was I am all Spirit and life I feel my self disburthened and unclogg'd of all the heavy oppressive weights that hung upon me No body of death doth now incumber me no deadness of heart no coldness of love no drowsie sloth no aversness from God no earthly mind no sensual inclinations or affections no sinful devisions oâ— heart between God and Creatures He hath now the whole of me I injoy and delight in none but him O blessed change O happy day 2. If in contemplating it self cloathed with this likeness it respect the state of damned souls What transporâ—s must that occasion What ravishing resentments When it compares humane nature in its highest perfection with the same nature in its utmost depravation An unspeakably more unequal comparison than that would be of the most amiable lovely person flourishing in the prime of youthful strength and beauty with a putrified rotten carcasse deformed by the corruption of a loathsome grave When glorified Spirits shall make such a reflection as this Lo here we shine in the glorious brightness of the divine Image and behold yonder deformed accursed souls They were as capable of this glory as we Had the same nature with us the same reason the same intellectual faculties and powers but what monsters are they now become They eternally hate the eternal excellency Sin and death are finished upon them They have each of them an hell of horror and wickedness in it self Whence is this amazing difference Though this cannot but be an awful wonder it cannot also but be temper'd with pleasure and joy 3. We may suppose this likeness to be considered in reference to its pattern and in comparison therewith which will then be another way of heightning the pleasure that shall arise thence Such a frame and constitution of Spirit is full of delights in it self but when it shall be refer'd to its original and the correspondency between the one and the other be observ'd and view'd how exactly they accord and answer each other as face doth face in the water this cannot still but add pleasure to pleasure one delight to another When the blessed soul shall interchangeably turn its eye to God and it self and consider the agreement of glory to glory the several derived excellencies to the original He is wise and so am I holy and so am I. I am now made perfect as my heavenly Father is this gives a new relish to the former pleasure How will this likeness please under that notion as it is his a likeness to him O the accent that will be put upon those appropriative words to be made partakers of His holiness and of the divine nature Personal excellencies in themselves considered cannot be reflected on but with some pleasure but to the ingenuity of a child how especially grateful will it be to observe in it self such and such graceful deportments wherein it naturally imitates its father So he was wont to speak and act and demean himself how natural is it unto love to affect and aim at the imitation of the person loved So natural it must be to take complacency therein when we have hit our mark and atchiev'd our design The pursuits and attainments of love are proportionable and correspondent each to other And what heart can compass the greatness of this thought to be made like God! Lord was there no lower pattern than thy self thy glorious blessed self according to which to form a worm This cannot want its due resentments in a glorified state 4. This transformation of the blessed soul into the likeness of God may be viewed by it in reference to the way of accomplishment as an end brought about by so amazing stupendous means which will certainly be a pleasing contemplation When it reflects on the method and course insisted on for bringing this matter to pass views over the work of redemption in its tendency to this end The restoring Gods Image in souls Considers Christ manifested to us in order to his being revealed and formed in us That God was made in the likeness man to make men after the likeness of God That he partook with us of the humane nature that we might with him partake of the divine that he assumed our flesh in order to impart to us his Spirit When it shall be considered for this end had we so many great and precious promises for this end did the glory of the Lord shine upon us through the glass of the Gospel that we might be made partakers c. That we might be changed c. Yea when it shall be called to mind though it be far from following hence that this is the only or principal way wherein the life and death of Christ have influence in order to our eternal happiness that our Lord Jesus lived for this end that we might learn so to walk as he also walked that he dyed that we mught be conformed to his death that he rose again that we might with him attain the resurrection of the dead that he was in us the hope of glory that he might be in us that is that same Image that bears his Name our final consummate glory it self also With what pleasure will these harmonious congruities these apt correspondencies be look'd into at last Now may the glorified Saint say I here see the end the Lord Jesus came into the world for I see for what he was lift up made a spectacle that he might be a transforming one What the effusions of his Spirit were for why it so earnestly strove with my way-ward heart I now behold in my own soul the fruit of the travel of his Soul This was the project of redeeming love the design of all-powerful Gospel grace Glorious atchievement blessed end of that great and notable undertaking happy issue of that high desin 5. With reference to all their own expectations and indeavours When it shall be considered by a Saint in glory the attainment of this perfect likeness to God was the utmost mark of all my designs and aims the term of all my hopes and desires This is that I long'd and laboured for that which I pray'd and waited for which I so earnestly breath'd after and restlestly pursu'd It was but to recover the defaced image of God To be again made like him as once I was Now I have attained my end I have the fruit of all my labour and travels I see now the truth of those often incouraging words Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Be not weary of well doing for ye shall reap if ye faint not What would I once have given for a steady abiding frame of holiness for an heart constantly bent and biassed toward God constantly serious constantly tender lively watchful heavenly spiritual meek humble chearful self-denying How have I cryed and striven for this to get such an heart such a temper of spirit how have I pleaded with God and my own
and good impressions thou had'st but even all thou wast capable of and mightst have attained Thou shalt now recount with anguish and horror and rend thy own Soul with the thoughts what thou mightest now have been how excellent and glorious a creature hadst thou not contriv'd thy own misery and conspir'd with the Devil against thy self how to deform and destroy thy own Soul While this remembrance shall alwayes a fresh return that nothing was injoyned thee as a duty or propounded as thy blessedness but what thou wast made capable of and that it was not fatal necessity but a wilful choice made thee miserable CHAP. XII Inference 3. That a change of heart is necessary to this blessedness The pretences of ungodly men whereby they would avoid the necessity of this change Five considerations proposed in order to the detecting the vanity of such pretences A particular discussion and refutation of those pretences 3. 'T Is a mighty change must pâ—sse upon the Souls of men in order to their enjoyment of this Blessedness This equally follows from the consideration of the Nature and substantial parts of it as of the qualifying righteousness prerequired to it A little reflection upon the common state and temper of mens spirits will soon inforce an acknowledgement that the Vision of God and conformity to him are things above their reach and which they are never likely to take satisfaction in or at all to savour till they become otherwise disposed then before the renovating change they are The text expresses no more in stating the qualified subject of this blessedness in righteousness then it evidently implies in the account it gives of this blessedness it self that it lies in seeing God and being satisfied with his likeness Assoon as it is considered that the blessedness of Souls is stated here what can be a more obvious reflection then this Lord then how great a change must they undergo what such Souls be blessed in seeing and pertaking the Divine likeness that never loved it were so much his enemies 'T is true they are naturally capable of it which speaks their original excellencie but they are morally uncapable i. e. indisposed and averse which as truly and most sadly speaks their present vileness and the sordid object temper they now are of They are destitute of no natural Powers necessary to the attainment of this blessedness but in the mean time have them so depraved by impure and vitious tinctures that they cannot relish it or the means to it They have reasonable Soul's furnished with intellective and elective faculties but labouring under a manifold distemper and disaffection that they cannot receive they cannot savour the things of God or what is Spiritual They want the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we may express it the well disposedness for the Kingdom of God intimated Luke 9. 62. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meetness the aptitude or idoneity for the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. A settled aversion from God hath fastned its roots in the very spirit of their minds for that is stated as the prime subject of the change to be made and how can they take pleasure then in the vision and participation of his glory whereas by beholding the glory of the Lord they should be changed into the same image a vail is upon the heart till it turn to the Lord as was said concerning the Jews 2 Cor. 3. The God of this world hath blinded their minds least that transforming light the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them Chap. 4. 