matters to mind Do we not bring dishonour to God and discredit to our Religion by our backwardness And can we have that comfort and confidence in meeting the Bridegroom of our Souls as is fit Alas our Lord will be less welcome if he surprize us unawares as I have told you Ah Sirs you little know how near death is and therefore should be always ready to meet our Lord. It is matter of great lamentation that so few of Gods Children are meet for their home and like wayward Children are loath to go to bed though God hath taken a course to weary us out of the world The Lord help us to lament and lay to heart our great unmeetness for Heaven When sin security senselesness steals in upon thy Spirit search it out mourn for it confess it beg a pardon of it and recover thy self quickly out of it be not satisfied with any distance from God recover thy wonted familiarity with thy best friend and mend thy pace towards Heaven as a man in his journey that hath been hindered hies the faster to recover his way lost by his stay breath after more likeness to God fitness for every dispensation and long to be with God in Heaven Alas Sirs you little know how near you are to Eternity You see the sands that are run to the nether end of the glass but the upper part as one saith is covered with a mantle you know not how few sands are yet to run God forbid that you should have your Evidences to procure when you should have them to produce If you be not sure of Heaven you are sure of nothing all worldly things must leave you or you must leave them Dispatch all but this off your hands and be as the bird on her wings to her nest or the traveller whose mind is still on home home nothing will please him but home Say with Calvin Vsquequo Domine How long Lord shall my Soul be at a distance from thee Come Lord Jesus come quickly CHAP. XII The second Doctrine briefly handled that a meetness for Heaven is a mercy worth thanking God for I Proceed briefly to explain the second Doctrine in my Text which is That its a transcendent Mercy worth thanking God for to be made meet for the Heavenly Inheritance If we must thank God for Daily-bread for Houses Health Estates Worldly comforts and accommodations for our Bodies how much more should we thank God for Heaven and a meetness for Heaven without which we shall never come there The truth of this I shall demonstrate in these seven particulars 1. Spiritual Mercies are of most worth and deserve most thanks from us to God But this is a Spiritual Mercy Eph. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly places in Christ It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so may signifie spiritual things as well as places i. e. Graces Priviledges Comforts or whatever hath a tendency to the good of the Soul or eternal Salvation in Heaven These indeed are a Benjamins portion a goodly heritage the quintessence and marrow of all Blessings If God should give you the whole World and put you off therewith you are cursed and wretched if he give you Grace and Glory you are happy if you had nothing else Our Lord thought that a plenary Benediction with which he begins his first Sermon Matth. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God There 's the mercy promised and the qualification for it both choice Blessings 2. That which is the purchase of Christ is worth our thanking God for but this is the fruit of Christs purchase It s not only a purchased inheritance nor did Christ only purchase us to be heirs of this inheritance but he hath purchased a meetness in Believers for that Inheritance Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works How do men thankfully celebrate Christs Nativity But that mercy of Christs being born into the world though transcendently great will never advantage you unless Christ be in you the hope of glory Col. 1.27 his dwelling in your hearts by Faith Eph. 3.17 intitles you to the inheritance he hath purchased Look within thee Man as well as without thee and above thee for the fruits of Christs purchase and occasions of thankfulness to God 3. The operations and fruits of the Spirit are surely worth thanking God for but this is one of the most glorious fruits of the Spirit to fit Souls for Heaven Our Lord promiseth to send the Holy Ghost to supply the want of his Bodily presence and it is the richest gift that ever proceeded from Father and Son such as have it out of their Belly flow Rivers of living water Job 7.38 39. God is to be admired in all the saving works and actings of the Spirit the convincing humbling sanctifying supporting satisfying sealing comforting quickening inlarging confirming witnessing and reviving operations of it Alas we had never lookt after God had not the Holy Ghost knockt at our doors we had been blind in the things of God but that the Spirit inlightened us dead but that the Spirit enlivened us we had wandered for ever but that the Holy Spirit reduced us our hearts had been for ever hardened from Gods fear had not Gods Spirits softened us we should have been unlike God but that the Holy Ghost stampt Gods Image upon us whatever hath been done upon our Spirits to fit us for Heaven the Holy Ghost hath been the Agent yea that Spirit that we have quenched grieved resisted vexed what cause then have we to be very thankful This is the golden Oyl that runs through the golden pipes of Ordinances into the candlestick of the Church Zech. 4.11 12. 4. The Gospel-dispensation is great matter and ground of thankfulness It is a mistery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of mon Eph. 3.4 5. But what is the marrow and main design of this Gospel-revelation Why ver 6. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel Oh glorious design Oh blessed Charter But what are we better unless we be partners of this priviledge Therefore chap. 2.19 saith Christians are fellow-vitizens with the Saints This is the Gospel way of infranchising and incorporating poor strangers in the Immunities of Heaven and surely this is worth thanking God for The Charters of some Cities cost them dear and the Chief Captain said to Paul with a great summe obtained I this freedom Paul said and so may Believers say in this sense but I was free-born Acts 22.28 Though it cost Christ dear yet it costs us nothing but reception This new Jerusalem is built all of Free-stone and shall not our shoutings echo grace grace to the Head-stone Jesus Christ
