorned in her own native colours Since then Christ is thus the fixed Center of all Righteousness the Abstract of all Virtue a full though compendious Praxis of Divinity and the only unerring Rule of an Holy Life why should we scruple to Walk as he Walk or think we Forfeit our Ingenuity in looking for our Incouragement to all holy and upright walking before God at Heaven and Glory as he also did Tota vita Christi in terris per hominem quem gessit disciplina morum fuit Aust de vera Religione The whole Life of Christ was and is a perfect Pattern of Holiness to all Christians So that we shall be so far from sinning in following Christ that we never sin more dangerously than when we cease to follow him not labouring to Transcribe his Actions into our Lives and Conversations Incassum laborat in acquisitione virtutum qui eas alibi quam in Christo quaerit Bern. There is no way in the World for us to attain unto any Goodness but only through Christ Nor to learn any true Virtue but only from the Example of Christ in his holy Conversation which we stand obliged to follow INDEED we are to know That though all those things which are recorded of Christ were written for our Instruction yet they were not all of them written for our Imitation For some Acts of Christ were Instances of divine Sovereignty and Prerogative as his sending for the Colt without asking the Owner's leave Mat. 21.2 Some were Acts of divine Power and Omnipotency as his turning Water into Wine John 2.7 Walking upon the Sea Luk. 7.21 dispossessing of Devils and raising the Dead to Life these were miraculous Works which are the Legible but unimitable Characters of a Deity so that though men can best read them yet they can worst write after them Some were Works of Merit and Mediation done by him as Prophet Priest and King of his Church John 10.22 Acts 20.28 such were his giving of the Spirit redeeming his Church with his own Blood 1 John 2.1 and interceeding for his People at the Right Hand of God in Glory which whatever the Church of Rome Blasphemously dogmatize to the contrary is no less incommunicable than the work of our Redemption since none may take up the Censer to offer Incense who have not a right at the Altar to offer Sacrifice Some in a word of Christ's Acts were Moral Mat. 11.29 and ordinary pertaining to the common nature of Holiness which they had written upon them to the Lord in capital Letters as being nothing but a visible Commentary upon the whole Law of God The Three first are for our Instruction But the last comprizing the acts of Christ's ordinary Obedience
are only for our Imitation Christ bid us not to Redeem the World to raise the Dead nor to walk upon the Sea But in the Works of Piety and Holiness he saith to us as Gideon to his Souldiers Look upon me and do likewise Judg. 7.17 We are always to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith Heb. 7.26 giving diligence to be holy as he was holy to be pure as he was pure Mark 14.36 to be self-denying as he was self-denying to be upright and without guile as he was without guile 1 Pet. 2.22 to be humble and lowly of Spirit as he was humble Mat. 11.28 to be zealous for God's Glory as he was zealous Joh. 16.17 And by the Joy which is set before us we may lawfully be incouraged to indure the Cross despising the shame as He also was For to be sure Christians in following Christ the only authentick Rule of Righteousness you can never do any unrighteous Action In imitating Christ the Holy One of God looking in all your Obedience at Heaven and Glory as he did before you you can never become unholy The Life of Christ is a fair Copy without any Blot or uneven Letter in it So that indeavouring to Write after him you can never come under the Blot of being Disingenuous and Mercenary in the Service of God Let Christ be the Rule by which you draw the Lines of all your Actions and then they will never prove crooked or uneven Let him be the Glass by which you adorn and dress yourselves and then you will never appear in any other Attire but what will be most Graceful Decent and Amiable in the sight of God Let him in a word be the Primum Mobile turning about by the sweet impulse of his own most holy Self regulated Example both the superior and inferior Orbs of your Souls and then though you seek your own Happiness longing to Feed upon that heavenly Ambrosia in the Hesperian Vales though you fix your eyes never so wishly upon the Recompence of the Reward Steering a right Course towards the Tartesian Shore of eternal Rest yet your motion can never be excentrical nor irregular * Christiani a Christo nomen acceperunt et operae pretium est ut sunt haeredes nominis ita sint imitatoris sanctitatis Bern. Sent. p. 496. For there is nothing more becoming Christians than to make their Lives a Transcript of that fair Copy which Christ by the hand of his own holy Example hath set them Nor is there any thing more intrinsick and essential to Christianity than for the Professors thereof to walk as Christ himself walked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very name of a Christian is so apposite and significant that it doth fully interpret and clearly comment upon his Essence teaching us that the Epitome of Religion the Abridgment of true Piety the Quint-essence of real Holiness the Compendium of all Virtues and the whole Substance of a Christian is to have the Signature of Christ's Holiness upon his Soul indeavouring to express in his Life the Virtues of the Lord Jesus And certainly since our Christianity doth mainly stand in Conformity with Christ we can never make a Forfeiture of it nor be Impeached of Mercinariness in looking at heavenly Glory as He did whilst we walk in Obedience before God on Earth 4. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward because the Lord doth frequently incourage his People by the consideration of eternal Glory to all Dutiful and Vpright walking before himself As God affords his people Happiness at the end so he allows them Comfort in the way of Duty sweetning all his Commandments with Promises and incouraging to all upright and holy walking before himself by giving his People the Assurance of an everlastingly glorious Reward God doth not exact Obedience from his People upon terms of absolute Sovereignty but upon terms of Bounty and remunerative Goodness He doth not appoint them their Work and hide from them the Reward But to make them go through with it the more Cheerfully he often tells them of the Reward wherewith having finished their Course they shall eternally be Crowned As God gives the best Wages to those who are his Servants so He likewise holds out the best Incouragements to draw us into his Service and to make us willing to Spend and be Spent therein Man is a Rational Creature and of such a Sequacious Temper that fetching your Arguments out of the Topicks of Profit and Pleasure you may carry him whither you will And therefore the Lord who knows our frame he leads us on in ways of Obedience by Rational Comforts and Human Incouragements assuring us that in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal 19.11 God knows that Blessedness is the Alpha and Omega of every man the Centre wherein all our Desires meet and that no man can wittingly make light of much less give the Repulse to his own Happiness He therefore stands like a faithful Guide to give Aim to all those amongst us that would fain bend their Course to the safe Harbour of Happiness and like an auspicious Herald proclaiming upon Mount Gerizim the Mount of Blessings with Wisdom in the Proverbs Hearken unto me O ye Children for Blessed are they that keep my wayes Prov. 8.32 The Lord knows we have many tall Anakims to encounter before we can take possession of the heavenly Canaan and therefore he incourageth us as Caleb did him that should smite Kirjath-Sepher Josh 15.16 whom he promised his Daughter Achsah to Wife So in case we shall quit ourselves like Men induring Hardship as good Soldiers of Jesus Christ he will give us his Daughter Achsah to Wife he will give us the Ornament as that name may signify of eternal Glory he will give us to eat of the Tree of Life Rev. 2.7 in the Paradice of God 'T is Storied by the Hebrews of Joseph That when he had gathered much Corn in Egypt he threw the Chaff into the River Nilus that so floating down to the neighbouring Cities and Nations they might know what Plenty there was in Aegypt and be provoked thereby to seek thither So God to make us know what Glory is in Heaven and the more to incourage us to seek thither he hath thrown some Husks to us here that so tasting the Sweetness of Heavenly Glory in the Husk of a Promise we might aspire after it Be ye stedfast saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.5 8. be ye unmoveable be ye always abounding in the work of the Lord. And why so Stedfast why so Unmoveable why such care to abound in the Work of the Lord but because saith he you know that your Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord God doth not deal with us as Crater the Philosopher did with a certain Virgin that was in Love with him and would needs Marry him He did what in him lay to discourage her shewing her his Crooked Back
And this is your Husband said he and bringing forth his Staff and Scrip Why this adds he is like to be your Dowrey But now the Lord doth what in him lyes to Incourage us telling us what Treasures of Love and Sweetness 1 Cor. 2.9 what heaps of Joy and fulness of Glory what unseen unheard of unconceivable and Soul-ravishing Pleasures are prepared for us in case we will but love him and walk in Obedience before him 'T was one of the Devil's Master pieces when he Tempted Christ hoping to draw him to his impious Desires that he carried him up into an exceeding high Mountain shewing him from thence all the Kingdoms of the World and then promised him saying All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Why thus with holy reverence be it spoken what the Devil did to Christ Wickedly the Lord doth Graciously to his own People He takes them up into Mount Nebo from thence shewing them thrô the Perspective of his Promises not the Kingdom of this World but the Kingdom of Heaven with all the Royalties and Glory thereof assuring them Mat. 5.3 that all shall be their own if they will but walk humbly before him indeavouring to worship him in Spirit and Truth The Lord understands full well the Frailties of our Nature and what great Discouragements we are like to meet with in Heaven's way And therefore he is pleased most Graciously to draw us on the wayes of Holiness by the proposal of such Rewards as may incourage us to go on therein whatever it cost us Our Condition in this World is like that of the Israelites passing towards the Land of Canaan we must go through the Red Sea of Persecutions and through an howling Wilderness where we shall often be Stung with fiery Serpents before ever we can get to the heavenly Canaan and therefore the Lord he allures us by all sorts of Promises and sweet Inticements I will allure her saith God Hos 2.14 speaking of his Church and bring her into the Wilderness The word in the Original which we Translate Allure doth also signify to Deceive Seduce or to Beguile But here it 's taken in a good Sense implying with much Emphasis That God doth sweetly till men on in ways of Holiness and by an heavenly Artifice wrapt up in Promises of Life graciously seduce them into the Obedience of his own Commandments In the Precept he acquaints us with our Duty and in the Promise he shews us what shall be our Reward By that he appoints us our Work and by this he would incourage us Cheerfully to go through with it that having the Promise of an eternal Recompence we may never grow weary in well-doing 2 Thess 3.13 Gal. 6.9 Such is the goodness of God that he sweetens all his Commandments with Promises And whenever he calls us out to any Duty he incourageth us to the Performance thereof by the Proposal of some glorious Recompence Rom. 8.13 He bid us through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body and that we may not want Incouragement to so difficult a Work he tells us that so doing our Souls shall live He bids us to take up our Cross not detrecting to suffer for Christ And he gives us this incouragement thereto That if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.12 He bids us in a word Sow to the Spirit indeavouring to be fruitful in every good word and work And for our incouragement to that holy practise he tells us that so doing we shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting Gal. 6.8 So then since God himself is graciously pleased to allure and draw us on in wayes of Obedience by the proposal of an eternal Recompence we may lawfully sure having Respect thereunto take Incouragement from it For to what end should God sweeten his Commandments with Promises but to make us more Cheerful in the way of Duty when we know how transcendently great and glorious our Reward shall be Promissiones nullas dedisset deus pijs de beatitudine nisi vellet ut inter bene agendum easdem respiceremus Daven Col. c. 1. v. 5 p. 46. Those men do begrudge the Lord's Bounty and would seem wiser than God himself who deny us a Liberty to make use of the Spirit 's Motives Pietas habet promissiones vitae praesentis et futurae at frustrà si non licet intuitu illarum excitari ad bene agendum Dav. ubi sup In vain hath God made Promises of Life to such as keep his Commandments if in keeping thereof we may have no respect to that Life that Happiness that Glory which is held forth in the Promises to us Doubtless Christians 't is not Ingenuity but Ingratitude to deprive ourselves of those Incouragements to Obedience and of that Comfort in a way of Duty which the Lord himself hath graciously allowed us to make use of And thô possibly you may think that you highly please the Lord whilst you walk on in a way of Duty without any respect to your own Happiness yet the Truth is you do Presumptuously tempt him as Ahaz did when refusing to ask a Sign which God promised to give them Isa 7.11.12 The Lord knew the necessity of giving a Sign to his People in that Exigence in order whereunto he bids Ahaz ask a Sign but he 's Modest he 's ashamed that God should be put upon the working of a Miracle to confirm his Faith far be it from him so to Tempt the Lord and to question his Faithfulness he will believe him without a Sign that he will However here were specious Pretences yet the Lord was no little displeased that his Favour should be made so light of and a Sign under a pretence of Modesty refused as if they better knew what was needful for themselves than the God of Heaven Hear ye me now O House of David it 's a small thing for you to weary men but will ye weary my God also Thus Christians when we refuse to take Incouragements from the Promises of Life to walk in Obedience before the God of Heaven when under a pretence of Ingenuity and a Gospel Frame of Spirit we take on us to serve God for himself He bids us seek for Glory and Honour for Immortality and eternal Life by patient continuance in well doing but far be it from us to be Mercenary or to seek ourselves we will serve God and run the way of his Commandments without any Respect at all to Heaven and Glory that we will why now we weary the Lord and making light of his Favour to us we Tempt him as if we knew better what Motives to make use of and what to seek in our Obedience than God himself For to be sure we do no less Tempt the Lord in not seeking after what he hath Commanded than we do in expecting what he never Promised We do no less Tempt the Lord in creating occasions of Desperation than in
us to and that will make it something clearer that we may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward Think not that by sending you to Nature I go about to make void the Grace of God for though they both spring from the same Fountain of Love and Unity so that there are no Principles of discord betwixt them yet Nature is but the Handmaid Grace is the Mistress Nature teacheth you to consult your own Happiness but it 's Grace alone that can put you in the right way and at the end Crown you with it Men by nature are all of themselves in equal circumstances in order to eternal Happiness they may desire it but are all of them equally distant from it till God himself makes the difference according to his own Decrees which are all of them eternal and unconditionate However God hath left this natural desire of Happiness in us as a stock whereupon to graft the Plant of Grace Nature indeed could never make us happy without Grace and yet Grace presupposes Nature as that which affords it matter to work upon so that whilst by Nature we desire our own Happiness Grace doth not pluck up this desire as an unsavoury Weed but doth manure and cherish it and perfect it by putting us in the right way that leads to eternal Happiness What shall we then think of those that deny us the liberty of consulting our own Welfare would they have us banished from our own essence and walk Antipodes to the Law of Nature Judge in your selves is it comely for a Man to go about to blot out the Law of Self-preservation which God hath engraven upon every Being as with the point of a Diamond Doth not Nature itself teach you what a shame it is for a Man to be careless of his own Salvation never labouring to promote the welfare of his own Being If the Law of Nature teach us to consult our own Happiness to be sure the God of Nature for obeying her in that innocent dictate seeking Life and Eternal Glory in all that we do will never condemn us 9. WE may lawfully have respect to the recompence of the reward in our obedience because otherwise we should neglect our great end of our Lives which is to seek after the Happiness and Eternal Welfare of our own Souls The main care of every Man in this World should be as to glorifie God so to save his own Soul Our Souls are a sacred Depositum wherewith the Lord hath entrusted us and therefore he allows us not to be prodigal of their Welfare but expects that like faithful Depositaries we should give all diligence to keep them that no Man may take their Crown Christians should not be like the Married Woman who careth for the things of the World how she may please her Husband * 1 Cor. 7.34 But like the Chast Virgin they should care for the things of the Lord that being Holy both in Body and in Spirit they may save their Souls That which is the grand mark for the hitting whereof we should bend and direct all our endeavours that which is the Centre towards which we should always be moving is the Eternal Salvation of our Immortal Souls which above all things we should give diligence to Land safe at the Peaceful Haven of undisturbed rest and endless felicity †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Laert. in ejus vita I have read of Anaxagoras the Philosopher that being asked for what end he was Born answered To contemplate the Heavens and behold the Sun but the true end for which we were Born into the World is this that we may glorifie God and enjoy him for ever to the saving of our Souls God never sent us into the World with a design to make us Cosmopolites that should negotiate for nothing save the perishable Enjoyments of this present Life but the great thing which the Lord hath given us in charge is to have our Conversation in Heaven laying up for our selves a Treasure there * John 6.27 Labour we must all so long as we are cloathed with Mortality yet not for the Meat that perisheth but for the Meat which will endure to everlasting Life In this World we have no continuing City the Lord would therefore have us seek for one to come * Heb. 11.10 for a Kingdom that cannot be moved for a City that hath Foâ—ndations whose Builder and Maker is God The Lord hath sent us into the World as into his own ¶ Phil. 2.12 Vineyard and the great employment he hath set us about is to work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling Though using moderation we may consult the Welfare of our Bodies yet our great care must be to promote the Happiness of our precious Souls that when these earthly Tabernacles of our Bodies fail us we may be received into everlasting Habitations That which will infallibly be the end of a Christians Faith should designedly be the end of every Man's Life even the Eternal Salvation of his own Soul God will have our care proportionate to the worth and dignity of that object about which it is conversant Since therefore our Souls are as so many Orient Jewels of unvaluable worth good reason there is that our most â—â—incipal and sovereign care should be to provide for them that they may be eternally Blessed shining like the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven for ever with the bright reflexions of God's Benign Aspect and Glory upon them What I find spoken by Solomon in Wisdom's commendation may very well be †Pâ—o 3 15. accommodated to a rational Soul She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her THE * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 46. Soul is the Glory of the whole Creation 't is the Quintessence of a rational Creature 't is an incarnate Angel ruling as Empress in the midst of Man who is the Microcosm the Epitome the compendious Abridgment of all the World The Body of Man is compounded of gross Materials 't is come of an earthly Extraction but now his Soul it s an Heaven-born Creature 't is the Off-spring of God himself as coming down from that Father of Spirits The Body is nothing but a piece of well refined Mud 't is an earthly Tabernacle raised out of the Dust for the Soul to dwell in but the Soul is of a more Noble and Divine Original 't is the sweet and delicious Breath of a Deity derived into the Body by Divine Inspiration from God himself THERE is that Beauty Comeliness and choice Embroidery to be seen upon the Body of Man which doth sufficiently prove it to be more than the mere Workmanship of any finite Creature but upon the Soul there are those signatures of a Deity those heavenly Characters and Divine Lineaments which seem clearly to evince it to be wholly the Workmanship of an Infinite God