4. They are alienated from the Life of God through their ignorance and blindness of heart The life they chuse is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists or without God in the world They like not to retain God in their knowledge are willingly ignorant of him Say to him depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes The Lord looks down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if any will understand if any will seek after God and the result of the inquiry is there is none that doth good no not one They are haters of God as our Saviour accused the Jews and Saint Paul the Gentiles Are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Their understandings are dark their minds vain their wills obstinate their Consciences seared their hearts hard and dead their lives one continued Rebellion against God and a defiance to Heaven At how vast distance are such Souls from such blessedness The notion and nature of blessedness must sure be changed or the temper of their Spirits Either they must have new hearts created or a new Heaven if ever they be happy And such is the stupid dotage of vain man he can more easily perswade himself to believe that the Sun it self should be transformed into a dunghill that the Holy God should lay aside his Nature and turn Heaven into a place of impure darkness then that he himself should need to undergo a change O ye powerful infatuation of self love that men in the gall of bitterness should think 't is well with their spirits and fancie themselves in a case good enough to enjoy Divine pleasures that as the Toads venome offends not it self their loathsom wickedness which all good men detest is a pleasure to them and while 't is as the poison of Asps under their lips they call it as a daintie bit revolve it in their thoughts with delight Their wickedness speakes it self out to the very hearts of others while it never affects their own and is found out to be hateful while they still continue slattering themselves And because they are without spot in their own eyes they adventure so high as to presume themselves so in the pure eyes of God too and instead of designing to be like God they already imagine him sucâ— a one as themselves Hence their allotment of time in the whole of it the Lord knowes little enough for the working out of their salvation spends a pace while they do not so much as understand their business Their measured hour is almost out an immense Eternity is coming on upon them and lo they stand as men that cannot find their hands Urge them to the speedy serious indeavour of an heart-change earnestly to intend the business of regeneration of becoming new creatures they seem to understand it as little as if they were spoken to in an unknown tongue and are in the like posture with the confounded builders of Babel they know not what we mean or would put them upon They wonder what we would have them do They are say they Orthodox Christians They believe all the Articles of the Christian Creed They detest all Heresie and false Doctrine They are no strangers to the house of God but diligently attend the injoyned Solemnities of Publick
this blessedness For First The thing you expect is sure You have not to do in this matter with one who is inconstant or likely to change If such a one should make us large promises we should have some cause never to think our selves secure till we had them made good to us But since we live in the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie and who we know is faithful hath promised we may be confident and this confidence should quiet our hearts What a faithful friend keeps for us we reckon as safe in his hands as in our own He that believes makes not hast And impatient haste argues an unbelieving jealousie and distrust Surely there is an end and thy expectation will be cut off And then 't is an happiness that will recompense the most wearisome expectation 'T were good sometimes to consider with our selves what 's the object of our hope are our expectations pitcâ—'t upon a valuable good that will be worth while to expect so the Psalmist what wait I for and he answers himself my hope is in thee Sure then that hope will not make ashamed T were a confounding thing to have been a long time full of great hopes that at last dwindle into some pettie trifle but when we know before hand the business is such as will defray it self bear its own charges who would not be contented to wait Nor will the time of expectation be long when I shall awâ—ke when he shall appear Put it to the longest term 't was said 1600 years ago to be but a little while three times over in the shutting up of the Bible he tells us I come quickly He seems to foresee he should be something impatiently expected And at last Surely I come quickly q. d. What will you not believe me Be patient saith the Apostle to the coming of the Lord and presently he adds be patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Yea and amidst the many troubles of that short time of expectation many present comforts are intermixt Heaven is open to us We have constant liberty of access to God He disdains not our present converse We may have the constant pleasure of the exercise of grace the heavenly delights of meditation The joy of the publique Solemnities of worship The communion and encouragement of fellow Christians The light of that countenance whereof we expect the eternal vision The comforts of the Holy Ghost The continual prospect of glory all the way thither What cause have we of impatience or complaint Further Saints of all ages have had their expecting time We are required to be followers of them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises Our Saviour himself waited a lifes time for his glorification I have saith he glorify'd thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do And now further glorifie me with thine own self c. And while we are waiting if it be not our fault our glory will be encreasing we may be glorifying God in the mean time which is the end of our beings we need not live here to no purpose Again We were well enough content till God more clearly revealed that other state to live always as we do T is not now ingenuous to be impatiently querulous about the time of our entring into it T is his free vouchsafement we never merited such a thing at his hands T is not commendable among men to be over quick in exacting doubts even where there was an antecedent right much less where the right onely shall accrue by promise not yet suitable would it not shame us to have God say to us Have patience with me and I will pay you all And our former state should be often reflected on If you had promised great things to a wretch lately taken off the dunghil and he is every day impatiently urging you â—o an untimely accomplisheut would you not check his over bold hast by minding him of his original It becomes not base and low born persons to be transported with a preposterous over hasty expectation of high and and great things And if God bear with the sinfulness of our present state is it not reasonable we should bear with the infelicitie of it to his appointed time Besides that we should much injure our selvs by our impatiency imbitter our present condition increase our own burthen dissipate our strength retard our progresse towards the perfection we profess to aim at for patience must have its perfect work that we may be perfect And others that have had as clear apprehensions and vigorous desires at least of the future state of glory as we can with modesty pretend to have yet herein moderated themselves so as to intend their present worke with composed spirits Take that one instance of the blessed Apostle who whilest in this earthly tabernacle he groaned being burthen'd to be cloth'd with glory and to have mortality swallowed up of life being sensible enough that during his abode or presence in the body he was absent from the Lord yet notwithstanding the fervor and vehemency of these longings with the greatest calmness and resignation imaginable as to the termination or continuance of his present state he adds that though he had rather be absent from the body to be present with the Lord it was yet his chief ambition as the word he uses signifies whether present or absent as if in comparison of that to be present or absent were indifferent though otherwise out of that comparison he had told us he would be absent rather to be accepted to appear grateful and well pleasing in the eye of God such that he might delight and take content in as his expression imports As if he had said though I am not unapprehensive of the state of my case I know well I am kept out of a far more desirable condition while I remain in this tabernacle yet may I but please and appear acceptable in the sight of God whether I be sooner dismist from this thraldom or longer continued in it I contend not His burden here that so sensibly prest him was not a present evil so much as an aâ—sent good He was not so burden'd by what he felt and could not remove as by what he saw and could not enjoy His groans accordingly were not brutal as those of a beast under a too heavy load but rational the groans of an apprehensive spirit panting after an alluring inviting glory which he had got the prospect of but could not yet attain And hence the same spiritual reason which did exercise did also at once moderate his desires so that as he saw there was reason to desire so he saw there was reason his desiâ—es should be allayd by a submissive ingenâ—ous patience till they might have a due 〈◊〉 seasonable accomplishment And that sâ—â—e emper of mind we find him in when he professes to be
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
