day enjoy it It will be but small Comfort to hear of all this Blessedness and Happiness if we our selves have no right to it And of this briefly Certainly this most blessed state is not for all not for most but only for a few Few saith our Lord shall be saved and those are the Children of God only they are Heirs to this Glory Rom. 8. 17. If Children then Heirs not else and such we are not by Nature Joh. 8. 44. Eph. 2. 2 3 12. But all that are the Children of God are made so by Grace they are made so by Faith in Christ Gal. 3. 26. We are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ And if we are Christ's by Faith then are we the Heirs of the Promise ver 29. That is we are Heirs of this promised Glory So Heb. 6. 17 18. Also we are made the Children of God by Regeneration by the blew-birth Full is that Text John 1. 12 13. As many as received him that is Christ to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to as many as believe in his name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God So 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. we are said to be begotten to this Inheritance Jam. 1. 17 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth So 1 Pet. 1. 23. And our Lord who is Truth it self hath assured us that except a man be born again he can never see the kingdom of God that is he shall never inherit this Glory It is prepared for none but God's Children and none are his Children but true Believers in Christ none but such as are truly regenerate and born again by the Word and Spirit now all such as are in Christ have his Spirit living and ruling in them Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his And 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature all old things are past away and all things are become new And such as are born again they have the Image of God repaired in them the Divine Nature communicated to them the Life of God planted in them and are thereby enabled to live unto God and to walk as his Children in sincere Obedience to all his Commandments in resemblance of their Heavenly Father in most hearty and superiative love to him and in an holy confidence in him and entire dependance on him as their most gracious Father Almighty in and through their most dear Lord Jesus Christ These are the Persons and these only that shall be advanced to this exceeding weight of glory Moreover we are made the Children of God by Covenant God the All-sufficient Good of his infinite Love and Grace condescends to poor Sinners and freely bestows himself upon them becomes their God in Christ and takes them into Covenant with himself and makes them his Sons and Daughters 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. communicating to them his Spirit working in them all sanctifying Graces pardoning their Iniquities giving them new Hearts new Spirits soft and tender Hearts Hearts to tremble at his Word to mourn for Sin their own and others tender of God's Honour Hearts to love him Hearts to fear him c. and enabling them to give up their whole selves unfeignedly and unreservedly unto the Lord Jesus Christ taking him for their only Lord and Saviour and as the only way and means to bring them unto God and to his glory submitting themselves to his gracious government in all things and trusting in him for Life and Salvation These are the Children of God which shall certainly inherit this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory They are the People of God that shall possess this glory who are described by a famous Divine thus They are a part of the Externally called who being by the Spirit of Christ throughly though imperfectly regenerate are hereupon convinced and sensible of that evil iâ— Sin that misery in themselves that vanity in the Creature and that necessity sufficiency and excellency of Jesus Christ that they abhor that evil bewail that misery and turn their Hearts from that vanity and most affectionately accepting of Christ for their Saviour and Lord to bring them unto God the Chief Good and present them perfectly just before him do accordingly enter into a cordial Covenant with him and so deliver up themselves unto him and herein persevere unto their lives end Now all thâ— Children of God all the People of God may be assured of this glory for First God hath ordained and prepared this glory for his People This Kingdom is prepared before the foundation of the World Mat. 25. God hath predestinated his Children to this glorious Inheritance Eph. 1. 5 11. Rom. 8. 29 30. 2 Thess 2. 13. God hath prepared for them a City Heb. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 2. 9. Matt. 20. 23. The Saints are Vessels of Mercy before prepared unto glory Rom. 9. 23. And those in time he translates out of Satan's Kingdom into the Kingdom of his dear Son and by his Spirit of Grace by his Word of Grace by his Fatherly Chastisements by his Mercies he doth by degrees make meet and fit for this glorious Inheritance with his Saints in light Col. 1. 12 13. And surely God's Counsel shall stand and his Decrees be fulfilled Therefore blessed are they whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his Inheritance Psal 33. 11 12. Secondly This Glory is purchased also as was said before It is alone by the Blood of Jesus that we have entrance into Heaven therefore do the Saints sing forth his Praises for that he hath redeemed them out of every Nation by his Blood and made them Kings and Priests to God Rev. 5. 9 10. So that either Christ must lose the price of his Blood and Sufferings and never see the Travel of his Soul but all his pain and expectations be lost or else for certain there remains for the Saints this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thirdly This Glory is promised also God that cannot lye hath promised Eternal Life Tit. 1. 2. Luk. 12. 32. 22. 19. I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me a kingdom 2 Thess 1. 7. Matth. 25. 34. Jam. 2. 5. Rev. 2. 7 10 11 17. Heb. 10. 34. with many other places So that if the Purpose and Decree of God be certain if the Purchase of Christ be certain if the Promises of the faithful God be certain all which are most sure and certain then also it is most sure and certain that the Children of God shall most assuredly one day receive this far more exceeding and eternal weigh of glory And now O my Soul how long shall thy foolish Heart deceive thee how long wilt thou set thy Affections on things below upon lying dying Vanities When wilt thou draw
this Rule we shall find our Hearts so earthly so carnal our Minds so fleshly so set upon visible temporal things but our Thoughts on invisible eternal things so short so weak so inconstant so seldom so soon tired and our Affections so unsetled so unfixed that we shall have great cause to bewail our selves and cry out with St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. 24. And this will make us cry to God also to renew the Spirits of our Minds and to transform the Image of our Minds and this should make us look up to God's Covenant for new Hearts for Hearts joyned and united to the Lord Psal 86. 11. Psal 57. 7. 108. 1. Oh what cause have we to bewail the frequent departings and wandrings of our Hearts from God their slidings from God and to cry with holy David Quicken me uphold me Our Hearts are not fixed nor stayed on God we do not abide with God Third Vse of Exhortation To this great Duty of most serious minding of and looking unto invisible eternal things O let us mind and look unto and aim at God Christ the Spirit the Word the Promises the great and glorious things purchased by Christ and prepared for us in the other World Oh mind the full enjoyment of God and Christ in Heaven for ever and ever to dwell with him in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Let us mind eternal things in good earnest with all our Hearts and Souls Look off look off visible temporal things shut your Eyes to the World turn away your Eyes from beholding Vanity But open your Eyes towards Heaven hold your Eyes to invisible eternal things Here I shall shew I. The Hinderances to this Duty II. Means to help us to perform it III. Motives to perswade to it I. The Hinderances which are many and which must be avoided 1st Hinderance is living in any known or beloved Sin this will keep us down from heavenly Meditation Heb. 12. 1. No looking unto Jesus except we lay aside the Sin that doth so easily beset us in some Passion in some Weariness of well-doing in others Pride or Covetousness is the Sin that doth easily beset them This must be hid aside whatever it be it must be repented of and reformed 1 Thess 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of Evil Sin interposeth between God and our Souls and hides his Face from us If we would mind the Heavenly Word of God so as to profit by it in hearing or reading of it we must lay aside all known Sin 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Sin divides us from God and heavenly things If we regard any Iniquity in our Hearts God will not hear our Prayers The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. 