the chief Good, and only the enjoyment of him in heaven will make us happy; but their hearts do not unfeignedly take him to be so. Most men take the present contentments of the flesh, consisting in pleasures, profits, and honours, to be their happiness indeed. This hath their very hearts, while God hath the tongue and knee; this is seriously sought after, while God is hypocritically complimented with; heaven is heartlessly commended, while the world is eagerly pursued; Christ is called Master, while this flesh bears all the sway only because they cannot choose but know that the world will shortly leave them in the grave, and this flesh, which is so cherished, must lie rotting in the dust; therefore, they will allow God the leavings of the world, and Christ shall have all that the flesh can spare; so far they will be religious and godly, lest they should be thrust into hell; and they look for heaven as a reserve, when they can keep their worldly happiness no longer. This is the self-deluding religion of thousands. : Reader, I pray God bring this close to thy heart, that it may awake thee to a godly jealousy, to see that thy heart deceive thee not in this one point. O, how many professors of zeal in religion, of much knowledge, and excellent tongues, and blameless conversations in other things, do yet so eagerly mind the world and the flesh, and subtlely evade every danger, and distinguish themselves out of every duty that is very dear, or inconsistent with their worldly happiness, that it is most evident they never cordially took God for their portion and happiness! When men lay not this foundation in sincerity, they may build all their lives to little purpose, and the fall will be great when this sand deceives them. When they take this first principle, but as a notion into the brain, and never lay it deep and close to the heart, all their lives after are spent in hypocrisy, and all their duties increase their delusion, except God call them back again to review their souls, and lay that foundation which before they had neglected. Therefore, is it said, that to be carnally minded is death, and if ye mind or live after the flesh, ye shall die; and that the carnal mind is enmity to God; and if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; and it is so hard for rich men to enter heaven; and you can scarce find any saint in Scripture charged with covetousness, because it is as possible the devils should be saved, с e Rom. viii. 5-8, 13; 1 John ii. 15. Vide excellent Epist. Colombani Herbin. de præsentis vitæ vanitate, miseria,' &c. in Usser. Armach. Veterum Epist. Hibern. Syllog.' pp. 7, . as the man that finally takes up his chief rest and happiness in any thing below God. And what is the cause of all this mischief, but that men do not seriously and frequently think, first, of the certain truth, and then, of the sweet, inconceivable excellencies that wait for them, if they will renounce the vanities of the world, and cleave heartily to God in Jesus Christ? Besides, if men do not apprehend the excellency of this 'Rest,' they cannot value Christ, or his blood that purchased it, and therefore they cannot indeed be Christians; nor is it once knowing what heaven is that will serve the turn: if we have not a continual or frequent taste of it in our souls, we shall live in continual danger of being overcome. When temptations take you up into the mountain, and show you the kingdoms and glory of the world, and say, 'All this will I give thee;' if, then, you have not a greater and surer glory in your view, what danger are you in! O that the nefarious miscarriages of professors of piety in this age, did not witness it to our sorrow, and the shame of our profession! Not a day but the devil will be casting thee a bait; either sports, or mirth, or filthy lusts, or the pleasing of thy appetite in meats and drinks, or reputation, or rising in the world, or fears of men, or some such thing; and if thou have been newly in the consideration of thy rest with God, it will make thee trample upon them all; but if that be forgotten or undervalued, all is gone. Besides, what life and vigour will it maintain in all our duties? How earnestly will that man pray, that believingly and seriously apprehends what he prayeth for? How, also, will it fill the soul with love, when men do every day view the face of love itself, and warm their hearts in these heavenly contemplations? And if it were but to make our religion delightful to us, it would have greater use than the mere pleasure of that delight, as I have showed in the conclusion of the book: how cheerfully would men go on through labour and suffering, if once they had that delight in God which a heavenly life would afford. When life and joy, seriousness and sweetness, go together, it will make men profitable, victorious, and persevering Christians. In a word, you can neither live safely, profitably, piously, conscionably, or comfortably; nor die so, without believing serious considerations of your rest. And now, reader, whatever thou art, young or old, rich or poor, I entreat thee, and charge thee, in the name of thy Lord, who will shortly call thee to a reckoning, and judge thee to thine everlasting, unchangeable state, that thou give not these things the reading only, and so dismiss them with a bare approval; but that thou set upon this work, and take God in Christ for thy only rest, and set thy heart upon him above all. Jest not with God: do not only talk of heaven, but mind it, and seek it with all thy might; what greater business hast thou to do? Dally no longer, when thy salvation lies at the stake. O turn off the world before it turn thee off; forsake thy fleshly pleasures before they forsake thee; and thou find that God also hath forsaken