secrets of all hearts shall be opened of being shy of the ways of Religion because of affliction many when they see they must suffer in those ways although they be convinced of them yet they are ready to say with Augustine as he confesses of himself I do not love to pass through those straits it is too hard and narrow away for them If such thoughts work in thee at any time take these considerations for the rebuking of thy self and the raising of thy heart to a more Christian magnanimity of spirit First at what a low rate doest thou prize the ways of God the glory of God that such and such more low comforts must not be laid down for them that such light afflictions must not be endured for the maintenance of them Secondly consider if Christ had stood upon such terms as to have said I could be content indeed that these poor creatures might be delivered from misery but seeing such grievous evils must be suffered for their deliverance let them perish I am not willing to be their deliverer upon such hard terms What had become of us if Christ had reasoned thus if this argument had prevailed with him against us as it prevails with us against him Thirdly thou who art so shy of suffering mayest be forced to suffer in spight of thy heart and what a sad thing will that be to thee What a sad thing was it to Cranmer after he had recanted for fear of sufferings yet he was forced to suffer what a darkning was it to this spirit his cause and name Mr. Fox relates of a Smith in King Edwards time who was the means of conversion of a friend of his who in Queen Maries time was cast into prison whereupon he sends to this Smith who had been the means of his conversion wondring that he hears not of his apprehending and imprisonment this Smith sends him word again that it was true that he had taught him such and such things and those things were certain truths but for his part he could not burn but a while after the house of this Smith was on fire and he was burnt in it God made him burn whether he would or no and so may he make you suffer whether you will or no who refuse to suffer for his truth Fourthly whatsoever prosperity thou enjoyest when God calls thee to suffer for him is cursed unto thee if thou blessest thy self in thy estate thy liberty thy name thy life that thou enjoyest having avoided the way of suffering that God called thee unto thou deceivest thy self for there is no blessing in them they are all accursed unto thee Fifthly all duties of Religion that now thou performest out of a suffering condition are not now accepted of God thou must not think now having avoided suffering for Gods truth that because thou art willing to perform duties to be diligent in some service for God that God now accepts of thee No it was another work that God called thee unto a work of suffering seeing thou hast refused this do what thou canst God casts it as dung in thy face and regards it not this is a sad condition What joy can such a man have of his life if he hath an enlightned conscience Sixthly what intolerable pride and delicacy is this in thee that thou wilt not venter the loss of any thing the enduring of any thing for God and his truth the least truth of God is worth more then heaven and earth and what is thy ease thy liberty thy name thy life to it Thou art too delicate O Christian says Tertullian who must have pleasure in this world Seventhly How vile is the unbelief of thy heart who darest not trust God with thy name estate liberty How canst thou trust God with thy soul thy eternal estate How lightly doest thou regard all the faithfulness the mercy goodness wisdom power of God working for his people in their suffering conditions Of what little account are all these gracious blessed promises of the Lord for their encouragement herein thy base shyness and cowardise of spirit is such as if there were no God no faithfulness mercy wisdom power to help as if there were no promise to support and relieve thee Eighthly there is a necessity of thy miscarrying in the ways of eternal life for if God hath so ordered things in his providence as that such ways must be in ways of affliction and thy heart cannot bear affliction how is it possible but that thou must needs miscarry in them It is a woeful thing to have a mans heart opposite to Gods order in any thing but much more in things of infinite consequence if afflictions be a block to thee in the way of life you must have this block Ninthly How little love is there in thine heart to God when thou art so shy of any thing to be suffered for God love rejoyces in suffering for the beloved The avoiding hell and the getting Heaven are no great things says Chrysostome where the love of God is then surely the avoiding outward troubles and the enjoyment of outward comforts would be no great matter to us if the love of God were in us Tenthly Did you never suffer affliction in your ways of sin and will you not now be willing to suffer as much in the ways of God Shall your sins have a greater testimony of respect to them from you then God himself Art thou nor confounded at the mention the thought of such a thing as this so unreasonable so vile Eleventhly What honor should God have in the world where would there be any witness to truth against the rage and malice of devil and wicked men if all should do as thou doest If there be any Christian blood left in thee if any spirit worthy of thy profession be ashamed of thy baseness this way and be not so shy of afflictions Secondly when thou art under afflictions let there be an humble contented frame of spirit as beseems a Christian seeing thou art now under an Ordinance of God take heed of the least murmuring repining against God as if he were a hard Master or as if his ways were hard and burthensom because of the afflictions thou meetest withal when thy spirit begins any way to rise in such workings charge thy soul to be silent unto God it is a great shame for a Christian not to be well skilled in that art instructed in that mystery of Christian contentation Say with thy Savior Shall not I drink of that cup my Father hath given me to drink It is Gods appointment that his people should be in an afflicted estate in this world it is the cup of my Father and shall not I quietly and contentedly drink of that cup Now thou hast an opportunity to manifest the power and excellency of thy grace to shew what thy grace can enable thee to do strength of reason
jewel O any one truth is rich we should prize it above our lives O that faith that was once delivered to the Saints how should we prize it Buy the truth sell it not Buy it at any rate sell it not upon any terms The truth is that that the blood the lives of so many dear and precious Saints of God that were the glory of the world have been laid out for the maintenance of and well laid out too For though God does esteem of the blood of his Saints and precious in his eyes is the death of the Saints yet God esteems highlier of his truth that is worth the blood of all that have been spilt for the defence of it The truth of God is the especial end for which the Son of God came into the world and took mans nature upon him to testifie to the truth The truth is more worth then rubies and all precious stones then gold and silver Whatsoever thou canst desire is not to be compared to it and though there be so many riches in the truth of God yet how many are there that will rather betray the truth of God lose the truth of God rather then suffer reproaches Thirdly is it not a rich thing to enjoy communion with God It was an expression of that truly noble Marquis Galeacius that parted with all for Christ when his friends that were very rich offered him bags of gold and silver to return to them again he put them all away with this expression of indignation Cursed is that man that counts all the gold and silver in the world worth the enjoyment of communion with Jesus Christ This is riches yet some had rather lose this then endure reproaches Fourthly is not the blessing of God upon us the protection of God over us the love of God unto us the care of God for us and the brightness of the face of God shining upon us and brightning all our ways are not these riches and yet behold how many are there that are so far from counting reproaches riches as they will lose these riches rather then bear reproaches Fifthly is not the inheritance of the Saints that kingdom of glory that incorruptible undefiled crown that is reserved for them riches and yet how many are so far from esteeming reproaches riches as they will venture the loss of that too rather then they will endure reproaches Lastly are not the Ordinances of God riches that are the especial conduits and means of conveyance of the choice mercies of God unto his people those mercies that have such an immediate dependance upon eternity are not these riches worth all the world yet how many are so far from counting reproaches riches as will rather lose all the riches of the Ordinance then be reproached Though their conscience tell them You might enjoy abundance of blessing in the Ordinances were it that you might have them in the power of them and they have a good minde to them Ah but my friends will scorn me and upon this ground they forbear coming to the Ordinances And thus they are so far from counting the reproaches they shall endure riches as they deprive themselves of all the riches in the Ordinances of God rather then they will endure them Like unto Asa in 1 Kings 15. 18. he took all the gold and silver and riches of the treasure of God to send them unto Benhadad that he might free him from the King of Israel So men are willing to part with the gold and silver and all the riches of Gods house and of Gods Ordinances so they may be freed from reproaches and sufferings and from enduring trouble was there ever delusion like this delusion to lose such riches rather then endure that which in it self is riches were it that reproaches were as great evils as you can imagine suppose you might go to live where you might enjoy the Ordinances though it were in such a place as Job speaks of in Job 22. 10. A land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadows of death without any order and where the light is as darkness yet that subjection that your souls do owe to God does call for a willingness to yield to that and to yield to reproaches and sufferings though there were no good in them but now when there is so much good such glorious things mingled together with reproaches for you now to be so afraid of reproaches as to be willing to lose so much riches rather then to endure them how is your heart besotted Suppose reproaches had such shame in them as you think they have cannot God put honor upon them man can put honor upon mean things As the Garter that is counted an ornament of the highest Nobility that Kings wear about their necks as an ensign of their princely order A Garter fell from a Lady and she blushed for shame the King took it up Well says he I will make this an honorable ornament ere long and upon that came the Order of the Garter If man can put an honor upon that which is mean surely God can do it And therefore Calvin speaking of sufferings and reproaches says They are the ensigns of heavenly nobility and if God hath put this honor upon them shall you be so shy of them as to lose so much rather then to endure them First if they were evil you are to endure them in regard of your subjection to God Secondly if there were nothing lost by your drawing from them and your unwillingness to endure them it should be a great deal of evil but first considering that there is good in them and so much lost by your unwillingness to endure them what folly is here there is an art and skill in Christian Religion that would shew you other things then you see You would never have such low esteem of reproaches if you had the skill of Christianity If a man did fling bags of pearls and gold at a dog he would be afraid of them and run away but a man would not but be ready to catch them and so men of the world and base hearts that are not acquainted with this skill of Christianity they will run way at reproaches and sufferings but a heart that knows what they are does not run away But are you shy of sufferings and run away what a difference is there between the disposition of your hearts and the disposition of the most worthy servants of God in all ages you are afraid of them as if they were evil like hell it self Gods people earnestly desire them I remember a speech of Jerome upon that Blessed are you when men speak evil of you and revile you says he Who would not be willing to suffer who would not wish to be persecuted for righteousness sake who would not desire to be reviled O would all the rout of unbelievers did persecute and trouble me for the name of my Lord and
