and he that peâ—ceiveth the operations of a strong effectual Lovâ— hath an acquaintance with God and Heaven whiâ—â— is above that of believing Faith seeth the Feaâ—â— but Love is the tasting of it And therefore it that the Holiest souls sticks closest unto God because though their reâ—soning faculty may be dâ—fective they know him by the highest and mâ— Tenacious kind of knowledge which this Worâ—â—ffâ—rdeth as I have lately shewed elsewhere â— Here you have described to you the true witness the spirit Not that of supposed Internal Voiceâ— which they are usually most taken up with whâ— have the smallest knowledge and Faith and Love and the greatest self esteem or spiritual pride with the strongest phantasies and pâ—ssiâ—ns But the objective and the sealing Testimony the Divinâ— Nature the renewed Image of God whose Children are known by being like to their Heavenly Father even by being Holy as he is Holy This is the Spirit of Adoption by which we are inclined by Holy Love to God and confidence in him to cry Abba Father and to flie unto him The Spirit of Sanctification is thereby in us the Spirit of Adoption For both signifie but the giving us that Love to God which is the filial nature and our â—athers Image And this Treatise doth happily direct thee to â—â—at faithful beholding God in Righteousness which â—ust here begin this blessed Assimilation which full â—tuition will for ever perfect It is a happy sign that God is about to repair our â—ins and divisions when he stirreth up his serâ—ants to speak so much of Heaven and to call â— the minds of impatient complainers and conâ—tious censurers and ignorant self conceited diâ—ders and of worldly unskilful and unmerciful â—stors to look to that state where all the godly shall one and to turn those thoughts to the furtherance Holiness to provoke one another to Love and to â—od works which two many lay out upon their hay â—â—d stubble And to call men from judging and â—spising each other and worse then both those out their Meats and Drinks and Dayes to study â—â—ghteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost â—r he that in these things serveth Christ in which â— Kingdom doth consist is acceptable to God and proved of men that are wise and good Let us â—â—erefore follow after the things which make for â—ace and things wherewith one may edifie anoâ—â—er whilest the contentious for meat will destroy â—e work of God Rom. 14. 17 18 19 20. The â—ion between Peace and Holiness is so strict that he â—o truly promoteth one promoteth both Heb. 12. â—4 Jam. 3. 17. The true way of our Union is exâ—lently described Eph. 4. 11 12 13 14 15 â—6 If any plain unlearned Readers shall blame the â—curateness of the stile they must remember that those persons have not the least need to hear of Heâ—ven and to be drawn up from the vanities of earâ—â— who cannot digest a looser stile As God hath endued the worthy Authour with more thâ—n ordinary measure of judiciousness 〈◊〉 soundness and accurateness of understanding 〈◊〉 seriousness spirituality and a heavenly mind we have for our common benefit the effects of these happy qualifications in this judicious heâ—venly discourse And if my recommendations mâ— in any measure further your acceptance in provement and practising of so edifying a Treatâ—â— it will answer the ends of him who waiteth with 〈◊〉 in hope for the same Salvation Rich. Baxter Acton May 30. 1668 THE BLESSEDNESSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS A Proemial Discourse to the intended Subject THe continual mixture of Good and Evil in this present state of things with its uncertain fluctuations and subjection to perpetual changes do naturally prompt a considering mind to the belief and hope of another that may be both more perfect and more permanent For certainly it could never be a design adequate or any way agreeable to the Divine Wisdom and goodness that the blessed God should raise such a thing as this lower Creation out of nothing Only to give himself the temporary pleasure of beholding the alternate Joys and Sorrows of the best part thereof his reasonable creature seated in it Nor a delight at all proportionable to an eternal happy being when he hath connaturalliz'd such a creature to this sensible world onely to take notice how variously the passions he hath planted in him may be mov'd and stir'd by this variety of occasions which he shal thence be presented with And what suddain and contrary impressions may be made upon his easie passive senses by the interchanged strokes and touches of contrary objects How quickly he can raise him into a transport of high contentment and pleasure and then how soon he can again reduce him to a very Paroxism of anguish and despair It would discover us to have very vile and low thoughts of God if we did not judge it altogether unanswerable to his perfections to design no further thing in creating this world and placing such a creature as man in it then onely to please himself for a while with such a spectacle and then at last clear the Stage and shut up all again in an eternal Silent darkness If we could suppose a man furnished with such power he would surely adde little to the reputation of his being wise or good beyond other men by a design so to use it Much less can we think it worthy of God to perpetuate such a state of things as this and continue a succession of such persons and actions as we now behold in the world through eternal generations onely to perpetuate to himself the same pleasure in the exercise of his immense power upon created natures over which he hath so infinite advantage And indeed nothing can be more unconceivable then that the great Creatour and Authour of all things should frame a Creature of so vast comprehension as the Spirit of man put into it a capacity of knowing and conversing with himself give it some prospect of his own glory and blessedness raise thereby in many boundless unsatisfied desires after him and an unexpressible pleasure in the preconceived hope of being received into the communion of that glory and blessedness and yet defeat and blast so great an expectation by the unsuspected reducement of the very subject of it again to nothing Yea and that he should deal herein as in that case he must the most hardly with the best And that such souls whose meer love and devotedness to him had made them abandon the pleasures of this life and run thorough whatsoever difficulties for his sake should fare worse then the very worst were beyond all the rest most utterly unimaginable and a thought which Pagan-reason hath not known how to digest or entertain If saith one and he speaks the sense of many another as well as his own with the dissolution of our bodies the essence of the Souls whatsoever that be should be dissolved too and for ever cease to be any thing I know not how
and deportments towards God and man Christ formed in the soul or put on the new creature in its being and operations the truth learned as it is in Jesus to the putting off the old man and the putting on the new More distinctly we may yet see wherein it lyes upon a premised view of some few things necessary to be foreknown in order thereunto As That this righteousness is a renewing righteousness or the righteousness of one formerly a sinner a lapsed perishing wretch who is by it restored into such a state towards God as he was in before that lapse in respect of certain great essentials though as yet his state be not so perfectly good while he is in his tendency and motion And shall by certain additionals be unspeakably better when he hath attained the end and rest he is tending to That a reasonable creature yet untainted with sin could not but have a temper of mind â—uteable to such apprehensions as these Viz. That as it was not the Author of being to it self so it ought not principally to study the pleasing and serving of it self but him who gave it being that it can no more continue and perfect it self unto blessedness than it could create it self and can therefore have no expectation hereof but from the same Author of its being And hence that it must respect and eye the great God its Creator and Maker as The Soveraign Authority whom it was to fear and obey Soveraign Good whom it was to love and enjoy But because it can perform no duty to him without knowing what he will have it do nor have any particular expectation of savours from him without knowing what he will please to bestow and is therefore obliged to attend to the revelations of his Will concerning both these It is therefore necessary that he eye him under a notion introductive and subservient to all the operations that are to be exerted towards him under the two former notions i. e. as the Eternal never failing Truth safely to be depended on as intending nothing of deceit in any the revelations whether of his righteous Will concerning matter of duty to be done or of his good Will concerning matter of benefit to be expected and enjoyed That Man did apostatize and revolt from God as considered under these severall notions And returns to him when an holy rectitude is recovered and he again becomes righteous considered under the same That it was not agreeable to Gods wisedom truth and legal justice to treat with Man a Sinner in order to his recovery but through a Mediator and that therefore he was pleased in wonderfull mercy to constitute and appoint his own Son Jesus Christ God-man unto that Office and Undertaking that through him man might return and be reconciled to himself whom he causlessely forsook designing that man shall now become so affected towards himself through the Mediator and firstly therefore towards the Mediators own person as he was before and ought to have been towards himself immediately Therefore whereas God was considerable in relation to Man both in his innocency and Apostacy under that forementioned two fold notion of the supream Authority Goodness He hath also set up and exalted our Lord Jesus