'T is fictioned by the Poets in their Mythology of Prometheus that he did work and fashion the Bodies of Men out of Clay but he was fain to steal Fire from Heaven for the informing and quickning of them with living Souls (a) Psal 139.1 When the Body is curiously formed and admirably organized in the lower Parts of the Earth yet still it would remain a lifeless and unspirited piece of Clay did not God animate and quicken it with a living Soul with a celestial Spark lighted by his own Breath from Heaven THE Body of Man is but a Flower springing out of the Earth that will quickly wither and return to its Dust but his Soul hath Immortality written upon it it s a Bud of Eternity that can never be blasted nor wither away into nothing The Body indeed is nothing but a Compound of Death and Mortality it will quickly crumble away into dust and rottenness but the Soul having no Principles of Death and Corruption bound up in it will run a Line parallel to aâ—l Eternity it can never be confined by time but will for ever be launching forth in the boundless Ocean of an endless Duration †Matth. 10.28 The Body is obnoxious to the stroke of Death and by the Hand of Violence may before its time be matriculated amongst those that sleep in the Dust but the Soul being an immaterial Substance is above that fatal blow and hath from the spirituality of its own Nature everlasting impregnable security against every Hand of Violence written upon it so that Death itself is not able to touch the Life of the Soul THE Soul therefore being thus Divine in its Original and Eternal in its Being and Duration there is no Man unless he will renounce his own Understanding and apostatize from his own essence but must acknowledge it a point of the most important and masculine reason in all the World to consult the Salvation of our Immortal Souls providing above all things for their Eternal Welfare Should we prefer the Casket before the Jewel a frail Mansion of Mortality before an heavenly Inhabitant or the dark Lanthorn of the Body before the Soul that Divine Lamp which if fed by the Oyl of Grace would always shine forth with most radiant dazling beams of Brightness The excellency of our Souls is so transcendently Great and Glorious that it justly lays claim to our principal care and because they will never be raked up with our Bodies in the cold Embers of Death why therefore hath the Lord made it the great end of our Lives to work out Salvation for them giving diligence to make them meet through Grace for everlasting Mansions of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But how can we thus take care of them or design their Eternal Happiness as the great end of our Lives in case we may not have respect to the recompence of the reward seeking Life and Eternal Glory by patient continuance in well-doing to Crown them withal Can the Salvation of our Souls be the object of our principal care next to Gods own Glory when out of a pretended Zeal for that we would seem altogether careless and unsolicitous about the saving of our own Souls How can we say we make salvation the great end of our lives endeavouring that our Souls may be happy when we hold it unlawful to bend and level all our desires for the hitting of that fair mark Believe it Christians they that would perswade you 't is unlawful to have respect in our obedience to Heaven and Glory do in effect go about to argue your Souls into the careless neglect of their own everlasting welfare But can you be regardless of your own Salvation Can you sleight the great end of your lives and turn your back upon your own happiness Can you indeed neglect your immortal Souls that must either be happy or miserable either imparadised Souls in Heaven or damned Spirits in Hell to all eternity Do you know what Salvation is how everlastingly blessed those Souls will be that may approach the presence of their God that may see his Face that may rest in his eternal embraces that may enter into the joy of their Lord and drink freely of those Rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore Oh then make not light of so great Salvation but give all diligence to get an interest therein for your immortal Souls To make sure of eternal happiness was the great errand upon which God sent us into the World oh therefore take heed that you do not leave it upon uncertainties seeking after the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof as if you were loth to find it 10 WE may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because the very nature and proper genius of true Grace is to make a blessed divorce betwixt the world and the heart wherein it is resident and so to carry out the heart in strong desires and unsatisfiable breathings after Heaven and Glory True Grace is an Heaven-born Spark and therefore it doth naturally ascend upward aspiring after Heaven and Glory as its proper region As all the Lines meet in the Center and as all the Rivers do run into the Sea uniting themselves in the vast Ocean so all the desires of a gracious Soul they meet in Heaven uniting all their forces in one continued and insatiate anhâ—lation after fulness of Communion with God in Glory The Sun though seen in the Water yet hath his Tabernacle fixed in Heaven (a) Phil. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 17. so though a Christian hath his commoration upon Earth yet his Conversation his Trade his Commerce is daily in Heaven the place of his Eternal Abode The Men of this World are ever inveloping themselves in thick Clay they are not soaring Eagles but crawling Muck-worms but now all those that are truly gracious they are Men of another Spirit they live in the highest Region and are compared to Eagles in regard of their Heavenly-mindedness (b) Isa 40.31 Life enables Men to lift up their Body from the Earth and to tread upon it with their Feet (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 16. Thus whoever have the Life of Grace begun in them they tread upon all earthly Enjoyments and are carried upon the Wing of desire quite above all sublunary Comforts into Heaven itself The heart that is seasoned with saving Grace is restless till it come to be fixed in a sure State of Glory and Happiness just like the Needle that is touched with a Load-stone upon which there is nothing but unquiet agitations and tremblings till it be firmly fixed and settle immovably in the North Point We read of Noah's Dove that she found no place whereupon to rest the sole of her Foot but only in the Ark so the People of God they find no place but in Heaven whereupon to rest themselves and therefore all their breathings
to Skreen your Souls from the scorchings of unquenchable Fire and to make you appear with comfort before God's Tribunal it must be sealed with the precious Blood of Christ himself Betwixt Heaven and Mankind there is a great Gulf fixed which nothing but the Torrent of Christ's own Blood streaming down with an unresistible power could unfix and carry away Our first Parents in the Garden of Eden had no sooner sinned but God drove them forth thence setting an Angel to stand Centinel and to keep them out of Paradise with a flaming Sword but the Blood of Christ hath opened that passage at once blunting the Sword and quenching the flame that so his Elect might have a free entrance into Life and Glory No sooner did Christ give up the Ghost but the Veil which parted the holy place from the Holy of Holies was rent asunder the Lord thereby willing to let us know thus much that the Death of Christ had removed all obstructions that might interpose betwixt Believers and their eternal salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven As there fell a mighty storm upon the Red Sea whereby the passage was opened For Israel to go out of Egypt into Canaan So Jesus Christ was to undergo the most dreadful storm of a cursed Death that there might be a passage for us to eternal Glory through that sea of wrath which was betwixt our Egypt and our Canaan our Sins and the everlasting salvation of our immortal Souls Like Isaac upon the Altar we were all of us fast bound in the cords of our own iniquities and so ready to be offered up in Sacrifice to Divine Justice but so strong was the Love of Christ that immaculate Lamb of God that he comes in our stead interposeth betwixt us and the stroke of God's heavy displeasure suffering it to fall directly upon himself he takes the chastisement of our peace upon him and so offers up himself a Sacrifice unto God Bleeding groaning and dying for our sins †John 3.15 that we through faith in his Blood might not perish but have eternal life This is that I confess which the Socinian would fain evade and by all means labours as a Man made up of antipathies against the truth to contradict telling us that Christ died Bono nostro but not vice nostra for our good but not in our Room and stead but we have this truth confirmed with such a cloud of Witnesses and attested by so many Scripture evidences that one would wonder that ever Men should so far indulge the petulancy of their own carnal reason as to make the â—â—st oppositioâ—â— * Isa 53.6 The Lord saith the Prophet speaking of the Messias hath layed upon him the iniquities of us all Not the sins themselves not the fault of them nor the stain and pollution in them but the guilt and penalty belonging to us for them this was that which the Lord layed or more agreeably to the Original caused to meet upon Christ †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurrere fecit in eum Buxtorf Dan. 9.26 even as many debts do all meet together upon one common Surety who is forced to pay them all in their stead for whom he stood bound The Messias shall be cut off saith another Prophet but not for himself or nothing to him as the Hebrew will bear it clearly implying that what ever the Lord Jesus suffered it was wholly upon our account and in our stead What else mean those many emphatical expressions in holy Writ where Christ is said to have â—â—â—â—red died and shed his Blood for us He * 1 Pet. 2.21 1 Pet. 3.18 suffâ—â—â—â—â—â— us saith the Apostle Peter in one place and in 〈◊〉 Christ also hath once suffered for sins the juâ—â— for the unjust But more emphatically our Blessâ—d Lord himself makes this to be the great end of his coming into the world (a) Mat. 20.28 Mark 10.45 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoties personis applicatur significat alterum successisse in alterius locum Grotius de satisfact Christi that he might give his Life a ransom for many Where the particle for in the Original is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may some times signify no more than the final cause implying that which is only done for the good and profit of another but its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth always signify a commutation and Subrogation an exchanging of one for another and a substituting of one in the place of another clearly implying that Christ gave his Life a ransom in our Room and stead The same thing doth St. Paul assure us of (b) 1 Tim. 2.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat propriè pretium quo redimuntur Captavi eamque commutationem quâ capite caput vita redimitur vitâ Hiperius in Loc. where he tells us that Christ gave himself a ransom for all meaning all not universally for then all should be saved but indefinitely of what rank or degree soever The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of special Emphasis not barely signifying the price of Redemption as some have rendred it but a Counterprice when one doth or undergoes in the Room of another that which he should have undergone in his own Person in which sense Jesus Christ was our Counterprise giving his own Life for the saving of ours (c) Fatemur nos Christum bono nostro mortuum esse nos bono fratrum nostrorum mori si id necessitas requirat debere at verò modus quo hoc praestitum à Christo modus quo praestatur à nobis longe diversissimus est neque enim nos hoc praestamus reatum in nos fratrum derivando aut pro ipso irae Dei satisfaciendo quod Christus fecit Maccov Loc. Com. cap. 63. pag. 587. And truly the Peculiarity of Christ's Death and Sufferings doth sufficiently evince them to have been not only for our good as the Socinian would have it but also in our Room and stead Christ died so for us as no Man no Prophet no Apostle no Martyr ever did or can do T was not barely for the confirmation of our Faith and for the encouragement of us in our sufferings in which sense (d) 2 Tim. 2.10 Paul testifieth of himself that he endured all things for the Elects sake and many thousand Martyrs have died for us but it was by way of Substitution as our Surety Christ willingly suffering in our stead and redeeming our Life with his own Death in which sense Paul disclaims the arrogating of any such thing to himself with the greatest abhorrency and indignation where reproving the factiousness of the Corinthians he asketh them (e) 1 Cor. 1.13 was Paul crucified for you This Blessed Apostle St. Paul with all the holy Martyrs of Christ they suffered no doubt for our good that we seeing them seal the Doctrine of Christianity with their dearest Blood might believe it to the
upright walking before the Lord what less could it be than to undervalue the precious purchase of Christ's dearest Blood and to make light of that great Salvation which he by his Death and Sufferings hath procured for us True it is not so much Heaven itself the Purchase of Christ's precious Blood as that unfathomable Love which made him Purchase it for us at so dear a Price that should be minded of us and constrain us to obedience but doubtless unless we fix our Eyes upon the recompence of the reward considering how glorious the Kingdom how immarcessible the Crown and how entransing the Joy is which Christ our Redeemer hath provided for us we shall never be able to take a due estimate of the Love of Christ in all its dimensions The best way to know what is the heigth and the depth the length and the breadth of the Love of Christ to our Souls is often to be considering how great things he hath done for us to what a contemptible Birth to what a miserable Life to what a lamentable Death he humbled himself to Purchase Life and Eternity of heavenly Glory for us And surely Christians as Heaven and Glory must needs make us stand admiring that Love of Christ which provided them for us why so the Love of Christ which made him willing to suffer and bleed and die that our Souls might live and be eternally blessed it will make us more highly to value the recompence of Eternal Life That Inheritance of Saints in Light is of itself most glorious and above all things in the World to be desired but when we consider that it is a purchased Possession and that our Evidences for it are sealed with the Precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb undefiled and without spot this will wonderfully enhance the Price of it and cause it to shine forth with greater Oriency Lustre and Glory in our Eyes Should a Wife receive from her Husband in his absence a Rich Jewel as a pledge of his Hearts Love to her which he purchased for her with the hazard of his own Life how highly would she prize it and how often with delight would she look upon it Believe it Christians Eternal Life is that rich Jewel that Pearl of great Price which Christ the Husband of your Souls hath purchased for you not with Silver nor Gold nor any such corruptible things but with his own precious Blood and therefore so far is it from being unlawful to have respect unto it that if you do not very highly esteem of it and often with delight in your Obedience cast an Eye towards it you do ungratefully come short of the instance but now given undervaluing the Purchase of your Saviour's Blood 12 AND lastly we may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because we cannot otherwise seek Gods Glory as we ought to do Betwixt Gods Glory and our own salvation the Connexion is inseparable so that without a due respect had to our own happiness we can never give God that honour which of right doth belong to his Holy name The Tyrians when Alexander besieged them they chained their City to the Statue of Hercules so that the one could not perish and be destroy'd without the other Thus the Lord he hath tied the eternal wellfare of our Souls to the Statue of his own Glory so that no Man can look off and make shipwrack of his own salvation but the Glory of God together therewith will suffer and be much eclipsed The Lord can indeed get himself great Revenues of Glory out of â—ur Eternal Ruine making his Justice to appear orient and shine bright in punishing us with everlasting destruction from his own Blessed presence But yet the redundancy of his pardoning mercy and the Rules of his free Grace can no otherwise appearâ— glorious nor any where shine forth in their own native lustre and Beauty but only in the happiness and eternal salvation of our immortal Souls A Man that would draw a Chain after him must hold fast some particular Link thus we must lay fast hold upon the Silver link of eternal Life would we ever draw the Golden Chain of God's Glory along with us Our own salvatioâ— though it be an end yet it s only intermediate and to be sought in subordination to God's Glory which is the supreme and ultimate end of all When therefore we have not respect to our own salvation which is a necessary Medium we can never promote God's Glory as our ultimate end The Man who provides not food for his own sustenance can never preserve Life Thus in vain shall we think to promote God's Glory and preserve that if we labour not for the †Joh. 6.27 meat which will endure to eternal Life T is storied of Phidias that he had so artificially wrought and so curiously intrailed his own Name in Minerva's Buckler which he made for her that it could not be taken out without the dissolution of the whole frame Thus the Lord out of his own infinite goodness he hath by a strict connexion knit and united his own Glory and the salvation of his people together he hath most divinely wrought their name and eternal welfare in the frame of his own Glory so that now without eclipsing his Glory it cannot be taken out we cannot cast off the care of our own Salvation but the costly frame of God's Honour and Glory will thereby be broken and fall asunder There are some who would pass for Christians of the highest form and pretending much to a Gospel-frame of Spirit tell us that a Man is never sincere nor in capacity to give Glory to God as he ought till he can be willing to be damned making light of his own salvation that God may be glorified But the truth is Men never so much dishonour God take the Crown from his Head and turn his Glory into shame as when once they begin to make light of Heaven and Hell of eternal joy in God's presence and everlasting destruction from his presence not seeking by patient continuance in well doing for Life and eternal Salvation What I find storied of Hippocrates his sympathizing Twins which is that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactly Contemporaries both living and dying together the same will hold true in our preâ—ent case of a care to promote God's Glory and withall of a due respect to the recompence of the reward as both of them live so they die together the one of them never surviving the other 'T is not here as in the Service of two contrary Masters who carry Antipathies in their bosoms and speak forth nothing in all their Commands but mutual contradictions where the Servant will either hate the one and love the other or else he will adhere to the one and despise the other but (h) Matth. 6.24 he that seeks God's Glory doth thereby promote the wellfare of his own Soul and he that seeks the
will you censure them as perverse zealous Fanatiques and Sons of violence because they willingly spend and are spent in the service of so bountiful a Master when their Eye is continually fixed upon so glorious a Prize The Men of the World how freely do they spend their †Isa 55.2 mony for that which is not Bread and their labour for that which cannot satisfy And will you then wonder at God's people and think it strange that having set before them the Bread of Life together with that Fountain of living Water which yields all fullness of satisfaction to those who drink of it they should proportionate their endeavours to the worth and dignity of such transcendently desirable and beatifical objects Have you never observed with what unweariedness the Husbandman undergoes the labours of his calling in hope of a plentiful Harvest Did you never see with what undaunted courage the Souldier will endure the hostile incursions the fierce onsets the cruel encounter of an Enemy in hope of uncertain victory And what shall I say of those that run in a Race have you not seen them rallying up all their strength putting forth themselves to the utmost of their ability and contending with an ambitious uncontrouled violence towards the Goal for the Crown that was set before them Wonder not then if God's People be unwearied in the work of the Lord will encounter the greatest difficulties and contend with a sacred violence towards the mark of their high Calling when their Eye is always fixed upon a full harvest of Eternal Glory upon an everlasting victorious triumph upon a far more pearly and incorruptible Crown of Life f IF as Tertullian speaks Men purchase Glass the brittle enjoyments of this Life at so dear a rate will you count it an unreasonable nimiety in Religion indescretion and an excess of superfluous Zeal in Gods People that they are willing with the like expense of Time labour and strength to purchase the rich Jewel the enchasing orient Pearl of Eternal Glory What is not Heaven more worthy of our Care and utmost Diligence than Earth Is not a Crown of Righteousness more worth than a Crown of Rose-buds and therefore with a greater proportion of Zeal and Carefulness to be sought after Is it Reason that we should more earnestly pursue the uncertain perishable comforts of this present World from which we must erelong be eternally divorced than Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life in the World to come Doubtless Sirs if Life and that Eternal If a Crown and that of Glory if an inheritance and that of a Kingdom incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away be worth seeking after then we need not be much solicitous about vindicating God's People in the zealous Passages severe Endeavours circumspectious Deportments and sanctified Singularities of their Christian course from the Imputations of Indiscretion misguided Zeal and Fanaticism which Men of corrupt Minds carnal Gospellers and such as have nothing but a bare Profession to shew for themselves are apt to lay them under For having that Crown that Kingdom that glorious Inheritance continually in their eye should not their care their diligence their endeavours be in some measure answerable and proportionate thereto You deceive your own Souls and do most sordidly undervalue (a) Tanti vitreum Quanti verum margaritum Tertul. lib. ad Martyr cap. 4o. Si pro terrenis bonis tantos labores tam gravia pericula homines aequo animo patiuntur quare pro fide pro constantia pro integritate pro thesauro aeterno pigri sumus Quare sumus timidi pro illis divitiis quas nec naufragia nobis possunt auferre August Serm. 105. de Temp. the recompence of the reward when you think upon easier terms to have Heaven than Earth and the Meat that will endure to Eternal Life than the Meat which perisheth yielding no satisfaction Oh brutish and unreasonable Sinners what are all your Riches and Honours what are all your Profits and Pleasures but as Weeds to Flowers or as Dross to the purest Gold if compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory which abideth God's People in another World And shall we then think you have reason to censure them as guilty of too great severity superfluous Zeal and unnecessary Preciseness for giving diligence to make sure of such a glorious Reward when you yourselves think no time too long no diligence excessive no pains too great which you are at in pursuance of those fading Vanities Judge all you blessed Saints that stand already possessed of this eternal heavenly Glory yea let those among you that have had but the least foretasts prelibations and gleanings thereof if this be not an unreasonable censure judge freely Shall the covetous Worldling rise early go to bed late eat the Bread of carefulness macerate his own Body and wholly exhaust his strength in pursuit of that which in the judgment of the wisest of Kings (a) Ecclesiast 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depastio animi consumitur enim animus aum in re nihili inani occupatus est Buxt is nothing but vanity and vexation of Spirit like a Moth eating up and consuming it as the original sounds And shall not the People of God having such a glorious Crown in their eye much more lay hold upon all opportunities walk closely with him that hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory and gladly spend and be spent in all holy Exercises that at length they may partake of that fulness of Joy which is in God's presence together with those super-celestial Soul-satisfying Pleasures which are at his right Hand for evermore (b) 2 Pet. 1.5 10. Doth not the Lord in his sacred Oracles of truth require that we should give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure Are we not commanded to work out with greatest †Phil. 2.12 Non dicit Apostolus nude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est accuratè magnoque cum studio operamini cum multa diligentia solicitudine pergite vestram operari salutem A Lapide Labour and Industry as the Original hath it our own Salvation Hath not our blessed Lord commanded that we should earnestly contend striving as in an Agony to * Luke 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contendite agonizate quasi in agone agonia contendite extremas summasque vires velut agonizantes exerite quasi pro vita si vincitis vel morte si vincimini luctaturi A Lapide enter in at the strait Gate of Eternal Life And must we not also storm the Kingdom of Heaven assaulting it with a kind of Holy Violence and forcing our way thither through all difficulties would we ever enter into it What then is the Blasphemy of all those who in opposition to the holy Spirit of Truth calling us out thus to spend and be spent in the service of God do take upon them a cursed