2ly Worldly Cares Fears Joys Sorrows If we suffer these to take up our Hearts and to fill our Minds and Thoughts there will be no room for heavenly things We must therefore be watchful to cast out and keep out those bad guests Luke 21. 34. Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing If our Affections be set on visible temporal things they cannot be set on invisible eternal things No man can serve two Masters God and Mammon saith our Lord. If the World be Master of our Hearts and Minds of our Thoughts and Affections then surely they cannot be set on GOD and things above 3ly Worldly Company where is nothing but Earthly Discourse They that are of the Earth are earthly Worldly Company will cool the Affections and dull and deaden the Heart and draw it from God Therefore is that Exhortation and Prohibition Eph. 5. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them True Christians are Christ's Doves his Turtle-Doves they have no Society with the Birds of Prey They are Christ's Sheep what have they to do among Swine They are his Children what have they to do among his Enemies We are not aware of the very great mischief that carnal company doth bring to our Souls If at any time we have had any communion with God in any Ordinance and Duty and then presently go into vain carnal Company we shall quickly lose all savour and relish of God and Heavenly things as if you eat Hony and presently eat Gall after you lose all the taste of Hony And that 's not all but by being in worldly Company you will soon be infected and will bring away on your Spirits the ill savour of the Earth and filthy World as a man that comes out of a Garden of sweet Flowers goes and wallows on a stinking Dunghil The best of us should not go into worldly Company but as Physicians into a Pest-house when lawfully called and with our Preservatives with us We having so much Flesh and Earth in us Worldly Company will make us more fleshly and earthly 4ly Pride and High-mindedness God resisteth the proud 1 Pet. 5. 5. Psal 10. 4. There are many precious Promises made to the humble Job 22. 29. God will dwell with the humble teach them save them None have so sweet Communion with God as humble Souls Heavenly things and humble Souls are things very suitable and agreeable one to the other 5ly Sloth and Idleness 'T is easie we say to go down the Hill but not so easie to go up 'T is easie because natural and usual and ordinary to mind visible temporal things but there must be Pains-taking Industry and Labour used to raise up our Hearts to invisible eternal things a stirring up our selves 2 Tim. 1. 6. And we must often call upon our own Souls and provoke one another and ill too little We must have Resolution and Zeal 6ly The greatest Hinderance of all is Vnbelief Men do not fully believe nor are fully perswaded of the Reality and transcendent Excellency of invisible eternal things This is the grand Impediment Why is not the great God the good God the Fountain of all Goodness the Alsnfficient Good minded thought on loved feared trusted served no more but because He is not believed He is not believed to be that which he is indeed and which he hath revealed himself to be Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Oh the cursed rooted Atheism and Unbelief that is in all our Hearts more or less Why is not Jesus Christ Precious Jesus Blessed Jesus Lovely altogether Lovely Jesus the Brightness of his Father's Glory the Chiefest of Ten thousands the fairest of all the Sons of Men is whom dwells all fulness oh why is he no more minded thought on spoken of why no more admired loved and sought after but because He is not believed To them to all them that believe he is precious most precious 1 Pet. 2. 7. And why is not Heaven and Happiness that far more exceeding and eternal weight of
work to converse with God and Heaven in the Creatures As for instance When we sit down at Table remember there is a time coming when we shall sit down with Christ and eat and drink at his Table in his Kingdom that is we shall enjoy free and intimate Communion with him in Heaven And let us labour to raise our Hearts from temporal to spiritual things and be much in praising adoring and admiring God in the Creatures 6. Be convinced also that all our happiness and comfort both here and hereafter for ever lyeth not in any or all of the sensible temporal things but all lyeth in those invisible eternal things It lyeth not in having Honours Riches Pleasures c. for a man may be happy without them as Job and Lazarus were and miserable with them as Haman Ahab Dives and others were Psal 144. 15. Yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Happy indeed if God Christ and Heaven be ours happy for ever or else miserable for ever 7. And Lastly Let us labour to be renewed in the Spirit of our Minds or else we shall never seriously and heartily mind invisible eternal things as was shewed before We must get those invisible eternal Principles of Renewing Grace planted in our Hearts the Divine Nature the Life of God the Spirit of our heavenly Father to renew our Spirits or else we shall never mind those things in good earnest for which purpose let us go to God call cry to him for Renewing Grace Psal 51. 10. Let us look up to and lay hold on God's Covenant Ezek. 11. 19. go to the Promise Luke 11. 13. If you being evil know how to give good things to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give his spirit to those that ask him A precious Promise indeed let us rest upon this Promise and most earnestly beg God to perform it to us Old Bottles will not hold new Wine nor old Hearts retain Heavenly things New Hearts we must have heavenly holy Hearts or we shall never mind heavenly things as we ought III. Motives to this Duty 1. Consider that thus to look unto and mind invisible eternal things is the express Character of every true Christian No man can approve himself to be a true Christian and be a total Stranger to this Work for to be a true Christian is to be like Christ Now Jesus Christ minded those invisible eternal things as is most evident in the whole course of his Life his Heart was in Heaven while his Body was on Earth John 3. 13. Shall we profess our selves Christians and not be like Christ nor have the Character of Christians 2. Consider this will be a sure sign and clear evidence to us of our interest in and title to all those invisible eternal good things in the other World Matth. 6. 20 21. Where the Heart is there the Treasure is If our Hearts and Minds Thoughts and Affections are on God on Christ and Heaven it is a sure sign that these are ours An heavenly Mind is as good a sign that we belong to Heaven as any is as was also shewed before 3. This will begin our Heaven upon Earth these heavenly things minded affected delighted in will yield such joy and comfort as to begin our very Heaven here when Faith and Hope Joy and Praise Love Desire and Delight are exercised on God and on Christ and Glory we shall be filled with Joy and Peace as Rom. 15. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Psal 31. 7. Oh then let us labour to begin our Heaven here by our Heavenly-mindedness 4. This will yield Contentment and Comfort Satisfaction and Peace to our Souls in every condition It will sweeten every bitter Cup To think on God as our Father and on Christ as our Redeemer Head and Husband and on all the sweet Promises of which we are Heirs what comfort will this bring to our Souls Lam. 3. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Isa 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God With many other exceeding great and precious Promises which our good God hath made that our Faith might feed upon them and find satisfaction or else our Souls would faint 5. This will fit us for every Duty to God and man The more we think on God and heavenly things the more conscientious shall we be in our Duties to Man because it is for the Lord's sake from whom we look for the Reward as the Apostle speaks to Servants Eph. 6. 5 6 7. And for Duties to God it will make us serve God cheerfully delightfully and constantly having the Glory of God the enjoyment of him and the Recompence of Reward in our Eye Oh how will it quicken raise animate and encourage us For why are all those great and glorious invisible eternal things proposed and promised to us but that we should mind them aim at them and live in the lively hopes and comfortable expectations of enjoying them Heb. 11. 6 24. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 15. last Therefore be stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. 6. This will serve to encrease and strengthen Grace for the more we mind those invisible eternal things the stronger will be our Love our Faith our Hope and our Patience yea the more heavenly and spiritual we shall grow and the more useful savory and profitable in all our Discourses By our heavenly-mindedness we shall smell of Heaven in all our Converses and Communications to the advantage of others 7. This is one principal way of enjoying Communion with God here in this World for by this we open our hearts to God raise up our Desires after him spend our Thoughts and Affections upon him and in these heavenly Meditations God communicates his Light and Love his Grace and Peace to our Souls By these Meditations on invisible eternal things our Souls converse with God talk with God walk with God have our conversations with God and this is most sweet and contentful to gracious Souls this is to live in God and to live the Life of God and it is the sum of all our happiness here and hereafter The enjoyment of God's good presence here in acts of Communion with him will produce greatness of Joy and the enjoyment of God's glorious presence hereafter in the uninterrupted Acts of Communion with him in Heaven will produce fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16. last 8. By this looking to and affectionately minding invisible eternal things we shall be more and more changed into the image and likeness of them 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in
