they disobeyed whose Ministers they abused whose Servants they hated now sitting to judg them When their own Consciences shall cry out against them and call to their Remembrance all their misdoings Remember at such a time such or such a sin at such a time Christ sued hard for thy Conversion the Minister pressed it home to thy heart thou wast touched to the quick with the Word thou didst purpose and promise returning and yet thou casts off all When an hundred Sermons Sabbaths Mercies shall each step up and say I am witness against the Prisoner Lord I was abused and I was neglected Oh which way will the wretched sinner look Oh who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart Now the world cannot help him his old companions cannot help him the Saints neither can nor will onely the Lord Jesus can but Oh there 's the Soul-killing misery he will not Nay without violating the truth of his Word he cannot though otherwise in regard of his Absolute power he might The time was Sinner when Christ would and you would not and now Oh how fain would you and he will not Then he followed thee in vain with entreaties Oh poor Sinner what dost thou Wilt thou sell thy Soul and Saviour for a lust Look to me and be saved Return why wilt thou dye But thy Ear and heart was shut up against all Why now thou shalt cry Lord Lord open to us and he shall say Depart I know you not ye workers of iniquity Now Mercy Mercy Lord Oh but it was Mercy you so long set light by and now your day of Mercy is over What then remains but to cry out to the mountains fall upon us and to the hills O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne But all in vain For thou hast the Lord of Mountains and hils for thine enemy whose voyce they will obey and not thine Sinner make not light of this for as true as thou livest except a through change and coming in to Christ prevent it which God grant thou shalt shortly to thy unconceiveable horror see that day Oh Wretch Will thy cups then be wine or gall Will they be sweet or bitter Will it comfort thee to think of all thy merry days and how pleasantly thy time slipt away Will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast and how honorable thou wast or will it not rather wound thy very Soul to remember thy folly and make thee with anguish of heart and rage against thy self to cry out Oh Wretch where was thine understanding Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble How couldst thou hear so lightly of the Redeeming Blood of the Son of God How couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy Soul What took up all that Life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day What took up all thy heart thy love and delight which should have been layd out on the Lord Jesus Hadst thou room in thy heart for the worâ—d thy friend thy flesh thy lusts and none for Christ Oh Wretch whom hadst thou to love but him What hadst thou to do but to seek to him and cleave to him and enjoy him Oh wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times till the Commonness of that doctrine made thee weary How couldst thou slight such warnings and rage against the Minister and say he preacheth Damnation Had it not been better to have heard and prevented it then now to endure it Oh now for one offer of Christ for one Sermon for one day of Grace more But too late alass too late Poor careless Sinner I did not think here to have said so much to thee for my business is to refresh the Saints But if these lines do fall into thy hands and thou vouchsafe the reading of them I here charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom that thou make hast and get alone and set thy self sadly to ponder on these things Ask thy heart Is this true or is it not Is there such a day and must I see it Oh what do I then Why trifle I Is it not time full time that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago should I sit still another day who have lost so many Had I not at that day rather be found one of the Holy faithful watchful Christians then a worldling a good-fellow or a man of honor Why should I not then choose it now Will it be best then and is it not best now Oh think of these things A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention It 's worth this or It 's worth nothing Friend I profess to thee from the Word of the Lord That of all thy sweet sins there will then be nothing left but the sting in thy Conscience which will never out through all eternity except the blood of Christ beleeved in and valued above all the world do now in this day of grace get it out Thy sin is like a Beautiful Harlot while she is young and fresh she hath many followers but when old and withered every one would shut their hands of her she is onely their shame none would know her So will it be with thee now thou wilt venture on it what ever it cost thee but then when mens rebellious ways are charged on their Souls to death O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it O that thou couldst say Lord it was not I Then Lord when saw we thee hungry naked imprisoned How fain would they put it off Then sin will be sin indeed and Grace will be Grace indeed Then say the foolish Virgins Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are ouâ— Oh for some of your faith holiness which we were wont to mock at But what 's the answer Go buy for your selves we have little enough would we had rather much more Then they will be glad of any thing like Grace and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ or Common gifts how glad are they Lord we have eat and drunk in thy presence prophecyed in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works we have been baptized heard Sermons professed Christianity But alas this will not serve the turn He will profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Oh dead hearted sinner is all this nothing to thee As sure as Christ is true this is true Take it in his own words Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on the right hand and
of Life and the naked to be cloathed from above for the children to come to their Fathers house and the dis-joyned members to be conjoyned with their Head me thinks this should be seldom unseasonable When the Atheistical world began to insult and question the Truth of Scripture promises and ask us Where is now your God where is your long lookt for glory where is the promise of your Lords coming O how seasonable then to convince these unbelievers to silence these scoffers to comfort the dejected waiting believer will the appearing of our Lord be we are oft grudging now that we have not a great share of comforts that our deliverances are not more speedy and eminent that the world prospers more then we that our prayers are not presently answered not considering that our portion is kept to a fitter season that these are not always Winter fruits but when Summer comes we shall have our Harvest We grudg that we do not finde a Canaan in the VVilderness or cities of Rest in Noahs Ark and the songs of Sion in a strange Land that we have not a harbor in the main Ocean or finde not our home in the middle way and are not crowned in the midst of the fight have not our Rest in the heat of the day and have not our inheritance before we are at age and have not Heaven before we leave the Earth and would not all this be very unreasonable I confess in regard of the Churches service the removing of the Saints may sometimes appear to us unseasonable therefore doth God use it as a Judgment and therefore the Church hath ever prayed hard before they would part with them and greatly laid to heart their loss Therefore are the great mournings at the Saint departures and the sad hearts that accompany them to their graves but this is not especially for the departed but for themselves and their children as Christ bid the weeping women Therefore also it is that the Saints in danger of death have oft begged for their lives with that Argument What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the Pit Psal. 30.9 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness Psal. 88.10 for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6.5 And this was it that brought Paul to a streight because he knew it was better for the church that he should remain here I must confess it is one of my saddest thoughts to reckon up the useful instruments when God hath lately called out of his Vineyard when the Loyterers are many and the Harvest great and very many Congregations desolate and the people as sheep without shepherds and yet the laborers called from their work especially when a door of Liberty and opportunity is open we cannot but lament so sore a judgment and think the removal in regard of the Church unseasonable I know I speak but your own thoughts and you are too ready to over-run me in application I fear you are too sensible of what I speak and therefore am loath to stir in your sore I perceive you in the posture of the Ephesian Elders and had rather abate the violence of your passions our applications are quicker about our sufferings then our sins and we will quicklier say This loss is mine then This fault is mine But O consider my dear friends hath God any need of such a worme as I cannot he a 1000 wayes supply your wants you know when your case was worse and yet he provided Hath he work to do and will he not finde instruments And though you see not for the present where they should be had they are never the further off for that Where was the world before the creation and where was the promised seed when Isaac lay on the Altar Where was the Land of Promise when Israels burden was increased or when all the old stock save only two were consumed in the Wilderness Where was Davids Kingdom when he was hunted in the Wilderness or the Glory of Christs Kingdom when he was in the Grave or when he first sent his 12. Apostles How suddenly did the number of Labourers encrease immediately upon the Reformation by Luther and how soon were the rooms of those filled up whom the rage of the papists had sacrificed in the flames Have you not lately seen so many difficulties overcome and so many improbable works accomplished that might silence unbelief one would think for ever But if all this do not quiet you for sorrow and discontent are unruly passions yet at least remember this suppose the worst you fear should happen yet shall it be well with all the Saints your own turnes will shortly come and we shall all be hous'd with Christ together where you will want your Ministers and friends no more And for the poor world which is left behind whose unregenerate state causeth your grief why consider shall man pretend to be more merciful then God Hath not he more interest then we both in the Church and in the world and more bowels of compassion to commiserate their distress There is a season for Judgment as well as for mercy and if he will have the most of men to perish for their sin and to suffer the eternal tormenting flames must we question his goodness or manifest our dislike of the severity of his judgments I confess we cannot but bleed over our desolate congregations and that it ill beseems us to make light of Gods indignation but yet we should as Aaron when his sons were slain hold our peace and be silent because it is the Lords doing And say as David If I and his people shall finde favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me them and his Habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do with me as seemeth good unto him I conclude then that whatsoever it is to those that are left behinde yet the Saints departure to themselves is usually seasonable I say usually because I know that a very Saint may have a death in some respect unseasonable though it do translate him into this Rest. He may dye in Judgment as good Josiah he may die for his sin For the abuse of the Sacrament many were weak and sickly and many fallen asleep even of those who were thus Judged and chastened by God that they might not be condemned with the world He may die by the hand of publike Justice or die in a way of publike scandal He may die in a weak degree of grace and consequently have a less degree of glory He may die in smaller improvements of his talents and so be Ruler but
hath made this reconciliation Surely not the great Reconciler He hath told us in the world we shall have trouble and in him onely we shall have peace VVe may reconcile our selves to the world at our peril but it will never reconcile it self to us O foolish unworthy soul who hadst rather dwell in this land of darkness and rather wander in this barren wilderness then be at rest with Jesus Christ who hadst rather stay among the VVolves and daily suffer the Scorpions stings then to praise the Lord with the Hosts of Heaven If thou didst well know what Heaven is and what Earth is it would not be so SECT VI. 5. THis unwillingness to dye doth actually impeach us of high Treason against the Lord Is it not a chusing of Earth before him and taking these present things for our happiness and consequently making them our very God If we did indeed make God our God that is our End our Rest our Portion our Treasure how is it possible but we should desire to enjoy him It behoves us the rather to be fearful of this it being utterly inconsistent with saving Grace to value any thing before God or to make the Creature our highest End Many other sins foul and great may possibly yet consist with sincerity but so I am certain cannot that But concerning this I have spoke before SECT VII 6. ANd all these defects being thus discovered what a deal of dissembling doth it more over shew We take on us to believe undoubtedly the exceeding eternal weight of Glory We call God our chiefest Good and say we love Him above all and for all this we fly from Him as if it were from Hell it self would you have any man believe you when you call the Lord your onely Hope and speak of Christ as All in All and talk of the Joy that is in Presence and yet would endure the hardest life rather then dye and come unto him What self-contradiction is this to talk so hardly of the world and flesh to groan and complain of sin and suffering and yet fear no day more then that which we expect should bring our finall freedom what shameless gross dissembling is this to spend so many hours and dayes in hearing Sermons reading Books conferring with others and all to learn the way to a place which we are loth to come to To take on us all our life-time to walk towards Heaven to run to strive to fight for Heaven which we are loth to come to What apparent palpable hypocrysie is this to lye upon our knees in publike and private and spend one hour after another in prayer for that which we would not have If one should over-hear thee in thy daily devotions crying out Lord deliver me from this body of death from this sin this sickness this poverty these cares and feares how long Lord shall I suffer these and withall should hear thee praying against death can he believe thy tongue agrees with thy heart except thou have so far lost thy reason as to expect all this here or except the Papists Doctrine were true that we are able to fulfil the Law of God or our late Perfectionists are truly enlightned who think they can live and not sin but if thou know these to be undoubtedly false how canst thou deny thy gross dissembling SECT VIII 7. COnsider how do we wrong the Lord and his Promises and disgrace his ways in the eyes of the world As if we would actually perswade them to question whether God be true of his Word or no whether there be any such glory as Scripture mentions when they see those who have professed to live by Faith and have boasted of their hopes in another world and perswaded others to let go all for these hopes and spoken disgracefully of all things below in comparison of these unexpressable things above I say when they see these very men so loth to leave their hold of present things and to go to that glory which they talked and boasted of how doth it make the weak to stagger and confirm the world in their unbelief and sensuality and make them conclude sure if these Professors did expect so much glory and make so light of the world as they seem they would not themselves be so loth of a change O how are we ever able to repaiâ— the wrong which we do to God and poor souls by this scandal And what an honor to God what a strengthning to Believers what a conviction to Unbelievers would it be if Christians in this did answer their professions and chearfully welcome the news of Rest SECT IX 8. IT evidently discovers that we have been careless loyterers that we have spent much time to little purpose and that we have neglected and lost a great many of warnings Have we not had all our life time to prepare to die So many years to make ready for one hour and are we so unready and unwilling yet VVhat have we done why have we lived that the business of our lives is so much undone Had we any greater matters to minde Have we not foolishly wronged our souls in this would we have wished more frequent warnings How oft hath death entered the habitations of our neighbors how oft hath it knockt at our own doors we have first heard that such a one is dead and then such a one and such a one till our Towns have changed most of their Inhabitants And was not all this a sufficient warning to tell us that we were also Mortals and our own turn would shortly come Nay we have seen death raging in Towns and Fields so many hundred a day dead of the Pestilence so many thousands slam of the Sword and did we not know it would reach to us at last How many distempers have vexed our bodies frequent Languishings consuming Weaknesses wasting Feavers here pain and there trouble that we have been forced to receive the sentence of death and what were all these but so many Messengers sent from God to tell us we must shortly dye as if we had heard a lively voyce bidding us Delay no more but make you ready And are we unready and unwilling after all this O careless dead hearted Sinners unworthy neglecters of Gods Warnings faithless betrayers of our own souls All these hainous aggravations do lye upon this sin of unwillingness to dye which I have laid down to make it hateful to my own soul which is too much guilty of it as well as yours And for a further help to our prevailing against it I shall adjoyn these following Considerations SECT X. 1. COnsider not to dye were never to be happy To escape death were to miss of blessedness Except God should translate us as Henoch and Elias which he never did before or since If our hopeth in Christ were in this life onely we were then of all men most miserable The Epicure hath more pleasure to his Flesh then
