state and loves and lives in sin lyes and dyes in the old Adam That 's the sadest word in all the Bible pronounced twice in a breath by our blessed Lord Joh. 8.21 24. Ye shall dye in your sins i. e. under the guilt of your sins and sentence of condemnation This is surprizing from what he adds in the first place whither I go you cannot come that is to Heaven whither sinners cannot enter You 'l say then no man can enter into Heaven for all men are sinners even to the last breath When are men cleansed is it in Articulo mortis in the passage of the Soul out of the Body May not all be cleansed alike then Answ It s true all are sinning to the last gasp of breathing out their Souls but 1. You must distinguish betwixt a state of sin and having fin The best have relicks of Original corruption as long as they live The death of the body will only annihilate the body of death Death is not properly the punishment but period of sin It reigns not in Gods Children at present it shall not remain in them when dead The guilt of sin is already gone for there 's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 and the filth yea being of sin is taken away as soon as death strikes the stroke 2. I see not but the mighty God can perfectly expel sin out of the Soul and also perfect defective graces in the instant of the Souls separation from the Body as well as he did infuse a principle of grace into the Soul in an instant at the Souls first conversion for by death the spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12.23 Mind it it is just men not wicked God will not infuse grace into men ordinarily in their passage out of the world qualis vita finis ita as men live so they dye and if men imagine God will put another principle into their hearts just as they pass out of this World as this is a daring presumption so they will be mistaken for how is a departing Soul capable of such receptions or reflections as are necessary in the work of conversion Alas the Eyes being set Lips quivering Memory failing and the Body in a cold sweat is unfit for any thing their hopes giving up the ghost as their breaths depart and it s a wonder that the Souls of wicked men go quietly out of their Bodies its strange they depart not as the Devils out of the Demonaicks rending raging tearing foming but if Conscience be asleep death will awake it could you follow their departing Souls a minute out of their Bodies you would hear howlings and roarings 3. Heaven will not receive any Souls but such as are made meet for it on Earth Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither what soever worketh abomination for without are dogs Rev. 22.15 They say Ireland will not brook a Toad a Snake or venomous Creature to live and like in it I am sure Heaven will not admit but cast out an unsanctified heart The Legions of apostate Angels knew this who abode not one moment in that holy place after they left their innocency It is said of the Halcyons nest that it will hold nothing but its own Bird The same may be said of Heaven the Serpent could wind himself into the Earthly Paradice but none of the Serpentine brood shall once peep into this Heavenly Paradice For 1 The Text saith It is an Inheritance now an Inheritance is for none but Children its true all Gods Children are heirs Rom. 8.17 but none shall inherit Heaven except Children By nature we are Children of Wrath by grace and adoption Children of God All Gods Children are begot again to a lively hope for this incorruptible inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 4. 2. It s the inheritance of Saints i. e. of holy sanctified Souls Persons must not think that Heaven is like Mahemets Paradice where there is delicious fare pleasant gardens fair women and all sensual delights fit lettice for an Epicures Lips No no Heaven is a state of perfect immediate and perpetual injoyment of God suited to the raised faculties of a sanctified Soul 3. It s the inheritance of Saints in light It s a bright and lightsome state suited to seeing Souls blind sinners can see no beauty there such as are not changed from darkness to light are not fit for that state see Acts 26.18 Alas a blind man can take no content in beautiful objects though the Sun shine never so gloriously Heaven and light are synonymous but light and darkness are directly contrary If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 and such dark sinners are far from a suitableness to this state and place of light O therefore poor sinners consider this the holy God hates all the workers of iniquity the holy Heaven is no sanctuary for Rebels and Traytors God will not take such vipers into his bosom thou must either be renewed or never received into glory it is an undefiled inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 a dirty sinner must not enter this would disparage and contradict all Gods Attributes as his Justice then God should give to the wicked according to the work of the righteous it would blemish his Holiness as though unclean were delighted in equally with the clean it would contradict his Truth as though God regarded not what he said or swore that no unclean thing shall enter there Every Attribute would have dirt cast upon it if God should save the unsanctified Soul Nay it contradicts the undertakings of Jesus Christ who came to save his people from their sins not in their sins It exposeth the office and operations of the Holy Ghost whose office it is to sanctifie sinners and prepare