Carrion of bestial Delights you will thus renounce the Communion of Heavenly Joys Is this your Wisdom your Prudence to make Sin the object of your Joy the Theatre of your Delight the Centre of your Desires and the Element wherein you would continually chuse to live when God by a Miracle of rich Grace calls upon you to seek after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven Can you think to maintain the comfort of your Life by Sin which is nothing but the fuel of Death and Misery Will you make that the sole object of your Joy which alone is the inlet to an ocean of Sorrow and perplexing disquietments The truth is we have many amongst us who wear Christ's Livery and are called Christians but yet they live as Persons resolved to chuse Epicurus that grand Sensualist for the Master oâ— their licentious Faction making Pleasure with him the Alpha and Omega of all their Happiness Seneca though an Heathen had a far more noble â—â—d heroick Spirit than such esteeming it the greatest Pleasure to contemn all carnal Pleasures whilst these reckon it for the highest accent of â—â—licity to live in them Such voluptuous Wantons walk directly antipodes to the end of their own being living in nothing but carnal Delights as if God sent them into the World to be therein like the Leviathan sporting themselves and feasting their Souls in an Ocean of sensual Pleasures They begin to anticipate here that Paradise of swinish Delights which Mahomet promised his own naâ—â—y Herd at leastwise to take an earnest of it continually soaking themselves in their own intemperance and brutish luxury They look after no other Heaven than only to go singing to Hell and though you give them the greatest variety of delightful objects yet they cannot be Merry unless they may have Treason against Heaven it self for the game and the Devil for their playfellow But be ashamed oh carnal Gospellers thus to give up the strength of your Souls in the service of sensual Pleasures making light in the mean time of Heaven and Glory together with those unsullied Paradisical Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore Oh let not that be matter of Pleasure and Delight to you which lay so heavy upon the Soul of your blessed Redeemer Did Christ bleed and groan and die to save you from your Sins and yet will you live with delight in the Pleasures of Sin How ever can you have a good thought of Sin when you look upon it as that which brought down the Son of God from Heaven and that murthered the Lord of Life and Glory Must the beloved Son of God undergo the curse due to your Sins and must he also humble himself unto Death to purchase for you the reward of Life everlasting that after all this you should undervalue his Love and make light of so great Salvation preferring the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a season before it Will you see I beseech you your folly in the glass of these ensuing considerations 1 CONSIDER thus to delight in carnal Pleasures it argues your Souls to be utterly void of Grace and dead in sin Where ever Grace comes with power it mortifies all vile affections and quite alienates the Heart from all sinful delights so that whoever delights in the Pleasures of Sin to be sure he is yet in a state of Nature and was never brought under the Power of converting Grace (a) Quâ—madmodum impossibile est ut ignis flammam concipiat in aquâ ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est voluptates mundi cum poenitentia Christiana manere Otho Casman A voluptuous Man cannot be a gracious Man Nor is it possible for the Dove of true Piety to find any place whereon to rest the sole of her foot in a deluge of carnal Pleasures Our first Parents by eating of the forbidden fruit they lost their right to the Tree of Life and were shut out of Paradise (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ait Xenophon By feeding with delight upon the forbidden fruit of Sin Men forfeit their right to all saving Grace and must need be shut out of Gods presence which is better than life it self as that alone which can quicken and revive a dead Soul T is the dead Fish only and not the living that are carried away with the stream Thus when Men are carried away with a deluge of Sin and swim willingly down the stream of carnal delights it s a sign they were never alive unto God but that still they are dead in trespasses and Sins Hence the Widow who indulges a sensual appetite living in Pleasure (c) 1 Tim. 5.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand Paedag. lib. 3. cap. 7. pag. 172. is said to be dead whilst she lives Who ever hath Pleasure in unrighteousness delighting in that as his proper element he hath no principle of Life and Grace abiding in him but is spiritually dead whilst he lives in the Body When Wickedness is sweet to our taste and we delight our selves in it here is the reigning power of Sin separating betwixt us and the God of Heaven and that indeed is not only the Death but the Hell of every graceless Soul A Life of sensuality speaks that Man to be spiritually dead who in such a manner lives after the Flesh (d) Rom. 8.13 For if you live after the Flesh saith St. Paul ye shall die When Men give their full consent to sinful desires not only committing iniquity but having Pleasure therein Not only esteeming a sinful Life to be happy but also counting it their Wisdom with profane Esau to sell their Eternal Birth-right for one mess of such pottage why this now is to live after the Flesh and whoever thus lives he is dead whilst he lives Doth then thy fancy run in a way of Sinful objects with delight taking thought for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof Dost thou make thy self the standard and thy sensual appetite the rule of all thy actions Hast thou an Heart carried out continually after sinful objects if absent desiring and grieving for them but if present rejoicing and delighting in them How dreadful oh brutish Sinner is thy present condition If thus to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin be the Life of thy Soul it s estranged from the Life of God and thou art dead though thou livest (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Leg. Alleg. lib. There is a Death saith Philo of the Man and there is a Death of the Soul The first which he calls the Death of the Man that 's the separation of the Soul from the Body the second which he calls the Death of the Soul that stands in the want of Grace and the presence of Sin Tho then thy Soul be not separated from thy Body yet what will all this avail so long as thou livest in Sin which is the most dreadful Death and wantest the Grace of God
a Man walking in communion with God to leave off that holy practise for those pleasures of sin which are but for a season You that are acquainted with God know the sweetness of it and having had a tast cannot but desire more (g) Gen. 28.17 And I tell you Sirs communion with God this is none other but the House of God and this is the very gate of Heaven to use Jacob's words And yet out of this for a little wanton dalliance for a little sensual delights and sugared poyson do all wicked and ungodly Men exclude themselves Whilst we walk in communion with God we get some glimpses of his Glory and though we cannot get up into Heaven yet we find Heaven itself many times let down into our Souls But then this is the childrens bread which those that have pleasure in unrighteousness must not think to feed upon their portion is with Nebuchadnezzar to go a grazing amongst the Beasts of the field and though they count their carnal delights to be an Heaven upon Earth yet indeed they are entred already within the Suburbs of Hell For whoever is shut out from communion with God hath already begun his (h) 2 Thess 1.9 Hell The greatest emphasis of Hell and damnation mainly consisting in the sinners Eternal separation from the God of Heaven Oh then if any thing will make you break off your sins by repentance and abandon all the pleasures of sin which are but for a season let the fear let the misery of losing the happiness of communion with God prevail with you to do it Hast thou sinner any lust that will be instead of communion with an infinitely holy God to thy Soul Or is there any such pleasure in sin as can fully make amends for the loss of Divine favour and the sight of God's blisful countenance to all eternity From thy face shall I be hid so Cain that first-born of Parricides cried out unto God in an agony of black despair But wo and alas from the light of God's countenance in this World shall I be excluded and from Eternal communion with God in the World to come so may every ungodly sinner who hath pleasure in unrighteousness cry out despairing both night and day continually Libertines cannot walk with God and see his smiles who have pleasure in sin never fearing his frowns 3 CONSIDER Men delighting in the pleasures of sin they do walk direstly Antipodes to the Grace of God and turn it into wantonness (i) Titus 2.12 The Grace of God that teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts But such as have pleasure in unrighteousness they deny the grace of God for their worldly lusts and carnal contentments Their profession is Christianity which obligeth them to be holy But their practise is sensual and brutish as if they were ashamed of being suspected for too much holiness They pretend a Freedom from the guilt and imputation of sin But that they abuse for an encouragement to wallow in the Filth and pollution of sin They will confidently lay claim to Christs legal righteousness without them But they chuse to live without his Gospel-righteousness within them It s enough for them to be justified they never seek to be sanctified but let loose the Reins to all licentiousness as if there were not due preparation for Eternal life by inherent righteousness as well as of a Title to eternal life and salvation by imputed righteousness The Lord Jesus as they presume is become their Redeemer and therefore these profuse riotous Sinners they will run in God's debt committing sin with delight and living in it without remorse because Christ hath paid all the score He hath redeemed his people from the curse of the law and therefore these practical Antinomians they resolve to lead really accursed lawless lives as if an open trade in Hells commodities were licenced and sealed by the Blood of Christ The Grace of God in the Gospel hath no other improvement amongst such wicked sensualists but to make them the more ungracious And all the use they make of it is to strengthen their Hands in wickedness that they may sin securely Thus Men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith they will therefore take liberty to sin that Grace may abound So that as Zuinglius well said if they were called Satanists in stead of Christians there were no need of other manners O calamity never enough to be deplored (k) Nobile illud vere preciosum Christi nomen tantâ cum infamiâ conspuimu◠perinde ac si instar Mercurii usurae furti omnisque petulantiae Deus ac Patronus sit Zuing. de intemer Virg. pag. 349. We do with such infamy disgrace the noble and truly precious name of Christ as if like Mercury he were the God and Patron of usury theft and all licentiousness But why do you flatter yourselves with the Christian name when this most sacred name instead of expiating doth but aggravate your guilt Can you think that Christianity will be a Sanctuary from the wrath of God to those who by their unmortified lusts and unchristian lives are daily eclipsing his Glory (k) Nobile illud vere preciosum Christi nomen tantâ cum infamiâ conspuimu◠perinde ac si instar Mercurii usurae furti omnisque petulantiae Deus ac Patronus sit Zuing. de intemer Virg. pag. 349. Will it profit you to be called Christians when for blaspheming that holy name you are like to sink deeper in Hell than the worst of Heathens What tho the Gospel be full of Grace and peace and all spiritual Cordials for Heart-broken Sinners so long as you turn that Grace into wantonness not accepting of terms of peace but as carnal delighting to go on in the constant violation of God's holy Commandments Can you think that the willful abusers of Grace will be suffered to hide themselves under the Skirt of free Grace Shall those have the peace of God for their portion who by their brutish lusts make war against Heaven and bid defiance to God himself Will the Lord ever comfort those with Gospel Cordials whose only comfort it is to lead ungospel lives taking pleasure in sin Be no longer deceived neither God nor his Gospel will be mocked by you The Sweetest Wine degenerates into the sharpest Vinegar So the Grace of God in Christ when abused for an occasion to sin doth mingle the Wine of astonishment with most flaming ingredients for all those who thus turn it into wantonness For Men under Gospel-light to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness is a God-provoking sin We never so much displease the (l) Rom. 2.24 Lord as when we most indulge ourselves in carnal pleasures Then is the Grace of God most egregiously abused when Men take encouragement from it to go on in making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Such cross the great end of God's Grace and walk diametrically opposite to the
remain ungrateful under such transcendently great and glorious discoveries Doth God allow you to walk at all times with Heaven in your Eye and will you not strive to make melody to the Lord in your Hearts Shall your heavenly Father shew you his back parts and cause all his Glory to pass before you and yet can you be unthankful not endeavouring to glorifie his great Name The God of all Consolation Christians is no niggard of his Cordials to us And shall we then shew our selves niggards in our retribution of thanks to him Shall God's Hand be opened and ours shut Is his Heart enlarged and shall we be straitned in our Bowels Can we make so light of Heaven and Eternal Glory as to think the Lord unworthy our Praises for allowing us a full prospect of them If the Disciples were in such an extasy of admiration when taken up into the Mount with Christ and beholding some obscure glimpses of heavenly Glory How much more cause have we to stand as in an extasy admiring the Goodness of God whom he allows to live every Day upon the mount of transfiguration shewing us all the Beauty and causing us to anticipate the Pleasures Glory and Happiness of the World to come God might have left us under a necessity of obedience without any hope of an Eternal reward in Heaven and yet even in that case all thankful acknowledgments had been done to him How much more when our Work is sweetned with the assured Hope of an Eternal reward so that now going on in the way we may look at Heaven and Glory as that which will be the end of every Duty Oh let us all with enlarged and ravished affections with the utmost vigour and activity of enflamed Hearts recount the wonderful condescention and stupendious love of God in vouchsafing us for our encouragement a prospect of the Land of Promise in the Way thither To admire the Riches of free Grace and to warble out the Praises of God will be a great part of our Work when we come to Heaven (a) Artem nunc aliquam laudandi Dominum addiscamus quam oporteat aliquando infinitis seculis exercere Arrow Tact. Sacr. lib. 3. Sect. 15. pag. 361. let us now therefore begin the employment of Heaven whilst we live on Earth adoring the Lord 's remunerative Goodness whereby we have so great encouragement no less than a Crown of Glory to all Holy Self-denying and upright walking before him When God shews us Heaven and Glory as in a mirrour that by the bright reflections of it our Hearts may be rejoiced 't is but equal that we should strive to become the Monument of his Praise at all times blessing the Lord in our Hearts and with our Mouths speaking good of his Name The Glory of Heaven is so transcendently great that we may sooner lose our selves in the admiration of it than ever return thanks to God proportionate to the least glimpse that proceeds from it Oh be not any longer unwilling to be much in thanksgiving and praise to him who sowillingly allows you the encouragement of so transcendently blessed and glorious a reward in all your obedience What can you bless God for giving you a Crum and not for shewing you a Crown of Life as the certain reward of all holy performances If liberty to use the good things of this World be matter of thankfulness to God how much more shall we thank the Lord admiring his Goodness for the Liberty which in all our obedience he allows us to have respect to all the Good things of Heaven and Glory and the World to come If enjoying the Meat that perisheth we are bound to bless the Lord and speak good of his Name for such a temporal fruition how much more should we adore the Lord whilst eying the Meat that will endure to Life everlasting though but yet in expectation The Queen of Sheba having obtained a sight of Solomon's Glory was so strangely transported that she had almost lost her Soul in an extasy of admiration In what an extasy of admiration should it then put us causing us with all thankfulness to adore the divine remunerative Goodness when the Lord gives us a sight of his own Glory every Day making us to behold in our prospect here on Earth all the Royalties Immunities and Soul-entrancing delights of the heavenly Jerusalem Had God Christians given you the Kingdoms of the World with all the Glory of them they had not been worth so much as the least glimpse of that Glory to which the Lord allows you to have an Eye in all your endeavours Be therefore no longer unthankful to God but admire him rather (b) Psal 63.3 Because thy loving kindness saith the Psalmist is better than Life my lips shall praise thee So my Brethren because the Lord allows you that respect to the recompence of reward that sight of Heaven that prospect of Eternal Glory which is better than Life it self why therefore let your Lips yea and your Lives too praise him The sight of Heavenly Glory puts Life into the Soul and so makes it go on with delight in ways of obedience Oh therefore let that God who thus makes your Hearts chearful be sure to find them thankful and your Mouths running over with his Praises in every condition For remember it he that is not truly thankful to God for Glory in expectation shall never have Heaven and eternal Glory in their full fruition You must now admire the goodness of God in the hope of Eternal Life or you can never taste how good the Lord is in the bestowance of Eternal Life upon you 2 Walk uprightly doing all that you do in the Ways of God not for vain-glory nor from any ambitious desire of popular applause but purely from a principle of love to that God who in all your obedience hath allowed you the strong and everlasting encouragement of having an Eye to the recompence of the reward You need not Christians to look asquint in your obedience nor do any thing that you do to be seen of Men so long as the Lord sets before you the reward of Eternal Glory allowing you to look on that as a Feast wherewith to refresh you as Robes of Righteousness wherewith to adorn you as a consort of Celestial Musick wherewith to delight you and as a Royal Diadem wherewith to crown you after all your labours when once you come to Heaven (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 19. Let not therefore vain-glory nor any such low and sordid principles act you in the Ways of God but let the Love of God who allows you by way of encouragement a respect to the recompence of Eternal Life be the spring of all holy motions in your Souls Look you may at the recompence of the reward but shall never receive it if in all your obedience you have not God and Eternal Glory but the praise of Man and vain-glory for your end Be
enough we have Heaven in our eye and a Crown of Life lies before us What though you have but little in hand yet so long as you have Heaven in hope and a clear prospect of Eternal Glory in your eye why should you not be content and sit down satisfied Whatever Christians your conditions be in this present Life yet you may say with holy David considering that glorious recompence of Reward which God allows you to have an eye to in Heaven's way the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly Inheritance If as Solomon saith it be such a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the Sun and that which would give them content if with any thing they could be satisfied how much more should you count it pleasant to behold by the Eye of Faith the Sun of Righteousness to behold an eternal Reward of Glory giving diligence to sit down satisfied with so blessed a sight The poor weather beaten Sea-man how well satisfied is he though yet tossed with Storms and impetuous Tempests when once he discovers Land and comes within â—en of the Harbour And will not you Christians labour to be content when whatever Troubles abide you whatever pelting Storms you are tossed with upon the boysterous Sea of this ungrateful World yet still you may discover the Land of Promise and are always within ken of Heaven that wished Harbour of eternally blessed and glorious Rest That which learned St. Paul the great mystery of contentation enabling him to sit down as well satisfied in every condition was his stedfast fixed beholding of eternal Glory Paul though sadly troubled and perplexed and always delivered unto Death for Jesus sake yet he murmures not but is well content with all this as having fixed the Eye of his Faith not upon Earth but Heaven * 2 Cor. 4.17 not upon things that are seen but upon an eternal weight of unseen Glory And why is it that we having the same Reward set before us and the same Crown of eternal Glory to fix our eyes upon cannot learn of that blessed Man in every condition therewith to be content Oh take heed Christians that you murmure no longer against Heaven but strive that having stedfastly fixed your eye upon heavenly Glory you may well be satisfied in every condition not only when God gives but also when he taketh not only when we receive good from the Hand of the Lord but also when we receive evil not only when you abound with Blessings but with Crosses too not only when you enjoy all things but when you are stript of all Oh Christians how welcome should every thing be where nothing is deserved If we look at our own deserts we may wonder rather at what we have than repine against God for what we want If we want something 't is a Mercy that we want not all If we lie in a Prison 't is a favour that we are not shut up in Hell amongst damned Spirits If we have not so much in hand as many yet here is a miracle of Mercy to satisfie us that we have as much in hope as heart can wish This consideration then Christians like Hagar's Well may make us refrain our weeping and sit down content when our Bottles are empty Though here we should be stript naked yet hereafter we shall be cloathed with the Garments of Salvation Though here we should wander up and down in hunger seeking our Bread from desolate Places yet hereafter we shall feed with delight upon the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God Though here we sit in Darkness and have no Light yet this should make us content in every such disconsolate condition that hereafter we shall partake of the Inheritance of Saints in Light where we shall have a bright Sun-shine of eternal Glory 4 Walk humbly acknowledging your own unworthiness that ever God should give you the encouragement of so glorious a reward When the Lord for your better encouragement to all holy Self-denying and upright walking before himself allows you to look up to Heaven you have then cause if ever to walk humbly and be abased as low as Earth Where the guilt is great and the receiver as in this case altogether unworthy the most sutable return that can be is Humility and self-abasement God's People should never lie lower in Humility than when he raiseth them highest in their Hopes and full assurance of Eternal Glory (a) 2 Sam. 7.18 Thus holy David when God had spoken of establishing his Throne and Kingdom for ever he now as admiring the wonderful condescention of God in his preferment confesseth his own unworthiness saying who am I oh Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Well! The Lord hath spoken to us of an everlasting Kingdom assuring us of that in the end as the reward of all our labours and shall not this teach us all humility causing every one to acknowledg his own unworthiness of so great Mercy (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Praecept Coning The Moon doth never shine less than in her nearest approaches to the Sun from whom she borrows her light Thus Christians we should never think our selves to shine less than when God causeth us to approach nearest to himself in the tenders of Heaven and Glory which his Goodness affords us They that know not these Treasures of Love and Sweetness may admire themselves and have big-swelling thoughts of their own Worthiness But let those amongst you that are come to have a prospect of Heavenly Glory fixing their Eye upon an object of the first magnitude be vile in their own apprehensions losing themselves in the fulness of God's free Grace and remunerative Goodness There is nothing that should more humble us than to think how highly the great God is about to exalt us Nor any thing that should more debase us than to consider how Glorious the Lord promises at length to make us We should see our own Poverty in the Riches of God's Bounty to us And be ashamed of our own drop when he makes us thus lanch forth in the fathomless Ocean of his own remunerative Goodness The Stars vanish when the Sun appears and so the small Candle of our own worth should presently disappear and be put out under an everlasting extinguisher when once the Glory of Heaven ariseth in our thoughts (c) 1 King 19.13 Elijah wrapt his face in a Mantle when the Glory of the Lord passed before him Thus when God gives us a prospect of Heaven causing all his Glory for our better encouragement in a way of Duty to pass before us 't is time that we should now wrap our selves in the Mantle of true Humility The greatness of God's Mercy in giving us a sight of Heavenly Glory should make us if any thing can to be little in our own Eyes 'T is then most easy to see our own pollution and vileness when God takes us up