Fruits of the Spirit in us as the Work of true and sound illumination true Conviction of our Sin and Misery and of the Creatures Vanity of our own impotency and utter insufficiency to help 〈…〉 our selves and of Christ's Excellency All-sufficiency and willingness to save all such as come unto him and are heartily willing to take him for their onely Lord and Saviour all this is the work of the Spirit As also sound Conversion from all Sin unto God as the chief good the Spirit enabling the Soul to repent and turn to God and also working in the Soul the Grace of Faith enabling it to come to Christ to receive him accept of him rest upon him and to resign it self up sincerely to him and to his Government by his Word and Spirit The Spirit works Sanctification in the Soul destroying the old corrupt Principles of Nature and implanting new Principles of spiritual Life making it partaker of the Divine Nature mortifying in it the lusts of the flesh and quickning it to newness of life repairing the Image of God upon it and working all those other Graces which are the Conditions of Pardon and Justification as true love to God and Christ to his Word and People true Fear of God sorrow for and hatred of Sin producing those Fruits mentioned Galat. 5. 22 23. as Patience Meekness Humility and the like Also the Spirit helps the Soul to act those Graces and to perform those Duties required of us in order to our Salvation It guides and leads and teacheth us helps our Infirmities teacheth us to pray and carrieth on the whole work of Sanctification in us And this I take to be the Seal of the Spirit when those saving Impressions and Habits of Grace and Holiness are wrought in and upon the Soul whereby the Soul is made in some measure like unto Christ Jesus being by the Spirit united to him planted and grafted in him and by vertue of its union with him made partakers of his Life and Grace whereby it lives and grows until it come to the State of Perfection in the other World This Spirit thus savingly working is God's Seal upon our Hearts the Seal of his everlasting love to our Souls and of his everlasting Covenant which he hath entred into with us which he will never deface or blot out and it is also the Earnest of our Inheritance that thereby we may confidently conclude to our great comfort that as sure as he hath given us his Spirit thus savingly to work in us those gracious Works this gracious Change this true Repentance and Faith and Love and Holiness and other Graces even so sure he will give us the Inheritance in Heaven at last as surely as he hath sanctified us so surely he hath justified us and will glorifie us For this is the Seal this is the Earnest And upon this account saith the Apostle Having this Seal this Earnest this comfortable Assurance of a better state and of a better life after this we groan earnestly to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven That we may possess that glorious purchased Inheritance of which we now have the earnest we long to enjoy the full Harvest of which we have received the First-fruits and consequently we that have received these First-fruits this blessed Earnest have no cause to be troubled or disquieted when these our earthly Tabernacles begin to decay and perish because we are wrought by God's Spirit for a better state and as was said not only the Spirit of God worketh this willingness to die by working those Graces in the Soul as you see but also accompanying Afflictions and blessing them to crucifie our Affections to earthly things and helps to Holiness in order to our eternal Happiness and therefore also ought the more patiently to be endured Seventhly Then it is the chiefest wisdom in the World for every one of us to labour to become real Saints to get into a state of saving Grace and often to search and try our selves and never to give over searching and trying until we come to some well-grounded Assurance That we are indeed truly Regenerated and that we have a real Interest in Jesus Christ for this Assurance may be attained and we are commanded to give all diligence to attain it 2 Pet. 1. 10. It is not bare wishes or desires will serve the turn but we must labour and strive after it and be much in self-examination 2 Cor. 13. 5. How is it possible we can have any true comfort living or dying if we have no Assurance of a better Life and so long as we know not whether we shall go to Heaven or Hell when we die We all have been too negligent in labouring after this Assurance let us lament it and let us all now begin to bestir our selves and in God's strength lay out our utmost care and pains in the use of all means to get the clear evidences of our peace with God and that we are in a pardoned and reconciled state for upon this Assurance we shall have this Advantage above all others that we shall not be troubled nor much disquieted when our outward man doth decay and perish our earthly comforts fail us our bodily Members wither because all these decays and wastings do but make way and prepare us for the happiness of our Souls Whereas on the contrary it must needs be an uncomfortable thing to look upon a decaying Body and be altogether uncertain what will become of the Soul when it leaves this Body It must needs make Death terrible But when we know that our Souls at death shall enter into our Master's joy we shall bid Death welcom The Eighth Inference From what hath been said we may draw one Rule of Tryal to us all whereby we may know whether we be true real Christians or no or only nominal and but formal Professors viz. by the real good to our Souls that our Afflictions have done us we all have had Afflictions of one kind or other let us examine what spiritual good we have got by them look over the former Particulars and apply them It is a true sign of a Child of God to be the better for Prosperity and Adversity and commonly more the better for Adversity than or Prosperity But lest we should be mistaken I grant that Affliction may work some good in the hypocritical Professors as on Ahab and Nineveh But note these Differences First On the Godly Afflictions work good mostly on their inward man on their Souls although they work good also on their Conversations the sweet fruits of Afflictions appear also in their Lives But on others if Afflictions do work any good at all it is mostly on their outward man they may by them be outwardly reclaimed and reformed but not inwardly renewed and sanctified Now there is a vast difference between outward Reformation and inward Renovation 2dly The fruit of Affliction on the Godly is continually increasing and growing
of Exhortation to us all to look off from visible temporal things Let us labour to get our Hearts crucified and our Affections mortified to all earthly things to draw away our Minds as much as possible from the things of this Life A great part of the Gospel and of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles tend to this to take off our Hearts and Minds from setling and fixing upon earthly things I. Some Motives to this II. Some Directions I. Motives 1. Consider it is the express Command of God Col. 3. 1 2. Set not your affections on things below 1 John 2. 14 15. Matth. 6. 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth This we should urge on our Hearts 2. Consider the vanity emptiness insufficiency unsatisfactoriness to the Soul of all earthly things Eccl. 5. 10. 3. The great inconstancy and uncertainty of them 1 Tim. 6. 17. Prov. 23. 5. 1 Cor. 7. 31. Riches and Honours go from one man to another as Birds hop from Tree to Tree 4. How prejudicial they have been to those that have had the most of them but beneficial to very few 5. That these earthly things are all defiling things like Pitch and corruptible and corrupting things being full of Snares and Temptations are but like Thorns to most 6. No real Happiness in them for Reprobates may have them and they may consist with Gods Wrath therefore we should not set our Hearts upon them II. Directions shewing how we may get off our Hearts and draw off our Minds from them for our Hearts are so glued to them we cannot but look on them and mind them It is not easie work to do but let us use the means that God hath appointed and try what we can do 1. First Let us labour to be transformed in the Image of our Minds renewed in the Spirit of our Minds Rom. 12. 