their Harvest is cut and then they gather it all into the Barn and in this Expression he shews the shortness and uncertainty of Life when one Man hath plowed sowed reaped heaped up in the Field and is near the enjoyment of the Fruit of his Labours his Soul is suddenly required his Life vanisheth and another gathers into the Barn and enjoys what he had toiled for The Holy Ghost calls it but the fashion of this world 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away Some conceive it is an Allusion to a Comedy in which one acts the part of a Buyer another of a Lover that wooes and marries and another of a Mourner but all this is a vain shew it is but a personating Men and their Actions there is nothing of this that is True and Real but all is Fiction and Imagery The Affections of the Actors do not answer to their Actions So saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30. They that have Wives should be as if they had none those that buy as if they possessed not those that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not And why should Christians be so much unconcerned about the Things of this Life The Apostle renders the Reason in ver 31. For the fashion of this world passeth away All is but a Comedy a vain shew and therefore persons should not earnestly let out their Thoughts or lay out their Affections on the things of this World Man is said to fly away as a shadow Job 14.2 and Riches are said to fly away as an eagle towards heaven Prov. 23.5 And both Expressions do set forth the Vanity of Life and Worldly Enjoyments Direction 2. Endeavour to see and seriously to believe the misery of all those that have their portion in this life Psal 17.14 David desired to be delivered from those that were men of this world and had their All here he dreads to have his Lot among such he would not eat of their dainties Psal 141.4 Their Bellies were indeed full of the choicest rarest and best Dainties of the Creature which the Psalmist calls God's hid treasure because those things are not common ordinary or every where to be found but here is no mention of any Food or Furniture for their Souls The Kings Daughter is all glorious within Psal 45.13 and David speaks of the joy that God put into his heart by the light of his countenance Psal 4 6 7. It is spoken of as a grievous sin to mind earthly things Phil. 3.19 and it is threatned as a sore punishment for Men to have their names written in the earth Jer. 17.13 They that are written in the Earth how soon may their Names be blotted out and their Happiness destroyed But it is a matter of highest comfort and joy to have our Names written in Heaven Luke 10.20 Rejoyce in this that your Names are written in Heaven The Wind or the Foot of the next Traveller may blot out a Name written in Dust but who can or shall ascend and blot out a Name written in Heaven How are Men debased that set their Hearts on things below How disgraceful is it to be called onely Men of this World Men of this Earth Children of this World stooping and bowed down wholly to these present and perishing things Psal 17.14 Psal 10.18 Luke 16.8 And how woful is their State that receive their Reward their Consolation their Good things here Matth. 6.2 Luke 6.24 Luke 16.25 But when Death comes their Candle is quite put out they have no happy Reward after Death they shall never see the Light Prov. 24.20 Psal 49.19 They shall inherit nothing but Beggary and Poverty Torments and Misery in another World This World is the Bastards Portion but Heaven is the Childrens Inheritance As Satan with the Fruit of a Tree deprived our first Parents of the earthly so Satan with the Trifles of this World cheats earthly Men and bereaves them of the Heavenly Paradise As the Israelites in Egypt laboured onely for present Meat and Drink they had no Wages from the Egyptians so Worldly Men toil onely for present Provisions and Enjoyments they shall have no reward Prov. 24.20 As Ismael was turned out of Abraham's House with a few Loaves of Bread and Bottle of Water and was not to be Heir with Isaac Gen. 21.10 14. even so the Men of this World shall be thrust and excluded out of God's House and be put off onely with present and temporal things but shall not be Heirs with the Saints in Light And shall we stay with such in the Camp Is it not better to suffer from them than to be condemned and perish for ever with them 1 Cor. 11.32 Though the wicked spring as the grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish here yet they shall be destroyed for ever Psal 92.7 Direction 3. We must overcome and be Crucified to the World Gal. 6.14 The World is Crucified to me and I am Crucified to it saith Paul If the world