their Kinds and their Circumstances With their Demerits of outward of inward and of eternal and extremest punishments For these God knows what were their sighs and their groanings were not hid from Him Their mixtures of sin in all Natural Civil and Religious things did foul their faces with weeping Think you that it is a peculiar sin or grief of yours in a great degree to Eat Drink to Buy and Sell yea to use the holy Word and Prayer from selfish Principles and to selfish Ends not Purely from Principles and unto Ends Heavenly your mistake is gross It was the common sin of all your friends in Heaven and the common grief of all while they lived upon Earth Ardently all desired but no one ever attained unto sinless purity no not in any one of their pathes Phil. 3.12 13. 1 Joh. 1.8 Jam. 3.1 In every motion of Nature there was much of Corruption In every Secular thing most lawful there was what was Unlawful In all holy things there were Iniquities And for these went they mourning all their days Their long unaccomplished desires and unanswered Prayers made their hearts sick an hundred times Ours be a sword in our Bones that we are prone to think did never cut any other Souls But it is without any colour of Reason that we think so in our haste It is very well known God used to make our Predecessors wait as long as He makes any of us And as frequently they cryed as we do now cry How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God I am weary of my crying my throat is dryed For day and night thy hand is heavy upon me O God I cry in the day time and thou hearest not To conclude this particular The sorrows of death compassed them as they compass us Great was their consternation in the prospect of their Dissolution Unto which all their great Grace could not reconcile their reluctant Nature With fearfulness and trembling they felt the King of Terrors entring and pulling down their Tabernacle of Clay Laying their Earthly House in the Dust Turning their Flesh into rottenness and sending it out of the sight of man into darkness Have we our terrors they were not without theirs Of some and those extraordinarily sanctified it is credibly reported that very Fear was their Executioner And they died for fear of Death Of others I pray bethink your selves how was it that you saw them lye gasping on their Beds and heard them ratling in their Throats and observed them to take the breach of the strings of their Eyes and Heart 'T is impossible here to say all and hard to me not to say too much But I proceed P. 2. These very Souls thus winnowed are gloriously escaped out of all these evils So the Text saith expresly And so the whole Scripture so brightly that all are Believers except such as are not Christians To quote the obvious Texts would be to recite a great part of the Bible Let that one which I produce recall others unto your remembrance Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. An illustrious Maxim in few words declaring man's great End or Aim which is blessedness And man 's only way unto the same which is by dying in the Lord or in the Faith of Christ Jesus after living in him by Faith This Maxim St. John had from Heaven And this he was bid to write for the use of the Saints on Earth And this he telleth us is confirmed by the Holy Ghost Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them In which confirmatory reasons we have these things asserted scil 1. That before their death in the Lord these Saints had labours and works for him which were hard Such as to be exempted from was a part of blessedness 2. That at their Death they were exempted from them And now lived no more in Sweat much less in Tears 3. That with freedom from sufferings they now received Gods Rewards of their Obedience His rewards of Grace which are like the Donor beyond comprehension and objects of eternal wonder Their works do follow them That is the immense reward of their slender work The eternal reward of their short work The far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory This argument flows with Milk and Honey stay we and feed a while hereon Think pleasantly of what is proved so evidently Saints raised out of the Valley of Tears are lifted up into the Mount of Joy Wherein no Eye ever wept or Breast sighed or Tongue complained Or ever had cause or occasion so to do Wherein neither the World nor the God of this World could ever give trouble For Satan's Vassals cannot reach it And he and his Angels were long ago cast far enough from it Wherein the Immortal Father never gave a blow to any Child or took from any the Kisses of his Mouth sweeter than Wine Wherein sin the most hateful evil hath no more place than the Devil whose work it is But the perfect purity long desired is fully enjoyed Wherein no one sinful or mixed and imperfect act ever blemished the holy state Wherein no Hope is ever delayed one minute nor ought is desired before God's will is that it should be possessed Wherein there is no Doubt or Grievance of Life nor any Fear or Possibility of Death Wherein we do all know all things are better than any of us upon Earth can know For we know that when Saints enter the House made without hands they presently take possession of all the Goods And who can know till he goes up and sees how many and how rich they be Indeed the holy Oracles do warrant thus much to be said of our good Friends that are entred there They possess blessed Light One in comparison whereof their former knowledge was but a less thick darkness The open light of the Sun vastly exceeds a few Beams strained through the crevice of a Wall And no less doth Gods manifestation of himself above exceed that which he affords his Church below Neither is there any compare between the strength of a glorified Eye and of an imperfectly sanctified one Unto glorified ones the deep Fountains of Wisdom and Grace are laid open The riches of Goodness the beauties of Holiness the glories of Power are manifested The Embroideries of Providence are unfolded 'T is not easie to name what God doth hide from ' em For why He himself is All in all And this we know They do see him as he is Wherefore necessarily They possess blessed Love So argues the infallible Teacher We shall be like him For we shall see him God is love And sight of God turns us into flames of Love Such are our glorified Friends like unto the blessed Angels Ever receiving the highest love that God confers on finite Creatures and giving back the greatest love that God can have from their glorified
