it The Lords Day What fitter day to ascend to heaven then that on which our Lord did arise from earth and fully triumph over death and hell and take possession of Heaven before us The fittest temper for a true believer is to be in the spirit on the Lords Day This was Saint Johns temper on that day And what can bring us to this ravishment in the spirit but the spiritual beholding of our ravishing glory Surely though an outward ordinance may delight the ear or tickle the fancy yet it is the viewes of God that must ravish the soul. There is a great deal of difference betwixt the receiving of the word with joy Mat. 13.20 and being in the spirit on the Lords Day Rev. 1 10. Two sorts of Christians I would entreat to take notice of this especially 1. Those that spend the Lords day only in publique worship either through the neglect of this spiritual duty of Meditation or else by their overmuch exercise of the publique allowing no time to private duty Though there be few that offend in this last kinde yet some there are and a hurtful mistake to the soul it is They will grow but in gifts and common accomplishments if they exercise but their gifts in outward performances 2. Those that have time on the Lords day for idleness and vain discourse and finde the day longer then they know how well to spend Were these but acquainted with this duty of contemplation they would need no other recreation nor pastime they would think the longest day short enough and be sorry that the night hath shortned their pleasure Whether this day be of positive Divine Institution and so to us Christians of necessary observation is out of my way to handle here I refer those that doubt to what is in Print on that subject especially Master George Abbot against Broad and above all Master Cawdrey and Master Palmer their Sabbatum Redivivum It s an encouragment to the doubtful to finde the generality of its rational opposers to acknowledg the usefulness yea necessity of a stated day and the fitness of this above all other days I would I could perswade those that are convinced of its morality to spend a greater part of it in this true spirituality But we do in this as in most things else think it enough that we believe our duty as we do the articles of our faith and let who will put it in practice VVe will dispute for duty and let others perform it As I have known some drunkards upon the Ale bench will plead for godly men while themselves are ungodly So do too many for the observation of the Lords day who themselves are unacquainted with this spiritual part of its observation Christians let heaven have some more share in your Sabbaths where you must shortly keep your everlasting Sabbath As you go from stair to stair till you come to the top so use your Sabbaths as steps to glory till you have passsed them all and are there arived Especially you that are poor men and servants that cannot take time in the week as you desire see that you well improve this day Now your labor lies not â—o much upon you now you are unyoaked from your common business Be sure as your bodyes Rest from their labors that your spirits seek after Rest with God I admonish also those that are possessed with the censorious divel that if they see a poor Christian walking privately in the fields on the Lords Day they would not Pharisaically conclude him a Sabbath breaker till they know more It may be he takes it as the opportunest place to withdraw himself from the world to God Thou seest where his body walkes but thou seest not where he is walking in the spirit Hannah was censured for a woman drunk till Eli heard her speak for her self and when he knew the truth he was ashamed of his censure The silent spiritual worshipper is most lyable to their censure because he gives not the world an account of his worship Thus I have directed thee to the fittest season for the ordinary performance of this heavenly work SECT V. 2. FOr the extraordinary performance these following are seasonable times 1. When God doth extraordinarily revive and enable thy spirit When God hath kindled thy spirit with fire from above it is that it may mount aloft more freely It is a choice part of a Christians skill to observe the temper of his own spirit and to observe the gales of grace and how the spirit of Christ doth move upon his VVithout Christ we can do nothing Therefore let us be doing when he is doing and be sure not to be out of the way nor asleep when he comes The sails of the wind-mill stir not without the wind therefore they must set them a going when the wind blowes Be sure that thou watch this wind and tide if thou wouldst have a speedy voyage to Heaven A little labor will set thy heart a going at such a time as this when another time thou mayest study and take pains to little purpose Most Christians do sometime finde a more then ordinary reviving and activeness of spirit take this as sent from heaven to â—alse thee thither And when the spirit is lifting thy heart from the earth be sure thou then lift at it thy self As when the Angel came to Peter in his prison and Irons and smoâ—e him on the side and raised him up saying Arise up quickly gird thy self â—inde on thy sandals and cast thy garment about thee and follow me And Peter arose and followed till he was delivered Act. 12.7.8 c. So when the spirit finds thy heart in prison and Irons and smites it and bids thee Arise quickly and follow me be sure thou then arise and follow and thou shalâ— finde thy chains fall off and all doors will open and thou wilt be at Heaven before thou art aware SECT VI. 2. WHen thou art cast into perplexing troubles of minde through suffering or fear or care or temptations then is it seasonable to address thy self to this duty VVhen should we take our cordials but in our times of fainting When is it more seasonable to walk to heaven then when we know not in what corner on earth to live with comfort or when should our thoughts converse above but when they have nothing but grief to converse with below Where should Noahs Dove be but in the Arke when the waters do cover all the earth and she cannot finde Rest for the sole of her foot What should we think on but our fathers house when we want even the husks of the world to feed on Surely God sends thee thy afflictions to this very purpose Happy thou poor man if thou make this use of thy poverty and thou that art sick if thou so improve thy sickness It is seasonable to go to the Promised Land when our burdens and taskes are increased in Egypt and when we endure
they disobeyed whose Ministers they abused whose Servants they hated now sitting to judg them When their own Consciences shall cry out against them and call to their Remembrance all their misdoings Remember at such a time such or such a sin at such a time Christ sued hard for thy Conversion the Minister pressed it home to thy heart thou wast touched to the quick with the Word thou didst purpose and promise returning and yet thou casts off all When an hundred Sermons Sabbaths Mercies shall each step up and say I am witness against the Prisoner Lord I was abused and I was neglected Oh which way will the wretched sinner look Oh who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart Now the world cannot help him his old companions cannot help him the Saints neither can nor will onely the Lord Jesus can but Oh there 's the Soul-killing misery he will not Nay without violating the truth of his Word he cannot though otherwise in regard of his Absolute power he might The time was Sinner when Christ would and you would not and now Oh how fain would you and he will not Then he followed thee in vain with entreaties Oh poor Sinner what dost thou Wilt thou sell thy Soul and Saviour for a lust Look to me and be saved Return why wilt thou dye But thy Ear and heart was shut up against all Why now thou shalt cry Lord Lord open to us and he shall say Depart I know you not ye workers of iniquity Now Mercy Mercy Lord Oh but it was Mercy you so long set light by and now your day of Mercy is over What then remains but to cry out to the mountains fall upon us and to the hills O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne But all in vain For thou hast the Lord of Mountains and hils for thine enemy whose voyce they will obey and not thine Sinner make not light of this for as true as thou livest except a through change and coming in to Christ prevent it which God grant thou shalt shortly to thy unconceiveable horror see that day Oh Wretch Will thy cups then be wine or gall Will they be sweet or bitter Will it comfort thee to think of all thy merry days and how pleasantly thy time slipt away Will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast and how honorable thou wast or will it not rather wound thy very Soul to remember thy folly and make thee with anguish of heart and rage against thy self to cry out Oh Wretch where was thine understanding Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble How couldst thou hear so lightly of the Redeeming Blood of the Son of God How couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy Soul What took up all that Life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day What took up all thy heart thy love and delight which should have been layd out on the Lord Jesus Hadst thou room in thy heart for the worâ—d thy friend thy flesh thy lusts and none for Christ Oh Wretch whom hadst thou to love but him What hadst thou to do but to seek to him and cleave to him and enjoy him Oh wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times till the Commonness of that doctrine made thee weary How couldst thou slight such warnings and rage against the Minister and say he preacheth Damnation Had it not been better to have heard and prevented it then now to endure it Oh now for one offer of Christ for one Sermon for one day of Grace more But too late alass too late Poor careless Sinner I did not think here to have said so much to thee for my business is to refresh the Saints But if these lines do fall into thy hands and thou vouchsafe the reading of them I here charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom that thou make hast and get alone and set thy self sadly to ponder on these things Ask thy heart Is this true or is it not Is there such a day and must I see it Oh what do I then Why trifle I Is it not time full time that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago should I sit still another day who have lost so many Had I not at that day rather be found one of the Holy faithful watchful Christians then a worldling a good-fellow or a man of honor Why should I not then choose it now Will it be best then and is it not best now Oh think of these things A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention It 's worth this or It 's worth nothing Friend I profess to thee from the Word of the Lord That of all thy sweet sins there will then be nothing left but the sting in thy Conscience which will never out through all eternity except the blood of Christ beleeved in and valued above all the world do now in this day of grace get it out Thy sin is like a Beautiful Harlot while she is young and fresh she hath many followers but when old and withered every one would shut their hands of her she is onely their shame none would know her So will it be with thee now thou wilt venture on it what ever it cost thee but then when mens rebellious ways are charged on their Souls to death O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it O that thou couldst say Lord it was not I Then Lord when saw we thee hungry naked imprisoned How fain would they put it off Then sin will be sin indeed and Grace will be Grace indeed Then say the foolish Virgins Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are ouâ— Oh for some of your faith holiness which we were wont to mock at But what 's the answer Go buy for your selves we have little enough would we had rather much more Then they will be glad of any thing like Grace and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ or Common gifts how glad are they Lord we have eat and drunk in thy presence prophecyed in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works we have been baptized heard Sermons professed Christianity But alas this will not serve the turn He will profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Oh dead hearted sinner is all this nothing to thee As sure as Christ is true this is true Take it in his own words Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on the right hand and
of Life and the naked to be cloathed from above for the children to come to their Fathers house and the dis-joyned members to be conjoyned with their Head me thinks this should be seldom unseasonable When the Atheistical world began to insult and question the Truth of Scripture promises and ask us Where is now your God where is your long lookt for glory where is the promise of your Lords coming O how seasonable then to convince these unbelievers to silence these scoffers to comfort the dejected waiting believer will the appearing of our Lord be we are oft grudging now that we have not a great share of comforts that our deliverances are not more speedy and eminent that the world prospers more then we that our prayers are not presently answered not considering that our portion is kept to a fitter season that these are not always Winter fruits but when Summer comes we shall have our Harvest We grudg that we do not finde a Canaan in the VVilderness or cities of Rest in Noahs Ark and the songs of Sion in a strange Land that we have not a harbor in the main Ocean or finde not our home in the middle way and are not crowned in the midst of the fight have not our Rest in the heat of the day and have not our inheritance before we are at age and have not Heaven before we leave the Earth and would not all this be very unreasonable I confess in regard of the Churches service the removing of the Saints may sometimes appear to us unseasonable therefore doth God use it as a Judgment and therefore the Church hath ever prayed hard before they would part with them and greatly laid to heart their loss Therefore are the great mournings at the Saint departures and the sad hearts that accompany them to their graves but this is not especially for the departed but for themselves and their children as Christ bid the weeping women Therefore also it is that the Saints in danger of death have oft begged for their lives with that Argument What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the Pit Psal. 30.9 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness Psal. 88.10 for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6.5 And this was it that brought Paul to a streight because he knew it was better for the church that he should remain here I must confess it is one of my saddest thoughts to reckon up the useful instruments when God hath lately called out of his Vineyard when the Loyterers are many and the Harvest great and very many Congregations desolate and the people as sheep without shepherds and yet the laborers called from their work especially when a door of Liberty and opportunity is open we cannot but lament so sore a judgment and think the removal in regard of the Church unseasonable I know I speak but your own thoughts and you are too ready to over-run me in application I fear