your souls to this blessed Work and that when death comes it may finde you so imployed that I may see your faces with joy at the Bar of Christ and we may enter together into the Everlasting Rest. Amen Your most affectionate though unworthy Teacher Rich. Baxter Kederminster Jan. 15. 1649. To the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Rous Baronet with the Lady Jane Rous his VVife Right Worshipful THis First Part of this Treatise was written under your Roof and therefore I present it not to you as a gift but as your own Not for your Protection but for your Instruction and Direction for I never perceived you possessed with that evil spirit which maketh men hear their Teachers as their Servants to censure their Doctrine or be humored by them rather then to learn Nor do I intend this Epistle for the publishing of your Vertues You know to whose judgment you stand or fall It is a small thing to be judged by mans judgment If you be sentenced as Righteous at the Bar of Christ and called by him the Blessed of his Father it matters not much by what name or title you are here called All Saints are low in their own esteem and therefore thirst not to be highly esteemed by others He that knows what Pride hath done in the World and is now doing and how close that hainous sin doth cleave to all our Natures will scarce take him for a friend who will bring fewel to the fire nor that breath for amicable which will blow the coal Yet he that took so kindly a womans box of oyntment as to affix the History to his Gospel that where-ever it was read that good Work might be remembred hath warranted me by his example to annex the mention of your Favors to this Treatise which have many times far exceeded in cost that which Judas thought too good for his Lord. And common ingenuity commandeth me thankfully to acknowledg That when you heard I was suddenly cast into extream weakness you sent into several Counties to seek me in my quarters and missing of me sent again to fetch me to your house where for many moneths I found a Hospital a Physitian a Nurse and real Friends and which is more then all daily and importunate Prayers for my recovery and since I went from you your kindnesses still following me in aboundance And all this for a man that was a stranger to you whom you had never seen before but among Souldiers to burden you And for one that had no witty insinuations for the extracting of your favors nor impudency enough to return them in flatteries yea who had such obstructions betwixt his heart and his tongue that he could scarce handsomly express the least part of his thankfulness much less able to make you a requital The best return I can make of your love is in commending this Heavenly Duty to your Practice wherein I must intreat you to be the more diligent and unwearied because as you may take more time for it then the poor can do so have you far stronger temptations to divert you it being extreamly difficult for those that have fulness of all things here to place their happiness really in another life and to set their hearts there as the place of their Rest which yet must be done by all that will be saved Study Luke 12.16 to 22. and 16.19 25. Matth. 6.21 How little comfort do all things in this world afford to a departing soul My constant prayer for you to God shall be That all things below may be below him in your heart and that you may throughly master and mortifie the desires of the flesh and may daily live above in the Spirit with the Father of Spirits till you arrive among the perfected Spirits of the Just. Your much obliged Servant Rich. Baxter The Contents of the First Part. CHAP. I. THE Text explained pag. 1 2 3 Qu. Doth this Rest remain to a determinate number of persons Elect Or only to believers in generall p. 4 Qu. Is it theirs only in possibility or in certainty p. 5 Chap. 2. The definition of Rest And of this Rest. p. 6 Qu. Whether to make the obtaining of Rest and avoiding misery the end of our duties be not Legall or Mercenary Answered p 8 9 Chap. 3. Twelve things which are presupposed to this Rest. p. 12 c. Chap. 4. What this Rest containeth 1. Cessation from all that motion which is the means to attain the end p. 20 2. Perfect freedom from all evill p. 21 3. The highest-degree of personall Perfection p. 22 4. Our nearest fruition of God the chief Good p. 23 5. A sweet and constant action of all the powers in this fruition p 28 As 1. Of the Senses and Tongue and whole Body p. 29 2. Of the Soul And 1. Vnderstanding As 1. Knowledg p. 30 2. Memory p. 33 2. Affections As by Love p. 35 2. By Joy p. 39 This Love and Joy will be mutuall p. 41 Chap. 5. The four great antecedents and preparatives to this Rest. p. 44 1. The coming of Christ. p. 45 2. Our Resurrection p. 51 3. Our justification in the great Judgment p. 57 4. Our solemn Coronation and Inthroning p. 65 Chap. 6. This Rest tryed by nine Rules in Philosophy or Reason and found by all to be the most excellent state in generall p. 69 Chap. 7. The particular excellencies of this Rest. p. 76 1. It s the fruit of Christs blood and enjoyed with the purchaser ibid. 2. It is freely given us p. 78 3. It is the Saints peculiar p. 81 4. In association with Angels and perfect Saints p. 83 5. Yet its Joys immediate from God p. 87 6. It will be a seasonable Rest. p. 91 7. And a sutable Rest 1. To our Natures 2. Desires 3. Necessities p. 97 8. A perfect Rest 1. In the sincerity of it 2. And universality p. 101 1. Of good enjoyed 2. And of the evill we are freed from ibid. We shall Rest 1. From sin and that 1. Of the Vnderstanding p. 102 2. From sin of Will Affection and Conversation p. 105 2. From suffering Particularly 1. From all doubts of Gods love p. 106 2. From all sense of his displeasure p. 107 3. From all Satans Temptations p. 108 4. From temptations of the world and flesh p. 110 5. From Persecutions and abuses of the world p. 112 6. From our own divisions and dissentions p. 116 7. From participating in our brethrens sufferings p. 121 8. From all our own personall sufferings p. 125 9. From all the labour and trouble of duty p. 128 10 From the trouble of Gods absence p. 129 9. As it will be thus perfect so Everlasting p. 129 c. Chap. 8. The People of God described The severall parts of the description opened and therein many weighty controversies briefly touched And lastly the description applyed by way of examination p. 134. to 164 The Contents of the Second Part. CHAP. I. THE Certain truth
then we do wilfully afflict it our selves Suppose thou be in poverty It is thy flesh only that is pinched If thou have sores or sicknesses it is but the flesh that they assault If thou dye it is but that flesh that must rot in the grave Indeed it useth also to reach our hearts and Souls when the body suffereth but that is because we pore upon our evils and too much pity and condole the flesh and so we open the door and let in the pain to the heart our selves which else could have gone no further then the flesh God smites the flesh and therefore we will grieve our spirits and so multiply our grief as if we had not enough before Oh if I could but have let my body have suffered alone in all the pining paining sicknesses which God laid upon it and not have foolishly added my own self-tormenting fears and cares and sorrows and discontents but have quieted and comforted my Soul in the Lord my Rock and Rest I had escaped the far greater part of the Afflictions Why is this flesh so precious in our eyes Why are we so tender of these dusty carcasses Is flesh so excellent a thing Is it not our prison and what if it be broken down Is it not our Enemy yea and the greatest that ever we had and are we so fearful lest it be overthrown Is it not it that hath so long hampered and clog'd our Souls and tyed them to earth and ticed them to forbidden lusts and pleasures and stoln away our hearts from God Was it not it that longed for the first forbidden fruit and must needs be tasting what ever it cost And still it is of the same temper It must be pleased though God be displeased by it and our selves destroyed It maketh all Gods mercies the occasion of our transgressing and draweth poyson from the most excellent objects If we behold our food it inticeth to gluttony if drink to drunkenness if apparel or any thing of worth to pride if we look upon beauty it ticeth to lust if upon money or possessions to Covetousness It causeth our very spiritual love to the godly to degenerate into carnal and our spiritual Zeal and Joy and other graces It would make all carnal like it self What are we beholden to this flesh for that we are so loath that any thing should ail it Indeed we must not wrong it our selves for that is forbidden us Nor may we deny it any thing that is fit for a Servant that so it may be useful to us while we are forced to make use of it But if God chastise it for rebelling against him and the Spirit and it begin to cry and complain under this chastisement shall we make the suffering greater then it is and take its part against God Indeed the Flesh is very near to us we cannot chuse but condole its sufferings and feel somewhat of that which it feeleth But is it so near as to be our chiefest part Or cannot it be sore but we must be so sorry or cannot it consume and pine away but our peace and comfort must consume with it What if it be undone are we therefore undone or if it perish and be destroyed do We therefore perish Oh fie upon this carnality and unbelief which is so contradictory to the principles of Christianity Surely God dealeth the worse with this Flesh because we so over-value and Idolize it We make it the greatest part of our care and labour to provide for it and to satisfie its desires and we would have God to be of our mind and to do so too But as he hath commanded us to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the desires or lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 So will he follow the same rule himself in his dealings with us and will not much stick at the displeasing of the flesh when it may honour himself or profit our Souls The flesh is aware of this and perceives that the Word and Works of God are much against its desires and delights and therefore is it also against the Word and Works of God It saith of the Word as Ahab of Micaiah I hate it for it doth not speak good concerning me but evil There is such an Enmity betwixt this flesh and God That they that are in the flesh cannot please him and the carnal mind is Enmity against him for it is not subject to his Law nor indeed can be So inconsistent is the pleasing of the flesh and the pleasing of GOD That he hath concluded That to minde the things of the flesh or to be carnally minded is Death and if we live after the flesh we shall dye but if by the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Rom. 8. vers 4 5 6 7 8 13. So that there is no likelihood that ever Gods dealings should be pleasing to the flesh no more then its works are pleasing to God Why then O my Soul dost thou side with this Flesh and say as it saith and complain as it complaineth It should be part of thine own work to keep it down and bring it in subjection and if God do it for thee shouldst thou be discontented Hath not the pleasing of it been the cause of almost all thy spiritual sorrows Why then may not the displeasing of it further thy Joys Should not Paul and Silas sing because their feet were in the stocks and their flesh yet sore with the last days scourgings Why their spirits were not imprisoned nor scourged Ah unworthy Soul Is this thy thanks to God for his tenderness oâ— Thy good and for his preferring thee so far before the body Art thou turned into flesh thy self by thy dwelling a few years in flesh That thy Joys and thy Sorrows are most of them so fleshly Art thou so much a debter to the flesh that thou shouldst so much live to it and value its prosperity Hath it been so good a friend to thee and to thy Peace Or is it not thy Enemy as well as Gods Why dost thou look so sadly on those withered limbs and on that pining body Do not so far mistake thy self as to think its Joys and thine are all one or that its prosperity and thine are all one or that thou must needs stand or fall together When it is rotting and consuming in the grave then shalt thou be a companion of the perfected Spirits of the Just And when those bones are scattered about the Church-yard then shalt thou be praising God in Rest. And in the mean time hast not thou food of consolation which the flesh knoweth not of and a Joy which this stranger meddleth not with And do not think that when thou art turned out of this body that thou shalt have no habitation Art thou afraid thou shalt wander destitute of a Resting place Is it better Resting in flesh then in God Dost thou not know that when this house of earth is dissolved
possessions that thou art willing to have them tryed and fearfull of being deceived that they stir up they desires of enjoying what thou hopest for and the deferring thereof is the trouble of thy heart Prov. 13.12 If thou be sure that thy hopes be such as these God forbid that I should speak a word against them or discourage thee from proceeding to hope thus to the end No I rather perswade thee to go on in the strength of the Lord and what ever men or devils or thy own unbelieving heart shall say against it go on and hold fast thy hope and be sure it shall never make thee ashamed But if thy hope be not of this spiritual nature and if thou art able to give no better reason why thou hopest then the worst in the world may give That God is mercifull and thou must speed as well as thou canst or the like and hast not one sound evidence of a saving work of grace upon thy soul to shew for thy hopes but only hopest that thou shalt be saved because thou wouldest have it so and because it is a terrible thing to despaire If this be thy case delay not an hour but presently cast away those hopes that thou mayest get into a capacity of having better in their stead But it may be thou wilt think this strange doctrine and say VVhat would you perswade me directly to despaire Answ. Sinner I would be loath to have thy soul destroyed by wilful self-delusion The truth is There is a hope such as I have before shewed thee of which is a singular grace and duty and there is a hope which is a notorious dangerous sin So consequentely there is a despaire which is a grievous sin and there is a despaire which is absolutely necessary to thy salvation I would not have thee despaire of the suffiâ—ciency of the blood of Christ to save thee if thou believe and heartily obey him Nor of the willingness of God to pardon and save thee if thou be such a one Nor yet absolutely of thy own salvation because while there is life and time there is some hope of thy conversion and so of thy salvation Nor would I draw thee to despaire of finding Christ if thou do but heartily seek him Or of Gods acceptance of any sincere endeavors nor of thy successe against Satan or any corruption which thou shalt heartily oppose nor of any thing whatsoever God hath promised to do either to all men in generall or to such as thou art I would not have thee doubt of any of these in the least measure much less despaire But this is the despaire that I would perswade thee to as thou lovest thy soul That thou despaire of ever being saved except thou be born again or of seeing God without Holiness or of escaping perishing except thou soundly Repent Or of ever having part in Christ or salvation by him or ever being one of his true Disciples except thou love him above Father mother or thy own life Or of ever having a Treasure in Heaven except thy very heart be there Or of ever scaping eternal death if thou walk after the flesh and dost not by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh or of ever truly loving God or being his servant while thou lovest the world and servest it These things I would have thee despair of and what ever else God hath told thee shall never come to passe And when thou hast sadly searched into thy own heart and findest thy self in any of these cases I would have thee despair thy self of ever being saved in that state thou art in Never stick at the sadness of the conclusion man but acknowledg plainly If I die before I get out of this estate I am lost for ever It is as good deal truly with thy self as not God will not flatter thee he will deal plainly whether thou do or not The very truth is This kinde of despair is one of the first steps to Heaven Consider if a man be quite out of his way what must be the first means to bring him in again Why a despair of ever coming to his journies end in the way that he is in If his home be Eastward and he be going Westward as long as he hopes he is the right he will go on and as long as he so goes on hoping he goes further amiss Therefore when he meets with some body who assures him that he is clean out of his way and brings him to despair of coming home except he turn back again then he will return and then he may hope and spare not Why sinner Just so it is with thy soul Thou art born out of the way to Heaven and in that way thou hast proceeded many a yeer Yet thou goest on quietly and hopest to be saved because thou art not so bad as many others Why I tell thee except thou be brought to throw away those hopes and see that thou hast all this while been quite out of the way to Heaven and hast been a childe of wrath and a servant of Satan unpardoned unsanctified and if thou hadst dyed in this state hadst been certainly damned I say till thou be brought to this thou wilt never return and be saved Who will turn out of his way while he hopes he is right And let me once again tell thee that if ever God mean good to thy soul and intend to save thee this is one of the first things he will work upon thee Remember what I say till thou feel God convincing thee that the way which thou hast lived in will not serve the turn and so breaking down thy former hopes there is yet no saving work wrought upon thee how well soever thou mayest hope of thy self Yea this much more If any thing keep thy soul out of Heaven which God forbid there is nothing in the world liker to do it then thy false hopes of being saved while thou art out of the way to salvation Why else is it that God cryes down such hopes in his word Why is it that every faithful skilful Minister doth bend all his strength against the false faith and hope of sinners as if he were to fight against neither small nor great but this prince of iniquity Why alas they know that these are the main pillars of Satans Kingdom Bring down but them two and the house will fall They know also the deceit and vanity of such hopes that they are directly contrary to the Truth of God and what a sad case that soul is in who hath no other hope but that Gods word will prove false when the truth of God is the only ground of true hope Alas it is no pleasure to a Minister to speak to people on such an unwelcome subject no more then it is to a pitifull Physitian to tell his patient I do despair of your life except you let blood or there is no hope of the cure except the gangren'd
thither and that were wont to despise their counsel that bid them Try and make sure And to say They made no doubt of their Salvation 2. Yea and many that have excelled in worldly wisdom yet have been befooled in this great business and they that had wit to deceive their neighbours were yet deceived by Satan and their own hearts Yea men of strongest head-pieces and profoundest learning who knew much of the secrets of Nature of the courses of the Planets and motions of the Spheres have yet been utterly mistaken in their own hearts 3. Yea Those that have lived in the clear light of the Gospel and heard the difference between the Righteous and the Wicked plainly laid open and many a Mark for Tryal laid down and and many a Sermon pressing them to Examine and directing them how to do it yet even these have been and dayly are deceived 4. Yea those that have had a whole life's time to make sure in and have been told over and over that they had their lives for no other end but to provide for Everlasting Rest and make sure of it have yet been deceived and have wasted that life-time in forgetful security 5. Yea those that have Preached against the negligence of others and pressed them to Try themselves and shewed them the danger of being mistaken have yet proved mistaken themselves And is it not then time for us to rifle our hearts and search them to the very quick SECT III. 2. TO be mistaken in this great Point is also very Common as well as easie So common that it is the case of most in the world In the old world we find of none that were in any fear of Judgement and yet how few persons were not deceived So in Sodom So among the Jews And I would it were not so in England Almost all men amongst us do verily look to be saved You shall scarce speak with one of a thousand that doth not And yet Christ telleth us That few find the strait gate and narrow way that leads to Life Do but reckon up the several sorts of men that are mistaken in thinking they have title to Heaven as the Scripture doth enumeraâ—e them and what a multitude will they prove 1. All that are ignorant of the Fundamentals of Religion 2. All Heretick who maintain false doctrines against the Foundation or against the necessary means of Life 3. All that live in the practice of gross sin 4. Or that love and regard the smallest sin 5. All that harden themselves against frequent reproof Prov. 29.1 6. All that minde the Flesh more then the Spirit Rom. 8.6.7.13 Or the world more then God Phil. 3.18 19. 1 John 2.15.16 7. All that do as the most do Luk. 13.23 24 25. 1 John 5.19 8. All that are deriders at the Godly and discourage others from the way of God by their reproaches Pro. 1.22 c. 3.34 19.29 9. All that are unholy And that never were Regenerate and born anew 10. All that have not their very hearts set upon Heaven Mat. 6.21 11. All that have a Form of Godliness without the Power 12. And all that love either parents or wife or children or house or lands or life more then Christ. Luk. 14.26 Every on of these that thinketh he hath any Title to Heaven is as surely mistaken as the Scripture is true And if such multitudes are deceived should not we search the more diligently lest we should be deceived as well as they SECT IV. 3. NOthing more dangerous then to be thus mistaken The Consequents of it are lamentable and desperate If the Godly be mistaken in judging their state to be worse then it is the consequents of this mistake will be very sad But if the ungodly be mistaken the Danger and Mischief that followeth is unspeakable 1. It will exceedingly confirm them in the service of Satan and fasten them in their present way of death They will never seek to be recovered as long as they think their present state may serve As the Prophet saith Isa. 44.20 A deceived heart will turn them aside that they cannot deliver their own soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand 2. It will take away the efficacy of means that should do them good Nay it will turn the best means to their hardening and ruine If a man mistake his bodily disease and think it to be clean contrary to what it is will he not apply contrary remedies which will increase it So when a Christian should apply the Promises his mistake will cause him to apply the threatenings and when an ungodly man should apply the Threatenings and Terrors of the Lord this mistake of his estate will make him apply the promises And there is no greater strengthener of sin and destroyer of the soul then Scripture misapplyed Wordly delights and the deceiving words of sinners may harden men most desperately in an unsafe way But Scripture misapplied will do it far more effectually and dangerously 3. It will keep a man from compassionating his own soul. Though he be a sad object of pity to every understanding man that beholdeth him yet will he not be able to pity himself because he knoweth not his own misery As I have seen a Physician lament the case of his Patient when he hath discerned his certain death in some small beginning when the Patient himself feared nothing because he knew not the mortal nature of his disease So doth many a Minister or godly Christian lament the case of a carnal wretch who is so far from lamenting it himself that he scorns their pity and biddeth them be sorry for themselves they shall not answer for him and taketh them for his enemies because they tell him the truth of his danger As a man that seeth a beast going to the slaughter doth pity the poor creature when it cannot pity it self because it little thinketh that death is so neer So is it with these poor siners and all long of this mistaking their Spiritual state Is it not a pitiful sight to see a man laughing himself when his understanding friends stand weeping for his misery Paul mentioneth the voluptuous men of his time and the worldlings with weeping but we never read of their weeping for themselves Christ standeth weeping over Jerusalem when they know not of any evil that was towards them nor give him any thanks for his pity or his tears 4. It is in a case of greatest moment and therefore mistaking must needs be most dangerous If it were in making an ill bargain yet we might repair our loss in the next Scipio was wont to say It was an unseemly absurd thing in Military cases to say I had not thought or I was not aware The matter being of so great concernment every danger should be thought of that you may be aware Sure in this weighty case where our everlasting Salvation or