into the Mount of Transfiguration and causeth the light of the Glory of Heaven to shine round about us The Sun indeed having dazled our Eyes we see nothing well But yet we discern our selves and see our own unworthiness best of all when our Eyes are most dazl'd with the brightness of that Glory which God sets before us As therefore with one Eye we behold the good that is done by us so to keep us humble let us stedfastly look with the other upon the good that is laid up in Heaven for us What is all our Work to so glorious a reward What is the Wilderness of our barren obedience to that fruitful Canaan a Land that flows with Milk and Hony What in a word are all our weary Weeks of Labour and Travail to that Eternal Sabbath of Rest that will follow after Do but consider Christians the transcendent worth and excellency of that reward which God sets before us and then be proud if you can of your own worth and religious performances how excellent soever (d) 2 Cor. 4.17 That far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory may well keep you humble and cause whatever you can do or suffer for it to seem lighter than vanity it self We that did not deserve the least glimpse of heavenly Glory what doth the Lord afford us a full Sun-shine We that could not expect the smallest tast of his Goodness what doth he give us a whole Cluster of Canaan We that have deserved nothing but to be filled with the fear of Wrath the foretasts of Hell the dreadful preoccupations of Eternal Burnings doth the Lord allow us for our encouragement the hope of Glory the first fruits of Heaven and the joyful prelibations of an Eternal recompence of reward there Oh then let us all fall down and adore his matchless Goodness endeavouring to be as low in Humility as the Lord hath made us to be high in our priviledges We that have risen thus in God's thoughts should fall in our own striving most to humble our selves when most assured of a Blessed Exaltation to Life and Eternal Glory (e) Non potes intrare per portam aliquam angustam nisi te humilies nisi te humiliaveris non intrabis in regnum Dei Stella de contemnendis Mundi vanitatibus lib. 2. Remember Sirs you must stoop low in Humility would you ever enter in thro' the strait Gate into the Kingdom of God Man by Nature is full with the emptiness of Self-admiration and till this be removed out of the Way he can never be filled as a vessel of Honour with the new Wine of eternal Consolation We lay up the richest Wine in the lowest Cellars So doth God the Riches of heavenly Glory in the humble and lowly Hearts (f) Prov. 18.12 Whom ever God intends to exalt he first humbles them Giving none the blessing of Eternal Life till first he have brought them upon their knees (g) Ama esse parvus humilis ut mereà ris à Deo exaltari in alto throno gloria Stella de Cont. Mundi vanitat ubi suprà Be little therefore in your own Eyes that you may be great in God's heavenly Kingdom And if ever you would sit high in Glory be sure to live low in self-abasement Men that neither desire Glory nor consider the worth of it may well be proud standing much upon their own worth But you that would come to Glory at last as having seen the excellency of it must count it your greatest worth to be sensible of your own unworthiness resolving to creep to Heaven upon the bended knees of true humility And truly there is nothing that will lay Men so low in themselves as to think seriously how high for their encouragement God raiseth them in promising and how much higher God will raise them in bestowing Eternal Life upon them If any thing can empty us of Self-admiring thoughts and can keep us humble 't is duly to consider how richly God will fill us erelong with Eternal Soul-ravishing Comforts Then if ever will the Soul lie at the feet of God when her Eye is stedfastly fixed upon those entrancing Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore He that thinks to rise in Glory cannot choose but be humble lying down in his own shame 5 Walk resolvedly going on in the way of your Duty with what difficulties soever it may be attended Most Men are apt to measure duty by their own safety are unwilling to engage in the wayes of Christ till all difficulties are removed by a secular arm and if once the Times frown upon any religious exercise their faces are no longer towards that Duty as formerly nor can you possibly prevail with them to lanch forth any further for Christ than if at any time a storm should arise they may get safe to the Shore again But judge in your selves is it seemly for those to make shy of Duty because of seeming dangers attending it to whom God allows the hope of an Eternal reward for their encouragement the way of Duty Shall they leave themselves at a loose indifferency performing or omitting Duty at their own choice to evade the Cross who shall erelong have their Heads incircled with an immarcessible Crown of Glory Did Noah thus Did Abraham thus Did the three Jewish Worthies thus though threatned with the scorchings of an hot fiery Furnace Did Daniel thus who notwithstanding the Royal Edict to the contrary upon pain of being made a Prey to the ravine of furious Lyons was yet frequent in the invocation of holy Prayer calling upon God and giving thanks to him as he did afore-time (h) Dan. 6.10 Oh methinks Christians it should shame us to decline Duty not persevering in the faithful and constant performance thereof how dangerous and difficult soever having allowed us for our encouragement a prospect of Heaven as a bright glimpse of future Glory and in all our religious undertakings a respect unto the recompence of reward Do you not observe Christians how the Merchant-venturer puts to Sea running many a desperate hazzard amidst Storms and Tempests in hope of a gainful return And with what undaunted courage doth the valiant Souldier take his Life in his hand encountring the fiercest adversary upon the hope of an uncertain victory Why then should we decline our Duty for fear of any Storm who are always within ken of the Harbour where once being landed we are sure to enjoy an everlasting calm * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom 16. ad pop Antioch Rom. 8.37 Why should not we valiantly fight the Lord's Battels who fight not as uncetain but are sure of the Day before we enter the Field and may sound a triumph before the Victory as knowing that through Christ we shall be more than Conquerors Oh why should we be afraid to grapple with any Goliah-afflictions to encounter a whole host of crosses or to suffer any fiery tryal in a way of
duty being encouraged thereunto by that Eternal recompence of reward which the Lord hath set before us The Lord allowing us a respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward will expect that we should always have an open ear and an obedient willing frame of Heart to fall in with every work that he calls us to not pleading the greatest difficulty against the faithful preformance of any duty Discouragements against the Commandments of Christ and difficulties apprehended against our duty to him must never be pleaded But whatever oppositions whatever flames hardships and fiery tryals stand betwixt us and Christ we must break through them all to come unto Christ in a way of dutiful obedience to his righteous Will And let me tell you in vain shall any Man seek his own safety out of a way of duty or think to be freed from that which is evil by neglecting the doing of that which is good The Worlds greatest politicians they think to dissemble conscience to comply with every prevailing faction and to turn their backs upon the most necessary Duty if the times will not bear it is the way to live secure and be at rest But Believe it to hold fast our integrity is the surest way to safety and if ever we would keep out of harm's way we must be sure to keep in the way of God's commandments Jonah might at first play the fugitive but having payed for his learning he found by his own experience that Nineveh was his safest way (a) Psal 91.11 In a way of duty we have the promise of the faithful God for our security But out of that we lie open every moment to all the hostile incursions of Men and Devils Lot kept his integrity in Sodom and vexed his righteous Soul in seeing their obscene conversation (b) Gen. 19.21 22. The righteous God therefore kept Lot from Sodom's Misery and made Zoar a Sanctuary to him against their destruction Let therefore the safety and everlasting encouragement which may always be found in a way of duty make us all study Heart-integrity endeavouring to run the way of Christs commandments with what dangers and difficulties soever they may be attended If out of a way of duty you have the like promise of safety protection and an Eternal reward of Glory to what the faithful God hath made you whilst walking in all dutiful obedience before him then dissemble â—onscience and consult your duty no longer but turn your back upon the ways of Christ and spare not But if Christians you have only the promise of safety from God and a Crown of life set before you whilst walking in the way of your duty then take heed lest neglecting duty upon any pretence you put yourselves from under Heavens protection and another take your Crown Oh we think Sirs that Crown of life that Heavenly Kingdom that far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory which the Lord hath allowed us to take incouragement from in all our obedience should make us resolve to hold fast our integrity to obey Christ in the face of all dangers and to go on in the faithful performance of every duty whatever it cost us Though Christians our Province be difficult yet our recompence is sure And tho our discouragments in a way of duty be many yet our encouragments are infinitely more What though there be hardships attending the commandments of Christ yet doth not obedience thereto pave the way to Glory and is not this the gate of Heaven through which thou shalt enter at length into the Kingdom of God What though Men frown upon thee forbidding thee to follow the Lord in the way of his judgments yet is it not beâ—ter to obey God than Man and will not his Eternal smiles make amends for the Worlds frowns What though in a word thy obedience to Christs commandments should expose thee to reproach persecution and sorest calamities in the world yet having Heaven and Eternal Glory always in thy Eye look not shy upon any duty but hold on in the way of obedience not doubting but the Lord who allows thee so great encouragement in the way of duty will be sure to Crown thee in the end after all thy afflictions with a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory 6 WALK Zealously as willing to spend and be spent in the service of God You may well put your hands to God's Plough and give diligence to abound in the work of the Lord so long as he allows you for your better encouragement to have Heaven and Eternal Glory always in your Eye (c) Numb 33.29 The Israelites removing their Tents they went from Mithcah to Hashmonah from sweetness to swiftness as those names if paraphrased upon according to their true notation signify Thus Christians they should go from the sweetness of God's favour manifested in giving them a prospect of their future Glory to swiftness in running the way of his commandments The end of God's bounty is Man's duty so that the goodness of God's discovering the Kingdom of Heaven and setting that before you (d) Mat. 11.12 your own duty should make you offer violence to it endeavouring to take it by force The industrious Husbandman he refuses no labour but doth willingly spend and â—â—haust his strength in tilling the ground for the hope that he hath of a plentiful Harvest wherein he shall reap the benefit of all his endeavours And should not Christians much more lay forth themselves in the service of God with all diligence having no less for their encouragement than a Crown of Glory an Heavenly Kingdom than the recompence of Eternal life set before them We live I confess in declining times and because iniquity doth abound amongst us the love of many begins to wax cold But yet we must still remember that the People of God are to live not by example but by rule which requires that we should always strive to be best in the worst of times that when others are outsided and formal we should be fervent in Spirit serving the Lord (e) Rom. 12.11 giving diligence to have our Zeal for God and his Glory by an holy Antiperistasis kindled from the coldness of others And truly there is that in the recompence of reward which if carefully eyed would make us burn in Heavenly Zeal for God and cause us to run with all diligence and holy contention the Race which he hath set before us Let Men of a formal Spirit reproach thee count all thy zeal for God an holy frensy and thy diligence in his ways no better than a symptom of a religious dotage yet keep thy Eye stedfastly fixed upon the recompence of the reward and thou needst not slack thy pace in Heavens way but mayst well continue †1 Cor. 15.58 stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord. For what should more strengthen our Hearts and Hands to all diligence in the ways of God than to
have Heaven with all the Glory and royalties thereof continually in our Eye before us Can any Man having fixed his Eyes upon and expecting an Eternal reward of Glory in Heaven indulge himself in the dead and powerless performance of holy duties not â—â—bouring to be carried on in the Work of the Lord with a mighty violence and holy activity of Spirit That Man is certainly unworthy the Glory of Heaven who thinks it not well worth his utmost diligence and labour of Love on Earth (a) Non enim dormientibus provenit regnum coelorum sed in Dei mandatis laborantibus Leo Serm. 2. de Epiphan pag. 25. The Kingdom of Heaven is prepared not for loyterers but for labourers Not for those that stand idle all the Day in Gods Vineyard but for those that make hast to run the Way of his Commandments * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. This Kingdom though not meritable by the endeavours of any mortal but the free gift of God yet is never to be taken but by an holy Storm Nor must any Man ever think to come there that is not willing to gain it in the sweat of his brows How then should this fill our Hearts with great thoughts and our Hands with all opportunities sending us forth to meet all advantages and engaging us to use all possible diligence in Heavens way And can you be content to lose Heaven rather than Labour for it To be shut our of the Paradise of God for ever rather than force your selves into it by an holy violence through the strait Gate Can you do too much for a Crown of Glory or expend more strength in the service of God than what the recompence of reward will make amends for Oh believe it Christians you can never put your time your strength your diligence to better usury than by laying forth all in the service of God! There is not a prayer not a sigh not a tear not the least struggle of the Spirit against the Flesh herein that shall ever be lost (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Polyc. But as your diligence for Christ doth abound in the work of the Lord so the reward of Eternal Life by Christ shall much more abound unto you Your weak â—â—â—eavours shall be crowned with strong consolationâ— For your temporal obedience on earth you shall receive the recompence of Eternal Glory in Heaven And for your labour of love here you shall rest for ever hereafter in the sweet and delicious embraces of your best beloved the dear Lord Jesus whom to see without end will be endless happiness Oh then what diligence in the service of God what labour in the work of the Lord what exactness in all our Duties can be sufficient for that God who hath prepared such transcendently glorious and Soul-raping felicity for those that faithfully serve him Hast thou Christian such a Crown and yet run no faster Hast thou such an eternal Triumph and yet fight the Battels of the Lord with no more courage and activity Hast thou such a blessed and transcendently glorious Reward and yet no more diligent zealous and abounding in the Work of the Lord Oh take a prospect by the Eye of Faith of the Land of Promise view the Glory observe the royalties take notice of the many choyce immunities of that Heavenly Canaan let the recompence of Eternal Life be always in your Eye and then forbear to be fervent in spirit when serving the Lord if you can Their labour their Zeal their diligence for God should never be small to whom he vouchsafes a prospect of so transcendently great and glorious a Reward The endeavours of a Christian for God should always bear some proportion with what encouragements he receives from God Having therefore so clear a sight of what God hath layd up for us with himself in Heaven we should never think we can do enough for God on earth So long as God holds out a Crown of Glory we should never withhold our labour our pains our diligence in a way of duty Thou art unworthy Christian the least glympse of Heavens happiness if such a sight do not presently transform thee into 〈◊〉 incarnate Seraphim making thee burn with Heavenly Zeal in the service of God like Coles of Juniper as willing to undergo the greatest labour for so glorious a recompence Let us therefore with all intention of mind with all vigour of Soul with all due preparation of Heart run the way of God's Commandments remembring it is all for the life of our own Souls and that the recompence of Eternal Glory is still before us as the reward of all our Christian endeavours 7 WALK Heavenly-mindedly not loving the World nor the things of the World but wholy setting your Hearts upon things above In this case if any where your Eye should affect your Hearts so that the sight which God affords you of an eternal Reward in Heaven may attract and draw up your affections thither wholly divorcing them from the Love of all Creature-enjoyments The Lapwing is made an Emblem of infelicity by some because having a little Coronet upon her head she yet feeds upon the worst of excrements Well you that have a Crown of Glory though not already upon your head yet in your Eye take heed that you be not such Enemies to your own Happiness as to feed with delight upon the sordid enjoyments of this present World Themistocles that gallant Athenian Captain bid his Friend take up those Bracelets which he espied on the ground for saith he thou art not †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Themist Themistocles implying that it was below a Person of his Place and Renown to be affected with such Vanities So Christians let the Worlds Friends stoop down and embrace her Profits Honours and outward Accomodations it 's below you that have Heaven in your Eye to be taken with them 'T is a thing unbecoming all you whose Reward is laid up in the highest Heavens to stoop so far below your selves as to lay out your affections upon Earth and earthly enjoyments If Alexander would not exercise at the Olympicks as thinking such Pedantick recreations too far below him (i) Nos contemnere malumus quà m continere opes innocentiam magis cupimus magis patientiam flagitamus malumus nos bonos esse quà m prodigos Min. Foel Oct. 118. how much more should a Christian scorn having Heaven and Glory in his Eye to be found like one of the base Fellows eagerly pursuing the lying Vanities of a dunghil World 'T is storiâ—â—â—â—â—one Tigranes that coming to redeem his Father and Friends with his Wife who were all taken Prisoners by Cyrus he was asked in particular what ransom he would give for his Wife To which he readily answered that he would purchase her Liberty with his own Life But prevailing upon easier terms as they returned every one commended Cyrus for a goodly Person and Tigranes would needs know
in Sin he hath made himself a vessel of Wrath fitted for destruction So neither will he crown any Man before through patient continuance in well-doing he hath made himself meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of Saints in light We must first conquer before we can triumph first win the Garland before we can wear it first seek by Patient continuance in Well-doing Glory Honour and Immortality before ever God will crown us with Life Eternal How injurious then are all such to their own Souls that like Orpah take their leave of Christ to decline afflictions forsaking the favour of God for the love of this present World exchanging the Ark for Dagon the Doctrin of Christ for the Traditions of Antichrist the Worship of God in its native Beauty for the pomp and varnish of sordid superstition thus miserably ending in the Flesh though sometimes they seemed to have begun in the Spirit Are there not some amongst us (k) Gal. 5.7 with whom it is thus and of whom we may say as sometime Paul to the Galatians ye did run well who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth At your first setting out in the ways of God you did run to purpose then you were very resolved and sensible and seemed very serious But wo and alass such fatal effascination hath now bewitched you that like Sampson having lost your strength you move not at all in the Zodiack of true Godliness unless with Hezekiah's Sun by way of retrogradation Time was that Jehu-like you seemed to drive on with an holy fury for God in the work of reformation But now alas the Chariot-wheels of your Zeal are taken off and if you build not up Calves with Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel yet you can well sit down in a luke-warm indifferency under them Time was that you could not let a Day pass you without the performance of some Duty nor any duty without some experience of Gods Grace and Love and Goodness to you But now alass you can spend whole Days and Weeks if not some Months and yet never give the Lord a visit at least in such a formal manner that as God hath no Glory so your Souls have no comfort no incomes of Grace from Heaven no spiritual advantage thereby Time was that you spent much time in clearing up your evidences for Eternal Life giving all diligence to make your calling and election sure But now alass you can put Eternity it self to venture you have left off working for Heaven a sad sign that your motion was artificial not natural proceeding from a principle of Life within Time was that you counted it your delight to consecrate the Sabbath as holy unto God waited with joy for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness on that Day and were filled with many vehement pantings anhelations and breathings after God in his Ordinances But now alass there is such an unsavouriness upon your Spirits that you count it a weariness to serve the Lord and are so far from esteeming one Day in God's Courts better than a thousand elsewhere that you think that to be the longest Day in all the week crying when will the Sabbath be over In one word time was that you seemed to have escaped the pollutions that are in the World through Lust to be convinced of the evil of Sin to resolve against all Unrighteousness to bewail bitterly your Drunkeness your Pride your Uncleaness your improvident mispence of Time your horrid Oaths and bloody execrations together with all your Ungodly Practises But wo and alass do you not now turn from the holy Commandment delivered to you and instead of going on to reform your lives do you not return to your former vomit breaking forth into more obscene prodigious and abominable impieties than ever Oh let me my dear Friends out of that tender Love which I bear to your immortal Souls bespeak you in the language of God to his own People (l) Jer. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me So what iniquity did you ever find in God and the ways of God that you are thus gone away from them and so soon grown weary of them What iniquity have you ever found in the invocation of holy fervent prayer that the wings thereof are now clipt your devotion grown cold and you come like slothful Suitors to God (m) Qui frigidè rogat docet negare as if you would teach the Lord to give you the repulse What Iniquity have you found in God's holy Sabbaths that you are grown weary to bear them and count it no great priviledge thereon to wait upon God and have sweet communion with him in the Beauties of Holiness What Iniquity have you found in Heavenly meditation that you cannot now soar aloft as formerly but like Sisera whose Head was nailed to the Earth have your hearts nailed and fast riveted to Earthly projects In short what iniquity did you ever find in the reformation of your lives abstaining from the many gross infamous and horrid pollutions that are in the World through lust Is there not as much evil in your Drunkeness swearing and the like abominable impieties now as ever Are they not as highly displeasing to the holy Spirit of God as greatly prejudicial to the welfare of your precious Souls as truly meritorious of Eternal Burnings in Hell as ever and is not that God who cut off Herod in his Robes Belshazzar in his Cups Babylon in its Pride Jezabel in her paint and whoredoms as able now to cut off you sinning after the same ensample and to punish you with everlasting destruction from his Presence and from the Glory of his Power Oh then if you love your Immortal Souls beware of recidivation take heed of relapsing again into any of those sinful courses which you formerly had escaped and be sure that you walk perseveringly endeavouring that you may never turn aside from the holy Commandment delivered to you Remember Lot's Wife nay remember Judas that Son of Perdition and take heed that you never look back in your Christian course If having set your hand to the Plough of an holy Profession you should afterward look back if having begun in the Spirit you should afterward end in the Flesh if having escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through lust you should again be intangled therein and overcome thereby your latter end will be worse more dreadful and damnable than your first beginning Your hopes have been raised high by your Christian Profession and therefore should you now miscarry you must needs sink the deeper in Hell and eternal Damnation And oh what Millions of Worlds would you not now give to change places in Hell with a Turk or an Infidel and to have no greater punishment there than an ordinary Damnation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every evil after the expectation of its opposite good becomes the greater evil What then will
