they will never be able to reach the Price thereof Besides Christians whatever we do or suffer for God Luke 17.10 it 's no more than what we are obliged unto and surely in doing our duty we can never lay the (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad Rom. Homil. 7. Foundation of Merit for Eternal Glory Nor may we think to make a Purchase of the New Jerusalem by paying an old Score WOULD we ever Merit Heaven and Eternal Glory of God we must present him with some acceptable (d) Debemus enim deo et nos ipsos et nostra omnia Cha. n. Tom. 3. lib 14. cap. 20. pag. 497. Services which we owe him not but how shall we give him any thing wherein he hath not already a full propriety when there is nothing that we are or have there is nothing that we can do or suffer in a way of Obedience but is due unto God from us by every kind of Right Had we any thing of our own wherewith to come before the Lord there might then be some ground of pretence for the Merit of good Works (e) Ex gratia enim datur non solum justificatis vita bona sed etiam glorificatis vita aeterna Fulgent ad Monim l. 1. p. 18. But since all that we have is due to God because it came from him and bears his Image and Superscription upon it we cannot rationally think it possible for us to Merit any thing thereby of God unless we can think it rational that God should be obliged in point of Justice by giving us one Mercy to give us another by giving us Grace to put us at length in Possession of Eternal Glory That whereby Christians you differ from others from the vilest of Sinners from the Damned themselves that are now roaring out in Hell is not of Merit but of Grace not of Debt but a free Donative 't is nothing in your selves but the free distinguishing love of God dropping the Pearl of Grace into your hearts whilst others are left to perish in their Sins that hath made the difference And surely by those graces which you freely receive from God you may not think to Merit Life and Eternity of Glory at the hands of God For certainly whatever grace you have it obligeth you to Duty so that your Graces and your Obligations of Obedience to God they grow up together and the more grace you receive from God the more deeply do you stand engaged to abound in the fruits of Righteousness towards God How then can you once have a thought that that Grace and Holiness which God hath freely wrought in you and whereby he hath laid you under the strongest engagements to all holy and upright walking before him should make God your Debtor obliging him in point of Justice to render you the Reward of eternal Glory Indeed to whomsoever the Lord gives Grace he will also give Glory and whomsoever he now makes Holy he will Crown them at length with Eternal Happiness But this you must know not an act of Justice founded upon Man's Merit but an act of free Grace bottomed upon the Remunerative goodness of God in the Blood of Christ Rom. 6.23 (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 'T is an act of Justice in God to punish Sin which is wholly our own and purely Evil and therefore Death is here called the Wages of Sin But to Reward the good Works of Believers which are neither their own nor purely good is an act of free Grace and therefore we find the Apostle to exclude all opinion of Merit calling Life Eternal in this place the gift of God (g) Non dixit similiter stipendia justitiae quia non est antequam remuneratur in nobis non enim nostro labore quaesita est Jerom. So that we see though it be of Justice that the Wicked are Punished yet it is of Grace that the Righteous are Crowned (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost And if it be of Grace then not of any Merit in our own good Works otherwise grace were no more grace if not every way free and gratuitous Rom. 4.4 For how can we count it a point of grace to give a Man his due Or what need he sue for Mercy who requireth no more than his own at the hands of God Admit but of Merit and you leave no place of entrance for the grace of God (i) Non est quo gratia intret ubi jam meritum occuparit Bernard Cant. 67. So likewise the grace of God in Christ it leaves no place for the Merit of our good Works For Grace and Merit are altogether inconsistent and mutually destructive one of another Rom. 11.6 So that if you pull down the Merit of good Works you set up Grace and if you go about to establish Merit you do utterly destroy the Grace of God and make it of none effect Let us not then Christians look in our Obedience to have that of Debt which God hath decreed to be of Grace nor go about to seek Heaven and Glory by way of Purchase which the Lord hath intended to be a Donative and of free Gift Whilst others trust to the Merit of their own good Works let us wholly rely upon the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus looking for the Recompence of Eternal Life not from the Justice of a Judge but from the Mercy of a Father not from the worth and dignity of our own Performances but from the free Bounty and Remunerative Goodness of the Lord our Redeemer You may do good Works and walk in ways of Obedience with an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward But yet none of these things must be done with respect to the Meriting of Eternal Life by them For though as (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 8. Serm. 15. Chrysostome sweetly saith we had done ten thousand good deeds yet it is of Grace that we must look to be saved and of Loving-kindness not of any desert in ourselves that we must seek to obtain Eternal Glory (l) Totis licet animae et corporis laboribus desudemus totis licet obedientiae viribus exerceamur nihil tamen condignum merito pro coelestibus bonis compensare et offerre valebimus Euseb Emissen homil 3. ad Monarch We stand so infinitely indebted to the God of Heaven that though we should with all the strength of Body and Mind exercise ourselves in Obedience to God all our Life long though with bitterness and anguish of Spirit we should bewail our own Sins mourn in some Wilderness till Doom's-day and dissolve our Souls with weeping into (m) Flaccescant licet membra vigilijs pallescant licet ora jejunijs non erunt tamen condignae passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriam Idem Rivers of Tears though we should live like Angels of Light shine like the Sun in it's Noon-day Brightness and exercise ourselves unto Godliness continually with all
yet we must neither serve nor love him so much for the Reward that he will Crown us with as for his own sake 'T is Storied of (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Plutarch in Vit. Alex. Alexander that he was wont to say of his two Friends Ephestion and Craterus Ephestion loves me because I am Alexander but Craterus loves me because I am King Alexander implying that the one loved his Person and the other nothing else but his Princely Gifts Many there are in the World who Craterus-like have a good mind to God's gifts and benefits that he bestoweth on them and for these they would seem to love him But (m) Cum Deus sit ipsa essentia bonitatis per se et ultimus finis omnium propter seipsum quoque diligendus est Aquinas 2ª 2 ae Q. 27. a. 11. Christians should be so many Spiritual Ephestions obeying the God of Heaven and loving him for himself and all other things in the World Heaven and Glory it self not excepted for his sâ—ke If there be any subordination betwixt God and Heaven surely then we should rather love and by patient continuance in well doing seek after the Reward of Eternal Happiness in Heaven for God's sake than love and seek after God for Heaven's sake 'T is hard I confess to distinguish betwixt God and the Recompence of the Reward (n) Nec deum debemus amare propter praemia sed praemia propter deum Pet. Mart. in Sam. But if any such distinction may be made we must rather love and obey God for his own sake than for the sake of that Eternal Reward how glorious soever For as Austin well saith (o) Deus gratis se vult coli gratis se vult diligi hoc est castè amari Non pterea se amari vult quia dat aliquid praeter se sed quia dat se Aust in Ps 52. God will not be loved and served because he gives us any Reward besides himself but because he gives us himself as our exceeding great Reward Gen. 15.1 The Wife that intirely loves her Husband she looks for no other Reward of her Love and Obedience to him but only to enjoy him as her Husband So we must not be acted in our Obedience by a Mercenary Spirit looking more at our own Reward than at God himself but must think it a sufficient Reward of all our Love and Obedience to God that we shall at length enjoy him as our God in Christ Jesus When we are acted more in ways of Obedience by the Fear of Hell and by the desire of Heaven than by Love to God this argues a servile mercenary frame of Spirit clearly evincing that our respect to the Recompence of the Reward is not such as it ought to be For though we may lawfully have respect to them both looking upon the Torments of the one to deter us from Sinning against God and upon the Comforts of the other to encourage us to all holy walking before him yet that which ought to be the main Spring of all our Obedience setting all on work for God that which should be the very Soul of all our Religious undertakings especially deriving Life and the purest quint-essence of Holiness into them why 't is the Love of God shed abroad in our hearts Oh therefore see to it that in all your Obedience to God you be acted not by the Spirit of Bondage but by the Spirit of Adoption not by Fear but by Love not by servile and mercenary but by filial and ingenuous Principles You may set the Joys of Heaven on the Right Hand and the Torments of Hell on the Left having an eye to them both as strong incentives to quicken you in your motion But the Love of God in Christ this must be the spring and main ground of your moving in Heaven's way (p) Deum non colimus nisi propter deum ut deus quem colimus ipse sit merces Nam qui deum ideo colit ut aliquid aliud promereatur quam ipsum non quem colit diligit quia non ipsum sed aliud concupiscit Prosper in Psal 119. For we never Worship the Lord in a right way we never serve God as we should till we can serve him for himself Nor do we consult God's Glory at all but our own security when 't is only the fear of Hellish Torments and not the love that we should bear to the Lord that makes us walk in Obedience before him An heart rightly affected in the Services of God is so ingenuous and so throughly steeped in the Christal Stream of Divine Love that though there were no Heaven no Hell no Reward nor Punishment yet it would constrain a Man to do his Duty making him to shun Sin and to walk in all upright Obedience before the Lord. (q) Ipse Christianus vere est qui proficiendo perveniet ad talem animum ut plus amet dominum quam timeat Gehennam ut etiamsi dicat illi deus utere delicijs carnalibus sempiternis et quantum potes pecca nec morieris nec in Gehennam mitteris sed mecum tantum modo non eris Exhorrescat et omnino non peccet non jam ut in illud quod timebat non incidat sed ne illum quem sic amat offendat in quo uno est requies quam oculus non vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascendit August de Catechiezâ—nd Rudik cap. 17. Let God say to such an one Crown yourselves with all Earthly Delights and take your fill of all Mundane Pleasures Cloathe yourselves in Purple and fare Deliciously every day Sin as much as you will and deny yourselves in nothing that a Carnal heart can desire yet you shall never die for it nor be cast into Hell only this shall be your Punishment that you shall never see my Face nor enjoy my Favour Why such is the strength of the Love which he bears to the God of Heaven that he would tremble at such an offer and not much be tempted with it to sin against the Lord not so much because he is afraid of falling into Hell as because he is unwilling to offend that God whom his Soul loveth and whose Favour he looks upon as better than Life it self A true Christian though he may fear Hell and eschew it with a fear of flight and aversation yet this is not the Spring of his Motion but as the Primum Mobile sets all the other Spheres a going and as the Soul informing the Body gives Life and Motion to the whole Man so the Love of God shed abroad in the heart this is the Spring of a Christian's Obedience setting all the Faculties of his Soul as so many Heavenly Orbs a going for God and putting Life into all it's Performances The Sparks do not more Naturally fly upward than the Love of God doth actuate draw forth and carry a Christian in ways of Obedience to God
us to and that will make it something clearer that we may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward Think not that by sending you to Nature I go about to make void the Grace of God for though they both spring from the same Fountain of Love and Unity so that there are no Principles of discord betwixt them yet Nature is but the Handmaid Grace is the Mistress Nature teacheth you to consult your own Happiness but it 's Grace alone that can put you in the right way and at the end Crown you with it Men by nature are all of themselves in equal circumstances in order to eternal Happiness they may desire it but are all of them equally distant from it till God himself makes the difference according to his own Decrees which are all of them eternal and unconditionate However God hath left this natural desire of Happiness in us as a stock whereupon to graft the Plant of Grace Nature indeed could never make us happy without Grace and yet Grace presupposes Nature as that which affords it matter to work upon so that whilst by Nature we desire our own Happiness Grace doth not pluck up this desire as an unsavoury Weed but doth manure and cherish it and perfect it by putting us in the right way that leads to eternal Happiness What shall we then think of those that deny us the liberty of consulting our own Welfare would they have us banished from our own essence and walk Antipodes to the Law of Nature Judge in your selves is it comely for a Man to go about to blot out the Law of Self-preservation which God hath engraven upon every Being as with the point of a Diamond Doth not Nature itself teach you what a shame it is for a Man to be careless of his own Salvation never labouring to promote the welfare of his own Being If the Law of Nature teach us to consult our own Happiness to be sure the God of Nature for obeying her in that innocent dictate seeking Life and Eternal Glory in all that we do will never condemn us 9. WE may lawfully have respect to the recompence of the reward in our obedience because otherwise we should neglect our great end of our Lives which is to seek after the Happiness and Eternal Welfare of our own Souls The main care of every Man in this World should be as to glorifie God so to save his own Soul Our Souls are a sacred Depositum wherewith the Lord hath entrusted us and therefore he allows us not to be prodigal of their Welfare but expects that like faithful Depositaries we should give all diligence to keep them that no Man may take their Crown Christians should not be like the Married Woman who careth for the things of the World how she may please her Husband * 1 Cor. 7.34 But like the Chast Virgin they should care for the things of the Lord that being Holy both in Body and in Spirit they may save their Souls That which is the grand mark for the hitting whereof we should bend and direct all our endeavours that which is the Centre towards which we should always be moving is the Eternal Salvation of our Immortal Souls which above all things we should give diligence to Land safe at the Peaceful Haven of undisturbed rest and endless felicity †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Laert. in ejus vita I have read of Anaxagoras the Philosopher that being asked for what end he was Born answered To contemplate the Heavens and behold the Sun but the true end for which we were Born into the World is this that we may glorifie God and enjoy him for ever to the saving of our Souls God never sent us into the World with a design to make us Cosmopolites that should negotiate for nothing save the perishable Enjoyments of this present Life but the great thing which the Lord hath given us in charge is to have our Conversation in Heaven laying up for our selves a Treasure there * John 6.27 Labour we must all so long as we are cloathed with Mortality yet not for the Meat that perisheth but for the Meat which will endure to everlasting Life In this World we have no continuing City the Lord would therefore have us seek for one to come * Heb. 11.10 for a Kingdom that cannot be moved for a City that hath Foâ—ndations whose Builder and Maker is God The Lord hath sent us into the World as into his own ¶ Phil. 2.12 Vineyard and the great employment he hath set us about is to work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling Though using moderation we may consult the Welfare of our Bodies yet our great care must be to promote the Happiness of our precious Souls that when these earthly Tabernacles of our Bodies fail us we may be received into everlasting Habitations That which will infallibly be the end of a Christians Faith should designedly be the end of every Man's Life even the Eternal Salvation of his own Soul God will have our care proportionate to the worth and dignity of that object about which it is conversant Since therefore our Souls are as so many Orient Jewels of unvaluable worth good reason there is that our most â—â—incipal and sovereign care should be to provide for them that they may be eternally Blessed shining like the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven for ever with the bright reflexions of God's Benign Aspect and Glory upon them What I find spoken by Solomon in Wisdom's commendation may very well be †Pâ—o 3 15. accommodated to a rational Soul She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her THE * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 46. Soul is the Glory of the whole Creation 't is the Quintessence of a rational Creature 't is an incarnate Angel ruling as Empress in the midst of Man who is the Microcosm the Epitome the compendious Abridgment of all the World The Body of Man is compounded of gross Materials 't is come of an earthly Extraction but now his Soul it s an Heaven-born Creature 't is the Off-spring of God himself as coming down from that Father of Spirits The Body is nothing but a piece of well refined Mud 't is an earthly Tabernacle raised out of the Dust for the Soul to dwell in but the Soul is of a more Noble and Divine Original 't is the sweet and delicious Breath of a Deity derived into the Body by Divine Inspiration from God himself THERE is that Beauty Comeliness and choice Embroidery to be seen upon the Body of Man which doth sufficiently prove it to be more than the mere Workmanship of any finite Creature but upon the Soul there are those signatures of a Deity those heavenly Characters and Divine Lineaments which seem clearly to evince it to be wholly the Workmanship of an Infinite God
