The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 1 · Chapter 6 – Chapter 7
CHAP. VI. This Rest most Excellent, discovered by Reason.
SECT. I.
THe next thing to be handled is, The excellent properties of this Rest, and admirable Attributes, which, as so many Jewels, shall adorn the Crown of the Saints. And first before we speak of them particularly, let us try this Happiness by the Rules of the Philosopher, and see whether they will not approve it the more transcendently Good: Not as if they were a sufficient Touchstone; but that both the Worldling and the Saint may see, when any thing stands up in competition with this Glory for the preheminence, Reason it self will conclude against it. Now, in order of good, the Philosopher will tell you, that by these Rules you may know which is Best.
SECT. I.
1. THat which is desired and sought for it self,§. 1. is better then that which is desired for something else: or the End, as such, is better then all the Means. This concludeth for Heavens preheminence: All things are but means to that end. If any thing here be excellent, it is because it is a step to that: and the more conducible thereto, the more excellent. The Salvation of our Souls is the end of our Faith,1 Pet. 1.5, 9. 1 Thess. 5.8. 2 Tim. 2.10. of our Hope, our Diligence, of all Mercies, of all Ordinances, as before is proved: It is not for themselves, but for this Rest, that all these are desired and used. Praying is not the end of Praying; nor Preaching the end of Preaching; nor Beleeving the end of Beleeving; these are but the way to him who is the way to this Rest.John 14 6. Indeed Christ himself is both the way and the Rest, the means and the end; singularly desireable as the way, but yet more as the end. If any thing then that ever you saw or enjoyed appear lovely and desireable, then must its end be so much more.
SECT. II.
§. 2.2. IN order of Good the last is still the Best: For all good tends to perfection: The end is still the last enjoyed, though first intended. Now this Rest is the Saints last estate: Their beginning was as a Grain of Mustard-seed, but their perfection will be an estate high and flourishing. They were taken with David from the sheep-fold, to reign as Kings for ever. Their first Day was a day of small things; but their last will be an everlasting perfection: They sowed in tears,Psa. 126.5. but they reap in Joy. If their prosperity here, their res secundae, were desireable; much more their res ultimae, their final Blessedness. Rondeletius saw a Priest at Rome, who would fall down in an Extasie when ever he heard those words of Christ,Rondeletius in Method Curan. cap. de Catal. pag. 98. Consummatum est, It is finished: but observing him careful in his fall ever to lay his head in a soft place, he suspected the dissimulation, and by the threats of a cudgel quickly recovered him. But methinks the fore-thoughts of that Consummation, and last estate we speak of, should bring a considering Christian into such an unfeigned Extasie, that he should even forget the things of the flesh, and no care or fear should raise him out of it. Surely that is well, which ends well; and that's Good, which is Good at last; and therefore Heaven must needs be Good.
SECT. III.
§. 3.3. ANother Rule is this, That whose absence or loss is the worst or th… greatest evil; must needs it self be best, or the greatest Good. And is there a greater loss, then to lose this Rest? If you could ask the Restless Souls that are shut out of it, they would tell you more sensibly then I can. For as none know the sweetness like those who enjoy it, so none know the loss like those that are deprived of it. Wicked men are here sensless of the loss, because they know not what they lose, and have the delights of flesh and sense to take them up, and make them forget it: But when they shall know it to their Torment, as the Saints do to their Joy, and when they shall see men from the East and West sit down with Abraham, Luke 13 29.Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God, and themselves shut out; when they shall know both what they have lost, and for what, and why they lost it, surely there will be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. He that loseth Riches may have more; and he that loseth honor, may repair it; or if not, yet he is not undone: He that loseth life,Mark 8.35. may save it: But what becomes of him that loseth God? and who or what shall repair his loss? We can bear the loss of any thing below: if we have it not, we can either live without it, or dye, and live eternally without it: But can we do so without God in Christ?Mat. 6.33. As God gives us outward things, as auctuaries, as over-plus, or above measure, into our bargain; so, when he takes them from us, he takes away our superfluities rather then our necessaries; and pareth but our nails, and toucheth not the quick: But can we so spare our part in Glory? You know whose Question it is,Mat 16.26. What shall it profit a man to win all the world▪ and lose his own Soul? will it prove a saving match? Or, what shall a man give for the ransom of his Soul? Christians, compare but all your losses with that loss, and all your sufferings with that suffering, and I hope you will lay your hand upon your mouth, and cease your repining thoughts for ever.
SECT. IV.
