leaves us in the using Seneca says We live amongst things that are perishing We hear much of the vanity of the creature and we can speak much of it but how is it improved how if you perish eternally for setting your hearts upon these things and notwithstanding all your talk this dreadful noise shall be heard from you We have lost eternity for setting our hearts upon things that were for a season It is a notable speech that Ambrose hath Why will you make that which cannot be eternal for use eternal for punishment It is fading in regard of the use but it proves to be eternal in regard of the punishment Therefore when any temptation comes to draw your hearts to any thing that gives content to the flesh for a season O that you might improve this Argument to resist the temptation What shall I while away that time I have to improve for eternity to seek after you and take content and pleasure in you you are not onely temporal your selves but you do hazard the loss of eternal things and hazard the bringing of eternal evils And therefore do not think it much that I press this argument because it is ordinary all that perish perish because they set their hearts upon that which is for a season and therefore though the knowledge of this in some general notion be ordinary yet the truth is to know it powerfully indeed and effectually it is a riddle to the world It is a notable place we have in Psalm 49. 3 4. The whole scope of the Psalm is to shew the happy secure estate of the godly in all troubles and the vanishing condition of all ungodly in prosperity now mark how he calls to us in the beginning of this Psalm to hearken to this argument We might say this is an argument we have heard a hundred times and know what it is Why should we hearken so Though you think this is an ordinary Theam yet this is the great wisdom and understanding of a gracious heart to know this is the dark saying that I will open so says the Psalmist My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding I will open my dark saying So when you hear us speaking of this argument you say This is an ordinary argument but the true knowledge of it is a dark hidden thing to the men of the world and it is the work of the Spirit of God to make men know this truly and when God works any saving work upon the soul he begins in this way to settle upon the soul this truth That all the things that it hath satisfied it self in are fading and what is a year or two to enjoy all the contentments my heart can desire if then I must be gone and bid farewel to all have not I an immortal soul and when shall be the time that I shall provide for eternity And therefore I beseech you look into this argument and ponder it a little more There are three worms that are in every thing of the world to eat out the strength of it and make it fading First the worm that is bred in the natural principles the things that we set our hearts upon are made of fading principles Secondly there is the worm of the general curse that is come upon them by mans sin Thirdly there is another worm and that is the particular curse that we bring upon the creatures by our own proper sins as especially when we set our hearts upon any fading transitory things below all things in the world are subject to vanity by the general curse but the particular curse makes them more vain and shall we think to satisfie our selves in the things of the world that have these three worms feeding upon them continually to eat out the strength of them What are your hearts upon I urge it upon you as in the name of God and answer in your secret thoughts What are your hearts upon either upon things that are for a season or eternal Things that are eternal you look upon them as high notional things that never took up your thoughts much but to go into company and eat and drink and laugh and get money these are the things that are but for a season and these your hearts close with and bless themselves in What are become of all those that have had as great dealings and as many merry meetings as you and have satisfied the flesh as much as you they are gone rotten in their graves and their souls it may be crying under the wrath of an infinite God and all their bravery and delight at an end would you be in their condition It is a good observation of Abulensis to shew to us the vanity of all worldly excellency that those who have been the most glorious in what man accounts glorious and excellent have had inglorious ends by which their glory hath been stained and thereby our hearts might be taken off from such things and set upon those things which are so glorious as they will make us for ever glorious He instances in Sampson for strength and yet what a contemptible end had he So Absolom for beauty Achitophel for policy Asael for swiftness Alexander for great conquests and yet after twelve years poysoned He instances likewise in Kingdoms the Chaldaean Persian Graecian Roman how soon were they gone It is a notable speech Augustine hath Go says he and mark and attend the Sepulchres of rich men and when you see their rotten bones consider who they once were and know they do cry unto you O you men why do you seek so much to satisfie your selves in these fading things and heap upon your selves vexation to attain happiness for your selves in these things Consider our bones here and be struck with astonishment to abhor your luxury and covetousness for says he they cry thus to you You now are and we were