Souls for Heaven that sinner must surely be in a desperate case that must un God the infinite Jehovah God blessed for ever or else he cannot be saved 4. The unsanctified sinner would by no means like in Heaven Heaven would be an Hell to him except his Nature were changed and renewed Most Men mistake the nature of Heaven they only look upon it as a place of happiness it is so but withal it is a state of perfect holiness They are holy priviledges injoyment of God and what care wicked men for his company They say unto God depart from us and their choice shall be their punishment They are holy joys and delights how will they like that who were never pleased but with sensual laughter which is madness There 's holy company above of Saints but they cannot abide to be near them on Earth how then can they like to be associated to them in Heaven There is holy imployment above but alas they are not at all qualified for nor can they be delighted in the work of loving praising or taking pleasure in God Augustine hath a saying
from Hell to Heaven The Sunshine of Love comes to melt and thaw our frozen hearts that God may set a stamp upon us The loving kindness of God leads to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Oh what an influence will Gods native goodness have upon an ingenuous Spirit As the Sun attracts vapours from the Earth so this Son of Righteousness should and will if our sturdy hearts hinder not raise our hearts Heaven-wards It s pity we should stop here in the streams but that thereby we should be led to the fountain and follow the beams up to the Sun May this long-suffering of the Lord be your salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 May love constrain you to love God May these load-stones so attract you and these grapes of Canaan enamour you that you may never rest till you appear before God in Zion And what are all Gods rods and redoubled strokes for but to awaken you out of security Peat your fingers off from the world Weaken your corruptions and purge and furbish your Souls as vessels for the high shelf of glory For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 How is that Surely by working the Soul into a fitness for that glory This furnace melts away the dross of our Spirit Sea-tossings clear the liquor of grace this dark night fits for the pleasant morning these pangs prepare us for deliverance these blustering storms fit souls for the peaceable fruits of righteousness being sanctified by the Spirit and improved by Faith Affliction is Gods Physick which makes sick but prepares for sweet health and shall we frustrate Gods ends in this also What are you content with a Heaven here and an Hell hereafter Nay can you be content with an Hell in both worlds Must these be par-boilings for everlasting burnings God forbid Look at the Lords end in these sufferings and let it be yours 5. The time of this life is the only time men have given them to be made meet for Heaven This life is a praeludium to an eternal state It s a Seminary for another world Gal. 6.7 8. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Seeding is a preparatory to reaping yet men must expect only to reap that kind of grain that 's sown none can think to reap Wheat that sowed Oats and you know there 's more abundunce in the reaping then in the sowing So in this case Hell torments will be more exquisite and eternal then the profit and pleasure of the sinner in sinning Heavens joys will infinitely furmount the Christians labours and sorrows in this world and there is great equity in both for the object sinned against is infinite and satisfaction can never be made by a finite Creature and the grace from whence flows Eternal Life is infinite and will have an endless duration But the point I am upon is to demonstrate the necessity of making meet for Heaven in this world or it will never be done Now or never When the door is shut the gulf fixt and the Soul loosed from the Body and launcht out into that vast ocean of Eternity there 's no returning back to get the oyl of grace or be fiting the Soul for another world Eccl. 9.10 What soever thine hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Time lasts not but floats away apace but what is everlasting depends upon it Hic aut accepimus aut amittimus vitam aeternam In this world we either win or lose eternal Life The great weight of Eternity hangs on the small and twittered thread of time Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 This is our working day our market time surely it becomes us to lay that Foundation well that bears such a Superstructure To cast that Anchor safely that is entrusted with a Vessel so richly laden Oh Sirs sleep now and awake in Eell from whence is no redemption Suppose by misdemeanour you had forfeited your Estate and Life and upon much intercession the King causeth an Hour-glass to be turned and set you a work to do or lesson to learn if you performed it you are pardoned and promoted if not tortured and executed Oh how diligent would you be What pains would you take The case is your own Sirs Heaven and Hell are before you according to your improvement or non-improvement of this hour of life so must you fare dream not of a Purgatory as the Tree falls so it lyes You enter by death into an unchangeable state only the Body at the Resurrection will be joyned to the Soul to be partner with it in weal or woe bliss or bane for ever The state here is tempus operis the time of working hereafter mercedis