A Saint or a Brute, Part 1 · Section 5
5. I Have one other Motive yet from the text to perſwade you to chuſe the better p… If you chuſe it, it ſhall never be taken from you. You hear … Reſolution of Chriſt himſelf concerning Marie's cho… that which is ſpoken of her will be as true of you, if …he ſame choice. If all the enemies you have in the world ſhould endeavour to deprive you of Chriſt and your ſalvation, they cannot do it againſt your choice. If by Power or by Policy they would rob you of your Portion, they cannot do it: For which way ſhould they do it? They cannot turn the heart of God againſt you, nor make him break his Covenant with you, nor repent him of his Gift and Calling which he hath extended to you. For he is unchangeable, and loveth you with an everlaſting love. Mal. 3. 6. Jer. 31. 3. Iſa. …. 8. Jer. 33. 20, 21, 23. 50. 5. Rom. 11. 29. They cannot undermine the rock that you are built upon, nor batter the fortreſs of your ſouls, nor overcome your great Preſerver and Defence, nor take you out of the hands of Chriſt. Pſal. 73. 26. & 31. 2, 3. & 62. 2. & 59. 9, 16. Joh. 10. 28. Caſt not away the ſalvation that is offered you, and then never fear leaſt it be taken from you. See that you chuſe the better part, and reſolvedly chuſe it, and it will be certainly your own for ever. For man cannot take it from you, nor Devils cannot take it from you, and God will not take it from you. Ruſt and moths will not corrupt this Treaſure; nor can thieves break through and ſteal it from you, Mat. 6. 19, 20.
But you cannot ſay ſo of worldly riches. If you chuſe to be Lords and Princes on the earth, you cannot have your choice; but if you could, you cannot keep it. If you chuſe the wealth and credit of the world, and were ſure to get it, you were as ſure to leave it: For naked you came into the world, and naked you muſt go out, Job 1. 21. If you chuſe your eaſe, and mirth, and pleaſure, theſe will be taken from you: If you chuſe the ſatisfying of your fleſhly deſires, and all the delight and proſperity that the world can afford you, yet all muſt be taken from you; Yea quickly and eaſily taken from you. Alas! one ſtroak of an Apoplexy, or a few fits of a Fever, or the breaking of a ſmall vein, or many hundred of the like effectual means, are ready at the beck of God, to take you from all that you have gathered for your fleſh: And then, whoſe ſhall all theſe things be? None of yours, I am ſure; nor will they redeem your ſouls from death or hell. Luke 12. 20. Pſalm 49. 7. If you be in honour▪ you abide not in it, but are (as to your body) as the beaſts that periſh. If you think to perpetuate your houſes and your names, this your way is but your …olly, though your poſterity go on to approve your ſayings, and ſucceed you in your ſins. Pſalm 49. 11, 12, 13. The worldly wiſe man doth periſh with the fool: as ſheep they … laid in the grave, Death ſhall feed on them, and the upright ſhall have Dominion over them in the morning, ver. 10, 14. They ſhall ſoon be cut down like the graſs, and whether as the green herb. Pſal. 37. 2. I have ſeen the wicked in great proſperity, and spreading himſelf like a green bay-tree; yet he paſſed away, and loe he was not; yea I ſought him, but he could not be found. v. 35, 36.
You think it a fine thing to have the fulneſs of the creature, to be eſteemed with the higheſt, and fed and cloathed with the beſt, and fare deliciouſly every day, as the rich man, Luke 16. but hath he not paid dear think you for his riches and pleaſure by this time? His feeding and fulneſs was quickly at an end; but his torment is not yet ended, nor ever will be. You think it a brave thing to clamber up to riches, and that which you call greatneſs and honour in the world: but how quickly, how terribly muſt you come down! Go into the Sanctuary of God and underſtand your end: Surely God hath ſet them in ſlippery places, and caſteth them down into deſtruction: How are they brought to deſolation as in a moment! They are utterly conſumed with terrours. As a dream when one awakeneth, ſo at the awakening, ſhall their Image (or ſhadow of honour) be deſpiſed, Pſalm 73. 17, 18, 19, 20.
How ſhort is the pleaſure, and how long is the pain! How ſhort is the honour, and how long is the ſhame! What is it under the Sun that is everlaſting? You have friends, but will they dwell with you here for ever? You have houſes, but how long will you ſtay in them? It is but as yeſterday ſince your houſes had other Inhabitants, and your Towns and Countries other Inhabitants, and where are they all now? You have health, but how ſoon will you conſume in ſickneſs? You have life, but how ſoon will it end in death? You have the pleaſure of ſin; you ſay unto your ſelves Eat, drink and be merry, but how ſoon will all the mirth be mar'd, and turned into ſadneſs, everlaſting ſadneſs! When you hear, Thou fool, this night ſhall they require thy ſoul, and then whoſe ſhall theſe things be? Luke 12. 20.