here to be understood by it which indeed sleeping would more aptly signifie than awaking but what is co-incident therewith in the same period the exuscitation and revival of the soul. When the body falls asleep then doth the Spirit awake and the eye-lids of the morning even of an eternal day do now first open upon it 1. Therefore we shall not exclude from this season the introductive state of blessedness which takes its beginning from the blessed souls first entrance into the invisible state And the fitness of admitting it will appear by clearing these two things 1. That its condition in this life even at the best is in some sort but a sleep 2. That when it passes out of it into the invisible Regions 't is truly said to awake 1. It s abode in this mortal body is but a continual sleep its senses are bound up a drowsie slumber possesses and suspends all its faculties and powers Before the renovating change how frequently doth the Scripture speak of sinners as men a sleep Let not us sleep as do others Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead c. They are in a dead sleep under the sleep of death They apprehend things as men asleep How slight obscure hovering notions have they of the most momentous things and which it most concerns them to have thorough real apprehensions of All their thoughts of God Christ Heaven Hell of Sin of Holiness are but uncertain wild guesses blind hallucinations incoherent phansies the absurdity and inconcinnity whereof they no more reflect upon then men asleep They know not these things but only dream of them They put darkness for light and light for darkness have no senses exercised to discern between good and evil The most substantial realities are with them meer shadowes and chemaera's Phansied and imagined dangers startle them as 't is wont to be with men in a dream real ones though never so near them they as little fear as they The creature of their own imagination the Lion in the way which they dream of in their slothful slumber affrights them but the real roaring Lion that is ready to devour them they are not afraid of And conversion doth but relax and intermit it doth not totally break of this sleep It as it were attenuates the consopiting fumes doth not utterly dispel them What a difficulty is it to watch but one hour There are some lucid and vivid intervals but of how short continuance how soon doth the awakened soul close its heavy eyes and fall asleep again how often do temptations surprize even such in their slumbring fits while no sense of their danger can prevail with them to watch and pray with due care and constancy least they enter thereinto Hither are most of the sins of our lives to be imputed and referr'd not to meer ignorance that we know not sin from duty or what will please God and what displease him but to a drowsie inadvertency that we keep not our spirits in a watchful considering posture Our eyes that should be ever towards the Lord will not be kept open and though we resolve we forget our selves before we are aware we find our selves overtaken Sleep comes on upon us like an armed man and we cannot avert it How often do we hear and read and pray and meditate as persons asleep as if we knew not what we were about How remarkable useful providences escape either our notice or due improvement amidst our secure slumbers How many Visits from heaven are lost to us when we are as it were between sleeping and waking I sleep but my heart waketh and hardly own the voice that calls upon us till our beloved hath withdrawn himself Indeed what is the whole of our life here but a dream The entire scene of this sensible world but a vision of the night where every man walks but in a vain shew where we are mockt with shadows our credulous sense abus'd by impostures and delusive appearances nor are we ever secure from the most destructive mischievous deception further than as our souls are possest with the apprehensions that this is the very truth of our case and thence instructed to consider and not to prefer the shadows of time before the great realities of eternity Nor is this sleep casual but even connatural to our present state the necessary result of so strict an union and commerce with the body which is to the in-dwelling Spirit as a dormitory or charnel-house rather than a mansion A soul drench't in sensuality a Leâ—â—e that hath too little of fiction in it and immur'd in a sloathful putid slesh sleeps as it were by fate not by chance and is only capable of full relief by suffering a Dissolution which it hath reason to welcome as a jubilee and in the instant of departure to sacrifice as he did with that easie and warrantable change to make a Heathen expression Scriptural Jehovae liberatori to adore and praise its great Deliverer At least accounts being once made up and a meetness in any measure attained for the heavenly inheritance c. hath no reason to regret or dread the approaches of the eternal day more than we do the return of the Sun after a dark and long-some night But as the sluggard doth nothing more unwillingly than forsake his bed nor bears any thing with more regret than to be awak't out of his sweet sleep though you should intice him with the pleasures of a Paradise to quit a smoky loathsome Cottage so fares it with the sluggish soul as if it were lodg'd in an inchanted Bed 't is so fast held by the charms of the body all the glory of the other world is little enough to tempt it out than which there is not a more deplorable Symptome of this sluggish slumbring state So deep an oblivion which you know is also naturally incident to sleep hath seiz'd it of its own Countrey of its alliances above its relation to the Father and world of Spirits It takes this earth for its home where 't is both in exile and captivity at once And as a Prince stoln away in his infancy and bred up in a beggers shed so little seeks that it declines a better state This is the degenerous torpid disposition of a soul lost in flesh and inwrapt in stupifying clay which hath been deeply resented by some Heathens So one brings in Socrates pathetically bewailing this oblivious dreaming temper of his soul which saith he had seen that pulchritude you must pardon him here the conceit of its pre-existence that neither humane voice could utter nor eye behold But that now in this life it had only some little remembrance thereof as in a dream being both in respect of place and condition far removed from so pleasant sights prest down into an earthly station and there encompast with all manner of dirt and filthiness c. And to the same purpose Plato often speaks
satisfaction and blessedness of the expecting soul. And wherein it may do so is not altogether unapprehensible Admit that a Spirit had it never been imbodied might be as well without a body or that it might be as well provided of a body out of other materials 't is no unreasonable supposition that a connate aptitude to a body should render humane souls more happy in a body sufficiently attempered to their most noble operations And how much doth relation and propriety endear things otherwise mean and inconsiderable or why should it be thought strange that a soul connaturallized tâ— matter should be more particularly inclined to a particular portion thereof So as that it should appropriate such a part and say 't is mine And will it not be a pleasure to have a vitalitâ— diffused through what even more remotely appertains to me to have every thing belonging to the Supposition perfectly vindicated from the Tyrannous dominion of death The returnâ—ing of the Spirits into a benumb'd or sleeping toe or finger adds a contentment to a maâ— which he wanted before Nor is it hence neâ—cessary the Soul should covet a re-union wiâ—â— every effluvious particle of its former body A desire implanted by God in a reasonable soul will aim at what is convenient not whâ— shall be cumbersome or monstrous And how pleasant will it be to comtemplatâ— and admire the wisdom and power of thâ— great Creatour in this so glorious a change when I shall find a Clod of Earth an Heaâ— of Dâ—st refined into a Celestial purity anâ— brightness when what was sown in corruptiâ—â— shall be raised in incorruption what was sown 〈◊〉 dishonour is raised in glory what was sown in weakness is raised in power what was sown a natural body is raised a Spiritual body When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal an immortality and death be wholly swallowed up in victory So that this awaking may well be understood to carry that in it which may bespeak it the proper season of the Saints consummate satisfaction and blessedness But besides what it carries in it self there are other more extrinsical concurrents that do further signalize this season and import a great increase of blessedness then to Gods holy ones The body of Christ is now compleated the fulness of him that filleth all in all and all the so nearly related parts cannot but partake in perfection and reflected glory of the whole There is joy in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner though he have a troublesome Scene yet to pass over afterwards in a tempting wicked unquiet world how much more when the many sons shall be all brought to glory together The designes are all now accomplished and wound up into the most glorious result and issue whereof the Divine Providence had been as in travel for so many thousand years 'T is now seen how exquisite wisdom govern'd the world and how steady a tendency the most intricate and perplexed Methods of Providence had to one stated and most worthy end Specially the constitution administration and ends of the Mediatours Kingdom are now beheld in the exact aptitudes order and conspicuous glory when so blessed an issue and success shall commend and crown the whole undertaking The Divine Authority is now universally acknowledged and adored his Justice is vindicated and satisfied his Grace demonstrated and magnified to the uttermost The whole assembly of Saints solemnly acquitted by publique sentence presented spotless and without