of reward Oh look before you leap into another world That 's the fifth Reason 6. The Christian must be made meet here for the Inheritance above because he hath abundance of work to do and priviledges to injoy in order to the full possession of this blessed Inheritance above We have many graces to exercise duties to perform corruptions to subdue temptations to resist burdens to bear mercies to improve that will never be managed to purpose without a qualification for managing them And observe it the same disposition is requisite for making a Christian meet for any duty that 's requisite to make him meet for glory the same habitual principle and drawing it forth into lively exercise Not only must the man of God be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.17 but every Christian that is a vessel unto honour must be sanctified and so meet for his Masters use and prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 Alas an unsanctified heart is unfit for spiritual service Solomon saith The legs of the lame are not equal he halts and goes limping so is a parable in the mouth of fools Prov. 26.7 How aukwardly and bunglingly doth he go to work in sacred things just as an unskilful person handles a Lute a Viol or Instrument of Musick or as the men of Ephraim could not frame to pronounce Shibboleth aright Judg. 12.6 There must be a suitableness betwixt the Agent and Acts No carnal heart can do any one good work well materially he may do what is good but not formally as good in a good manner for a good end acceptably to God or profitably to himself For they that are in the flesh cannot please God and without faith its impossible to please God Rom. 8.8 Heb. 11.6 And can we think God will carry them to Heaven that never struck a right stroke or never did one hours work for God that he would accept A graceless sinner is like the fruitless
Vine tree Ezek. 15.3 4 5. that is not meet for any work but it is cast into the fire for fuel just so is that branch that 's professionally in Christ that beareth not fruit it s taken away and cast into the fire and burned Joh. 15 2.-6 The Divine Wisdom is seen in suiting means to the end object to the faculty back to the burden Now graceless sinners are not fit for Gods work and if they be not fit in this world they will never be fit 2. The Christian hath many priviledges to injoy which he must be meet for even in this world as Reconciliation Justification Adoption Joy in the Holy Ghost Peace of Conscience Communion with God Audience of Prayers c. All these God hath promised Christ hath purchased for his Children and they are Childrens bread and must not be given to dogs God will not throw away his Mercies on such as value them not but scorn them they set light by precious delicates of his Table Mat. 22 5. The whole slight the Physitian Mat. 9.12 The full soul loaths the honey comb The carnal heart will not thank God for pardon and grace and can we think God will force his Blessings on such ungrateful miscreants that scorn both him and his kindness No surely there are some that long for these Blessings and will thankfully accept them See Acts 13.46 48. and 28.28 Yea he will make you prize them and part with all for them or you shall never have them What think you doth not the great God take care to secure his own glory as well as Mans felicity And would it not be dishonourable to God to bestow his richest treasures and pleasures of grace on such as despise them and take more pleasure in rooting in the sordid dunghil of sensual delights then in seeking first the Kingdom of God which consists in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 Alas Honour is not seemly for a fool Prov. 26.1 As a Jewel of Gold in a swines snout so is a fair Woman without discretion Prov. 11.22 These silly fools are not meet to sit as Princes with the King at his Table because they want a Wedding-garment of suitable disposition for so high a priviledge Mat. 22.12 CHAP. VIII Another Reason drawn from the necessary consistency of a Christians meetness for so glorious an Inheritance 7. THE last Reason why souls must be made meet for Heaven is because other wise there would be no consistency or suitable harmony betwixt men and glory If their natures be not changed they will not have a suitableness of disposition to the glorious state above The truth of this I shall demonstrate in these 4 particulars 1. None but persons made meet for Heaven will have any mind to leave the world and go to God A carnal unconverted soul is totally unwilling to go hence they fancy to themselves an Eternity below Their inward thought is that their houses shall endure for ever Psal 49.11 Yea themselves for they put far from them the evil day and sing a requiem to themselves as the fool in the Gospel and no wonder for they live by sense and know what they have here but know not what they must have hereafter As the old doting Monk that shewed his brave accommodations saying These things make us unwilling to dye It was an usual saying among the Heathens soli Christiani sunt mortis contemptores that Christians only are contemners of death This is applicable to sincere Christians Stoical apathy will not do it but Faith will Julius Palmer the Martyr said To them that have their Souls linked to the Elesh like a Rogues foot to a pair of stocks it is indeed hard to dye but for him who is able to separate Soul and Body by the help of Gods Spirit it is no more mastery for such a one to dye