shall the Ark of God come to us Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God Who shall approach and dwell with the consuming fire Imperfect or none must be thy Service here Oh take thy Sons excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak CHAP. V. The four great Preparatives to our Rest. SECT I. HAving thus opened you a window toward the Temple and shewed you a small Glimpse of the Back-parts of that Resemblance of the Saints Rest which I had seen in the Gospel Glass It follows that we proceed to view a little the Adjuncts and blessed properties of this Rest. But alass this little which I have seen makes me cry out with the Prophet Isa. 6.5 6 7. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean Lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hoasts Yet if he will send and touch my lips with a coal from the Altar of his Son and say thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged I shall then speak boldly and if he ask Whom shall I send I shall gladly answer Here am I Send me Vers. 8. And why doth my trembling heart draw back Surely the Lord is not now so terrible and inaccessible nor the passage of Paradise so blocked up as when the Law and Curse reigned Wherefore finding Beloved Christians that a new and Living way is consecrated for us through the vail the flesh of Christ by which we may with boldness enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus I shall draw neâ—r with the fuller Assurance and finding the flaming Sword removed shall look again into the Paradise of our God and because I know that this is no forbidden fruit and withal that it is good for food and pleasant to the Spiritual Eyes and a tree to be desired to make one truly wise and happy I shall take through the assistance of the Spirit and eat thereof my self and give to you according to my power that you may eat For you Christians is this food prepared this wine broached this fountain opened And the message my Master sends you is this Hearty Welcom which you shall have in his own words Eat O Friends Drink yea Drink abundantly O Beloved And surely it 's neither manners nor wisdom for you or me to draw back or to demur upon such an Invitation And first let us consider of the eminent Antecedents the great Preparations that notable Introduction to this Rest For the Porch of this Temple is exceeding Glorious and the gate of it is called Beautiful And here offer themselves to our distinct observation these four things as the four Corners of this Porch 1. The most Glorious Coming and Appearing of the Son of God 2. His powerful and wonderful raising of our Bodies from the Dust and uniting them again with the Soul 3. His publick and solemn Proceedings in their Judgment where they shall be justified and acquit before all the world 4. His solemn Celebration of their Coronation and his Inthronizing of them in their Glory Follow but this four-fold Stream unto the Head and it will bring you just to the Garden of Eden SECT I. 1. ANd well may the Coming of Christ be reckoned in to his peoples Glory and annumerated with those ingredients that compound this precious Antidote of Rest For to this end is it intended and to this end is it of apparent Necessity For his peoples sakes he sanctified himself to his office For their sakes he came into the world suffered dyed rose ascended And for their sakes it is that he will Return Whether his own exaltation or theirs were his primary Intention is a Question though of seeming usefulness yet so unresolved for ought I have found in Scripture that I dare not scan it for fear of pressing into the Divine Secrets and approaching too near the inaccessible Light I find Scripture mentioning both ends distinctly and conjunctly but not comparatively This is most clear that to this end will Christ come again to receive his people to himself that where he is there they may be also John 14.3 The Bridegrooms departure was not upon divorce He did not leave us with a purpose to return no more He hath left pledges enough to assure us We have his Word in pawn his many Promises his Sacraments which shew forth his death till he Come and his Spirit to direct sanctifie and comfort till he Return We have frequent tokens of Love from him to shew us he forgets not his Promise nor us We behold the forerunners of his coming foretold by himself dayly come to pass We see the figtree put forth her branches and therefore know the Summer is nigh We see the fields white unto Harvest And though the Riotous World say Our Lord will be long a coming Yet let the Saints lift up their heads for their Redemption draweth nigh Alas fellow Christians what should we do if our Lord should not Return What a case are we here left in What Leave us among Wolves and in the Lyons den among a generation of Serpents and here forget us Did he buy us so dear and then cast us off so To leave us sinning suffering groaning dying dayly and come no more at us It cannot be Never fear it It cannot be This is like our unkind dealing with Christ who when we feel our selves warm in the world care not for coming at him But this is not like Christ dealing with us He that would come to suffer will surely come to Triumph And he that would come to purchase will surely come to possess Alas where else were all our hopes What were become of our faith our prayers our tears and our waiting What were all the patience of the Saints worth to them Were we not left of all men most miserable Christians hath Christ made us forsake all the world and be forsaken of all the world to hate all and be hated of all and all this for him that we might have him in stead of all and wil he think you after all this forget us forsake us himself Far be such a thought from our hearts But why stayed he not with his people while he was here Why must not the Comforter be sent Was not the work on earth done Must he not receive the Recompence of Reward and enter into his Glory Must he not take possession in our behalf Must he not go to prepare a place for us Must he not intercede with the Father and plead his sufferings and be filled with the Spirit to send forth and receive authority and subdue his enemies Our abode here is short If he had stayed on earth what would it have been to enjoy him for a few days and then dye But he hath more in Heaven to dwell among even the spirits of the Just of many Generations there made perfect Beside
are used as Enemies still Oh when the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall appear with all the Hoasts of Heaven when he shall surprize the careless world as a thief in the Night When as the Lightening which appeareth in the East and shineth even to the West so they shall behold him coming What a change will the sight of this Appearance work both with the World and with the Saints Now poor deluded World where is your Mirth and your Jollity Now where is your Wealth and your Glory Where is that prophane and careless heart that slighted Christ and his Spirit and out-sate all the offers of Grace Now where is that tongue that mocked the Saints and jeered the holy ways of God and made merry with his peoples Imperfections and theâ— own Slanders What was it not you Deny it if you can your heart condemns you and God is greater then your heart and will condemn you much more Even when you say Peace and Safety then Destruction cometh upon you as Travel upon a woman with childe and you shall not escape 1 Thess. 