be as a dead Carcase to us and we are as dead Carcasses to it it will be no hard thing to separate and part two such dead Carcasses they cannot cling to and embrace each other If the world be Crucified to us that is be laid low in our esteem and judgments then we shall be Crucified to it that is our affections will die to it He that is Born of God overcometh the World 1 John 5.4 5. If men be not born of God have not a higher Nature and better life than others there will be neither Spiritual Souldiers or Weapons to fight against and overcome the World The new Nature inclines men towards and raises them up to higher Riches Honours and Pleasures than those that are the Objects of Sense Worldly lusts come to be starved by the Souls sight of and longing after heavenly enjoyments And the more these are prized and pursued the more a Christian is weaned from all things below And keeps a Spiritual Fast something like Christs Fast in the Wilderness who for Forty days did not only abstain from eating but did not hunger after Food Matt. 4.2 For it was at the end of Forty days that he was an hungry So this is that Excellent Fast that we should aspire to not to esteem hunger or lust after the things of this World Grace teaches to deny worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 13. As Pilgrims and Strangers we are to abstain from Fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 If the world live in our Hearts if our Affections cleave to it it will be a meer force an Act of Violence to tear us from what we embrace and delight in as our Happiness Thus it was with the Israelites they came out of Egypt as to bodily separation from it but they brought Egypt out in their Hearts they had Pleasant and Delightful thoughts of Egypt with Complacency they call to mind the Flesh-Pots of Egypt and the fullness of Bread they had there
not to enjoy their Happiness in the old life of the first but in the new life of the second Adam 7. Mot. By going out to Jesus Christ without the Camp we defend the Gospel strengthen the Faith and inflame the Hearts of others with love to and zeal for Christ and have the comfort of our own tryed and approved Graces First We defend and confirm the Gospel Phil. 1.7 the Apostle speaks of his Bonds as his defence and confirmation of the Gospel O! What an Honour is this to be Christs Champions and by our Sufferings to defend and confirm the Truth of the Gospel This is a rational Argument and Evidence offered to the Spectators of Saints Sufferings that surely this is truth and these men are fully satisfied and assured that it is so else they would not thus spend their Blood and lay down their lives for it Secondly This strengthens the Faith of others and incourages them to take up the Cross and daunts the Hearts of Adversaries Hereby the Faith of the Saints is fortified Phil. 2.17 Paul speaks of his being offered upon the Sacrifice and Service of the Phillipians Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is If my Blood be poured out as a Drink-Offering to shadow the Sacrifice of your Faith He alludes to the Drink-Offerings of Wine that were of Old added to Sacrifices according to the Law of Moses Levit. 23.13 18. The Sacrifice and Service of the Saints Faith would be much advantaged by Pauls Martyrdom how would his Blood water those heavenly Truths that he had sown among them and make them take deeper root and fructifie more abundantly And Pauls Bonds incouraged and imboldened others without fear to publish the Gospel while they beheld his resolution and constancy Phil. 1.12 13 14. The sparks that have flown from the Flames of Suffering and Martyred Saints have taken hold of the hearts of Spectators and have fired them with love to Christ and Zeal for his Glory Justin Martyr professes that he was much influenced and wrought upon by the courage and joy of suffering and dying Christians And hereby often the Hearts of Enemies are quailed and discouraged from proceeding in their Cruelty Austin tells that when Julian the Apostate commanded the Christians at Antioch to remove the Body of Babylas they fell a singing the 114th Psalm at which the Emperour being inraged he commanded Salustius his Captain to apprehend some of them Who accordingly took several Christians and among them one Theodorus a Young man whom he caused to be Tormented for several Hours yet he still continued singing the 114th Psalm At which Salustius was so dismaid that he caused the Tormentors to cease and went to the Emperour and desired him that no more might be Tormented for all the Christian Suffering did but tend to their Glory By whom the Emperour was perswaded to torture no more of the Christians at Antioch