and time will be when you shall be what we are And then consider with your selves what a doleful condition that man is in that hath set his heart upon things that are for a season When those are at an end he may say Now the thoughts of my heart and all my hopes are at an end now I must bid an eternal farewel to all my comforts to husband and wife and neighbors and friends and companions I shall never meet with you more and never have mirth and jollity and sporting and gaming any more but I must bid farewel to all the Sun is set and the season is at an end for all my comfort and before me I see an infinite vast Ocean and I must lanch into it Lord what provision have I for it What a dreadful shreek will that soul give that sees an infinite Ocean it must lanch into and sees no provision that it hath made for it Indeed those that dye and are besotted and know nothing of this infinite Ocean that they must lanch into
MOSES HIS CHOICE VVith his EYE fixed upon Heaven Discovering THE HAPPY CONDITION OF A Self-denying Heart Delivered in A TREATISE UPON Hebrews 11. 25 26. By JEREMIAH BURROUGHS LONDON Printed by John Field and are to be sold by Thomas Eglesfield at the Marygold and at the Brazen Serpent in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCL To the Right Honorable ROBERT Earl of WARWICK BARON of LEEZE One of the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Councel Right Honorable AS those who have been of late and in these days yet are of the Antichristian party may well be accounted men born in an evil time because howsoever heretofore was the time of Gods long suffering towards such the time of permission of them to prosper the set time of Antichrists downfal then being further off then now it is But now Gods time of setting his face against Antichrist and all the Antichristian party is come wherein GOD is determined to fight against them and to ruine them most wretched men therefore are they who now have spirits set for the upholding the pleading for that which God hath set himself against So happy especially now are those whose hearts have been and still are set to countenance maintain to further and honor the truth of the Gospel in the power and purity of it These are born and raised up by God and for God in a most blessed time wherein God stretcheth out his holy Arm together with them their hearts are guided by God himself to the furtherance of that work which is the greatest work that God hath to do in this latter age of the world namely To bring in his Truth and Ordinances with glory and power to set up Jerusalem as the praise of the earth to make godliness and the powerful profession of it as honorable as ever it hath been contemptible And now Right Honorable God hath been pleased to bless your Noble Family for many years past with this so great a blessing as to make it instrumental to this great work of his and your self have had a plentiful share in this so great a happiness Your Honor hath discountenanced superstitious time-serving spirits but as for the faithful Ministers of the Gospel and the most sincere and godly of your Countrey your Honor hath cast much respect upon them and been the encourager of them which reflects Honor as upon Gods name and his truth so upon your noble Family I believe there hath not ascended to Heaven more praises to God from any County in England for any Noble Family in regard of the placing of a godly painful conscionable Ministery as hath ascended from that County in which your Honor and your truly Noble Father hath had such a large opportunity of service for God and doing good to his people And I may further confidently affirm That no Noble Family in England hath more prayers of the Saints ascending to Heaven for a blessing upon it then that family of yours neither is there any Noble Family this day shall I say in England I may without presumption reach it further which the Lord hath blessed in regard of some Branches of it with more beauty and power of godliness then he hath blessed yours in regard whereof it would be the most miserable thing that could be if ever the succession of the countenancing and honoring the ways of godliness should be cut off from such a noble Family Cursed be that man who shall be the cutter off of the succession of so great an Honor to such an Honorable Family Psal 72. 17. it is said The name of Christ should endure for ever Filiabitur nomine ejus so the words are it shall be begotten as one generation is begotten of another and so there shall be a succession of Christs name It is a most blessed thing when in a Family there is a begetting of the name of Christ and so it is left unto the succeeding generation as the name of the Family is left unto it Pliny tells us that it was accounted a great honor yea the height of felicity that in one house and Race of the Curio's there were known to be three excellent Orators one after another by descent from the Father to the Son and that the Fabii afforded three Presidents of the Senate in course one immediately succeeding the other If this succession be so honorable so happy how honorable how happy doth the succession of Religion from Father to Son make Families to be This succession in your noble Family is the subject of the prayers of many precious spirits exceedingly dear to God And my Lord although God hath made you exceeding instrumental for much good to his people which is one of the greatest blessings under heaven yet let not your Lordship rest in this Gods warning to Solomon 1 Kings 9. 