art begging more VII Hearken not too much to pained Flesh and look not too much into the Grave but look out at thy Prison Windows to the Jerusalem above and the heavenly Society that triumph in Glory VIII Let all thy sure notices of a future life and of the communion we have here with those above draw thee to think that the great number of Holy Souls that are gone before thee must needs be better than they were here and that they had the same Mind and Heart and Way the same Saviour Sanctifyer and Promise that thou hast and therefore they are as Pledges of Felicity to thee Thou hast joyfully lived with many of them here and is it not better be with them there It is only the state of Glory foreseen by Faith which most fully sheweth us the greatness of God's Love IX Exercise thy self in Psalms of Praise and daily magnifying the Love of God that the due mention of it may warm and raise thy love to him X. Receive all temptations against Divine Love with hatred and repulse Especially temptations to unbelief And as thou wouldst abhor a temptation to murder or perjury or any other heinous sin as much abhor all temptations which would hide God's Goodness or represent him to thee as an enemy or unlovely Thus God hath set the Glass before us in which we may see his amiable Face But alas Souls in flesh are in great obscurity and conscious of their own weakness are still distrustful of themselves and doubt of all their apprehensions till over-powering Objects and Influences satisfie and fix them For this my Soul with daily longings doth seek to thee my God and Father O pardon the sin that forseits Grace I am ready to say Draw nearer to me but its meeter to say Open thou my Eyes and Heart and remove all impediments and undisposedness that I may believe and feel how near thou art and hast been to me while I perceived it not XIII It is God's Love shed abroad on the Heart by the Holy Ghost which must make us Rejoice in hope of the Glory of God This will do it and without this it will not be done This would turn the fears of Death into joyful hopes of future life If my God will thus warm my Heart with his Love it will have these following effects in this matter I. Love longeth for union or nearness and fruition And it would make my Soul long after God in glorious presence II. This would make it much easier to me to believe that there is certainly a future blessed life for Souls while I even tasted how God loveth them It 's no hard thing to believe that the Sun will give light and heat and revive the frozen Earth Nor that a Father will shew kindness to his Son or give him an inheritance Why should it be hard to believe that God will glorifie the Souls whom he loveth And that he will take them near himself And that thus it shall be done to those whom he delights to honour III. This effusion of Divine Love would answer my doubts of the pardon of sin I should not find it hard to believe that love itself which hath given us a Saviour will forgive a Soul that truly repenteth and hates his sin and giveth up himself to Christ for Justification It 's hard to believe that a Tyrant will forgive but not that a Father will pardon a returning prodigal Son IV. This effusion of Divine Love will answer my fears which arise from meer weakness of Grace and Duty Indeed it will give no other comfort to an unconverted Soul but that he may be accepted if he come to God by Christ with true Faith and Repentance and that this is possible But it should be easie to believe that a tender Father will not kill or cast out a Child for weakness crying or uncleanness Divine Love will accept and cherish even weak Faith weak Prayer and weak obedience and patience which are sincere V. This effused Love would confute temptations that are drawn from thy afflictions and make thee believe that they are not so bad as flesh repesenteth them It would understand that every Son that God loveth he chasteneth that he may not be condemned with the World and that he may be partaker of his Holiness and the end may be the quiet fruit of Righteousness it would teach us to believe that God in very faithfulness doth afflict us and that it is a good sign that the God of Love intendeth a better life for his beloved when he trieth them with so many tribulations here And though Lazarus be not saved for his suffering it signified that God who loved him had a life of comfort for him when he had his evil things on Earth When pangs are greatest the Birth is nearest VI. Were Love thus shed on the Heart by the Holy Ghost it would give me a livelier apprehension of the state of Blessedness which all the faithful now enjoy I should delightfully think of them as living in the joyful Love of God and ever fully replenished therewith It pleaseth us to see the Earth flourish in the Spring and to see how pleasantly the Lambs and other young things will skip and play Much more to see Societies of Holy Christians loving each other and provoking one another to delight in God O then what a pleasant thought should it be to think how all our deceased godly Friends and all that have so died since the Creation are now together in a