received as a Saviour Mediator Redeemer Reconciler Intercessor c. And all the precepts of Scripture being backed with so many promises and threatenings every one intended of God as a motive to us do imply as much If any think they should be distinguished as two several ends and Gods glory preferred so they separate them not asunder I contend not SECT X. 5. IN the Definition I call a Christians Happiness the end of his Course thereby meaning as Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 the whole scope of his life For as Salvation may and must be our end so not onely the end of our faith though that principally but of all our actions for as whatsoever we do must be done to the glory of God whether eating drinking c. so must they all be done to our Salvation That we may beleeve for Salvation some will grant who yet deny that we may do or obey for it I would it were well understood for the clearing of many controversies what the Scripture usually means by Faith Doubtless the Gospel takes it not so strictly as Philosophers do but in a larger sence for our obedience to all Gospel precepts To beleeve in his name and to receive him are all one but we must receive him as King as well as Saviour therefore beleeving doth not produce subjection as a fruit but contain it as an essential part except we say that Faith receives Christ as a Saviour first and so justifies before it take him for King as some think which is a maimed unsound and no Scripture faith I doubt not but the Soul more sensibly looks at Salvation from Christ then Government by him in the first work yet whatever precedaneous act there may be it never conceives of Christ to Justification nor knows him with the knowledg which is eternal life till it conceive of him and know him for Lord and King Therefore there is not such a difference between Faith and Gospel-obedience or Works as some judg Obedience to the Gospel is put for Faith and Disobedience put for Unbelief usually in the New Testament 6. Lastly I make Happiness to consist in this end obtained for it is not the meer promise of it that immediately makes perfectly happy nor Christs meer purchase nor our meer seeking but the Apprehending and obtaining which sets the Crown on the Saints head when we can say of our work as Christ of the price payd It is finished and as Paul I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth is layd up for me a crown of Salvation 2 Tim. 4.7 8. CHAP. III. What this Rest presupposeth SECT I. FOr the clearer understanding yet of the nature of this Rest you must know 1. There are some things necessarily presupposed to it 2. Some things really conteined in it 1. All these things are presupposed to this Rest. 1. A person in motion seeking Rest. SECT II. 2. AN End toward which he moveth for Rest Which End must be sufficient for his Rest else when 't is obtained it deceiveth him This can be onely God the chief good SECT III. 3. A Distance is presupposed from this End else there can be no motion towards it This sad distance is the woful case of all mankinde since the fall It was our God that we principally lost and were shut out of his gracious presence Though some talk of losing onely a temporal earthly felicity sure I am it was God we fell from and him we lost and since said to be without him in the world and there would have been no death but for sin and to enjoy God without death is neither an earthly nor temporal enjoyment Nay in all men at Age here is supposed not onely a distance from God but also a contrary motion For sin hath not overthrown our Being nor taken away our Motion but our well-being and the Rectitude of our motion When Christ comes with Regenerating Saving Grace he findes no man sitting still but all posting to eternal Ruine and making hast towards hell till by conviction he first bring them to a stand and by conversion turn first their hearts and then their lives sincerely to himself SECT IV. 4. HEre is presupposed a knowledg of the true ultimate End and its excellency for so the motion of the Rational Creature proceedeth An unknown end is no end it is a contradiction We cannot make that our end which we know not nor that our chief End which we know not or judg not to be the chief Good An unknown Good moves not to desire or endeavor Therefore where it is not truly known That God is this End and containeth all good in him there is no obtaining Rest. SECT V. 5. HEre is presupposed not onely a distance from this Rest but also the true knowledg of this distance If a man have lost his way and know it not he seeks not to return If he lose his gold and know it not he seeks it not Therefore they that never knew they were without God never yet enjoyed him and they that never knew they were naturally and actually in the way to Hell did never yet know the way to Heaven Nay there will not onely be a knowledg of this distance and lost estate but also affections answerable Can a man be brought to finde himself hard by the brink of hell and not tremble or to finde he hath lost his God and his Soul and not cry out I am undone Or can such a stupid Soul be so recovered This is the sad case of many thousands and the reason why so few obtain this Rest They will not be convinced or made sensible that they are in point of title distant from it and in point of practice contrary to it They have lost their God their Souls their Rest and do not know it nor will beleeve him that tells them so Who ever travelled towards a place which he thought he was at already or sought for that which he knew not he had lost The whole need not the Physician but they that are sick Mat. 9.12 SECT VI. 6. HEre is also supposed A superiour moving Cause and an influence there-from else should we all stand still and not move a step forward toward our Rest no more then the inferiour wheels in the Watch would stir if you take away the spring or the first mover This primum movens is God What hand God hath in evil Actions or whether he afford the like influence to their production I will not here trouble this Discourse and the Reader to dispute The case is clear in Good Actions If God move us not we cannot move Therefore is it a most necessary part of our Christian Wisdom to keep our subordination to God and dependance on him To be still in the path where he walks and in that way where his Spirit doth most usually move Take heed of being estranged or separated from God or of slacking your
and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives and then they shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psal. 23.6 Oh Christians beleeve and consider this Is Sun and Moon and Stars and all creatures called upon to praise the Lord What then should his people do Surely they are nearer him and enjoy more of him then the bruits shall do All his works praise him but above all let his Saints bless him Psal. 145.10 Oh let them speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power To make known to the sons of men his mighty Acts and the Glorious Majesty of his Kingdom Vers. 11.12 Let his praise be in the Congregation of his Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people and will beautifie the meek with salvation Psal. 149.1 2 5 6 4. This is the light that is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal. 97.11 Yea this honour have all his Saints Psalm 149.9 If the estate of the Devils before their fall were not much meaner then this and perhaps lower then some of their fellow Angels surely their sin was most accursed and detestable Could they yet aspire higher And was there yet room for discontent What is it then that would satisfie them Indeed the distance that we sinners and mortals are at from our God leaves us some excuse for discontent with our estate The poor soul out of the depth cries and cries aloud as if his Father were out of hearing sometime he chides the interposing clouds sometime he is angry at the vast gulf that 's set between sometime he would fain have the vail of mortality drawn aside and thinks death hath forgot his business he ever quarrels with this Sin that separates and longs till it be separated from his Soul that it may separate God and him no more Why poor Christian be of good chear the Time is Near when God and thou shall be Near and as Near as thou canst well desire Thou shalt dwell in his family is that enough It 's better to be a door-keeper in his house then enjoy the portion of the wicked Thou shalt ever stand before him about his Throne in the room with him in his presence chamber Wouldst thou yet be nearer Thou shalt be his child and he thy Father thou shalt be an heir of his Kingdom yea more the Spouse of his Son and what more canst thou desire Thou shalt be a member of the body of his Son he shall be thy Head thou shalt be one with him who is one with the Father Read what he hath desired for thee of his Father John 17.21 22 23. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us and the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me What can you desire yet more except you will as some do abuse Christs expression of oneness to conceive of such a union as shall Deifie us Which were a sin one step beyond the aspiring Arrogancy of Adam and I think beyond that of the Devils A Real Conjunction improperly called Union we may expect And a true Union of Affections A Moral Union improperly still called Union And a true Relative Union such as is between the members of the same political body and the Head yea such as is between the husband and the wife who are called one flesh And a real communion and Communication of Real Favors flowing from that Relative Union If there be any more it is acknowledged unconceiveable and consequently unexpressable and so not to be Spoken of If any can conceive of a proper Real Union and Identity which shall neither be a unity of Essence nor of person with Christ as I yet cannot I shall not oppose it But to think of Such a Union were high Blasphemy Nor must you think of a Union as some do upon natural Grounds following the dark mistaking principles of Plato and Plotinus If your thoughts be not guided and limited by Scripture in this you are lost Quest. But how is it we shall enjoy God Ans. That 's the fifth and last we come to SECT V. 5. THis Rest containeth A Sweet and constant Action of all the Powers of the Soul and Body in this fruition of God It is not the Rest of a stone which ceaseth from all motion when it attains the Center The Senses themselves as I judg are not only Passive in receiving their object but partly Passive and partly Active Whether the external Senses such as now we have shall be continued and imployed in this work is a great doubt For some of them it 's usually acknowledged they shall cease because their Being importeth their use and their use implyeth our estate of Imperfection As there is no use for eating and drinking so neither for the taste But for other Senses the Question will be harder For Job saith I shall see him with these eyes But do not all senses imply our imperfection If Job did speak of more then a Redemption from his present distress as it 's like he did yet certainly these eyes will be made so Spiritual that whether the name of Sense in the same sence as now shall befit them is a question This body shall be so changed that it shall no more be flesh and blood for that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 but a spiritual body vers 44. That which we sow we sow not that body that shall be But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own Body 1 Cor. 15.37 38. As the Oar is cast into the fire a stone but come forth so pure a mettal that it deserves another name and so the difference betwixt it and the Gold exceeding great So far greater will the change of our bodies and senses be even so great as now we cannot conceive If Grace make a Christian differ so much from what he was that the Christian could say to his Companion Ego non sum ego I am not the man I was how much more will Glory make us differ We may then say much more This is not the body I had and these are not the senses I had But because we have no other name for them let us call them Senses call them Eyes and Ears Seeing and Hearing But thus much conceive of the difference That as much as a Body Spiritual above the Sun in Glory exceedeth
again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Can the Head live and the body or members remain Dead Oh write those sweet words upon thy heart Christian Because I Live Ye shall Live also As sure as Christ lives we shall live And as sure as he is risen we shall rise Else the Dead perish Else what is our Hope what advantageth all our duty or suffering Else the sensual Epicure were one of the wisest men and what better are we then our beasts Surely our knowledg more then theirs would but encrease our sorrows and our dominion over them is no great felicity The Servant hath oft-times a better life then his Master because he hath few of his Masters Cares And our dead Carcasses are no more comely nor yeeld a sweeter savour then theirs But we have a sure ground of Hope And besides this Life we have a Life that 's hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. Oh let not us be as the purblinde world that cannot see afar off Let us never look at the Grave but let us see the Resurrection beyond it Faith is quick-sighted and can see as far as that is yea as far as Eternity Therefore let our hearts be glad and our Glory rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope for he will not leave us in the Grave nor suffer us still to see Corruption Yea therefore let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as we know our Labor is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 It 's a Question much debated Whether a Resurrection be onely an effect of Christs Death and Resurrection And whether there should have been any Resurrection if Christ had not come Some that maintain the Negative of the last Question do also maintain That the Sin under the Covenant of Nature or Works did deserve onely the separation of Soul and Body and not Eternal Torments Whence also follows that the Soul is or at least then was Mortal or that it hath no Being or no Sense when it 's separated from the Body As also that Christ dyed to Redeem us onely from the Grave and not from Hell And so their Doctrine of Universal Redemption in this sence asserted doth neither so much honor the merits of Christ nor advance his mercy as they pretend For it maketh him to raise us onely from the Grave and bring all the world into a Capacity of Eternal Torment He fore-knowing the same time that most would certainly reject him and so perish But as I confess these of weight and difficulty so having professed in this Discourse to handle matters less controverted I pretermit them This sufficeth to the Saints Comfort That Resurrection to Glory is onely the fruit of Christs Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure All that are in the Graves shall hear his voyce and come forth Joh. 5.28 And this is the Fathers will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should Raise it up at the last Day Joh. 6.39 And that every one that beleeveth on the Son may have Everlasting Life and he will raise him up at the last Day Vers. 40. If the prayers of the Prophet could raise the Shunamites Dead Childe and if the dead Souldier revive at the touch of the Prophets bones How certainly shall the will of Christ and the power of his death raise us That voyce that said to Jairus Daughter Arise and to Lazarus Arise and come forth can do the like for us If his death immediately raised the dead bodies of many Saints in Jerusalem If he gave power to his Apostles to raise the Dead Then what doubt of our Resurrection And thus Christian thou seest that Christ having sanctified the Grave by his burial and conquered Death and broke the Ice for us a dead Body and a Grave is not now so horrid a spectacle to a beleeving Eye But as our Lord was neerest his Resurrection and Glory when he was in the Grave even so are we And he that hath promised to make our bed in sickness will make the dust as a bed of Roses Death shall not dissolve the Union betwixt him and us nor turn away his affections from us But in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the stone and unseal our Graves and reach us his hand and deliver us alive to our Father Why then doth the approach of Death so cast thee down O my Soul and why art thou thus disquieted within me The Grave is not Hell if it were yet there is thy Lord present and thence should his Merit and Mercy fetch thee out Thy sickness is not unto death though I dye but for the Glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified thereby Say not then He lifteth me up to cast me down and hath raised me high that my fall may be the Lower But he casts me down that he may lift me up and layeth me low that I may rise the higher An hundred experiences have sealed this Truth unto thee That the greatest dejections are intended but for advantages to thy greatest dignity and thy Redeemers Glory SECT III. THe third part of this Prologue to the Saints Rest is the publick and solemn process at their Judgment where they shall first themselves be acquit and justified and then with Christ judg the World Publick I may well call it for all the world must there appear Young and old of all estates and Nations that ever were from the Creation to that day must here come and receive their doom The judgment shal be set and the books opened the book of Life produced and the Dead shall be judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and whosoever is not found written in the book of Life is cast into the lake of fire O Terrible O Joyful Day Terrible to those that have let their Lamps go out and have not watched but forgot the coming of their Lord Joyful to the Saints whose waiting and hope was to see this day Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of the Lord on them who perish severity but to his chosen goodness When every one must give account of his stewardship And every Talent of Time Health Wit Mercies Afflictions Means Warnings must be reckoned for When the sins of youth and those which they had forgotten and their secret sins shall all be layd open before Angels and men When they shall see all their Friends wealth old delights all their confidence and false hopes of Heaven to forsake them When they shall see the Lord Jesus whom they neglected whose Word
