Meetness for Heaven Promoted, Chapter 11
CHAP. XI. An Exhortation to all perſons to get meet for Heaven.
2. THE latter Uſe is Exhortation; 1. To Sinners. 2. To Saints to get meet for this Heavenly Inheritance. The former by an habitual, the latter by actual meetneſs for this glorious ſtate.
I ſhall need to ſay the leſs to move you to it; having urged practical Reaſons from our natural unmeetneſs, divine ordination, the deſign of ordinances, providences, the ſeaſon of life for it, the work and priviledges here require it, the inconſiſtency of a contrary-frame to that glorious inheritance: Moſt of theſe are levelled to the ſtate of unſanctified, graceleſs Souls, therefore I ſhall ſay the leſs to that branch. Oh that I had here the Tongue or Pen of an Angel! The Bowels of bleſſed Paul to perſwade ſinners to look after a meetneſs for Heaven. Conſider,
1. What elſe have you to do in the world? Your very Children will tell you that Mans chief end is to glorifie God and injoy him for ever: If you attain not theſe ends you live in the world to no purpoſe, you are unprofitable cumber-grounds.
2. You fruſtrate Chriſts undertakings in the world, and do what you can to render all his merits uſeleſs; you tread under foot the Son of God, count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing, and deſpiſe, if not deſpight the ſpirit of grace; Heb. 10.29. you ſay plainly I like not the purchaſe, I will have none of it; you call Heaven cabul, a dirty thing; as Hiram called Solomons twenty Cities he gave him: And can you think much to be dealt without Heaven, that thus judge your ſelves unworthy of everlaſting life? Acts 13.46.
3. Every day ſets you nearer Heaven or Hell. Its reported of the Pious Lady Falkland, that going to bed at night, ſhe uſually ſaid, Now am I nearer Heaven by one day then never I was. One day added to your time is a day taken away from your life. Oh think when you have heard a Sermon, or ſpent a Sabbath, I am now nearer Heaven or Hell; this word hath been to me the ſavour of life unto life, or of death unto death: 2 Cor. 2.16. It ſets me forward ſome way; if I bring forth meet and ſuitable fruit, I ſhall receive a bleſſing from God; if bryars and thorns, I am rejected, nigh to a curſe, whoſe end is to be burned. Heb. 6.7, 8. The word either hardens or ſoftens. Woe be to me, if all that God doth doth further my more dreadful condemnation.
4. Eternity brings up the rear of time. If it were but a making fit for a days pageantry, there would be no ſuch great need of curioſity to get matters ready; though its ſaid, Jer. 2.32. Can a Maid forget her ornaments, or a Bride her attire; though oft it is for the ſhort ſhew of a Marriage day: Oh but this is for Eternity. That curious Painter being demanded why he beſtowed ſo much labour on his Picture, anſwered, [Pingo Eternitati.] I paint for Eternity. Indeed there's nothing of value but what relates to Eternity. Eternity gives an accent and emphaſis to all created beings. The Apoſtle thought all viſible ſublunaries not worth a caſt of his eye in compariſon of this Eternity. 2 Cor. 4.18. See a Book called [Glimpſe of Eternity, on that Text.] Alas, Sirs, is Eternity nothing with you? Oh my Friends, this (if any thing) is worth preparing for, to be for ever with the Lord, to injoy God ten thouſands of millions of years, or to be baniſhed from his preſence, and be tormented with Devils and damned Souls for ever. Oh this word for ever is amazing, A godly man in company ſate in a deep muſe, and being demanded what he was thinking of? Anſwered, only with repeating [for ever, for ever, for ever,] for a quarter of an hour together: This is indeed a confounding conſideration. Oh that you would ſolemnly lay upon your hearts the great things of another world! On the one hand the injoyment of God, Chriſt, the company of Saints, Angels, the perfection of your natures, a crown of glory, fulneſs of joy and pleaſures at Gods right-hand for evermore, through the perpetual Ages of a boundleſs Eternity: This were worth praying, groaning, obeying, ſuffering for a thouſand years, to get read, for, and poſſeſſions of at laſt. On the other hand, to think of the ſting of Conſcience, the company of Devils and damned Souls, the loſs of God, Chriſt, Heaven, your precious Souls, the burning Lake, the bottomleſs Pit, the ſcorching Flames, and this for ever and ever, an endleſs duration. Oh Sirs, if you ſhould but look down into that ſtupendious gulf, what a change would it work in your hearts? You would baniſh your vain company, lay aſide your worldly buſineſs, caſt off your ſenſual pleaſures, and mind nothing elſe till your Souls be ſecured to all Eternity. This would be as the cry at midnight, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him. Matth. 25.6. As ſleepy as they were this ſtartled them; ſo it would you, as if you heard a voice as out of the Clouds; Sinner thou art now ſummoned to appear before the dreadful tribunal of the all ſeeing Judge, to receive thy final ſentence, and to be ſent to an everlaſting ſtate of weal or woe; ſtay not one moment in thy ſtate of unregeneracy; haſt, haſt, yea make poſt haſt out of it; fall to the work of Faith and Repentance as for thy life; defer not one day; now or never.
