The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 4 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Containing some Hinderances of a Heavenly Life.
SECT. I.§. 1.
THe first task that I must here set thee, consists in the avoiding of some dangerous *Ad illam via… requiritur, 1. Quod homo per virtuosam assuefactionem & gratam, sit radicatus in virtutibus: Quod nullam delectationem …abeat in appetitu vanae gloriae, in capiditate divi…iarum, in concupiscentia oculorum & gule. 2. Requiritur internum silentium, ut non occupet se circa exteriora: Quid audicrit, vel viderit for is nihil curando, tanquam in somno occurrissent. 3. Amorosa adhaesio cum Deo: Vt onmia ejus, judicia, omnia facta, …mnes doctrinas. cum veverentia amplectatur. 4. Quod nibil aliud quaerat, sedreputet sibi illum dil…ctum sufficientissimum, superexcellentem illum in corde suo diligat super omne quod potest videri, audiri, vel cogitari, vel imaginari: Quia totus amabilis, totus desiderabilis, &c. 5. Quod saepe reducat ad memorians perfectiones Dei, & illis intimè congratuletur. Gerson 3. part. in Alphabeto divini amoris, cap 14.hinderances, which otherwise will keep thee off from this work, as they have done many a thousand souls before thee. If I shew thee briefly where the Rocks and Gulf do lie, I hope thou wilt beware. If I stick up a mark at every quicksand, I hope I need to say no more, to put thee by it. Therefore as thou valuest the comforts of a Heavenly conversation, I here charge thee from God, to beware most carefully of these impediments.
1. The first is, The living in a known unmortified sin. Observe this. O, what havock this will make in thy soul! O, the joyes that this hath destroyed! The blessed Communion with God, that this hath interrupted! The ruines it hath made amongst mens graces! The soul-strengthning duties that this hath hindred! And above all others, it is especially an enemy to this great duty.
Christian Reader, I desire thee in the fear of God, stay here a little, and search thy heart: Art thou one that hast used violence with thy conscience? Art thou a wilful neglecter of known duties? either publike, private, or secret? Art thou a slave to thine appetite, in eating or …rinking? or to any other commanding sense? Art thou a proud Seeker of thine own esteem? and a man that must needs have mens good opinion, or else thy minde is all in a combustion? Art thou a wilfully peevish and passionate person? as if thou wert made of Tinder or Gun powder, ready to take fire at every word, or every wry look, or every supposed sleighting of thee? or every neglect of a complement or curtesie? Art thou a knowing deceiver of others in thy dealing? or one that hast set thy self to rise in the world? not to speak of greater sins, which all take notice of: If this be thy case, I dare say, Heaven and thy Soul are very great strangers: I dare say, thou art seldom in Heart with God; and there is little hope it should ever be better, as long as thou continuest in these transgressions: These beams in thine eyes, will not suffer thee to look to Heaven; these will be a cloud between thee and God. When thou dost but attempt to study Eternity, and to gather comforts from the life to come, thy sin will presently look thee in the face, and say, These things belong not to thee: How shouldst thou take comfort from Heaven, who takest so much pleasure in the lusts of thy flesh? O, how this will damp thy joyes! and make the thoughts of that day, and state, to become thy trouble, and not thy delight! Every wilful sin that thou livest in, will be to thy comforts as water to the fire; when thou thinkest to quicken them, this will quench them; when thy heart begins to draw neer to God, this will presently come in thy minde, and cover thee with shame, and fill thee with doubting. Besides (which is most to the point in hand) it doth utterly indispose thee and disable thee to this work: When thou shouldst wind up thy heart to Heaven, alas, its byassed another way; it is intangled in the lusts of the flesh, and can no more ascend in Divine Meditation, then the bird can flie, whose wings are clipt, or that is intangled in the Lime-twigs, or taken in the snare. Sin doth cut the very sinews of the soul; therefore, I say of this heavenly life, as Master Bolton saith of Prayer, Either it will make thee leave sinning, or sin will make thee leave it; and that quickly too: For these cannot continue together. If thou be here guilty, who readest this, I require thee sadly to think of this folly. O man! what a life dost thou lose! and what a life dost thou chuse! what daily delights dost thou sell, for the swinish pleasure of a stinking lust! what a Christ! what a glory, dost thou turn thy back upon, when thou art going to the embracements of thy hellish pleasures! I have read of a Gallant addicted to uncleanness, who at last, meeting with a beautiful Dame, and having enjoyed his fleshly desires of her, found her in the morning to be the dead body of one that he had formerly sinned with, which had been acted by the devil all night, and left dead again in the morning. Surely all thy sinful pleasures are suche. The devil doth animate them in the darkness of the night; but when God awakes thee, at the farther, at death, the deceit is vanished, and nothing left but a carkass to amaze thee, and be a spectacle of horror before thine eyes. Thou thinkest thou hast hold of some choice delight, but it will turn in thy hand (as Moses rod) into a Serpent; and then thou wouldst fain be rid of it, if thou knewest how; and wilt …ie from the face of it, as thou dost now embrace it: And shall this now dream thee from the high delights of the Saints? If Heaven and Hell can meet together, and if God can become a lover of sin, the… maist them live in thy sin, and in the tastes of glory, and maist have a conversation in Heaven, though thou cherish thy corruption. If therefore thou finde thy self guilty, never doubt on it, but this is the cause that estrangeth thee from Heaven: And take heed, least it keep out thee, as it keeps out thy heart; and do not say, but thou wast bid, Take heed. Yea, if thou be a man that hitherto hast escaped, and knowest no raigning sin in thy soul; yet let this warning move thee to prevention, and stir up a dread of this danger in thy spirit. As Hu…nius writes of himself, That hearing the mention of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, it stirred up such fears in his spirit, that made him cry out. What if this should be my case? and so rouzed him to prayer and tryal. So think thou, though thou yet be not guilty, what a sad thing it were, if ever this should prove thy case: And therefore watch.
§. 2.SECT. II.