whom he had seized upon And hereby Christians have the comfort of their tried and approved Graces The Apostle salutes Apelles as one approved in Christ Rom. 16.10 O! what a mark of Honour is it for a man in signal services and eminent sufferings to be approved as sincere in Christ A tryed Faith is a precious Faith 1 Pet. 1.7 O! how comfortable is it for a Christian to say This Faith hath been in the Furnace this Love hath passed through a Fiery Tryal and hath not sailed or abated Christ hath been evidenced to be dearer to me than all the world 8. Mot. If we go forth to Jesus we shall be no losers by it A visit from Christ will make a Prison better than a Palace He will not leave you comfortless he will come to you John 14.18 When you are thrust out of the worlds Camp and seem as naked men in the open field yet then the Power of Christ shall rest upon you and as a Tent overshadow you as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle doth import 2 Cor. 12.9 If your sufferings do abound your consolations by Christ shall abound much more 2 Cor. 1.4 When all men forsake you the Lord will stand with you and for you 2 Tim. 4.17 Whatever you leave and forsake for Christ and the Gospel's sake shall be recompensed to you an hundred fold Matth. 19.28 29. and that now in this time as it is expressed Mark 10.30 and that with Persecutions as is further intimated though the world rage and persecute the people of God yet these Persecutions shall not frustrate or obstruct the performance of the Promise But how shall the Promise be fulfilled I answer In a double sense it is made good 1. Those that forsake their Relations according to the Flesh shall have the Favour and Friendship of a new Kindred according to the Spirit and there is nothing like to Love in the Spirit Col. 1.8 Love on a Spiritual account is the Purest and Noblest Flame an Eternal Fire that shall never be extinguished You that leave Parents Brethren Sisters Kinsmen that are related to you in the first Adam you shall have a new Stock of Kindred related to you in the second Adam Elder Christians shall express the kindness of Fathers and Mothers and younger Saints shall manifest the love of Brethren and Sisters and so you shall have a hundred Spiritual Kinsmen for one Natural Kinsman that you lose Christ designs to joyn and link Men of several Nations in the nearest best and strongest Bonds and to gather some of all Nations into one Family and houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 Ephes 2.19 and thereby to kindle the most admirable and excellent Love among the Members of this New Family And those that forsake House and Lands shall have the Hearts Houses and Purses of their Spiritual Kindred opened to them to receive their Persons and supply their Necessities and this will the more incline and sway them to extend such Kindness because they account they exercise Hospitality to Christ they take him in feed and cloath him in his Members 2. Suffering Saints receive a hundred-fold now in the present time as they experience the smallest Portion and Pittance of outward things that they enjoy to be a hundred-fold better than the greater Plenty and Abundance of the Wicked Psal 37.16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked And why is it better Surely this is that which enhances and advances the value and worth of what the Righteous have that it flows from the Love of God as a Father that it is cast in as an Addition to the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Matth. 6.33 that Godliness hath not onely the promises of this Life but of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 that as God's First-born Heb. 12.23 they have the double Portion Provision on their way and the Eternal Inheritance at the Journeys end God breeds feeds and maintains them in their Minority and hath laid up great Portions for them in Heaven there
Exod. 16.3 And in the 11. of Numb the 5. Verse We remember the Fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the Cucumbers the Melons the Leeks the Onions and the Garlick There they accounted they had their Varieties Fish and Flesh several sorts of Sallets and Fruits but now they reckoned they were at short Commons and confined to one Dish ver 6. There is nothing but this Manna before our Eyes And their Soul was dried away with it And Numb 16.13 Some of them chid with Moses and challenge him for bringing them up out of Egypt which they call a Land flowing with Milk and Honey O! how excellent pleasant a Land is Egypt in their Eye The Epithetes God gave to Canaan they transfer and apply to Egypt as if the Country they were called from did better deserve this Name than the Land that