blemish to God and adjudged to eternal blessedness 'T is the day of solemn triumph and jubilation upon the finishing of all Gods works from the creation of the world wherein the Lord Jesus appears to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe Upon which ensues the resignation of the Mediatours Kingdome all the ends being now attained that the Father â—imself may be immediately all in all How aptly then are the fuller manifestations of God the more glorious display of all his Attributes the larger and more abundant Effusions of himself reserv'd as the best Wine to the last unto this joyful day Created perfections couldnot have been before so absolute but they might admit of improvement Their capacities not so large but they might be extended further and then who can doubt but that divine communications may also have a proportionable increase and that upon the concourse of so many great occasions they shall have so CHAP. XI An Introduction to the use of the Doctrine hitherto proposed The Use divided into Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty 1. Inference That Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment 2. Inference The Spirit of man since 't is capable of so high a Blessedness a Being of high excellency AND now is our greatest work yet behind the improvement of so momentous a truth to the affecting and transforming of hearts That if the Lord shall so far vouchsafe his assistance and blessing they may taste the sweetness feel the power and bear the impresse and image of it This is the work both of greatest necessity difficulty and excellency and unto which all that hath been done hitherto is but subservient and introductive Give me leave therefore Reader to stop thee here and demand of thee ere thou go further hast thou any design in turning over these leaves of bettering thy Spirit of getting a more refined heavenly temper of soul art thou weary of thy dross and earth and longing for the first fruits the beginnings of glory dost thou wish for a soul meet for the blessedness hitherto described What is here written is designed for thy help and furtherance But if thou art looking on these pages with a wanton rolling eye hunting for novelties or what may gratifie a prurient wit a coy and squeamish fancy Go read a Romance or some piece of Drollery know here 's nothing for thy turn and dread to meddle with matters of everlasting concernment without a serious Spirit read not another line till thou have sighed out this request Lord keep me from trifling with the things of Eternity Charge thy soul to consider that what thou art now reading must be added to thy account against the great day 'T is amazing to think with what vanity of mind the most weighty things of Religion are entertained amongst Christians Things that should swallow up our souls drink up our Spirits are heard as a tale that is told disregarded by most scorned by too many What can be spoken so important or of so tremendous consequence or of so confessed truth or with so awful solemnity and premised mention of the sacred name of the Lord as not to find either a very slight entertainment or contemptuous rejection and this by persons avowing themselves Christians We seem to have little or no advantage in urging men upon their own principles and with things they most readily and professedly assent to Their hearts are as much untouch't and void of impression by the
Christian Doctrine as if they were of another Religion How unlike is the Christian world to the Christian Doctrine The seal is fair and excellent but the impression is languid or not visible Where is that serious godliness that heavenliness that purity that spirituality that righteousness that peace unto which the Christian Religion is most aptly designed to work and form the Spirits of men we think to be saved by an empty name and glory in the shew and appearance of that the life and power whereof we hate and deride 'T is a reproach with us not to be called a Christian and a greater reproach to be one If such and such Doctrines obtain not in our professed Belief we are Hereticks or Infidels if they do in our practice we are precisians and fools To be so serious and circumspect and strict and holy to make the practice of godliness so much our business as the known and avowed principles of our Religion do plainly exact from us yea though we come as we cannot but do unspeakably short of that required measure is to make ones self a common derision and scorn Not to be professedly religious is barbarous to be so in good earnest ridiculous In other things men are wont to act and practise according to the known Rules of their several Callings and Professions and he would be reckon'd the common fool of the neighbour-hood that should not do so The Husbandman that should sow when others reap or contrive his Harvest into the depth of Winter or sow Fitches and expect to reap Wheat The Merchant that should venture abroad his most precious Commodities in a leaky bottom without Pilot or Compass or to places not likely to afford him any valuable return In Religion only it must be counted absurd to be and do according to it s known agreed Principles and he a fool that shall but practise as all about him professe to believe Lord whence is this apprehended inconsistency between the profession and practise of Religion what hath thus stupify'd and unman'd the world that seriousness in Religion should be thought the character of a fool that men must visibly make a mockery of the most Fundamental Articles of Faith onely to save their reputation and be afraid to be serious least they should be thought mad Were the Doctrine here opened believed in earnest were the due proper impresse of it upon our Spirits or as the Pagan Moralists expression is were our mind transfigured into it what manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness But 't is thought enough to have it in our Creed though never in our hearts and such as will not deride the holiness it should produce yet indeavour it not nor go about to apply and urge truths upon their own souls to any such purpose What should turn into Grace and Spirit and Life turns all into Notion and Talk and men think all is well if their head be fill'd and their tongues tipt with what should transform their souls and govern their lives How are the most awful Truths and that should have greatest power upon mens Spirits trifled with as matters only of speculation and discourse They are heard but as empty airy words and presently evaporate pass away into words again like food as Seneca speaks that comes up presently the same that it was taken in which as he saith profits not nor makes any accession to the body at all A like case as another ingeniously speaks as if sheep when they have been feeding should present their Shepherds with the very grass it self which they have cropt and shew how much they had eaten No saith he they concoct it and so yield them Wool and Milk And so saith he do not you viz. when you have been instructed presently go and utter words among the more ignorant meaning they should not do so in a way of ostentation to shew how much they knew more than others but works that follow upon the concoction of what hath been by words made known to them Let Christians be ashamed that they need this instruction from heathen Teachers Thy words were found and I did eat them saith the Prophet and thy word was to me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Divine truth is only so far at present grateful or useful for future as 't is received by faith and consideration and in the love thereof into the very heart and there turned in succum sanguinem into real nutriment to the soul So shall man live by the word of God Hence is the application of it both personal and ministerial of so great necessity If the Truths of the Gospel were of the same alloy with some parts of Philosophy whose end is attained as soon as they are known If the Scripture Doctrine the whole entire System of it were not a Doctrine after godliness if it were not designed to sanctifie and make men holy or if the hearts of men did not reluctate were easily receptive of its impressions our work were as soon done as such a Doctrine were nakedly proposed But the state of the case in these respects is known and evident The tenour and aspect of Gospel truth speaks its end and experience too plainly speaks the oppositeness of mens Spirits All therefore we read and hear is lost if it be not urgently apply'd The Lord grant it be not then too Therefore Reader let thy mind and heart concur in the following improvement of this Doctrine which will be wholly comprehended under these Two heads Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty that are consequent and connatural thereto 1. Inferences of Truth educible from it 1. True Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment The blessedness of a man can be but one Most onely one He can have but one highest and best good And its proper character is that it finally satisfies and gives rest to his Spirit This the face and likeness of God doth his glory beheld and participated Here then alone his full blessedness must be understood to lye Therefore as this might many other wayes be evinced to be true so it evidently appears to be the proper issue of the present truth and is plainly proved by it But alas it needs a great deal more to be pressed than proved O that it were but as much considered as it is known The experience of almost 6000. years hath one would think sufficiently testified the incompetency of every worldly thing to make men happy that the present pleasing of our senses and the gratification of our animal part is not blessedness that men are still left unsatisfied notwithstanding But the practice and course of the world is such as if this were some late and rare experiment which for curiosity every one must be trying over again Every age renews the inquiry after an earthly felicity the design is intail'd as the Spanish designs are said to be and reinforc'd with as great a confidence and vigor