2. A Second hinderance carefully to be avoided, is, An Earthly minde: For you may easily conceive, that this cannot stand with an Heavenly minde. God and Mammon Earth and Heaven, cannot both have the delight of thy heart. This makes thee like Anselmne's Bird, with a stone tyed to the foot, which as oft as she took flight, did pluck her to the Earth again.The description of a Worldling. If thou be a man that hast fancied to thy self, some content or happiness to be found on Earth, and beginnest to taste a sweetness in gain, and to aspire after a fuller and a higher estate, and hast hatched some thriving projects in thy brain, and art driving on thy rising design; Beleeve it, thou art marching with thy back upon Christ, and art posting apace from this Heavenly life. Why, hath not the World that from thee, which God hath from the Heavenly? When he is blessing himself in his God, and rejoycing in hope of the glory to come; then thou art blessing thy self in thy prosperity, and rejoycing in hope of thy thriving here: When he is solacing his soul in the views of Christ, of the Angels and Saints, that he shall live with for ever; then art thou comforting thy self with thy wealth, in looking over thy Bills and Bonds, in viewing thy Money, thy Goods, thy Cattel, thy Buildings, or large Possession; and art recreating thy minde in thinking of thy hopes; of the favor of some great ones, on whom thou dependest; of the pleasantness of a plentiful and commanding state; of thy larger provision for thy children after thee; of the rising of thy house, or the obeisance of thine inferiors: Are not these thy morning and evening thoughts, when a gracious soul is above with Christ? Dost thou not delight, and please thy self with the daily rolling these thoughts in thy minde, when a gracious soul should have higher delights? If he were a fool by the sentence of Christ, that said, Soul take thy rest, thou hast enough laid up for many yeers: What a fool of fools art thou, that knowing this, yet takest not warning, but in thy heart speakest the same words? Look them over seriously, and tell me, what difference between this fools expressions, and thy affections? I doubt not, but thou hast more wit then to speak thy minde just in his language; but, man, remember, thou hast to do with the searcher of hearts. It may be thou holdst on in thy course of duty, and prayest as oft as thou didst before; it may be thou keepest in with good Ministers, and with godly men, and seemest as forward in Religion as ever: But what is all this to the purpose? Mock not thy soul, man; for God will not so be mocked. What good may yet remain in thee, I know not; but sure I am, thy course is dangerous, and if thou follow it on, will end in dolor. Methinks I see thee befooling thy self, and tearing thy hair, and gnashing thy teeth, when thou hearest thy case laid open by God: Thou fool, this night shall they require thy soul from thee; and then whose are all these things? Certainly, so much as thou delightest and restest on Earth; so much is abated of thy delights in God. Thine earthly minde may consist with thy profession and common duties; but it cannot consist with this Heavenly duty. I need not tell thee all this, if thou wouldst deal impartially, and not be a traitor to thy own soul; thou knowest thy self how seldom and cold, how cursory and strange thy thoughts have been of the joyes hereafter, ever since thou didst trade so eagerly for the world. Methinks I even perceive thy conscience stir now, and tell thee plainly, that this is thy case; hear it, man; O, hear it now; least thou hear it in another maner when thou wouldest be full loth. O the cursed madness of many that seem to be religious! who thrust themselves into multitude of employments, and think they can never have business enough, till they are loaded with labors, and clogged with cares, That their souls are as unfit to converse with God, as a man to walk with a mountain on his back; and till he hath even transformed his soul almost into the nature of his drossie carkass, and made it as unapt to soare aloft, as his body is to leap above the Sun: And when all is done, and they have lost that Heaven they might have had upon Earth, they rake up a few rotten arguments to prove it lawful, and then they think that they have salved all; though these sots would not do so for their bodies, nor forbear their eating, or drinking, or sleeping, or sporting, though they could prove it lawful so to do; though indeed they cannot prove it lawful neither. They miss not the pleasures of this Heavenly Life, if they can but quiet their Consciences, while they fasten upon lower and baser pleasures. For thee, O Christian, who hast tasted of these pleasures; I advise thee, as thou valuest their enjoyment, as ever thou wouldst taste of them any more, take heed of this gulf of An earthly minde: For if once thou come to this, that thou wilt be rich, thou fallest into temptation, and a snare, and into divers foolish and hurtful lusts;1 Sam 9.20. Sed amor Dei adhuc est valdè modieus & debilus: Mundanus verò sort & potens; repugnatque sortiter, ne nidum suum seu hospitium quod habuit ab infantiâ in homine perdat. Et quod plus molestat, ipse amor mundi oculis cernitur corporis, & sentitur duleus esse ad retireidum; amarus verò ad perdendum: Amor autem Dei è contra non videtur; & sencitu d…r. …ad acquirendum, & dulcis ad dimittendum. Gerson, part. 3. fol. 382. De monte contemplat. cap. 21. it is Saint Pauls own words, 1 Tim 6.9. Set not thy minde, as Saul, on the Asses, when the Kingdom of Glory is before thee. Keep these things as thy upper Garments, still loose about thee, that thou maist lay them by, when ever there is cause: But let God and Glory be next thy heart, yea, as the very blood and spirits, by which thou livest; Still remember that of the Spirit, The friendship of the World, is enmity with God: Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World, is the enemy of God, Jam. 4.4. And 1 John 2.15. Love not the world, nor the things in the world: If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This is plain dealing; and happy he that faithfully receives it.
§. 3.SECT. III.