the Life of Paul the aged within a few days and my Lord only knows how soon my sun may set though I cannot say my Natural Vigour either of Body or Mind is in the least abated but I am mortal and am loath to be surprized unawares 2. I see a great failure in my self and other Christians in this that terminate our studies and endeavours in getting a title and then think all is well we need no more but surely there is much behind we have abundance of work upon our hands for obtaining actual meetness without which we cannot evidence our habitual meetness 3. I never yet met with any Treatise upon this subject though it be of great importance for every Christian surely Heaven is worth minding and methinks Abrahams Query in another case should be ours Gen. 15.8 O Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it 4. I have observed a commendable practice of some Christians which is to order some Books to be distributed at their Funerals The first that I knew of that nature was Mr. R. A. his Vindiciae Pietatis and some other practical pieces which by Gods Blessing have done much good Such a Memorandum would I bequeath as my last Legacy to you my dear People amongst whom I have laboured above thirty nine years in publick and private serving the Lord in some measure of Integrity and Humility with many Tears and Temptations through variety of Dispensations Excommunications Banishments Confiscations and Imprisonments but out of all these the Lord hath delivered me and set my feet in a large place and God that searcheth the heart knows what hath been my design in studying preaching praying preparing you a place to meet in to Worship God and what are the agonies and jealousies of my Spirit to this day least I leave any of you unconverted and so cashiered from Gods presence at the great day and now at last I solemnly charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels that you rest not in a graceless state another day lest that be the last day and you be found unready And I solemnly require you that have a principle of Grace gird up your Loins trim your Lamps and observe these few Rules and the dispositions mentioned in this small Treatise I only hint further Be much in the love of God Dayly act Faith on Christ Walk in the Spirit Design Gods Glory Intermit not holy duties Be not content therein without communion with God Mingle Religion with civil acts Increase every Grace Redeem time Profitably converse with Gods Children Aim at perfection Maintain tender Consciences Keep strict accounts Study the life of Heaven Be still doing or getting good Set God before your eyes Trample on worldly things Live in dayly view of death Be nothing in your own eyes Be much in heavenly praises Say O Lord who am I and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto What is man what am I the least and worst of the children of men that the heart of God should be working for me and towards me in infinite bowels of eternal love That the Lord Jesus should shed his heart-blood for me That the holy Spirit should take possession of me That God should provide such an inheritance for me Assure me of it by precious Promises seal it to me in his holy Supper That ever God should give me an heart to fear him Heal so many backslidings Prevent total Apostacy Pardon all my iniquities Vouchsafe me such large priviledges Supply my wants Hear my Prayers Help me over so many a foul place in my journey Brought me to the borders of Canaan Given me so many foretasts of the promised Land Tells me the Jordan of death shall be driven back and give me a safe passage to Heaven O Blessed blessed be God all this is from sovereign Grace God doth what he pleaseth I would not exchange this hope for the worlds possessions Eternity will be little enough to be taken up in the praises of rich grace Thus the gracious Soul may quickly lose it self in these Divine Praises and Contemplations as that zealous German Martyr Giles Titleman who in his Prayers was so ardent kneeling by himself in some secret place that he seemed to forget himself being called many times to meat he neither heard nor saw them that stood by him till he was lift up by the Arms and then gently he would speak to them as one waked out of a deep sleep Oh that there were such a spirit in Gods children That our hearts were so intent on things above as to pass through the world as unconcerned in it Then shall you be content to leave all and go to Christ Then will you not be afraid of the King of Terrors though armed with Halberts Racks Fires Gibbets then will you have a brighter Crown and higher degrees of Glory and shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as one Star differs from another in Glory so you will be set in the highest Orb and having had largest capacities on Earth shall have fullest joys in Heaven I will conclude with the blessed Apostles Prayer 1 Th. 3.12 13. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men even as we do towards you to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints Amen and Amen Thus prayeth Your Servant in our dearest Lord Oliver Heywood COLOS. 1.12 Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light CHAP. I. The Text opened Doctrines raised and explained PRayer and Praise are the two wings upon which a devout Soul mounts Heavenwards Prayer fetcheth down occasions of Praise These two are as Chariots and Factors to maintain intercourse betwixt God and his Children Paul was a great man in both for after the Inscription Subscription and Benediction in this Epistle he falls to Praise ver 3. then to Prayer ver 9. and in the Text he falls again to Praise and Thanksgiving wherein observe 1. The Duty Praise 2. The Mercy for what In the former observe 1. The Act giving thanks 2. The Object the Father 1. The Act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies a being of a good Grace having a very grateful Spirit and expressing it in words and actions Col. 3.15 Be ye thank ful or be ye amiable one to another or grateful both in conferring and receiving Benefits But here it referrs to God Obs 1. That thank fulness is the duty and property of a Christian Thankful retribution for Mercies is the study and enquiry of gracious Souls Psal 116.12 Prayer and Thanks are like the double motion of the Lungs the air of Mercy that is sucked in by Prayer is breathed out again by the duty of Praise O happy Christian that can and must in every
