charging God foolishly as if he did them wrong 3. It shall keep them from damning despair When Satan sifteth them Christs intercession shall keep their faith from failing Grace shall humble them and save them from sin and the flesh and world they shall cast soul and body upon Christ and trust him in hope in their several degrees And those that have been more believing heavenly and fruitful than the rest are likest to have the greatest peace and comfort especially in their greatest need Quest And how is Gods strength manifested in our weakness Ans 1. It is manifested to our selves by keeping us from sin and sinking into despair and enabling us to bear and trust and wait and usually in the peace or joy of hope We know we are insufficient for this our selves When flesh and heart as natural fail us God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Psal 73. 26. We do not think oft before that ever we can bear and overcome as grace enableth us 2. And it 's manifest oft to others who shall see that power of grace in the sufferings of believers which they did not see in their prosperity Vse 1. Let not then our own weakness and insufficiency too much distress us with fears of suffering and death yea when we feel the thorn let us not forget our help and strength By Grace here is meant the living and merciful help of God especially giving us the inward strength by which we may not only bear but improve the sufferings of the flesh This body was not made to be here incorruptible or immortal we were born in sin and therefore born to pain and death We have lived in sin and no wonder if we live in sorrow but the sufferings of our Redeemer have sanctified our sufferings The Cross is not now such a cursed thing as guilt had made it He took our suffering flesh and blood that he might destroy by death the devil that had the power of death and deliver us who by the fear of death were all our life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14. Our pain prepareth us for endless pleasures and our sorrows for our Masters joy When we have suffered with him we shall reign with him He liveth and we shall live by him He is risen and we shall rise by him He is in Glory and we must be with him In the mean time his Grace is sufficient for us not only in health and ease but in all our pain and sickness He is not so unskilful or unkind as to give such physick to his own which shall do them more harm than good Though it be grievous at the present it brings forth the quieting-fruit of righteousness but we must first be exercised therein Let us not then be his impatient patients Grace can support us and overcome Men are not sufficient Our wit our power our worthiness are not sufficient but God's grace is sufficient If ease and life had been better than Grace and Glory we might have had them But God giveth us better than flesh would chuse Though the body be weak the head weak the memory weak the stomack weak and all weak yet God is strong and his strength will support us and bring us safe to our journeys end Lazarus lay among dogs in weakness at the rich mans doors but the Angels convey'd him in strength to Abrahams bosom We must lie and languish and groan in weakness but Omnipotence is engaged for us We must die in weakness but we shall be raised in power by him who will change these vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by the power by which he can subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 20 21. Let us therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. Looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our saith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross And let us beg more for divine grace and strength than for the departing of the thorn Grace is better than ease and health If the soul be our nobler part than the body the health of it is more desirable Bodily ease is common to bruits and wicked men strength of Grace is proper to Saints Ease and health in this life are short but Holiness will be everlasting Health fits us for fleshly pleasure but Holiness for Communion with God O pray not carnally for the flesh more than for the spirit for earth more than for heaven Pray that while the outward man is perishing the inward man may be renewed day by day and that our light afflictions which are but for a moment may work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the temporal things which are seen but at the eternal things which are unseen to us 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. Why should we grudg at any sufferings which are for the glory of Gods grace and strength As Christ said of Lazarus This sickness is not unto death that is the end of it is not to end his life though he dye but that the glory of God may be revealed So pain and death are not Gods ends but the manifesting of his grace and strength But alas it is not only the flesh that is weak but Grace it self as it is in us though not as it is in God and of God nor is it flesh only that hath the thorn but the heart or conscience also hath its part The spirit of a man if sound and well will sustain his bodily infirmities But a wounded spirit who can bear If faith were not weak if hope and love and desire were not weak the weakness of the body might well be born If sin and guilt were no wound or thorn in the soul and conscience we could be more indifferent as to the flesh and almost as quietly bear our own pain and death as our neighbours Though it 's hard to say is Tertullian Nihil crus sentit in nervo cum animus est in coelo yet our content and joy would overcome the evil of our suffering But alas when soul and body must be both at once lamented this this is hardly born Lord seeing it is thy sufficient Grace and not my bodily ease which I must trust to and my weakness must manifest thy strength O let not Grace also be in me insufficient and weak O let not Faith be weak nor Hope nor Love nor Heavenly desires and foretasts be weak Nor Patience and Obedience weak Head is weak and heart is weak but if Faith also be weak what shall support us At least let it be unfeigned and effectual and attain its end and never fail Flesh is failing and health as to its proper strength is failing But be thou my God the strength of my heart and my portion for ever And what ever thorn the flesh must feel yet let me finish my course with joy Amen I have run over many things in