Carrion of bestial Delights you will thus renounce the Communion of Heavenly Joys Is this your Wisdom your Prudence to make Sin the object of your Joy the Theatre of your Delight the Centre of your Desires and the Element wherein you would continually chuse to live when God by a Miracle of rich Grace calls upon you to seek after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven Can you think to maintain the comfort of your Life by Sin which is nothing but the fuel of Death and Misery Will you make that the sole object of your Joy which alone is the inlet to an ocean of Sorrow and perplexing disquietments The truth is we have many amongst us who wear Christ's Livery and are called Christians but yet they live as Persons resolved to chuse Epicurus that grand Sensualist for the Master oâ— their licentious Faction making Pleasure with him the Alpha and Omega of all their Happiness Seneca though an Heathen had a far more noble â—â—d heroick Spirit than such esteeming it the greatest Pleasure to contemn all carnal Pleasures whilst these reckon it for the highest accent of â—â—licity to live in them Such voluptuous Wantons walk directly antipodes to the end of their own being living in nothing but carnal Delights as if God sent them into the World to be therein like the Leviathan sporting themselves and feasting their Souls in an Ocean of sensual Pleasures They begin to anticipate here that Paradise of swinish Delights which Mahomet promised his own naâ—â—y Herd at leastwise to take an earnest of it continually soaking themselves in their own intemperance and brutish luxury They look after no other Heaven than only to go singing to Hell and though you give them the greatest variety of delightful objects yet they cannot be Merry unless they may have Treason against Heaven it self for the game and the Devil for their playfellow But be ashamed oh carnal Gospellers thus to give up the strength of your Souls in the service of sensual Pleasures making light in the mean time of Heaven and Glory together with those unsullied Paradisical Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore Oh let not that be matter of Pleasure and Delight to you which lay so heavy upon the Soul of your blessed Redeemer Did Christ bleed and groan and die to save you from your Sins and yet will you live with delight in the Pleasures of Sin How ever can you have a good thought of Sin when you look upon it as that which brought down the Son of God from Heaven and that murthered the Lord of Life and Glory Must the beloved Son of God undergo the curse due to your Sins and must he also humble himself unto Death to purchase for you the reward of Life everlasting that after all this you should undervalue his Love and make light of so great Salvation preferring the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a season before it Will you see I beseech you your folly in the glass of these ensuing considerations 1 CONSIDER thus to delight in carnal Pleasures it argues your Souls to be utterly void of Grace and dead in sin Where ever Grace comes with power it mortifies all vile affections and quite alienates the Heart from all sinful delights so that whoever delights in the Pleasures of Sin to be sure he is yet in a state of Nature and was never brought under the Power of converting Grace (a) Quâ—madmodum impossibile est ut ignis flammam concipiat in aquâ ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est voluptates mundi cum poenitentia Christiana manere Otho Casman A voluptuous Man cannot be a gracious Man Nor is it possible for the Dove of true Piety to find any place whereon to rest the sole of her foot in a deluge of carnal Pleasures Our first Parents by eating of the forbidden fruit they lost their right to the Tree of Life and were shut out of Paradise (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ait Xenophon By feeding with delight upon the forbidden fruit of Sin Men forfeit their right to all saving Grace and must need be shut out of Gods presence which is better than life it self as that alone which can quicken and revive a dead Soul T is the dead Fish only and not the living that are carried away with the stream Thus when Men are carried away with a deluge of Sin and swim willingly down the stream of carnal delights it s a sign they were never alive unto God but that still they are dead in trespasses and Sins Hence the Widow who indulges a sensual appetite living in Pleasure (c) 1 Tim. 5.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand Paedag. lib. 3. cap. 7. pag. 172. is said to be dead whilst she lives Who ever hath Pleasure in unrighteousness delighting in that as his proper element he hath no principle of Life and Grace abiding in him but is spiritually dead whilst he lives in the Body When Wickedness is sweet to our taste and we delight our selves in it here is the reigning power of Sin separating betwixt us and the God of Heaven and that indeed is not only the Death but the Hell of every graceless Soul A Life of sensuality speaks that Man to be spiritually dead who in such a manner lives after the Flesh (d) Rom. 8.13 For if you live after the Flesh saith St. Paul ye shall die When Men give their full consent to sinful desires not only committing iniquity but having Pleasure therein Not only esteeming a sinful Life to be happy but also counting it their Wisdom with profane Esau to sell their Eternal Birth-right for one mess of such pottage why this now is to live after the Flesh and whoever thus lives he is dead whilst he lives Doth then thy fancy run in a way of Sinful objects with delight taking thought for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof Dost thou make thy self the standard and thy sensual appetite the rule of all thy actions Hast thou an Heart carried out continually after sinful objects if absent desiring and grieving for them but if present rejoicing and delighting in them How dreadful oh brutish Sinner is thy present condition If thus to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin be the Life of thy Soul it s estranged from the Life of God and thou art dead though thou livest (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Leg. Alleg. lib. There is a Death saith Philo of the Man and there is a Death of the Soul The first which he calls the Death of the Man that 's the separation of the Soul from the Body the second which he calls the Death of the Soul that stands in the want of Grace and the presence of Sin Tho then thy Soul be not separated from thy Body yet what will all this avail so long as thou livest in Sin which is the most dreadful Death and wantest the Grace of God
which indeed is the Life of thy Soul Did the Body of thy dearest Relation lie dead upon the floor what a woful Spectacle would it be and how bitterly wouldst thou weep over it But O Sinner thy Immortal Soul which should be more preciously dâ—ar in thy sight than all thy Relations in the World that lies dead in Sin it 's estranged from God the Fountain of Life it hath no interest in Christ the Prince of Life it hath no Portion in the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Life it hath neither Part nor Lot in Eternal Glory the Crown of Life and is not this a far more sad and woful Spectacle such as may well turn thy Head into Water and thy Eyes into a Fountain of Tears Oh what should fill thy Heart with Groans thy Eyes with Tears and thy Mouth with doleful Complaints if not this to see thy Soul without Life without God and Christ and without all hope of Eternal Glory in the World Canst thou weep bitterly for a dead Relation and yet canst thou not weep for thy self hast thou no Tears to shed over a dead Soul For a Man to be killed by Sin and yet to live to Sin taking pleasure therein what a woful condition is this If yet Sinner thou hast pleasure in unrighteousness to be sure the Tokens of Death are upon thee thou hast neither Life nor yet any hope of Eternal Life abiding in thee A Soul taking delight in the pleasures of Sin it 's a dead Soul * John 3.36 and a Dead Soul it shall never see Life but the Wrath of God abides upon it 2 CONSIDER so long as you take delight in the pleasures of sin you remain uncapable of and can never enjoy communion with God If conformity be that which capacitates for a mutual communion then doubtless an unholy sinner that hath pleasure in unrighteousness is altogether unfit for communion with an holy God †Heb. 1.13 whose Eyes are so infinitely pure that he cannot behold the least iniquity (a) Fit nostra societas cum Deo per similitudinem Ferrar. There can be no fellowship where first there is not some similitude What fellowship can there then be betwixt the great God who is all light and profane ungodly sinners delighting themselves in the unfruitful works of darkness You may say there is fellowship betwixt you and the God of Heaven (b) 1 John 1.6 But then if you walk in darkness making sin your delight you lie saith the Apostle and do not the truth 'T is an exempt priviledge and that which is peculiar to the pure in Heart that they shall see God and have communion with him (c) 2 Cor. 6.14 15. Hence St. Paul puts the question intending thereby a more vehement negation what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial We see by experience the darkness cometh not till the light be gone and when the light cometh the darkness vanisheth they cannot dwell together it being the nature of things contrary mutually to take away each other Thus the infinitely holy God and a voluptuous sordid Sinner who hath pleasure in unrighteousness they are of such contrary natures that they can no more have fellowship together than the clearest Light and the thickest darkness Amongst all the creature there are none that can have communion with any that live not the same life with themselves as a Plant whose life is only vegetative can have no communion with a beast whose life is sensitive neither can a beast have communion with Men because they live a rational (d) Ephes 4.18 life Thus all sensual wicked Men they are estranged from the life of God they live a life of sensuality delighting in sin as their proper Element and therefore can have no communion at all with God whose life is a life of unchangably blessed and spotless Holiness Oh then how miserable is the condition of all voluptuous sensualists who render themselves uncapable through their brutish lusts of communion with an holy God! Michael and the Dragon could not agree in one Heaven nor the Ark and Dagon in one House no more can a wicked Man and an holy God agree to have communion together Your carnal pleasures they shut out from communion with God as the Plague of leprosy shut out of the Camp debarring a Man from all society with such as were clean (e) In his rebus quae inter se pugnant ita ut neutra ferat alterius consortium quotiens hanc amplectimur illam abdicavimus quotiens unam rejioimus alteram agnoscimus Cyprian de dupl Martyr pag. 600. And had you rather with the Prodigal be feeding upon Husks amongst Swine than to feed with delight upon this bread of life in your fathers House Will you still go on to preferr these Onyons and Garlick of Egypt your carnal delights and pleasurable vanities before all the delicious Clusters of Canaan before the hidden Manna of Sweet communion and fellowship of an holy God Poor brutish sinners did you but know by experience what it is to walk in the light of God's countenance what it is to enjoy his favour what it is to be under his smiles in the face of Christ to receive daily the fresh communications of his love and for ever to have the sweet influences of these heavenly Pleiades falling down like a Golden showr into your own bosoms oh how quickly would you nauseate all carnal delights how quickly would you come off with shame and self-abhorrency from your pleasurable vanities making choice of Communion with God as the only Paradise of true delight and Soul-satisfying pleasures in all the World (f) Psal 34.8 Oh therefore do but tast and see how good the Lord is and what fulness of joy you may have in communion with him You have long been sucking the Breast of carnal delights and tasting how good the pleasures of sin are though but for a season Come now in like manner and draw the sincere milk of comfort from the breasts of Divine promises lay your mouths to the Hony-Comb of Heavenly communion sit you down a little under the shadow of the most High ascend with God into the Mount of transfiguration take a turn or two with him in the Galleries of love and if you find not a day thus spent to be better more laden with Fruits of Paradise to refresh and make glad your Souls than a thousand else where then turn aside again to your carnal pleasures renounce this Heavenly Canaan as a barren Wilderness and go back to the flesh-pots of your sensual delights in Egypt and spare not But oh the fulness of joy and divine satisfaction of a Man walking close in communion with God! You may as well perswade the most pompous Monarch faring deliciously every day to lay aside his princely Robes to desert his Throne and go feed upon husks with the Prodigal as
of God! If Sirs you think â—an Honour to appear Good (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat epist ad Magnes pag. 52. Omnino enim nihil prodest nomen sanctum habere sine moribus quia vita à professione discordans abrogat illustris tituli honorem per indignorum actuum vilitatem Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 3. pag. mihi 94. is it not much morâ—â—n Honour to be so indeed What alas is the Name of Christian worth if you will goâ— put on the Nature of a Christian To think I was well reputed of amongst God's People I was called a good and had the Name of a Christian can this be a Cordial when you come to die Or will it comfort your Hearts when appearing before the Judgment-seat of (c) Quid est in quo nobis de Christiano nomine blandiamur cum utique hoc ipso magis per nomen sacratissimum rei simus qui à sancto nomine discrepamus Nam ideo plus sub religionis titulo Deum ludimus quia positi in religione peccamus Idem paulo post the great God where all your Paint and Varnish being washed off you must now be punished as Hypocrites with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of God and from the Glory of his Power To be counted Rich and yet turn Bankrupt to be judged healthful and yet sick unto Death would but aggravate in such cases a Man's Misery So to be counted Holy and yet Profane to have a Name to live and yet after all be found dead in Trespasses and Sins oh this will most dreadfully aggravate the Hypocrites Misery another day this will sink them deeper in Hell than the notoriously ungodly this will prepare flaming Ingredients for the Cup of Wrath and put new Stiâ—gs into those fiery Scorpions that will vex and torment them for ever If then you love your Souls give diligence now to have the best side inward doing every thing from the Heart sâ—â—cerely as unto God! Strive you must to make clean the inside as well as the outside of the Platter and to have pure Hearts as well aâ—â—lean Hands would you ever (d) 2 Tim. 2.21 be Vessels of Honour 〈◊〉 for the Master's use The foolish Virgins they had Lamps in their Hands a Profession of Godliness (e) Mat. 25.3 adorned with many glorious Performances But these were not animated with an upright Heart they wanted the Oyl of Grace within and therefore depart from me saith Christ I never knew you Christ will know those well he will know them to be Men of pure Minds and upright Hearts whom he receives to dwell with himself in eternal Mansions of Glory Otherwise if a Work of Grace be wanting within if the Heart be unsound and not inwardly Holy they must look to depart accursed into everlasting burnings where the painted fire of all their pretended zeal shall most surely be punished with the true fire of God's heavy wrath and sore displeasure Thus you may possibly appear Holy before Men and have your Christian Profession adorned with many seemingly glorious Performances But in case your Hearts be not upright before God now he throws you down for ever into Hellish-torments now he punisheth your Souls with everlasting Destruction from his own Presence now he commands you to depart accursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and you must obey him Oh then what a woful thing is a rotten Heart and how much doth it concern us all to be that indeed which we are in shew He that is seemingly good but really bad though die he may with seeming hopes for Heaven and Glory yet fall he must into a real Hell of Misery and eternal endless Torments 7 SEE that you mortify through the Spirit the Deeds of the Body That which thou sowest saith the Apostle (f) 1 Cor. 15.36 is not quickned except it die so except first you die to Sin you can never be quickned nor raised to enjoy the Reward of eternal Life The way to die hereafter is to live here And the way to live hereafter is to die here They that now live in Sin must hereafter expect Death and eternal Misery as the just Reward and Punishment of their Sins But they that now die to Sin crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts shall hereafter live with God in eternal Mansions of Glory For saith the Apostle if ye live after the (h) Rom. 8.13 Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Here you see are described two ways the one leading to Death the other to Life the one to Hell the other to Heaven the one to endless Torments the other to all fulness of Joy in God's own presence So then he that will save the Life of his Sins shall lose his Soul But he that will mortifie himself his beloved Lusts and Sins and dearest Corruptions he shall live for ever Though then you cannot totally kill (g) Gal. 5.24 your Corruptions in this Life yet see that you be daily mortifying them Though you cannot wholly cast them out from remaining yet be sure to keep them under from reigning in your mortal Bodies that you should obey them All Sins are meritoriously Mortal but none save those which are left unmortified do eventually prove so (i) Rom. 6. Though it be true that every Sin deserveth Death even the Motus primò primi concerning which the Schoolmen write the very first risings and ebullitions of Lust in the Soul which do prevent all use of Reason though standing in her highest Watch-tower of Vigilancy to descry and with all curiosity to make observation of every approaching Enemy Yet there is no Sin though aggravated by supervening Circumstances to an equality of Guilt and heinousness with the most prodigious and horrid â—mpieties that were ever yet perpetrated by any Offender that doth actually infer Death exposing a Man to the Vengeance of eternal Fire unless suffered to go unmortified The least Sin when allowed of is enough for thy Damnation and the greatest when mortified can by no means hinder thy eternal Salvation The Life of Sin and the Life of a Sinner are like two Buckets at a Well if the one go up the other must go down Thus if your Pride your Hypocrisie your Covetousness your Carnality your vile Affections live in you you must die eternally but if through the Spirit you mortify them you shall live for ever Behold then I now set before you Life and Death Mount Ebal and Mount Gerrizzim Blessings and Cursings the Pleasures of Heaven and the Torments of Hell and oh that you would choose not Death but Life not Ebal but Gerizzim not Cursings but Blessings not hellish intolerable Torments but heavenly Glory There are but two Estates of Men in this present Life and but two proportionate to them in the Life to come Some here live after the Flesh and they must die
with at the Hands of his Enemies The like we may say of Peter who (p) Mat. 26.33.70 till he fell was so well conceited of himself that he thought himself able to live and die with Christ (q) John 21.15 though all his fellows should deny him But after that soul Miscarriage when Christ came to question him about his love to him you shall hear no such proud Boastings come from him but he speaks with a great deal of Jealousy and godly Trembling which made Augustin conclude it was much better with Peter (r) Salubriùs enim Petrus sibi displicuit quando flevit quam sibi placuit quando praesumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. cap. 13. weeping over his denial of Christ than when pleasing himself with a Presumption that he would not deny him Above all most pregnant to this purpose is the Instance of that Holy Apostle St. Paul who denyeth not but ingenuously confesseth (r) Salubriùs enim Petrus sibi displicuit quando flevit quam sibi placuit quando praesumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. cap. 13. that after he had been wrap't up into Paradise and heard unwordable words such things as it was not possible for a Man to utter there was given him a Thorn in the Flesh to this very end that he might not be exalted above measure nor lifted up higher in Conceit than he was in his Extasy 'T is reckoned I confess amongst the first-born of Absurdities by one Dr. Gell a grand Patron of sinless Perfection that the Lord should suffer Sin to remain in his own People for to keep them humble as if saith he God would have us proud that we might not be proud and Sinful that we might not Sin against him But he that hath learned to drive out one peg with another that hath seen the Diamond Cut with the Diamond or felt the searching of a Wound (s) Sectio dolorem operatur ut dolor dolore tollatur Aug. de nat grat cap. 28. causing Pain that thereby a greater pain might be removed will not much be transported with the Dr's Novel Speculations nor yet easily be perswaded to count it any Absurdity at all that the grand Physician of Souls should extract a sovereign Treacle out of Sins rankest Poyson and use the Blood of this deadly Scorpion to the Cure the stinging of the Scorpion For though Sin be not in itself medium per se nor the cause of any good any more than Venom or Poyson of Health Yet by the Wisdom of the great God it is made conducible to the humbling of his People who might easily if Perfectly cleansed therefrom be exalted to think of themselves above what they ought to think The Truth is it 's not Sin but the Sense of Sin remaining which is a means to humble us And as Grace accidentally causeth the Sin of Pride So our Sins accidently may cause the Grace of Humility Though then the Relicks of indwelling Corruption be evil and to be striven with all earnestness against Yet the due Sense of indwelling Corruption is good and with all diligence to be laboured for as that which if any thing can will be sure to hide Pride from our Eyes and keep us low Nor doth it any thing at all incommodate the point in Hand what is so commonly objected against it by our Adversaries With whom to the Grief of my Spirit I find a reverend Brother too rashly symbolyzing that if we were perfectly sanctified we should be perfectly humble and then there would be no room for Pride For whilst cloathed with Mortality the best of God's People are but in the way not come to their Journeys end not arrived at the secure Harbour of their Eternal Rest where only and not else where they shall so be confirmed in Grace as not to stand in need of those many peculiar helps which now they do 'T is true were we wholly freed from all the Remainders of Sin made perfectly holy and withal confirmed in a state of Grace then there would be no more danger of Pride than now there is amongst glorious Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect But were we only perfectly made Holy and not confirmed as the Angels are in such a state there would still be as much danger of Pride and of losing all again by Self-admiration as there was in Adam and the Apostate Angels so easily might we surfeit upon and have our Hearts over-charged with proud over-weaning Thoughts Perfection in Holiness then and a full discharge from all the relicks of Sin would not be sufficient security against Pride and Self-admiration unless the Lord should superadd thereto confirming Grace But this were to destroy order to jumble Heaven and Earth Grace and Glory together this were indeed to confound the State militant of Vicatores with the state triumphant of Comprehensores which this Wisdom of the God of order permitteth not So that Christians in this Life a Sinless perfection is a Nonenity you may as well expect a Garden without any Weeds a Sun-shine without any Cloud a Body without any peccant Humour as a Soul without all reliques of Sin and indwelling Corruption (a) Matth. 6.12 Quam necessariè quam providenter salubriter admonemur quod peccatores sumus qui pro peccatis rogare compellimur ut dum indulgentia de Deo petitur conscientiae suae animus recordetur Nequis sibi quasi innocens placeat cum innocens nemo sit se extollendo plus pereat instruitur docetur peccare se quotidie dum quotidie pro peccatis jubetur orare Cypr. de Orat. Dom. Lib. p. 314. Why else doth Christ direct us to pray daily for Pardon of Sin We renew Sin daily and therefore stand in need of Daily forgiveness So much doth that Petition imply unless we could imagin ourselves bound to mock God imploring what we have no need of If any Man dare be so hardy as to go before God with the Proud Pharisee telling the Lord (b) Nostra justitia potiùs peccatorum remissione constat quam perfectione virtutum Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 19. c. 27. p. 530. Luke 18.10 14. he is so pure so Holy so perfectly free from Sin that he needeth no longer his pardoning Mercy let him go to and see what will come of it But as for me and all the Lord's People I desire we may still be found in the poor (c) In conspectu judicis misericordis justi non est accepta superba jactatio bonorum operum sed humilis confessio peccatorâ—m â—ulgent Epist 3. ad Prob. pag. 510. Publican's posture smiting upon our Breast and praying in the due sense of our own vileness Lord be merciful to us Sinners (d) 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Pet. 3.18 Profectò qui deâ—die in diem renovatur nondum totus est renovatus Aug. Justitia quamdiu augeri potest profectò illud quod minus est quam debet ex
