for better things then wee can see or heare in this world yet we imploy thē in things of the world wholly Let us not doe as some shallow proud heads that regard not divine things the holy Scriptures they will not vouchsafe to read once a day perhaps not once a weeke nay some scarce have a Bible in their studies For shame shall we be so Atheisticall when God hath provided such excellent things conteined in this booke of God the Testament shall wee slight these excellent things for knowledge that shall perish with us as St. Paul saith before the Text the knowledge of all other things is perishing knowledge of perishing men Learne on earth that that will abide in heaven sayth S. Austin If wee bee wise let us know those things on earth that the comfort of them may abide with us in heaven Therefore let us be stirred up to value the Scriptures the mysteries of salvation in the Gospel they are things that Eye hath not seene nor Eare heard c. Nay I say more that little that wee have here by hearing truths unfolded whereby the Spirit of God slides into our hearts and workes with them there is that peace that a man hath in his heart in the unfolding of the poynt of Iustification or Adoption or any divine comfort that it breeds such inward peace and joy as is unspeakable and glorious All that we have in the world is not worth those little beginings that are wrought by the hearing of the word of God here If the first fruits here be joy oftimes unspeakable and glorious if the first fruits be peace that passeth understanding what will the consūmation and perfection of these things be at that day Againe here you see a ground of the wonderfull patience of the Martyrs You wonder that they would suffer their bodies to be torne and have their soules severed so violently from their bodies Alas cease to wonder when they had a sence wrought in them by the spirit of God of the things that eye hath not seene nor eare heard If a man should have asked them why they wold suffer their bodies to be misused thus when they might have redeemed all this with a little quiet oh they would have answered presently as some of them have done wee suffer these things in our bodies and in our sences for those that are above our sences wee know there are things layd up for us that eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. What doe you tell us of this torment and that torment we shall have more glory in heaven then wee can have misery here for wee can see this and there is an end of it but wee shall have joy that eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. As St. Paul most Divinely in diverse places in Rom. 8. the things that wee suffer here are not Worthy of the glory that shall be revealed Therefore let us not wonder so much at their patience as to lay up this ground of patience against an evill day when we may be drawne to seale the truth with our blood By the way learne what Popery is they thinke to merit by their doing but especially by their sufferings though they be ill doers and suffer for their demerits this is their glory Shall those stayned good workes put case they were good workes they be defiled and stayned and as menstruous cloathes as it is Isaiah 64. shall they merit the glory to bee revealed that is so great that eye hath not seene c. What proportion is there In merit there must be a proportion betweene the deed done and the glory what proportion is there betweene stayned imperfect defiled workes and the glory to bee revealed Should not our lives be almost angecall What manner of men should wee be in all holy conversation Considering what things are layd up in heavē we have the first fruits of them here Can men be too holy and exact in their lives that looke for things that eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. I wonder at the stupiditie and hellish pride and malice of mens hearts that thinke any man can be too exact in the maine duties of Christianity in the expression of their love to God in the obedience of their lives in abstinence from the filthinesse of the world and the like Can a man that lookes for these excellent transcendent things be too careful of his life I beseech you your selves be Judges The end of the first Sermon HIDDEN SECRETS Revealed by the GOSPEL The second Sermon I. COR. 2. 9. As it is written Eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. THE Apostle sets out the Gospell here with all the commendations that any skill in the world can be commended by From the authour of it God From the depth of it it is Wisedome in a mystery hidden wisedome From the antiquity of it it was ordained before the world was From the benefite and use of it for our glory God is content his wisedome should be honoured in glorifying us such is his love And then when it was revealed that none of the Princes of the world he meanes not onely commanding Potentates but he being a scholar himself esteemed Philosophers Pharisees and learned men to be Princes because the excellencie of a man is in the refined part of man his soul none of these Princes of the world for all their skill and knowledge knew this In this verse hee shewes the reason why Eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. He removes knowledge by removing the way and means of knowledge The meanes of knowledge in this world is by the passage and entrance of the sences Now this heavenly mystery of the Gospell it is such a knowledge as doth not enter into the soule by the sences The poynts we propounded were these I That God hath a people in the world whom he favours in a speciall manner Then secondly For these that he accounts his friends he hath prepared great matters Kings prepare great matters for those they meane to advance what shall wee thinke then God will doe for his friends Now these things prepared they are great matters indeed for in the third place they are such as Eye hath not seene nor eare heard c. And then in the fourth place the disposition and qualification of those for whom God hath prepared such great matters it is for those that love him not for his enemies or for all men indifferently but for those that love him Of the first and second I spake in the former and I wil not now stand to speake of them but enlarge my selfe in the two last The things that God hath prepared for them that love him are such excellent things as neither eye hath seene nor eare heard c. He meanes the naturall eye and eare and understanding or heart of man There bee 3. degrees of
