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WHatsoever the Soul of man doth entertain, must make its first entrance at the under∣standing; which must be satisfied, first, of its Truth, secondly, and of its goodness, before it finde any further admittance: If this por∣ter be negligent, it will admit of any thing ••hat bears but the face or name of Truth and Goodness: But if it be faithfull, able and diligent in its office, it will examine strictly, and search to the
〈◊〉〈◊〉 what is found deceitfull, it casteth out, that it go no fur∣th•••• 〈…〉〈…〉 what is found to be sincere and currant, it letteth in to the very heart, where the Will and Affections do with wellcome entertain it, and by concoction (as it were) incorporate it into their own substance. Accordingly I have been hitherto present∣ing to your understandings. First, the excellency of the Rest of the Saints, in the first part of this book; and then the verity in the second part. I hope your understandings have now tasted this food, and tryed what hath been expressed. Truth fears not the light, This perfect beauty abhorreth darkness; Nothing but Ig∣norance of its worth can disparage it. Therefore search, and spare not; Read, and read again, and then Judge. What think you? Is it good? Or is it not? Nay is it not the chiefest good? And is there any thing in goodness to be compared with it? And is it true, or is it not? Nay is there any thing in the world more cer∣tain, then that there remaineth a Rest to the people of God? Why if your understandings are convinced of both these, I do here in the behalf of God and his Truth, and in the behalf of your own souls and their Life, require the further entertainment here∣of; and that you take this blessed subject of Rest, and commend it as you have found it to your wills and affections; Let your hearts now cheerfully embrace it, and improve it, as I shall pre∣sent it to you, in its respective Uses.
And though the Laws of Method do otherwise direct me, yet because I conceive it most profitable; I will lay close together in the first place all those uses, that most concern the ungodly, that they may know where to finde their lesson, and not to pick it up and down intermixt with Uses of another straine. And then I shall lay down those Uses that are more proper to the Godly by themselves in the end.
ANd first,* 1.3 if this Rest be for none but this people of God, What doleful tidings is this to the ungodly world? That there is so much Glory, but none for them: so great joys for the Saints of God, while they must consume in perpetuall sor∣rowes! Such Rest for them that have obeyed the Gospel; while they must be Restless in the flames of hell! If thou who Readest these words art in thy soul a stranger to Christ, and to the holy nature and life of his people, and art not one of them who are before described, and shalt live and dye in the same condition that thou art now in; Let me tell thee, I am a messenger of the saddest tidings to thee, that ever yet thy ears did hear: That thou shalt never partake of the joyes of Heaven, nor have the least tast of the Saints eternall Rest;* 1.4 I may say to thee, as E••ud to E••gon; I have a message to thee from God: but it is a mortall message; against the very life and hopes of thy soul, That as true as the word of God is true, thou shalt never see the face of God with com∣fort. This sentence I am commanded to pass upon thee, from the word: Take it as thou wilt, and scape it if thou canst. I know thy humble and hearty subjection to Christ would procure thy es∣cape: and if thy heart and life were throughly changed, thy re∣lations to Christ and eternity would be changed also, he would then ••••••nowledge thee for one of his people, and justifie thee from all things that could be charged upon thee, and give thee a portion in the inheritance of his chosen, And if this might be the happy successe of my message, I should be so fa•• from repining like
Jonas, that the threatnings of God are not executed upon thee, that on the contrary I should bless the day that ever God made me so happy a Messenger, and return him hearty thanks upon my knees, that ever he blessed his Word in my mouth with such desired success. But if thou end thy days in thy present condition, (whe∣ther thou be fully resolved never to change; or whether thou spend thy days in fruitless purposing to be better hereafter, all is one for that; I say,) if thou live and die in thy unregenerate estate, as sure as the heavens are over thy head, and the earth under thy feet; as sure as thou livest and breathest in this air, so sure shalt thou be shut out of the Rest of the Saints, and receive thy portion in everlasting fire. I do here expect that thou shouldest in the pride and scorn of thy heart, turn back upon me, and shew thy teeth, and say, Who made you the door-keeper of heaven? when were you there? and when did God shew you the Book of Life? or tell you who they are that shall be saved, and who shut out?