MOSES HIS CHOICE VVith his EYE fixed upon Heaven Discovering THE HAPPY CONDITION OF A Self-denying Heart Delivered in A TREATISE UPON Hebrews 11. 25 26. By JEREMIAH BURROUGHS LONDON Printed by John Field and are to be sold by Thomas Eglesfield at the Marygold and at the Brazen Serpent in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCL To the Right Honorable ROBERT Earl of WARWICK BARON of LEEZE One of the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Councel Right Honorable AS those who have been of late and in these days yet are of the Antichristian party may well be accounted men born in an evil time because howsoever heretofore was the time of Gods long suffering towards such the time of permission of them to prosper the set time of Antichrists downfal then being further off then now it is But now Gods time of setting his face against Antichrist and all the Antichristian party is come wherein GOD is determined to fight against them and to ruine them most wretched men therefore are they who now have spirits set for the upholding the pleading for that which God hath set himself against So happy especially now are those whose hearts have been and still are set to countenance maintain to further and honor the truth of the Gospel in the power and purity of it These are born and raised up by God and for God in a most blessed time wherein God stretcheth out his holy Arm together with them their hearts are guided by God himself to the furtherance of that work which is the greatest work that God hath to do in this latter age of the world namely To bring in his Truth and Ordinances with glory and power to set up Jerusalem as the praise of the earth to make godliness and the powerful profession of it as honorable as ever it hath been contemptible And now Right Honorable God hath been pleased to bless your Noble Family for many years past with this so great a blessing as to make it instrumental to this great work of his and your self have had a plentiful share in this so great a happiness Your Honor hath discountenanced superstitious time-serving spirits but as for the faithful Ministers of the Gospel and the most sincere and godly of your Countrey your Honor hath cast much respect upon them and been the encourager of them which reflects Honor as upon Gods name and his truth so upon your noble Family I believe there hath not ascended to Heaven more praises to God from any County in England for any Noble Family in regard of the placing of a godly painful conscionable Ministery as hath ascended from that County in which your Honor and your truly Noble Father hath had such a large opportunity of service for God and doing good to his people And I may further confidently affirm That no Noble Family in England hath more prayers of the Saints ascending to Heaven for a blessing upon it then that family of yours neither is there any Noble Family this day shall I say in England I may without presumption reach it further which the Lord hath blessed in regard of some Branches of it with more beauty and power of godliness then he hath blessed yours in regard whereof it would be the most miserable thing that could be if ever the succession of the countenancing and honoring the ways of godliness should be cut off from such a noble Family Cursed be that man who shall be the cutter off of the succession of so great an Honor to such an Honorable Family Psal 72. 17. it is said The name of Christ should endure for ever Filiabitur nomine ejus so the words are it shall be begotten as one generation is begotten of another and so there shall be a succession of Christs name It is a most blessed thing when in a Family there is a begetting of the name of Christ and so it is left unto the succeeding generation as the name of the Family is left unto it Pliny tells us that it was accounted a great honor yea the height of felicity that in one house and Race of the Curio's there were known to be three excellent Orators one after another by descent from the Father to the Son and that the Fabii afforded three Presidents of the Senate in course one immediately succeeding the other If this succession be so honorable so happy how honorable how happy doth the succession of Religion from Father to Son make Families to be This succession in your noble Family is the subject of the prayers of many precious spirits exceedingly dear to God And my Lord although God hath made you exceeding instrumental for much good to his people which is one of the greatest blessings under heaven yet let not your Lordship rest in this Gods warning to Solomon 1 Kings 9. 4. is very observable after Solomon had finished that glorious Temple for the honor of the Lord after he had assembled all the Elders of Israel to bring up the Ark of the Lord with all solemnity after he had made such an excellent Prayer before all the people after he had offered to the Lord two and twenty thousand Oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and in his rejoycing in this great work done to the honor of God he made a great Feast to all the people seven days and to them he added seven days more and sent away the people with joyful and glad heaets yet after this God says to him If thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked in integrity of heart and up rightness to do according to all that I have commanded thee then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom Though the things that you have done be great things yet I expect walking according to all that I have commanded thee or else all is nothing It were infinite pity and God forbid so great an evil that any one way of sin should ever stand up to hinder the blessing upon a noble spirit and such worthy services for the Church as you have done well beseeming that true nobility of such a spirit Your Honor hath appeared much for the Honor the Safety Peace Liberties of the Saints and your Countrey and how many now have their consciences check them and shame is upon their faces for that base cowardise and vile time-serving that the true nobility of your Lordships spirit scorning such baseness delivered you from God hath now appeared for his people more then ever in our or our Forefathers time do you now appear more then ever for them As God hath mightily enlarged the opportunity of service so the good God enlarge and heighten with true Nobility and Christian generousness your Noble spirit that you may be as a chosen shaft in the Quiver of the Lord reserved to these times to be in a high degree instrumental to his praise It is now near three years since that your Lordship lying sick not without apprehension that Gods time to
live godly to go beyond morality in his profession then he must expect to suffer Fifthly he that will live godly in Christ Jesus that is in the vertue strength and power of Christ Jesus The other may be done without knowledge of Christ but this godliness in Christ Iesus is that which is persecuted in the world godly in Christ Jesus That is first real and true godliness not the shadow of godliness A Wolf flies not upon a painted sheep we can look upon a painted toad with delight There are some forms and shadows of godliness entertained in the world but the reality and truth of godliness is that which is hated and opposed Secondly godliness in Christ Jesus is exact godliness it carries a soul to a higher pitch then morality doth now a man begins to live in a higher course of Religion to be strict in his ways to tremble at the least sin to devote himself wholly to God this man must expect to suffer Thirdly the godliness that is in Christ Jesus is a stirring godliness if a man will be lukewarm and as Gallio not caring which way things go then many will speak well of him he is no busie-body not so hot and fierce as others are We reade Exod. 8. 28. Pharaoh was content to let the people go onely he would not have them go far so many are content that men should be Religious so be it they do not go too far Revel 2. 2. Christ saith to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus I know thy labor and thy patience mark how these two are joyned If the Angel had not labored so much it is like he had not suffered so much If Ministers and Christians will be idle and do little they are not like to suffer much a little patience will serve turn but those who put forth themselves who are stirring active who labor much they must expect to suffer much It is very observable that of the seven Churches we reade of in the Revelations there are onely two of whose troubles there are no mention and which are they the first is Sardis of which it is said She had a name that she lived and was dead the other was Laodicea that was neither hot nor cold These two escaped troubles but none of the other Fourthly the godliness that is in Christ Iesus is a powerful godliness that will not yield and give in such as the Lord requires in Ieremy Let them come in to you do not you go to them Let men say what they will let them threaten rail flatter perswade yet this yields not Now the world judges this to be pride stubbornness not knowing what the power of godliness means A reed that yields is not shattered by the wind So those who will be time-servers whose consciences will bow any way those shall suffer no great matter but if men be unyieldable especially in things that are counted small as many of the Christians in the Primitive times who would not cast one grain of frankincense into the fire to save their lives these are hated contemned and persecuted in the World Antichrist is content to let the name and profession of Religion alone but he persecutes the power of godliness it is that which witnesseth against him Revel 11. 8. He slays the witnesses but he lets their carcasses lie openly he cares not for the name and profession so be it the witnessing power be slain Fifthly Godliness in Christ Jesus is world-condemning godliness Noah condemned the world by that he did Other men should be accounted well of were it not for these but this darkens their light and condemns their way which they are not able to abide 1 Pet. 4. 12. Beloved think it not strange saith the Apostle concerning the fiery tryal as though some strange thing happened unto you be not moved at it as at the coming of a stranger unexpectedly you must entertain troubles as ordinary daily guests It hath been is and will be the order of Gods providence towards his people that they shall be in an afflicted condition and that many times in great extremities and hence Chap. 5. 10. the Apostle prays That the God of all grace would make them perfect after they had suffered a while as if prayer might not be made for perfection until we have suffered a while As soon as St. Paul was manifested to be a chosen vessel for the honor of God it was shewn unto him what things he should suffer for the name of Christ as if that were a necessary concomitant to the profession of godliness Look over the whole Book of God and consider the history of the lives of Gods people in all ages both in Scripture and in other records and you shall finde them usually in a poor afflicted condition as soon as we hear of any work of Religion we hear of the persecution of Abel Noahs Ark on the waters was a type of the condition of the Church in afflictions What hard things did Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs endure in their generations How sore was the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt Their passage through the Red sea and the dismall Wilderness into Canaan was a type of the afflicted condition of Gods people in after ages through which they were to pass to Heaven How was David hunted as a Partridge in the wilderness What bitter and sore complaints do we hear of the grievous suffering he met withal Psal 129. the Church there bemoans her condition that from her youth up she had been afflicted What hard usage did the blessed Prophets of the Lord finde Eliah was persecuted and must flie for his life while four hundred false Prophets were fed at Iezabels table Micaiah must be fed with the bread of affliction and the water of adversity Histories tell us that Isaiah was sawn asunder with a wooden saw Ieremy was put into a dungeon sticking in the mire as some stories say even up to the ears and after was stoned to death in Egypt Ezekiel was slain in Babylon Micah was thrown down a steep place and his neck broke Amos was smitten with a club and so brained The Story of the persecutions of the Maccabees prophesied of Dan. 11. 36. and recorded by the Apostle Heb. 11. from the 35 Verse to the end is exceeding lamentable the Texts says That they were tortured that they had the tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned were sawn asunder slain with the sword wandred up and down in Sheep-skins and Goats-skins being destitute afflicted tormented they wandred in deserts and mountains and dens and caves in the earth And after for the Christian Church we know what Christ himself the great leader of his people suffered what contradiction of sinners what contempts miseries scorns scourges cursed cruel shameful death When Stephen the first Christian Martyr was stoned Dorotheus witnesseth that two thousand others which believed on Christ were put