then for me to drink this cup of Beer Nay when the Christian is upon good terms with God he desires to be loosed or dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Yea this is the disposition of a Soul meet for Heaven that he loves and longs for Christs appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 but the sincere Christian that is not actually meet son Heaven though through grace he be habitually meet often shrugs at the approach of death and is glad to chide himself out and say as that holy man Egredere mea Arima egredere Go out my Soul go out what art thou afraid of And surely that man is more acceptable to God and comfortable in death that hath set all things streight and hath nothing to do but surrender his Soul into Gods hands this man will make his Lord welcome any hour of the day or watch of the night but the other is like a Maid undrest and unready though for the main she love her Friend and desire his coming yet in the present juncture and under those circumstances she is surprized and troubled that he should find her in that pitiful pickle This is the case of the unmeet Christian 2. None but Souls meet for Heaven are fit for death through which all must pass It s true the Apostle doth discover to us this mistery which among the rest he might receive in the third Heavens 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed but this change is a peculiar dispensation in the end of the world and this change is equivalent to death This is certain the fruit of the curse the sting of death will fasten her fangs on the unconverted soul that 's under the covenant of works and is not in Christ It s only the sincere Christian that can sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Song of Triumph or can make that brave challenge 1 Cor. 15.56 57. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Only our Captain Jesus hath disarmed death and it is only for his members others are left to its rage Death feeds on them Psal 49.14 it hath a full morsel of them The first death kills the Body and the second death damns the Soul but blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 Oh happy state of real Saints Christ our David hath conquered this Goliah The Ark of the Covenant hath driven back this swelling Jordan Tollitur mors non ne sit sed ne obsit This Serpent may hiss and hit not hurt strike down it may not strike home it may thrust Gods Children into the Grave not into Hell Nay our Lord sets his not only above the danger by death but fears of death that are thus meet for Heaven Heb. 2.14 15. that can say as that gracious Gentlewoman a Martyr written by me Anne Askew that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might and as merry as one that 's bound for Heaven But oh the woful state of a graceless sinner that is in Natures
Meetness FOR HEAVEN Promoted in some brief MEDITATIONS UPON COLOS. 1.12 Discovering the nature and necessity of habitual and actual Meetness for Heaven here in all that hope for Heaven hereafter Designed for a Funeral Legacy By O. H. an unworthy Minister of the Gospel of Christ Psal 73.24 Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward received me to Glory Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City London Printed by J. R. for T. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside AN EPISTLE To my Dearly Beloved Hearers Friends and Neighbours and others that will be at the cost to buy or take the pains to read this small Treatise Dearly Beloved A Desire after Happiness is so ingraven in the Nature of Man that it was never put to the debate whether he would be happy or no This needs no choice all are agreed in this as the end of a rational Agent And therefore at last Felicity was accounted a Goddess among the Romans and St. Augustine tells us that Lucullus built her a Temple only he wonders that the Romans that were worshippers of so many Gods had not given Divine Honour to Felicity sooner which alone would have sufficed in stead of all the rest of their Deities which he reckons up and saith at last of Numa that having chosen so many Gods and Goddesses 't is strange he neglected this An eam forte in tanta turbâ videre non potuit but though they at last had got a notion of Felicity yet having no true Piety that veneration ended in the greatest misery and infelicity nothing but Wars ensued Vid. Aug. de civit Dei lib 4. cap. 23. This indeed is the case All men would be happy but few know the due object and true means leading to Happiness It is possible as the same Father saith there to find a man that is unwilling to be made King nullus autem invenitur qui se nolit esse foelicem that is loath to be made happy But indeed most men blunder in the dark and few find the thing they seek The same Father tells us de civ Dei lib 19. c. 1. that Varro in his Book of Philosophy that had diligently searched the various Opinions of men about the chiefest good reduceth them to two hundred eighty eight Sects or Sentences non quae jam essent sed quae esse possent and Augustine reduceth them to their several heads But I pass by Heathens that are bewildred in the dark and know no better Even professing or pretended Christians either do not understand or will not embrace the way of Peace and Rest The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14.2 3. All mankind is degenerate and few are regenerated We set out for Hell as soon as we are born and till converting Grace turn us Heaven-wards we go blindfold