3. A Third hinderance, which I must advise thee to beware, is. The company of ungodly and sensual men. Not that I would disswade thee from necessary converse, or from doing them any office of Love; especially not from endeavouring the good of their souls, as long as thou hast any opportunity or hope: Nor would I have thee conclude them to be Dogs and Swine, that so thou maist evade the duty of Reproof: Nor yet to judg them such at all, as long as there is any hope of better, or before thou art certain they are such indeed; much less can I approve of the practice of those, who, because the most of the world are naught, do therefore conclude men Dogs or Swine, before ever they faithfully and lovingly did admonish them, yea, or perhaps before they have known them, or spoke with them; and hereupon they will not communicate with them in the Lords Supper, but separate from them into distinct Congregations; I perswade thee to no such ungodly separation: As I never found one word in Scripture, where either Christ or his Apostles denied admittance to any man that desired to be a Member of the Church, though but onelyonly prosessing to Repent and Believe; so neither did I ever there finde that any but convicted Hereticks, or scandalous ones (and that for the most part▪ after due admonition) were to be avoided or debarred our fellowship. And whereas it is urged, That they are to prove their interest to the priviledges which they lay claim to, and not we to disprove it; I Answer, if that were granted, yet their meer professing to Repent and Believe in Christ, is a sufficient evidence of their interest to Church member-ship, and admittance thereto by Baptism (supposing them not admitted before:) and their being Baptized persons, or members of the universal visible Church (into which it is that they are Baptized) is sufficient evidence of their interest to the Supper, till they do by Heresie or Scandal blot that Evidence;Rom. 14.1. which Evidence if they do produce, yea though they are yet weak in the Faith of Christ, who is he that dare refuse to receive them? And this, after much doubting, dispute, and study of the Scriptures, I speak as confidently, as almost any truth of equal moment; So plain is the Scripture in this point, to a man that brings his Understanding to the model of Scripture, and doth not bring a model in his brain, and reduce all he reades to that model. The door of the visible Church, is incomparably wider then the door of heaven; and Christ is so tender, so bountiful, and forward to convey his grace, and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all, that surely Christ will keep no man off; if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ, they shall be welcome; If they will come but onelyonly to a visible Profession, he will not deny them admittance there, because they intend to go no further, but will let them come as neer as they will, and that they come no further shall be their own fault; and so it is not his readiness to admit such, nor the openness of the door of his visible Church that makes men Hypocrites, but their own wickedness; Christ will not keep such out among Infidels, for fear of making Hypocrites; but when the net is drawn unto the shore, the fishes shall be separated, and when the time of Harvest comes, then the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity, Matth. 13.41. There are many Saints (or sanctified men) that yet shall never come to heaven, who are onelyonly Saints by their separation from Paganism, into fellowship with the visible Church, but not Saints in the strictest sense, by separation from the ungodly, into the fellowship of the mystical body of Christ, Heb. 10 29. Deut. 7.6. and 14, 2, 21. and 26.19. and 28.9. Exod. 19.6. 1 Cor. 7.13, 14. Rom. 11.16. Heb. 3.1. compared with ver. 12. 1 Cor. 3.17. and 14.33. 1 Cor. 1.2. compared with 11.20, 21, &c. Gal. 3.26. compared with Gal. 3.3, 4. and 4.11. and 5.2, 3▪ 4. Joh. 15.2.
Thus far I have digressed by way of Caution, that you may not think that I disswade you from lawful converse; but it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men, and too much familiarity with unprofitable companions, though they be not so apparently ungodly, that I disswade you from. There are many persons, whom we may not avoid, or excommunicate out of the Church, no nor out of our private society, judicially, or by way of penalty to them, whom yet we must exclude from our too much familiarity in way of prudence for preservation of our selves: It is not onelyonly the open prophane, the swearer, the drunkard, and the enemies of godliness, that will prove hurtful companions to us, though these indeed are chiefly to be avoided; but too frequent society with dead-hearted Formalists, or persons meerly civil and moral, or whose conference is empty, unsavory, and barren, may much divert our thoughts from heaven, and do our selves a great deal of wrong; as meer idleness and forgetting God, will keep a soul as certainly from Heaven, as a profane, licentious, fleshly life: so also will the usuall company, of such idle, forgetful, negligent persons, as surely keep our hearts from heaven, as the company of men more dissolute and profane. Alas, our dulness and backwardness is such, that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps: A clod, or a stone that lyes on the earth, is as prone to arise and fly in the Air, as our hearts are naturally to move toward heaven: you need not hold nor hinder the earth and Rocks to keep them from flying up to the skies; it is sufficient that you do not help them: And surely if our spirits have not great assistance, they may easily be kept from flying aloft, though they never should meet with the least impediment: O think of this in the choice of your company; when you spirits are so powerfully disposed for heaven, that you need no help to lift them up; but as the flames you are alwayes mounting upward, and carrying with you all thats in your way; then you may indeed be less careful of our company; but till then as you love the delights of a heavenly life, be careful herein: As its reported of a Lord that was neer to his death, and the Doctor that prayed with him read over the Letany, For all women labouring with childe, for all sick persons and young children, &c. From lightning and tempest, from plague, pestilence and famine; from battel, murder, and sudden death, &c. Alas, saith he, what is this to me, who must presently dye? &c. So maist thou say of such mens conference, who can talk of nothing but their Callings and vanity; Alas, whats this to me who must shortly be in Rest, and should now be refreshing my soul with its foretastes? what will it advantage thee to a life with God, to hear where the Fair is such a day, or how the Market goes, or what weather is, or is like to be, or when the Moon changeth, or what news is stirring? why, this is the discourse of earthly men. What will it conduce to the raising of thy heart God-ward, to hear that this is an able Minister, or that an able Christian, or that this was an excellent Sermon, or that is an excellent book? to hear a violent arguing, or tedious discourse, of Baptism, Ceremonies, the power of the Keyes, the order of Gods Decrees, or other such controversies of great difficulty and less importance? Yet this for the most part, is the sweetest discourse, that thou art like to have, of a formal, speculative, dead-hearted Professor. Nay, if thou hadst newly been warming thy heart, in the contemplation of the blessed Joys above, would not this discourse benum thine affections, and quickly freez thy heart again? I appeal to the Judgment of any man that hath tryed it, and maketh observations on the frame of his spirit. Men cannot well talk of one thing, and minde another, especially things of such differing natures. You young men who are most lyable to this temptation, think sadly of what I say: Can you have your hearts in Heaven on an Ale-house bench, among your roaring, singing, swaggering companions? or when you work in your Shops with none but such,Eph. 5.4. whose ordinary language is oaths, or filthiness, or foolish talking, or jesting? Nay, let me tell you thus much more; that if you choose such company when you might have better, and finde most delight and content in such, you are so far from a Heavenly conversation, that as yet you have no title to heaven at all, and in that estate shall never come there: For were your Treasure there, your heart would not be on things so distant, Mat. 6.21. In a word, our company will be part of our happiness in heaven, and its a singular part of our furtherance to it, or hinderance from it. And as the creatures living in the several Elements, are commonly of the temperature of the Element they live in, as the fishes cold and moist like the water, the worms cold and dry as the earth, and so the rest: So are we usually like the society which we most converse in. He that never found it hard, to have a heavenly minde in earthly company, it is certainly because he never tryed.