thee. Wink at these withering beauties; and shut thy mouth against these pleasant poisons. Remember what they will all be to thee, when thy friends are weeping over thee, and looking for thy winding sheet; nay, when God-shall say, Give account of thy stewardship, thou shalt be no longer steward: thou fool, this night shall they require thy soul; whose then shall these things be? Lord, how do men think so carelessly of that day, which they cannot choose but know is near, and will make so great a change with them! Surely (saith noble Du Plessis), if all the world were made for man, then man was made for more than the world. Hearken, all you worldlings and flesh-pleasers, the God of heaven chargeth you, upon your allegiance, to change your pleasures. He offereth you delights beseeming men; yea, the joys of angels; and commandeth you to renounce the pleasures of sin, and delights that only beseem a beast. Will you not take his offer? Take it now, lest he never offer it you more. He commandeth you, as ever you will see his face in glory to your comfort, that now you turn your thoughts seriously to him, and to that glory; dare you deny, or neglect to obey? If you will not part with your merriments and vanities for that which is infinitely better, be it now known to you, you shall shortly part with them for nothing; yea, for hell fire; and you shall leave them with groans and horror ere long, if you will not leave them for God and glory now. Spit out these yenomous, fleshly pleasures, man; come near, and taste of the heavenly delights. What say you? will you resolve; will you covenant with God this day, and do it? Do I speak to a post, that cannot feel; or to a beast, that is incapable of heaven? Will you pass over my words, as if they concerned you not? The great God that put this doctrine into your bibles, and put this message into my mouth, and bid me speak it to thee in his name, will one day a Epist. before the 'Verity of Christian Religion.' speak to thee so rousingly himself, as will make thine ears to tingle, and that rocky heart of thine to tremble, in despite of all thy security and stupidity. If thou have now sinned away thy fear and feeling, that thou takest a sermon but for words of course, believe it, God will shortly bring thy fear and thy feeling again. It had need to be very precious liquor, which the drunkard shall then pay so dear for; and excellent content which the lustful must so smart for; and great honours and riches, for which thou must lose thy hopes of heaven. If thou hadst never heard or read of these things, there were the more excuse; but if, when thou knowest of it, thou will needs run into the fire, into the fire shalt thou go: but when thou feelest the pain, thou shalt bethink thee of thy folly; and when heaven is lost, remember thou mightest have had it, and that upon very reasonable, easy terms, if thou wouldest. Nothing but thy own wilfulness could have shut thee out. I have warned thee: let God do his will. And for you that fear God, and have made him your portion, your end, and rest, and are the heirs of this kingdom, let me entreat you, more frequently to look homeward, and mind your inheritance. Should we not think oft of the state we must be in for ever? Do you not perceive that God tumbles you up and down the world, and crosseth your desires, to weary you out of it; that he setteth loose the winds to raise those storms, that may make you long for the harbour, and may toss you to his breast; that he makes your dearest friends afflict you, and those that you took sweet counsel with, and went up with to the house of God as companions, to be scorpions to you, that so you might not have here a resting place for the sole of your foot? O, learn God's gracious meaning, and look upwards! When others are roving after opinions, and running from sect to sect, and, with contentions and vain janglings, are firing the church of Christ, do you then retire yourselves from these vanities to your God; humbly converse with him; and think, believingly, of your everlasting converse with him; and thus fire your souls with his rays of love. For my own part, even when I am constrained (as teachers oft are more than the people) to study controversies, though they be necessary, and in themselves about precious truths, and though I prosper in my studies, yet do I find most sensibly that they discompose my spirit, and waste my zeal, my love, and delight in God, even by the interruption and diversion of my contemplations; so that I long to have done with them, Disputings often lead to en that I may be more near to God. vyings and heart-burnings, and those to hating our brethren, and that to open violence and bloodshed, even of the saints, to persecutions of ministers, and setting ourselves against Christ's apparent interest for our own; but heavenly meditations calm the spirit, and, by winning our souls to the love of God, do not only cause us to love our brethren, but to love them in God, which is the only right love. And thus all men shall know that you are Christ's true disciples, by your loving one another; for he that loveth, dwelleth in God, and God in him. When they that hate their brethren are murderers; and we know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. The living God, who is the portion and rest of his saints, make these, our carnal minds, so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving him and delighting in him may be the work of our lives; and that neither I that write, nor you that read this book, may ever be turned from this path of life, lest a promise being left us of entering into rest, we should come short of it through our own unbelief or negligence.f May 17, 1651. e John xiii. 34, 35, and xv. 12; 1 John iii, 15, and ii. 9—11. |