to the pit The whole World lyeth in ignorance and wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 But no such ignorance as that which is wilful This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3.19 No man perisheth but by his own will Men will sin and love death rather then life You will not come to me saith Christ that you may have life Joh. 5.40 He that rejecteth the means rejecteth the end All they that hate Christ love death Prov. 8.36 They do both not directly or designedly but interpretatively and consequentially Most men observe lying vanities and so forsake their own Mercies Jon. 2.8 as he leaves the East that goes to the West My people saith God have committed two evils Observe it it 's but one act yet there 's two evils in it what are they they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 Oh what evil is in the bowels of one sin But especially in the sin of Vnbelief The evil of sin brings on the evil of punishment Miss of Heaven and you purchase Hell What mad man will refuse this gift that is better then Gold What beast will run into a pit or praecipice But some men make a jest of Heaven as that Bishop who when one said I hope to see you at your Diocess ere long replyed I fear I shall be in Heaven before that time come Others like Martha are so incumbred in the World that they are staked down to Terrene Objects and Answer as he that being asked if he saw the Eclipse answered No I have so much business on Earth that I have no leisure to look up to Heaven This is most mens ease Alas the World eats out many mens Religion as the Sun shining eats out the fire So that men are as dead to Religion as if Heaven were but a dream and as hot upon sin as if Hell had no fire or were all vanisht into smoke Nay it 's well if some look not on Heaven and Hell as if they were but a Fable or Romance a scar-crow to fright weak headed people or the meer invention of designing Priests to keep men in awe But they shall know one day to their cost that there is an Heaven by the loss of it and that there is an Hell by the torments of it Let these ask the rich man in torment whether there is an Hell or no Targum saith the dispute betwixt Cain and Abel was concerning a World to come And indeed this is the Controversie betwixt the faithful and unbelievers Though the wicked say the Creed wherein they profess a belief of the Resurrection Judgment and Eternal Life yet it s but notional not experimental practical They know nothing of it initially inchoatively by feeling the beginnings of it here and living to the rates of it It is to be feared that the greatest part of Mankind will fall to the Devils share How little are men concerned about a future state How many put away from them the evil day Some have a foolish imagination that Heaven is every where that there is neither Heaven nor Hell but in a mans own Conscience and then they can shift well enough for they can stop the mouth of a bawling Conscience and speak Peace to themselves But how long will either of these last When God arms a man against himself he shall be a Magormissabib a fear round about Witness Cain Saul Judas that thought Hell was easier then his own Conscience and therefore desperately leapt into it to the crushing of his Body and the damning of his Soul They shall find that there is an Heaven and Hell after this natural Life is ended It is recorded of Peter Martyr that he
lying upon his Death-bed discoursed sweetly of Heaven Bullinger standing by alleadged that in Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven True said the sick man it is in Heaven sed non in Coelo Brentii quod nusquam est not in the Heaven of Brentius which is no where There is doubtless a Coelum Empyreum called a Third Heaven or Paradice into which Paul was wrapt in his Extacy 2 Cor. 12.2 4. into which Christ was carryed Body and Soul Luke 24.51 The habitation of Gods Holiness and Glory Isa 63.15 It s true God himself is called Heaven Dan. 4.26 The Heavens do rule So Matth. 21.25 And it s as true God fills Heaven and Earth Jer. 23.24 And its true where the King is there is the Court But yet God manifests himself far differently in all places he is in Hell by the execution of his Justice in Heaven by manifestation of his Grace on Earth by displaying both and his other Glorious Attributes according to his infinite Wisdom and Pleasure But let vain Men please themselves in their fond conceits or desperately leap into the other World let you and me duely weigh the vast difference betwixt Graceless and Gracious Souls in this and in the other World and though men will not believe because they see not any such difference yet a time is coming when they shall return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mal. 3.18 Then all the World must be ranked into two Regiments sheep and goats the one at Christs right hand the other on his left to the one he will say come ye blessed to the other go ye cursed Mat. 25.32 46. They that love not to hear discriminating Truths here shall meet with discriminating Acts at that day And can we think that there will be such a difference at that day and is there none in this World Yes certainly Though all things come alike to all as to common Providences in this World Eccles 9.2 yet Grace makes a difference in Persons dispositions here and there will be a vast difference in Divine Dispensations hereafter much greater then betwixt a Man and a Bruit yea like that which is betwixt an Angel and a Devil