you are too sensible of what I speak and therefore am loath to stir in your sore I perceive you in the posture of the Ephesian Elders and had rather abate the violence of your passions our applications are quicker about our sufferings then our sins and we will quicklier say This loss is mine then This fault is mine But O consider my dear friends hath God any need of such a worme as I cannot he a 1000 wayes supply your wants you know when your case was worse and yet he provided Hath he work to do and will he not finde instruments And though you see not for the present where they should be had they are never the further off for that Where was the world before the creation and where was the promised seed when Isaac lay on the Altar Where was the Land of Promise when Israels burden was increased or when all the old stock save only two were consumed in the Wilderness Where was Davids Kingdom when he was hunted in the Wilderness or the Glory of Christs Kingdom when he was in the Grave or when he first sent his 12. Apostles How suddenly did the number of Labourers encrease immediately upon the Reformation by Luther and how soon were the rooms of those filled up whom the rage of the papists had sacrificed in the flames Have you not lately seen so many difficulties overcome and so many improbable works accomplished that might silence unbelief one would think for ever But if all this do not quiet you for sorrow and discontent are unruly passions yet at least remember this suppose the worst you fear should happen yet shall it be well with all the Saints your own turnes will shortly come and we shall all be hous'd with Christ together where you will want your Ministers and friends no more And for the poor world which is left behind whose unregenerate state causeth your grief why consider shall man pretend to be more merciful then God Hath not he more interest then we both in the Church and in the world and more bowels of compassion to commiserate their distress There is a season for Judgment as well as for mercy and if he will have the most of men to perish for their sin and to suffer the eternal tormenting flames must we question his goodness or manifest our dislike of the severity of his judgments I confess we cannot but bleed over our desolate congregations and that it ill beseems us to make light of Gods indignation but yet we should as Aaron when his sons were slain hold our peace and be silent because it is the Lords doing And say as David If I and his people shall finde favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me them and his Habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do with me as seemeth good unto him I conclude then that whatsoever it is to those that are left behinde yet the Saints departure to themselves is usually seasonable I say usually because I know that a very Saint may have a death in some respect unseasonable though it do translate him into this Rest. He may dye in Judgment as good Josiah he may die for his sin For the abuse of the Sacrament many were weak and sickly and many fallen asleep even of those who were thus Judged and chastened by God that they might not be condemned with the world He may die by the hand of publike Justice or die in a way of publike scandal He may die in a weak degree of grace and consequently have a less degree of glory He may die in smaller improvements of his talents and so be Ruler but
not be Christs Disciple It is the common mark whereby his Disciples are known to all men That they love one another Is it not his last great Legacy My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Mark the expressions of that command If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 Follow peace with all men and holiness Heb. 12.14 O the deceitfulness of the heart of man That those same men who lately in their self-examination could finde nothing of Christ so clear within them as their love to the Brethren and were confident of this when they could scarce discover any other grace should now look so strangely upon them and be filled with so much bitterness against them That the same men who would have travelled through reproaches many miles to hear an able faithful Minister and not think the labor ill bestowed should now become their bitterest enemies and the most powerful hinderers of the success of their labors and travel as far to cry them down It makes me almost ready to say O sweet O happy days of persecution Which drove us together in a closure of Love who being now dryed at the fire of Liberty and Prosperity are crumbled all into dust by our contentions But it makes me seriously both to say and to think O sweet O happy day of the Rest of the Saints in Glory When as there is one God one Christ one Spirit so we shall have one Judgment one Heart one Church one Imployment for ever VVhen there shall be no more Circumcision and Uncircumcision Jew and Gentile Anabaptist or Poedobaptist Brownist Separatist Independent Presbyterian Episcopal but Christ is All and in All. We shall not there scruple our Communion nor any of the Ordinances of Divine Worship There will not be one for singing and another against it but even those who here jarred in discord shall all conjoyn in blessed concord and make up one melodious Quire I could wish they were of the Martyrs minde who rejoyced that she might have her foot in the same hole of the Stocks in which Master Philpots had been before her But however I am sure they will joyfully live in the same Heaven and gladly participate in the same Rest. Those whom one house could not hold nor one Church hold them no nor one Kingdom neither yet one Heaven and one God may hold One House one Kingdom could not hold Joseph and his Brethren but they must together again whether they will or no and then how is the case altered Then every man must strait withdraw while they weep over and kiss each other O how canst thou now finde in thy heart if thou bear the heart or face of a Christian to be bitter or injurious against thy Brethren when thou dost but once think of that time and place where thou hâ—pâ—â—t in the nearest and sweetest familiarity to live and rejoyce with them for ever I confess their infirmities are not to be loved nor sin to be tolerated because it s theirs But be sure it be sin which thou opâ—posest in them and do it with a Spirit of meekness and compassion that the world may see thy love to the Person while thou opposest the Offence Alas that Turks and Pagans can agree in wickedness better then Christians in the Truth That Bears and Lyons Wolves and Tygers can agree together but Christians cannot That a Legion of Devils can accord in one body and not the tenth part so many Christians in one Church Well the fault may be mine and it may be theirs or more likely both mine and theirs But this rejoyceth me That my old Friends who now look strangely at me will joyfully triumph with me in our common Rest. SECT XV. 7. WE shall then rest from all our dolorous houres and sad thoughts which we now undergo by participating with our Brethren in their Calamities Alas if we had nothing upon our selves to trouble us yet what heart could lay aside sorrows that lives in the sound of the Churches sufferings If Job had nothing upon his body to disquiet him yet the message of his Childrens overthrow must needs grieve the most patient soul. Except we are turned into steel or stone and have lost both Christian and humane affection there needs no more then the miseries of our Brethren to fill our hearts with successions of sorrows and make our lives a continued lamentation The Church on Earth is a meer Hospital which way ever we go we hear complaining and into what corner soever we cast our eyes we behold objects of pity and grief some groaning under a dark understanding some under a senseless heart some languishing under unfruitful weakness and some bleeding for miscarriages and wilfulness and some in such a Lethargy that they are past complaining some crying out of their pining Poverty some groaning under pains and Infirmities and some bewailing a whole Catalogue of Calamities especially in days of common Sufferings when nothing appears to our sight but ruine Families ruined Congregations ruined Sumptuous Structures ruined Cities ruined Country ruined Court ruined Kingdoms ruined Who weâ—ps not when all these bleed As now our friends distresses are our distresses so then our friends deliverance will be part of our own deliverance How much more joyous now to Joyn with them in their days of Thanksgiving and gladness then in the days of Humiliation in sackcloth and ashes How much then more joyous will it be to joyn with them in their perpetual praises and triumphs then to hear them bewailing now their wretchedness their want of light their want of life of joy of assurance of grace of Christ of all things How much more comfortable to see them perfected then now to see them wounded weak sick and afflicted To stand by the bed of their languishing as silly comforters being overwhelmed and silenced with the greatness of their griefs conscious of our own disability to relieve them scarce having a word of comfort to refresh them or if we have alas they be but words which are a poor relief when their sufferings are real Faine we would ease or help them but cannot all we can do is to sorrow with them which alas doth rather increase their sorrows Our day of Rest will free both them and us from all this Now we may enter many a poor Christians cottage and there see their Children ragged their purse empty their Cubbard empty their belly empty and poverty possessing and filling all How much better is that day when we shall see them filled with Christ cloathed with Glory and equalized with the richest and greatest Princes O the sad and heart-piercing spectacles that mine eyes have seen in four yeers space In this fight a dear friend fall down by me from another a precious Christian brought home wounded or dead scarce a moneth scarce a week without the sight or noise of blood Surely there is none of
us which is unâ—evealed in the Word and that to be doubtful which is darkly â—evealed Then the Contentions of the Church about the Mysteâ—ies of the Divine Decrees the nature of Internal Grace and way â—nd maner of the Spirits working c. will be more calmly managed Two things have set fire on the Church and been the plagues of it his thousand yeers and more First Englarging our Creed and making more Fundamentals â—hen God hath done Master Parker and Ludovicus Crocius have fully proved That the Creed for a long time contained no more â—hen Christs words in Matth. 28. do teach To beleeve in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and no more were they baptized â—nto Secondly Delivering our Creeds and Confessions in our own Humane phrase When men have learned more maners and humility then to acâ—use the Language of God as too general and obscure and have more dread of God and compassion on themselves then to make those Fundamentals which God never made so And when they reduce their Creed and Confessions first To their due extent or length secondly And to Scripture phrase and take this onely for a Touchstone of the Orthodox then and not tell then shall the Church have peace about Doctrinals If my judgment much fail not It seems to me no hainous Socinian motion which is so cryed out against of Chillingworths making viz. That every man subscribe to the whole Scripture as Gods Word with a promise to do his best for the right understanding of it No doubt many a Heretick would so subscribe and lurk under a false interpretation and so he may do also by their Humane Canons But I forget my self in thus digressing Reader As thou lovest thy Comforts thy Faith thy Hope thy Safety thine Innocency thy Soul thy Christ thine Everlasting Rest Love Read Study Stick close to Scriptures Farewel Jan. 18. 1649. THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART II. CHAP. I. SECT I. WE are next to proceed to the confirmation of this Truth which though it may seem needless in regard of its own clearness and certainty yet in regard of our distance and infidelity nothing more necessary But you will say To whom will this endeavour be usefull They who believe the Scriptures are convinced already and for those who believe it not how will you convince them Answ. But sad experience tels us that those thaâ— believe do believe but in part and therefore have need of further confirmation and doubtless God hath left us Arguments sufficient to convince unbelievers themselves or else how should we preach to Pagans Or what should we say to the greatest part of the world that acknowledg not the Scriptures Doubtless the Gospel should be preacht to them and though we have not the gift of miracles to convince them of the truth as the Apostles had yet we have arguments demonstrative and clear or else our preaching to them would be vain we having nothing left but bare affirmations Though I have all along confirmed sufficiently by testimony of Scripture what I have said yet I will here briefly add thus much more That the Scripture doth clearly assert this Truth in these six wayes 1. It affirms That this Rest is fore-ordained for the Saints and the Saints also fore-ordained to it Heb. 11.16 God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived what God hath prepared for them that love him which I conceive must be meant of these preparations in heaven for those on earth are both seen and conceived or else how are they enjoyed Mat. 20.23 To sit on Christs right and left hand in his Kingdom shall be given to them for whom it is prepared And themselves are called Vessels of mercy before prepared unto glory Rom 9.23 And in Christ we have obtained the inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after to the counsel of his own will Ephes. 1.11 And whom he thus predestinateth them he glorifieth Rom. 8.30 For he hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes. 2.13 And though the intentions of the vnwise and weak may be frustrated and without counsel purposes are disappointed Prov. 15.22 yet the thoughts of the Lord shall surely come to passe and as he hath purposed it shall stand The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Therefore blessed are they whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance Psal. 33.11 12. Who can bereave his people of that Rest which is designed them by Gods eternall purpose SECT II. SEcondly the Scripture tels us that this Rest is Purchased as well as Purposed for them or that they are redeemed to this Rest. In what sense this may be said to be purchased by Christ I have shewed before viz. Not as the immediate work of his sufferings which was the payment of our debt by satisfying the Law but as a more remote though most excellent fruit even the effect of that power which by his death he procured to himself He himself for the suffering of death was crowned with glory yet did he not properly die for himself nor was that the direct effect of his death Some of those Teachers who are gone forth of late do tell us as a piece of their new discoveries that Christ never purchased Life and Salvation for us but purchased us to Life and Salvation Not understanding that they affirm and deny the same thing in severall expressions What difference is there betwixt buying liberty to the prisoner and buying the prisoner to liberty betwixt buying life to a condemned malefactor and buying him to life Or betwixt purchasing Reconciliation to an enemy and purchasing an enemy to Reconciliation But in this last they have found a difference and tell us that God never was at enmity with man but man only at enmity with God and therefore need not be reconciled Directly contrary to Scripture which tels us that God hateth all the workers of iniquity and that he is their enemy And though there be no change in God nor any thing properly called Hatred yet it sufficeth that there is a change in the sinners relation and that there is something in God which cannot better be expressed or conceived then by these termes of enmity and hatred And the enmity of the Law against a sinner may well be called the enmity of God However this differenceth betwixt enmity in God and enmity in us but not betwixt the sense of the forementioned expressions So that whether you will call it purchasing life for us or purchasing us to life the sense is the same viz. By satisfying the Law and removing impediments to procure us Title to and Possession of this Life It is
