Cor. 3. 14. We all with open Face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 3. There is a sight of Gods Salvation by the vertue or help of inward experience The gracious Soul sees the Harvest in the seed the Topstone in the Foundation that is laid the greatness of the design in the greatness of the preparation In short he sees that which God intends for him by that which God hath been already pleased to work in him He doth both see and feel Salvation begun in the Soul For my Brethren we are to know this and seriously consider it that Salvation is not a thing wholly future it is not only after Death and in the other world but it is a thing present Heaven is to be had here as well as hereafter and he that is not saved here shall never be saved He that doth live an utter stranger to Heaven in this world shall never enter into Heaven The perfecting and completion of the work is reserved for the next life but the inchoation and beginning of it is here even here the Saints Conversation is in Heaven there be their thoughts and affections they walk with God and have fellowship with Christ. As soon as ever a man is sanctified he is saved When Grace is first planted in the heart Salvation is begun When Christ went home with Zacheus he told him Salvation is come to thine house to day When Christ comes to any heart Salvation comes along with him Grace is glory in the Infancie and Bud and as Grace doth thrive and grow and improve in the heart so the work of Salvation is carried on therefore gracious renewings are in Scripture called glorious changes We beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory i. e. from Grace to Grace from lower to higher degrees The Apostle Paul saith Eph. 2. 5 When we were dead in sins we were quickned together with Christ by grace ye are saved If quickened and made partakers of Spiritual Life the life of grace and holyness then saved There is Heaven and Salvation in the smallest quickenings as there is the total sum or bargain in the earnest and the crop or harvest in the first fruits Observe also that place in the 2 Tim. 1. 9. Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling If you be effectually called then you are actually saved not only in spe but in re not only saved in hope but in deed That person who is turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God is passed from Death to Life he is out of reach of eternal dangers The same calling is to virtue and glory and fo far as that call doth carry a man on in virtue so high full so high doth it advance and raise him up in glory So that when once you do experimentally find this change wrought in you sin Crucified and Mortified in you and Holiness Communicated to you If you find that you are taken off from the old stock and ingrafted into the Lord Jesus Christ that you are in any measure though never so small made partakers of the Spirit Life and Grace of Christ then you may sit down in peace and heartily rejoyce for your eyes have seen God's Salvation A renewing change is a saving change and my brethren consider how much this should commend Grace to us Oh how should they desire it and beg it and use means for it who have it not and you that have it how thankfull should you be and how should you admire and bless God for it since there is Salvation in it there is a blessing in a cluster fullness in Spiritual hungerings Heaven and Glory in brokenness of heart Fourthly and Lastly There are the sights of Heaven in a way of assurance and this is the sight of or the looking to the perfecting and completion of this most great and blessed work of Salvation By assurance the believing Soul sees the matter brought to an issue and the top stone laid in the building which reaches as high as Heaven The poor Christian in the midst of enemies and dangers and from his low condition from his Dunghill or Cottage can look upon all the glory and happiness above and as great as it is lay hold upon it and claim it all this is mine This God is my God for ever and ever Heaven will be my Everlasting home and the Kingdom there my portion even as the Proto-Martyr Stephen in a shower of stones which fell about his ears could see Heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and could comfort himself with such thoughts Thus Jesus stands yonder as my Friend my Advocate and shortly I shall be there with him To the producing of this Assurance in the heart of a Christian especially in an high degree in its fulness there is required not only the work but also the witness of the Spirit The work of the Spirit in Sanctification drawing the divine image upon the Soul breathing into it Spiritual Life and implanting in it a gracious and holly nature and then irradiating and shining upon those graces that the Soul may see them and see them to be what they are the true grace of God he doth bear witness to his own work so that the Soul can say the Finger of God was here This is not Flesh and Blood this is more than nature this is grace indeed This you read of in Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God There is the Testimony of our Spirits our Consciences and the Holy Ghost doth super-add his And in the mouth of these two witnesses the thing is Established and the Believer is satisfied and cryeth Abba Father Take notice of that Prayer which Paul put up Rom. 15. 13. That they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost So that good hope through grace and the abounding of that hope the fullness of Assurance is no other than a divine work brought about by the powerfull operation of the Spirit of God The Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is the ground and reason of our hope And the Holy Spirit of Christ is the Author of our hope Now then lay these things together that person who seeth Christ by Faith who doth experience an inward change and who hath the assured hope of Heaven and Glory may very well say that his eyes have seen God's Salvation And the man that hath been blessed with such a sight may very well be free and willing to depart out of this World to bid farewell to present comforts and enjoyments and welcome Death in its nearest approaches And this is the second thing unto which I am now to speak and he that considers what hath been spoken concerning this