§. 4.4. ANother Rule is this, That which cannot be given by man, or taken away by man, is ever better then that which can; And then I hope Heaven will carry it. For who hath the Key of the everlasting Treasures? And who is the Disposer of the Dignities of the Saints? Who saith, Come ye Blessed, and go ye Cursed? Is it the voyce of God, or of meer man? If every good and perfect gift cometh from above,Jam. 1.17. from the Father of Lights; whence then cometh the gift of Eternal Light with the Father? Whose priviledg soever it is, to be Key-keepers of the visible Churches here below; sure no meer man, but the Man of Sin, will challenge the Keyes of that Kingdom, and undertake to shut out, or take in, or to dispose of that Treasure of the Church. We may be beholden to men, as Gods instruments, for our Faith, but no further: For what is Paul, or who is Apolio? but Ministers by whom we beleeved, 1 Cor. 3.5.even as the Lord gave to every man? Surely every step to that Glory, every gracious gift and act, every deliverance and mercy to the Church, shall be so clearly from God; that his very name shall be written in the forehead of it, and his excellent Attributes stampt upon it, that he who runs may read, it was the work of God: and the Question may easily be answered, whether it be from Heaven, or of men? Much more evidently is that Glory the gift of the God of Glory. What? can man give God? or earth and dust give Heaven? Surely no! And as much is it beyond them to deprive us of it. Tyrants and persecutors may take away our Goods, but not our chief Good, our Liberties here, but not that state of Freedom; our Heads, but not our Crown. You can shut us up in Prisons, and shut us out of your Church and Kingdom; but now shut us out of Heaven if you can. Try in lower attempts: Can you deny us the light of the Sun, and cause it to forbear its shining? Can you stop the influences of the Planets? or deny us the dew of Heaven? or command the Clouds to shut up their womb? or stay the course of the flowing streams? or seal up the passages of the deep? how much less can you deprive us of our God, or deny us the light of his countenance, or stop the influences of his Spirit, or forbid the dew of his Grace to fall, or stay the streams of his Love, and shut up his overflowing ever-flowing Springs, or seal up the bottomless depth of his bounty? You can kill our Bodies (if he permit you) but try whether you can reach our Souls. Nay, it is not in the Saints own power to give to, or take away from themselves this Glory. So that according to this Rule, there's no state like the Saints Rest. For no man can give this Rest to us, and none can take our Joy from us, Joh. 16.22.
§. 5.SECT. V.
5. ANother Rule is this, That is ever better or best, which maketh the owner or possessor himself better or best. And sure according to this Rule, there's no state like Heaven. Riches, honor, and pleasure, make a man neither better nor best: Grace here makes us better, but not best: That is reserved as the Prerogative of Glory. That's our Good, that doth us Good: and that doth us Good, which makes us Good: Else it may be Good in it self, but no good to us. External Good is at too great a distance to be our Happiness. It is not bread on our Tables, but in our stomacks that must nourish: nor blood upon our clothes or skin, but in the Liver, heart and veins which is our Life. Nay, the things of the world are so far from making the owners Good, that they prove, not the least impediments thereto; and snares to the best of men. Riches and honor do seldom help to humility; but of pride they occasionally become most frequent fomentors. The difficulty is so great of conjoyning Graciousness with Greatness, that it's next to an impossibility: And their conjunction so rare, that they are next to inconsistent. To have a heart taken up with Christ and Heaven, when we have health and abundance in the world, is neither easie nor ordinary. Though Soul and Body compose but one man, yet they seldom prosper both together. Therfore that's our chief Good, which will do us Good at heart: and that's our true Glory, that makes us all Glorious within: and that the Blessed day, which will make us holy and blessed men: which will not onelyonly beautifie our House, but cleanse our Hearts: nor onelyonly give us new Habitations, and new Relations, but also new Souls, and new Bodies. The true knowing living Christian complains more frequently and more bitterly of the wants and woes within him, then without him. If you over-hear his prayers, or see him in his tears, and ask him, what aileth him? he will cry out more, Oh my dark understanding! Oh my hard, my unbeleeving heart! rather then, Oh my dishonor! or Oh my poverty! Therefore it is his desired place and state which affords a relief suitable to his necessities and complaints. And surely that is onelyonly this Rest.
SECT. VI.