our Lord say such honour shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father Matth. 20.23 Can you think to wrest Heaven out of Gods hands whether he will or not And must he falsifie his word to gratifie you Will he set the Crown on Rebels heads Or give this Inheritance of Saints to the Devils slaves No doubtless you must be adopted Sons or no Lawful Heirs Bastards heir no Land Jephthahs Brethren thrust him out saying Thou shalt not inherit in our Fathers house for thou art the Son of a strange Woman Judg. 11.2 And what bold intruder art thou that darest expect to claim such an Inheritance as Heaven without the relation of a Son Adam its true was Gods Son by Creation but alas he and we in him have quite lost that sweet Relation and we must either be restored in Christ Gods well-beloved Son or we are like to be banisht for ever God sent his own Son that through him we might receive the adoption of Sons Gal. 4.5 6. And have you the Spirit of his Son in your hearts to cry Abba Father which elsewhere is called the spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 Tell me not that all Men are the Sons of God So were the Devils God will make you know that this is a peculiar priviledge known to very few injoyed by fewer but it is the fruit of singular Love and is attended with this unparalell'd advantage of seeing God as he is and a day is coming when these Sons and Heirs in disguise shall then be like their Father 1 Joh. 3.1 2. then Atheists that will not believe that there is any such difference among Men and bold intruders that dreamed of a right without pretending or proving their Adoption shall be utterly confounded 2. But besides this Relative change there is also a real change upon those Souls that God makes meet for Heaven and this consists in 1. Conversion to God 2. Covenanting with God 1. Conversion to God This is expressed in the words immediately following my Text Ver. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son This is a description of Conversion and a preparation for Glory Compare this with Acts 26.18 See there the priviledge annexed Observe it Conversion makes Saints and only Saints partake of this Inheritance If all the Men on Earth and Angels in Heaven should joyn their Forces together they could not save one unconverted Soul Truth it self hath asserted it with a solemn asseveration Matth. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The like doth the same mouth assert with a fourfold asseveration Joh. 3.3 5. I wonder often how careless sinners ners that are conscious to themselves that never any such work passed on them can eat and drink or sleep quietly and never so much as ask this question Am I converted or am I not If I be when or how did my Soul pass through the pangs of the new birth What tears fears what groans and agonies hath it cost me What fruits hath it brought forth in me Where 's this new Creature the Divine Nature the Image and Seed of God working Heaven-wards What stamp what sheep-mark can I shew as the fruit of Gods being at work on my Soul and an earnest of this glorious Inheritance But if there be no such change as I doubt there is not how can I be quiet Sure my pillow is soft or my heart hard and my Conscience seared that hear or read my own doom in such a Scripture from the mouth of the Judge himself standing at Heaven-gates and shutting me out as if he named me saying Be gone thou unconverted sinner I know thee not converting Grace never changed thy Heart or Life though I often summoned thee and knockt at thy door yet thou hadst no heart or desire to turn from thy sinful ways nor so much as fall down on thy knees and ask this grace of Conversion of me or use the means for it or so much as examine whether thou hast it or no but wentest on in a golden dream and now I must tell thee roundly to thy cost depart oh be gone from my presence thou poor wretched unconverted sinner This state this place is for none but sincere Converts 2. Covenanting with God When the glorious day of our Lords appearing shall spring he calls forth his covenanted people to crown his gracious promises with compleat performance Psal 50 5. Gather my Saints together those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice q. d. I take little notice of common or outside Worshippers they shall be set on my left hand but there is amongst you some serious Souls that look beyond the Ordinance I have observed them they have solemnly devoted themselves to me and accepted me in a Covenant-way These these are the persons and these only that I have taken for the lot of my inheritance and for whom I have laid up a safe and satisfying inheritance But to the uncovenanted soul or hypocritical pretender to covenant God will say What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth Psal 50.16 What ground hast thou to own me Or to claim any thing from me for this world or another Man as a creature can have no intercourse with God but in a Covenant-way much less can a sinner expect any good from God but by vertue of Covenant But what canst thou say for this promised Inheritance that hast nothing to do with the promises For all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen 2 Cor. 1.20 But thou hast never spent one hour solemnly to review and renew thy Baptismal Covenant and ingage thy Soul to God and since thou art an Alien from the Commonwealth of Israel and a stranger from the Covenant of Promise by consequence thou art without Christ and without God in this world and therefore without hope of a better state in the other world Eph. 2.12 But strangers and forreigners are become fellow-citizens with the Saints of this new Jerusalem ver 19. How is that Doubtless by taking this sacred Oath of Fealty and Allegiance to the King of Heaven By Covenant you have a title to all the good things of Earth and Heaven Sinner think of this thou that lovest to be loose and scornest the setters of this Holy League thou dost in effect say I will have none of God Christ Pardon Heaven If I must have them on no other terms but under such bonds and obligations let them take this Heavenly Inheritance for me And dost thou think this golden chain of honour worse then the Devils iron fetters of sin and amazing reward of flames and torments If you need not God and Heaven be it known to you God needs not you but can strain for the revenue of Glory to his Justice