I will not Answer thee according to thy folly; but truly and plainly as I can discover this thy folly to thy self, that if there be yet any hope, thou mayest recover thy understanding, and yet re∣turn to God and live. First, I do not name thee, nor any other: I do not conclude of the persons individually, and say, This man shall be shut out of heaven, and that man shall be taken in: I one∣ly conclude it of the unregenerate in general, and of thee condi∣tionally, if thou be such a one. Secondly, I do not go about to determine who shall repent, and who shall not; much less, that thou shalt never repent, and come in to Christ: These things are unknown to me; I had far rather shew thee what hopes thou hast before thee, if thou wilt not sit still and lose them, and by thy wilful carelesness cast away thy hopes: And I would far rather perswade thee to hearken in time, while there is hope, and oppor∣tunity, and offers of Grace, and before the door is shut against thee, that so thy soul may return and live; then to tell thee, that, there is no hope of thy repenting and returning. But if thou lye hoping that thou shalt return, and never do it; if thou talk of repenting and believing, but still art the same; if thou live and die with the world, and thy credit, or pleasure nearer thy heart then Jesus Christ: In a word, If the foregoing description of the people of God do not agree with the state of thy soul; Is it then a hard question, whether thou shalt ever be saved? Even as hard a question,
as whether God be true? or the Scripture be his Word? Cannot I certainly tell that thou shalt perish for ever, except I had seen the Book of Life? Why, the Bible also is the Book of Life, and it describeth plainly those that shall be saved, and those that shall be condemned; Though it do not name them, yet it tels you all those signs and conditions, by which they may be known. Do I need to ascend up into heaven, to know, That without holiness none shall see God? Heb. 12.14. Or, That it is the pure in heart who shall see God? Matth. 5.8. Or, That except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God? Joh. 3.3. Or, That he that be∣lieveth not (that is, stoops not to Christ as his King and Saviour) is condemned already? and that he shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him? Joh. 3.18.36. And that except you repent, (which includeth reformation) you shall all perish? Luke 13.3, 5. With a hundred more such plain Scripture Expressions? Cannot these be known without searching into Gods Counsels? Why, thou ignorant or wilful self-deluding Sot! Hath thy Bible layn by thee in thy house so long, and didst thou never read such words as these? Or hast thou read it, or heard it read so oft, and yet dost thou not remember such passages as these? Nay, Didst thou not finde, that the great drift of the Scripture is, to shew men who they are that shall be saved, and who not? and let them see the condi∣tions of both estates? And yet dost thou ask me, How I know who shall be saved? what need I go up to heaven to inquire that of Christ, which he came down to earth to tell us? and sent his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to tell us? and hath left upon Record to all the world? And though I do not know the secrets of thy heart, and therefore cannot tell thee by name, whether it be thy state, or no; yet, if thou art but willing and diligent, thou maist know thy self, whether thou be an heir of heaven, or not? And that is the main thing that I desire; that if thou be yet mise∣rable, thou mayest discern it and escape it. But canst thou possibly escape if thou neglect Christ and salvation? Heb. 2.3. Is it not re∣solved on, That if thou love father, mother, wife, children, house, lands,* 1.5 or thy own life better then Christ, thou canst not be his disciple? and consequently, canst never be saved by him? Is this the word of man, or of God? Is it not then an undoubted con∣cluded case, that in the case thou art now in, thou hast not the least title to heaven? Shall I tell thee from the Word of God? It is
as impossible for thee to be saved, except thou be born again and made a new creature, as it is for the devils themselves to be saved. Nay, God hath more plainly and frequently spoken it in the Scripture, that such sinners as thou shall never be saved, then he hath done, that the devils shal never be saved. And doth not this ti∣dings go cold to thy heart? Me thinks, but that there is yet life and hope before thee, and thou hast yet time and means to have thy soul recovered, or else it should kill thy heart with terror, and the sight of thy doleful discovered case, should even strike thee dead with amazement and horror. If old Ely fell from his seat and dyed, to hear that the Ark of God was gone, which was but an outward sign of his presence, how then should thy heart be asto∣nished with this tidings, that thou hast lost the Lord