or Field by Night where he would furrow his Cheaks with Tears solemnly vow and covenant with God and yet break through all again into his former course till at last he apprehended this covenanting and unfaithfulness in it did but bind a far more exceeding and eternal weight of wrath upon him with this he was so terrified that he durst covenant no more This course lasted from about seven to seventeen Years of Age in what manner Corruption acted before he remembers not After this time living an idle Life and being travelled with bad Company he cast off his allegiance to Parents and took a Wife before nineteen Years of Age for which his Father justly cast him off and he wonders the holy God did not also cast him into Hell But contrary to his demerit and to manifest that our heavenly Father can pardâ—n what earthly Parents cannot God took him in provided a comfortable subsistence for him and without any seeking of his fed this wretched Prodigal with Food convenient that was ready to perish upon a Dunghil This kindness of Divine Providence considered he could no longer resist this brake his Heart in pieces like a Potsheard dissolved him like Snow melted him like wax before the Sun Now his old Resolutions revived with more strength than ever and as a piece of pennance whereby to escape Hell and purchase Heaven he could be content to leave his Sins though still the remembrance of them was grateful to his Nature and he thought them a pleasant Morsel but that Hell stood at the farther end of them But he could have no admission upon these unworthy terms the Spirit of God falls to work with his Conscience as in a voice of Thunder and with terrors more dreadful than all that ever were solemnized upon Mount Sinai singles out his delicate darling corruption swallows him up into the confounding thoughts of it reads the Law charges Guilt and Wrath upon him and thereby slew him so that now he lies bleeding under reprobate astonishment dreading every moment when the Hand the avenging Hand of God would cast him into Hell And so violent was the Agony that he thinks that had not a gleam of Gospel Light come in offering relief and redemption through the free Grace of God in Christ that either Soul and Body had been torn asunder through the great violence of the storm or else he fears he should have destroyed himself to avoid it This notwithstanding he thinks he had some worse corruptions than what the Spirit of God now fastned upon his Conscience as many a bad Lord hath Slaves worse than himself though they all pay suit and service to him as his other Lusts did to this peccatum in deliciis Against this therefore he bent his whole strength little considering for some Years the state of his Soul as to other corruptions which lay dormant their General being so watcht that he could not command them out upon their devilish Service as he was wont Yet the great thing minded was Pardon for a long time with a resolution not to gratifie it though every denyal were a present Death Having thus in time obtained some rest from his hard bondage under it and guilty fears gendred by it he began to consider the great happiness of victory over corruption and to judge that what Poyson what Plague what Death and loathsome Ulcers are to the Body Sin is that to the Soul and infinitely worse which was all now set home upon him both by rational conviction and his own doleful experience This engaged him wholly to attend the business of mortification but chiefly of this Lust to cut off all provisions from it to deny its importunate cravings and to maintain a constant watch against it all which notwithstanding he often received wounds and bruises by it But having a little respite to examine himself as to other Corruptions Death comes upon him again he finds all manner of concupiscence working in him thinks himself a Babel a Sodom an Hell for all confounding and raging Lusts So that had he not by this time better understood whence to fetch Sanctifying Grace as them formerly he must have despaired But he had now learnt to go to the Lord Jesus not only as giving Remission of Sins through Faith in his Blood but likewise saving from Sin by the efficacy of his own Almighty Spirit Hither he never applied himself in believing manner but he obtained help from God through whose help â—he now saith that what was his darling Sin is dead to him and hath no power to command any entertainment in so much as one indulgent Thought though as for natural abilities he is as capable of Pleasure in it as ever His other Sins â—he finds daily to be dying and doth now find the like inclinations to spiritual things that he was wont to find to fleshly things and as strong aversations and eluctances against the lust of the Eyes c. as ever â—he found against the Holy ways of God so that were there no Hell to punish a Life of Flesh-pleasing but what is shut up in the very Nature of it he could not but hate it and fly from it as Men do from the Plague though there be no Law provided that Jesus is his Saviour that he hath saved him out of spiritual Darkness and out of Bondage under Sin given him a new Nature and made him to center wholly upon the blessed God to dwell with him to delight above all things in him and cleave to him as his Life Happiness and resting place Since brought thus far he hath found it with himself as followeth 1 He dare build his confidence for salvation upon nothing but the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus apprehended by Faith his Anchor is upon this Rock of Ages his Life is bound up with this Prince of Life and though through the Corruption of his own Heart and prepossessions of Errour about the Nature of Redeeming Grace he find it aâ— hard thing to believe yet his Heart is now possessed with Good and Honourable apprehensions of God He in good measure is freâ— from all imbittered thoughts of him hâ— believes that God hath given him Eternaâ— Life in his Son and that the Son is ablâ— to save to the utmost all that come to Goâ— through him in this and not in any workâ— of Righteousness which he hath done is hiâ— whole Hope Living and Dying and he believeâ— such Hope will not make him ashamed 2 He hath a regard to all Righteousness so far as his present imperfections will permit it to fulfil it and this from such â— Principle as he eats and drinks a new Nature within him which is not gratified with any thing more than Holy and Righteouâ— Actions In particular whereas when â— Boy he had injured several Persons in robbing their Orchards he hath confessed hiâ— Sin begged their Pardon with Shame anâ— Tears and made restitution this he waâ— often urged to before he performed it
though possibly it might have proved a Preludium to Royal Dignity intitling him to the Crown and Government of all Egypt so great was his Ambition to be found in the number that he might have a Right to all the Priviledges of God's Children ver 24. WHEREAS he might have lived a Courtier enjoying what Heart could wish faring deliciously every day and glutting himself with all carnal Pleasures that either variety of melodious Sounds and exquisite Harmony or gorgeous Apparel or extremity of Luxury could possibly afford Yet we find him bidding adieu to all these and rather chusing to suffer undeserved Scorn Reproach and Persecution with the People of God than to enjoy those and the like Pleasures of Sin for a season v. 25. WHEREAS in a word the whole Land of Egypt was before him and likely for ought I know to entertain him with the sway of a Royal Scepter with the Government of the whole Kingdom and with an universal Confluence of all the Happiness that either Riches or Honours or the whole Treasury of Egypt could suppeditate Yet in the preceding part of this Verse wherein my Text lyes the Holy Ghost there testifies of him that he preferred the reproach of Christ before all this the very worst and that which is most bitter in Christ before the choicest Treasures before the very best the most sweet and delightful Enjoyments in all the Land of Egypt esteeming it his greatest Honour to be dishonoured in the World for the sake of the Lord Jesus and the reason of all this you have subjoyned in the Words of my Text even because he had a Respect to the Recompence of the Reward THUS I have in short given you the Dependance of the Words and thereby also given you to understand that they are brought in as one grand reason of Moses his Obedience and Self-denyal letting us plainly know why Moses should thus refuse the great dignity of being called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter why he should rather choose to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season Why he should esteem so highly of Reproach for Christ as to count it greater Riches than the choicest Treasures in all the Land of Egypt and the reason of all this was because he had Respect to the Recompence of the Reward which if seriously consider'd of why it will make him take up his Cross chearfully it will make him follow hard after Christ as well in Adversity as in Prosperity it will make him do and suffer and willing to become any thing if by any means he may attain such a transcendently glorious Reward a Reward that is nothing less than the full enjoyment of God over all blessed for ever in whose Presence there is fulness of Joy and at whose Right-hand there are Pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 BUT waving the Relative Consideration of the Words we purpose to insist upon them as Absolutely Considered and as they are an intire Proposition of themselves and so they will present us with these Two Considerables following I. A Gracious Act exerted by Moses the Man of God and that we have expressed in these Words For he had Respect II. A Glorious Object about which that Act of Moses was exercised and that we have expressed in these Words To the Recompence of the Reward THESE are the parts of the Text the Genuine sense whereof I shall give you in the explication of the Terms labouring now to break the Shell that so you may come to that sweet Kernel of Gospel-truth which is wrapt up and enclosed therein FOR he had respect In this Phrase is implyed that gracious Act of Moses whereby he had respect to stedfastly fixing his eye upon the recompence of the Reward as matter of singular incouragement to deny himself for the Lord's sake in all those Riches Honours and variety of carnal Pleasures which by dissembling Conscience and continuing a Courtier he might probably have enjoyed at least for a Season The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is metaphorical signifying in this place to look from one thing to another not with the eye of the Body by any corporeal sight but with the eye of the Soul by a spiritual sight And so truly it doth most emphatically set forth the power of Moses his Faith enabling him to look from the things that are seen to the things that are not seen from things Teâ—poral to things Eternal by which means he was wonderfully encouraged to let go all worldly Advantages and to suffer Affliction chearfully with the people of God Moses had the whole Land of Egypt together with all the Riches Glory and Pleasures thereof before him which a Carnal heart would think might have made him content to live and die a Courtier But such was the power of Faith within him fixing his heart and mind upon things above upon the Land of Promise the Coelestial Canaan the Heavenly Jerusalem together with the Beatifical Vision of God in Eternal Glory that for these he can chearfully renounce whatever Riches whatever Honours whatever Pleasures the Land of Aegypt could possibly afford him TO the Recompence of the Reward That glorious Object upon which Moses fixing his eye did so chearfully deny himself in all his worldly enjoyments you have here expressed by one word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying such a Reward whereby a Man is Recompenced This Recompense is diversly taken according to the Persons to whom and work for which it is given When to a wicked Person for an evil work it intendeth a fearful Revenge comprizing under it Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish as that which is due to Sinners upon the commission of any the least Transgression But when to a Righteous Person accepted of God through Christ as here in my Text for a work approved by him then indeed it doth not import any merit or desert on Man's part but abundance of Mercy and Grace on God's part who though we are unprofitable Servants and can merit nothing at his hands yet will not suffer us to do or endure any thing for his sake without a most transcendently great and glorious Recompence WHAT that recompence of reward was upon which Moses so stedfastly fixed his eye is not here I confess distinctly set down but yet we may easily collect from the carriage of Moses that it was some higher Honour some better Pleasure some more excollent and durable Treasure than the Land of Aegypt could ever afford him otherwise making choice of these why is it that we find him renouncing those unless we should think him to have changed for the worse when yet we find the Spirit of God in the words of my Text commending his choice 'T WAS not then any Temporal Reward but an Eternal Reward that Moses had in his eye 'T was not Earth but Heaven 't was not the Meat that perisheth but the Meat which will indure to Everlasting Life
a fiery Chariot Thus Holy Meditation it would carry us above the Clouds it would give us Possession of Heaven before we come there and set us in the midst of all the Glory and Royalties of Eternal Life as if they were already present Heavenly thoughts are as so many steps towards our Eternal Rest When by these therefore we Travel every day to the City of God and delightfully walk therein when every day we take as it were a turn or two in Paradise seriously Meditating Heaven together with the glory that shall shortly be revealed in us then we have Respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward 4. EARNESTLY to desire and long for it When we see so much of the Excellency Worth and Glory of the World to come that we groan within ourselves desiring with all our hearts to get out of these Houses of Clay and to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven then we have respect to the Recompence of the Reward 2. Cor. 5.2 When Paul had once been wrapt up into the Third Heaven and seen the Paradise of God his Note was ever after I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus the Soul that hath a respect to the Recompence of the Reward he hath been in the Heavenly Paradise he hath tasted some Clusters of Canaan and therefore he cannot but long for more he can never be soon enough with Christ he can never soon enough get above the World and Sin and Temptations he can never be soon enough with God in Glory Oh! when shall it be They that have the first Fruits of the Spirit cannot chuse but have their eyes always fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward earnestly desiring the time of Harvest when they shall Reap a full Crop of Eternal Happiness and Glory in the Heavenly Canaan AS Noah's Dove was restless finding no place whereupon to set the sole of her foot till she came into the Ark so Christians if your eyes are rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward you will find your selves carried out after Heaven and Glory in a restless manner and will never sit down satisfyed till you come to rest in the Bosome of God's Eternal Love Never Christians did Rachel more long for Children nor David for the Waters of Bethlehem nor Absalom to see the King's Face than your Souls will long for the glorious Liberty of the Children of God to be drinking the Waters of Life in the Heavenly Paradise and to come to the Beatifical Vision of God in Glory where you shall see him Face to Face in case you have an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward THE Language of every Soul whose eye is rightly fixed upon Heaven and Glory it is like unto that of Job speaking forth his desires after God Oh that I knew where to find him that I might come even to his seat Job 23.3 Such a Soul is impregnated with holy desires and longings after God in Glory and with these the Soul travels all the day long crying out with the Church in the Revelations as in pain to be delivered from under the bondage of Sin and Corruption into Heavenly Glory GIVE the Soul Riches give it Honours give it all the Pleasures that can be thought of to ravish the heart of a Carnal Man yet having an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward in vain shall you seek by these to bribe it out of its holy desires and longings after God in Glory For scorning and trampling upon them all as unworthy to come in competition with God it even breaketh through desire after him and can truly say of God with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 'T IS just with the Soul as with some Women in the time of their Impregnature who if they see any thing when they are with Child that they have a mind to they must have it or else they will long and dye for it Thus the Soul that by Faith hath got a sight of Heavenly Enjoyments now the heart of such a Soul it is set upon Heaven and he must have Heaven upon a Crown of Life and he must have a Crown of Life upon God and Christ and Eternal Glory and he must have them all together or else give him what you can he will long and die unsatisfied THERE is so much of the Beauty Loveliness and Glory of Christ revealed to the Soul in looking upon the Recompence of Reward that now it grows impatient of living any longer without him crying out as she did in another case Why are his Chariots so long in coming and Why tarry the wheels of his Chariots When will my beloved make haste and be like a young Roe upon the Mountains of Spices When will the day break and the shadows fly away that I may see my beloved in his Glory When will he come to put an end to these days of Sin and Sorrow that I may rest for ever in the Bosome of his Eternal Love When will he take me by the hand and lead me out of the Wilderness of this World into the Heavenly Canaan When will he rebuke the Winds and the Seas that will give me no rest in this Troublesome World and set me safe on the Shoar of Eternal Happiness When will he deliver me from this Body of Death and gather my Soul to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect When will he take from me these Rags of Mortality and cause me to be cloathed upon with an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens When will he make me return and come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon my head When will he cause me to obtain fulness of Joy and Gladness with him in Eternal Mansions of Glory that Sorrow and Sin and Sighing being done away I may be with the Lord for ever Oh when shall I once see that blessed day NOW What is it I beseech you after which your hearts do thus strongly breathe thus insatiably thirst thus impatiently long If Riches will not satisfy but you must have a Treasure in Heaven if Worldly Honour will not satisfy but you must have a Crown of Righteousness from Christ himself if Carnal Pleasures will not satisfy but you must have that fulness of Joy which is in God's Presence and those Pleasures which are at his Right Hand for evermore if in a word the Life that now is will not satisfy but you must though you dye for it go live for ever with Christ in Glory why then there is no doubt Christians but with Moses you have an eye to the Recompence of Reward For then our eye is rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward when our Souls are carried out in strong desires after God and Christ and Eternal Glory as our only Happiness 5. TO be by the consideration of it exceedingly encouraged to diligence and