Faith and Holiness is the highest that can be in this low world The best Heaven to be had on earth And yet do we want a much better to allure us unto it So dark is the Light that is in us So so have we lost the first Light Purity Vigilance of our Minds and the Rectitude of our Wills Things despicable insinuate themselves into us very easily Their faint color of profit or pleasure invades us with marvellous power Power that ravishes presently the esteem of our Minds and Choice of our Wills The lying vanities that do still deceive us can even compel us and carry us whither we think at least we would not go But objects most amiable in themselves most excellent and unto us most important such as deserve the throne of our hearts alas how darkly do our Minds represent these how coldly do our Wills receive them Till Omnipotence draws us we never run or go or so much as look after them A most humbling consideration We do need bit and bridle to keep us out of Satans crooked way and spurs and goads to make us go in God's strait paths I. 5. The kindness of God to untoward men This if any thing shines in my text and doctrine For in what appeareth God's kindness if not in his methods of calling us to Faith and Holiness Which are so admirably suited unto our weakness So apt to reduce and engage the most extravagant Souls So fitly qualified as hath been before shewed to make pliant the most obstinate in evil and to nail fast the most irresolute in good Motives even such the divine grace presents So it self doth the dread Soveraign of the whole Creation court every worm Vouchsafing not only to Will and Command but to encourage and entice us unto Faith and Obedience So making that if we will swim on in sin unto Damnation it shall be against the stream of grace in its utmost Condescention I. 6. The Benefit of godly Ministers and Friends This doth hence appear great Because not only Living but Dead they are unto us great means of grace As we may profit much by hearing Est aliquid quod à magno viro vel tacente proficias Sen. Ep. 94. and seeing them while they be here we may do the same by Remembring them when they be gone It is our own fault if it does not do us good to think of them It is true we may reap advantage from the thoughts of them who to us were unknown And of whom and of whose Faith and Holiness we have only read or heard They have well deserved from the Church whose Pens have preserved the History of pious Persons for us Abroad Melchior Adam Theod. Beza and others At home our immortal Martyrologist Jo. Fox Mr. S. Clark Dr. Bates Dr. Fuller Dr. Lloyd c. That dunghil Spirits should contemn their sacred Pearl is of no wonder at all But that reputed Merchants for Heaven should grudg them their Money and their Time is sadly strange A Collection of the Characters of many most exemplarily religious is now preparing in this City Surely men of real Religion will pray for its good speed as conceiving it a very apt medium for commending unto us the City that hath better foundations and for animating us to Live to Suffer and to Die for it But it may not be denied and it ought to be considered Great is the power of Acquaintance and Converse Our thoughts have by far the easiest and sweetest access unto them in Heaven that we had most friendship with upon Earth In a word Pearls are but the shining Froth of the Sea as Silver and Gold be but the White and Yellow Dust of the Earth An Holy Friend is an incomparably richer thing and more serviceable I. 7. The Praise of Consideration Which thus here meets us It is by the sacred Writer made the capital means of our excitation unto the things which are our Life Yea of our excitation unto them by the most powerful motive It is by him made as necessary to our being benefited by God's Word as Eating is necessary to our being nourished by Bread For his phrase is to be understood as if the Text had plainly said The blessed End of your holy Predecessors take you into just deep consideration without which it can no more affect you than a Beauty and Treasure can affect one that neither sees nor hears of them Nor any more draw forth your hearts to imitate their Faith than Chains or Cords can draw forth of their places things that they take no hold of Indeed the usefulness of Consideration is self-evident nor need words for information's sake be multiplied All men grant that every good Act is a product of stated Judgment not of a sudden rash Thought and stated Judgment it self is the issue of serious Perpension the ultimate and most perfect Act of our Reason or Thinking faculty But interpretative Contradiction is the rife Plague among us Most men sleep in their gross Inconsideracy and are strangers unto true Contemplation And it is to be feared some are vain and wild enough to expect benign infusions of the Holy Spirit without the required considerations of their own Miserable delusion For He is a spirit of Wisdom that is of wise Thoughts Not a spirit sent to make Fools that is creatures spending no Thoughts or but few and slight ones on the things of their Peace His work is to make wise and to set at rights our Thoughts To wit as to the Objects Qualities Numbers Orders and Ends of them In a word He that eats not necessary Bread is dead naturally and he that considers not necessary Truth is dead spiritually Spare Meals make slender Bodies and slight Meditations make lean Graces Wouldest thou be much edified by thy glorified Friends Examples then contemplate them much Expecting not holy Impulses from a few roving Thoughts Without much musing no holy fire burns Precious Metals and Jewels are produced where the Beams of the Sun are most strongly reflected and there it is that heavenly Affections are kindled where apt Thoughts are most vigorously exercised Now in his Name whose we Are whom we Serve and to whose Tribunal we Hasten I exhort as follows Let not worthy Mr. HURST or any other Servant of Jesus Christ be without a Religious Monument in your Hearts Former Ages have exceeded bounds in commemoration of deceased Friends Papists abide still in their Excesses But abhorring them run you not into a contrary peccant Extream Idolize your Friends in glory you may not honourably and affectionately remember them you must Your duty is to follow their Faith not their Fancies And their holy Walks not their wry Steps They were but Men our fellow-servants and not our Masters Nor are they to be followed by us farther than they followed their and our one Master It shall be Praise now and Glory in the day of your accounts if you consider their Chief End and aim at the
