hinder God and the holy soul of the most inward fruitions and injoyments no animosity no strangeness no unsutableness on either part Here the glorified Spirits of the just have liberty to soâ—â—ce themselves amidst the rivers of pleasure at Gods own right hand without check or restraint They are pure and these pure They touch nothing that can defile they defile nothing they can touch They are not now forbidden the nearest approaches to the once inaccessible Majesty there 's no Holy of Holies into which they may not enter no dore lockt up against them They may have free admission into the innermost secret of the divine presence and pour forth themselves in the most liberal effasions of love and joy as they must be the eternal subjects of those infinitely richer communications from God even of immense and boundless love and goodness Do not debase this pleasure by low thoughts nor frame too daring positive apprehensions of it 'T is yet a secret to us The eternal converses of the King of glory with glorified Spirits are onely known to himself and them That expression which we so often meet in our way It doth not yet appear what we shall be seems left on purpose to check a too curious and prying inquisitiveness into these unrevealed things The great God will have his reserves of glory of love of pleasure for that future state Let him alone a while with those who are already received into those mansions of glory those everlasting habitations He will find a time for those that are yet pilgrims and wandring exiles to ascend and enter too In the mean time what we know of this communion may be gathered up into this general account The reciprocation of loves the flowing and reflowing of everlasting love between the blessed soul and its infinitely blessed God Its egress towards him his illapses into it Unto such pleasure doth this likeness dispose and qualifie You can no way consider it but it appears a most pleasurable satisfying thing Thus far have we shewn the qualification for this blessedness and the nature of it What it prerequires and wherein it lyes and how highly congruous it is that the former of these should be made a prerequisite to the latter will sufficiently appear to any one that shall in his own thoughts compare this righteousness and this blessedness together He will indeed plainly see that the natural state of the case and habitude of these each to other makes this connexion unalterable and eternal so as that it must needs be simply impossible to be thus blessed without being thus righteous For what is this righteousness other than this blessedness begun the seed and principle of it And that with as exact proportion or rather sameness of Nature as is between the grain sown and reaped which is more than intimated in that of the Apostle Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption there is the same proportion too but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Which though it be spoken to a particular case is yet spoken from a general rule and reason applicable a great deal further And as some conceive and is undertaken to be demonstrated that the seeds of things are not vertually only but actually and formally the very things themselves so is it here also The very parts of this blessedness are discernable in this righteousness The future vision of God in present knowledge of him for this knowledge is a real initial part of righteousness The rectitude of the mind and apprehensions concerning God consisting in conformity to his revelation of himself Present holiness including also the future â—ssimilation to God And the contentment and peace that attends it the consequent satisfaction in glory But as in glory the impression of the divine likeness is that which vision subserves and whence satisfaction results so is it here visibly the main thing also The end and design of the Gospel revelation of whole Christianity I mean Systematically considered of all Evangelical Doctrines and knowledge is to restore Gods likeness and image from whence joy and peace result of course when once the Gospel is believed The Gospel is the instrument of impressing Gods likeness in order whereunto it must be understood and received into the mind Being so the impression upon the heart and life are Christianity haâ—itual and practical whereupon joy and pleasure the belief or thorough reception of the Gospel thus enterveining do necessarily ensue So Aptly is the only way or method of seeing Gods face so as to be satisfied with his likeness said to be in or thorow righteousness CHAP. X. The season of this satisfaction which is twofold at Death Resurrection The former spoken to wherein is shewn That this life is to the soul even of a Saint but as a sleep That at death it awakes As to the latter that there is a considerable accession to its happiness at the resurrection 3. THe season of this blessedness comes next to be considered which as the words when I awake have been concluded here to import must in the general be stated beyond the time of this present life Holy souls are here truly blessed not perfectly or their present blessedness is perfect only in nature and kind not in degree 'T is in this respect as far short of perfection as their holiness is Their hunger and thirst are present their being filled is yet future The experience of Saints in their best state on earth their desires their hopes their sighs and groans do sufficiently witness they are not satisfied or if they be in point of security they are not in point of enjoyment The completion of this blessedness is reserved to a better state as its being the end of their way their rest from their labours the reward of their work doth import and require Therefore many Scriptures that speak of their present rest peace repose satisfaction must be understood in a comparative not the absolute highest sense More particularly in that other state the season of their blessedness is twofold or there are two terms from whence in respect of some gradual or modal diversifications it may be said severally to commence or bear date Viz. The time Of their entrance upon a blessed immortality when they shall have laid down their earthly bodies in death Of their consummation therein when they receive their bodies glorified in the general resurrection Both these may not unfitly be signified by the Phrase in the Text when I awake For though Scripture doth more directly apply the term of awaking to the latter there will be no violence done to the Metaphor if we extend its signification to the former also To which purpose it is to be noted that it is not Death formally or the disanimating of the body we would have
