Hypocritical persons that are secret adversaries to Truth and Piety as 2 Cor. 11.26 Psal 55.12 13. You shall have no discouraging company in Heaven that will clog and thwart and hinder you in that that is good none to oppose either Truth or Piety but all to joyn with one accord in the serving and Glorifying of God 3. Divisions differences and dissentions among the Godly which the state of Imperfection on earth is lyably to and lamentably cumbred with and trouble and disquietment multiplied thereby but no such thing in Heaven there is but one mind and one mouth in Heaven as there is but one truth not so much as a dissering apprehension among all the thousands and millions of Saints there There we shall fully attain what is exhorted to 1 Cor. 1.10 and prayed for Rom. 15.5 6 7. There that goodly sight is to be seen in perfection Psal 133.1 The state of perfection there implyes and infers this Hebr. 12.23 The Saints while children may wrangle and contend and differ but when grown up to their adult age and to a perfect man they will have more grace than so Ephes 4.13 14. That ignorance weakness and darkness whereby we are oft here mistaken and miss the truth and cannot see the same truth by the same light our knowing in part whence we may be mistaken in part ignorant in part will then be done away and hence perfect union in the truth which is but one 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. Si non amplius in his terris te visurns sum said old Grineus writing to Chytraeus apud Milch Adam pag. 879. ibi tamen conveniemus ubi Luthero cum Luingleo optimè jam convenit Paul and Barnahas Hooper and Ridley Luther and Zuinglius are there fully reconciled and shall never differ or contend more Heaven is full both of peace and truth even of that peace that is knit in the bonds of truth and holiness The griefs and distractions that result from dissentions among the Godly here are there all swallowed up in perfect peace And so all the difficulties and weary travails and oppositions that Christ's Kingdom now conflicts with and must be carried on through are there ended Mans corruptions Satans temptations weakness on every hand cumbers even Gods work with difficulty and obstruction here but no such thing there the Militant state of Christ's Kingdom is then ended and it passeth into a state of victory and rest 4. Bodily ailes sicknesses pains weakness deformities infirmities of what kind soever you shall be freed from all these in the life to come Philip. 3.21 Do you think the body of Christ now glorified knows any pain or grief or weakness as when on earth no more shall the bodies of the Saints in Heaven but be in perfect health in your beauty strength and Glory for ever 1 Cor. 15.42 43. The Resurrection to that life to come will cure the oldest pain aile ache disease lameness that could not be cured here those ailes that you carry to your Graves with you you shall not bring them out of your Graves again you shall rise again but they shall be buried and lost and laid aside for ever nor shall the body be so troublesome as now need so much ado about it and so many shores and props of meat drink sleep cloathing c. You are groaning now under many bodily ailes and evils but then comes a day of Redemption of the body as well as soul actual perfect Redemption of it from all evil Rom. 8.23 5. All other afflictions from the hand of God all the remnants of the Curse that Christ leaveth upon us in this world for our chastisement and correction Rev. 21 4. if it shall be so comparatively i. e. compar'd with the troubles of former times in the more glorious times of the Church Militant much more will it be so absolutely in the glorified estate of the church-Church-Triumphant While sin is with us as here there will be sorrow but the abolition of sin will abolish sorrow too perfectly No sin and no sorrow neither in Heaven All tears shall be wiped away i. e. all afflictions or troubles that are the cause of tears shall be quite taken away No more of those tears that arise from the various tryals of this weary life wants straits losses crosses in Name Estate Relations Imployments the briars thorns and thistles that grow in every corner of the field of this world Ezek. 26.24 There will need no rod in Heaven not a frown nor a blow nor a stroke of correcting anger there As there is nothing but wrath in Hell so there will be nothing but love in Heaven Here on earth there is a mixture of both yea even to Gods own people while they have sin in them and are full of faults though Children their Father cannot but be angry with them now and then and they need a rod ever and anon Psal 89.32 33. but in Heaven as no sin so no anger no not for chastening there◠the Lord will never knit his brows nor chide or strike never hide his face there be here Soul-afflictive spiritual Agonies from a sense of Gods anger and doubts of his love those also shall cease but they shall live under the