state and loves and lives in sin lyes and dyes in the old Adam That 's the sadest word in all the Bible pronounced twice in a breath by our blessed Lord Joh. 8.21 24. Ye shall dye in your sins i. e. under the guilt of your sins and sentence of condemnation This is surprizing from what he adds in the first place whither I go you cannot come that is to Heaven whither sinners cannot enter You 'l say then no man can enter into Heaven for all men are sinners even to the last breath When are men cleansed is it in Articulo mortis in the passage of the Soul out of the Body May not all be cleansed alike then Answ It s true all are sinning to the last gasp of breathing out their Souls but 1. You must distinguish betwixt a state of sin and having fin The best have relicks of Original corruption as long as they live The death of the body will only annihilate the body of death Death is not properly the punishment but period of sin It reigns not in Gods Children at present it shall not remain in them when dead The guilt of sin is already gone for there 's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 and the filth yea being of sin is taken away as soon as death strikes the stroke 2. I see not but the mighty God can perfectly expel sin out of the Soul and also perfect defective graces in the instant of the Souls separation from the Body as well as he did infuse a principle of grace into the Soul in an instant at the Souls first conversion for by death the spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12.23 Mind it it is just men not wicked God will not infuse grace into men ordinarily in their passage out of the world qualis vita finis ita as men live so they dye and if men imagine God will put another principle into their hearts just as they pass out of this World as this is a daring presumption so they will be mistaken for how is a departing Soul capable of such receptions or reflections as are necessary in the work of conversion Alas the Eyes being set Lips quivering Memory failing and the Body in a cold sweat is unfit for any thing their hopes giving up the ghost as their breaths depart and it s a wonder that the Souls of wicked men go quietly out of their Bodies its strange they depart not as the Devils out of the Demonaicks rending raging tearing foming but if Conscience be asleep death will awake it could you follow their departing Souls a minute out of their Bodies you would hear howlings and roarings 3. Heaven will not receive any Souls but such as are made meet for it on Earth Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither what soever worketh abomination for without are dogs Rev. 22.15 They say Ireland will not brook a Toad a Snake or venomous Creature to live and like in it I am sure Heaven will not admit but cast out an unsanctified heart The Legions of apostate Angels knew this who abode not one moment in that holy place after they left their innocency It is said of the Halcyons nest that it will hold nothing but its own Bird The same may be said of Heaven the Serpent could wind himself into the Earthly Paradice but none of the Serpentine brood shall once peep into this Heavenly Paradice For 1 The Text saith It is an Inheritance now an Inheritance is for none but Children its true all Gods Children are heirs Rom. 8.17 but none shall inherit Heaven except Children By nature we are Children of Wrath by grace and adoption Children of God All Gods Children are begot again to a lively hope for this incorruptible inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 4. 2. It s the inheritance of Saints i. e. of holy sanctified Souls Persons must not think that Heaven is like Mahemets Paradice where there is delicious fare pleasant gardens fair women and all sensual delights fit lettice for an Epicures Lips No no Heaven is a state of perfect immediate and perpetual injoyment of God suited to the raised faculties of a sanctified Soul 3. It s the inheritance of Saints in light It s a bright and lightsome state suited to seeing Souls blind sinners can see no beauty there such as are not changed from darkness to light are not fit for that state see Acts 26.18 Alas a blind man can take no content in beautiful objects though the Sun shine never so gloriously Heaven and light are synonymous but light and darkness are directly contrary If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 and such dark sinners are far from a suitableness to this state and place of light O therefore poor sinners consider this the holy God hates all the workers of iniquity the holy Heaven is no sanctuary for Rebels and Traytors God will not take such vipers into his bosom thou must either be renewed or never received into glory it is an undefiled inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 a dirty sinner must not enter this would disparage and contradict all Gods Attributes as his Justice then God should give to the wicked according to the work of the righteous it would blemish his Holiness as though unclean were delighted in equally with the clean it would contradict his Truth as though God regarded not what he said or swore that no unclean thing shall enter there Every Attribute would have dirt cast upon it if God should save the unsanctified Soul Nay it contradicts the undertakings of Jesus Christ who came to save his people from their sins not in their sins It exposeth the office and operations of the Holy Ghost whose office it is to sanctifie sinners and prepare Souls for Heaven that sinner must surely be in a desperate case that must un God the infinite Jehovah God blessed for ever or else he cannot be saved 4. The unsanctified sinner