4. is very observable after Solomon had finished that glorious Temple for the honor of the Lord after he had assembled all the Elders of Israel to bring up the Ark of the Lord with all solemnity after he had made such an excellent Prayer before all the people after he had offered to the Lord two and twenty thousand Oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and in his rejoycing in this great work done to the honor of God he made a great Feast to all the people seven days and to them he added seven days more and sent away the people with joyful and glad heaets yet after this God says to him If thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked in integrity of heart and up rightness to do according to all that I have commanded thee then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom Though the things that you have done be great things yet I expect walking according to all that I have commanded thee or else all is nothing It were infinite pity and God forbid so great an evil that any one way of sin should ever stand up to hinder the blessing upon a noble spirit and such worthy services for the Church as you have done well beseeming that true nobility of such a spirit Your Honor hath appeared much for the Honor the Safety Peace Liberties of the Saints and your Countrey and how many now have their consciences check them and shame is upon their faces for that base cowardise and vile time-serving that the true nobility of your Lordships spirit scorning such baseness delivered you from God hath now appeared for his people more then ever in our or our Forefathers time do you now appear more then ever for them As God hath mightily enlarged the opportunity of service so the good God enlarge and heighten with true Nobility and Christian generousness your Noble spirit that you may be as a chosen shaft in the Quiver of the Lord reserved to these times to be in a high degree instrumental to his praise It is now near three years since that your Lordship lying sick not without apprehension that Gods time to
to death the same day All the twelve Apostles after many sore and grievous afflictions endured suffered many violent deaths John onely excepted who yet as the Scripture testifieth was banished into Patmos and as some Histories that he was by Domitian thrown into a Tun of scalding lead yet as they say delivered by a miracle Peter was crucified with his heels upward because he would not be as Christ was thinking himself unworthy of that honor Andrew was crucified by Egeas King of Edessa Iames was slain by the sword of Herod as we finde Acts 12. the beginning Philip was crucified and stoned to death at Hieropolis a City in Phrygia Bartholomew after divers persecutions was beaten down with staves as he was preaching in a City of Armenia and then crucified and after his skin flead off and beheaded Thomas was slain with a Dart at Calamina in India Matthew was run through with a sword or as some write slain with a spear Iames the son of Alpheus who was called the just man was set upon the pinacle of the Temple and thrown down and yet having some life left in him he was brained with a Fullers club some Histories say that Paul before his conversion had a special hand in this Lebbeus was slain by Agbarus King of Edessa Simon the Canaanite was crucified in Egypt or as others say he and Iude was slain in a tumult of the people Matthias that came into the number in stead of Iudas was stoned and then beheaded Paul was beheaded at Rome under Nero. Those ten fearful Perfecutions in the Primitive times from the time of Domitius Nero unto Constantine doth set out fully unto us the truth of this argument for three hundred years together the name of a Christian was death except now and then the Churches had some little breathings Brightman speaking of the stories of those times says that every page and leaf is as it were all red coloured in blood the Covenant of grace is a bloody Covenant both in regard of the blood of Christ first sealing it and the blood of the blessed Martyrs adding likewise their seals in confirming of it In that Treatise that goes under the name of Cyprian de duplici Martyrio speaking of that place 1 Iohn 5. 8. Three bear witness on earth the Spirit water and blood the third is applyed to the blood of the Martyrs in those times It is a most heart-breaking meditation to consider the ragings madness and fury of the Heathens against the Christians in those times Ierome in an Epistle to Cromatius says that there was no day in a whole year unto which the number of five thousand Martyrs cannot be ascribed except onely the first day of Ianuary Vincentius reports that at Aquileia the Emperor gave leave to every man that would to kill the Christians All the policy wit strength of invention of men and devils were exercised and stretched out to the utmost for devising the most miserable torments and exquisite tortures as plates of Iron burning hot laid upon their naked flesh pinsers red hot pulling off the flesh from the bones bodkins pricking and thrusting all over their bodies casting into lime kilns and into caldrons of scalding lead whippings until almost all the flesh was torn off their bodies and their bones and bowels appeared and then laid flat upon sharp shels and knives their skins were flead off alive and then their raw flesh was rubbed with salt and vineger their bodies were beaten all over with