an eye to your own Salvation to eternal Happiness to the Recompence of Reward making that the end of all your Obedience yet remember 't is but an inferiour end that which you ought to make the ultimate and chiefest end of all is the glory of God If a Man should stop at a Colon and give over Reading there before he came to a Full-point the Sentence would be imperfect Thus Christians your Salvation is but a Colon at first God's glory is the Full-point if therefore you stop at your own Salvation not looking beyond it to the Glory of God why let me tell you there is not one perfect Sentence to speak for you in the whole contexture of all your Obedience but they are every one of them imperfect and will signify nothing at all before God's Tribunal when you shall come to read them as Evidences of your interest in Heaven and eternal Glory (r) Si salus nostra famula et gloria dei domina non oportet posteriori loco nos dominam ponere ac famulam iniquo jure praeferre GOD will not have us make the Mistress wait on the Handmaid make a Tabernacle the Temple make our own Salvation which is but a secondary matter our principal end as if worthy to be valued more highly than the glory of God it self which yet is the most noble and principal end of all We never shoot so far beside the mark as when we aim more at our own Blessedness than the glory of God over all blessed for ever In other miscarriages we violate God's holy Law but in this we violate his glorious Dignity endeavouring as much as in us lyes to Un-god him and Idolatrously to sit down ourselves upon the Throne of his Glory When ever therefore you are tempted with Sacrilegious hands to lay hold upon God's glory preferring your own Salvation before that why repel the Temptation as Joseph once did the unchaste importunity of his amorous Mistress The Lord hath commited all that he hath to my hand there is none greater amongst all his Creatures than my self the Lord hath given me his own Son out of his Bosome he hath given me grace he hath given me the hope of Life of Heaven and eternal Happiness neither hath he kept back any good thing from me but his own glory because that only belongs to him How then shall I do this great wickedness How shall I lay Sacriligious hands upon his glory How shall I prefer my own Salvation my own Life my own Happiness before it and sin against God REMEMBER Christians though you may seek your selves you may seek Heaven and Life and eternal Happiness yet not in the first place the honour of God why that must lye next your heart and the glory of God must be most in your eye as not being a subordinate end like your own Salvation but the principal end of all God's glory must be the Terminus Reductivus to which all our Obedience must be reduced as the ultimate end of it Every Christian is a Spiritual Archer and God's glory must be the mark that he shoots at He is a Spiritual Traveller and though he may take up his lodging at his own Salvation yet God's glory must be the end of his Journey He is in a word a Spiritual Navigator and though he may cast forth the Anchor of hope at his own eternal Happiness yet he is like to make Shipwreck of himself if he go about to put in any where else for harbour but at the fair haven of God's glory As all the Rivers run into the Sea and all the Lines meet in the Center so all our actions and all the Rivers of our own Happiness they must meet together Concentring themselves in God's glory And certainly Christians we never attain the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls better than when Faith and Salvation both are referred to the glory of God as their ultimate end We never come sooner to that Rest which remains for the People of God than when God's glory is made the Center not only of the works which we do but also of the Rest it self which we look for as the eternal Reward of them We are never in a word more sure to hit the mark of our own Salvation than when we aim most directly at God's glory For then your respect to the Recompence of Reward is such as God would have it to be when you principally seek for Heaven and eternal Glory that God himself may thereby be glorified 2. WE are to have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward not singly but joyntly and in conjunction with God's Glory If we may not principally have respect to Heaven in our Obedience preferring that before God's glory much less may we think it lawful to make Heaven the sole end of our Obedience not regarding but wholly neglecting his glory that prepared it If we may not prefer our own Happiness before God's glory much less may we wholly leave off the care of God's glory and exclude it out of our thoughts in seeking to make our selves happy Since God in seeing his own Glory did also consult the Happiness and eternal Salvation of our Souls why 't were a point of the greatest ingratitude in the World for us in seeking our Salvation not also to consult his Honour endeavouring that whilst we are saved his Name may be glorified 'T is unlawful to Dogmatize that we must be willing to be damned that God may be glorified or else we are still but Hypocrites and were never sufficiently humbled but to be willing to have God himself dishonoured and lose his glory that we may be saved is most wicked and abominable For betwixt the glory of God and our own Salvation the 〈…〉 is so strong and inseparable that 't is impossible for any Man rightly to seek the Salvation of his own Soul who doth not also intend God's glory as his ultimate end He that doth not take aim before he shoots can never hit the mark So Christians if you only look at your selves not taking in all your Obedience a right aim at God's glory you can never hit the mark of your own Salvation If you separate the Soul from the Body it 's no longer a living Creature but a dead Carcass Thus if a due respect to God's glory which is the very Soul of all our Obedience be separated from the care which we seem to have of our own Salvation it 's no longer a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God but a dead service that will nothing at all avail us to Life and eternal Happiness THE Moon when in the full looking directly upon the Sun is a glorious Creature but if once the Earth interpose it self betwixt her and the Sun she becomes a dark obscure Body of whom we may say That there is no form nor beauty nor comeliness in her that we should desire her Thus Christians whilst in our
fear of God's Wrath and Hell to be unbecoming a Gospel Spirit and a thing wholly Inconsistent with the Love of God (f) Deuâ— autem qui unus est quoniam utramque personam sustinet patris Domini amare eum debemus quia filij sumus timere quia servi Lactant. Divinar Institut Lib. 4. cap. 4. pag. 356. Mal. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Respons ad Orthodox 98. pag. 251. For God is so his Children's Father as that he is their Lord also So that though the name Father speaks Love and Boldness yet the name Lord speaks Fear and Reverence And though the love and hatred of God are inconsistent Yet the fear and the love of God not only may but must dwell together in every gracious Soul FOR as the Consideration of God's Goodness should beget in our hearts towards him Love and Boldness so the greatness of God should beget in us Fear and Reverence As we love God for his Grace and Mercy because he hath out of the abundant Riches of his Goodness prepared Heaven So we are to fear God for his Justice and Almighty Power trembling continually before him because he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell God hath not only the tender Indulgence of a Father but he hath also the dreadful Countenance of a Judge And as that doth keep us from despairing so this should keep us from Presuming as the thoughts of God's Fatherly Indulgence should work in us an intire Love and Affection to him so the thoughts of his just displeasure against all Unrighteousness must breed in us all Reverence and due Devotion to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 Only you must know there is a two-fold fear the one sinful and the other holy the one servile and slavish proceeding from a root of Enmity and Hatred in the Heart against God the other filial and child-like proceeding from a Principle of Love to God and his Glory Slavish Fear is disingenuous making him that is acted by it more afraid of Wrath and Hell and Eternal Burnings than he is of displeasing the God of Heaven and therefore not becoming a Child of God But now Filial Fear it is wonderful Ingenuous filling the Soul whenever it draws nigh to God with all Reverent and Awful Thoughts of him and causing it to be more afraid of displeasing God and coming under his Frowns than of Hell it self with all the Torments thereof and this is the Fear wherewith the Lord must be Feared and by which we may lawfully be acted in all the ways of our Obedience For though Perfect Love casteth out that Slavish Fear which proceeds from the hatred of God 1 John 4.18 yet it doth not cast out but is the ground of Filial Fear and reverence towards God Though it casteth out Tormenting Fear yet it doth not cast out Obeying Fear Though it cast out the Son of the (g) Timor serviliae est cum per timorem Gehennae continet se homo á peccato quo praesentiam judicis et poenas metuit et timore facit quicquid boni facit non timore amittendi aeternum bonum quod amat sed timore patiendi malum quod formidat Non timet ne peroat amplexus pulcherrimi sponsi sed timet ne mittatur in Gehennam Lombard ex August lib. 3. distinct 34. d. Bond Woman which is nothing but a Servile Affection that makes a Man turn the back many times upon his beloved Corruptions and do something in a way of Obedience not so much for fear of losing the Smiles and Favour of God as for fear of suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Yet doth it never cast out the Son of the (h) Timor castus sive amicabilis est quo timemus ne sponsus tardet ne discedat ne offendamus ne eo cardamus Ibid. Free-Woman which is an Holy Affection of Soul making all that have it Shun Sin and walk in Obedience before God more for fear of displeasing him and losing his Smiles than for fear of Everlastng Burnings in Hell it self So that the Fear of God when not Servile but Filial doth contribute as much to the ingenuity of our Obedience as Love it self making us look in all our Performances not so much at Heaven and Hell as at God himself that he may be pleased with us and smile upon us And therefore though God must be served in Love yet he loves no Service which hath not this Sovereign Ingredient of Filial Fear Heb. 12.28 as well knowing that such fear is nothing else but the Fire of Love breaking forth into a pure flame of Holy Jealousy lest God should be robbed of his Glory whilst looking more in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward than to God himself we take the Crown from him and set it upon the head of our own Happiness God is pleased indeed at first to set before us Heaven and Hell the one in all it's (i) Vult dominus ut a malis per suppliciorum formidinem recedamus et de timore servorum ad gratiam filiorum transeamus Hieron ad Mal cap. 1. Glory and the other in all it's Torments that by the Fear of Hell he may drive us out of Sin and draw us by the Love of Heaven into ways of Holiness But when once we have tasted that the Lord is gracious and found one days Communion with him better than a Thousand elsewhere when once we have been on the top of Pisgah getting a Prospect of that Heavenly Canaan which God hath prepared for us when once we have been taken up into the Mount of Transfiguration with God beholding his matchless Beauty and transcendent Glory why now the Lord will have us acted in all our Obedience not so â—uch by the thoughts of Heaven and Hell as by love to himself doing all that we do in the Service of God for his own sake As the Samaritans said Now we believe not because thou hast said it but because we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World John 4.42 So must we say having tasted the goodness of God in ways of Obedience now we serve thee not slavishly as Persons that are meerly acted by a mercenary Spirit by the fear of Hell and the hope of Heaven but ingenuously and out of a Principle of love to the Lord as counting it our Meat and Drink our chiefest Delight our center of Rest our Heaven upon Earth to glorify the God of Heaven and enjoy Communion with him in the Beauties of Holiness Lycurgus would have Virgins to be Married without any Portion that so their Husbands might take them purely for Love and not for any Sordid and By respects Thus (k) Non sine praemio diligitur deus quamvis sine intuitu praemij sit diligendus Bernard Christians though we cannot love nor serve God without a Reward
And this is your Husband said he and bringing forth his Staff and Scrip Why this adds he is like to be your Dowrey But now the Lord doth what in him lyes to Incourage us telling us what Treasures of Love and Sweetness 1 Cor. 2.9 what heaps of Joy and fulness of Glory what unseen unheard of unconceivable and Soul-ravishing Pleasures are prepared for us in case we will but love him and walk in Obedience before him 'T was one of the Devil's Master pieces when he Tempted Christ hoping to draw him to his impious Desires that he carried him up into an exceeding high Mountain shewing him from thence all the Kingdoms of the World and then promised him saying All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Why thus with holy reverence be it spoken what the Devil did to Christ Wickedly the Lord doth Graciously to his own People He takes them up into Mount Nebo from thence shewing them thrô the Perspective of his Promises not the Kingdom of this World but the Kingdom of Heaven with all the Royalties and Glory thereof assuring them Mat. 5.3 that all shall be their own if they will but walk humbly before him indeavouring to worship him in Spirit and Truth The Lord understands full well the Frailties of our Nature and what great Discouragements we are like to meet with in Heaven's way And therefore he is pleased most Graciously to draw us on the wayes of Holiness by the proposal of such Rewards as may incourage us to go on therein whatever it cost us Our Condition in this World is like that of the Israelites passing towards the Land of Canaan we must go through the Red Sea of Persecutions and through an howling Wilderness where we shall often be Stung with fiery Serpents before ever we can get to the heavenly Canaan and therefore the Lord he allures us by all sorts of Promises and sweet Inticements I will allure her saith God Hos 2.14 speaking of his Church and bring her into the Wilderness The word in the Original which we Translate Allure doth also signify to Deceive Seduce or to Beguile But here it 's taken in a good Sense implying with much Emphasis That God doth sweetly till men on in ways of Holiness and by an heavenly Artifice wrapt up in Promises of Life graciously seduce them into the Obedience of his own Commandments In the Precept he acquaints us with our Duty and in the Promise he shews us what shall be our Reward By that he appoints us our Work and by this he would incourage us Cheerfully to go through with it that having the Promise of an eternal Recompence we may never grow weary in well-doing 2 Thess 3.13 Gal. 6.9 Such is the goodness of God that he sweetens all his Commandments with Promises And whenever he calls us out to any Duty he incourageth us to the Performance thereof by the Proposal of some glorious Recompence Rom. 8.13 He bid us through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body and that we may not want Incouragement to so difficult a Work he tells us that so doing our Souls shall live He bids us to take up our Cross not detrecting to suffer for Christ And he gives us this incouragement thereto That if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.12 He bids us in a word Sow to the Spirit indeavouring to be fruitful in every good word and work And for our incouragement to that holy practise he tells us that so doing we shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting Gal. 6.8 So then since God himself is graciously pleased to allure and draw us on in wayes of Obedience by the proposal of an eternal Recompence we may lawfully sure having Respect thereunto take Incouragement from it For to what end should God sweeten his Commandments with Promises but to make us more Cheerful in the way of Duty when we know how transcendently great and glorious our Reward shall be Promissiones nullas dedisset deus pijs de beatitudine nisi vellet ut inter bene agendum easdem respiceremus Daven Col. c. 1. v. 5 p. 46. Those men do begrudge the Lord's Bounty and would seem wiser than God himself who deny us a Liberty to make use of the Spirit 's Motives Pietas habet promissiones vitae praesentis et futurae at frustrà si non licet intuitu illarum excitari ad bene agendum Dav. ubi sup In vain hath God made Promises of Life to such as keep his Commandments if in keeping thereof we may have no respect to that Life that Happiness that Glory which is held forth in the Promises to us Doubtless Christians 't is not Ingenuity but Ingratitude to deprive ourselves of those Incouragements to Obedience and of that Comfort in a way of Duty which the Lord himself hath graciously allowed us to make use of And thô possibly you may think that you highly please the Lord whilst you walk on in a way of Duty without any respect to your own Happiness yet the Truth is you do Presumptuously tempt him as Ahaz did when refusing to ask a Sign which God promised to give them Isa 7.11.12 The Lord knew the necessity of giving a Sign to his People in that Exigence in order whereunto he bids Ahaz ask a Sign but he 's Modest he 's ashamed that God should be put upon the working of a Miracle to confirm his Faith far be it from him so to Tempt the Lord and to question his Faithfulness he will believe him without a Sign that he will However here were specious Pretences yet the Lord was no little displeased that his Favour should be made so light of and a Sign under a pretence of Modesty refused as if they better knew what was needful for themselves than the God of Heaven Hear ye me now O House of David it 's a small thing for you to weary men but will ye weary my God also Thus Christians when we refuse to take Incouragements from the Promises of Life to walk in Obedience before the God of Heaven when under a pretence of Ingenuity and a Gospel Frame of Spirit we take on us to serve God for himself He bids us seek for Glory and Honour for Immortality and eternal Life by patient continuance in well doing but far be it from us to be Mercenary or to seek ourselves we will serve God and run the way of his Commandments without any Respect at all to Heaven and Glory that we will why now we weary the Lord and making light of his Favour to us we Tempt him as if we knew better what Motives to make use of and what to seek in our Obedience than God himself For to be sure we do no less Tempt the Lord in not seeking after what he hath Commanded than we do in expecting what he never Promised We do no less Tempt the Lord in creating occasions of Desperation than in
indeavouring above all things in the world to Gâ—ther them The Happiness of a Christian 't is Grace glorified 't is Holiness arrived at it's highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pitch of heavenly Perfection Heb. 12.14 which surely we are all of us bound to follow after pursuing it with all our might as that without which we can never see the Lord. ¶ Gen. 15.1 Ipse Deus est merces promissa fidelibus ergo dum aeternam mercedem expectant et intuentur non aliud a Deo intuentur Dav. in Coloss cap. 1. ver 5. Praemium virtutis erit ipse qui virtutem dedit et qui seipsum quo melius et majus nihil possit esse promisit August de Civit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. pag. 738. And as for the Reward of a Christian it is God himself 't is to be with the Lord for ever to see his Face and enjoy his Favour for ever which surely we are also bound to seek after giving all diligence to make God our Portion and the strength of our Heart for ever Psal 73.26 And shall we say that a Christian Sins or is Disingenuous for Obeying with an eye to Holiness and with respect to the God of Heaven who alone is the fixed Centre of Rest and Happiness Or Dare we say That Christians are not to regard Holiness on Earth but to live as they list nor to long for the full injoyment of God in Heaven but to be the centre of their own Happiness Surely God never intended that we should sit down satisfied without Him and be Happy by reflexion upon our own Excellencies as if Life and Happiness could be found where nothing but remorseless Death and Misery keep their walk As God never rested till he had made Man in his own Likeness leaving a Tincture of his own Purity and Holiness upon him so he hath put Emptiness and Dissatisfaction into all our Creature Enjoyments Psalm 17.15 that we may never rest till returning to God that made us we shall behold his Face in Righteousness and be satisfied with his Likeness Whatever Grace whatever Holiness God's people have it 's wholly derivative from him So that whatever Felicity whatever Happiness they may look to enjoy it stands wholly in reduction to God himself as the Original and Fountain-Cause The motion of every gracious Soul it 's like that of Coelestial Bodies purely Circular so that it can never rest but will still be rolling and breathing and panting after God unsatiably till returning back unto him it hath fixed it self in the Sabbatical centre of everlasting Communion with him Such a Soul is touched with the true Loadstone of Grace so that now it sees such an attractive magnetical Beauty in a Deity that it cannot possibly settle upon any thing below God himself That 's the language of every gracious Soul and the proper Idiom of its more sublime and clarified Affections wherein we find the Sweet Singer of Israel make expression of his Love to God saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 As the Moon and Stars those glorious Lamps of heaven are not able to supply the absence of the Sun nor will their united Light amount to so much as to make up one Day or one Moment of a Day though they should knit and concentricate all their Beams So David he knew full well that thô in Heaven there be the Moon-light of glorious Angels and the Star-light of those imparadised Souls the Spirits of â—ust men made Perfect yet without the bright Irradiations of a Deity and the Light of God's Countenance tâ—ey could never make up the least shadow of Glory the least Ray of Soul â—atisfying Happiness which makes him look beyond them all desiring neither Saints nor Angels nor Heaven it self with all its Glory Royalties and Paradisical Pleasures in comparison of the God of Heaven Thus also it is with every one of God's People they look upon him as their Happiness so that Heaven it self would not be Heaven to them this Goshen would prove an Egypt this Canaan would be turned into a Wilderness if the Lord should withdraw his glorious Presence The presence of the King is that we say which makes the Court and as it was told Commodus Ibi Roma ubi Augustus that where the Emperor is there was Rome So that which God's People do count their Heaven that which they look upon as a Garden of Flowry Pleasures as a Paradice of all Delights and spiritual Contentments is the full and immediate Injoyment of God himself 'T is not so much the Society of Saints and Angels in Heaven as the Beatifical Vision as the Downey Bosome of a Deity as eternal Communion with the God of Heaven that they desire and make their Happiness All other Lines meet in this Centre all other Stars borrow their Light from this glorious Sun and all other Comforts do empty themselves into this vast Ocean wherein Rivers of purest Pleasures do meet and everlastingly concentricate themselves to make glad the City of God Et ipsa est beata vita gaudere ad te de te propter te ipsa est et non est altera August Conf. The injoyment of God in Glory this is the Apogaeuâ— of heavenly Joy this is the highest Zenith of true Blessedness this is the coâ—pleat Volumn of perfect Felicity wherein all the Particulars of Happiness are not Epitomized but so amplified inlarged and paraphrased upon that the Heart of Man cannot possibly desire any more For whatever can be desired to mâ—ke one Happy is richly treasured up in God as the indeficient and over-flowing Fountain of all Goodness So that all the Glory and Happiness whereof God's people look to be made partakers when they come to Heaven is reductively and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summed up in this that they shall be with the Lord for ever 1 Thess 4.17 If then Holiness may be desired or God himself loved by us and sought after why then doubtless we may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward as being co-incident therewith and nothing else He may well have Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of Reward and fix his eye upon heavenly Glory who makes God his Portion and his exceeding great Reward desiring no other Heaven than for ever to be with the Lord beholding his Face in Righteousness loving him without loathing and praising him without ever being weary Deus finis erit desideriorum nostrorum qui sine fine videbitur sine fastidio amabitur sine defatigatione laudabitur Ubi supra 6. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because to such and to such only is the promise of eternal Life made Thô the Promise of eternal Life were conceived in the Womb of Free Grace and brought forth by the auspicious Midwifery of God's riâ—â— Mercy in Christ Jesus and so is eveâ—y