would by no means like in Heaven Heaven would be an Hell to him except his Nature were changed and renewed Most Men mistake the nature of Heaven they only look upon it as a place of happiness it is so but withal it is a state of perfect holiness They are holy priviledges injoyment of God and what care wicked men for his company They say unto God depart from us and their choice shall be their punishment They are holy joys and delights how will they like that who were never pleased but with sensual laughter which is madness There 's holy company above of Saints but they cannot abide to be near them on Earth how then can they like to be associated to them in Heaven There is holy imployment above but alas they are not at all qualified for nor can they be delighted in the work of loving praising or taking pleasure in God Augustine hath a saying
clear up grace Blowing up sparks will best discover them A flame is sooner discerned then a spark in the embers Christians by stirring up the gift of God discover it 2 Tim. 1.6 Motion is a good evidence of life Activity for God and tendency Heaven-ward will put you out of doubt All duties tend to assurance or spring from it Striving running fighting will be crowned with clear evidence God loves to crown diligence To him that hath i. e. useth and improveth well what he hath shall be given and he shall have abundance i. e. more grace and the comfort of it as the collision of Flint and Steel begets light so the acting of grace produceth this fruit viz. Assurance For the work of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 Now now the Soul is ready for glory when he is in duty above duty with God in the lively actings of grace which is a part of and a prologue to glory The Christian is going from strength to strength till he appear before God in Zion Oh happy soul that is thus upon the wing 2. Reflection upon Heart and Life and comparing both with the word of God This is Gods way to get assurance Have I the conditions of Gospel-promises Faith and Repentance Do those graces within me answer the characters of such in the Scriptures Doth my Soul eccho to the experiences of Saints in the word of God Can I follow the Rules and prescriptions that my Lord hath laid down To deny my self take up his Cross and follow him Have I the essential characters of a Christian I dare not believe Satan and my own treacherous heart I will examine and prove my self 2 Cor. 13.5 I will not spare my self in any thing I will be impartial and deal faithfully by disquisitive tryal now as I would be found in the decisive tryal at the last day It s a matter of life and death I will lay judgment to the line I will go to the Law and to the Testimony The word must judge me at the great day it shall be my judge now No matter what the World saith of me nor must I be determined by the votes of the best Christians or Godly Ministers I must and will and do prove mine own work and then I shall have rejoycing in my self alone and not in another Gal. 6 4. 3. Appealing and approving the heart to God Alas the best Christian is too apt to be partial in his own case or blind at home our Minds are as ill set as our Eyes neither of them apt to look inwards and when we do look alas we are apt to look through a false or flattering glass or our Eye is vitiated with bad humours and therefore must we with Job appeal to God ch 10.7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked And ch 23.10 He knoweth the way that I take And though David had communed with his own heart and his spirit had made diligent search Psal 77.6 yet he challengeth God to a further privy search Psal 26.2 Ezamine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart And again Psal 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts Not as though God were ignorant of them till he searcht but it s spoken after the manner of Men And that God might further acquaint David with the secrets of his heart Thus the sincere Christian faith Lord I set my self before thee as a glass in the Sun look upon me look through me thou knowest all things see how my heart is affected towards thee discover to me the inmost working of my Soul if there be any secret guile in folding it self in the lurking-places of my heart bring it to light if there be any flaw in my evidences let me see it before it be too late I am too apt through self-love to judge the best but do thou declare my state and my frame as it is Thou that must be my judge shalt be my witness My witness is in Heaven and my record is on high Job 16.19 Here 's a Soul usually comforted in his integrity and such an one is meet for Heaven 4. Praying to God for the shinings and sealings of his Spirit For indeed let all these means be used yet evidence will not come unless God be pleased to shine upon his own grace in the Soul My Conscience saith Paul bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Rom. 9.1 and Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God This indeed is the Sun-light assurance This alone scatters all mists answers all objections banisheth all doubts and fears and oh what an honour and satisfaction is it to a Child of God that the Third Person of the Sacred Trinity should come down and give in its infallibe Testimony at the Bar of a Believers Conscience This is like the Son of God coming down into our nature and dying for us Oh transcendent condescention Oh unparallell'd priviledge of Gods Children Yet this is purchased by Christ and promised to Believers not only to be a Witness but a Seal 2 Cor. 1.22 and 5.5 Eph. 1.13 This is often yea ordinarily given after believing and when it comes it brings its own