Oh that men would study and understand this now Grace makes the difference now and Glory compleats it 1. In point of Assimilation Gods Children are like their Father now but shall be more like him at that day 1 Joh. 3.2 Our former similitude is from Faith and so imperfect but the latter is from immediate Vision and so perfect and compleat 2. In point of Satisfaction In this World the weary Soul is working towards its rest Psal 116.7 and doth by Faith enter into this rest Heb. 4.3 yet there is another remaining ver 9. Some satisfaction is in Ordinances Psal 36.8 but more in that Blessed Morning when Gods Children awake Psal 17.15 3. In point of Participation For Gods Children are not tantalized by beholding that they have no right to no they have Heaven by appropriation by Faith here so Eph. 2.8 and by compleat possession in the other World abundant evidence of peculiar relation Rev. 21.3 4. In point of Fruition Gods Children do enjoy fellowship with God already in this world 1 Joh. 1.3 but alas it is but through a glass darkly but then face to face immediately 1 Cor. 13.12 Now it is but rarely but now and then but then constantly and perpetually as the Angels that always behold the face of our Father Matth. 18.10 Their Eye is never off God even when they are sent on any Errands to Earth about the Saints It s defective in degree here but full and compleat above It s oft obstructed and obscured here but above this Glory shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 and so never darkened or eclipsed with clouds of interposing guilt O ye Children of men prove your Fathers will and your selves Children make sure of this Inheritance make no reckoning of the stuff of this World for the good of the upper Country above is before you Heaven will pay for all your losses and countervail all your crosses here No matter how your Names are written on Earth in Dust or Marble if they be written in Heaven Some say this World is but a shadow of that above look you for the lineaments of that Kingdom above to be pourtrayed on you Basil asserted One Hundred Sixty Five Heavens You must pass by all the fancyed Heavens of Men and look for a City that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11.10 Take this Kingdom of Heaven by violence Matth. 11.12 Get a Copy of Grace in your hearts out of Scripture Records the Court Rolls of Heaven so you are sure of it and lay hold of Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6.19 Heaven must be begun here or never enjoyed hereafter Holiness of Heart and Life is like the Old Testament Tabernacle an example and shadow of heavenly things Happiness is the injoyment of good commensurate to our desires and our desires must be suited to that happiness Criticks observe that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies happiness is plural not only denoting a confluence of many good things to make one happy but because there is an happiness in this life preparing for and anticipating the happiness in the other They differ not in kind but degree that above is the same state but in an higher stature the same Book but in a more correct Edition and a larger Character The Saints above differ from us as Man from a Child as Noon sun from the Morning light we are in the same house only they are got into the upper room at the same feast only they are at the upper end of the Table Let us make hast after them They were once as you are groveling on this Dung-hill but are exalted to the Throne aspire you to the same preferment It may be had it must be had or you are undone Study the way of God how this Inheritance is made over to the Sons of Men and that is 1. By Regeneration Matth. 19.28.2 By Adoption Romans 8.17.3 By Donation Luke 12.32 4. By right of Redemption Joh◠10.28 Eph. 1.14 and they say he that hath bought a Slave may dispose of him as he please by his will Our Lord made his will thus Joh. 17.24 Father I will that where I am these may be also Clear this and clear all then you are safe fail in this and you are undone But this is not all you are not only to get and clear up a title to this Inheritance but to press after a due meetness for it and this is the design of this small Treatise which was for the substance of it Preached and Writ Thirty Five Years ago and now revised and published upon these Considerations 1. For my own help and furtherance in preparation for Heaven having passed to the sixtieth year of my Life the date of
find of Bishop Juel that long before his sickness he foretold it approaching and in his sickness the precise day of his death he dyed in the fiftieth year of his age The like we have of James Andreas who foretold the year yea hour of his death I shall but add one instance of that Holy Man of God and my dear Friend Mr. Isaac Ambrose his surviving Wife told me of his solemn farewel he gave to his Daughter and some other Friends Yea the very day of his death several Friends from Garstang visited him at Preston with whom he discoursed piously and chearfully telling them he had finisht his work having the night before sent his discourse of Angels to the Press attended them to their Horses returned dyed that Evening in his Parlour where he had shut up himself for Meditation Thus Gods children are made meet for Heaven by dispatching their work on earth CHAP. VI. Meetness for Heaven by being mortified to Sin Time and Earthly Objects and being elevated to Heavenly Objects 4. THE last thing wherein meetness for Heaven