God himself, and all thy title to his eternal presence and delights? If Rachel wept for children, and would not be comforted, because they were not; How then shouldst thou now sit down and weep for the happiness and future life of thy soul, because to thee it is not? VVhen King Belshazzar saw but a piece of a hand sent from God, writing over against him on the wall, it made his counte∣nance change, his thoughts trouble him, his loyns loosed in the joynts, and his knees smite one against another, Dan. 5.6. VVhy, what trembling then should seaze on thee, who hast the hand of God himself against thee? not in a Sentence or two onely, but in the very tenor and scope of the Scriptures? not threatning thee with the loss of a Kingdom onely, as he did Belshazzar, but with the loss of thy part in the everlasting Kingdom▪ But because I would fain have thee, if it be possible, to lay it close to thy heart, I will here stay a little longer, and shew thee, first, The greatness of thy loss; and secondly, The aggravations of thy unhappiness in this loss; thirdly, And the Positive miseries that thou maist also en∣dure, with their aggravations.
FIrst, The ungodly in their loss of heaven, do lose all that glori∣ous personal perfection, which the people of God do there in∣joy. They lose that shining lustre of the body, surpassing the bright∣ness
of the Sun at noon day. Though perhaps even the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual incorruptible bodies, then they were on earth, yet that wil be so far from being a happiness to them that it onely makes them capable of the more exq••isite torments, their understandings being now more capable of apprehending the greatness of their loss, and their senses more capable of feel••ing their sufferings.* 1.7 They would be glad then if every member were a dead member, that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it; and if the whole body were a rotten carkass, or might again lye down in the dust and darkness. The devil himself hath an An∣gelical and excellent nature, but that onely honoreth his skilful Creator, but is no honor or comfort at all to himself: The glory, the beauty, the comfortable perfections they are deprived of; much more do they want that mor••all perfection which the Blessed do partake of: Those holy dispositions and qualifications of minde; That blessed conformity to the Holiness of God; that chearful readiness to do his Will; that perfect rectitude of all their actions; In stead of these, they have their old ulcerous deformed souls, that perversness of Will, that disorder in their faculties▪ that loathing of good, that love to evil, that violence of passion, which they ha•• on earth. It is true, their understandings will be much cleared, both by the ceasing of their temptations and deluding ob••ects which they had on earth, as also by the sad experience which they will have in hell,* 1.8 of the falshood of their former conceits and delusions. But this proceeds not from the sanctifying of their natures. And perhaps their experience and too late understanding may restrain much of the evil motions of their wils which they had formerly here on earth; but the evil disposition is never the more changed, so also wil the conversation of the damned in hel be voyd of many of those sins which they commit here on earth: They will be drunk no more, and whore no more, and be gluttonous no more nor oppress the innocent, nor grind the poor, nor devour the houses and estates of their brethren, nor be revenged on their ene∣mies, nor persecute and destroy the members of Christ: All these, and many more actual sins will then be laid aside. But this is not from any renewing of their natures, they have the same dispo∣sitions still, and fain they would commit the same sins if they could; they want but opportunity, they are now tied up: it is part of their torment to be denied these their pleasures;
No thanks to them, that they sin not as much as ever; Their hearts are as bad, though their actions are restrained. Nay it is a great question, whether those remainders of good, which were left in their natures on earth (as their common honesty, and morall vertues) be not all taken from them in Hell?* 1.9 according to that, From him that hath not, shall be taken away, even that which he hath. This is the judgment of Divines generally: But because it is questionable, and much may be said against it, I will let that pass. But certainly they shall have none of the Glorious per∣fection of the Saints, either in soul or body. There will be a greater difference between these wretches, and the glorified Christian, then there is betwixt a Toad under a sill, and the Sun in the Firmament. The rich mans purple robes and delicious fare, did not so exalt him above Lazarus at his door in scabs, nor make the difference between them so wide, as it is now made on the contrary in their vast separation.