by this means he scatters his people abroad in the world to disperse his truth to spread his Gospel further then otherwise it would be as Acts 8. 3 4. it is said Saul made havock of the Church haling men and women committing them to prison therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word according to the prophesie of Daniel chap. 12. 4. prophesying of the times of the troubles of the Church he says Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased Secondly this God suffers for the manifestation of his glorious power and that four ways First in the continuing of his Church and the profession of his truth notwithstanding all the rage of men and devils Gods power was seen in preserving the bush from being consumed though it were all on a light fire to preserve a spark of fire alive in the midst of the waves of the sea and to keep a light set up in the midst of storms and tempests is a great work there appears as great a power of God in preserving his Church in the midst of so much opposition notwithstanding their grievous afflictions and persecutions as there did appear in the preservation of the three Children in the fiery furnace Eliah would have water poured upon the sacrifice he would have it covered with water that the power of God might more appear in the fire that came down from Heaven upon it so God will have afflictions persecutions troubles to befal his people that he may manifest his power so much the more in their preservation Secondly the power of God appears not onely in the upholding but in the raising the spirits of this servants in their afflictions with what courage holy magnanimity heavenly chearfulness that appeareth in them even weak women and children triumphing over the most sore afflictions and grievous distresses which made a Heathen one Calocerius beholding this break forth with this acclamation Of a truth great is the God of the Christians Bernard says Those whom God frees from troubles have experience how sweet the Lord is and those whom he exercises with many troubles have experience how strong the Lord is The glory of Gods power is as clear in the raising the spirits of his servants in suffering as if he should deliver them from suffering by miracle And therefore Rupertus saith that God did more gloriously triumph in St. Laurence his patience and constancy when he was broiled on the Gridiron then if he had saved his body from burning by a miracle 3. The power of God is glorious not onely in preserving his Church in raising the spirits of his servants in their greatest afflictions but in increasing his Church by them if it be a wonder to be upheld in them it is much more to be encreased by them the more we are cut down the more still we are saith Tertullian The Church never grew so fast as when it was under most affliction Sulpitius says of the Christians in the primitive times that they then were as greedy of Martyrdom as in his time men were greedy of Bishopricks The blood of Martyrs was the seed of the Church Pliny reports of the lilly that it is increased by its own juyce that drops from it so the Church which is the lilly that grows among the thorns the very blood that falls from them multiplies them the sufferings of one begets many to the love of the truth Mr. Knox in his History of Scotland reports of a Gentleman one John Lindsay familiar to Bishop James Bettoun that he said to the Bishop upon the occasion of the burning of Mr. Patrick Hamilton My Lord if you burn any more you will destroy your selves if you will burn them let them be burnt in hallow cellars for the smoak of Mr. Patrick Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon It is a report of one Cecilia a Virgin that by her constancy and exhortations before and at her Martyrdom was the means to convert four hundred people By blood and prayer the Church converts the whole world says Luther Fourthly God shews the glory of his power in doing such great things as he doth by a few afflicted distressed persecuted contemptible people The greatest things that ever God hath done in the world have been by these the more afflicted the more mean and despised they have been the more hath the arm of the Lord appeared in them Gods power is made perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12. What great things hath God done by a few afflicted persecuted fishermen the Apostles What great things by St. Paul who many times had not rags to cover his nakedness who was whipped up and down and put into stocks and counted the basest and vilest of men the very off-scouring of men and the filth of the earth and yet never were such great things done in the world by those who had the greatest learning the most power the most valor the most glory in the world as was done by these they did even subdue the world unto them and that by preaching the Gospel a Doctrine so above nature so contrary unto nature Chrysostom in a Sermon upon the 10. of Matthew speaking concerning this argument calls forth Plato and Pythagoras and the rest of the Phylosophers and challenges them to shew what they had done in comparison of these But because some might say that amongst the Heathens there have been most famous Captains who have done great things as Themistocles and Pericles If you compare says he what they have done with what hath been done by these poor fishermen all their bravest acts will appear but childes plays and the enterprizes of simple men Thirdly that which God ayms at is the tryal of the graces of his people an afflicting condition is a trying condition Hence Dan. 11. 35. Some shall fall and be tryed This is a prophesie of the times of the Maccabees under Antiochus Epiphanes in the 11. Heb. we have the History of this where verse 36. we have the like expression others had tryals of cruel mockings and scourgings We read of Queen Elizabeth in her sister Queen Maries days when she was locked up close in the prison at first she was much daunted but after she brake forth into this speech The skill of a Pilot is unknown but in a tempest the valor of a Captain is unseen but in battel and the worth of a Christian does not appear but in time of tryal and temptation Fire tryes mettals what dross is in them strong winds storms and tempests try what our foundation is whether we be built upon the rock or upon the sands they discover what sap the leaves have from the root withered leaves when the wind rises fall off the green leaves that have sap holds on they try what soundness is in us if you hang heavy weights upon the boughs of trees that are rotten they presently break but if upon sound
not see what were the ways of my providence towards my people Might you not have gathered from thence that there was another time a coming Fourthly Learn we hence to judge wisely of the poor of the afflicted and persecuted Psalm 41. 1. Far be it from us to think they are forsaken of God let us not be offended at Religion because troubles follow the profession of it the blessing that comes by profession of the truth consists not in such a peace as frees from trouble but in giving peace and rest to the soul in the middest of troubles Luther hath an excellent speech for this in one of his Epistles ad Tonitorem You seek and affect peace but preposterously such as the worlds peace not Christs who gives peace in the middest of troubles as he saith Rule thou in the middest of thine Enemies Now the cause of the Church calls for a wise judging How many carnal people are ready to think that Popery is rather the truth and that the Religion of Protestants is not right because God hath of late years so grievously afflicted his Church What would God suffer his own people say they his own truth thus to be beaten down As they formerly said of Christ Let him save him seeing he delighted in him so if God delighted in this way surely he would have saved it he would not have suffered opposition so far to have prevailed against the professors of it It is no argument that Christ is not in the ship because tempests and storms arise It is no argument that our cause is not Gods that Christ is not with us because of our afflictions it may be we have not awakened him by our prayers we are not yet fit to enjoy the sweetness of a calm Salvian was fain to write a whole Treatise above eleven hundred years ago to answer this argument that men had against the people of God and the profession of the Gospel Turks judge all things according to outward success and so did the heathens of old We read of Brutus being overcome by Anthony he cryes out Whatsoever things are disputed concerning vertue are but meer toys and fancies for fortune rules in all humane things but it beseems not Christians to judge by this rule Clemens Alexandrinus cites Plato expressing himself thus Although a righteous man be tormented although his eyes be digged out yet he remains a blessed man Let none judge worse of himself meerly because of afflictions before you were of the world it may be you prospered it shined upon you but now since you have given your name to Christ many troubles and afflictions follow you this is no other but that hath been is will be the estate of Gods people in this life we must not draw ill consequences from or make ill constructions of our afflictions for this is to charge God foolishly which Job did not Chap. 1. 22. There are some kinde of sufferings that a man meets with that have a kinde of sweet seal of God with them even in the time of suffering by which a man is more confirmed in his way to be from God then ever he was before Fifthly what shall become then of ungodly and wicked men Thus Saint Peter argues 1. Epist 4. 17 18. Iudgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinners appear If it be done thus to the green tree what shall be done to the dry Behold they whose judgement was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken and art tbou he that shall go altogether unpunished thou shalt not go unpunished but thou shalt assuredly drink of it Ier. 49. 12. certainly there is shame and confusion for you there are tortures prepared for you You heard what the Martyrs have suffered but all that is nothing to the least spark of Gods revenging wrath when it is mingled with hatred That is a fearful expression that we have Psal 35. 6. Let their way be slippery and the angel of the Lord persecuting them It is a more fearful thing to have the Angel of the Lord persecute then to be persecuted by men but how fearful a thing is it when God himself that infinite Deity when he persecutes a man when Divine justice follows a man from one place to another and persecutes him You look upon those poor despised misused Servants of God and you think vilely of them let those spectacles strike terror into your hearts every time you see them O what is reserved for me then Sixthly if this be the usual estate of Gods people let us learn then to prepare for afflictions before they come although we have escaped many years yet we may be called to such an estate at last Polycarpus escaped till he was fourscore and six years old and then he was called to Martyrdom In the first ten persecutions in the primitive times the Christians in England escaped all the nine although the Gospel not many years after Christ was professed in England yet the tenth and last persecution fell heavy upon them Iulius Caesar escaped fifty several battels in which he was personally present and yet at last in the Senate house he was unexpectedly murthered Now all is well with you lay up for times of trouble this is a gathering time that will be a spending time know that that which will serve turn now will not serve turn then many are not able to hold out now what will they do then O what will you do in the day of your visitation Jer. 12. 5. If the footmen have wearied thee how canst thou contend with horses and if in the land of peace how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan We read of Polycarpus that as he lay in his bed he saw in a vision the bed set on fire under his head forewarning him of his Martyrdom we in our ease should seriously think of our sufferings now while Sun-shine days of peace continue we should consider of the days of darkness which may be many Oftentimes we are thinking of and seeking after great things when we should be preparing for suffering hard things as Mat. 20. 20. when Christ had been speaking to prepare for sufferings Zebedees children most unseasonably come seeking for the highest places in his kingdom This was the fault of Baruc Jer. 45. when God was bringing sore and grievous afflictions to his people he was seeking great things for himself CHAP. VIII Eleven Rules for preparation to suffer afflictions FIrst make account of them do not say I shall never be removed although you know not what particular afflictions shall befal you yet make an account that an afflicted condition will be your portion according to that of the Apostle Acts 20. 22 23. And now I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall
no partner But that this might not be an offence so as to keep us from joyning in Communion with the people of God let us know if this might have been offence enough to keep men from joyning with them it would have kept men in all times from joyning with the Churches since Christs time You know what difference was between Paul and Barnabas two Apostles And so the Apostles do complain of the dissentions and divisions in the Church of Corinth in the Primitive times and if that had been enough to keep out men from joyning with them then there had been no joyning with the Church of Corinth and other Churches Basil complains I have lived now to the age of a man and I see more union in Arts and Sciences then in Divinity for in the Church I see such dissentions as do dissipate it and rend it asunder And so between Chrysostom and Epiphanius the one wished the other might never dye a Bishop and the other wished that he might never go home alive And between Jerome and Ruffinus and Luther and Oecolampadius There is a most sad story we have of those that fled to Frankford from England in Queen Maries time and when they came there though they fled for Religion and for their lives yet there were such grievous breaches as they sought the lives of one another picking out some words against the Emperor in a Sermon that Master Knox had preached in England long before and now accusing him for them to the Magistrates of Frankford upon which divers of them were fain to flee This is through the malice of the Devil in sowing tares and therefore if you will be offended in this way of scandal you must be offended Yet we must all take heed of giving offence for though offences will come yet wo to them by whom they come Howsoever there fall out offences through the sinful distempers of mens hearts let not the Ordinance of God be challenged as the cause of these offences Joyning in Church-fellowship is a special Ordinance of God to maintain love and peace amongst his people yet by the abuse of it many times divisions and dissentions are stronger and more bitter in the Church then elsewhere let not Gods Ordinance be accused as the cause of it nor declined for this but let the wickedness of mens hearts be accused let us seek to have it purged Christ came into the world to dissolve the works of the Devil and yet the Devil never more raged then in Christs time and a while after We never read of men so possessed of the Devil before Christ came as they were then Shall we therefore accuse Christ for bringing the Devil into the world for being the cause of mens being possessed of the Devil Those who thus reason against the Ordinance of Christ because of this evil that falls out by accident upon it may as well yea and certainly would as readily reason against Christ if they lived in his time because of such possession of Devils which never was so before he came as it was then but as the true reason why the Devil thus prevailed upon Christs coming was the just judgement of God against men for contemning and rejecting Christ who came amongst them so it is here the judgement of God for the evil of mens hearts in abusing such a blessed Ordinance of love and peace So likewise the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a Sacrament appointed by God to maintain love and peace in the Church it is an Ordinance for communion it hath the denomination from thence it is called communion Yet what hath occasioned such dissentions in the Christian world as the controversies about the Sacrament Shall therefore this Ordinance be accused as the cause of dissention O let us for ever learn this truth that whatsoever evil falls out Gods Ordinances be not blamed but mans corruption let that be condemned and purged Origen writing to Celsus says If you will take offence at the dissentions in Christian Religion then you may take offence at dissentions in other things Valens the Emperor objected the same against Christians Nicephorus 11. 45. brings in one Themistius answering that those of the Graecian superstition had as great dissentions amongst them There is dissention amongst Merchants and other Trades you do not say therefore I will not binde my childe to that Trade they dissent amongst themselves If there be profit and accommodations in the Trade men will not be hindred by this plea but joyn with them notwithstanding And so come you and joyn with the Saints though there be some dissentions though there may be some rigid distemper'd hot spirited men that may cause some trouble yet there is not so much union and love in all the world as with them set but aside some and there are a company if you be gracious your soul may take pleasure in and bless God for and therefore away with all such stumbling blocks and reasonings against the Ordinances of God come you thirsting after the Ordinances of God and my soul for yours if you do not finde that sweetness in communion with them as never was found before There are many objections against this way and many are a long time ensnared in them but Isa 57. 13. where God promises the inheritance of his holy Mountain ver 14. he promises to make the way plain to it And Exod. 15. 13. God guides his people in his strength to his holy habitation it must be the strength of God that must carry through all objections all difficulties over all stumbling blocks to Gods habitation Thus much to those that yet are not joyned in that nearness of communion with Gods people which they may be CHAP. XXII Instructions to those who are joyned in communion with Gods people SEcondly if it be such a blessed thing to enjoy communion with Gods people then there are many things that are to be said to those that are joyned in communion First labor to approve to God and your own souls that you are indeed Gods people particularly you are his people in a way of outward profession and to men you do approve your selves so far as we hope you are Gods people but you must approve your selves to God and to your consciences If you be conscious to your selves of any secret filth and yet dare come and deceive the people of God in joyning with them you bring your selves in more danger then you are aware We read Deut. 22. ver 21. that if a damsel having defiled her self before marriage and so deceiving a man he marries with her when this is discovered she is to be stoned to death Uncleanness in such as were single was not by the Law to be punished with death but she must dye although her uncleanness was while she was single because she deceived the man in marrying to him in her defilement So know your filth in not joyning to Gods people is not so evil and
the Doctrine of it and golden in the holy conversation of it We must take heed that there be not so much as a dusting of this golden candlestick of the Lord by the least looseness or earthliness of our lives By scandals in the wicked lives of those that are of Gods people there is a stain and blot cast upon Church communion here the name of God is polluted others that are prophane pollute the creatures and their own consciences but Gods name is not so much polluted by them but Gods people do not onely pollute their consciences by their scandalous lives but pollute Gods name and it is worse to pollute Gods name then to pollute your consciences And therefore know that joyning to the Saints is an aggravation to every sin you commit afterward and though it be true that union with the people of God is a mitigation of every cross and affliction yet it is an aggravation to every sin Yea if men were born for no other end and purpose but to do mischief they could not do more then this to joyn with the people of God and then live scandalously O brethren let us pray to God that we may never live to that day to darken the great excellency of the fellowship of the Saints It were better that God should take a thousand of us out of the world then that we should live to darken the profession of Gods name in union with his people this does more mischief then all the persecuters under Heaven can do The Church of God hath never been in a better condition then when their persecuters have raged most the raging of persecuters have not darkned the excellency of the Church but the scandalous lives of members of a Church have darkned the glory of the Church though by persecution others may be afraid to make profession of the truth yet all the persecution in the world cannot take off mens consciences and cause them in their consciences to think such are not in the truth because they are persecuted but the scandalous lives of those that are Professors do make men think in their consciences that this way is not right and therefore make them think they do God good service in hating such men persecuting such men and there is more evil in this to be an occasion to make men think this way is not good then to make men afraid to venture upon this way And therefore consider what a great deal of mischief scandalous lives do and if you finde your hearts inclining to any sensual way that you are like to give scandal take heed of it for it is the greatest mischief that can be devised Those who joyn with the Church of God should walk so as to be an ornament to it not a stain a blot to cast filth upon it Isa 49. 18. Behold these that gather themselves to thee thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an Ornament Consider how far many of you are from being an ornament to the Church are not your lives rather blemishes This is a sore evil Better it is to endure any misery then to do that which shall make Gods people ashamed of us The third thing that darkens the excellency of communion with Gods people is dissentions in judgement or affection this makes it appear to be black in the eyes of the world Sozomen reports of a Devilish policy of Julian to raise a scandal against the Church He sent for those Bishops that were banished in Constantius his time on purpose that he might cause dissention in the Church by them Take heed you have not a hand in darking this excellent condition no not in this way In the body solutio continui is more dangerous then the corruption of a humor Let us labor so far as possibly we can to make it excellent by peaceableness this is that which is prophesied of for the Church Isa 33. 20. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation And mark the blessing that follows upon this quietness A Tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken but there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers streams c. In Zech. 14. ver 9. there is a Prophesie that the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day there shall be one Lord and his name one We now profess one God but we do as it were call him by several names but that will be a blessed time when as there shall be but one Lord so his name shall be one there shall be a blessed agreement in the profession of his name oneness of heart is a blessing of the new Covenant I remember Eusebius reports in the life of Constantine that he was so much troubled for dissentions in the house of God as he could not sleep in the night and they did more disquiet him then all his wars yea he says they caused him to sob and sigh and so they should be disquietings to our spirits and we should study to make up breaches S. Augustine ep 15. hath this expression speaking of the divisions of some of the Church says he I would fall down at their feet and desire them with all the might I have they would not do thus and thus that they would not cast reproaches upon one another And observe the spirit of St. Paul Phil. 2. 1 2 3. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love c. Doves cannot endure to be amongst Ravens but where they see meekness and love there those of Dove-like dispositions love to be Isaiah 60. 8. Who are they like Doves that flie to their Windows Brethren if we would expect to grow up in the ways of godliness it must be by love and union together Colossians 2. 2. Being knit together in love unto all riches of full assurance When hearts are knit together in love then a Church thrives and grows up to all riches of grace As it is in the body of a man when the members of the body are out of joynt they can neither receive strength from the body nor be useful to the body And therefore the Apostle would have us be careful if any were out of joynt to set him in joynt again that is the propriety of the word Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one set such a one in joynt that he may thrive as members in joynt thrive Christ is called the corner stone now a corner stone is that which joyns both sides together now Christ loves to be in the place of joyning where there is a joyning in mutual fellowship Although there be variety in gifts although the
garment of the Kings daughter the Church be of divers colours yet why may it not be like Christs garment without seam For the Lords sake let us take heed of divisions and quarrels especially let us take heed that under the pretence of Religion we do not maintain quarrels for this is to bring down the holy Ghost from appearing like a Dove to appear in the form of a Vulture or Raven You know what S. Paul says of speaking with several tongues will not he that comes in say you are mad When wicked men hear of so many dissonant opinions of so many dissentions among you will they not think you mad And because you all pretend Religion will they not think that that kinde of Religion which you pretend is a mad thing So far shall you be from making the way of Christ honorable in their eyes which yet should be the thing you should more desire seek after rejoyce in then your lives Religion hath the name from binding and certainly it is the best band of humane societies there is great reason then that we seek to keep it in the band of unity And that is the third thing I would say to those that are in Church-fellowship not to darken the excellency that is in communion with the Saints The fourth exhortation is that you would walk and live so as by your walking you may draw others to be in love with this fellowship as God hath made it to be glorious so that you would set out the glory of it to others that all that go by you should say Surely they are the blessed of the Lord certainly God is with them and therefore we will likewise joyn with them O what a blessed thing were it if we could by our lives convince others that we are the plants of the Lords own planting The lives of men convince more strongly then their words The tongue perswades but the life commands is the speech of an Ancient We read in Rev. 14. Those that stood with the Lamb upon Mount Zion enjoying communion there they had his Fathers name written upon their foreheads the glory of God shined in their foreheads a convincing conversation is that which God calls for at your hands Let the name of God be precious to you Is it not a precious thing to live so as to bring honor to God to hold forth the honor of God is all the glory we can bring to God let us be known to be those we profess our selves to be separated from the world by the holiness of our lives as Tertullian says of the Christians in his time they were known to be Christians from the amendment of their former lives You are joyned near to Christ as a girdle about a mans loyns take heed you be not as that girdle Jer. 13. A rotten girdle fit for nothing so were the Church of the Jews at that time but you should be as that girdle of Christ Rev. 1. A golden girdle about his paps By which the beauty and glorious condition of the Church in the Primitive times is described Let us walk so as to manifest and hold forth the beauty and amiableness of godliness in the eyes of all that they may see it whether they will or no and to force esteem from the consciences of men Cant. 6. 