evidence along with it So that the perplexed Child of God after many fore conflicts struglings ruggings sad thoughts of heart comes at last to some consistency as to expel fears cares doubts and now at last is brought to that that he no more questions Gods love then his faithfulness and this usually comes in after some notable wrestlings at the Throne of Grace in Prayer according to that Joh. 16.24 Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name i. e. Very little comparatively and as you shall do Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full God will have his Child to beg when he designs to give to exercise our Obedience and to honour his own Ordinance Then he gives assurance and the joy of his Salvation and now the believing Soul is meet to be translated into the joy of his Lord. But you will say is none meet for Heaven but such as have assurance Then what shall a poor doubting Soul say of it self that is dark and much discouraged as many a good Soul is Answ 1. A title to this Inheritance is necessary but knowledge of this title is not absolutely necessary Many have dyed safely though under clouds Our Lord himself cryed dying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me There was Relation my God yet in some sense he was forsaken 2. There 's degrees of assurance as he that said Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Few enjoy a full plerophory and those that have it yet have it not at all times Mr. Pauls Bains said dying Sustentation I have but suavities spiritual I do not feel 3. It s one thing what God doth in an arbitrary way of suspending the
to evince the truth of it but convince the Conscience of the necessity of it and perswade the Affections to comply with it 1. It s fit persons be made meet because no man by nature is meet for Heaven Man is estranged from God even from the Womb Psal 58.3 and are these fit to live with God till brought nigh Man is shapen and conceived in sin Psal 51.5 and is this fit to dwell with an Holy God till sanctified Man is dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 and is such a dead block meet to converse with the living God Man is darkness Eph. 5.8 and what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 Man by nature is a child of wrath Eph. 2.3 and how can dryed stubble dwell with consuming fire Alas we are all enemies to God in our minds Col. 1.21 yea enmity it self Rom. 8.7 and can two walk together except they be agreed Amos 3.3 Can the sin-revenging God and the guilty sinner hold intimate correspondence till they be reconciled O no it will never be Heaven and Hell will as soon joyn as God and an unregenerate sinner Will the holy God take such vipers into his bosom Can you imagine God will deface or lay aside his immaculate Holiness to take you from the Swine-sty into his holy Sanctuary What cleanly person can endure to have a filthy swine a bed and board with him in his Parlour or Bed-chamber Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee Psal 94.20 No no God is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity with liking and delight Hab. 1.13 If God should take men a caeno ad coelum from the dunghil into his Palace others would conclude that God is reconciled to sin that its an harmless thing and not that abominable thing which his Soul hates No it can never be graceless sinners so remaining cannot dwell with God Psal 5.4 5. 2. Because this is the divine ordination and appointment that there should be a connexion betwixt grace and glory holiness and happiness Psal 84.11 As Sin and Hell are joyned by divine commination so Grace and Heaven are knit together by divine promise So saith the Text Rom. 2.7 10. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life This is a connexion of grace not of merit of promise not of debt yet inviolable for Gods Justice and Truth are ingaged in it It s fit the infinite God should distribute his Mercies to whom and upon what termes he pleaseth now he hath said peremptorily without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 All things are ordered and wrought after the councel of his will Eph. 1.11 First he chuseth them before the foundation of the world that they should be holy Eph. 1.4 They are redeemed to be holy Tit. 2.14 called with an holy calling 2 Tim. 1.9 and therefore they are holy Brethren that are partakers of this Heavenly calling Heb. 3.1 Let wicked scoffers mock on to their guilt and cost Such there are in the world and such must they be if they think to inherit Heaven Its Gods ordination you must be Saints in this world or never Crowned as Saints in the other tho' Canonized for Saints by Men when gone Consider sinner whose word shall stand Gods or thine Thou hopest to go to Heaven without Saintship or meetness for it God saith it yea swears it Heb. 3.18 that thou shalt never enter into his rest This is Gods councel that men must be brought through Sanctification to Salvation 2 Thess 2.13 and can you think to overturn his appointed Will or contradict his Councels Must the Earth be forsaken for thee Must the immutable God falsifie his word to save chee against his will yea against thy will For thou wilst not come to him for life God will not be merciful to any wicked transgressour The eternal determination of Heaven is recorded in that chain of Salvation Rom. 8.30 and all the Men on Earth and Devils in Hell cannot break one link of it Predestination Vocation Justification Salvation or Glorification Go try the turning Day into Night or Winter into Summer or stop the course of the Sun before thou think to divert the proceedings of grace in the salvation of Souls but its vain to