if he were sure that Heaven should be his own he would desire to depart and to be with Christ as being the best stâ—te of all And if God would set before him an Eternity of Earthly pleasures and contents on one hand and the Rest of the Saints on the other hand and bid him take his choyce he would refuse the world and chuse this Rest Psal. 16.9 10. Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 3. Phil. 3.20 Thus if thou be a Christian indeed thou takest God for thy chiefest Good and this Rest for the most amiable and desireable state and by the foresaid means thou mayst discover it But if thou be yet in the flesh and an unsanctified wretch then is it clean contrary with thee in all these respects Then dost thou in thy Heart prefer thy worldly happiness and fleshly delights before God And though thy tongue may say that God is the chief Good yet thy Heart doth not so esteem him For 1. The world is the chief End of thy Desires and Endevors Thy very heart is set upon it Thy greatest Care and Labor is to maintain thy estate or credit or fleshly delights But the life to come hath little of thy care or labor Thou didst never perceive so much excellency in that unseen Glory of another world as to draw thy heart so after it or set thee a laboring so heartily for it But that little pains which thou bestowest that way it is but in the second place and not the first God hath but the worlds leavings and that time and labor which thou canst spare from the world or those few cold and careless thoughts which follow thy constant earnest and delightful thoughts of earthly things Neither wouldst thou do any thing at all for Heaven if thou knew'st how to keep the world But lest thou shouldst be turned into Hell when thou canst keep the world no longer therefore thou wilt do something 2. Therefore it is that thou thinkest the way of God too strict and wilt not be perswaded to the constant labor of conscionable walking according to the Gospel rule And when it comes to tryal that thou must forsake Christ or thy worldly happiness and the wind which was in thy back doth turn in thy face then thou wilt venture Heaven rather then Earth and as desperate Rebels use to say thou wilt rather trust Gods Mercy for thy Soul then mans for thy body and so wilfully deny thy obedience to God 3. And certainly if God would but give thee leave to live in health and wealth for ever on Earth thou wouldst think it a better state then Rest Let them seek for Heaven that would thou wouldst think this thy chiefest happiness This is thy case if thou be yet an unregenerate person and hast no Title to the Saints Rest. SECT IV. THe second Mark which I shall give thee to try whether thou be an Heir of Rest is this As thou takest God for thy chief Good so Thou dost heartily accept of Christ for thy onely Saviour and Lord to bring thee to this Rest The former Mark was the sum of the first and great Command of the Law of Nature Thou shalt Love the Lord with all thy heart or above all This second Mark is the sum of the Command or Condition of the Gospel which saith Beleeve in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved And the performance of these two is the whole sum or essence of Godliness and Christianity Observe therefore the parts of this Mark which is but a Definition of Faith 1. Dost thou finde that thou art naturally a lost condemned man for thy breach of the first Covenant and dost beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Mediator who hath made a sufficient satisfaction to the Law and hearing in the Gospel that he is offered without exception unto all dost heartily consent that he alone shall be thy Saviour and dost no further trust to thy Duties and works then as conditions required by him and means appointed in subordination to him not looking at them as in the least measure able to satisfie the Curse of the Law or as a Legal Righteousness nor any part of it But art content to trust thy Salvation on the Redemption made by Christ 2. Art thou also content to Take him for thy onely Lord and King to govern and guide thee by his Laws and Spirit And to obey him even when he commandeth the hardest duties and those which most cross the desires of the flesh Is it thy sorrow when thou breakest thy resolution herein and thy Joy when thou keepest closest in obedience to him And though the world and flesh do sometime entice and over reach thee yet is it thy ordinary Desire and Resolution to Obey So that thou wouldst not change thy Lord and Master for all the world Thus it is with every true Christian. But if thou be an Hypocrite it is far otherwise Thou mayst call Christ thy Lord and thy Saviour But thou never foundest thy self so lost without him as to drive thee to seek him and trust him and lay thy Salvation on him alone Or at least thou didst never heartily consent that he should Govern thee as thy Lord nor didst resign up thy Soul and Life to be Ruled by him nor takest his Word for the Law of thy Thoughts and Actions It is like thou art content to be saved from Hell by Christ when thou dyest But in the mean time he shall command thee no further then will stand with thy credit or pleasure or worldly estate and ends And if he would give thee leave thou hadst far rather live after the world and flesh then after the Word and Spirit And though thou mayst now and then have a Motion or Purpose to the contrary yet this that I have mentioned is the ordinary desire and choyce of thy heart And so thou art no true Beleever in Christ For though thou confess him in words yet in works thou dost deny him being disobedient and to every Good Work a Disapprover and a Reprobate Tit. 1.16 This is the Case of those that shall be shut out of the Saints Rest. But especially I would here have you observe That it is in all this the Consent of your Hearts or Wills which I lay down in this Mark to be enquired after For that is the most essential Act of Justifying Faith Therefore I do not ask whether thou be Assured of Salvation nor yet whether thou canst beleeve that thy sins are pardoned and that thou art beloved of God in Christ These are no parts of Justifying Faith but excellent fruits and consequents which they that do receive are comforted by them but perhaps thou mayst never receive them whilest thou livest and yet be a true heir of Rest. Do not say then I cannot beleeve that my sin is pardoned or that I am in Gods favor and therefore I am no true Beleever This is a most mistaking conclusion The Question is Whether thou
the goats on the left and so on as you may read in the Text. But why tremblest thou Oh humble gracious Soul Cannot the enemies and slighters of Christ be foretold their doom but Thou must quake Do I make sad the Soul that God would not have sad Doth not thy Lord know his own sheep who have heard his voyce and followed him He that would not lose the family of one Noah in a common deluge when him onely he had found faithful in all the earth He that would not over-look one Lot in Sodom nay that could do nothing till he were forth Will he forget thee at that day Thy Lord knoweth now to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished He knoweth how to make the same day the greatest for terror to his foes and yet the greatest for joy to his people He ever intended it for the great distinguishing and separating day wherein both Love and Fury should be manifested to the highest Oh then let the Heavens rejoyce the Sea the Earth the Floods the Hills for the Lord cometh to judg the Earth With Righteousness shall he judg the World and the People with Equity But especially let Sion hear and be glad and her children rejoyce For when God ariseth to judgment it is to save the meek of the Earth They have judged and condemned themselves many a day in heart-breaking confession and therefore shall not be judged to condemnation by the Lord For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Shall the Law Why whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law but we are not under the Law but under Grace For the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Or shall Conscience Why we were long ago justified by faith and so have peace with God and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God It is God that justifieth who shall condemn If our Judg condemn us not who shall He that said to the Adulterous woman Hath no man condemned thee neither do I condemn thee He will say to us more faithfully then Peter to him Though all men deny thee or condemn thee I will not Thou hast confessed me before men and I will confess thee before my Father and the Angels of Heaven He whose first coming was not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I am sure intends not his second coming to condemn his people but that they through him might be saved He hath given us Eternal Life in Charter and Title already yea and partly in possession and will he after that condemn us When he gave us the knowledg of his Father and himself he gave us Eternal Life And he hath verily told us That he that heareth his word and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Indeed if our Judg were our enemy as he is to the world then we might well fear If the Devil were our Judg or the Ungodly were our Judg then we should be condemned as Hypocrites as Heretiques as Schisinatiques as proud or covetous or what not But our Judg is Christ who dyed yea rather who is risen again and maketh request for us For all power is given him in Heaven and in Earth and all things delivered into his hands and the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man For though God judg the world yet the Father immediately without his Vicegerent Christ judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father Oh what inexpressible joy may this afford to a Beleever That our Dear Lord who loveth our Souls and whom our Souls love shall be our Judg Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend By a Brother By a Father Or a Wife by her own Husband Christian Did he come down and suffer and weep and bleed and dye for thee and will he now condemn thee Was he judged and condemned and executed in thy stead and now will he condemn thee himself Did he make a Bath of his blood for thy sins and a garment of his own Righteousness for thy nakedness and will he now open them to thy shame Is he the undertaker for thy Salvation and will he be against thee Hath it cost him so dear to save thee and will he now himself destroy thee Hath he done the most of the work already in Redeeming Regenerating and Sanctifying Justifying preserving and perfecting thee and will he now undo all again Nay hath he begun and will he not finish Hath he interceded so long for thee to the Father and will he cast thee away himself If all these be likely then fear and then rejoyce not Oh what an unreasonable sin is unbelief that will charge our Lord with such unmercifulness and absurdities Well then fellow Christians let the terror of that day be never so great surely our Lord can mean no ill to us in all Let it make the Devils tremble and the wicked tremble but it shall make us to leap for Joy Let Satan accuse us we have our answer at hand our surety hath discharged the debt If he have not fulfilled the Law then let us be charged as breakers of it If he have not suffered then let us suffer but if he have we are free Nay our Lord will make answer for us himself These are mine and shall be made up with my Jewels for their transgressions was I stricken and cut off from the earth for them was I bruised and put to grief my Soul was made an offering for their sin and I bore their transgressions They are my seed and the travel of my Soul I have healed them by my stripes I have justified them by my knowledg They are my sheep who shall take them out of my hands Yea though the humble Soul be ready to speak against it self Lord when did we see thee hungry and feed thee c. yet will not Christ do so This is the day of the Beleevers full Justification They were before made just and esteemed Just and by Faith justified in Law and this evidenced to their consciences But now they shall both by Apology be maintained Just and by Sentence pronounced Just actually by the lively voyce of the Judg himself which is the most perfect Justification Their Justification by Faith is a giving them Title in Law to that Apology and Absolving
of few Cities The best Wheat may be cut down before its ripe Therefore it is promised to the Righteous as a blessing that they shall be brought as a shock of Corn into the Barn in season Nay it s possible he may die by his own hands Though some Divines think such Doctrine not fit to be taught least it encourage the tempted to commit the same sin but God hath left preservatives enough against sin without our devising more of our own neither hath he need of our lie in his glory He hath fixed that principle so deep in Nature that all should endeavor their own preservation that I never knew any whose understanding was not crazed or lost much subject to that sin even most of the Melancholly are more fearful to die then other men And this terror is preservative enough of that kinde That such committing of a hainous known Sin is a sad sign where there is the free use of Reason That therefore they make their Salvation more questionable That they die most woful scandals to the Church That however the sin it self should make the godly to abhor it were there no such danger or scandal attending it c. But to exclude from salvation of all those poor creatures who in Feavers Phrensies Madness Melancholly c. shall commit this sin is a way of prevention which Scripture teacheth not and too uncomfortable to the friends of the deceased The common argument which they urge drawn from the necessity of a particular repentance for every particular known sin as it is not universally true so were it granted it would exclude from salvation all men breathing For there was never any man save Christ who died not in some particular sin either of Commission or Omission great or small which he hath no more time to repent of then the sinner in Question But yet this may well be called untimely death But in the ordinary course of Gods dealings you may easily observe that he purposely maketh his peoples last hour in this life to be of all other to the flesh most bitter and in the Spirit most sweet and that they who feared death through the most of their lives yet at last are more willing of it then ever and all to make their Rest more seasonable Bread and drink are alway good but at such a time as Samarias siege to have plenty of food in stead of Doves dung in one nights space or in such a thirst as Ishmaels or Sampsons to have supply of water by miracle in a moment these are seasonable So this Rest is always good to the Saints and usually also is most seasonable Rest. SECT VII SEventhly A further excellency of this Rest is this As it will be a seasonable so a suitable Rest Suited 1. To the Natures 2. To the desires 3. To the necessities of the Saints 1. To their Natures If sutableness concur not with excellency the best things may be bad to us For it is that which makes things good in themselves to be good to us In our choice of friends we oft pass by the more excellent to chuse the more suitable Every good agrees not with every nature To live in a free and open air under the warming Rayes of the Sun is excellent to man because suitable But the flesh which is of another nature doth rather chuse another element and that which is to us so excellent would quickly be to it destructive The choicest dainties which we feed upon our selves would be to our Beast as an unpleasing so an insufficient sustenance The Iron which the Ostrich well digests would be but hard food for man Even among men contrary appetites delight in contrary objects You know the Proverb One mans meat is another mans poyson Now here is suitableness and excellency conjoyned The new nature of the Saints doth suit their Spirits to this Rest And indeed their holiness is nothing else but a sparke taken from this Element and by the Spirit of Christ kindled in their hearts the flame whereof as mindful of its own Divine original doth ever mount the soul aloft and tend to the place from whence it comes It worketh towards its own Center and makes us Restless till there we Rest. Gold and earthly Glory temporal Crowns and Kingdoms could not make a rest for Saints As they were not Redeemed with so low a price so neither are they indued with so low a nature These might be a portion for lower spirits and fit those whose natures they suit with but so they cannot a Saint-like nature As God will have from them a Spiritual VVorship suitable to his own Spiritual Being so will he provide them a spiritual Rest suitable to his peoples spiritual nature As Spirits have not fleshly substances so neither delight they in fleshly pleasures These are too gross and vile for them When carnal persons think of Heaven their conceivings of it are also carnal and their notions answerable to their own natures And were it possible for such to enjoy it it would sure be their trouble and not their Rest because so contrary to their dispositions A Heaven of good-fellowship of wine and wantonness of gluttony and all voluptuousness would far better please them as being more agreeing to their natures But a heaven of the knowledg of God and his Christ a delightful complacency in that mutual love an everlasting rejoycing in the fruition of our God a perpetual singing of his high praises this is a heaven for a Saint a spiritual Rest suitable to a spiritual nature Then dear friends we shall live in our own element We are now as the fish in some small vessel of water that hath only so much as will keep him alive but what is that to the full Ocean we have a little Air let in to us to afford us breathing but what is that to the sweet and fresh gales upon Mount Sion we have a beam of the Sun to lighten our darkness and a warm Ray to keep us from freezing but then we shall live in its light and be revived by its heat for ever O blessed be that hand which fetcht a coal and kindled a fire in our dead hearts from that same Altar where we must offer our Sacrifice everlastingly To be lockt up in Gold and in Pearl would be but a wealthy starving to have our Tables with Plate and ornament richly furnished without meat is but to be richly famished to be lifted up with humane applause is but a very airy felicity to be advanced to the Soveraignty of all the Earth would be but to wear a Crown of Thorns to be filled with the knowledg of Arts and Sciences would be but to further the conviction of our unhappiness But to have a nature like God his very Image holy as he is holy and to have God himself to be our happiness how well do these agree Whether that in 2 Pet. 1.4 be meant as is