at the rate of that Inheritance he is heir to Thus the Christian gets everlasting Consolation because he hath good hopes through Grace 2 Thess 2.16 O saith the Believer Divine Revelations have so fully demonstrated the reality of future Glory that my Faith no more doubts of it then of going to Bed at night and why should not my Flesh and Spirit rest in hope Psal 16.9 Why should not then my heart be glad Why may not my glory rejoyce Yea I will rejoyce in hope of the glory of God for my hope will not make me ashamed Rom. 5.2 5. I dare venture my hopes and my all in this blessed Covenant-bottom My soul hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him and that for ever Psal 42.11 3. Love That 's a grace that shines brightest in its proper Orb above but the more it is exercised here below the more of Heaven Love resembles the Soul most to God and raiseth the Soul to an Heavenly Life God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 The Soul that is carried out to God in pure flames of holy love hath mounted already into the highest Region and bathes it self in those pure streams that raise and ravish the Spirit in a continued extasie The more Love the more fittedness for Heaven If love be increased and abound our hearts are established unblameable at his coming 1 Th. 3.12 13. Yea the more Love the more of Heaven for what is our love but a reflexion of Gods love 1 Joh. 4.19 Oh saith the Christian I feel the sweet beams of the Sun of Righteousness warming my heart methinks those Heavenly sparks have set me in a flame that when I am Musing the fire burns when I am Praying or Praising God my Soul mounts up to my Lord as pillars of smoak and I love to be near him and to be acting for him Oh how sweet is every Love-letter that comes from him How pleasant are some tokens of love that come from the hand and heart of my beloved Here is the soul that is meet for Heaven 4 Humility and Self-denyal Will you believe it The lower the Christian casts himself down the nearer Heaven But this is a truth Matth. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven God makes his court in the humble and contrite Spirit Isa 57.15 Oh saith Christian this grace have I found in me that duty is performed by me this corruption have I mortified that burden have I born what say I That I have done this or that O no By the grace of God I am what I am I laboured yet not I but the grace of God 1 Cor. 15.10 I dare not say any thing is my own but sin and what 's performed by me is mixt with sin and imperfection Horreo quicquid de meo est I tremble for fear saith Luther at any thing that is of mine own I must not depend on mine own Righteousness O that I may be found in Christ I am nothing can do nothing deserve nothing but Death and Hell If ever I be admitted into Heaven it must be upon the account of Christ his Merits upon the Cross his Intercession in Heaven That 's an excellent Text Rev. 19.7 8. Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready But how is she ready Why to her was graunted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the sine linnen is the righteousness of Saints Indeed it s no other then Christs Righteousness imputed This is the upper garment that must not only cover our nakedness but the tattered rags of our own Righteousness whether that relate to a glorious state of the Church on Earth or in Heaven I dispute not But I am sure its the bravest suit that she can put on and she will look trim in that only and woe to them that appear in their best inherent Righteousness Let the proud self-justiciary say Coelum gratis non accipiam I will not have Heaven gratis or for nothing I will pay a proportionable rate for it then thou art like to go without it for it s not saleable Ware Rom. 9.31 But let a poor self-condemning Publican come and beg Pardon and Heaven for Christs sake and God will not deny him For he resisteth the proud but gives grace and glory to the humble Jam. 4.6 CHAP. IV. Meetness for Heaven in clear evidences of Title to it 2. THe next particular wherein a meetness for Heaven doth consist is Assurance or grounded evidence of our title to this Heavenly Inheritance for no Man is ready to go out of this World but he that hath solid grounds of his safe estate for another World for doubts breed fears and those lears beget unwillingness to go hence He dare not dye that knows not whither he must go and he is not meet for death that hath not used Gods appointed means to obtain assurance a thousand to one a Soul at uncertainties hath been a slothful negligent Soul for in an usual way diligence be gets assurance For so saith the Apostle Heb. 6.11 We desire that every one of you would shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that ye be not slothful ver 12. So 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure And what then Why then ver 11. he adds For so an entrance shall be ministred to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ A Ship may make an hard shift to get sneaking into the Harbor with Anchors lost Cables rent Sails torn Masts broken these get safe in but with much ado but oh how gallantly doth another ride in to the credit of her Master good example to others comfort and satisfaction to all in the Ship when she comes in with Sails spread Flags up Trumpets sounding and well Victualled surely these come in bravely This is just the difference betwixt a lazy Professor that wants assurance and an active Christian in his voyage to this blessed Haven God requires this assurance means are appointed for attaining it serious Christians have gained it so mayest thou and so must thou endeavour after it You 'll say how is it got By what means may a Christian come to the assurance of his title to this Heavenly Inheritance that he may be meet or fit to take possession of it at death I Answer in general it must be supposed that you have a title which is your habitual meetness or else how can you be assured of it You that are unregenerate you have a greater work to pass through before you are capable of obtaining assurance But supposing this I answer 1. An holy diligence in increasing exercising graces and performance of duty This I hinted before Acts evidence habits Improving grace is Gods way to