attempt either for his councel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure 3. This is the design of God in all his Ordinances to make Souls meet for Heaven It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 Ministers and Ordinances were given for perfecting of the Saints Eph. 4.11 12 13. This is the means of Conversion the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 the means of edification of resolution of doubts consolation and confirmation so are the Seals of the Covenant given to this end to bring Souls onward to this glorious Inheritance Now Sirs consider shall you receive this grace of God in vain Shall all the Ordinances be lost upon you You must give account of Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments shall they be the savour of death unto death to you or the savour of life unto life Alas how do poor Ministers toyl and travel pray and watch weep and sigh to the breaking of their Loyns spending of their Spirits to bring you to God and Heaven and you pretend kindness to us but have no real kindness to your own Souls we dare not but warn you in the name of Christ lest you fail of the grace of God and fall short of this Inheritance We watch for your Souls as those that must give an account O let us do it with joy and not with grief Heb. 13.17 If it be uncomfortable to us it will be unprofitable to you Must our sweat and labour be in vain But it will not be in vain to us for our work is with the Lord we shall not lose our reward God will pay the Nurse though the Child dye Our Crown will be given us if we be faithful though we be not successful for that 's in Gods hands But woe be to those souls that have sitten under powerful Ordinances and miss of this Inheritance O woe woe to you you cannot miss of Heaven but be plunged into a deeper Hell O ease our Hearts and save your own Souls Kill us and damn your selves nay murder your selves and you again Crucifie Christ whose person we represent Rather give us leave to espouse you to one Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fitted you as things that are pieced together glued or soddered let us do so with you that we may present you as chast virgins in Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 Would to God this were the fruit of our labours 4. This is the design of all Gods Providential dispensations Mercies afflictions smiles frowns come upon this errand to make Souls meet for Heaven Cords of love draw rods of wrath drive the poor sinner
from Hell to Heaven The Sunshine of Love comes to melt and thaw our frozen hearts that God may set a stamp upon us The loving kindness of God leads to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Oh what an influence will Gods native goodness have upon an ingenuous Spirit As the Sun attracts vapours from the Earth so this Son of Righteousness should and will if our sturdy hearts hinder not raise our hearts Heaven-wards It s pity we should stop here in the streams but that thereby we should be led to the fountain and follow the beams up to the Sun May this long-suffering of the Lord be your salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 May love constrain you to love God May these load-stones so attract you and these grapes of Canaan enamour you that you may never rest till you appear before God in Zion And what are all Gods rods and redoubled strokes for but to awaken you out of security Peat your fingers off from the world Weaken your corruptions and purge and furbish your Souls as vessels for the high shelf of glory For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 How is that Surely by working the Soul into a fitness for that glory This furnace melts away the dross of our Spirit Sea-tossings clear the liquor of grace this dark night fits for the pleasant morning these pangs prepare us for deliverance these blustering storms fit souls for the peaceable fruits of righteousness being sanctified by the Spirit and improved by Faith Affliction is Gods Physick which makes sick but prepares for sweet health and shall we frustrate Gods ends in this also What are you content with a Heaven here and an Hell hereafter Nay can you be content with an Hell in both worlds Must these be par-boilings for everlasting burnings God forbid Look at the Lords end in these sufferings and let it be yours 5. The time of this life is the only time men have given them to be made meet for Heaven This life is a praeludium to an eternal state It s a Seminary for another world Gal. 6.7 8. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Seeding is a preparatory to reaping yet men must expect only to reap that kind of grain that 's sown none can think to reap Wheat that sowed Oats and you know there 's more abundunce in the reaping then in the sowing So in this case Hell torments will be more exquisite and eternal then the profit and pleasure of the sinner in sinning Heavens joys will infinitely furmount the Christians labours and sorrows in this world and there is great equity in both for the object sinned against is infinite and satisfaction can never be made by a finite Creature and the grace from whence flows Eternal Life is infinite and will have an endless duration But the point I am upon is to demonstrate the necessity of making meet for Heaven in this world or it will never be done Now or never When the door is shut the gulf fixt and the Soul loosed from the Body and launcht out into that vast ocean of Eternity there 's no returning back to get the oyl of grace or be fiting the Soul for another world Eccl. 9.10 What soever thine hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Time lasts not but