A Prospect of Heaven, Treatise · Chapter 32
CHAP. XXXII. An Exhortation to Christians to believe the promiſe of God touching their ſalvation, and ſo to lay claim to it.
1. NOw ſeeing God will hereafter crown his people with glory, then labour, O Chriſtian Reader, in the firſt place to believe the promiſe of God touching the ſalvation of thy ſoul; labour to have a full aſſurance of faith, and a full affiance in God that he will ſave thee. A man takes it ill if he be not believed on his Word and promiſe, and ſo doth the faithful God, who is truth it ſelf, and cannot lye. The ſum of that which every faithful ſoul profeſſeth to believe in the Creed, is as much as if he ſhould ſay, I believe that God is my God and Father by the mediation of Jeſus Chriſt, through the ſanctification of the Holy-ghoſt, whereby he hath made me a member of his Catholick Church, which is the Communion and Society of his Saints, to which and to all the members thereof, and ſo namely to me, he will give remiſſion of ſins, and an happy reſurrection of the body, to be partaker with the ſoul of life eternal. This was David's faith; I believed to ſee the goodneſs of God in the Land of the living, Pſal. 27.13. And Fulgentius ſaith, it was not proper onelyonly to David to ſay ſo; for ſaith he, the juſt man living by faith, ſaith boldly, I believe to ſee the goodneſs of the Lord in the land of the living. S. August. ſpeaks well to this purpoſe; God hath promiſed thee, O man, that thou ſhalt live for ever, doſt thou not believe it? that which he hath already done for thee, is a greater matter than that which he hath promiſed thee.
Therefore let us labour to get an aſſured truſt in God and his promiſe, that when he that is our life ſhall appear, we alſo may appear with him in glory: which glory though we know it not, yet we know that God hath given us the intereſt and title of it already, and by faith do ſtand aſſured through the Spirit, that he will in due time give us the full ſight and fruition of it, which none can know but they that have it revealed to them from God? but God revealeth it by the Holy Ghoſt to every one that believeth in his promiſe, and hopeth for his ſalvation: therefore let no faithful ſoul whom God hath called into Communion with himſelf, and to the hope of everlaſtingly life, ſtand any longer in doubt of that ſalvation which God hath promiſed him.
2. When once thou doſt believe the promiſe of God touching the ſalvation of thy ſoul, then mayeſt thou claim Heaven as thine own by a due debt: God hath made himſelf a debtor to his people by promiſe; faithful promiſe makes due debt; the debt in that caſe ariſeth not from any deſert of him to whom the promiſe is made, but only the word of him that promiſeth. We muſt therefore diſtinguiſh between debt of deſert, and debt of promiſe; for debt of deſert ariſeth out of the nature and condition of the work it ſelf, which obligeth him to whoſe uſe and ſervice it is done; but debt of promiſe ariſeth not from the thing that is done, or yielded to another, but onelyonly from the promiſe it ſelf, whereby a man hath bound himſelf. As August. well obſerveth, that it is one thing to ſay to a man, Thou art a debtor to me, becauſe I have given to thee; another thing to ſay, Thou art a debtor to me, becauſe thou haſt promiſed me: debt of promiſe moveth the promiſer for his own ſake, though there be nothing in the party to whom he hath made promiſe, that may excite or cauſe him to perform his promiſe. Now it is an act of juſtice in God to perform his promiſe made to his Children to bring them to Heaven, and to beſtow eternal life upon them, for it is the juſtice of God that what is promiſed be paid or performed: hereupon ſaith Auguſt. we ſay not unto God, Repay that which thou haſt received, but pay that which thou haſt promiſed: let us hold him therefore a moſt faithful debtor, becauſe we have him a moſt merciful promiſer: the promiſe was made in mercy, the performance thereof dependeth upon the fidelity of the promiſer, not upon the merit of the worker; the promiſe is ſure, not according to our merits, but according to his mercy: therefore go to God and ſay, Lord thou haſt promiſed to beſtow the Crown of glory upon all that come unto thee, Lord we have thy word, there is a promiſe wherein thou haſt cauſed me to hope; Be it to thy ſervant according to thy Word.