same The God the Mediator and the Comforter that they chose and do chuse the same The Gospel-Covenant that they studied lived upon and by and do study and live upon the Promises and according to the Demands of the same If you exercise daily the Faith you have seen in them the Hope and the Love the Repentance the Diligence and the Patience the Humility the Justice and the Charity The holy things which ye have both Learned and Received and heard and seen in them do ye and the God of Peace shall be with â—ou After severe study of the way 〈◊〉 Heaven they neither wilfully â—andred out of it nor slothfully â—alked in it Take you their Way â—nd their Pace and hold both â—mitate you their Watchfulness over your Hearts and your Senâ—es and their Resistance of both â—ssaulting Temptations and conspiâ—ing Corruptions They did as the Army of Israel which passing thorough a Wood abounding with Honey would not taste it because â—he King had forbad them The people feared the King's Oath 1 Sam. 14.26 They chose rather Afflictions than sinful Pleasures and Reâ—roaches for Christ rather than the Treasures of Aegypt Love you the World and the things of it as little is they loved them They understood the disproportion between a spiritual Nature and carnal Sensualities and looked not on Temporal things as the goods of immortal Souls Pray as hard 〈◊〉 they prayed for the Peace of Jerusalem Loving the Church as knowing they were to be judged by their Affections unto the suffering Churches Not confining God's Church unto their own Party nor making their unnecessary Opinions Articles of Faith and their unnecessary Modes of Worship Terms of Communion Let it not be said that Joshua's Resolution was theirs more than yours As they so do you resolve to serve God with your Housholds commanded so to do Educating your Children piously and prudently Loving your Servants Souls with care to save them and using them in all references as you would be used your selves if you were in their conditions Contemplate seriously and frequently as before directed the blessed state of which they are now possessed Spend not all the thoughts â—ou have to spare upon their Life Of the two bestow them most liâ—erally upon the Estate they entred â—nto at their Death And do not â—ndure your Living Friends to take from you the time in which you â—hould remember your Dead ones Take it for no less a duty to Commemorate the Dead than to visit the Living To Commemorate the Place where they be the Company wherewith they dwell the work wherein they are employed And stay ye sometimes in these thoughts when you form them as you use to stay in visits of your Neighbours when you make them Start not out of these useful thoughts assoon as you are got into them As tho' you dreamed that little benefit and comfort could be expected from them Rest not till you have overcome the first shyness of your minds Their strangeness unto these thoughts Yea till sensible benefit hath made them impatient of keeping long from them A little serious exercise will make them so For to say the truth which some tell me they feel and which I have felt as my great motive both to Preach and Publish this hasty discourse These thoughts are most exceeding helps to facilitate and to sweeten our thoughts of God with whom is dazling and overwhelming Majesty Mr. Baxter calls them our stepping-stones and stairs of ascent to look at God And a greater than he doth methinks direct us to eye the glorified Saints as a sweet mean to promote looking unto Jesus Christ Heb. 12.1 2. Unto Jesus Christ who is our only and perfectly sufficient Mediator His glory dare you not for your lives to give unto his most glorified Members But neither dare you to neglect such remembrance of those his Members as so makes for the honour of Him the Head As is both an Evidence of your Principle of Holiness toward Him and a Means of its Practice and Progress The promotion of which Principle Practice and Progress is the dutiful Design of every Sermon And may it be the plentiful Blessing of this Occasional one unto you Amen and Amen! Postscript THE foregoing Discourse hath pressed the Remembrance of departed Saints Glory without any thing said of departed Sinners Misery Because I had purposed to treat thereof distinctly and as fully from another Text. But opportunity being here given me I take it to say thus much Of the Means of Grace all are Excellent but none Superfluous They do all â—ualifie and Engage us unto the use of each other No one excuseth from the use of another It hath been shewn to be highly beneficial to stir up our selves by the consideration of deceased Saints Blessedness unto an imitation of their Faith and Holiness And it is as certainly profitable to urge our selves by the consideration of deceased Sinners Ruine unto an abhorrence of their Unbelief and Disobeâ—ience The Reasons are both obvious and numerous So are convincing Observations and Experiences He was an eminently pious Antient that thus bespake his Auditory Sirs Let us be oft going down to Hell in our contemplations while we live that our Souls may not go down into it when we die And I have heard our greatest Divines praise another who having found that exercise very helpful against his Temptations did not stick to exclaim O Lord my Soul doth bless thee for Hell It is true the Hope of Heaven is the sweetest Persuasive but it is as true that the Fear of Hell is commonly the strongest Motive to our Duty Unregenerate hearts do feel little but this latter And the most sanctified men alive will tell you that they are fain