Christ and represented him to Sinners under an answerable two fold notion of a Prince Saviour i. e. a mediating Prince and Saviour to give repentance first to bow and stoop the hearts of sinners and reduce them to a subject posture again and then remission of sins to restore them to favour and save them from the wrath to come Him hath the Father cloth'd with his own authority and fill'd with his grace requiring sinners to submit themselves to his ruling power and commit themselves to his saving mercy now both lodg'd in this his Son to pay him immediately all homage and obedience and through him ultimately to himself from him immediately to expect Salvation and blessedness and through him ultimately from himself That whereas the Spirits of men are not to be wrought to this temper but by the intervention of a discovery and revelation of the divine Will to this purpose Our Lord Jesus Christ is further appointed by the Father to reveal all this his counsel to Sinners And is eminently spoken of in Scripture upon this account under the notion of the Truth in which capacity he more effectually recommends to Sinners both his authority and his grace So that his three fold so much celebrated Office of King Priest Prophet the distinct parts of his general Office as Mediator which he manages in order to the reducement of lost Sinners exactly correspond if you consider the more eminent acts and properties of each Office to that threefold notion under which the Spirit of Man must alwayes have eyed and been acted towards God had he never fallen and hence this righteousness which consists in conformity to the Gospel is the former righteousness which was lâ—st with such an accession as is necessary upon consideration that it was lost and was only to be recovered by a Mediator Therefore you may now take this short and as compendious an account as I can give of it in what follows It includes so firm and understanding an assent to the truth of the whole Gospel Revelation as that the soul is thereby brought through the power of the Holy Ghost sensibly to apprehend its former disobedience to God and distance from him the reasonableness of subjection to him and desirableness of blessedness in him the necessity of a Redeemer to reconcile and recover it to God the accomplishments and designation of the Lord Jesus Christ to that purpose And hence a penitent and complacential return to God as the supream Authority and soveraign Good an humble and joyful acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ as its Prince and Saviour with submission to his Authorâ—y and reliance on his grace the exercise of both which are founded in his blood looking and pitching upon him as the only medium through which he and his duties can please God or God and his mercies approach him and through which he hath the confidence to venture upon a Covenant-acceptance of God and surrender himself to him afterward pursued to his uttermost by a continued course of living in his fear and love in obedience to him and communion with him through the Mediator alwayes while he is passing the time of his pilgrimage in this world groaning under remaining sin and pressing after perfect holiness with an earnest expectation animating him to a persevering patience through all difficulties of a blessed eternity in the other world That such a conformity to the Gospel should be expressed by the name of righteousness cannot seem strange to such as acquaint themselves with the language of the Scripture That graoious frame which the Gospel made essential impresses upon the soul is the Kingdom of God in the passive notion of it his Kingdom received and now actually come with power upon our Spirits
the view and contemplation of the glorified mind 1. A sensible glory to begin with what is lower is fitly in our way to be taken notice of and may well be comprehended as its lesse-principal intendment within the significancy of the expression the Face of God So indeed it doth evidently signifie Exod. 33. 11. And if we look to the notation of the word and its frequent use as applied to God it may commodiously enough and will often be found to signifie in a larger and more extended sense any aspect or appearance of God And though it may be understood verse 23. of that Chapter to signifie an overcoming spiritual glory as the principal thing there intended such as no soul dwelling in flesh could behold without renting the vail and breaking all to pieces yet even there also may such a degree of sensible glory be secondarily intended as it was not consistent with a state of mortality to be able to bear And supposing the other expression Thy likeness to signifie in any part the objective glory Saints are to behold it is very capable of being extended so far as to take in a sensible appearance of glory also which it doth in these words The similitude of the Lord shall he behold yet even that glory also was transformative and impressive of it self Moses so long converst with it till he became uncapable for the present of converse with men as you know the story relates Such a glory as this though it belong not to the being of God yet it may be some â—mbrage of him a more shadowy representation as a mans garments are of the man which is the allusion in that of the Psalmist Thou art cloathed with Majesty and Honour Thou coverest thy self with Light as with a Garment And in as much as that spiritual Body the House not made with hands wherewith the blessed are to be cloth'd upon must then be understood to have its proper sensitive Powers and Organs resined to that degree as may be agreeable to a state of Glory so must these have their suitable objects to converse with A faculty without an object is not possible in Nature and is altogether inconsistent with a state of Blessedness The bodies of Saints will be raised in glory fashioned like Christs glorious body must bear the image of the heavenly and this will connaturalize them to a Region of glory render a surrounding sensible glory necessary and natural to them their own element they will as it were not be able to live but amidst such a glory Place is conservative of the body placed in it by its suitableness thereto Indeed every created being inasmuch as it is not self-sufficient and is obliged to fetch in continual refreshings from without must alwayes have somewhat suitable to it self to converse with or it presently languishes By such an harmony of actives and passives the world consists and and holds together The least defect thereof then is least of all supposeable in the state of blessedness The rayes of such a glory have often shone down into this lower World Such a glory we know shewed it self upon Mount Sinal afterwards often about the Tabernacle and in the Temple Such a glory appeared at our Saviours Birth Baptism and Transfiguration and will do at his expected appearance which leaves it no unimaginable thing to us and shewes how facile it is to God to do that which will then be in some sort necessary creat a glory meet for the entertainment and gratification of any such faculty as he shall then continue in being But 2. The intellectuall glory That which perfected Spirits shall eternally please themselves to behold calls for our more especial consideration This is the glory that excelleth hyperbollical glory as that expression imports such as in comparison whereof the other is said to be no glory as the Apostle speaks comparing the glory of the Legal with that of the Evangelical dispensation where the former was we must remember chiefly a sensible glory the glory that shone upon Mount Sinai the latter a purely spiritual glory and surely if the meer preludes of this glory The primordia the beginnings of it The glory yet shining but through a glass as he there also speaks of this glory were so hyperbollically glorious what will it be in its highest exaltation in its perfected state The Apostle cannot speak of that but with hyperbole upon hyperbole in the next chapter as though he would heap up words as high as heaven to reach it and give a just account of it Things are as their next Originals This glory more immediately rayes forth from God and more neerly represents him 'T is â—is more genuine production He his stiled â—he Father of Glory every thing that is glorious is some way like him and bears his â—mage But he is as well the Father of Spirits â—s the Father of Glory and that glory which 〈◊〉 purely spiritual hath most in it of his naâ—ure and image as beams but in the next â—escent from the body of the Sun This is â—is unvailed face and emphatically the divine â—â—keness Again things are as the Faculties which â—hey are to exercise and satisfie this gloâ—y must exercise and satisfie the noblest â—aculty of the most noble and excellent creaâ—ure Intellectual nature in the highest imâ—rovement t is capable of in a creature must â—ere be gratified to the uttermost the most â—nlarged contemplative power of an imâ—ortal Spirit finds that wherein it terminates â—ere with a most contentful acquiescence T is true it must be understood not totally to exceed the capacity of a creature but it must fully come up to it Should it quite transcend the Sphere of created nature and surpass the modell of an humane understanding as the divine glory undoubtedly would did not God consider us in the manner of exhibiting it to our view it would cofound not satisfie A creature even in glory is still a Creature and must be treated as such After the blessed God hath elevated it to the highest pitch he must infinitely condescend it cannot otherwise know or converse with him He must accommodate this glory to the weaker eye the fainter and more langâ—id apprehensions of a poor finite thing I had almost said nothing for what is any creature yea the whole creation in it's best state compared with the I AM the being as he justly appropriates to himself that name the All in All. We must be careful then to settle in our own thoughts such a state of this glory in forming that indeterminate notion we have now of it as may render it though confessedly above the measure of our present understandings as to a distinct knowledge of it not manifestly incompetent to any created understanding whatsoever and as may speak us duly shy of ascribing a Deity to a worm of affixing any thing to the creature which shall be found agreeing to the blessed God himself