clubs until their bones and joynts were beat asunder they were laid upon gridirons rosted and basted with salt and vineger one member was pulled from another by fastening them to the boughs of trees they rent their bodies apieces they were tossed upon the horns of Bulls with their bowels hanging out they were cast among dogs to be devoured they were put under the Ice naked into Rivers they were tortured on the rack on the wheel and on the gibbet with flaming fire under them they made it their sports to see them devoured by wilde beasts and in the night in stead of torches they burnt the bodies of the Saints to give them light for their pastimes To give you an instance or two that you may see the miserable extremities the Saints of God in former times passed through I read of one Sanctus upon whom when such intolerable tortures were inflicted as the Persecuters thought surely they should have heard some words of blasphemy coming from him yet they could get nothing but this Sum Christianus I am a Christian at which they being mad they clapt on plates of brass red hot to the most tender parts of his body wherewith although his Spirit shrunk not but still continued constant yet his body was so drawn together that it lost the proper shape of a man and after he lying in prison a while they brought him forth again to the common scaffold in the face of the people and put him to all kinde of torments they could devise as though he had been put to none before as scourgings tearings by wilde beasts his body being thus torn they brought an iron chair red hot with fire and set him in it and so fryed and scorched him as upon a gridiron Thus he being made the whole day a spectacle to the people in stead of their games and sights they could get nothing from him but his firt confession Christianus sum I am a Christian The example of Romanus who was of noble birth but more noble in his Martyrdom is very famous he was first whipped with knaps of lead at the ends of the cords he desired them not to spare him for his Nobility Not the blood of my progenitors says he but Christian profession makes me noble then they lanced him with knives until the bones appeared white his face was buffeted his eye-lids torn with their nails his hair pulled from his face the Captain being astonished at his constancy commanded them to cease from tortures he was after brought forth and scourged again upon his old sores they plucked out his tongue by the roots the Captain being yet more astonished to see him continue constant commanded him to be brought into prison and there be to strangled The example of Vincentius is as remarkable as any he was first wracked all his joynts being stretched out of their place then his body was indented with grievous and deadly wounds then they tortured his flesh by saking upon it with iron combs sharply filed and then they laid his body upon a grate of iron opening his flesh with iron hooks they seared it with fiery plates sprinkling it with hot burning salt then they drew him into a dungeon where the floor was spread with the sharpest shells that could be gotten they laid his body upon them and so left him without all succor Take an example of a woman or two one Blandina was miserably whipped tortured by wilde beasts tormented and scorched upon a gridiron and then put
not see what were the ways of my providence towards my people Might you not have gathered from thence that there was another time a coming Fourthly Learn we hence to judge wisely of the poor of the afflicted and persecuted Psalm 41. 1. Far be it from us to think they are forsaken of God let us not be offended at Religion because troubles follow the profession of it the blessing that comes by profession of the truth consists not in such a peace as frees from trouble but in giving peace and rest to the soul in the middest of troubles Luther hath an excellent speech for this in one of his Epistles ad Tonitorem You seek and affect peace but preposterously such as the worlds peace not Christs who gives peace in the middest of troubles as he saith Rule thou in the middest of thine Enemies Now the cause of the Church calls for a wise judging How many carnal people are ready to think that Popery is rather the truth and that the Religion of Protestants is not right because God hath of late years so grievously afflicted his Church What would God suffer his own people say they his own truth thus to be beaten down As they formerly said of Christ Let him save him seeing he delighted in him so if God delighted in this way surely he would have saved it he would not have suffered opposition so far to have prevailed against the professors of it It is no argument that Christ is not in the ship because tempests and storms arise It is no argument that our cause is not Gods that Christ is not with us because of our afflictions it may be we have not awakened him by our prayers we are not yet fit to enjoy the sweetness of a calm Salvian was fain to write a whole Treatise above eleven hundred years ago to answer this argument that men had against the people of God and the profession of the Gospel Turks judge all things according to outward success and so did the heathens of old We read of Brutus being overcome by Anthony he cryes out Whatsoever things are disputed concerning vertue are but meer toys and fancies for fortune rules in all humane things but it beseems not Christians to judge by this rule Clemens Alexandrinus cites Plato expressing himself thus Although a righteous man be tormented although his eyes be digged out yet he remains a blessed man Let none judge worse of himself meerly because of afflictions before you were of the world it may be you prospered it shined upon you but now since you have given your name to Christ many troubles and afflictions follow you this is no other but that hath been is will be the estate of Gods people in this life we must not draw ill consequences from or make ill constructions of our afflictions for this is to charge God foolishly which Job did not Chap. 1. 