under most of their Conflicts to call in their Fear to the help of their Hope And that their Life is a Flying from the Wrath to come as well as a Laying up Treasure in Heaven To clear this let it be observed The Objects of Hope are less conceivable by our minds than those of Fear be Although Storms and Darkness be without any difficulty pictured Calms and Sun-shines cannot be drawn without exquisite Art and extreme Industry Hell's Torments be a thousand times more easily understood than Heaven's Joys and Glorys be The Imagination of a natural Man will frightfully represent the burning Fire and the gnawing Worm But the fulness of Joy in God's presence and the everlasting Pleasures at his right hand these are foolishness unto him neither can he know them No Eye but a Spiritual one and that strained hard in deep Contemplation can discern much of them Alas who is it that can say he needs not all the helps prescribed in Mr. Baxter's Saints Everlasting Rest part 4th page 219. unto page 242. I mean his Helps to conceive affectionately of the Heavenly Glories These things premised I exhort unto the Duty easily inferred Unto frequent and most serious Consideration of impenitent Sinners end as well as of penitent Believers Naturalists say that the attractive vertue of the Loadstone is less when it is single and draweth much more strongly when it is encompassed and armed with Iron You shall find I am very sure that the Hope of Heaven will much better draw you when the Fear of Hell doth conjunctly drive you Briefly Having here no more room I advise to a just meditation of these three particulars There is an Hell as sure as there is an Earth There be damned men Burning as sure as there be sinning men Breathing Yea and as many of them as have ever died in Impenitence and Unbelief and Disobedience Christians and Jews also believe this So do Turks and Pagans for the substance of it The Alâ—oran mentions a house of Perdition Plato speaks almost the words of Holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Hell is the Center of Misery A Collection of all evils in their â—ighest degrees Passing all our preâ—ent understanding forasmuch as not comprehending what an incensed God can do 't is impossible to comprehend what a Damned man doth suffer A man that eternally Dies and Lives together having a Death without End and a Life without Ease And Tortures too without and beyond all comparison This Hell or Center of Misery hath six Memorables e. gr 1. It s Scripture Names A Prison bottomless Pit second Death never dying Worm unquenchable Fire 2. Its Essentials Deprivation of all good of Drops of Water as well as Cups of Wine and Accumulation of all evils for the Vessels of Wrath are filled with it 3. Its Efficients The Place Company and enraged Conscience are grievous ones but God's own immediate hand is inconceivably the sorest and strikes the hardest blows â—ee Dr. Tho Good win hereof 4. Its Concomitants These are an Enlargement of mind and a Fixedness of it upon tormenting Objects God lets in upon the Damned a great Light to exaspeâ—â—te their Fire There Ignorance â—ould do them a kindness so â—ould one minutes Forgetfulness But it cannot be Here they would 〈◊〉 know God there they must â—ere they would not Think of him â—ere they cannot cease one moment â—om thoughts of him And thereâ—â—re feel nothing but confounding Shame piercing Sorrow racking â—ury and Despair that is beyond 〈◊〉 Epithets 5. It s Duration And this is FOR EVER An Eternity â—â—expressable as its Extremity 6. Its â—nds and Reasons Which are the â—estraining of Sin in the World â—nd the shewing forth God's Holiâ—â—ss Righteousness and Power upâ—n Sinners finally incorrigible Indeed if we saw all the Blessed â—â—ining in Heaven and all the â—amned burning in Hell as daily and plainly as we see any thing with our Eyes it could not make us Holy without the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit But be it considered that blessed influence of his is not to be expected without the use of his prescribed Contemplations and Practices It is by Heaven and Hell both of them in our Thoughts that he pleaseth to rectifie our Affections and Works Let us therefore neither Pray for his Grace without Meditations of both nor Meditate of both without Prayers for his Grace FINIS NB. The Marginal Note page 59â— was by the Printers mistake inserted The substance of it being found page 60 and 61 in its proper place
his Love and Power shine with greatest Lustre Remember â—our Sanctifier but forget not his most Sanctified ones I conclude with a saying of one â—cquainted with God above thouâ—ands He never knew a heavenly â—onversation that pretending to know God alone hath no converse with his â—oly ones that attend Him and doth â—ot live as a Member of their Society â—n the City of God that doth not with â—ome delight behold their Holiness â—nity and Order But as it is time 〈◊〉 proceed to my next Observaâ—â—ion D. 2. The holy Faith and Conversation of godly Ministers and Friends deceased must be considered and followed So the Text in terms most plaiâ— Follow their Faith to wit considereâ— by you And that Comma consâ—dering the end of their Conversation imports evidently a command to follow it For the sake of these waâ— the remembrance of their Persons fore required Which without thâ—â— use of their Faith and Conversatioâ— would be to little purpose Bâ— it considered therefore strictly 1. What this Faith is 2. What this Conversation And 3. What the Reasons for our coâ—sidering and following both 1. Faith is considered as Objectively taken or Subjectively A the first it is the truth of the Goâ—pel by them held Viz. 1. Thâ— Gospel-History of the Primitiâ—â— Friendship between God and Man of the Enmity raised by the first siâ— between them and of the Reconcâ—liation made by the Son of God 2. The Gospel Offer and Invitation of Sinners unto Grace and Salvation â—y a New Covenant one of admiraâ—le Promises and most equitable and â—racious Demands 3. The Gospel-Rule and Directory for the Worship â—nd the whole Walk of all embracing â—nd entring that Covenant This History they Credited this Offer â—hey Accepted this Covenant they Entred this Rule they Followed â—ubjectively