SEcondly, But the great loss of the damned, will be their loss of God, they shall have no comfortable relation to him: Nor any of the Saints communion with him: As they did not like to retain God in knowledg;* 1.11 but did him, Depart from us, we de∣sire not the knowledg of thy wayes; So God will abhor to re∣tain them in his houshold, or to give them entertainment in his Fellowship and Glory. He will never admit them to the inheri∣tance of his Saints, nor endure them to stand amongst them in his presence; but bid them, Depart from me, ye workers of iniqui∣ty, I know you not. Now these men dare belye the Lord, if not blaspheme, in calling him by the title of Their Father; How bold∣ly and con••idently do they daily approach him with their lips, and indeed reproach him in their formall prayers; with that appella∣tion, Our Father? As if God would Father the Divels children; or as if the slighters of Christ, the pleasers of the flesh, the friends of the world, the haters of godliness, or any that trade in sin and de∣light in iniquity, were the Off-spring of Heaven! They are ready now, in the height of their presumption, to lay as confident claim to Christ and heaven, as if they were sincere believing Saints. The
Swearer, the Drunkard, the Whoremaster, the Worldling, can scornfully say to the People of God, What, is not God our Father as well as yours? Doth he not love us as well as you? Will he save none but a few holy Precisians? O, but when that time is come, when the case must be decided, and Christ will separate his followers from his foes, and his faithfull friends from his deceived flatterers, where then will be their presumptuous claim to Christ? Then they shall finde that God is not their Father, but their re∣solved foe; because they would not be his people, but were re∣solved in their negligence and wickedness: Then, though they had preached, or wrought miracles in his name, he wil not know them: And though they were his Brethren or sisters after the flesh, yet will he not own them▪ but reject them as his enemies: And even those that did eat and drink in his presence on earth,* 1.12 shall be cast out of his heavenly presence for ever; And those that in his name did cast out Divels,* 1.13 shall yet at his command be cast out to those Divels, and endure the torments prepared for them. And as they would not consent that God should by his Spirit dwell in them, so shall not these evil doers dwell with him: the Taberna∣cles of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him:* 1.14 nor the wicked inhabit the City of God. For without are the Dogs; the Sorcerers, Whoremongers, Murderers, Idolaters, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lye. For God knoweth the way of the righ∣ous, but the way of the wicked leads to perishing.* 1.15 God is first enjoyed in part on earth, before he be fully enjoyed in Heaven. It is only they that walked with him here, who shall live and be happy with him there. O little doth the world now know what a loss that soul hath, who loseth God! VVhat were the world, but a dungeon, if it had lost the Sun? What were the body, but a loath∣some carrion, if it had lost the soul? Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God, even the little taste of the fruition of God which the Saints enjoy in this life, is dearer to them then all the world. As the world when they feed upon their forbidden pleasures, may cry out with the sons of the Prophets,* 1.16 There's death in the pot; So when the Saints do but taste of the favor of God,* 1.17 they cry out with David, In his favour is life. Nay, though life be naturally most dear to all men;* 1.18 yet they that have tasted and tryed, do say with David, his loving kindness is better then life. So that as the enjoyment of God, is the heaven of the Saints; so the loss of
God, is the hell of the ungodly. And as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all; So the loss of God is the loss of All.