admire that patience could bear so long and justice suffer him to live Sure he will admire at this alteration when he shall finde by experience that unworthinesse could not hindâ—r his salvation which he thought would have bereaved him of every mercy Ah Christian There 's no talk of our worthiness nor unwornesse If worthiness were our condition for admittance we might sit down with S. John and weep because none in heaven or earth is found worthy But the Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy and hath prevailed by that title must we hold the inheritance We shal offer there the offering that David refused even praise for that which cost us nothing Here our Commission runs Freely ye have received Freely give But Christ hath dearly received yet Freely gives The master heals us of our leprosie freely but Gehazi who had no finger in the cure will surely run after us and take somthing of us and falsly pretend it is his masters pleasure The Pope and his servants will be paid for their Pardons and Indulgencies But Christ will take nothing for his The fees of the Prelats Courts were large and our CoÌ„mutation of Penance must cost our purses dear or else we must be cast out of the Synagogue and soul and body delivered up to the Devil But none are shut out of that Church for want of money nor is poverty any eye-sore to Christ An empty heart may bar them out but an empty purse cannot His Kingdom of Grace hath ever been more consistent with despised poverty then wealth and honour and riches occasion the difficulty of entrance far more then want can do For that which is highly esteemed among men is despised with God And so is it also The poor of the world rich in faith whom God hath chosen to be heires of that Kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him I know the true labourer is worthy of his hire And they that serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar And it is not fit to muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the corne And I know it is either hellish malice or penurious baseness or ignorance of the weight of their work and burthen that makes their maintenance so generally Incompetent and their very livelihood and subsistance so envied and grudged at and that it 's a meer plot of the Prince of darkness for the diversion of their thoughts that they must be studying how to get bread for their own and childrens mouths when they should be preparing the bread of life for their peoples souls But yet let me desire the right aiming Ministers of Christ to consider what is expedient as well as what is lawfull and that the saving of one soul is better then a thousand pound a year and our gain though due is a cursed gain which is a stumbling block to our peoples souls Let us make the Free-Gospell as little burthensome and chargeable as is possible I had rather never take their Tythes while I live then by them to destroy the souls for whom Christ dyed and though God hath ordained that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell yet I had rather suffer all things then hinder the Gospell and it were better for me to dye then that any man should make this my glorying voyd Though the well-leading Elders be worthy of double honour especially the laborious in the word and doctrine yet if the necessity of Souls and the promoting of the Gospel should require it I had rather preach the Gospell in hunger and ragges then rigidly contend for what 's my due And if I should do so yet have I not whereof to Glory for necessity is laid upon me yea wo be to me if I preach not the Gospell though I never received any thing from men How unbeseeming the messengers of this Free-Grace and Kingdom is it rather to lose the hearts and souls of their people then to lose a groat of their due And rather to exasperate them against the message of God then to forbear somewhat of their right And to contend with them at law for the wages of the Gospell And to make the glad-tidings to their yet carnall hearts seem to be sad tidings because of this burthen This is not the way of Christ and his Apostles nor according to the self denying yeelding suffering Doctrine which they taught Away with all those actions that are against the main end of our studies and calling which is to win souls and fie upon that gain which hinders the gaining of men to Christ. I know flesh will here object necessities and distrust will not want arguments but we who have enough to answer to the diffidence of our people let us take home some of our answers to our selves and teach our selves first before we teach them How many have you known that God suffered to starve in his Vineyard But this is our exceeding consolation That though we may pay for our Bibles and Books and Sermons and it may be pay for our freeâ—dom to enjoy and use them yet as we paid nothing for Gods eternal Love and nothing for the Son of his Love and nothing for his Spirit and our grace and faith and nothing for our pardon so we shal pay nothing for our eternal Rest. We may pay for the bread and wine but we shal not pay for the body and blood nor for the great things of the Covenant which it seals unto us And indeed we have a valuable price to give for those but for these we have none at all Yet this is not all If it were only for nothing and without our merit the wonder were great but it is moreover against our merit and against our long endeavoring of our own ruine Oh the broken heart that hath known the desert of sin doth both understand and feel what I say What an astonishing thought it will be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and our receivings between the state we should have been in and the state we are in To look down upon Hell and see the vast difference that free-grace hath made betwixt us and them to see the inheritance there which we were born to so different from that which we are adopted to Oh what pangs of love will it cause within us to think yonder was my native right my deserved portion those should have been my hideous cries my doleful groans my easless pains my endless torment Those unquenchable flames I should have layen in that never dying worm should have fed upon me yonder was the place that sin would have brought me to but this is it that Christ hath bought me to Yonder death was the wages of my sin but this Eternal life is the Gift of God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Did not I neglect Grace and make light of the offers of Life and sleight my Redeemers Blood a long time as well as yonder suffering
that there was a fight at York c. to be of God though wicked men were the chief witnesses For I take it for an undeniable Maxime That there is no Truth but of God onely it is derived unto us by various means SECT V. 2. ANd as I have evideently discovered the full certainty of this Testimony of man concerning the forementioned matter of Fact So I will shew you why I chuse this for my first and main Argument and also that no man can believe without the foresaid Humane Testimony First then I demanded with my self By what Argument did Moses and Christ evince to the world the verity of their Doctrine And I finde it was chiefly by this of Miracles and sure Christ knew the best Argument to prove the divine Authority of his Doctrine and that which was the best then is the best still If our selves had lived in the dayes of Christ should we have believed a poor man to have been God the Saviour the Judg of the world without Miracles to prove this to us Nay would it have been our duty to have believed Doth not Christ say If I had not done the Works that no man else could do ye had not had sin That is Your not believing me to be the Messias had been no sin For no man is bound to believe that which was never convincingly revealed And to tell you my thoughts If you will but pardon the novelty of the Interpretation I think that this is it which is called the sin against the Holy Ghost when men will not be convinced by Miracles that Jesus is the Christ. That which some Divines judg to be the sin against the Holy Ghost an opposing the known Truth onely out of malice against it It s a Question whether Humane Nature be capable of it And whether all Humane opposition to Truth be not through ignorance or prevalency of the sensual lusts And so all malice against Truth is onely against it as conceived to be Falshood or else as it appeareth an enemy to our sensual desires Else how doth mans Understanding as it is an Understanding naturally chuse Truth either real or appearing for its object So that I think none can be guilty of malice against Truth as Truth And to be at emnity with Truth for opposing our sensuality is a sin that every man in the world hath been in some measure guilty of And indeed our Divines do so define the sin against the Holy Ghost that I could never yet understand by their definition what it might be some placing it in an Act incompatible with the Rational soul and others making it but gradually to differ from other sins which hath cast so many into terror of soul because they could never finde out that graduall difference The sense of the place which the whole context if you view it deliberately will shew you seems to me to be this As if Christ had said While you believed not the Testimony of the Prophets yet there was hope The Testimony of John Baptist might have convinced you yea when you believed not John yet you might have been convinced by my own Doctrine Yea though you did not believe my Doctrine yet there was hope you might have been convinced by my Miracles But when you accuse them to be the works of Beelzebub and ascribe the work of the Divine Power or Spirit to the Prince of Devils what more hope I will after my Ascention send the Holy Ghost upon my Disciples that they may work Miracles to convince the world that they who will believe no other Testimony may yet through this believe But if you sin against this Holy Ghost that is if they will not believe for all these Miracles for the Scripture frequently calls Faith by the name of Obedience and Unbelief by the name of sin there is no other more convincing Testimony left and so their sin of unbelief is incurable and consequently unpardonable And therefore he that speaketh against the son of Man that is denieth his Testimony of himself it shall be forgiven him if he yet believe by this Testimony of the Spirit but they that continue unbelievers for all this and so reproach the Testimony that should convince them as you do shall never be forgiven because they cannot perform the condition of forgiveness This I think to be the sense of the Text And the rather when I consider what sin it was that these Pharisees committed for sure that which is commonly judged to be the sin against the Holy Ghost I no where finde that Christ doth accuse them of but the Scripture seemeth to speak on the contrary that through ignorance they did it for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory And indeed it is a thing to me altogether incredible that these Pharisees should know Christ to be the Messiah whom they so desirously expected and to be the Son of God and judg of all men and yet to crucifie him through meer malice charge them not with this till you can shew some Scripture that chargeth them with it Obiect Why then there is no sin against the Holy Ghost now Miracles are ceased Answ. Yes though the Miracles are ceased yet their Testimony doth still live The death and Resurrection of Christ are past and yet men may sin against that death and Resurrection So that I think when men will not believe that Jesus is the Christ though they are convinced by undeniable Arguments of the Miracles which both himself and his disciples wrought this is now the sin against the Holy Ghost And therefore take heed of slighting this argument SECT VI. SEcondly And here I would have those men who cannot endure this resting upon humane Testimony to consider of what necessity it is for the producing of our Faith Something must be taken upon trust from man whether they will or no and yet no uncertainty in our Faith neither First The meer illiterate man must take it upon trust that the book is a Bible which he heares read for els he knows not but it may be some other book Secondly That those words are in it which the Reader pronounceth Thirdly That it is translated truly out of the originall languages Fourthly That the Hebrew and Greek Copies out of which it was translated are true Authentick Copies Fifthly That it was originally written in these languages Sixthly Yea and the meaning of divers Scripture passages which cannot be understood without the knowledg of Jewish customes of Chronologie of Geography c. though the words were never so exactly translated All these with many more the vulgar must take upon the word of their Teachers And indeed a faith meerly humane is a necessary preparative to a faith Divine in respect of some means and Praecognita necessary thereto If a Scholar will not take his masters word that such letters have such or such a power or do spell so or so or
which will never be quite broken but will be the beginning of thy everlasting Peace and not perish in thy perishing as the groundless peace of the world will do SECT V. FOurthly Another additionall loss aggravating their loss of Heaven is this They shall lose all their carnall Mirth Their merry vein will then be opened and emptied They will say themselves as Solomon doth of their laughter Thou wast mad and of their Mirth What didst thou Eccl. 2.2 Their witty jests and pleasant conceits are then ended and their merry tales are all told Their mirth was but as the crackling of throns under a pot Eccles. 7.6 It made a great blaze and unseemly noise for a little while but it was presently gone and will return no more They scorned to entertain any saddening thoughts the talk of death and Judgment was irksome to them because it dampt their mirth they could not endure to think of their sin or danger because these thoughts did sad their spirits They knew not what it was to weep for sin or to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God They could laugh away sorrow and sing away cares and drive away these Melancholy thoughts They thought if they should live so austerely and meditate and pray and mourn as the godly do their lives would be a continuall misery and it were enough to make them run mad Alas poor souls VVhat a misery then will that life be where you shall have nothing but sorrow Intense heart-piercing multiplied sorrow VVhen you shall have neither the Joyes of the Saints nor your own former Joyes Do you think there is one merry heart in hell or one joyfull countenance or jesting tongue You cry now A little mirth is worth a great deal of sorrow But sure a little godly sorrow which would have ended in eternal Joy had been more worth then a great deal of your foolish mirth which will end in sorrow Can men of gravity run laughing and playing in the streets as little children do or wise men laugh at a mischief as fools and mad men Or men that are sound in the brain fall a dauncing as they will do in a Viti Saltus till they fall down dead with it No more pleasure have wise men in your pittifull mirth For the end of such mirth is sorrow SECT VI. FIfthly Another additional loss will be this They shall lose all their sensuall contentments and delights That which they esteemed their chiefest good their heaven their God that must they lose as well as Heaven and God himself They shall then in despite of them fulfil that command which here they would not be perswaded to obey Rom. 13.14 of making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof O what a fall will the proud ambitious man have from the top of his honors As his dust and bones will not be known from the dust and bones of the poorest beggar so neither will his soul be honoured or favoured any more then theirs VVhat a number of Right Honourable Lords Right VVorshipful Kinghts and Gentlemen Right Reverend Fathers and Learned Doctors are now shut out of the presence of Christ If you say How can I tell that VVhy I answer because their judg hath told me so Hath he not said by his Apostle 1 Cor. 1.26 That not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called And if they be not called they be not predestinate or justified or glorified Rom. 8.30 Sure that rich man Luk. 16. hath now no humble obeysance done him nor titles of honor put upon him nor do the poor now wait at his gates to receive of his scraps They must be shut out of their wel-contrived houses and sumptuous buildings their comely Chambers with costly hangings their soft beds and easie couches They shall not finde there their gallant walks their curious Gardens with varity of beauteous odoriferous fruits and flowers their rich Pastures and pleasant Meadows and plenteous Harvest and Flocks and Herds Their tables will not be so spread and furnished nor they so punctually attended and observed They have not there variety of Dainty fare now severall courses nor tempting dishes prepared to please their appetites to the full the rich man there fareth not deliciously every day Neither shall he wear there his purple and fine linnen The jetting gorgeous well drest gallant that must not have a pin amiss that stands as a picture set to sale that take themselves more beholden to the Tailor or Semster for their comeliness then to God they shall then be quite in a different garb There is no powdering or curling of the hair nor eying of themselves nor desirous expecting the admiration of beholders Sure our voluptuous youths must leave their Cards and Dice behinde them as also their Hawks and Hounds and Bowls and all their former pleasant sports They shall then spend their time in a more sad imployment and not in such pastimes as these Where will then be your Maygames and your Morrice daunces your Stage Playes and your Shewes What mirth will you have in remembring all the Games and Sports and Dauncings which you had on the Lords Days when you should have been delighting your selves in God and his work O what an alteration will our Joviall roaring swaggerers then finde What bitter draughts they will have in stead of their Wine and Ale If there were any drinking of healths the Rich man would not have begged so hard for a drop of water The heat of their lust will be then abated They shall not spend their time in courting their Mistresses in lascivious discourse in amorous songs in wanton dalliance in their lustful embracements or brutish defilements Yet they are like enough to have each others company there But they will have no more comfort in that company then Zimri and Cosbi in dying together or then lewd companions have in being hanged together on the same Gallows O the doleful meeting that these lustful wantons will have there How it will even cut them to the heart to look each other in the face And to remember that beastly pleasure for which they now must pay so dear So will it be with the Fellowship of Drunkards and all others that were play-fellows together in sin who got not their pardon in the time of their lives VVhat a direful greeting will there then be Cursing the day that ever they saw the faces of one another Remembring and ripping up all their lewdness to the aggravation of their torment O that sinners would reâ—member this in the midst of their pleasure and jollity And say to one another VVe must shortly reckon for this before the jealous God VVill the remembrance of it then be comfortable or terrible VVill these delights accompany us to another world How shall we look each other in the faces if we meet in Hell together for these things VVill not the memoriall of them be then our torment