they were called to And they seemed so far to be transported with the love of Egypt and to repent of their leaving of it that they stirred up one another to make a Captain and to return thither again And Stephen asserts that they returned to Egypt again in their Hearts Acts 7.39 Thus too many pretend a separation from the World yet the World is still in their Hearts And while it is thus they will never go forth without the Camp to Jesus But Christians should strive to imitate Abraham Isaac and Jacob The Scripture saith that if they had been mindful of the Country from whence they came out they might have had opportunity to have returned Heb. 11.15 Hereby the Divine Pen-man sufficiently intimates that they were not mindful of Vr of the Chaldees the Country from whence Abraham came They did not confess themselves Pilgrims and Strangers because drawn from Vr but because they were yet on Earth and not arrived in Heaven They were quite weaned from and dead to Vr and all other Countries on Earth Thus the world should be rooted and banished out of our Minds and Hearts Christ hath chosen his people out of the World John 15.19 and therefore they should not remember or be enticed by it but leave this Camp and go forth to Jesus 4. Direct Labour to get a clear sight and deep sense of the love of Christ to perishing Sinners and particularly to your own Souls How wonderful is it that He that made all things should be made Flesh 1 John 1.2.14 that the Creator should become a Creature That the Fountain and Ocean of Being should take a Humane Nature and so become a drop of Being A Diamond or Ruby is debased when set in Iron or Lead what a wonderful condescention is it then that the Divine Nature should be joyned with a Humane Nature in the Person of the Son How did he that was in the Form of God and thought it no Robbery to be equal with God empty and humble himself by becoming man They are very Excellent and Emphatical Words that the Apostle uses Phil. 2.6 7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he emptied himself of all Majesty State and Divine Glory in the Eye of Man which the Apostle admirably expresses thus He was found in Fashion like a Man That is he looked but like an ordinary and common Man as if there were nothing extraordinary or supernatural in him as if he were no more than a Man Thus he vailed his Eternity Omnipotency Immensity and infinite Wisdom by becoming an Infant of Days a Weak Child confined to a Manger or a Cradle and not able for the present to speak and express the inward Sentiments of his Soul The Ancient of Days yea he that was Ancienter than Days whose goings forth were from Everlasting came forth of Bethlem but yesterday Mic. 5.2 All Temporal Benefits are compared by Parisiensis to sparks of Fire But when Jesus Christ came into the World this he saith was a Mountain of Fire cast into the Earth How should the Hearts of the Sons of Men be inflamed by this wonderful and astonishing kindness of God in sending his Son And Christ did not stop here but he stooped yet lower when he was he found in fashion of an ordinary common Man he humbled himself to death and that not an ordinary or common one but to the death of the Cross A death that Servants Thieves and the worst of Malefactors were adjudged to A painful lingring and most shameful death it was and this he did undergo that Sinners might not Perish Everlastingly He that was the Judge and might have destroyed Offenders O! that he should stand and suffer as an Offender He that might have Executed Vengeance on us did endure it for us He to whose Justice we might have been offered up as whole burnt-Offerings in Everlasting Flames became a Sacrifice himself Needed the Father or the Son to have valued the loss and ruine of a world of Sinners What are all Nations to God but as the drop of a Bucket and as the small Dust that cleaves to the Ballance Is 40.15 And who values the loss of a drop of Water or of a mote of Dust And as unconcerned might God have been at the loss of the whole World but the Bowels of the Son of God yearned towards a perishing World and rather than the Sheep should go to the Slaughter the Shepherd offers himself to be their Ransom and Exchange And how resolved was Jesus Christ to perfect this work Is 50.6 7. He gave his Back to the Smiters his Cheeks to those that plucked off the Hair He hid not his Face from Shame and Spitting he set his Face as a Flint This expression may be illustrated and commented on by the words of Luke Luke 9.51 In Isaiah we have the Prophesie in Luke the History of Christ He stedfastly set his Face to go up to Jerusalem saith Luke He set his Face as a Flint saith Isaiah Christ was resolved to