5.3 Perhaps if you had known just the day and hour when the Son of God would have come then you would have been found praying or the like But you should have watched and been ready because you know not the hour But for that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Oh blessed is that servant Verily I say unto you for Christ hath said it he shall make him ruler over all his Goods And when the chief Shepherd shall appear he shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Oh how should it then be the character of a Christian to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom he raised from the Dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1.10 And with all faithful diligence to prepare to meet our Lord with joy And seeing his Coming is of purpose to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes. 1.10 Oh what thought should Glad our hearts more then the thought of that day A little while indeed we have not seen him but yet a little while and we shall see him For he hath said I will not leave you comfortless but will come unto you We were comfortless should he not come And while we dayly gaze and look up to Heaven after him let us remember what the Angels said This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven While he is now out of sight It is as a sword to our Souls while they dayly ask us Where is your God But then we shall be able to answer our enemies See O proud sinners yonder is our Lord. And now Christians should we not put up that Petition heartily Let thy Kingdom come for the Spirit and the Bride say Come and let every Christian that heareth and readeth say Come And our Lord himself saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus Revel 22.17 20. SECT II. THe second stream that leadeth to Paradise is that Great work of Jesus Christ in raising our Bodies from the dust and uniting them again unto the Soul A wonderful effect of infinite Power and Love Yea wonderful indeed saith Unbelief if it be True What saith the Atheist and Sadducee shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man A man drowned in the Sea is eaten by fishes and they by men again and these men by worms what is become of the body of that first man shall it rise again Thou fool for so Paul calls thee dost thou dispute against the power of the Almighty Wilt thou pose him with thy Sophistry Dost thou object difficulties to the Infinite Strength Thou blinde Mole Thou silly Worm Thou little piece of creeping breathing clay Thou dust Thou nothing Knowest thou who it is whose Power thou dost Question If thou shouldst see him thou wouldst presently dye If he should come and dispute his cause with thee couldst thou bear it Or if thou shouldst hear his voyce couldst thou endure But come thy way let me take thee by the hand and do thou a little follow me and let me with Reverence as Elihu plead for God and for that power whereby I hope to arise Seest thou this great massie body of the earth What beareth it and upon what foundation doth it stand Seest thou this vast Ocean of waters What Limits them and why do they not overflow and drown the Earth Whence is that constant Ebbing and Flowing of her Tides Wilt thou say from the Moon or other Planets and whence have they that power of effective influence Must thou not come to a Cause of Causes that can do all things and doth not Reason require thee to conceive of that cause as a perfect Intelligence and voluntary Agent and not such a blinde worker and empty notion as that Nothing is which thou callest Nature Look upward Seest thou that Glorious body of Light the Sun How many times bigger is it then all the Earth and yet how many thousand miles doth it run in one minute of an hour and that without weariness or failing a moment What thinkest thou Is not that power able to effect thy Resurrection which doth all this Dost thou not see as great works as a Resurrection every day before thine eyes but that the Commonness makes thee not admire them Read but the 37 38 39 40 41. Chapters of Job and take heed of disputing against God again for ever Know'st thou not that with him all things are possible Can he make a Camel go through the eye of a needle Can he make such a blinde Sinner as thou to see and such a proud heart as thine to stoop and such an Earthly minde as thine Heavenly And subdue all that thy fleshly foolish wisdom And is not this as great a work as to Raise thee from the Dust Wast thou any unlikelier to Be when thou wast Nothing then thou shalt be when thou art Dust Is it not as easie to raise the Dead as to make Heaven and Earth and all of Nothing But if thou be unperswadeable all I say to thee more is as the Prophet to the Prince of Samaria 2 King 7.20 Thou shalt see that day with thine Eyes but little to thy Comfort for that which is the day of relief to the Saints shall be a day of Revenge on thee There is a Rest prepared but thou canst not enter in because of unbelief Heb. 3.19 But for thee O Beleeving Soul never think to comprehend in the narrow capacity of thy shallow brain the Counsels and ways of thy Maker No more then thou canst contain in thy fist the vast Ocean He never intended thee such a Capacity when he made thee and gave thee that measure thou
rising of the Sun excludes the darkness yet is not the negative part to be slighted even our freedom from so many and great Calamities Let us therefore look over these more punctually and see what it is that we shall there Rest from In general It is from all evil Particularly First from the evil of Sin secondly and of suffering First It excludeth nothing more directly then sin whether original and of Nature or actual and of Conversation For there entereth nothing that defileth nor that worketh abomination nor that maketh a lie when they are there the Saints are Saints indeed He that will wash them with his heart blood rather then suffer them to enter unclean will now perfectly see to that he who hath undertaken to present them to his Father not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but perfectly holy and without blemish will now most certainly perform his undertaking What need Christ at all to have died if Heaven could have contained imperfect souls For to this end came he into the world that he might put away the works of the divel His Blood and Spirit have not done all this to leave us after all defiled For what communion hath light with darkness and what fellowship hath Christ with Belial He that hath prepared for sin the torments of Hell will never admit it into the Blessedness of Heaven Therefore Christian never fear this if thou be once in Heaven thou shalt sin no more Is not this glad news to thee who hast prayed and watched and labored against it so long I know if it were offered to thy choice thou wouldst rather chuse to be freed from sin then to be made heir of all the world VVhy wait till then and thou shalt have thy desire That hard heart those vile thoughts which did lie down and rise with thee which did accompany thee to every duty which thou couldst no more leave behinde thee then leave thy self behinde thee shall now be left behinde for ever They might accompany thee to death but they cannot proceed a step further Thy understanding shall never more be troubled with darkness Ignorance and Error are inconsistent with this Light Now thou walkest like a man in the twilight ever afraid of being out of the way Thou seest so many Religions in the VVorld that thou fearest thy one cannot be onely the right among all these Thou seest the Scripture so exceeding difficult and every one pleading it for his own cause and bringing such specious Arguments for so contrary Opinions that it intangleth thee in a Labarinth of perplexities Thou seest so many godly men on this side and so many on that and each zealous for his own way that thou art amazed not knowing which way to take And thus do doubtings and fears accompany darkness and we are ready to stumble at every thing in our way But then will all this darkness be dispelled and our blinde understandings fully opened and we shall have no more doubts of our way VVe shall know which was the right side and which the wrong which was the Truth and which the Error O what would we give to know cleerly all the profound Mysteries in the Doctrine of Decree of Redemption of Justification of the nature of Grace of the Covenants of the Divine Attributes c. VVhat would we not give to see all dark Scriptures made plain to see all seeming contradictions reconciled Why when Glory hath taken the vail from our eyes all this will be known in a moment we shall then see clearly into all the controversies about