him, and those ordinances which speak of him, and those gifts which flow from him, than we will come clean over to himself. Christian, marvel not that I speak so much of resting in these ; beware lest it should prove thy own case: I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of riches, and honour, and carnal pleasure, that thou canst more easily disclaim these, and it is well if it be so; but for thy more spiritual mercies in thy way of profession, thou lookest on these with less suspicion, and thinkest they are so near to God, that thou canst not delight in them too much, especially seeing most of the world despise them, or delight in them too little. But doth not the increase of those mercies dull thy longings after heaven? If all were according to thy desire in the church, wouldest thou not sit down and say, I am well, Soul, take thy rest; and think it a judgment to be removed to heaven? Surely if thy delight in these excel not thy delight in God, or if thou wouldest gladly leave the most happy condition on earth, to be with God, then art thou a rare man, a Christian indeed. I know the means of grace must be loved and valued, and the usual enjoyment of God is in the use of them; and he that delighteth in any worldly thing more than in them, is not a true Christian: but when we are content with duty instead of God, and had rather be at a sermon than in heaven; and a member of a church here, than of that perfect church, and rejoice in ordinances, but as they are part of our earthly prosperity; this is a sad mistake. Many were more willing to go to heaven in the former days of persecution, when they had no hopes of seeing the church reformed, or delivered: but now men are in hopes to have all things almost as they desire, the case is altered; and they begin to look at heaven as strangely and sadly, as if it would be a loss to be removed to it. Is this the right use of reformation? Or is this the way to have it continued or perfected? Should our deliverances draw our hearts from God? Oh, how much better were it, in every trouble, to fetch our chief arguments of comfort, from the place where our chiefest rest remains! And when others comfort the poor with hopes of wealth, or the sick with hopes of health and life, let us comfort ourselves with the hopes of heaven. So far rejoice in the creature, as it comes from God, or leads to him, or brings thee some report of his love: so far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances, as God doth accompany them with quickening, or comfort, or gives himself unto thy soul by them: still remembering, when thou hast even what thou dost desire, yet this is not heaven; yet these are but the first-fruits. Is it not enough that God alloweth us all the comfort of travellers, and accordingly to rejoice in all his mercies, but we must set up our staff as if we were at home?" While we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord;" (2 Cor. v. 6–9 ;) and while we are absent from him, we are absent from our rest. If God were as willing to be absent from us as we from him, and if he were as loth to be our rest as we are loth to rest in him, we should be left to an eternal restless separation. In a word, as you are sensible of the sinfulness of your earthly discontents, so be you also of your irregular contents, and pray God to pardon them much more. And above all the plagues and judgments of God on this side hell, see that you watch and pray against this (of settling any where short of heaven, or reposing your souls to rest on any thing below God). Or else, when the bough which you tread on breaks, and the things which you rest upon deceive you, you will perceive your labour all lost, and your sweetest contents to be preparatives to your woe, and your highest hopes will make you ashamed. Try, if you can persuade Satan to leave tempting, and the world to cease both troubling and seducing, and sin to cease inhabiting and acting; if you can bring the glory of God from above, or remove the court from heaven to earth, and secure the continuance of this through eternity, then settle yourselves below, and say, Soul, take thy rest here; but till then, admit not such a thought. CHAP. II. USE VII.-Reproving our Unwillingness to Die. SECT. I. Is there a rest remaining for the people of God? Why are we then so loth to die, and to depart from hence that we may possess this rest? If I may judge of other men's, hearts by my own, we are exceeding guilty in this point. We linger, as Lot in Sodom, till God being merciful to us, doth pluck us away against our wills. How rare is it to meet with a i We resist and struggle, and, like froward servants, we are hailed to our Master's presence with sadness and unwillingness; going out hence as compelled by necessity, and not in willing obedience; and, would we be honoured Christian, though of strongest parts, and longest profession, that can die with an unfeigned willingness! Especially if worldly calamity constrain them not to be willing! Indeed, we sometime set a good face on it, and pretend a willingness when we see there is no remedy, and that our unwillingness is only a disgrace to us, but will not help to prolong our lives: but if God had enacted such a law for the continuance of our lives on earth, as is enacted for the continuance of that parliament, that we should not be dissolved till our own pleasure; and that no man should die till he were truly willing; I fear heaven might be empty for the most of us; and if our worldly prosperity did not fade, our lives on earth would be very long, if not eternal. We pretend desires of being better prepared, and of doing God some greater service, and to that end we beg one year more, and another, and another; but still our promised preparation and service are as far to seek as ever before, and we remain as unwilling to die, as we were when we begged our first reprival. If God were not more willing of our company, than we are of his, how long should we remain thus distant from him? And as we had never been sanctified if God had staid till we were willing; so if he should refer it wholly to ourselves, it would at least be long before we should be glorified. I confess that death of itself is not desirable; but the soul's rest is with God, to which death is the common passage. And because we are apt to make light of this sin, and to plead our common nature to patronize it, let me here set before you its aggravations; and also propound some further considerations, which may be useful to you and myself against it. Sect. II. And, first, consider what a deal of gross infidelity doth lurk in the bowels of this sin. Either paganish unbelief of the truth of that eternal blessedness, and of the truth of the Scripture which doth promise it to us; or, at least, a doubting by him with the heavenly rewards, to whom we go against our wills? Why pray we that the kingdom of heaven may come, if this earthly captivity do delight us?