22. There are some kinde of sufferings that a man meets with that have a kinde of sweet seal of God with them even in the time of suffering by which a man is more confirmed in his way to be from God then ever he was before Fifthly what shall become then of ungodly and wicked men Thus Saint Peter argues 1. Epist 4. 17 18. Iudgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinners appear If it be done thus to the green tree what shall be done to the dry Behold they whose judgement was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken and art tbou he that shall go altogether unpunished thou shalt not go unpunished but thou shalt assuredly drink of it Ier. 49. 12. certainly there is shame and confusion for you there are tortures prepared for you You heard what the Martyrs have suffered but all that is nothing to the least spark of Gods revenging wrath when it is mingled with hatred That is a fearful expression that we have Psal 35. 6. Let their way be slippery and the angel of the Lord persecuting them It is a more fearful thing to have the Angel of the Lord persecute then to be persecuted by men but how fearful a thing is it when God himself that infinite Deity when he persecutes a man when Divine justice follows a man from one place to another and persecutes him You look upon those poor despised misused Servants of God and you think vilely of them let those spectacles strike terror into your hearts every time you see them O what is reserved for me then Sixthly if this be the usual estate of Gods people let us learn then to prepare for afflictions before they come although we have escaped many years yet we may be called to such an estate at last Polycarpus escaped till he was fourscore and six years old and then he was called to Martyrdom In the first ten persecutions in the primitive times the Christians in England escaped all the nine although the Gospel not many years after Christ was professed in England yet the tenth and last persecution fell heavy upon them Iulius Caesar escaped fifty several battels in which he was personally present and yet at last in the Senate house he was unexpectedly murthered Now all is well with you lay up for times of trouble this is a gathering time that will be a spending time know that that which will serve turn now will not serve turn then many are not able to hold out now what will they do then O what will you do in the day of your visitation Jer. 12. 5. If the footmen have wearied thee how canst thou contend with horses and if in the land of peace how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan We read of Polycarpus that as he lay in his bed he saw in a vision the bed set on fire under his head forewarning him of his Martyrdom we in our ease should seriously think of our sufferings now while Sun-shine days of peace continue we should consider of the days of darkness which may be many Oftentimes we are thinking of and seeking after great things when we should be preparing for suffering hard things as Mat. 20. 20. when Christ had been speaking to prepare for sufferings Zebedees children most unseasonably come seeking for the highest places in his kingdom This was the fault of Baruc Jer. 45. when God was bringing sore and grievous afflictions to his people he was seeking great things for himself CHAP. VIII Eleven Rules for preparation to suffer afflictions FIrst make account of them do not say I shall never be removed although you know not what particular afflictions shall befal you yet make an account that an afflicted condition will be your portion according to that of the Apostle Acts 20. 22 23. And now I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall
promises of direction says Christ Take no thought when you are called before rulers for my names sake how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak Thirdly there are promises of assistance I will be with you to the end of the world Fourthly there is a promise of acceptance He that forsaketh houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life Fifthly a promise of blessing Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all maner of evil falsly on you for my sake Sixthly a promise of a Kingdom If we suffer with him we shall likewise reign with him Luke 22. 28 29. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me the appointing of a Kingdom follows upon their continuing with Christ in temptation Brethren God promises much to those that shall be sensible of the reproaches of others much more when thou thy self sufferest in the cause of Christ In Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn Assembly time was when the solemn Assemblies of Gods people their gathering together to hear a Sermon was their reproach and they were contemned by many were you ever in any place where the Assemblies of Gods people were reproachful and was this a burthen to your souls and grievous to you mark the blessed promise I will gather them together but to be reproached our selves and to bear our reproaches in a Christian maner great and rich promises are made unto it Seventhly in reproaches and sufferings for Christ there are rich consolations never such consolation let out to a gracious heart as when it is under reproaches and sorest persecutions if ever Christ does turn water into wine it is the tears of Gods people that are turned into wine of consolation Basil in his Oration for Barlaam that famous Martyr says He delighted in the close Prison as in a pleasant green meadow and he took pleasure in the several inventions of tortures as in several sweet flowers And Vincentius the Martyr speaking of the great things he suffered for Christ hath this expression I have always desired these dainties Luther reports of that Martyr St. Agatha that as she went to Prisons and Tortures she said she went to Banquets and Nuptails And Iames Bainham said when they kindled the fire at his feet Me thinks you strew roses before me And Mr. Saunders hath a most full expression of his consolation he felt a wonderful sweet refreshment flow from his heart unto all the members of his body and from all the parts of his body to his heart again And that Martyr Hawks lifts up his hands above his head and claps them together when he was in the fire as if he had been in a triumph this is a special fruit of the Spirit of God and of glory of which St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye suffer reproaches happy are ye the Spirit of God and glory rests upon you and one consolation one beam of Gods face is worth all the riches of the world The Sun enlightens the world says Cyprian but he that made the Sun is a greater light to you in prison that darkness which is the horrible deadly darkness of the place of punishment to others he irradiates to you with his bright and eternal light Vobis idem qui Solem fecit majus in carcere lumen fuit horribiles caeteris atque funest as paenalis loci tenebr as aeterna illa candida luce radiante Cyp. Ep. 16. Eighthly in reproaches and sufferings there are riches of glory both before the day of Judgement and after riches of glory before if so be that opinion of some be true which I dare not altogether deny of Christs coming to reign in the world here before the day of Judgement though I will not affirm it as a truth yet if there be not a truth in it I confess I cannot make any thing of many places of Scripture Rev. 20. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years I know this is ordinarily interpreted of the resurrection from sin to grace and reigning with Christ a thousand years that is reigning with him in Heaven but this cannot be the meaning of the Text this thousand years must be before the day of Judgement because Satan must be loosed after now if this prove to be true O the riches of glory that those that suffer for Christ shall have all those that have suffered for Christ they especially shall be raised up to reign with Christ on the earth and therefore you have it in ver 4. And I saw thrones and they sate upon them and judgement was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and reigned with Christ a thousand years Suppose it to be so then the more any do suffer for withdrawing himself from Antichrist the more glory they shall have when Christ comes to reign upon the earth Some are loth to receive the mark of the Beast upon their foreheads openly to appear for Antichrist yet they will have the mark of the Beast in their hands but here is a promise to them that shall refuse both and it is not meant onely of those that suffer death in their lives the death in our liberties and death in our estates and other kinde of deaths shall not go unrewarded it is a point that was spoken of in the Primitive times and afterward it was condemned upon this ground because many grew to be sensual and thought the Kingdom of Christ should be for a thousand years in pleasure to the flesh but take the Kingdom of Christ to be spiritual in the glory of his Ordinances as I am confident that Christ shall reign Personally in his flesh I will not say but Spiritually farre more gloriously then he hath done But then at the day of Judgement O the glory of those that suffer for Christ they shall have Crowns upon their heads and Palms in their hands and all their persecutors stand as base creatures before them O the imbracings that there shall be then If a father send his childe abroad about business and the childe meet with much difficulty and comes home in a rainy tempestuous day how gladly his father receives him and all are