You'l ſay, can I make my ſelf meet for Heaven? What can I do? The work is Gods. I anſwer, God is the efficient, but he will make you inſtruments in this work. Gods grace and Mans duty are very conſiſtent. Study Phil. 2.12, 13. Up and be doing, and God will be with you. Though God muſt turn, yet you muſt endeavour to turn your ſelves. Ezek. 18.30, 31. Though God make you a new heart, yet he will have you make you a new heart. Oh Sirs, fall cloſe to the work, examine, prove, try your ſtates by the rule of the Word; attend the moſt piercing, powerful Miniſtry; ſearch out all your iniquities, and confeſs them before the Lord with grief, hatred and ſhame; beg converting grace as for your lives; plead with God for pardon through the Blood of Chriſt; ſolemnly renew your Paptiſmal Covenant in taking God for your God, and giving up your ſelves to him, and then read, meditate, watch and pray, mortifie your beloved luſts, obey the commands of God, and do theſe things ſpeedily, ſeriouſly and conſtantly, and ſee what the effect will be. If you will fall to it, well and good, if not, you are guilty of ſelf-murder; and remember you are this day warned.
2. I turn me to truly gracious Souls that are in a ſafe ſtate for the main, as to habitual meetneſs, but I fear are far ſhort of that actual meetneſs that is requiſite, as to a lively exerciſe of ſuitable graces; clear evidence of ſpiritual ſtate; diſpatching work off their hands; being mortified to time, and longing for Heaven. Alas, the wiſe Virgins ſlumbered and ſlept. I fear few of us are in that readineſs we ought to be in, might have been in, or that others have attained to; nay, its well if now our Souls be in that frame that ſometimes we have been in: What decays of love, zeal, tenderneſs; what backſlidings, deadneſs, hardneſs, worldlineſs, formality do Gods Children fall into? What ſtaggerings in our Faith of the reality of unſeen things? How uncertain about our Title to this Inheritance? Doth not our ſlaviſh fear of death ſhew thee? Our inſtability and variable motions in Religion; our diſtractions in holy duties; our frequent cloſing with temptations, and too oft ſtepping aſide into ſin; our intermitting duties of Gods worſhip, and ſtrangeneſs growing betwixt God and our Souls; our unreadineſs in our accounts; our unwillingneſs to go to God: All theſe too ſadly demonſtrate our unmeetneſs for Heaven. Alas Friends, are we not yet meet! Let us be aſhamed of our ſlackneſs; what have we been doing with all that time, theſe helps and priviledges we have had? Have not many young ones and others out-ſtript us, and are got to Heaven, that ſet out after us? Are we not aſhamed of our loytering and lagging behind? What's become of the many warnings we have had in our ſelves and others? Have we any greater matters to mind? Do we not bring diſhonour to God, and diſcredit to our Religion by our backwardneſs? And can we have that comfort and confidence in meeting the Bridegroom of our Souls as is fit? Alas, our Lord will be leſs welcome if he ſurprize us unawares, as I have told you. Ah Sirs, you little know how near death is, and therefore ſhould be always ready to meet our Lord. It is matter of great lamentation that ſo few of Gods Children are meet for their home; and like wayward Children are loath to go to bed, though God hath taken a courſe to weary us out of the world. The Lord help us to lament and lay to heart our great unmeetneſs for Heaven. When ſin, ſecurity, ſenſeleſneſs, ſteals in upon thy Spirit, ſearch it out, mourn for it, confeſs it, beg a pardon of it, and recover thy ſelf quickly out of it; be not ſatisfied with any diſtance from God; recover thy wonted familiarity with thy beſt friend, and mend thy pace towards Heaven, as a man in his journey that hath been hindered, hies the faſter, to recover his way, loſt by his ſtay; breath after more likeneſs to God, fitneſs for every diſpenſation, and long to be with God in Heaven. Alas Sirs, you little know how near you are to Eternity. You ſee the ſands that are run to the nether end of the glaſs, but the upper part (as one ſaith) is covered with a mantle, you know not how few ſands are yet to run. God forbid that you ſhould have your Evidences to procure, when you ſhould have them to produce. If you be not ſure of Heaven, you are ſure of nothing, all worldly things muſt leave you, or you muſt leave them. Diſpatch all, but this, off your hands, and be as the bird on her wings to her neſt, or the traveller, whoſe mind is ſtill on home, home, nothing will pleaſe him but home. Say with Calvin, [Ʋſquequo Domine?] How long Lord, ſhall my Soul be at a diſtance from thee? Come Lord Jeſus, come quickly.