Serious in perswading your Souls to the Obedience of Christ They beg of God they beg of you they hope they wait and long more for the Conversion and Salvation of your Souls then they do for any worldly good You are their boasting their Crown and Joy 1 Thess. 2.19 20. Your stedfastness in Christ they value as their lives 1 Thess. 3.8 They are content to be offered up in the service of your Faith Phil. 2.17 If they kill themselves with Study and Preaching or if they suffer Martyrdom for preaching the Gospel they think their lives are well bestowed so that their preaching do but prevail for the saving of your Souls And shall other men be so painful and careful for your Salvation and should you be so careless and negligent of your own Is it not a Serious Charge that is given to Ministers in 2 Tim. 4.1 And a Serious Pattern that is given them in Act. 20.20 31. Surely no man can be bound to be more Serious and Painful for the welfare of another then he is bound to be for himself 6. How Serious and Diligent are all the Creatures in their Service to thee What haste makes the Sun to compass the World and how truly doth it return at its appointed hour So do the Moon and other Planets The Springs are always flowing for thy use The Rivers still running The Spring and Harvest keep their times How hard doth thy Ox labor for thee from day to day How painfully and speedily doth thy Horse bear thee in travel And shall all these be laborious and thou onely negligent Shall they all be so Serious in serving thee and yet thou be so sleightly in thy Service to God 7. Consider The Servants of the World and the Devil are Serious and Diligent They ply their work continually with unweariedness and delight as if they could never do enough They make haste and march furiously as if they were afraid of coming to Hell too late They bear down Ministers and Sermons and Counsel and all before them And shal they do more for the Devil then thou wilt do for God Or be more diligent for Damnation then thou wilt be for Salvation Hast not thou a better Master and sweeter Employment and greater Encouragements and a better Reward 8. The time was when thou wast Serious thy self in thy Service to Satan and the Flesh if it be not so yet Dost thou not remember how eagerly thou didst follow thy Sports or how violently thou wast addicted to customs or evil company or sinful delights or how earnestly thou wast bent after thy profits or rising in the world And wilt thou not now be more earnest and violent for God What profit hadst thou then in those things whereof thou art now ashamed for the end of those things is Death But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the End everlasting Life Rom. 6.21 22. 9. You are yet to this day in good earnest about the matters of this life If you are sick what Serious Groans and Complaints do you utter All the Town shall quickly know it if your pain be great If you are poor how hard do you labor for your living lest your Wife and Children should starve or famish If one fall down in a swoun in the house or street or in the Congregation how seriously will you run to relieve and recover them And is not the business of your Salvation of far greater moment Are you not poor and should you not then be laborers Are you not in fight for your lives and is it time to sleep Are you not in a race and is not the prize the Crown of Glory and should you then sit still or take your ease 10. There is no Jesting in Heaven nor in Hell The Saints have a Real Happiness and the Damned a Real Misery The Saints are Serious and high in their Joy and Praise and the Damned are Serious and deep in their Sorrow and Complaints There are no remiss or sleepy Praises in Heaven nor any remiss or sleepy Lamentations in Hell All men there are in good sadness And should we not then be Serious now Reader I dare promise thee the thoughts of these things will shortly be Serious thoughts with thy self When thou comest to Death or Judgment Oh what deep heart-piercing thoughts wilt thou have of Eternity Methinks I fore-see thee already astonished to think how thou couldst possibly make so light of these things Methinks I even hear thee crying out of thy stupidity and madness SECT XXIII ANd now Reader having laid thee down these undeniable Arguments I do here in the name of God demand thy Resolution What sayst thou Wilt thou yeeld obedience or not I am confident thy Conscience is convinced of thy Duty Darest thou now go on in thy common careless course against the plain Evidence of Reason and Commands of God and against the light of thy own Conscience Darest thou live as loosely and sin as boldly and pray as seldom and as coldly as before Darest thou now as carnally spend the Sabbath and slubber over the Service of God as sleightily and think of thine Everlasting state as carelesly as before Or dost thou not rather resolve to gird up the loins of thy minde and to set thy self wholy about the work of thy Salvation and to do it with all thy strength and might and to break over all the oppositions of the world and to sleight all their scorns and persecutions to cast off the weight that hangeth on thee and the sin that doth so easily beset thee and to run with patience and speed the race that is before thee I hope these are thy full Resolutions if thou be well in thy wits I am sure they are Yet because I know the strange obstinacy and Rockiness of the heart of man and because I would fain drive this nail to the head and leave these perswasions fastened in thy heart that so if it be possible thou mightest be awakened to thy Duty and thy Soul might live I shall therefore proceed with thee yet a little further And I once more intreat thee to stir up thy attention and go along with me in the free and sober use of thy Reason while I propound to thee these following Questions And I command thee from God that thou stifle not thy Conscience and resist not conviction but Answer them faithfully and obey accordingly SECT XXIV 1 Quest. IF you could grow Rich by Religion or get Lands and Lordships by being diligent in godliness or if you could get honor or preferment by it in the world or could be recovered from sickness by it or could live for ever in prosperity on Earth What kind of lives would you then lead and what pains would you take in the Service of God And is not the Rest of the Saints a more excellent Happiness then all this 2 Quest.
If the Law of the Land did punish every breach of the Sabbath or every omission of family duties or secret duties or every cold and heartless prayer with Death If it were Felony or Treason to be ungodly and negligent in Worship and loose in your lives What manner of persons would you then be and what lives would you lead And is not Eternal death more terrible then temporal 3 Quest. If it were Gods ordinary course to punish every sin with some present Judgment so that every time a man swears or is drunk or speaks a lye or back-biteth his neighbor he should be struck dead or blind or lame in the place If God did punish every cold prayer or neglect of duty with some remarkable plague what manner of persons would you then be If you should suddenly fall down dead like Ananias and Saphira with the sin in your hands or the plague of God should seize upon you as upon the Israelites while their sweet morsels were yet in their mouths If but a Mark should be set in the forehead of every one that neglected a duty or committed a sin What kind of lives would you then lead And is not Eternal Wrath more terrible then all this Give but Reason leave to speak 4 Quest. If one of your old acquaintance and companions in sin should come from the dead and tell you that he suffereth the Torments of Hell for those sins that you are guilty of and for neglecting those duties which you neglect and for living such a careless worldly ungodly life as you now live should therfore advise you to take another course If you should meet such a one in your Chamber when you are going to bed and he should say to you Oh take heed of this carnal unholy life Set your self to seek the Lord with all your might neglect not your Soul Prepare for Eternity that you come not to the place of Torment that I am in How would this take with you and what manner of persons would you afterwards be It is written in the life of Bruno that a Doctor of great note for learning and godliness being dead and being brought to the Church to be buried while they were in their Popish Devotions and came to the words Responde mihi the Corps arose in the Beir and with a terrible voyce cryed out Justo Dei Judicio accusatus sum I am accused at the Just Judgment of God At which voyce the people run all out of Church affrighted On the morrow when they came again to perform the Obsequies at the same words as before the Corps arose again and cryed with a hideous voyce Justo Dei Judicio Judicatus sum I am Judged at the righteous Judgment of God Whereupon the people run away again amazed The third day almost all the City came together and when they came to the same words as before the Corps rose again and cryed with a more doleful voyce then before Justo Dei Judicio Condemnatus sum I am Condemned at the Just Judgment of God The consideration whereof that a man reputed so upright should yet by his own confession be damned caused Bruno and the rest of his companions to enter into that strict order of the Carthusians If the voyce of the dead man could affright them into Superstition should not the warnings of God affright thee into true Devotion 5 Quest. If you knew that this were the last day you had to live in the world how would you spend this day If you were sure when you go to bed that you should never rise again would not your thoughts of another life be more serious that night If you knew when you are praying that you should never pray more would you not be more earnest and importunate in that prayer Or if you knew when you are preaching or hearing or exhorting your sinful acquaintance that this were the last opportunity you should have would you not ply it more closely then usually you do Why you do not know but it may be the last and you are sure your last is near at hand 6 Quest. If you had seen the general dissolution of the world and all the pomp and glory of it consumed to ashes If you saw all on a fire about you sumptuous buildings Cities Kingdoms Land Water Earth Heaven all flaming about your ears If you had seen all that men labored for and sold their Souls for gone friends gone the place of your former abode gone the history ended and all come down what would such a sight as this perswade you to do Why such a sight thou shalt certainly see I put my Question to thee in the words of the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should say We cannot possibly conceive or express what manner of persons we should be in all holiness and godliness when we do but think of the sudden and certain and terrible dissolution of all things below 7 Quest. What if you had seen the process of the Judgment of the great day If you had seen the Judgment set and the Books opened and the most stand trembling on the left hand of the Judg and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects and remembring them of all their former slightings of his grace and at last condemning them to perpetual perdition If you had seen the godly standing on the right hand and Jesus Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience and adjudging them to the possession of the Joy of their Lord What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this Why this sight thou shalt one day see as sure as thou livest And why then should not the fore-knowledg of such a day awake thee to thy duty 8 Quest. What if you had once seen Hell open and all the damned there in their easeless Torments and had heard them crying out of their sloathfulness in the day of their visitation and wishing that they had but another life to live and that God would but try them once again One crying out of his neglect of duty and another of his loitering and trifling when he should have been labouring for his life What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this What if you had seen Heaven opened as Stephen did and all the Saints there triumphing in Glory and enjoying the End of their labours and sufferings What a life would you lead after such a sight as this Why you will see this with your eyes before it be long 9 Quest. What if you had lien in Hell but one year or one day or hour and there felt all those Torments that now you do but hear of
those that were my delight and that I looked for daily comfort and refreshing from when these shall be my grief and as thorns in my sides who can bear it Answ. 1. Who ever is the instrument the Affliction is from God and the provoking cause from thy self And were it not fitter then that thou look more to God and thy self 2. Didst thou not know that the best men are still sinful in part and that their hearts are naturally deceitful and desperately wicked as well as others And this being but imperfectly cured so far as they are fleshly the fruits of the flesh will appear in them which are strife hatred variance emulations wrath seditions heresies envyings c. So far the best is as a brier and the most upright of them sharper then a thorny hedg Learn therefore a better use from the Prophet Micah 7.4 5 6 7. Trust not too much in a friend nor put confidence in a guide Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom c. But look rather for the Lord and wait for the God of thy Salvation It is likely thou hast given that Love and Trust to Saints which was due onely to God or which thou hast denied him and then no wonder if he chastise thee by them Or perhaps the observation of the excellencies of Grace hath made thee forget the vileness of Nature and therefore God will have thee take notice of both Many are tender of giving too much to the dead Saints that yet give too much to the living without scruple Till thou hast learned to suffer from a Saint as well as from the Wicked and to be abused by the Godly as well as the Ungodly never look to live a contented or comfortable life nor never think thou hast truly learned the Art of Suffering Do not think that I vilifie the Saints too much in so saying I confess it is pity that Saints must suffer from Saints And it is quite contrary to their holy Nature and their Masters Laws who hath left them his Peace and made Love to be the Character of his Disciples and to be the first and great and new Commandment And I know that there is much difference between them and the world in this point But yet as I said they are Saints but in part and therefore Paul and Barnabas may so fall out as to part asunder and upright Asa may imprison the Prophet call it persecution or what you please Josephs Brethren that cast him into a pit and sold him to strangers for a slave I hope were not all ungodly Jobs wife and friends were sad comforters Davids Enemy was his familiar friend with whom he had taken sweet counsel and they had gone up together to the House of God And know also that thy own nature is as bad as theirs and thou art as likely thy self to be a grief to others Can such ulcerous leprous sinners as the best are live together and not infest and molest each other with the smell of their sores Why if thou be a Christian thou art a dayly trouble to thy self and art molested more with thy own corruptions then with any mans else And dost thou take it so hainously to be molested with the frailties of others when thou canst not forbear doing more against thy self For my part for all our Graces I rather admire at that wisdom and goodness of God that maintaineth that order and union amongst us as is and that he suffereth us not to be still one anothers executioners and to lay violent hands on our selves and each other I dare not think that there is no one gracious that hath labored to destroy others that were so in these late dissentions Sirs you do not half know yet the mortal wickedness of depraved Nature If the best were not more beholden to the Grace of God without them then to the habitual Grace within them you should soon see That men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be put in the ballance they are lighter then vanity it self Psal. 62.7 8 9. For what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints and the Heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity like water Job 15.14 15 16. Object 5. Oh but if I had that consolation which you say God reserveth for our suffering times I should suffer more contentedly but I do not perceive any such thing Answ. 1. The more you suffer for Righteousness sake the more of this blessing you may expect and the more you suffer for your own evil doing the longer you must look to stay till that sweetness come When we have by our folly provoked God to chastise us shall we presently look that he should fill us with comfort That were as Mr Paul Bayn saith to make Affliction to be no Affliction What good would the bitterness do us if it be presently drowned in that sweetness It is well in such sufferings if you have but supporting Grace and your sufferings sanctified to work out your sin and bring you to God 2. Do you not neglect or resist the comforts which you desire God hath filled Precepts and Promises and other of his Providences with matter of comfort If you will over-look all these and make nothing of them and pore all upon your sufferings and observe one cross more then a thousand mercies who maketh you uncomfortable but your selves If you resolve that you will not be comfortable as long as any thing aileth your flesh you may stay till death before you have comfort 3. Have your Afflictions wrought kindly with you and fited you for comfort Have they humbled you and brought you to a faithful confession and reformation of your beloved sin and made you set close to your neglected Duties and weaned your hearts from their former Idols and brought them unfeignedly to take God for their Portion and their Rest If this be not done how can you expect Comfort Should God binde up the sore while it festereth at the bottom It is not meer Suffering that prepares you for Comfort but the success and fruit of Sufferings upon your hearts I shall say no more on this Subject of Afflictions because so many have written on it already Among which I desire you especially to read Mr Bayns Letters and Mr Hughes his Dry Rod blooming and fruit-bearing and Young's COUNTERPOYSON CHAP. XI An Exhortation to those that have got Assurance of this Rest or title to it that they would do all that possibly they can to help others to it also The fifth Vse SECT I. HAth God set before us such a glorious prize as this Everlasting Rest of the Saints is And hath he made man capable of such an unconceiveable Happiness Why then do not all the children of this