World of Divine perfect Love How they are all continually wrap't up in the Love of God and live in the delight of perfect Love to one another O my Soul when thou art with them thou wilt dwell in Love and feast on Love and rest in Love for thou wilt more fully dwell in God and God in thee And thou wilt dwell with none but perfect Lovers They would not silence thee from praising God in their Assembly Tyrants Malignants and Persecutors are more strange there or far from thence than Toads and Snakes and Crocodiles are from the Bed or Bed-chamber of the King Love is the Air the Region the World they live in Love is their Nature their Pulse their Breath their Constitution their Complexion and their work It is their life and even themselves and all Full loth would one of those Spirits be to dwell again among blind Sodomites and mad self-damning Malignants upon Earth VII Yea this effused Love will teach us to gather the Glory of the Blessed from the common Mercies of this life Doth God give his distracted malignant Enemies Health Wealth Plenty Pleasure yea Lordships Dominions Crowns and Kingdoms and hath he not much better for beloved holy Souls Yea doth he give the Bruits Life Sense Delight and Beauty and hath he not better things for men for Saints There are some so blind as to think that Man shall have no better hereafter because Bruits have not but perish But they know
Trust and quietly Trust that Infinite Wisdom Love and Power whom I have so long trusted and found so good Nature teacheth Man to love best those Animals that are tame and tractable that trust us and love us that will come to our hands and love our Company that will be familiar with us and follow us be it Horse or Dog Beasts or Birds But those that are wild and live in Woods and fly from the Face of Man are taken to be the Game and Preys of any one that can catch and kill them And shall my foolish Soul thus wildly fly from the Face of God Shall his Children be like the fearful Hare Or like a guilty Cain Or like an unbelieving Sadduce that either believeth not or hopeth not for the forgiveness of sin and the life Everlasting Doth not the Spirit of Adoption incline us to love our Fathers presence and to be loth to be long from home To distrust all Creatures even thy self is not unreasonable but to distrust God hath no just excuse Fly from Sin from Satan from Temptations from the World from sinful Flesh and Idol-self But fly not from him that is Goodness Love and Joy itself Fear thine Enemy but Trust thy Father If thy Heart be reconciled to Him and his Service by the Spirit he is certainly reconciled to thee through Christ And if he be for thee and justifie and love thee who shall be against thee or condemn thee or separate thee from his Love If thy unreconciled will do make thee doubt of his reconciliation it 's time to abhor and lay by thy Enmity Consent and be sure that he consenteth Be willing to be his and in Holiness to serve him and to be united in joyful Glory to him and then be sure that he is willing to accept thee and receive thee to that Glory O dark and sinful Soul how little dost thou know thy Friend thy Self or God if thou canst more easily and quietly trust thy Life thy Soul and Hopes to the will of thy Friend or of thy self if thou hadst power than to the will of God Every Dog would be at home and with his Master much more every ingenuous Child with his Father And tho Enemies distrust us Wife and Children will not do so while they bâ—lieve us just And hath God ever shewed himself either unfaithful or unmerciful to me To thee O Lord as to a faithful Creator I commit my Soul 1 Pet. 4. 19. I know that thou art the faithful God who keepest Covenant and Mercy with them that love thee and keep thy Commandments Deut. 7. 9. Thou art faithful who hast called me to the communion of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 9. Thy faithfulness hath saved me in and from temptation 1 Cor. 10. 13. It hath stablished me and kept me from prevailing evil 2 Thess 3. 3. And if will keep my Spirit Soul and Body to the coming of Christ 1 Thess 5. 23 24. It is in faithfulness that thou hast afflicted me Ps 119. 75. and shall not I trust thee then to save me It is thy faithful Word that all thine Elect shall obtain the Salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal Glory and if we be dead with him shall live with him and if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2. 10 11 12. To thee O my Saviour I commit my Soul it is thine own by Redemption it is thine own by Covenant It is marked and Sealed by thy Spirit as thine own and thou hast promised not to lose it Joh. 6. 39. Thou wast made like us thy Brethren that thou mightest be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for our Sins By thy Blood we have boldness to enter into the Holiest even by the new and living consecrated way Cause me to draw near with a sincere Heart in full assurance of Faith by thee that art the High Priest over the House of God For he is faithful that has promised life through thee Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22 23. Thy Name is Faithful and True Rev. 19. 