Oh miſerable wretch! If thou hadſt choſen God inſtead of thy ſin, and the everlaſting Kingdom inſtead of this world, thou wouldſt not have been thus caſt off in thy extremity: God would have ſtuck better to thee: Heaven would have proved a more durable Inheritance: For it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved, Heb. 12. 28. The day is near when thy deſpairing ſoul muſt take up this lamentation, [My deareſt friends are now forſaking me, I muſt part with all that I laboured for, and delighted in. I have drunk up all my part of pleaſure, and there is no more left. My merry company, and honours, and recreations are paſt and gone; I ſhall eat, and drink, and ſport no more: but God would not have uſed me thus, if I had ſet my heart upon him and his Kingdom. Oh that I had choſen him, and made him my portion, and ſpent theſe thoughts, and cares, and labours, for the obtaining of his love, and promiſed Glory, which I ſpent for the pleaſing and providing for my fleſh. Then I ſhould have had a happineſs that death could not deprive me of, and a Crown that fadeth not away. Neither life nor death, nor any creature could have ſeparated me from his love. I need not then have gone out of the world as a priſoner out of the Gaol, to the …rr and to the place of execution. My departing ſoul ſhould not then need to have been afraid of falling into the hands of an unreconciled God, and ſo into the hands of the Devils as his executioners, nor of paſſing out of the fleſh to hell.
Oh poor ſinners, for how ſhort a pleaſure do you ſell your hopes of everlaſting Bleſſedneſs, and run your ſelves into endleſs pains! O what compariſon is there between the time of your pleaſure, and the everlaſtingneſs of your Puniſhment! How ſhort a while is the cup at your mouthes? or the drink in your bellies? or the harlot in your embracements? or the wealth of the world in your Poſſeſſion? And how long a time muſt you pay for this in hell? How quickly are your merry hours paſt! but your torments will never be paſt. When your corpſes are laid in the grave, men can ſay, [Now he hath done his ſatisfying the fleſh and following the world] but never man can truly ſay, [Now he hath done ſuffering for it.] Your life of ſin is paſſing as a dream, and your honours as a ſhadow, and all your buſineſs as a talc that is told: but the life of Glory which you rejected for this, would have endured for evermore. Suppoſe as many thouſand years as there are ſands on the Sea, or piles of graſs on the whole earth, or hairs on the heads of all men in the world, yet when theſe many are paſt, the Joy of Saints and the Torments of the wicked are as far from an end as ever they were: The eternal God doth give them a duration, and make them eternal.
When our joyes are at the ſweeteſt, this thought muſt needs be part of that ſweetneſs, that their ſweetneſs ſhall never have an end. If our ſhort fore-taſte be Joy unſpeakable and full of glory, what ſhall we call that Joy which flows from the moſt perfect fruition and perpetuation? 1 Pet. 1. 7, 8. We have Joy here, but alas how ſeldom! Alas how ſmall in compariſon of what we may there expect! Some Joy we have, but how oft do Melancholy or croſſes, or loſſes in the world, or temptations, or ſins, or deſertions interrupt it! Our ſun is here moſt commonly under a cloud, and too often in an Ecclipſe; and we have the night as often as the day. Yea our ſtate is uſually a Winter; Our dayes are cold and ſhort, and our nights▪ are long. But when the flouriſhing ſtate of glory comes, we ſhall have no Interſciſſio…s nor Ecclipſes. T… path of the juſt is as the ſhining light, that ſhineth more and more unto the perfect day, Prov. 4. 18. And the perfect day is a perpetual day that knows no interruption by the darkneſs of the night. For there ſhall be no night there, nor need of candle or Sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they ſhall reign for ever and ever, Rev. 22. 5. This is the life that fears no death; and this is the feaſt that fears no want or future famine; the pleaſure that knows nor fears no pain; the health that knows nor fears no ſickneſs; this is the treaſure that fears no moth, or ruſt, or thief▪ the building that fears no ſtorm nor decay; the Kingdom that fears no changes by Rebellion; the friendſhip that fears no falling out; the Love that fears no hatred or fruſtration; the Glory that fears no envious eye; the poſſeſſed Inheritance that fears no ejection by fraud, or force, or any failings; the Joy that feels or fears no ſorrow; while God who is Life it ſelf is our life; and while God who is Love, is the fountain and object of our Love, we can never want either Life or Love: And whiles he feeds our Love, our Joyful praiſes will never be run dry, nor ever go out for want of fewel. This is the true perpetual motion, the c…rculation of the holy blood and ſpirit from God to man, and from man to God. Being prepared and brought near him, we have the bleſſed Viſion of his face, by ſeeing him; and by the bleſſed emanation of his love, we are drawn out perpetually and unweariedly to Love him and Rejoyce in him; and from hence unceſſantly to praiſe and honour him. In all which, as his bleſſed Image and the ſhining reflections of his revealed glory, he taketh complacency, which is the higheſt end of God and man, and the very term of all his works and wayes.