called Christians so named from him do remain Thus far Josephus a Jew by Nation and Religion who wrote this about eighty six years after Christ and fourteen years before the death of St. John Himself being born about five or six years after Christ. 20. Consider also how that every Age hath afforded multitudes of VVitnesses who before were most bitter and violent enemies And divers of these men of note for Learning and place in the world How mad was Saul against the Truth Surely it could be no favour to the Cause nor over-much credulity that caused such men to witness to the death the truth of that for which they had persecuted others to the death but a little before Nor could childish Fables or common flying Tales have so mightily wrought with men of Learning and Understanding For some such were Christians in all Ages 21. Nay observe but the Confessions of these Adversaries when they came to believe How generally and ingenuously they acknowledg their former ignorance and prejudice to have been the cause of their unbelief 22. Consider also how unable all the enemies of the Gospel have been to abolish these sacred Records They could burn the Witnesses by thousands but yet they could never either hinder their succession or extinguish these Testimonies 23. Nay the most eminent Adversaries have had the most eminent ruine As Antiochus Herod Julian with multitudes more This stone having faln upon them hath ground them to powder 24 It were not difficult here to collect from unquestioned Authors a constant succession of VVonders at least to have in several Ages accompanied the Attestation of this Truth and notable judgments that have befaln the persecutors of it And though the Papists by their Fictions and Fabulous Legends have done more wrong to the Christian Cause then ever they are able to repair yet unquestionable History doth afford us very many Examples And even many of those actions which they have deformed with their fabulous additions might yet for the substance have much truth And God might even in times of Popery work some of these wonders though not to confirm their Religion as it was Popish yet to confirm it as the Christian Religion for as he had then his Church and then his Scripture so had he then his special Providences to confirm his Church in their belief and to silence the several enemies of the Faith And therefore I advise those who in their inconsiderate zeal are apt to reject all these Histories of Providences meerly because they were written by Papists or because some Witnesses to the Truth were a little leavened with some Popish errors that they would first view them and consider of their probability of Truth or Falshood that so they may pick out the Truth and not reject all together in the lump least otherwise in their zeal against Popery they should injure Christianity And now I leave any man to judg whether we have not had an infallible way of receiving these Records from the first VVitnesses Not that every of the particulars before mentioned are necessary to the proving or certain receiving the Authentick Records without depravation for you may perceive that almost any two or three of them might suffice and that divers of them are from abundance for fuller confirmation SECT IV. ANd thus I have done with this first Argument drawn from the Miracles which prove the Doctrine and VVritings to be of God But I must satisfie the Scruples of some before I proceed First Some will question whether this be not 1. To resolve our faith into the Testimony of man 2. And so to make it a Humane faith And so 3. To jump in this with the Papists who believe the Scripture for the Authority of the Church and to argue Circularly in this as they To this I Answer First I make in this Argument the last Resolution of my faith into the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine If you ask why I believe the Doctrine to be of God I Answer because it was confirmed by many undeniable Miracles If you ask why I believe those Miracles to be from God I Answer because no created power can work a Miracle So that the Testimony of man is not the Reason of my believing but onely the means by which this matter of Fact is brought down to my Knowledg Again Our Faith cannot be said to be Resolved into that which we give in Answer to your last Interrogation except your Question be onely still of the proper grounds of Faith But if you change your Question from what is the Ground of my Faith to what is the means of conveying down the History to me Then my faith is not Resolved into this means Yet this means or some other equivalent I acknowledg so necessary that without it I had never been like to have believed 2. This shews you also that I argue not in the Popish Circle nor take my faith on their common Grounds For First When you ask them How know you the Testimony of the Church to be Infallible They prove it again by Scripture and ther 's their Circle But as I trust not on the Authority of the Romish Church onely as they do no nor properly to the Authority of any Church no nor onely to the Testimony of the Church but also to the Testimony of the enemies themselves So do I prove the validity of the Testimony I bring from Nature and well known Principles in Reason and not from Scripture it self as you may see before 3. There is a Humane Testimony which is also divine and so an Humane Faith which is also divine Few of Gods extraordinary Revelations have been immediate The best Schoolmen think none of all but either by Angels or by Jesus himself who was man as well as God You will acknowledg if God reveal it to an Angel and the Angel to Moses and Moses to Israel this is a divine Revelation to Israel For that is called a divine Revelation which we are certain that God doth any way Reveal Now I would fain know why that which God doth naturally and certainly Reveal to all men may not as properly be called a Divine Revelation as that which he Reveales by the Spirit to a few Is not this Truth from God That the Senses apprehension of their Object rightly stated s certain as well as this Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin c. Though a Saint or Angel be a fitter Messenger to Reveal the things of the Spirit yet any man may be a Messenger to reveal the things of the flesh An ungodly man if he have better Eyes and Ears may be a better Messenger or Witness of that matter of Fact which he seeth and heareth then a godlier man that is blinde or deaf especially in cases wherein that ungodly man hath no provocation to speak falsly and most of all if his Testimony be against himself I take that Revelation whereby I know
of poor Fishermen Tentmakers and such like must write the Laws of the Kingdom of Christ must dive into the Spiritual Mysteries of the Kingdom must silence the Wise and Disputers of the world and must be the men that must bring in the world to believe Doubless as Gods sending David an unarmed Boy with a Sling and a Stone against an armed Gyant was to make it appear that the victory was from himself So his sending these unlearned men to Preach the Gospel and subdue the world was to convince both the present and future generations that it was God and not man that did the work 4. Also the course they took in silencing the learned adversaries doth shew us how little use they made of these Humane helps They disputed not with them by the precepts of Logick Their Arguments were to the Jews the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and both to Jews and Gentiles the miracles that were wrought They argued more with deeds then with words The blinde the lame the sick that were recovered were their visible Arguments The Languages which they spake the Prophesies which they uttered and other such supernatural gifts of the holy Ghost upon them these were the things that did convince the world Yet this is no president to us to make as little use of Learning as they because we are not upon the same work nor yet supplied with their supernatural furniture 5. The reproaches of their enemies do fully testifie this who cast it still in their teeth that they were ignorant and unlearned men And indeed this was the great rub that their Doctrine found in the world it was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness and therefore it appeared to be the power of God and not of man This was it that they discouraged the people with Do any of the Rulers or Pharisees believe on him but this people that know not the Law are accursed 6. To conclude The very frame and stile of these sacred Writings doth fully tell us that they were none of the Logicians nor eloquent Orators of the world that did compose them This is yet to this day one of the greatest stumbling blocks in the world to hinder men from the reverencing and believing the Scriptures They are still thinking sure if they were the very words of God they would excell all other Writings in every kinde of excellency when indeed it discovereth them the more certainly to be of God because there is in them so little of man They may as well say If David had been sent against Goliah from God he would sure have been the most compleat souldier and most compleatly armed The words are but the dish to serve up the sense in God is content that the words should not onely have in them a savor of Humanity but of much infirmity so that the work of convincing the world may be furthered thereby And I verily think that this is Gods great design in permitting these pretious spirits of divine Truths to run in the veines of infirm Language that so men may be convinced in all succeeding ages that Scripture is no device of Humane Policy If the Apostles had been learned and subtil men we should sooner have suspected their finger in the contrivance Yea It is observable that in such as Paul that had some Humane Learning yet God would not have them make much use of it least the excellency of the Cross of Christ should seem to lye in the inticing words of mans wisdom and least the success of the Gospel should seem to be more from the ability of the Preacher then from the Arm of God Besides all this It may much perswade us that the Apostles never contrived the Doctrine which they Preached by their sudden and not premeditated setting upon the work They knew not whether they should go nor what they should do when he calls one from his Fishing and another from his Custome They knew not what course Christ would take with himself or them no not a little before he leaves them Nay they must not know their imployment till he is taken from them And even then is it revealed to them by parcels and degrees and that without any study or invention of their own even after the coming down of the Holy Ghost Peter did not well under stand that the Gentiles must be called All which ignorance of his Apostles and suddenness of Revelation I think was purposely contrived by Christ to convince the world that they were not the contrivers of the Doctrine which they Preached SECT IV. 2. LEt us next then consider how far short the learned Philosophers have come of this They that have spent all their days in most painful studies having the strongest natural endowments for to enable them and the learned Teachers the excellent Libraries the bountiful incouragement and countenance of Princes to further them and yet after all this are very Novices in all spiritual things They cannot tell what the happiness of the Soul is nor where that happiness shall be enjoyed nor when nor how long nor what are the certain means to attain it nor who they be that shall possess it They know nothing how the world was made nor how it shall end nor know they the God who did create and doth sustain it but for the most of them they multiply feighned Deities But I shall have occasion to open this more fully anon under the last Argument CHAP. VI. The third Argument SECT I. MY third Argument whereby I prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures is this Those Writings which have been owned and fulfilled in several Ages by apparent extraordinary Providences of God must needs be of God But God hath so owned and fulfilled the Scriptures Ergo They are of God The Major Proposition will not sure be denied The direct consequence is That such Writings are approved by God and if approved of him then must they needs be his own because they affirm themselves to be his own It is beyond all doubt that God will not interpose his Power and work a succession of Wonders in the world for the maintaining or countenancing of any forgery especially such as should be a slander against himself All the work therefore will lye in confirming the Minor Where I shall shew you first By what wonders of Providence God hath owned and fulfilled the Scriptures And secondly How it may appear that this was the end of such Providences 1. The first sort of Providences here to be considered are those that have been exercised for the Church universal Where these three things present themselves especially to be observed first The Propagating of the Gospel and raising of the Church secondly The Defence and continuance of that Church thirdly The improbable ways of accomplishing these And first Consider what an unlikely design in the judgment of man did Christ send his Apostles upon To bid a few ignorant Mechanicks Go