'T is fictioned by the Poets in their Mythology of Prometheus that he did work and fashion the Bodies of Men out of Clay but he was fain to steal Fire from Heaven for the informing and quickning of them with living Souls (a) Psal 139.1 When the Body is curiously formed and admirably organized in the lower Parts of the Earth yet still it would remain a lifeless and unspirited piece of Clay did not God animate and quicken it with a living Soul with a celestial Spark lighted by his own Breath from Heaven THE Body of Man is but a Flower springing out of the Earth that will quickly wither and return to its Dust but his Soul hath Immortality written upon it it s a Bud of Eternity that can never be blasted nor wither away into nothing The Body indeed is nothing but a Compound of Death and Mortality it will quickly crumble away into dust and rottenness but the Soul having no Principles of Death and Corruption bound up in it will run a Line parallel to aâ—l Eternity it can never be confined by time but will for ever be launching forth in the boundless Ocean of an endless Duration †Matth. 10.28 The Body is obnoxious to the stroke of Death and by the Hand of Violence may before its time be matriculated amongst those that sleep in the Dust but the Soul being an immaterial Substance is above that fatal blow and hath from the spirituality of its own Nature everlasting impregnable security against every Hand of Violence written upon it so that Death itself is not able to touch the Life of the Soul THE Soul therefore being thus Divine in its Original and Eternal in its Being and Duration there is no Man unless he will renounce his own Understanding and apostatize from his own essence but must acknowledge it a point of the most important and masculine reason in all the World to consult the Salvation of our Immortal Souls providing above all things for their Eternal Welfare Should we prefer the Casket before the Jewel a frail Mansion of Mortality before an heavenly Inhabitant or the dark Lanthorn of the Body before the Soul that Divine Lamp which if fed by the Oyl of Grace would always shine forth with most radiant dazling beams of Brightness The excellency of our Souls is so transcendently Great and Glorious that it justly lays claim to our principal care and because they will never be raked up with our Bodies in the cold Embers of Death why therefore hath the Lord made it the great end of our Lives to work out Salvation for them giving diligence to make them meet through Grace for everlasting Mansions of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But how can we thus take care of them or design their Eternal Happiness as the great end of our Lives in case we may not have respect to the recompence of the reward seeking Life and Eternal Glory by patient continuance in well-doing to Crown them withal Can the Salvation of our Souls be the object of our principal care next to Gods own Glory when out of a pretended Zeal for that we would seem altogether careless and unsolicitous about the saving of our own Souls How can we say we make salvation the great end of our lives endeavouring that our Souls may be happy when we hold it unlawful to bend and level all our desires for the hitting of that fair mark Believe it Christians they that would perswade you 't is unlawful to have respect in our obedience to Heaven and Glory do in effect go about to argue your Souls into the careless neglect of their own everlasting welfare But can you be regardless of your own Salvation Can you sleight the great end of your lives and turn your back upon your own happiness Can you indeed neglect your immortal Souls that must either be happy or miserable either imparadised Souls in Heaven or damned Spirits in Hell to all eternity Do you know what Salvation is how everlastingly blessed those Souls will be that may approach the presence of their God that may see his Face that may rest in his eternal embraces that may enter into the joy of their Lord and drink freely of those Rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore Oh then make not light of so great Salvation but give all diligence to get an interest therein for your immortal Souls To make sure of eternal happiness was the great errand upon which God sent us into the World oh therefore take heed that you do not leave it upon uncertainties seeking after the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof as if you were loth to find it 10 WE may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because the very nature and proper genius of true Grace is to make a blessed divorce betwixt the world and the heart wherein it is resident and so to carry out the heart in strong desires and unsatisfiable breathings after Heaven and Glory True Grace is an Heaven-born Spark and therefore it doth naturally ascend upward aspiring after Heaven and Glory as its proper region As all the Lines meet in the Center and as all the Rivers do run into the Sea uniting themselves in the vast Ocean so all the desires of a gracious Soul they meet in Heaven uniting all their forces in one continued and insatiate anhâ—lation after fulness of Communion with God in Glory The Sun though seen in the Water yet hath his Tabernacle fixed in Heaven (a) Phil. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 17. so though a Christian hath his commoration upon Earth yet his Conversation his Trade his Commerce is daily in Heaven the place of his Eternal Abode The Men of this World are ever inveloping themselves in thick Clay they are not soaring Eagles but crawling Muck-worms but now all those that are truly gracious they are Men of another Spirit they live in the highest Region and are compared to Eagles in regard of their Heavenly-mindedness (b) Isa 40.31 Life enables Men to lift up their Body from the Earth and to tread upon it with their Feet (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 16. Thus whoever have the Life of Grace begun in them they tread upon all earthly Enjoyments and are carried upon the Wing of desire quite above all sublunary Comforts into Heaven itself The heart that is seasoned with saving Grace is restless till it come to be fixed in a sure State of Glory and Happiness just like the Needle that is touched with a Load-stone upon which there is nothing but unquiet agitations and tremblings till it be firmly fixed and settle immovably in the North Point We read of Noah's Dove that she found no place whereupon to rest the sole of her Foot but only in the Ark so the People of God they find no place but in Heaven whereupon to rest themselves and therefore all their breathings
Hearts upon that which deceiving your Hopes will expose you to the Misery of Eternal disappointment in the mean time neglecting that Glory which will so far exceed our Hopes as to leave us for ever in a blessed extasy of admiration 5 Consider all Creature-enjoyments they are empty and unsatisfying Your Creature-enjoyments they are not commensurate to the desires of an immortal Soul And are therefore no more able to satisfy you than a Star of the least magnitude is able to make day in the World The Souls appetite is too vast for any creature in the World to fill up the measure of its capacity And to be sure that which cannot fill the Souls appetite will for ever leave it empty and unsatisfied The Soul is a spiritual Being whereas all our worldly â—njoyments are of the Earth earthly And how should such earthly enjoyments be able to satisfy an Heaven born Soul (k) Eccles 5.10 Major pecunia fauces avaritiae non claudit sed extendit non irrigat sed accendit Aug. Instar Hydropici semper patieris sitim nec unquam satiabis appetitum tuum quantumvis affatim bibas ex aquâ honoris vanitatis hujus mundi Stella de contemnendis Mundi vanitatibus lib. 3. cap. 1. Mundana ista sunt instar liquoris acerbi qui non satiat sed incitat appetitum ad sumendum plus tibi Idem ibid. Quanto plus rerum mundanarum hauseris tantò major in te fitis plura habendi excitabitur Idem ibid. Inexplebilis est sola avaritia divitum semper rapit nunquam satiatur quomodo ergo sunt divitiae quibus crescentibus crescit inopia quae amatoribus suis quanto fuerint ampliores non afferunt satietatem sed inflammant cupiditatem Aug. Solomon tells us plainly that he who loveth Silver shall not be satisfied with Silver It may promise to ease us of our cares But it always multiplyes them Like Drink to a dropsical Man such are all our Creature-enjoyments So far from slaking that they enflame the Thirst They will promise to fill the Souls appetite But they only enlarge it They are not so much Food as fuel to our desires They de not allay our appetite as Bread doth when received but they rather encrease our appetite as Oyl doth the flame when cast into it And how is it possible that that desire should ever be satisfied which groweth and receiveth strength by the fruition of the thing desired The whole Confluence of all Creature-enjoyments can reach no further than the outward Services of the body For the desires of the Soul being boundless and capable of more happiness than the World can afford them they must needs remain empty still and be unsatisfied A Man may quickly have enough to load his Body to overcharge his memory and to fill his Barns though enlarged to the same measure of spaciousness with the rich Mans in the (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theog 359. 227. Gospel But to answer the cravings of his own Heart to quiet the enlarged appetite of his immortal Soul and to fill up with satisfaction the immense capacity of all his desires he can never have enough though he had the whole World changed into one Paradise for such an end When a thing is out of the place of its own rest it will never leave moving naturally till it come thither Thus since nothing below the Bosom of God himself and fulness of communion with him can be the proper place of rest to an immortal Soul no wonder though amidst all Creature-enjoyments it be still unsatisfied and in perpetual restless motion Men are apt to promise themselves I know what imaginary happiness and satisfaction from their Creature-enjoyments But to be sure Happiness is a real thing and no figment of a minting fancy neither is it indeed for satisfaction to come in at the door of imagination For as the Creature is unable to make us happy and give satisfaction So we are to make up an happiness for our selves out of the Creature or to take satisfaction from it When the whole Creation hath done its best and we have used our utmost skill torturing Nature to extract the most exquisite Spirits and the purest quintessence which the variety of Creatures can afford Yet after all this our Hearts will be filled with nothing but endless rovings and unquiet agitations and still our Souls will be crying like the Horse leeches Daughters Give give as unable to find any thing in the universal aggregation of all sublunary comforts proportionate to its own unlimited and boundless desires For certain it is my Brethren there is nothing that can make us happy but the God who made us (m) Matth. 11.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 45. Nor is there any thing that can give satisfaction to our Souls but Christ who gave satisfaction for them God would not rest from his works of creation till Man was formed Nor can any Man rest from his longing desâ—â—es of want and indigence till God in Christ be enjoyed What though the whole world were an earthly Paradise the Rivers running with Nectar the Fields bringing forth Ambrosia the Trees yielding Fruit like the Tree of life the Clouds showering down precious Pearls and every Creature were an Orpheus or Amphion with Musiques harmonious charm to chase away the evil Spirit of discontent and to entertain us in World with all variety of melodious sounds and carnal delights Yet I can assure you from the Word of life and truth that our Souls would be still restless and would find such an earthly Paradise come as far short of giving satisfaction as the light of a little Star doth come short of the Sun in its noon-day brightness There is no rest nor satisfaction to be had for our Souls till we return to God or God turn his face towards us and cause the light of his Countenance to shine upon us Why then will you spend your Mony for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which cannot satisfy Will you still be seeking the living amongst the dead the Tree of life in an Earthly Paradise and satisfaction from that which is nothing but Vanity and vexation of spirit You may kock at every Creatures door but you will find there is nothing within to entertain you save only the heir-long of emptiness and disappointment Vanity is the very quintessence of the Creature and all that can possibly be extracted out of it is nothing but vexation of spirit And can that which is Vanity think you satisfy or vexation give your Souls contentment Can you think to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles What a gross mistake is this that you should think to find any filling entertainment for your Souls in that which is all emptiness That you should think to find satisfaction in that which breeds nothing but discontent perplexing the Soul with a thousand cares (a) Vitam beatam quaerunt in regione
Cognation and Family too But there is a great day of Separation coming when being sorted and set one upon God's right Hand and the other upon his left the Wicked with the Devil and his Angels shall be hurried away together as so many Swine and Goats from the Presence of God into the Vengeance of eternal Fire And oh what a dreadful Aggravation of your Torments in Hell will this be when the Devil who instigated you through his Subtilty to commit Sin and those that were your Companions in the Contrivances Pleasures and Profits thereof must for ever become your Associates in that Wrath that Misery that endless unpreventable Destruction that will follow after Many Fool-hardy Sinners there are who think it will be some Allay to their Misery in Hell that they shall not go thither alone But to be sure the more Vessels of Wrath the more Vials of God's Wrath will be poured out upon them (o) Luke 16.27 28. and if the concurrent Judgment of Expositours upon the Parable of Dives and Lazarus (p) Damnatus ista petivit non ex charitate quam nec in morte nec postea habuit sed ex servili timore ne sui ipsius damnatio augeretur ex fratrum suorum damnatione cum quibus consors fuit in vitiis quibus vitiosae vitae reliquit exempla Carthus in loc that which made the rich Man so passionately desirous to have his five Brethren premonished by the Herald from the Dead was not any Compassion which he bore to them but a certain fearful looking for of an Aggravation of his own Misery by the Association of them with himself in those Hellish Torments Howl and tremble then all ye that neglect Glory striking Hands with the Works of Iniquity for the Misery that will shortly come upon you when Chained up by the Almighty Hand of God amongst Devils and damned Spirits in the dark Chaos of eternal Confusion In this World the Wicked love not to Associate themselves with God's People but shun their religious Society abhor their devout Exercises exclaiming of them as the only Troublers of the State Subverters of good Order (q) Luke 22.2 Enemies to Coesar the very Pests of the (r) Acts 17.6 7. Country where they live (s) Acts 24.5 and Men that turn the World upside down But oh what everlasting horrid Confusion what Trembling what fearful Astonishment what furious Heart-rending Reflexions will this fill them with to see the Righteous called up into eternal Soul-entrancing Communion with God in Glory and themselves carried headlong with grisly Devils and damned Spirits into hellish Torments If David complains so bitterly of the (t) Psal 120.5 Society of contentious Neighbours saying Woe is me (u) Apud inferoes singularissimum erit tormentum perpetim audire tot centenorum millium horribilissimos mugitus planctus rugitus perinde si mille boves assentur vivi that I dwell in Mesech and that I sojourn in the Tents Kedar What cause then of sad complaint will all the damned have in Hell where they shall by their bitter out-cries horrid execrations and doleful schrietchings mutually aggravate each others Torments and never envy any other Company than that of enraged Devils insulting over them with hellish spite ¶ Diabolus super eos ministerium accipiet justae damnationis qui sponte se tradiderunt pravae actioni Haymo in Dom. 7. post Pent. pag. 308. and torturing them as the Instruments of God's eternal Vengeance with variety of exquisite Torments for ever Should a poor damned Soul break out of Hell with the Flames and Wrath of God upon him and attended with Legions of furious Devils shew himself in our Streets filling the Air with his doleful Out-cries and hideous Roarings how dreadful would it be to all Beholders How would Mens Hair stand an end and their Knees smite one against another Think then with your selves and let it make you serious in seeking Heaven How dreadful it will be to have your Portion with the Damned in Hell to dwell with Millions of snaky Devils and to be filled for ever with the hideous Out-cries and doleful Lamentations of such everlastingly tortured and torturing Caitifs 3 CONSIDER the universality of Hell torments which will so diffuse themselves through the whole Man that not any faculty of Soul nor any member of Body shall be free from anguish Here Diseases have their particular place of residence assigned them in the Body so that some parts are free while others are full of Pain Or if any Distemper exercise such an universal Tyranny over the whole Body as to afflict and torture it in every Part and Member yet the Spirit of a Man doth often escape the malignity of his affliction sustaining him under it But in Hell the whole Man must undergo an universal Misery (a) Paenae damnatis secundum corpus secundum animam infligentur Corpus poenis vartis quoad omnes sensus afficietur Anima secundum omnes suas potentias cruci abitur Gerson So that every Vein and Artery in the Body every Power and Faculty of Soul shall be filled up to the brim with the invenomed bitter Water of Gods enraged jealousie to torture and perplex them for ever Here the Body is tortured in all parts not a Vein nor an Artery not a Muscle goes free And in every Sense it is terrified and beset with some prodigy of Horrour and dreadful astonishment There shall be Tears in the Eyes for there is weeping and wailing Horrour in the Ears proceeding from those hideous outcries doleful complaints and horrid execrations which the damned will breath forth for ever in Hellish Torments (b) Si damnatus vel exiguo tempore versaretur in terra foetido suo ore ita aerem inficeret ut induceret magnam pestem contagionem in universum mundum Stella de Cont. Mundi lib. 3. cap. 3◠pag. mihi 358. the smell which was here so choice in singling out its fragrances shall there be everlastingly offended with the noysom fume of Brimstone and with those poysonous favours that proceed from damned Reprobates which if breathed into the Air were enough to infect the whole World with a mortal Plague the curious Palate which here must be entertained with variety of delicious Fare not well knowing through niceness which dish at a Feast to feed upon shall there tast nothing but the Poyson Asps and the Wine of Everlasting astonishment the Touch which here must be gratified with all softness and effeminacy as impatient through the delicacy of it to endure so much as the injury of one cold blast shall there be everlastingly afflicted with most exquisite Tortures lying under the fierce Storm of Gods Wrath which like a Tempest of Fire and Brimstone shall excruciate and beat upon it for ever And as all the Senses so every Member of the Body shall have its peculiar pain to wrack and torment it for ever The Head that was here