smiles of his face and light of his countenance without interruption But thus in that as to fredom from all evil as 2 Cor. 5.4 so sin is swallowed up of grace and holiness the remainders of sin and sorrow that hang about us in this state of Imperfection are utterly swallowed up and abolished by that perfect holiness and perfect happiness that there is and continues for ever 2. Perfect enjoyment of all good It is not a meer negative happiness that the Saints in Heaven partake of viz. a not being miserable an absence of evil but also the positive presence and enjoyment of all good Psal 16.11 Joy is from the presence of good and full joy from the satisfying fulness of all good Under this Head may be comprised those great and glorious things that make up and compleat the positive happiness of the Saints in Heaven and were pointed to in the description As viz. 1. Full fruition or enjoyment of God perfect glorious and full communion with God the God of Glory God Father Son and Holy Ghost This is the main and the essence of the Happiness of Heaven It is not a carnal or sensual thing standing in bodily carnal pleasures and delights as Pagans and Mahometans teach and sensual Spirits dream but spiritual divine and coelestial standing in the enjoyment of God and communion with him This we have some little tast of here but being there in perfection it makes up perfect blessedness for mans blessedness lies in fruition of God the chief Good whom he was made for and in whom is that infinite fulness of all good that is able to satisfie and make happy the soul of man and to be the endless joy thereof It is not Creatures Crowns Kingdoms not a
indisposedness to good you shall never complain of or be troubled with a body of death more Rom. 7.24 Perfect blessedness will take away that wretchedness 2. In the act of it from the greatest to the least no act of sin shall ever be done in Heaven which is a place of perfect holiness when once there you shall never have vain thought more never swerve from the rule of holiness either in thought word or deed not a sinful omission or defect of loving delighting in praising glorifying God of acting your faculties and affections upon God shall then be found with you Oh what an Heaven of happiness is there in this alone one particular to be freed from sin Sin is the heaviest burden of the Saints here and that that makes their lives bitter to them that they cannot live without sinning against God Let all the world smile on them this makes them go up and down with heavy hearts If the Lord should say to any gracious heart here Ask what I shall give thee thou wouldst say Lord that I might be rid of sin thou wouldst rather have this than Crowns and Kingdoms Why this desire shall be fully granted then These corruptions that have dogged thee up and down the world and oft prevail'd shall never trouble thee more The sins thou hast been groaning under all thy life long since any spark of spiritual life was put into thee once on Canaan shore thou shalt see those Egyptians no more for ever No pride no passion no sloathfulness no carnal mindedness no fleshliness no coldness deadness of heart and affections no uneven walking no grieving of the Spirit of God or of the spirits of Fellow-Brethren no unholy action or conversation shall ever be heard of more There in that Canaan above the Lord will give you rest from all your Enemies and from those especially Hebr. 4.9 10. Those Canaanites that have been so long thorns in your sides you shall see an end of them that then will be perfectly fulfilled Zech. 14.21 and triumph over all behold that fully done Micah 7.19 and then sing as Exod. 15.1 4. All the works of the Devil all the train of that Hellish band hath he utterly destroyed v. 5 6. 2. From sorrow or misery all manner of afflictive evils sin and misery go together as the body and the shaddow when the former is abolished the latter also shall altogether cease As viz. 1. Satans temptations tending either to sin or discomfort to defile or disquiet us Once in Heaven you shall never have temptation more That evil one shall never cast in a bad thought or tempting inticement or a troublesome fear and discouragement or vexing disquietment He shall never fling a fiery dart at thee more none of his messengers shall ever buffet thee any more Here he cannot destroy a Saint but there he shall not so much as disquiet For Satan's walk and rend'vouz is on the earth Job 1.7 But he never came in Heaven since he was a Devil nor ever shall come there the highest room where he comes in is the Aire Epes 2.2 this Elemental world but never mounts so high as the third Heaven He is cast down into Hell and shall never come in Heaven 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. While the Saints tread on the earth where that Serpent Crawles he may bite nible at their heel But when once they are with their head in Heaven in their state of Exaltation there they are