-Cyprian. de Mortalitat. p. 355. k We are all naturally desirous to live, and though we prize life above all earthly things, yet we are ashamed to profess that we desire it for its own sake, but pretend some other reason; one for this, and another for that, &c. After all this hypocrisy, nature above all things would live, and makes life the main end of living: but grace hath higher thoughts, &c.-Bishop Hall, Solil. p. 21, 79, 80. For mere moral considerations against the fear of death, read Sen. Epist. 20. ad Lucilium, and Charon of Wisdom, lib. ii. c. 11. For spiritual considerations (among many larger) Cypr. de Mortalitate (and others of his) is excellent. of our own interest; or most usually somewhat of both these. And though Christians are usually most sensible of the latter, and therefore complain most against it, yet I am apt to suspect the former to be the main radical master-sin, and of greatest force in this business. Oh! if we did but verily believe that the promise of this glory is the word of God, and that God doth truly mean as he speaks, and is fully resolved to make it good; if we did verily believe that there is, indeed, such blessedness prepared for believers as the Scripture mentioneth, surely we should be as impatient of living as we are now fearful of dying,' and should think every day a year till our last day should come. We should as hardly refrain from laying violent hands on ourselves, or from the neglecting of the means of our health and life, as we do now from overmuch carefulness and seeking of life by unlawful means. If the eloquent oration of a philosopher, concerning the soul's immortality and the life to come, could make his affected hearer presently to cast himself headlong from the rock, as impatient of any longer delay, what would a serious christian belief do, if God's law against selfmurder did not restrain? Is it possible that we can truly believe that death will remove us from misery to such glory, and yet be loth to die? If it were the doubts of our interest which made us afraid, yet a true belief of the certainty and excellency of this rest would make us restless till our interest be cleared. If a man that is desperately sick to-day, did believe he should arise sound the next morning; or a man to-day, in despicable poverty, had assurance that he should to-morrow arise a prince; would they be afraid to go to bed, or rather think it the longest day of their lives, till that desired night and morning came? The truth is, though there is much faith and Christianity in our mouths, yet there is much infidelity and paganism in our hearts, which is the main cause that we are so loth to die. Sect. III. 3. And as the weakness of our faith," so also the cold 1 Let him fear to die, who being not born again of water and the Spirit, is condemned to the flames of hell. Let him fear to die, who is not judged to be Christ's in his cross and passion. Let him fear to die, who must from this death pass to the second death. Let him fear to die, whom eternal fire must torment with everlasting pains, when he departeth hence. Let him fear to die, who by his longer delay doth gain only the deferring of his groans and torments. Cyprian. de Mortalitate, sec. x. p. (mihi) 344. Beata vita si non amatur, non habetur: porro si amatur et habetur, cæteris omnibus rebus excellentius necesse est ametur; quoniam propter hanc amandum est, quicquid aliud amatur : porro si tantum amatur quantum amari digna est, (non enim beatus est à quo ipsa beata vita non amatur ut VOL. XXIII. : ness of our love, is exceedingly discovered by our unwillingness to die. Love doth desire the nearest conjunction, the fullest fruition, and closest communion. Where these desires are absent, there is only a naked pretence of love. He that ever felt such a thing as love working in his breast, hath also felt these desires attending it. If we love our friend, we love his company his presence is comfortable, his absence is troublesome. When he goes from us, we desire his return: when he comes to us, we entertain him with welcome and gladness: when he dies, we mourn, and usually overmourn. To be separated from a faithful friend, is to us as the renting of a member from our bodies; and would not our desires after God be such, if we really loved him? Nay, should it not be much more than such, as he is above all friends most lovely? The Lord teach us to look closely to our hearts, and take heed of self-deceit in this point: for, certainly, whatever we pretend or conceit, if we love either father, mother, husband, wife, child, friend, wealth, or life, more than Christ, we are yet none of his sincere disciples. When it comes to the trial, the question will not be who hath preached most, or heard most, or talked most, but who hath loved most. When our account is given, Christ will not take sermons, prayers, fastings; no, not the giving of our goods, nor the burning of our bodies instead of love. (1 Cor. xiii. 1-4, 8, 13, and xvi. 22; Eph. vi. 24.) And do we love him, and yet care not how long we are from him? If I be deprived of my bosom friend, methinks I am as a man in a wilderness, solitary and disconsolate and is my absence from God no part of my trouble; and yet can I take him for my chiefest friend? If I delight but in some garden, or walk, or gallery, I would be much in it: if I love my books, I am much with them, and almost unweariedly poring on them. The food which I love, I would often feed on the clothes that I love, I would often wear: the recreations which I love, I would often use them the business which I love, I would be much employed And can I love God, and that above all these, and yet have digna est) fieri non potest ut eam qui sic amat, non æternam velit. Tunc igitur beata erit, quando erit æterna.-Aug. de Civit. lib. xiv. c. 25. Solus est qui sine amico est.-Aug. Herodotus tells us of a country where men have many wives, and when a man dieth all bis wives must be examined, that it may be known which he loved best, and that must be slain and buried with him; and that they used to strive for this as a high privilege, and take it to heart as a great dishonour to be put by it.-Herodot. lib. v. p. (edit. Sylburg.) 284. And will not the love of Christ make a Christian as willing to die? |