6. ANother Rule is,§. 6. That the Difficulty of obtaining shews the Excellency. And surely if you consider but what it cost Christ to purchase it; what it costs the Spirit to bring mens hearts to it; what it costs Ministers to perswade to it; what it costs Christians,… dicere so …bat, … esse ad inferos viam, nam ill… homines adir… claus…s oculis. Laer…. l 4 c. 7 Quod ille dixit quia mo …ientibus clauduntur oculi; nos dicere possumus de m…n…is caecitate et socordia. after all this, to obtain it; and what it costs many a half-Christian that after all goes without it; You will say that here's Difficulty, and therefore Excellency. Trifles may be had at a Trivial rate: and men may have damnation far more easily: It is but, lie still, and sleep out our days in careless laziness: It is but, take our pleasure, and minde the world, and cast away the thoughts of Sin, and Grace▪ and Christ, and Heaven, and Hell, out of your mindes; and do as the most do, and never trouble our selves about these high things, but venture our Souls upon our presumptuous conceits and hopes, and let the vessel swim which way it will; and then stream, and wind, and tyde, will all help us apace to the gulph of perdition. You may burn an hundred houses easier then build one: and kill a thousand men easier then make one alive. The descent is easie, the ascent not so.Facile est descensus Averni, &c. To bring diseases, is but to cherish sloth, please the appetite, and take what most delights us: but to cure them will cost bitter pills, loathsom potions, tedious gripings, absteinious accurate living; and perhaps all fall short too. He that made the way, and knows the way better then we, hath told us, it is narrow and strait, and requires striving: And they that have paced it more truly and observantly then we, do tell us, it lies through many tribulations, and is with much ado passed through. Conclude then, it is sure somewhat worth that must cost all this.
SECT. VII.
§. 7. Quicqu…d preter te est, non …fi…it, non suf. fi…it; si a… tempus suff…cit, non tamen pe p…e satiat, quin ad huc ampl…us … …st, … super …mne visibile, a…dibile, adorabile, gustabile, tangibile, sensibile. Gerson. par. 3 Alp…. bet. di…ini amoris. cap. 14.7. ANother Rule is this, That is Best, which not onelyonly supplieth necessity, but affordeth abundance. By necessity is meant here, that which we cannot live without; and by abundance, is meant, a more perfect supply, a comfortable, not a useless abundance. Indeed it is suitable to a Christians state and use, to be scanted here, and to have onelyonly from hand to mouth: And that not onelyonly in his corporal, but in his spiritual comforts; Here we must not be filled full, that so our emptiness may cause hungering and our hungering cause seeking and craving, and our craving testifie our dependance, and occasion receiving, and our receiving occasion thanks-returning, and all advance the Glory of the Giver. But when we shall be brought to the Well-head, and united close to the overflowing Fountain, we shall then thirst no more, because we shall be empty no more. Surely if those Blessed Souls did not abound in their Blessedness, they would never so abound in praises. Such Blessing, and Honor, and Glory, and Praise to God, would never accompany common mercies: All those Alleluja's are not sure the language of needy men.Prov. 18.23. Now, we are poor, we speak supplications: And our Beggars tone discovers our low condition: All our Language almost is complaining and craving; our breath sighing, and our life a laboring. But sure where all this is turned into eternal praising and rejoycing, the case must needs be altered, and all wants suppplied and forgotten. I think their Hearts full of Joy, and their mouthes full of thanks, proves their estate abounding full of Blessedness.
SECT. VIII.
8. REason concludes that for the Best,§. 8. which is so in the Judgment of the Best and wisest men. Though, it's true, the Judgment of imperfect man, can be no perfect Rule of Truth or Goodness: Yet God revealeth this Good to all on whom he will bestow it; and hides not from his people the end they should aim at and attain. If the Holiest men are the Best and Wisest, then their Lives tell you their Judgments; and their unwearied labor and sufferings for this Rest, shews you, they take it for the perfection of their Happiness. If men of greatest experience be the wisest men, and they that have tryed both estates; then surely, it's vanity and vexation that's found below, and solid Happiness and Rest above. If dying men are wiser then others; who by the worlds forsaking them, and by the approach of Eternity, begin to be undeceived; then surely Happiness is hereafter, and not here: For though the deluded world in their flourishing prosperity can bless themselves in their fools paradise, and merrily jest at the simplicity of the Saints; yet scarce one of many, even of the worst of them, but are ready at last to cry out with Balaam, Oh that I might dye the death of the righteous, and my last end might be like his. Never take heed therefore what they think or say now, for as sure as they shall dye, they will one of these days think and say clean contrary. As we regard not what a drunken man says, because it is not he, but the drink, and when he hath slept he will awake in another minde: so why should we regard what wicked men say now, who are drunk with security and fleshly delights? When we know before hand for certain, that when they have slept the sleep of death, at the furthest, they will awake in another minde. OnelyOnly pity the perverted understandings of these poor men who are beside themselves; knowing, that one of these days, when too late experience brings them to their right mindes, they will be of a far different Judgment. They ask us, What, are you wiser then your fore-fathers? then all the Town besides? then such and such Great men, and learned men? And do you think in good sadness we may not with better reason ask you, What? are you wiser then Henoch, and Noah? then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Samuel? then David and Solomon? then Moses and the Prophets? then Peter, Paul, all the Apostls, and all the Saints of God, in all Ages and Nations, that ever went to Heaven? yea, then Jesus Christ himself? Men may be deceived, but we appeal to the unerring Judgment of Wisdom it self, even the wise All-Knowing God, whether a day in his Courts be not better then a thousand elsewhere? Psalm 84.10.and whether it be not better to be doorkeepers there, then to dwell in the Tents of wickedness? Nay, whether the very Reproaches of Christ (even the scorns we have from you for Christs sake and the Gospel) be not greater riches then all the Treasures of the World? Heb. 11.25, 26If Wisdom then may pass the sentence, you see which way the cause will go: and Wisdom is justified of all her children.Mat 11.19.