Bags and Coffers are stored with Gold Because the World dandles you upon her Lap 't is no sure sign that you shall rest for ever in Abraham's bosom You may not think to be Heirs of Heaven because you are the Possessours of the Earth For not getting an Interest in the Recompence of the Reward now you are sure to go without it to all Eternity The good things of this present World you may love but the good things of Heaven and Glory you shall never have You may have a large Portion of earthly Enjoyments But shall never enjoy the Inheritance of Saints in Light †Psal 17.14 'T is no new thing for God to fill their Bellies with his hidden Treasures with the choicest of all earthly Comforts who never take any care to lay up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven But what alas will it profit you to have Earth in Hand if you have not Heaven in hope What though Riches and Honour are the Lot of your Inheritance amongst those whose Lot is Happiness and eternal Glory What relish think you hath Dives now left him of all his Delicacies or Esau of his dear-bought Pottage What pleasure hath the Rich Fool of his full Barns or that young Man of his large Possessions What delight hath Jezabel in her Paint or Ahab in Naboth's Vineyard What comfort can a Man have in the choicest Quintessence of any or in the greatest Confluence of all earthly Enjoyments who must receive them as his Portion and can never expect any other Happiness any other Portion or Reward in God's heavenly Kingdom It may be for the present thy Mony is thy Idol and thou art held in Thraldom under thy own Possessions but what will remain of thy Silver and Gold to carry thy Soul through the Storm of Death save only the (b) Jam. 5.3 rust thereof to joyn in Judgment against thee and torment thee eating thy Flesh like Fire for ever It may be thou art acted now by vain Glory and Desires of popular Applause but what will it then avail thee to be admired by thy fellow Prisoners and condemned by thy Judge It may be thou servest thy own Lust and another's Beauty but what Pleasure will there be in all this when the Fire of Lust shall be turned into the Fire of Hell It may be thy worldly Comforts and Accommodations are now looked upon by thee as thy greatest Happiness but what miserable Comforters will these be when peeping out of thy Grave thou shalt see Heaven and Earth all on a fire and Christ coming in the Flames thereof to take Vengeance upon thee There is a blessed God that could comfort in such an hour but thou must never see him There is a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away there is a Kingdom that cannot be moved there is all fulness of Joy and Soul-satisfying Pleasure but having thy Portion in this present World thou shalt never have these to comfort thee in the World to come Make the best of your Portion here of your Riches Honours and Pleasures on Earth for you must never receive any Portion hereafter you must never look to be Crowned with Life and Eternity of Glory in Heaven Oh then how unhappy are all those who neglect to get an Interest in the Recompence of the Reward have no Heaven but Earth no Glory but what will end in everlasting Shame and perpetual Contempt no Pleasures but what must shortly be changed into Hellish Intolerable and remediless Torments If you love your immortal Souls come away from all worldly Vanities and be sure to get an Interest in this glorious Reward that your Lives and your Happiness your Rejoycing and all your Comfort may not end together The greatest Portion in this Life will afford you but small Comfort of upon good Grounds you cannot look for a better Portion after Death 2 CONSIDER the Recompence of the Reward which God sets before us it 's a thing feasable and that which you may obtain if you will but seek it The Riches Kingdom and Glory of this World may be sought and yet never found But whoever by patient continuance in well-doing shall seek for Glory and Honour * Rom. 2.7 and blessed Immortality God will certainly Crown them with Life everlasting The Lord is willing to bestow Heaven the best of Rewards upon the worst of Sinners will they but embrace it This eternal Recompence of Reward 't is a thing indeed difficult to be obtained that none may despise it But yet it 's possible to be obtained that so none may sit down discouraged as despairing of it This Exhortation would be out of season to the Damned in Hell betwixt whom and eternal Glory there is a great Gulf fixed so that they are now no longer within the Possibilities of Life and Salvation But for you there is still Balm in Gilead to heal all your Wounds there is an all-sufficiency of Merit in Christ to expiate your Sins and there is still a most merciful Propensity of Will in God to Crown all those that diligently seek him with a glorious Reward And why then since Life is before you will you die the Death Why will you choose to be miserable under Tenders of Glory and eternal Happiness Why will you expose your selves to hellish Torments when the Lord himself doth so earnestly invite you to accept of Heaven Shall God be willing to give and yet you so unwilling to receive the Reward of eternal Life Oh why will you be such Enemies to your own Happiness making light of that great Salvation which though difficult is yet possible to be obtained Can you be content to fall short of eternal Glory and for ever to (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand. Admonit ad Gentes pag. mihi 6. a. be shut out of Heaven where is fulness of Joy Shall God hold out the Golden Scepter of his Grace and will you not so much as touch it to save your own Lives Must he follow you with daily Importunities of Love intreating you to accept of this glorious Reward to make you happy and will you still with Disdain turn your backs upon him as if the Favour of God in Christ as if Heaven and eternal Glory were not worth the having (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Praef Cateches pag. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Cateches 1. pag. 3. The Lord is Bountiful and willing to give But yet he expects that you should be so dutiful as to receive with all thankfulness what he gives The bestowance of this glorious Reward doth indeed belong to God as his part But then the seeking and acceptance thereof doth belong to every one of you as your necessary indispensable Duty Give diligence then since God so freely offers with all thankfulness to embrace the Reward of eternal Life Were the Matter of this Exhortation an Impossibility exciting you to seek for what you could never find and to labour for what
their delight is present but momentany their pain is future but Eternal some do here by the Spirit mortify their beloved corruptions their present Work is difficult but short their Reward is future but Eternal and Glorious Oh therefore above all things see to it that every Lust every Sin every vile Affection in your Souls be subdued mortified and abstained from with the most religious Solicitude If with Jehu you will still have your Calves at Dan and Bethel notwithstanding your pretended Zeal for the Lord if with Herod you must still keep your Herodias notwithstanding your readiness to hear John Baptist to be sure you will lose your Souls and fall short of Glory But if making it your great care to mortify through the Spirit the deeds of the Body you shall keep your selves from your own iniquity hewing in pieces your delicate Agag and giving an Eternal Divorce to every Delilah that pleaseth you then doubt not but Heaven shall bâ—â—our home and the God of Heaven himself your â—â—fe your Portion your exceeding great Reward For a Life of Mortification on Earth is the sure way to a state of Glorification in Heaven 8 BE careful that you have an impartial respect to the whole Law of God endeavouring with Zachary and Elizabeth (a) Luke 1.6 to walk in all the Commandments and ordinances of God blameless A partial respect to Gods Commandments will be sure to expose you to a fatal Destruction from God's blissful Presence But an universal Love and Obedience to Gods holy Will this will set you above the reach of Hell and Misery crowning your Souls with an universal Confluence of all Joy and Happiness and purest Pleasures in the Kingdom of God (b) Psal 119.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel ubi geminata litera intendit significationem respondet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecorum quod actum quasi fixis oculis exacto intuitu aliquid contemplantis denotat Then saith Holy David that spiritual Orpheus shall I never be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments When our Obedience is not universal but partial it will end in shame and â—ause us to lie down in Eternal Confusion But when with all Religious Exactness and Godly curiosity as the original Word implies we have a respect to the whole Will of God endeavouring that all our Obedience may be adequate thereto now Glory Honour and Life Everlasting will be your Portion See therefore that you go not about to indent and capitulate with God in matters of Obedience as if the universal Respect of all his Commands were not a Duty incumbent upon you (c) Acts 14.16 But give Diligence now to have a Conscience universally void of offence both towards God and towards Men (d) Heb. 13.18 in all things willing to live honestly Like Moses would you ever enter into the heavenly Canaan you must have both your Handâ—â—â—d with the two Tables of the Law respecting both 〈◊〉 and Man God in each Duty of Piety walking purely before him and Man in each Duty of Equity deporting your selves Righteously towards him To make conscience of one Duty and not of another is indeed to make Conscience neither of one nor other Every Command of the Decalogue hath the same Image the same Superscription the same Divine Authority stamped upon it (e) Jam. 2.10 So that a Man allowing himself in the disobservation of any one quoad vinculum formale doth violate all reflecting contempt upon the Authority of the whole Law though he do not actually violate it in every part And yet how many are there who answer the Lord with an half-obedience just like the Eccho which makes not a Perfect respondence of the Voice but of some part thereof (f) Mark 10.21.22 We read of a certain young Gentleman who came in a sad and serious manner to learn of Christ the Way to Heaven But yet one thing was lacking his desires of Heaven and Glory they were bounded with secret Reservations Proviso's and Conditions of his own upon the discovery whereof by Christ he went away discouraged as not able to accept of Glory upon Terms of universal obedience Thus frequently a deceitful Heart turns Men aside entring Caveats against an universal devotedness to Christ and causing them to stand upon abatements with him in the bargain of Salvation not considering that a due respect to all the Commandments of God is necessary in those that shall be saved albeit that the Covenant of Grace never intended to make the perfect Observation of God's Commandments any Condition of our obtaining Salvation So then if you would not fall short of Glory be sure that the Obedience of your Heart and Life be of equal extent and latitude with the whole Law of God (g) Quando enim servus ex domini jussis ea facit tantummodo quae vult facere jam non dominicam voluntatem implet sed suam Sal. He that stands upon abatements with God keeping only such Commandments as will stand with his carnal Interest his Worldly credit his Safety and his secular Projects doth not serve the Will of God but his own choice The Will of God revealed that 's the grand motive to obedience So that because the whole Law is but a Transcript of Gods holy Will there is the same reason why you should perform obedience to all as to any one of his Commandments (h) Jam. 2.11 Neque enim justa causatio est cur praeferantur aliqua ubi facienda sunt omnia Salvian de Gub. Dei lib. 3. pag. 80. Shame therefore your selves into the universal Obedience of God's Commandments when ever you find your Hearts to make shy of any Duty with this pressing Consideration that he who commanded one hath commanded all Every Christian he must be a through-paced Conformist to the Will of God not speaking both Hebrew and Ashdod not swearing by God and Malchom not taking one step straight and another crooked not keeping a covetous Heart for the World nor a proud Heart for Hell nor a sensual Heart for the Flesh But endeavouring to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded us giving Diligence to walk before the Lord in all holy Conversation and Godliness (i) Numb 32.12 That for which we find Caleb and Joshua so highly renowned was because they fulfilled it after the Lord Thus would you ever have the highest Renown of heavenly Glory you must follow the Lord fully resolving that though you cannot fulfil all Righteousness yet you will neglect none Thy failing in every Duty shall never keep thee out of Heaven if there be no Duty in the careless neglect whereof thou allowest thyâ—elf Where the Eye of a Christian is upon the whole Law of God and his Heart open to do it (k) 2 Cor. 8.12 there the Goodness of God will accept the Desire for the Deed of the Purpose for the Performance and of the Will for the Work
hath set you in the right way he will take you by the Hand and lead you over into Canaan if he hath been the Authour of Grace in your Souls he is now concerned in point of Honour to finish it and to perfect your Grace at length into Glory I might tell you of the sweet Concatenation and inviolable Connexion that is between the several Causes of our Salvation which are so linked together that they necessarily follow (f) Rom. 8.30 from the first to the last Whomsoever God did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 17. p. 248. glorified 'T is not said those he will glorify but but those he hath glorified To let us know that such as are praedestinated called and justified are as sure to be saved as if they were in Heaven already But waving these things let me only tell you of those first Fruits of Grace in your own Souls which the Lord hath given you as the hansel and sure earnest of Eternal Glory Whereever God gives Grace he will also give Glory his purpose in sanctifying you it is to save you and in making you Holy to fit you for eternal Happiness So that Holiness is not only a means fitting us for but it 's also an earnest to assure us of eternal Life For Grace in the Heart hath a twofold use not only to make us meet for the Inheritance of Saints in light but also to be an earnest of it to shew us how sure it is as being nothing but the beginning of Heaven and as a few clusters of those Grapes or Bunches of those Figs the full Vintage whereof is reserved for the heavenly Canaan * Enim verò cum gratia sit diluculum gloriae gloria meridies gratiae cum embryo gloriae gratia sit adulta gratia transeat in gloriam quisquis impraesentiarum certus est se in gratia constitutum esse nae ille nec facilè nec diu ambiget utrum ipse glorificandus sit Arrows Tact. Sacr. lib. 2. sect 5. pag. 199. The Truth is Grace is Glory in it's infancy and Glory is Grace adult Grace is Glory dawning and Glory is Grace in it's Noonday brightness And therefore as the light once breaking in our Hemisphere never ceaseth but shineth more and more to the perfect Day so the light of Grace in your Souls it shall never be â—â—tally eclipsed but daily growing brighter till it break forth into a Sun-shine of Eternal Glory For betwixt the sanctifying Graces of God's Spirit and Eternal Salvation the connexion is most sure and can never be broken God hath tied as with Chains of Adamant the Work of his People and their reward the Seed-time of Grace and the Harvest of Eternal Glory together So that whoever is truly sanctified must undoubtedly be saved and whoever is gracious in this World must needs be crowned with Glory in the World to come Oh then what infinite Ground of Comfort may this be to every poor trembling Soul that is afraid every Day he shall die in the Wilderness and never reach his desired Canaan Thy Reward Christian is sure thy Happiness infallibly certain and thy Crown shall no Man take from thee 5 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's an incomparably great and glorious Reward (a) Gen. 15.1 The Reward of every Christian it is God himself and surely the great God cannot give us a greater Reward than himself I am thy shield saith the Lord to Abraham and thy exceeding great Reward We want Words to express what a little diminutive thing the Creature is But God the Creator he is so incomprehensibly great and hath such an exceeding Muchness of Reward in him bâ—yond all degrees of comparison to speak the very Heart of the Original that we want capacities to conceive of him The Lord Jehovah he is a being infinitely great and good there is none that can compare with him As is a small drop to the vast Ocean or a crumb of Dust to the whole Earth such is the universal compage of all things to the great God and yet every Christian hath this glorious God for his Reward (b) Psal 73.26 to be the strength of his Heart and his portion for ever (c) Mat. 5.12 This made our Blessed Lord call upon his Disciples to rejoice and be exceeding glad because great saith he is your Reward in Heaven So great indeed that it passeth the expression of the most fluent Oratory and the utmost reach of the sublimest fancy in so much that let the one speak and the other contemplate yet neither can that tell nor this conceive how incomparably great and glorious this Reward is Such is the transcendent excellency and Glorious greatness of this Reward that all the Crowns Scepters Kingdoms and most noble enjoyments of this World if compared with it are no more than a dark Glow-worm to the Sun in it's Noon-day brightness Compared with this Reward all worldly Honours are but badges of Shame all earthly Glories are but blots of Disgrace all sumptuous Palaces are but beggarly Cottages all creature Comforts are but lying Vanities and whatever Riches Preferments or Inheritances the World can bestow upon it's Bosom Minions they are no more in comparison of this Reward than a Straw or a Pebble Stone to a Mountain of Gold (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Areopagit Hierarch Eccles cap. 2. For what as Dionysius hath it can be compared with a sorrowless and bright shining immortality Though we have given us of God exceeding great and precious Promises such as do far transcend the utmost comprehension of all humane understandings albeit that they are accommodated as much as can be to â—â—r present capacity yet the Words in which these Promises are wrapt up they do infinitely come short of â—â—ssing to the Life that fulness of Divine Blessing Hâ—pâ—â—â—â—ss and glorious Reward which the Promises â—roâ—â—â—g with (e) Cum hoc enim bono amoris nempe favoris Dei nullae opes mundanae nulla gloria celebritas excellentia temporalis conferri aut comparari potest Deus enim solus cuivi◠〈◊〉 summum bonum existit Pant. Calid Orat. p. 33. 2 Pet. 14. Men talk of great matters in the World â—nd are apt to judge none less Happy than the truly Gracious But let them contribute to each other what Beams of Glory they can let them knit and unite all their Riches Honours and worldly felicities together yet they shall never be able to make up the least shadow of that glorious Reward which abides God's People in Heaven much less to compare with it Indeed as Abraham sent away the Sons of his Concubines with Gifts still keeping the Inheritance for Isaac So God doth vouchsafe many temporal enjoyments to wicked Men in this Life but the Reward of