swoln like an impostume with all wicked Plots and treasonable designs against Heaven shall in Hell feel the ach of Gods heavy Displeasure and break into an Eternal Agony of unsufferable Pain The Face that was here the deadly Bait of Bestial desire exercising a lustful Tyranny over and commanding a secret adoration from the amorous Lover shall have no such sweetness now as to move any pity no such attractive Beauty now as to captivate any Eye nor any such silent Rhetorick as to draw a Sigh a Tear a Groan from any beholder but must now gather blackness for ever and instead of the garish paint of comely Features which will all melt away under the hot scorching Beams of Gods sore displeasure be filled with the confounding blushes of Eternal Flames (c) Gen. 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plus est dicere figmentum cogitationum quam cogitationes simpliciter Jetzer ipsas etiam incompletas cogitationes videtur includere quicquid homo in animo concipit format fingit Amama Antibar Bibl. lib. 2. pag. 395. Luke 16.24 The Heart that was here the Minthouse of all inordinate affections shall now meditate Terror for ever be shot through with ten Thousand invenomed Arrows of the Almighty and now every Sin every Lust it hath harboured shall be turned into so many Scorpions and Furies to sting and torment and rend it for ever Thus if like a skilful Anatomist I should go through the Whole Body of Man criticize upon every part I might shew you how their Eyes will start out for very anguish their Tongues be scorched with thirst their Lips quiver their Flesh tremble their Sinews be dreadfully wracked their Bones are all shatter'd in pieces their Moisture and Marrow dried up their Bowels shudder for Horrour (d) Matth. 22.13 their Hands and Feet bound fast in fiery Chains of Eternal Wrath the Joints of their Loyns loosed (e) Dan. 5.6 and their Knees like Belshazzars smite one against another for that Eternal Wrath and Misery which must come upon them But waving the several Parts of the Body as capable of no more than the Body and mere outside of Hellish Torments I must tell you that all the faculties and Powers of the Soul shall have their share in all the unsufferable endless Torments of Hell which indeed will be the Soul the Emphasis the sting of those Hellish Torments Here the Understanding shall be dreadfully perplexed when the Soul shall see how for a little sugared Poyson a little sensual delight and wanton dalliance it hath lost a Crown of Life lost the enjoyment of the ever Blessed God and Eternal Glory and plunged it self irrecoverably in everlasting unpreventable Misery (f) Revel 6.15 16 17. Here the Will shall also be filled with all the ingredients of Wrath and Misery obfirmed in Wickedness captivated for ever in the Labyrinth of Horrour and Heart-rending despair without any thread of escape desiring nothing more than for ever to be swallowed up and lie hid in the most abhorred estate of annihilation from the Wrath to come Here the various affections of the Soul which however distant if not contrary in the circumference of their differing objects did yet all of them accord to meet and concenter themselves in this Life upon nothing but Lust and Sin and Creature-Vanities will wage an everlasting intestine War begetting such tumultuary Jars (g) Isa 57.20 pernicious Schisms unquiet agitations Heart-rending conflicts and Boyling estuations within that now the damned in Hell will be like the troubled Sea indeed having no rest Night nor Day for ever Here in a word the Memory that faithful remembrancer of all opportunities lost all Mercies slighted all Sins committed and of all favours abused shall now be an everlasting Fury bringing all those things to mind (h) Mark 9.48 and reflecting them continually to the Conscience which awakned through the scorching heat of Gods heavy displeasure shall now become not only a Thousand Witnesses but a thousand ragâ—ful Devils to throw the Soul into an Everlasting Agony to excruciate sting and torment it as with Scorpions for ever And if this must be the Lot of the damned in Hell so that no Member of Body no Faculty of Soul shall be free from such exquisite unsufferable Torments what a prodigy of madness is it then for Men by neglecting Heaven and Eternal Glory to expose themselves Body and Soul to all this Wrath and Horrour and universal unpreventable Misery Think of it seriously and consider if now you cannot endure the ach of our Member how ever you will be able to suffer when all of them must be most dreadfully tortured together in one common destruction What will you do when all the Senses of your Body which here you have studied so much to gratify shall have all their pleasing objects turned into matter of Horrour and Everlasting anguish Nay what will you do in what abyss will you hide your selves from your selves from your Sins from the Wrath of God when your poor Souls that were chief in sinning shall now be chief in suffering and shall be turned into so many living Hells full of nothing but the Wine of astonishment together with the Fury and indignation of the Lord for ever 4 CONSIDER the immutability of Hell Torments which makes the condition of all those remediless upon whom soever they have once taken hold Every condition in this Life is a Compound of mutability vicissitudes and various changes Health and Sickness Ease and Pain Joy and Sorrow mutually succeeding one another Nor is there any Man so miserable through Sin and the Hand of God upon him for Sin but breaking off his Sins by Repentance he may find Mercy (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Smyrn pag. 122. the Lord being always ready in this Life to crown with Glory all those that by patient continuance in well-doing seek after him as willing to touch by Faith the Golden Scepter of his Grace But Wo and alass if letting slip the Day of Grace you be once condemned at Christ's Tribunal now you must inevitably be banished his Glorious Presence and shut up for ever amongst the damned in the Prison of Hell without either Bail or Main-prize there being now no more any Day of Grace any calling to Repentance any Heavenly Manna falling any Angel descending into the Pool any Jacob's Ladder let down from Heaven by the climbing whereof you might escape out of the bottomless fiery Dungeon of Tophet where the Prisoners would not live yet can neither die nor evade their Torments (k) Luke 16.26 Quemadmodum in ejusmodi hiatu in quo urbes vel terrarum tractus absorbentur non potest transiri ab uno hiatus labro ad alterum cum as non sit compressum sed hiatus maneat ita significavit Dominus fieri non posse ut ullo modo transeatur ab eorum statu qui sunt tormentis adjudicati ad statum quietis
which the damned most inevitably suffer every moment without any intermission of their Pain in hellish Flames The Storm of divine Wrath which in Hell like a Tempest of Fire and Brimstone will beat upon the Heads of the Damned is (a) Sicut enim gloria sanctorum nunquam interrumpitur ita nec poena damnatorum Aquin. Sup. 3. part quaest 70. art 3 uninterrupted and continual admitting of no Vocation of Rest from that intolerable restless Anguish wherein they must be Tortured night and day without ceasing for ever 'T is some Comfort in their Life that all our Sorrows like an intermitting Feaver do afford us some Respite But in Hell this will break their Hearts that the Fit of the damneds Torment will be always upon them there they lie continually in the most rageful Paroxysm of sorest Anguish without hope of any the least moments respite for ever The Furnace of their Misery shall always burn without an equal Heat and yet the Heat of that Furnace (b) Isaiah 30.33 by the Breath of the Almighty like a River of Brimstone flowing in upon it shall be boyled up to the highest consistency of fiery Rage and revengful impetuous Fury In Hell it is that God draws the revengful bearded Arrows of his Justice to the Head Here he empties all the deep-drenching Vials of his Wrath upon the Damned as beyond all time in Eternity so beyond all measure in most dolorous Heart-rending Extremity The (c) Psal 2.12 Wrath of God if kindled never so little against a Sinner in this Life if but one spark of it fall upon the Conscience what dreadful havock doth it make turning every Man upon whom it lights into a living Hell a Magor-Missabib Terrour round about Who then can tell how dreadful hot and scorching God's Wrath will be when through the heat of his enraged Displeasure against all the Ungodly it shall be turned into the Fire of Hell that will scorch and torment them without quenching for ever If the Fire which hath been given of God unto Man for his Use and Comfort be so hot and unsufferable in Nature that it is still reckoned for one of the most dreadful and exquisite Torments What then may we think of the Fire of Hell which not Man who is able to devise much nor yet Angels which are able to find out more but God himself who is infinitely able to invent most of all hath in the largest compass of his Wisdom sought out to be not for use but for a Curse not for the Comfort of Man but for his everlasting Torment There is nothing more painful to the Sense than Fire no Fire more noysome and scalding than that of Brimstone And yet hereby is the Punishment of the Damned set forth importing the greatest Extremity of Wo and Misery imaginable that they shall have their part in the Lake that burneth (d) Rev. 21.18 with Fire and Brimstone Whether this Fire (e) Cum corpori non possit adaptari poena nisi corporea ignis inferni erit corporeus Aquin. Sup. 3. part quest 97. art 15. ought to be understood properly or Figuratively of a true corporeal Fire or only of some dreadful kind of Torment which the Spirit of God hath thought good to emblematize to us by that furious Element is much controverted The School-men and Papists earnestly contend to prove the Fire of Hell Material as Austin and some other of the Fathers Dogmatized (f) Gehenna illa quod etiam stagnum ignis sulphuris dictum est corporeus ignis erit cruciabit corpora damnatorum August de civit Dei lib. 21. cap. 10. pag. 1633. Amongst the Protestants though some would have it partly Corporeal for the tormenting Tormenting of the Body and partly Metaphorical for the Afflicting of the Soul yet others there are that assert it to be purely Metaphorical of whom the Learned Chamier tells us (g) Nobis certum ignis flammarum in inferno nihil esse nisi metaphoricum pueriliter nugari quicunque corporea sive metâ—rialia sunt imaginati Cham. Paustrat tom 2. lib. 5. cap 20. § 47. pag. 190. Cum idem sit ignis paratus Diabolo hominibus impâ—is ignis aâ—tem corporeus ron possit agere in spiritum planum sit ignis imagine spirituale supplicium ad 〈◊〉 arâ— Tilen Syntag. part 2. cap. 68. Hisce Calvinus interpreâ—â—◠〈◊〉 doctissimus in Isa cap. 3. ver 33. Et alibi astipulatur Ignis inferni cum ut divinae justitiae instrumentum sibi valide nocivum ab anima apprehendatur propter visinem sui verè animam cructare dicitur Aq. Sup. 3. part q. 70. a. 3. Qualiter in corporei spiritus corporeo â—gâ—â— asfâ—gantur Doctoâ—es super quantum sententiarum discribunt Communis respontiâ— est quod ille ignis en quantum est inâ—trâ—mentum divinae justitiae spiritus condemnates affigit Carthus in Luc. cap. 16. v 24. we are certain that of the Fire and Flames in Hell there is nothing but what is Metaphorical and that all such do but Childishly trifle who judge otherwise of them By these the unproportionableness of a material Fire to the Nature of Devils and the Souls of Men which are purely immaterial is urged and with much plausibility stood upon they think it nothing likely that a spiritual Being should become Obnoxious to the Dint of any corporeal Punishment But the other with as much Facility seem to untie the Knot telling us that although corporeal Fire in the Nature of it be not proportionate to any immaterial Substances such as are Devils and the Souls of the Damned in Hell nor able by any physical Power of its own to leave any afflictive Impressions upon them yet considered for that end by the Almighty Power of his revengeful Hand to an height of transcendent Efficacy beyond all Hyperboles so it can easily torment a spiritual Being and make the same painful Impressions there as it would upon a corporeal Substance Some other Arguments there are insisted upon which because I judge them concluding for neither side I purposely wave Nor shall I undertake the Decision of so dark a Controversy rashly as Austin said in another case defining what with the utmost reach (h) Temerè definire non audeo quod excogitare non valeo Aug. de civit Dei lib. 22. cap. 20. pag. mihi 738. Sed melias est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis Lamb. ex Aug. lib. 4. distinct 50. d. Ignis infernalis noster nimium quantum differunt primò quidem in urendi sensu Noster ignis Augustino pictus videtur sed ille alter veruâ— Quicquid hic te urit fabula est jocus est quicquid hic pateris merissimus Iudus est Ignium umbra sunt ignâ—s nostri ad illa inferorum incendia poenae quas hic deperaimus deliciae sunt ad illa nunquam desitura tormâ—nta Cur enim non dicamus quamvis miris tamen
Wickedness and horrid Rebellions against Heaven (i) Peccare non definit quem in extremis situm recedere à criminibus sola tantum facit impossibilitas non voluntas qui enim à malis actibus tantum morte discedit non relinquit scelera sed relinquitur à sceleribus Atque ideo tunc puto peccat quando cessaverit quia quantum ad anionum necdum defiit qui adhuc velit peccare si possit Sal. ad Eccles cathol lib. 1. pag. 360. There are none that go down into Hell but they carry their unbelieving impenitent Hearts along with them And therefore since they never break off their Sins by Repentance endeavouring to live unto God they are but justly shut up in those fiery Chains of Wrath which will never break and in which they can never die Repentance is on all hands acknowledged a necessary prerequisite of pardon except by those of the Antinomian Libertinisme God will humble the Sinner and bring him upon his Knees before he give him a pardon The Heart of every ungodly Man must either be broken by Godly Sorrow from Sin or else wanting such godly Sorrow he must never look to escape the Vengeance of Eternal Fire But what hope of such wholesom though bitter Fruit of Repentance when the Tree is cut down and now burnt irrecoverably in the Flames of Hell God sorrow for Sin is not a Flower to be gathered out of any of those Bundles of Tares that lie burning in Hell The hot scorching Fire of Hell it will break the Heart of the stoutest Sinner but never mollify it It will rend the Heart with unconceivable Horror but never melt it down into Tears of unfeigned Repentance The Wicked in Hell they will have Fire enough to torment them for their Sins but none to refine and purify them from the dross of their Sins Tears they will have enough to shed over their Sins because of that Wrath and Misery they have now brought upon them but not one Tear to shed for their Sins as displeasing to an Holy God and violative of his Righteous Will (k) Damnati cum jam de facto sint in Termino sunt in statu immutabili ita ut voluntatem habent in malo perpetuò immutabiliter confirmatam Barlow Exert 1. p. 10. For now they are to come to their final Estate they have no further to travel but are come to their Journeys end where Sin shall be aggravated into a Prodigy of Wickedness and most horrid Blasphemy not conquered by a serious Repentance the Will being here Everlastingly obfirmed in Wickedness * Cum meritum demeritum ordinentur ad aliquod bonum vel malum consequendum neque boni merebuntur quia bona voluntas in eis non erit meritum sed praemium neque mali demerebuntur quia eorum mala voluntas non erit demeritum sed poena Aq. Sup. 3. Part. q. 98. art 6. o. And though the Damned being now in Termino where is neither place for Merit nor Demerit which as means have relation to some future Good or Evil and must therefore cease their respective ends once attained do no longer contract further guilt by their bloody Cursings horrid Execrations and Blasphemies against Heaven so as to expose themselves every Moment to new Degrees of Punishment such obfirmedness and obstinacy in wickedness being itself the very Emphasis of their Misery and their greatest Punishment Yet that Impenitence under Sin when â—inal should leave the Ungodly to an Eternity of Misery in Hell is but equal that such as would never sorrow for Sin after a godly manner should be eternally Damned for Sin that such as would never humble themselves nor go to God upon the bended Knees of true Repentance for a Pardâ—â— should for ever lie under his ireful frowns is but equal Here the Lord is upon a Treaty with us holding out the golden Scepter of his Grace But because in Hell this Treaty will be over and Repentance our of date there is therefore no further possibility that the Damned should ever escape the Vengeance of eternal Fire Fools then or mad Men shall I call them who hearing tell dayly how unsufferable for extremity how unsupportable for Eternity Hell Torments are do yet willingly to enjoy the momentary Pleasures of Sin deprive themselves of that eternal hyperbolical weight of Glory plunging themselves Body and Soul in eternal remediless Tortures What shall not the thought of eternal Destruction from the presence of God make you afraid causing you to fly by Repentance from the Wrath to come †Isa 33.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foci aeternitatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim ignem locum ubi accenditur ignis secundum Pagninum significat Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings or stand scorching to give you the original in the hot fiery Hearths of Eternity There is not Sinner any condition of Misery so dreadful and intolerable as that which is unalterable So that your Misery under the Wrath and ignifluous displeasure of God in Hell being endless it must needs be easless To a Woman in Travail now scrieching and crying out for the griping throws and grievous Pangs now come upon her 't is no small Comfort to think that being once delivered they will all have an end But Wo and alass poor self-destroying Sinners there is no such ground of Comfort as this in Hell where all those whose woful end is to be damned shall have Fire and Brimstone unsparing Wrath and Damnation without end Think not poor brutish Sensualist that the dark Night of suffering will be as short as the day of thy Sinning or that thy future Miseries in Hell will as soon pass away as thy present carnal Pleasures The delight and pâ—â—fit of Sin is short But the Punishment and Torment that will follow after is Eternal When Sinner thou hast lain as many Millions of Ages in Hell burning like a Fire-brand upon the Grid-iron of God's fiercest Wrath as there be Sands upon the Sea-shore ten thousand times told Yet still an Eternity of suffering will be future if all futurity there be not swallowed up in one infinite Moment of Pain that will never be overcome nor ever come to end Were the damned in Hell to expiate their Sins with a whole Ocean of Tears and yet but every thousand Year to shed a Tear this would afford unspeakable Comfort and make them think themselves the most happy Men in the World if then there might be an end of their Torment Oh but what an Hell will this be in their Consciences what a Fire in their Bones and what a Dagger in their Hearts to think that when they have been burning as many Millions of Years in the Infernal Flames as there are Drops of Water in the vast Ocean yet now they are not one moment nearer coming out from that Place of Torment than the very first minute that they were thrown down irrecoverably into it For here