clear up grace Blowing up sparks will best discover them A flame is sooner discerned then a spark in the embers Christians by stirring up the gift of God discover it 2 Tim. 1.6 Motion is a good evidence of life Activity for God and tendency Heaven-ward will put you out of doubt All duties tend to assurance or spring from it Striving running fighting will be crowned with clear evidence God loves to crown diligence To him that hath i. e. useth and improveth well what he hath shall be given and he shall have abundance i. e. more grace and the comfort of it as the collision of Flint and Steel begets light so the acting of grace produceth this fruit viz. Assurance For the work of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 Now now the Soul is ready for glory when he is in duty above duty with God in the lively actings of grace which is a part of and a prologue to glory The Christian is going from strength to strength till he appear before God in Zion Oh happy soul that is thus upon the wing 2. Reflection upon Heart and Life and comparing both with the word of God This is Gods way to get assurance Have I the conditions of Gospel-promises Faith and Repentance Do those graces within me answer the characters of such in the Scriptures Doth my Soul eccho to the experiences of Saints in the word of God Can I follow the Rules and prescriptions that my Lord hath laid down To deny my self take up his Cross and follow him Have I the essential characters of a Christian I dare not believe Satan and my own treacherous heart I will examine and prove my self 2 Cor. 13.5 I will not spare my self in any thing I will be impartial and deal faithfully by disquisitive tryal now as I would be found in the decisive tryal at the last day It s a matter of life and death I will lay judgment to the line I will go to the Law and to the Testimony The word must judge me at the great day it shall be my judge now No matter what the World saith of me nor must I be determined by the votes of the best Christians or Godly Ministers I must and will and do prove mine own work and then I shall have rejoycing in my self alone and not in another Gal. 6 4. 3. Appealing and approving the heart to God Alas the best Christian is too apt to be partial in his own case or blind at home our Minds are as ill set as our Eyes neither of them apt to look inwards and when we do look alas we are apt to look through a false or flattering glass or our Eye is vitiated with bad humours and therefore must we with Job appeal to God ch 10.7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked And ch 23.10 He knoweth the way that I take And though David had communed with his own heart and his spirit had made diligent search Psal 77.6 yet he challengeth God to a further privy search Psal 26.2 Ezamine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart And again Psal 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts Not as though God were ignorant of them till he searcht but it s spoken after the manner of Men And that God might further acquaint David with the secrets of his heart Thus the sincere Christian faith Lord I set my self before thee as a glass in the Sun look upon me look through me thou knowest all things see how my heart is affected towards thee discover to me the inmost working of my Soul if there be any secret guile in folding it self in the lurking-places of my heart bring it to light if there be any flaw in my evidences let me see it before it be too late I am too apt through self-love to judge the best but do thou declare my state and my frame as it is Thou that must be my judge shalt be my witness My witness is in Heaven and my record is on high Job 16.19 Here 's a Soul usually comforted in his integrity and such an one is meet for Heaven 4. Praying to God for the shinings and sealings of his Spirit For indeed let all these means be used yet evidence will not come unless God be pleased to shine upon his own grace in the Soul My Conscience saith Paul bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Rom. 9.1 and Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God This indeed is the Sun-light assurance This alone scatters all mists answers all objections banisheth all doubts and fears and oh what an honour and satisfaction is it to a Child of God that the Third Person of the Sacred Trinity should come down and give in its infallibe Testimony at the Bar of a Believers Conscience This is like the Son of God coming down into our nature and dying for us Oh transcendent condescention Oh unparallell'd priviledge of Gods Children Yet this is purchased by Christ and promised to Believers not only to be a Witness but a Seal 2 Cor. 1.22 and 5.5 Eph. 1.13 This is often yea ordinarily given after believing and when it comes it brings its own evidence along with it So that the perplexed Child of God after many fore conflicts struglings ruggings sad thoughts of heart comes at last to some consistency as to expel fears cares doubts and now at last is brought to that that he no more questions Gods love then his faithfulness and this usually comes in after some notable wrestlings at the Throne of Grace in Prayer according to that Joh. 16.24 Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name i. e. Very little comparatively and as you shall do Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full God will have his Child to beg when he designs to give to exercise our Obedience and to honour his own Ordinance Then he gives assurance and the joy of his Salvation and now the believing Soul is meet to be translated into the joy of his Lord. But you will say is none meet for Heaven but such as have assurance Then what shall a poor doubting Soul say of it self that is dark and much discouraged as many a good Soul is Answ 1. A title to this Inheritance is necessary but knowledge of this title is not absolutely necessary Many have dyed safely though under clouds Our Lord himself cryed dying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me There was Relation my God yet in some sense he was forsaken 2. There 's degrees of assurance as he that said Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Few enjoy a full plerophory and those that have it yet have it not at all times Mr. Pauls Bains said dying Sustentation I have but suavities spiritual I do not feel 3. It s one thing what God doth in an arbitrary way of suspending the