And love is such a thing as every one may try himself by if he had named either giving or doing of this or that men might have sayd I cannot doe it or I cannot part with it but when he names love there is none but they may love The poynt considered was that There must be a qualification of those that heaven is provided for They must bee such as love God such as are altered and changed and sanctified to love him Because no uncleane thing shall enter in thither Because wee cannot so much as desire heaven without a change we cannot have communion there with Christ and those blessed soules without likenesse to them which must be by a spirit of love our natures must bee altered Therefore it is a vaine presumption for any man to thinke of heaven unlesse he finde his disposition altered For wee may read our eternall condition in heaven by our disposition upon earth The Apostle Peter sayth 1 Pet. 1. Blessed bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that hath begotten us to a lively hope of an inheritance immortall and undefiled reserved in heaven So that the inheritance in heaven wee are begotten to it wee must be new borne we must have a new birth before wee can inherit it hee hath begotten us to an inheritance immortall c. Hee that is not a childe may not thinke of an inheritance Put case there bee never so many glorious things in heaven that eye hath never seene nor eare ever heard c. if our names be not in Christs will that we are not his and prove our selves to be his by the alteration of our dispositions what are all those good things to us when our names are not contained there It is called a hope of life a lively hope because hee that hath this hope purgeth himselfe it makes him vigorous and active in good if his hope of life make him not lively he hath no hope of life at all Therefore those that will looke for heaven that Sathan abuse them not by false confidence let them looke whether God have altered their hearts that the worke of grace be wrought in some measure For God hath not ordained these great things for his enemies for blasphemers that take Gods name in vaine that run on in courses contrary to his will and word that live in sinnes against the light of nature do you thinke he hath provided these great matters for them he hath another place for them Therefore let us not be abused by our owne false hearts to thinke of such a happy condition unlesse we finde our selves changed unlesse we be new borne we shall never enter into heaven Lord Lord say they Christ brings them in pleading so Lord Lord not that they shall say so then that is not the meaning but now they cherish such a confidence Oh we can speake well and we can pray wel Lord Lord. Oh thou vaine confident person thy confession and profession Lord Lord shall doe thee no good I will not so much as owne thee Away hence thou worker of iniquitie thy heart tels thee thou livest in sinnes against conscience away avaunt I will none of thee God in mercie to us will have the triall of the truth of our evidence in us The ground of all our salvation is his grace his free favour and mercie in his owne heart but we cannot goe thither he would have us to search within our selves and there we shall finde Love God hath prepared for those that love him In particular therefore Those that God hath provided so excellent things for they are such as love him They are such first of all that are beloved of him and shew that they are beloved of him by their love to him Therefore when the Papists meet with such phrases they think of merit he hath provided heaven for them that love him and shew their love in good workes But we must know that this is not brought in as a cause why but as a qualification of the persons who who shall inherit heaven and who shall have these great things It is idle for them to thinke that these things are prepared for those whom God foresees would doe such and such good workes it is as if we should thinke hee hath provided these happy things for those that are his enemies For how could he look for love from us in a state of corruption when the best thing in us was enmitie to him Is it not a vaine thing to looke for light from darknesse to look for love from enmity and hatred therefore how could God foresee any thing in us when he could see nothing but enmity and darknesse in our dispositions by nature And then as we shall see afterward this love in us it must bee with all our heart and soule and might it is required and commanded and when wee doe all this wee doe but what wee are bound to doe But they abuse such places upon so shallow ground that indeed it deserves not so much as to be mentioned To come then to the poynt it selfe the disposition of those that shal come to heaven then is they must be such as love God Now hee names this because these two goe alwayes together there goes somewhat of ours together with somewhat of Gods to witnesse to us what God doth There goes our choyce of God with his chusing of us our knowing of God with his knowledge of us our love to him with his love to us therefore because these are so connexed and knit together hee takes the one for the other and to make it familiar to us hee takes that which is most familiar to us our love to him Now hee names this above all other affections because love is the commanding affection of the soule it is that affection that rules all other affections hatred and anger and joy and delight and desire they all spring from love because all duties spring from love both to God and man therefore both Tables are included in love And when the Apostle would set downe the qualification of those that shall enjoy these things he sayth they are for those that love him Because it stirres up to all dutie and addes a sweet qualification to every duty and makes it acceptable and to rellish with God it stirres up to doe and qualifies the actions that come from love to bee accepted All duties to man spring from love to man and love to man from love to God it is the affection that stirres up the dutie and stirres up the affection fit for the dutie it stirres up to doe the thing and to do all in love Whatsoever wee doe to God or man it must bee in love all that God doth to us it is in love hee chuseth us in love and doth every thing in love and all that wee doe to God it must be in love Therfore he names no other affection but this because it is