1. Eph. 4. 23. New Natures we must get this must be done our Old Minds are vain and altogether suitable to earthly things Q. But how shall we get New Minds A. 1st Pray earnestly to God to give you new Hearts to repair his Image on you to create a clean Heart in you as David did Psal 51. 10. to give you his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 12. to sanctifie you throughout 1 Thess 5. 23. to regenerate you by his Word and Spirit Jam. 1. 17 18. Tit. 3. 3 4 5. Oh pray pray that God would cast you into a new Mould to root out the old corrupt Principles of Nature in you and to plant new heavenly Principles of the Divine Life and Nature in you to work a real change in you Go to Jesus beg his Spirit He was crucified to all visible temporal things beg of him to give you those Waters of Life Joh. 4. 14. which he hath promised to them that hunger and thirst after them Beg of him to make you of his mind labour to put him on by imitation 2ly Look up to God's Covenant and lay hold on God's Covenant Ezek. 11. 19. and most earnestly beg the Lord to take you into his Covenant and to remember his Covenant and to perform it to you and wait upon God continually Study the Covenant of Grace and lay hold on it for in the Covenant God promiseth to become our God and Portion and if once God be ours all the good of Heaven and Earth is ours and then we shall but little mind visible temporal things 3ly If we would be regenerated we must search the Scriptures diligently attend on the Word preached and read for the Word of God is the Seed of Regeneration the Word of Grace ordained to work Grace in Souls Acts 26. 18. Look often into the glass of the Gospel 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. and look thorow it unto the glory of the Lord that shines forth in it the glory of his Love and Grace and Mercy and Wisdom and Power and Holiness and Righteousness and Faithfulness all which are wonderfully displayed in the Face of Jesus Christ in this glass of the Gospel and by frequent serious believing fixed looking into this glass and upon the glory of God in Christ therein represented we shall be changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. 4ly Study Jesus Christ much set him still before you for a Pattern labour to imitate him and to be like him and to walk as he walked And this is the way to get new Minds 2 Direct Secondly If we would get off our Hearts from earthly things let us labour for a clear knowledge and a firm belief of and familiar acquaintance with invisible eternal things take a few instances The Resurrection of the Body as fet out in 1 Cor. 15. The second Coming of the Lord Jesus the manner and ends of it 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9. The glorious manifestation of the Sons of God and their full Redemption That when Christ who is their Life shall appear they shall appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3. The Day of Judgment the separation of the Sheep from the Goats the final irrevocable Sentence that shall then pass on all Mankind the Saints passing into Heaven with Christ their Souls and Bodies united and their triumphant entrance with the Captain of their Salvation into the Paradise of God to see the Blessed God face to face to live in his presence in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore to live with God in perfect Light Love Purity Rest and Peace for ever and ever fully and for ever freed from all Sin and Misery Oh these are the things most worthy of all our most serious most fixed and most constant Meditations We should first labour to get those things into our Heads fully and clearly to understand them and should not be contented with a dark confused knowledge of them but should labour for a distinct knowledge of them and therefore should earnestly beg the light and assistance of the Holy Spirit to instruct and teach us as Eph. 1. 18. and look up to God's Promise which is that all his People shall be taught of him that we may have a spiritual knowledge of them And then we should labour to draw these invisible eternal things down into our Hearts and labour to draw up our Hearts to them for with the Heart Man believeth We should beg of God to open our Hearts wide to embrace them to relish and savour and be affected with them and exercise our loves hopes desires delights hunger and thirst after them considering also the transcendant Excellencies of those invisible eternal things above all visible temporal things and our own real concernment in them and likewise their nearness to us they are not far off we shall shortly possess that Kingdom promised and inherit that Glory purchased for us if we be true Believers But a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Considering also that all our Thoughts
Perswasions will prevail they turn the deaf Ear to all But for the World how soon are People perswaded to embrace it to follow hard after it to count no Time nor Pains too much to attain it What is there in those visible temporal things in those glittering vanities that should so allure entice and seduce rational Souls and such as profess that they believe all those better things But indeed they do not believe them whatever they profess Infidelity is the Root of all Men do not believe what they profess to believe It were impossible that the World should be so heartily so eagerly follow'd and pursued if the vanity and vexation of it the emptiness and insufficiency of it the uncertainty and transitoriness of it were indeed believed It were impossible that the great and glorious God the Alsufficient Good that blessed Jesus that Heaven and Eternal Happiness should be so slighted and neglected if they were truly really and heartily believed It is most strange and yet most true that People should yield up their Hearts unto and spend their best Affections upon the things of this present evil World and can think and speak delightfully of them but have no mind to think or speak of eternal things Oh this beguiling bewitching and deceiving World and oh these corrupt carnal deceitful Hearts of ours that suffer the World thus to deceive us It cost the Heart-blood of Christ to deliver his People from this present evil World Gal. 1. 4. Could we apprehend the Mischief this World hath done us and doth still do us we should have but little kindness for it and if once we could attain the Assurance of our title to that World above we should not care how soon we were gone out of this 3 Inf. Thirdly Hence appears the Unreasonableness of immoderate Worldly Joy Sorrow Fear Cares about visible temporal things Being they are but temporal passing transient momentany things why then so much care to get and keep them Why so much fear of losing them Why so much Joy in possessing and why so much Trouble in parting with them Why so much Care and Fear about Life it self which is but a Vapour Jam. 4. 14. Alas we rejoice in things of nought and are grieved for the loss of Shadows for such and no better at best are all visible temporal things in comparison of invisible eternal things Let us all bewail this Folly O when shall we be wise How long shall we simple ones love this our sinful Simplicity Prov. 1. 22. Oh how long e're we be able to discern between Good and Evil till we know the one thing needful and approve and pursue the things which are most excellent and give up our Hearts entirely to God and Christ 4 Inf. Fourthly Hence appears the absolute Necessity of Regeneration Seeing we are by Nature so ignorant dark blind stupid and dead that we cannot see nor understand the things of God nor the things that belong to our own Eternal Peace Therefore we should earnestly seek and pray for Renewing Grace and that Christ would give us the Light of Life and that God would beget us anew and give us his sanctifying quick'ning Spirit and infuse new spiritual Principles of the Divine Nature into our Hearts and thereby take us off from inordinate minding visible temporal things and turn our minds another way even towards Himself and towards Christ and Heaven that there we may center and place all the Affections of our Hearts all the Desires and Delights of our Souls This must be done by the mighty power of God and we must seek him diligently to effect this work upon us and we must also attend on his Word preached and read and diligently and conscientiously read the Word searching the Scriptures for this very end and purpose and servently beg God's Blessing on the Word that it may prove to us a Word of Grace a renewing converting sanctifying Word the Seed of Regeneration Jam. 1. 17 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth John 17. 