us His face shall be the Scripture where we shall read the Truth and himself instead of Teachers and Councels to perfect our understandings and acquaint us with himself who is the perfect Truth No more Error no more Scandal to others no more Disquiet to our own spirits no more mistaking zeal for falshood because our understandings have no more sin Many a Godly man hath here in his mistaken zeal been a means to deceive and pervert his Brethren and when he sees his own Error cannot again tell how to undeceive them But there we shall all conspire in one Truth as being one in him who is that Truth And as we shall rest from all the sin of our understandings so of our wills affection and conversation VVe shall no more retain this rebelling principle which is still withdrawing us from God and addicting us to backsliding Doubtless we shall no more be oppressed with the power of our corruptions nor vexed with their presence No Pride Passion Sloathfulness Senselesness shall enter with us no strangness to God and the things of God no coldness of affections nor imperfection in our love no uneven walking nor grieving of the Spirit no scandalous action or unholy conversation we shall Rest from all these for ever Then shall our understandings receive their Light from the face of God as the full Moon from the open Sun where there is no Earth to interpose betwixt them then shall our wills correspond to the Divine VVill as face answers face in a Glass and the same his will shall be our Law and Rule from which we shall never swerve again Now our corruptions as the Anakims dismay us and as the Canaanites in Israel they are left for pricks in our sides and thorns in our eyes and as the bond-woman and her son in Abrahams house they do but abuse us and make our lives a burden to us But then shall the bond-woman and her son be cast out and shall not be heirs with us in our Rest. As Moses said to Israel Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day every one whatsoever is right in his own eyes For ye are not as yet come to the Rest and to the Inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you Deut. 12.8 9. I conclude therefore with the words next to my Text. For he that is entered into his Rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God from his So that there is a perfect Rest from sin SECT IX 2. IT is also a perfect Rest from suffering When the cause is gone the effect ceaseth Our sufferings were but the consequents of our sinning and here they both shall cease together I will shew particularly ten kindes of suffering which we shall there rest from 1. We shall Rest from all our perplexing doubts and fears It shall no more be said That doubts are like the Thistle a bad weed but growing in good ground they shall now be weeded out and trouble the gracious soul no more No more need of so many Sermons Books and marks and signes to resolve the poor doubting soul The full fruition of Love it self hath now resolved his doubts for ever We shall hear that kinde of language no more What shall I do to know my state How shall I know that God is my father That my heart is upright That Conversion is true That Faith is sincere O I am afraid my sins are unpardoned O I fear that all is but in hypocrisie I fear that God will reject me from his presence I doubt he doth not hear my prayers How can he accept so vile a wretch So hard-hearted unkinde a sinner Such an under-valuer of Christ as I am All this kinde of language is there turned into another tune even into the praises of him who hath forgiven who hath converted who hath accepted yea who hath glorified a wretch so unworthy So that it will now be as impossible to doubt and fear as to doubt of the food which is in our bellies or to fear it is night when we see the Sun shining If Thomas could doubt with his finger in the wounds of Christ yet in Heaven I am sure he cannot If we could doubt of what we see or hear or taste or feel yet I am sure we cannot of what we there possess Sure this will be comfort to the sad and drooping soul whose life was nothing but a doubting distress and their language nothing but a constant complaining If God would speak peace it would ease them but when he shall possess them of this peace they shall rest from all their doubts and fears for ever SECT X. 2. WE shall rest from all that sense of Gods displeasure which was our greatest torment whether manifested mediately or immediately For he will cause his fury towards us to rest and his jealousie to cease and he will be angry with us no more Ezek. 16.42 Surely Hell shall not be mixed with Heaven There is the place for the glorifying of Justice prepared of purpose to manifest wrath but Heaven is onely for Mercy and Love Joh doth not now use his old language Thou writest bitter things against me and takest me for thine enemy and settest me up as a mark to shoot at c. O how contrary now to all this David doth not now complain That the arrows of the Almighty stick in him that his wounds stink and are corrupt that his sore runs and ceaseth not that his moysture is as the drought of Summer that there is no soundness in his flesh because of Gods displeasure nor rest in his bones because of sin that he is weary of crying his throat is dried his eyes fail in waiting for God that he remembreth God and is troubled that in complaining his spirit is overwhelmed that his soul refuseth to be comforted that Gods wrath lieth hard upon him and that he afflicteth him with all his waves O how contrary now are Davids Songs Now he saith I spake it in my haste and this was my infirmity Here the Christian is oft complaining O if it were the wrath of man I could bear it but the wrath of the Almighty who can bear O that all the world were mine enemies so that I were assured that he were my Friend If it were a stranger it were nothing but that my dearest Friend my own Father should be so provoked against me This wounds my very soul If it were a Creature I would contemn it but if God be angry who may endure If he be against me who can be for me And if he will cast me down who can raise me up But O that blessed day when all these dolorous complaints will be turned into admiring thankfulness and all sense of Gods displeasure swallowed up in that Ocean of infinite Love when Sense shall convince us that fury dwelleth not in God And though for a little
this in Heaven Our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such lights as at Worcester Edg-hil Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn Castle York Naseby Langport c. We shall then have the conquest without the calamity Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the carkasses of the slain Our black Ribbands and mourning Attire will then be turned into the white Robes and Garments of gladness O how hardly can my heart now hold when I think of such and such and such a dear Christian Friend slain or departed O how glad must the same heart needs be when I see them all alive and glorified But a far greater grief it is to our Spirits to see the spiritual miseries of our Brethren To see such a one with whom we took sweet councel and who zealously joyned with us in Gods worship to be now fallen off to sensuality turned drunkard worldling or a persecutor of the Saints And these trying times have given us too large occasion for such sorrows To see our dearest and most intimate friends to be turned aside from the Truth of Christ and that either in or neer the Foundation and to be raging confident in the grossest Errors To see many neer us in the flesh continue their neglect of Christ and their souls and nothing will waken them out of their security To look an ungodly Father or Mother Brother or Sister in the face To look on a carnal Wife or Husband or Childe or Friend And to think how certainly they shall be in Hell for ever if they die in their present unregenerate estate O what continual dolors do all these sad sights and thoughts fill our hearts with from day to day And will it not be a blessed day when we shall rest from all these what Christian now is not in Pauls case and cannot speak in his Language 2 Cor. 11.28 29. Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not What heart is not wounded to think on Germanies long desolations O the learned Universities The flourishing Churches there that now are left desolate Look on Englands four yeers blood a flourishing Land almost made ruined hear but the common voyce in most Cities Towns and Countreys through the Land and judg whether here be no cause of sorrow Especially look but to the sad effects and mens spirits grown more out of order when a most wonderful Reformation by such wonderful means might have been well expected And is not this cause of astonishing sorrows Look to Scotland look to Ireland look almost every where and tell me what you see Blessed that approaching day when our eyes shall behold no more such sights nor our ears hear any more such tidings How many hundred Pamphlets are Printed full of almost nothing but the common calamities So that its become a gainful trade to divulge the news of our Brethrens sufferings And the fears for the future that possessed our hearts were worse then all that we saw or suffered O the tidings that run from Edghil fight of York fight c. How many a face did they make pale and how many a heart did they astonish nay have not many died with the fears of that which if they had lived they had neither suffered nor seen It s said of Melancthon That the miseries of the Church made him almost neglect the death of his most beloved Children to think of the Gospel departing the Glory taken from Israel our Sun setting at Noon day poor souls left willingly dark and destitute and with great pains and hazard blowing out the Light that should guide them to salvation What sad thoughts must these be To think of Christ removing his Family taking away both worship and worshippers and to leave the Land to the rage of the merciless These were sad thoughts Who could then have taken the Harp in hand or sung the pleasant Songs of Zion But blessed be the Lord who hath frustrated our fears and who will hasten that rejoycing day when Sion shall be exalted above the Mountains and her Gates shall be open day and night and the glory of the Gentiles be brought into it and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve her shall perish When the sons of them that afflicted her shall come bending unto her and all they that despised her shall bow themselves down at the soles of her feet and they shall call her The City of the Lord the Sion of the holy One of Israel When her people also shall be all Righteous even the Work of Gods hands the Branch of his planting who shall inherit the Land for ever that he may be glorified When that voice shall sound forth Rejoyce with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her Rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourn for her That ye may suck and be satisfied with the brests of her consolation that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory Thus shall we Rest from our participation of our Brethrens sufferings SECT XVI 8. WE shall Rest also from all our own personal sufferings whether natural and ordinary or extraordinary from the afflicting hand of God And though this may seem a small thing to those that live in continual ease and abound in all kinde of prosperity yet me thinks to the daily afflicted soul it should make the fore-thoughts of Heaven delightful And I think we shall meet with few of the Saints but will say That this is their own case O the dying life that we now live As full of sufferings as of days and hours We are the Carkasses that all Calamities prey upon As various as they are each one will have a snatch at us and be sure to devour a morsel of our comforts When we bait our Bulls and Bears we do but represent our own condition whose lives are consumed under such assaults and spent in succession of fresh encounters All Creatures have an enmity against us ever since we made the Lord of all our enemy And though we are reconciled by the blood of the Covenant and the price is paid for our full deliverance yet our Redeemer sees it fit to leave this measure of misery upon us to make us know for what we are beholden and to minde us of what we would else forget to be serviceable to his wise and gracious designes and advantagious to our full and final Recovery He hath sent us as Lambs among Wolves and sure there is little Rest to be expected As all our Senses are the inlets of sin so are they become the inlets of our sorrow Grief creeps in at our eyes at our ears and almost every where It seiseth upon our head our hearts our flesh our Spirits and what part doth escape it Fears do devour us and
is eternall said to be in us Luk 17.21 Rom. 14.17 Mat. 13. Surely if there be as great an interruption of our life as till the Resurrection which with some will be many thousand yeers this is no eternall life nor everlasting Kingdom Lushingtons evasion is That because there is no time with dead men but they so sleep that when they awake it is all one to them as if it had been at first Therefore the Scripture speaks of them as if they were there already It is true indeed if there were no joy till the Resurrection then that consideration would be comfortable But when God hath thus plainly told us of it before then this evasion contradicteth the Text. Doubtless there is time also to the dead though in respect of their bodies they perceive it not He will not sure think it a happiness to be petrified or stupified whiles others are enjoying the comforts of life If he do it were the best course to sleep out our lives 13. In Jude 7. The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha are spoken of as suffering the vengeance of eternall fire And if the wicked do already suffer eternall fire then no doubt but the godly do enjoy eternall blessedness I know some understand the place of that fire which consumed their bodies as being a Type of the fire of Hell I will not be very confident against this exposition but the text seemeth plainly to speak more 14. It is also observable that when John saw his Glorious Revelations he is said to be in the spirit Revel 1.10 4.2 and to be carried away in the spirit Rev. 17.3 21.10 And when Paul had his Revelations and saw things unutterable he knew not whether it were in the body or out of the body All implying that spirits are capable of these Glorious things without the help of their bodies 15. And though it be a Propheticall obscure book yet it seemes to me that those words in the Revelations do imply this where John saw the souls under the Altar Rev. 6.9 c. 16. We are commanded by Christ Not to fear them that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Luk. 12.4 Doth not this plainly imply That when wicked men have killed our bodies that is separated the souls from them yet the souls are still alive 17. The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead And therefore so shall ours too For his created nature was like ours except in sin That Christs human soul was alive is a necessary consequent of its hypostaticall union with the Divine nature as I judg And by his words to the thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise so also by his voice on the Cross Luk. 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And whether that in 1 Pet. 3.18 19. that he went and preached to the spirits in prison c. will prove it I leave to others to judg Read Illyricus his Arguments in his Clavis Scripturae on this Text. Many think that the opposition is not so irregular as to put the Dative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the subject recipent and the Dative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the efficient cause But that it is plainly to be understood as a regular opposition that Christ was mortified in the flesh but vivified in the spirit that is in the spirit which is usually put in opposition to this flesh which is the soul by which spirit c. But I leave this as doubtfull There 's enough besides 18. Why is there mention of Gods breathing into man the breath of life and calling his soul a living soul There is no mention of any such thing in the creating of other creatures sure therefore this makes some difference between the life of our souls and theirs 19. It appears in Sauls calling for Samuel to the Witch and in the Jews expectation of the coming of Elias that they took it for currant then that Elias and Samuels soul were living 20. Lastly if the spirits of those that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah were in prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Then certainly the separated spirits of the Just are in an opposite condition of Happiness If any think that the word Prison signifieth not their full misery but a reservation thereto I grant it yet it importeth a reservation in a living and suffering state For were they nothing they could not be in prison THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. The Third Part. Containing Severall Vses of the former Doctrine of REST. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God New Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God and my New Name Rev. 3.12 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 29. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 If Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also Glorified together For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.17 18. London Printed by Rob. White for T. Vnderhill and F. Tyton and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in great Woodstreet and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1649. To my dearly beloved Friends The Inhabitants of the City of COVENTRY Both Magistrates and People ESPECIALLY Col. John Barker and Col. Tho. Willoughby late Governors with all the Officers and Souldiers of their Garison Rich. Baxter Devoteth this Part of this Treatise in thankful acknowledgment of their great Affection toward him and ready acceptance of his labors among them which is the highest recompence if joyned with obedience that a faithful Minister can expect HUmbly beseeching the Lord on their behalf that he will save them from that spirit of Pride Hypocrisie Dissention and Giddiness which is of late yeers gone forth and is now destroying and making havock of the Churches of Christ And that he will teach them highly to esteem those faithful Teachers whom the Lord hath made Rulers over them 1 Thes. 5.12 13. Heb. 13.7 17. and to know them so to be and to obey them And that he will keep them unspotted of the guilt of those sins which in these days have been the shame of our Religion and have made us a scandal or scorn to the World THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART III. CHAP. I. SECT I. WHatsoever the Soul of man doth entertain must
did not Christ dye to save sinners Never trouble your head with these thoughts but believe and you shall do well Thus do they follow the Soul that is escaping from Satan with restless cries till they have brought him back Oh how many thousands have such chaâ—ms kept a sleep in deceit and security till death and Hell have awaked and better informed them The Lord calls to the sinner and tells him The Gate is strait the way is narrow and few find it Try and examine whether thou be in the faith or no give all diligence to make sure in time And the world cries out clean contrary Never doubt Never trouble your selves with these thoughts I intreat the sinner that is in this strait to consider That it is Christ and not their fathers or mothers or neighbors or friends that must judge them at last and if Christ condemn them these cannot save them and therefore common Reason may tell them that it is not from the words of Ignorant men but from the word of God that they must fetch their comforts and hopes of Salvation When Ahab would enquire among the multitudes of flattering Prophets it was his death They can flatter men into the snare but they cannot tell how to bring them out Oh take the counsel of the Holy Ghost Ephes. 5.6 7. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them And Act. 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation SECT VIII 3. BUT the greatest hinderances are in mens own hearâ—s 1. Some are so Ignorant that they know not what Self-Examination is nor what a Minister means when he perswadeth them to Try themselves Or they know not that there is any Necessity of it but think every man is bound to Believe that God is his Father and that his sins are pardoned whether it be true or false and that it were a great fault to make any Question of it Or they do not think that Assurance can be attained or that there is any such great differences betwixt one man and another but that we are all Christians and therefore need not to trouble our selves any further Or at least they know not wherein the difference lies nor how to set upon this searching of their hearts nor to find out its secret motions and to judge accordingly They have as gross Conceits of that Regeneration which they must search for as Nicodemus had John 3.5 And when they should Try whether the Spirit be in them they are like those in Act. 19.2 That knoew not whether there were a Holy Ghost to be received or no. 2. Some are such Infidels that they will not Believe that ever God wil make such a difference betwixt men in the life to come and therefore will not search themselves whether they differ here Though Judgment and Resurrection be in their Creed yet they are not in their Faith 3. Some are so Dead-hearted that they perceive not how neerly it doth concern them let us say what we can to them they lay it not to heart but give us the hearing and there 's an end 4. Some are so possessed with Self-love and Pride that they will not so much as suspect any such danger to themselves Like a proud Tradesman who scorns the motion when his friends desire him to cast up his Books because they are afraid he will Break. As some fond Parents that have an over-weening conceit of their own Children and therefore will not believe or hear any evil of them such a fond Self-love doth hinder men from suspecting and trying their states 5. Some are so guilty that they dare not try They are so fearful that they shallâ—find their estates unsound that they dare not search into them And yet they dare venture them to a more dreadful Tryal 6. Some are so far in love with their sin and so far in dislike with the way of God that they dare not fall on the Tryal of their ways least they be forced from the course which they love to that which they loath 7. Some are so Resolved already never to change their present state that they neglect Examination as a useless thing Before they will turn so precise and seek a new way when they have lived so long and gone so far they will put their Eâ—ernal state to the venture come of it what will And when a man is fully resolved to hold on his way and not to turn back be it right or wrong to what end should he enquire whether he bâ— right or no 8. Most men are so taken up with their worldly affairs and are so busie in driving the trade of providing for the flesh that they cannot set themselves to the Trying of their title to Heaven They have another kind of happiness in their eye which they are pursuing which will not suffer them to make sure of Heaven 9. Most men are so clogged with a Laziness and Slothfulness of Spirit that they will not be perswaded to be at the paines of an hours Examination of their own hearts It requireth some labour and diligence to accomplish it throughly and they will rather venture all then set about it 10. But the most common and dangerous impediment is that false Faith and Hope commonly called Presumption which bears up the hearts of the most of the world and so keeps them from suspecting their danger Thus you see what abundance of difficulties must be overcome before a man can closely set upon the Examining of his heart I do but name them for brevity sake SECT IX AND if a man do break through all these impediments and set upon the Duty yet assurance is not presently attained Of those few who do enquire after Marks and Means of Assurance and bestow some pains to learn the difference between the sound Christian and the unsound and look often into their own hearts yet divers are deceiv'd and do miscarry especially through these following causes 1. There is such a Confusion and darkness in the Soul of man especially of an unregenerate man that he can scarcely tell what he doth or what is in him As one can hardly finde any thing in a house where nothing keeps his place but all is cast on a heap together so is it in the heart where all things are in disorder â—specially when darkness is added to this disorder so that the heart is like an obscure Cave or Dungeon where there is but a little crevise of light and a man must rather grope then see No wonder if men mistake in searching such a heart and so miscarry in judging of their estates 2. And the rather because most men do accustom themselves to be strangers at home and are little taken up with observing the temper and motions of their own hearts All their studies are imployed without them and they are no where less