quite out of his reach though both Christ and Christians in their Humiliation-time here on earth were lyable to be tempted and troubled by the Devil Then the Saints shall fully triumph over this Hellish Pharaoh the Devil him and all his host or train when he shall be cast into the Sea and deep of that full torment that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels into which he shall be actually cast after the last Judgment Now is his Tempting but then shall be his Tormenting time Mat. 8.29 His tempting time and his ranging about for that purpose 1 Pet. 5.8 will be then at an end Satan is said to be shut up and bound during the prosperous and flourishing times of the Church in this world Revel 20.23 But much more fully and absolutely shall he be bound from molesting the Saints of their triumphant state in Heaven then shall he and all his Complices be in torment Revel 20.10 While the Saints reign in Peace for ever Oh the sad Annoyance that even Gods dear children have from that Belzebub here Zech. 3.1 but they shall be fully forced from that hereafter 2. Injuries and molestations from evil and wicked men there will be none of them in Heaven neither as Job 3.17 18. true of the Grave but much more of the state of the Saints happiness of the life to come No wicked man no Injurious Adversary no Papistical or Atheistical hater of God and his people shall ever come within Heaven doors none but Saints shall be there alone together much less be able to trouble or molest there Then shall the promise be fully acomplished 2 Sam. 7.10 Whatsoever Corner of the earth you retire or remove into and plant in you see the children of wickedness can follow you thither and afflict you The Saints shall never be planted in a place that is absolutely their own till they come to Heaven Oh get a Patent for that take up a Lot and build and plant there in Heaven and then you shall have a place of your own what you send thither aforehand your Hope your Treasure c. is safe and when your persons are there once none shall ever molest you more no fear of invasion no enemies to annoy of one nature or other no Pirates by Sea nor Parties by Land no Sword nor weapon of destruction there no going into Captivity no Garments rolled in blood no sound of the Trumpet or Alarm of War It may be when you came into this Wilderness you thought that this would be a place of your own and that none would ever trouble themselves to come into this Corner to trouble you But alas New-England is but Earth and not Heaven No place on Earth is exempted from molestation by the Devil and his Instruments but Heaven is that and that alone and that fully there the Children of wickedness and the Sons of violence shall not afflict you any more as before time then will those prayers be fully and compleatly answered which the poor children of God have oft need to power out before him Psal 140.1 2 3 4 7 8 and 17.4 the Saints may then triumph over all wicked Adversaries as Psal 9.6 7. Also the troubles that arise from the mixtures of the Wicked among the Godly as here there is a mixture of bad with good and much trouble thence ariseth will there be ended there is no Mesech nor Tent of Keder to be complained of as Psal 120.5 6. nor as Psal 57.4 nor yet false Brethren unfaithful unsound Heteredox or
of Heaven page 129. Bucan Lot Com. page 422. 4. Spiritualness v. 44. Not that the Body shall be then turned into a Spirit or lose the nature of a true Body But 1. The Body shall then live as Spirits and Angels do without Meat Drink Sleep and such like External Elementary Bodily supports as we need in this Animal-life being then sustained by the All-preserving All-quickning Spirit of God without the help of such means Mat. 22.30 2. The Body shall be perfectly conformable obedient and subservient to the operations of the Spirit or Soul as also to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God The ready instrument of the Soul aptly imployed in spiritual work As when the Spirit or Soul serves the Carnal So when the flesh the Body readily serves the Spirit it may well be termed Spiritual Now in this Life the Soul is taken up in serving the Body the greatest part of our time Labour Strength Study is spent in the providing Meat and Clothing and Comforts for the Body and feeding that Eccles 6.7 But then the Body not needing those things shall be wholly serviceable to the Soul The Body shall be no more such a Troublesome Cumbersome thing as now it is needing so much tendance and adoe about it and oft interrupting Spiritual work thereby But then it shall be a more Spiritual and Heavenly peace alwayes free and ready for Soul work for Spiritual Heavenly imployment Your Contemplations Studies Sweet Affections and Communion with God never broken off and interrupted by Eating and Drinking by Dressing and Undressing c. as here they are 3. Activity Agility Lightness Nimbleness and speed in motion may also be implyed