be an Ignorant carnal person that you have to deal with who is an utter stranger to the Mysteries of Religion and to the work of Regeneration on his own Soul the first thing you have to do is to acquaint him with these Doctrines Labour to make him understand wherein mans chief Happiness doth consist and how far he was once possessed of it and what Law and Covenant God then made with him and how he broke it and what penalty he incurred and what misery he brought himself into thereby Teach him what need men had of a Redeemer and how Christ in mercy did interpose and â—ear the penalty and what Covenant now he hath made with man and on what terms only Salvation is now to be attained and what course Christ taketh to draw men to himself and what are the riches and priviledges that Believers have in him If when he understandeth these things he be not moved by them or if you find that the stop lieth in his will and affections and in the hardness of his heart and in the interest that the flesh and the world have got in him Then shew him the excellency of the Glory which he neglecteth and the intolerableness of the loss of it and the extremity and eternity of the torments of the damned and how certainly they must endure them and how just it is for their wilful refusals of grace and how hainâ—us a sin it is to reject such free and abundant mercy and to tread under foot the blood of the Covenant Shew him the certainty nearness and terrors of death and judgment and the vanity of all things below which now he is taken up with and how little they will bestead him in that time of his extremity Shew him that by nature he himself is a child of wrath and enemy to God and by actual sin much more Shew him the viâ—e and hainous nature of sin the absolute necessity he standeth in of a Saviour the freeness of the promise the fulness of Christ the sufficiency of his Satisfaction his readiness to receive all that are willing to be his the Authority and Dominion which he hath purchased over us Shew him also the absolute necessity of Regeneration Faith and Holiness of life how impossible it is to have Salvation by Christ without these and what they are and the true nature of them If when he understandeth all this you find his Soul inthralled in presumption and false hopes perswading himself that he is a true Believer and pardoned and reconciled and shall be saved by Christ and all this upon false grounds or meerly because he would have it so which is a common case Then urge him hard to examine his state shew him the necessity of trying the danger of being deceived the commonness and easiness of mistaking through the deceitfulness of the heart the extream madness of putting it to a blind adventure or of resting in negligent or wilful uncertainty Help him in trying himself Produce some undenyable Evidences from Scripture Ask him Whether these be in him or not Whether ever he found such workings or dispositions in his heart Urge him to a rational answer do not leave him till you have convinced him of his misery and then seasonably and wisely shew him the remedy If he produce some common gifts or duties or works know to what end he doth produce them If to joyn with Christ in composing him a Righteousness shew him how vain and destructive they are If it be by way of Evidence to prove his title to Christ shew him how far a common work may reach and wherein the Life of Christianity doth consist and how far he must go further if he will be Christ's disciple In the mean time that he be not discouraged with hearing of so high a measure shew him the way by which he must attain it be sure to draw him to the use of all means set him a hearing and reading the Word calling upon God accompanying the godly perswade him to leave his actual sin and to get out of all ways of temptation especially to forsake ungodly company and to wait patiently on God in the use of means and shew him the strong hopes that in so doing he may have of a blessing this being the way that God will be found in If you perceive him possessed with any prejudicate conceits against the godly and the way of holiness shew him their falshood and with wisdom and meekness answer his Objections If he be addicted to delay the duties he is convinced of or laziness and stupidity do endanger his Soul then lay it on the more powerfully and set home upon his heart the most piercing considerations and labour to fasten them as thorns in his conscience that he may find no ease or rest till he change his estate SECT IV. BUt because in all works the manner of doing them is of greatest moment and the right performance doth much further the success I will here adjoyn a few Directions which you must be sure to observe in this work of Exhortation for it is not every advice that useth to succeed nor any manner of doing it that will serve the turn Observe therefore these Rules 1. Set upon the work sincerely and with right intentions Let thy Ends be the Glory of God in the parties Salvation Do it not to get a name or esteem to thy self or to bring men to depend upon thee or to get thee followers Do not as many carnal Parents and Masters will do viz. rebuke their Children and Servants for those sins that displease them and are against their profit or their humors as disobedience unthriftiness unmannerliness c. and labour much to reform them in these but never seek in the right way that God hath appointed to save their Souls But be sure thy main end be to recover them from misery and bring them into the way of eternal Rest. SECT V. 2. DO it Speedily As you would not have them Delay their returning so do not you Delay to seek their return You are purposing long to speak to such an Ignorant neighbor and to deal with such a scandalous sinner and yet you have never done it Alas he runs on the score all this while he goes deeper in debt wrath is heaping up Sin taketh rooting Custom doth more fasten him Engagements to sin grow stronger and more numerous Conscience grows seared the heart grows hardened while you delay the Devil rules and rejoyceth Christ is shut out the Spirit is repulsed God is dayly dishonored his Law is violated he is without a Servant and that service from him which he should have the Soul continueth in a doleful state time runs on the day of visitation hasteth away death and judgment are even at the door and what if the man dye and miss of Heaven while you are purposing to teach him and help him to it What if he drop into hell while you are purposing to prevent
we would not plead with sinners with our tongues God locketh up the clouds because we have shut up our mouthes The earth is grown hard as Iron to us because we have hardened our hearts against our miserable neighbors The cryes of the poor for bread are lowd because our cryes against sin have been so low Sicknesses run apace from house to house and sweep away the poor unprepared inhabitants because we swept not out the sin that breedeth them When you look over the woful desolations in England how ready are you to cry out on them that were the causers of it But did you consider how deeply your selves are guilty And as Christ said in another case Luk. 19 40. If these should hold their peace the stones would speak So because we held our peace at the Ignorance ungodliness and wickedness of our places therefore do these plagues and Judgments speak 7. Consider What a thing it will be to look upon your poor friends eternally in those flames and to think that your neglect was a great cause of it and that there was a time when you might have done much to prevent it If you should there perish with them it would be no small aggravation of your torment If you be in Heaven it would sure be a sad thought were it possible that any sorrow could dwell there To hear a multitude of poor souls there cry out for ever O if you would but have told me plainly of my sin and danger and dealt roundly with me and set it home I might have scaped all this torment and been now in Rest O what a sad voice will this be 8. Consider What a Joy is it like to be in Heaven to you to meet those there whom you have been means to bring thither To see their faces and joyn with them for ever in the praises of God whom you were instruments to bring to the knowledge and obedence of Christ. What it will be then we know not But sure according to our present temper it would be no small Joy 9. Consider how many souls have we drawn into the way of damnation or at least hardened or setled in it And should we not now be more diligent to draw men to life There is not one of us but have had our companions in sin especially in the dayes of our Ignorance and unregeneracy We have enticed them or encouraged them to Sabbath-breaking drinking or revellings or dancings and stageplayes or wantonness and vanities if not to scorn and oppose the godly We cannot so easily bring them from sin again as we did draw them to it Many are dead already without any change discovered who were our companions in sin we know not how many are and will be in hell that we drew thither and there may curse us in their torments for ever And doth it not beseem us then to do as much to save men as we have done to destroy them and be merciful to some as we have been cruel to others 10. Consider how diligent are all the enemies of these poor souls to draw them to Hell And if no body be diligent in helping them to Heaven what is like to become of them The Divel is tempting them day and night Their inward lusts are still working and withdrawing them The flesh is still pleading for its delights and profits Their old companions are ready to entice them to sin and to disgrace Gods wayes and people to them and to contradict the doctrine of Christ that should save them and to encrease their prejudice and dislike of holiness Seducing Teachers are exceeding diligent in sowing tares and in drawing off the unstable from the doctrine and way of life so that when we have done all we can and hope we have won men what a multitude of late have after all been taken in this snare And shall a seducer be so unwearied in Proselyting poor ungrounded souls to his Fancies And shall not a sound Christian be much more unwearied in laboring to win men to Christ and Life 11. Consider The neglect of this doth very deeply wound when conscience is awaked When a man comes to dye conscience will ask him VVhat good hast thou done in thy life time The saving of souls is the greatest good work what hast thou done towards this How many hast thou dealt faithfully with I have oft observed that the consciences of dying men do very much wound them for this omission For my own part to tell you my experience when ever I have been neer death my conscience hath accused me more for this then for any sin It would bring every ignorant prophane neighbor to my remembrance to whom I never made known their danger It would tell me Thou shouldst have gone to them in private and told them plainly of their desperate danger without bashfulness or dawbing though it had been when thou shouldest have eaten or slept if thou hadst no other time Conscience would then remember me how at such a time or such a time I was in company with the ignorant or was riding by the way with a wilful sinner and had a fit opportunity to have dealt with them but did not or at least did it by the halves and to little purpose The Lord grant I may better obey conscience hereafter while I live and have time that it may have less to accuse me of at death 12. Consider further It is now a very seasonable time which you have for this work Take it therefore while you have it There are times wherein it is not safe to speak it may cost you your liberties or your lives It is not so now with us Besides your neighbours will be here with you but a very little while They will shortly dye and so must you Speak to them therefore while you may set upon them and give them no rest till you have prevailed Do it speedily for it must be now or never A Roman Emperor when he heard of a neighbor dead he asked And what did I do for him before he dyed and it grieved him that a man should dye neer him and it could not be said that he had first done him any good Me thinks you should think of this when you hear that any of your neighbors are dead But I had far rather while they are alive you would ask the question There is such and such a neighbor alas how many that are ignorant and ungodly what have I done or said that might have in it any likely-hood of recovering them They will shortly be dead and then it is too late 13. Consider this is a work of greatest charity and yet such as every one of you may perform If it were to give them moneys the poor have it not to give if to fight for them the weak cannot if it were to suffer the fearful will say they cannot But every one hath a tongue to speak to a sinner The poorest may be thus charitable as well as the
rich 14. Consider also the happy consequences of this work where it is faithfully done To name some 1. You may be instrumental in that blessed work of saving souls a work that Christ came down and died for a work that the Angels of God rejoyce in for saith the holy Ghost If any of you do erre from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5 19 20. And how can God more highly honor you then to make you instruments in so great a work 2. Such souls will bless you here and hereafter They may be angry with you at first but if your words prevail and succeed they will bless the day that ever they knew you and bless God that sent you to speak to them 3. If you succeed God will have much glory by it He will have one more to value and accept of his Son on whom Christs bloud hath attained its ends He will have one more to love him and daily worship and fear him and to do him service in his Church 4. The Church also will have gain by it There will be one less provoker of wrath and one more to strive with God against Sin and Judgment and to engage against the Sinners of the Times and to win others by Doctrine and Example If thou couldest but convert one persecuting Saul he might become a Paul and do the Church more service then ever thou didst thy self however the healing of Sinners is the surest method for preventing or removing of Judgments 5. It is the way also to the purity and flourishing of the Church and to the right erecting and executing the Discipline of Christ if men would but do what they ought with their neighbours in private what a help would it be to the success of the Publike endeavors of the Ministry and what hope might we have that daily some would be added to the Church and if any be obstinate yet this is the first course that must be taken to reclaim them who dare separate from them or excommunicate them before they have been first throughly admonished and instructed in private according to Christs Rule Matth. 18.15 16. 