comforts of his Spirit from the best of his Saints yea he with-held them from his own Son and another thing what may and usually is the effect of Mans sloth and negligence which is too commonly our case as Mr. Dod answered him that complained of want of assurance why Man assurance may be had and what have you been doing all this while 4. Yet this will hold good that a clear evidence of our title is a great meetness and readiness for Death For though assurance be not necessary ad esse to the being of a Christian yet it s necessary ad bene esse of a Christian i. e. to his well being or comfortable passage through or parting out of this World for if we must draw near to God in a duty with full assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 much more at death Oh what a vast difference i◠there betwixt a Soul carried 〈◊〉 the wing of Faith and flames o◠Love in an extasie of Joy and the poor doubting heartless disconsolate Soul The former is like some high Mountains that are above Storms and Clouds as they say Olympus is clear and beautiful Oh the calmness and serenity of the well assured Christian He hath a double Heaven well at present better presently it s but shooting this gulf crossing this Jordan passing this stile as Dr. Taylor said and I shall be in my Fathers house Death it self as terrible as it is in it self and to others is a stingless Serpent my Friend and Fathers Servant sent to fetch me home Angels shall guard me my Lord will bid me welcome my Christian Friends gone before will make Heaven ring with shouts of joy at my landing safe and my Soul shall ever be with the 〈◊〉 But alas the poor doubting Soul whose evidences are not clear cryes out Alas dye I must and dye I dare not I dare not say God is my God Christ my Saviour the Spirit my sanctifier Promises the Charters that convey the Inheritance to others I cannot apply whither I am going I know not God carries strangely to me I remember God and am troubled guilt stares me in the face I am conscious to my self of thousands of sins and though I have been long bungling about Faith and Repentance yet I am not sure they are sincere and saving and whether God will receive my sad departing Soul Anxius vixi dubius morior as that great Man said I have lived under fears I dye under doubts and God knows what will become of me and I may thank my self alas this is the fruit of my sloth security my slipping into sin backslidings from God intermittings of duty careless and heartless performances wo is me what will become of me These are the astonishing thoughts of a poor doubtful dying Soul And is this Man meet for Heaven He may be right for the main but he cannot make Death welcome CHAP. V. Meetness for Heaven in dispatching our work here off our hands 3. THE next thing wherein our meetness for this blessed Inheritance doth consist is in dispatching our main work in the world that God sent us to do whatever that is God expects we should dispatch it and get it done this we must all address our selves chearfully to do and be very diligent in doing it Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thine hand findes and do it with thy might This is 〈◊〉 a time of working the other world is a day of retribution and when the Child of God hath wrought his days work it s a fit time to go to Bed Thus our dear Lord tells his Father Joh. 17.4 5. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do And now O Father glorifie me with thy own self Quest What work is it that God sets before Men to dispatch and manage Answ There is a fourfold work lyes upon a Christians hands to manage in this world 1. Personal Spiritual work Soul work wherein God is more immediately concerned which is the glorifying of God and saving his own Soul God hath involved these in one they are inseparable companions and its a mighty business Our Lord saith I have glorified 〈…〉 on the Earth This in 〈◊〉 measure is required of us and the sincere Christian makes it his design Thou knowest Oh my dear Lord what is that which hath lain highest in my heart ever since thou openedst mine Eyes The earnest desire of my Soul hath been to be nothing in mine own eyes that God alone may have all the glory I will confess and give glory to God I will and through grace have desired to make it my business to give glory to God by believing repenting obeying fruit-bearing yea in eating drinking and whatsoever I do in natural moral or civil actions This this is the mark I shoot at my highest aim that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4.11 And my business is in order thereto to study how to please God and to abound more and more 1 Thess 4.1 to obey Gods Commandments and to do those things that are pleasing in his sight 1 Joh. 3.22 and oh that my Person and Prayers might be accepted in Christ The salvation of my Soul is more dear and precious then this poor perishing Carcase My grand enquiry is what must I do to be saved This is the one thing needful other things are upon the by Oh that I could work out my own salvation I appeal to thee Lord how many griefs and groans prayers and pains fears and tears this main concern hath cost me I know there 's much of this work about my precious Soul yet undone but thou knowest the main is dispatcht I have fought a good fight finisht my course kept the faith 2 Tim. 4.7 And now my Land-business is done let me go to Sea and launch out into that boundless ocean of eternal happiness 2. Temporal work the business of our Callings and particular occasions This also the dying Christian is drawing into a narrower compass that he may voluntarily leave the world before the world leave him the Christian having had his head and hands full of business in his younger days when old age comes is glad of a quietus est or writ of ease that he may vacare Deo be at more leisure for God in holy duties Methink saith the good heart I have had my share both of the imployments and injoyments of this lower world and am well content to shake hands therewith I can behold with pity the laborious Ants and Pismires running upon this Mole-hill and busily scrambling for a little dust let them take it God hath made my hands to be sufficient for me I have what will bear my charges to the grave let it go I am glad I have so fairly parted with it I would not be to enter again upon this busie stage or put forth to this tumultuous Sea I have now other things to mind I have now the great work to mind of setting streight my accounts for another