supreme desire till it attain to the fulness thereof We have here a plainly-implyed description of the posture and tendencies of such a soul even of a sanctified holy Soul which had therefore undergone this blessed change towards this state of blessedness I shall saith he be satisfied with thy likeness q. d. I cannot be satisfied otherwise We have seen how great a change is necessary to dispose the Soul to this blessedness which being once wrought nothing else can now satisfie it Such a thing is this blessedness I speak now of so much of it as is previous and conducing to satisfaction or of blessedness materially considered the Divine Glory to be beheld and participated 'T is of that nature it makes the Soul restless it lets it not be quiet after it hath got some apprehension of it till it attain the full enjoyment The whole life of such a one is a continual seeking Gods face So attractive is this glory of a subject rightly disposed to it While others crave Corn and Wine this is the summe of the holy Souls desires Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance c. The same thing is the object of its present desires that shall be of its eternal satisfaction and enjoyment This is now it s one thing the request insisted on to behold the beauty of the Lord c. and while in any measure it doth so yet 't is still looking for this blessed hope still hoping to be like him see him as he is the expectation of satisfaction in this state implies the restless working of desire till then for what is this satisfaction but the fulfilling of our desires the perfecting of the souls motions in a complacential rest Motion and rest do exactly correspond each to other Nothing can naturally rest in any place to which it was not before naturally inclin'd to move and the rest is proportionably more compos'd and steady according as the motion was stronger and more vigorous By how much the heavier any body is so much the stronger and less resistible is its motion downward and then accordingly it is less moveable when it hath attained its resting place 'T is therefore a vanity and contradiction to speak of the Souls being satisfied in that which it was not before desirous of And that state which it shall ultimately and eternally acquiesse in with a rest that must therefore be understood to be most composed and sedate towards it must it needs move with the strongest and most unsatisfied desire a desire that is supreme prevalent and triumphant over all other desires and over all obstructions to it self least capable of diversion or of pitching upon any thing short of the terme aimed at Ask therefore the holy Soul What is thy Supreme desire and so far as it understands it self it must answer to see and partake the divine glory to behold the blessed face of God till his likeness be transfused through all my powers and his entire image be perfectly formed in me present to my view what else you will I can be satisfied in nothing else but this Therefore this leaves a black note upon those wretched souls that are wholly strangers to such desires that would be better satisfied to dwell always in dust that shun the blessed face of God as Hell it self and to whom the most despicable vanity is a more desirable sight then that of divine glory Miserable souls consider your state can that be your blessedness which you desire not or do you think God will receive any into his blessed presence to whom it shall be a burden methinks upon the reading of this you should presently doom your selves and see your sentence written in your breasts compare your hearts with his holy mans See if there be any thing like this in the temper of your Spirits and never think well of your selves till you find it so 5. The knowledge of God and conformity to him are in their own nature apt to satisfie the desires of the soul and even noâ— actually do so in the measure wherein they are attained Some things are not of a satisfying nature there is nothing tending to satisfaction in them And then the continual heaping together of such things doth no more towards satisfaction then the accumulating of Mathematical Points would towards the compacting of a solid body or the multiplication of Ciphers only to the making of a summe But what shall one day satisfi hath in it self a Power and aptitude thereto The act when ever it is supposes the power Therefore the hungry craving soul that would sain be hâ—ppy but knows not how needs not spend its dayes in making uncertain guesses and fruitless attempts and trials It ma◠〈◊〉 â—ts hovering thoughts and upon afâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 given say I have now found at 〈…〉 satisfaction may be had and have 〈◊〉 this to do to bend all my powers hither and intend this one thing the possessing my self of this blessed rest earnestly to inâ—e 〈◊〉 and patiently to wait for it Happy discovery welcome tidings I now know which waâ— to turn my eye and direct my pursuit I shall no longer spend my â—â—if in dubious toilsome wandrings in anxious vaâ—n inquiries I have found I have found blessedness is here If I can but get a lively efficacious sight of God I have enough Shew me the Father and it suffices Let the weary wandring soul bethink it self and retire to God he will not mock thee with shadows as the world hath done This is eternal life to know him the onely true God and Jesâ—â— Christ whom he hath sent A part from Christ thou canst not know nor see him with fruit and comfort but the Gospel revelation which is the Revelation of God in Christ gives thee a lovely prospect of him His Glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ and when by beholding it thou art changed into the same likeness and findest thy self gradually changing more and more from glory to glory thou wilt find thy self accordingly in a gradual tendency towards satisfaction and blessedness That is do but seriously set thy self to study and contemplate the Being and Attributes of God and then look upon him as through the Mediatour he is willing to be reconcil'd to thee and become thy God and so long let thine eye fix and dwell here till it affect thy heart and the proper impress of the Gospel be by the Spirit of the Lord instamp't upon it till thou find thy self wrought to a compliance with his holy will and his image formed in thee and thou hast soon experience thou art entring into his est and wilt relish a more satisfying 〈◊〉 in this blessed change then all thy 〈◊〉 sensual injoyments did ever afford thee before Surely if the perfect vision and perception of his glorious likeness will yield a compleat satisfaction at last the initial and progressive tendencies towards the former will proportionably infer the latter 'T is obvious hence to
that its tendencie thereto is direct and certain In the present case both these are obvious enough at the first view For as to the former of them all the world will agree without disputing the matter that the last end of man i. e. which he ultimately propounds to himself is his best good and that he can design no further good to himself then satisfaction nothing after or beyond that and what can afford it if the vision and participation of the Divine Glory do not As to the latter besides all that assurance given by Scripture-constitution to the righteous man concerning his future reward let the Consciences be consulted of the most besotted sinners in any lucid interval and they will give their suffrage Balaam that so earnestly followed the reward of unrighteousness not excepted that the way of righteousness is that only likely way to happiness and would therefore desire to die at least the righteous mans death and that their latter end should be like his So is wisdom I might call it righteousness too the wicked man is the Scripture-Fool and the righteous the wise man justified not by her children only but by her enemies also And sure 't is meet that she should be more openly justified by her Children and that they learn to silence and repress those misgiving thoughts Surely I have washed my hands in vain c. And be steadfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as they know their labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XV. Two other Inferences from the Consideration of the season of this blessedness The former That in as much as this blessedness is not attained in this life The present happiness of Saints must in a great part consist in hope The latter That great is the wisdom and sagacity of the righteous man which waves a present temporary happiness and chuses that which is distant and future IN as much as the season of this blessedness is not on this side the Grave nor expected by Saints till they awake we may further infer Ninthly That their happiness in the mean time doth very much consist in hope Or that hope must needs be of very great necessity and use to them in their present state for their comfort and support It were not otherwise possible to subsist in the absence and want of their highest good while nothing in this lower world is as to kind and nature suitable to their desires or makes any colorable overture to them of satisfaction and happiness Others as the Psalmist observes have their portion in this life that good which as to the species and kind of it is most grateful to them is present under view within sight And as the Apostle Hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for it But those whose more refined spirits having received the first fruits of the holy Spirit of God prompt them to groan after something beyond time and above this Sublunarie Sphere of them the Apostle there tell us that they are saved by hope They as if he should say subsist by it they were never able to hold out were it not for their hope And that an hope too beyond this life as is the hope of a christian if in this life only we had hope in Christ c. the hope of a Christian as such is suitable to its productive cause the resurrection of Christ from the dead begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection c. Thence is it the hope of a renewed never dying life the hope of a blessed immortality whereof Christs resurrection was a certain argument and pledge Indeed the new creature is ab origine and all along an hoping creature both in its primum and its porro esse 'T is conceived and formed and nurst up in hope In its production and in its progress towards perfection 't is maniâ—â—â—â—ly influenc't thereby In the first return of the soul to God hope being then planted as a part of the holy gracious Nature now manifestly discovers it self when the soul begins to act as turning after the reception of the Divine influence is its act hope insinuates it self into or induces rather that very act Returning is not the act of a despairing but hoping soul. 