6. It bringeth much advantage to your selves First It will increase your graces both as it is a course that God will bless and as it is an acting of them in this perswading of others He that will not let you lose a cup of water which is given for him will not let you lose these greater works of Charity Besides those that have practised this duty most conscionably do finde by experience that they never go on more speedily and prosperously towards heaven then when they do most to help others thither with them It is not here as with worldly treasure the more you give away the less you have but here the more you give the more you have The setting forth Christ in his fulness to others will warm your own hearts and stir up your love The opening of the evil and danger of sin to others will increase your hatred of it and much engage your selves against it Secondly And it seemeth that it will increase your Glory as well as your Grace both as a duty which God will so reward For those that convert many to Righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 and also as we shall there behold them in heaven and be their associates in blessedness whom God made us here the instruments to convert Thirdly However it will give us much peace of Conscience whether we succeed or not to think that we vvere faithful and did our best to save them and that vve are clear from the bloud of all men and their perishing shall not lye upon us Fourthly Besides that is a vvork that if it succeed doth exceedingly rejoyce an honest heart He that hath any sense of Gods Honor or the least affection to the soul of his brother must needs rejoyce much at his conversion vvhosoever be the Instrument but especially vvhen God maketh our selves the means of so blessed a vvork If God make us the Instuments of any temporal good it is very comfortable but much more of eternal good There is naturally a rejoycing followeth every good work answerable to the degree of its goodness â—e that doth most good hath usually the most happy and comfortable life If men knew the pleasure that there is in doing good they vvould not seek after their pleasure so much in evil for my own part it is an unspeakable comfort to me that God hath made me an instrument for the recovering of so many from bodily diseases and saving their natural lives but all this is yet nothing to the comfort I have in the success of my labors in the conversion and confirmation of souls it is so great a joy to me that it drowneth the painfulness of my daily duties and the trouble of my daily languishing and bodily griefs and maketh all these with all oppositions and difficulties in my work to be easie and as nothing and of all the personal mercies that ever I received next to his love in Christ and to my soul I must most joyfully bless him for the plenteous success of my endeavors upon others O what fruits then might I have seen if I had been more faithful and plied the work in private and publike as I ought I know we have need to be very jealous of our deceitful hearts in this point lest our rejoycing should come from our pride and self-ascribing Naturally we would every man be in the place of God and have the praise of every good work ascribed to our selves but yet to imitate our Father in goodness and mercy and to rejoyce in that degree we attain to is the part of every childe of God I tell you therefore to perswade you from my own experience that if you did but know what a joyful thing it is to be an instrument for the converting and saving of souls you would set upon it presently and follow it night and day through the greatest discouragements and resistance Fifthly I might also tell you of the honorableness of this work but I will pass by that lest I excite your pride instead of your zeal And thus I have shewed you what should move and perswade you to this duty Let me now conclude with a word of Intreaty First to all the godly in general Secondly To some above others in particular to set upon the conscionable performance of this most excellent Work CHAP. XII An advice to some more specially to help others to this Rest prest largely on Ministers and Parents SECT I. UP then every man that hath a tongue and is a Servant of Christ and do something of this your Masters Work Why hath he given you a tongue but to speak in his Service And how can you serve
If God were not more willing of our company then we are of his how long should we remain thus distant from him And as we had never been sanctified if God had stayed till we were willing so if he should refer it wholly to our selves it would at least be long before we should be glorified I confesse that Death of it self is not desirable but the souls Rest with God is to which death is the common passage And because we are apt to make light of this sin and to plead our common nature for to patronize it let me here set before you its aggravations and also propound some further considerations which may be useful to you and my self against it SECT II. ANd first consider What a deal of gross infidelity doth lurk in the bowels of this sin Either paganish unbelief of the truth of that eternal blessedness and of the truth of the Scripture which doth promise it to us or at least a doubting of our own interest or most usually somewhat of both these And though Christians are usually most sensible of the latter and therefore complain most against it yet I am apt to suspect the former to be the main radicall master sin and of greatest force in this business O if we did but verily believe that the promise of this glory is the word of God and that God doth truly mean as he speaks and is fully resolved to make it good if we did verily believe that there is indeed such blessedness prepared for believers as the Scripture mentioneth sure we should be as impatient of living as we are now fearful of dying and should think every day a yeer till our last day should come We should as hardly refrain from laying violent hands on our selvs or from the neglecting of the means of our health and life as we do now from overmuch carefulness and seeking of life by unlawful means If the eloquent oration of a Philosopher concerning the souls immortality and the life to come could make his affected hearer presently to cast himself head long from the rock as impatient of any longer delay what would a serious Christians belief do if Gods Law against self murder did not restrain Is it possible that we can truly believe that death will remove us from misery to such glory and yet be loth to dye If it were the doubts of our own interest which did fear us yet a true belief of the certainty and excellency of this Rest would make us restless till our interest be cleared If a man that is desperately sick to day did believe he should arise sound the next morning or a man to day in despicable poverty had assurance that he should to morrow arise a prince would they be afraid to go to bed Or rather think it the longest day of their lives till that desired night and morning come The truth is though there is much faith and Christianity in our mouths yet there is much infidelity and paganisme in our hearts which is the maine cause that we are so loth to dye SECT III 3. ANd as the weakness of our Faith so also the coldness of our Love is exceedingly discovered by our unwillingness to dye Love doth desire the neerest conjunction the fullest fruition and closest communion Where these desires are absent there is only a naked pretence of Love He that ever felt such a thing as Love working in his brest hath also felt these desires attending it If we love our friend we love his company his presence is comfortable his absence is troublesome when he goes from us we desire his return when he comes to us we entertain him with welcome and gladness when he dyes we mourn and usually over-mourn to be separated from a faithful friend is to us as the renting of a member from our bodyes And would not our desires after God be such if we really loved him Nay should it not be much more then such as he is above all friends most lovely The Lord teach us to look closely to our hearts and take heed of self-deceit in this point For certainly what ever we pretend or conceit if we love either Father Mother Husband Wife Childe Friend Wealth or life more then Christ we are yet none of his sincere Disciples When it comes to the tryall the question will not be Who hath preached most or heard most or talked most but who hath loved most when our account is given in Christ will not take Sermons Prayers Fastings no nor the giving of our goods nor the burning of our bodies in stead of love 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 4 8 13. 16.22 Ephes. 6.24 And do we love him and yet care not how long we are from him If I be deprived of my bosom friend me thinks I am as a man in a wilderness solitary and disconsolate And is my absence from God no part of my trouble and yet can I take him for my chiefest friend If I delight but in some Garden or Walk or Gallery I would be much in it If I love my Books I am much with them and almost unweariedly poaring on them The food which I love I would often feed on the clothes that I love I would often wear the recreations which I love I would often use them the business which I love I would be much employed in And can I love God and that above all these and yet have no desires to be with him Is it not a far likelier sign of hatred then of love when the thoughts of our appearing before God are our most grievous thoughts and when we take our selves as undone because we must die and come unto him Surely I should scarce take him for an unfeigned friend who were as well contented to be absent from me as we ordinarily are to be absent from God Was it such a joy to Jacob to see the face of Joseph in Egypt and shall we so dread the sight of Christ in glory and yet say we love him I dare not conclude that we have no love at all when we are so loth to die But I dare say were our love more we should die more willingly Yea I dare say Did we love God but as strongly as a worldling loves his wealth or an ambitious man his honor or a voluptuous man his pleasure yea as a drunkard loves his swinish delight or an unclean person his bruitish lust We should not then be so exceeding loth to leave the world and go to God O if this holy flame of love were throughly kindled in our brests in stead of our pressing fears our dolorous complaints and earnest prayers against death we should joyn in Davids Wilderness-lamentations Psal. 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God The truth is As our knowledg of God is exceeding
the Joyes of God we continually fill them with perplexing fears For he that fears dying must be alwayes fearing because he hath alwayes cause to expect it And how can that mans life be comfortable who lives in continuul fear of loosing his comforts SECT XV. 5. MOreover all these are self-created sufferings As if it were not enough to be the deservers but we must also be the executioners of our own calamities As if God had not inflicted enough upon us but we must inflict more upon our selves Is not death bitter enough to the flesh of it self but we must double and treble and multiply its bitterness Do we complain so much of the burden of our troubles and yet daily add unto the weight Sure the state of poor mortals is sufficiently calamitous they need not make it so much worse The sufferings laid upon us by God do all lead to happy issues the progress is from suffering to patience from thence to experience and so to Hope and at last to Glory But the sufferings which we do make our selves have usually issues answerable to their causes The motion is Circular and endless from sin to suffering from suffering to sin and so to suffering again and so in infinitum And not onely so but they multiply in their course every sin is greater then the former and so every suffering also greater This is the natural progress of them which if mercy do intercept no thanks to us So that except we think that God hath made us to be our own tormentors we have small reason to nourish our fears of death SECT XVI 7. COnsider further they are all but useless unprofitable fears As all our care cannot make one hair white or black nor adde one cubit to our stature so neither can our fear prevent our sufferings nor delay our dying time an hour Willing or unwilling we must away Many a mans fears have hastened his end but no mans ever did avert it It s true a cauâ—eâ—one fear or care concerning the danger after death hath profited many and is very usefull to the preventing of that danger But for a member of Christ and an heir of Heaven to be afraid of entering his own inheritance this is a sinful useless fear SECT XVII 8. BUt though it be useless in respect of good yet to Sathan is it very serviceable Our â—ears of dying ensnare our souls and add strength to many temptations Nay when we are called to dye for Christ and put to it in a day of tryal it may draw us to deny the known truth and forsake the Lord God himself You look upon it now as a small sin a common frailty of humane nature But if you look to the dangerous consequents of it me thinks it should move you to other thoughts What made Peter deny his Lord what makes Apostates in suffering times forsake the truth and the green blade of unrooted faith to wither before the heat of persecution Fear of imprisoment and poverty may do much but fear of death will do much more When you see the Gibbet or hear the sentence if this fear of dying prevail in you you 'l strait begin to say as Peter I know not the man When you see the fagots set and fire ready you 'l say as that Apostate to the Martyr O the fire is hot and nature's frail forgeting that the fire of hell is hotter Sirs as light as you make of it you know not of what force these fears are to separate your souls from Jesus Christ. Have we not lately had frequent experience of it How many thousand have fled in fight and turned their back on a good cause where they knew the honour of God was concerned and their countreys welfare was the prize for which they fought and the hopes of their posterity did lye at the staâ—e and all through unworthy fear of dying Have we not known those who lying under a wounded conscience and living in the practice of some known sin durst scarce look the enemy in the face because they durst not look death in the face but have trembled and drawn back and cryed alas I dare not dye If I were in the case of such or such I durst dye He that dare not dye dare scarce fight valiantly Therefore we have seen in our late wars that there is none more valiant then these two sorts 1. Those who have conquered the fear of death by the power of Faith 2. And those who have extinguisht it by desperate prophanness and cast it away through stupid security So much fear as we have of death usually so much cowardize in the cause of God However its an evident temptation and snare Beside the multitude of unbelieving contrivances and discontents at the wise disposals of God and hard thoughts of most of his providences which this sin doth make us guilty of Besides also it looseth us much precious time and that for the most part neer our end When time should be most precious of all to us and when it should be imployed to better purpose then do we vainly and sinfully wast it in the fruitless issues of these distracting fears So that you see how dangerous a snare these fears are and how fruitful a parent of many evils SECT XVIII 9. COnsider what a competent time the most of us have had Some thirty some fourty some fifty or sixty yeers How many come to the grave younger for one that lives to the shortest of these Christ himself as is generally thought lived but thirty three yeers on earth If it were to come as it is past you would think thirty yeers a long time Did you not long ago in your threatning sickness think with your selves O if I might enjoy but one seven yeers more or ten yeers more And now you have enjoyed perhaps more then you then begged and are you nevertheless unwilling yet Except you would not die at all but desire an immortality here on Earth which is a sin inconsistent with the truth of Grace If your sorrow be meerly this That you are mortal you might as well have lamented it all your lives For sure you could never be ignorant of this Why should not a man that would dye at all be as well willing at thirty or fourty if God see it meet as at seventy or eighty nay usually when the longest day is come men are as loth to depart as ever He that looseth so many yeers hath more cause to bewail his own neglect then to complain of the shortness of his time and were better lament the wickedness of his life then the brevity Length of time doth not conquer corruption it never withers nor decayes through age Except we receive an addition of Grace as well as Time we naturally grow the older the worse Let us then be contented with our allotted proportion And as we are convinced that we should not murmure against our assigned degree of wealth