17. Thus must we Labour to be regenerated or else we shall never get off our Minds from earthly things Second Vse by way of Examination We All hope to go to Heaven when we dye and to enjoy all those invisible eternal good things do we not Let us be so kind to our own Souls as to try our Title and the grounds of our Hopes Sure here is one Mark by which we may know whether our Hopes be well grounded or no to wit by our Heavenly-mindedness What do we aim at mainly mind chiefly look on and look after principally Is it Heaven or Earth Visibles or Invisibles Let us examine our selves Which way runs the Stream of our Thoughts the Current of our Affections the Tide of our Discourses Which way runs it strongest steddiest Put this Question close to our Consciences and require a direct Answer Let us not dally and shuffle but be serious Our Apostle makes this a discriminating Character of a Child of God of one in Christ and above the power of Condemnation of one that is born again Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh the Profits Honours Pleasures Ease Health Liberty of the Flesh that is they mind these things mainly mostly principally chiefly most heartily most seriously most affectionately most delightfully These visible temporal things lye most upon their Thoughts and lye nearest their Hearts This is their Character and it appears in all their Words and Actions But they that are after the Spirit that is are born of the Spirit born of God are in Christ they mind the things of the Spirit the grace the work the witness the comfort and joy or the Spirit they mind the things which the Spirit hath revealed in the Word God and Peace with him Christ and Union with him God's Covenant and Interest therein Eternal Life and Title thereto these invisible eternal things they mind these mainly chiefly mostly principally most heartily affectionately and most delightfully and constantly This is their Character and this is manifest also in their Words and Actions Now let us try our selves What Character have we Which of these two If we will not do so much for our own Souls as to take a little pains in trying we have not much love to them A man may know very much of his State by this And is it not worth a little Labour to know whether we be in Christ or no and whether we shall be Saved or Damned eternally Let us put it home to our Consciences Say O my Soul what dost thou mind most What are thy Thoughts most exercised about Whereupon are thy Affections most fixedly set This is a searching mark oh that we did all try our selves by it we should be much more heavenly than we are The best of us all will have cause of shame and sorrow cause of self-suspicion and jealousie when we strictly compare our selves with
true Consolation to be found Jerem. 2. 13. To seek Content here in any thing out of God and beneath him is to seek the Living among the Dead The Work of Faith is to look upwards to look within the Veil to look to Jesus Mic. 7. 7. The right and ready way to present Peace is looking stedfastly not to present things but to that future Rest and Happiness to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven Thus our Lord takes off his Disciples from their Heart-trouble John 14. 1 2. of which Text I have written a Discourse at large Let us consider how this looking unto those eternal things is expressed 2 Tim. 4. 8. it is loving the appearance of Christ Tit. 2. 13. Phil. 3. 20 21. 1 Cor. 1. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 2 3. Rom. 8. 23. waiting hoping hastening unto groaning after that Glory Whoever meets with a distressed disconsolate complaining Christian you shall find that one or both of these things is manifest in him either he hath low Expectations from God hereafter or he hath high Expectations from the Creature here either he looks too much on things visible and temporal or too little on things invisible and eternal and indeed he that doth the one doth the other for the too much minding visible temporal things hinders the true minding of invisible eternal things If we examine matters aright in our own Souls we shall find that this is the main thing that begets in us and keeps us under so many Troubles and Disquiets either that we do not or will not seriously and believingly engage our Hearts and Minds in the meditation consideration and application of all those great and glorious things which God hath promised and which Christ hath purchased or else we will needs mind and expect what God hath not promised nor Christ purchased a total freedom from Troubles Sicknesses Losses c. God hath no where promised nor hath Christ purchased it and then we complain when we miss of our groundless Expectations Either we are still poring and thinking on our Creature-comforts and Enjoyments and looking for much from them and in them much comfort help sweetness satisfaction respect kindness from them or else we are grieving and mourning for the loss and want of them all which thoughts do but sowre imbitter wound and weaken our Spirits or else we do but too seldom think of the infinite Goodness Love Mercy Tenderness All-sufficiency of God and Christ and of the Glory of Heaven which Thoughts would sweeten alleviate and mitigate our Sorrows and help much to support our Spirits under all our Afflictions We are grieved and troubled for Losses and Crosses for loss of Relations for Sickness and Pains Disappointments Unkindnesses of Friends Disesteem in the World c. Let us consider whether God hath promised or Christ purchased any Freedom from those Have any of the Saints been freed from those And why should we expect to be free But if we make Promises to our selves and then our own Promises deceive us whom can we blame for that Nay do we not as it were necessitate God hereby to imbitter all our Earthly Comforts to us and to make every Creature a Scorpion to us because we will make them our Gods We have less Comfort in them than we might have because we would have more in them than we should We might have more kindness from Friends more sweetness in our Relations c. if we looked for less Scarce any Comfort we have but one time or other becomes a Scourge to us because we foolishly made it an Idol to us Isa 2. 22. Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for whereof is he to be accounted Jer. 17. 5 6 7. We can never expect so little from the Creature but we shall be sure to find less than we looked for But such is the Goodness of God to his People that we can never expect so much from him but we shall be sure to find more The Application First For Information 1. If the serious minding of and believing looking unto invisible eternal things will much support Christians under the Troubles of this Life it follows then that there is a great necessity that Christians should have a distinct saving knowledg of invisible eternal things for without such a knowledge of them they cannot mind them nor set their Hearts upon them John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Col. 2. 2 3. We know those things but confusedly and therefore we mind them but confusedly This Saving Knowledge is a New Covenant-Mercy God promiseth that his People shall be all taught of him and that they shall all know the Lord Jer. 31. 33 34. John 6. 45. Eph. 4. 21. Our Duty is then to lay hold on God's Covenant and humbly to beseech him to teach us by his Spirit and to enlighten our Understandings as Paul prays Eph. 1. 17 18. 2. Hence appears the Necessity of Faith and full perswasion of the verity reality and excellency of those invisible eternal things It is a full perswasion of a Better Good than the Creature and of a Better Countrey of a Better Substance of a Better Place than this World is and of Better Company Better Friends than can be enjoyed here that will make us set our Thoughts on work upon them and that will support under the loss of those worse things While we have those better things in our Eye we shall not be much troubled about the worse the better will swallow up the worse if we firmly and heartily believe them and have good ground to hope through Grace that we have Title to them as Heb. 11. 25 26. The belief of a better Resurrection and of a better Life than this will support us under the Troubles of this Heb. 11. 35. 3. Then there is also a necessity lies on us of having an Interest in those invisible eternal good things in God in Christ in the Promises and in the Purchased Inheritance An absolute necessity lies on us all of getting an interest in Jesus Christ Real Union with him for only hereby we come to have an Interest in all those eternal Blessings If Christ be ours All is ours not else 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. Oh this this is the one thing necessary That we make sure our Interest in God and in his Covenant by Jesus Christ This and this alone will ballance all our Losses Take special notice of those two Texts 1 Sam. 30. 6. 2 Sam. 23. 5. Let us try our Interest in Christ by those few Scriptures Rom. 8. 1 9. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit If any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature all old things are past away behold all things are become new Gal. 5.