go through the Storm he knew what a dreadful Tempest did abide him at Jerusalem yet he would not recoil draw back or turn his Face from it He was as stedfast as resolved as if his Face had been a Flint and without sense or feeling of Pain and anguish of Blows and Wounds Again it is said he poured out his Soul to the death Is 53.12 How much love is implyed and imported in this Expression That Christ had as low and vile thoughts of his Life and was as freely and willingly ready to part with it as if he had but poured out so much Water on the ground O! how bounteous and large Hearted was Christ that he did not spare his very Blood Love made him yet wisely and holily prodigal of his Life he poured out his Soul to the death Christ's Adversaries upbraided him thus Matth. 27.42 He saved others but himself he cannot save These very Words of Christ's Enemies signifie and set out to us the wonderful Love and excellent Self-denial of Jesus Christ He wrought Miracles to heal the Diseases of some and he raised up others from the Dead some
he kept from presently falling into the Hands others he rescued from the Jaws and Power of Death And they thought surely he that was so kind to others would much more be prompted and induced by Self-love to save himself if he could and because he did not deliver himself they conclude he could not How do they exult and triumph as if his Power were dried up and gone his mighty Arm withered or broken as if his Relief and Help were confined to others but he could extend no Salvation to himself And why did not Christ then save himself Surely it was in wonderful pity and kindness to Sinners that he would not save himself till he had suffered and satisfied for them and so could not onely save himself but also save them too O how was Christ wholly swallowed up in Love to his Father and perishing Sinners when he prayed thus Father glorifie thy own Name John 12.27 28. As if he should say Father whatever become of me whatever I suffer and endure glorifie thy own Name glorifie thy Justice in punishing Sin and so make way to glorifie thy Mercy in pardoning Sinners Meditate of these great Truths of the Gospel use them as a Spiritual Burning-glass till thy Heart be enflamed towards Jesus Christ Direction 5. We must have an high Esteem and Value for Jesus Christ and our Hearts must burn with Love towards him 1. We must have an high Esteem of Jesus Christ Cant. 5.10 My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest of ten thousands White as to the Purity of his Life and Ruddy in his Bloody Passion and Death Psal 45.2 Thou art fairer than the children of men Grace is poured out into thy lips Thy Name saith the Church Cant. 1.3 is as an Ointment poured out All his garments smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia Psalm 45.8 We must account Christ better than our People and our Fathers House That it is our Interest to please him though we disgust and displease the whole World and that it will be our advantage to cleave to him though all men should frown on us be imbittered towards us and inraged against us His Love is better than Wine and his Kindness better than Life Cant. 1.4 Ps 63.3 Let all the world be put into the Ballance to weigh against Christ it will be found to be lighter than Vanity what is all we have to be esteemed in regard of Christ We must sell all to buy the Pearl of Price but we must not sell this Pearl to buy Peace Liberty or a quiet enjoyment of our Estates in the World If we come out from Wicked Men God and Christ will receive us 2 Cor. 6. 2 last Verses We should little regard the Worlds rejecting of us if Christ will receive us Should a Man be grieved if he be turned out of the Cottage of a Beggar and received into the Palace of a King As the King of Sodom said to Abraham give me the Persons and take thou the Goods to thy self So we should say to Carnal men take you the Goods of this world to your selves but leave me the Person of Christ and I shall account my Lines are fallen to me in Pleasant Places and I have a goodly Heritage 2ly Our Hearts must Burn with love towards Jesus Christ Cant. 8.6 7. Many Waters cannot quench love neither can the Floods drown it O such a divine Flame of love should be kindled in our Hearts that if the World lets in upon and turns over us Rivers of afflictions Floods of sufferings yet all may not be able to quench it If we thus love Jesus Christ we shall follow him As Ruth said to Naomi Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee For whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy People shall be my People and thy God shall be my God Ruth 1.16 So those that love Christ will say to the World Allure me