'T is God apprehended as reconcileable that attracts and wins it while he is look't upon as an implacable enemy the soul naturally shuns him and comes not nigh till drawn with those cords of a man the bands of love While it says there is no hâ—pe it says with all desperately enough I have loved strangers and after them will I go But if there be any hope in Israel concerning this thing If it can yet apprehend God willing to forgive then Let us make a covenant c. This presently draws the hovering soul into a closure and league with him And thus is the union continued unsteadfâ—stness in the Covenant of God is resolved into this not setting or fixing of hope in him or which amounts to the same setting of hope in God is directed as a means to steadfastness of spirit with him and a keeping of his Covenant Râ—volting souls are encouraged to return to the Lord upon this conâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 that salvation is hâ—â—ed for in vain â—â—om any other The case being indeed the sâ—me in all after conversions as in the first God â—s multiplying 〈◊〉 pâ—rdâ—n and still retaining the same name the Lord the Lord grâ—ciâ—â—◠〈…〉 which name in all the seâ—â—rails that compose and make it up is in his Christ invites back to him the backsliding sinner and renews its thoughts of returning And so is he afterwards under the teachings of grace led on by hope thorough the whole course of Religion towards the future glory Grace appears teaching sinners to deny ungoodliness c. in the looking for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God c. So do they keep themselves in the love of God Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Thus is the new creature formed in hope and nourisht in hope And if its eye were upon pardon at first 't is more upon the promised glory afterwards And yet that last end hath in a degree its attractive influence upon it from the first formation of it 't is even then taught to design for glory 'T is begotten to the lively hope where though hope be taken objectively as the apposition shews of the following words to an inheritance yet the act is evidently connoted for the thing hoped for is meant under that notion as hoped for And its whose following course is an aiming at glory a seeking glory honâ—ur immortality c. Thus is the work of Sanctification carried on He that hath this hope â—urisieth himself Thus are losses sustained The spoiling of goods taken joyfully through the expectation of the better and enduring
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
lapsed state What a blessedness he hath designed for them what means he hath designed to bring them to it Tell him thou only needest a temper of Spirit suitable to this blessedness he invites thee to That thou can'st not master and change thy sensual earthly heart thou know'st he easily can thou art come to implore his help that his blessed and holy Spirit may descend and breath upon thy stupid dead Soul and may sweetly encline and move it towards him that it may eternally rest in him and that thou may'st not perish after so much done in order to thy blessedness onely for want of a heart to entertain it Tell him thou com'st upon his gracious encouragement having heard he is as ready to give his Spirit to them that ask him as Parents bread to their craving Children rather then a stone That 't is for life thou beggest That 't is not so easie to thee to think of perishing for ever that thou canst not desist and give up all thy hopes that thou shalt be in Hell shortly if he hear and help thee not Lastly If thus thou obtain any communication of that holy blessed Spirit and thou find it gently moving thy dead heart let me once more demand of thee Is it impossible to forbear this or that external act of sin at this time when thou art tempted to it sure thou can'st not say 't is impossible What necessitates thee to it and then certainly thou may'st as well ordinarily with-hold thy self from running into such customary sensualities as tend to grieve the Spirit debauch Conscience stupifie thy Soul and hide God from thee And if thou canst do all this do not fool thy slothful soul with as idle a conceit that thou hast nothing to do but to sit still expecting till thou drop into Hell 2. But have I not reason to fear I shall but add sin to sin in all this and so increase the burden of guilt upon my own soul and by endeavouring to better my case make it far worse Two things I consider that suggest to me this fear The Manner End of the duties you put me upon as they will be done by me in the case wherein I apprehend my self yet to lie 1. Manner As to the positive actions you advise to I have heard the best actions of an unregenerate person are sins through the sinfulness of their manner of doing them though as to matter of the thing done they be injoyned and good And though it be true that the regenerate cannot perform a sinless duty neither yet their persons and works being covered over with the righteousness of Christ are look't upon as having no sin in them which I apprehend to be none of my case 2. End You put me upon these things in order to the attaining of blessedness and to do such things with intuition to a reward is to be as may be doubted unwarrantably mercenary and â—ervile 1. First as to this former reason of your doubt methinks the proposal of it answers it For as much as you acknowledge the matter of these actions to be good and duty and plain it is they are Moral duties of common perpetual concernment to all persons and times dare you decline or dispute against your duty Sure if we compare the evil of what is so substantially in itself and what is so circumstantially onely by the adherence of some undue modus or manner it cannot be hard to determine which is the greater and more dreadful evil As to the present case shouldst thou when the great God sends abroad his Proclamation of pardon and peace refuse to attend it to consider the contents of it and thy own case in reference thereto and there upon to sue to him for the life of thy own soul. Dost thou not plainly see thy refusal must needs be more provoking then thy defective performance This speaks disability but that rebellion and contempt Besides dost thou not see that thy objection lies as much against every other action of thy life the wise man tells us the ploughing of the wicked is sin iâ— that be literally to be understood And what would'st thou therefore sit still and do nothing Then how soon would that Idleness draw on gross wickedness and would not that be a dreadful confutation of thy self if thou who didst pretend a scruple that thou mightest not pray read hear meditate shalt not scruple to play the glutton the drunkard the wanton and indulge thy self in all riot and excess Yea if thou do not break out into such exorbitances would any one think him serious that should say it were against his Conscience to be working out his salvation and striving to enter in at the strait gate Seeking first the Kingdom of God c. would not this sound strangely and especially that in the mean time it should never be against his Conscience to trifle away his time and live in perpetual neglects of God in persevering Atheism Infidelity Hardness of heart never regretted or striving against as if these were more innocent And what thou say'st of the different case of the regenerate is impertinent for as to this matter the case is not different they that takeâ— themselves to be such must not think that by their supposed interests in the righteousness of Christ their real sins cease to be such they only become pardoned sins and shall they therefore sin more boldly then other men because they are surer of pardon Secondly As to the other Ground of this Doubt there can onely be a fear of sinning upon this account to them that make more sins and duties then God hath made The doubt supposes Religion inconsistent with Humanity and that God were about to raze out of the nature of man one of the most radical and fundamental Laws written there A desire of blessedness And supposes it against the expresse scope and tenour of his whole Gospel-revelation For what doth that design but to bring men to blessedness and how is it a means to compass that design but as it tends to ingage mens spirits to design it too unless we would imagine they should go to heaven blindfold or be roll'd thither as stones that know not whether they are mov'd in which case the Gospel that reveals the eternal glory and the way to it were an useless thing If so express words had not been in the Bible as that Moses had respect to the recompence of reward yea that our Lord Jesus himself for the joy set before him indured the Cross c. this had been a little more colourable or more modest And what do not all men in all the ordinary actions of their lives act allowable enough with intuition to much lower ends even those particular ends which the works of their several callings tend to else they should act as bruites in every thing they do And would such a one scruple if he were pining for want of bread to beg or labour