interest in this Glorious Reward than a dead Man is capable of being made the Monarch of the whole Universe The Tree must first take root and be filled with sap before any precious Fruit can grow upon it So you must first have the Root of the matter within you and be filled with the Sap of Sanctifying Grace before ever you can be Trees of Righteousness bearing Fruit to Eternal Life A Man must first be born into the World before he can have any Dignities Honour on Preferment conferred upon him in the World Thus a Man also must first be born again from Heaven by the Holy Ghost before ever he can be preferred to the full enjoyment of Life and Eternal Glory in the Kingdom of God (c) John 3.3 For except a Man be born again from above saith Christ he cannot see the Kingdom of God d A Man must first be a Member of the Church militant on Earth by Sanctification before he can possibly be made a Member of the Church triumphant in Heaven by eternal glorification (e) Rom. 5.21 The Grace of God in Christ Jesus is that alone which must Crown us with Glory if ever we have it And yet know you must that the Grace of God itself will never reign but through Righteousness unto Eternal Life The grand Reward of a Christian is the beatifical Vision of God in Glory But because he is an infinitely pure and holy God (f) Heb. 12.14 why therefore without Holiness you must never look to see him as your Happiness and Reward What should they do with an Holy God who are not themselves sanctified Or how can they behold with Comfort the Holy one of Israel who have not a pure Eye but are all over polluted and stained with Sin Never think to be a Vessel of Glory if first thou be not seasoned throughout in Body Soul and Spirit with renewing Grace But oh how long shall these things be Paradoxes and hidden Mysteries amongst you Where is the Man in our Congregations that knows by his (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. own experience what it is to be made a new Creature to be born of the Spirit from above to have his Heart washed in the Laver of Regeneration from all uncleaness and in a Word to be â—aised by the Almighty irresistable power of God from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace Are not most Men pleasing themselves with external performances making their Prayers their Alms their good Works a fufficient Qualification for Heaven whilst they never think of getting sanctified Hearts and renewed Natures (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 30. Oh that all such amongst you would now consider how impossible it is for any Man to obtain the Reward of Eternal Glory not being first born again from above and made a new Creature Poor self destroying Sinners if here you become not Men of a pure Heart you must never see the Face of God in the Kingdom of Heaven but the Furnace of Hell is heating for you and a Night of Eternal Darkness abides you in the World to come And is it nothing do you think to be shut out of Heaven and to fall into Hell irrecoverably Is it nothing to miss of Eternal Life and for ever to lose the Reward of Eternal Glory that you can live and die so well satisfied in a carnal unregenerate Condition True it is while we are in this World living by sense little do we conceive what it is to be saved to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God what it is to have full and Everlasting Communion with God in Glory nor can we so prize these things now as we ought to do Oh but we shall come to breath out our Souls into Eternity and must stand trembling at God's Tribunal to receive our everlasting doom then to be sure Life Happiness and Eternal Glory will be in request Oh then that in such a Day when all the World cannot comfort you Life may be yours and Salvation yours and the full enjoyment â—f God in Heaven yours give diligence now to have the Truth and Life of Grace in your inward Parts endeavouring to find a through sanctifying Change wrought upon you Remember if you die in a carnal Condition you are undone for ever damned for ever But if sanctified through the Spirit and made new Creatures the Reward of Eternal Glory shall be your Portion 4 Lay hold upon Jesus Christ by a lively Faith above all things labouring to get an interest in him Christ hath purchased by his own Death the reward of Eternal Life But it s not for all promiscuously whether good or bad but only for those that by Faith receive him making him their Saviour Though Christ were as universal a cause of Salvation as the Arminians dogmatize Yet till by Faith you embrace him as willing to receive him in all his Offices as a Prophet to instruct and teach you as a Priest to intercede and die for you as a King to command sanctifie and govern you to be sure he will never profit you to Life and Salvation * John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life but he that hath not the Son hath no Life Both the Life of Grace and the Life of Glory come in by Christ he alone is the Tree from whence you may gather this Fruit of Paradise And therefore of necessity you must close with Christ would you either have the Life of Grace to make you holy or the Life of eternal Glory to make you happy Salvation for lost Sinners could no otherwise be purchased but by the precious Blood of the Lord Jesus And though now the purchase be thus made yet the Blood of Christ cannot save you unless you receive him to dwell in your Hearts by Faith Communion is never to be found but where first some kind of union went before to usher it in So that though Christ came into the World to repair our lost condition to cleanse us from all unrighteousness to deliver our Souls from the Wrath to come and to make us meet by â—his Spirit working in us for the full enjoyment of God in Glory Yet if first we be not united to Christ we can never have the Happiness of Communion with him in these and the like glorious Priviledges but notwithstanding the Blood the Death the Sufferings of Christ must for ever fall short of Eternal Glory How dreadful then is the condition of every Christless Sinner There is an All-sufficiency of Merit in Christ but it shall never procure their Pardon There is a redundancy of Grace in Christ But it shall never sanctify nor make them holy There is a Soveraignity in the Blood of Christ but it shall never cleanse their Souls from Sin a There is an indeficient Fountain of Life in Christ But refusing him they must inevitably die the Death and suffer the
Vengeance of Eternal Fire You then that would not for ever thus dreadfully miscarry and come short of God's Kingdom and Glory oh see that you now give diligence to close with Christ making him your Wisdom to direct you your Righteousness to justify your Persons your Sanctification to prepare you for Glory and your Redemption to free your Souls from the Wrath to come b His Merit is beyond all your Misery his Pardons are more than all your Debts his Power to succour is infinite and therefore it can never (i) Et verè malorum profunditas necat si quos desperatio indulgentiae detestanda cordis obduratione praejudiciat Fulgent epist ad Venant pag. 560. 1 Cor. (k) Deus etenim noster sic est misericors bonus sicut infinitus invictus proinde bonitas invicti non vincitur infiniti misericordia non finitur Idem Qualecunque sit ergo peccatum à Deo quidem potest remitti converso sed ille sibi remitti non sinit qui desperando contra se indulgentiae ostium clauserit Fulgent pag. 562. be non-plust by any thing but an Evil Heart of unbelief Have Faith in Christ and though the universal Guilt of all Mens Sins in the World lay upon you yet they could never damn you But want Faith refusing to accept of Christ upon Gospel Terms and Heaven itself cannot save you Every Sin hath such infinite evil and malignity bound up in it that of itself it deserves Damnation But yet no Sin doth actually expose the Soul thereto without Infidelity Were there but one Soveraign medicine against some mortal Disease in all the World surely his case must needs be desperate who laboring under this Mortal Distemper should refuse that Soveraign Remedy Such is the case of every unbeliever who refusing the Redemption purchased by Christ and making light of so great Salvation can never escape the Damnation of Hell nor the Wrath of God nor the Vengeance of Eternal Fire (l) Act. 4.12 For there is no other Name under Heaven given amongst Men by which we must be saved Out of a tender care therefore of your own Souls make sure of Christ and do not dare to live a Moment longer without an interest in him Christ alone is the Way which leads to Life and therefore not believing in him not embâ—acing of him not accepting of him as your Saviour You walk every moment on the frontiers of Hell not knowing how soon you may drop irrecoverably into that Place of Torments Why then will you not come to Christ applying his Righteousness to your selves by Faith that you may have Life obtain Mercy and be crowned with an Eternity of heavenly Glory Oh little do you know the Happiness of a Soul believing in Christ for remission of Sins and for Life everlasting His Faith gives him an interest in that Christ who hath Life Heaven and Eternal Glory following after him so that Faith alone doth more for him than all other Graces besides for tho Faith in the Substance of it considered as an inherent Quality hath no singular excellency above other Graces Yet as it is receptive of Christ and an Instrument appointed of God for the applying of his Righteousness to our Souls whereof no other Grace is any more capable than the Eye of receiving food to nourish the Body so 't is the most precious and useful of all others What the Eye was to an Israelite when stung in the Wilderness that Faith alone is to us when mortally wounded with the sting of Sin It was not a quick Ear nor a strong Arm nor an active Hand nor an eloquent Tongue that could heal him but only an Eye looking up to the brazen Serpent Thus 't is not Knowledge though Angelical nor Sorrow for Sin how afflicting soever nor any Religious Performances how many and glorious soever that can help us but only Faith in the Lord Jesus (e) John 3.15 through whom we shall never perish but have Eternal Life Oh then what encouragement may this afford to all such as lie bleeding and groaning under the Sense of their own Sinfulness Whatever your wounds be the Blood of Christ applied by Faith can heal them Whatever your Sorrows be the Spirit of Christ can abundantly comfort you What ever your Fears of Wrath and Hell be the Redemption purchased by Christ can remove them all Whatever your unworthiness be yet being cloathed upon through Faith with the Garment of Christs Righteousness you are sure to obtain the Blessing of Life Glory and unconceivable Happiness in the Kingdom of God! If then you desire when your Souls shall be dislodged from these Tabernacles of Clay to have them received into everlasting Habitations do not oh do not any longer refuse but now see that you close by Faith with a precious Christ There is not a Soul of you I am sure that is willing to go to Hell and be damned for ever (f) Acts. 16.31 Believe therefore in the Lord Jesus Christ and so escaping the Wrath the Flames the Damnation of Hell you are sure to be saved with an Everlasting Salvation Remember Jesus Christ in that blessed Zoar unto whom retiring by Faith unfeigned thy Soul shall live and be crowned with fulness of Joy when Fire and Brimstone Storm and Tempest Wrath and Hell shall be rained from Heaven upon the whole World of the Ungodly 5 BE sure that you make an universal Resignation of your selves to the Lord Jesus devoting yourselves wholly both Soul and Body and all that you are to the service of Christ That Faith which is saving hath two Hands the one to receive Christ and the other to give up the Soul to the obedience of Christ 'T will not suffice for us barely to rely upon Christ that he may save us But if our Faith be of the right Stamp a Living and not a Dead Faith (g) Acts. 11.23 it will make us cleave unto Christ with full purpose of Heart (h) Luke 1.74 75. that we may serve him in Holiness and Righteousness all our Days We must here live to Christ by sincere obedience would we ever live with Christ in Glory as our Eternal Recompence Give Diligence then that as Christ is yours you also may be Christs You must look as well at Christ commanding Duty as promising the Reward thereof Would you ever have Christ looking after you to Crown you with Eternal Glory In vain shall you expect the Dignities and Priviledges that come by Christ so long as you refuse to perform the Homage and Services that are due to Christ Oh therefore beware lest there be any amongst you that fall short of Eternal Life by building their Hopes for it upon a partial accepting of Christ If you take not Christ for your Soveraign to obey and serve him he will never be your Saviour to redeem and crown your Souls with eternal Glory (q) Jam. 2.17 20 26. Your Faith is dead and will never save
Tongue of a poor Mortal than to compass the whole Heaven with a Span or to contain the vast Ocean in Cockle-shell (d) Vicit officium linguae sceleris magnitudo Lactant. lib. 6. de ver Cultu pag. mihi 626. Sed quis dicere vel cogiture sufficiat qualis sit in conspectu Domini Dei illa beatorum spirituum calestium que â—irtutum innumerabilis multitudo Quae sit in eis sine fine festivitas visionis Dei Quae laetitia sine defectu Quis amoris ardor non crucians sed delectans Quod sit in ei desiderium visionis Dei cum satietate satietas cum desiderio Aug. Medit. cap. 27. pap 61. What Lactanctus saith of a certain Vice the same may I say of this glorious Reward It 's greatness doth far exceed the largest significancy of the Tongues expression For who tho exhausting the whole Exchequer of good Language and Rhetoricating it the utmost emphasis of all daring Hyperboles can tell how incorruptible the Crown how sweet the Rest how glorious the Kingdom how full and satisfactory the Joy of Eternal Reward will be What Tongue of Man or Angel can fully express how soft the Bosom of God's eternal Love is wherein his People shall rest themselves for ever What Tongue can say how entrancing the light of God's Countenance how pleasant the embraces of a blessed Redeemer how delightful those Soul extasying Rivers of Pleasure are which run out at the Right Hand of God for evermore Truth is we can no more tell the excellency of a Christians Reward and the Powers of the World to come by those descriptions thereof that we meet with in Holy Writ than one who had never seen the Sun could give you a full account of all it's Splendour Brightness and Glory by the twinkling of a little Star in a Dark Night (e) 2 Cor. 12.4 St. Paul though he saw not all yet he saw more than what the Tongue of any Mortal Wight is able to utter And truly as Austin hath it we can better say what there is not than what there is in a Christian's Reward so unspeakably great is the Glory of it Let not therefore my dark amd muddy expressions occasion in you any low contemptible Thoughts of this Glorious Recompence But know that whatever through Grace I shall be enabled to speak of it will be but a little glimpse of light breaking in at some small crany in comparison of the Sun in it's Noon-day brightness So that what the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon's Glory the like will you when you come to Heaven say of this It was a true report that I had in the Land of the living concerning the Greatness and Glory of a Christian's Reward howbeit I believed not the words till now that my Eyes have seen it and behold the one half was not told me of what by sweet experience I do now find THIS to prevent all low and unworthy Thoughts of that Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience I now come to tell you as I can what manner of Reward it is which I shall do in these ensuing particulars CHAP. XIV Makes Further Improvement of the Doctrin by way of Consolation shewing what manner of Reward it is whereunto God allows his People to have a Respect in all their Obedience 1 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a pure sincere and unmixed Reward Here every Rose hath its Thorn and our choicest Comforts they have something of Vexation in them But this Reward is a sweet Ambrosian Handkerchief to wipe away all Tears from your Eyes so that when once you come to enjoy it then you shall sorrow no more nor suffer any more nor have any more sad Thoughts any more heavy Hearts (a) Revel 21.4 any more afflicted Spirits to all Eternity Now God brings you to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon your Heads wiping away all Tears from your Eyes Now there (b) Nulla erit ibi tristitia nulla angustia nullus dolor nullus timor nullus ibi labor nulla mors sed perpetua sanitas semper ibi perseverat Bern. Medit. cap. 14. pag. mihi 332. is no more pain for ever Heaven is situated in so wholsom an Air that whoever have the happiness to be made free Denizens of that new Jerusalem they obtain forthwith such an admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Temperament both of Soul and Body that they are never troubled again with any peccant Humour to beget either Grief of Soul or Aches Pains and Distempers of Body Here every one of God's Children hath his Mouth filled with one Complaint or other this Man cries out of his Losses and that Man of his Sufferings I was full saith one but now I am empty I did lately abound saith another but am now in wants e'rewhile saith a third I was blessed with a loving Husband with a dear Wife with indulgent Parents with many sweet Babes and choicest Comforts but now Providence hath separated betwixt me and them and left me alone to out-live all my Enjoyments call not me Naomi call me no longer Pleasant but call me Marah (c) Ruth 1.20 for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with me These daily are the sad Complaints and thus we may frequently hear the best of God's People crying out in this Life Stay but a while though and the Reward of eternal Life will silence them all so that there shall be no crying out in the Streets of the new Jerusalem no Voice shall be heard there but that of Joy unspeakable of sweetest Melody of eternal Triumph Oh the infinite blessed difference betwixt our condition now and what is like to be when we come to Heaven Now weeping then rejoycing now groaning then triumphing Now filled with Gall and Wormwood then overflowing with Rivers of Pleasure Now labouring as in the Brick-kilns of Egypt under a sad Heart a diseased Body a wounded Spirit under Reproach Persecution and sorest Afflictions But then resting (d) Revel 14.13 from our Labours from all our Toyl or Tears our sad Thoughts our dying Groans our grievous fiery Tryals and so crowned with Life Immortality and unmixed purest Pleasures at God's right Hand for evermore Thou may'st possibly think it strange Christian to find so much Dross in the purest Gold so much Gall in thy Hony-comb such a mortal Sting in every Comfort so dark a Cloud upon thee when enjoying the fairest Sun-shine so much occasion of Sorrow and heart-breaking Sadness so much Vanity disappointment and vexation of Spirit in all worldly Enjoyments But remember the Rose that hath no Thorn the Honey that hath no Gall the Day that hath no Cloud the Crown that is lined with no perplexing Cares the Wine that is dash'd with no bitter Waters of Marah the Joy that hath no Grief no Sadness no Affliction to allay it is reserved for Heaven as the only
Actions of praying repenting and believing these are good as to the matter of them But our remisness our negligence our weakness in the exerting of them this is sinful and argues the most perfect in all the World to be yet imperfect falling short in all that do (c) Job 1.22 Neither doth that Scripture so much triumphed (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes justitiae nostrae sunt sicut panniculus remotionum id est faeminarum quo ob menses suos seponuntur Exod. 28.38 in by a Pontificianizing Doctor of our own where 't is said that in all this Job sinned not at all incommodate this too sadly experimented Truth For the Negation there is only of acts sinful in the matter of them which Satan tempted that Holy Man to commit and into which he expected Job would through impatience and the sharpness of his Afflictions have been transported Nor doth it any thing at all advantage the cause of the Perfectionits which this Doctor hath taken upon him to assert that the good Works and Graces of God's People are wrought by the holy Spirit of God in them (d) Deus quidem primus boni operis est author sed ejus ductu homo est actor For though the Spirit work these things in us yet that 's only by way of efficiency as the Author of them and not formally as one Person with us (e) Opera fidelium si simpliciter omnino Dei essent omnino pura et perfecta essent at non sunt sed simul fidelium qui impuri perfecti ex parte sunt ideoque opera ex parte perfecta sunt The Spirit of God doth not believe and repent for us but enableth us thereto As it is not God that eateth drinketh or walketh but we ourselves by ability received from him Though then that which proceeds from the Spirit of God as the sole immediate cause thereof without the intervention of any other subordinate cause can never be impreached of the least defect Yet Grace being subjectively in us and good Works formally wrought by us as the Spirits Instruments do admit without any reflexion upon him of much imperfection and defilements Here our Graces are mingled with Corruption our best Duties with some undutifulness (f) Gal. 5.17 and all our religious undertakings with the sad counterlustings and countermotions of the Flesh against the Spirit in them Oh but Christians such is the pure Nature of this glorious Reward that it will perfectly change you into the spotless Purity and Holiness of itself Truth is the great Reward of Grace is Grace itself a Christian being never compleatly happy till crowned with an absolute perfection in Grace and Holiness But oh how happy will this Reward make thee when all thy defects and weaknesses shall be done away when all thy Graces that are now in their minority and as so many Undergraduates shall grow up to their full stature in Christ commencing Doctors as it were and taking their highest degree of Blessed Perfection in Glory Here Grace is like Gold in the Oar having much dross of Sin and indwelling Corruption mingled with it but in Heaven it will be fined into an absolute and unmixt purity This Reward indeed for a little Time dissolves the frame of Nature parting Soul and Body asunder But it easily makes amends for that perfecting that frame of Grace and at length brings both Soul and Body together again in fulness of Glory You must never think to be so gracious so pure and holy as you would be Christians till you come to Heaven Where only the Law in our members struggling against the Law of our Minds shall have an end where all decays and languishings of Grace shall be removed where all deficiencies of Grace shall be filled up and the first Fruits of the Spirit which here we receive as an earnest of Glory shall be turned into a full Vintage Your Graces are now like smoaking Flax in which there is most Vapour and but little light or like a broken Reed that is easily shattered with every blast But in Heaven it shall be turned into purest Glory and made a stately Pillar to stand unshaken for ever in the Temple of God Like the Sun wrapt up in a thick Cloud such are the Graces of God's People now But when once the Reward of Eternal Glory shall be given them then their Graces shall be like the Sun shining for in its strength with most radiant sparkling beams of Brightness You then that go languishing all the day long that your knowledge of heavenly Mysteries is so dark and confused your desires after God so faint your Love to Christ so cold your zeal for his Glory so remiss your delight in his Ways so small and all your Graces so full of Weaknesses and Imperfections Oh lift up your Heads with Joy and take Comfort in the hope of this glorious Reward which will quite do away all your present defects crowning all your Graces with fulness and most heavenly perfection Grace in the Heart of God's People here is like a Plant that grows in a barren Soil which thrives but slowly and bears little Fruit But when once it shall be transplanted into the heavenly Canaan there it meets with that proper and fertile Soil which will bring it on to perfection causing every Grace like a flourishing Vine to be laden with full Clusters of most sweet delicious Grapes for ever Oh then what manner of Reward is this and how much to be desired which will thus change Grace into Glory and our morning Twilight into a Noonday brightness making all Gods People as perfectly pure as perfectly holy and gracious as their Heart can now wish to be if not much more This Reward must needs make Grace perfect because Perfection in Grace is the principal part of this blessed Reward Needs must this Reward perfect Grace into heavenly Glory because the greatest Glory of Heaven next to God himself is Grace perfected and blossoming into the Flower of unspotted purity 9 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's a most safe Reward and such as can never be lost nor taken from them They are not only sure to have this Reward as we shewed in another particular but they are sure to hold it so as never to be deprived of it Other Rewards may be lost and a Man may be cheated of them he knows not how But the Reward of Eternal Glory it s a safe Reward out of this all the cheats in Hell are not able to rook you (g) Luke 10.42 as being indeed that better part which shall never be taken from you This Reward is our Treasure laid up in Heaven and therefore it can neither be corrupted by the Mâ—th nor be taken by the Hand of violence (h) Mat. 6.20 Here though we lay up Treasure under Lock and Key in Chests of Adamant and make it never so