before a Sunshine day and that God delighteth to work by contraries and to walk in the clouds and to hide the birth in the womb till the very hour of deliverance that I am the less afraid of all this Our unbelief hath been silenced with wonders so oft that I hope we shall trust him the better while we live I know the Sword is a most heavy plague and War is naturally an enemy to Vertue and Civility and wo be to them that delight in bloud or use the Sword but as the last remedy and that promote not Peace to the utmost of their power I know also how unsatisfied many are concerning the lawfulness of the war which hath been managed This is not a time or place to satisfie such I have attempted that largely in another audience And as I cannot yet perceive by any thing which they object but that we undertook our defence upon most warrantable grounds so am I most certaine that God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole And as I am certain by sight and sense that the extirpation of Piety was the enemies great designe which had so far succeeded that the generality of the most able Ministers were silenced Lectures and Evening Sermons on the Lords Day suppressed Christians imprisoned dismembred and banished the Lords Day reproached and devoted to Pastimes that it was as much as a mans estate at lest was worth to hear a Sermon abroad when he had none or worse at home to meet for prayer or any godly exercise and that it was a matter of credit and a way to preferment to revile at and be enemies against those that were most consciencious and every where safer to be a Drunkard or an adulterer then a painfull Christian and that multitudes of humane Ceremonies took place when the worship of Christs institution was cast out besides the slavery that invaded us in civil respects so am I most certain that this was the work which we took up Arms to resist and these were the offenders whom we endeavoured to offend And the generality of those that scruple the lawfulness of our war did never scruple the lawfulness of destroying us nor of that dolefull havock and subversion that was made in the Churches of Christ among us though now perhaps they will acknowledg some of our persecutors miscariages The fault was that we would not dye quietly nor lay down our necks more gently on the block nor more willingly change the Gospel for the Mass-book and our Religion for a fardle of Ceremonies nor betray the hopes of our Posterity to their wils As Dalilah by Sampson so do they by us They accuse us that we do not love them because we will not deliver up our strength that they may put out our eyes and make us their slaves Now the former dangers and miseries are forgotten and the groans of the godly under persecution and of the land under the departure of their freedomes are not heard men begin to forget the state they were in and to be incompetent judges of the former engagement And as bad as they deeme the successe hath yet been sure I am many hundred congregations that were in darknesse and are now in light and multitudes of souls who by these means have been already converted and brought to the knowledge and love of Christ are real Testimenies of our happy change Beside the high hopes of the far greater spreading of the Gospel and the foundation that is laid for the happiness of Posterity I am no Prophet nor well skilled in the interpretation of Scripture prophesies yet the clear and deep engagements of God in this work which I have so evidently discerned do strongly perswade me that in despite of all the policy and hopes of our enemies and of all our own unworthiness folly miscarriages and errors yet God will end this work in mercy and make the Birth which we travell with more beautifull then our slanderous enemies or our unbelieving hearts do yet imagine and that the records of the wonders of this our Age shall even convince the world of the truth of the Promises and consequently That the Scripture is the very word of God In the mean time me thinks I hear Christ as it were saying to me as in my personall so in the Churches dangers and distresses as he did to Peter What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter SECT III. THirdly Consider also of the strange judgements which in all ages have overtaken the most eminent of the enemies of the Scriptures Besides Antiochus Herod Pilate the persecuting emperours especially Julian Church Histories will acquaint you with multitudes more Foxes book of Martyes will tell you of many undeniable remarkable judgements on those adversaries of pure Religion the Papists whose greatest wickedness is against these Scriptures subjecting them to their Church denying them to the people and setting up their Traditions as equall to them Yea our own times have afforded us most evident examples Sure God hath forced many of his enemies to acknowledg in their anguish the truth of his threatnings and to cry out as Julian Vicisti Galilee SECT IV. FOurthly Consider also the eminent Judgements of God that have befallen the vile transgressors of most of his Laws Besides all the voluminous Histories that make frequent mention of this I refer you to Doctor Beard his Theatre of Gods Judgments and the book entituled Gods Judgements upon Sabbath-breakers And it is like your own observation may adde much SECT V. FIfthly Consider further of the eminent providences that have been exercised for the bodies and states of particular believers The strange deliverance of many intended to Martyrdome As you have many instances in the Acts and Monuments besides those in Eusebius and others that mention the stories of the first persecutions If it were convenient here to make particular mention of mens names I could name you many who in these late wars have received such strange preservations even against the common course of nature that might convince an Atheist of the finger of God therein But this is so ordinary that I am perswaded there is scarce a godly experienced Christian that carefully observes and faithfully recordeth the providences of God toward him but is able to bring forth some such experiment and to shew you some such strange and unusuall mercies which may plainly discover an Almighty disposer making good the promises of this Scripture to his servants some in desperate diseases of body some in other apparent dangers delivered so suddenly or so much against the common course of nature when all the best remedies have failed that no second cause could have any hand in their deliverance Sixthly And Lastly Consider the strange and evident dealings of God with the souls and consciences both of believers and unbelievers What pangs of hellish despaire have many enemies of the truth been brought to How doth God extend the spirits of
eternity They were gray with age and study before they could come to know that which a childe of seven year old may now know by the benefit of â—cripture But all men live not to such an age therefore this is no sufficient means Secondly Observe also how uncertain they were when all was done what they speak rightly concerning God or the life to come in one breath they are ready to unsay it again in another as if their speeches had faln from them against their wils or as Caiphas his confession of Christ. They raise their Conclusions from such uncertain Premises that the Conclusions also must needs be uncertain Thirdly Observe also how rare that Knowledg was among them It may be in all the world there may be a few hundreds of learned Philosophers and among those there is one part Epicures another Peripateticks c. that acknowledg not a future Happiness or Misery And of those few that do acknowledg it none knows it truly nor the way that leads to it How few of them could tell what was mans chief good And those few how imperfectly with what mixtures of falshood we have no certainty of any of them that did know so much as that there was but one God For though Socrates dyed for deriding the multitude of gods yet there is no certain Record of his right belief of the Unity of the Godhead Besides what Plato and Plotinus did write of this that was found there is far greater probability that they had it from Scripture then meerly from Nature and Creatures For that Plato had read the VVritings of Moses is proved already by divers Authors The like may be said of Seneca and many others So that if this means had contained any sufficiency in it for salvation yet it would have extended but to some few of all the learned Philosophers And what is this to an universal sufficiency to all mankinde Nay there is not one of all their exactest Moralists that have not mistaken Vice for Vertue yea most of them give the names of Vertue to the foulest Villanies such as Self-murder in several cases Revenge a proud and vainglorious affectation of Honor and Applause with other the like so far have these few learned Philosophers been from the true Knowledg of things Spiritual and Divine that they could never reach to know the principles of common honesty Varro saith That there were in his days two hundred eighty eight Sects or Opinions among Philosophers concerning the chief good VVhat then should the multitudes of the vulgar do who have neither strength of wit to know nor time and books and means to study that they might attain to the height of these learned men So that I conclude with Aquinas that if possibly Nature and Creatures might teach some few enough to salvation yet were the Scriptures of flat necessity for first the more commonness secondly and more easiness and speediness thirdly and the more certainty of Knowledg and Salvation SECT VII BUt here are some Objections to be Answered First VVere not the Fathers till Moses without Scripture Answer First Yet they had a Revelation of Gods VVill beside what Nature or Creatures taught them Adam had the Doctrine of the Tree of Knowledg and the Tree of Life and the Tenor of the Covenant made with him by such Revelation and not by Nature So had the Fathers the Doctrine of Sacrificing for Nature could teach them nothing of that therefore even the Heathens had it from the Church Secondly All other Revelations are now ceased therefore this way is more necessary Thirdly And there are many Truths necessary now to be known which then were not revealed and so not necessary Object 2. Doth not the Apostle say that which may be known of God was manifest in them c. Answ. This with many other Objections are fully scanned by many Divines to whom I refer you particularly Dr. Willet on Rom. 1.14.20 c. Onely in general I Answer There is much difference between knowing that there is a God of eternal power which may make the sinner unexcusable for his open sin against Nature which the Apostle there speaks of and knowing sufficient to salvation How God deals then with the multitudes that have not the Scripture concerning their eternal state I leave as a thing beyond us and so nothing to us But if a possibility of the salvation of some of them be acknowledged yet in the three respects above mentioned there remains still a necessity of some further Revelation then Nature or Creatureâ— do contain And thus I have manifested a necessity for the welfare of man Now it would follow that I shew it necessary for the Honor of God but this follows so evidently as a Consectary of the former that I think I may spare that labour Object But what if there be such a necessity Doth it follow that God must needs supply it Answ. Yes to some part of the world For first It cannot be conceived how it can stand with his exceeding Goodness Bounty and Mercy to make a world and not to save some Secondly Nor with his VVisdom to make so many capable of salvation and not reveal it to them or bestow it on them Thirdly Or to prepare so many other helps to mans Happiness and to lose them all for want of such a sufficient Revelation Fourthly Or to be the Governor of the world and yet to give them no perfect Law to acquaint men with their duty and the reward of obedience and penalty of disobedience SECT VIII HAving thus proved that there is certainly some written Word of God in the world The last thing that I have to prove is That there is no other writing in the world but this can be it And first There is no other Book in the world that ever I heard of that doth so much as claim this Prerogative and Dignity Mahomet calleth himself but a Prophet he acknowledgeth the truth of most of the Scripture and his Alcoran contradicteth the very light of Nature Aristotle Plato and other Philosophers acknowledg their Writings to be meerly of their own study and invention What book saith Thus saith the Lord and This is the word of the Lord but this So that if it have no Competitor there needs not much to be said Secondly What other book doth reveal the Mysteries of God of the Trinity of God and man in one person of Creation of the Fall the Covenants their Conditions Heaven Hell Angels Devils Temptations Regeneration VVorship c. Besides this one book and those that profess to receive it from this and profess their end to be but the confirming and explaining the Doctrine of this Indeed upon those subjects which are below the Scripture as Logick Arithmetick c. other books may be more excellent then it as a Taylor may teach you how to make a Cloak better then all the Statute-Books or Records of Parliament But
make its first entrance at the understanding which must be satisfied first of its Truth secondly and of its goodness before it finde any further admittance If this porter be negligent it will admit of any thing â—hat bears but the face or name of Truth and Goodness But if it be faithfull able and diligent in its office it will examine strictly and search to the 〈◊〉 what is found deceitfull it casteth out that it go no furthâ—◠〈…〉 what is found to be sincere and currant it letteth in to the very heart where the Will and Affections do with wellcome entertain it and by concoction as it were incorporate it into their own substance Accordingly I have been hitherto presenting to your understandings First the excellency of the Rest of the Saints in the first part of this book and then the verity in the second part I hope your understandings have now tasted this food and tryed what hath been expressed Truth fears not the light This perfect beauty abhorreth darkness Nothing but Ignorance of its worth can disparage it Therefore search and spare not Read and read again and then Judge What think you Is it good Or is it not Nay is it not the chiefest good And is there any thing in goodness to be compared with it And is it true or is it not Nay is there any thing in the world more certain then that there remaineth a Rest to the people of God Why if your understandings are convinced of both these I do here in the behalf of God and his Truth and in the behalf of your own souls and their Life require the further entertainment hereof and that you take this blessed subject of Rest and commend it as you have found it to your wills and affections Let your hearts now cheerfully embrace it and improve it as I shall present it to you in its respective Uses And though the Laws of Method do otherwise direct me yet because I conceive it most profitable I will lay close together in the first place all those uses that most concern the ungodly that they may know where to finde their lesson and not to pick it up and down intermixt with Uses of another straine And then I shall lay down those Uses that are more proper to the Godly by themselves in the end Use First Shewing the unconceivable misery of the ungodly in their losse of this Rest. SECT II. ANd first if this Rest be for none but this people of God What doleful tidings is this to the ungodly world That there is so much Glory but none for them so great joys for the Saints of God while they must consume in perpetuall sorrowes Such Rest for them that have obeyed the Gospel while they must be Restless in the flames of hell If thou who Readest these words art in thy soul a stranger to Christ and to the holy nature and life of his people and art not one of them who are before described and shalt live and dye in the same condition that thou art now in Let me tell thee I am a messenger of the saddest tidings to thee that ever yet thy ears did hear That thou shalt never partake of the