taken their Faith is that â—race of God in them whereby â—hey so received the Gospel Now â—his grace of Faith is either general â—nd so 't is their Assent and Consent â—nto all God's Revelation as perfectâ—y true Or special as it relates unâ—o Christ Jesus the sum of all God's Revelation and so it is their accepâ—ance of Him in all his Offices as Teacher Saviour Ruler The deâ—arted Saints we speak of had a Faith which was unto them instead of Possession and Sight One that made things said by God as credible as if they had seen them with their Eyes And things promised by God as comfortable as if they had had them in their hands I would be understood of the Truth only not of the degree of Credibility and Comfort They had also a Faith iâ— their Hearts which was unto them a Marriage Knot whereby they joyned themselves unto Christ Jesus in everlasting Covenant Resigning themselves to him to be Taught Saved and Ruled Committing themselves to God's saving Mercy lodged in Christ's Hand And submitting themselves to God's governing Authority lodged in the same This Faith of theirs in both acceptations is that which we are to consider and follow Conversation is the way and course of humane life Respectively of all Duties towards our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier towards the Church the World and our Selves And this as under all Circumstances of our various Conditions in our Pilgrimage The way and course of the Saints we speak of was Holy and Exemplary Through their Faith in Christ working by Love purifying their Hearts conquering the World and chasing the Devil they sincerely and perseveringly glorified God They held Communion with the Father Son and Spirit in Faith Hope and Love in Worship and Obedience They loved the Church as Christ's Body served it and sympathized with it as members of it The Unregenerate World they pitied and spent their days in pains and prayers for it's conversion Their Hearts that is Themselves they kept with all diligence preferring always the man above the Brute the Soul above the Body In a word their life was an Exercise of Grace a Warfare against Corruptions and Temptations a putting of their Talents to Usury and merchandizing to and for Heaven All their days were Humiliation-days for their Sins their Own and their Relations and Thanksgiving days for their Mercies and Hopes They walked after the Spirit and not after the Flesh And this their walk is that their Conversation that we are called to eye and to imitate We shall briefly enquire the Reasons for this practice To wit of our considering the Faith and Conversation of our glorified Brethren And of our setting our selves to transcribe both Our own vanity is apt to charge the Divine Wisdom foolishly for commanding it And to ask Unto what purpose is this our cost and pains Being we have the perfect rule of the Gospel and of our Saviour's own transcendent Example St. Austin's word is of great weight WHY God commands any thing I need not trouble my self He will look to that Let me ever look well to WHAT he commands Whether we see them or no there are infinite reasons for every thing God requires But yet when those reasons are obvious their use is rich and various Of the Practice foresaid I shall therefore point out a few such as are most clear and apparent R. 1. This practice unites the upper and lower House of God The Church above and that below It holds together the Members of the Family in Heaven and upon Earth It engageth us to keep eyeing of them As Scholars of the lower Form eye those of the higher whom they must imitate It even necessitateth the Houshold of Faith to hold great conversation with them that live by Sight This is no light reason with such as consider how God stands for his Children's Union and Association Such as hath been forespoken of and therefore shall have no more here said of it R. 2. This Practice doubles our help to the Life of Faith and Holiness The Instructions and Precepts of the Gospel are a blessed Help But not all that we need Who feels it not After that we have heard our Master's best and brightest Doctrines we need our Fellow Servants instructive and motive Examples Which are indeed the most instructive Comments to the understanding of them and most motive Encouragements unto the obeying of them as Experience certifieth By what is here said no disgrace is cast upon the Gospel 'T is meerly from our own dulness that we need superadded Examples And the shame of that want rests singly upon our own Head While in the mean time unto God belongs the glory of the additional Mercy Admirable Mercy For the Gospel shews us but the Duty But the Example of deceased Saints shews also the possibility of living by Faith and in Holiness Because what has been done may certainly be done again We are emboldned to believe we may so live when we consider others to have lived so And let it not startle you if I say this Jesus Christ's own Example is in this one respect a much less encouragement than one of his least and poorest Servants For it doth
not nearly and immediately so teach the possibility of the foresaid Life as his Servant's example doth A Soul under Temptation exclaims that be it ever so necessary 't is altogether as impossible to live by Faith in this World and hold a rightly ordered Conversation in such a Catholick Sodom Go you and tell him that the Son of God did live by Faith and fulfil all righteousness even in this World He shall reply upon you that it is a wild inference that he may because the Son of God did so do He shall tell you Christ had none of his sins in him and he has little or none of Christ's strength in his dejected Soul Christ had all created and uncreated holiness and might well overcome World and Devil but it were a wonder if they should be overcome by him a weak and sinful Dust He shall ask you what Logick of yours it is that thus argues An Angel slew an hundred thousand Enemies therefore a Worm may slay as many But on the other hand tell you this bruised Reed that yonder in Heaven be multitudes and many of his own Acquaintance that were Worms as weak as himself as tempted as himself and many a time as dejected as himself who did nevertheless keep the holy Faith and finish