11. and Faithful and True are all thy Promises Rev. 22. 6. 21. 5. Thou hast promised Rest to weary Souls that come to thee Matth. 11. 28. 2 Thess 1. 7. I am weary of suffering and weary of sin weary of my flesh and weary of my darkness and dulness and distance and of this wicked blind unrighteous and confounded World And whither should I look for Rest but home to my heavenly Father and to Thee I am but a bruised Reed but thou wilt not break me I am but a smoaking Flax but thou wilt not quench what thy Grace hath kindled but thou in whose Name the Nations trust wilt bring forth judgment unto Victory Matth. 12. 20 21. The Lord redeemeth the Souls of his Servants and none of them that trust in thee shall be desolate Psa 34. 22. Therefore will I wait on thy Name for it is good and will trust in the Mercy of God for ever Psal 52. 8 9. The Lord is Good a strong-hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him Nah. 1. 7. sinful fear is a snare but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be set on high Prov. 29. 25. Blessed is the Man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the Proud and such as turn aside to lies Psal 40. 4. Thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youthâ— By thee have I been holden up from the Womb my praise shall be continually of thee Cast me not off now in the time of Age forsake me not when my strength faileth O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works Now also when I am old and gray O God forsake me not Psal 17. 5 6 9 17 18. Leave not my Soul destitute for mine Eyes are toward thee my trust is in thee Psa 14. 8. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Even where they that live shall die no more The Sun may cease to shine on Man and the Earth to bear us but God will never cease to be Love nor to be faithful in his Promises Blessed be the Lord who hath commanded me so safe and quietting a duty as to trust him and cast all my cares on him as on one that hath promised to care for me 11. And blessed be God who hath made it my Duty to HOPE for his Salvation HOPE is the Ease yea the life of our Hearts that else would break yea die within us Despair is no small part of Hell God cherisheth Hope as he is the lover of Souls Satan our Enemy cherisheth Despair when his way of blind Presumption faileth As Fear is a foretast of Evil before it is felt so Hope doth anticipate and foretast Salvation before it is
fettereth an active Spirit and we sleep or turn away in wandering Thoughts when we should seriously converse with Christ and Heaven Alas what unworthy Servants hath our Lord Are such as these meet for his work his Love his Acceptance or his Kingdom But O how merciful a Saviour have we who taketh not his poor Servants at the worst but when they after served him thus in his Agony he gently rebuketh them Could you not watch with me one Hour and that with an excuse The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak § 18. It is a matter of great Moment to understand in what cases this excuse will hold and our weakness will not make the willingness of the Spirit unacceptable to God If a Drunkard Fornicator or other Sensualist should say My Spirit is willing to leave my sin but my Flesh is weak and in temptation doth prevail Video meliora proboque c. This excuse would not prove God's forgiveness If a Man live in known sin which he could forbear were he truly willing and say To will is present with me but to do I am unable it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me this would be but a frivolous excuse And yet to the sleepy Disciples it was a good excuse and I think to Paul Rom 7. where then is the dâ—fference There are some acts of Man which the will hath not power to rule and some that it can rule The will hath not power always to keep a sleepy Man awake This sleep might be of the Flesh without any will at all And this excuseth from all guilt There are some acts of Man which the will cannot rule but by a great degree of power and endeavour As perhaps with much ado by preventing and resisting diligence the Disciples might have kept awake In this case their sleep is a fault but a pardoned fault of weakness Some Persons are liable to inordinate Fear and Grief which so surprizeth them by the Constitution of their Bodies that the greatest unwillingness would not hinder them And some could do more to resist these passions than they do but very hardly with the greatest diligence These are accordingly excusable in degree Paul would have perfectly obeyed God's Law and never have sinned But there is no Perfection in this Life Meer Imperfection of true Grace which is predominant in the will doth not damn men But there are acts which are so subject to the will that a sincere will though imperfect can command them He that doth these or doth the contrary it is not because he sincerely would and cannot but because he hath but uneffectual wishes and is not sincerely willing if he know them to be what they are Especially if they be materially great sins which he yieldeth to which true Grace more strongly resisteth than it doth an idle word or thought