Eternal Glory which is infinitely to be preferred that Inheritance which is incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away this God hath reserved for his own People Eternal in the Heavens Oh then what infinite cause have God's People to stand admiring their own Happiness Which though they may as Austin saith obtain it yet they can never to it 's worth value and esteem of it There are thousands in the World that have nothing for their Portion but some perishing creature-enjoyment But now the Lord Jehovah he is your portion he is your shield and your exceeding great Reward who is God 〈◊〉 all blessed for ever And doubtless God shews us â—â—re Love in giving us himself for our Reward than if h◠〈◊〉 crowned us with Royal State and sovereign commaâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—all the Kingdoms in the World God may giâ—◠〈◊〉 Riches and Houses and Lands and yet hate theâ—â—e may cloath them in scarlet Robes here and yet throw them hereafter into scarlet Flames he may advance them to Honour in this World and yet cover them with shame and everlasting confusion in the World to come he may put a golden Scepter into Mens hands now and yet break them in pieces hereafter like a potters Vessel But in giving us himself for our Reward in making over himself to us by a federal transaction as the strength of our Hearts and our Portion for ever now he bestoweth the highest pledge of his special distinguishing Love upon us For to be sure the Lord Jehovah he is the most transcendently great and glorious Reward that the wisdom of God could devise that the Love of God could give or that the Heart 〈◊〉 Man can desire God is Bonum in quo omnia bona a bâ—ing compleatly replenished with whatever is good and desirable a Sun that always shines with a like brightness and is never eclipsed â—â—â—s as an essence that hath all excellencies and divine perfections bound up in himself as in one infinite volume he is a boundless Ocean without either banks or bottom into which all the Rivers of Wisdom Blessing and Goodness do empty â—hemselves (f) Liquet igitur beatitudinem esse statum bonorum omnium congregaâ—â— perfectum Boeth de cons phil lib. 3. pros 2. pag. â—â— So that if blessedness as Boetius defines 〈◊〉 do consist in the enjoyment of all good things then all that are truly Gracious they are blessed and they shall be blessed as having that God for their Portion and Reward in whom whatsoever things are good whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are desirable to make one happy do meet as in the only Center of Life and Blessedness What then is the folly of worldly Men blessing themselves in their havings not having the Lord Jehovah to be their shield and their exceeding great Reward Poor brutish Sinner is thy Rock like a Christian's Rock or thy Reward to compare with a Christians Reward thou thy self being Judge Be it so that thou have Riches Honours and worldly Enjoyments Yet what are these but as Wells without any Water as Trees without Fruit or as Stars without the Sun that may glimmer a little but can never make a Day of Happiness 〈◊〉 thy Soul (g) Qui Deâ—â—â—â—abet omni bono abundat qui verò Deum non habet pauperâ—◠〈◊〉 Extra Deum omnis delectatiâ—â—sta omnis laetitia est vana omnis rerum abundantia est 〈◊〉 indigentia Stella de Cont. mundi lib. 3. cap. 〈…〉 248. He that hath God hath all in point 〈◊〉 â—rue Happiness but he that hath not God for his Râ—â—ard is most wretched and hath nothing at all Have all the Riches in the World without God thou art poor Have all the Honours in the World without God thou art a vile Person Have all the Pleasures in the World wherein to bath thy self like an Epicure every Day yet without God thy condition is miserable there being nothing but fiery Wrath and Indighation that abides thy Soul in the World to come Be ashamed then any longer to count the Creature any thing in comparison of God who is the sure Reward of every believing Soul (h) 1 King 5.12 Do not talk with Naaman as if Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were better than all the Waters in Israel Do not think thy broken Cisterns to be better than the Fountain of Living Waters What shall Earth compare with Heaven Shall Pebbles compare with this one Pearl of great price Shall a small twinkling Star that uniting all its Beams hath scarce light enough to render itself visible compare with the glorious Sun usurp his Chariot and take upon it to give light to all the World Shall Creature enjoyments that have nothing but Vanity and vexation of Spirit for their very quintessence be compared with a Christian's Reward whose Portion is God over all blessed and blessing him for ever Oh learn to put a difference betwixt Portion and Portion betwixt earthly enjoyments and the Reward of Eternal Life in Heaven The difference is not so great between a Pins-head and the whole Body of the Earth as between all worldly Riches and heavenly Glory (i) Rom. 8.18 For as the sufferings are not so neither are the Comforts of this present time worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us 6 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's a full and satisfactory Reward Every Creature is short and defective a very compound of Vanity Emptiness and guilded Deceit That albeit the Soul should knock as one well observes at every Creatures Door yet she can find no filling entertainment within no Creature can bid her welcome it would quite exhaust Natures Store-house and indeed bankrupts the whole Creation to feast such a Guest as the Soul to her full content and satisfaction But now the Lord Jehovah he being the Reward of his People there is that fulness of all Good in him that they need no more God hath provided such a sumptuous Feast for them that when they come to sit down at his Table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of Heaven (k) Psal 63.5 now their Souls shall be filled as with marrow and fatness now their spiritual appetite shall be so fully satisfied that they shall hunger no more neither shall they thirst any more for ever The Appetite of an immortal is too vast and boundless for any nay for all Creatures in the World to satisfy but in the recompence of Eternal Glory there is that which will answer all her cravings that she shall now have no further to seek but rest fully satisfied This present Life is full of nothing but emptiness and dissatisfaction even in the highest Zenith of all its blessedness the Soul of Man hath a kind of infinite appetite desiring this good thing and that good thing and yet having obtained them like an hydropick Body 't is as thirsty as
chiefest Good for our Portion we must needs have the chiefest Happiness the chiefest Delight true Liberty perfect Charity eternal Security and secure Eternity excluding all possibility of future Misery Here Christians here is the true Gladness the fullest measure of divine Knowledg the most peerless Beauty the perfect Enjoyment of all Blessedness So that you shall see God even to the Satisfaction of your utmost Curiosity have him for your Pleasure and enjoy him for your greatest Delight flourishing in his Eternity shining with the bright Reflexions of his Truth upon you and rejoycing in his Goodness with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Moses's Face shined with the brightness of God's back-parts Paul was sensless of all other Joys when rapt up into the third Heavens Peter was thrown into an Extasie of Admiration when he only saw a glimpse of Christ's Glory in the Mount Oh then what Joy Christian will this be to thy Soul what Beauty to thine Eyes what Musick to thy Ears what Hony to thy Mouth what Perfumes to thy Nostrils what fulness of Delight to thy Heart when enjoying Communion with God in Heaven thou shalt behold nor his back-parts as Moses did but shalt (c) Omnes lectantur in laetitia exulatione omnes delectantur de Deo cujus aspectus pulcher facies decora eloquium dulce Delectabilis est ad videndum suavis ad habendum dulcis ad perfruendum Ipse per se placet et per se sufficit ad meritum sufficit ad praemium nec extra illum quicquam quaeritur quia totum in illo intenitur quicquid defideratur Semper libet eum aspicere semper habere semper in illo delectari in illo perfrui Bern. ubi supra see him Face to Face Here it is that all God's People shall rejoyce and be exceeding glad they shall delight themselves greatly in the Lord Jehovah whose Countenance is most aimable whose Face is Comely whose Voice is sweeter than the Hony and the Hony-comb Oh this Christians is a beatifical Object indeed most delightful to behold most pleasant to have and most sweet to enjoy Such is the fulness of all Good in God that of himself he can please the Soul of himself he sufficeth to merit and to be our eternal Reward Nor can the Soul desire ought out of him as finding the whole of all Happiness in him whatever it be that she can desire Here Christians if any where it contenteth to see him ever to have him ever to enjoy him for ever In God is the Understanding clarified to know and the Affections purified to love (d) In illo clarificatur intellectus et purificatur affectus ad cognoscendam diligendam veritatem Et hoc est torum bonum hominis nosse scilicet amare creatorem suum Idem ibid him as the first Truth as the chiefest Good And this surely is the whole Happiness of Man to know and love the great God his Maker in a way of divine beatifical Vision in a way of full Enjoyment and sweetest Fruition 15 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a very near and proxim Reward and such as you shall speedily be put in possession of The time when the Lord will reward you with all heavenly Glory is of no long date though the time for your enjoyment of that glorious Reward will bear date to all Eternity 'T is but a little while and having finished your Course God himself will be your Portion and your exceeding great Reward The whole time of Man's Life here is so short that it goes but for one day in the Kalender of Heaven And yet as short as it is no sooner shall it close up in the peaceful Evening of a blessed Death but the Peny of eternal Life shall be given you We are usually long before we seriously set our selves to work in God's Vineyard But when once the Lord sees us working in good earnest he delays nor but comes quickly to reward us (e) Rev. 22.12 Behold saith he I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every Man according as his Work shall be The Lord doth not say he will come to reward us which had implied some delay But as one ready to set the Crown upon our Heads behold saith he speaking in the present Tense I come quickly and my Reward is with me Or if any where the Lord speaks of his People's Reward as a thing to come you may find him qualifying the Speech with such comfortable Diminutives as are enough almost to remove the Futurity of this glorious Reward and to give it a present Subsistence (f) Heb. 10.37 Take that one Instance where the Apostle shewing the Hebrews what need they (g) Quod vero ait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod valet parum quantum quantum valde parum significat Theoph. in loc had of Patience that having done the Will of God they might receive the promised Reward he tells them that yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Great is the Emphasis of the words in the Original and such as our English cannot with any handsomness of Expression render to the life For the Apostle not willing that these Believers should think the time long he speaks the whole of it by the help of three Diminutives into one short moment telling them that yet a little while yea a very very little while and their Lord who already was coming would no longer adjourn their Happiness but reward them speedily Your Seed-time of Grace how needful soever yet because it 's a dropping time the Lord will not suffer it to last always but hath provided before-hand that shortly it shall end in a rich Harvest of heavenly Glory where all Tears shall be wiped from your Eyes Truth is we have but a few days in this World and therefore many days there cannot be till God will Crown us with fulness of Reward in the World to come Be it so Christian that now thy own unbelieving dead Heart is thy trouble within and that the World and Satan trouble thee from without Yet remember after a few weary days the Lord will give thee a Writ of Ease he will give thee a Sabbath of Rest and will presently notwithstanding all contrary Winds land the Ship of thy precious Soul at the wished shoar of blessed Immortality What Athanasius said of the Arian Perfection calling it nubeculam citò-transituram will hold true of all the Afflictions Tryals and Persecutions of God's People in this Life which are but as a little Cloud that will soon be blown oâ—er So that though now you bear the burden and heat of the day yet Night comes on a pace as a time of (h) Acts 3.19 refreshing from the Lord and then you shall most sweetly repose your selves in the downy Bed of God's eternal Love Be your Sorrow never so grievous over
night yet there will come a day-break of Comfort and you are sure to have Joy in the beauteous (i) Psal 30.5 morning of your Souls happy Transmigration out of its tottering earthly Tabernacle into a Mansion of heavenly Glory Afflicted you may be for ten (k) Rev. 2.10 days a few short moments of time but all will end in an immarcessible Crown of Glory which ten thousand Years no nor yet Eternity it self shall be able to wear out Be it so that the Lord should hide his Face from you and seem (l) Isaiah 54.7 to forsake you yet 't is but for a moment for a little Instant of Fatherly Displeasure So that with great Mercies will he gather you and with everlasting Kindness will he have Mercy on you And albeit you now (m) 2 Cor. 4.17 have one Afflictions upon another yet they are both light and short and such as must quickly give place to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Oh then how diligent should the nearness of this Reward make us in doing the Work of God and how patient in bearing his Hand when lying most heavy upon us 'T was the complaint of a good Man upon his Death-bed that now he was going to a place where he should never do nor suffer any thing more for a gracious God (a) Non modica enim consolatiâ— est laboris cito sperare judicem remuneratorem constantiam certaminis remuneraturum Haymo AND though we have no cause to complain when God gives any one of us his Quietus est rewarding our weak endeavours with a Crown of Life Yet surely because the distance betwixt us and our eternal Reward is so small we should work the more chearfully redeem time for the Service of God more carefully and endure hardship as good Souldiers of Jesus Christ endeavouring to bring in what revenews of Glory we can into the Exchequer of Heaven Oh Christian labour to fill up that little scanting of time which lies betwixt thee and thy Eternal Reward in Heaven with all Faith Love Virtue and Patience as knowing that thy Glass being once run out now thou shalt never work more for God never any more suffer the least reproach or hardship for God but shalt have a blessed Sabbath of Rest from all thy labours Thy Days dear Child of God! how few soever and full of trouble yet they are all the working Days yea and suffering Days too that ever thou shalt have as being sure ere long to terminate in an Eternal Festival an Everlasting Holy-day of Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Will you then be prevailed with to watch with Christ one Hour and patiently to suffer for him who so quickly will come to reward you and take you to himself Having drunk a little draught of the bitter Waters of Marah the Sugar of Eternal Glory is ready Yet a little while and the Storm will be over the Day will break and all the dark shadows of Sorrow will take Wing and for ever fly away Wait but a few moments more and God will certainly lighten your Darkness discloud your Sun fill up your Comforts and come riding gloriously through the Skies in a triumphant Chariot all paved with Love to fetch you up into an eternal Mansion of Glory with himself in the highest Heavens (b) Gen. 45.27 28. 'T was no small reviving to old Jacob but indeed as Life from the Dead when Joseph his Son sent Waggons to carry him down into Egypt a Land of bondage as it proved But when Christ our dearest Saviour our precious Redeemer whom our Souls have loved and our Hearts longed after shall not send but come in Person taking us up into the Chariot with himself and carrying us away into the Palace of the great King into the glorious liberty of the Children of God oh now what sweet acclamations of Joy and Gladness will our Mouths be filled with as Streams everlastingly flowing from a full Fountain of purest Joy in our Hearts that shall never be exhausted but springing up like a Well of living Water unto Life everlasting (c) Isa 30.18 'T is a blessed thing to wait for the Lord in a way of well-doing but its Blessedness itself and that which will more than recompence all our Service to have Christ coming with millions of glorious Angels to conduct us into Heaven and set the Crown upon our Heads with his own Hands Now the Righteous forgetting that little moment of Sorrow which they had in this World they cry out admiring in this the Day of their glorious inauguration with the Church (d) Isa 25.9 Lo this is our God! we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his Salvation The Lord usually comes before expectation to a People waiting for him with a Crown of Life And that makes them look upon him with more delight and entertain him as in an extasie of heart-entrancing Joy and Admiration You cannot but greatly admire the Lord and your own everlasting Happiness when they come because 't is but a little while and he will come putting you in full possession of heavenly Glory when you thought yourselves to be at a great distance from it 16 AND lastly the Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's an everlasting Reward This Reward is a glorious Sun which when once arisen upon you will never go down but everlastingly refresh your Souls with warmest Beams of Love and Comfort 'T is a full Hogshead of cordial Wine which can never be drawn drie but will run most pure nectareous Spirits of Joy and Gladness without any seculency to all Eternity 'T is an everlasting Spring of Joy and Happiness that shall never lose its most sweet enflowred vernancy through the approach of an injurious Winter (e) Dies septimus vespera est nec habet occasum quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam ut id quod tu post opera tua bona valde quamvis ea quictus feceris requievisti septimo die Hoc praeloquatur nobis vox libri tui quo et nos post opera nostra ideo bona valde quia tu nobis ea donasti Sabbatho vitae aeternâ— requiescamus in te etiam Aug. Cons l. 13. c. 36 The seventh Day as Austin observes had no Evening mentioned to typify an Eternal Sabbath of rest provided of God and fully to be enjoyed by his People when they shall have finished their course Truth is Eternity is the grand aggravation both of the Saints Happiness and of the Sinners Misery Heaven would not be so sweet nor Hell so bitter the Flames of this would not be so scorching nor the smiles of that so entrancing were it not that both the Joys of Heaven and the Torments of Hell shall endure for ever The Night of the damneds Horror and Misery would not be
the Lord for ever and shall have the Light of his Countenance as an Eternal Sun-shine that shall never be eclipsed nor go down any more for ever CHAP. XV. The whole Discourse concluded and taking further Improvement of the Doctrine for the Comfort of God's People and shewing what everlasting glorious advantage will accrew to them by a due respect had to the recompence of reward in 12 Particulars 2 HITHERTO I have been drawing for you a Map of Heaven and giving you as from the top of Mount Nebo a Prospect of the Celestial Canaan The next thing wherewith I shall close this use and shut up my whole discourse upon this Subject is to let you know what a due respect had to the recompence of the Reward will do for you what precious Fruit you may gather by the Hand of Faith from this Tree of Life 1 A due Respect had to the Recompence of the Reward will derive much strength into your Souls furnishing them with all suitable Abilities for every Duty God's People though weak in themselves yet they are never without strength in God But when by Faith they look within the Vail observing what Riches es of Grace and Glory are laid up for them there then they are strengthned more than ever then they are assisted more powerfully than ever then they have Ability for the Work of the Lord more than ever St. Paul though a weak Vessel not having Ability as he sadly complains for any Duty in himself Yet having his Eye fixed continually upon Heaven the Grace of God is so mightily with him that now he can go through every Duty labouring more abundantly than all the rest Through Faith it was that those Worthies mentioned by our Apostle (a) Heb. 11.34 were made strong To be sure Faith eying the Reward of eternal Life will put strength into you There is nothing that can facilitate your Duty on Earth but an Eye to Heaven nor can any thing make you able for the Work of the Lord but the serious Meditation of that Reward which you shall have from the Lord. Dost thou complain sweet Babe in Christ of thy own weakness Is it thy daily Affliction that thy Soul is so dull so indisposed so unable for the Work of God Art thou daily troubled to think what a Child thou art at every holy Exercise how unable to Pray to Meditate to work out thy own Salvation Fix thy Thoughts upon Heaven eye stedfastly the Reward of eternal Glory Not doubting but that will shed such an enlivening Dew of Grace upon thy Soul as will effectually lift up the Hands that hang down (b) Heb. 12.12 and strengthen the Knees of thy Soul how weak and feeble soever Understand then ye Blessed of the Lord where your strength lies and how easily you may be furnished with strength for every holy Undertaking A Man eying the Prize set before him through an ambitious desire of it gathers strength to run the Race Thus Christians eying this glorious Reward will be sure to gather spiritual Strength to run the way of God's Commandments O Christians had you but more serious fixed Thoughts of heavenly Glory how would this rally together all the Powers of your Souls in Duty how would this enliven your Hearts renew your Strength and make you mount up with Wings as Eagles make you run and not be weary make you walk (c) Isaiah 40.31 and never grow faint through Weakness in the Work of the Lord Oh what greater Encouragement can any Man have to strengthen his Heart and Hands in every Duty than to think having fixed his Eye upon this glorious Reward yonder is the Crown the Kingdom the Glory prepared for me Sampson being ready to faint through Drought the Lord clave a place in the Jaw causing Water (d) Judges 15.19 to come out of which when Sampson had drunk his Spirit his Strength came again and the Man revived So Christians if at any time through Weakness you be ready to faint be sure that you go to this Fountain of Life drink in something of Heaven this will be a spiritual En-hakkore to you cause a Spirit of Might of Strength to come upon you You complain you cannot pray you cannot perform Duty you have no Life no Power no Hearts in any holy Undertaking But how much is the Fault your own Did you stedfastly look up to Heaven you could not always like Children be troubled with such Weakness When ever therefore you find Indisposition Weakness Inability lying heavy upon you so that you cannot do the things that you would I 'le tell you if indeed you do desire to be eased of this Burden what you shall do Sit down for a little moment and steep your Thoughts in this River of Life remember in every Duty it is to Heaven that you are walking 't is to the ever blessed God to a precious Christ to all fulness of Joy to a Crown of Life that shall never be taken from you 2 A due Respect had to the Recompence of the Reward will make you to esteem of all worldly Reproach that you suffer for Righteousness sake as a light matter Though no Child of God dare glory in his Shame yet every Child of God having respect to this eternal Reward can glory in that which the World counts his Shame Though there be nothing that lies more heavy upon an ingenuous Spirit than the Reproaches reviling Language opprobrious Nick-names put upon God's People by the scurrilous multitude yet the weight of Glory when seriously eyed will make all this light and easie to be born Though God's People would not for all the World give any just occasion to those without to speak evil of their holy Profession yet if all the World should revile them maliciously traduce them and say all manner of evil of them falsly for the sake of Christ (e) Mat. 5.10 11 12. in this they could not but rejoyce and be exceeding glad knowing how transcendently great and glorious their Reward is in Heaven Heaven is so glorious an Inheritance that whoever beholds it with an Eye of Faith cannot choose but glory in all those Reproaches as Matter of greatest Honour and highest Dignity which he suffers for Christ Hence Moses he esteems the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt as having an Eye to this glorious Reward which he knew would follow after Observe it Moses did not only endure with patience these Reproaches but he glories in them counting them matter of Honour to him (f) Acts 5.40 So the Primitive Christians they go away from before the Council when ignominiously scourged rejoyce that they were so far honoured of God as to be counted worthy to suffer Dishonour for the Name of Christ How happy did Cyprian Judge the Church of God in his Days when under Reproach and Persecution that it was made glorious through the sprinkling of the Martyrs Blood 'T was saith he formerly cloathed in