4. it is said of the Church She is terrible as an army with banners A Church of God that walks close to the rule is terrible to guilty consciences Let us walk so as when the Balaams of the world look upon us they may see our comely order so as to be forced to say O how goodly are thy tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel as the valleys are they spread forth as gardens by the Rivers side as the trees of Lign-Aloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedars beside the waters Numbers 24. 5. St. John Epist 1. chap. 1. 3. expresseth his desire for those whom he wrote to that they might have fellowship with him and the rest of the Saints and he brings this as an argument Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ this would be a mighty prevailing argument indeed if we walked so before others as to manifest that we in truth have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ then our fellowship would be desireable indeed CHAP. XXIII How should Gods people so walk as to draw others in love with their communion BUt how should Gods people so walk as to bring others in love with their communion First in the general take heed of those sins especially that those which you converse with are guilty of that they be not able to spy the same sins in you which their consciences accuse themselves of take heed of the pollutions of the world Cant. 6. 10. Who is she that looketh forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an army with banners The Church of God ought to be fair as the Moon but the Moon hath spots and therefore it follows Clear as the Sun and then she is terrible as an army with banners Either she will draw the hearts of others to love her or she will daunt their hearts Yea let them not see any defilement answerwable to their defilement for wicked men though they cannot spy evils in the godly yet surely they think they are guilty of the sins which they live in as well as themselves as Nero because he was unchast thought all the world was unchast and therefore the godly should labor to keep themselves from such sins as the world is guilty of that they may not spy such in them A godly man should not onely labor to be kept from outward defilement that may be done by the strength of a natural conscience without any sanctifying grace and it should be a shame to one that hath grace if he should not do that if he cannot do that how can he purge himself from secret and spiritual evils that are in the heart Secondly if you would walk so as to draw others in love to communion with you walk in singleness and uprightness of heart Acts 2. 46 47. They did eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart praising God mark what follows having favor with all the people and God added to the Church Singleness of heart makes Church-communion lovely But what is that uprightness and singleness of heart that we are to walk withal By that I mean this namely to be sure that there be an answerableness in our conversation unto all those principles of godliness that we profess for take the most strict principles of Religion and the men of the world cannot speak against them and when it comes to this is all they have to say Ah! if it were in truth and in sincerity it were something but they are hypocrites they acknowledge the principles are right but they
bearing one anothers burthens As the curtains of the Tabernacle were joyned together by loops so should the members of the Church be joyned one to another by love In the Primitive times we finde the Heathens and enemies of the Church did acknowledge there were no people in the world did love one another so as Christians did The Church of Philadelphia is blamed for nothing Philadelphia signifies brotherly love when brotherly love rules in Churches they grow to a blameless conversation before God and man Sixthly be bountiful and liberal The men of the world having skill in these things and they seeing no eminency of these in you they say Let them make what profession they will in those things we have no skill in we believe them not they are a company of false hearted people Fifthly if you would walk so as to draw others in love to communion with you labor to manifest the power of godliness by doing such things as the men of the world cannot do if the men of the world can see that men that make profession of Religion are able to do that they cannot do they see now there is some reality in Religion You know how it was with Pharaoh and his Magicians all the while Moses wrought such things that Pharaohs Magicians could do Pharaoh was not convinced but when Moses did such things that the Magicians could not do this convinced them and so for you to do that the men of the world do or can do this does not convince them says Christ If I had not done such things as no man did you had had no sin What is it to do those things which the men of the world cannot do First the resisting of strong temptations every slight temptation overcomes them but when they shall see you stand out against powerful temptations they see you have a power beyond theirs When Nebuchadnezzar saw the three Children in the fiery furnace and they were not touched by the fire he was convinced so when the men of the world shall see you in the midst of prevailing temptations and you keep your selves untouched they will be convinced and say Surely there is a power with these that we have not Secondly the overcoming of strong passions this convinces them When as those you live withal shall know there was a time you were outragious and forward at every thing that did displease you and since God hath wrought on your hearts you can be meek and patient and those passions and temptations cannot overcome you now that did before When Christ commanded the winds and seas and they were still at his word they wondred and said Who is this that the winds and seas obey him And so when you have storms and passions arise in you and you by the word of God can make all quiet men will wonder and say Who is this Thirdly if you be able to deny your selves in your wills and ends this is a thing they cannot do but now the godly if there come any word of God to shew their wills are not right they do not only change the thing their will is upon but their will is bowed to Gods word And as it was with David when he had Saul at an advantage and might have had his own will upon Saul and yet spared him how did this convince Saul Who having his Enemy would have spared him As if he had said If I had had thee at an advantage at my own will I must have had my ends And so is there any thing that the men of the world can see you may have your ends in you should rather deny your selves in them Brethren Gods people are to strive and contend with the world above all people and that for God now then that we may manifest unto the world that when we do contend with them that it is meerly-for God when it comes to our selves and our own causes we should be the most yieldable people in the world There is a time when we must contend with the world our consciences put us upon it and the cause of God puts us upon it and then they say we are stubborn proud spirits now to take off this reproach and to convince them it is not self-will therefore when it is onely your own cause yield to the utmost you can and this will convince them when you do not yield that it is not for self but for God and conscience Fourthly do good for evil this is that which the men of the world cannot do We must labor to do some singular thing for God if you onely do good for good the Publicans can do so but we must do good for evil As it is reported of Bishop Cranmer they used to say of him If they would have Bishop Cranmer their friend let them do him some ill turn Do you not think how you may be even with them that have done you an ill turn but rather go home and all the way you are going be musing and studying how you may return some good to that man that hath done you wrong and so you shall not be even with him but above him by this you shall heap coals of fire upon his head This beseems the people of God that are the peculiar of God It was a notable speech that Balaam had in Numbers 23. 9. Lo the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the Nations They are a people peculiar amongst themselves if they be such a people as are so peculiar as they must not be reckoned amongst the Nations then they must do such things as cannot be reckoned amongst the ways and works of the Nations If we should read all Authors of the Heathens yet we may finde such things in Gods people as we cannot finde in all the Authors Fifthly be joyful in affliction rejoycing in God and Christ then when all outward delight fails in very convincing If people speak so much of faith and living by faith on the promises and yet if they be crost in any thing in the world their hearts are as low and sinking as the hearts of any when men of the world see this they say Where is all their faith But if they see when affliction comes even such as would make their hearts sink and the people of God carry them out chearfully they will say Surely there is some real principle in them that we cannot see As Justin Martyr when he saw the Christians suffer such great things so chearfully says he Surely these men have more then the men of the world they have other principles and so he enquired what maner of people they were and so came to embrace the truth It is not so much to be merry and joyful over their cups the people of God cannot be merry and joyful in sensual delights but put them into afflictions and hardships and they can be chearful more then you they are not so dumpish
leaves us in the using Seneca says We live amongst things that are perishing We hear much of the vanity of the creature and we can speak much of it but how is it improved how if you perish eternally for setting your hearts upon these things and notwithstanding all your talk this dreadful noise shall be heard from you We have lost eternity for setting our hearts upon things that were for a season It is a notable speech that Ambrose hath Why will you make that which cannot be eternal for use eternal for punishment It is fading in regard of the use but it proves to be eternal in regard of the punishment Therefore when any temptation comes to draw your hearts to any thing that gives content to the flesh for a season O that you might improve this Argument to resist the temptation What shall I while away that time I have to improve for eternity to seek after you and take content and pleasure in you you are not onely temporal your selves but you do hazard the loss of eternal things and hazard the bringing of eternal evils And therefore do not think it much that I press this argument because it is ordinary all that perish perish because they set their hearts upon that which is for a season and therefore though the knowledge of this in some general notion be ordinary yet the truth is to know it powerfully indeed and effectually it is a riddle to the world It is a notable place we have in Psalm 49. 