floats away apace but what is everlasting depends upon it Hic aut accepimus aut amittimus vitam aeternam In this world we either win or lose eternal Life The great weight of Eternity hangs on the small and twittered thread of time Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 This is our working day our market time surely it becomes us to lay that Foundation well that bears such a Superstructure To cast that Anchor safely that is entrusted with a Vessel so richly laden Oh Sirs sleep now and awake in Eell from whence is no redemption Suppose by misdemeanour you had forfeited your Estate and Life and upon much intercession the King causeth an Hour-glass to be turned and set you a work to do or lesson to learn if you performed it you are pardoned and promoted if not tortured and executed Oh how diligent would you be What pains would you take The case is your own Sirs Heaven and Hell are before you according to your improvement or non-improvement of this hour of life so must you fare dream not of a Purgatory as the Tree falls so it lyes You enter by death into an unchangeable state only the Body at the Resurrection will be joyned to the Soul to be partner with it in weal or woe bliss or bane for ever The state here is tempus operis the time of working hereafter mercedis of reward Oh look before you leap into another world That 's the fifth Reason 6. The Christian must be made meet here for the Inheritance above because he hath abundance of work to do and priviledges to injoy in order to the full possession of this blessed Inheritance above We have many graces to exercise duties to perform corruptions to subdue temptations to resist burdens to bear mercies to improve that will never be managed to purpose without a qualification for managing them And observe it the same disposition is requisite for making a Christian meet for any duty that 's requisite to make him meet for glory the same habitual principle and drawing it forth into lively exercise Not only must the man of God be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.17 but every Christian that is a vessel unto honour must be sanctified and so meet for his Masters use and prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 Alas an unsanctified heart is unfit for spiritual service Solomon saith The legs of the lame are not equal he halts and goes limping so is a parable in the mouth of fools Prov. 26.7 How aukwardly and bunglingly doth he go to work in sacred things just as an unskilful person handles a Lute a Viol or Instrument of Musick or as the men of Ephraim could not frame to pronounce Shibboleth aright Judg. 12.6 There must be a suitableness betwixt the Agent and Acts No carnal heart can do any one good work well materially he may do what is good but not formally as good in a good manner for a good end acceptably to God or profitably to himself For they that are in the flesh cannot please God and without faith its impossible to please God Rom. 8.8 Heb. 11.6 And can we think God will carry them to Heaven that never struck a right stroke or never did one hours work for God that he would accept A graceless sinner is like the fruitless
Vine tree Ezek. 15.3 4 5. that is not meet for any work but it is cast into the fire for fuel just so is that branch that 's professionally in Christ that beareth not fruit it s taken away and cast into the fire and burned Joh. 15 2.-6 The Divine Wisdom is seen in suiting means to the end object to the faculty back to the burden Now graceless sinners are not fit for Gods work and if they be not fit in this world they will never be fit 2. The Christian hath many priviledges to injoy which he must be meet for even in this world as Reconciliation Justification Adoption Joy in the Holy Ghost Peace of Conscience Communion with God Audience of Prayers c. All these God hath promised Christ hath purchased for his Children and they are Childrens bread and must not be given to dogs God will not throw away his Mercies on such as value them not but scorn them they set light by precious delicates of his Table Mat. 22 5. The whole slight the Physitian Mat. 9.12 The full soul loaths the honey comb The carnal heart will not thank God for pardon and grace and can we think God will force his Blessings on such ungrateful miscreants that scorn both him and his kindness No surely there are some that long for these Blessings and will thankfully accept them See Acts 13.46 48. and 28.28 Yea he will make you prize them and part with all for them or you shall never have them What think you doth not the great God take care to secure his own glory as well as Mans felicity And would it not be dishonourable to God to bestow his richest treasures and pleasures of grace on such as despise them and take more pleasure in rooting in the sordid dunghil of sensual delights then in seeking first the Kingdom of God which consists in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 Alas Honour is not seemly for a fool Prov. 26.1 As a Jewel of Gold in a swines snout so is a fair Woman without discretion Prov. 11.22 These silly fools are not meet to sit as Princes with the King at his Table because they want a Wedding-garment of suitable disposition for so high a priviledge Mat. 22.12 CHAP. VIII Another Reason drawn from the necessary consistency of a Christians meetness for so glorious an Inheritance 7. THE last Reason why souls must be made meet for Heaven is because other wise there would be no consistency or suitable harmony betwixt men and glory If their natures be not changed they will not have a suitableness of disposition to the glorious state above The truth of this I shall