I will onely name them to open our understandings a little First It is enough that God will have it so a modest Christian will be satisfied with that that God will have a difference betweene heaven and earth Gods dispensation may satisfie them 2. God wil have a difference betweene the warring Church and the triumphing Church This life is a life of Faith and not of sight We walke and live by faith Why partly to try the truth of our faith and partly for the glory of God that he hath such servants inn the world here that will depend upon him upon termes of faith upon his bare word that can say there are such things reserved in heaven for me I have enough what a glory is it to God that he hath those that will trust him upon his bare word It were no commendation for a Christian to live here in a beautifull glorious manner if hee should see all and live by sight If he should see hell open the terrours there for him then to abstraine from sinne what glory were it the sight would force abstinence If he should see heaven open and the joyes of it present it were no thanks to be a good man for sight would force it The second Reason is this that God will have a known difference between hypocrites and the true Children of God If heaven were upon earth and nothing reserved in faith and in promise every one would be a Christian but now the greatest things being laid up in promises wee must excercise our faith to waite for them now there are none that will honour God in his word but the true Christian that there are such excellent things reserved in another world in comparison of which all these are base there is none but a true Christian that will honour God upon his word that will venter the losse of these things here for them in heaven that wil not lose those things that they have in reversion and promise for the present delights of sinne for a season Wheras the common sort they heare say of a heaven and happinesse and a day of judgement c. But in the meane time they will not deny their base pleasures and their Rebellious dispositions they wil crosse themselves in nothing doe wee thinke that God hath prepared heaven for such wretches as these oh let us never thinke of it God therefore hath reserved the best excellencies for the time to come in promises and in his word if we have grace to depend upon his word and in the meane time goe on and crosse our corruptions it is an excellent condition to be so it shewes the difference that God will have between us and other men Againe thirdly our vessells could not containe it Wee are uncapable our braine is not strong enough for these things as weake braines cannot digest hote liquors so we cannot digest a large revelation of these things As wee see St. Peter was not himselfe in the transfiguration hee forgot himselfe and was spiritually drunke with joy with that hee saw in the mount hee wote not what hee said as the Scripture saith when hee said Master let us make three Tabernacles c. Nay Saint Paul himself the great Apostle when hee saw things in heaven above expression that could not nor might not be uttered could not digest them They were so great that if he had not had somewhat to weigh him downe to ballance him hee had been overturned with pride therefore there was a pricke in the flesh sent to Paul himselfe to humble him Are wee greater than Paul and Peter the great Apostles of the Jewes and Gentiles when these grand Apostles could not containe themselves when they see these heavenly things and but a glimpse of them the one did not know what he said and the other was humbled by way of prevention with a pricke in the flesh and shal we think to conceive of these things No we cannot for that is to be in heaven before our time These and the like reasons wee may have to satisfie us in this why wee cannot conceive of the things to come as they are in their proper nature God sayth to Moses when Moses would have a fairer manifestation of God No man can see me and live If we would see God as he is we must die If we would see heaven and the joyes of it as it is wee must die first No man can see the things that the Apostle here speakes of in their proper light and excellencie but he must die first They are not proportionable to our condition here for God hath resolved that this life shall bee a life of imperfection and that that shall be a perfect estate of perfect glory Alas our capacities now are not capable our affections wil not containe those excellent things therefore God traines us up by little and little to the full fruition and enjoying of it Thus we see how wee come to have some knowledge of them and why we have not a full knowledge of them here Well to leave this and goe on If this be so then let us oft thinke of these things The life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world by the consideratiō and meditation of the life of another world nothing more steeres the life of a Christian here then the consideration of the life hereafter not only by way of comfort that the consideration of immortal life glory is the comfort of this mortall base life but likewise by way of disposition and framing a man to all courses that are good There is no grace of the spirit in a manner but it is set on worke by the consideration of the estate that is to come no not one What is the worke of faith It is the evidence of things not seene It sets the things of another world present before the eye of the soule and in that respect it is victorious it conquers the world because it sets a better world in the eye Where were the exercise of faith if it were not for hope of such an estate which feeds faith the excellencie of faith is that it is about things not seene it makes things that are not seene to be seene it hath a kind of omnipotent power it gives a being to things that have none but in the promise of the speaker And for hope the very nature of hope is to expect those things that faith believes Were it not for the joyes of heaven where were hope It is the helmet of the soule to keepe it from blowes and temptations It is the Anchor of the soule that being cast within the vaile into heaven stayes the soule in all the waves and troubles in this world the consideration of the things to come exerciseth this grace of hope we looke within the vaile and cast anchor there upward and not downeward and there wee stay our selves in all combustions and confusions by the exercise of