canst heartily Accept of Christ that thou mayst be pardoned reconciled to God and so saved Dost thou Consent that he shall be thy Lord who hath bought thee and take his own course to bring thee to Heaven This is Justifying Saving Faith and this is the Mark that thou must try thy self by Yet still observe That all this Consent must be Hearty and Real not feigned or with reservations It is not saying as that dissembling son Matt. 21.30 I go sir when he went not To say Christ shall be my Lord and yet let corruption ordinarily rule thee or be unwilling that his Commands should encroach upon the interest of the world or flesh If any have more of the Government of thee then Christ or if thou hadst rather live after any other Laws then his if it were at thy choyce thou art not his Disciple Thus I have layd you down these two Marks which I am sure are such as every Christian hath and no other but sincere Christians I will add no more seeing the substance of Christianity is contained in these Oh that the Lord would now perswade thee to the close performance of this Self-trying Task That thou mayst not tremble with horror of Soul when the Judg of all the World shall try thee but have thy Evidence and Assurance so ready at hand and be so able to prove thy Title to Rest that the thoughts and approaching of Death and Judgment may revive thy spirits and fill thee with Joy and not apale thee and fill thee with amazement CHAP. X. The fourth Vse The Reason of the Saints Afflictions here SECT I. A Further necessary Use which we must make of the present Doctrine is this To inform us why the People of God do suffer so much in this life What wonder when you see their Rest doth yet Remain They are not yet come to their Resting place We would all fain have continual prosperity because it is easie and pleasing to the flesh but we consider not the unreasonableness of such desires We are like children who if they see any thing which their appetite desireth do cry for it and if you tell them that it is unwholesom or hurtful for them they are never the more quieted or if you go about to heal any sore that they have they will not endure you to hurt them though you tell them that they cannot otherwise be healed their Sense is too strong for their Reason and therefore Reason doth little perswade them Even so is it with us when God is afflicting us He giveth us Reasons why we must bear them so that our Reason is oft convinced and satisfied And yet we cry and complain still and we rest satisfied never the more It is not Reason but Ease that we must have What cares the flesh for Scripture and Argument if it still suffer and smart These be but winde and words which do not remove or abate its pain Spiritual remedies may cure the spirits maladies but that will not content the flesh But methinks Christians should have another pallate then that of the flesh to try and relish providences by God hath purposely given them the Spirit to subdue and over-rule the flesh And therefore I shall here give them some Reasons of Gods dealing in their present sufferings whereby the equity and mercy therein may appear And they shall be onely such as are drawn from the reference that these afflictions have to our Rest which being a Christians Happiness and ultimate End will direct him in judging of all estates and means SECT II. 1. COnsider then That Labor and Trouble are the common way to Rest both in the course of Nature and of Grace Can there possibly be Rest without Motion and Weariness Do you not Travel and Toyl first and then rest you afterwards The day for Labor goes first and then the night for Rest doth follow Why should we desire the course of Grace to be perverted any more then we would do the course of Nature seeing this is as perfect and regular as the other God did once dry up the Sea to make a passage for his people and once make the Sun in the Firmament to stand still But must he do so always or as oft as we would have him It is his established Decree That through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Act. 14.22 And that if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him 2 Tim. 2.12 And what are we that Gods Statutes should be reversed for our pleasure SECT III. 2. COnsider also That Afflictions are exceeding useful to us to keep us from mistaking our Resting place and so taking up short of it A Christians Motion Heaven-wards is Voluntary and not constrained Those means therefore are most profitable to him which help his Understanding and Will in this prosecution The most dangerous mistake that our Souls are capable of is to take the Creature for God and Earth for Heaven And yet alass how common is this And in how great a degree are the best guilty of it Though we are ashamed to speak so much with our tongues yet how oft do our hearts say It is best being here And how contented are they with an earthly portion So that I fear God would displease most of us more to afflict us here and promise us Rest hereafter then to give us our hearts desire on earth though he had never made us a promise of Heaven As if the Creature without God were better then God without the Creature Alass how apt are we like foolish children when we are busie at our sports and worldly employments to forget both our Father and our home Therefore is it a hard thing for a Rich man to enter into Heaven because it is hard for him to value it more then Earth and not to think he is well already Come to a man that hath the world at will and tell him This is not Your Happiness You have higher things to look after and how little will he regard you But when Affliction comes it speaks convincingly and will be heard when Preachers cannot What warm affectionate eager thoughts have we of the world till Affliction cool them and moderate them How few and cold would our thoughts of Heaven be how little should we care for coming thither if God would give us Rest on Earth Our thoughts are with God as Noahs Dove was in the Ark kept up to him a little against their inclinations and desires but when once they can break away they fly up and down over all the world to see if it were possible to finde any Rest out of God But when we finde that we seek in vain and that the world is all covered with the waters of instable vanity and bitter vexation and that there is no Rest for the sole of our foot or for the foot of our Soul no wonder then if we return to the Ark again Many a
thou hast a building with God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 2. It would therefore better become thee earnestly to groan desiring to be cloathed upon with that house Is thy flesh any better then the flesh of Noah was And yet though God saved him from the common deluge he would not save him from common death Or is it any better then the flesh of Abraham or Job or David or all the Saints that ever lived Yet did they all suffer and dye Dost thou think that those Souls which are now with Christ do so much pity their rotten or dusty corps or lament that their ancient habitation is ruined and their oneâ— comely bodies turned into earth Oh what a thing is strangeness and disacquaintance It maketh us afraid of our dearest friends and to draw back from the place of our only happiness So was it with thee towards thy chiefest friends on earth While thou wast unacquainted with them thou didst withdraw from their society but when thou didst once know them throughly thou wouldst have been loath again to be deprived of their fellowship And even so though thy strangeness to God another world do make thee loath to leave this flesh yet when thou hast been but one day or hour there if we may so speak of that Eternity where is neither day nor hour thou wouldst be full loath to return into this flesh again Doubtless when God for the Glory of his Son did send back the Soul of Lazarus into its body he caused it quite to forget the Glory which it had enjoyed and to leave behind it the remembrance of that happiness together with the happiness it self Or else it might have made his life a burden to him to think of the blessedness that he was fetched from and have made him ready to break down the prison doors of his flesh that he might return to that happy state again Oh then impatient Soul murmur not at Gods dealings with that body but let him alone with his work and way He knows what he doth but so dost not thou He seeth the End but thou seest but the beginning If it were for want of love to thee that he did thus chastise thy body then would he not have dealt so by all his Saints Dost thou not think he did not love David and Paul or Christ himself Or rather doth he not chasten because he loveth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Believe nor the Fleshes reports of God nor its commentaries upon his Providences It hath neither Will nor Skill to interpret them aright Not Will for it is an enemy to them They are against it and it is against them Not Skill for it is darkness It savoreth only the things of the flesh but the things of the Spirit it cannot understand because they are spiritually discerned Never expect then that the flesh should truly expound the meaning of the rod. It will call Love Hatred and say God is destroying when he is saving and murmur as if he did thee wrong and used thee hardly when he is shewing thee the greatest mercy of all Are not the foul steps the way to Rest as well as the fair Yea are not thy sufferings the most necessary passages of his providence And though for the present they are not Joyous but Grievous yet in the End do they bring forth the Quiet fruits of Righteousness to all those that are exercised thereby Hast thou not found it so by former experience when yet this flesh would have perswaded thee otherwise Believe it then no more which hath mis-informed thee so oft For indeed there is no believing the words of a wicked and ignorant enemy Ill-will never speaks well But when malice viciousness and Ignorance are combined what actions can expect a true and fair interpretation This flesh will call Love Anger and Anger Hatred and Chastisements Judgments It will tell thee That no mans case is like thine and if God did Love thee he would never so use thee It will tell thee That the promises are but deceiving words and all thy prayers and uprightness is vain If it find thee sitting among the ashes it will say to thee as Jobs wife Dost thou yet retain thine integrity Job 2. 8 9 10. Thus will it draw thee to offend against God and the generation of his Children It is a party and the suffering party and therefore not fit to be the Judg. If your Child should be the Judg when and how oft you should chastise him and whether your chastisement be a token of fatherly love you may easily imagine what would be his Judgment If we could once believe God and Judg of his dealings by what he speaks in his Word and by their usefulness to our Souls and reference to our Rest and could stop our ears against all the clamours of the flesh then we should have a truer Judgment of our Afflictions SECT VII 6. LAstly Consider God doth seldom give his people so sweet a fore-taste of their Future Rest as in their deep Afflictions He keepeth his most precious cordials for the time of our greatest faintings and dangers To give such to men that are well and need them not is but to cast them away They are not capable of discerning their working on their worth A few drops of Divine Consolation in the midst of a world of pleasure and contents will be but lost and neglected as some precious spirits cast into a vessel or river of common waters The Joys of Heaven are of unspeakable sweetness But a man that overflows with earthly delights is scarce capable of tasting their sweetness They may easilier comfort the most dejected Soul then him that feeleth not any need of comfort as being full of other comforts already Even the best of Saints do seldom-taste of the delights of God and pure spiritual unmixed Joys in the time of their prosperity as they do in their deepest troubles and distress God is not so lavish of his choice favours as to bestow them unseasonably Even to his own will he give them at so fit a time when he knoweth that they are needful and will be valued and when he is sure to be thanked for them and his people rejoyced by them Especially when our sufferings are more directly for his cause then doth he seldom fail of sweetening the bitter cup. Therefore have the Martyrs been possessors of the highest Joys and therefore were they in former times so ambitious of Martyrdom I do not think that Paul and Silas did ever sing more Joyfully then when they were sore with scourgings and were fast in the inner prison with their feet in the stocks Acts 16.24 25. When did Christ preach such comforts to his Disciples and leave them his Peace and assure them of his providing them mansions with himself but when he was ready to leave them and their hearts
Have you as oft and as earnestly begged of them to think on their wayes and to reform as you have taken on you to beg of God that they may do so What if you should see your neighbor faln into a pit and you should presently fall down on your knees and pray God to help him out but would neither put forth your hand to help nor once perswade or direct him to help himself would not any man censure you to be cruell and hypocriticall What the Holy Ghost saith of mens bodily miseries I may say much more of the misery of their souls If any man seeth his brother in need and shutteth up his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him Or what love hath he to his brothers soul Sure if you saw your friend in Hell you would perswade him hard to come thence if that would serve and why do you not now perswade him to prevent it The Charity of our ignorant forefathers may rise up in judgment against us and condemn us They would give all their estates almost for so many Masses or pardons to deliver the souls of their friends from a feigned Purgatory And we will not so much as importunately admonish and intreat them to save them from the certain flames of Hell though this may be effectuall to do them good and the other will do none 4. Another hinderance is A base man pleasing disposition that is in us We are so loath to displease men and so desirous to keep in credit and favor with them that it makes us most unconscionably neglect our known duty A foolish Physitian he is and a most unfaithful friend that will let a sick man dye for fear of troubling him And cruel wretches are we to our friends that will rather suffer them to go quietly to hell then we will anger them or hazard our reputation with them If they did but fall in a swoon we would rub them and pinch them and never stick at hurting them If they were distracted we would binde them with chains and we would please them in nothing that tended to their hurt And yet when they are besides themselves in point of salvation and in â—heir madness posting on to damnation we will not stop them for fear of displeasing them How can these men be Christians that love the praise and favour of men more then the favor of God John 12.43 For if they yet seek to please men they are no longer the servants of Christ Gal. 1.10 To winne them indeed they must become all things to all men but to please them to their destruction and let them perish that we may keep our credit with them is a course so base and barbarously cruel that he that hath the face of a Christian should abhorre it 5. Another common hinderance is A sinful Bashfulness When we should labor to make men ashamed of their sins we are our selves ashamed of our duties May not these sinners condemn us when they will not blush to swear or be drunk or neglect the worship of God and we will blush to tell them of it and perswade them from it Elisha looked on Hazael till he was ashamed and we are ashamed to look on or speak to the offender Sinners will rather boast of their sins and impudently shew them in the open streets and shall not we be as bold in drawing them from it Not that I approve of impudence in any For as one saith I take him for a lost man that hath lost his modesty Nor would I have inferiors forget their distance in admonishing their superiors but do it with all humility submission and respect But yet I would much less have them forget their duty to God and their friends be they never so much their superiors it is a thing that must be done Bashfulness is unseemly in cases of flat necessity And indeed it is not a work to be ashamed of to obey God in perswading men from their sins to Christ and helping to save their souls is not a business for a man to blush at And yet alas what abundance of souls have been neglected through the prevailing of this sin Even the most of us are hainously guilty in this point Reader is not this thy own case Hath not thy conscience told thee of thy duty many a time and put thee on to speak to poor sinners lest they perish and yet thou hast been ashamed to open thy mouth to them and so let them alone to sink or swim Believe me thou wilt ere long be ashamed of this shame O read those words of Christ and tremble He that is ashamed of me and of my words before this adulterous generation of him will the son of man be ashamed before his father and the Angels 5. Another hinderance is impatiency laziness and favouring of the flesh It is an ungrateful work and for the most part maketh those our enemies that were our friends And men cannot bear the reproaches and unthankful returns of sinners It may be they are their chief friends on whom is all their dependance so that it may be their undoing to displease them Besides it is a work that seldom succeedeth at the first except it be followed on with wisdom and unweariedness you must be a great while teaching an ignorant person before they will be brought to know the very fundamentals and a great while perswading an obstinate sinner before he will come to a full resolution to return Now this is a tedious course to the flesh and few will bear it Not considering what patience God used towards us when we were in our sins and how long he followed us with the importunities of his Spirit holding out Christ and life and beseeching us to accept them Wo to us if God had been as impatient with us as we are with others If Christ be not weary nor give over to invite them we have little reason to be weary of doing the message See 2 Timothy 2.24 25 6. Another hinderance is self-seeking and self-minding Men are all for themselves and all minde their own things but few the things of Christ and their brethren Hence is that Cainish voice Am I my brothers keeper Every man must answer for himself Hence also it is that a multitude of ignorant professors do think only where they may enjoy the purest ordinances and thither they will go over sea and land or what way of discipline will be sweetest to themselves and therefore are prone to groundless separation But where they have the fairest opportunity to win the souls of others or in what place or way they may do most good these things they little or nothing regard As if we had learned of the Monks and were setting up their principles and practice when we seem to oppose them If these men had tryed what some of their brethren have done they would know that all the purest ordinances and Churches will not
dark and our faith in him exceeding feeble so is our love to him but little and therefore are our desires after him so dull SECT IV. 3. IT appears we are little weary of sinning when we are so unwilling to be freed by dying Did we take sin for the greatest evil we should not be willing of its company so long did we look on sin as our cruellest enemy and on a sinful life as the most miserable life sure we should then be more willing of a change But O how far are our hearts from our doctrinal profession in this point also We preach and write and talk against sin and call it all that naught is and when we are called to leave it we are loth to depart We brand it with the most odious names that we can imagine and all far short of expressing its vileness but when the approach of death puts us to the tryal we chuse a continuance with these abominations before the presence and fruition of God But as Nemon smote his Souldier for railing against Alexander his enemy saying I hired thee to fight against him and not to rail against him So may God smite us also when he shall hear our tongues reviling that sin which we resist so slothfully and part with so unwillingly Christians seeing we are conscious that our hearts deserve a smiting for this let us joyn together to chide and smite our own hearts before God do judg and smite them O foolish sinful heart Hast thou been so long a sink of sin a cage of all unclean lusts a fountain uncessantly streaming forth the bitter and deadly waters of transgression and art thou not yet aweary Wretched Soul hast thou been so long wounded in all thy faculties so grievously languishing in all thy performances so fruitful a soyl for all iniquities and art thou not yet more weary Hast thou not yet transgressed long enough nor long enough provoked thy Lord nor long enough abused love wouldst thou yet grieve the Spirit more and sin against thy Saviours blood and more increase thine own wounds and still lie under thy grievous imperfections Hath thy sin proved so profit able a commodity so necessary a companion such a delightful employment that thou dost so much dread the parting day Hath thy Lord deserved this at thy hands that thou shouldst chuse to continue in the Suburbs of â—ell rather then live with him in light and rather stay and drudg in sin and abide with his and thy own professed enemy then come away and dwell with God May not God justly grant thee thy wishes and seal thee a lease of thy desired distance and nail thy ear to these doors of misery and exclude thee eternally from his glory Foolish sinner who hath wronged thee God or sin who hath wounded thee and caused thy groans who hath made thy life so woful and caused thee to spend thy days in dolor is it Christ or is it thy corruption and art thou yet so loth to think of parting shall God be willing to dwell with man and the Spirit to abide in thy peevish heart and that where sin doth straiten his room and a cursed inmate inhabit with him which is ever quarrelling and contriving against him and shall man be loth to come to God where is nothing but perfect Blessedness and Glory Is not this to judg our selves unworthy of everlasting Life If they in Acts 13.46 who put the Gospel from them did judg themselves unworthy do not we who flie from life and glory SECT V. 4. IT shews that we are insensible of the vanity of the Creature and of the vexation accompanying our residence here when we are so loth to hear or think of a removal VVhat ever we say against the world or how grievous soever our complaints may seem we either beleeve not or feel not what we say or else we should be answerably affected to it VVe call the world our enemy and cry out of the oppression of our Task-masters and groan under our sore bondage but either we speak not as we think or else we imagine some singular happiness to consist in the possession of worldly things for which all this should be endured Is any man loth to leave his prison or to remove his dwelling from cruel enemies or to scape the hands of murderous robbers Do we take the world indeed for our prison our cruel spoyling murderous foe and yet are we loth to leave it Do we take this flesh for the clog of our spirits and a vail that 's drawn betwixt us and God and a continual in dwelling traitor to our souls and yet are we loth to lay it down Indeed Peter was smitten by the Angel before he arose and left his prison but it was more from his ignorance of his intended deliverance then any unwillingness to leave the place I have read of Josephs long imprisonment and Daniels casting into the Den of Lyons and Jeremies sticking fast in the Dungeon and Jonahs lying in the belly of the VVhale and David from the deep crying to God but I remember not that any were loth to be delivered I have read indeed That they suffered cheerfully and rejoyced in being afflicted destitute and tormented yea and that some of them would not accept of deliverance But not from any love to the suffering or any unwillingness to change their condition but because of the hard terms of their deliverance and from the hope they had of a better resurrection Though Paul and Sylas could sing in the stocks and comfortably bear their cruel scourgings yet I do not beleeve they were unwilling to go forth nor took it ill when God relieved them At foolish wretched soul Doth every prisoner groan for freedom and every Slave desire his Jubilee and every sick man long for health and every hungry man for food and dost thou alone abhor deliverance Doth the Seamen long to see the Land doth the Husbandman desire the Harvest and the laboring man to receive his pay doth the traveller long to be at home and the runner long to win the prize and the Souldier long to win the field And art thou loth to see thy labors finished and to receive the end of thy Faith and sufferings and to obtain the thing for which thou livest Are all thy sufferings onely seeming have thy gripes thy griefs and groans been onely dreams if they were yet methinks we should not be afraid of waking Fearful dreams are not delightful Or is it not rather the worlds delights that are all meer dreams and shadows Is not all its glory as the light of a Glow-worm a wandering fire yielding but small directing light and as little comforting heat in all our doubtful and sorrowful darkness or hath the world In these its latter days laid aside its ancient enmity Is it become of late more kinde hath it left its thorny renting nature who hath wrought this great change and who