demonstrate in these 4 particulars 1. None but persons made meet for Heaven will have any mind to leave the world and go to God A carnal unconverted soul is totally unwilling to go hence they fancy to themselves an Eternity below Their inward thought is that their houses shall endure for ever Psal 49.11 Yea themselves for they put far from them the evil day and sing a requiem to themselves as the fool in the Gospel and no wonder for they live by sense and know what they have here but know not what they must have hereafter As the old doting Monk that shewed his brave accommodations saying These things make us unwilling to dye It was an usual saying among the Heathens soli Christiani sunt mortis contemptores that Christians only are contemners of death This is applicable to sincere Christians Stoical apathy will not do it but Faith will Julius Palmer the Martyr said To them that have their Souls linked to the Elesh like a Rogues foot to a pair of stocks it is indeed hard to dye but for him who is able to separate Soul and Body by the help of Gods Spirit it is no more mastery for such a one to dye then for me to drink this cup of Beer Nay when the Christian is upon good terms with God he desires to be loosed or dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Yea this is the disposition of a Soul meet for Heaven that he loves and longs for Christs appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 but the sincere Christian that is not actually meet son Heaven though through grace he be habitually meet often shrugs at the approach of death and is glad to chide himself out and say as that holy man Egredere mea Arima egredere Go out my Soul go out what art thou afraid of And surely that man is more acceptable to God and comfortable in death that hath set all things streight and hath nothing to do but surrender his Soul into Gods hands this man will make his Lord welcome any hour of the day or watch of the night but the other is like a Maid undrest and unready though for the main she love her Friend and desire his coming yet in the present juncture and under those circumstances she is surprized and troubled that he should find her in that pitiful pickle This is the case of the unmeet Christian 2. None but Souls meet for Heaven are fit for death through which all must pass It s true the Apostle doth discover to us this mistery which among the rest he might receive in the third Heavens 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed but this change is a peculiar dispensation in the end of the world and this change is equivalent to death This is certain the fruit of the curse the sting of death will fasten her fangs on the unconverted soul that 's under the covenant of works and is not in Christ It s only the sincere Christian that can sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Song of Triumph or can make that brave challenge 1 Cor. 15.56 57. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Only our Captain Jesus hath disarmed death and it is only for his members others are left to its rage Death feeds on them Psal 49.14 it hath a full morsel of them The first death kills the Body and the second death damns the Soul but blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 Oh happy state of real Saints Christ our David hath conquered this Goliah The Ark of the Covenant hath driven back this swelling Jordan Tollitur mors non ne sit sed ne obsit This Serpent may hiss and hit not hurt strike down it may not strike home it may thrust Gods Children into the Grave not into Hell Nay our Lord sets his not only above the danger by death but fears of death that are thus meet for Heaven Heb. 2.14 15. that can say as that gracious Gentlewoman a Martyr written by me Anne Askew that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might and as merry as one that 's bound for Heaven But oh the woful state of a graceless sinner that is in Natures
matters to mind Do we not bring dishonour to God and discredit to our Religion by our backwardness And can we have that comfort and confidence in meeting the Bridegroom of our Souls as is fit Alas our Lord will be less welcome if he surprize us unawares as I have told you Ah Sirs you little know how near death is and therefore should be always ready to meet our Lord. It is matter of great lamentation that so few of Gods Children are meet for their home and like wayward Children are loath to go to bed though God hath taken a course to weary us out of the world The Lord help us to lament and lay to heart our great unmeetness for Heaven When sin security senselesness steals in upon thy Spirit search it out mourn for it confess it beg a pardon of it and recover thy self quickly out of it be not satisfied with any distance from God recover thy wonted familiarity with thy best friend and mend thy pace towards Heaven as a man in his journey that hath been hindered hies the faster to recover his way lost by his stay breath after more likeness to God fitness for every dispensation and long to be with God in Heaven Alas Sirs you little know how near you are to Eternity You see the sands that are run to the nether end of the glass but the upper part as one saith is covered with a mantle you know not how few sands are yet to run God forbid that you should have your Evidences to procure when you should have them to produce If you be not sure of Heaven you are sure of nothing all worldly things must leave you or you must leave them Dispatch all but this off your hands and be as the bird on her wings to her nest or the traveller whose mind is still on home home nothing will please him but home Say with Calvin Vsquequo Domine How long Lord shall my Soul be at a distance from thee Come Lord Jesus come quickly CHAP. XII The second Doctrine briefly handled that a meetness for Heaven is a mercy worth thanking God for I Proceed briefly to explain the second Doctrine in my Text which is That its a transcendent Mercy worth thanking God for to be made meet for the Heavenly Inheritance If we must thank God for Daily-bread for Houses Health Estates Worldly comforts and accommodations for our Bodies how much more should we thank God for Heaven and a meetness for Heaven without which we shall never come there The truth of this I shall demonstrate in these seven particulars 1. Spiritual Mercies are of most worth and deserve most thanks from us to God But this is a Spiritual Mercy Eph. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly places in Christ It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so may signifie spiritual things as well as places i. e. Graces Priviledges Comforts or whatever hath a tendency to the good of the Soul or eternal Salvation in Heaven These indeed are a Benjamins portion a goodly heritage the quintessence and marrow of all Blessings If God should give you the whole World and put you off therewith you are cursed and wretched if he give you Grace and Glory you are happy if you had nothing else Our Lord thought that a plenary Benediction with which he begins his first Sermon Matth. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God There 's the mercy promised and the qualification for it both choice Blessings 2. That which is the purchase of Christ is worth our thanking God for but this is the fruit of Christs purchase It s not only a purchased inheritance nor did Christ only purchase us to be heirs of this inheritance but he hath purchased a meetness in Believers for that Inheritance Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works How do men thankfully celebrate Christs Nativity But that mercy of Christs being born into the world though transcendently great will never advantage you unless Christ be in you the hope of glory Col. 1.27 his dwelling in your hearts by Faith Eph. 3.17 intitles you to the inheritance he hath purchased Look within thee Man as well as without thee and above thee for the fruits of Christs purchase and occasions of thankfulness to God 3. The operations and fruits of the Spirit are surely worth thanking God for but this is one of the most glorious fruits of the Spirit to fit Souls for Heaven Our Lord promiseth to send the Holy Ghost to supply the want of his Bodily presence and it is the richest gift that ever proceeded from Father and Son such as have it out of their Belly flow Rivers of living water Job 7.38 39. God is to be admired in all the saving works and actings of the Spirit the convincing humbling sanctifying supporting satisfying sealing comforting quickening inlarging confirming witnessing and reviving operations of it Alas we had never lookt after God had not the Holy Ghost knockt at our doors we had been blind in the things of God but that the Spirit inlightened us dead but that the Spirit enlivened us we had wandered for ever but that the Holy Spirit reduced us our hearts had been for ever hardened from Gods fear had not Gods Spirits softened us we should have been unlike God but that the Holy Ghost stampt Gods Image upon us whatever hath been done upon our Spirits to fit us for Heaven the Holy Ghost hath been the Agent yea that Spirit that we have quenched grieved resisted vexed what cause then have we to be very thankful This is the golden Oyl that runs through the golden pipes of Ordinances into the candlestick of the Church Zech. 4.11 12. 4. The Gospel-dispensation is great matter and ground of thankfulness It is a mistery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of mon Eph. 3.4 5. But what is the marrow and main design of this Gospel-revelation Why ver 6. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel Oh glorious design Oh blessed Charter But what are we better unless we be partners of this priviledge Therefore chap. 2.19 saith Christians are fellow-vitizens with the Saints This is the Gospel way of infranchising and incorporating poor strangers in the Immunities of Heaven and surely this is worth thanking God for The Charters of some Cities cost them dear and the Chief Captain said to Paul with a great summe obtained I this freedom Paul said and so may Believers say in this sense but I was free-born Acts 22.28 Though it cost Christ dear yet it costs us nothing but reception This new Jerusalem is built all of Free-stone and shall not our shoutings echo grace grace to the Head-stone Jesus Christ
be above with God CHAP. XIII Some practical Inferences from this Doctrine USE of all this briefly is in four consectaries 1. That there is undoubtedly such a future state as bliss and blessedness for Gods ' Children after this life There remaineth a rest to the people of God Heb. 4.9 I need not go about to prove this it s sufficiently and abundantly confirmed by abler hands not only from Scripture but Nature Reason Divine Providence in the world and the grace of God in the hearts of his people Enough is said to silence Atheism in our Spirits and to stop the mouths of all Atheists on Earth Can any rationally imagine that God should endow Man with such a noble Soul and endue that Soul with such noble faculties of Mind Will and Conscience and Affections capable of knowing loving injoying God with fears and hopes of a future state and all this in vain Can we think the holy just good wise righteous God will always promote the wicked and punish the godly and not right