§. 4.SECT. IIII.
4. A Fourth hinderance to a heavenly conversation is, Too frequent disputes about lesser truths; and especially when a mans Religion lyes only in his opinions; a sure sign of an unsanctified soul. If sad examples be doctrinal to you, or the Judgments of God upon us be regarded, I need to say the lesse upon this particular. Its legibly written in the faces of thousands; It is visible in the complexion of our diseased nation; This facies Hypocritica is our facies Hipocratica: He that hath the least skill in Physiognomy, may see that this complexlon is mortal, and this picture-like, shaddow-like visage affordeth our state a sad prognostick. You that have been my companions in Armies and Garrisons, in Cities and Countreyes, I know have been my companions in this observation, That they are usually men least acquainted with a Heavenly life, who are the violent disputers about the circumstantials of Religion: He whose Religion is all in his opinions, will be most frequently and zealously speaking his opinions; And he whose Religion lyes in the Knowledg and love of God in Christ, will be most delightfully speaking of that time when he shall enjoy God and Christ. As the body doth languish in consuming fevers, when the native heat abates within, and an unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds; so when the zeal of a Christian doth leave the internals of Religion, and fly to ceremonials, externals or inferior things, the soul must needs consume and languish. Yea though you were sure your opinions were true, yet when the chiefest of your zeal is turned thither, and the chiefest of your conference there laid out, the life of grace decays within, & your hearts are turned from this heavenly life. Not that I would perswade you to undervalue the least truth of God, nor that I do acknowledg the hot disputers of the times, to have discovered the truth above their Brethren; but in case we should grant them to have hit on the Truth; yet let every Truth in our thoughts and speeches have their due proportion, and I am confident the hundreth part of our time and our conference, would not be spent upon the now common Theams▪ For as there is an hundred truths of far greater consequence, which do all challenge the precedencie before these, so many of those Truths alone, are of an hundred times neerer concernment to our souls, and therefore should have an answerable proportion in our thoughts. Neither is it any excuse for our casting by these great fundamental Truths, because they are common and known already: For the chief improvment is yet behind;It is a good saying of Picus Mirandula wherewith D. Estius concludeth his Oration De Certitudine Salutis: Veritatem Philosophia querit, Theologia invenit, Religio possidet. Study to obey, not to dispute: Turn not Conscience into questions and controversies: lest while thou art resolving what to do, thou do just nothing. Draw not all to reason, leave something to faith. Where thou canst not sound the bottom, admire the depth: Kiss the book and lay it down, weep over thy own ignorance, and send one hearty wish to heaven; O when shall I come to know as I am known? — The time is at hand when all must be accomplished, and we accomptable: When arts shall cease, and tongues be abolished, and knowledg vanish away. Do but think now one thought what will be the Joy of thy heart when thou canst truly say, Lord thou hast written to me the great things of thy Law, and I have not accounted them as strange things, &c. Pemple in preface to Vindic. Gratiae. and the soul must be daily refreshed with the Truth of Scripture, and the goodness of that which it offereth and promiseth, as the body must be with its daily food; or else the known Truths that lye Idle in your Heads, will no more nourish, or comfort or save you, then the bread that lies still in your Cupboards will feed you. Ah he is a rare and pretious Christian, who is skilled in the improving of well known truths. Therefore let me advise you that aspire after this Joyous Life; spend not too much of your thoughts, your time, your zeal, or your speeches upon quarrels that less concern your souls; But when hypocrits are feeding on huskes or shels, or on this heated food which will burn their lips, far sooner then warm and strengthen their hearts; then do you feed on the Joys above. I could wish you were all understanding men, able to defend every truth of God; and to this end that you would read and study controversie more: and your understanding and stability in these dayes of tryal, is no small part of my comfort and encouragment: But still I would have the chiefest to be chiefly studyed; and none to shoulder out your thoughts of Eternity: The least controverted points are usually most weighty, and of most necessary frequent use to our souls.
For you, my neighbors and friends in Christ, I bless God that I have so little need to urge this hard upon you, or to spend my time and speeches in the Pulpit, on these quarrels, as I have been necessitated to my discontent for to do elsewhere: I rejoyce in the wisdome and goodness of our Lord, who hath saved me much of this labor. 1. Partly by his tempering of your spirits to sincerity. 2. Partly by the doleful, yet profitable, example of those few that went out from us, whose former and present condition of spirit, makes them stand as the pillar of Salt, for a continual terror and warning to you, and so to be as useful, as they were like to be hurtful. 3. Partly by the confessions and bewailings of this sin, that you have heard from the mouth of the *Yet still I doubt not but we should be still learning to know more: As Dav. Chytraus said when he lay on his death bed; Jucundiorem sibi discessum fore, si moribundus etiam aliquid didicisset.Dying, advising you to beware of changing your fruitful society, for the company of deceivers. I do unfeignedly rejoyce in these providences, and bless the Lord who thus establisheth his Saints. Study well those precepts of the Spirit, Rom. 14.1. Him that is weak in the faith, receive, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 Tim. 2.23. But foolish and unlearned questions, avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive. Tit. 3.9. But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the Law; for they are unprofitable and vain, 1 Tim. 6.3, 4, 5. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions, and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railing▪ evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: From such withdraw thy self.
§. 5.SECT. V.