in this Spiritualness of the Body Not dull slow heavy-moulded as now but in Agility and Activity more like to Spirits Hence easily made to ascend to meet the Lord in the Aire 1 Thes 4.17 and afterward to go up with him to the third Heaven And able no doubt in a very little time though not properly in an instant to move through those vast spaces and distances of those Heavenly Mansions and from one quarter of the Coelestial World to another 3. The Glorious Company of Saints and Angels is another Additional part of Heavens Glory The fruition of God is the main Essence of it But this is an Accessional Adjunct or Concomitant that is full of Comfort Yea it is a necessary Concomitant for God will be enjoyed by his people in a Communion forever not in a single seperate way but in Conjunction and Society Mat. 8.11 and that Communion will be an help to their enjoyment of God a way and means of their Communion with God When we speak of our Immediate Communion with God in Heaven we are not to understand it absolutely that there shall be no mediums between us and the transcendant Majesty of God for there will be the Humane nature of Christ and the Communion of Saints who in a Coelâ—stial way and manner will be helpful and useful one to another to convey much of God to one another But Immediate compared with what we have here and so as these inferiour instituted means and helps and Glasses that we have here shall he laid aside But the Communion of Saints will then be in its Perfection and fullest Excellency in the Church triumphant And Love Holiness and Communicativeness which is the life of Communion then will flourish 1 Cor. 13.8 You must there enjoy Christ your Head not alone but in fellowship with all his Mystical Body Hence I said in the Description All together they shall have fruition of God All together in the Highest Heaven for evermore Heb. 11.22 23. We now come and are joyned to that body by Mystical Relation but then by way of actual Communion Consider here 1. There will be only true and Blessed Saints together in Heaven no mixture of unsound ones or secret enemies there the Communion will be absolutely pure such as is not to be expected nor no rule allowes us to expect or insist upon in the Church on earth for here there will be a mixture of Corne and Chaffe Wheat and Tears Sheep and Goats good and bad Fish while the World stands But then a perfect separation of Goates from the Sheep and the Latter alone go into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 25.34 46. 2. There will after the last day be all the Saints together all the Vessels of Glory gathered together the whole Congregation of the Righteous Psal 1.5 the whole general Assembly of the first born All the faithful seed of Abraham which are as the Stars in Heaven and as the Sand on the Sea-shore all that ever were are or shall be of the Elect and saved blessed number and this adds much to the Glory of it We know numerous and great Assemblies here on earth are very solemn and affecting The very faces of many Saints together are quickning each to other Psal 42.4 for a multitude to go and be together in the house of God is no small thing But what an Assembly will then be what an Heart-ravishing Congregation when all the Millions of Glorified Saints shall meet together all their faces shining with the Image of God to praise and Glorifie God and joyning in the same Hallelujah Revel 19.1 2 3. 3. There shall be a knowledge one of another the Saints in Heaven shâ—ll know one another Society without acquaintance is not comfortable this shall not be wanting in that place of Bliss Yea you shall know not only those that were of your acquaintance here but all the faithful even strangers whom you never knew before you shall be able to say as Mr. Bolton speaks this is Abraham Jacob David Paul this was Luther Calvin Bradford c. As may be gathered from the Apostles knowing Moses and Elias whom they had never seen before in that glimpse of Heaven at Christs Transfiguration And from Adams knowing Eve and whence she was at first sight without any humane information of which Argument Luther Discoursed the Evening before his death and thence concludâ—d the thing in hand viz. That we shall know one another in the life to come Melch. Adam in vita Lutheri pag. 154. and all Comfortable knowledge will be then vouchsafed but this is one part of it Yea if it should ask time to come acquainted with every one to be sure there will be time enough there remembering also the quickness and accuteness of understanding memory c. But a Superiour and more immediate way of this knowledge there may well be supposed 4. There will be most sweet Holy and comfortable Converse of the Saints together Though we cannot tell you the particular manner and order of it now it will excel in order as well as otherwise Yet to be sure it will be Precious and Glorious and full of sweetness and Comfort And there will be full time season and opportunity for it at large Moses and Elias were talking together with Christ in