are none that walk so chearfully in Heaven's Way as those who have thus seen and tasted that the Lord is Gracious (e) Psal 110.3 In the Day of God's Power the Soul must needs be willing devoting herself to him as a Free-will offering And doubtless greater power did God never shew than when opening the Eyes of a poor lost Sinner and giving him a clear prospect of heavenly Glory Oh now the Soul can mount up with Wings as an Eagle now she can run and not be weary now she can walk on with delight in Heaven's Way and never grow faint when thus beholding as with open Face the Glory that is set before her Holy Duties to a Man eying by Faith the Reward of them are accompanied with such Manna and spiritual Nectar with such fulness of delight and heavenly contentment that now he can willingly spend and be spent in them With a carnal heart who neither sees nor hopes for this glorious Reward all holy exercises are but as Songs to a sorrowful Heart or as good food to a dead Man or as the Red-sea to Pharoah's Chariots wherein he drives on heavily finds no Pleasure can take no delight But it 's far otherwise with those who like Moses have respect to this Eternal Recompence their Meat and Drink is to do God's Will this is that heavenly Manna whereupon they would always be feeding this is that Mount of Transfiguration upon which they could always delight to dwell Oh! there is never such chearful obedience such diligence and vigour of Spirit in holy Duties as when the Soul from the highest Pisgah of Faith can behold the Glory prepared for it that heavenly Canaan towards which every Duty every Sigh every Groan every penitential Tear is an happy Step. The Fire doth not more easily dissolve Ice nor the Sun in its Noon-day brightness expel Darkness than a glimpse of heavenly Glory doth expel Sloth and make a Man delight in the Beauties of Holiness Who would not be quickned by such a Glory shining upon him What Heart would not be warmed and freed from its natural coldness in the Ways of God before such a Flame What Vigour and Liveliness what holy Activity for God in every Duty may the sight of this Eternal Reward put into us You complain Christians of your Dead-heartedness your Formality your indisposition and great aversness to Duty but would you steep your Hearts in the serious Thoughts of this Eternal Reward that would cure you of all your Distempers that would warm your cold Hearts that would quicken your dull Spirits that would make you to serve the Lord with a willing Mind counting every Duty as an heavenly Gale sent on purpose to wast you over to the wished shore of blessed Immortality Oh then if whilst others count Duty their Burden you would count it your Delight your Priviledge if whilst others stand idle in God's Vineyard counting it a weariness to serve the Lord you would willingly have Hearts lively and chearful Hearts prepared for every good word and work be sure that you look within the Veil endeavouring to perswade your Hearts of the Glory that is set before you This Eternal Weight of Glory if well considered will be sure to make the Yoke of obedience seem light and easy You shall not long need to cry out of your own drowsiness negligence and unwillingness in Duty will you but carefully fix your Eye before you go about the work of Duty upon that eternally glorious Reward that follows after Oh what will be able to revive you to fill you with Spirits of delight activity and chearfulness in the work of the Lord if not a clear prospect of that heavenly Canaan towards which you are going Whenever Christian thy Spirit begins to grow flat and thy Heart to fall in Duty Oh then look up by Faith to this glorious Reward not doubting but like Aqua vitae it will revive thee enabling thee to serve the Lord with a willing Mind 6 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will much ease you of all worldly Thoughts and Heart-dividing Cares He cannot be much distracted about earthly goods whose Heart is holy united to meditate Heaven which is best of all When the Eye is once fixed upon things above it begets in the Soul an holy carelesness about all things here below let them go how they will her Treasure is laid up in Heaven and with this she can sit down satisfied Oh little would you think what a Writ of ease what a Sabbath of Rest from all carking cares and distracting Thoughts it would give you had you but a due respect with Mosâ—s to this recompence of Reward The grand reason why most Men look so much after Earth and spend their Thoughts so much about the Meat that perisheth is indeed because they look so little after Heaven and spend their Thoughts so seldom about the Meat which will endure to Eternal Life (f) Mat. 6.33 Hence our blessed Lord observing the Hearts and Minds the Cares and Thoughts of most Men to be carried out with much anxiousness after the things of this World he endeavours to cure them of this dangerous Distemper by diverting the stream of them another way advising them to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof as the most sure expedient to supersede their Heart-rending Cares and to ease them of all their worldly distractions And doubtless would God's People when almost distracted with Cares about what they shall eat and drink and wherewith in necessitous Times they shall be cloathed turn their Thoughts Heaven-ward taking care to make sure of that to prepare for a Crown of Glory to be made meet for the inheritance of Saints in Light this would prove a very Sovereign Remedy against all their distractions What need he much take Thought for the Meat that perisheth who sees the Table spread in his Father's House where sitting down he shall feed upon the Meat that will endure to life everlasting What need he much trouble himself for Drink who sees a River of purest Pleasures running by the right Hand of God for evermore whereof he shall drink deep to all Eternity What need he distract himself for Cloaths who sees the Ward-robe of Heaven all hung with the Garments of Salvation to make him at last more beautiful than Solomon in all his Glory What need he in a word be much careful about earthly Possessions who knows himself provided before-hand of an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for him Oh Sirs the Dagon of worldly Thoughts and distracting Cares could never stand had you but such an Ark as a prospect of Heavens Glory to set up against it If then Christians you would get from off the Rack of carking Cares and be able to trust God with your Bodies give diligence to get your Hearts to meditate on Heaven endeavoring to provide for your Souls everlasting Mansions of Glory If
cruore sopiret Cyprian epist 9. pag. 26. The like wonderful expressions of unshrinking constancy in the Martyrs of his Days dote St. Cyprian in a certain place afford us The tormented saith he stood stronger than the Tormentors The beaten and butchered Members overcame the Hands they did beat and butcher them Cruel Stripes oft repeated long continued could not vanquish their impregnable Faith no not although their Bowels were torn out and not so much the Members as the Wounds of God's dear Servants were tormented Their Blood gushed out which even quenched the Fire of Persecution yea extinguished the Flames of Hell with a (a) Nostri autem ut de viris traceam pueri mulierculae tortores suos taciti vincunt exprimere illis gemitum nec ignis potest Ecce sexus infirmus fragilis aetas dilacerari se toto corpore urique perpetitur non necessitate quia licet vitare si vellent sed voluntate quia confidunt Deo Lactant. Instit lib. 5. cap. 13. pag. 496. glorious Stream Lactantius also makes boast against the Heathen Philosophers of Boys and Women who through invincible silence under Sufferings overcame their Tormentors when by the violence of Fire they saw themselves unable to extort so much as a Groan from them Behold saith he Women though the weaker Vessels and Boys though of tender age do yet suffer themselves through the whole Body to be mangled and tortured in fiery Flames nor of necessity for would they but defile themselves with Idols they might escape all this but willingly because they hope in God that he will Crown them at length with a glorious Reward So that by these few Instances you may see what an Antidote a Respect duly had to the Recompence of Reward is against all slavish Fears and how it steals the Soul against all Hardships enabling it with holy Scorn to Confront the proudest Adversary Would you have Christians the like heroique Spirits never fearing any of those things that may befal you in Heaven's Way be sure (b) Rev. 2.10 to have your Eye Heaven-ward remembring that if faithful unto the Death God will then bestow upon you a Crown of Life Glory in the Eye will be sure to establish the Heart with undaunted Resolution So that a Man expecting a Crown of Life will not fear for the sake of Christ to die the Death From such an one you may take his Liberty his Estate his Life for Christ But his Courage and undaunted Resolution to endure all Hardships for Christ you can never take from him so long as he knows that the hottest Flames which ever Martyrs were burnt in for Christ's sake are but like Eliah's fiery Chariot wherein they ride in Triumph unto Heaven What is the Fowler 's snare to a Bird soaring a loft or a Storm though never so great to a Ship lying fafe at Harbour So what are all Dangers and Storms of Persecution to God's People soaring aloft and by Faith hiding themselves in the sure Harbour of blessed Immortality that they should tremble at them Doubtless if well considered the everlasting Peace and glorious Rest of such an Haven of Blessedness may well quiet our Spirits and Steel our Hearts with Courage under every Storm that befalls us in our Passage thither What need he fear a Prison a Dungeon a fiery Tryal or the Face of a Man that must die who sees Heaven open and a Crown of Life ready to be set upon his Head This is the way to get free from a trembling Heart from unruly Passions from all slavish Fears to have the Hope of eternal Life abiding in us and an Eye continually fixed upon Heaven's Gloy This will make a Man bold as a Lyon this will command a glorious Calm out of every Storm this will give the Soul a Sabbath of Rest from all frightful Thoughts this like a strong (c) Isaiah 16.3 Man Armed will keep the (d) Quid enim gloriosius quidve faelicius ulli hominum poterit ex divinâ dignatione contingere quà m inter ipsos carnifices interritum confiteri Dominum Deum quà m ipsam quae ab omnibus metuatur moriendo mortem subegisse quà m per ipsam mortem immortalitatem consecutum fuisse quà m omnibus saevitiae instrumentis excarnificatum extortum ipsis tormentis tormenta superasse quà m omnibus dilaniati corporis doloribus roboâ—e amâ—ni reluctatum fuisse quám sanguinem suum proflaentem non horruisse Cyprian epist 26. pag. 59. Heart quiet and in perfect Peace And as thoso noble Confessours have it what greater Glory or Happiness can God vouchsafe any Man than to stand amongst our Tormentours confessing the Lord God without any fear What greater Happiness than by dying to vanquish Death it self that King of Terrors to all the Ungodly What greater Glory than by dying the Death to arrive at the peaceful Harbour of Life and blessed Immortality What greater Renown than for God's People when Tortured and Butchered by all Instruments of Cruelty that Hell it self can devise when beholding their Blood and their Lives gushing out together not to have the least Terror upon their Spirits but to ascend triumphing to Glory and wonderously to go up into Heaven like Manaoh's Angel in a Flame of Fire Oh little would you think what a sovereign Cordial against all slavish and distracting Fears a due respect had to the Recompence of Reward would be to you (e) Isaiah 35.4 Say to those saith the Lord that are of a fearful Heart be strong fear not behold your God will come with a Recompence he will come and save you Come what Reproaches Persecutions and fiery Tryals will yet to think of the Lord coming with a glorious Reward and saving us with an everlasting Salvation this may well make us bold as a Lyon If therefore Christians you would not daily be perplexing your selves with slavish Heart-killing Fears about that Reproach that Imprisonment those many tall Anakim's which may possibly fall heavy upon you before you get to Canaan be sure that by Faith you take a Prospect every day of that good Land a Land wherein you shall reign for ever in all fulness of Joy with Salem's glorious King This sweet Work you must inure your selves to every day would you not do every thing with a trembling Heart and walk continually for the Fear and Horror that will be upon you as in the Subburbs of Hell We cannot serve God with any chearfulness any longer than our Eye is fixed upon Heaven's Glory but are almost distracted in times of Persecution thinking what if I should lose my Liberty what if my Estate what if my Life should go for this Duty Oh 't is a miserable Life which is nothing else but a Meditation of Terror and continually tossed with Storms like a Ship under Winds This makes our Hearts sad our Lives sad our Duties sad this makes us go trembling every day If then Christians you desire Comfort that you may
Fruit. Do you not see multitudes every where forfeiting by Sin their Right to this blessed Reward Mortgaging Paradise for an Apple selling Christ together with all the Riches of this Kingdom and Glory for thirty pieces of Silver Oh 't is a Miracle of discriminating Grace to you that ever you saw so much of Heaven as to make you prize it at an higher rate Well if still you would keep at a distance from all appearance of Evil daily purifying your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit let the hope of this eternal Reward be abiding in you Oh let your Eye be always upon this Crown and remember if you would not Sin that the least Sin is enough to rob you of it Look within the Veil observe this heavenly Kingdom and the Glory of it and remember that the least Sin is enough to shut you our of it for ever For saith Christ (b) Matth. 5.19 whoever shall break the least of these Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called least in the Kingdom of God He that thinks to rhetoricate Sin into current Coyn amongst the Citizens of the new Jerusalem may well please a carnal Heart that loves to bow in the House of Rimmon cum privilegio but will doubtless prove himself if our blessed Lord may be judge such reprobate Silver as without the Philosopher's Stone of true Grace to change him by a spiritual Transmetallation into pure Gold shall never be Treasured up in the Exchequer of Heaven To talk of small Sins that a Man for his own safety may venture upon and not prejudice his Salvation some little Zoar that a Man may live in and his Soul not die is the most damnable Solecism in Christianity that can be There is that Treason against the God of Heaven in the least Sin which none but a Child of Hell and Wrath dare be found in 'T is no less treasonable and Death-worthy to Coyn Pence than to Coyn twenty Shilling-pieces because the Royal (c) Quia Deo nos totos omnia nostra debemus certè in infinitam ejus majestatem injurii sunt aeternam mortem merentur qui vel in mimina re sanctissimam ejus voluntatem transgrediuntur Authority is as much violated by the one as by the other Thus how little soever your Sins be though but as Pence and Farthings yet because committed against the great God they are damnable and such as may for ever deprive you of this glorious Reward It was but one Wedge of Gold that destroyed Achan cleaving him from amongst God's People So if thou suffer thy self to be drawn away by any one Sin it may undo thee to Eternity The Sin which in its own Nature is little may yet be made great by thy Allowance The Money for which Judas sold the Lord of Glory was not much but yet being the Wages of Unrighteousness it quickly kindled in his Conscience the Fire of Hell throwing him down headlong into that place of Torments O then be not found fingering any of Satan's Coyn whether little or great whether more or less For be your Sins never so small in themselves yet when lived in with allowance they are nothing but the earnest of Hell whereby you make sale of all your Interest in Heaven and Glory And who but a Mad-man would sell this one Pearl of great Price for such reprobate Silver Do not think Sirs by falling the Rate and Valuation of your Sins that you shall ever the more escape an Arrest◠from divine Justice which will certainly Commence a Suit against you for the least allowed Iniquity and cast you Prisoners into Hell (d) Mat. 5.26 out of which you shall never come till you have paid the last Farthing Oh then what a dreadful thing were it for any Man to forfeit Heaven and drop into Hell irrecoverably through indulgence to himself in any the least Iniquity Should a Prince sell his Crown and Dignity for a draught of cold Water as Lysimachus did it were a most happy Bargain in comparison of what they make who let go their Right to this glorious Reward for a little sensual Pleasure What for Sin to throw thee out of Heaven to keep thee for ever entring into the Joy of thy Lord to take away thy Crown hiding from thee the Light of God's Countenance that thou shalt never see it more nor be comforted any more with it for ever oh think of this my Soul and think often what a woful bargain is made where thy God thy Portion thy Life thy dearest Lord thy heavenly Treasure are all made away for a Lust that ere-long will be turned into the Fire of Hell Oh would you Christians but observe what a glorious Kingdom what fulness of Joy what Rivers of Pleasure Sin comes to rob you of this would sour all the Pleasures of Sin this would break in pieces the Dagon of every Lust this would make you as fearful to meddle with any Temptation as to burn and lie scorching in Hell for ever The allurements of Hell can never ensnare us where our Hearts are fixed upon Heaven's Glory When therefore you feel Christians Corruption stirring in your Hearts be sure to get Glory in your Eye such motions can never hurt us when struggling against the Temptation we keep our Mind fixed upon the Crown that will follow after (a) Ad portam voluntatis in qua solent manere carnalia desideria statuatur Ostarius qui vocatur recordatio calestis patriae hic enim potest pravum desiderium quasi cuneus cuneum pellere Bernard Let the mindful Sense of our heavenly Country stand as Door-keeper at the Door of the Will wherein carnal Desires are wont to dwell and as one wedge drives out another so this will drive out all carnal and brutish desires If ever we desire to thrust evil Desires out of our Hearts we must plant spiritual ones in their stead (b) Si carnales concupiscentias è cordibus nostris desideramus extrudere spirituales earum locis plantemus voluntates ut his noster animus semper in nixus habeat quibus illecebras carnalium respuat gaudiorum Cassian that our minds being fixed upon them may always dwell upon them and so refuse the Snares of present and sensual delights Keep Heaven Christians still in your Eye steep your Hearts at all Times in the sweet contemplations of heavenly Bliss and then if Temptations come if the Pleasures of Sin be offered as a bait to ensnare you you will certainly shun them with the like abhorrency and godly trembling as you would shun Hell Those allurements of Sin come too late and will never be able to fasten upon the Soul which never assault her till got upon the Mount of Transfiguration and looking by Faith into the heavenly Canaan A sight of God in Heaven makes it impossible for the Saints to sin and a sight of Heaven on Earth this makes it impossible for the Saints to
Gladness for mourning this will change the bitter Waters of Marah into Wine this will soften the hardest Gridiron that you can be broyled upon and turn the scorching Flames of a fiery Tryal into a Bed of Roses (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a Man be brought up at the Breasts of everlasting Consolation and good hope through Christ and there is nothing in all the World that can take away his Joy from him If Men take from him his Monies yet still he hath a Treasure in Heaven to rejoice in If they banish him yet still he hath a City whose Builder and Maker is God to rejoice in If they shut him up in Prison yet still he hath a right to the glorious Liberty of God's Children to rejoice in If they cruelly mangle Torment and afflict his Body yet still he hath a building of God to rejoice in even an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Oh this is that which comforts the Hearts and makes glad the Spirits of God's People under all their sufferings that they lead to Glory to a Kingdom which cannot be moved When the Souls Eye is stedfastly fixed upon the Joy of her dearest Lord then the Heart will easily rejoice in reproaches in persecutions in fiery Tryals and in what cruelties soever else the Body may suffer for the Lord 11 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will discover much of Heaven to you giving you that sweet foretast of Heavens Glory whereby you may well conjecture what will be the fulness of that Joy the splendor of that Crown the surpassing sweetness of those good things which God hath prepared for you An Eye fixed upon this Eternal Recompence is like St. Paul's rapture carrying the Soul into the third Heaven and giving it a branch or two of those delicious Grapes of which the Soul shall have her fill so soon as she takes possession of the celestial Canaan Though here we be in a barren Wilderness yet a respect to this Reward it will furnish us with much Minatur Antichristus sed Christus tuetur Mors infertur sed immortalitas sequitur Mundus eripitur sed Paradisus exhibetur Vita temporalis extinguitur sed aeterna reparatur Cyprian de Exhart Marty pag. 386. heavenly Manna to feed upon Here though we dwell in an earthly Tabernacle yet eying our Eternal Reward it shews us everlasting habitations Here though we sit by the Waters of Babylon yet eying this our Eternal Reward it will give us Songs in the Night and fill our Hearts with Sion's Joy before we come to the full enjoyment of that glorious Inheritance Faith eying the Reward of Eternal Life it draws aside the Curtains of Mortality and lets the Soul look with the Veil it carries the Soul up into the Mount and there shews her the heavenly Canaan in all its Glory it antedates the Book of Life and puts the Soul in the very Suburbs of the supernal Jerusalem though yet she be shut up in a clay Cottage Wast thou never Christian upon the top of Nebâ— beholding with Joy of Heart the promised Canaan Did Christ never take thee up into the Mount causing the Glory of Heaven to shine round about thee Canst thou not remember the time when looking by an Eye of Faith upon unseen Glory that thy Soul was filled as with Marrow and Fatness sweetly anticipating those divine Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore What then is the Happiness the rejoicing the Felicity of all those who not only look upon but most intimately enjoy these eternal good things Eulgentius beholding the City of Rome in her Splendour cried out if this earthly City be so glorious what is the City of the great King that City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Thus Christian if eying thy Eternal Reward be so sweet and full of Glory how sweet will the full enjoyment of it be Is there such pleasantness in a Pisgah-sight of the heavenly Canaan what Pleasure will it then be to have possession of it Are the first Fruits of Glory so good then what will be the goodness of a ripe and full Harvest of Glory 'T is the work of every Christian to have his Eye upon Glory and if the work be so delightful oh then what Spirits of delight what surpassing Paradisical Pleasures will there be in his Eternal Reward If a drop or two of Heaven falling down into the Soul afford such happiness how happy must they be who enjoy the Fountain drinking their fills of Pleasure at God's right Hand for evermore Doubtless if the outward Court be so stately and magnificent we must needs conclude glorious things concerning the Holy of Holies If the Back-parts of Jehovah do so ravish and transport the Soul with Joy what less will the beatifical Vision the seeing of God face to face do than throw her into an everlasting glorious Rapture (n) Quod si haec quae ad bona gratiae pertinent eum in modum oftendant amplificentque magnitudinem tuae bonitatis Domine quid facient bona gloriae Si sic tractes amicos tuos in hac lacrymarum valle quomodo eos in Paradiso tuarum voluptatum tractabis Si sic exhilares illos in vidà quid facies in patria Si sic consoleris illos in loco servitutis quid facies in illo libertatis Si tam suaviter dormiant et requiescant in sinu tuo dum adhuc armati incedunt ut pugnent quid facient cum armis abjectis partâque victoriâ triumphabunt Granat Memor vit Christ cap. 28. pag. mihi 334. If the good things of Grace have so much to satisfie in them what fulness of Soul-satisfying Happiness will the good things of Glory bring with them Doubtless the Lord who entertains his Friends in this Vally of Tears with a Feast of fat things and full of Marrow will much more feast them to their everlasting coâ—â—ntment in the sweetest Paradise of his own Pleasures He that doth so make glad the Hearts of his People by the Way will certainly make much of them beyond all that Heart can conceive at their Journeys end If the Lord give so much Comfort in a place of hard bondage to his People oh then how great will their Comfort be when brought into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God! If the conflict have Glory in it how glorious will the triumph be If Heaven masked and only in expectation have so much Lustre and Beauty upon it what will be the glorious Lustre and unspotted Beauty of Heaven when unveiled and had in full fruition If Christians on the top of Mount Pisgah you can discover so much Glory and Pleasantness in the celestial Canaan while yet you are at a great distance from it oh what Glory what Delight and fulness of divine Pleasure will you find in that holy Land when possessed of it a Land of Peace and Sweetness