5. AS you value the comforts of a heavenly Life, take heed of a proud and lofty spirit. There is such an Antipathy between this sin and God, that thou wilt never get thy heart neer him, nor get him neer thy heart, as long as this prevaileth in it. If it cast the Angels from heaven that were in it, it must needs keep thy heart estranged from it: If it cast our first parents out of Paradise, and separated between the Lord and us, and brought his curse on all the creatures here below; it must needs then keep our hearts from Paradise, and increase the cursed seperation from our God. Believe it, hearers, a proud heart and a Heavenly heart, are exceeding contrary. Entercourse with God will keep men low and that lowliness will further their entercourse: when a man is used to be much with God, and taken up in the study of his glorious attributes, he abhors himself in dust and ashes: and that self-abhorrance is his best preparative, to obtain admittance to God again. Therefore after a soul-humbling day, or in times of trouble, when the soul is lowest, it useth to have freest access to God, and savour most of the life above: He will bring them into the wilderness, and there he will speak comfortably to them, Hos. 2.14. The delight of God is in a humble soul even him that is contrite and trembleth at his word; and the delight of a Humble soul is in God:Isa. 57.15. and 66.2. Psal. 34.18. and 51.17. and sure where there is mutual delight, there will be freest admittance, and heartiest welcome, and most frequent converse. Heaven would not hold God and the proud Angels together; but a humble soul he makes his dwelling: and surely if our dwelling be with him, and in him, and his dwelling also be with us and in us, there must needs be a most neer and sweet familiarity▪ But the soul that is proud cannot plead this priviledg; God is so far from dwelling in it, that he will not admit it to any neer access, but looks upon it afar off. Psal. 138.6. The proud he resisteth (and the proud resisteth him) but to the humble he gives this and other Graces. 1 Pet. 5.5. A proud minde is a high minde in conceit, self-esteem, and carnal-aspiring: A heavenly minde is a high minde indeed,James 4.6. in Gods esteem, and in higher (yet holy) aspiring, These two sorts of high-mindedness, are more adverse to one another, then a high minde and a low: As we see that most wars and bloodshed is between Princes and Princes, and not between a Prince and a Plowman. A low spirit and a humble, is not so contrary to a high and heavenly, as is a high and a proud. A grain of Mustard Seed may come to be a tree; A small Acorn may be a great Oake. The sail of the windmil that is now down, may presently be the highest of all; A Subject that is low may be raised high, and he that is high may be yet higher, as long as he stands in subordination to his Prince, who is the fountain of honor but if he break out of that subordination, and become a competitor, or will assume and arrogate honor to himself; he will finde this prove the falling way. A man that is swelled in a Dropsie with winde or water, is as far from a sound well fleshed constitution,Description of a proud man. as he that is in a consuming Atrophy. Well then; art thou a man of worth in thine own eyes? and very tender of thine esteem with others? Art thou one that much valuest the applause of the people? and feelest thy heart tickled with delight when thou hearest of thy great esteem with men? and much dejected when thou hearest that men sleight thee? Do thou love those best who most highly honour thee? and doth thy heart bear a grudg at those that thou thinkest do undervalue thee, and entertain mean thoughts of thee,Nemo pluris aest…mavit virtutem, quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet: ut Seneca admodum Theologicè. though they be otherwise men of godliness and honesty? Art thou one that must needs have thy humors fulfilled? and thy judgment must be a rule to the Judgments of others? and thy word a law to all about thee? Art thou ready to quarrel with every man, that lets fall a word in derogation from thy honor? Are thy passions kindled if thy word or will be crossed? Art thou ready to judg humility to be sordid baseness? and knowest not how to stoop and submit? and wilt not be brought to shame thy self, by humble confession, when thou hast sinned against God, or injured thy brother? Art thou one that honourest the godly that are rich? and thinkest thy self somebody if they value and own thee? but lookest strangely at the godly poor, and art almost ashamed to be their companion? Art thou one that canst not serve God in a low place, as well as in a high? and thinkest thy self the fittest for offices and honors? and lovest Gods service when it stands with preferment? Hast thou thine eye and thy speech much on thy own deservings? and are thy boastings restained more by wit then by humility? *Optimè Chytraeus: Amplum nomen & claritatem popularem, in his terris plaerique nescimus, antequam paenitere caepit, contemnere: Vsibus denique edocti, cum saevum praelustre fulmen ab arce ferit, serò nobis & Christo vivere optamus.Dost thou delight in opportunities of setting forth thy parts? and lovest to have thy name made publike to the world? and wouldst fain leave behinde thee some monument of thy worth, that posterity may admire thee when thou art dead and gone? Hast thou witty circumlocutions to commend thy self, while thou seemest to debase thy self, and deny thy worth? Dost thou desire to have all mens eyes upon thee? and to hear men observing thee, say, This is he? Is this the end of thy studies and learning, of thy labors and duties, of seeking degrees and titles and places, that thou maist be taken for somebody abroad in the world? Art thou unacquainted with the deceitfulness and wickedness of thy heart? or knowest thy self to be vile only by reading and by hear-say, but not by experience and feeling of thy vileness? Art thou readier to defend thy self and maintain thine innocency, then to accuse thy self, or confess thy fault? Canst thou hardly hear a close reproof, and dost digest plain dealing with difficulty and distaste? Art thou readier in thy discourse to teach then to learn? and to dictate to others, then to hearken to their instructions? Art thou bold and confident of thy own opinions, and little suspitious of the weakness of thy understanding? but a sleighter of the judgments of all that are against thee? Is thy spirit more disposed to command and govern, then it is to obey and be ruled by others? Art thou ready to censure the Doctrine of thy Teachers, the actions of thy Rulers? and the persons of thy brethren? and to think, if thou were a Judg, thou wouldst be more just, or if thou were a Minister thou wouldst be more fruitful in Doctrine, and more faithful in overseeing? Or if thou hadst had the managing of other mens business, thou wouldst have carried it more honestly and wisely? If these Symtomes be undeniably in thy heart, beyond doubt thou art a proud person. I will not talk of thy following the fashions, of thy bravery and comportment, thy proud gestures, and arrogant speeces, thy living at a rate above thy abilities: Perhaps thy incompetency of estate, or thy competency of wit, may suffice to restrain these unmanly fooleries; perhaps thou maist rather seem sordid to others, and to live at a rate below thy worth, and yet if thou be guilty of the former accusations, be it known to thee, thou art a person abominably proud, it hath seized on thy heart, which is the principall Fort; there's too much of hell abiding in thee, for thee to have any acquaintance at heaven; thy soul is too like the devil, for thee to have any familiarity with God: A proud man is all in the flesh, and he that will be heavenly must be much in the Spirit. Is it likely that the man whom I have here described, hath either will or skill to go out of Himself, and out of the Flesh, as it were, and out of the world, that so he may have freedom for converse above? A proud man make himself his God, and admires and sets up himself as his Idol; how then can he have his affections set on God? As the humble godly man, is the Zealot in forward worshipping of God, so the Ambitious man is the great zealot in Idolatry; for what is his Ambition, but a more hearty and earnest desire after his Idol, then the common and calmer Idolaters do reach? And can this man possibly have his heart in heaven? Its possible his invention and memory may furnish his tongue both with humble and heavenly expressions, but in his spirit the… is no more heaven then there is humility.