or reason of this his request for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation This Scripture being chosen by our deceased Brother for his Swan like-Song I shall present you with those several Observations I have made upon it and briefly touch upon them and so pass to that which I purpose most to insist upon Doct. 1. Every Godly man is God's Servant So Simeon stiled himself here Lord lettest thou thy Servant And so did David Psalm 116. 16. O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant He gloried more in his being Gods Servant than in his being King of Israel Wicked men are the Slaves of Corruption and Vassails of Satan the Scriptures saith they serve divers Lusts and truly that is an hard task if a man cannot well serve two Masters how shall he serve divers many Their service is meer drudgerie and bondage Two things may justly discommend it viz. they have dirty works and they shall have dreadful wages their works foul them and their wages undoe them But you O Saints are the Servants of God and you are so upon a threefold account besides that of your Creation First Upon the account of your Redemption which was brought about by the power of Christ who rescued you out of the clutches of sin and Satan Luk. 1. 74. He hath delivered us out of the hands of our Enemies that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives Secondly You are Gods Servants upon the score of purchase that Jesus who purchased Heaven and Glory for you hath also purchased you for himself and the price which he laid down was no less than that of his own Blood and therefore it is your unquestionable duty to glorifie him in your Souls Bodies and Spirits 1 Cor. 6. 20. Thirdly You are Gods Servants by virtue of Covenant you have chosen one another he hath chosen you for his people and you have chosen him for the Lord your God an agreement hath been made and Indentures sealed Ezekiel 16 8 I entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Vse Remember and seriously consider then whose you are and unto whom you belong Study and acquaint your selves with your Masters will and knowing it apply your selves immediately to the performance of it let your life be a life of obedience to God and whatsoever your hand findeth to do as the matter of his Will be sure that you do it with all your might knowing that your labour shall not be in vain and that it is most highly reasonable you should be as industrious about the work of God as you have been about the work of Satan as diligent for your best Friend as your greatest Enemy as industrious for the saving of your Souls as you have been for the damning of them And for your encouragement and quickning consider 1. First That in the service of God there is perfect freedom his Yoke is easie and his burden light You are never so much your own men as when you are Gods servants You are so his servants as that you also are his Children Your work is cut out by the hand of a most tender Father and therefore it should be done with the Heart and Spirit of a Child David resolved to run the way of God's Commandements 2. As you have the noblest work so you shall one day have the most glorious rewards You may now do your work with singing you shall then receive your reward with admiring When you have done the work of Servants you shall be instated in the inheritance of Sons where Christ is there shall his Servants also be to behold his Glory and to share with him in it for the Apostle assures us that he and his people shall be glorified together And their work is not so difficult nor are their sufferings so pressing but that their future Crown will unspeakably excel them for its weight and splendor Doct. 2. I Observe That Gods Servants must be at Gods dispose and not at their own Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart I dare not stir without thy order thou didst send me hither and here I must stay until thou shalt please to send for me hence I am weary of being here Lord wilt thou dismiss me and give me leave to be gone It is Gods unquestionable right to order out as he pleaseth concerning us and that in these things 1. God may cut out for us what work he pleaseth and lay it either in active or passive obedience as he thinks good Whatsoever his Will is we must not dispute but obey it and so be like those ministring Spirits the Angels above who do his pleasure yea all his pleasure 2. It is Gods right to carve out our allowances either a full or a scantie condition abundance or want to set us in a Palace or upon a Dunghil to cloath us in Scarlet or in Canvas to give us comfort or afflictions We must be wholly at Gods finding Feed me said good Agur with food convenient for me he did not prescribe to God but left God to judge what was so 3. It is fit that God should measure out our time for us and bestow upon us a longer or a shorter day of life we do not live nor do we die at our own pleasure or at the will and pleasure of men but God He is not only our Lord but also the Lord of our time So David cheerfully acknowledged my times are in thy hands to make them cloudie or serene halcyon or tempestuous to prolong or to contract them as seemeth good to him It is an indubitable part of Gods Royal Prerogative to order concerning us and it is the unquestionable duty of our place to submit to his Orders Whatsoever he commands we must do even as did the Centurions servants if he said to one of them Go he went if he said to another Come he came Reason good we should do so for all the Commandements of God are Holy and Just and Good And an Universal Cordial Respect to them will evidence our sincerity and secure us from shame And whatsoever God doth we must accept not only kissing his Hand when it sweetly seeds us nor only his Arm when it graciously supports but likewise his Rod when it doth smartly lash us There ought to be no discontents no quarrelsome murmurings nor immoderate excessive sorrows when he blasts our sweetest Comforts or kills our dearest Relations yea though he should do it with a violent stroak for he may do what he will with his own When he destroyed Nadab and Abihu by fire in the very act of their sins Aaron their Father held his peace He saw that God was provoked by them and angry with them and therefore concluded it his wisest course to be quiet It is indeed extreme madness for the Clay to say to to the potter why dost thou so or for the creature to contend with his Creator Such contendings