Revelations acquainting the soul with Heaven are matters most worthy of lawful humble modest Glorying It was Pauls Heavenly Visions which he gloryed in as his advancement when he had mentioned his many persecutions and sufferings in the way These tend to that perfection and felicity of souls In these men have to do with the glorious Jehovah the Angelical Chore the heavenly Society our glorified Head our highest Hopes and matter of the greatest everlasting joys O if God would but give you and me this Heavenly sight and let us but once see what Paul saw what little things would Crowns and Lordships seem to us when we look down from such an height What trifling should we think most of the busles of this world what toyes and dreams their wealthy honour and sinful Delights I should then say Now I see what it is that we seek and hope and suffer for what it is to enjoy God and our Redeemer And therefore now I know what it is to be a Beleiver a Saint a man indeed O what a help to mortification would such a sight of Paradise be How easily should we after resist temptations deny the Flesh contemn the world and hate our sins O how it would overcome all these distrustful trembling fears of death and make us long and grown and cry to be with Christ VVhat life would it put into all holy duty How easily should we bear our short afflictions How would it mellow our sowre contentious minds toward one another and teach us better whom to love and live in Peace with than pride and VVorldliness or Faction will teach us Fellow Christians Though you and I may not expect such Raptures and Extasies as Paul's yet we have the Gospel of Jesus a Divine Revelation of this same heavenly glory not to be set light by because we see it not our selves It is by the Son of God that saw it and now is there preparing it for us it is by a sealed certain word And the heavenly beams are sent down from him upon our hearts to shew it us and lead us up VVe are capable of a lively beleif of the full assurance of hope of the pledges earnest and first fruits and of rejoycing with unspeakable glorying joy We are capable in our manner and are sure of traffick for heaven and with heaven of sending up our treasures and there conversing in spirit as in the City which is our home and hearing by Faith the joyful harmony of the heavenly Songs and Praises of Jehovah Here we are capable of such a powerful touch with the Loadstone of Divine Love or to have our Spirits so refined and sublimated as shall make it as natural to them to make upward towards Christ and long for full and perfect union O had we lived as Beleivers should have lived how much more of heavenly mindedness and delight might we have attained than we have done O thank God for the Gospel revelation and beg grace to bring it in power on your hearts And then let worldlings take their earthly portion VVe can spare them all that hindereth not the gathering and edification of the Church and the heavenly interest of souls Observ 5. There is a third Heaven and Heavenly Paradice where are the concerns and hopes of holy souls Paul was thither taken up had he no interest there no hopes no friends no business there VVhy then should he have been rapt up thither How many Heavens there be and why it is here called the third I will not interrupt your more necessary thoughts by conjecturing enquiries Most say the Air is called the first the Starry Heaven the second and the place of the glorified Spirits the third but these are vain conjectures No man knoweth how many there be the Globes or Stars are at vast distance from each other some great Philosophers have been tempted to think that VVorld is infinite as an adequate effect of infinite Power because God hath no unactive power All this is prophane rashness The Heavens which are our inheritance are the place where perfect Glorious Spirits shall live in blessed Society with Christ and one another joyfully beholding the Glory of God and feeling the delights of mutual Love And yet there are different degrees of Glory from the different degrees of the Capacity of Spirits Whether also from any difference in the place and communicating Causes we shall shortly better know There are more sorts of Spirits thatn we can now know Though I know not how to receive Aquinas's Doctrine that no two Angels are of the same Species the diversity as well as the incomprehensible Glory and Numbers are unknown to us Those that God employeth under Christ as his Pursuivants Messengers and Servants for his Church are called Angels Whether there be orders over orders quite above Angels and how Angels differ from the perfected Spirits of the Just we know not As it is designed for Saints its Glory consisteth 1. In the Glory of the Place 2. In the perfecting and glorifying the Natures and Persons that enjoy it 3. In the Glory of the Heavenly Society Christ Angels and Saints 4. In the Glory of their high and excellent work to Love and Magnifie God for ever 5. In the Communication of the Joyful Love and Light and Life of God upon these glorified Spirits O what doth every one of these words signifie Is not this a Paradise indeed that is a place of purest greatest pleasure Vse 1. And are we not taught by such a glass as this how Great and how Good a God we serve O look up to the Heavens and see what he is by that which he hath made Yea it s said Psal 113. 6. that he humbles himself to behold the things in Heaven as well as upon earth O sinners what a God do you despise neglect and forget and what a Heaven do you fell for fleshly lust and to feed a Corruptible Body for the Grave O Christians what a God have we to serve and fear and how Zealously and purely should we serve him What a God have we to trust and hope in and how great a sin is it to distrust him What a Heaven have we to seek and hope for and how chearfully and constantly should we do it Alas our cold Hearts and slothful Lives and worldly Cares and sinking Spirits beseem not such a God and Heaven Were we designed but to inhabit the Sun or some resplendent Star how high is it above this Earth Shall we creep only on Earth and feed on dust and defile our Souls as if we were preparing them by Sin for Hell when we have a third heaven and Paradise to look up to and seek and hope for Doth Satan say what is that to thee that is so far above thee It is to us it is the place where the Glory of God is which we seek where our glorified Head is The place of holy Spirits whither also Henoch and Elias were Translated where Abraham Isaac and
