IV. Containing some hinderances of a heavenly life
CHAP. IV Containing some Hinderances of a Heavenly Life SECT. I. The first task that I must here set thee, consists in the avoiding some dangerous hinderances, which otherwise will keep thee off from this work, as they have done many a thousand before thee. If I show thee briefly where the rocks and gulf do lie, I hope thou wilt beware. If I stick up a mark at every quicksand, I hope I need to say no more, to put thee by it. Therefore, as thou valuest the comforts of a heavenly conversation, I here charge thee from God to beware most carefully of these impediments.
I. The first is, the living in a known unmortified sin. Observe this: O what havoc will this make in thy soul! O the joys that this hath destroyed! The blessed communion with God that this hath interrupted! The ruins it hath made amongst men's graces! The soulstrengthening duties that this hath hindered! And above all others, it is especially an enemy to this great duty.
Christian reader, I desire thee, in the fear of God, stay here a little, and search thy heart. Art thou one that hath used violence with thy conscience? Art thou a wilful neglecter of known duties, either public, private, or secret? Art thou a slave to thine appetite, in eating or drinking, or to any other commanding sense? Art thou a proud seeker of thine own esteem, and a man that must needs have men's good opinion, or else thy mind is all in a combustion? Art thou a wilfully peevish and passionate person, as if thou wert made of tinder, or gunpowder, ready to take fire at every word, or every wry look, or every supposed slighting of thee; or every neglect of a compliment or courtesy? Art thou a knowing deceiver of others in thy dealing, or one that hath set thyself to rise in the world? not to speak of greater sins, which all take notice of. If this be thy case, I dare say, heaven and thy soul are very great strangers: I dare say,
thou art seldom in heart with God, and there is little hope it should ever be better, as long as thou continuest in these transgressions.
These beams in thine eyes will not suffer thee to look to heaven; these will be a cloud between thee and God. When thou dost but attempt to study eternity, and to gather comfort from the life to come, thy sin will presently look thee in the face, and say, These things belong not to thee. How shouldst thou take comfort from heaven, who takest so much pleasure in the lusts of thy flesh? O, how this will damp thy joys, and make the thoughts of that day and state to become thy trouble, and not thy delight! Every wilful sin that thou livest in, will be to thy comforts as water to the fire, when thou thinkest to quicken them, this will quench them; when thy heart begins to draw near to God, this will presently come in thy mind, and cover thee with shame, and fill thee with doubting. Besides (which is most to the point in hand), it doth utterly indispose thee, and disable thee to this work: when thou shouldst wind up thy heart to heaven, alas! it is biassed another way; it is entangled in the lusts of the flesh; and can no more ascend in divine meditation, than the bird can fly, whose wings are clipped, or that is entangled in the lime twigs, or taken in the snare. Sin doth cut the very sinews of the soul, therefore,
I say of this heavenly life, as Mr. Bolton saith of prayer, Either it will make thee leave sinning, or sin will make thee leave it, and that quickly too, for these cannot continue together. If thou be here guilty, who readest this, I require thee sadly to think of this folly. O man! what a life dost thou lose; and what a life dost thou choose; what daily delights dost thou sell for the swinish pleasure of a stinking lust; what a Christ! what a glory dost thou turn thy back upon, when thou art going to the embracements of thy hellish pleasures! I have read of a gallant addicted to uncleanness, who at last meeting with a beautiful dame, and having enjoyed his fleshly desires of her, found her in the morning to be the dead body of one that he had formerly sinned with, which had been acted by the devil all night, and left dead again in the morning. Surely, all thy sinful pleasures are such: the devil doth animate them in the darkness of the night; but when
God awakes thee, at the farthest at death, the deceit is vanished, and nothing left but a carcass to amaze thee, and be a spectacle of horror
before thine eyes. Thou thinkest thou hast hold of some choice delight, but it will turn in thy hand (as Moses's rod) into a serpent; and then thou wouldst fain be rid of it, if thou knewest how; and would fly from the face of it, as thou dost now embrace it: and shall this now detain thee from the high delights of the saints? If heaven and hell can meet together, and if God can become a lover of sin, then mayest thou live in thy sin, and in the tastes of glory, and mayest have a conversation in heaven, though thou cherish thy corruption. If, therefore, thou find thyself guilty, never doubt on it, but this is the cause that estrangeth thee from heaven; and take heed lest it keep out thee, as it keeps out thy heart; and do not say, but thou wast bid take heed. Yea, if thou be a man that hitherto hast escaped, and knowest no reigning sin in thy soul, yet let this warning move thee to prevention, and stir up a dread of this danger in thy spirit. As Hunnius writes of himself, that, hearing the mention of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, it stirred up such fears in his spirit, that made him cry out, What if this should be my case? and so roused him to prayer and trial. So think thou, though thou yet be not guilty, what a sad thing were it, if ever this should prove thy case, and therefore watch. Especially resolve to keep from the occasions of sin, and, as much as is possible, out of the way of temptations. The strongest Christian is unsafe among occasions of sin. O what need have we to pray daily, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil?" And shall we pray against them, and cast ourselves upon them? If David, Solomon, Peter, &c., teach you not, at least look upon the multitudes that have revolted of late times, and fallen into the most horrid sins, with religious pretences. As Christ thought meet to say to his disciples, "Remember Lot's wife; and what I say to one I say to all, Watch;" so say I, Remember these, and watch.