off and mind thy Everlasting Rest in good-earnest and lay out thy self to the utmost to secure thy Title to it Lord be merciful to me according to thy loving kindness and according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out all my Transgressions Thus have I said a little concerning this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory of the Preparatives to it of the Properties of it and of the People that shall certainly possess it to their everlasting consolation And what shall I say now but that Shame should cover my Face and Sorrow fill my Heart for that I am so little oh so little affected with these great things Oh what a hard earthly Heart have I Oh that all those that shall read or hear what I have written may have their Hearts more affected with these things and that they may be perswaded and enabled in the strength of God to put forth all their Power in the use of all means while they have time to be assured on good grounds that they are the persons designed for this Glory And oh that you and I would now examine our Hearts and States about this Let us in the presence of God ask our selves these few serious Questions Are we the Children of God they only are Heirs to this Glory Have we out of a true sense of our Sin and Misery heartily accepted of the Lord Jesus Christ for our only Lord and Saviour really yielded up our whole selves to his government Are we truly regenerated our Natures changed God's Image repaired on us and his Spirit living and ruling in us Do we hold out the Life of Christ in our Life and are we like God Have we actually entred into Covenant with God in Christ and chosen him for our only Happiness and Portion giving up our selves unfeignedly to be the Lord's Let us deal uprightly with our selves and if our Consciences can witness for us that it is thus with us then may we be confident that all our Afflictions shall work and prepare us for that Glory I proceed now to shew how those light and short Afflictions of the People of God in this World are singularly useful and influential to work them for and to work for them this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And that these waies First By discovering imbittering curing and removing those things which undiscovered uncured and uncleansed would utterly deprive us of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory What those things are you may easily judge they are our Sins our Corruptions our Iniquities the Evils of our Hearts and Lives the filthiness of Flesh and Spirit these not purged away will most certainly exclude from Glory as 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Col. 3. 5 6. Rev. 21. 27. No unclean thing shall ever enter into the New Jerusalem Now Afflictions are useful to discover Sin to aggravate and imbitter Sin to cleanse and cure the Soul and so to prepare it for Glory 1. To discover Sin Afflictions enlighten mens Eyes One calls Afflictions the Christian's Eye-bright Man is full of Self-love and this Love is blind and blinding and Man's Heart is deceitful and ignorant his Mind is dark Man is born blind spiritually blind Men see not their Sin and Misery Rev. 3. 17. until God discover their Sins to them which He doth as by his Word and Spirit so by Afflictions Deut. 8. 2. Gen. 42. 22. 1 Kin. 17. 18. God doth by his Rod shew Men their Iniquities A very Pharoah sees and acknowledgeth his Sin in his Affliction So did the Jews Isa 59. 11. And it 's usual for men to cry out on their Sins in their Trouble Oh then my Pride my Covetousness my Prophaneness my Frowardness c. of which they would not hear before 2ly Afflictions are very useful to aggravate and imbitter Sin Those Sins that were sweet in time of Prosperity and seemed small or nothing but Mole-hills as it were light and little prove bitter and grievous even as heavy as Mountains Were not David's Sins so to him See Psal 38. 3 4 5. Our Lord Jesus in Matth. 11. 28 29. maketh this sense of the bitterness of Sin a fit qualification of Souls to come to him that in him they may find Rest which Rest is the beginning at least of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory When and where Sin is aggravated and becomes bitter and burdensome to a Soul then and there Christ Grace and Glory becomes sweet and amiable Usually in Prosperity Sin is sweet or at least accounted small Is it not a little one Oh the Excuses Shifts Evasions and Pleas that in Prosperity men study to extenuate and lessen Sin They feel but little weight in great Sins the Sins of Youth Vain-talking Jesting officious Lying neglect of Duty worldly Talk on the Lord's day c. who feels the ponderous weight of such Sins in time of Prosperity Now Afflictions serve to imbitter sweet Sins and to aggravate small sins Job 13. 26 27. then he remembers the Sins of his Youth and looks on them otherwise than he did before In Youth great Sins seem small as Disobedience to Parents wasting time prophaning the Lord's day Lying c. but in Afflictions they lyo heavy as we see in Joseph's Brethren Gen. 42. 22. 3ly To cure and cleanse Sin Psal 119. 67. Jerem. 31. 18. Eminent is the Example of Manasses on whom Afflictions wrought a wonderful change 2 Chron. 33. And this comes to pass in that Afflictions when God blesseth them they work Repentance This is one of God's ends in sending Afflictions upon his People his Children whom he loves dearly Dan. 11. 33 34 35. It is to make them white and clean to purge away their Iniquity Isa 27. 9. And thus Afflictions are influential on God's People to work them for and to work for theâ—â— a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for none are fit for this glory until sin be imbittered to them and they purged and cleansed from their Sins in the Fornace of Affliction but all through the vertue of the Blood of Christ 1 Joh. 1. 7 9. Secondly Afflictions are useful to prepare for Glory by being means of God's Appointment and Blessing to work gracious and happy Changes on men without which they can never come to glory All men must have mighty great and wonderful Changes made upon them before they can be glorified Now to effect these gracious Changes God useth various means as principally his Spirit his Word his Rod and many times he makes his Rod to do that and to work that great Change on Men which his Spirit and Word without the Rod could not do because of Mens resistance of the Spirit and Word but when the Rod comes they cannot resist that By the Rod he makes the Proud to stoop and become humble as in Nebuchadnezzar's Case c. The Rod and the Word work Wonders when God by his Spirit works in them and with them
World to him one that looks not on the things which are seen that sets not his Heart and Affections upon them III. The Reasons of the Point why gracious Souls do not so much regard and mind visible things are those that follow Reason 1. One Reason is in the Text which is because they are temporal fading perishing transitory momentany things All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field All are dying things and therefore no suitable Objects for never-dying Souls to spend themselves upon All our Relations how dear and near soever our Health Estate Liberty yea our Life is but a Vapour that appears but a little time and then vanisheth away therefore not fit for immortal Souls to fix upon Reas 2. Because these visible temporal things the outward good things of this World are most times great Enemies to our Souls and have proved very hurtful and prejudicial to them that have had the greatest confluence of them but beneficial to very few Deut. 32. 15. Oh how few have been the better for Prosperity Now this damage and hurt to mens Souls cometh not from those good things themselves for they are good in themselves and are God's Blessings but this hurt comes partly from the Devil and partly from mens own Corruptions 1st From the Devil the god of this World 2 Cor. 4. 4. who causeth Mischief to the Souls of Men by the good things of this world these ways 1. He misrepresents the things of this world to Men the Riches Honours and Pleasures of it Liberty Health Ease Money Estates the Devil shews them in false glasses and not as the God of Truth in his Word declares them to be and indeed so they are and not otherwise but Satan represents them not as vain deceitful vexatious and uncertain things but as brave glorious satisfying things and thence men promise themselves so much Content in them 2. He lays Snares Baits and Temptations in all visible temporal things 1 Tim. 6. 