joyes of Heaven nor have the least tast of the Saints eternall Rest I may say to thee as Eâ—ud to Eâ—gon I have a message to thee from God but it is a mortall message against the very life and hopes of thy soul That as true as the word of God is true thou shalt never see the face of God with comfort This sentence I am commanded to pass upon thee from the word Take it as thou wilt and scape it if thou canst I know thy humble and hearty subjection to Christ would procure thy escape and if thy heart and life were throughly changed thy relations to Christ and eternity would be changed also he would then â—â—â—nowledge thee for one of his people and justifie thee from all things that could be charged upon thee and give thee a portion in the inheritance of his chosen And if this might be the happy successe of my message I should be so faâ— from repining like Jonas that the threatnings of God are not executed upon thee that on the contrary I should bless the day that ever God made me so happy a Messenger and return him hearty thanks upon my knees that ever he blessed his Word in my mouth with such desired success But if thou end thy days in thy present condition whether thou be fully resolved never to change or whether thou spend thy days in fruitless purposing to be better hereafter all is one for that I say if thou live and die in thy unregenerate estate as sure as the heavens are over thy head and the earth under thy feet as sure as thou livest and breathest in this air so sure shalt thou be shut out of the Rest of the Saints and receive thy portion in everlasting fire I do here expect that thou shouldest in the pride and scorn of thy heart turn back upon me and shew thy teeth and say Who made you the door-keeper of heaven when were you there and when did God shew you the Book of Life or tell you who they are that shall be saved and who shut out I will not Answer thee according to thy folly but truly and plainly as I can discover this thy folly to thy self that if there be yet any hope thou mayest recover thy understanding and yet return to God and live First I do not name thee nor any other I do not conclude of the persons individually and say This man shall be shut out of heaven and that man shall be taken in I onely conclude it of the unregenerate in general and of thee conditionally if thou be such a one Secondly I do not go about to determine who shall repent and who shall not much less that thou shalt never repent and come in to Christ These things are unknown to me I had far rather shew thee what hopes thou hast before thee if thou wilt not sit still and lose them and by thy wilful carelesness cast away thy hopes And I would far rather perswade thee to hearken in time while there is hope and opportunity and offers of Grace and before the door is shut against thee that so thy soul may return and live then to tell thee that there is no hope of thy repenting and returning But if thou lye hoping that thou shalt return and never do it if thou talk of repenting and believing but still art the same if thou live and die with the world and thy credit or pleasure nearer thy heart then Jesus Christ In a word If the foregoing description of the people of God do not agree with the state of thy soul Is it then a hard question whether thou shalt ever be saved Even as hard a question as whether God be true or the Scripture be his Word Cannot I certainly tell that
Praising of God They never tasted sweetness in things of that nature Or what care they for being deprived of the Fellowship of Angels and Saints They could spare their company in this world well enough and why may they not be without it in the world to come To make these men therefore to understand the truth of their future condition I will here annex these two things 1. I will shew you why this forementioned loss will be intollerable and will be most tormenting then though it seem as nothing now 2. I will shew you what other losses will accompany these which though they are less in themselves yet will now be more sensibly apprehended by these sensual men And all this from Reason and the truth of Scripture 1. Then That this loss of heaven will be then most tormenting may appear by these considerations following First The Understandings of the ungodly will be then cleared to know the worth of that which they have lost Now they lament not their loss of God because they never knew his excellency nor the loss of that holy imployment and society for they were never sensible what they were worth A man that hath lost a Jewel and took it but for a common stone is never troubled at his loss but when he comes to know what he lost then he lamenteth it Though the understandings of the damned wil not then be sanctified as I said before yet will they be cleared from a multitude of errors which now possess them and mislead them to their ruine They think now that their honor with men their estates their pleasures their health and life are better worth their studies and â—â—â—our then the things of another world which they never saw but when these things which had their hearts have left them in misery and given them the slip in their greatest need when they come to know by experience the things which before they did but read and hear of they will then be quite in another minde They would not believe that water would drown till they were in the sea nor that the fire would burn till they were cast into it but when they feel it they will easily believe All that error of their minde which made them set light by God and abhor his worship and vilifie his people will then be confuted and removed by experience their knowledg shall be increased that their sorrows may be increased as Adam by his fall did come to the knowledg of Good and Evil so shall all the damned have this increase of knowledg As the knowledg of the excellency of that Good which they do enjoy and of that Evil which they have escaped is necesâ—sary to the glorified Saints that they may rationally and truly enjoy their glory so is the knowledg of the greatness of that good which they have lost and of that evil which they have procured to themselves necessary to the tormenting of these wretched sinners for as the joyes of heaven are not enjoyed so much by the bodily senses as by the intellect and affections so it is by understanding their misery and by affections answerable that the wicked shal endure the most of their torments for as it was the soul that was the chiefest in the guilt whether positively by leading to sin or onely privatively in not keeping the Authority of Reason over Sense the Understanding be guilty I will not now dispute so shall the soul be chiefest in the punishment doubtless those poor souls would be comparatively happy if their understandings were wholly taken from them if they had no more knowledg then Ideots or bruit beasts or if they knew no more in hell then they did upon earth their loss and misery would then less trouble them Though all knowledg be Physically good yet some may be neither Morally good nor good to the owner Therefore when the Scripture saith of the wicked that They shall not see life Joh 3.36 nor see God Heb. 12.14 The meaning is they shall not possess life or see God as the Saints do to enjoy him by that sight they shall not see him with any comfort nor as their own but yet they shall see him to their terror as their enemy and I think they shall have some kinde of eternal knowledg or beholding of God and heaven and the Saints that are there happy as a necessary ingredient to their unutterable calamity The rich man shall see Abraham and Lazarus but afar off as God beholdeth them afar off so they shal they behold God afar off Oh how happy men would they now think themselves if they did not know that there is such a place as heaven or if they could but shut their eyes and cease to behold it Now when their knowledg would help to prevent their misery they will not know or will not read and study that they may know Therefore then when their knowledg will but feed their consuming fire they shall know whether they will or no as Toads and Serpents know not their own vile and venemous nature nor the excellent nature of man or other creatures and therefore are neither troubled at their own nor desirous of ours so is it with the wicked here but when their eyes at death shall be suddenly opened then the case will be suddenly altered They are now in a dead sleep and they dream that they are the happiest men in the world and that the godly are but a company of precise fools and that either heaven will be theirs as sure as anothers or else they may make shift without it as they have done here but when death smites these men and bids them awake and rowseth them out of their pleasant dreams how will they stand up amazed and confounded How will their judgments be changed in a moment and they that would not see shall then see and be ashamed SECT II. 2. ANother reason to prove that the loss of heaven will more torment them then is this Because as the Understanding will be cleared so it will be more enlarged and made more capacious to conceive of the worth of that Glory which they have lost The strength of their apprehensions as well as the truth of them will be then encreased What deep apprehensions of the wrath of God of the madness of sinning of the misery of sinners have those souls that now endure this misery in comparison of those on earth that do but hear of it what sensible apprehensions of the worth of life hath the condemned man that is going to be executed in comparison of what he was wont to have in the time of his prosperity Much more will the actual deprivation of eternal blessedness make the damned exceeding apprehensive of the greatness of their loss and as a large Vessel will hold more water then a shell so will their more enlarged understandings contain more matter to feed their torment then now their shallow capacity can do SECT III. 3.
to stir against the Lord. O how the reviews of this vvill feed the flames of Hell With vvhat rage vvill these damned wretches curse themselves and say Was damâ—nation vvorth all my cost and pains vvas it not enough that I perished through my negligence and that I sit still vvhile Satan played his game but I must seek so diligently for my own perdiâ—tion Might I not have been damned on free-cost but I must purchase it so dearly I thought I could have been saved without so much ado and could I not have been destroyed without so much ado How wel is all my care and pains and violence now requited Must I work out so laboriously my own damnation vvhen God commanded me to vvork out my Salvation O if I had done as much for Heaven as I did for Hell I had surely had it I cried out of the tedious vvay of Godliness and of the painful course of Duty and Self-denial and yet I could be at a great deal more pains for Satan and for death If I had loved Christ as strongly as I did my pleasures and profits and honors and thought on him as often and sought him as painfully O how happy had I now been But justly do I suffer the flames of Hell who would rather rather buy them so dear then have Heaven on free cost when it was purchased to my hands Thus I have shewed you some of those thoughts which will aggravate the misery of these wretches for ever O that God would perswade thee who readest these words to take up these thoughts now seasonably and soberly for the preventing of that unconceivable calamity that so thou mayest not be forced in despite of thee to take them up in Hell as thy own Tormentor It may be some of these hardened wretches will jest at all this and say How know you what thoughts the damned in Hell will have Ans. First VVhy read but the 16 of Luke and you shall there finde some of their thoughts mentioned Secondly I know their understandings will not be taken from them nor their conscience nor Passions As the Joyes of Heaven are chiefly enjoyed by the Rationall soul in its Rationall actings so also must the pains of Hell be suffered As they will be men still so will they act as men Thirdly Beside Scripture hath plainly foretold us as much that their own thoughts shall accuse them Rom. 2.15 and their hearts condemn them And we see it begun in despairing persons here CHAP. III. They shall lose all things that are comfortable as well as Heaven SECT I. HAving shewed you those considerations which will then aggravate their misery I am next to shew you their Additonall losses which will aggravate it For as Godliness hath the promise both of this life and that which is to come and as God hath said that if we first seek his Kingdom and Righteousness all things else shall be added to us so also are the ungodly threated with the loss both of spiritual and of corporal blessings and because they sought not first Christs Kingdom and righteousness therefore shall they lose both it and that which they did seek and there shall be taken from them even that little which they have If they could but have kept their present enjoyments they would not much have cared for the loss of Heaven let them take it that have more minde of it But catching at the shadow and loosing the substance they now finde that they have lost both and that when they rejected Christ they rejected all things If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ they would have found all again in him for he would have been all in all to them But now they have forsaken Christ for other things they shall lose Christ and that also for which they did forsake him But I will particularly open to you some of their other losses SECT II. FIrst They shall lose their present presumptuous conceit and belief of their Interest in God and of his favour towards them and of their part in the merits and sufferings of Christ. This false Belief doth now support their spirits and defend them from the terrors that else would seiz upon them and fortifie them against the fears of the wrath to come Even as true Faith doth afford the soul a true and grounded support and consolation and enableth us to look to Eternity with undaunted courage So also a false ungrounded Faith doth afford a false ungrounded comfort and abates the trouble of the considerations of Judgment and damnation But alas this is but a palliat salve a deceitful comfort what will ease their trouble when this is gone VVhen they can Believe no longer they will be quieted in minde no longer and rejoyce no longer If a man be neer to the greatest mischief and yet strongly conceit that he is in safety his conceit may make him as cheerfull as if all were well indeed till his misery comes and then both his conceit and comforts vanish An ungrounded perswasion of happiness is a poor cure for reall misery VVhen the mischief comes it will cure the mis-belief but that belief can neither prevent nor cure the mischief If there were no more to make a man happy but to believe that he is so or shall be so happiness would be far commonner then now it is like to be It is a wonder that any man who is not a stranger both to Gospel and Reason should be of the Antinomian faith in this who tell us that faith is but the believing that God loveth us and that our sins are already pardoned through Christ that this is the cheif thing that Ministers should preach that our Ministers preach not Christ because they preach not this that every man ought thus to believe but no man to question his Faith whether he believe truly or not c. But if all men must believe that their sins are pardoned then most of the world must believe a lye And if no man ought to question the truth of his faith then most men shall rest deluded with an ungrounded belief The Scripture commandeth us first to believe for remission of sins before we believe that our sins are remitted If we believe in Christ that is accept him cordially for our Saviour and our King then we shall receive the pardon of sins The truth is we have more ado to Preach down this Antinomian faith then they have to Preach it up and to Preach our people from such a believing then they have to preach them to it I see no need to perswade people so to believe the generality are strong and confident in such a belief already Take a congregation of 5000. persons and how few among them all will you finde that do not believe that their sins are pardoned and that God loves them Especially of the vilest sinners who have least cause to believe it Indeed as it is all the work of those men to perswade