their holy Course and win the Crown of Righteousness What then Why then you do bind his contradiction hand and foot and it is odds but you cast out his despairing Spirit To be sure you silence him and very probably you make him by and by to speak Evangelically And to fall to chiding of his legal self and counselling it in Davids Rhetorick Why cast down O my Soul why disquieted in me Trust in God For I even I may yet Praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God And now I ask Should such a Tower of David such an Armory as this whereon there hang a thousand bucklers and shields for tempted despondent Souls should such a practice suffer disuse It would be unspeakable loss to the whole generation of the righteous But blessed be his excellent name He that delights of bruised Reeds to make polished Pillars in his Temple and of smoaking flax to make burning and shining lights He is more wise and kind than to admit it Glory be to him in the highest R. 3. This practice doubles the glory of God from the Faith and Conversation of Saints deceased If I may so speak God had from themselves one crop Or tribute of glory And would have had it tho' no eye but his own had seen their Faith and Conversation Tho' no mortal man had observed and followed them But now now that Faith and Conversation are not buried in Oblivion but are lifted up and draw men after them behold a second crop another tribute springs up So fruitful do living Christian's Meditation and Imitation make them that it may be said of deceased ones much like as of Sampson The Praises they bring unto their God in their death be more than they which they brought in their life Can therefore any Lover of God be without a deep sense of the reason of this practice Or need to be farther told that he who hath made all things for his glory hath required this practice for the same Here I must believe that none are Blind but those that will not see R. 4. This Practice doth likewise add unto the joy of Saints deceased Heaven is the element of Joy There 's less water in the Sea and light in the Sun than Joy in Heaven But we are generally taught that the Inhabitants have various degrees even after the Resurrection However it be it is this only that I would here propose viz. Of their Joys in Heaven this must needs be one that they did in their measure glorifie God in their day upon Earth And if they have knowledge of it it must be another Joy to have their Faith and Obedience live and bear fruit after that they are transplanted To have their old Graces and Duties for many years after to edify their Brethren and glorifie their Father And why we may not conceive them soon to know it when it is so let them say that can I cannot With humble submission I conclude that they are informed of it when the matter of their Joy is obtained Whether the holy Angels give them notices or what way they receive the same I take not on me to determine Some have thought that this is true concerning men Damned Such whose Errors are remembred to the diffusing of their enmity and malignity after their death they have proportionable encreases of their torment in Hell made presently made and with full significations given of the meritoriously procuring cause of it And on the other side concerning Saints in Heaven some have presumed this viz. That such whose Faith and Holy Life are commemorated c. made use of to the edification of the Church they receive like encreases of Joy As soon made as the foresaid sinners increases of Torment Learned men have thought Jer. 17.10 to make this way I the Lord search the heart I try the reins even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the FRUIT of his doings and with full certification of the service that is so of grace rewarded I contend not but to as many as with me do suppose this which I think no one will pretend an ability to disprove To such at least I shall think this reason of good force Upon the very single account hereof I dare ask them Is there not a cause for the commended Practice If we on Earth have Power should we not have Will to add to the Joy of our Brethren in Heaven R. 5. This Practice of good men exalts the saving grace of God Grace unto a Sinner is and will be an eternal Wonder Saving grace even most restrainedly considered is above all the blessing and praise that can be given it in the very state of Glory Abraham himself even after the Resurrection will be unableadequately to praise the grace of his own Salvation The grace that took him out of his misery and qualified him and brought him unto Glory That said to him in his blood Live That when he was alive gave him Life more abundantly And when he waâ— Meet placed him in the inheritanâ—â— of the Saints in Light This gracâ— unto his single Person will transcenâ— all his possible conception But leâ—â— this Grace to him be considered iâ— its just extent As saving him anâ— making him an Instrument of savinâ— many others In a sense the Fathâ—â— of thousands of heirs of Salvation An Exemplar unto them Making his Faith and Obedience blessâ— means of grace unto multitudeâ— Causing generations to call him blesseâ— Using him when Alive and alâ—â— when Dead as a Co-worker with Goâ— What an addition is this Thiâ— that makes Salvation it self somewhâ—â— more than it self Yea much more As to save a man from