3 4. The whole scope of the Psalm is to shew the happy secure estate of the godly in all troubles and the vanishing condition of all ungodly in prosperity now mark how he calls to us in the beginning of this Psalm to hearken to this argument We might say this is an argument we have heard a hundred times and know what it is Why should we hearken so Though you think this is an ordinary Theam yet this is the great wisdom and understanding of a gracious heart to know this is the dark saying that I will open so says the Psalmist My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding I will open my dark saying So when you hear us speaking of this argument you say This is an ordinary argument but the true knowledge of it is a dark hidden thing to the men of the world and it is the work of the Spirit of God to make men know this truly and when God works any saving work upon the soul he begins in this way to settle upon the soul this truth That all the things that it hath satisfied it self in are fading and what is a year or two to enjoy all the contentments my heart can desire if then I must be gone and bid farewel to all have not I an immortal soul and when shall be the time that I shall provide for eternity And therefore I beseech you look into this argument and ponder it a little more There are three worms that are in every thing of the world to eat out the strength of it and make it fading First the worm that is bred in the natural principles the things that we set our hearts upon are made of fading principles Secondly there is the worm of the general curse that is come upon them by mans sin Thirdly there is another worm and that is the particular curse that we bring upon the creatures by our own proper sins as especially when we set our hearts upon any fading transitory things below all things in the world are subject to vanity by the general curse but the particular curse makes them more vain and shall we think to satisfie our selves in the things of the world that have these three worms feeding upon them continually to eat out the strength of them What are your hearts upon I urge it upon you as in the name of God and answer in your secret thoughts What are your hearts upon either upon things that are for a season or eternal Things that are eternal you look upon them as high notional things that never took up your thoughts much but to go into company and eat and drink and laugh and get money these are the things that are but for a season and these your hearts close with and bless themselves in What are become of all those that have had as great dealings and as many merry meetings as you and have satisfied the flesh as much as you they are gone rotten in their graves and their souls it may be crying under the wrath of an infinite God and all their bravery and delight at an end would you be in their condition It is a good observation of Abulensis to shew to us the vanity of all worldly excellency that those who have been the most glorious in what man accounts glorious and excellent have had inglorious ends by which their glory hath been stained and thereby our hearts might be taken off from such things and set upon those things which are so glorious as they will make us for ever glorious He instances in Sampson for strength and yet what a contemptible end had he So Absolom for beauty Achitophel for policy Asael for swiftness Alexander for great conquests and yet after twelve years poysoned He instances likewise in Kingdoms the Chaldaean Persian Graecian Roman how soon were they gone It is a notable speech Augustine hath Go says he and mark and attend the Sepulchres of rich men and when you see their rotten bones consider who they once were and know they do cry unto you O you men why do you seek so much to satisfie your selves in these fading things and heap upon your selves vexation to attain happiness for your selves in these things Consider our bones here and be struck with astonishment to abhor your luxury and covetousness for says he they cry thus to you You now are and we were and time will be when you shall be what we are And then consider with your selves what a doleful condition that man is in that hath set his heart upon things that are for a season When those are at an end he may say Now the thoughts of my heart and all my hopes are at an end now I must bid an eternal farewel to all my comforts to husband and wife and neighbors and friends and companions I shall never meet with you more and never have mirth and jollity and sporting and gaming any more but I must bid farewel to all the Sun is set and the season is at an end for all my comfort and before me I see an infinite vast Ocean and I must lanch into it Lord what provision have I for it What a dreadful shreek will that soul give that sees an infinite Ocean it must lanch into and sees no provision that it hath made for it Indeed those that dye and are besotted and know nothing of this infinite Ocean that they must lanch into
you no good and if this argument prevail to get off your hearts beyond things that are for a season there will arise these two questions O that I did but know how it should go with me eternally O how shall I get eternal things to be my portion CHAP. XXVIII How we should know how it will be with us for eternity and what we should do that it may be well with us eternally IF you say How shall I know how it shall be with me for eternity shall it be well or not well with my soul when I am beyond things that are for a season You may have some guess by those thoughts you have had upon things for eternity you that have given liberty to your selves to satisfie your selves in the things of the flesh and your hearts have been fully satisfied in the things of the world and this point is a strange point to you you have cause to conclude with your selves that you are in a miserable condition for eternity but if your consciences can testifie that this point the getting of your hearts from things that are but for a season and setting them upon the things that are eternal is that which the Lord hath setled upon your hearts for many years when you wake in the night or in the morning the same thoughts that are presented to me by the Word the Lord hath presented to me by his Spirit the strength and chief of my thoughts have been busied about this argument It is a good sign that God does intend good for that soul to eternity whom he is pleased to possess with the thoughts of it so deeply for the present Again consider could you not wish in your hearts that you might live always and that the content and delight in this world in meat and drink and sports do satisfie you and you think your selves happy in the enjoyment of them certainly God hath not yet savingly made known the things of eternity to you Those that God does prepare for his eternal mercies in Heaven God does take off their hearts from all things in the world that if it were put to your choice though you might have a thousand worlds you would not have them for your portion no there are more glorious more excellent things for my soul to have and therefore God forbid I should have my portion in these things though they were to endure Augustine brings in Plotinus acknowledging it the mercy of God to man that his soul is in a mortal body that the body is not immortal but that after a little time the bodies of men may be dissolved and so their souls be there for ever where the soul of the world is that is his expression 3. A third Argument that it shall be well with you for eternity is this To know what seeds of eternity God hath begun to plant in your hearts This is a certain truth There is no soul that God intends eternal life unto but God begins eternal life in this world You know what St. John says He that hates his brother hath not eternal life abiding in him Eternal life is begun in this world in all that shall be saved therefore think with your selves What seeds of eternity have I put into my soul All common graces and moral vertues are not a seed that will grow up to eternal life but saving grace will though it be under the clods for the present it will grow up eternity Fourthly Examine the Scriptures look into the book of God and see whether the Scripture speaks well on your side because that in this Book in this Scripture there God hath revealed the eternal counsels of his will and the great things about mans eternal estate there is little in all the Book of the Creature the Book of Creation revealed of the counsels of Gods will about bringing man to his eternal estate but in this Book of the Scripture he hath revealed his will concerning this and therefore confider does this speak well of your side Thus by these arguments you may know how it shall be with you for eternity But what shall we do to get a portion in those things that shall be eternal First labor to bring all things in subordination to eternity do not make other things your scope make them an underling and take no further content in them then that they may further your souls to eternity Suppose you have an estate encreasing more then another what will you do with it how will you use it wherein do you count the good of it to consist that by these things I have coming from God I hope to make use of them to fit me for eternal mercies and to treasure up eternal mercies by a sanctified holy use of these things but when temporal things come in and your hearts rest upon them without subordination to eternal things this is infinitely dangerous Secondly make conscience of the little time you have O it is but a little time you have let that be consecrated and devoted to God it is eternal happiness that you look for hereafter why should you not be willing to spend as much of this little time for it as can be Thirdly labor to be exact in all that you do for you are working for eternity As Zeuxis the Painter when he was askt why he was so accurate in his Painting says he I Paint for eternity Let us in our Christian profession be exact in our way because we live for eternity There is nothing that does make men so accurate in their way as this and let the men of the world know that this is the reason of the exactness of the ways of Gods people because they know they live to eternity Hypocrites who in Religious duties aim onely at some present some temporal good they are not exact they rest in outsides but the Saints who make eternity their aym are exact in all things especially those things that have a more immediate influence into eternity Fourthly be sure all you do you do upon divine and eternal grounds take heed of being carnal and earthly in your spiritual services but in all duties in Gods worship look to an eternal God and let your principles aims grounds and intentions be eternal The Temple was called Bethgnolam the house of Eternity do all you do in the house of God in his Ordinances in order to eternity that it may indeed be an house of eternity unto you Lastly be sure you be constant abide constantly to the end do not onely begin and now and then in a good mood have some thoughts of a good life and providing for your souls but abide be constant And if you take these ways by this you shall come to choose Moses Choice O that now in my winding up of all by all that hath been said some soul or other may have cause to bless God in being inclined to choose the same
guilty now they may be guilty of that evil afterward Now what a mercy of God is this to stop our way though it be by filth If a man be stopped from falling into a dangerous pit though it be by a heap of dirt he accounts it a mercy Thirdly they recover them out of much evil So that I may compare the reproaches of Gods people to the rags of Jeremy when Jeremy stuck in the mire in the dungeon he was pulled out by rags and so these reproaches of wicked men are rags that may pull us out of evil Fourthly God sanctifies these to his people to make them more fruitful they may be compared to the dung that husbandmen cast upon their ground they scrape up filth and dung together to lay upon their ground whereby it is more fruitful so God suffers wicked men to gather up all the filth that can be and cast upon his people which is but as dung to make fat the soil the hearts of Gods people to make them to be more fruitful in their way as indeed never do Gods people more thrive in the way of godliness then when many enemies are set to watch them And thus we have done with the Explication of the point CHAP. XXXI What use there is to be made of the reproaches the condition of Gods people is liable to IF it be thus that the estate of Gods people is an estate liable to reproaches then you that have any inclination to the ways of God examine whether you can take his way upon these terms Can you be content to be made a by-word and reproach and to have men cast all maner of filth upon you He is like to hold out in the ways of godliness that can be content to be made a by-word and reproach for godliness it is an argument that the soul is resigned up to God for ever The reason that some give of that order of the Law concerning the servant that would serve his Master for ever that he must come to the door and have his ear bored was that he might give an evident demonstration that he was indeed willing to be his Masters for ever if he would be content to endure such a reproach as that was esteemed to be amongst the Jews Boring the ear was a note of ignominy His ear was bored says Cajetan to that end that if he feared not perpetual servitude be might at least be afraid of publike ignominy and therefore he was brought to the door that he might have many to look on him and be witnesses of this his shame Secondly it should teach the godly to be accurate in their way you live amongst those that will observe you and cast filth on your faces take heed you give no just occasion it is enough we shall suffer without any just cause let us take heed they take no filth out of our own bosoms and cast upon our faces that will be grievous indeed when our consciences shall joyn with their reproaches God threatens Hos 7. ult as a great affliction that his people shall be derided by the Egyptians this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt to have the wicked deride us and that for our sin is a grievous misery Make me not a scorn says David to fools It is a great evil for a professor of Religion to make himself a scorn to the fools of the world if they will reproach us let it be for forwardness in Gods ways and not for our sin sin is onely a just reproach and therefore when Joshua circumcised the people it is said He took away their reproach therefore the place was called Gilgal because their reproach was rouled away bodily uncircumcision was a reproach much more is spiritual uncircumcision Let us take heed we do not manifest any filth to them being you live among those that will revile you whose tongues in Scripture are compared to three things a Rasor a Sword and an Arrow A Rasor that will take off every little hair so a reviling tongue will not onely take advantage of every gross sin but the least thing that another can hardly see Secondly it is compared to a Sword a sword that wounds so the tongues of revilers do a great deal of mischief but a sword can do mischief onely near hand it cannot do mischief afar off and therefore Thirdly it is compared to an Arrow that can do mischief a great way off as far as