third union that the Saints have with God is a union of love love is an uniting grace and there is a most entire love between God and every Saint and so their hearts are close united and mingled by love Again in this life there is a mystical Union and that is an union higher then any other an union with Christ being made members of the Son of God and so they come to have union with the Son of God according to that expression in 1 John 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ There is a mystical union between us and Christ and so we come to have union with God the Father also and to be joyned to the Lord we are one Spirit with him Now for the union that the Saints have with God in Heaven there are many intricate notions that some of the Schoolmen have about this as that the soul shall be turned into the same Idea that God made it of and that there shall be an Illapsus of God into the soul but we must know there can be no union with God but it must be by vertue of the influence of some good from God for speak of what union you will God cannot in his Essence be more present with the creature then he is here but onely in regard of some manifestation or communication of himself in some gift or good thing but certainly there will be a wonderful glorious union between God and the soul in Heaven and that upon these four grounds First there is not such distance between God and the soul but that it is capable of union with God One would think how is it possible that God should be so united to the soul being there is such an infinite distance between God and it but there is not such an infinite distance between God and the soul of man as that there should not be a glorious union between them there is a great deal of likeness between God and the soul First in the spirituality God is a Spirit the soul is a Spirit Secondly in immortality God is immortal the soul is immortal Thirdly in the high excellency of God the understanding and will the soul is endued with understanding and will the perfection of God as we can conceive is his understanding and will and so it is in the soul Fourthly in the several operations that the soul hath and herein there is more likeness between God and mans soul then is between God and Angels in that one rational soul should perform so many works as the same God the same Excellency working upon the creature works in one thing one way and in another thing another way so the soul represents God in this in that one rational soul hath such variety of workings in the body for understanding for sense for vegetation which Angels have not Again the soul resembles God in the infiniteness the soul is not onely infinite in duration but in regard of the infiniteness of the working of it and here is a mighty difference between the soul of man between rational creatures and all other creatures for the sensitive creature that onely works about some particular thing that concerns its own preservation and its own good within its narrow compass but the object of mans soul is universal infinite it is not any particular truth that will satisfie the understanding let there be never so many truths revealed yet the understanding desires infinitely more if there be any truth that is not revealed it would have that Let the sense have some particular object before it suitable to sense it looks no further as if the eye have colour it goes no further nor the ear goes no further then sound but the understanding hath desire to all truth And so for good the sensitive creature hath no desire of good but onely that which does preserve sense but the will of man is for good in general and this shews how capable the soul is to be raised to such an excellency as to have communion with God if we knew what our souls were capable of we would not think we could satisfie them with such things as bruit beasts are satisfied with Secondly there may well be a glorious union between God and and the souls of the Saints because God shall see nothing but himself in the souls of the Saints now when God shall see nothing but his own in such a creature this is a full ground of Gods near and most glorious union with it as when a man comes to see in another much of his own his heart is united to him things that are of a like nature do unite Bring an hot fire-brand to the fire and it does unite presently because the fire does finde something of it self there if there were some moisture in the brand it would not so fully unite And so here we cannot have full union with God because though God sees somewhat of his own in us yet there is a great deal in us that is not Gods but when we shall be wholly free from sin and God shall see nothing but his own in us that must needs be a ground of a most glorious union Thirdly in Heaven there shall be nothing in God but shall be suitable to the nature of a glorified Saint and suitableness is the cause of union if there be not a suitableness there cannot be union There cannot be suitableness between God and other creatures but between a glorified Saint and God there shall be an infinite suitableness and therefore an infinite glorious union Again there shall be an infinite inflamed love here is an union of love but in Heaven there will be a further degree of love and love being enflamed there must needs be a most glorious union Fifthly if you consider what the bond of connexion of the soul and God together is namely the mediation of the Son the second person of the Trinity there must needs be an infinite close and glorious union of the Saints with God This vision and union with God is enough to cause the souls of Gods people to be so satisfied as to say Let all things be taken from me it is enough I have somewhat of Gods presence here but I shall have the glorious presence and vision of God and union with God hereafter and though my eyes should never see good day after or never see comfortable object in the world this is enough I shall see God and have full union with God Though there be a separation between me and all temporal comforts in the world though God should rend this creature or that creature the dearest husband or the dearest wife or the dearest comfort in the world and those things that my soul do most cleave to here from me yet it is enough that