from age to age as if none had been baffled or defeated in it before or that it were very likely to take at last Had this been the alone folly of the first age it had admitted some excuse but that the world should still be cheated by the same so oft-defeated impostures presents us with a sad prospect of the deplorable state of mankind This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve c. The wearied wits and wasted estates laid out upon the Philosophers stone afford but a faint defective representation of this case What Chymistry can extract heaven out of a clod of clay What art can make blessedness spring and grow out of this cold earth If all created nature be vext and tortured never so long who can expect this Elixir Yet after so many frustrated attempts so much time and strength and labour lost men are still as eagerly and vainly busie as ever Are perpetually tossed by unsatisfied desires labouring in the â—ire wearying themselves for very vanity distracted by the uncertain and often contrary motions of a ravenous appetite and a blind mind that would be happy and knows not how With what sounding bowels with what compassionate tears should the state of mankind be lamented by all that understand the worth of a soul What serious heart doth not melt and bleed for miserable men that are through a just nemesis so perpetually mockt with shadows cheated with false delusive appearances infatuated and betrayed by their own senses They walk but in a vain shew disquieting themselves in vain their dayes flee away as a shadow their strength is onely labour and sorrow while they rise up early and lye down late to seek rest in trouble and life in death They run away from blessedness while they pretend to pursue it and suffer themselves to be led down without regret to perdition as an ox to the slaughter and a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through their liver Descend patiently the chambers of death not so much as once thinking whether are we going dream of nothing but an earthly paradise till they find themselves amidst the infernal regions 2. The Spirit of man in as much as 't is capable of such a blessedness appears an excellent creature It s natural capacity is supposed for the Psalmist speaks of his own numerical person the same that then writ I shall behold shall be satisfied take away this supposition and it could not be so said or as in Jâ—b's words I shall behold him and not another for me It would certainly be another not the same Judge hence the excellency of an humane soul the principal subject of this blessedness without addition of any new natural powers 't is capable of the vision of God of partaking unto satisfaction the divine likeness And is not that an excellent creature that is capable not onely of surveying the creation of God passing through the several ranks and orders of created Beings but of ascending to the Being of beings of contemplating the divine excellencies of beholding the bright and glorious face of the blessed God himself till it have lookt it self into His very likeness and have his intire image inwrought into it The dignity then of the Spirit of man is not to be estimated by the circumstances of its present state as 't is here clad with a â—ordid flesh inwrapt in darkness and gravelling in the dust of the earth but consider the improveableness of its natural powers and faculties the high perfections it may attain and the foundations of how glorious a state are laid in its very nature And then who can tell whether its possible advancement is more to be admired or its present calamity deplor'd Might this consideration be permitted to settle and fix it self in the hearts of men could any thing be so grievious to them as their so vast distance from such an attainable blessedness or any thing so industriously avoided so earnestly abhorred as that viler dejection and abasement of themselves when they are so low already by Divine disposition to descend lower by their own wickedness When they are already fallen as low as Earth to precipitate themselves as low as Hell How generous a disdain should that thought raise in mens spirits of that vile servitude to which they have subjected themselves a servitude to brutal lusts to sensual inclinations and desires as if the highest happiness they did project to themselves were the satisfaction of these Would they not with an heroick scorn turn away their eyes from beholding vanity did they consider their own capacity of beholding the divine glory could they satisfie themselves to become like the beasts that perish did they think of being satisfied with the likeness of God And who can conceive unto what degree this aggravates the sin of man that he so little minds as it will their misery that shall fall short of this blessedness They had spirits capable of it Consider thou sensual man whose happiness lies in Colours and Tasts and Sounds as the Moralist ingeniously speaks that herd'st thy self with bruit creatures and aimest no higher then they as little lookest up and art as much a stranger to the thoughts and desires of Heaven thy Creation did not set thee so low they are where they were but thou art fall'n from thy excellency God did not make thee a brute Creature but thou thy self Thou hast yet a spirit about thee that might understand its own originals and alliance to the Father of Spirits that hath a designation in its nature to higher converses and imployments Many myriads of such spirits of no higher original excellency then thy own are now in the presence of the Highest Majesty are prying into the eternal glory contemplating the perfections of the Divine Nature beholding theâ— unvailed face of God which transfuses upon them its own satisfying likeness Thou art not so low-born but thou might'st attain this state also That Soveraign Lord and Authour of all things calls thee to it his goodness invites thee his authority enjoyns thee to turn thy thoughts and designs this way Fear not to be thought immodest or presumptuous 't is but a dutiful ambition an obedient aspiring Thou art under a Law to be thus happy nor doth it bind thee to any natural impossibility it designs instruction to thee not delusion guidance not mockery When thou art required to apply and turn thy Soul to this blessedness 't is not the same thing as if thou wert bidden to remove a Mountain to pluck down a Star or create a World Thou art here put upon nothing but what is agreeable to the primaeval nature of man and though it be to a vast heighth thou must ascend 't is by so easie and familiar Methods by so apt Gradations that thou wilt be sensible of no violence done to thy nature in all thy way Do but make some trials with thy self thou wilt soon find
So things are reckon'd upon several accounts either as they are more rare and unfrequent which is the vulgar way of estimating wonders or as their causes are of more difficult investigation or if they are moral wonders as they are more unreasonable or causeless upon this last account Christ marvelled at the Jews unbelief And so is this hatred justly marvellous as being altogether without a cause But thence to infer there is no such thing were to dispute against the Sun No truth hath more of light and evidence in it though none more of â—â—rrâ—ur and prodigie To how many thousand objects is the mind of man indifferent can turn it self to this or that run with facility all points of the Compass among the whole universe of beings but assay only to draw it to God and it recoiles Thoughts and affections revolt and decline all converse with that blessed object Toward other objects it freely opens and dilates it self as under the benign beams of a warm Sun there are placid complacential emotions amicable sprightly converses and imbraces Towards God only it is presently contracted and shut up Life retires and it becomes as a stone cold â—rigid and impenetrable The quite contrary to what is required which also those very precepts do plainly imply 't is alive to sin to the world to vanity but crucified mortified dead to God and Jesus Christ. The natures of many men that are harsh fierce and savage admit of various cultivations and refinings and by moral precept the exercise and improvement of reason with a severe animadversion and observance of themselves they become mild tractable gentle meek The story of the Physiognamists guess at the temper of Socrates is known but of all other the disaffected soul is least inclinable ever to become good natur'd towards God wherein grace or holiness doth consist Here 't is most unperswadable never facile to this change One would have thought no affection should have been so natural so deeply inwrought into the spirit of man as an affection towards the Father of Spirits but here he most of all discovers himself to be without natural â—ffection surely here is a sad proof that such affection doth not ascend The whole duty of man as to the principle of it resolves into love That is the fulfilling of the Law As to its object the two Tables devide it between God and our neighbour And accordingly divide that love Upon those two Branches whereof love to God and love to our neighbour hang all the Law and the Prophets The wickedness of the world hath kil'd this love at the very root and indisposed the nature of man to all exercises of it either way whether towards God or his neighbour It hath not only rendred man unmeet for holy communion with God but in a great measure for civil society with one another It hath destroyed good nature made