these things in the next world Hath Christ come into the world to no purpose What would become of his Birth Life Doctrine Death Resurrection Ascention Intercession coming to Judgment if there were no life of future retribution What would become of the precepts promises threatnings motives means helps to an holy life here and to attain eternal life hereafter if there were no such thing Can we imagine that the great God governs the world by a lye Are Heaven and Hell bug-bears or meer imaginations of brain-sick fools Is there not a reality in Satans temptations to draw or drive us from God and future happiness Or are there no Devils or Spirits and so by consequence no God Away with these wild conceits contrary to the sentiments of all Mankind 2. Then it follows that assurance is attainable not only objective assurance that there is a glorious inheritance and that God will give it to some but subjective also that this is mine that its for me I have a title to it else how could persons thank God for making meet for this inheritance This assurance ariseth from actings of Faith and produceth rejoycing in hope of this glory of God Rom. 5.1 The gospel is a gospel of peace not of fears and doubts Assurance may be had not only by divine revelation but in the use of ordinary means I know in whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1.12 Read on and you 'l find not only his assurance of his present state but his perseverance and future felicity and it s not his peculiar priviledge but common to other Believers 2. Cor. 5.1 It s true God is a free Agent and may bestow it on whom and when he pleaseth Some have it most clearly at first Conversion as Bernard for a time after his Conversion remained as it were deprived of his Senses by the excessive consolations he had from God Cyprian saith He thought before his Conversion it was impossible to find such raptures and ravishments as now he found in a Christian course Many a close walking Christian can set his seal to this truth only it ordinarily comes in after hard conflicts with temptation wrestlings with God much experience and exact walking with God There is Salvation and there is the joy of Gods Salvation Psal 51.12 This saith Mr. Latimer is the sweet-meats of the feast of a good Conscience There are many other dainty dishes at the feast but this is the banquet This is better felt then expressed but must be endeavoured after prayed for Ask saith our Lord and ye shall receive that your joy may be full Joh. 16.24 3. That the work of thankfulness is the great duty of a Christian This this is the proper character and imployment of a Christian God commands it priviledges call for it gracious Souls have been much in it it is comprehensive of mans whole duty Vrsin entitles the practical part of his Carechism de Gratitudine of Gratitude Oh that Christians were more in it Praise is comely for the upright This is the Epitome of Religion the Emblem of Heaven the proper Air in which a Christian breaths It s most acceptable to God creditable to Religion and profitable to the Christian Mr. Fox tells us the City Zurick ingraved the Year of their deliverance from Popery upon Pillars in Letters of Gold for a lasting Memorial And have not Christians cause to thank God for grace and glory The Heathens could say Call a Man ingrateful and you cannot call him worse Hezekiah brought wrath on himself Judah and Jerusalem for not rendring to the Lord according to benefits done to him 2 Chron. 32.25 Oh Sirs you little know what an evil ingratitude is you fill your Souls with guilt you too much resemble wicked men whose character is unthankful 2 Tim. 3.2 That sin makes hard times yea it makes you like the worst of Heathen for which sin God gave them up Rom. 1.21 24. you act disingenuously as those that have served their turns of God and then disown him How can you own God in the next strait that are so much in arrears Will not your mouth be stopt and Conscience fly in your face Do you not daily depend on God for new Mercies And is not thankfulness a natural duty Is not gratitude for Spiritual Mercies a great evidence of your interest in them And is not every Mercy sweetened by thankfulness Nay is not this a mean to continue them The more thankful any have been the more eminent they have been Their graces have shined and glistered like Pearls and Diamonds Yea once more the more thankful you are and the more cause of thankfulness you will both have and see Thankfulness for what you are sure you have will produce a fuller evidence of that you are doubtful of The Lord humble us for our gross ingratitude which is as one saith a Monster in Nature a Solaecism in Manners a Paradox in Divinity and a parching Wind to damme up the Fountain of Divine Favours You 'l say Oh Sir I could be thankful with all my heart if I knew I were fit for Heaven and that my Soul shall at death enter into peace but alas as long as I am doubtful and at uncertainties how can I be thankful Conscience would check and condemn me and indeed I have more cause to be humbled and ashamed for my unmeetness then thankful for any meetness I find in me for Heaven Ans 1. There may be grounds both of humiliation and thankfulness in the same soul and subject Let the best Saints do the best they can and attain to the highest pitch imaginable they shall have cause of humiliation for their defects 2. Holy jealousie fears cares do well in Gods Children to keep them humble and indeed as grace increaseth fight of imperfections increaseth and sense of short-coming the more discoveries of Gods holiness the viler will the Christian be in his own eyes as Job and Isaiah Job 42. Isa 6.5