yet remember the heart is deceitful God is oft pretended vvhen our selves are inâ—ended But if this be it that sticks vvith thee indeed consider VVilt thou pretend to be vviser then God doth not he knovv hovv â—o provide for his Church Cannot he do his vvork vvithout thee or finde out instruments enough besides thee Think not too highly of thy self because God hath made thee useful Must the Church needs fall when thou art gone Art thou the foundation on which its built Could God take away a Moses an Aaron David Elias c. and finde supply for all their places and cannot he also finde supply for thine This is to derogate from God too much and to arrogate too much unto thy self Neither art thou so merciful as God nor canst love the Church so well as he As his interest is infinitely beyond thine so is his tender care and bounty But of this before Yet mistake me not in all that I have said I deny not but that it is lawful and necessary for a Christian upon both the forementioned grounds to desire God to delay his death both for a further opportunity of gaining assurance and also to be further serviceable to the Church But first This is nothing to their case who are still delaying and never willing whose true discontents are at death it self more then at the unseasonableness of dying Secondly Though such desires are sometimes lawful yet must they be carefully bounded and moderated to which end are the former considerations We must not be too absolute and peremptory in our desires but cheerfully yield to Gods disposal The rightest temper is that of Pauls to be in a streight between two desiring to depart and be with Christ and yet to stay while God will have us to do the Church the utmost service But alas we are seldom in this streight Our desires run out all one way and that for the flesh and not the Church Our streights are onely for fear of dying and not betwixt the earnest desires of dying and of living SECT XXIV OBject But is not death a punishment of God for sin Doth not Scripture call it the King of fears And Nature above all other evils abhor it Answ. I le not meddle with that which is controversal in this Whether Death be properly a punishment or not But grant that in it self considered it may be called Evil as being naturally the dissolution of the Creature Yet being sanctified to us by Christ and being the season and occasion of so great a Good as is the present possession of God in Christ it may be welcomed with a glad submission if not with desire Christ affords us grounds enough to comfort us against this natural Evil And therefore endues us with the principle of Grace to raise us above the reach of nature For all those low and poor Objections as leaving House Goods and Friends leaving our children unprovided c. I pass them over as of lesser moment then to take much with men of Grace SECT XXV LAstly Understand me in this also That I have spoke all this to the faithful soul. I perswade not the ungodly from fearing death It s a wonder rather that they fear it no more and spend not their days in continual horror as is said before Truly but that we know a stone is insensible and a hard heart is dead and stupid or else a man would admire how poor souls can live in ease and quietness that must be turned out of these bodies into everlasting flames Or that be not sure at least if they should die this night whether they shall lodg in Heaven or Hell the next especially when so many are called and so few chosen and the Righteous themselves are scarcely saved One would think such men should eat their bread with trembling and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking in the night and they should fall presently a searching themselves and enquiring of others and crying to God That if it were possible they might quickly be out of this danger and so their hearts be freed from horror For a man to quake at the thoughts of death that looks by it to be dispossessed of his happiness and knoweth not whether he is next to go this is no wonder But for the Saints to fear their passage by Death to Rest this is an unreasonable hurtful Fear CHAP. III. Motives to a Heavenly Life SECT I. WE have now by the guidance of the Word of the Lord and by the assistance of his Spirit shewed you the nature of the Rest of the Saints and acquainted you with some duties in relation thereto We come now to the close of all to press you to the great duty which I chiefly intended when I begun this subject and have here reserved it to the last place because I know hearers are usually of slippery memories yet apt to retain the last that is spoken though they forget all that went before Dear friends its pity that either you or I should forget any thing of that which doth so neerly concern us as this Eternal Rest of the Saints doth But if you must needs forget something let it be any thing else rather then this let it be rather all that I have hitherto said though I hope of better then this one ensuing Use. Is there a Rest and such a Rest remaining for us Why then are our thoughts no more upon it why are not our hearts continually there why dwell we not there in constant contemplation Sirs Ask your hearts in good earnest what is the cause of this neglect are we reasonable in this or are we not Hath the Eternal God provided us such a Glory and promised to take us up to dwell with himself and is not this worth the thinking on Should not the strongest desires of our hearts be after it and the daily delights of our souls be there Do we beleeve this and can we yet forget and neglect it What 's the matter will not God give us leave to approach this light or will he not suffer our souls to tast and see Why then what means all his earnest invitations why doth he so condemn our earthly-mindedness and command us to set our affections above Ah vile hearts If God were against it we were likelier to be for it When he would have us to keep our station then we are aspiring to be like God and are ready to invade the Divine Prerogatives But when he commands our hearts to Heaven then they will not stir an inch like our Predecessors the sinful Israelites When God would have them march for Canaan then they mutiny and will not stir either they fear the Gyants or the walled Cities or want necessaries or something hinders them but when God bids them not to go then will they needs be presently marching and fight they will though it be to their overthrow If the fore-thoughts of glory were forbidden
the Sun the Fountain the Father of light as certain herbs and meats we feed on do tend to make our sight more clear so the soul that 's fed with Angels food must needs have anâ— understanding much more clear then they that dwel and feed on earth And therefore you may easily see that such a man is in far less danger of temptations and Satan will hardlier beguile his soul even as a wise man is hardlier deceived then fools and children Alas the men of the world that dwell below and know no other conversation but earthly no wonder if their understandings be darkned and they be easily drawn to every wickedness no wonder if Satan take them captive at his will and leade them about as we see a Dog leade a blinde man with a string The foggy Air and Mists of earth do thicken their sight the smoak of worldly cares and business blindes them and the dungeon which they live in is a land of darkness How can Worms Moles see whose dwelling is alwayes in the earth while this dust is in mens eyes no wonder if they mistake gain for godliness sin for grace the world for God their own wils for the Law of Christ and in the issue hell for heaven if the people of God will but take notice of their own hearts they shall finde their experiences confirming this that I have said Christians do you not sensibly perceive that when your hearts are seriously fixt on heaven you presently become wiser then before Are not your understandings more solid and your thoughts more sober have you not truer apprehensions of things then you had For my own part if ever I be wise it is when I have been much above and seriously studied the life to come Me thinks I finde my understanding after such contemplations as much to differ from what it was before as I before differed from a Fool or Idiot when my understanding is weakned and befool'd with common imployment and with conversing long with the vanities below me thinks a few sober thoughts of my Fathers house and the blessed provision of his Family in Heaven doth make me with the Prodigal to come to my self again Surely when a Christian withdraws himself from his earthly thoughts and begins to converse with God in heaven he is as Nebuchadnezzar taken from the beasts of the field to the Throne and his understanding returneth to him again O when a Christian hath had but a glimpse of Eternity and then looks down on the world again how doth he befool himself for his sin for neglects of Christ for his fleshly pleasures for his earthly cares How doth he say to his Laughter Thou art mad and to his vain Mirth What dost thou How could he even tear his very flesh and take revenge on himself for his folly how verily doth he think that there is no man in Bedlam so truly mad as wiful sinners and lazy betrayers of their own souls and unworthy sleighters of Christ and glory This is it that makes a dying man to be usually wiser then other men are because he looks on Eternity as neer and knowing he must very shortly be there he hath more deep and heart-piercing thoughts of it then ever he could have in health and prosperity Therefore it is that the most deluded sinners that were cheated with the world and bewitched with sin do then most ordinarily come to themselves so far as to have a righter judgment then they had and that many of the most bitter enemies of the Saints would give a world to be such themselves and would fain dye in the condition of those whom they hated even as wicked Balaam when his eyes are opened to see the perpetual blessedness of the Saints will cry out O that I might dye the death of the righteous and that my last end might be like his As Witches when they are taken and in prison or at the Gallows have no power left them to bewitch any more so we see commonly the most ungodly men when they see they must dye and go to another world their judgments are so changed and their speech so changed as if they were not the same men as if they were come to their wits again and Sin and Satan had power to bewitch them no more Yet let the same men recover and lose their apprehension of the life to come and how quickly do they lose their understandings with it In a word those that were befool'd with the world and the flesh are far wiser when they come to die and those that were wise before are now wise indeed If you would take a mans judgment about Sin or Grace or Christ or Heaven go to a dying man and ask him which you were best to chuse ask him whether you were best be drunk or no or be lustful or proud or revengeful or no ask him whether you were best pray and instruct your Families or no or to sanctifie the Lords Day or no though some to the death may be desperately hardned yet for the most part I had rather take a mans judgment then about these things then at any other time For my own part if my judgment be ever solid it is when I have the seriousest apprehensions of the life to come nay the sober mention of death sometimes will a little compose the most distracted understanding Sirs do you not think except men are stark devils but that it would be a harder matter to intice a man to sin when he lyes a dying then it was before If the devil or his Instruments should then tell him of a cup of Sack of merry company of a Stage-play or Morrice-Dance do you think he would then be so taken with the motion If he should then tell him of Riches or Honors or shew him a pair of Cards or Dice or a Whore would the temptation think you be as strong as before would he not answer Alas what 's all this to me who must presently appear before God and give account of all my life and straitways be in another world Why Christian if the apprehension of the neerness of Eternity will work such strange effects upon the ungodly and make them wiser then to be deceived so easily as they were wont to be in time of health O then what rare effects would it work vvith thee and make thee scorn the baits of sin if thou couldst always dwell in the views of God and in lively thoughts of thine everlasting state Surely a believer if he improve his faith may ordinarily have truer and more quickning apprehensions of the life to come in the time of his health then an unbeliever hath at the hour of his death Thirdly Furthermore A Heavenly minde is exceedingly fortified against temptations because the affections are so throughly prepossessed with the high delights of another world Whether Satan do not usually by the sensitive Appetite prevail with the Will without any further prevailing with the
old Hiltenius said of Rome Est proprium Romane potestatis ut sit ferreum licet digiti minorentur ad parvitatem acus tamen manent ferrei It is proper to the Romane power to be of iron and though the fingers of it be diminished to the smalness of a needle yet they are iron still The like may I say of our earthly cares It is their property to be hard and troublous and so they will be when they are the least Verily if we had no higher hopes then what 's on earth I should take man for a most silly creature and his work and wages all his travel and his felicity to be no better then dreams and vanity and scarce worth the minding or mentioning especially to thee a Christian should it seem so whose eyes are opened by the Word and Spirit to see the emptiness of all these things and the pretious worth of the things above O then be not detained by these silly things but if Satan present them to thee in a temptation send them away from whence they came as Pellicanus did send back the silver bowl which the Bishop had sent him for a token with this answer Astricti sunt quotquot Tyguri cives inquilini bis singulis annis solenni juramento ne quis eorum ullum munus ab ullo principe accipiat All that are Citizens and Inhabitants of Tigurum are solemnly sworn twice a yeer not to receive any gift from any Prince abroad so say thou we the Citizens and Inhabitants of heaven are bound by solemn and frequent Covenants not to have our hearts enticed or entangled with any forraign honors or delights but only with those of our own Countrey If thy thoughts should like the laborious Bee go over the world from flower to flower from creature to creature they would bring thee no Honey or sweetness home save what they gathered from their relations to Eternity Object But you will say perhaps Divinity is of larger extent then onely to treat of the life to come or the way thereto there are many controversies of great difficulty which therefore require much of our thoughts and so they must not be all of heaven Answ. For the smaller controversies which have vexed our Times and caused the doleful divisions among us I express my minde as that of Graserus Cum in visitatione aegrotorum ad emigrationem ex hac vita beatam praeparatione daeprehendisset controversias illas Theologicas quae scientiam quidem inflantem pariunt conscientias vero fluctuantes non sedant quaeque hodie magna animorum contentione agitantur magnos tumultus in rebuspub excitant nullum prorsus usum habere quinimo conscientias simpliciorum non aliter ac olim in Papatu humana figmenta intricare Caepit ab eis toto animo abhorrere in publicis concionibus tantum ca proponere quae ad fidem salvificam in Christum accendendam ad pietatem veram juxta verbum Dei exercendam veramque consolationem in vita morte praestandam faciebant When he had found in his visiting the sick and in his own preparations for well dying that the Controversies in Divinity which beget a swelling knowledg but do not quiet troubled consciences and which are at this day agitated with such contention of spirits and raise such tumults in Commonwealths are indeed utterly useless yea and moreover do intangle the consciences of the simple just as the humane inventions in Popery formerly did he begun with full bent of minde to shun or abhor them and in his publike Preaching to propound onely those things which tended to the kindling a true faith in Jesus Christ and to the exercise of true godliness according to the Word of God and to the procuring of true consolation both in life and at death I can scarce express my own minde more plainly then in this Historians expressions of the minde of Graserus While I had some competent measure of health and look't at death as at a greater distance there was no man more delighted in the study of controversie but when I saw dying men have no minde on 't and how unsavory and uncomfortable such conference was to them and when I had oft been neer to death my self and found no delight in them further then they confirmed or illustrated the Doctrine of eternal Glory I have minded them ever since the less Though every Truth of God is pretious and it is the sin and shame of Professors that are no more able to defend the Truth yet should all our study of controversie be still in relation to this perpetual Rest and consequently be kept within its bounds and with most Christians not have the twentieth part of our time or thoughts Who that hath tried both studies doth not cry out as Summerhard was wont to do of the Popish School Divinity Quis me miserum tandem liberabit ab ista rixosa Theologia Who will once deliver me wretch from this wrangling kinde of Divinity And as it s said of Bucholcer Cum eximiis a Deo dotibus esset decoratus in certamen tamen cum rabiosis illius seculi Theologis descendere noluit Desii inquit disputare caepi supputare quoniam illud dissipationem hoc collectionem significaet Vidit enim ab iis controversias moveri quas nulla unquam amoris Dei seintilla calefecerat vidit ex diuturnis Theologorum rixis utilitatis nihil detrimenti plurimum in ecclesias redundâsse i. e. Though he was adorned by God with excellent gifts yet would he never enter into contention with the furious Divines of that age I have ceased saith he my Disputations and now begin my Supputation for that signifieth Dissipation but this Collection For he saw that those men were the movers of Controversies who had never been warmed with one spark of the love of God he saw That from the continual brawls of Divines no benefit but much hurt did accrue to the Churches and it is worth the observing which the Historian addes Quapropter omnis ejus cura in hoc erat ut auditores fidei suae commissos doceret bene vivere beate Mori Et annotatum in adversariis amici ejus repererunt permultos in extremo agone constitutos gratias ipsi hoc nomine egisse quod ipsius ductu servatorem suum Jesum agnovissent cujus in cognitione pulchrum vivere mori vero longe pulcherrimum ducerent Atque haud scio annon hoc ipsum longe Bucholcero coram Deo sit gloriosius futurum quam si aliquet contentiosorum libellorum myriadas posteritatis memoriae consecrasset i. e. Therefore this was all his care That he might teach his hearers committed to his charge To live well and die happily And his friends found noted down in his Papers a great many of persons who in their last agony did give him thanks for this very reason That by his direction they had come to the knowledg of Jesus their Saviour in