not to leave Jesus Christ or to return from following of him where he is there will I be his God shall be my God his People shall be my People As Peter was so in love with Christ that he cast himself into the Sea that he might swim and come to Christ standing on the Shoar John 21.7 So Christians that highly prize and dearly love him will be willing not only to come to Christ by a Natural death as other Disciples came to Christ by their Boat or little Ship John 21.8 but to be cast into a Sea of sufferings and so come to Christ by a violent Death As Ignatius an ancient Father in his Epistle to the Romans expresses himself thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Fire the Cross the Wild Beasts and other Instruments of Cruelty come on me onely that I may obtain and enjoy Christ He cared not what he suffered or endured so that he might come to Christ Love is said to be stronger than Death and Jealousie is cruel as the Grave Cant. 8.6 As Death kills the strongest and the Grave swallows up all the bodies put into it and turns them into Dust so true servent love to Christ will subdue all opposition Conquer all resistance and is Cruel to what would tempt or draw it from Christ So did Paul love Christ that he desired to be dissolved to be taken to pieces so that his Soul might be with Christ Phil. 1.23 6. Direct We must eye and frequently think upon the Examples of suffering Saints who through Faith and Patience have inherited the promised Kingdom and inheritance Heb. 11.36 37 38. there is a short account of the various sufferings of several of the Lords Worthies what losses they sustained what tortures they endured that they might obtain a better Resurrection Heb. 11.35 yet the World to come was not so much Unvailed and Revealed then as it is now well may the duty of self-denial and bearing the Cross be more explicitely required and more often pressed in the Gospel Matth. 16.23 24. when the motives and incouragements to it are more clearly and abundantly revealed We see Death foiled and abolished a new Life obtained and Heaven possessed by Christ as a fore-runner Yet Saints of old supported their Hearts with the hope of a glorious Resurrection and this carried them through the greatest losses and the most exquisite torments and their Example is improved in Hebr. 12.1 Being compassed with such a cloud of Witnesses let us run the Race that is set before us There may perhaps be an allusion to the Cloud that went before and guided the Israelites in the Wilderness and directed them in the way to the Earthly Canaan So we have a great Cloud of Spiritual Witnesses that have testified God's Truth and their own Love and Loyalty to him with their Blood and shall not their Examples both guide and animate us to the same Faith and Patience as they practised Their sufferings teach us that the way to
the Heavenly Canaan lyes through the Briars and Thorns of afflictions and that through many Tribulations we must expect to enter into the Kingdom of God We may learn from them that it is possible for poor frail Men to overcome all the Rage and Cruelty of the World that the greatest Torments may be patiently endured and that Christ can Ride Triumphant on such poor Worms as we are and by the weakest conquer all the strength and power of the World The same Spirit that animated and enabled them is yet alive to Cloath us with like Magnaminity and Resolution the Captain of Salvation is the same the Spiritual Weapons that we are to fight with are the same the promises of Spiritual supplies and supports are the same why then should Christians now despond or despair of like success and victory How many of the Primitive Saints did trend in their steps despising Torments and trampling on Death it self Justin Martyr * In dial cum Tryph. Jude◠applies that of Micah 4.4 to the Christians of his time he thus Addresses to the Enemies of the Church saying You behead us burn us and in several other ways kill us but yet you cannot make us afraid or destroy us When the Devil raged in the Roman Heathen Emperour Rev. 12.1.2 3 4. A great Red Dragon standing before the Church that was as a Woman in Travel to devour her Man-Child to destroy any Christians as soon as they were Spiritually brought forth to Christ yet this did not hinder Men from Embracing and Professing Christianity v. 11. but they overcame all the threatnings and cruelty of the World by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their Testimony and they leved not their lives unto the death Cyprian said of old Nos Christiani Spiritu magis viventes sumus quam Corpore We Christians do live rather in our Spirits than in our Bodies They did estimate and value the life of