that little representation of Heaven Mat. 17.3 There will not want orderly Conference and Discourse and speaking one to another among that Heavenly company There you may hear of all the wonderful things that God hath done for his Church in this World yea and for each particular person The story 's of the Experiences of the Saints many of which are now lost and forgotten the Lords admirable variegate Dispensations the embroidered work of Providence when the whole piece shall be made up and finished the curious needle-work thereof the Coat of many Colours that God hath made for his Church and for all his Beloved ones in the varieties of his dealings with them It will then be spreâ—d abroad declared viewed related discoursed of at large Luther in his Comment on Genes 5. Fol. 76. Considering how shortly Moses passeth over the story of those Honourable Fathers before the Flood why that saith he is reserved for another World the last day there will be talk for Heaven then you shall see those Sages shining in Majesty and Glory and then you shall hear of them and from them what they did and what God did by or for or with them or others in their times the particular stories thereof You shall then hear what Seth did Enosh did what Cainan did Jared Enoch Methuselah did and suffered too the stories of which times shall live and be revived in Heaven to the Glory of God and joyful delight of the Saints having also before that been represented at the great day of Judgement the like you may see of other persons and times For God will not lose any of his works nor the Glory of them Psal 104.31 both of Creation and Providence But consider how sweet is the Communion Company and Converse of Gracious Saints here on earth How do your hearts burn in Godly Conference as Luk. 24.32 when you can get in though much adoe to get into it here for worldly matters and unsavory hearts But those that are Savory and Spiritual and Breath much of Christ and Grace in their Speeches what Life and Sweetness do you find therein it may be you smell of their Company a good while after your hearts are somewhat the more Savory for it But what then will the Converse and Company of the Saints in Heaven be when there shall be no sin no defect either in Spâ—akâ—r or Hâ—arers no impertinencies in their speeches â—o unsavoriness every one full of God full of wisdom and holiness c. You will truly say it is good being here when you have not Mâ—ses and Elias only but Christ withall the thousands of his Saints about you as Mat. 17.4 It is a phrase often used of dying Saints in Scripture that they were gathered to their people Genes 25.8 and 35.29 and 49.33 Numb 20.24 Deutr. 32.50 there in the other world in Heaven is the great Congregation gathering together or Assembling of the peoplâ— of God there they meet and come togethâ—r and shall be together forever We think Death takes and rends and carries men away from their people from their Friends Relations Brethren But the Saints by Death are more properly gathered to ther people so the Scripture speaks respecting not this inconsiderable but the other world As the removal of the Travailer from the Inne sâ—parates him indeed from the people i. e. strangers at the Inne but gathers him to his own people at home So Death carries the Saints from a Forreign Coâ—â—â—ry to their home and from strangers in comparison to their own people to â—â—ose that are wholly and only without mixture their own people Heb. 12.23 You must die and go to Hâ—aven if you will câ—me to the great meeting and Congregation of the people of God there is the Center the Country the City where you shall find them all there they shall all meet and live together forever And hence by the way mind one help to know whether you be like to go to Heaven or no men for Heaven viz. Are you for the Company and Communion and inseperable fellowship of the pâ—ople of God the Saints and faithful in Christ is your delight in them Psal 16.3 your love to them 1 Joh. 3.14 18. would you have your lot among them And if there be any person or people that have more of Gods Image upon them Grace and Presence in and with them than others those you are most endeared to Do your hearts cleave to the people of God and to their Holy Communion and Fellowship and Interest desiring to be one of them to stand and fall to rejoyce and mourn to live and die with them Verily you must be gathered to the people of God now if you will be gathered to them then for all that Communion both with God and his people that is perfected in Heaven is begun on Earth you must be their Companions now Psal 119.63 If you will have their company then You must be of them and for them and take your lot among them now and desire to walk in Holy Fellowship with them in all the Ordinances of God if you will be so then Yea though they be under suffering and affliction