Doctrine or Discipline that now perplex us The poorest Christian is presently there a more perfect Divine then any is here We are now through our Ignorance subject to such mutability that in points not fundamental we change as the Moon that it is cast as a just reproach upon us that we profess our Religion with Reserves and resolvedly settle upon almost nothing that we are to day of one opinion and within this week or moneth or yeer of another and yet alas we cannot help it The reproach may fall upon all mankinde as long as we have need of daily growth Would they have us beleeve before we understand or say we beleeve when indeed we do not shall we profess our selves resolved before we ever throughly studied or say we are certain when we are conscious that we are not But when once our Ignorance is perfectly healed then shall we be setled resolved men then shall our reproach be taken from us and we shall never change our judgment more then shall we be clear and certain in all and cease to be Scepticks any more Our Ignorance now doth lead us into Error to the grief of our more knowing Brethren to the disturbing of the Churches quiet and interrupting her desireable harmonious consent to the scandalizing of others and weakning of our selves How many an humble faithful Soul is seduced into Error and little knows it Loath they are to erre God knows and therefore read and pray and confer and yet erre still and confirmed in it more and more And in lesser and more difficult points how should it be otherwise He that is acquainted amongst men and knows the quality of Professors in England must needs know the generality of them are no great Scholars nor have much read or studied Controversies nor are men of profoundest natural parts nor have the Ministers of England much preached Controversies to them but were glad if their hearers were brought to Christ and got so much knowledg as might help to Salvation as knowing that to be their great work And can it be expected That men voyd of Learning and strength of parts unstudied and untaught should at the first on set know those Truths which they are almost uncapable of knowing at all when the greatest Divines of clearest Judgment acknowledg so much difficulty That they could almost finde in their hearts sometimes to profess them quite beyond their reach Except we will allow them to lay aside their divine Faith and take up an humane and see with other mens eyes the weight and weakness of Arguments and not with their own It cannot be thought That the most of Christians no nor the most Divines should be free from erring in those difficult points where we know they have not Head-peeces able to reach Indeed if it were the way of the Spirit to teach us miraculously as the Apostles were taught the knowledg of Tongues without the intervening use of Reason or if the Spirit infused the acts of Knowledg as he doth the immediate knowing Power then he that had most of the Spirit would not onely know best but also know most but we have enough to convince us of the contrary to this But O that happy approaching day when Error shall vanish away for ever VVhen our understandings shall be filled with God himself whose light will leave no darkness in
canst heartily Accept of Christ that thou mayst be pardoned reconciled to God and so saved Dost thou Consent that he shall be thy Lord who hath bought thee and take his own course to bring thee to Heaven This is Justifying Saving Faith and this is the Mark that thou must try thy self by Yet still observe That all this Consent must be Hearty and Real not feigned or with reservations It is not saying as that dissembling son Matt. 21.30 I go sir when he went not To say Christ shall be my Lord and yet let corruption ordinarily rule thee or be unwilling that his Commands should encroach upon the interest of the world or flesh If any have more of the Government of thee then Christ or if thou hadst rather live after any other Laws then his if it were at thy choyce thou art not his Disciple Thus I have layd you down these two Marks which I am sure are such as every Christian hath and no other but sincere Christians I will add no more seeing the substance of Christianity is contained in these Oh that the Lord would now perswade thee to the close performance of this Self-trying Task That thou mayst not tremble with horror of Soul when the Judg of all the World shall try thee but have thy Evidence and Assurance so ready at hand and be so able to prove thy Title to Rest that the thoughts and approaching of Death and Judgment may revive thy spirits and fill thee with Joy and not apale thee and fill thee with amazement CHAP. X. The fourth Vse The Reason of the Saints Afflictions here SECT I. A Further necessary Use which we must make of the present Doctrine is this To inform us why the People of God do suffer so much in this life What wonder when you see their Rest doth yet Remain They are not yet come to their Resting place We would all fain have continual prosperity because it is easie and pleasing to the flesh but we consider not the unreasonableness of such desires We are like children who if they see any thing which their appetite desireth do cry for it and if you tell them that it is unwholesom or hurtful for them they are never the more quieted or if you go about to heal any sore that they have they will not endure you to hurt them though you tell them that they cannot otherwise be healed their Sense is too strong for their Reason and therefore Reason doth little perswade them Even so is it with us when God is afflicting us He giveth us Reasons why we must bear them so that our Reason is oft convinced and satisfied And yet we cry and complain still and we rest satisfied never the more It is not Reason but Ease that we must have What cares the flesh for Scripture and Argument if it still suffer and smart These be but winde and words which do not remove or abate its pain Spiritual remedies may cure the spirits maladies but that will not content the flesh But methinks Christians should have another pallate then that of the flesh to try and relish providences by God hath purposely given them the Spirit to subdue and over-rule the flesh And therefore I shall here give them some Reasons of Gods dealing in their present sufferings whereby the equity and mercy therein may appear And they shall be onely such as are drawn from the reference that these afflictions have to our Rest which being a Christians Happiness and ultimate End will direct him in judging of all estates and means SECT II. 1. COnsider then That Labor and Trouble are the common way to Rest both in the course of Nature and of Grace Can there possibly be Rest without Motion and Weariness Do you not Travel and Toyl first and then rest you afterwards The day for Labor goes first and then the night for Rest doth follow Why should we desire the course of Grace to be perverted any more then we would do the course of Nature seeing this is as perfect and regular as the other God did once dry up the Sea to make a passage for his people and once make the Sun in the Firmament to stand still But must he do so always or as oft as we would have him It is his established Decree That through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Act. 14.22 And that if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him 2 Tim. 2.12 And what are we that Gods Statutes should be reversed for our pleasure SECT III. 2. COnsider also That Afflictions are exceeding useful to us to keep us from mistaking our Resting place and so taking up short of it A Christians Motion Heaven-wards is Voluntary and not constrained Those means therefore are most profitable to him which help his Understanding and Will in this prosecution The most dangerous mistake that our Souls are capable of is to take the Creature for God and Earth for Heaven And yet alass how common is this And in how great a degree are the best guilty of it Though we are ashamed to speak so much with our tongues yet how oft do our hearts say It