for it for this end to be relieved 'T is the mistaking of the notion of Heaven that hath also an ingrediency into this doubt if it be really a doubt what is it a low thing to be filled with the Divine fulness to have his Glory replenishing our souls to be perfectly freed from sin in every thing conformed unto this holy nature and will That our minding our interest in this or any affairs should be the principal thing with us is not to be thought our Supreme end must be the same with his who made all things for himself of whom through whom and to whom all things are that he alone might have the glory But subordinates need not quarrel A lower end doth not exclude the higher but serves it and is as to it a means God is our end as he is to glorified and enjoyed by us our glorifying him is but the agnition of his glory which we do most in beholding and partaking it which is therefore in direct subordination thereto 3. But it may further be doubted what if it be acknowledged that these are both things possible and lawful yet to what purpose will it be to attempt any thing in this kind O! what assurance have I of success is there any word of promise for the encouragement of one in my case or is God under any obligation to reward the indeavours of nature with special grace wherefore when I have done all I can he may with-hold his influence and then I am but where I were and may perish notwithstanding And suppose thou perish notwithstanding Do but yet consult a little with thy own thoughts which is more tolerable and easie to them to perish as not attaining what thy fainter struglings could not reach or for the most direct wilful rebellion doing wickedly as thou couldest Or who shall have thinkest thou the more fearful condemnation He that shall truely say when his Master comes to judgment I never had indeed Lord an heart so fully changed and turned to thee as should denote me to be the subject of thy saving pardoning mercy but thou knowest who knowest all things I long and with some earnestness did endeavour it Thou hast been privy to my secret desires and moanes to the weak strivings of a listless distempered spirit not pleased with it self aiming at a better temper towards thee I neglected not thy prescribed means onely that grace which I could not challenge thou wast pleased not to give thou didst require what I must confess my self to have owed thee thou did'st with-hold onely what thou owedst me not therefore must I yield my self a convicted guilty wretch and have nothing to say why thy sentence should not pass Or he that shall as truely hear from the mouth of his Judge Sinner thou wast often forewarned of this approaching day and call'd upon to provide for it Thou hadst Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line The counsels of life and peace were with frequent importunity prest upon thee but thou rejectedst all with proud contempt did'st despise with the same profane scorn the offers commands and threats of him that made thee hardenest thy heart to the most obstinate rebellion against his known Laws did'st all the wickedness to which thy heart prompted thee without restraint declinedst every thing of duty which his Authority and the exigency of thy own case did oblige thee to did'st avoid as much as thou couldest to hear or know any thing of my will could'st not find one serious considering hour in â— who le life time to bethink thy self whaâ— was likely to become of thee when thy place on earth should know thee no more Thou might'st know thou wast at my mercy thy breath in my hand and that I could easily have cut thee off any moment of that large space of time my patience allow'd thee in the world Yet thou never thought'st it worthy the while to sue to me for thy life Destruction from the Lord was never a terrour to thee Thou would'st never be brought upon thy knees I had none of thy addresses never didst thou sigh out a serious request for mercy Thy soul was not worth so much in thy account Thy blood wretch be upon thy guilty head Depart accursed into everlasting flames c. Come now use thy reason a while imploy a few sober thoughts about this matter remember thou wilt have a long eternitie wherein to recognize the passages of thy life and the state of thy case in the last judgement Were it supposeable that one who had done as the former should be left finally destitute of Divine Grace and perish Yet in which of these cases would'st thou chuse to be found at last But why yet should'st thou imagine so sad an issue as that after thine utmost endeavours grace should be with-held and leave thee to perish because God hath not bound himself by promise to thee what promise have the Ravens to be heard when they cry But thou art a sinner True otherwise thou wert not without promise the promises of the first Covenant would at least belong to thee Yet experience tells the world his unpromised mercies freely flow every where The whole earth is full of his goodness yea but his special grace is convey'd by promise onely and that onely through Christ and how can it be communicated thrâ—ugh him to any but those that are in him What then is the first inbeing in Christ no special grace or is there any being in him before the first that should be the ground of that graciâ—us communication things are plain enough if we make them not intricate or intangle our selves by foolish subtilties God promises sinners indefinitely pardon and eternal life for the sake of Christ on condition that they believe on him He gives of his good pleasure that grace whereby he draws any to Christ without promise directly made to them whether absolute or conditional though he give it for the sake of Christ also His discovery of his purpose to give such grace to some indifinitely amounts not to a promise claimable by any for if it be said to be an absolute promise to particular persons who are they whose duty is it to believe it made to him If conditional what are the conditions upon which the first grace is certainly promised who can be able to assign them But poor soul thou need'st not stay to puzzle thy self about this matter God binds himself to do what he promises but hath he any where bound himself to do no more Did he promise thee thy being or that thou should'st live to this day did he promise thee the bread that sustains thee the daily comforts of thy life Yea what is nearer the present purpose did he promise thee a station under the Gospel or that thou should'st ever hear the name of Christ if ever his Spirit have in any degree mov'd upon thy heart inclin'd thee at all seriously to consider thy eternal concernments did he
an advantage them whom I most intend to such as sin within the nearer call and reach of mercy that sin not to the utmost latitude Even such as lead the strictest lives and are seldom found to transgress are not their sins found to begin with forgetting God Did they eye God more would they not sin lesse frequently and with greater regret You his Saints that have made a Covenant with him by Sacrifice that profess the greatest love and devotedness to him and seem willing your selves to become sacrifices and lay down your lives for his sake what is it a harder thing to give him a look a thought or is it not too common a thing without necessity and then not without injury to withhold these from him Let us bethink our selves are not the principal distempers of our Spirits and disorders yet observable in our lives to be refer'd hither As to enjoyned services what should we venture on omissions if we had God in our eye or serve him with so declining backward hearts Should we dare to let pass a day in the Even whereof we might write down nothing done for God this day Or should we serve him as an hard Master with sluggish despondent Spirits The Apostle forbids servants to serve with eyeâ— service as men-pleasers meaning they should eye men less and God more Sure as to him our service is not enough eye-service We probably eye men more than we should but we do not eye Him enough Hence such hanging of hands such feebleness of knees such laziness and indifferency so little of an active zeal and laborious diligence so little fervency of Spirit in serving the Lord. Hence also such an aversion to hazardous services such fear of attempting any thing though never so apparent important Duty that may prove costly or hath danger in it We look not to him that is invisible And as to forbidden things should we be so proud so passionate so earthly so sensual if we had God more in view Should we so much seek our selves and indulge our own wills and humors drive a design with such solicitude and intention of mind for our private interests should we walk at such a latitude and more consult our own inclination than our rule allow our selves in so much vanity of conversation did we mind God as we ought And do we not sensibly punish our selves in this neglect what a dismal Chaos is this world while we see not God in it To live destitute of a divine presence to discern no beam of the heavenly glory To go up and down day by day and perceive nothing of God no glimmering no appearance this is disconsolate as well as sinful darkness What can we make of Creatures what of the daily events of Providence if we see not in them the glory of a Deity if we do not contemplate and adore the divine wisedom power and goodness diffused every where Our practical Atheism and inobservance of God makes the World become to us the region and shadow of death states us as among Ghosts and Spectres makes all things look with a ghastly face imprints death upon every thing we see encircles us with gloomy dreadful shades and with uncomfortable apparitions To behold the tragical Spectacles alwayes in view the violent lusts the rapine and rage of some the calamitous suffrings the miseries and ruines of others to hear every corner resounding with the insultations of the Oppressor and the mournful groans of the oppressed what