the Christian the Drunkard the Whoremaster and the jovial Lads do swagger it out with gallantry and mirth when a poor Saint is mourning in a corner yea the very beasts of the field do eat and drink and skip play and care for nothing when many a Christian dwels with sorrows So that if you would not dye and go to heaven what would you have more then an Epicure or a beast What doth it availe us to fight with beasts as men if it were not for our hopes of a life to come Why do we pray and fast and mourn why do we suffer the contempt of the world why are we the scorn and hatred of all if it were not for our hopes after we are dead why are we Christians and not Pagans and Infidels if we do not desire a life to come why Christian wouldst thou lose thy faith and lose thy labor in all thy duties and all thy sufferings wouldst thou lose thy hope and lose all the end of thy life and lose all the blood of Christ and be contented with the portion of a worldling or a brute If thou say No to this how canst thou then be loth to dye As good old Milius said when he lay a dying and was asked whether he were willing to dye or no Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum A saying of Austins which he oft repeated Let him be loth to dye who is loth to be with Christ. SECT XI 2. COnsider Is God willing by death to Glorifie us and are we unwilling to dye that we may be glorified would God freely give us heaven and are we unwilling to receive it As the Prince who would have taken the lame begger into his Coach and he refused said to him Opitimè mereris qui in luto haereas Thou well deservest to stick in the dirt So may God to the refusers of Rest You well deserve to live in trouble Me thinks if a Prince were willing to make you his heir you should scarce be unwilling to accept it Sure the refusing of such a kindness must needs discover ingratitude and unworthiness As God hath resolved against them who make excuses when they should come to Christ Verily none of these that were bidden shall tast of my supper So is it just with him to resolve against us who frame excuses when we should come to Glory SECT XII 3. THe Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us and shall be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for our selves and him Sure if we had been once possessed of Heaven and God should have sent â—s to earth again as he did his Son for our sakes we should then have been loth to remove indeed It was another kinde of change then ours is which Christ did freely submit unto to cloath himself with the garments of flesh and to take upon him the form of a servant to come from the bosome of the Fathers Love to bear his wrath which we should have borne Shall he come down to our hell from the height of glory to the depth of misery to bring us up to his Eternal Rest and shall we be after this unwilling Sure Christ had more cause to be unwilling he might have said What is it to me if these sinners suffer If they value their flesh above their spirits and their lusts above my Fathers Love if they needs will sell their souls for nought who is it fit should be the loser and who should bear the blame and curse Should I whom they have wronged must they wilfully transgress my Law and I undergo their deserved pain Is it not enough that I bear the trespasse from them but I must also bear my Fathers wrath and satisfie the Justice which they have wronged Must I come down from Heaven to Earth and cloth my self with humane flesh be spit upon and scorned by man and fast and weep and sweat and suffer and bleed and dye a cursed death and all this for wretched wormes who would rather hazard all they had and venture their souls and Gods favor then they would forbear but one forbiden morsel Do they cast away themselves so slightly and must I redeem them again so dearly Thus we see that Christ had much to have pleaded against his coming down for man and yet he pleaded none of this He had reason enough to have made him unwilling and yet did he voluntarily condescend But we have no reason against our coming to him except we will reason against our hopes and plead for a perpetuity of our own calamities Christ came down to fetch us up and would we have him loose his blood and labor and go away again without us Hath he bought our Rest at so dear a rate Is our inheritance purchased with the blood of God And are we after all this loth to enter Ah Sirs it was Christ and not we that had cause to be loth The Lord forgive and heal this foolish ingratitude SECT XIII 4. COnsider do we not combine with our most cruel mortal foes and jump with them in their most malitious designe while we are loth to dye and go to heaven where is the height of all their malice and what 's the scope of all temptations and what 's the divels daily business Is it not to keep our souls from God And shall we be well content with this and joyn with Satan in our desires what though it be not those eternal torments yet it s the one half of Hell which we wish to our selves while we desire to be absent from Heaven and God If thou shouldest take counsel of all thine enemies If thou shouldest beat thy brains both night and day in studying to do thy self a mischief What greater then 〈◊〉 could it possibly be To continue here on earth from God Excepting only hell it self O what sport is this to Sathan that his desires and thine should so concur That when he sees he cannot get thee to Hell he can so long keep thee out of Heaven and make thee the earnest petitioner for it thy self O gratifie not the Divel so much to thy own displeasure SECT XIV 5. DO not our daily fears of death make our lives a continual torment The fears of death as Erasmus saith being a sorer evil then death it self And thus as Paul did dye daily in regard of preparation and in regard of the necessary sufferings of his life so do we in regard of the torments and the useless sufferings which we make our selves Those lives which might be full of Joyes in the daily contemplation of the life to come and the sweet delightful thoughts of bliss how do we fill them up with terrors through all these causeless thoughts and fears Thus do we consume our own comforts and prey upon our truâ—st pleasures When we might lye down and rise up and walk abroad with our hearts full of
his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Hovv long Lord Hovv long SECT XX. 11. COnsider vvhat if God should grant thy desire and let thee live yet many yeers but vvithal should strip thee of the comforts of life and deny thee the mercies vvhich thou hast hitherto enjoyed Would this be a blessing vvorth the begging for Might not God in judgment give thee life as he gave the murmuring Israelites Quails or as he oft times gives men riches and honor when he sees them over-earnest for it Might he not justly say to thee Seeing thou hadst rather linger on earth then come away and enjoy my presence seeing thou art so greedy of life take it and a curse with it never let fruit grow on it more nor the Sun of comfort shine upon it nor the dew of my blessing ever water it Let thy table be a snare let thy friends be thy sorrow let thy riches be corrupted and the rust of thy silver eat thy flesh Go hear Sermons as long as thou wilt but let never Sermon do thee good more let all thou hearest make against thee and increase the smart of thy wounded spirit If thou love Preaching better then Heaven go and preach till thou be aweary but never profit soul more Sirs what if God should thus chastise our inordinate desires of living were it not just and what good would our lives then do us Seest thou not some that spend their days on their cowch in groaning and some in begging by the high-way sides and others in seeking bread from door to door and most of the world in laboring for food and rayment and living onely that they may live and loosing the ends and benefits of life Why what good would such a life do thee were it never so long when thy soul shall serve thee onely in stead of Salt to keep thy body from stinking God might give thee life till thou art weary of living and as glad to be rid of it as Judas or Ahitophel and make thee like many miserable Creatures in the world who can hardly forbear laying violent hands on themselves Be not therefore so importunate for life which may prove a judgment in stead of a blessing SECT XXI 12. COnsider how many of the precious Saints of God of all ages and places have gone before thee Thou art not to enter an untrodden path nor appointed first to break the Ice Except onely Henoch and Elias which of the Saints have scaped death And art thou better then they There are many millions of Saints dead more then do now remain on Earth What a number of thine own bosome friends and intimate acquaintance and companions in duty are now there and why shouldst thou be so loth to follow Nay hath not Jesus Christ himself gone this way hath he not sanctified the grave to us and perfumed the dust with his own body And art thou loth to follow him too O rather let us say as Thomas Let us also go and die with him or rather let us suffer with him that we may be glorified together with him Many such like Considerations might be added as that Christ hath taken out the sting How light the Saints have made of it how cheerfully the very Pagans have entertained it c. But because all that 's hitherto spoken is also conducible to the same purpose I pass them by If what hath been said will not perswade Scripture and Reason have little force I have said the more on this subject finding it so needful to my self and others finding that among so many Christians who could do and suffer much for Christ there 's yet so few that can willingly die and of many who have somewhat subdued other corruptions so few have got the conquest of this This caused me to drawforth these Arrows from the quiver of Scripture and spend them against it SECT XXII I Will onely yet Answer some Objections and so conclude this Use. 1. Object O If I were but certain of Heaven I should then never stick at dying Answ. 1. Search for all that whether some of the forementioned câ—uses may not be in fault as well as this 2. Didst thou not say so long ago Have you not been in this song this many yeers if you are yet uncertain whose fault is it you have had nothing else to do with your lives nor no greater matter then this to minde Were you not better presently fall to the tryal till you have put the Question out of doubt Must God stay while you trifle and must his patience be continued to cherish your negligence If thou have played the loyterer do so no longer Go search thy soul and follow the search close till theâ— come to a clear discovery Begin to night stay not till the next morning Certainty comes not by length of time but by the blessing of the Spirit upon wise and faithful tryal You may linger out thus twenty yeers more and be still as uncertain as now you are 3. A perfect certainty may not be expected we shall still be deficient in that as well as in other things They who think the Apostle speaks absolutely and not comparatively of a perfect assurance in the very degree when he mentions a Plerophory or Full assurance I know no reason but they may expect perfection in all things else as well as this VVhen you have done all you will know this but in part If your belief of that Scripture which saith Beleeve and be saved be imperfect and if your knowledg whether your own deceitful hearts do sincerely beleeve or not be imperfect or if but one of these tvvo be imperfect the result or conclusion must needs be so too If you vvould then stay till you are perfectly certain you may stay for ever if you have obtained assurance but in some degree or got but the grounds for assurance said it is then the speediest and surest vvay to desire rather to be quickly in Rest For then and never till then vvill both the grounds and assurance be fully perfect 4. Both your assurance and the comfort thereof is the gift of the Spirit vvho is a free bestovver And Gods usual time to be largest in mercy is vvhen his people are deepest in necessity A mercy in season is the svveetest mercy I could give you here abundance of late examples of those vvho have languished for assurance and comfort some all their sickness and some most of their lives and vvhen they have been neer to death they have received in abundance Never fear death then through imperfections of assurance for that 's the most usual time of all vvhen God most fully and svveetly bestovvs it SECT XXIII OBject 2. O but the Churches necessities are great and God hath made me useful in my place so that the loss vvill be to many or else me thinks I could vvillingly die Answ. This may be the case of some but
great deal of fervor in Affections and Duties and all prove but common and unsound when it is raised upon common Grounds and motives your zeal will partake of the nature of those things by which it is acted The zeal therefore which is kindled by your meditations on Heaven is most like to prove a heavenly zeal and the liveliness of the Spirit which you fetch from the face of God must needs be the Divinest and sincerest life Some mens fervency is drawn onely from their Books and some from the pricks of some stinging affliction and some from the mouth of a moving Minister and some from the encouragement of an attentive Auditory but he that knows this way to heaven and it derives it daily from the pure Fountain shall have his soul revived with the water of Life and enjoy that quickning which is the Saints peculiar By this Faith thou maist offer Abels Sacrifice more excellent then that of common men and by it obtain winess that thou art righteous God testifying of thy gifts that they are sincere Heb. 11.4 when others are ready as Baals Priests to beat themselves and cut their flesh because their sacrifice will not burn then if thou canst get but the spirit of Elias and in the chariot of Contemplation canst soar aloft till thou approachest neer to the quickning Spirit thy soul and sacrifice will gloriously flame though the flesh and the world should cast upon them the water of all their opposing enmity Say not now How shall we get so high or how can mortals ascend to heaven For Faith hath wings and Meditation is its chariot Its office is to make absent things as present Do you not see how a little piece of Glass if it do but rightly face the Sun will so contract its beames and heat as to set on fire that which is behinde it which without it would have received but little warmth Why thy Faith is as the Burning-glass to thy Sacrifice and Meditation sets it to face the Sun onely take it not away too soon but hold it there awhile and thy soul will feel the happy effect The slanderous Jews did raise a foolish tale of Christ that he got into the Holy of Holies and thence stole the true name of God and lest he should lose it cut a hole in his thigh and sewed it therein and by the vertue of this he raised the dead gave sight to the blinde cast out divels and performed all his Miracles Surely if we can get into the Holy of Holies and bring thence the Name and Image of God and get it closed up in our hearts this would enable us to work wonders every duty we performed would be a wonder and they that heard would be ready to say Never man spake as this man speaketh The Spirit would possess us as those flaming tongues and make us every one to speak not in the variety of the confounded Languagues but in the primitive pure Language of Canaan the wonderful Works of God We should then be in every duty whether Prayer Exhortation or brotherly reproof as Paul was at Athens his Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was stirred within him and should be ready to say as Jeremy did Jer. 20.9 His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay Christian Reader Art thou not thinking when thou seest a lively beleever and hearest his soul-melting Prayers and soul-ravishing discourse O how happy a man is this O that my soul were in this blessed plight Why I here direct and advise thee from God Try this forementioned course and set thy soul conscionably to this work and thou shalt be in as good a case Wash thee frequently in this Jordan and thy Leprous dead soul will revive and thou shalt know that there is a God in Israel and that thou mayst live a vigorous and joyous life if thou wilfully cast not by this duty and so neglect thine own mercies If thou be not a lazy reserved hypocrite but dost truly value this strong and active frame of Spirit shew it then by thy present attempting this heavenly exercise Say not now but thou hast heard the way to obtain this life into thy soul and into thy duties If thou wilt yet neglect it blame thy self But alas the multitude of Professors come to a Minister just as Naaman came to Elias they ask us How shall I know I am a childe of God How shall I overcome a hard heart and get such strength and life of Grace But they expect that some easie means should do it and think we should cure them with the very Answer to their Question and teach them a way to be quickly well but when they hear of a daily trading in Heaven and the constant Meditation on the joyes above This is a greater task then they expected and they turn their backs as Naaman on Elias or the young man on Christ and few of the most conscionable will set upon the duty Will not Preaching and Praying and Conference serve say they without this dweling still in Heaven Just as Countrey people come to Physitians when they have opened their case and made their moan they look he should cure them in a day or two or with the use of some cheap and easie Simple but when they hear of a tedious Method of Physick and of costly Compositions and bitter Potions they will hazard their lives with some sotish Empirick who tells them an easier and cheaper way yea or venture on death it self before they will obey such difficult counsel Too many that we hope well of I fear will take this course here If we could give them life as God did with a word or could heal their souls as Charmers do their bodies with easie stroaking and a few good words then they would readily hear and obey I entreat thee Reader beware of this folly fall to the work the comfort of Spiritual Health will countervail all the trouble of the Duty It is but the flesh that repines and gain-sayes which thou knowest was never a friend to thy soul If God had set thee on some grievous work shouldst thou not have done it for the life of thy soul How much more when he doth but invite thee Heaven-ward to himself SECT VIII 6. COnsider The frequent believing views of Glory are the most precious cordial in all Afflictions First To sustain our spirits and make our sufferings far more easie Secondly To stay us from repining and make us bear with patience and joy And thirdly to strengthen our resolutions that we forsake not Christ for fear of trouble Our very Beast will carry us more chearfully in travel when he is coming homeward where he expecteth Rest. A man will more quietly endure the lancing of his sores the cutting out the Stone when he thinks on the ease that will afterwards follow What then will not a beleever endure when