received it with Joy Mat. 13.20 and have heard the Preacher gladly and done many things after him shall yet perish Mark 6.20 It is time for us to look about us and take heed of loytering When they that seek God dayly and delight to know his ways and ask of him the Ordinances of Justice and take Delight in approaching to God and that in fasting and afflicting their Souls Isai. 58.2 3. are yet shut out with Hypocrites and Unbeleevers When they that have been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost may yet fall away beyond recovery and crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh Heb. 6.4 5 6. When they that have received the knowledg of the Truth and were sanctified by the blood of the Covenant may yet sin wilfully and tread under-foot the Son of God and do despite to the Spirit of Grace till there is nothing left him but the fearful expectation of Judgment and fire that shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.26 27 28 29. Should not this rouze us out of our laziness and security How far hath many a man followed Christ and yet forsaken him when it comes to selling of all to bearing the Cross to burning at a stake or to the renouncing of all his worldly Interests and Hopes What a deal of pains hath many a man taken for Heaven that never did obtain it How many Prayers Sermons Fasts Alms good desires confessions sorrow and tears for sin c. have all been lost and faln short of the Kingdom Methinks this should affright us out of our sluggishness and make us strive to out-strip the highest Formalists SECT XXI 20. COnsider God hath resolved That Heaven shall not be had on easier terms He hath not onely commanded it as a duty but hath tyed our Salvation to the performance of it Rest must always follow Labor He that hath ordained in his Church on Earth That he that will not Labor shall not Eat hath also decreed concerning the Everlasting Inheritance That he that Strives not shall not Enter They must now lay up a Treasure in Heaven if they will finde it there Mat. 6.19 20. They must seek First the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Matth. 6.33 They must not Labor for the food which perisheth but for that food which endureth to Everlasting Life Joh. 6.27 Some think that it is good to be Holy but yet not of such absolute necessity but that a man may be saved without it But God hath determined on the contrary That without it no man shall see his face Heb. 12.14 Seriousness is the very thing wherein consisteth our Sincerity If thou art not Serious thou art not a Christian. It is not onely a high degree in Christianity but of the very life and essence of it As Fencers upon a Stage who have all the skill at their weapons and do eminently and industriously act their parts but do not seriously intend the death of each other do differ from Souldiers or Combatants who fight in good sadness for their lives Just so do Hypocrites differ from serious Christians If men could be saved without this Serious Diligence they would never regard it All the excellencies of Gods ways would never entice them But when God hath resolved That if you will have your ease here you shall have none hereafter is it not wisdom then to bestir our selves to the utmost SECT XXII ANd thus Reader I dare confidently say I have shewed thee sufficient Reason against thy sloathfulness and negligence if thou be not a man resolved to shut thine eyes and to destroy thy self wilfully in despite of Reason Yet lest all this should not prevail I will add somewhat more if it be possible to perswade thee to be Serious in thy Endeavors for Heaven 1. Consider God is in Good earnest with you and why then should not you be so with him In his Commands he means as he speaks and will verily require your real Obedience In his Threatenings he is Serious and will make them all good against the Rebellious In his Promises he is Serious and will fulfil them to the Obedient even to the least tittle In his Judgments he is Serious as he will make his Enemies know to their terror Was not God in good earnest when he drowned the World When he consumed Sodom and Gomorrah When he scattered the Jews Hath he not been in good sadness with us lately in England and Ireland and Germany And very shortly will he lay hold on his Enemies particularly man by man and make them know that he is in good earnest Especially when it comes to the great reckoning day And is it time then for us to dally with God 2. Jesus Christ was Serious in Purchasing our Redemption He was Serious in Teaching when he neglected his meat and drink Joh. 4.32 He was Serious in Praying when he continued all night at it Luk. 6.12 He was Serious in Doing good when his kindred came and layd hands on him thinking he had been beside himself Mark 3.20 21. He was Serious in Suffering when he fasted fourty days was tempted betrayed spit on buffeted crowned with thorns sweat water and blood was crucified pierced dyed There was no Jesting in all this And should not we be Serious in seeking our own Salvation 3. The Holy Ghost is Serious in soliciting us for our Happiness His Motions are frequent and pressing and importunate He striveth with our hearts Gen. 6.3 He is grieved when we resist him Ephes. 4.30 And should not we then be Serious in obeying his Motions and yeelding to his Suite 4. God is Serious in hearing our Prayers and delivering us from our dangers and removing our troubles and bestowing his Mercies When we are afflicted he is afflicted with us Isai. 63.9 He regardeth every groan and sigh He putteth every tear into his bottle He condoleth their misery when he is forced to chastise them How shall I give thee up O Ephraim saith the Lord How shall I make thee as Admah and as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Hos. 11.8 He heareth even the rebellious oft-times when they call upon him in their misery when they cry to him in their trouble he delivereth them out of their distress Psa. 78.37 38. Psa. 107.10 11 12 13 19 28. Yea the next time thou art in trouble thou wilt beg for a serious regard of thy prayers and grant of thy desires And shall we be so sleight in the work of God when we expect he should be so regardful of us Shall we have real Mercies downâ—weight and shall we return such superficial and frothy service 5. Consider The Ministers of Christ are Serious in Instructing and Exhorting you and why should not you be as Serious in obeying their Instructions They are Serious in Study Serious in Prayer
lest they should be thought proud As if a Schoolmaster should let his Scholars do what their list or a Pilot let the Seamen run the Ship whither they will for fear of being thought proud in exercising their authoritie Secondly But a far greater clog then this yet doth lie upon the Ministers which â—ew take notice of and that is The fewness of Ministers and the greatness of Congregations In the Apostles times every Church had a multitude of Ministers and so it must be again or we shall never come neer that Primitive patern and then they could preach publikely and from house to house But now when there is but one or two Ministers to many thousand souls we cannot so much as know them much less teach them one by one It is as much as we can do to discharge the publike Work So that you see you have little reason to cast your Work on the Ministers but should the more help them by your diligence in your several families because they are already so over burdened SECT XIV 3. BUt some will say We are poor men and must labor for our living and so must our children and cannot have while to teach them the Scriptures we have somewhat else for them to do Answ. And are not poor men subject to God as well as rich and are they not Christians and must they not give account of their ways and have not your children souls to save or lose as well as the rich cannot you have while to speak to them as they are at their work have you not time to instruct them on the Lords day you can finde time to talk idlely as poor as you are and you can finde no time to talk of the way to Life you can finde time on the Lords day for your children to play or walk or talk in the streets but no time to minde the life to come Me thinks you should rather say to your children I have no Lands or Lordships to leave you nothing but hard labor and povertie in the world you have no hope of great matters here be sure therefore to make the Lord your portion and to get interest in Christ that you may be happy hereafter if you could get riches they would shortly leave you but the riches of Grace and Glory will be everlasting Me thinks you should say as Peter Silver and gold I have none but such as I have I give you The Kingdoms of the world cannot be had by beggers but the Kingdom of Heaven may O what a terrible reckoning will many poor men have when Christ shall plead his cause and judg them May not he say I made the way to worldly honors unaccessible to you that you might not look after it for your selves or your children but Heaven I set open that you might have nothing to discourage you I confined riches and honors to a few but my Blood and Salvation I offered to all that none might say I was not invited I tendered Heaven to the poor as well as the rich I made no exception against the meanest begger that did not wilfully shut out themselves Why then did you not come your selves and bring your children and teach them the way to the eternal Inheritance Do you say you were poor Why I did not set Heaven to sale for money but I called those that had nothing to take it freely onely on condition they would take me for their Saviour and Lord and give up themselves unfeignedly to me in obedience and love What can you answer Christ when he shall thus convince you Is it not enough that your children are poor and miserable here but you would have them be worse for everlasting too If your children were beggers yet if they were such beggers as Lazarus they may be conveyed by Angels into the presence of God But beleeve it as God will save no man because he is a Gentleman so will be save no man because he is a begger God hath so ordered it in his providence that riches are exceeding occasions of mens damnation and will you think poverty a sufficient excuse The hardest point in all our work is to be weaned from the world and in love with heaven and if you will not be weaned from it that have nothing in it but labor and sorrow you have no excuse The poor cannot have while and the rich will not have while or they are ashamed to be so forward the young think it too soon and the old too late and thus most men in stead of being saved have somewhat to say against their salvation and when Christ sendeth to invite them they say I pray thee have me excused O unworthy guests of such a blessed feast and most worthy to be turned into the everlasting burnings SECT XV. 4. BUt some will object We have been brought up in ignorance our selves and therefore we are unable to teach your children Answer Indeed this is the very sore of the Land But is it not pitty that men should so receive their destruction by tradition would you have this course to go on thus still 〈◊〉 parents did not teach you and therefore you cannot teach your children and therefore they cannot teach theirs By this course the knowledge of God should be banished out of the world and never be recovered But if your parents did not teach you why did not you learn when you came to age The truth is you had no hearts to it for he that hath not knowledge cannot value it or love it But yet though you have greatly sinned it is not too late if you will but follow my faithful advice in these 4. points 1. Get your hearts deeply sensible of your own sin and misery because of this long time which you have spent in ignorance and neglect Bethink your selves sometime when you are alone Did not God make you and sustain you for his service should not he have had the youth and strength of your spirits Did you live all this while at the door of Eternity What if you had dyed in ignorance Where had you been then What a deale of time have you spent to little purpose Your life is near done and your work all undone You are ready to dye before you have learned to live Should not God have had a better share of your lives and your souls been more sadly regarded and provided for In the midst of these thoughts cast down your selves in sorrow as at the feet of Christ bewaâ—â— your folly beg pardon recovering grace 2. Then think as sadly how you have wronged your children If an unthrift that hath sold all his lands will lament it for his childrens sake as well as his own much more should you 3. Next set presently to work and learn your selves If you can read do if you cannot get some that can and be much among those that will instruct and help you be not ashamed to be seen among learners though it