is best being here And how contented are they with an earthly portion So that I fear God would displease most of us more to afflict us here and promise us Rest hereafter then to give us our hearts desire on earth though he had never made us a promise of Heaven As if the Creature without God were better then God without the Creature Alass how apt are we like foolish children when we are busie at our sports and worldly employments to forget both our Father and our home Therefore is it a hard thing for a Rich man to enter into Heaven because it is hard for him to value it more then Earth and not to think he is well already Come to a man that hath the world at will and tell him This is not Your Happiness You have higher things to look after and how little will he regard you But when Affliction comes it speaks convincingly and will be heard when Preachers cannot What warm affectionate eager thoughts have we of the world till Affliction cool them and moderate them How few and cold would our thoughts of Heaven be how little should we care for coming thither if God would give us Rest on Earth Our thoughts are with God as Noahs Dove was in the Ark kept up to him a little against their inclinations and desires but when once they can break away they fly up and down over all the world to see if it were possible to finde any Rest out of God But when we finde that we seek in vain and that the world is all covered with the waters of instable vanity and bitter vexation and that there is no Rest for the sole of our foot or for the foot of our Soul no wonder then if we return to the Ark again Many a
he hath chosen him for his Portion his thoughts are on Eternity his desires there his dwelling there he cryes out O that I were there he takes that day for a time of imprisonment wherein he hath not taken one refreshing view of Eternity I had rather dye in this mans condition and have my soul in his souls case then in the case of him that hath the most eminent gifts and is most admired for parts and dutie whose heart is not thus taken up with God The man that Christ will finde out at the last day and condemn for want of a wedding Garment will be he that wants this frame of heart The question will not then be How much you have known or professed or talked but How much have you loved and where was your heart Why then Christians as you would have a sure testimony of the love of God and a sure proof of your title to Glory labor to get your hearts above God will acknowledg that you really love him and take you for faithful friends indeed when he sees your hearts are set upon him Get but your hearts once truly in Heaven and without all question your selves will follow If sin and Satan keep not thence your affections they will never be able to keep away your persons SECT IIII. 2. COnsider A heart in Heaven is the highest excellency of your spirits here and the noblest part of your Christian disposition As there is not only a difference between men and beasts but also among men between the Noble and the Base so there is not only a common excellency whereby a Christian differs from the world but also a peculiar nobleness of spirit whereby the more excellent differ from the rest And this lyes especially in a higher and more heavenly frame of spirit Only man of all inferior creatures is made with a face directed heaven-ward but other creatures have their faces to the earth As the Noblest of Creatures so the Noblest of Christians are they that are set most direct for Heaven As Saul is called a choice and goodly man higher by the head then all the company so is he the most choice and goodly Christian whose head and heart is thus the highest Men of noble birth and spirits do mind high and great affairs and not the smaller things of low poverty Their discourse is of the councels and matters of State of the Government of the Common-wealth and publike things and not of the Countrey-mans petty imployments O to hear such an heavenly Saint who hath fetcht a journey into heaven by faith and hath been wrapt up to God in his contemplations and is newly come down from the veiws of Christ what discoveries he will make of those Superior regions What ravishing expressions drop from his lips How high and sacred is his discourse Enough to make the ignorant world astonished and say Much study hath made them mad And enough to convince an understanding hearer that have seen the Lord and to make one say No man could speak such words as these except he had been with God this This is the noble Christian. As Bucholcers hearers concluded when he had preached his last Sermon being carried between two into the Church because of his weakness and there most admirably discoursed of the Blessedness of souls departed this life Caeteros concio naetores a Bucholcero semper omnes illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum That Bucholcer did ever excel other preachers but that day he excelled himself so may I conclude of the heavenly Christian He ever excelleth the Rest of men but when he is neerest Heaven he excelleth himself As those are the most famous mountains that are highest and those the fairest trees that are talest and those the most glorious Pyramides and buildings whose tops do reach neerest to Heaven so is he the choisest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there If a man have lived neer the King or have travelled to see the Sultan of Persia or the great Turk he will make this a matter of boasting and thinks himself one step higher then his private neighbors that live at home What shall we then judg of him that daily travels as far as Heaven and there hath seen the King of Kings That hath frequent admittance into the Divine presence and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life For my part I value this man before the ablest the richest the most learned in the world SECT V. 3. COnsider A heavenly minde is a joyful minde This is the neerest and the truest way to live a life of comfort And without this you must needs be uncomfortable Can a man be at the fire and not be warm or in the Sun-shine and not have light Can your heart be in Heaven and not have comfort The countreys of Norway Island and all the Northward are cold and frozen because they are farther from the power of the Sun But in Egypt Arabia and the Southern parts it is far otherwise where they live more neer its powerful rayes What could make such frozen uncomfortable Christians but living so far as they do from heaven And what makes some few others so warm in comforts but their living higher then others do and their frequent access so neer to God When the Sun in the Spring draws neer our part of the earth how do all things congratulate its approach The earth looks green casteth off her mourning habit the trees shoot forth the plants revive the pretty birds how sweetly sing they the face of all things smile upon us and all the creatures below reioyce Beloved friends if we would but try this life with God and would but keep these hearts above what a Spring of joy would be within us and all our graces be fresh and green How would the face of our souls be changed and all that is within us rejoyce How should we forget our winter sorrows and withdraw our souls from our sad retirements How early should we rise as those birds in the spring to sing the praise of our Great Creator O Christian get above Believe it that Region is warmer then this below Those that have been there have found it so and those that have come thence have told us so And I doubt not but that thou hast sometime tryed it thy self I dare appeal to thy own experience or to the experience of any soul that knows what the true Joys of a Christian are When is it that you have largest comforts Is it not after such an exercise as this when thou hast got up thy heart and converst with God and talkt with the inhabitants of the higher world and veiwed the mansions of the Saints and Angels and filled thy soul with the forethoughts of Glory If thou know by experience what this practice is I dare say thou knowest what spiritual Joy is David professeth that the light of Gods countenance would make his