9. There is not any visible Comfort but there is some Snare some Temptation attending it 3. He over-values all temporal things to us making them to be worth all our Affections Strength Time and Pains but undervalues Heaven Grace and Glory there he saith why so much ado time enough hereafter 4. He greatens present Evils as Shame Poverty Sickness Losses c. Oh! these must be avoided by any means but lesseneth eternal Evils God's Wrath and Vengeance and eternal Damnation Thus the Devil makes these visible temporal things hurtful to men 2dly This hurt comes to men through their own Lust and Corruptions within them without which the Devil could not hurt them if Men had 〈◊〉 the Spirit of this World within them 1 Cor. 2. 〈…〉 a worldly Spirit a vain Mind a foolish Mind an earthly Mind darkned and corrupted 〈…〉 earthly things which complieth with 〈…〉 unto Satan's Temptations without 〈…〉 their Hearts are carried our 〈…〉 these earthly things else Satan 〈…〉 Now the great Mischiefs 〈…〉 do to Mens-Souls through the 〈…〉 and Mens own Corruptions 〈…〉 First These Earthly thing◠〈…〉 coming to Christ as they 〈…〉 Matth. 19. 22. by darkning their 〈…〉 their Minds that they cannot see that transcendent Beauty and unspeakable Amiableness and Comeliness that is in Jesus Christ nor their own absolute necessity of him and their undone estate without him by filling their Hearts Heads Hands and Time and all so that there is no room for Christ nor time to mind Christ Profits and Pleasures take up all their time and carry away their Hearts Secondly They hinder men from following Christ Phil. 2. 21. All seek their own not the things of Christ at least they hinder men from following Christ fully and wheresoever he goes as Joshua and Caleb did and those in the Revelations 14. 4. Thirdly They hinder men from owning Christ and his Truths and Saints and from suffering for Christ when called thereunto as it hath millions of Professors in time of Persecution Now from the consideration of the danger we are in from visible temporal things we have good reason to draw off our Hearts and Affections from them and not much to mind or regard them And indeed our Souls are in danger on both hands both from the good and from the evil things of this World Prosperity and Adversity 1. From Prosperity we are in danger to have our Hearts divided and estranged from God and so to commit spiritual Idolatry setting up our Enjoyments for Idols in our Hearts taking more pleasure and delight in them than in God and his Service We are in danger of forgetting God and of falling into sinful security in danger of being lifted up with Pride and Vain-glory and thereby provoke God and in danger of growing careless and negligent in the Service of God And these are great Evils 2. From Adversity there is danger also as in case of loss of Friends Estate Liberty Health c. We are in danger of Impatience Discontent Despondency c. And therefore gracious Souls labour to get off their Hearts as much as they can from all visible temporal things and to be as indifferent and as unconcern'd to them as possibly and to be as dead to them as they can 3 Reas Because of the Vanity utter Insufficiency and Impotency of all earthly things without God either to preserve from the least Evil or to procure the least good All the Riches in the world cannot cure an aking Tooth Haman's Honour could not save him from the Gallows nor Herod from the Worms See Prov. 11. 4. Eccl. 1. 2. 5. 10. Isa 55. 2. There is no satisfaction to be had in them or from them 4 Reas Because there is not the least true happiness in having the greatest abundance of earthly things for if there were then Reprobates and Cast-aways should have the greatest share in Happiness for they have most of those things 5 Reas Because every gracious Soul is in Covenant with God united to Christ partaker of his Spirit and so made like unto God and like unto Christ The Great God is his and all the great things of the Covenant are his Christ and all his Benefits are his and alas what mean low base things are all the visible temporal things of this World in comparison of God of Christ and Glory Besides all gracious Souls are in measure made like God And we read what a low esteem God hath of these things Luke 16. 15. Those things that are highly esteemed amongst men are an abomination to the Lord. And our Lord Jesus had a very low esteem of them being contented to be without house or home or a penny in his Purse And every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ in some measure and the same mind that He had Rom. 8. 9. Gal. 4. 6. 6 Reas Because gracious Souls are born of God and that unto far higher and better things than these visible temporal things are at their best 1 Pet.
1. 4 5. They are begotten to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for them who are kept for it by the mighty power of God unto salvation And they are also bound for God and for Heaven they have not their Portion here nor their Treasure here they are bound for another Country they seek a City that hath Foundations and their Hearts are where their Treasure is and there ore they do not much mind and regard those visible temporal things 7 Reas Because they have been so often disappointed and deceived by those things they never found that in them which they expected from them the World hath ever proved false to them they have tryed it and by Experience have ever found it Vanity and Vexation and nothing else 8 Reas And Lastly Because gracious Souls have Principles of Faith in them they have the same Spirit of Faith in them that those Primitive Christians had and that is a victorious Principle a World-conquering Faith Heb. 11. 1. By Faith the Soul mounts aloft and takes a prospect of the invisible eternal things being the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen fixing its Eye upon and conversing with those things and so it overlooks and looks beyond and above all visible temporal things 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith And this I take to be the main thing intended in the Text As if the Apostle had said We look not unto things that are seen that is we live not by sence but by Faith as 2 Cor. 5. 7. we set not sence on work on visible temporal things but we set Faith on work on invisible eternal things and by our Faith on invisibles we get victory over visible temporal things Q. But how doth Faith help a Soul to take it off from minding and over-much regarding visible temporal things Ans Faith doth it many ways 1. First by carrying the Soul to pitch its Eye upon and take a view of the invisible God in Christ and his God in Christ Heb. 11. 26. Moses saw him that was invisible and thereby he endured the evil things of this World and despised the Riches and Honours of Pharaoh's Court Alas how vile and base are all earthly things in comparison of the Eternal God the All-sufficient Good And by Faith the Soul pitcheth it self upon this God and applieth and appropriateth this God to himself This God is my God 1 Sam. 30. 6. Psal 31. 14. I said Thou art my God and 48. 14. This God is our God and 73. 26. My Portion Also by Faith the Soul is carried to pitch upon Jesus Christ in whom dwells all fulness and by Faith sees his Interest in this Blessed Jesus and thence he is mounted aloft above all visible temporal things having his Affections raised and fixed upon Jesus his Saviour who sits at the right hand of God Col. 3. 1 2. This sight of God and Jesus by Faith takes off the Minds and Thoughts of Believers from those things below having higher better and more excellent things above to feed and fill their Thoughts with for no man can look up to Heaven and look down to the Earth at the same time as while Paul pressed forward towards the mark he forgot those things which were behind and as Jesus is said to be in Heaven John 3. 13. that is his Heart and Mind was there when he was on Earth even so it is in some measure with all true Believers their conversation is in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. 2. Faith receives the Testimony which God hath given in his Word concerning those visible temporal things that they are all vanity and vexation of spirit and therefore judgeth them not worthy of too much place in their Hearts and Minds 3. Faith raiseth the Soul to a believing sight of a better World than this present evil World is and of better things than those visible temporal things are of a better Life an eternal Life of a better Rest than can be had here even an everlasting Rest of a 〈…〉 inheritance 1 Pet. 1. 4. an incorruptible and undefiled our that fadeth not away of a better Country than Earth at best even an Heavenly Jerusalem and of a better House than the best House here even an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens whose Builder and Maker is God and of a better City even a City that hath Foundations 〈…〉 that better and more enduring Substance in Heaven Heb. 10. 