lye by thee as if thou hadst forgot it O that our hearts were as high as our Hopes and our Hopes as high as these infallible Promises SECT XII 10. COnsider It is but equal that our hearts should be on God when the heart of God is so much on us If the Lord of Glory can stoop so low as to set his heart on sinful dust sure one would think we should easily be perswaded to set our hearts on Christ and Glory and to ascend to him in our daily affections who vouchsafeth to condescend to us O If Gods delight were no more in us then ours is in him what should we do what a case were we in Christian dost thou not perceive that the Heart of God is set upon thee and that he is still minding thee with tender Love even when thou forgettest both thy self and him Dost thou not finde him following thee with daily mercies moving upon thy soul providing for thy body preserving both Doth he not bear thee continually in the arms of Love and promise that all shall work together for thy good and suit all his dealings to thy greatest advantage and give his Angels charge over thee And canst thou finde in thy heart to cast him by and be taken up with the Joyes below and forget thy Lord who forgets not thee Fye upon this unkinde ingratitude Is not this the sin that Isaiah so solemnly doth call both heaven and earth to witness against The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider If the Ox or Ass do straggle in the day they likely come to their home at night but we will not so much as once a day by our serious thoughts ascend to God When he speaks of his own respects to us hear what he saith Isai. 15.16 When Zion saith The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me But when he speaks of our thoughts to him the case is otherwise Jer. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my People have forgotten me days without number As if he should say you would not forget the cloathes on your backs you will not forget your braveries and vanities you will not rise one morning but you will remember to cover your nakedness And are these of more worth then your God or of more concernment then your eternal life and yet you can forget these day after day O brethren give not God cause to expostulate with us as Isai. 65.11 Ye are they that have forsaken the Lord and that forget my holy Mountain But rather admire his minding of thee and let it draw thy minde again to him and say as Job 7.17 What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment ver 18. So let thy soul get up to God and visit him every morning and thy heart be towards him every moment SECT XIII 11. COnsider Should not our interest in Heaven and our Relation to it continually keep our hearts upon it Besides that excellency which is spoken of before VVhy there our Father keeps his court Do we not call him our Father which art in Heaven Ah ungratious unworthy children that can be so taken up in their play below as to be mindless of such a Father Also there is Christ our Head our Husband our Life and shall we not look towards him and send to him as oft as we can till we come to see him face to face If he were by Transubstantiation in the Sacraments or other ordinances and that as gloriously as he is in Heaven then there were some reason for our lower thoughts But when the Heavens must receive him till the restitution of all things let them also receive our hearts with him There also is our Mother For Jerusalem which is above is that mother of us all Gal. 4.26 And there are multitudes of our elder Brethren There are our friends and our ancient acquaintance whose society in the flesh we so much delighted in and whose departure hence we so much lamented And is this no attractive to thy thoughts If they were within thy reach on earth thou wouldst go and visit them and why wilt thou not oftner visit them in Spirit and rejoyce beforehand to think of thy meeting them there again Saith old Bullinger Socrates gaudet sibi moriendū esse propterea quod Homerum Hesiodum alios praestantissimos viros se visurum crederet quanto magis ego gaudeo qui certus sum me visurum esse Christum servatorem meum aeternum Dei filium in assumtâ carne praeterea tot sanctissimos eximios Patriarchas c. Socrates rejoyced that he should die because he believed he should see Homer Hesiod and other excellent men how much more do I rejoyce who am sure to see Christ my Saviour the eternal Son of God in his assumed flesh and besides so many holy and excellent men When Luther desired to dye a Martyr and could not obtain it he comforted himself with these thoughts and thus did write to them in prison Vestra vincula mea sunt vestri carceres ignes mei sunt dum confiteor praedico vobisque simul compatior congratulor Yet this is my comfort your Bonds are mine your Prisons and Fires are mine while I confess and Preach the Doctrine for which you suffer and while I suffer and congratulate with you in your sufferings Even so should a Believer look to heaven and contemplate the blessed state of the Saints and think with himself Though I am not yet so happy as to be with you yet this is my daily comfort you are my Brethren and fellow Members in Christ and therefore your joyes are my joyes and your glory by this neer relation is my glory especially while I believe in the same Christ and hold fast the same Faith and Obedience by which you were thus dignified and also while I rejoyce in Spirit with you and in my daily meditations congratulate your happiness Moreover our house and home is above For we know if this earthly house of our Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Why do we then look no oftner towards it and groan not earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Sure if our home were far meaner we should yet remember it because it is our home You use to say Home is homely be it never so poor and should such a home then be no more remembred If
but looks upon it afar off Psal. 138.6 The proud he resisteth and the proud resisteth him but to the humble he gives this and other Graces 1 Pet. 5.5 A proud minde is a high minde in conceit self-esteem and carnal-aspiring A heavenly minde is a high minde indeed in Gods esteem and in higher yet holy aspiring These two sorts of high-mindedness are more adverse to one another then a high minde and a low As we see that most wars and bloodshed is between Princes and Princes and not between a Prince and a Plowman A low spirit and a humble is not so contrary to a high and heavenly as is a high and a proud A grain of Mustard Seed may come to be a tree A small Acorn may be a great Oake The sail of the windmil that is now down may presently be the highest of all A Subject that is low may be raised high and he that is high may be yet higher as long as he stands in subordination to his Prince who is the fountain of honor but if he break out of that subordination and become a competitor or will assume and arrogate honor to himself he will finde this prove the falling way A man that is swelled in a Dropsie with winde or water is as far from a sound well fleshed constitution as he that is in a consuming Atrophy Well then art thou a man of worth in thine own eyes and very tender of thine esteem with others Art thou one that much valuest the applause of the people and feelest thy heart tickled with delight when thou hearest of thy great esteem with men and much dejected when thou hearest that men sleight thee Do thou love those best who most highly honour thee and doth thy heart bear a grudg at those that thou thinkest do undervalue thee and entertain mean thoughts of thee though they be otherwise men of godliness and honesty Art thou one that must needs have thy humors fulfilled and thy judgment must be a rule to the Judgments of others and thy word a law to all about thee Art thou ready to quarrel with every man that lets fall a word in derogation from thy honor Are thy passions kindled if thy word or will be crossed Art thou ready to judg humility to be sordid baseness and knowest not how to stoop and submit and wilt not be brought to shame thy self by humble confession when thou hast sinned against God or injured thy brother Art thou one that honourest the godly that are rich and thinkest thy self somebody if they value and own thee but lookest strangely at the godly poor and art almost ashamed to be their companion Art thou one that canst not serve God in a low place as well as in a high and thinkest thy self the fittest for offices and honors and lovest Gods service when it stands with preferment Hast thou thine eye and thy speech much on thy own deservings and are thy boastings restained more by wit then by humility Dost thou delight in opportunities of setting forth thy parts and lovest to have thy name made publike to the world and wouldst fain leave behinde thee some monument of thy worth that posterity may admire thee when thou art dead and gone Hast thou witty circumlocutions to commend thy self while thou seemest to debase thy self and deny thy worth Dost thou desire to have all mens eyes upon thee and to hear men observing thee say This is he Is this the end of thy studies and learning of thy labors and duties of seeking degrees and titles and places that thou maist be taken for somebody abroad in the world Art thou unacquainted with the deceitfulness and wickedness of thy heart or knowest thy self to be vile only by reading and by hear-say but not by experience and feeling of thy vileness Art thou readier to defend thy self and maintain thine innocency then to accuse thy self or confess thy fault Canst thou hardly hear a close reproof and dost digest plain dealing with difficulty and distaste Art thou readier in thy discourse to teach then to learn and to dictate to others then to hearken to their instructions Art thou bold and confident of thy own opinions and little suspitious of the weakness of thy understanding but a sleighter of the judgments of all that are against thee Is thy spirit more disposed to command and govern then it is to obey and be ruled by others Art thou ready to censure the Doctrine of thy Teachers the actions of thy Rulers and the persons of thy brethren and to think if thou were a Judg thou wouldst be more just or if thou were a Minister thou wouldst be more fruitful in Doctrine and more faithful in overseeing Or if thou hadst had the managing of other mens business thou wouldst have carried it more honestly and wisely If these Symtomes be undeniably in thy heart beyond doubt thou art a proud person I will not talk of thy following the fashions of thy bravery and comportment thy proud gestures and arrogant speeces thy living at a rate above thy abilities Perhaps thy incompetency of estate or thy competency of wit may suffice to restrain these unmanly fooleries perhaps thou maist rather seem sordid to others and to live at a rate below thy worth and yet if thou be guilty of the former accusations be it known to thee thou art a person abominably proud it hath seized on thy heart which is the principall Fort there 's too much of hell abiding in thee for thee to have any acquaintance at heaven thy soul is too like the devil for thee to have any familiarity with God A proud man is all in the flesh and he that will be heavenly must be much in the Spirit Is it likely that the man whom I have here described hath either will or skill to go out of Himself and out of the Flesh as it were and out of the world that so he may have freedom for converse above A proud man make himself his God and admires and sets up himself as his Idol how then can he have his affections set on God As the humble godly man is the Zealot in forward worshipping of God so the Ambitious man is the great zealot in Idolatry for what is his Ambition but a more hearty and earnest desire after his Idol then the common and calmer Idolaters do reach And can this man possibly have his heart in heaven It s possible his invention and memory may furnish his tongue both with humble and heavenly expressions but in his spirit theâ—â— is no more heaven then there is humility I intreat you Readers be very jealous of your souls in this point There 's nothing in the world will more estrange you from God I speak the more of it because it is the most common and dangerous sin in Morality and most promoting the great sin of Infidelity you would little think yea and the owners do little think what humble
and the Spirit will help me to suck them from the brests of the promise and to walk for them daily to the face of God It was an established Law among the Argi That if a man were perceived to be idle and lazy he must give an account before the Magistrate how he came by his victuals and maintenance And sure when I see these men lazy in the use of Gods appointed means for comfort I cannot but question how they come by their comforts I would they would examine it throughly themselves for God will require an account of it from them Idleness and not improving the Truth in painful duty is the common cause of mens seeking comfort from Error even as the people of Israel when they had no comfortable answer from God because of their own sin and neglect would run to seek it from the Idols of the Heathens So when men-were falshearted to the Truth and the Spirit of Truth did deny them comfort because they denied him sincere obedience therefore they will seek it from a lying spirit A multitude also of professors there are that come and enquire for Marks and signs How shall I know whether my heart be sincere and they think the bare naming of some mark is enough to discover but never bestow one hour in trying themselves by the marks they hear So here they ask for directions for a Heavenly Life and if the hearing and knowing of these directions will serve then they will be heavenly Christians But if we set them to task and shew them their work and tell them they cannot have these delights on easier tearmes then here they leave us as the young man left Christ with sorrow How our comforts are only in Christ and yet this labor of ours is necessary thereto I have shewed you already in the beginning of this book and therefore still refer you thither when any shall put in that objection My advice to such a lazie sinner is this As thou art convict that this work is necessary to thy comfortable living so resolvedly set upon it If thy heart draw back and be undisposed force it on with the command of Reason and if thy Reason begin to dispute the work force it with producing the command of God and quicken it up with the consideration of thy necessity and the other Motives before propounded And let the enforcements that brought thee to the work be still in thy minde to quicken thee in it Do not let such an incomparable treasure lye before thee while thou lyest still with thy hand in thy bosom Let not thy life be a continual vexation which might be a continual delightful feasting and all because thou wilt not be at the pains When thou hast once tasted of the sweetness of it and a little used thy heart to the work thou wilt finde the pains thou takest which thy backward flesh abundantly recompensed in the pleasures of thy spirit Only â—it not still with a disconsolate spirit while comforts grow before thine eyes like a man in the midst of a Garden of Flowers or delightful Medow that will not rise to get them that he may partake of their sweetness Neither is it a few formal lazy running thoughts that will fetch thee this consolation from above No more then a few lazy formal words will prevail with God in stead of fervent prayer I know Christ is the fountain and I know this as every other gift is of God But yet if thou ask my advice How to obtain these waters of consolation I must tell thee There is something also for thee to do The Gospel hath its conditions and work though not such impossible ones as the Law Christ hath his yoak and his burden though easie and thou must come to him weary and take it up or thou wilt never finde Rest to thy soul. The well is deep and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be refreshed and delighted with it What answer would you give a man that stands by a Pump or draw-Well and should ask you How shall I do to get out the water Why you must draw it up or labor at the Pump and that not a motion or two but you must pump till it comes and then hold on till you have enough Or if a man were lifting at a heavy weight or would move a stone to the top of a mountain and should ask you How he should get it up Why what would you say but that he must put to his hands and put forth his strength And what else can I say to you in directâ—ing you to this Art of a Heavenly Life but this You must deal roundly with your hearts and drive them up and spur them on and follow them close till the work be done as a man will do a lazy unfaithful servant who will do nothing longer then your eye is on him or as you will your horse or ox at his labor who will not stir any longer then he is driven And if your heart lye down in the midst of the work force it up again till the work be done and let it not prevaile by its lazy polâ—â—es I know so far as you are spiritual you need not all this striving and violence but that is but in part and in part you are carnal and as long as it is so there is no talk of ease Though your renewed 〈◊〉 do delight in this work yea no delight on earth so great 〈…〉 so far as it is freshly and unrenewed will draw back and rest and necessitate your industry It was the Parthians custome the none must give their children any meat in the morning before thâ— saw the sweat on their faces with some labor And you shall finde this to be Gods most usual course not to give his children the tastes of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them Therefore lay them both together and judg whether a heavenly 〈◊〉 or thy carnal ease be better and as a wise man make thy choice accordingly Yet this let me say to encourage thee Thou needâ—st not expend thy thoughts more then thou now dost it is but only to employ them better I press thee not to busie thy minde much more then thou dost but to busie it upon better and more pleasant objects As Socratâ—s said to a lazy fellow that would fain go up to Olympus but that it was so far off Why saith he walk but as far every day as thou dâ—st up and down about thy house and in so many dayes thou wilt be at Olympus So say I to thee Imploy but so many serious thoughts every day upon the excellent glory of the life to come as thou now imployest on thy necessary affairs in the world nay as thou daily losest on vanities and impertinencies and thy heart will be at heaven in a very short sâ—ace To conclude this As I have seldom known Christians perplexed with doubts of their estate for want
abuse their bodies and neglect their health did wrong the flesh onely the matter were small but they wrong the soul also As he that spoils the house doth wrong the inhabitant When the body is sick and the spirits do languish how heavily move we in these Meditations and Joyes Yet where God denieth this mercy we may the better bear it because he oft occasioneth our benefit by the denial CHAP. VI. Containing the Description of the great Duty of Heavenly Contemplation SECT I. THough I hope what is already spoken be not unuseful and that it will not by the Reader be cast aside yet I must tell you that the main thing intended is yet behinde and that which I aimed at when I set upon this Work I have observed the Maxime that my principal end be last in execution though it was first in my intention All that I have said is but for the preparation to this The Doctrinal part is but to instruct you for this the rest of the Uses are but introductions to this The Motives I have laid down are but to make you willing for this The Hinderances I mentioned were but so many blocks in the way to this The general Helps which I last delivered are but the necessary Attendants of this So that Reader If thou neglect this that follows thou dost frustrate the main end of my design and makest me lose as to thee the chief of my labor I once more intreat thee therefore as thou art a man that makest conscience of a revealed duty and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit as thou valuest the high delights of a Saint and the soul ravishing exercise of heavenly Contemplation as all my former moving Considerations seem reasonable to thee and as thou art faithful to the peace and prosperity of thine own soul that thou diligently study these Directions following and that thou speedily and faithfully put them into practice Practice is the end of all sound Doctrine and all right Faith doth end in duty I pray thee therefore rosolve before thou readest any further and 〈…〉 here as before the Lord that if the following Advice be wholsome to thy soul thou wilt conscionably follow it and seriously set thy self to the Work and that no laziness of spirit shall take thee off nor lesser business interrupt thy course but that thou wilt approve thy self a Doer of this Word and not an idle hearer onely Is this thy promise and wilt thou stand to it Resolve man and then I shall be encouraged to give thee my Advice if I spread not before thee a delicious feast if I set thee not upon as gainful a trade and put not into thy hand as delightful an imployment as ever thou dealt'st with in all thy life then cast it away and tell me I have deceived thee onely try it throughly and then judg I say again if in the faithful following of this prescribed course thou dost not finde an increase of all thy graces and dost not grow beyond the stature of common Christians and art not made more serviceable in thy place and more pretious in the eyes of all that are discerning if thy soul enjoy not more fellowship with God and thy life be not fuller of pleasure and solace and thou have not comfort readier by thee at a dying hour when thou hast greatest need then throw these Directions back in my face and exclaim against me as a deceiver for ever Except God should leave thee uncomfortable for a little season for the more glorious manifestation of his Attributes and thy integrity and single thee out as he did Job for an example and mirror of constancy and patience which would be but a preparative for thy fuller comfort Certainly God will not forsake this his own Ordinance thus conscionably performed but will be found of those that thus diligently seek him God hath as it were appointed to meet thee in this way Do not thou fail to give him the meeting and thou shalt finde by experience that he will not fail SECT II. THe duty which I press upon thee so earnestly I shall now deâ—scribe and open to thee for I suppose by this time thou art ready to enquire What is this so highly extolled work Why it is The set and solemn acting of all the powers of thy soul upon this most perfect object Rest by Meditation I will a little more fully explain the meaning of this description that so the duty may lye plaine before thee 1. The general title that I give to this duty is Meditation Not as it is precisely distinguished from Cogitation Consideration and Contemplation but as it is taken in the larger and usual sense for Cogitation on things spiritual and so comprehending consideration and contemplation That Meditation is a duty of Gods ordaining not only in his written Law but also in nature it self I never met with the man that would deny But that it is a duty constantly and conscionably practised even by the godly so far as my acquaintance extends I must with sorrow deny it It is in word confessed to be a Duty by all but by the constant neglect denyed by most And I know not by what fatal customary security it comes to passe that men that are very tender conscienc't towards most other duties yet do as easily overslip this as if they knew it not to be a duty at all They that are presently troubled in minde if they omit but a Sermon a Fast a Prayer in publique or private yet were never troubled that they have omitted Meditation perhaps all their life time to this very day Though it be that duty by which all other duties are improved and by which the soul digesteth Truths and draweth forth their strength for its nourishment and refreshing Certainly I think that as a man is but half an hour in chewing and taking into his stomack that meat which he must have seven or eight hours at least to digest so a man may take into his understanding and memory more Truth in one hour then he is able well to digest in many A man may eat too much but he cannot digest too well Therefore God commandeth Joshua That the book of the Law depart not out of his mouth but that he Meditate therein day and night that he may observe to do according to that which is written therein Josh. 1.8 As Digestion is the turning of the raw food into chyle and blood and spirits and flesh So Meditation rightly mannaged turneth the Truths received and remembred into warm affection raised resolution and holy and upright conversation Therefore what good those men are like to get by Sermons or providences who are unacquainted with and unaccustomed to this work of Meditation you may easily judge And why so much preaching is lost among us and professors can run from Sermon to Sermon and are never weary of hearing or reading and yet have such languishing starved souls I know