circumstances though to some they may seem small things doth much conduce to our hinderance or our help Christ himself thought it not vain to direct in this circumstance of private duty Mat. 6.4 6 18 If in private prayer we must shut our door upon us that our Father may hear us in secret so is it also requisite in this Meditation How oft doth Christ himself depart to some mountain or wilderness or other solitary place For occasional Meditation I give thee not this advise but for this daily set and solemn duty I advise that thou withdraw thy self from all society yea though it were the society of godly men that thou mayest a while enjoy the society of Christ If a student cannot study in a crowd who exerciseth only his invention and memory much lesse when thou must exercise all the powers of thy soul and that upon an object so far above nature When thy eyes are filled with the persons and actions of men and thine ears with their discourse its hard then to have thy thoughts and affections free for this duty Though I would not perswade thee to Pythagoras his Cave nor to the Hermets Wilderness nor to the Monks Cell yet I would advise thee to frequent solitariness that thou mayest sometimes confer with Christ and with thy self as well as with others We are fled so far from the solitude of superstition that we have cast off the solitude of contemplative devotion Friends use to converse most familiarly in private and to open their Secrets and let out their affections most freely Publike converse is but common converse Use therefore as Christ himself did Mark 1.35 to depart sometimes into a solitary place that thou maist be wholly vacant for this great employment See Mat. 14.23 Mark 6.47 Luke 9.18 36. John 6.15 16. We seldom read of Gods appearing by himself or his Angels to any of his Prophets or Saints in a throng but frequently when they were alone And as I advise thee to a place of retiredness so also that thou observe more particularly what place and posture best agreeth with thy spirit Whether within doors or without whether siting still or walking I beleeve Isaacs example in this also will direct us to the place and posture which will best suit with most as it doth with me viz. His walking forth to meditate in the field at the eventide And Christs own example in the places forecited gives us the like direction Christ was used to a solitary Garden that even Judas when he came to betray him knew where to finde him John 18.1 2. And though he took his Disciples thither with him yet did he separate himself from them for more Secret devotions Luke 22.41 And though his meditation be not directly named but onely his praying yet it is very clearly implied Matth. 26.38 39. His soul is first made sorrowful with the bitter meditations on his death and sufferings and then he poureth it out in prayer Mark 14.34 So that Christ had his accustomed place and consequently accustomed duty and so must we Christ hath a place that is solitary whither he retireth himself even from his own Disciples and so must we Christs meditations do go further then his thought they affect and pâ—erce his heart and soul and so must ours Onely there is a wide difference in the object Christ meditates on the suffering that our sins had deserved that the wrath of his Father even passed through his thoughts upon all his soul But the meditation that we speak of is on the glory he hath purchased that the love of the Father and the joy of the Spirit might enter at our thoughts and revive our affections and overflow our souls So that as Christs meditation was the sluce or flood-gate to let in Hell to overflow his Affections so our meditation should be the sluce to let in Heaven into our affections SECT IX SO much concerning the Time and Place of this duty I am next to advise thee somewhat concerning the preparations of thy heart The success of the work doth much depend on the frame of thy heart When mans heart had nothing in it that might grieve the Spirit then was it the delightful habitation of his Maker God did not quit his residence there till man did expel him by unworthy provocations There grew no strangeness till the heart grew sinful and too loathsom a dungeon for God to delight in And were this soul reduced to its former innocency God would quickly return to his former habitation yea so far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit and purged of its lusts and beautified with his Image the Lord will yet acknowledg it his own and Christ will manifest himself unto it and the Spirit will take it for his Temple and Residence So far as the soul is qualified for conversing with God so far it doth actually for the most part enjoy him Therefore with all diligence keep thy heart for from thence are the issues of life Prov 4.23 More particularly when thou fettest on this duty First Get thy heart as clear from the world as thou canst wholly lay by the thoughts of thy business of thy troubles of thy enjoyments and of every thing that may take up any room in thy soul. Get thy soul as empty as possibly thou canst that so it may be the more capable of being filled with God It is a work as I have said that will require all the powers of thy soul if they were a thousand times more capacious and active then they are and therefore you have need to lay by all other thoughts and affections while you are busied here If thou couldst well perform some outward duty with a piece of thy heart while the other is absent yet this above all I am sure thou canst not Surely if thou once address thy self to the business indeed thou wilt be as the covetous man at the heap of Gold that when he might take as much as he could carry away lamented that he was able to bear no more So when thou shalt get into the Mount in contemplation thou wilt finde there as much of God and Glory as thy narrow heart is able to contain and almost nothing to hinder thy full possession but onely the uncapableness of thy own Spirit O then wilt thou think that this understanding were larger that I might conceive more that these affections were wider to contain more it is more my own unfitness then any thing else which is the cause that even this place is not my Heaven God is in this place and I know it not This Mount is full of the Angels of God but mine eyes are shut and cannot see them O the words of love that Christ hath to speak O the wonders of love that he hath to shew But alas I cannot bear them yet Heaven is here ready at hand for me but my uncapable heart is unready for Heaven Thus wouldst thou lament that the
is the Fathers good pleasure to give thee this Kingdom Seest thou this astonishing Glory above thee Why all this is thy own inheritance This Crown is thine these pleasures are thine this company this beauteous place is thine all things are thine because thou art Christs and Christ is thine when thou wast married to him thou hadstall this with him Thus take thy heart into the Land of Promise shew it the pleasant hills and fruitful valleys Shew it the clusters of Grapes which thou hast gathered and by those convince it that it is a blessed Land flowing with better then milk and honey enter the gates of the holy City walk through the streets of the New Jerusalem walk about Sion go round about her tell the towers thereof mark well her bulwarks consider her palaces that thou mayest tell it to thy soul Psal. 48.12 13. Hath it not the Glory of God and is not her light like to a stone most precious See the twelve foundations of her walls and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb therein The building of the walls of it are of Jasper and the City is of pure gold as cleer as glass The foundation is garnished with pretious stones and the twelve gates are twelve pearls every several gate is of one Pearl and the street of the City is pure Gold as it were transparent glass There is no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it It