their Better and despise the life of their Baser part Arnobius contr Gentes tells the Heathen You benefit and not hurt us by killing of us our Souls are in our Bodies as in a dark Prison and by Martyring of us you do but pull down the Walls of our Prison and let in the pure and comfortable light upon us What a great Speech is that of Ignatius in Epist ad Rom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now being bound in Christ I learn to desire no worldly or vain thing He intimates he was weaned from and dead to all things in this World And doth not the same Spirit dwell and act in all the Saints of God How then should we trust upon the same Spirit for the same quickning Courage and Strength Direction 7. We must look beyond this World and above our ill Treatment and Usage here Faith sees him that is invisible Heb. 11.27 and causes the Soul to look at the things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4. last Though Christ be withdrawn from the Eye of Sense and Heaven be behind the Vail far removed from the Apprehensions of the Natural Man yet Faith can pierce the Heavens behold the Churches King there in his Glory and see that goodly Heavenly Canaan that is afar off Isa 33.17 If your Eye doth not go out of the World your Hearts will not go beyond it and if your Eye and Hearts do not pass out of this World you will never be willing to go without the Camp to Jesus It is Faith that must survey that glorious City that is above and make report of it to the Soul It is the Belief of what is testified of it in the Scripture that must animate the Soul to overcome all the Dangers and Difficulties that are in the way to it You must listen to what the Word declares concerning this excellent City Glorious things are spoken of this Heavenly Zion the City of our God Christ mentions it as an excellent Privilege to have the Name of the City of his God to be written on any Man and for him to be reputed a Citizen of the New Jerusalem Rev. 3.12 I will write upon him that overcomes the Name of the City of my God There is no Temple or need of the Light of the Sun or of the Moon in this City God is All here to his People to their Souls without Ordinances and to their Bodies without Creatures Rev. 21.22 23. This is a most rich and self-sufficient City it needs not Provisions to be brought in from without the Tree of Life grows in it Rev. 22.1 2. and a River of pure Living Water issues from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. The Fruit of this Tree of Life and this River of Living Water will make a delicious and eternal Feast to all the Inhabitants of this Blessed City Look for this abiding City that hath Foundations Heb. 11.10 Heb. 13.14 from whence all Sorrow Pain Misery and Death are banished for ever and where fulness of joy doth dwell and rivers of spiritual pleasures do flow for evermore All Gods Children shall be gathered into their Fathers House all his Subjects shall be taken into and shall dwell in the Kings Palace And Gods Palace is not like the Great Turk's Seraglio * Turkish Seragl at the end of Tavernier 's Travels which one ingeniously calls a Paradise for one but a Prison to all others that reside in it But this Royal Mansion of the King of Glory is not only a Paradise to Christ but to all his Members they enjoy the Riches partake of the Honours and taste the Pleasures of it Let Faith pass within the Walls and walk in the Streets of this heavenly Jerusalem O! strive by a Spiritual Eye to see the true King Solomon wearing his Glittering and Glorious Crown though men hid their Faces from him as a Leper trod on him as a Worm despised and abbhored him Is 49.7 yet he was glorious in the Eyes of the Lord God the Father received him into Heaven and welcomed him thither with these Honourable Words Sit thou on my Right Hand till I make all thy Foes to be thy Footstool Ps 110.1 And as Christ was treated after his Sufferings so will he entertain his People after their Sorrows and Afflictions How welcome will they be to him when they come out of the Field and arrive from off a Stormy and Raging Sea how will he chear and comfort them How kindly will he speak to them What marks of Honour will he put upon them How will he praise their Faith commend their Love approve and applaud their Constancy and Loyalty to him 1 Pet. 1.7 How honourably doth Christ speak of Antipas Rev. 2.13 He Styles him Antipas his Faithful Martyr So Christ will Paint out the Services and Sufferings of his People before his Father he will acknowledge and confess their Names thus These are they that have followed me in a Wilderness that have walked after me in the Valley of the Shadow of Death that have abode with me in