men false envious barbarous turn'd the world especially the dark places of the Earth where the light of the Gospel shines not into habitations of cruelty But who sees not the enmity and disaffection of mens hearts towards God is the more deeply rooted and less superable evil The beloved Apostle gives us a plain and sad intimation how the case is as to this when he reasons thus He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen He argues from the less to the greater and this is the ground upon which his argument is built That the loving of God is a matter of greater difficulty and from which the Spirit of mâ—n is more remote then the loving of his neighbour And he withall insinuates an account why it is so Gods remoteness from our sense which is indeed a cause but no excuse For is our so gross sensuality no sin that nothing should affect our hearts but what we can see with our eyes as if our sense were the onely measure or judg of excellencies We are not all flesh what have we done with our souls if we cannot see God with our eyes why do we not with our minds at least so much of him we might as to discern his excellency above all things else How come our souls to lose their dominion and to be so slavishly subject to a ruling sense But the reason less concerns our present purpose that whereof it is the reason that implyed assertion that men are in a less disposition to the love of God then their neighbour is the sad truth we are now considering There are certain homilitical vertues that much adorn and polish the nature of man Urbanity Fidelity Justice Patience of Injuries Compassion towards the Miserable c. and indeed without these the world would break up and all civil societies disband if at least they did not in some degree obtain But in the mean time men are at the greatest distance imaginable from any disposition to society with God They have some love for one another but none for him And yet it must be remembred that love to our neighbour and all the consequent exertions of it becoming dutie by the Divine Law ought to be performed as acts of obedience to God and therefore ought to grow from the stock and root of a Divine Love I mean love to God They are otherwise but Spurious Vertues Bastard Fruits men gather not Grapes of Thorns c. they grow from a Tree of another kind and what ever semblance they may have of the true they want their constituent form their life and soul. Though love to the brethren is made a character of the regenerate state of having past from death to life 'T is yet but a more remote and is it self brought to trial by this higher and more immediate one and which is more intimately connatural to the new creature even the Love of God By this we know we love the children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments A respect to God specifies every Vertue and Duty What ever is loved and served and not in him and for him servato ordine finiâ— as the School-phrase is becomes an Idol and that love and service is Idolatry And what a discovery is here of disaffection to God that in the exercise of such the above mentioned vertues one single act shall be torn from it self from its specifying moral â—orm onely to leave out him A promise shall be kept but without any respect to God for even the promises made to him are broken without any scruple That which is anothers shall be rendred to him but God shall not be regarded in the business An alms given for the Lords sake left out That which concerns my neighbour often done but what concerns God therein as it were studiously omitted This is what he that runs may read that though the hearts of men are not to one another as they should they are much more â—verse towards God Men are easier of acquaintance
speaks in another case is the love of God perfected as to its exercise it hath now perfectly attained its end when it hath not left so much as a craving desire not a wish unsatisfied the soul cannot say I wish it were better O thâ—t I hâ—d â—ut this one thing more to 〈◊〉 my hâ—ppiâ—â—ss It hath neither pretence nor inclination to think such a thought Divine Love is now at rest It was travailing big with gracious designs before it hath now delivered it self It would rather create new heavens every moment then not satisfie but it hath now done it to the full the utmost capacity of the soul is filled up it can be no happier then it is This is loves triumph over all the miseries wants and desires of a languishing soul. The appropriate peculiar glory of Dâ—vâ—ne love If all the excellencies of their whole creation besides were contracted into one glorious creature it would never be capable of this boast I have satisfied one soul. The love of God leaves none unsatisfied but the proud despisers of it Now is the eternal Sabbath of love Now it enters into rest having finish't all its works it views them over now with delight for â—o they are all Good its works of Pardon of Justification and Adoption Its works of Regeneration of Conversion and Sanctification its establishing quickning comforting works they are all good good in themselves and in this their end the satisfaction and reposâ— of blessed souls Now divine love puts on the Crown ascends the Throne and the many Miriads of glorified Spirits fall down about it and adore All professe to owe to it the satisfying pleasures they all injoy Who can consider the unspeakable satisfaction of those blessed Spirits and not also reflect upon this exalted greatness of divine love 2. 'T is again great love if we consider wherewith they shall be satisfied The sight and participation of the Divine glory his face his likeness his represented and impressed glory There may be great love that never undertakes nor studies to satisfie all the desires of the persons we cast our love upon especially where nothing will satisfie but high and great matters The love of God knows no difficulties nor can be overset The greater the performance or vouchsafement the more suitable to Divine Love It hath resolved to give the soul a plenary satisfaction perfectly to content all its desires and â—nce nothing else can do it but an eternal beholding of the glorious face of the Divine Majesty and a transformation into his own likeness that shall not be with-held Yea it hath created refined inlarged its capacity on purpose that it might be satisfied with nothing less Great love may sometimes be signified by a glance the offered view of a willing face Thus our Lord Jesus invites his Church to discover her own love and answer his Let me see thy face c. Cant. â— 14. Love is not more becomingly exprest or gratified then by mutual looks ubi amor 〈◊〉 oculus How great is that love that purposely layes aside the vail that never turns away its own nor permits the aversion of the beholders eye throughout eternity Now we see in a glass then face to face as if never weary of beholding on either part but on that part the condiscention lies is the transcendent admirable love That a generous beneficent the other till it be satisfied here a craving indigent love And how inexpressible a condiscension is this poor wretches many of whom possibly were once so low that a strutting Grandee would have thought himself affronted by their look and have met with threatning rebukes their overdaring venturous eye lo now they are permitted to stand before Princes that 's a mean thing to feed their eyes with Dâ—vine glory to view the face of God He sets them before his face for ever And that eternal vision begets in them an eternal likeness they behold and partake glory at once that their joy may be full They behold not a glorious God with deformed souls that would render them a perpetual abomination and torment to themselves Love cannot permit that Heaven should be their affliction that they should have cause to loath and be weary of themselves in that presence It satisfies them by cloathing and filling them with glory by making them partake of the Divine likeness as well as behold it 'T is reckon'd a great expression of a complying love but to give a Picture when the parties loved only permit themselves to view in a mute representation a vicarious face This is much more a vital image as before Gods one living likeness propagated in the soul the inchoation of it is called the Divine Nature the seed of God what amazing love is this of the great God to a worm not to give over till he have assimilated it to his own glory till it appear as a ray of light begotten of the Father of Lights Every one saith the Apostle that doth righteousness is â—orn of him and then it follows Behold what manner of love to be â—he sons of God to be likâ— him to see him as he is c. How great a word is that spoken in reference to our present state to make us partakers of his holiness And as well it might 't is instanc't as an effect and argâ—ment of love for sure chastening it self abstracted from that end of it doth not import love Whâ—m the Lord loveth he chesteneth and then by and by in the same series and line of discourse is added to make nâ— partakers of his his holiness Love always either supposes similitude or intends it and is sufficiently argued by it either way And sure the love of God cannot be more directly expressed then in his first intending to make a poor soul like him while he loves it with compassion and then imprinting and perfecting that likeness that he may love it with eternal delight Love is here the first and the last the beginning and end in all this business CHAP. XIV The 7th Inference That since this blessedness is limited to a qualified subject I in righteousness the unrighteous are necessarily lest excludâ—d The 8th Inference That righteousness is no vain thing in as much as it hath so happy an issue and ends so well 7. COnsidering this blessedness is not common but limited â—o a qualified subject I in righteousness person cloth'd in righteâ—usness Iâ— evidently follows Thâ— unrighteous are necâ—ssâ—â—ily excluded and shut out can have no pâ—râ— nor pâ—rtion in this blessedness The same thing that the Apostle tells us without an inference Know ye not that the unrighteouss shall not inherit the Kingdom of God c. Intimating that to be a most confessed known thing Know ye not is it possible ye can be ignorant of this The natural necessity of what hath been here infeâ—'d hath been argued already from the consideration of the nature of this blessedness The legal necessity of it arising from