Righteousness As if God would take you from hence to your loss and you should be better in a strange Land than in your Fathers house And the preparations that God hath made for Eternity are not so good as those that he hath made for a short time and so Abraham Isaac Jacob David Peter Paul and the rest of the Saints departed had better have staid here and now they are with God do wish themselves with us again In a word it is as if the immediate and full enjoyment of God would not be sufficient for you you could not find room enough nor goodness and delights enough in a God but you must go begging to the door of creatures and patch up to your selves an happiness with these small and sorry shreds of being and you have found more to live upon and to delight your selves in the drop of a bucket than you can or do find in the Ocean of goodness I beseech you seriously consider of these things all these things lye uppermost any one may see them in such a persons unwillingness and loathness to dye whensoever God would have him But to proceed Vse 3. In the third and last place this may prove a very comfortable consideration and staff of support in the hands of those who labour under sorrow and continual heaviness of heart because of their departure of their gracious and holy Relations they are dead and you carry as if all your comforts were dead with them This is certain that when God gives such blows those that have any thing of tenderness do feel the smart of them Breaches in the Family do make breaches upon the Spirit When Lazarus was dead Jesus wept Mourning at Funerals is no Soloecism but a lovely sight so the sorrow be kept within those bounds that reason Religion have set it And where there are such breaches they call for binding up We should all be as so many good Samaritans pouring Oyl into the wounds of the Spirit for the suppleing and healing of them God hath been pleased to come into this Family and break the head of it and cut it off in taking him away he took away a tender Husband a loving Father a good Master a dear Friend one that in these evil days owned God his Waies and People and kept a Church in his House and his doors open that hungry Souls might feed upon and be refreshed with the bread of life which was there from Sabbath to Sabbath delivered out unto them The death of such a person is a common loss not only to the Familie but to the Country too and because thereof you are in Heaviness and afflicted in your Spirits Neither is this your case alone but of many others Death rides in Circuit and according to the Commission which it hath received so it makes it seizures here in an Husband deprived of the delight of his Eyes there is a woman made a Widow and her Children Fatherless Many a faithful fruitful useful Christian is cut down under whose shadow and in whose sellowship his Relations and Acquaintance did greatly rejoyce Unto such I have something to say that should prevail to the silencing of them and that is this it is the will of God the great God will have it so Thou wouldest have had thy Husband thy Wife thy Father thy Child lived longer but God would have him die now and this should knock all quarrelings and murmurrings and discontents down for there is all the reason in the world why God's will should take place and he should fullfil all his pleasure and why our will should submit and give place to God's And then I have something to say that may quiet satisfie you under such a providence for it is not enough for us that we be silent under it unless we be also reconciled to it at peace with it now in order thereunto take these 2 particulars consider them 1. They did see Gods Salvation before they did depart and so they dyed not under terrour nor in doubt nor at any uncertainty but in peace before Death closed the Eyes of their Bodies God had opened the Eyes of their Faith and shewn Christ to them and his love in Christ and you have reason to be perswaded good things concerning them even such as do accompany Salvation nay to be now perswaded of their Salvation it self This was the reason of my choosing these words of Simeon for the Subject of my discourse at this time because they were the Swan-like Song of our deceased Brother the very last words he spake save some short and holy Counsels which he gave to his beloved and most hopeful Son and shall not this satisfie you But then add 2. Now that those Holy ones are dead they see those things which they never saw things that are most richly worth their seeing and which as the case now stands with mankind they could not see without dying They have those sights which make the seer blessed they are taken up to the beatifical Vision They do not see an end of all their sins and sorrows nothing shall defile nor afflict them more all filth and all tears are wiped away they see the accomplishment of all their hopes the fullfilling of all their prayers the reward of all their services the Crown of all their sufferings They see the excellent Majesty and Glory of that God whom they had chosen and do now behold his face in righteousness Neither is that sight terrible to them as it was to Moses in the Mount so that he did exceedingly fear and quake No those Holy Souls do see God and live and rejoyce that sight is their satisfaction and delight They see that Blessed Jesus who loved them and gave himself for them and washed them in his own blood and made them Kings and Priests unto God yea they shall be like him for they shall see him as he is They do see that Holy Spirit which convinced them and sanctified them who directed them in their difficulties strengthned them in their weaknesses assisted them in their duties and most sweetly supported and comforted them in all their distresses They see an innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect In short they see that which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive namely that Glory Kingdom Inheritance those Robes Crowns and Thrones which God hath prepared for them that love him And the day is coming in which they shall again see those Bodies that at their flight to Heaven they left behind in a better State than ever And you O Saints shall see them too and Christ with them and then your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man shall take from you Only in the mean time do you live believingly walk humbly holily and circumspectly get your Vessels filled with Oil your Lamps burning and your Loins girt make haste to the Kingdom of God and be ye followers of them that through Faith and Patience do inherit the Promises