till they were loosed from this flesh as I must be And thus you see how the familiar conceiving of the state of blessedness as the spirit hath in a condescending language expressed it and our strong raising of suppositions from our bodily senses will further our Affections in this Heavenly work SECT III. 2. THere is yet another way by which we may make our senses here serviceable to us and that is By comparing the objects of sense with the objects of faith and so forcing sense to afford us that Medium from whence we may conclude the transcendent worth of Glory By arguing from sensitive delights as from the less to the greater And here for your further assistance I shall furnish you with some of these comparative Arguments And first You must strongly argue with your hearts from the corrupt delights of sensual men Think then with your selves when you would be sensible of the joyes above Is it such a delight to a sinner to do wickedly and will it not be delightful indeed then to live with God Hath a very drunkard such delight in his cups and companions that the very fears of damnation will not make him forsake them Hath the bruitish whoremaster such delight in his whore that he will part with his credit and estate and salvation rather then he will part with her Sure then there are high delights with God! If the way to hell can afford such pleasure what are the pleasures of the Saints in Heaven If the coveteous man hath so much pleasure in his wealth and the ambitious man in his power and titles of honor what then have the Saints in the everlasting treasures and what plasure do the Heavenly honors afford where we shall be set above principalities and powers and be made the glorious spouse of Christ What pleasure do the voluptuous finde in their sensual courses how closely will they follow their hunting and hawking and other recreations from morning to night How delightfully will they sit at their Cards and Dice hours and dayes and nights together O the delight that mustneeds then be in beholding the face of the Living God and in singing forth praises to him and the Lamb which must be our recreation when we come to our Rest SECT IIII. 2. COmpare also the delights above with the lawfull delights of moderated senses Think with thy self how sweet is food to my taste when I am hungry especially as Isaac said that which my soul loveth that which my temperature and appetite do incline to What delight hath the taste in some pleasant fruits in some well relished meates and in divers junkets O what delight then must my soul needs have in feeding upon Christ the living bread and in eating with him at his table in his Kingdom VVas a mess of pottage so sweet to Esau in his hunger that he would buy them at so dear a rate as his birth-right How highly then should I value this never perishing food How pleasant is drink in the extremity of thirst The delight of it to a man in a feaver or other drought can scarcely be expressed It will make the strength of Sampson revive O then how delightful will it be to my soul to drink of that fountain of living water which who so drinks shall thirst no more So pleasant is wine and so refreshing to the spirits that it s said to make glad the heart of man How pleasant then will that wine of the great marriage be even that wine which our water was turned into that best wine which will be kept till then How delightful are pleasant odors to our smel how delightful is perfect musick to the ear how delightful are beauteous sights to the eye such as curious pictures sumptuous adorned well-contrived buildings handsome necessary rooms walks prospects Gardens stored with variety of beauteous and odoriferous flowers or pleasant Medows which are natural gardens O then think every time thou seest or remembrest these what a fragrant smell hath the pretious ointment which is poured on the head of our glorified Saviour and which must be poured on the heads of all his Saints which will fill all the room of heaven with its odor and perfume how delightful is the musick of the heavenly host how pleasing will be those real beauties above and how glorious the building not made with hands and the house that God himself doth dwell in and the walkes and prospects in the City of God and the beauties and delights in the Celestial Paradise Think seriously what these must needs be The like may be said of the delight of the sense of Feeling which the Philosopher saith is the greatest of all the rest SECT V. 3. COmpare also the delights above which the delights that are found in natural knowledg This is far beyond the delights of sense and the delights of heaven are further beyond it Think then can an Archimedes be so taken up with his Mathematical invention that the threats of death will not take him off but he will dye in the midst of these his natural contemplations Should I not much more be taken up with the delights of Glory and dye with these contemplations fresh upon my soul especially when my death will perfect my delights but those of Archimedes dye with him What a pleasure is it to dive into the secrets of nature to finde out the mystery of Arts and sciences to have a clear understanding in Logick Physicks Metaphysicks Musick Astronomy Geometry c. If we make but any new discovery in one of these or see a little more then we saw before what singular pleasure do we finde therein VVhy think then what high delights there are in the knowledg of God and Christ his Son If the face of humane learning be so beautifull that sensual pleasures are to it but base and bruitish how beautiful then is the face of God VVhen we light of some choice and learned book how are we taken with it we could read and study it day and night we can leave meat and drink and sleep to read it what delights then are there at Gods right hand where we shall know in a moment all that is to be known SECT VI. 4. COmpare also the delights above with the delights of Morality and of the natural affections VVhat delight had many sober Heathens in the rules and Practice of Moral duties so that they took him onely for an honest man who did well through the love of Vertue and not onely for fear of punishment yea so highly did they value this moral Vertue that they thought the chief happiness of man consisted in it VVhy think then what excellency there will be in that rare perfection which we shall be raised to in heaven and in that uncreated perfection of God which we shall behold what sweetness is there in the exercise of natural Love whether to Children to Parents to Yoakfellows or to Friends
it you in respect of the time of performance Our chief work will here be to discover to you the danger and that will direct you to the fittest remedy Let me therefore here acquaint you beforehand That when ever you set upon this Heavenly employment you shall finde your own hearts your greatest hinderer and they will prove false to you in one or all of these four degrees First They will hold off that you will hardly get them to the work secondly or else they will betray you by their idleness in the work pretending to do it when they do it not or thirdly they will interrupt the work by their frequent excursions and turning aside to every object or fourthly they will spoil the work by cutting it short and be gone before you have done any good on it Therefore I here forewarn you as you value the unvaluable comfort of this work that you faithfully resist these four dangerous evils or else all that I have said hitherto is in vain 1. Thou shalt finde thy heart as backward to this I think as to any work in the world O what excuses it will make what evasions it will finde out and what delays and demurs when it is never so much convinced Either it will question whether it be a duty or not or if it be so to others yet whether it be so to thee It will rake up any thing like reason to plead against it it will tell thee That this is a work for Ministers that have nothing else to study on or for Cloysterers or persons that have more leisure then thou hast If thou be a Minister it will tell thee This is the duty of the people it is enough for thee to meditate for the instructing of them and let them meditate on what they have heard as if it were thy duty onely to cook their meat and serve it up and perhaps a little to taste the sweetness by licking thy fingers while thou art dressing it for others but it is they onely that must eat it digest it and live upon it Indeed the smell may a little refresh thee but it must be digesting it that must maintain thy strength and life If all this will not serve thy heart will tell thee of other business thou hast this company stayes for thee or that business must be done It may be it will set thee upon some other duty and so make one duty shut out another for it had rather go to any duty then to this Perhaps it will tell thee that other duties are greater and therefore this must give place to them because thou hast not time for both Publike business is of more concernment to study to preach for the saving of souls must be preferred before these private contemplations As if thou hadst not time to see to the saving of thy own soul for looking after others or thy charity to others were so great that it draws thee to neglect thy comfort and salvation or as if there were any better way to fit us to be useful to others then to make this experience of our doctrine our selves Certainly Heaven where is the Father of Lights is the best fire to light our candle at and the best book for a Preacher to study and if they would be perswaded to study that more the Church would be provided of more heavenly lights And when their Studies are Divine and their Spirits Divine their preaching will then be also Divine and they may be fitly called Divines indeed Or if thy heart have nothing to say against the work then it will trifle away the time in delayes and promise this day and the next but still keep off from the doing of the business Or lastly If thou wilt not be so baffled with excuses or delayes thy heart will give thee a flat denial and oppose its own unwillingness to thy Reason Thou shalt finde it come to the work as a Bear to the stake and draw back with all the strength it hath I speak all this of the heart so far as it is carnal which in too great a measure is in the best for I know so far as the heart is Spiritual it will judg this work the sweetest in the world Well then what is to be done in the forementioned case wilt thou do it if I tell thee Why what wouldst thou do with a servant that were thus backward to his work or to thy beast that should draw back when thou wouldst have him go forward Wouldst thou not first perswade and then chide and then spur him and force him on and take no denial nor let him alone till thou hadst got him closely to fall to his work Wouldst thou not say Why what should I do with a servant that will not work or with an Ox or Horse that will not travel or labor Shall I keep them to look on Wilt thou then faithfully deal thus with thy heart If thou be not a lazie self deluding Hypocrite say I will by the help of God I will Set upon thy heart roundly perswade it to the work take no denial chide it for its backwardness use violence with it bring it to the service willing or not willing Art thou master of thy flesh or art thou a servant to it hast thou no command of thy own thoughts cannot thy will chuse the subject of thy Meditations especially when thy judgment thus directeth thy will I am sure God once gave thee mastery over thy flesh and some power to govern thy own thoughts Hast thou lost thy authority art thou become a slave to thy depraved nature Take up the authority again which God hath given thee command thy heart if it rebel use violence with it if thou be too weak call in the Spirit of Christ to thine assistance He is never backward to so good a work nor will deny his help in so just a cause God will be ready to help thee if thou be not unwilling to help thy self Say to him Why Lord thou gavest my Reason the command of my Thoughts and Affections the authority I have received over them is from thee and now behold they refuse to obey thine authority Thou commandest me to set them to the work of Heavenly Meditation but they rebel and stubbornly refuse the duty Wilt thou not assist me to execute that authority which thou hast given me O send me down thy Spirit and Power that I may enforce thy commands and effectually compel them to obey thy Will And thus doing thou shalt see thy heart will submit its resistance will be brought under and its backwardness will be turned to a yielding compliance SECT II. 2. WHen thou hast got thy heart to the work beware least it delude thee by a loitering formality Least it say I go and go not least it trifle out the time while it should be effectually meditating Certainly the heart is as likely to betray thee in this as in any one particular about
and Groans How then should I long for my finall full recovery There is no sickness nor pain nor weeping nor complaints O when shall I arrive at that safe and quiet Harbor where is none of these storms and waves and dangers when I shall never more have a weary restless night or day Then shall not my life be such a medley or mixture of hope and fear of joy and sorrow as now it is nor shall Flesh and Spirit be combating within me nor my soul be still as a pitched Field or a Stage of contention where Faith and Unbelief Affiance and Distrust Humility and Pride do maintain a continual distracting conflict then shall I not live a dying life for fear of dying nor my life be made uncomfortable with the fears of losing it O when shall I be past these soul-tormenting fears and cares and griefs and passions When shall I be out of this frail this corruptible ruinous body This soul contradicting ensnaring deceiving flesh When shall I be out of this vain vexatious World Whose pleasures are meer deluding dreams and shadows whose miseries are real numerous and uncessant How long shall I see the Church of Christ lie trodden under the feet of persecutors or else as a ship in the hands of foolish guides though the supream Master doth moderate all for the best Alas that I must stand by and see the Church and Cause of Christ like a Footbal in the midst of a crowd of Boyes tost about in contention from one to another every one running and sweating with foolish violence and laboring the downfal of all that are in his way and all to get it into his own power that he may have the managing of the work himself and may drive it before him which way he pleaseth and when all is done the best usage it may expect from them is But to be spurned about in the dirt till they have driven it on to the Goal of their private interests or deluded fancies There is none of this disorder in the Heavenly Jerusalem there shall I finde a Government without imperfection and obedience without the least unwillingness or rebellion even a harmonious concent of perfected Spirits in obeying and praising their Everlasting King O how much better is it to be a Door-keeper there and the least in that Kingdom then to be the Conqueror or Commander of this tumultuous World there will our Lord govern all immediatly by himself and not put the Reins in the hands of such ignorant Riders nor govern by such foolish and sinful deputies as the best of the sons of men now are Dost thou so mourn for these inferior disorders O my soul and yet wouldst thou not be out of it How long hast thou desired to be a Member of a more perfect reformed Church and to joyn with more holy humble sincere souls in the purest and most Heavenly worship Why dost thou not see that on Earth thy desires flie from thee Art thou not as a childe that thinketh to travel to the Sun when he seeth it rising or setting as it were close to the Earth but as he travelleth toward it it seems to go from him and when he hath long wearied himself it is as far off as ever for the thing he seeketh is in another world Even such hath been thy labor in seeking for so holy so pure so peaceable a Society as might afford thee a contented settlement here Those that have gone as far as America for satisfaction have confessed themselves unsatisfied still When wars and the calamities attending them have been over I have said Return now my soul unto thy Rest But how restless a condition hath next succeeded When God had given me the enjoyment of Peace and Friends and Liberty of the Gospel and had settled me even as my own heart desired I have been ready to say Soul take thy ease and rest But how quickly hath Providence called me Fool and taught me to call my state by another name When did I ever begin to congratulate my flesh its felicity but God did quickly turn my tune and made almost the same breath to end in groaning which did begin in laughter I have thoughts oft-times in the folly of my prosperity Now I will have one sweet draught of Solace and Content but God hath dropped in the Gall while the Cup was at my mouth We are still weary of the present condition and desire a change and when we have it it doth not answer our expectation but our discontent and restlesness is still unchanged In time of peace we thought that war would deliver us from our disquietments and when we saw the Iron red hot we catched it inconsiderately thinking that it was Gold till it burned us to the very bone and so stuck to our fingers that we scarce know yet whether we are rid of it or not In this our misery we long for peace and so long were we strangers to it that we had forgot its name and begun to call it REST or HEAVEN But as soon as we are again grown acquainted with it we shall better bethink us and perceive our mistake O why am I then no more weary of this weariness and why do I so forget my resting place Up then O my soul in thy most raised and fervent desires Stay not till this Flesh can desire with thee its Appetite hath a lower and baser object Thy Appetite is not sensitive but rational distinct from its and therefore look not that Sense should apprehend thy blessed object and tell thee what and when to desire Believing Reason in the Glass of Scripture may discern enough to raise the flame And though Sense apprehend not that which must draw thy desires yet that which may drive them it doth easily apprehend It can tell thee that thy present life is filled with distress and sorrows though it cannot tell thee what is in the world to come Thou needest not Scripture to tell thee nor Faith to discern that thy head aketh and thy stomack is sick thy bowels griped and thy heart grieved and some of these or such like are thy daily case Thy friends about thee are grieved to see thy griefs and to hear thy dolorous groans and lamentations and yet art thou loth to leave this woful life is this a state to be preferred before the Celestial glory or is it better to be thus miserable from Christ then to be happy with him or canst thou possibly be so unbelieving as to doubt whether that life be any better then this O my soul do not the dulness of thy desires after Rest accuse thee of most detestable ingratitude and folly Must thy Lord procure thee a Rest at so dear a rate and dost thou no more value it Must he purchase thy Rest by a life of labor and sorrow and by the pangs of a bitter cursed death and when all is done hadst thou rather be here without it Must he