nuper amissa mundo transeunte jam veniunt jam terrenis caelestia magna parvis caducis aeterna succedunt Cyp. de mortal pag. 341. of it to a godly Man is nothing but a blessed removal from a Land of Darkness to a Land that flows with Milk and Hony from hard Labour to sweetest Rest from a Tempestuous Sea to a peaceful Harbour from a place of wrestling weeping groaning and fiery Tryals to that heavenly Kingdom where the Soul is crowned with a glorious Triumph Let me therefore charge you in this case as Moses the Man of God once charged Israel at the Red Sea when so violently pursued by Pharoah and his Host Fear not but stand ye still and see the Salvation of God The time of your great change when you must pass through the Red Sea of Death will ere long be at Hand But then the Enemies which you now see the sorrows you now feel the many pressing Troubles which now you undergo you shall see them feel them groan under them no more for ever (e) Quid est enim mors nisi sepulâ—uâ—a vitiorum virtutum â—â—â—â—â—â—tatio Amb. ubi suprà Go forth then oh blessed Soul out of the Prison of a vile Body not fearing but Death will be the Funeral of all thy Corruptions and turn all thy Graces into fulness and everlasting perfection Be it so that Death will break in pieces the Casket of a frail Body yet thy Soul Christian which is the Jewel thy better part shall be kept safe for ever in Abraham's Bosom Many a goodly Ship hath miscarried and been dashed in pieces whilst her Steers-man with greatest diligence and curiosity hath been eying the Stars But never did any precious Soul miscarry whose Eye was duly fixed upon the Pole-star the Cinosure of heavenly Glory but was landed safe at the wished Shoar of true Happiness That Faith which now brings down Heaven into thy Soul will be sure to carry thy Soul at length Christian up into the sweet Paradise of God The Lord may give a Man a Prospect of the earthly Canaan and yet suffer him with Moses to die in the Wilderness Bâ—t if ever he take the Soul up into the Mount of Transfiguration giving her such a clear sight of the heavenly Canaan as to make her think it best of all to be there he will never shut her out of that good Land he will never deny her a Portion in that heavenly Country God would never give the Soul such Visions of Glory did he not intend to bring her at length to the beatifical Fruition of himself in Glory When the Heart and Eye are both set upon Heaven it 's a sure sign that God hath laid up a Treasure for the Soul in Heaven which shall never be taken from her Christ when he went to Heaven he went thither as our fore-runner that we might have everlasting Consolation and good hope through him to be there also Thus when the Heart is set upon heaven's Glory and the Eye continually looking that way like Christ our fore-runner it gives the strongest ground of Hope assuring us that our Souls shall not be long out of Heaven nor long absent from the Lord. When once the Stone is let fall it never stoops till it comes to the Center Thus if once we let fall an Eye upon this glorious Reward our Souls they will never be stopped but be still in continual vigorous Motion till they come to rest in the Centre of perfect Blessedness Glorification in Heaven doth (z) Perseverantiam in terris immediatè sequitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in coelis quo fruuntur omnes qui semel credunt Parker de Traduct hom peccat ad vit pag. 34. infallibly follow Perseverance in Grace on Earth which all those are sure to enjoy for ever who do once fix aâ— Eye of true Faith upon that Crown of Life whâ—ch God sets before us Walk on in the strength of this divine Consolation waiting longing and breathing for that glorious time when Faith will be turned into a clear Vision of Glory and Hope shall be swallowed up in Fruition and your morning Light commence into a glorious Sun-shine and those smaller drops of heavenly Joy which you have to refresh you in this parched Wilderness shall become a River of Life sending out full Streams of purest Pleasures to delight and make glad your Hearts for ever O let every gracious Soul with most sublimate raised Affections keep an Eye fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward And o'erlong thou that art now a beholding (a) In patria plenissimè quiescit affectus in Deo appetitus inhiantis fit amor fruentis Aug. de Trin. l. ult shalt be an enjoying Christian thou that doest now look upon Heaven's Glory with unfeigned desire to it shall shortly be put with Joy unspeakable in full Possession of it If the hope of Glory be once rooted in thy Heart the Crown of Glory will not long be kept from thy Head As sure as thy Lord's Joy now enters into thee so sure shalt thou enter at length into the Joy of thy Lord. He can never lose his Reward nor fall short of Glory who is careful in all his Works to look as high as Heaven not seeking the Praise of Man but that Praise that Honour that Glory which comes from God Our earthly Enjoyments may deceive us making themselves Wings to fly away But an Eye of Faith fixed on this heavenly Reward it will never deceive us but will infallibly carry our Souls as on Eagles Wings into eternal heavenly Mansions of Glory Why then dear Christians will you be so formal so dead-hearted so disconsolate in a way of Duty not striving to serve the Lord with a willing chearful Frame of Soul Seemeth it a small thing to you that God hath given you the earnest of Glory the first Fruits of Heaven as a sure Pledge that a full Crop of Happiness shall follow after Must you shortly be transplanted our of this barren Wilderness into the Caelestial Canaan the Paradise of God the heavenly Jerusalem and shall not this make you steadfast unmovable always rejoycing in the Work of the Lord Oh Christians remember that you who are now reproached for God shall anon be advanced to greatest Honour You that are now weeping shall anon come to Zion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon your Heads That Glory which is now revealed to you by an Eye of Faith shall shortly be revealed in you if keeping your Eye stedfastly fixed upon it you go on still to seek it by patient continuance in well-doing The good Thief upon the Cross having the Kingdom and Glory of Christ in his Eye hath the promise to be that very day with Christ in Paradise Though now Christians you be upon the Cross and sorely distressed yet if your Eye be fixed upon heaven's Glory it cannot be much above one days journey betwixt your Souls and the Paradise of God where
thoughts and care in God still centre To cleave to God is the best venture Would you for ever live above In raptures and transports of Love God's Word believe love Christ hate Sin Have Grace in Life have Truth within Be holy harmless fly from Vice This is the way to Paradise My Blessing I amongst you part See you serve God with all your heart That you may be with me possest Of endless Joy and happy rest And Hallelujahs ever sing With Christ our Lord and Heavenly King A Morning Soliloquy The Eye-lids of the beauteous Morn Which from the rising Sun are Born Open themselves and shed down light That Men may see God's Glory bright This Glory courts thy love my Soul Let not Nights Charms such Bliss controul The Morning is of every day The Maiden-head give 't not away Keep that for God wouldst thou be chast Let not thy Virgin Thoughts lie wast Awake embrace the Bridegroom royal That Love is early which is Loyal Hark how the soaring Lark doth sing And of the day glad tidings bring Prevent her Lyrick Harmonies When first the Light breaks in the Skies Let sleep give place to wakeful praise When Heaven calls on thee to rise Aurora with her blushing Face Doth seem to suffer much disgrace Where Men unmindful of their Duty Regard not Heaven in her Beauty Do not this Virgin Queen Disdain Who rise with her great Glory gain The World now shines with early Beams Heaven pours down light in vital Streams Be gone dull sleep do nor confine My Mind in Darkness Grace doth shine Arise my Soul arise and move Love him who feels no charms but Love All Praises to thy glorious King With heart indite when day doth spring What Chains of Darkness can thee bind When Life from God embalms thy mind Anthems Divine and Hymns most sweet To Christ are due when he doth greet Then wake my Soul thy thoughts sublime Court not Night Shades those Dregs of time To God thy Life through Christ aspire Feed still on his celestial Fire Dwell in the Light put on the Sun Of Grace for Glory thou must run Awake awake hug not fond Dreams Bright Phoebus sheds abroad his Beams Such golden day can never number Whose minds do rust with sleep and slumber Frail mortal Flesh how much I lose When for thy ease my eyes I close Most pure delights and thoughts Divine Waking with God are always mine If in dull sleep I must me hide Yet let my Soul with God abide How irksom is that sleeping space Which spoils me of such glorious Grace Sacred to Muses is the Morn The Graces then do Souls adorn They visit Mortals with great Bliss When night and day part in a Kiss Resist not Soul their powerful Charms But throw thy self into their Arms. Day breaking from a Throne of Gold Chides all whose Love to Christ is cold His Light comes to sue out Divorce Betwixt those lids which Night did force The Lord is jealous nor will he With Dreams and Shades still rival'd be The Worlds great Lamp doth guild the Plain And calls my Soul to entertain Thy Saviours Love and vital dew Which will thy Life and Strength renew Wast not in drowsie Dreams and Sleep Christ for thy Morning Love doth weep Ungrateful Soul break as the Light Through all the Clouds of Hell and Night With Christ each Day end and begin His Love controuls the charms of Sin When Heart and Soul in God still center No Lust can live no Vice can enter See how great Sol circuits our Sphere Diffusing Light now here now there With him for God set out and run Till Joys Immortal thou hast won Though Storms from Hell obstruct thy way Yet Heaven will make eternal day An Evening Soliloquy My Soul what shall I do for thee Approaching Night sings Lullabie Betake thee to thy Saviours Arms Hee 'l save from sin Hells mortal charms Night turns to Day when he his face Vnveils and doth with Love embrace Dark shades invite to take thy rest But first in God wouldst thou be blest Repose thy self his favour crave Sleep is the emblem of thy Grave From Sleep and Death he will restore That thou his goodness mayst adore He is thy Life and resting Place We sleep most sweetly in his Grace When God a Bed of Love doth make For us we 're well asleep or wake Night past the Day will shine and then The dead in Christ shall live again When Lord my Thoughts are full of thee And Heaven in smiles comes down to me How gastly is each look of Night What fatal Shades eclipse my Light Methinks I have no time to live When Sleep suspends what God doth give Night Opium through each sense diffused My active Soul hath oft abused And ravisht by his drowsie charms My Saviour from my feeble Arms Propitious Lord my Heart enlarge And let my Powers resume their Charge Divine sensations fall asleep While Night in Leatheâ— doth me sleep My Soul of Heaven all sight doth lose When Morpheus coâ—â—s my Eyes to close Come joyful Day let shadows fly Till blest I wake Eternally No envious sleep shall then surprize My ravish'd Heart or Amorous Eyes While fill'd with Glory from Christs face Shall nought but Joys of Love embrace Out of that sleep which next I take 'T were Life into this Life to wake O blessed Sleep thus to expire Were not to die but to live higher Above dull Nights and empty Dreams In Heavens great Lights and crystal Streams Where dwells no Sleep to wast our Time But Joys immortal and sublime FINIS
sufficient Portion though you had not so much as the Crumbs with poor Lazarus which fall from the Rich Man's Table how much more when you are sure of the Barrel of Meal and that Cruse of Oyl for your Viaticum which will never fail till the Famine be over and you come to eat Bread even the Bread of Life in the Kingdom of God Remember Christians you are to ‖ Quaeramus quid optime factum sit non quid usitatissimum Et quid nos in possessione Foelicitatis Aeternae constituat non quid vulgo veritatis pessimo interpreti probatum sit Sen de vit Beat. cap. 2. Seek what most may corduce to the bringing of you to Heaven not what is the common usage of Earthly Minds you must look what may best fit you for your Eternal Inheritance not what is most approved by those who have neither Part nor Lot therein 'T is Storied of Charles the V. That when the Duke of Venice had shewed him his sumptuous Palace and earthly Paradice instead of Admiring it he only gave him this Serious and Christian Memento Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos Mori These are the things that make us so Desirous to Live in the World and so Unwilling to Dye The Lord sees good to break his People in their Estates with Breach upon Breach that they may be more willing and ready to leave the World to get out of their earthly Tabernacles and to be Cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven They shall have nothing but Hunger and Thirst and fiery Serpents in the Wilderness of this World that they may never take up their Rest till they come to the heavenly Canaan nor be Satisfied till they come to sit down to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb where they shall have a full Meal of Glory So that though it be no Comfort to be Broken in our Estates yet there is much Comfort comes in by Broken Estates Though Lazarus had no Advantage from his Poverty because that brought him to the Rich Man's Gate yet he had great and everlasting Advantage accrewing to him into the sweet Repose of Abraham's Bosome God puts the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch Hom. Gall and Wormwood of Vanity and Vexation of Trouble and Disappointment upon the Brests of all our Injoyments here that we may not have a Delight to be always Sucking at them He makes them a Broken Reed that fearing to be Pierced by them we may not Lean upon them He sets them on Fire now and then like as Absalom did by Joab's Corn Fields that we may not dare to lye out any longer but may gladly repair to him as our Absalom as the alone Author of Peace Rest and Happiness to our Souls And certainly when we find so much Bitterness in all our Injoyments we yet think it so good to stay here did we find nothing but Delight and Sweetness in them we should never think it good to go hence They that have Feathered their Nests in the World have no mind as One well Observes to be upon the Wing to Fly out of it With you Christians it must not be so Your Emblem should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if Clemens hit right a Ship moving towards Heaven that must no where put in for Harbour till at the Shoar of Blessed Eternity If others will Flag and Flutter here below and be Intangled with the Bird-lime of Wordly Cares let them But be sure that you Soar a-loft getting above the Cares of the World and Flying as with Wings like a Dove to the Windows of the Temple of God in the heavenly Sion It becomes not you that are the Off-spring of Heaven to lye Grovelling upon the Earth You that are the Seed of the Woman it becomes not you to Content yourselves with the Serpent's Food The Heart of every Christian is the place where God and Christ and serious Thoughts of Heaven should lodge Let not therefore the World Usurp upon them set not your Hearts upon those things which God would have you always to keep under your Feet Remember Sirs many might have come into the Harbour of Eternal Rest with full Sails with Top and Top-Gallant of Divine Plerophory had they not run the precious Vessel of their Souls on Ground had they not split themselves upon the Rock of Worldly Cares So hard it is to cut our way through an importunate Croud of Earthly Incumbrances into the Kingdom of God Whenever therefore Christians the World appears to you in a Garment made of Love suspect it for a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Dalilah hired to Betray you into the hands of your Mortal Enemies the cruel Philistines The Champions could not wring an Apple out of Milos's Hand by all their Strength but a Fair Maid by Fair Means got it presently Thus the Beauty and Smile of the World it may Foil us sooner than the Strength of the World this if we look not to ourselves may easily Steal from us all the sweet delicious Fruits of Heaven and Glory Earth-seeking is usually Heaven-losing They that Trade most for the World do seldom Purchase that One Pearl of great Price Sicily is so full of sweet Flowers if Diodorus Siculus may be Credited that Dogs cannot Hunt there Sure I am the sweet Injoyments of this World may easily make us lose the Scent of Heaven How well Satisfied then should we be to be without these things striving to live above them when we find them so often like a strong Remora hindring us in our Course to the Fair Haven of Eternal Happiness Of some Mountains Geographers Write That their Tops are above the middle Region of the Air and out of the reach of Storms Thus Christians they should leave this lower Region of the World and live above would they not be Storm driven in their Voyage towards the Holy-Land ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic Laert. in ejus vita Anaxagoras being Accus'd as One that Studied not Politicks for his Country's Good I have cry'd he a great Care of my Country pointing at Heaven Let the World Christians Accuse you how it will besure that you Study Heaven that you Meditate Glory that you seek with all Care and Diligence the Kingdom of God OF so great Consequence is a due Respect to Heaven and Glory that * Est enim Deus qui solus potest honorare virtutem cujus merces immortalitas sola est quam qui non appetunt nec Religionem tenent cui aeterna subjacet vita profecto neque virtutis vim sciunt cujus praemium ignorant Lact. Instit Lib. 3. Cap. 27. p. 332. Lactantius denies those to be of the True Religion who seek them not as their Happiness and Reward Nor will he grant That any Man knows the Power of Virtue who remains Ignorant of not desiring that Eternal Recompence wherewith the Lord at length will Crown it However you may Learn
by this Treatise that it is of wonderful great Concern to a Christian in all his Obedience and therefore no such Forbidden Fruit as some would have it be but a Tree of Life planted by Heaven for all God's People to Feed upon Some I know have Applauded Un-bribed Obedience without eying the Reward by the Emblem of a Lady with a Water-pot in the one Hand and a Fire brand in the other Resolving to Serve the Lord though Hell-fire were Quenched with the Water and there were no Torments to Punish her for Sin though Paradise were Burnt up with the Fire and there were no Reward no Heaven no Glory to Crown her for Well-doing How far such Hyperbolical Abstractions are Commendable I have shewed else-where And must here only say That though the New Nature would Act like it self let God deal with it how he please yet it 's dangerous to Perplex poor trembling Consciences with those Suppositions wherein we have not the Spirit of God going before us This were just â—s if you should set a Man to Shoot and then take away the Mark Or as if you should bid a Man go Work in your Field and allow him no Wages for his â—ncouragement Sure I am that as the Gospel deâ—erreth us from Sin by Arguments formed out of Hell â—nd eternal Damnation So it incourageth us to wait â—pon God in a way of Duty by Arguments made out of Heaven and Glory *âŽ* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 6. ad Pop. Antioch There is nothing more usual with the Holy Ghost calling poor Sinners to Repentance than to interweave Mercies and Judgments Promises of Heaven that we may not Despair and Threatnings of Hell that we may not be Secure and Presume True it is God must first be Loved and Served for Himself And so he may be and yet be Loved for Heaven too so long as we seek no other Heaven but what stands in the Full Injoyment of Himself There is no such a vast Hiatus such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a great Gulf betwixt God's Glorâ— and man's Salvation as some do Fancy The Sacred Oracles do no where speak of such an implacable Enmity betwixt them nor any where teach them to stand upon Terms of Opposition so that he who beholds the one should not be capable of casting an Eye upon the other also ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paedag. Lib. 1. Cap. 13. Pag. 101. Clemens Alexandrinus will have the great end of all Religion and true Piety to be the Acquisition of an eternal Rest in the Downy Bosome of God's Love To be sure it doth not Illegitimate any Man's Piety nor Impeach the Truth of his Religion to make this his End in serving God that he may arrive at length to the full Fruition of God in Glory The Lord by a Miracle of Condescending Love doth allow us in Glorifying him to seek our own Glory And in Serving Him he gives us leave to eye the Saving of our own Souls Should I tell you that in all his Commands the Lord seeks not Himself but you not that he may reap any Accessions of Happiness and Glory by your Obedience but that you may carry away the whole Crop there is a Truth in it for which both Lactantius and Clemens Alexandrinus will be my Vouchees * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Admonit ad Gent. p. 42. The great work which God hath been contriving from all Eternity and still hath upon the Wheel in the World is to save his People from their sins and to bring them to a state of endless Happiness So saith Clement ‖ Propterea igitur coli se Deus expetit et honorari ab homine tanquam Pater ut virtutem ac sapientiam teneat quae sola immortalitatem parit Nam qui Deam honoraverit hoc afficietur praemio ut sit aeternum beatus sit que apud Deum et cum Deo semper Lact. de vit beat cap. 5. pag. 666. Therefore God wills his People to worship and do Homage to him as a Father that keeping on in the pleasant Paths of Virtue and divine heavenly Wisdom they may come at length to Life and blessed Immortality with Himself So Lactantius The Lord sets us to Work in his Vine-yard that he may give us the Reward of eternal Glory not that any Revenues of further Felicity may be brought â—nto the Exchequer of Heaven for him by our workâ—ngs The Lord knows how Dead we are Naturally to the things which concern our eternal Peace And therefore doth he tempt our desires as it were with the tenders of Glory Honour and Immortality that he may bring us to chuse the way of Life AND O how Serious should this make us in the study of Holiness how willing to spend and be spent â—n the Work of the Lord when so sure that all the Lines of Obedience which we draw shall center in Happiness †{inverted †} Licet ipsa vitium sit ambitio frequentur tamen causa virtutum est Quint. Institut Orat. Lib. 1. c. 2. p. mihi 14. Quintilian is of Opinion That though â—n it self Ambition be a Foul Vice yet it begets as the Off-spring thereof many a Beautiful and Amiable Virâ—ue Sure I am there is an holy Ambition a Desire to be Great in the Kingdom of God to sit High in Glory that if deeply rooted in our Hearts would bring forth a most virtuous Off-spring in our Lives making us Men of brave Resolutions of high Majestick Spirits We should then think it as much below ourselves to be dabling like Children in the Mire of Worldly Drudgery and filling our Laps with the Dirt of Earthly Injoyments as Alexander thought it below his Princely Grandeur to be found exercising â—t the Olympick Games When Hormisdas that Noâ—le Persian could not be drawn by a sordid Office in * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Admon ad Gent. pag. 45. the Stable to Revolt from Jesus Christ yet the King thought by some greater Preferment to overcome him and therefore promoting him in his Palace Jam nega Fabri Filium said he Now deny the Capenter's Son speaking Reproachfully of Christ But such Principles of Heroicalness such a Spirit of Gallantry did a due respect had to the Recompence of Reward put into him that he can Trample with an holy Scorn upon all those Honours when coming to Bribe him out of his Interest in Christ and Glory Thus it would make us Scorn the World and let go all worldly Injoyments rather than Deny Christ or do any thing unworthy our Christian Profession did we but ponder upon the Crown prepared for us He that hath this Hope purifies himself saith the Apostle 1 John 3.3 speaking of the Hope of Glory at Christ's Appearance as he is pure If any thing there be which can beget in us a care to walk before God in all holy Conversation and Godliness 't is certainly the due Consideration of that