Powers Upon earth the Fire of their Love was a little Spark it is now a Mount That spark as Kitchen-fire often languished almost expired for want of feeding by proper Considetations But in their present Mount of Celestial fire there is no variableness or shadow of change The Divine glory so holds their Eyes and heats their Hearts So that their enamoring Thoughts are never interrupted and their enflamed Affections never abated Certainly therefore They possess blessed Life Valere vita est To be Alive is to be in fulness of Joy And where is that fulness but in Love Where is Water if not in the Sea Where is Light if not in the Sun Where is Joy if not in Love Light doth not more naturally kindle sacred Love than Love creates supream Joy For what can there be less than all Delight where there is nothing but Love and that as this is without Diminution or End It is sure that our Friends Live in the Triumphs of Joy if they live in the Sunshines of Knowledge and Flames of Love True it is great is the number of them that dwell in this Light Love and Life Tho comparatively few are saved the City that is above is Populous but the multitude of its Citizens doth not Impoverish but Honour and Adorn it For why GOD is its Treasure And good INFINITE is not by any numbers exhausted or lessened The Sun's light is but finite Yet all men enjoy the light of it and every one as sufficiently as if no ones Eyes but his own received it God is Infinite And much more may all his Favourites above enjoy Him every one as fully as if he enjoyed him only Be it added Earthly excellencies are all of them like to rich Perfumes By Custom they wax less sensible at least less grateful to such as carry them And cease to be sweet when they cease to be New But it is not so with Excellencies heavenly God's own happiness is now as pleasant unto Him as it was millions of ages agone It was never at all New but ever most sweet And he has provided his Children also a Felicity that shall not need to be commended by Novelty One that shall relish as well with them to eternal ages as at the first moment Which we cannot doubt if we do not forget this viz. That Heavenly Joy is Perfect And what is Perfect is indeficient never abates never can Die or be Sick or be weaker at one time than at another Things of limited goodness admit change and weariness of them It being necessary to leave one for another Yea and having in them somewhat that is hurtful too and not delicious no wonder if they sometimes become nauseous But good that is unbounded and reaches to the satisfaction of all our Desires and is unmixed and ministers nothing beside delights such as the Heavenly good is this must alway taste alike Unto the sweetness of this nothing can be added nor can any thing be taken away from it Well this and more than this is the blessed state of our godly Friends deceased A state whereof every Possessor lives in most delitious and eternal Rapture Heaven is it self and they we speak of are in Heaven But concerning both it must be said 't is but a little portion of them that is heard The one half is not told us Nor doth it yet appear save very imperfectly what they are As to that which through Gods grace doth appear it follows in our next particular P. 3. Their glorious Escape unto Heaven ought to be well Considered by as on Earth The word of command is in the text And is a very remarkable one used but once more in all the New Testament viz. Act. 17.23 where it is put to express the careful and severe consideration that the Apostle took of the Athenians Devotion In minds not atheistical â—here must needs be ever and anon â—ome occasional Thoughts bubling â—p But they are bubbles indeed that signifie little and effect nothing They make not that Consideration which is here demanded Which consists in much and serious speech with our selves concerning the Victory of our godly Friends Streams fed by a living Spring flow constantly and do enrich and give delight where they come And such are the Thoughts and Soliloquies which do ever much better our Hearts and our Ways Such as flow from a vital Principle and Disposition and are maintained daily by the same Even without those outward occasions of them with which slight and transient thoughts do flow and ebb or rather dry away Fix it in your minds that it is the Will of God that is here declared so to be That he requireth you to have this said glorious Victory much in your minds That your Thoughtfulness of it will truly please Him And your Forgetfulness and Neglect incense him Let your Wills submit to this acknowledged Will of God and command all that is within you so to do Become you Convinced of your duty herein and Disposed to do it You shall then find within you a Fountain whence numerous delicious and efficacious Thoughts shall spring Your own reins shall instruct you daily Without other Monitors the Holy Spirit excepted it shall become of your daily Business and Recreation also to consider the Conquest forepraised Without other calls your minds will run to it and on it They will be often speaking to this purpose each of them Here am I in my passage through the red sea Hope and Fear divide my Life Hope of Escaping Fear of Drowning Escaping as an Israelite Drowning as an Egyptian O ye my godly Ministers and Friends that are sweetly got ashore I cannot but think of you Of your safe Landing and joyful Reception above Methinks I hear you recounting your old Weaknesses Fears and Dangers And wondring at the arm of Grace that carried you through them Rejoycing in the change you feel Triumphing over Sin Satan and the World that withstood you And saying how little danger the Sea hath if the true Pilot be but duly trusted How safely all must go and how sweetly all must end How reasonable is it for all he carrieth to trust him in the worstâ— storms To bear most patiently every Difficulty being they are but for a moment and their reward is Glory of exceeding weight How you would have even gloried in all your Tribulations had you but known the ten thousandth part of what you now see How you would advise us that be still on the Sea were you to speak with us What you would tell your Followers of Sins folly the Creatures vanity Gods bounty Christs excellency Holiness its beauty Holiness of State of Heart of Life O what a deal would you tell that do know now what a Rewarder God is Of all that in patient continuance in well-doing do seek and serve him You would make us all ashamed of our selves Ministers of their Preaching People of their Hearing Both of their worse living O ye blessed Spirits and