I intreat you Readers, be very jealous of your souls in this point; There's nothing in the world will more estrange you from God. I speak the more of it, because it is the most common and dangerous sin in Morality, and most promoting the great sin of Infidelity: you would little think (yea, and the owners do little think) what humble carriage, what exclaiming against pride, what moanful self-accusing may stand with this divelish sin of pride: O Christian, if thou wouldest live continually in the presence of thy Lord, lie in the dust, and he will thence take thee up; descend first with him into the grave, and thence thou maist ascend with him to glory. Learn of him to be meek and lowly,Matth. 11.28, 29. Isai. 57.20. and then thou maist taste of this Rest to thy soul. Thy soul else will be as the troubled Sea, still casting out mire and dirt, which cannot rest: And in stead of these sweet delights in God, thy pride will fill thee with perpetual disquietness.Scitum est illud Rabbi Levitae: Maximè humili spiritu esto: Expectatio …im hominis sunt vermes. It is the humble soul that forgets not God, and God will not forget the humble, Psal. 10.12. and 9.12. As he that humbleth himself as a little childe, shall hereafter be greatest in the Kingdom of God, Matth. 18.4. So shall he now be greatest in the forecastes of the Kingdom: For as whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; so he that humbleth himself shall be (in both these respects) exalted, Matth. 23.12. God therefore dwelleth with him that is humble and contrite, to revive the Spirit of such with his presence, Isai. 57.15. I conclude with that counsel of James and Peter, Humble your selves therefore in the sight of the Lord, and he shall (now in the Spirit) lift you up, Jam. 4 10. and in due time shall (perfectly) exalt you,Prov. 15.33. and 18.12. 1 Pet. 5.6. And when others are cast down, then shalt thou say, There is lifting up, and he shall save the humble person, Job 22.29.
§. 6.SECT. VI.
6. ANother impediment to this Heavenly Life, is, Wilful laziness, and slothfulness of Spirit: And I verily think for knowing men, there is nothing hinders more then this. O, if it were onelyonly the exercise of the Body, the moving of the Lips, the bending of the Knee; then it were an easie work indeed, and men would as commonly step to Heaven, as they go a few miles to visit a friend; yea, if it were to spend most of our days in numbering Beads, and repeating certain words and Prayers, in voluntary humility, and neglecting the body, after the commandments and doctrines of men, (Col. 2.21, 22, 23.) yea, or in the outward part of duties commanded by God, yet it were comparatively easie: Further, if it were onelyonly in the exercise of parts and gifts, though we made such performance our daily trade, yet it were easie to be heavenly-minded. But it is a work more difficult then all this: To separate thoughts and affections from the world; to force them to a work of so high a nature; to draw forth all our graces in their order, and exercise each on its proper object; to hold them to this, till they perceive success and till the work doth thrive and prosper in their hands! This, this is the difficult task. Reader, Heaven is above thee, the way is upwards. Dost thou think, who art a feeble, short-winded sinner, to travel daily this steep ascent, without a great deal of labor and resolution? Canst thou get that earthly heart to Heaven, and bring that backward minde to God, while thou liest still, and takest thine ease? If lying down at the foot of the Hill, and looking toward the top, and wishing we were there, would serve the turn, then we should have daily travellers for Heaven.Matth. 11.12. But the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force: There must be violence used to get these first fruits, as well as to get the full possession. Dost thou not feel it so, though I should not tell thee? Will thy heart get upwards, except thou drive it? Is it not like a dull and jadish horse, that will go no longer, then he feels the spur? Dost thou finde it easie to dwell in the delights above? Its true, the work is exceeding sweet, and no condition on Earth so desireable; but therefore it is that our hearts are so backward, especially in the beginning, till we are acquainted with it. O how many hundred Professors of Religion, who can easily bring their hearts to ordinary duties, as Reading, Hearing, Praying, Conferring; could never yet in all their lives, bring them, and keep them to a heavenly contemplation, one half hour together! Consider here, Reader, as before the Lord, whether this be not thine own case. Thou hast known that Heaven is all thy hopes; thou knowest thou must shortly be turned hence, and that nothing below can yield thee rest; thou knowest also, that a strange heart, a seldom and careless thinking of Heaven, can fetch but little comfort thence; and dost thou not yet for all this, let slip thy opportunities, and lie below in dust, or meer duties, when thou shouldst walk above, and live duplicate page duplicate page with God? Dost thou not commend the sweetness of heavenly life, and judg those the excellentest Christians that use it; and yet didst never once try it thy self? But as the sluggard that stretched himself on his bed, and cryed, O that this were working! So dost thou talk, and trifle, and live at thy ease, and say, O that I could get my heart to Heaven! This is to lie a bed and wish, when thou shouldst be up and doing. How many a hundred do read Books, and hear Sermons, in expectation to hear of some easie course, or to meet with a shorter cut to comforts, then ever they are like to finde in the Word! And if they can hear of none from the Preachers of Truth, they will snatch it with rejoycing from the Teachers of Falshood; and presently applaud the excellency of the doctrine, because it hath fitted their lazy temper; and think there is no other doctrine will comfort the soul, because it will not comfort it with hearing, and looking on. They think their Venison is best, though accompanied with a lie, because it is the easiest catched, and next at hand, and they think will procure the chiefest blessing, (and so it may, if God be as subject to mistake as blinde Isaac.) And while they pretend enmity onelyonly to the impossibilities of the Law, they oppose the easier conditions of the Gospel, and cast off the burden that is light also, and which all must bear that will finde rest to their souls; and in my judgment, may as fitly be stiled enemies to the Gospel *Antinomists. Many are hindered, because they refuse to give themselves to Prayer or Meditation, except they feel themselves brought to it by devotion; and except it be when these duties delight them, and go to their hearts; otherwise, all seems to them unprofitable. But these kinde of men are like him, that being vexed with cold, will not go to the fire, except he were first warm; or like one that is ready to perish with famine, and will not ask meat, except he were first satisfied. For why doth a man give himself to Prayer or Meditation, but that he might be warmed with the fire of Divine Love? or, that he may be filled with the gifts and grace of God! These men are mistaken, in thinking the time lost in Prayer or Meditation, if they be not presently watered with a showre of devotion: For I answer them, That if they strive as much as in them lyeth for this, and do their duty, and are in war, and in continual sight against their own thoughts, with displeasure, because they depart not, nor suffer them to be quiet: Such men for this time, are more