Q. 3. O! But this is a great and difficult work. A. It is not too hard for the Spirit of Christ, and a soul renewed by it. It is our great folly and naughtiness that maketh it hard: why else should it be hard for a man that loveth himself, and knoweth how quickly a grave, and rotting in the dark, must end all his pleasures in this world, to be earnestly desirous of a better after it? And why should it be hard for one that believeth that man's soul is immortal, and that God hath sent one from heaven, who is greater than angels, to purchase it for us, and promise it to us, and give us the first-fruits by his Holy Spirit; to rejoice that he dieth not as an unpardoned sinner, nor as a beast, but shall live in perfect life, and light, and love, and joy, and praise, for ever? What should rejoice a believing, considerate man like this?a Q. 4. O! But we are still apt to doubt of things unseen? A. 1. You can believe men for things unseen, and be certain by it; for instance, that there is such a place as Rome, Paris, Venice, that there have been such kings of England as Henry VIII., King James, &c. You know not, but by believing others, whether ever you were baptised, nor who was your father or mother. 2. You see not your own soul, nor any one's that you talk with; and yet you feel and see such things as may assure any sober man that he hath a soul. God is not seen by us, yet nothing is more certain than that there is a God. 3. We see plants, flowers, fruits, and all vital acts, produced by an unseen power; we see vast, lucid, glorious regions above us, and we see and feel the effects.of invisible powers: there fore, to doubt of things because they are unseen, is to doubt of all the vital, noblest part of the world, and to believe nothing but gross and lowest things, and to lay by reason, and become brutes. But of this I have said more near the beginning. Q. 5. What should we do to get the soul so familiar above as to desire to be with Christ? A. 1. We must not live in a foolish forgetfulness of death, nor flatter our souls into delays and dulness, by the expectations of long life on earth; the grave must be studied till we have groundedly got above the fears of it. II. We must not rest quiet in such a human belief of the gospel and the life to come, as hath no better grounds than the common opinion of the country where we live, as the Turks, believe Mahomet, and his Alcoran; for this leaveth the soul in 1 Pet. i. 6, 8; 1 Thess. v. 16; Phil. ii. 16-18, and iv. 4; Heb. iii. 6. VOL. XIX. U such doubts and uncertainty as cannot reach to solid joy, nor victory over the world and flesh. But the true evidences of the gospel, and our hopes, must be well digested, which I have opened to you in the beginning, of which I give you a breviate in two sentences. 1. The history of the gospel of Christ's life, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension, sending down the Spirit, the apostles' miracles, and preaching, and writing, and sufferings, is a true history: else there is none sure in the world, for none of such antiquity hath greater evidence. 2. And if the history aforesaid be true, the doctrine must needs be true; for it is part of the history, and owned and sealed certainly by God.b III. We must not be content to be once satisfied of the truth of the life to come, but we must mentally live upon it and for it, and know how great business our souls have every day with our glorified Lord, and the glorified society of angels, and the perfected spirits of the just, and with the blessed God of love and glory we must daily fetch thence the motives of our desires, hopes, and duties, the incentives of our love and joy. The confutation of all temptations from the flesh and the world, and our supporting patience in all our sufferings and fears. Read oft John xvii. 22-24, and xx. 17. Heb. xii. 22-24; Matt. vi. 19-21, 33; Col. iii. 4, 5; 2 Thess. i. 10, 11; Heb. xi.; 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17, and v. 1-3, 5, 7, 8; Phil. i. 21, 23, and iii. 18, 19, 20. They that thus live by faith on God and glory will be prepared for a joyful death. IV. We must take heed that no worldly hope or pleasure vitiate our affections, and turn them down from their true delight.c V. We must live wholly upon Christ, his merit, sufficiency, love, and mediation; his cross and his kingdom must be the sum of our learning, study, and content.d VI. We must take heed of grieving the Spirit of consolation, and wounding our consciences by wilful sin of omission or commission. VII. We must faithfully improve all our time and talents to do God all the service, and others all the good, that we can in the world, that we may be ready to give an account of our stewardship. b Phil. iii. 18-20; Col. iii. 1-3; Heb. xii. 22-24. C Eph. iii. 17, 18. VIII. We must be armed against temptations to unbelief and despair. IX. We must, while we are in the body, in our daily thoughts fetch as much help from sensible similitudes as we can, to have a suitable imagination of the heavenly glory. And one of the most familiar is, that which Christ calleth the coming of the kingdom of God, which was his transfiguration with Moses and Elias in glorious appearance in the holy mount, (Matt. xvii. 1,) which made Peter say, "It is good to be here."e Christ purposely so appeared to them to give them a sensible apprehension of the glory which he hath promised. And Moses, that was buried, appeared there in a glorified body. And we must not think only of God, but of the heavenly society, and even our old acquaintance, that our minds may find the more suitableness and familiarity in their objects and contemplations. X. We must do our best to keep up that natural vivacity and cheerfulness, which may be sanctified for spiritual employment; for when the body is diseased with melancholy, heaviness, or pains, and the mind diseased with griefs, cares, and fears, it will be hard to think joyfully of God, or heaven, or any thing. XI. We must exercise ourselves in those duties which are nearest akin to the work in heaven. Specially labouring to excite hope, love, and joy, by faith, and praising God, especially in psalms in our families and the sacred assemblies, and using the most heavenly books and company. XII. We must not look when all is done to have very clear conceptions of the quality and acts of separated souls, or the world of spirits, but must be satisfied with an implicit trust in our Father and our glorified Lord, in the things which are yet above our reach: and, giving up soul and body to him, we should joyfully trust them with him as his own, and believe that while we know as much as may bring us well to heaven, it is best for us that the rest is known by Christ, in whose hand and will we are surer and better than in our own. As for the special preparations in sickness, I refer you to the family book. Q. 6. What shall one do that is tempted to doubt, or to think hardly of God, because he hath made heaven for so few? A. 1. Those few may be assured that he will never forsake e Matt. xvii. 4. them whom he hath so chosen out of all the world, and made his jewels and his treasure. 2. It is improbable rashness to say, heaven is but for few: all this earth is no more to the glorious world above us (even so far as we see) than one inch is to all the earth, and what if God forsake one inch or molehill. (Heb. xii. 23, 24.) Again I say, I take hell to be as the gallows, and this earth to be as Newgate gaol, where some prisoners are that shall die, and some shall live; and the superior world to be like the city and kingdom. Who will say that the king is unmerciful, because malefactors have a prison and a gallows, if all else in the kingdom live in peace? And though this world seems almost forsaken as the prisonway to hell, yet, while the elect are saved, and the superior, lucid, glorious world is many thousand, and thousand, and thousand times greater than all this earth, I doubt not but experience will quickly tell us, that the glory of God's love is so unmeasurably manifested in heaven, as that the blindness, wickednesss, confusions, and miseries of this earth and hell shall be no eclipse or dishonour to it for ever. Finitur, Jan. 10, 1681. |