turn my thoughts to glorious objects but I cannot The blessed soul feels it self free from all confinement nothing resists its will as its will doth never resist the will of God It knows no limits no restraints is not tyed up to this or that particular good but expatiates freely in the immense universal all comprehending goodness of God himself And this liberty is the perfect Image and likeness of the liberty of God especially in its consummate state In its progress towards it it increases as the Soul draws nearer to God which nearer approach is not in respect of place or local nearness but likeness and conformity to him in respect whereof as God is most sublime and excellent in himself so is it in him It s consummate liberty is when it is so fully transformed into the likeness of God as that he is all to it as to himself So that as he is an infinite satisfaction to himself his likeness in this respect is the very satisfaction it self of the blessed soul. 6. Tranquility This also is an eminent part of that assimilation to God wherein the blessedness of the holy Soul must be understood to lye a perfect composure a perpetual and everlasting calm an eternal vacancy from all unquietness or perturbation Nothing can be supposed more inseparably agreeing to the nature of God than this Whom Scripture witnesses to be without variablness or shadow of change There can be no commotion without mutation nor can the least mutation have place in a perfectly simple and uncompounded nature Whence even Pagan reason hath been wont to attribute the most undisturbed and unalterable tranquility to the nature of God Balaam knew it was incompatible to him to lye or repent And supposing him to speak this from a present inspiration it is their common Doctrine concerning God Any the least troubles and tempests saith one are far exiled from the tranquility of God for all the inhabitants of heaven do ever injoy the same stable tenour even an eternal quality of mind And a little after speaking of God saith he 't is neither pâ—ssible he should be moved by the force of another for nothing is stronger than God nor of his own accord for nothing is perfecter than God And whereas there is somewhat that is mutable and subject to change somewhat that is stable and fixt in which of those natures saith another shall we please God must we not in that which is more stable and fixt and free from this fluidness and mutability for what is there amâ—ng all beings that can be stable or consist if God do not by his own touch stay and sustain the nature of it Hence is it made a piece of deformity of likeness to God by another who tells his friend It is an high and great thing which thou desirest and even bordering upon a Deity not to be moved Yea so hath this Doctine been insisted on by them that while other Divine perfections have been less understood it hath occasioned the Stoical â—ssertion of fatality to be introduced on the one hand and the â—picurian nâ—gâ—tion of providence on the other least any thing should be admitted that might seem repâ—gnant to the tranquility of their Numâ—â—â— But we know that our God doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven and earth and that he doth all according to the wise counsel of his holy will freely not fatally upon the eternal prevision and foresight of all circumstances and events so that nothing can occur that is new to him nothing that he knows not how to improve to good or that can therefore infer any alteration of his counsels or occasion to him the least perturbation or disquiet in reference to them Holy souls begin herein to imitate him as soon as they first give themselves up to his wise and gracious conduct 'T is enough that he is wise for himself and them Their hearts safely trust in him They commit themselves with unsollicitous confidence to his guidance knowing he cannot himself be mis-led and that he will not mis-lead them As Abraham folled him not knowing whether he went and thus by faith they enter into his rest They do now in their present state only enter into it or hover about the borders Their future assimilation to God in this gives them a stated settlement of Spirit in this rest They before did owe their tranquillity to their faith now to their actual fruition Their former acquiescency and sedate temper was hence that they believed God would deal well with them at last their present for that he hath done so Those words have now their fullest sense both as to the rest it self which they mention and the season of it Return to thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee The occasions of trouble and a passive temper of Spirit are ceased together There is now no fear without nor terror within The rage of the world is now allay'd it storms no longer Reproach and persecution have found a period There is no more dragging before Tribunals nor haling into Prisons no more running into dens and deserts or wandring to and fro in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins And with the cessation of the external occasions of trouble the inward dispositions thereto are also ceased All infirmities of Spirit tumultuating passions unmortified corruptions doubts or imperfect knowledge of the love of God are altogether vanished and done away for ever And indeed that perfect cure wrought within is the souls great security from all future disquiet A well tempered Spirit hath been wont strangely to preserve its own peace in this unquiet world Philosophy hath boasted much in this kind and Christianity performed more The Philosophical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or calmness of mind is not without its excellency and praise That stable settlement and fixedness of Spirit that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the moralist tells us it was wont to be termed among the Grecians and which he calls Tranquillity when the mind is alwayes equal and goes a smooth even course is propitious to it self and beholds the things that concern it with pleasure and interrupts not this joy but remains in a placid state never at any time exalting or depressing it self But how far doth the Christian peace surpass it that peace which passeth all understanding that amidst surrounding dangers enables the holy soul to say without a proud boast none of all these things move me The peace that immediately results from that faith which unites the soul with God and fixes it upon him as its firm basis when 't is kept in perfect peace by being stay'd upon him because it trusts in him When the heart is fixed trusting in the Lord filled full of joy and peace or of joyous peace by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in believing And if Philosophy and which far transcends it Christianity Reason and Faith have that statique power can so