doth consist is a being dead or being mortified to all things below and alive and lively to God and things above It is true converting grace deadens the heart to all sublunaries and lifts it up to divine things Yea sometimes the first convictions take off the sinners Spirit more then is meet and quite damps the affections to lawful comforts and makes him think he must do nothing in worldly business but give himself to Reading Praying and Hearing but Gods grace in a little time discovers this to be a Temptation Yet as grace gets the upper hand and the Christian mellows and ripens for glory so he is mortified and gradually transformed and advanced 1. By further victory over his corruptions for as the Christian perfects holiness in the fear of God so he doth by degrees cleanse himself from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 Sin and grace being like two buckets at one chain as the one comes up the other goes down Or as the ebbing and flowing of the Sea where it gaineth in one place it loseth in another the more holiness the less sin Now the Christian grows stronger and stronger The inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 So the body of sin is weakened till at last his fleshly lusts are laid at his feet and spiritual sins pay tribute to the grace of God in his Soul Pride hardness unbelief and security keep the Christian humble and watchful jealous of himself and maintaining spiritual conflicts against them so occasionally he is a gainer by his losses a riser by his falls however the Christian grows more in sight of and serves under the burden of sin as Paul he cryes out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 O saith the Christian what shall I do with this untoward heart I am weary of these Daughters of Heth Fain would I get rid of this indwelling corruption Sin I hope hath not dominion over me but oh when shall the time come that it shall have no indwelling within me But this is my grief and I must bear it I am discontentedly contented with my burden Discontent with sin content with Gods pleasure But there 's nothing makes me weary of the World but sin Could I live without sin I should live without sorrow The less sin the more of Heaven Lord set me at liberty 2. By loosening the affections from all worldly injoyments Oh how sapless and insipid doth the World grow to the Soul that is a making meet for Heaven He is crucified to the World and the World to him Gal. 6.14 In vain doth this Harlot think to allure me by her laying out her two fair Breasts of Profit and Pleasure Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a Child that is weaned of his Mother My Soul is even as a weaned Child Psal 131.2 There 's no more rellish in these gaudy things to my pallate then in the white of an Egg every thing grows a burden to me were it not duty to follow my calling and be thankful for my injoyments Methinks I injoy my Wife Husband and dearest Relations as if I had none I weep for outward losses as if I wept not rejoyce in comforts below as if I rejoyced not 1 Cor. 7.29 30. my thoughts are taken up with other objects The men of the world slight me many seem to be weary of me and I am as weary of them Non est mortale quod opto Its none of these earthly things that my Heart is set upon my Soul is set on things above my treasure is in Heaven and I would have my Heart there also I have sent before me all my goods into another Country and am shortly for flitting and when I look about me I see a bare empty house and am ready to say with Monica quid hic facio what do I here My Father Husband Mother Jerusalem above my Brethren Sister best Friends are above Methinks I grudge the World any thing of my Heart and think not these temporal visible things worth a cast of my Eye compared with things invisible and eternal 2 Cor. 4. 18. I do not only say with afflicted Job chap. 7.16 I loath it I would not live alway but even with Solomon in the top of all Earthly felicity Eccl. 2.17 18. Therefore I hated life yea I hated all my labour which I had taken under the Sun i. e. In comparison or in competition with Heavenly injoyments 3. By spiritualizing Worldly things and using them as steps by which the Soul mounts Heaven-wards The Believer considers these things were made not for themselves but for higher ends All things are as Talents to trade with for another World Matth. 25.16 for an account must be given of them not only Ordinances and Gospel-priviledges but Providences both sweet and severe yea Creature-comfors yea all visible objects Thus our Lord who had grace in perfection made notable Spiritual improvement of outward Water Bread vines for holy ends and the more Heavenly the Christian is the liker he is to his Head and so meeter for Heaven Whatever this golden hand of Faith toucheth is turned into Gold The Christian fetcheth honey thus out of the hard Rock Out of the eater comes meat O saith the believing Soul if meat be so sweet to an hungry stomach how much more excellent is Gods loving kindness If drink be so refreshing to the thirsty soul oh how sweet are those rivers of pleasures Surely his love is better then wine If it be so pleasant for the Eyes to behold the Sun how amiable is the Son of Righteousness How sweet is home to the weary Traveller And the Haven to the weather-beaten Mariner But infinitely sweet and contentful is Heaven to the tempted burdened tired Saint Methinks all I see and do and have minds me of my home and saith Arise depart this