hath no need of Sun or Moon to shine in it for the Glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it These sayings are faithful and true and the Lord God of the holy Prophets hath sent his Angels and his own Son to shew unto his servants the things that must shortly be done Rev. 21.11 12 13. c. to the end 22.6 What sayest thou now to all this This is thy Rest O my soul and this must be the place of thy Everlasting habitation Let all the sons of Sion then rejoyce and the daughters of Jerusalem be glad for great is the Lord and greatly is he praised in the City of our God Beautiful for scituation the Joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion God is known in her palaces for a refuge Psal. 48.11 1 2 3. Yet proceed on Anima quae amat ascendit c. The soul saith Austin that loves ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem visiting the Patriachs and Prophets saluting the Apostles admiring the Armies of Martyrs and Confessors c. So do thou lead on thy heart as from street to street bring it into the Palace of the Great King lead it as it were from chamber to chamber say to it Here must I lodge here must I live here must I praise here must I love and be beloved I must shortly be one of this Heavenly Quire I shall then be better skilled in the musick Among this blessed company must I take my place My voice must joyn to make up the Melody my teares will then be wiped away my groans are turned to another tune my cottage of clay will be changed to this Palace and my prison rags to these splendid robes my sordid nasty stinking flesh shall be put off and such a Sun-like spiritual body put on For the former things are done away Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God There it is that trouble and lamentation ceaseth and the voice of sorrow is not heard O when I look upon this glorious place what a dunghil and dungeon me thinks is earth O what a difference betwixt a man feeble pained groaning dying rotting in the grave and one of these triumphant blessed shining Saints Here shall I drink of the river of pleasure the streams whereof make glad the City of our God For the Lord will create a New Jerusalem and a New Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde we shall be glad and rejoyce for ever in that which he creates for he will create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy And he will rejoyce in Jerusalem and joy in his people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying there shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes Isa. 65.17 18 19 20. Must Israel on earth under the bondage of the Law serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things which they possess sure then I shall serve him with joyfulness and gladness who shall have another kinde of service and of abundance in Glory Deut. 28.47 Did the Saints take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Heb. 11.34 and shall not I take joyfully the receiving of my good and such a full reparation of all my losses Was it such a remarkable celebrated day when the Jews rested from their enemies because it was turned to them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day Est. 9.22 What a day then will that be to my soul whose Rest and change will be so much greater When the wise men saw but the Star of Christ they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Mat. 2.10 But I shall shortly see the Star of Jacob even himself who is the bright and morning Star Numb 24.17 Rev. 22.16 If they returned from the Sepulchre with great Joy when they had but heard that he was risen from the dead Mat. 28.8 What Joy then will it be to me when I shall see him risen and reigning in his glory and my self raised to a blessed communion with him Then shall we have Beauty for ashes indeed and the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa. 61.3 When he hath made Sion an eternal excellency a joy of many generations Isa. 60.15 Why do I not then arise from the dust and lay aside my sad complaints and cease my doleful mourning note Why do I not trample down vain delights and feed upon the foreseen delights of Glory why is not my life a continual Joy and the favor of Heaven perpetually upon my spirit And thus Reader I have directed thee in Acting of thy Joy SECT X. HEre also when thou findest cause thou hast a singular advantage from thy Meditations of Heaven for the acting of the contrary and more mixed passions As 1. Of thy hatred and detestation of sin which would deprive thy soul of these immortal Joyes 2. Of thy godly and filial Fear least thou shouldest either abuse or hazard this mercy 3. Of thy necessary grief for such thy foolish abuse and hazard 4. Of thy godly shame which should cover thy face for the forementioned folly 5. Of thy unfeigned repentance for what thou hast done against thy Joyes 6. Of thy holy anger or
to conceive And doubtless as the Spirit doth speak so we must hear and if our necessity cause him to condescend in his expressions it must needs cause us to be low in our conceivings Those conceivings and expressions which we have of Spirits and things meerly Spiritual they are commonly but second Notions without the first but meer names that are put into our mouths without any true conceivings of the things which they signifie or our conceivings which we express by those notions or terms are meerly negative what things are not rather then what they are As when we mention Spirits we mean they are not corporeal substances but what they are we cannot tell no more then we know what is Aristotles Materia Prima It is one reason of Christs assuming and continuing our nature with the Godhead that we might know him the better when he is so much neerer to us and might have more positive conceivings of him and so our mindes might have familiarity with him who before was quite beyond their reach But what is my scope in all this is it that we might think Heaven to be made of Gold and Pearl or that we should Picture Christ as the Papists do in such a shape or that we should think Saints and Angels do indeed eat and drink No Not that we should take the Spirits figurative expressions to be meant according to strict propriety or have fleshly conceivings of Spiritual things so as to beleeve them to be such indeed But thus To think that to conceive or speak of them in strict propriety is utterly beyond our reach and capacity and therefore we must conceive of them as we are able and that the Spirit would not have represented them in these notions to us but that we have no better notions to apprehend them by and therefore that we make use of these phrases of the Spirit to quicken our apprehensions and affections but not to pervert them and use these low notions as a Glass in which we must see the things themselves though the representation be exceeding imperfect till we come to an immeditae and perfect sight yet still concluding That these phrases though useful are but borrowed and improper The like may be said of those expressions of God in Scripture wherein he represents himself in the imperfections of Creatures as anger repenting willing what shall not come to pass c. Though these be improper drawn from the maner of men yet there is somewhat in God which we can see no better yet then in this glass and which we can no better conceive of then in such notions or else the Holy Ghost would have given us better I would the Judicious Reader would on the by well weigh also how much this conduceth to reconcile us and the Arminians in those ancient and like-to-be continuing Controversies SECT II. 1. GO too then When thou settest thy self to meditate on the joyes above think on them boldly as Scripture hath expressed them Bring down thy conceivings to the reach of sense Excellency without familiarity doth more amaze then delight us Both Love and Joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance When we go about to think of God and Glory in proper conceivings without these Spectacles we are lost and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon We set God and Heaven so far from us that our thoughts are strange and we look at them as things beyond our reach and beyond our line and are ready to say That which is above us is nothing to us To conceive no more of God and Glory but that we cannot conceive them and to apprehend no more but that they are past our apprehension will produce no more love but this To acknowledg that they are so far above us that we cannot love them and no more joy but this That they are above our rejoycing And therefore put Christ no further from you then he hath put himself least the Divine Nature be again inaccessible Think of Christ as in our own nature glorified think of our fellow Saints as men there perfected think of the City and State as the Spirit hath expressed it onely with the Caution and Limitations before mentioned Suppose thou were now beholding this City of God and that thou hadst been companion with John in his Survey of its Glory and hadst seen the Thrones the Majesty the Heavenly Hosts the shining Splendor which he saw Draw as strong suppositions as may be from thy sense for the helping of thy affections It is lawful to suppose we did see for the present that which God hath in Prophecies revealed and which we must really see in more unspeakable brightness before long Suppose therefore with thy self thou hadst been that Apostles fellow-traveller into the Celestial Kingdom and that thou hadst seen all the Saints in their White Robes with Palms in their hands Suppose thou hadst heard those Songs of Moses and of the Lamb or didst even now hear them praising and glorifying the Living God If thou hadst seen these things indeed in what a rapture wouldst thou have been And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thy self the more will the Meditation elevate thy heart I would not have thee as the Papists draw them in Pictures nor use mysterious significant Ceremonies to represent them This as it is a course forbidden by God so it would but seduce and draw down thy heart But get the liveliest Picture of them in thy minde that possibly thou canst meditate of them as if thou were all the while beholding them and as if thou were even hearing the Hallelujahs while thou art thinking of them till thou canst say Methinks I see a glympse of the Glory methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise methinks I even stand by Abraham and David Peter and Paul and many more of these triumphing souls methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom methinks I even hear him say Come ye blessed of my Father and even see them go rejoycing into the Joy of their Lord My very dreams of these things have deeply affected me and should not these just suppositions affect me much more What if I had seen with Paul those unutterable things should I not have been exalted and that perhaps above measure as well as he What if I had stood in the room of Stephen and seen Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God Surely that one sight was worth the suffering his storm of stones O that I might but see what he did see though I also suffered what he did suffer What if I had seen such a sight as Michaiah saw The Lord sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of Heaven standing on his right hand and on his left Why these men of God did see such things and I shall shortly see far more then ever they saw
THE Saints Everlasting Rest OR A TREATISE Of the Blessed State of the SAINTS in their enjoyment of GOD in Glory Wherein is shewed its Excellency and Certainty the Misery of those that lose it the way to Attain it and Assurance of it and how to live in the continual delightful Forecasts of it by the help of Meditation Written by the Author for his own use in the time of his languishing when God took him off from all Publike Imployment and afterwards Preached in his weekly Lecture And now published by Richard Baxter Teacher of the Church of Kederminster in Worcestershire My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal. 73.26 If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Set your affections on things above and not on things on the Earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Col. 3.2 3 4. Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 Jan. 15. 1649. Imprimatur Joseph Caryl London Printed by Rob. White for Thomas Vnderhil and Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the Blue-Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet near the Inner-Temple-gate 1650. To my dearly beloved Friends the Inhabitants of the Burrough and Forreign OF KEDERMINSTER Both Magistrates and People My dear Friends IF either I or my labors have any thing of publike use or worth it is wholly though not onely yours And I am convinced by Providence That it is the Will of God it should be so This I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you When I was separated by the miseries of the late unhappy war I durst not fix in any other Congregation but lived in a military unpleasing state lest I should forestal my return to you for whom I took my self reserved The offers of greater worldly accommodations with five times the means which I receive with you was no temptation to me once to question whether I should leave you Your free invitation of my return your obedience to my Doctrine the strong affection which I have yet towards you above all people and the general hearty return of Love which I finde from you do all perswade me that I was sent into this world especially for the service of your souls And that even when I am dead I might yet be a help to your salvation the Lord hath forced me quite besides my own resolution to write this Treatise and leave it in your hands It was far from my thoughts ever to have become thus publike and burdened the world with any writings of mine Therefore have I oft resisted the requests of my reverend Brethren and some Superiors who might else have commanded much more at my hands But see how God over ruleth and crosseth our resolutions Being in my quarters far from home cast into extream languishing by the sudden loss of about a Gallon of blood after many yeers foregoing weakness and having no acquaintance about me nor any Books but my Bible and living in continual expectation of death I bent my thoughts on my Everlasting Rest And because my memory through extream weakness was imperfect I took my pen and began to draw up my own funeral Sermon or some helps for my own Meditations of Heaven to sweeten both the Rest of my life and my death In this condition God was pleased to continue me about five moneths from home where being able for nothing else I went on with this work which so lengthened to this which here you see It is no wonder therefore if I be too abrupt in the beginning seeing I then intended but the length of a Sermon or two Much less may you wonder if the whole be very imperfect seeing it was written as it were with one foot in the grave by a man that was betwixt living and dead that wanted strength of nature to quicken Invention or Affection and had no Book but his Bible while the chief part was finished nor had any minde of humane ornaments if he had been furnished But O how sweet is this Providence now to my review which so happily forced me to that work of Meditation which I had formerly found so profitable to my soul and shewed me more mercy in depriving me of other helps then I was aware of and hath caused my thoughts to feed on this Heavenly Subject which hath more benefited me then all the studies of my life And now dear Friends such as it is I here offer it you and upon the bended knees of my soul I offer up my thanks to the merciful God who hath fetched up both me and it as from the grave for your service Who reversed the sentence of present death which by the ablest Physitians was past upon me who interrupted my publike labors for a time that he might force me to do you a more lasting service which else I had never been like to have attempted That God do I heartily bless and