and contempt in the World you must not let that pull you away or make you stand off from them Heb. 11.25 26. As with Christ so with his people for they go together you must suffer with them if you will reign with thâ—m you must take your lot among them now whether of peace or trouble if you will have a lot among them in Heavenly Glory In the story of the Arrian Persecutions there is a passage of one who was but a Youth a Boy who when a Company of Holy Martyrs were to be put into a Ship and burned together he hastened after to be among them to whom a Seducer said Why hastest thou my prety Child unto Death let them go they are Mad take my Counsâ—l and thou shalt not only have life but great advancement in the Kings Court. To whom the Lad answered you shall not get me from the Fellowship of thâ—se Holy men who bred me up with whom I lived in the fear of God and with whom I desire to die and with whom I trust I shall obtain the Glory to come And so being all put into the Ship they were burned together Oh be with the people of God and cleave to them one arth yea willing at Gods call in any regular way to suffer with them in a suffering condition Think not nay desire not to stand when the people of God fall if you would be with them in Heaven If you Espouse or prefer another Interest the Interest of Estate that you love your Estates better than you love the people of God or their welfare or of ease or of quiet or worldly Greatness before the Interest of the people of God and you will stand at a distance from them for the sake of such things If something else be more predominant in you then
understanding the Joy unspeakable and Glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 the ravishing Consolations in the sense of the Love of God which the faithful have at times been feasted with such as in Comparison whereof all the Comforts of the whole World all the Riches Honours Pleasures upon Earth are but a dry Chip such as the surpassing sweetness and Glory whereof cannot be expressed And yet this but a little taste of Heaven as a drop to the Ocean of the same kind indeed with the Glory that is there but as an earnest Penny of a great and Rich Bargain A drop of the Joy of the Holy Ghost excells all the Rivers of Worldly outward sensual Comforts and Joyes which the men of the World swim in Psal 4.6 7. but infinite drops of Worldly Joy together it will not make Heaven but of Spiritual Joy it will but this is but a drop there is an Ocean of such Joy in Heaven which the Saints shall Swim and Bath themselves in to all Eternity 3. The Visible Glory and Peace of the Church that may be enjoyed in this World before the coming of Christ Great things are spoken in Scripture of the Glorious times that are yet to come wherein Jews and Gentiles shall walk together in the Lord and the Church shall enjoy freedom from open enemies and Persecutions Isa 60.18 plenty and purity of Ordinances Ezek. 37.26 Isa 66.21 23. plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and of the Graces thereof Ezek. 39.29 Prevalency and Eminency of Truth Holiness and Peace Joel 3.17 Zephan 3.9 Godly and Gracious Civil Rulers who shall make their business to promote Truth and Holiness the honour of Christ and the welfare of his people Isa 49.23 Rev. 11.15 The special presence of God in all the wayes and means thereof among them Isa 60.19 20. Revel 21.23 And hence Honour and esteem in the sight of all men Isa 62.7 and 25.8 Revel 21.24 Why this condition of the Church will be a little Heaven upon Earth hence conceived to be described by sundry terms taken from the Kingdom of Glory in Heaven Rev. 21. and 22. and there will be much Glory in it Isa 60.1 2 7. But yet it will be far short of Heaven indeed no state of the Church on Earth shall equal the state of the Church in Heaven There will still in the best time on Earth be sin and Imperfection and Temptation and Flesh and Allurements of the World to conflict withall and many particular afflictions too from the hand of God We in this remote Corner of the World have for a long time as may be well conceived enjoyed not a little tast and specimen of this peaceable and flourishing Condition of the Church but yet we find it is not Heaven we find Corruption enough in our own hearts and in one another to keep us in a continual conflict c. In the best estate of the Church on Earth there will be still cause to sigh and groan for the coming of Christ in the day of full Redemption Rev. 22.20 The greatest Glory that ever the Church shall enjoy on Earth before the Coming of Christ to Judgment will in comparison of Heaven be inglorious for that will alwayes be a truth in this world 1 Joh. 3.3 2. But if so much Glory and such great things be to be enjoyed on Earth what then will Heaven be The thought or expectation of Glorious and Happy times on Earth instead of Carnal drawing down our minds it should raise and lift them up thither For all is but an