THirdly, Moreover as they lose God, so they lose all those spi∣ritual delightful Affections, and Actions, by which the Blessed do feed on God. That transporting knowledg: those ravishing views of his Glorious Face: The unconceivable pleasure of loving God. The apprehensions of his infinite Love to us; The constant joys which his Saints are taken up with; and the Rivers of consola∣tion wherewith he doth satisfie them. Is it nothing to lose all this? The employment of a King in ruling a kingdome, doth not so far exceed the imployment of the vilest scullion or slave, as this Heavenly imployment exceedeth his.
These wretches had no delight in Praising God on earth; their recreations and pleasures were of another nature: and now, when the Saints are singing his prayses, and imployed in magnifying the Lord of Saints; then shall the ungodly be denyed this happiness, and have an imployment suitable to their natures and deserts: Their hearts were full of Hell upon earth: in stead of God, and his Love, and Fear, and Graces, there was Pride, and self-love, and lust, and unbelief; And therefore Hell must now entertain those Hearts, which formerly entertained so much of it. Their Houses on Earth were the resemblances of Hell: in stead of worshipping God, and calling upon his name, there was scorning at his worship, and swearing by his name: And now Hell must therefore be their habitation for ever, where they shall never be troubled with that worship and duty which they abhorred, but joyn with the rest of the damned in blaspheming that God who is avenging their for∣mer impieties and blasphemies. Can it probably be expcted, that they who made themselves merry while they lived on earth, in deriding the persons and families of the godly, for their frequent worshiping and praising God, should at last be admitted into the Familie of Heaven, and joyn with those Saints in those more per∣fect praises? Surely without a sound change upon their hearts be∣fore they go hence, it is utterly impossible. It is too late then to
say, Give us of your oyl, for our Lamps are out: Let us now en∣ter with you to the marriage feast: let us now joyn with you in the joyfull Heavenly melody. You should have joyned in it on earth, if you would have joyned in Heaven. As your eyes must be taken up with other kinde of sights; so must your hearts be taken up with other kinde of thoughts, and your voices turned to another tune. As the doors of heaven will be shut against you; so will that joyous imployment be denied to you. There is no singing the songs of Zion in the land of your thraldome: Those that go down to the pit do not praise him; Who can rejoyce in the place of sorrows? And who can be glad in the land of con∣fusion? God suits mens imployments to their natures; The bent of your spirits was another way, your hearts were never set upon God in your lives: you were never admirers of his Attributes and works, nor ever throughly warmed with his love: you never longed after the enjoyment of him; you had no delight to speak or to hear of him: you were weary of a Sermon or Prayer an hour long, you had rather have continued on earth, if you had known how; you had rather yet have a place of earthly preferment, or lands and lordships, or a feast, or sports, or your cups, or whores, then to be interessed in the Glorious Praises of God, and is it meet then that you should be members of the Celestiall Quire? A Swine is fitter for a Lecture of Philosophy, or an Ass to build a City, or govern a Kingdom; or a dead Corps to feast at thy Table, then thou art for this work of Heavenly Praise.