magnifie who hath rescued me from the many dangers of four yeers war and after so many tedious nights and days and so many doleful fights and tidings hath returned me and many of your selves and reprived us till now to serve him in peace And though men be ungrateful and my body ruined beyond hope of recovery yet he hath made up all in the comforts I have in you To the God of mercy do I here offer my most hearty thanks and pay the vows of acknowledgment which I oft made in my distress who hath not rejected my prayers which in my dolor I put up but hath by a wonder delivered me in the midst of my duties and hath supported me this fourteen yeers in a languishing state wherein I have scarce had a waking hour free from pain who hath above twenty several times delivered me when I was neer to death And though he hath made me spend my days in groans and tears and in a constant expectation of my change yet hath he not wholly disabled me to his service and hereby hath more effectually subdued my pride and made this world contemptible to me and forced my dull heart to more importunate requests and occasioned more rare discoveries of his Mercy then ever I could have expected in a prosperous state For ever blessed be the Lord that hath not onely honored me to be a Minister of his Gospel but hath also set me over a people so willing to obey and given me that success of my labors which he hath denied to many more able and faithful who hath kept you in the zealous practice of godliness when so many grow negligent or despise the Ordinances of God who hath kept you stable in his
Truth and saved you from the spirit of Giddiness Levity and Apostacy of this age who hath preserved you from those scandals whereby others have so hainously wounded their profession and hath given you to see the mischief of Separation and Divisions and made you eminent for Vnity and Peace when almost all the Land is in a flame of contention and so many that we thought godly are busily demolishing the Church and striving in a zealous ignorance against the Lord. Beloved though few of you are rich or great in the world yet for this riches of mercy towards you I must say Ye are my Glory my Crown and my Joy And for all these rare favors to my self and you as I have oft promised to publish the praises of our Lord so do I here set up this stone of remembrance and write upon it Glory to God in the highest Hitherto hath the Lord helped us My flesh and my heart failed but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever But have all these Deliverances brought us to our Rest No We are as far yet from it as we are from Heaven You are yet under oppression and troubles and I am yet under consuming sickness And feeling that I am like to be among you but a little while and that my pained body is hastening to the dust I shall here leave you my best advice for your immortal souls and bequeath you this counsel as the legacy of a dying man that you may here read it and practise it when I am taken from you And I beseech you receive it as from one that you know doth unfainedly love you and that regardeth no honors or happiness in this world in comparison of the welfare and salvation of your souls yea receive it from me as if I offered it you upon my knees beseeching you for your souls sake that you would not reject it and beseeching the Lord to bless it to you yea as one that hath received authority from Christ to command you I charge you in his name as ever you will answer it when we shall meet at judgment and as you would not have me there be a witness against you nor all my labors be charged against you to your condemnation and the Lord Jesus your Judg to sentence you as rebellious that you faithfully and constantly practise these ten directions 1. Labor to be men of knowledg and sound understandings A sound judgment is a most precious mercy and much conduceth to the soundness of heart and life A weak judgment is easily corrupted and if it be once corrupt the will and conversation will quickly follow Your understandings are the in-let or entrance to the whole soul and if you be weak there your souls are like a Garison that hath open or il-guarded Gates and if the enemy be once let in there the whole City will quickly be his own Ignorance is virtually every error therefore let the Bible be much in your hands and hearts Remember what I taught you on Deut. 6.6 7. Read much the writings of our old solid Divines such as Perkins Bolton Dod Sibbs especially Doctor Preston You may read an able Divine when you cannot hear one especially be sure you learn well the Principles of Religion Begin with the Assemblies lesser Catechism and then learn the greater and next Master Balls with the Exposition and then Doctor Ames his Marrow of Divinity now Englished or Ushers If you see men fall on Controversies before they understand these never wonder if they are drowned in errors I know your povertie and labors will not give you leave to read so much as others may do but yet a willing minde will finde some time if it be when they should sleep and especially it will spend the Lords day wholly in these things O be not ignorant of God in the midst of such light as if the matters of your salvation were less worth your study then your trading in the world 2. Do the utmost you can to get a faithful Minister when I am taken from you and be sure you acknowledg him your Teacher Overseer and Ruler 1 Thess. 5.12 13. Acts 20.28 Heb. 13.7 17. and learn of him obey him and submit to his doctrine except he teach you any singular points and then take the advice of other Ministers in trying it Expect not that he should humor you and please your fancies and say and do as you would have him that is meer Independencie for the people to rule themselves and their Rulers If he be unable to Teach and Guide you do not chuse him at first if he be able be ruled by him even in things that to you are doubtful except it be clear that â—e would turn you from the truth if you know more then he become Preachers your selves if you do not then quarrel not when you should learn especially submit to his private over-sight as well as publike Teaching It is but the least part of a Ministers work which is done in the Pulpit Paul taught them also from house to house day and night with tears Acts 20.20 31. To go daily from one house to another and see how you live and examine how you profit and direct you in the duties of your families and in your preparation for death is the great work Had not weakness confined me and publike labors forbidden me I should judg my self hainously guiltie in neglecting this In the Primitive times every Church of so many souls as this Parish had many Ministers whereof the ablest speakers did preach most impublike and the rest did the more of the less publike work which some mistake for meer Ruling Elders But now Sacriledg and Covetousness will scarce leave maintenance for one in a Church which is it that hath brought us to a loss in the nature of Government 3. Let all your Knowledg turn into Affection and Practice keep open the passage between your heads and your hearts that every Truth may go to the quick Spare not for any pains in working out your salvation Take heed of loitering when your souls lie at the stake Favor not your selves in any slothful distemper Laziness is the damnation of most that perish among us God forbid you should be of the mad opinion of the world That like not serving God so much nor making so much ado to be saved All these men will shortly be of another minde Live now as you would wish you had done at death and judgment Let no scorns dishearten you nor differences of opinion be an offence to you God and Scripture and Heaven and the Way thither are still the same It will do you no good to be of the right Religion if you be not zealous in the exercise of the Duties of that Religion Read oft the fifth and sixt Chapters of the third part of this Book 4. Be sure you make conscience of the great Duties that you are to perform in your families Teach your