SECT. IX.
§. 9.9. LAstly, Another Rule in Reason is this, That Good which containeth all other Good in it, must needs it self be best. And where do you think in Reason, that all the streams of Goodness do finally empty themselves? Is it not in God, from whom by secret springs they first proceed? Where else do all the Lines of Goodness concenter? Are not all the sparks contained in this fire? and all the drops in this Ocean? Surely the time was, when there was nothing besides God: and then all Good was onelyonly in him. And even now the creatures essence and existence is secondary, derived, contingent, improper, in comparison of his, who Is, and Was, and Is to Come; whose Name alone is called, I AM. What do thine eyes see, or thy heart conceive desireable, which is not there to be had? Sin indeed there is none; but darest thou call that good? Worldly delights there are none; for they are Good but for the present Necessity, and please but the bruitish Senses. Brethren, do you fear losing or parting with any thing you now enjoy? What? do you fear you shall want when you come to Heaven? shall you want the drops, when you have the Ocean? or the light of the Candle, when you have the Sun? or the shallow Creature, when you have the perfect Creator? Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days, Eccles. 11.1.thou shalt There finde it. Lay abroad thy tears, thy prayers, pains, boldly and unweariedly; as God is true, thou dost but set them to usury,Mat. 19.29. and shalt receive an hundred fold. Spare not, man, for State, for Honor, for Labor; If Heaven do not make amends for all, God hath deceived us; which who dare once imagine? Cast away Friends, House, Lands, Life, if he bid thee: Leap into the Sea,Mark 8.35. as Peter, if he command thee: Lose thy life, and thou shalt save it everlastingly; when those that saved theirs, shall lose them everlastingly: Venture all, man, upon Gods Word & Promise: There's a Day of Rest coming will fully pay for all. All the pence and the farthings thou expendest for him, are contained, with infinite advantage, in the massie Gold and Jewels of thy Crown. When Alexander had given away his Treasure, and they asked him where it was; he pointed to the poor, and said, in scriniis, in my chests. And when he went upon a hopeful expedition, he gave away his Gold; and when he was asked, what he kept for himself, he answers, spem majorum & meliorum, The hope of greater and better things. How much more boldly may we lay out all, and point to Heaven, and say it is, in scriniis, in our everlasting treasure: and take that hope of greater and better things, in stead of all. Nay, lose thy self for God, and renounce thy self; and thou shalt at that day finde thy self again in him. Give him thy self, and he will receive thee, upon the same terms as Socrates did his Schollar Aeschines (who gave himself to his Master, because he had nothing else) accipio, sed ea lege ut te tibi m…liorem reddam quam accepi: that he may return thee to thy self better then he received thee. So then, this Rest is the Good which containeth all other Good in it. And thus you see, according to the Rules of Reason, the transcendent Excellency of the Saints Glory in the General. We shall next mention the particular Excellencies.
CHAP. VII. The Excellencies of our Rest.
SECT. I.
YEt let us draw a little neerer, and see more immediately from the pure fountain of the Scriptures what further Excellencies this Rest affordeth. And the Lord hide us in the Clefts of the Rock, and cover us with the hands of indulgent Grace, while we approach and take this view: and the Lord grant we may put off from our feet the shoes of unreverence and fleshly conceivings, while we stand upon this holy ground.