foreseeth c. The righteous man so far excells in this faculty as that his eye looks thorow all the periods of time and penetrates into eternity recommends to the Soul a blessedness of that same stamp and alloy that will endure and last for ever It will not content him to be happy for an hour or for any Space that can have an end after which it shall be possible to him to look back and recount with himself how happy he was once Nor is he much solicitous what his present state be if he can but find he is upon safe tearms as to his future and eternal state As for me saith the Psalmist he herein sorts and severs himself from them whose portion was in this life I shall behold I shall be satisfied when I awake he could not say it was well with him but it shall be q. d. Let the purblind short-sighted Sensualist imbrace this present world who can see no further Let me have my portion in the world to come may my soul always lie open to the impression of the powers of the coming world and in this so use every thing as to be under the power of nothing What are the pleasures of sin that are but for a season or what the sufferings of this now this moment of affliction to the glory that shall be revealed to the exceeding and eternal glory He considers patient afflicted godliness will triumph at last when riotous raging wickedness shall lament for ever He may for a time weep and mourn while the world rejoyces he may be sorrowful but his sorrow shall be turned into joy and his joy none shall take from him Surely here is wisdom this is the wisdom that is from above and tends thither This is to be wise unto salvation The righteous man is a judicious man he hath in a measure that judgment wherein the Apostle prayes the Philippians might abound to approve the things that are excellent and accordingly to make his choice This is a sense little thought of by the Authour wherein that sober Speech of the voluptuous Philosopher is most certainly true A man cannot live happily without living wisely No man shall ever enjoy the eternal pleasures hereafter that in this acquits not himself wisely here even in this chusing the better part that shall never be taken from him In this the plain righteous man out-vies the greatest Sophies the Scribe the disputer the Politician the prudent Mamonist the facete Wit who in their several kinds all think themselves highly to have merited to be accounted wise And that this point of wisdom should escape their notice and be the principal thing with him can be resolved into nothing else but the Divine good pleasure In this contemplation our Lord Jesus Christ is said to have rejoyced in Spirit it even put his great comprehensive soul into an extasie Father I thank thee Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes Even so Father because it pleased thee Here was a thing fit to be reflected on as a piece of Divine Royalty a part worthy the Lord of heaven and earth And what serious spirit would it not amaze to weigh and ponder this case awhile to see men excelling in all other kinds of knowledge so far excelled by those they most contemn in the highest point of wisdom such as know how to search into the abstrusest Mysteries of Nature that can unravel or see through the most perplext intrigues of State that know how to save their own Stake and secure their private Interests in whatsoever times yet so little seen often for not many wise in the matters that concern an eternal felicity It puts me in mind of what I find observed by some the particular madness adementia quoad hoc as 't is called when persons in every thing else capable of sober rational discourse when you bring them to some one thing that in reference to which they became distempered at first they rave and are perfectly mad How many that can manage a discourse with great reason and judgment about other matters who when you come to discourse with them about the affairs of practical godliness and which most directly tend to that future state of blessedness they are 〈◊〉 at their wits end know not what to say They savour not those things These are things not understood but by such to whom it is given And surely that given wisdom is the most excellent wisdom Sometimes God doth as it were so far gratifie the world as to speak their own language and call them wise that affect to be called so and that wisdom which they would fain have go under that name Moses 't is said was skil'd in all the wisdom of Egypt c. but at other times he expresly calls those wise men fools and their wisdom folly and madness or annexes some disgraceful adject for distinction sake or applies those appellatives Ironically and in manifest derision No doubt but any such person as was represented in the parable would have thought himself to have done the part of a very wise man in entertaining such deliberation and resolvs as we find he had there with himself How strange was that to his ears Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul c. Their wisdom is sometimes said to be foolish or else called the wisdom of the flesh or fleshly wisdom said to be earthly sensual devillish they are said to be wise to do evil while to do good they have no understanding they are brought sometimes as it were upon the stage with their wisdom to be the matter of divine triumph where is the wise and that which they account foolishness is made to confound their wisdom And indeed do they deserve to be thought wise that are so busily intent upon momentary trifles and trifle with eternal concernments that prefer vanishing shadows to the everlasting glory that follow lying vanities and forsake their own mercies Yea will they not cease to be wise in their own eyes also when they see the issue and reap the fruits of their foolish choice when they find the happiness they preferred before this eternal one is quite over and nothing remains to them of it but an afflictive remembrance That the torment they were told would follow is but now beginning and without end when they hear from the mouth of their impartial Judge Remember you in your life time had your good things and my faithful servants their evil now they must be comforted and you tormented When they are told you have received the consolation you were full ye did laugh now you must pine and mourn and weep Will they not then be as ready to befool themselves and say as they be those righteous ones are they whom we sometimes had in derision and for a proverb of reproach we fools counted their life madness
put your consciences clossely to it whether when they have told you as no doubt they will that such things deserve your consideration it be impossible to you to use your considering power thus and imploy it even about these things Do but make this easie tryal and then say whether it be impossible See if you cannot select one hour on purpose wherein to it down by yourselves alone with this resolution Well I will now spend this hour in considering my eternal concernments When you have obtained so much of your self set your thoughts on work you will find them voluble and unfixt very apt to revolt and fly off from things you have no mind to but use your authority with your self Tell your soul or let it tell it self these things concern thy life At least taking this prepared matter along with thee that â—hou mayst not have this pretence thou knowest not what to think of try if thou canst not think of these things now actually suggested and offered to thy thoughts as namely Consider that thou hast a reasonable immortal soul which as it is liable to eternal misery â—o it is capable of eternal blessedness That this blessedness thou dost understand to consist onely in the vision of the blessed God in being made like to him and in the satisfaction that â—s thence to result and acrue to thee Consider what thy very objection supposeth that thou findest the temper of thy Spirit to be altogether indisposed and averse to such a blessedness Is it not so is not this thy very case feel now again thy heart try is it not at least coldly affected towards this blessed state Is it not then obvious to thee to consider that the temper of thy Spirit must be changed or thou art undone That inasmuch as thy blessedness lyes in God this change mustly in the alteration of thy dispositions and the posture of thy Spirit towards him Further Canst thou not consider the power and fixedness of thy aversation from God and with how mighty a weight thy heart is carried and held down from him Try lift at thy heart see if it will be raised God-ward and Heaven-ward dost thou not find it is as if thou wert lifting at a Mountain that it lies as a dead weight and stirs not ponder thy case in this respect And then Is it not to be considered that thy time is passing away apace that if thou let thy self alone 't is likely to be as bad with thee to morrow as this day and as bad next day as to morrow And if thy time expire and thou be snatcht away in this state what will become of thee And dost thou not therefore see a necessity of considering what ever may be most moving and most likely to incline thy heart God-ward of pleading yet more lowdly and importunately with thy self And canst thou not consider and reason the matter thus O my soul what 's the reason that thou so drawest back and hangest off from thy God that thou art so unwilling to be blessed in him that thou shouldest venture to run thy self upon eternal perdition rather what cause hath he ever given thee to disaffect him what