FOurthly, They shall also be deprived of the Blessed society of Angels, and glorified Saints. Instead of being companions of those happy spirits, and numbred with those Joyful and Triumph∣ing Kings; they must now be members of the corporation of hell, where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality. While they lived on earth, they loathed the Saints; they imprisoned, banished them, and cast them out of their socie∣ties; or at least they would not be their companions in labour, and in sufferings: And therefore they shall not now be their com∣panions in their Glory. Scorning them, and abusing them, hating
them, and rejoycing in their calamities, was not the way to obtain their blessedness. If you would have shined with them as Stars in the Firmament of their Father, you should have joyned with them in their holiness, and faith, and painfulness, and patience: you should have first been ingraffed with them into Christ, the common stock, and then incorporated into the fraternity of the members, and walked with them in singleness of heart, and watched with them with oyl in your Lamps, and joyned with them in mutuall exhortation, in faithfull admonitions, in conscionable reformation, in prayer, and in praise; you should have travelled with them out of the Egypt of your naturall estate, through the Red Sea, and Wilderness of humiliation and affliction, and have cheerfully taken up the Cross of Christ, as well as the name & pre∣fession of Christians, and rejoyced with them in suffering persecu∣tion, and tribulation: All this, if you had faithfully done, you might now have been triumphing with them in glory, and have possessed with them their masters joy. But this you could not, you would not endure: your souls loathed it, your flesh was a∣gainst it, and that flesh must be pleased, though you were told plainly and frequently what would come of it: and now you pertake of the fruit of your folly, and endure but what you were foretold you must endure; and are shut out of that company, from which you first shut out your selves; and are separated but from them, whom you would not be joyned with. You could not endure them in your houses, nor in your Towns, nor scarce in the Kingdom;* 1.21 you took them as Ahab did Elias, for the troublers of the land, and as the Apostles were taken for men that turned the world upside down; If any thing fell out amiss, you thought all was long of them. When they were dead or banished, you were glad they were gone; and thought the Countrey was well rid of them: They molested you with their faithfull reproving your sin; Their holy conversations did trouble your consciences, to see them so far excell your selves, and to condemn your loosness by their strictness, and your prophaness by their conscionable lives, and your negligence by their unwearyed diligence. You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families, but it was a ve∣xation to you; And you envyed their liberty in the worshipping of God. And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter? I have heard of those that have said, that if the
Puritans were in Heaven, and the good fellows in Hell, they had rather go to Hell then to Heaven. And can they think much to have their desires granted them? The day is neer when they will trouble you no more; betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set, that those that would pass from thence to you (if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water) cannot, neither can they pass to them who would go from you (for if they could, there would none be left behinde) Luk. 16.26. Even in this life, while the Saints were imperfect in their passions and infirmities, cloath∣ed with the same frail flesh as other men, and were mocked desti∣tute, afflicted and tormented, yet in the judgment of the Holy Ghost, they were such of whom the world was not worthy, Heb. 11.36, 37, 38. Much more unworthy are they of their fellow∣ship in their Glory.
§. 1.
§. 2.
Vse I. Consuevimus nos homines praesertim qui crassiore mente praediti sumus, metis potius quam benefici∣cia quod opor∣••et addiscer••. Tophylact. in Joan. c. 5. vers. 22.
Judg. 2.20, 21.
Matth. 10.31. Luke 14.26.
§. 3.
Anima illic posita bene esse perdidit, at esse non perdidit. Ex quâ re semper cogitur, ut & mortem sine morte, & d••fectum sine d••f••cta, & 〈◊〉〈◊〉 sine ••ine patiatur: 〈◊〉〈◊〉 & m••rs im∣••orta, sit & defectus inde∣sicions & finis ••••s••nitus. Gregor Dial. lib. 4.
In inferno et si eri••••timulus pae∣nitudinis nul∣la ibi e••it cor∣rectio volunta∣tis: a quibus it•• culpabitur in••quitas, ut nullatenus ab eis possit diligi vel desiderari justitia. Aug. de fide ad Pet.
Mat. 13.12. Luk. 8.18.
§. 4.
Rom. 1.28. Job. 21.14. D••cem mill••a quis ponat Ge¦hennas, nihil tal•• dicet quale est a beat â glo∣ri•• exc••dere, a Christo audire, Non n••vi vos. Chrys. in Mat. Hom 33. Multi Gehen∣nam abhorrent; ego autem ca∣sum illius glo∣ria multo ama∣riorem gehennae paenâ ••••o. Gre∣gor.
Mat. 7.22.
Mat. 25.41.
Psal. 94.20. & 132.3. Rev. 22.15.
Psal. 1.6, 7.
2 King. 4.40.
Psal. 30.5.
Psal. 63.3.
§. 5.
§. 6.
1 King. 18.17. Act. 17.6.