34. and that infinitely-better Company the Blessed God and the Blessed Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant the glorious Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect and better Joys Delights and Pleasures than can possibly be enjoyed here and also far better Employment and indeed all better things and all these better things the Believer by Faith doth realize to his Soul and all those so exceeding great and glorious things the Believer knows he must have cost what Cost and therefore the strongest streams of his Thoughts Cares Studies and Pains run this way and after these things even after these better things above Faith looks within the Veil unto those unseen Excellencies to those invisible Glories to be with God and with Jesus and to enjoy that full and perfect Communion with them above and when a Soul is pitcht and fixt by Faith here setled and centred on things above then farewel deceitful World 4. By Faith the Soul apprehends as the most transcendent Excellency of those things above so by Faith the Soul sees its absolute necessity of those things Interest in God Peace with him Union with Christ Title to Eternal Life c. are things not only infinitely better than all visible temporal things but saith the believing Soul these things I must needs have I shall be eternally undone without them It 's true I must have Food and Raiment also these are necessary too but not so necessary If I have God and Christ I shall not want Food and Raiment the faithful God hath past his Promise that I shall want no good thing I may be happy for ever without Riches and Honours without earthly Friends and Relations without Health or Liberty but not without God and Christ oh there lies my Happiness One thing is needful only needful absolutely needful and that is my Interest in God and Christ and the making sure of that deserves and calls for our most serious and utmost Thoughts and Cares If a man were condemned to dye whereupon would he spend his most serious Thoughts but upon getting his Pardon if there were any hopes of it and not in providing himself fine Clothes or a full Table The application is easie 5. By Faith a Soul is perswaded that neither the evil things of this World can hinder nor the good things of this World can further his Happiness nor his way to it of themselves but rather the contrary for a man
the Reality of those things Who hath believed our Report Isa 53. 1. and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed to make Souls believe and to work effectual Faith in them Surely to very few A very bare historical Faith is wanting but much more a cordial practical Perswasion of those things for by true Faith we come to have an Interest in all these eternal good things and if we had an Interest in them we should mind them more Those invisible eternal things spoken of in the holy Scripture signifie no more to most of us than those Mountains of Spices and Mines of Gold do that are in the Indies which we never hope to see or possess and for which none of us will part with our poor Cottages Alas alas it were impossible if we did really believe those things above and that they may be had by us but that we should take more pains to get a Title to them and having once got a Title surely we should mind them more than we do Now the grand Reasons why we that profess that we know and believe those great things of the other World yet take so little pains to be assured of our Right to them are these viz. our false Faith our false Hope and our inordinate Love of the World Cou'd we get these three Thieves out of our hearts it wou'd be otherwise with us 1. Our False Faith building our Faith on the Mercy of God and Merits of Christ in general not considering whether those Conditions are wrought in us to which the Mercy of God is promised and to which the Merits of Christ do belong Isa 1. 16. 55. 7. Rom. 8. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 17. Heb. 5. 9. Matth. 11. 28 29. 16. 24. 10. 34. By all which places we shall find that the Mercy of God belongs to the penitent returning Sinner and that those only can truly claim an Interest in Christ that submit to his Yoke that have his Spirit that are new Creatures that deny themselves and give up themselves to the Government of Christ 2. Our False Hope that deceived those eminent Professors in Matth. 7. 21. and the foolish Virgins Matth. 25. and which deceives all Hypocrites and formal Christians that build their Hopes upon outward Profession Priviledges the performance of religious Duties outward Reformation c. not minding that express word in 1 John 3. 3. Every one that hath this hope that is to see Christ in Glory and to be made like unto him purifieth himself even as he is pure Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory Not Christ without you professed by you but Christ in you formed in you dwelling in your Hearts by Faith living and reigning in you by his Word and Spirit that is the Hope of Glory the true and only ground of true Hope of Glory 3. Inordinate Love of the World 1 John 2. 14 15. If we be friends of this world we are enemies to God Too much love of Life Liberty Ease Relations c. our Hearts are let out strongly after these therefore our good God doth oftentimes strip his dearest Children of these in love to their Souls to take off their Affections from them that they may place them on better things where they are better bestowed III. It is Lamentable also that those invisible eternal great and glorious things should be no more minded thought upon considered and spoken of by Professors that hope shortly to enjoy them God Christ Glory Heaven are seldom in mens Minds and Thoughts What are most Peoples Morning and Evening Thoughts Psal 49. 11. What vain Thoughts lodge in our Hearts Jer. 4. 14. Oh how little talk is there of these things amongst us Is God our Father Is Christ our Head and Husband Is the Holy Ghost our Counsellour and Comforter Is the Word of God our Rule and Guide our spiritual Food and Nourishment our Comfort and Consolation Are the Promises our great Charter Heaven and Glory our Inheritance And do we indeed hope to enjoy all these things for ever and ever and yet think no more and speak no more of them Can this be so Can our hopes be good and well grounded Let us not deceive our selves IV. It is Lamentable that those great things should be no more laboured after Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth but for that which endureth to eternal life Prov. 2 2 3 4. Isa 55. 2 3. We labour for that which is not Bread not Bread for our Souls and spend that which is better than Mony our Spirits and Time for that which doth not cannot satisfie Why should visible temporal things have so much of our hearts heads tongues hands time strength and all and those invisible eternal things have so little Is there any colour of Reason for it Are not those invisible eternal things infinitely better than the other Certainly it is because they are not known nor believed nor minded that they are no more laboured after How do we dishonour God and Christ and the Promises how do we undervalue Christ's Purchase and Eternal Life when we lay out our selves so much for the World and so little for these How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. V. It 's lamentable also that the loss of the means of the discovery of those invisible eternal things should no more affect and trouble us Lam. 1. 7. Jerusalem remembred in the days of her affliction all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old A Famine of the Word is the worst Amos 8. VI. And it is lamentable that those who know believe desire and labour after those things themselves should be no forwarder and readier to commend those things to others and should take no more pains to perswade and draw others to look after them Oh how few cry out to others with holy David Come and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul VII And no less lamentable is it that those who claim an Interest in all those great and glorious good things and hope to enjoy them hereafter that those persons should no more express the power of them in their Lives that they should no more rejoyce in them and be no more raised in their Spirits and gladded in their Hearts with the fore-thoughts of them and that they should live no more comfortably upon them It 's sad that those thus interested in God and Christ and Glory and that are the Expectants of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory should not live better lives more exemplary shining profitable joyful lives We that look for such things what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy conversation It 's sad also that such should bear up with no more strength holy courage and confidence in the midst of the Troubles of this short Life seeing they hope for such glorious things in the other World