from Hell to Heaven The Sunshine of Love comes to melt and thaw our frozen hearts that God may set a stamp upon us The loving kindness of God leads to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Oh what an influence will Gods native goodness have upon an ingenuous Spirit As the Sun attracts vapours from the Earth so this Son of Righteousness should and will if our sturdy hearts hinder not raise our hearts Heaven-wards It s pity we should stop here in the streams but that thereby we should be led to the fountain and follow the beams up to the Sun May this long-suffering of the Lord be your salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 May love constrain you to love God May these load-stones so attract you and these grapes of Canaan enamour you that you may never rest till you appear before God in Zion And what are all Gods rods and redoubled strokes for but to awaken you out of security Peat your fingers off from the world Weaken your corruptions and purge and furbish your Souls as vessels for the high shelf of glory For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 How is that Surely by working the Soul into a fitness for that glory This furnace melts away the dross of our Spirit Sea-tossings clear the liquor of grace this dark night fits for the pleasant morning these pangs prepare us for deliverance these blustering storms fit souls for the peaceable fruits of righteousness being sanctified by the Spirit and improved by Faith Affliction is Gods Physick which makes sick but prepares for sweet health and shall we frustrate Gods ends in this also What are you content with a Heaven here and an Hell hereafter Nay can you be content with an Hell in both worlds Must these be par-boilings for everlasting burnings God forbid Look at the Lords end in these sufferings and let it be yours 5. The time of this life is the only time men have given them to be made meet for Heaven This life is a praeludium to an eternal state It s a Seminary for another world Gal. 6.7 8. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Seeding is a preparatory to reaping yet men must expect only to reap that kind of grain that 's sown none can think to reap Wheat that sowed Oats and you know there 's more abundunce in the reaping then in the sowing So in this case Hell torments will be more exquisite and eternal then the profit and pleasure of the sinner in sinning Heavens joys will infinitely furmount the Christians labours and sorrows in this world and there is great equity in both for the object sinned against is infinite and satisfaction can never be made by a finite Creature and the grace from whence flows Eternal Life is infinite and will have an endless duration But the point I am upon is to demonstrate the necessity of making meet for Heaven in this world or it will never be done Now or never When the door is shut the gulf fixt and the Soul loosed from the Body and launcht out into that vast ocean of Eternity there 's no returning back to get the oyl of grace or be fiting the Soul for another world Eccl. 9.10 What soever thine hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Time lasts not but floats away apace but what is everlasting depends upon it Hic aut accepimus aut amittimus vitam aeternam In this world we either win or lose eternal Life The great weight of Eternity hangs on the small and twittered thread of time Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 This is our working day our market time surely it becomes us to lay that Foundation well that bears such a Superstructure To cast that Anchor safely that is entrusted with a Vessel so richly laden Oh Sirs sleep now and awake in Eell from whence is no redemption Suppose by misdemeanour you had forfeited your Estate and Life and upon much intercession the King causeth an Hour-glass to be turned and set you a work to do or lesson to learn if you performed it you are pardoned and promoted if not tortured and executed Oh how diligent would you be What pains would you take The case is your own Sirs Heaven and Hell are before you according to your improvement or non-improvement of this hour of life so must you fare dream not of a Purgatory as the Tree falls so it lyes You enter by death into an unchangeable state only the Body at the Resurrection will be joyned to the Soul to be partner with it in weal or woe bliss or bane for ever The state here is tempus operis the time of working hereafter mercedis of reward Oh look before you leap into another world That 's the fifth Reason 6. The Christian must be made meet here for the Inheritance above because he hath abundance of work to do and priviledges to injoy in order to the full possession of this blessed Inheritance above We have many graces to exercise duties to perform corruptions to subdue temptations to resist burdens to bear mercies to improve that will never be managed to purpose without a qualification for managing them And observe it the same disposition is requisite for making a Christian meet for any duty that 's requisite to make him meet for glory the same habitual principle and drawing it forth into lively exercise Not only must the man of God be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.17 but every Christian that is a vessel unto honour must be sanctified and so meet for his Masters use and prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 Alas an unsanctified heart is unfit for spiritual service Solomon saith The legs of the lame are not equal he halts and goes limping so is a parable in the mouth of fools Prov. 26.7 How aukwardly and bunglingly doth he go to work in sacred things just as an unskilful person handles a Lute a Viol or Instrument of Musick or as the men of Ephraim could not frame to pronounce Shibboleth aright Judg. 12.6 There must be a suitableness betwixt the Agent and Acts No carnal heart can do any one good work well materially he may do what is good but not formally as good in a good manner for a good end acceptably to God or profitably to himself For they that are in the flesh cannot please God and without faith its impossible to please God Rom. 8.8 Heb. 11.6 And can we think God will carry them to Heaven that never struck a right stroke or never did one hours work for God that he would accept A graceless sinner is like the fruitless