Hansell a Taste a beginning and Inchoation of what will there be Consummate All the pledges and tasts which God does or ever will give his people on Earth they are but to quicken them to press after the prize a full draught and rest that is reserved for them Comp. 3. Consider the great sufferings troubles sorrows and afflictions that the faithful some of them especially have endured in this life those are a little matter as nothing to the future Glory in Heaven there is no Comparison between them which shews that Glory to be exceeding great Rom. 8.18 Paul's Sufferings were very great few have ever gone through more then he did had you seen much more had you felft them you would have thought them exceeding heavy 2 Cor. 11.23 27. and 6.4 5. 1 Cor. 4 9 11 12 13. 2 Tim. 3.11 yet there was no Comparison between the evil and trouble of all these and the Comfort of that Glory this did infinitely over-ballance them they hold no weight against it as the word imports 2 Cor. 4.17 Nâ—t that the affliction in these was light but because the other end of the ballance was exceeding heavy As you know though there be a considerable weight in one Scale yet if you put a far greater in the other as several hundreds against ten or twenty pound weight why the far greater fetches up the other as if it were a light thing a Feather a very nothing Why thus put into one Scale all the Afflictions that ever you felt or have seen others feel about you all Sicknesses Pains Diseases Wearisome nights and dayes thereby such Griefs as those in Job 6.2 3. All the Sufferings of the Martyrs Racks Strappadoes Burnings and exquisite new-devised Torments all the Deaths Stripes Pains Bonds Wants Reproches Afflictions that Paul went through from first to last heap them on altogether in one Scale yet Eternal Glory in Heaven being put into the other Scale it is a weight exceedingly exceeding all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this speak the exceeding greatness of this Glory that so far so exceeding Hyperbolically weighs down all the Heaviest Afflictions that they are but as a Feather as nothing to it And yet some one of these Afflictions will weigh down all the good and Comfort of this World Let a man have a dangerous Sickness a sore Tormenting pain upon him it imbitters all yea he would willingly part with all he hath though great Riches c. to be freed from it Job 2.4 Mark 5.26 But put them altogether and they will be over-ballanced and weighed down by the Glory of Heaven even as a few Sands by a Mountain Comp. 4. Consider the Excellency and Glory of this lower World and the Cost Riches and stately workmanship that God hath expended and laid out thereupon and upon the entertainment he gives to all his Creatures there in What then is the Glory of the third Heaven and of those upper and Coelestial Mansions Gods own dwelling place And what is the Entertainment that he will give there to the Inhabitants thereof This lower World is but as a stage that is set up for a while to be taken down again It is but as the hovels and out-houses where all sorts of Creatures are kept but Heaven is the Palace the dwelling house of the Great King and appointed to be the everlasting habitation of the Blessed Joh. 14.2 1 King 8.39 43. If you should come to any Great or Wealthy
hearts are in the World and upon their Lusts Ezek. 33.31 So the lively Christian goes up to Hâ—aven in his heart though his body be here on Earth But hence despise and dis-affect â—lâ— Earthly in Comparison of Hâ—avenly things that we are said to mind most which we have most affection and spirit for which we lost most If we have any true taste of Heavenly things we cannot but prefer them before all Earthly things whatsoever 2 Cor. 4.18 3. Drive a trade for Heaven Be trading to the Country now By Faith and Prayer coâ—â—rsiâ—â— with God in Christ and receiving dâ—â—â—â—â—g from all Hâ—avenly Grace and Good You have Conversation in Heaven when you trade thither you act as Citizens of Heaven as the word in Philip 3.20 when you have free trade there free Commerce and Intercourse at all times Christ teaches us to be dayly trading Heaven when he teaches us to pray dayly unto God as our Father which is in Heaven to God in Christ as an Heavenly Father an Heavenly Majesty and a fountain of Hâ—avenly good things that hath Heavenly has Spirit Grace Fellowship with himself to give to them that ask him to them that trade with him by Prayer for such things Luk. 11.13 Let the Commodities of Heaven be above all precious to you Buy them at any rate be willing to be at any cost pains labour and hazard for them willing to part with any thing you have in hand in this World for them willing to adventure much as they that trade to Rich Countryes they venture much thither to adventure Estate and Strength and Life and all you have in this World so you may take it up in Heaven and have it repayed you there as every spiritual adventure most