go before to prepare so glorious a Mansion for such a wretch and art thou now loth to go and possess it must his blood and care and pains be lost O unthankful unworthy foul Shall the Lord of glory be willing of thy company and art thou unwilling of his are they fit to dwell with God that had rather stay from him Must he crown thee and glorifie thee against thy will or must he yet deal more roughly with thy darling flesh and leave thee never a corner in thy ruinous cottage for to cover thee but fire thee out of all before thou wilt away Must every Sense be an inlet to thy sorrows and every friend become thy scourge and Jobs Messengers be thy daily intelligencers and bring thee the Curranto's of thy multiplied calamities before that Heaven will seem more desireable then this Earth Must every joynt be the seat of Pain and every Member deny thee a room to rest in and thy groans be indited from the very heart and bones before thou wilt be willing to leave this flesh Must thy heavy burdens be bound upon thy back and thy so-intolerable Paroxysms become incessant and thy intermittent agueish woes be turned into continual burning Feavers Yea must Earth become a very Hell to thee before thou wilt be willing to be with God O impudent soul if thou be not ashamed of this what is loathing if this be love Look about thee O my soul behold the most lovely Creature or the most desireable State and tell me Where wouldst thou be if not with God Poverty is a burden and riches a snare Sickness is little pleasing to thee and usually health as little safe the one is full of sorrow and the other of sin The frowning World doth bruise thy heel and the smiling World doth sting thee to the heart VVhen it seemeth ugly it causeth loathing when beauteous it is thy bane when thy condition is bitter thou wouldst fain spit it out and when delightful it is but sugered misery and deceit The sweetest poyson doth oft bring the surest death So much as the world is loved and delighted in so much it hurteth and endangereth the lover and if it may not be loved why should it be desired If thou be applauded it proves the most contagious breath and how ready are the sails of Pride to receive such winds so that it frequently addeth to thy sin but not one cubit to the stature of thy worth And if thou be vilified slandered or unkindly used methinks this should not entice thy love Never didst thou sit by the fire of prosperity and applause but thou hadst with it the smoke that drew water from thy eyes never hadst thou the Rose without the pricks and the sweetness hath been expired and the beauty faded before the scars which thou hadst in gathering it were healed Is it not as good be without the honey as to have it with so many smarting stings The highest delight thou hast found in any thing below hath been in thy successful labors and thy godly friends And have these indeed been so sweet as that thou shouldst be so loth to leave them If they seem better to thee then a life with God it is time for God to take them from thee Thy studies have been sweet and have they not been also bitter My minde hath been pleased but my body pained and the weariness of the flesh hath quickly abated the pleasures of the Spirit VVhen by painful studies I have not discovered the truth it hath been but a tedious way to a grievous end discontent and trouble purchased by toilsom wearying labors And if I have found out the truth by Divine assistance I have found but an exposed naked Orphan that hath cost me much to take in and cloath and keep which though of noble birth yea a Divine off-spring and amiable in mine eyes and worthy I confess of better entertainment yet from men that knew not its descent hath drawn upon me their envy and furious opposition and hath brought the blinded Sodomites with whom I lived at some peace before to crowd about me and assault my doors that I might prostitute my heavenly Guests to their pleasure and again expose them whom I had so gladly and lately entertained yea the very Tribes of Israel have been gathered against me thinking that the Altar which I built for the interest of Truth and Unity and Peace had been erected to the Introduction of Error and Idolatry And so the increase of Knowledg hath been the increase of Sorrow My heart indeed is ravished with the beauty of naked Truth and I am ready to cry out I have found it or as Aquinas Conclisum est contra c. But when I have found it I know not what to do with it If I confine it to my own brest and keep it secret to my self it is as a consuming fire shut up in my heart and bones I am as the Lepers without Samaria or as those that were forbidden to tell any man of the works of Christ I am weary of forbearing I cannot stay If I reveal it to the world I can expect but an unwelcome entertainment and an ungrateful return For they have taken up their standing in religious knowledg already as if they were at Hercules Pillars and had no further to go nor any more to learn They dare be no wiser then they are already nor receive any more of Truth then they have already received lest thereby they should accuse their Ancestors and Teachers of Ignorance and Imperfection and themselves should seem to be mutable and unconstant and to hold their opinions in Religion with reserves The most precious Truth not apprehended doth seem to be Error and fantastick novelty Every man that readeth what I write will not be at the pains of those tedious studies to finde out the truth as I have been but think it should meet their eyes in the very reading If the meer writing of Truth with its clearest Evidence were all that were necessary to the apprehension of it by others then the lowest Scholar in the School might be quickly as good as the highest So that if I did see more then others to reveal it to the lazy prejudiced world would but make my friends turn enemies or look upon me with a strange and jealous eye And yet Truth is so dear a friend it self and he that sent it much more dear that what ever I suffer I dare not stifle or conceal it O what then are these bitter sweet studies and discoveries to the everlasting views of the face of the God of Truth The Light that here I have is but a knowing in part and yet it costeth me so dear that in a temptation I am almost ready to prefer the quiet silent night before such a rough tempestuous day But there I shall have Light and Rest together and the quietness of the night without its darkness I can never now have the
Lightning without the Thunder which maketh it seem more dreadful then delightful And shouldst thou be loth then O my soul to leave this for the Eternal perfect Light and to change thy Candle for the glorious Sun and to change thy Studies and Preaching and Praying for the Harmonious Praises and fruition of the Blessed God Nor will thy loss be greater in the change of thy company then of thine imployment Thy friends here have been indeed thy delight And have they not been also thy vexation and thy grief They are gracious and are they not also sinful they are kinde and loving and are they not also peevish froward and soon displeased they are humble but withal alas how proud they will scarce endure to hear plainly of their disgraceful faults they cannot bear undervaluing or disrespect they itch after the good thoughts and applause of others they love those best that highliest esteem them The missing of a curtesie a supposed sleighting or disrepect the contradicting of their words or humors a difference in opinion yea the turning of a straw will quickly shew thee the pride and the uncertainty of thy friend Their graces are sweet to thee and their gifts are helpful but are not their corruptions bitter and their imperfections hurtful Though at a distance they seem to thee most Holy and Innocent yet when they come neerer thee and thou hast throughly tryed them alas what silly frail and froward pieces are the best of men Then the knowledg which thou didst admire appeareth clouded with ignorance and the vertues that so shined as a Glow-worm in the night are scarcely to be found when thou seekest them by day-light VVhen temptations are strong how quickly do they yield what wounds have they given to Religion by their shameful falls Those that have been famous for their Holiness have been as infamous for their notorious hainous wickedness those that have been thy dearest bosome friends that have prayed and conferred with thee and helped thee toward Heaven and by their fervor forwardness and heavenly lives have shamed thy coldness and earthliness and dulness whom thou hast singled out as the choicest from a world of professors whom thou madest the daily companions and delights of thy life are not some of them faln to Drunkenness and some to Whordome some to Pride Perfidiousness and Rebellion and some to the most damnable Heresies and Divisions And hath thy very heart received such wounds from thy friends and yet art thou so loth to go from them to thy God Thy friends that are weak are little useful or comfortable to thee and those that are strong are the abler to hurt thee and the best if not heedfully used will prove the worst The better and keener thy knife is the sooner and deeper will it cut thy fingers if thou take not heed Yea the very number of thy friends is a burden and trouble to thee every one supposeth he hath some interest in thee yea the interest of a friend which is not a little and how insufficient art thou to satisfie all their expectations When it is much if thou canst answer the expectations of one If thou were divided among so many as each could have but little of thee so thy self and God who should have most will have none And almost every one that hath not more of thee then thou canst spare for all is ready to censure thee as unfriendly and a neglecter of the duty or respects which thou owest them And shouldst thou please them all the gain will not be great nor art thou sure that they will again please thee Awake then O my drowsie soul and look above this world of sorrows Hast thou born the yoke of afflictions from thy youth and so long felt the smarting rod and yet canst no better understand its meaning Is not every stroke to drive thee hence and is not the voice of the rod like that to Elijah What dost thou here Up and away Dost thou forget that sure prediction of thy Lord In the world ye shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace The first thou hast found true by long experience and of the later thou hast had a small foretaste but the perfect peace is yet before which till it be enjoyed cannot be clearly understood Ah my dear Lord I feel thy meaning it s written in my flesh it s engraven in my bones My heart thou aymest at thy rod doth drive thy silken cord of love doth draw and all to bring it to thy self And is that all Lord is that the worst Can such a heart be worth thy having Make it so Lord and then it is thine Take it to thy self and then take me I can but reach it toward thee and not unto thee I am too low and it is too dull This clod hath life to stir but not to rise Legs it hath but wings it wanteth As the feeble childe to the tender mother it looketh up to thee and stretcheth out the hands and faine would have thee take it up Though I cannot so freely say My heart is with thee my soul longeth after thee yet can I say I long for such a longing heart The twins are yet a striving in my bowels The spirit is willing the flesh is weak the spirit longs the flesh is loth The flesh is unwilling to lye rotting in the earth The soul desires to be with thee My spirit cryeth Let thy Kingdom come or else let me come unto thy Kingdom but the flesh is afraid least thou shouldest hear my prayer and take me at my word VVhat frequent contradictions dost thou finde in my requests because there is such contradiction in my self My prayers plead against my prayers and one part begs a denial to the other No wonder if thou give me such a dying life when I know not whether to ask for life or death With the same breath do I beg for a reprival and removal And the same groan doth utter my desires and my feares My soul would go my flesh would stay My soul would faine be out my flesh would have thee hold the door O blessed be thy Grace that makes advantage of my corruptions even to contradict and kill themselves For I fear my fears and sorrow for my sorrows and groan under my fleshly groans I loath my lothness and I long for greater longings And while my soul is thus tormented with fears and cares and with the tedious means for attaining my desires it addeth so much to the burden of my troubles that my wearyness thereby is much increased which makes me groan to be at Rest. Indeed Lord my soul it self also is in a straight and what to chuse I know not well but yet thou knowest what to give To depart and be with thee is Best but yet to be in the flesh seems needfull Thou knowest I am not weary of thy work but of sorrow and sin I must needs be weary I am willing to stay while
I have in my Books my friends and in thine Ordinances till thou hast given me a taste of something more sweet my soul will be loth to part with these The Traveller will hold his Cloak the faster when the windes do bluster and the storms assault him but when the Sun shines hot he will cast it off as a burthen so will my soul when thou frownest or art strange be lother to leave this garment of flesh but thy smiles would make me leave it as my prison but it is not thy ordinary discoveries that will here suffice as the work is greater so must be thy help O turn these fears into strong desires and this lothness to dye into longings after thee while I must be absent from thee let my soul as heartily groan under thine absence as my pained body doth under its want of health And let not those groans be counterfeit or constrained but let them come from a longing loving heart unfeignedly judging it best to depart and be with Christ And if I have any more time to spend on earth let me live as without the world in thee as I have sometime lived as without thee in the world O suffer me not to spend in strangeness to thee another day of this my Pilgrimage while I have a thought to think let me not forget thee while I have a tongue to move let me mention thee with delight while I have a breath to breathe let it be after thee and for thee while I have a knee to bend let it bow daily at thy Footstool and when by sickness thou confinest me to my Couch do thou make my bed and number my pains and put all my tears into thy Bottle And as when my spirit groaned for my sins the flesh would not second it but desired that which my spirit did abhor so now when my flesh doth groan under its pains let not my spirit second it but suffer the flesh to groan alone and let me desire that day which my flesh abhorreth that my friends may not with so much sorrow wait for the departure of my soul as my soul with joy shall wait for its own departure and then let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be as his even a removall to that Glory that shall never end Send forth thy Convoy of Angels for my departing soul and let them bring it among the perfected spirits of the Just and let me follow my dear friends that have died in Christ before me und when my friends are weeping over my Grave let my spirit be reposed with thee in Rest and when my Corps shall lye there rotting in the dark let my soul be in the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And O thou that numberest the very hairs of my head do thou number all the dayes that my body lyes in the dust and thou that writest all my members in thy Book do thou keep an account of all my scattered bones and hasten O my Saviour the time of thy return send forth thine Angels and let that dreadful joyful Trumpet sound delay not lest the living give up their hopes delay not lest earth should grow like hell and lest thy Church by division be crumbled all to dust and dissolved by being resolved into individual unites Delay not lest thine enemies get advantage of thy Flock and lest Pride and Hypocrisie and Sensuality and Unbelief should prevail against thy little Remnant and share among them thy whole Inheritance and when thou comest thou finde not Faith on the earth Delay not lest the Grave should boast of Victory and having learned Rebellion of its guest should plead prescription and refuse to deliver thee up thy due O hasten that great Resurrection Day when thy command shall go forth and none shall disobey when the Sea and Earth shall yield up their Hostages and all that slept in the Graves shall awake and the dead in Christ shall first arise when the seed that thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible and Graves that received but rottenness and retained but dust shall return thee glorious Stars and Suns therefore dare I lay down my carcass in the dust entrusting it not to a Grave but to Thee and therefore my flesh shall rest in Hope till thou raise it to the possession of the Everlasting REST. Return O Lord how long O let thy Kingdom come Thy desolate Bride saith Come for thy Spirit within her saith Come who teacheth her thus to pray with groanings after thee which cannot be expressed The whole Creation saith Come waiting to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Thy Self hast said Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come LORD IESVS The Conclusion THus Reader I have given thee my best advice for the attaining and maintaining a Heavenly Conversation The maner is imperfect and too much mine own but for the main matter I dare say I received it from God From him I deliver it thee and his charge I lay upon thee That thou entertain and practise it If thou canst not do it methodically and fully yet do it as thou canst onely be sure thou do it seriously and frequently If thou wilt believe a man that hath made some small tryal of it thou shalt finde it will make thee another man and elevate thy soul and clear thine understanding and polish thy conversation and leave a pleasant savor upon thy heart so that thy own experience will make thee confess That one hour thus spent will more effectually revive thee then many in bare external duties and a day in these contemplations will afford thee truer content then all the glory and riches of the Earth Be acquainted with this work and thou wilt be in some remote sort acquainted with God Thy joyes will be spiritual and prevalent and lasting according to the nature of their Blessed Object thou wilt have comfort in life and comfort in death VVhen thou hast neither wealth nor health nor the pleasure of this world yet wilt thou have comfort Comfort without the presence or help of any Friend without a Minister without a Book when all means are denied thee or taken from thee yet maist thou have vigorous real comfort Thy graces will be mighty and active and victorious and the daily joy which is thus fetcht from Heaven will be thy strength Thou wilt be as one that standeth on the top of an exceeding high Mountain he looks down on the world as if it were quite below him How small do the Fields and VVoods and Countreys seem to him Cities and Towns seem but little spots Thus despicably wilt thou look on all things here below The greatest Princes will seem below thee but as Grashoppers and the busie contentious coveteous world but as a heap of Ants. Mens threatnings will be no terror to thee nor the honors of this world any strong enticement Temptations will be more harmless as
task of outward Duties Let men see in you what a Life they must aim at If ever a Christian be like himself and answerable to his Principles and Profession it is when he is most serious and lively in this Duty when as Moses before he died went up into Mount Nebo to take a survey of the Land of Canaan so the Christian doth ascend this Mount of Contemplation and take a survey by Faith of his Rest. He looks upon the glorious delectable Mansions and saith Glorious things are deservedly spoken of thee O thou City of God He heareth as it were the melody of the Heavenly Chore and beholdeth the excellent employment of those Spirits and saith Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are they that have the Lord for their God He next looketh to the glorified Inhabitants of that Region and saith Happy art thou O the Israel of God a people saved by the Lord the Shield of thy Strength the Sword of thine Excellency When he looketh upon the Lord himself who is their Glory he is ready with the rest to fall down and worship him that liveth for ever and say Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honor and Power When he looks on the Glorified Saviour of the Saints he is ready to say Amen to that new Song Blessing honor glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever for he hath redeemed us out of every Nation by his blood and made us Kings and Priests to God When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this VVorld he blesseth the believing patient despised Saints he pitieth the ignorant obstinate miserable World and for himself he saith as Peter It is good to be here or as David It is good for me to draw neer to God for all those that are far from him shall perish Thus as Daniel in his captivity did three times a day open his window toward Jerusalem though far out of sight when he went to God in his Devotions so may the believing Soul in this captivity to the flesh look towards Jerusalem which is above And as Paul was to the Colossians so may he be with the Glorified Spirits Absent in the flesh but present in Spirit joying in beholding their Heavenly Order And as Divine Bucholcer in his last Sermon before his death did so sweetly descant upon those comfortable words John 3.16 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life That he raised and ravished the hearts of his otherwise sad hearers So may the Meditating Beleever do through the Spirits assistance by his own heart And as the pretty Lark doth sing most sweetly and never cease her pleasant ditty while she hovereth aloft as if she were there gazing into the glory of the Sun but is suddenly silenced when she falleth to the Earth So is the frame of the Soul most Delectable and Divine while it keepeth in the views of God by Contemplation But alas we make there too short a stay but down again we fall and lay by our musick But O thou the Merciful Father of Spirits the Attractive of Love and Ocean of Delights draw up these drossie hearts unto thy self and keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined and second these thy Servants weak Endevors and perswade those that read these lines to the practice of this Delightful Heavenly Work And O suffer not the Soul of thy most unworthy Servant to be a stranger to those Joyes which he unfoldeth to thy people or to be seldom in that way which he hath here lined out to others But O keep me while I tarry on this Earth in daily serious Breathings after thee and in a Believing Affectionate Walking with thee And when thou comest O let me be found so doing not hiding my Talent nor serving my Flesh nor yet asleep with my Lamp unfurnished but waiting and longing for my Lords return That those who shall read these Heavenly Directions may not read onely the fruit of my Studies and the product of my fancy but the hearty breathings of my active Hope and Love That if my heart were open to their view they might there read the same most deeply engraven with a Beam from the Face of the Son of God and not finde Vanity or Lust or Pride within where the words of Life appear without That so these lines may not witness against me but proceeding from the heart of the Writer may be effectual through thy Grace upon the heart of the Reader and so be the savor of Life to both Amen Glory be to God in the highest On Earth Peace Good-wil towards Men. FINIS BROVGHTON In the Conclusion of His Concent of Scripture Concerning the New-Jerusalem and the Everlasting Sabbatism meant in my Text as begun here and perfected in Heaven THe Company of faithful Souls called to the blessed Marriage of the Lamb are a Jerusalem from Heaven Apoc. 3. and 21. Heb. 12. Though such glorious things are spoken concerning this City of God the perfection whereof cannot be seen in this Vale of Tears yet here God wipeth all tears from our eyes and each blessing is here begun The name of this City much helpeth Jew and Gentile to see the state of peace for this is called Jerusalem and that in Canaan hath Christ destroyed This Name should clearly have taught both the Hebrews not to look and pray daily for to return to Canaan and Pseudo-Catholikes not to fight for special holiness there We live in this by Faith and not by Eye-sight and by Hope we behold the perfection Of this City Salvation is a Wall goodly as Jasper clear as Crystal the foundations are in number twelve of twelve pretious stones such as Aaron ware on his brest all the Work of the Lambs twelve Apostles the Gates are twelve each of Pearl upon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel of whose Faith all must be which enter in Twelve Angels are conductors from East West North and South even the Stars of the Churches The City is square of Burgesses setled for all turns Here God sitteth on a Throne like Jasper and Ruby Comfortable and Just The Lamb is the Temple that a third Temple should not be looked for to be built Thrones twice twelve are for all the Christians born of Israels twelve or taught by the Apostles who for dignity are Seniors for infinity are termed but four and twenty in regard of so many Tribes and Apostles Here the Majesty is Honorable as at the delivery of the Law from whose Throne Thunder Voyces and Lightnings do proceed Here oyl of Grace is never wanting but burning with seven Lamps the spirits of Messias of Wit and Wisdom of Counsel and Courage of Knowledg and Understanding and of the Fear due to the Eternal Here the Valiant Patient Witty and Speedy