accepted, then if the heat of devotion had come to them suddenly, without any such conflict. The reason is, Because they go to warfare for God, as it were, at their own cost and charges, and serve him with greater labor and pains, &c. Gerson, part. 3. fol. 386. De monte contemplationis, cap. 43. Read this you Libertines, and learn better the way of Devotion from a Papist., as enemies to the Law (from whence they receive their common title.) The Lord of light, and Spirit of comfort, shew these men in time, a surer way for lasting comfort. The delusions of many of them are strong, and ungrounded comforts they seem to have store, I can judg it to be of no better a kinde, because it comes not in the Scripture way: They will some of them profess, That when they meditate and labor for comfort themselves, they either have none, or at least but humane, and of a lower kinde; but all the comforts that they own and value, are immediatly injected without their pains: So do I expect my comforts to come in, in Heaven, but till then, I am glad if they will come with labor, and the Spirit will help me to suck them from the brests of the promise, and to walk for them daily to the face of God. It was an established Law among the Argi, That if a man were perceived to be idle and lazy, he must give an account before the Magistrate, how he came by his victuals and maintenance: And sure, when I see these men lazy in the use of Gods appointed means for comfort, I cannot but question how they come by their comforts: I would they would examine it throughly themselves; for God will require an account of it from them. Idleness, and not improving the Truth in painful duty, is the common cause of mens seeking comfort from Error; even as the people of Israel, when they had no comfortable answer from God, because of their own sin and neglect, would run to seek it from the Idols of the Heathens: So when men-were falshearted to the Truth, and the Spirit of Truth did deny them comfort, because they denied him sincere obedience; therefore they will seek it from a lying spirit.
A multitude also of professors there are, that come and enquire for Marks and signs, How shall I know whether my heart be sincere? and they think the bare naming of some mark, is enough to discover; but never bestow one hour in trying themselves by the marks they hear. So here, they ask for directions for a Heavenly Life▪ and if the hearing, and knowing of these directions, will serve, then they will be heavenly Christians; But if we set them to task, and shew them their work, and tell them, they cannot have these delights on easier tearmes; then, here they leave us, as the young man left Christ with sorrow (How our comforts are only in Christ, and yet this labor of ours is necessary thereto, I have shewed you already in the beginning of this book; and therefore still refer you thither, when any shall put in that objection.) My advice to such a lazie sinner is this: As thou art convict that this work is necessary to thy comfortable living, so resolvedly set upon it: If thy heart draw back, and be undisposed; force it on duplicate page duplicate page with the command of Reason; and if thy Reason begin to dispute the work, force it with producing the command of God; and quicken it up with the consideration of thy necessity, and the other Motives before propounded: And let the enforcements that brought thee to the work, be still in thy minde to quicken thee in it. Do not let such an incomparable treasure lye before thee, while thou lyest still with thy hand in thy bosom: Let not thy life be a continual vexation, which might be a continual delightful feasting, and all because thou wilt not be at the pains. When thou hast once tasted of the sweetness of it, and a little used thy heart to the work, thou wilt finde the pains thou takest which thy backward flesh, abundantly recompensed in the pleasures of thy spirit. Only …it not still with a disconsolate spirit, while comforts grow before thine eyes, like a man in the midst of a Garden of Flowers, or delightful Medow, that will not rise to get them that he may partake of their sweetness. Neither is it a few formal lazy running thoughts, that will fetch thee this consolation from above: No more then a few lazy formal words will prevail with God in stead of fervent prayer. I know Christ is the fountain, and I know this, as every other gift, is of God: But yet if thou ask my advice, How to obtain these waters of consolation? I must tell thee, There is something also for thee to do: The Gospel hath its conditions, and work; though not such impossible ones as the Law; Christ hath his yoak and his burden,In omni disciplina infirma est artis praeceptio sine summa assiduitate exercitation… Cicer. ad Heren. though easie, and thou must come to him weary, and take it up, or thou wilt never finde Rest to thy soul. The well is deep, and thou must get forth this water, before thou canst be refreshed and delighted with it, What answer would you give a man that stands by a Pump, or draw-Well, and should ask you, How shall I do to get out the water? Why, you must draw it up, or labor at the Pump, and that not a motion or two, but you must pump till it comes, and then hold on till you have enough. Or if a man were lifting at a heavy weight; or would move a stone to the top of a mountain, and should ask you, How he should get it up? Why what would you say, but that he must put to his hands, and put forth his strength? And what else can I say to you, in direct…ing you to this Art of a Heavenly Life, but this? You must deal roundly with your hearts, and drive them up; and spur them on; and follow them close till the work be done, as a man will do a lazy unfaithful servant, who will do nothing longer then your eye is on him; or as you will your horse or ox at his labor, who will not stir any longer then he is driven; And if your heart lye down in the midst of the work; force it up again till the work be done, and let it not prevaile by its lazy pol…es. I know so far as you are spiritual, you need not all this striving and violence; but that is but in part, and in part you are carnal; and as long as it is so, there is no talk of ease. Though your renewed … do delight in this work▪ yea no delight on earth so great … so far as it is freshly and unrenewed, will draw back and rest, and necessitate your industry. It was the Parthians custome, the none must give their children any meat in the morning, before th… saw the sweat on their faces, with some labor. And you shall finde this to be Gods most usual course, not to give his children the tastes of his delights, till they begin to sweat in seeking after them▪ Therefore lay them both together, and judg whether a heavenly … or thy carnal ease be better? and as a wise man make thy choice accordingly. Yet this let me say to encourage thee; Thou need…st not expend thy thoughts more then thou now dost; it is but only to employ them better; I press thee not to busie thy minde much more then thou dost; but to busie it upon better and more pleasant objects. As Socrat…s said to a lazy fellow that would fain go up to Olympus,Eras. Apotheg. lib. 3. but that it was so far off; Why, saith he, walk but as far every day, as thou d…st up and down about thy house, and in so many dayes thou wilt be at Olympus,. So say I to thee, Imploy but so many serious thoughts every day, upon the excellent glory of the life to come, as thou now imployest on thy necessary affairs in the world; nay, as thou daily losest on vanities and impertinencies, and thy heart will be at heaven in a very short s…ace.