and strength of our affections with all my strength bee a man what hee will be if hee bee a Magistrate with the strength of his magistracy if he be a minister with the strength of his ministeriall calling in any â—â—ndition I must love him with al that that condition inableth me to For it is a commanding affection and being so it commands all within and without to give content to the person loved it commands the wit to devise and the memorie to retaine good things it commands joy and delight it commands anger to remove hindrances and so all outward actions love commands the doing of all things it sets all on worke It is a most active affection it is like to fire it is compared to it it sets all on worke and commands all that man is able to doe Therefore those that studie not in all their indeavours according to their callings and places according to every thing that God hath intrusted them with to please God and to honour him in their conditions they love not God What a shame is it that when God hath given us such a sweet affection as love that hee should not have our love againe when wee make our selves happy in loving him He is happy in his owne love the father Sonne and holy Ghost but when hee intends to make us happy it is a shame that wee should not bestow our affections upon him Much might bee sayd to this purpose for the triall of our selves whether we love God or no. Let us not then forget these things for it is the command both of the old and new Testament they run both upon love I give you a new Command sayth Christ and yet it is no new command but old and ordinarie But it is commanded now in the Gospell that is it is renewed by new experiments of Gods love in Christ that we should love him as hee hath loved us which is wonderfully that wee should love him and love one another And all this is in this affection as we see when the holy Ghost would set out the disposition and qualification of such as those great things are prepared for that neither eye hath seen nor care heard nor hath entred into the heart of man hee sets it downe by this They are for those that love him FINIS SERMON the fourth 1 COR. 2. 9. As it is written eye hath not seene nore care heard nor hath entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him THat which hath already been sayd should force us to begge the Spirit of God to teach the heart to teach us the things themselves the inside of them for a spirituall holy man hath a spirituall knowledge of outward things of the creatures hee fees another manner of thing in the creature then other men doe As another man hath a naturall knowledge of spirituall things so a holy man hath a spirituall knowledge even of the ordinary Workes of God and rayseth and extracts a quintessence out of them that a worldly man cannot see to glorifie God and to buyld up his faith in the sense of Gods favour c. This I adde by the way to that But the highest performance of this that there are things provided for Gods people that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard c. It is reserved for another World for the promises of the Gospell have then their fulfilling indeed These words are true of the state of the Gospell here now but they have their accomplishment in Heaven for whatsoever is begun here is ended there peace begun here is ended there joy that is begunne here it shal bee ended there Communion of Saints that is begun here it shall be ended there Sanctification that is begun here it shall be ended there so all graces shall be perfect and all promises performed then That is the time indeed when God shall discover things that neither eye hath seene nor eare heard c. In the meane time let us learne to beleive them and to live by faith in them that theâ—e are such things And GOD resetves not all â—or another World but gives his Children a tast of those things before hand to comfort thâ—m in their distresses in this world as indeed there is nothing in this world of greater use and comfort to rayse them then the beginnings of Heaven upon earth a little peace joy in the holy ghost will make a man swallow all the discontents in the world Now God is so far good to us as that he lets us have somâ— drops of these things before hand to rayse up our spirits that by a tast we may know what great things hee hath reserved for us but of these things and the use of them I spake before We came then to speake of the qualificatioÌ„ of the persons For them that love him Not that we love God first and then God prepares these things for us but God prepares them and acquaints us what he meanes to doe with us and then we love him A christian knowes before what title he hath in Christ to Heaven and then he works he knowes Christ hath wrought salvation for him and then he workes out his salvation in a course tending to salvation in a course tending to salvation for there must be working in a course tending to the possession of salvation that CHRIST hath purchased wee must not worke and thinke by it to merit Heaven wee know wee have Heaven and those great things in the Title of Christ and then wee fall on loving and working There is a cleane contrary order betweene us and those mercinaries they invert the order of God for for whom God hath prepared these things hee discovers them to the eye of faith and then faith works by love this I adde by the way Now he sets downe this description of those persons for whom these excellent things are prepared by this affection of love by this grace of love as being the fittest for that purpose to describe a Christian. Faith is not so fit because it is not so discernable we may know our love when wee cannot know our Faith Oft times those that are excellent Christians they doubt whether they beleive or no but aske them whether they love God and his truth and children or no oh yes they doe Now God intending to comfort us sets out such an affection as a Christian may best discerne for of all affections we can discerne best of our love But to come to the affection it selfe there are 3. things in love There is the Affection Passion Grace of love wee speake of the grace here The affection is naturall The passion is the excesse of the naturall affection when it over flowes its bound Grace is the rectifying of the naturall affection and the elevating and raysing it up to a higher object then nature can pitch on The Spirit of God turnes nature into grace and workes corruption and