are none that walk so chearfully in Heaven's Way as those who have thus seen and tasted that the Lord is Gracious (e) Psal 110.3 In the Day of God's Power the Soul must needs be willing devoting herself to him as a Free-will offering And doubtless greater power did God never shew than when opening the Eyes of a poor lost Sinner and giving him a clear prospect of heavenly Glory Oh now the Soul can mount up with Wings as an Eagle now she can run and not be weary now she can walk on with delight in Heaven's Way and never grow faint when thus beholding as with open Face the Glory that is set before her Holy Duties to a Man eying by Faith the Reward of them are accompanied with such Manna and spiritual Nectar with such fulness of delight and heavenly contentment that now he can willingly spend and be spent in them With a carnal heart who neither sees nor hopes for this glorious Reward all holy exercises are but as Songs to a sorrowful Heart or as good food to a dead Man or as the Red-sea to Pharoah's Chariots wherein he drives on heavily finds no Pleasure can take no delight But it 's far otherwise with those who like Moses have respect to this Eternal Recompence their Meat and Drink is to do God's Will this is that heavenly Manna whereupon they would always be feeding this is that Mount of Transfiguration upon which they could always delight to dwell Oh! there is never such chearful obedience such diligence and vigour of Spirit in holy Duties as when the Soul from the highest Pisgah of Faith can behold the Glory prepared for it that heavenly Canaan towards which every Duty every Sigh every Groan every penitential Tear is an happy Step. The Fire doth not more easily dissolve Ice nor the Sun in its Noon-day brightness expel Darkness than a glimpse of heavenly Glory doth expel Sloth and make a Man delight in the Beauties of Holiness Who would not be quickned by such a Glory shining upon him What Heart would not be warmed and freed from its natural coldness in the Ways of God before such a Flame What Vigour and Liveliness what holy Activity for God in every Duty may the sight of this Eternal Reward put into us You complain Christians of your Dead-heartedness your Formality your indisposition and great aversness to Duty but would you steep your Hearts in the serious Thoughts of this Eternal Reward that would cure you of all your Distempers that would warm your cold Hearts that would quicken your dull Spirits that would make you to serve the Lord with a willing Mind counting every Duty as an heavenly Gale sent on purpose to wast you over to the wished shore of blessed Immortality Oh then if whilst others count Duty their Burden you would count it your Delight your Priviledge if whilst others stand idle in God's Vineyard counting it a weariness to serve the Lord you would willingly have Hearts lively and chearful Hearts prepared for every good word and work be sure that you look within the Veil endeavouring to perswade your Hearts of the Glory that is set before you This Eternal Weight of Glory if well considered will be sure to make the Yoke of obedience seem light and easy You shall not long need to cry out of your own drowsiness negligence and unwillingness in Duty will you but carefully fix your Eye before you go about the work of Duty upon that eternally glorious Reward that follows after Oh what will be able to revive you to fill you with Spirits of delight activity and chearfulness in the work of the Lord if not a clear prospect of that heavenly Canaan towards which you are going Whenever Christian thy Spirit begins to grow flat and thy Heart to fall in Duty Oh then look up by Faith to this glorious Reward not doubting but like Aqua vitae it will revive thee enabling thee to serve the Lord with a willing Mind 6 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will much ease you of all worldly Thoughts and Heart-dividing Cares He cannot be much distracted about earthly goods whose Heart is holy united to meditate Heaven which is best of all When the Eye is once fixed upon things above it begets in the Soul an holy carelesness about all things here below let them go how they will her Treasure is laid up in Heaven and with this she can sit down satisfied Oh little would you think what a Writ of ease what a Sabbath of Rest from all carking cares and distracting Thoughts it would give you had you but a due respect with Mosâ—s to this recompence of Reward The grand reason why most Men look so much after Earth and spend their Thoughts so much about the Meat that perisheth is indeed because they look so little after Heaven and spend their Thoughts so seldom about the Meat which will endure to Eternal Life (f) Mat. 6.33 Hence our blessed Lord observing the Hearts and Minds the Cares and Thoughts of most Men to be carried out with much anxiousness after the things of this World he endeavours to cure them of this dangerous Distemper by diverting the stream of them another way advising them to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof as the most sure expedient to supersede their Heart-rending Cares and to ease them of all their worldly distractions And doubtless would God's People when almost distracted with Cares about what they shall eat and drink and wherewith in necessitous Times they shall be cloathed turn their Thoughts Heaven-ward taking care to make sure of that to prepare for a Crown of Glory to be made meet for the inheritance of Saints in Light this would prove a very Sovereign Remedy against all their distractions What need he much take Thought for the Meat that perisheth who sees the Table spread in his Father's House where sitting down he shall feed upon the Meat that will endure to life everlasting What need he much trouble himself for Drink who sees a River of purest Pleasures running by the right Hand of God for evermore whereof he shall drink deep to all Eternity What need he distract himself for Cloaths who sees the Ward-robe of Heaven all hung with the Garments of Salvation to make him at last more beautiful than Solomon in all his Glory What need he in a word be much careful about earthly Possessions who knows himself provided before-hand of an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for him Oh Sirs the Dagon of worldly Thoughts and distracting Cares could never stand had you but such an Ark as a prospect of Heavens Glory to set up against it If then Christians you would get from off the Rack of carking Cares and be able to trust God with your Bodies give diligence to get your Hearts to meditate on Heaven endeavoring to provide for your Souls everlasting Mansions of Glory If
a Land all whose Rivers run heavenly Nectar and all whose Trees are ever laden with the sweet delicious Grapes of Paradise (o) Si tanta nobis tribuis in careere quid dabis in patria Aug. de civit Dei If here in the Land of your Pilgrimage so much of Heavens Glory be revealed to you what Tongue of Man or Angel can tell the Happiness the Glory to be revealed in you when at home in your own Country The Crown of Life if now so bright and orient to an Eye of Faith beholding it Oh then what a far more excâ—â—ding and Eternal Weight os Glory will be found in it when a glorious Christ shall set it upon your Head with his own remunerative Hands 12 AND lastly a due respect had to this glorious Reward will bring you safe to it never leaving you till your Souls be crowned with fulness of Glory The Loadstone will draw Iron to itself when intra Spheram activitatis suae within the reach of its own attractive influence Thus the Reward of Eternal Life as an heavenly Loadstone hath that magnetick Virtue in it that if you put yourselves by a due respect had thereto under it it will draw you home to itself The wise Men keeping their Eye upon the Star which went before them were at length brought to Christ Thus keeping your Eye Christians upon this Eternal Reward as a glorious Star it will bring you at length to Christ in Glory whom fully to enjoy is our Life our Comfort our Happiness yea the Heaven of Heavens 'T is true Christians we must be uncloathed of this Body of Death before we can enter into the Joy of our Lord and be cloathed upon with the white Robes of Blessed Immortality Death must break down the Prison Walls of a Mortal Body before our Souls can ever come to the glorious Liberty of God's Children (a) 2 Cor. 5.1 Till our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved there is no having of a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens And why should we not be willing that God should pull down these Cottages of Clay who hath promised to raise us up a more glorious Temple The Loadstone cannot draw Iron as some say whilst the Diamond is in Presence Doubtless were it not for a Body of Death that is still present with us an Eye fixed upon Heaven's Glory would immediately draw us into Heaven For besides the interposition of an earthly gross Body together with those corruptions whose Foundation is in that Dust there is nothing as one well observes that hinders a Christian from the full enjoyment of God in Glory So that Death's peculiar Office is to break down this Wall of separation that the Soul may the better come to her God her beloved Redeemer her Eternal Habitation in the Kingdom of Heaven The Soul when once loosed from this dying Body then she hath the Crown of Life set upon her Head then she sees God no longer through a Glass darkly but Face to Face then she is ravished with the unconceivable sweetness of the beatifical Vision (b) Mori plane timeat sed qui ex aqua spiritu non renatus Gehennae ignibus mancipatur mori timeat qui non Christi cruce passione censetur mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit quem de seculo recedentem perennibus poenis aeterna torquebit flamma Cyp. de Mortalit pag. 344. Let those therefore tremble at the knocking and approaches of Death who know not what will become of their immortal Souls who not being born again from above are every moment liable to infernal Flames who have no interest in the Glory purchased by Christ who must pass from Death to Death from short momentany Pleasures to everlasting hellish Torments Death to the Wicked is the Trap-door that opening lets them fall down irrecoverably into the dark vault of Eternal Misery But to the Gracious Soul there is no cause of Terrour in Death no Fear in the Grave no Sting to perplex in a bodily dissolution as that which only ushers in her everlastingly Blessed and Glorious Coronation Death comes to a Man dying the recompence of Reward like Moses to the Israelites to deliver him as the Angel to Peter in Prison to set him free as God's fiery Chariot to carry him like Elias into heavenly Glory And are you Christians afraid of entring upon your own Blessedness are you afraid to be cloathed upon with your House from Heaven Get a right notion of Death which as Bernard calls it is nothing but the Gate of Life the Portal of eternal security Though Death look upon thee with a grim Countenance yet it comes upon a good errand to God's People to fetch them out of their Wilderness-condition and to bring them to an everlasting estate of Happiness By Death we go from Earth to Heaven from conversing with Sinful Men to converse with Millions of glorious Angels and what makes us so loath to remove Who would not leave a Cottage to gain a Kingdom Who would not leave an Egypt to inherit Canaan Who would not leave gladly an oppressive Babylon to be made a Citizen of Sion of the heavenly Jerusalem OUR greatest Misery lies not in Death but in Life 'T is the Veil of Flesh that keeps us from entring into the holiest of all c Death gives us a pasport from corruptible Joys to an incorruptible Crown from a Mortal Life to a Life of blessed Immortality from a troublesome condition to a State of perfect tranquillity So that the name of Death should not offend us But the Happiness and Glory to which it leads should delight us The Moon never comes to the full til after her change Thus through the change of Death a Christian comes to all fulness of Joy and hath the white Robes of Glory given him Now the Bridegroom comes to meet the Soul in Happiness now all Tears are wiped away and Heaven Gates are set wide open to give her everlasting glorious entertainment Now the Reward of life everlasting now the Joy of Eternal Salvation now the full possession of the heavenly Paradise comes Now heavenly Mansions instead of earthly Tabernacles now greatest Glory instead of small and Eternal Happiness instead of poor temporal enjoyments are bestowed upon every Child of God What Man that is well in his Wits woâ—ld not part with Life and bid Death welcome upon terms of such everlasting blessed and glorious advantage (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad pop Ant. hom 7. Death in the true notion (c) Mors haec transitus universorum est transitur à corruptione ad incorruptionem à mortalitate ad immortalitatem à perturbatione ad tranquillitatem Non igitur nomen mortis te offendat sed boni transitûs beneficia delectent Ambros lib. de Bono mort cap. 4. Proemium vitae gaudium salutis aeternae perpetua laetitia possessio Paradisi
nuper amissa mundo transeunte jam veniunt jam terrenis caelestia magna parvis caducis aeterna succedunt Cyp. de mortal pag. 341. of it to a godly Man is nothing but a blessed removal from a Land of Darkness to a Land that flows with Milk and Hony from hard Labour to sweetest Rest from a Tempestuous Sea to a peaceful Harbour from a place of wrestling weeping groaning and fiery Tryals to that heavenly Kingdom where the Soul is crowned with a glorious Triumph Let me therefore charge you in this case as Moses the Man of God once charged Israel at the Red Sea when so violently pursued by Pharoah and his Host Fear not but stand ye still and see the Salvation of God The time of your great change when you must pass through the Red Sea of Death will ere long be at Hand But then the Enemies which you now see the sorrows you now feel the many pressing Troubles which now you undergo you shall see them feel them groan under them no more for ever (e) Quid est enim mors nisi sepulâ—uâ—a vitiorum virtutum â—â—â—â—â—â—tatio Amb. ubi suprà Go forth then oh blessed Soul out of the Prison of a vile Body not fearing but Death will be the Funeral of all thy Corruptions and turn all thy Graces into fulness and everlasting perfection Be it so that Death will break in pieces the Casket of a frail Body yet thy Soul Christian which is the Jewel thy better part shall be kept safe for ever in Abraham's Bosom Many a goodly Ship hath miscarried and been dashed in pieces whilst her Steers-man with greatest diligence and curiosity hath been eying the Stars But never did any precious Soul miscarry whose Eye was duly fixed upon the Pole-star the Cinosure of heavenly Glory but was landed safe at the wished Shoar of true Happiness That Faith which now brings down Heaven into thy Soul will be sure to carry thy Soul at length Christian up into the sweet Paradise of God The Lord may give a Man a Prospect of the earthly Canaan and yet suffer him with Moses to die in the Wilderness Bâ—t if ever he take the Soul up into the Mount of Transfiguration giving her such a clear sight of the heavenly Canaan as to make her think it best of all to be there he will never shut her out of that good Land he will never deny her a Portion in that heavenly Country God would never give the Soul such Visions of Glory did he not intend to bring her at length to the beatifical Fruition of himself in Glory When the Heart and Eye are both set upon Heaven it 's a sure sign that God hath laid up a Treasure for the Soul in Heaven which shall never be taken from her Christ when he went to Heaven he went thither as our fore-runner that we might have everlasting Consolation and good hope through him to be there also Thus when the Heart is set upon heaven's Glory and the Eye continually looking that way like Christ our fore-runner it gives the strongest ground of Hope assuring us that our Souls shall not be long out of Heaven nor long absent from the Lord. When once the Stone is let fall it never stoops till it comes to the Center Thus if once we let fall an Eye upon this glorious Reward our Souls they will never be stopped but be still in continual vigorous Motion till they come to rest in the Centre of perfect Blessedness Glorification in Heaven doth (z) Perseverantiam in terris immediatè sequitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in coelis quo fruuntur omnes qui semel credunt Parker de Traduct hom peccat ad vit pag. 34. infallibly follow Perseverance in Grace on Earth which all those are sure to enjoy for ever who do once fix aâ— Eye of true Faith upon that Crown of Life whâ—ch God sets before us Walk on in the strength of this divine Consolation waiting longing and breathing for that glorious time when Faith will be turned into a clear Vision of Glory and Hope shall be swallowed up in Fruition and your morning Light commence into a glorious Sun-shine and those smaller drops of heavenly Joy which you have to refresh you in this parched Wilderness shall become a River of Life sending out full Streams of purest Pleasures to delight and make glad your Hearts for ever O let every gracious Soul with most sublimate raised Affections keep an Eye fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward And o'erlong thou that art now a beholding (a) In patria plenissimè quiescit affectus in Deo appetitus inhiantis fit amor fruentis Aug. de Trin. l. ult shalt be an enjoying Christian thou that doest now look upon Heaven's Glory with unfeigned desire to it shall shortly be put with Joy unspeakable in full Possession of it If the hope of Glory be once rooted in thy Heart the Crown of Glory will not long be kept from thy Head As sure as thy Lord's Joy now enters into thee so sure shalt thou enter at length into the Joy of thy Lord. He can never lose his Reward nor fall short of Glory who is careful in all his Works to look as high as Heaven not seeking the Praise of Man but that Praise that Honour that Glory which comes from God Our earthly Enjoyments may deceive us making themselves Wings to fly away But an Eye of Faith fixed on this heavenly Reward it will never deceive us but will infallibly carry our Souls as on Eagles Wings into eternal heavenly Mansions of Glory Why then dear Christians will you be so formal so dead-hearted so disconsolate in a way of Duty not striving to serve the Lord with a willing chearful Frame of Soul Seemeth it a small thing to you that God hath given you the earnest of Glory the first Fruits of Heaven as a sure Pledge that a full Crop of Happiness shall follow after Must you shortly be transplanted our of this barren Wilderness into the Caelestial Canaan the Paradise of God the heavenly Jerusalem and shall not this make you steadfast unmovable always rejoycing in the Work of the Lord Oh Christians remember that you who are now reproached for God shall anon be advanced to greatest Honour You that are now weeping shall anon come to Zion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon your Heads That Glory which is now revealed to you by an Eye of Faith shall shortly be revealed in you if keeping your Eye stedfastly fixed upon it you go on still to seek it by patient continuance in well-doing The good Thief upon the Cross having the Kingdom and Glory of Christ in his Eye hath the promise to be that very day with Christ in Paradise Though now Christians you be upon the Cross and sorely distressed yet if your Eye be fixed upon heaven's Glory it cannot be much above one days journey betwixt your Souls and the Paradise of God where