a painful continuing death were it to be in the world without God! At the best all things were but a vanishing scheme an Image seen in the dark The Creation a thing the fashion whereof were passing away The whole Contexture and System of Providence were meer confusion without the least concinnity or order Religion an acknowledged triâ—le a meer mockery What to wink our selves into so much darkness and desolation And by sealing up our eyes against the divine light and glory to confirm so formidable miseries upon our own souls how dreadfully shall we herein revenge our own folly in nullifying him to our selves who is the All in All Sure there is little of Heaven in all this But if now we open our eyes upon that all-comprehending glory apply them to a steady intuition of God how heavenly a life shall we then live in the world To have God alwayes in view as the director and end of all our actions To make our eye crave leave of God to consult him ere we adventure upon any thing and implore his guidance and blessing Upon all occasions to direct our prayers to him and look up To make our eye await his commanding look ready to receive all intimations of his will this is an angelical life To be as those ministers of his that are alwayes ready to do his pleasure To make our eye do him homage and expresse our dependence and trust To approve our selves in every thing to him and act as alwayes in his presence observing still how his eye observes us and exposing our selves willingly to its inspection and search contented alwayes he should see through and through us Surely there is much of heaven in this life so we should endeavour to live here I cannot omit to give you this instruction in the words of an Heathen we ought saith he so to live as alwayes within view order our cogitations as if some one might or can look into the very inwards of our breast For to what purpose is it to hide any thing from man from God nothing can be hid he is continually present to our Spirits and comes amidst our inmost thoughts c. This is to walk in the light amidst a serene placid mild light that infuses no unquiet thoughts amidst no guilty fears nothing that can disturb or annoy us To eye God in all our comforts and observe the smiling aspect of his face when he dispenses them to us To eye Him in all our afflictions and consider the paternal wisdom that instructs us in them how would this increase our mercies and mitigate our troubles To eye Him in all his Creatures and observe the various prints of the Creators glory instampt upon them With how lively a lustre would it cloath the world and make every thing look with a pleasant face what an heaven were it to look upon God as filling all in all and how sweetly would it ere-while raise our souls into some such sweet seraphick strains holy holy the whole earth is full of his glory To eye Him in his Providences and consider how all events are with infinite wisdom disposed into an apt subserviency to his holy Will and Ends. What difficulties would hence be solved what seeming inconsistencies reconcil'd and how much would it contribute to the ease and quiet of our minds To eye Him in his Christ the expresse Image of his person the brightness of his glory and in the Christian Oeconomy the Gospel-revelation and Ordinances through
of spirit 't is only their infelicity not their fault and apprehend not the obligation that is upon them by a divine Law otherwise to mannage and order their spirits But what then are such words thought to be spoken at random Her ways are ways of pleasantness The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance The Lines are fal'n to me in pleasant places or in the midst of pleasantnesses as the expression hath been noted to signifie Do such precepts carry no sense with them Delight thy self in the Lord. Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce with many more Do all passages of this kind in Scripture stand for cyphers or were they put in them by chance Is there such a thing as an aptitude to delectation in our natures and doth the Sanctification thereof intitle the joy of Saints to a place among the fruits of the Spirit and yet is the exercise of it to have no place in their hearts and practise Do not think you are permitted so to extinguish or frustrate so considerable a principle of the Divine Life Know that the due exercise of it is a part of the order and discipline of Gods Family That it is a constitution of the divine Goodness and Wisdom both to cherish his own and invite in strangers to him yea that is the scope and aim of the whole Gospel-revelation that the word of life was purposely written to draw souls into fellowship with the Father and the Son that their joy might be full That the Mâ—nisters of this Gospel are therefore stiled the helpers of their joy Therefore though here it be not required nor allowed that you should indulge a vain trifling levity or a sensual joy or that you should rejoyce you know not why imitating the laughter of a fool or inopportunely why your State admits it not or when the Lord calls to mourning yet settle however this perswasion in your hearts that the serious rational regular seasonable exercise of delight and joy is matter of duty to be charged upon conscience from the authority of God and is an integral part in the religion of Christians And then sure you will not think any object more proper and suitable for it to be exercised upon than the foreseen state of blessedness which is in it self a fulness of joy The joy of our Lord. and is in the pre-apprehensions of it a more considerable matter of joy than our present state affords us besides and without relation whereto we have no matter of rational joy at all 2. Keep Faith in exercise Both in that act of it which pâ—rswades the soul of the truth of the Gospel-revelation and that act of it which unites it to God through the mediator The Apostle prays on the behalf of his Roman Christians that they might be filled with joy and peace in believing and we are told how effectually as to this it supply'd the place of sight Such as had not seen Christ which was the priviledge of many other Christians of that time yet believing did rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious Faith directly tends in that double office before mentioned to excite and foment this joy As it assents to the truth of the Gospel-revelation it reallizes the object is the substance and evidence of the invisible glory As it unites the soul with God through Christ in a siducial and obediential closure it ascertains our interest therein and is our actual acceptance of our blessedness it self for when we take God through Christ to be our God what is it but to accept him as our eternal and satisfying portion whom we are after fully to enjoy in the vision and participation of his glorious excellencies and infinite fulness Which two acts of faith we have mentioned together in one text They were perswaded of the promises and embraced them the former respecting the truth of the promise the latter the goodness of the thing promised And hereupon they confessed themselves as it follows Pilgrims and Strangers on earth which abdication of the earth as none of their country could not be but that through their faith they had a joyous pre-apprehension of that better state That confession did manifestly involve in it a lively joy springing from the sight and embrace of that more taking distant good which the promise presented them with whence they could not think it enough to be such to themselves in their own thoughts and the temper of their minds but they cannot forbear so overcoming were their sights and tasts to give it out to speak and look and live as those that were carried up in their spirits above this earth and who did even disdain to own themselves in any other relation to it then that of Forraigners and Strangers Set thy Faith on work Soul and keep it a work and thou wilt find this no riddle it will be so with thee too we have much talk of Faith among us and have the name often in our mouths but how few are the real lively believers Is it to be thought that such blessedness should not more affect our hearts nay would it not ravish away our very souls did we throughly believe it And were it our present daily work to renew the bonds of a vital union with the blessed God in whom we expect to be blessed forever could that be without previous gusts of pleasure T is not talking of faith but living by it that will give us the experience of heavenly delights and joyes 3. Take heed of going in thy practice against thy light of persisting in a course of known or suspected sin that states thee in a direct hostility and rebellion against heaven and can never suffer thee to think of eternity and the other world with comfort will fill thy mind with frightful apprehensions of God render the sight of his face the most terrible thing to thy thoughts thou canst imagine and satisfaction with his likeness the most impossible thing Let a good understanding and correspondence be continued between God and thee which is not possible if thou disobeyest the dictates of thy conscience and takest the liberty to do what thou judgest God hath forbidden thee that this may be thy rejoycing the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not according to fleshly wisdom but the grace of God thou hast had thy conversation Take God for a witness of thy ways and walking approve thy self to his jealous eye study to carry thy self acceptably towards him and unto all well pleasing Let that be thy ambition to stand right in his thoughts to appear gracious in his eyes Hold fast thine integrity that thy heart may not reproach thee as long as thou livest If iniquity be in thy hand put it away then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot and without fear Be a faithful subject of that kingdom of God and here conscience rules under him which
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