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
best seen what a mans belief is by his practice For when any profess to believe this or that practical truth relating to their salvation if they believe is not practically i. e. with such a belief as will command their suitable practice it matters not what belief they are of or whether they were of that judgment or no. Yea it will prove in the issue better for them they had been of another when their own professed belief shall be urged against them But let us cosider a little how in practical matters of less concernment we would estimate a mans belief You meet a Traveller upon the way who tells you the Bridge over such an unpassâ—ble River is broken down and that if you venture you perish if you believe him you return if you hold on he reasonably concludes you believe him not and will therefore be apt to say to you if you will not believe me you may make trial Your Physician tells you a disease is growing upon you that in a short time will prove incurable and mortal but if you presently use means he shall prescribe ' tâ—s capable of an easie remedie How would you your self have your belief of your Phisitian judged of in this case would you expect to be believed if you should say you do not at all distrust your Phisitians integrity and judgment but yet you resolve not to follow his directions unless you would have us believe too that you are weary of your life and would fain be rid of it There is no Riddle or Mystery in this How ridiculous would men make themselves if in matters of common concernment they should daily practice directly contrary to their professed belief how few would believe them serious or in their wits But however call this believing or what you will we contend not about the name the belief of such a thing can no further do you good you can be nothing the better for it further then as it ingages you to take a course suitable and consequent to such a belief To believe that there is a Hell and run into it that unrighteousness persisted in will damn you and yet live in it To what purpose is it to make your boasts of this Faith But since you are willing to call this believing all the foregoing reasoning is to ingage you to consider what you believe Do you believe that unrighteousness will be the death of your soul will eternally separate you from God and the presâ—nce of his glory and when you have reason'd the matter with your self you find it to be certainly so should not such a thing be more deeply pondered The bare proposal of an evident truth commands present assent but if I further bend my mind to reason out the same thing to my self I am occasioned to take notice of the grounds dependencies the habitudes of it what it rests upon whither it tends and thence more discern its importance and of what moment it is then I should have done if upon first view I had assented only and dismist it my thoughts And yet is it possible you should think this to be true and not think it a most important truth Is it a small matter in your account whither you shall be blessed or miserable for ever whether you be sav'd or perish eternally Or is it considered by you according as the weight of the matter requires that as you are found righteous or unrighteous so will it everlastingly fare with you You may possibly say you already conclude your self righteous therefore no further imploy your thoughts about it But methinks you should hardly be able how ever to put such a thing out of your thoughts while as yet the final determination is not given in the case If a man have a question yet depending concerning his life or estate though his business be never so clear he will hardly forget it the trial not being yet past And though in this matter you have no reason to suspect errour or corruption in your Judge through which many honest causes may miscarry in an humane Judicature yet have you no reason to suspect your self If the holy Spirit hath assured you it hath not stupified you but as you have then the less of fear you have the more of love and joy Therefore you will not thence mind such a concernment the less but with the more delight and therefore also most probably with the more frequency and intention What a pleasure will it be to review evidences and say â—o here are the Mediums by which I make out my title to the Eternal Inheritance Such and such characters give me the confidence to number my self among Gods righteous ones And do you lead that heavenly raised life do you live in those sweet and ravishing comforts of the Holy Ghost that may bespeak you one whom he hath sealed up to the day of redemption If you pretend not to any such certainty but rely upon your own judgment of your case are you sure you are neither mistaken in the notion of the righteousnesse required nor in the application of it to your own souls Possibly you may think your self because in your ordinary dealings you wrong no man your self being judge a very righteous person But evident it is when the Scripture uses this tearm as discriptive of Gods own people and to distinguish betweeen them that shall be saved and perish it takes it in that comprehensive sense before explained And however it requires at least much more of thee under other expressions as thou canst hardly be so ignorant but to know And do but use thy reason here a little and demand of thy self Is he to be accounted a righteous person that thinks it fit to avoid wronging a man but makes no conscience at all of wronging God More particularly Is it righteous to live all thy dayes in a willing ignorance of the Author of thy being never once to enquire where is God my Maker Is it righteous to forget him dayes without number not to have him from day to day in all thy thoughts Is it righteous to estrange thy self from him and live as without him in the world while thou liv'st mov'st and hast thy being in him not to glorifie him in whose hands thy breath is to be a lover of pleasure more then God a worshipper in thy very soul of the creature more then of the Creatour Is it righteous to harden thy heart against his fear and love to live under his power and never reverence it his goodness and never acknowledge it to affront his Authority to belie his Truth abuse his Mercy impose upon his Patience desie his Justice to exalt thy own interest against his the trifling petite interest of a silly worm against the great all comprehending interest of the common Lord of all the world to cross his will to do thy own to please thy self to the displeasing of him whence hadst thou thy measures of