not only Healed but Beautified Often have I heard you complain of Wounds Bruises and Putrifying sores like my own And now methinks I see you without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing While the cure of my own Diseases is little more than begun In you in you it is that I read the high Praises of Christ your Physician and mine Should I let go the memory of you I should lessen the Honour of Him In you it is that I read the praises of the Holy Ghost Then it is he appears to me a most wonderful Builder when I look on you his most glorious Temples Then I conclude sure he is able to raise me also out of my ruins O ye Conquerors and more than Conquerors whom I knew when you were Warriours And under my own hardships of warfare My own who was your unworthy Fellow-Souldier under Christ's Banner How congratulate I your Conquests and Triumphs How admire I the Truth Power and Love of your and my Captain How uneasie doth the sight of your Crowns make me till I am with you and like you If I forget you O ye Angels-fellows let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my Mouth If mine Eye keep poring always upon my SEA my SICKNESS and my WARFARE if it be not also turned on your PASSAGE your CURE and your CONQUEST let my Arm fall from my Shoulder-blade The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contemplators of the blessed End of godly Friends are Christians that thus converse with themselves I say thus unto the true end and use thereof And unto this end do converse or consider not transiently think There is a great difference between a step and a walk And there is no less between a thought and a consideration I come therefore to the last particular P. 4. This consideration of godly Friends escápe unto Heaven is a motive most necessary unto imitation of their Faith and Holiness The Apostles use of it as such proves it such But to give measure pressed down and running over it shall be added 1. The best of Christians do need motive Considerations Which is acknowledged by all that are so much as titularly Christians 2. Of motive Considerations this is of the best Which will appear from the natural effects of it in which its motive virtue is most resplendent Of these the seven following ones are not the least principal E. 1. This Consideration confirms our Faith Our Faith of the holy God's bountifulness and of holy men's blessedness It is true that the H. Spirit 's Light dispels our darkness and enlightens our minds And he giveth us the Gospel for a Lamp and Faith for an Eye But can any man doubt it The Gospel is cleared and Faith strengthned more than a little by Examples Examples of the promised goodness of God to Men and the blessedness of men in that goodness of God Especially by the examples of Persons known and dear unto our selves Put the case you know and believe ever so well of a Physician Yet let him once make perfect Cures on many of your most dangerously diseased Relations Your confidence of his ability and his Patients safety will be encreased You will be somewhat more fearless to trust him with your own Life than you were before The Application is easie E. 2. This Consideration raises our Apprehensions Our Apprehensions and Estimations of God of Christ of the H. Spirit and of the Gospel-Covenant You cannot see your dear Friends saved by them but you must the more esteem and value them Their so great Salvation that certifies the goodness of the Efficients and Instruments unto you must needs enhance the value of them in you Great and grateful Effects never fail to raise the price of Causes and Means I mean with any but Idiots or Lunaticks Creatures of undisposed minds or distracted ones E. 3. This Consideration strengthens our Choice Our choice of our Redeemer for Prince and Saviour The sight of our Tempted Persecuted Afflicted Brethren here on Earth is but too often a scandal unto us Makes our Hearts to stagger Tempts us to go back and follow Christ no more But the Spiritual sight of our Crowned and Triumphant Brethren in Heaven hath on us a contrary operation It strengthens our Resolution and steels our Courage to trust and obey him who gave such a Life and Glory unto them It makes us anew to resign our selves unto him Yea and bitterly lament that we chose him not more early and more fervently E. 4. This Consideration quickens our Desires Our Desires and our Hopes Our desires to be with Christ and his triumphant Friends above And our hopes that as laden with sins as now we are divine Grace may unburthen us at last and lodge us with them The thoughts of their wonderful Advancement will work upon any Heart not stone dead When carnal men think of any of their Equals that are risen above them unto high Places what is the effect Why they are straitway inspired with an unwonted Ambition for themselves Yea and affected with a new Perswasion also that 't is as possible for themselves to break through the difficulties which are in the way to Preferment Why should not the Ambition and Expectation of Spiritual men be excited by the same Medium Surely as Desire and Hope are the springs of Action glorious Successes of mean Agents be Springs of Desire and Hope in their Spectators E. 5. This Consideration provokes our Diligence The Victory of Miltiades took sleep from the eyes of Themistocles The thoughts of anothers honour spurred him on unto his more successful Labour And will not the matchless conquests of our glorified Friends take our hands out of our bosoms They will unquestionably if they be considered solemnly They will urge unto that holy Violence without which the heavenly Kingdom cannot be taken E. 6. This Consideration sweetens our Life of Religion Joy is our strength Heaviness in the heart weakens if not binds our hands and feet Indeed many Objects of God's Love and true Saints are of sorrowful spirits But the chiefest Instruments of his glory are for the most part Souls of much alacrity To be sure whatever doth sweeten doth also heighten our Duty For Delight exonerates Body and Mind takes off dulling Indispositions from them Gives wings to both and intends their actions It doth marvelously but as certainly encrease our Force to act and our Accuracy in acting Cogendi vis inest saith Pliny it makes the very Lame to walk yea leap For this reason it seems that Musick hath ever been used in Wars because it doth delight and by delighting strengthen the Nerves of flesh and spirit But what can delight a Soul that is any thing heavenly like contemplation of the celestial Society For Contemplation doth in a sort unite the Soul unto its Object And eminently this Contemplation ministers Hope which is the greatest Parent of Joy next to Fruition When you are musing of Heaven's Inhabitants your Soul has a place