is the ground of thy so mighty prejudice Hath he ever done thee hurt Dost thou think he will not accept a returning soul that is to give the lie to his Gospel and it becomes not a perishing wretch so to provoke him in whom is all its hope Is the eternal glory an undesirable thing or the everlasting burnings tolerable canst thou find a way of being for ever blessed without God or whether he will or no or is there a sufficient present pleasure in thy sinful distance from God to outweigh Heaven and Hell Darest thou venture upon a resolution of giving God and Christ their last refusal or say thou wilt never hearken to or have to do with them more or darest thou venture to do what thou darest not resolve and act the wickedness thou canst not think of scorn eternal Majestie and love spurn and trample a bleeding Saviour Commune thus awhile with thy self but if yet thou find thy heart relent nothing Thou canst yet further consider that it lies not in thy power to turn thy own heart or else how comest thou thus to object And hence Canst thou avoid considering this is a distressed case that thou art in great straits liable to perish yea sure to do so if thou continue in that ill temper of Spirit and wholly unable to help thy self Surely thou canst not but see this to be a most distressed case I put it now to thy conscience whether being thus led on thou canst not go thus far See whether upon trial thy Conscience give thee leave to say I am not able thus to do or think and be not here so foolish as to separate the action of the first cause and the second in judging thy ability Thou may'st say no I cannot think a good thought without God true so I know thou canst not move thy finger without God but my meaning in this appeal to thy Conscience is whether upon trial thou findest not an assistance sufficient to carry thee thus far Possibly thou wilt say yea but what am I the better I am onely brought to see my self in a dristressed perishing condition and can get no further I answer 't is well thou art got so far if thou do indeed see thy self perishing and thy drowsie soul awake into any sense of the sadness of thy case But I intend not thus to leave thee here Therefore let me furthermore demand of me What course would'st thou take in any other distress wherein thou knowest not what to do to help thy self would not such an exigencie when thou findest thy self pinch't and urg'd on every side and every way is shut up to thee that thou art beset with calamities and canst no way turn thy self to avoid them would not such an exigencie force thee down on thy knees and set thee a crying to the God of mercy for relief and help would not Nature it self prompt to this Is it not Natural to lift up Hands and Eyes to Heaven when we know not what to do Therefore having thus far reasoned with thee about thy considering power Let me demand of thee if thou canst not yet go somewhat further then considering that is in short Is it impossible to thee to obey this dictate of nature I mean represent the deplorable case of thy soul before him that made it and crave his merciful relief Do not dispute the matter thou canst not but see this is a possible and a rational course as thy case is Should not a people seek unto their God Fall down therefore low before him prostrate thy self at the footstool of his mercy-seat Tell him thou understandest him to be the Father of Spirits and the Father of Merciâ—s that thou hast heard of his great mercy and pitty towards the spirits of men in their forlorn
been all this while a sleep we saw the light that shone upon us we heard the voice that called to us wherewith shall we then excuse our selves that our desires were not mov'd that our Souls were not presently in a flame was it then that we thought all a meer fixion that we durst not give credit to his word when it brought us the report of the everlasting Glory will we avow this Is this that we will stand by or what else have we left to say have we a more plausible reason to alledge that the discovery of such a glory mov'd us not to desire it then that we believed it not sure this is the truth of our case We should feel this heavenly fire alwayes burning in our breasts If our Infidelity did not quench the coal If we did believe we could not but desire But doth not the thoughts of this shake our very souls and fill us with horrour and trembling We that should be turn'd into indignation and ready to burn our selves with our own flame and all about us if one should give us the lie that we should dare to put the lye upon the Eternal Truth upon him whose Word gave stability and being to the world who made and sustains all things by it That awful Word That Word that shivers Rocks and melts down Mountains that make the inanimate Creation tremble that cna in a moment blast all things and dissolve the frame of Heaven and Earth which in the mean time it upholds is that become with us fabulous lying breath Those God-breath'd Oracles those Heavenly Records which discover and describe this blessed state are they false and foolish Legends must that be pretended at last if men durst that is so totally void of all pretence what should be the gain or advantage accrewing to that Eternal All-sufficient being What accession should be made to that infinite self-fulness by deluding a Worm Were it consistent with his Nature what could be his design to put a cheat upon poor mortal dust If thou dare not impute it to him such a deception had a beginning but what Author canst thou imagine of it or what end did it proceed from a good mind or a bad could a good and honest mind form so horribly wicked a design to impose an universal delusion and lye upon the world in the name of the true and holy God or could a wicked mind frame a design so directly level'd against wickedness or is there any thing so aptly and naturally tending to form the World to sobriety holiness purity of conversation as the discovery of this future state of glory and since the belief of future felicity is known to obtain universally among men who could be the Author of so common a deception If thou had'st the mind to impose a lie upon all the world what course would'st thou take how would'st thou lay the design or why dost thou in this case imagine what thou knowest not how to imagine And dost thou not without scruple believe many things of which thou never had'st so unquestionable evidence or must that Faith which is the foundation of thy Religion and eternal hopes be the most suspected shaking thing with thee and have of all other the least stability and rootedness in thy soul If thou can'st not excuse thy infidelity be ashamed of thy so cold and sluggish desires of this glorious state And doth it not argue a low sordid Spirit not to desire and aim at the perfection thou art capable of not to desire that blessedness which alone is suitable and satisfying to a reasonable and spiritual being Bethink thy self a little how low art thou sunk into the dirt of the earth how art thou plunged into the mity Ditch that even thine own clothes might adhor thee Is the Father of Spirits thy Father Is the world of Spirits thy Country Hast thou any relation to that Heavenly Progeny Art thou ally'd to that blessed Family and yet undesirous of the same blessedness Can'st thou savour nothing but what smells of the Earth Is nothing grateful to thy Soul but what is corrupted by so vicious and impure a tincture are all thy delights centred in a Dunghill and the polluted pleasures of a filthy world better to thee then the eternal visions and enjoyments of Heaven what art thou all made of Earth Is thy soul stupifi'd into a Clod hast thou no sense with thee of any thing better and more excellent can'st thou look upon no glorious thing with a pleased eye Are things onely desirable and lovely to thee as they are deformed O consider the corrupted distempered state of thy Spirit and how vile a disposition it hath contracted to it self Thine looks too like the Mundan◠Spirit The Spirit of the World The Apostle speaks of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of distinction we have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God that we might know or see and no doubt 't is desire that animates that eye 't is not bare speculative intuition and no more the things freely given us of God Surely he whose desire doth not guide his eye to the beholding of those things hath received the Spirit of the world onely A Spirit that conforms him to this world makes him think onely thoughts of this world and drive the designs of this world and speak the language of this world A Spirit that connaturalizes him to the world makes him of a temper suitable to it He breathes onely worldly breath carries a worldly aspect is of a worldly conversation O poor low spirit that such a world should with-hold thee from the desire and pursuit of such glory Art thou not ashamed to think what thy desires are wont to pitch upon while they decline and wave this blessedness Methinks thy very shame should compel thee to quit the name of a Saint or a Man To forbear numbring thy self with any that pretend to immortality and go seek Pasture among the Beasts of the Field with them that live that low animal life that thou dost and expect no other And while thou so fallest in with the world how highly dost thou gratifie the pretending and usurping God of it The great fomentor of the sensual worldy genius The Spirit it self that works in the children of disobedienence and makes them follow the course of the world hold them fast bound in worldly lusts and leaves them captive at his will causes them after his own Serpentine manner to creep and crawl in the dust of the Earth He is most intimate to this apostate world informs it as it were and actuates it in every part i◠even one great soul to it The whole world lies in that wicked one as the body by best Philosophers is said to be in the Soul The world is said to be convicted when he is judged He having fall'n from a state of blessedness in God hath involv'd the world with himself