surely shall Mark 10.22 30. Mat. 5.11 12. Heb. 11.25 26. and be sensible of Every stoppage between Heaven and your Souls of any interruption of Intercourse between Christ and you when Prayer speeds not when Christ comes not in with his Influences when they hear no good news from Heaven God hides his face and suspends and withdraws his Communications of Grace and Comfort The Saints that are Traders to Heaven are very sensible of such things But this is a part of having our Conversation in Heaven acting as tree men there to have constant trade and Commerce there And this the word in Phil. 3.20 may in a special manner lead unto And Hâ—nce 4. Judge of our condition and of the weal or woe the comfort or discomfort thereof by Heavenly concernments and Considerations As we have more or less of Heavenly benefits and Heavenly incomes so Judge we our Condition to be better or worse That is an act and fruit of Heavenly mindedness so to do It is a meditation of that Holy Martyr Bradford on that Clause the Lords Prayer Our Father which art in Heaven that the Lord would teach us to Judge of his Fatherly love by Heavenly Benefits and not by Earthly and Corporal As it minds us as he also saith that Heaven is our home for it is our Fathers house whither all his Children must at last be gathered so in the mean time to Judge of his Fatherly love rather by Heavenly benefits and blessings than by Earthly and outward for oftentimes the wicked prosper more in the World and have more Worldly benâ—fits than the Children of God so that by this direction in our dayly Prayers the Lord would pull up our minds from Earth and Earthly to Heaven and Heavenly things Bradfords Meditations pag. 21.22 If we shâ—â—lâ— look upon Earthlâ— outward visible and present things how often might the pâ—â—â—â— of God the truly pious be judged to be of all men mâ—st miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 But look upon Heâ—venly and Spiritual Riches and Comforts and upon the fulness thereof that is laid up for them in Heaven and given them in the promise and then you may see them unspeakably happy Jam. 2.5 2 Cor. 4.16 18. If you are the Children of God you are men for Heaven and your Interest lyes there Hence look upon things to go well or ill with you as that Interest is furthered or not This would be of marvelous use were it attended Esteem of your Condition and of Gods dealings with you by your forwardness for Heaven If it be Affliction Tribulation yea manifold sorrows and Exercises if they set you nearer Heaven nearer God and more in his besom those are happy afflictions and you may rejoyce therein Rom. 5.3.4.5 Jam. 1.2.12 2 Cor 4.17 I outward prosperity attend you and the World smile but you are thereby drawn down from Heaven to the Earth further from God and your hearts lost in the World truly you have little cause to rejoyce in that prosperity but to mourn over your selves Heb. 9.1 That is to us the best wind that lyes â—air for Heaven from what quarter soever it comes Those are our best dayes wherein we have most Heavenly Communion with God and are most fitted for Heaven 5. Improve Heaven or Eternal Glory in the World to come and the promise and hopes of it unto diligence faithfulness and fruitfulness in Gods work the work that God sets you to do here upon the Earth so 1 Cor. 15.58 Improve your Talents i. e. all opportunities and abilities gifts graces and means to do good to do service to God for the promoting of the Glory of God and the good of men your selves and others The Consideration of our Masters Joy and of the Glorious reward that will be therein given to all that so do not of debt but of Grace should put us upon it Mat. 25.15 20 21 23. be â—iligent faithful and fruitful in the work of the Lord. Be it 1. Doing work duty and service to God to be done by us whether the work of our General Calling serving God in the whole course of Christianity the whole work of the warefare of Faith and obedience they thoughts of Heaven should quicken us unto that though it be hard work to flesh and blood as hard as fighting 1 Tim. 6.12 2 Tim. 4.7 8. as running in a race 1 Cor 9.24 25. as wrestling Ephes 6.12 or for Heavenly things or the work of our particular Calling place and station wherein God hath set us in Family Church or Common-wealth be Diligent Industrious Faithful and Constant also not byassed by Temptations on the right hand or the left not made unserviceable by discouragement or discontent that is a woful thing when a man suffers the temptations he meets with on every hand here in the World so to disquiet distemper or discourage him as to make him unserviceable and take him off from doing good work not cast into a sleep by sloth and sluggishness be faithful serving God in thy particular course and way so Act. 20.23 24. 2 Tim. 4.78 Or 2. Bearing and suffering work if the Lord call to that as less or more he ever does We must suffer as well as do in this World else we