To conclude this, As I have seldom known Christians perplexed with doubts of their estate, for want of knowing right evidences to try by, so much as for want of skil and diligence in using them▪ so have I seldom known a Christian, that wants the joyes of this heavenly Life, for want of being told the means to get it, but for want of a heart to set upon the work, and painfully to use the means they are directed to. It is the field of the slothful that is overgrown with weeds, Pro. 24.30, 31, 32, 33, 34. And the desires of the slothful killeth his [Joyes] because his hands refuse to labor, Prov. 21.25. whiles he lyes wishing, his soul lyes starving. He saith, There is a Lyon (there's difficulty) in the way, and turneth himself on the bed of his ease as a nor turneth on the hinges; he bideth his hand in his bosome, and it gr…veth him to bring it to his … (though it be …o feed himself with the food of life,) Prov. 26… 13, 14, 15, 16. whats this, b… espising the feast prepared? and setting light by the dear…bough pleasures? and consequently by the pretious blood that bough them? and throwing away our own consolations? For the S…rit hath told us, That he also that is slothful in his work, is bro…r to him that is a great waster▪ Prov. 18.9. Apply this to th… spiritual Work, and study well the meaning of it.
§. 7.SECT. VII.
7. ITs alo a dangerous and secret hinderance, to content our sel…es with the meer preparatives to this heavenly Life, while we are …tter strangers to the life it self: when we take up with the meer studies of heavenly things, and the notions and thoughts of the… in our brain, or the talking of them with one another, as if this were all that makes us heavenly people: Ther's none in more danger of this snare, then those that are much in publike duty, especially Preachers of the Gospel. O how easily may they be deceived here, while they do nothing more then read of heaven, and study of heaven, and preach of heaven, and pray, and talk of heaven? what is not this the heavenly Life? O that God would reveal to our hearts the danger of this snare▪ Alas, all this is but meer preparation: This is not the life we speak of, but its indeed a necessary help thereto. I intreat every one of my Brethren in the Ministry, that they search, and watch against this Temptation: Alas, this is but gathering the materials, and not the erecting of the building it self; this is but gathering our Manna for others, and not eating and digesting our selves; as he that sits at home may study Geography, and draw most exact descriptions of Countreys, and yet never see them, nor travel toward them: so may you describe to others the joyes of heaven, and yet never come neer it in your own hearts; as a man may tell others of the sweetness of meat which he never tasted, or as a blinde man by learning may dispute of light and of colours▪ so may you study and preach most heavenly matter, which y… never sweetned your own spirits, and set forth to others that heavenly Light, wherewith your own souls were never illightened, and bring that fire for the hearts of your people, that never once warmed your own hearts: If you should study of nothing but heaven while you lived, and preach of nothing but heaven to your people, yet might your own hearts be strangers to it; What heavenly passages had Balaam in his Prophesies?Verissimum istud Senecae Apothegma: Nullos pejus mercri de omnibus mortalibus judico, quam qui aliter vivunt, quaem vivendum praecipiuut. yet little of it (its like) in his spirit; Nay, we are under a more subtil temptation then any other men, to draw us from this heavenly life; If our imployments did lye at a greater distant from heaven, and did take up our thoughts upon worldly things, we should not be so apt to be so contented and deluded; but when we finde our selves imployed upon nothing else, we are easier drawn to take up here: Studying and preaching of heaven is likes to an heavenly Life, then thinking and talking of the world is, and the likeness is it that is like to deceive us: This is to dye the most miserable death, even to famish our selves, because we have bread on our tables, which is worse then to famish when we cannot get it, and to die for thirst while we draw water for others; thinking it enough that we have daily to do with it, though we never drink it to our souls refreshing. All that I will say to you more of this, shall be in the words of my godly and …udicious friend *Who died, as I understand, since about the hour that I was preaching these words, or very neer.Mr. George A…ot, which I will transcribe, lest you have not the Book at hand in his Vindiciae Sabathi, pag. 147, 148, 149.
And here let me in a holy Jealous…e annex an Exhortation to some of the Ministers of this Land (for blessed be God it needs not to all) that they would carefully provide, and look that they do not build the Tabernacle on the Lords Day; I mean, that they rest not in the Opus operatum of their holy imployments, and busying themselves about the carnall part of holy things, in putting off the studying of their Sermons, or getting them by heart, (except it be to work them upon the heart, and not barely commit them to memory) till that day, and so though they take care to build the Tabernacle of Gods Church, yet they in the mean time neglect the Temple of their own hearts in serving God in the Spirit, and not in the Letter or outward performance onelyonly: But it were well if they would gather and prepare their Manna, seeth it, and bake it the day before, that when the Sabbath came they might have nothing to do, but to chew and concoct it into their own spirits, and so spiritually in the experience of their own hearts (not heads) dish it out to their hearers, which would be a happy means to make them see better fruit of their labors: for commonly that which is not …o…ally delivered, is notionally received, and that which is spiritually and powerfully delivered in the evidence of the Spirit, is spiritually and savingly received, for spirit begets spirit, as fire begets fire, &c. It is an easie thing to take great pains in the outward part, or performance of holy things, which oft proves a snare, causing the neglect of the spirit of the inner man; for many are great laborers in the Work of the Lord, that are starvelings in the Spirit of the Lord, satisfying themselves in a Popish peace of conscience in the deed doing, in stead of Joy in the Holy Ghost, bringing indeed meat to their Guests, but through haste or laziness eating none themselves, or like Taylors, make cloathes for other men to weare; so they, never assaying their own points how they … may suit with their own spirits; but think it is their duty to …each, and other mens duty to do. So far the Author.