one can see a man and so revilers do not onely mischief to a man in the Town where they live but a great way off in other Towns Now if mens tongues be Rasors and Swords and Arrows the people of God had need take heed how they walk and walk accurately to give no just cause of reproach that so the reproach may fall upon themselves The third Use of the point is this Gods people are a people lyable to reproach Let those who are such from hence be exhorted that they do not further this I mean by reproaching one another it is enough that the servants of God are lyable to reproach from the world and from those that are without let not this be furthered by those that are within upon every pettish humor or every discontent presently to be casting filth one upon the face of another this is a thing unbeseeming Religion Hereby you come to deprive your selves of that evidence of the truth of grace from whence many of Gods servants receive so much comfort love to Gods people While they are in your way your hearts are towards them but if they do cross you your hearts are as perverse and froward and appear as malicious as the hearts of any So that the love you had to them was because they were in your way and not because they were the servants of God Now if you have a heart though you becrossed by them to put it up without casting dirt upon their faces your evidence will be strengthned that you love them though they be opposite to you Do not you tear the flesh of one another by reproaches it is enough that the bryers and thorns of the wilderness do tear our flesh and our names let there not be bryers and thorns amongst our selves to tear our flesh If children be casting mire and dirt upon the faces of one another how unbeseeming is it and if the father sees them how provoked is he to correct them both And so if we upon some pettish mood cast dirt upon one another expect some severe judgement from God If children be casting dirt upon one another this is enough to make them leave Your Father sees you And so you that are brethren of a Church and are casting filth upon one another know your Father sees you We should not cast reproaches upon an Enemy It is a notable speech reported of one Memon that was General of Darius Army when he was fighting against Alexander one of his Soldiers
of the Martyrs in a way of honor to them Basil speaking of the forty Martyrs breaks out into this expression O blessed tongues which put forth such a confession as the ayr receiving it was even made holy by it You must suppose the expression to be hyperbolical yet so as shews how honorable the Martyrs were in their professions of Christ Thirdly it is a greater dignity in some degree then God puts upon the Angels in Heaven the Angels glorified God in a way of service but the Angels and Saints in Heaven have not this way to glorifie God they are not called to suffer in the cause of God Thirdly the reproaches we suffer for Christ are riches of imployment in this they are called to be imployed in the greatest work that God hath to do in the world there are no people in the world imployed so to set out Gods praise as they are that are called to suffer this is the lowest subjection that can be to God but the highest honor And they are called to be maintainers of the truth of God Says Calvin upon this argument What are we poor worms full of vanities and lyes that we should be called to be maintainers of the truth The great cause of Gods truth is maintained especially in Gods peoples suffering for the truth Here is a glorious contending for the faith of God that is delivered to the Saints Those who are in Prison says Cyprian Confess God with a glorious voyce Again they are imployed in bringing credit to the Church of God Gods people that suffer are a great honor to the Church of God whereas Apostates do disgrace the Church of God those that stand out in the defence of the truth in suffering make up that honor that the Church hath lost these are great employments A gracious heart accounts it as great riches to bring honor to the Church as to have honor himself of which before It is a notable expression that Cyprian hath to set out the honor the Church hath by such who suffer for the truth O blessed Church which in our times is made glorious by the glorious blood of the Martyrs it was white by the works of the brethren now it is purple by the blood of Martyrs there are neither Lillies nor Roses wanting in her flowers white garlands from their works and purple from their sufferings Fourthly they are riches of improvement First grace is improved grace is never so improved as it is at that time when a soul suffers for Christ they most profit me says Luther who speak worst of me as opposition of sin in the wicked improves their sin so opposition of grace in the godly improves their grace Lutherus pascitur convitiis Luther made reproaches his food he was nourished by them virtutem intelligo animosam excelsam quam incitat quicquid infestat Sen. Ep. 72. Secondly here is improved whatsoever Gods people do enjoy that they are willing to lose no such improvement of a mans credit or estate as the loss of it for Christ if we would devise how we should improve and lay out all our talents for God we cannot lay them out better we shall quickly gain from five to ten here If men know how to improve their stocks to the utmost they count the knowledge of that way more then if a man had given them many hundred pounds we come to improve all that we have in a glorious maner when God calls unto suffering Thirdly by suffering Gods people come to improve the malice and wickedness that is in the Devil and men that is a great improvement when I can turn the malice of the Devil and wicked men into my riches It is a notable speech that one Vincentius had of his Persecutors Never any man did serve me better then you serve me and he told them what a great deal he did get by their malice in persecuting of him if a man were able to turn dirt into riches how would that enrich a man but to have that which can turn the dirt of wicked men and the Devil into our riches that must be a rich thing Again a childe of God never improves his time so wel as when he is suffering for God when he is a doing good he is improving his time but when he is suffering he does as much in a little time as he was doing a great while before God does much reckon upon the time of his people in suffering Fifthly sufferings and reproaches are riches of experiences As first when they are called to suffer for Christ to be reproached for Christ they have experience of Gods power in upholding them Secondly experience of the ways and many passages of the providence of God towards them in all their sufferings Thirdly they come to have experience of the working of their own hearts And lastly they come to have experience what it is to be in a suffering condition men have another apprehension of a suffering condition before they are called unto it then when they are called to it and therefore they are ready to say I never knew what a prison meant and what reproaches meant till now I do not finde that in them that I was afraid of and these experiences are great riches Sixthly reproaches and sufferings bring in rich promises and they bring in a great deal O that Christians did but know their riches in regard of the precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. Every promise is a pearl to enrich Gods people withal and where there is true grace that soul does count it self more enriched by the promises then by any trading Now the promises that are so rich unto a gracious heart they are of divers sorts As first the promise of Gods presence with them and they count those promises to be rich things as the promise of Gods gracious presence and the promise of his glorious presence and the promise of his abiding presence For his gracious promise in Isa 43. 2. When thou passest thorow the waters I will be with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Again his glorious presence and his abiding presence for that you have one promise take in both together 1 Pet. 4. 14. If you be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you there is the Spirit of God in all the Saints but there is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of glory on those that are reproached for Christ that is The glorious Spirit of God the Spirit of God in a glorious maner Secondly the Spirit of God and of glory rests upon you it does not pass away but rests upon you now what a rich promise is here and what is in all the world that may be named with this promise Secondly
promises of direction says Christ Take no thought when you are called before rulers for my names sake how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak Thirdly there are promises of assistance I will be with you to the end of the world Fourthly there is a promise of acceptance He that forsaketh houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life Fifthly a promise of blessing Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all maner of evil falsly on you for my sake Sixthly a promise of a Kingdom If we suffer with him we shall likewise reign with him Luke 22. 28 29. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me the appointing of a Kingdom follows upon their continuing with Christ in temptation Brethren God promises much to those that shall be sensible of the reproaches of others much more when thou thy self sufferest in the cause of Christ In Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn Assembly time was when the solemn Assemblies of Gods people their gathering together to hear a Sermon was their reproach and they were contemned by many were you ever in any place where the Assemblies of Gods people were reproachful and was this a burthen to your souls and grievous to you mark the blessed promise I will gather them together but to be reproached our selves and to bear our reproaches in a Christian maner great and rich promises are made unto it Seventhly in reproaches and sufferings for Christ there are rich consolations never such consolation let out to a gracious heart as when it is under reproaches and sorest persecutions if ever Christ does turn water into wine it is the tears of Gods people that are turned into wine of consolation Basil in his Oration for Barlaam that famous Martyr says He delighted in the close Prison as in a pleasant green meadow and he took pleasure in the several inventions of tortures as in several sweet flowers And Vincentius the Martyr speaking of the great things he suffered for Christ hath this expression I have always desired these dainties Luther reports of that Martyr St. Agatha that as she went to Prisons and Tortures she said she went to Banquets and Nuptails And Iames Bainham said when they kindled the fire at his feet Me thinks you strew roses before me And Mr. Saunders hath a most full expression of his consolation he felt a wonderful sweet refreshment flow from his heart unto all the members of his body and from all the parts of his body to his heart again And that Martyr Hawks lifts up his hands above his head and claps them together when he was in the fire as if he had been in a triumph this is a special fruit of the Spirit of God and of glory of which St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye suffer reproaches happy are ye the Spirit of God and glory rests upon you and one consolation one beam of Gods face is worth all the riches of the world The Sun enlightens the world says Cyprian but he that made the Sun is a greater light to you in prison that darkness which is the horrible deadly darkness of the place of punishment to others he irradiates to you with his bright and eternal light Vobis idem qui Solem fecit majus in carcere lumen fuit horribiles caeteris atque funest as paenalis loci tenebr as aeterna illa candida luce radiante Cyp. Ep. 16. Eighthly in reproaches and sufferings there are riches of glory both before the day of Judgement and after riches of glory before if so be that opinion of some be true which I dare not altogether deny of Christs coming to reign in the world here before the day of Judgement though I will not affirm it as a truth yet if there be not a truth in it I confess I cannot make any thing of many places of Scripture Rev. 20. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years I know this is ordinarily interpreted of the resurrection from sin to grace and reigning with Christ a thousand years that is reigning with him in Heaven but this cannot be the meaning of the Text this thousand years must be before the day of Judgement because Satan must be loosed after now if this prove to be true O the riches of glory that those that suffer for Christ shall have all those that have suffered for Christ they especially shall be raised up to reign with Christ on the earth and therefore you have it in ver 4. And I saw thrones and they sate upon them and judgement was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and reigned with Christ a thousand years Suppose it to be so then the more any do suffer for withdrawing himself from Antichrist the more glory they shall have when Christ comes to reign upon the earth Some are loth to receive the mark of the Beast upon their foreheads openly to appear for Antichrist yet they will have the mark of the Beast in their hands but here is a promise to them that shall refuse both and it is not meant onely of those that suffer death in their lives the death in our liberties and death in our estates and other kinde of deaths shall not go unrewarded it is a point that was spoken of in the Primitive times and afterward it was condemned upon this ground because many grew to be sensual and thought the Kingdom of Christ should be for a thousand years in pleasure to the flesh but take the Kingdom of Christ to be spiritual in the glory of his Ordinances as I am confident that Christ shall reign Personally in his flesh I will not say but Spiritually farre more gloriously then he hath done But then at the day of Judgement O the glory of those that suffer for Christ they shall have Crowns upon their heads and Palms in their hands and all their persecutors stand as base creatures before them O the imbracings that there shall be then If a father send his childe abroad about business and the childe meet with much difficulty and comes home in a rainy tempestuous day how gladly his father receives him and all are