or action In short all omissions or commissions in which the will is positively or privatively guilty are sinful in some degree but only these do damn the Sinner which are inconsistent with the predominant Love of God and Heaven and Holiness in the Soul § 19. When the Disciples awaked they saw these glorious ones in converse Did they hear what they said or did Christ after tell them The later is most probable Doubtless as Moses tells us how God made the World which none could tell him but by God's telling them first so the Apostles have written many things of Christ which they neither saw nor heard but from Christ that told it them by Word or Inspiration How else knew they what Satan said and did to him in his Temptations in the Wilderness and on the Pinacle of the Temple How knew they what his Prayer was in his Agony And so in this instance also But Christ's own testimony was enough to put them out of Doubt to them that daily saw his confirming Miracles § 20. How great a difference was there between Mount Sinai and this Mount When God delivered the Law to Moses that Mount was terrible in Flame and Smoak and Thunder so that the People trembled and fled But now here is nothing but Life and Light and Love from Heaven A merciful Redeemer whose Face shined as the Sun with heavenly Company appearing nearly to the Disciples pittying and bearing with their heaviness and infirmity strengthning their Faith and Hope and proving to them a Resurrection and a heavenly Kingdom by a visible Apparition of some of its Possessors This was not a frightful but a confirming delectable sight The Law in terrour was by Moses but Grace and Truth Peace and Pleasure are by Christ This was an inviting and delighting and not an affrighting Apparition Was it not a shameful infirmity and a sin that Peter should deny Christ after such a sight as this and the rest of the Disciples forsake him and fly What! after they had seen the Kingdom of God come in Power and Christ's Face shine as the Sun in its brightness Could they forget all this Or could they doubt whether he or his Persecutors were the stronger and liker to prevail at last O how frail how uncertain how bad a thing is depraved Man But though Christ found them asleep and though he foreknew that they would forsake him he forsook not them nor used them as they deserved but comforted them with a glimpse of Heaven For he died for his Enemies § 21. But this was but once in all the time of his abode among them It was an extraordinary Feast and not their daily Bread They had Christ still with them but not transfigured in Glory nor Moses and Elias in their sight We are too apt to think that if God give us a joyful extraordinary glimpse of Heaven we must have it always or that he forsaketh us and castus off when he denieth it us O that we were as desirous of Holiness and Duty as we are of the Joy which is the reward But our Father and not we must be the chooser both of our Food and Feast Moses did not dwell on Mount Nebo that he might still see the Land of Promise It was enough to have one sight of it before his death As Flesh and Blood cannot enter into Heaven so it 's little of Heaven that entereth into it § 22. When the Disciples awake they see his Glory and the two men that stood with him It must not be a sleeeping but an awakened Christian that will have a sight of heavenly Glory As we must love God with all the Heart and Soul and Might all must be awakened in seeking him and in attending him before we can have a joyful foretast of his Love Carnal security supine neglect and dull contempt are dispositions which render us uncapable of such delights Heavenly joys suppose a heavenly disposition and desires Angels sleep not nor are clogged with Bodies of Clay Earth hath no Wings It must be holy vivacity that must carry up a Soul to God notwithstanding the fetters of Flesh
It is with each others Souls in the Body that we converse together on Earth And it is not sluggish but lively Faith and fervent desire that must converse in Heaven with Moses and Elias and our living Head § 23. But how did Peter know Moses and Elias whom he had never seen before Perhaps glorified Saints do bear each one his notifying Signature and need not names and sound of words to make them known Perhaps Christ told the Disciples who they were that talked with him Perhaps he made them know it by Inspiration as Prophets have their knowledge Any of these ways God could notifie them It 〈◊〉 not needful that we know which of them it was But that they were known is certain We shall be no Strangers to any Saints in Heaven and therefore not to our old acquaintance Whether we shall have any greater love to them or delight in them for old acquaintance sake or because they were instruments of our good on Earth I know not But I know that our love to them with whom we had Holy comfort on Earth may well render Heaven more familiar to us now and more suitable to our desires O how great a number of my godly Friends are there They are so many that I cannot make a Catalogue of their Names but the Memory of abundance of them doth delight me And when we meet there we