Jacob live whither Christs Spirit went at Death and where he received the believing Thief where Lazarus is in Abrahams bosom which Stephen foresaw and to which he was received It is the place which we are set on Earth to seek dearly purchased surely promised to which Gods Spirit is now preparing us and of which it is our pledge and seal Were it not for such an end and hope how vain were Man and what a dream this World Take Heaven from us aud take our Lives our Joyes yea more than many such lives as these O that we could be more deeply sensible for what we are Christians and for what we hope what holy patient joyful Christians should we then be But it is not a wavering Belief a divided heart and a few cold strange and staggering thoughts of Heaven that will do this as we desire it Observ 6. Souls are not so closely tyed to the body but now they may be rapt up into Paradise or the third Heavens When Paul could not tell whether it was in the body or out of it it sheweth some how the Soul was there and that its possible it might be out of the body Obj. If it were in the body the body must go with it If out of the body it must leave the body dead Ans It might be in the body and not take up the body If man were born blind the Iucid Spirits and visive faculty would act only within But as soon as a Miracle opened his eyes he would see as far as the Sun and Stars And the Sun sends down its beams even to this Earth Should God open this dark Lanthorn of the Body we little know how far a Soul may see without any separation from the body Did not Stephen's Soul in the body see Christ in Glory And if it went out of the Body it followeth not that it must be separated from the body and leave it dead When London was on fire how high did the flame go above the fuel and yet it was not separated from the fuel A Soul can stay in the body and yet not be confined to it as a Chicken in the Shell but may see and mount above it to the Heavens Vse Therefore think not of Souls as you do of Bodies which are Circumscribed in their proper places We know not what formal thoughts to have of the dimensions or locality of Spirits Somewhat such eminenter they have for they have individuation and numeral quantity and some passivity but not formaliter as gross bodies have While the Soul is in the Body it worketh on it and is a Substance distinct from it and such a form as hath also its own form even it s formal Power or Virtue of Vital Activity Sensitive and Intellective Perception and Sensitive and Rational Appetite It is Active Life it self as the Principle It perceiveth it self and loveth it self it understandeth what other Spirits are by it self It remembereth innumerable things past It riseth up to some knowledge of God It can seek love and obey him and all this though not out of the body yet above any efficiency of bodily Organs O what a sad part of Mans Fall is it to lose so much as the World hath done of the knowledge of our selves And to begin to know our selves our souls and how Man differs from a Beast is the first part of recovering knowledge leading up towards the knowledge of God which is the highest O then Sirs do not only own the heavenly dignity of Souls but use your Souls accordingly Are they good for no better than to serve the Body in Lust and Appetite and keep it in motion and some Pleasure or at least from stinking a while in the World Sinners hear and consider If you willfully Condemn your own Souls to Beastiality God will Condemn them to perpetual Misery Yea you do it your selves and pass from bruitishness to the Devilish Nature and Woful State Observ 7. The things of the Heavenly Paradise are to Mortal Men unutterable That is 1. Such as cannot be uttered And 2. Such as must not be uttered It is not lawful to Paul that saw them Not that nothing of it may or must be uttered Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to Light They are great things and glorious which are by him revealed Enough well believed and used to overcome the Temptation of this Flesh and World and to raise us to a holy Life and joyful Hope and comfortable Sufferings and Death Christ best knoweth the just measure of Revelation meet for Earth Candles must serve for narrow and dark Rooms and are more worth than all the Gold on Earth The Sun by day must not come too near us lest it burn us up but send us its beams at the distance that we can bear them And all Souls are not here meet for the same measures Much less for that sight which the glorified enjoy The pure in heart do see God Mat. 5. and even here more than impure Souls 1. There is no humane Language that hath words fit to reveal that part of the heavenly things which God hath shut up from us as his secrets Mans words are only fitted to Mans Use and to Mans Concerns and not to Angels and the secrets of Heauen We speak not a VVord of God himself which signifieth formally what God is but only analogically or by similitude and yet not in vain Paul saw and holy Souls see that which no humane Language can properly express 2. And if it could yet mortals could not understand it No more than a Language which they never heard 3. And Paul had it revealed in a manner suited to his own use and not in a manner meet for Communication 2. And it was unlawful also to utter it For God saw not all that meet for the dark world of undisposed sinners which was allowed to one eminent Saint 2. Nor would he have so much more revealed by a Minister than the son of God from heaven had himself before revealed 3. And the revelation is to be suited to the fruition Full knowledge is fit only for those that must fully enjoy it Vse Therefore remember with what measures of heavenly knowledge we must be here content so much as Christ hath revealed and is suitable to a distant life of Faith I have known some that have run into greater calamities than I will mention by an expectation of visible Communion with Angels and others by rash conceits of Visions Dreams and Prophetical Revelations But the common Errour of Christians is to content themselves with a feeble Faith or at least get no better and then think it should be made up by somwhat like to sight or corporal sense and to be unsatisfied because they know no more than by beleiving they can reach to As if beleiving were but an uncertain apprehension with which we are unsatified and we are not content to live on that which God hath revealed but we would fain know