Zech. 4.7 Especially since our freedom rescues us from Hellish tortures as Pauls did him from scourging and makes us heirs of Heaven 5. Peculiar advantages not afforded to all gives grounds of thankfulness such is this Our Lord said Matth. 11.25 26. I thank thee O Father Lord of He aven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Alas what have any of us but what we have received Discriminating kindnesses call for the greatest gratitude What did God see in any of us that might procure for us Heaven Or within us what preparation for Heaven You and I are of the same polluted lump of Mankind as others Most unlikely to become heirs of such a glorious inheritance as Heaven is What could God see in us to attract his heart to us Nay what did he not see in us to turn his stomach against us It was the kindness and love of God our Saviour Not by works ef Righteousness which we had done but according to his Mercy he saved us Tit. 3.3 4. Alas what loveliness could God see or foresee in us to make us Children then heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ We may say with honest Judas Job 14.22 How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not unto the world It must be answered Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight When thousands are left why art thou taken How came it to pass that when Philosophers and wise Sages of the World bewildred so in the dark about felicity that God should shew you the right way to true happiness and lead you into it and in it Surely all is of free grace 6. Fittedness to any duty or dispensation is a Mercy worth thanking God for Such is the Christian frame that makes meet for Heaven such a person is fit to do Gods will or suffer Gods will he is suited to a prosperous and adverse condition his foot standeth in an even place like a Watch in a Mans pocket turn it this way or that way it keeps its motion so the Christian in all conditions his station and motion Heaven-wards The righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 He is utrinque paratus ready for any thing that God calls him to Like the man of God mentioned 2 Tim. 3.17 That is perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Oh what a blessed thing is it to be in a capacity to embrace a motion to pray read conser meditate receive the Lords Supper upon an invitation from Men or summons from God! The Church in Cant. 5.2 found the want of this when she saith I sleep but my heart waketh i. e. I have the principle but want the exercise of grace and alas how unready was she to entertain her beloved though she had given him a call and the sad consequences of this unfit frame are obvious both as to her sin and suffering But oh what a mercy is it to have an heart ready pressed for Gods service Give God the glory of it and its worth something to be in a readiness for Mercy Affliction Death Judgment as those are that are meet for Heaven It was a noble Speech of Basil when Modestus the Praefect threatened Confiscation Torments Banishment he answered He need not fear Confiscation that hath nothing to lose nor Banishment to whom Heaven only is a Countrey nor Torments when his Body would be dasht with one blow nor Death which is the only way to set him at liberty Polycarp was ready for Beasts or any kind of death for he was ready for Heaven For as this Christian is delivered from danger by death so from the fear of death Heb. 2.15 Death it self is the day break of eternal brightness to the Child of God and is not this worth thanking God for 7. Heaven is surely worth thanking God for Could we get a glimpse of that state and place of glory and this inheritance of the Saints in light together with our title to it Oh how would it dazzle and transport us its said that the Temple of Diana was so bright that the Door-keeper still cryed to such as entered Take heed to your Eyes Much more may we say so of the surprizing glory of the Heaven of Heavens and therefore our Lord saith None can see his face and live But death blows dust out of the Eyes of glorified Saints and the Morning-Star at the Resurrection doth so fortifie the sight that it can behold this inaccessible light with admiration even as all the Stars look upon the Sun Fear not little flock saith our Saviour Luk. 12.32 for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Is not a Kingdom worth thanks and such a Kingdom and to have this freely of gift not to wade to it through Wars and Blood and all this by hereditary right which is the clearest title Oh Sirs do you know what Heaven is It is the immediate injoyment of God an immunity from all evils a possession of all good the perfection of our natures the maturity of our graces the destruction of all sin the banishment of Satan and his temptations the fulness of joy and total death of all grief Indeed it is such a state as can neither be expressed nor conceived How vile and contemptible would all things below appear to one that with Paul is rapt up into this Paradice I read of one Adrianus an Heathen that was present when Martyrs were examined and tormented he asked What was the Reason they suffered such Tortures it was answered in the words of that Text 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The very rehearsal of which words converted this Adrianus and he became a Martyr also Oh what a transcendent reward is there in these Mansions above And God doth not grudge us the knowledge of these glorious things He is not like some rich men that will not let their heirs know what they will do for them till they dye no the Text saith ver 10. that God revealeth them to us by his Spirit and v. 12. that we may know the things freely given to us of God We may know them perceptively not comprehensively by Faith tho' not by Sense We know but yet in part non rem sed aliquid rei but then we shall know as we are known not as God knoweth us for our knowledge and Gods must not be so comparatively likened but as holy Spirits know us both now and for ever we shall both know and be known by immediate intuition yet in this world God gives his Children though differently some glimpses and dark representations per Species as through a glass by Metaphors or Parables and this discovery is to raise up our hearts in thankfulness admiration and longing desires to