shall be far better known to each other then we were to the most intimate on Earth O let Christians now so converse together as remembring that they must meet in Heaven where all that was secret will be brought to light If we now put on any Vizor and seem better than we are if we hide any sin or base corruption if we by fraud or falshood deceive our Friends all this will be opened when we meet in Heaven It is a daily grief and shame to my Soul to think of the sins that I have committed against some that are now in Heaven which I either excused extenuated or hid And to think how much evil they will know of me there which on Earth they knew not by me But God who pardoneth them will cause his Servants there to forgive each other but the detected sin for all that will be an odious shameful thing Lying and Hypocrisie are there no cloak but an aggravation of the shame If we cannot confess and take shame to our selves by repentance upon Earth how shall we appear in the open light and see the Faces of those whom we wronged What diminution it will make of our joy I know not but it must needs be a dishonour to have been false to God or Man And especially when we meet where sin is perfectly hated to think how we either sinned together or that we tempted and ensnared one another in any sin how it will affect us then I do not fully know but it is now to me a far greater grief to think of any in Heaven whom I tempted or wronged than it was while they lived with me on Earth And I think there is somwhat of this Nature common to good and bad Even the Consciences of wicked men do haunt them for notable injuries to others especially concealed ones and especially for persecuting the Servants of God when they are dead more than while they lived In so much that though I doubt not of real Apparitions I am ready to think that some that say they are haunted by the sight and the voice of such as seem to them to be deceased Persons are rather haunted by their own Consciences which strongly represent those Persons to their imaginations But on the other side it is a great delight to me to think of the good which I received from many that are now in Heaven Of the profitable Sermons which I heard from some and the profitable conversation which I had with others How oft we sweetly consulted together of the things which concern everlasting life How many days in publick and private we spent in preparation and in some prospect of the Blessedness which now they enjoy And it is not a small Mercy to me that I can think of Multitudes now in Heaven of whose Conversion and Salvation God hath made my weak endeavours a prosperous means O what a Mercy is it to think on that while I am yet compassed with temptations and languishing in weakness and groaning in pain and worst of all burdened with a dark and sinful Soul so many are past all this with Christ by means of any help which he sent them by my labours It hath oft humbled me greatly to read in the lives of such men as John Janeway and Joseph Allen how much of their proficiency they ascribed to my Writings and how far they over-went me and left me quite behind them in Holy delights and praises of God! But how much more am I below a Multitude now in Heaven who called me Father here on Earth And if here I must rejoice with them that rejoice as well as mourn with them that mourn why should I not much more rejoice with all the blessed Society above And more familiarly with my old Acquaintance Pupils and dear Friends My Love should be most to the best and therefore more to them than to any other of my Friends And therefore my Union with them being closer and their Felicity far greater I should think with more Joy of them than of any left behind They are safe in the Harbour past all our dangerous storms and waves And though they know or will know more of my sins than they did on Earth and hate them more yet they that feel the comfort of the Pardon of their own will imitate God in pardoning me and rejoice in God's forgiveness of me Though their vile Bodies lie like common dust how much better do they now know the love of God the Mysteries of Grace the heavenly Glory the state of Spirits in the City of God than I do who was wont to preach it to them God that sent down Moses and Elias to shew that Saints in Heaven and on Earth have communnion will bring me and my Friends now in Heaven together again into a far sweeter Communion than ever we had here § 24. It is no great wonder that Peter should be transported with this glorious sight and greatly delighted with this heavenly Communion and say Master it is good for us to be here Would not a sight a glimpse of Heaven have transported any Holy Soul Yea even those that now lie in tears and fears and are overwhelmed with doubts and troubles When they are groping after God and groaning on their Knees because they feel more of his frowns than of his love if then they had such a sight as this what a change would it make upon them Perhaps you 'll say that the doubt of their own sincerity might still deprive them of the Joy No This sight would banish doubts and troubles It is a communication of Love