the notice and observation of the world Moreover how can it escape thy serious reflection that if thou pretend it otherwise with thee 't is but to adde one sin to another and cover thy Carnality with Hypocrisie and Dissimulation yea while thou continuest in that temper of Spirit not to desire this blessedness as thy Supreme end the whole of thy Religion is but an empty shew an artificial disguise it carries an appearance and pretence as if thou wast aiming at God and Glory while thy heart is set another way and the bent of thy soul secretly carries thee a counter-course Hath not Religion an aspect towards Blessedness what mean thy Praying thy Hearing thy Sacramental Communion if thou have not a design for Eternal Glory what makest thou in this way if thou have not thy heart set towards this end Nor is it more dishonest and unjust then it is foolish and absurd that the disposition and tendency of thy soul should be directly contrary to the only design of the Religion thou professest and doest externally practice Thy profession and practice are nothing but self-contradiction Thou art continually running counter to thy self outwardly pursuing what thou inwardly declinest Thy real end which can be no other then what thou really desirest and settest thy heart upon and thy visibly way are quite contrary So that while thou continuest the course of Religion in which thou art engaged having taken down from before thine eyes the end which thou should'st be aiming at and which alone Religion can aptly subserve Thy Religion hath no design or end at all none at least which thou would'st not be ashamed to profess and own Indeed this temper of heart I am now pleading against an undesirousness or indifferencie of Spirit towards the eternal glory renders Religion the vainest thing in the world For whereas all the other actions of our lives have their stated proper ends Religion hath in this case none at all none to which it hath any designation in its nature or any aptness to subserve This monstrous absurdity it infers and how strange is it that it should not be reflected on That whereas if you ask any man of common understanding what he doth this or that action for especially if they be stated actions done by him in an ordinary course he can readily tell you for such and such an end But ask him why he continues any practice of Religion he cannot say in this case for what For can any man imagine what other end Religion naturally serves for but to bring men to blessedness which being no other thing then what hath been here described such as are found not to desire it really and Supremely as their end can have no real attainable end of their being religious at all To drive on a continued course and series of actions in a visible pursuit of that which they desire not and have no mind to is such a piece of folly so fond and vain a trifling that as I remember Cicero reports Cato to have said concerning the South-sayers of his time he did wonder they could look in one anothers faces and not laugh being conscious to each others impostures and the vanity of their profession so one would as justly wander that the generality of carnal men who may shrewdly guess at the temper of one anothers minds do not laugh at each other that they are joyntly engaged in such exercises of Religion to the design whereof the common and agreed temper of their Spirits do so little correspond As if all were in very good earnest for Heaven when each one knows for himself and may possibly with more Truth then Charity suppose of the rest that if they might alwayes continue in their earthly stations they had rather never come there And therefore that they desire it not Supremely and so not as their end at all consider it then that thy no-desire of this blessed state quite dispirits thy Religion utterly ravishes away its Soul leaves it a dead foolish vain thing renders it an idle impertinency not a mean to a valuable end This desire is that life of Religion all duties and exercises of piety are without it but empty Formalities Solemn pieces of Pageantrie Every service done to God but the Sacrifice of a Fool if not animated by the desire of final blessedness in him and be not part of our way thither a means designed to the attainment of it Which nothing can be that we are not put upon by the vertue of the desired end Without this Religion is not it self A continuance in well doing is as it were the body of it and therein a seeking honor glory and immortality the Soul and Spirit The desire of an Heavenly Country must run through the whole course of our Earthly Pilgrimage It were otherwise a continued errour an uncertain wandring no steady tending towards our end So that thou art a meer Vagrant if this desire do not direct thy course towards thy Fathers house And methinks all this should make thee even ashamed of thy self if thou canst not find this desire to have a settled residence and a ruling power in thy Soul then 2. Sense of praise should signifie something too as the Apostle Whatsoever things are pure lovely c. if there be any vertue any praise think of these things And hath not the eternal glory those characters upon it of purity and loveliness beyond all things Is it not a laudable and praise-worthy thing to have a mind and heart set upon that The blessed God puts a note of excellency upon this temper of Spirit But they desire a better Country that is an Heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God c. This renders them a people worthy of him who hath called them to his kingdom and glory fit for him to own a relation to Had they been of low terrene Spirits he would have accounted it a shame to him to have gone under the name and cognisance of their God But in as much as they desire the Heavenly Country have learned to trample this terrestrial world cannot be contained within this lower Sphere nor satisfie themselves in earthly things they now discover a certain excellency of Spirit in respect whereof God is not ashamed to own a relation to them before all the world to be called their God to let men see what account he makes of such a Spirit Yea this is the proper genuine Spirit and temper of a Saint which agrees to him as he is such He is begotten to the eternal inheritance A disposition and therein a desire to it is in his very nature the new nature he hath received implanted there from his original He is born Spirit of Spirit and by that birth is not intituled onely but adopted and suited also to that pure and Spiritual state of blessedness That grace by the appearance whereof men are made Christians teaches also instructs unto this very thing to
consists first in righteousness and then in peace and joy in the holy Ghost Thou wilt so daily behold the face of God in righteousness and with pleasure but wilt most of all please thy self to think of thy final appearance before him and the blessedness that shall ensue 4. Watch and arm thy self against the too forcible strokes and impressions of sensible objects Let not the favor of such low vile things corrupt the pallate of thy soul. A sensual earthly mind and heart cannot tast heavenly delights They that are after the flesh do savor the things of the Flesh they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Labor to be throughly mortified towards this world and the present state of things Look upon this scheme pageant as passing away keep natural appetites under restraint the world and the lusts of it pass away together sensuality is an impure thing Heavenly refined joy cannot live amid'st so much filth Yea and if thou give thy flesh liberty too far in things that are in specie lawful it will soon get advantage to domineer and keep thy soul in a depressing servitude Abridge it then and cut it short That thy mind may be enlarged and at liberty may not be throng'd and prepossest with carnal imaginations and affections Let thy soul if thou wilt take this instruction from a Heathen look with a constant erect mind into the undefiled light neither darkened nor born down towards the Earth but stopping its Ears and turning its Eyes and all other Senses back upon it self and quite abolishing out of it self all Earthly Sighs and Groans and Pleasures and Glories and Honours and disgrace and having forsaken all these choose for the Guides of its way true Reason and strong Love the one whereof will shew it the way the other make it easie and pleasant 5. Having voided thy mind of what is earthly and carnal apply and turn it to this blessed Theam The most excellent and the vilest objects are alike to thee while thou mindest them not Thy thoughts possibly bring thee in nothing but vexation and trouble which would bring in assoon joy and pleasure didst thou turn them to proper objects A thought of the heavenly glory is assoon thought as of an earthly Cross. We complain the world troubles us then what do we there why get we not up in our spirits into the quieter Region what trouble would the thoughts of future glory be to us How are the thoughts and wits set on work for this flesh but we would have our Souls flourish as the Lilies without any thing of their own care Yea we make them toyl for torture and not for joy revolve an affliction a thousand times before and after it comes and have never done with it when eternal blessedness gains not a thought 6. Plead earnestly with God for his Spirit This is joy in the Holy Ghost or whereof he is the Author Many Christians as they must be called are such strangers to this work of imploring and calling in the blessed Spirit as if they were capable of adopting these words We have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost That name is with them as an empty sound How hardly are we convinc't of our necessary dependance on that free Spirit as to all our truly Spiritual operations This Spirit is the very earnest of our inheritance The