themselves though we cannot see how we do go further yet it is an argument we do go further if we get up to this Paul made it a mighty work of grace in him that he could have his heart taken off from all temporal things that are seen and to look at eternal things that were not seen Fifthly yet we ought to look at God and to lift up God beyond our selves or any thing that concerns our selves and not to aym at God more then any worldly thing onely but to aym at God more then at the glory of Heaven But yet further though we are to aym at God beyond our own good any way yet it is the will of God that he would not have us to part with any of our spiritual good no not for any glory to his own name if you look at your reward in Heaven as spiritual you may so far look at it as not to be willing to part with it for any glory that you conceive may come to God by spiritual good I mean grace Now if it could be supposed that God should have never so much glory by my abating the least degree in grace yet I am so bound to the work of grace as I must not abate the least degree for the highest glory that can come to God yea though it is true I am to desire the glory of God and that others should glorifie God yet I should more desire the furtherance of grace in my own soul so as I should not be willing to part with the least degree of grace though thereby all the world should glorifie God But here lies one objection Paul seems to go otherwise for he wished himself accursed or anathamized from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen after the flesh so that it seems St. Paul did wish the glory of God in others more then any grace in himself To this I answer That separation from Christ we must understand rightly we are not to understand by separation that he should be separated from the Spirit and grace of Christ but that he might be separated from the comforts of Christ that he might not have that comfort and that happiness that comes in by Christ If he had desired to be separated from the grace of Christ he should have sinned in it Gods glory and our good are so annexed together that though we may suffer much for the good of others yet we are not to desire to be in any sinful condition though it could save all the world If it could be conceived unless I sin the least sin in thought all the men of the world should be damned I should suffer them all to be damned rather then to sin the least sin I remember St. Augustine hath a tractate about an officious lye to tell a lye for no hurt but for good says he We are not to tell such a lye though it were to save all the world Christ had rather all the world should have been damned then that he should have committed the least sin In the next place whosoever does understand what the true reward is that is in heaven it is impossible if he desire heaven aright but he must desire the glory of God above himself What is the heighth and top of heaven it is not any carnal good any carnal content that is the heighth and top of the glory of heaven It is that our souls being in the perfection of them might live to the praise of God for ever Now if this be the end of all we shall receive from God in heaven that we might live for ever to reflect the glory upon God again in our praise then it is impossible to desire heaven but in our desires of heaven we do desire God above our selves Surely we may freely aym at our reward in heaven for if we aym at our reward and know it aright it is such as we cannot but aym at God above our selves yea further so near is Gods glory and our reward joyned together that we cannot aym at God above our selves but we shall by that means in the best maner provide for our selves and the more we strive to aym at God above our selves we come in the best maner that possibly can be to provide for our selves And yet lastly there is a great difference between a gracious heart looking to the reward and a carnal heart looking to the reward As First the difference lies here a gracious heart does love the reward for the works sake a carnal heart does onely love the work for the rewards sake As a gracious heart loves heaven and loves the glory of heaven but it loves heaven and the glory of heaven the better because there is such a blessed way to it If a man were to go home and had an ill way he would love his home but if he have a fair smooth way home he loves his home the better for the ways sake therefore many men are at great cost to have a fair going to their houses And so a gracious heart loves the way that God does reveal to come to heaven by and loves heaven the better because of the way A carnal heart may love heaven but he does not love heaven the better for the way but wishes the way to heaven were otherwise he looks upon the way to heaven as a necessary burthen to him As a man that is going out a journey and must go through a dirty lane he goes through it but complaining and so though they desire heaven yet all the while they are complaining of the way Certainly there is a great deal of difference between the desires of heaven in a carnal heart and the desires of it in a gracious heart Secondly the eye that a gracious heaat hath to the recompence of reward is another maner of eye then any carnal heart can have What kinde of eye is it First the eye that a gracious heart hath to the reward it is a clear discerning eye he does not take the things of heaven as guesses and imaginary things but looks upon them as certain substantial realties For my own part I much doubt whether any man in the world be able to see the glorious things in heaven as certain substantial things that hath not the truth of grace The truth of grace it is partly in this thing in having that principle in the soul that makes the soul able to look at the things of heaven as the onely real substantial excellent things so as to darken all the glory of the things of the world so that when you come thus far whereas before you heard something of heaven and they were but imaginary things and now there is such a light set up in your souls as you see the things of heaven as the onely real substantial glorious things certainly there is the work of grace The ground of it is that of Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the evidence of
means that are used to attain this end and rest as namely the work of God in sending the second person in the Trinity to take mans nature upon him and all the works of God in Election in Redemption in Adoption in Justification in Sanctification yea all the works of God in creation in providence the designing the Holy Ghost to that office he is designed to and all the Ordinances of God look what preciousness is in all these works of God and means it sets out unto us the preciousness and excellency and glory that there is in the last end whereunto Gods people shall attain and that rest they shall have The seventh and last thing in having God to be their portion is the enjoyment of themselves in God as they shall enjoy God and God in themselves so they shall enjoy themselves in God living in God continually the fish does not more truly live in the water and move in the water then the souls of the Saints shall live in God and move in God Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God the life of Saints here is an hidden life and it is hidden in God but then it shall be a revealed life and revealed in God and enjoyed in God Hence is that Phrase Enter into your masters joy that enters not into you but you must enter into it it is your masters joy not onely that joy that your master gives but the same joy your master hath that you shall enter into and live in It is said of Saint John in Rev. 1. that he was on the Lords day in the Spirit it is not said that the Spirit was in him but it is said he was in the Spirit that was as a beginning of the glorious condition of the Saints of God that they shall be in the Spirit of God not onely God in them but they in God as a drop of water in the Sea swallowed up in it Put a drop of wine into the Sea it is changed into the nature of the Sea and so though we cannot be changed into the Divine Nature yet we shall be swallowed up in God so as we shal not any further minde our selves our own good as a created thing nor our selves as creatures but altogether God our mindes shall be so wholly upon God as if they were wholly emptyed of any created good and had nothing to do but with an increated good it shall not will any thing to it self nor to any other creature but all to God and so wholly taken upon with God and upon that ground because they have that likeness unto God and partake of the Divine Nature Here we do good to others because of their likeness to our selves But the Saints shall will all good to God not because God is like them but because they are like to God so that they shall love themselves for God There are three degrees of love to God loving of God for our selves and loving God for himself and loving our selves for God the one is but a natural love the second is a gracious love the third is a love of the glorified Saints First to love God for our selves so an hypocrite may love God because he hath gifts and many blessings from God this is but a natural love But grace goes further then nature that is to love God for himself though we should never have any thing yet if we be gracious we love God for himself but the glorified Saints go further then grace and that is to love themselves for God whereas heretofore we did onely love God for our selves or for himself now we come to love our selves for God and in this kinde of love of God and enjoyment of our selves in him the soul shall be ravished with God and be in a kinde of extasie eternally Now there is a twofold extasie one that is through the weakness of the inferior faculties of the soul when the minde of a man is taken up about an high object seriously the other faculties being weak they fail and so men come to be in a trance and extasie many have had great joy that they have even dyed with it the heart hath so dilated it self as the vital spirits have flown out But there is an extasie comes from the excellency of the object that the minde is busied about but without any weariness of any inferior faculty If then we put all together that hath been said about God and the enjoyment of God and having God to be the portion of the Saints you see the principal part of Heaven and the spiritual part of the glory of the Saints Here is faith called for and why should not our faith go beyond reason to rectifie reason as reason rectifies sense these things be high and great mysteries When as reason says How can this be as when Christ was speaking of the new birth says Nicodemus How can this be let but faith get as far above reason as reason hath got above sense and we may easily see how they can be by sense If a man look up to the Firmament and see the Sun shine he would think it were little bigger then a Bushel or the like now reason will tell men otherwise reason that tells men that this creature that appears to be but in this bigness it is many hundred times bigger then the Earth now if reason can rectifie sense so far Why should not faith go beyond reason as far Now reason will tell us of much happiness that may be had We may conceive by reason by understanding that the rational creature is capable of abundance of glory but when you hear things delivered by the word which are more then reason can conceive let us get faith to rectifie reason and we shall not call those truths into question and yet know that our glory will be beyond our faith as our faith is beyond our reason Here you may see that most people in the world mistake Heaven and look at Heaven in a sensual maner when we speak of Heaven where have we a man or woman that looks at Heaven in these spiritual excellencies about enjoying God in this maner As the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah whose Kingdom should be in the earth and whose glory should be external not considering the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ so most in the world look but for a carnal Heaven It is a good evidence of the truth of grace if you can look to Heaven with a right eye in a right maner to look at the spiritual part and spiritual excellency in Heaven But that which makes people to call these things in question is first because they are not acquainted with God but are sensual their hearts are acquainted with nothing but sensual and earthly things and therefore their hearts are not raised to these things but they look at them as notions but that soul that is acquainted with God and the counsels of God and