work so powerfully with us though we are uncertain whether his heart do concur with his speeches and whether his intention be to inform us or deceive us how much more should our own Reasons work with us when we are acquainted with the right intentions of our own hearts Nay how much more rather should Gods Reasons work with us which we are sure are neither fallacions in his intent nor in themselves seeing he did never yet deceive nor was ever deceived Why now Meditation is but the Reading over and repeating Gods reasons to our hearts and so disputing with our selves in his Arguments and terms And is not this then likely to be a prevailing way What Reasons doth the prodigal plead with himself why he should return to his fathers house And as many and strong have we to plead with our affections to perswade them to our Fathers Everlasting habitations And by Consideration it is that they must all be set a work SECT VI. 4. MEditation putteth reason in its Authority and preheminence It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When Reason is silent it is usually subject For when it is asleep the senses domineer Now consideration wakeneth our reason from its sleep till it rowse up it self as Sampson and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered and then as a Gyant refreshed with wine it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it What strength can the Lyon put forth when he is asleep What is the King more then another man when he is once deposed from his throne and authority When men have no better Judg then the flesh or when the joyes of heaven go no further then their fantasie no wonder if they work but as common things sweet things to the eye and beautiful things to the ear will work no more then bitter and deformed every thing worketh in its own place and every sense hath its proper object Now it is spiritual reason excited by Meditation and not the fantasie or fleshly sense which must favor and judg of those superior Joyes Consideration exalteth the objects of faith and disgraceth comparatively the objects of sense The most inconsiderate men are the most sensual men SECT VII 5. MEditation also putteth reason into his strength Reason is at the strongest when it is most in action Now Meditation produceth reason into Act. Before it was as a standing water which can move nothing else when it self moveth not but now it is as the speedy stream which violently bears down all before it Before it was as the still and silent air but now it is as the powerful motion of the wind and overthrows the opposition of the flesh and the devil Before it was as the stones which lay still in the brook but now when Meditation doth set it awork it is as the stone out of Davids sling which smites the Goliah of our unbelief in the forehead As wicked men continue wicked not because they have not reason in the principle but because they bring it not into Act and use so godly men are uncomfortable and sad not because they have no causes to rejoyce nor because they have not reason to discern those causes but because they let their reason and faith lye asleep and do not labor to set them a going nor stir them up to action by this work of Meditation You know that our very dreams will deeply affect What fears What sorrowes What Joy will they stir up How much more then would serious Meditation affect us SECT VIII 6. MEditation can continue this Discouâ—sive imployment That may be accomplished by a weaker motion continued which will not by a stronger at the first attempt A plaister that is never so effectual to cure must yet have time to do its work and not to be taken off as soon as it s on Now Meditation doth hold the plaister to the sore It holdeth Reason and Faith to their work and bloweth the fire till it throughly burn To run a few steps will not get a man heat but walking an hour together may So though a sudden occasional thought of Heaven will not raise our affections to any spiritual heat yet Meditation can continue our thoughts and lengthen our walk till our hearts grow warm And thus you see what force Meditation or consideration hath for the effecting of this great elevation of the soul whereto I have told you it must be the Instrument CHAP. IX What Affections must be Acted and by what Considerations and objests and in what order SECT I. THirdly To draw yet neerer the heart of the work The third thing to be discovered to you is What Powers of the soul must here be acted What affections excited What considerations of their objects are necessary thereto and in what order we must proceed I joyn all these together because though in themselves they are distinct things yet in the practice they all concurre to the same Action The matters of God which we are to think on have their various qualifications and are presented to the soul of man in divers relative and Modal considerations According to these several considerations of the objects the soul it self is distinguished into its several faculties powers and capacities That as God hath given man five senses to partake of the five distinct excellencies of the objects of sense so he hath diversifyed the soul of man either into faculties powers or ways of acting answerable to the various qualifications and considerations of himself and the inferior objects of this soul And as if there be more sensible excellencies in the creatures yet they are unknown to us who have but these five senses to discern them by so whatever other excellencies are in God and our happiness more then these faculties or powers of the soul can apprehend must needs remain wholly unknown to us till our souls have senses as it were suitable to those objects 〈◊〉 as it is unknown to a tree or a stone what sound and light 〈◊〉 sweetness are or that there are any such things in the world 〈◊〉 Now these matters of God are primarily diversifyed to our consideration under the Distinction of True and Good accordingly the primary Distinction concerning the soul is into the faculties of Understanding and Will the former having Truth for its object and the latter Goodness This Truth is sometime known by evident Demonstration and so it is the object of that we call knowledg which also admits of divers distinctions according to several ways of demonstration which I am loth here to puzzle you with Sometime it is received from the Testimony of others which receiving we call belief When any thing else would obscure it or stands up in competition with it then we weigh their several evidences and accordingly discover and vindicate the Truth and this we call Judgment Sometime by the strength the clearness
go before to prepare so glorious a Mansion for such a wretch and art thou now loth to go and possess it must his blood and care and pains be lost O unthankful unworthy foul Shall the Lord of glory be willing of thy company and art thou unwilling of his are they fit to dwell with God that had rather stay from him Must he crown thee and glorifie thee against thy will or must he yet deal more roughly with thy darling flesh and leave thee never a corner in thy ruinous cottage for to cover thee but fire thee out of all before thou wilt away Must every Sense be an inlet to thy sorrows and every friend become thy scourge and Jobs Messengers be thy daily intelligencers and bring thee the Curranto's of thy multiplied calamities before that Heaven will seem more desireable then this Earth Must every joynt be the seat of Pain and every Member deny thee a room to rest in and thy groans be indited from the very heart and bones before thou wilt be willing to leave this flesh Must thy heavy burdens be bound upon thy back and thy so-intolerable Paroxysms become incessant and thy intermittent agueish woes be turned into continual burning Feavers Yea must Earth become a very Hell to thee before thou wilt be willing to be with God O impudent soul if thou be not ashamed of this what is loathing if this be love Look about thee O my soul behold the most lovely Creature or the most desireable State and tell me Where wouldst thou be if not with God Poverty is a burden and riches a snare Sickness is little pleasing to thee and usually health as little safe the one is full of sorrow and the other of sin The frowning World doth bruise thy heel and the smiling World doth sting thee to the heart VVhen it seemeth ugly it causeth loathing when beauteous it is thy bane when thy condition is bitter thou wouldst fain spit it out and when delightful it is but sugered misery and deceit The sweetest poyson doth oft bring the surest death So much as the world is loved and delighted in so much it hurteth and endangereth the lover and if it may not be loved why should it be desired If thou be applauded it proves the most contagious breath and how ready are the sails of Pride to receive such winds so that it frequently addeth to thy sin but not one cubit to the stature of thy worth And if thou be vilified slandered or unkindly used methinks this should not entice thy love Never didst thou sit by the fire of prosperity and applause but thou hadst with it the smoke that drew water from thy eyes never hadst thou the Rose without the pricks and the sweetness hath been expired and the beauty faded before the scars which thou hadst in gathering it were healed Is it not as good be without the honey as to have it with so many smarting stings The highest delight thou hast found in any thing below hath been in thy successful labors and thy godly friends And have these indeed been so sweet as that thou shouldst be so loth to leave them If they seem better to thee then a life with God it is time for God to take them from thee Thy studies have been sweet and have they not been also bitter My minde hath been pleased but my body pained and the weariness of the flesh hath quickly abated the pleasures of the Spirit VVhen by painful studies I have not discovered the truth it hath been but a tedious way to a grievous end discontent and trouble purchased by toilsom wearying labors And if I have found out the truth by Divine assistance I have found but an exposed naked Orphan that hath cost me much to take in and cloath and keep which though of noble birth yea a Divine off-spring and amiable in mine eyes and worthy I confess of better entertainment yet from men that knew not its descent hath drawn upon me their envy and furious opposition and hath brought the blinded Sodomites with whom I lived at some peace before to crowd about me and assault my doors that I might prostitute my heavenly Guests to their pleasure and again expose them whom I had so gladly and lately entertained yea the very Tribes of Israel have been gathered against me thinking that the Altar which I built for the interest of Truth and Unity and Peace had been erected to the Introduction of Error and Idolatry And so the increase of Knowledg hath been the increase of Sorrow My heart indeed is ravished with the beauty of naked Truth and I am ready to cry out I have found it or as Aquinas Conclisum est contra c. But when I have found it I know not what to do with it If I confine it to my own brest and keep it secret to my self it is as a consuming fire shut up in my heart and bones I am as the Lepers without Samaria or as those that were forbidden to tell any man of the works of Christ I am weary of forbearing I cannot stay If I reveal it to the world I can expect but an unwelcome entertainment and an ungrateful return For they have taken up their standing in religious knowledg already as if they were at Hercules Pillars and had no further to go nor any more to learn They dare be no wiser then they are already nor receive any more of Truth then they have already received lest thereby they should accuse their Ancestors and Teachers of Ignorance and Imperfection and themselves should seem to be mutable and unconstant and to hold their opinions in Religion with reserves The most precious Truth not apprehended doth seem to be Error and fantastick novelty Every man that readeth what I write will not be at the pains of those tedious studies to finde out the truth as I have been but think it should meet their eyes in the very reading If the meer writing of Truth with its clearest Evidence were all that were necessary to the apprehension of it by others then the lowest Scholar in the School might be quickly as good as the highest So that if I did see more then others to reveal it to the lazy prejudiced world would but make my friends turn enemies or look upon me with a strange and jealous eye And yet Truth is so dear a friend it self and he that sent it much more dear that what ever I suffer I dare not stifle or conceal it O what then are these bitter sweet studies and discoveries to the everlasting views of the face of the God of Truth The Light that here I have is but a knowing in part and yet it costeth me so dear that in a temptation I am almost ready to prefer the quiet silent night before such a rough tempestuous day But there I shall have Light and Rest together and the quietness of the night without its darkness I can never now have the
is eternall said to be in us Luk 17.21 Rom. 14.17 Mat. 13. Surely if there be as great an interruption of our life as till the Resurrection which with some will be many thousand yeers this is no eternall life nor everlasting Kingdom Lushingtons evasion is That because there is no time with dead men but they so sleep that when they awake it is all one to them as if it had been at first Therefore the Scripture speaks of them as if they were there already It is true indeed if there were no joy till the Resurrection then that consideration would be comfortable But when God hath thus plainly told us of it before then this evasion contradicteth the Text. Doubtless there is time also to the dead though in respect of their bodies they perceive it not He will not sure think it a happiness to be petrified or stupified whiles others are enjoying the comforts of life If he do it were the best course to sleep out our lives 13. In Jude 7. The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha are spoken of as suffering the vengeance of eternall fire And if the wicked do already suffer eternall fire then no doubt but the godly do enjoy eternall blessedness I know some understand the place of that fire which consumed their bodies as being a Type of the fire of Hell I will not be very confident against this exposition but the text seemeth plainly to speak more 14. It is also observable that when John saw his Glorious Revelations he is said to be in the spirit Revel 1.10 4.2 and to be carried away in the spirit Rev. 17.3 21.10 And when Paul had his Revelations and saw things unutterable he knew not whether it were in the body or out of the body All implying that spirits are capable of these Glorious things without the help of their bodies 15. And though it be a Propheticall obscure book yet it seemes to me that those words in the Revelations do imply this where John saw the souls under the Altar Rev. 6.9 c. 16. We are commanded by Christ Not to fear them that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Luk. 12.4 Doth not this plainly imply That when wicked men have killed our bodies that is separated the souls from them yet the souls are still alive 17. The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead And therefore so shall ours too For his created nature was like ours except in sin That Christs human soul was alive is a necessary consequent of its hypostaticall union with the Divine nature as I judg And by his words to the thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise so also by his voice on the Cross Luk. 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And whether that in 1 Pet. 3.18 19. that he went and preached to the spirits in prison c. will prove it I leave to others to judg Read Illyricus his Arguments in his Clavis Scripturae on this Text. Many think that the opposition is not so irregular as to put the Dative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the subject recipent and the Dative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the efficient cause But that it is plainly to be understood as a regular opposition that Christ was mortified in the flesh but vivified in the spirit that is in the spirit which is usually put in opposition to this flesh which is the soul by which spirit c. But I leave this as doubtfull There 's enough besides 18. Why is there mention of Gods breathing into man the breath of life and calling his soul a living soul There is no mention of any such thing in the creating of other creatures sure therefore this makes some difference between the life of our souls and theirs 19. It appears in Sauls calling for Samuel to the Witch and in the Jews expectation of the coming of Elias that they took it for currant then that Elias and Samuels soul were living 20. Lastly if the spirits of those that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah were in prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Then certainly the separated spirits of the Just are in an opposite condition of Happiness If any think that the word Prison signifieth not their full misery but a reservation thereto I grant it yet it importeth a reservation in a living and suffering state For were they nothing they could not be in prison THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. The Third Part. Containing Severall Vses of the former Doctrine of REST. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God New Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God and my New Name Rev. 3.12 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 29. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 If Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also Glorified together For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.17 18. London Printed by Rob. White for T. Vnderhill and F. Tyton and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in great Woodstreet and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1649. To my dearly beloved Friends The Inhabitants of the City of COVENTRY Both Magistrates and People ESPECIALLY Col. John Barker and Col. Tho. Willoughby late Governors with all the Officers and Souldiers of their Garison Rich. Baxter Devoteth this Part of this Treatise in thankful acknowledgment of their great Affection toward him and ready acceptance of his labors among them which is the highest recompence if joyned with obedience that a faithful Minister can expect HUmbly beseeching the Lord on their behalf that he will save them from that spirit of Pride Hypocrisie Dissention and Giddiness which is of late yeers gone forth and is now destroying and making havock of the Churches of Christ And that he will teach them highly to esteem those faithful Teachers whom the Lord hath made Rulers over them 1 Thes. 5.12 13. Heb. 13.7 17. and to know them so to be and to obey them And that he will keep them unspotted of the guilt of those sins which in these days have been the shame of our Religion and have made us a scandal or scorn to the World THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART III. CHAP. I. SECT I. WHatsoever the Soul of man doth entertain must
the Sun the Fountain the Father of light as certain herbs and meats we feed on do tend to make our sight more clear so the soul that 's fed with Angels food must needs have anâ— understanding much more clear then they that dwel and feed on earth And therefore you may easily see that such a man is in far less danger of temptations and Satan will hardlier beguile his soul even as a wise man is hardlier deceived then fools and children Alas the men of the world that dwell below and know no other conversation but earthly no wonder if their understandings be darkned and they be easily drawn to every wickedness no wonder if Satan take them captive at his will and leade them about as we see a Dog leade a blinde man with a string The foggy Air and Mists of earth do thicken their sight the smoak of worldly cares and business blindes them and the dungeon which they live in is a land of darkness How can Worms Moles see whose dwelling is alwayes in the earth while this dust is in mens eyes no wonder if they mistake gain for godliness sin for grace the world for God their own wils for the Law of Christ and in the issue hell for heaven if the people of God will but take notice of their own hearts they shall finde their experiences confirming this that I have said Christians do you not sensibly perceive that when your hearts are seriously fixt on heaven you presently become wiser then before Are not your understandings more solid and your thoughts more sober have you not truer apprehensions of things then you had For my own part if ever I be wise it is when I have been much above and seriously studied the life to come Me thinks I finde my understanding after such contemplations as much to differ from what it was before as I before differed from a Fool or Idiot when my understanding is weakned and befool'd with common imployment and with conversing long with the vanities below me thinks a few sober thoughts of my Fathers house and the blessed provision of his Family in Heaven doth make me with the Prodigal to come to my self again Surely when a Christian withdraws himself from his earthly thoughts and begins to converse with God in heaven he is as Nebuchadnezzar taken from the beasts of the field to the Throne and his understanding returneth to him again O when a Christian hath had but a glimpse of Eternity and then looks down on the world again how doth he befool himself for his sin for neglects of Christ for his fleshly pleasures for his earthly cares How doth he say to his Laughter Thou art mad and to his vain Mirth What dost thou How could he even tear his very flesh and take revenge on himself for his folly how verily doth he think that there is no man in Bedlam so truly mad as wiful sinners and lazy betrayers of their own souls and unworthy sleighters of Christ and glory This is it that makes a dying man to be usually wiser then other men are because he looks on Eternity as neer and knowing he must very shortly be there he hath more deep and heart-piercing thoughts of it then ever he could have in health and prosperity Therefore it is that the most deluded sinners that were cheated with the world and bewitched with sin do then most ordinarily come to themselves so far as to have a righter judgment then they had and that many of the most bitter enemies of the Saints would give a world to be such themselves and would fain dye in the condition of those whom they hated even as wicked Balaam when his eyes are opened to see the perpetual blessedness of the Saints will cry out O that I might dye the death of the righteous and that my last end might be like his As Witches when they are taken and in prison or at the Gallows have no power left them to bewitch any more so we see commonly the most ungodly men when they see they must dye and go to another world their judgments are so changed and their speech so changed as if they were not the same men as if they were come to their wits again and Sin and Satan had power to bewitch them no more Yet let the same men recover and lose their apprehension of the life to come and how quickly do they lose their understandings with it In a word those that were befool'd with the world and the flesh are far wiser when they come to die and those that were wise before are now wise indeed If you would take a mans judgment about Sin or Grace or Christ or Heaven go to a dying man and ask him which you were best to chuse ask him whether you were best be drunk or no or be lustful or proud or revengeful or no ask him whether you were best pray and instruct your Families or no or to sanctifie the Lords Day or no though some to the death may be desperately hardned yet for the most part I had rather take a mans judgment then about these things then at any other time For my own part if my judgment be ever solid it is when I have the seriousest apprehensions of the life to come nay the sober mention of death sometimes will a little compose the most distracted understanding Sirs do you not think except men are stark devils but that it would be a harder matter to intice a man to sin when he lyes a dying then it was before If the devil or his Instruments should then tell him of a cup of Sack of merry company of a Stage-play or Morrice-Dance do you think he would then be so taken with the motion If he should then tell him of Riches or Honors or shew him a pair of Cards or Dice or a Whore would the temptation think you be as strong as before would he not answer Alas what 's all this to me who must presently appear before God and give account of all my life and straitways be in another world Why Christian if the apprehension of the neerness of Eternity will work such strange effects upon the ungodly and make them wiser then to be deceived so easily as they were wont to be in time of health O then what rare effects would it work vvith thee and make thee scorn the baits of sin if thou couldst always dwell in the views of God and in lively thoughts of thine everlasting state Surely a believer if he improve his faith may ordinarily have truer and more quickning apprehensions of the life to come in the time of his health then an unbeliever hath at the hour of his death Thirdly Furthermore A Heavenly minde is exceedingly fortified against temptations because the affections are so throughly prepossessed with the high delights of another world Whether Satan do not usually by the sensitive Appetite prevail with the Will without any further prevailing with the
Reason then meerly to suspend it I will not now dispute But doubtless when the soul is not affected with good though the Understanding do never so clearly apprehend the Truth it is easie for Satan to entice that soul. Meer speculations be they never so true which sink not into the affections are poor preservatives against temptations He that loves most and not he that onely knows most will easilyest resist the motions of sin There is in a Christian a kinde of spiritual taste whereby he knows these things besides his meer discuisive reasoning power The Will doth as sweetly relish goodness as the Understanding doth Truth and here lyes much of a Christians strength If you should dispute with a simple man and labor to perswade him that Suger is not sweet oâ— that Wormwood is not bitter perhaps you might by Sophistry over-argue his meer Reason but yet could you not perswade him against his sense whereas a man that hath lost his taste is easilyer deceived for all his reason So is it here when thou hast had a fresh delightful taste of heaven thou wilt not be so easily perswaded from it you cannot perswade a very childe to part with his Apple while the taste of its sweetness is yet in his mouth O that you would be perswaded to try this course to be much in feeding on the hidden Manna and to be frequently tasting the delights of heaven It s true it is a great way off from our Sense but Faith can reach as far as that How would this raise the resolutions and make thee laugh at the fooleries of the world and scorn to be cheated with such childish toyes Reader I pray thee tell me in good sadness dost thou think if the devil had set upon Peter in the Mount when he saw Christ in his Transfiguration and Moses and Elias talking with him would he so â—asily have been drawn to deny his Lord what with all that glory in his eye No the devil took a greater advantage when he had him in the High Priests Hall in the midst of danger and evil company when he had forgotten the sight on the Mount and then he prevails So if he should set upon a believing soul when he is taken up in the Mount with Christ what would such a soul say Get thâ—e behinde me Satan wouldst thou perswade me from hence with trifling pleasures and steal my heart from this my Rest wouldst thou have me sell these joyes for nothing Is there any honor or delight like this or can that be profit which loseth me this some such answer would the soul return But alas Satan staies till we are come down and the taste of heaven is out of our mouthes and the glory we saw is even forgotten and then he easily deceives our hearts What if the devil had set upon Paul when he was in the third Heaven and seeing those unutterable things could he then do you think have perswaded his heart to the pleasures or profits or honors of the world If his prick in the flesh which he after received were not affliction but temptation sure it prevailed not but sent him to heaven again for preserving grace Though the Israelites below may be enticed to Idolatry and from eating and drinking to rise up to play yet Moses in the Mount with God will not do so and if they had been where he was and had but seen what he there saw perhaps they would not so easily have sinned If ye give a man Aloes after Honey or some loathsome thing when he hath been feeding on junkets will he not soon perceive and spit it out O if we could keep the taste of our soul continually delighted with the sweetness above with what disdain should we spit out the baits of sin Fourthly Besides whilst the heart is set on heaven a man is under Gods protection and therefore if Satan then assault him God is more engaged for his defence and will doubtless stand by us and say My grace is sufficient for thee when a man is in the way of Gods blessing he is in the less danger of sins enticing So that now upon all this let me intreat thee Christian Reader If thou be a man that is haunted with temptation as doubless thou art if thou be a man if thou perceive thy danger and wouldst fain escape it O use much this powerful remedy keep close with God by a heavenly minde learn this Art of diversion and when the temptation comes go straite to heaven and turn thy thoughts to higher things thou shalt finde this a surer help then any other resisting whatsoever As men will do with scolding women let them alone and follow their business as if they heard not what they said and this will sooner put them to silence then if they answered them word for word so do by Satans temptations it may be he can overtalk you and over-wit you in dispute but let him alone and study not his temptations but follow your business above with Christ and keep your thoughts to their Heavenly imployment and you will this way sooner vanquish the temptation then if you argued or talk'd it out with the Tempter not but that sometime its most convenient to over-reason him but in ordinary temptations to known sin you shall finde it far better to follow this your work and neglect the allurements and say as Grynaeus out of Chrysost. when he sent back Pistorius letters not so much as opening the Seal Inhonestum est honestam matronam cum meritrice litigare It s an unseemly thing for an honest Matrone to be scolding with a Whore so it s a dishonest thing for a Son of God in apparent cases to stand wrangling with the devil and to be so far at his beck as to dispute with him at his pleasure even as oft as he will be pleased to tempt us Christian If thou remember that of Solomon Prov. 15.24 thou hast the summ of what I intend The way of life is above to the wise to avoide the path of hell beneath and withall remember Noahs example Gen. 6.9 Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and no wonder for Noah walked with God So I may say to thee even as God to Abraham Walk before God and thou wilt be upright Gen. 17.1 SECT VII 5. COnsider The diligent keeping of your hearts on heaven will preserve the vigor of all your graces and put life into all your duties It s the heavenly Christian that is the lively Christian It s our strangeness to Heaven that makes us so dull It s the end that quickeneth to all the means And the more frequently and clearly this end is beheld the more vigorous will all our motion be How doth it make men unweariedly labor and fearelesly venture when they do but think of the gainful prize How will the Souldier hazard his life and the Marriner pass through storms and waves how cheerfully do they compass