foretasts and first fruits we have here of the future blessedness The joy and pleasure the complacential relishes we have of it before hand are by the gracious vouchsafement and work of this blessed Spirit The things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard and which have not entred into the heart of man are revealed by this Spirit Therefore doth the Apostle direct his Prayer on the behalf of the Ephesians to the Father of this glory that he would give them this Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten the eyes of their understanding that they might know the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in or among the Saints And its revelation is such as begets an impression in respect whereof 't is said also to seal up to the day of redemption Therefore pray earnestly for this Spirit not in idle dreaming words of course but as being really apprehensive of the necessitie of prevailing And give not over till thou find that sacred fire diffusing it self through thy mind and heart to enlighten the one and refine the other and so prepossess both of this glory that thy soul may be all turned into joy and praise And then let me adde here without the formality of a distinct head That it concerns thee to take heed of quenching that Spirit by either resisting or neglecting its holy dictates or as the same precept is otherwise given of grieving the Spirit he is by Name and Office the Comforter The Primitive Christians 't is said walked in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Is it equal dealing to grieve him whose business it is to comfort thee or canst thou expect joy where thou causest grief Walk in the Spirit adore its power Let thy Soul do it homage within thee Wait for its holy influences yield thy self to its ducture and guidance so wilt thou go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon thy head till thou enter that presence where is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Nor do thou think it improper or strange that thou should'st be called upon to rejoyce in what thou dost not yet possess Thy hope is in stead of fruition 't is an anticipated enjoyment We are commanded to rejoyce in hope and Saints have profest to do so to rejoyce even in the hope the hope of the glory of God Nor is it unreasonable that should be thy present highest joy For though yet it be a distinct thing and indistinctly revealed the excellency of the object makes compensation for both with an abundant surplusage As any one would much more rejoyce to be assured by a great person of ample possessions he would make him his heir to though he knew not distinctly what they should be then to see a shilling already his own with his own eyes CHAP. XXX The addition of two Rules that more specially respect the yet future season of this blessedness after this life viz. Rule 7. That we patiently wait for it until death Rule 8. That we love not too much this present life THere are yet two more Rules to be superadded that respect the season of this blessedness when we awake i. e. not till we go out of time into eternity not till we pass out of the drowsie darkness of our present state till the night be over with us and the vigorous light of the everlasting day do shine upon us Hence therefore it will be further necessary 7. That while the appointed proper season of this blessedness
be from no such inducements but a meer desire of being with God and of attaining his perfection and blessedness which he hath ingaged thee in the pursuit and expectation of And then having made sure it be right as to the rise and principle Be careful It be not under in point of degree i. e. a cold intermittent velleity is too little on the one hand And a peremptory precipitant hasting is too much on the other The middle and desirable temper here is a complacential submission to the Divine will in that affair with a preponderating inclination on our part towards our eternal home if the Lord see good For we have two things to attend in this business and by which our Spirits may be sway'd this way or that i. e. the goodnss of the object to be chosen and the will of God which must guide and over-rule our choice the former whereof we are permitted to eye in subordination to the Latter and not otherwise Now our apprehension of the desirableness and intrinsique goodness of the object ought to be such we are Infidels else if we have not that account of it that nothing we can eye under the notion of a good to us may be reckon'd so eligible as that viz. our final and compleat blessedness in the other world which because we know we cannot enjoy without dying death also must be judged more eligible then Life that is Our Blessedness must be judged eligible for it self and Death as requisite to make it present So that the entire object we are discoursing of being present Blessedness Consider it in comparison with any thing else that can be lookt upon by us as a good which we our selves are to enjâ—y it ought to be preferr'd and chosen out of hand in as much as nothing can be so great a present good to us as that And this ought to be the proper habitual inclination of our Spirits their constant frame and bent as they respect onely our own interest and welfare But considering Gods Dominion over us and interest in our Lives and Beings and that as well ingenuity as necessity binds us to be Subject to his pleasure we should herein patiently suffer our selves to be over-ruled thereby and not so abstractly mind our own interest and contentment in this matter as if we were altogether our own and had no Lord over us Plato who abounds in discourses of the desirableness of dying and of the blessed change it makes with them that are good Yet hath this apt expression of the subjection weâ—â—ght â—â—ght to be into the Divine pleasure as to this matter That the soul is in the body as souldiers in a garrison from whence they may not withdraw themselves without his order and direction who placed them there And expostulates thus If saith he a slave of yours should destroy his own Life without your consent would you not be displeas'd and if there had been any place left for revenge been apt enough to that too So he brings in Socrates discoursing and discovers himself herein to have had more Light in this matter touching that subordinate interest only men have in their own lives and the unlawfulness of self murther as he had in other things too then most heathens of the more refined Sect ever arrived to If therefore God would give us leave to dye we should upon our own account be much more enclin'd to chuse it but while he thinks fit to have it defer'd should yeild to his will with an unrepining submission Onely it ought not to rest at all on our part or that as to our selves we find any thing more grateful to us in this world that we are willing to stay a day longer in it That for our own sakes we should affect a continuance here would argue a terrene sordid Spirit But then such should be our dutiful filial Love to the Father of our Spirits that in pure devotedness to his interests we would be content to dwel if he would have it so a Methuselahs age in an earthly tabernacle for his service that is that we may help to preserve his memorial in a elapsed world over-run with Atheisme and ignorance of its Maker and win him hearts and love to our uttermost among his apostate disloyal creatures and in our capacities be helpful to the encouragement of such as he continues in the world for the same purposes This is the very temper the Apostle expresses when in that strait which way the poise of his own Spirit enclin'd him in the consideration of his own interest and what was simply more eligible to him He expresses with High Emphasis to be with Christ saith he is more desirable to me for there are two comparatives in the Greek Text and therefore he professes his own desire in order thereto to be dissolved but that private desire was not so peremptory and absolute but he could make it yeild and give place to his duty towards God and his Church as it follows So we know 't is possible that respects to a friend may oversway a mans own particular inclination and the inclination remain notwithstanding but is subdued onely otherwise had any reason or argument that did respect my self perswaded me to change it I should then follow but my own proper inclination still and so my friend hath nothing to thank me for So it ought to be with us here our inclination should preponderate towards a present change of our state onely our devotedness to his interest and pleasure whose we are should easily over-rule it This is the Lovely temper of a gracious Spirit as to this thing that to dye might be our choice and to live in the mean time submitted to as our duty As an ingenuous son whom his father hath employ'd abroad in a forrain Country though duty did bind him cheerfully therein to comply with his fathers will and the necessity of his affairs yet when his Father shall signifie to him that now he understands no necessity of his longer continuance there and therefore he may if he please return but he shall have leave to follow his own inclination T is not hard to conjecture that the desire of seeing a Fathers face would soon determine the choice of such a son that way But how remote are the generality of them that profess themselves God's Children from that pious ingenuity We have taken root in the earth and forgotten our heavenly originals and alliances We are as inhabitants here not pilgrims hardly perswaded to entertain with any patience the thoughts of leaving our places on earth which yet do we what we can shall shortly know us no more In short then that vile temper of Spirit against which I professedly bend my self in the following discourse is when men not out of any sense of duty towards God or sollicitude for their own Souls but of a meer sordid love to the body and affixedness of heart to the Earth and terrene things