weary day and hour might make us long for our eternal rest That as the pulling down of one end of the ballance is the lifting up of the other so the pulling down of our bodies might be the lifting up of our souls that as our souls were usually at the worst when our bodies were at the best so now they might be at the best when our bodies are at the worst why should we not think thus with our selves why every one of these gripes that I feel are but the cutting of the stitches for the ripping off mine old attire that God may cloathe me with the glory of his Saints Had I rather live in these rotten raggs then be at the trouble and pains to shift me Should the Infant desire to stay in the womb because of the straitness and pains of the passage or because he knows not the world that he is to come into nor is acquainted with the fashions or inhabitants thereof Am I not neerer to my desired rest then ever I was If the remembrance of these griefs will increase my joy when I shall look back upon them from above why then should not the remembrance of that joy abate my griefs when I look upwards to it from below And why should the present feeling of these dolors so much diminish the foretasts of Glory when the remembrance of them will then increase it All these gripes and woes that I feel are but the farewell of sin and sorrows As Nature useth to struggle hard a little before death and as the devil cast the man to the ground and tore him when he was going out of him Mark 9.26 so this tearing and troubling which I now feel is but at the departure of sin and misery for as the effects of Grace are sweetest at last so the effects of sin are bitterest at the last and this is the last that ever I shall taste of it when once this whirlwind and earthquake is past the still voyce will next succeed and God onely will be in the voyce though sin also was in the earthquake and whirlwinde Thus Christian as every pang of sickness should minde the wicked of their eternal pangs and make them look into the bottom of hell so should all thy wo and weakness minde thee of thy neer approaching joy and make thee look as high as heaven and as a Ball the harder thou art smitten down to earth the higher shouldst thou rebound up to heaven If this be thy case who readest these lines and if it be not now it will be shortly if thou lye in consuming painful sickness if thou perceive thy dying time draw on O where should thy heart be now but with Christ Methinks thou shouldst even behold him as is were standing by thee and shouldst bespeak him as thy Father thy Husband thy Physitian thy Friend Methinks thou shouldst even see as it were the Angels about thee waiting to perform their last office to thy soul as thy friends wait to perform theirs to thy body Those Angels which disdained not to bring the soul of a scabbed Begger to heaven will not think much to conduct thee thither O look upon thy sickness as Jacob did on Josephs Chariots and let thy spirit revive within thee and say It is enough that Joseph that Christ is yet alive for because he lives I shall live also Joh. 14.19 As thou art sick and needest the daintiest food and choicest Cordials so here are choices then the world affords here is the food of Angels and glorified Saints here is all the joyes that heaven doth yield even the Vision of God the sight of Christ and whatsoever the blessed there possess This Table is spread for thee to feed on in thy sickness these dainties are offered thee by the hand of Christ He hath written thee the Receipt in the Promises of the Gospel He hath prepared thee all the ingredients in Heaven onely put forth the hand of Faith and feed upon them and rejoyce live The Lord saith to thee as he did to Elias Arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee 1 Kings 19.7 Though it be not long yet the way is foul I counsel thee therefore that thou obey his voyce and arise and eat and in the strength of that meat thou maist walk till thou come to the Mount of God Dye not in the ditch of horror or stupidity but as the Lord said to Moses Go up into the Mount and see the Land that the Lord hath promised and dye in the Mount And as old Simeon when he saw Christ in his infancy in the Temple so do thou behold him in the Temple of the New Jerusalem as in his Glory and take him in the arms of thy Faith and say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eye of Faith hath seen thy salvation As thou wast never so neer to Heaven as now so let thy spirit be neerer it now then ever So you have seen which is the fittest season for this duty I should here advise thee also of some times unseasonable but I shall onely add this one Caution The unseasonable urging of the most spiritual duty is more from the Tempter then from the Spirit of God When Satan sees a Christian in a condition wherein he is unable and unfit for a duty or wherein he may have more advantage against us by our performance of it then by our omitting it he will then drive on as earnestly to duty as if it were the very spirit of Holiness that so upon our omitting or ill performance he may have somewhat to cast in our teeth and to trouble us with And this is one of his wayes of deceiving when he transformes himself into an Angel of Light It may be when thou art on thy knees in prayer thou shalt have many good thoughts will come into thy minde or when thou art hearing the word or at such unseasonable times Resist these good thoughts as coming from the devil for they are formally evil though they are materially good Even good thoughts in themselves may be sinful to thee It may be when thou shouldst be diligent in thy necessary labors thou shalt be moved to cast aside all that thou mayest go to Meditation or to Prayer These motions are usually from the spirit of delusion The spirit of Christ doth nothing unseasonably God is not the God of confusion but of order SECT VIII THus much I thought necessary to advise thee concerning the time of this duty It now followes that I speak a word of the fittest place Though God is every where to be found by a faithful soul Yet some places are more convenient for a duty then others 1. As this is a Private and spiritual duty so it is most covenient that thou retire to some private place Our spirits had need of every help and to be freed from every hinderance in the work And the quality of these
while thou gavest up thy state thy friends thy life yea thy soul for lost and he opened to thee a Well of Consolation and opened thine eyes also that thou mightest see it How oft hath he found thee in the posture of Elias sitting down under the tree forlorn and solitary and desiring rather to dye then to live and he hath spread thee a Table of relief from Heaven and sent thee away refreshed and encouraged to his VVork How oft hath he found thee in the trouble of the Servant of Elisha crying out Alas what shall we do for an Host doth compass the City and he hath opened thine eyes to see more for thee then against thee both in regard of the enemies of thy soul and thy body How oft hath he found thee in such a passion as Jonas in thy peevish frenzy aweary of thy life and he hath not answered passion with passion though he might indeed have done well to be angry but hath mildely reasoned thee out of thy madness and said Dost thou well to be angry or to repine against me How oft hath he set thee on watching and praying on repenting and beleeving and when he hath returned hath found thee fast asleep and yet he hath not taken thee at the worst but in stead of an angry aggravation of thy fault he hath covered it over with the mantle of Love and prevented thy over-much sorrow with a gentle excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak He might have done by thee as Epaminondas by his Souldier who finding him asleep upon the VVatch run him through with his Sword and said Dead I found thee and dead I leave thee but he rather chose to awake thee more gently that his tenderness might admonish thee and keep thee watching How oft hath he been traduced in his Cause or Name and thou hast like Peter denied him at lest by thy silence whilst he hath stood in sight yet all the revenge he hath taken hath been a heart-melting look and a silent remembring thee of thy fault by his countenance How oft hath Law and Conscience haled thee before him as the Pharisees did the adulterous woman and laid thy most hainous crimes to thy charge And when thou hast expected to hear the sentence of death he hath shamed away thy Accusers and put them to silence and taken on him he did not hear thy Inditement and said to thee Neither do I accuse thee Go thy way and sin no more And art thou not yet transported and ravished with Love Can thy heart be cold when thou think'st of this or can it hold when thou remembrest those boundless compassions Remembrest thou not the time when he met thee in thy duties when he smiled upon thee and spake comfortably to thee when thou didst sit down under his shadow with great delight and when his fruit was sweet to thy taste when he brought thee to his Banqueting House and his Banner over thee was Love when his left hand was under thy head and with his right hand he did embrace thee And dost thou not yet cry ouâ— Stay me comfort me for I am sick of Love Thus Reader I would have thee deal with thy heart Thus hold forth the goodness of Christ to thy Affections plead thus the case with thy frozen soul till thou say as David in another case My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal. 39.3 If these forementioned Arguments will not rouse up thy love thou hast more enough of this nature at hand Thou hast all Christs personal excellencies to study thou hast all his particular mercies to thy self both special and common thou hast all his sweet and neer relations to thee and thou hast the happiness of thy perpetual abode with him hereafter all these do offer themselves to thy Meditation with all their several branches and adjuncts Only follow them close to thy heart ply the work and let it not cool Deal with thy heart as Christ did with Peter when he asked him thrice over Lovest thou me till he was grieved and answers Lord thou knowest that I love thee So say to thy Heart Lovest thou thy Lord and ask it the second time and urge it the third time Lovest thou thy Lord till thou grieve it and shame it out of its stupidity and it can truly say Thou knowest that I love him And thus I have shewed you how to excite the affection of Love SECT VI. 2. THe next Grace or Affection to be excited is Desire The Object of it is Goodness considered as absent or not yet attained This being so necessary an attendant of Love and being excited much by the same forementioned objective considerations I suppose you need the less direction to be here added and therefore I shall touch but briefly on this If love be hot I warrant you desire will not be cold When thou hast thus viewed the goodness of the Lord and considered of the pleasures that are at his right hand then proceed on with thy Meditation thus Think with thy self Where have I been what have I seen O the incomprehensible astonishing Glory O the rare transcendent beauty O blessed souls that now enjoy it that see a thousand times more clearly what I have seen but darkly at this distance and scarce discerned through the interposing clouds What a difference is there betwixt my state and theirs I am sighing and they are singing I am sinning and they are pleasing God I have an ulcerated cancrous soul like the lothsome bodyes of Job or Lazarus a spectacle of pitty to those that behold me But they are perfect and without blemish I am here intangled in the love of the world when they are taken up with the love of God I live indeed amongst the means of grace and I possess the fellowship of my fellow-believers But I have none of their immediate views of God nor none of that fellowship which they possess They have none of my cares and fears They weep not in secret They languish not in sorrows These tears are wiped away from their eyes O happy a thousand times happy souls Alas that I must dwell in dirty flesh when my Brethren and companions do dwell with God! Alas that I am lapt in earth and tyed as a mountain down to this inferior world when they are got above the Sun and have laid aside their lumpish bodyes Alas that I must lye and pray and wait and pray and wait as if my heart were in my knees when they do nothing but Love and Praise and Joy and Enjoy as if their hearts were got into the very breast of Christ and were closely conjoyned to his own heart How far out of sight and reach and hearing of their high enjoyments do I here live when they feel them and feed and live upon them What strange thoughts have I of God What strange conceivings What strange affections I am fain
pride and peevishness and other sins that we could scarce oft-times discern their graces But now how glorious a thing is a Saint where is now their body of sin which wearyed themselves and those about them Where are now our different Judgments our reproachful titles our divided spirits our exasperated passions our strange looks our uncharitable censures Now we are all of one judgment of one name of one heart of one house and of one glory O sweet reconcilement O happy Union which makes us first to be one with Christ and then to be one among our selves Now our differences shall be dashed in our teeth no more nor the Gospel reproached through our folly or scandall O my soul thou shalt never more lament the sufferings of the Saints never more condole the Churches ruines never bewail thy suffering freinds nor lye wailing over their death-beds or their graves Thou shalt never suffer thy old temptations from Satan the vvorld or thy ovvn flesh Thy body vvill no more be such a burden to thee thy pains and sicknesses are all novv cured thou shalt be troubled vvith vveakness and vveariness no more Thy head is not novv an aking head nor thy heart novv an aking heart Thy hunger and thirst and cold and sleep thy labor and study are all gone O vvhat a mighty change is this From the dunghill to the throne from persecuting sinners to praising Saints from a body as vile as the carrion in the ditch to a body as bright as the Sun in the firmament from complainings under the displeasure of God to the perfect enjoyment of him in Love from all my doubts and fears of my condition to this possession vvhich hath put me out of doubt from all my fearful thoughts of death to this most blessed Joyful life O vvhat a blessed change is this Farevvell sin and suffering for ever Farevvell my hard and rocky heart farevvell my proud and unbelieving heart farewell atheistical idolatrous vvorldly heart farewell my sensual carnal heart And novv welcome most holy heavenly nature vvhich as it must be imployed in beholding the face of God so is it full of God alone and delighted in nothing else but him O vvho can question the love vvhich he doth so sweetly taste or doubt of that which with such joy he seeleth Farewell repentance confession and supplication farewel the most of hope and faith and welcome love and joy and praise I shall now have my harvest without plowing or sowing my wine without the labor of the vintage my joy without a Preacher or a promise even all from the face of God himself That 's the sight that 's worth the seeing that 's the book that 's worth the reading What ever mixture is in the streams there is nothing but pure joy in the fountain Here shall I be incircled with Eternity and come forth no more here shall I live and ever live and praise my Lord and ever ever ever praise him My face will not wrinkle nor my haire be gray but this mortal shall have put on immortality and this corruptible incorruption and death shall be swallowed up in victory O death where is now thy sting O grave where is thy victory The date of my lease will no more expire nor shall I trouble my self with thoughts of death nor loose my joyes through fear of losing them When millions of ages are past my glory is but beginning and when millions more are past it is no neerer ending Every day is all noontide and every moneth is May or harvest and every yeer is there a jubilee and every age is full manhood and all this is one Eternity O blessed Eternity the glory of my glory the perfection of my perfection Ah drowsie earthy blockish heart How coldly dost thou think of this reviving day Dost thou sleep when thou thinkest of eternal Rest Art thou hanging earthward when heaven is before thee Hadst thou rather sit thee down in dirt and dung then walk in the court of the Palace of God Dost thou now remember thy worldly business Art thou looking back to the Sodom of thy lusts Art thou thinking of thy delights and merry company wretched heart Is it better to be there then above with God is the company better are the pleasures greater Come away make no excuse make no delay God commands and I command thee come away gird up thy loines ascend the mount and look about thee with seriousness and with faith Look thou not back upon the way of the wilderness except it be when thine eyes are dazled with the glory or when thou wouldst compare the Kingdom with that howling desert that thou mayest more sensibly perceive the mighty difference Fix thine eye upon the Sun it self and look not down to Earth as long as thou art able to behold it except it be to discern more easily the brightness of the one by the darkness of the other Yonder far above yonder is thy Fathers glory yonder must thou dwell when thou leavest this Earth yonder must thou remove O my soul when thou departest from this body And when the power of thy Lord hath raised it again and joyned thee to it yonder must thou live with God for ever There is the glorious New Jerusalem the Gates of Pearl the foundations of Pearl the Streets and Pavements of transparent Gold Seest thou that Sun which lighteth all this world why it must be taken down as useless there or the glory of Heaven will darken it and put it out even thy self shall be as bright as yonder shining Sun God will be the Sun and Christ the Light and in his Light shalt thou have light What thinkest thou O my soul of this most blessed state What! Dost thou stagger at the Promise of God through unbelief Though thou say nothing or profess belief yet thou speakest so coldly and so customarily that I much suspect thee I know thy infidelity is thy natural vice Didst thou beleeve indeed thou wouldst be more affected with it Why hast thou not it under the hand and seal and oath of God Can God lie or he that is the Truth it self be false Foolish wretch What need hath God to flatter thee or deceive thee why should he promise thee more then he will perform Art thou not his Creature a little crum of dust a scrawling worm ten thousand times more below him then this flie or worm is below thee wouldst thou flatter a flea or a worm what need hast thou of them If they do not please thee thou wilt crush them dead and never accuse thy self of cruelty Why yet they are thy Fellow Creatures made of as good mettal as thy self and thou hast no Authority over them but what thou hast received How much less need hath God of thee or why should he care if thou perish in thy folly Cannot he govern thee without either flattery or falshood cannot he easily make thee obey his will and as easily make thee suffer