Sect. II. 2. A second hinderance carefully to be avoided, is, an earthly mind; for you may easily conceive that this cannot stand with a heavenly mind. God and Mammon, earth and heaven, cannot both have the delight of thy heart. This makes thee like Anselm's bird, with a stone tied to the foot, which as oft as she took flight, did pluck her to the earth again. If thou be a man that hast fancied to thyself,
some content or happiness to be found on earth, and beginnest to taste a sweetness in gain, and to aspire after a fuller and a higher estate; and hast hatched some thriving projects in thy brain, and art driving on thy rising design; believe it, thou art marching with thy back upon Christ, and art posting apace from this heavenly life. Why, hath not the world that from thee, which God hath from the heavenly believer? When he is blessing himself in his God, and rejoicing in hope of the glory to come, then thou art blessing thyself in thy prosperity, and rejoicing in hope of thy thriving here: when he is solacing his soul in the views of Christ, of the angels and saints, that he shall live with for ever, then art thou comforting thyself with thy wealth, in looking over thy bills and bonds, in viewing thy money, thy goods, thy cattle, thy buildings, or large possessions; and art recreating thy mind in thinking on thy hopes; of the favour of some great ones, on whom thou dependest; of the pleasantness of a plentiful and commanding state; of the larger provision for thy children after thee; of the rising of thy house, or the obeisance of thine inferiors. Are not these thy morning and evening thoughts, when a gracious soul is above with Christ? Dost thou not delight and please thyself with a daily rolling these thoughts in thy mind, when a gracious soul should have higher delights? If he were a fool by the sentence of Christ that said, "Soul, take thy rest, thou hast enough laid up for many years;" what a fool of fools art thou, that, knowing this, yet takest not warning, but in thy heart speakest the same words! Look them over seriously, and tell me what difference between this fool's expressions, and thy affections? I doubt not but thou hast more wit than to speak thy mind just in his language; but, man, remember thou hast to do with the Searcher of hearts. It may be, thou holdest on thy course of duty, and prayest as often as thou didst before; it may be, thou keepest in with good ministers, and with godly men, and seemest as forward in religion as ever: but what is all this to the purpose? Mock not thy soul, man, for God will not be so mocked. What good may yet remain in thee, I know not; but sure I am, thy course is dangerous, and, if thou follow it on, will end in dolour. Methinks I see thee befooling thyself, and tearing thy hair, and gnashing thy teeth, when thou hearest thy case laid open by God:
"Thou fool, this night shall they require thy soul from thee; and then whose are all these things?" Certainly, so much as thou delightest and restest on earth, so much is abated of thy delights in God. Thine earthly mind may consist with thy profession and common duties, but it cannot consist with this heavenly duty. I need not tell thee all this, if thou wouldst deal impartially, and not be a traitor to thy own soul: thou knowest thyself how seldom and cold, how cursory and strange, thy thoughts have been of the joys hereafter, ever since thou didst trade so eagerly for the world. Methinks I even perceive thy conscience stir now, and tell thee plainly that this is thy case. Hear it, man! Oh! hear it now, lest thou hear it in another manner when thou wouldst be full loth. O the cursed madness of many that seem to be religious; who thrust themselves into a multitude of employments, and think they can never have business enough till they are loaded with labours and clogged with cares; that their souls are as unfit to converse with God, as a man to walk with a mountain on his back, and till he hath even transformed his soul almost into the nature of his drossy carcass, and made it as unapt to soar aloft as his body is to leap above the sun: and when all is done, and they have lost that heaven they might have had upon earth, they take up a few rotten arguments to prove it lawful, and then they think that they have solved all. Though these sots would not do so for their bodies, nor forbear their eating, or drinking, or sleeping, or sporting, though they could prove it lawful so to do, though, indeed, they cannot prove it lawful neither. They miss not the pleasures of this heavenly life, if they can but quiet their consciences, while they fasten upon lower and baser pleasures. For thee, O Christian, who hast tasted of these pleasures, I advise thee, as thou vainest their enjoyment, as ever thou wouldst taste of them any more, take heed of this gulf of an earthly mind; for if once thou come to this, that thou wilt be rich, "thou fallest into temptation, and a snare, and into divers foolish and hurtful lusts:" it is St. Paul's own words. (1 Tim. 6:9.) Set not thy mind, as Saul, on the asses, when the kingdom of glory is set before thee. Keep these things as thy upper garments, still loose about thee, that thou mayest lay them by whenever there is cause: but let God and glory be next thy heart, yea, as the very blood and spirit by which
thou livest. Still remember that of the Spirit, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God: whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4.) And, "Love not the world, nor the things of the world: if any love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15.) This is plain dealing, and happy he that faithfully receives it.
Sect. III. 3. A third hinderance which I must advise thee to beware is, the company of ungodly and sensual men. Not that I would dissuade thee from necessary converse, or from doing them any office of love, especially not from endeavouring the good of their souls, as long as thou hast an opportunity or hope: nor would I have thee conclude them to be dogs and swine, that so thou mayest evade the duty of reproof; nor yet to judge them such at all, as long as there is any hope of better, or before thou art certain they are such indeed. Much less can I approve of the practice of those who, because the most of the world are naught, do therefore conclude men, dogs, or swine, before ever they faithfully and lovingly did admonish them, yea, or perhaps before they have known them, or spoke with them: and hereupon they will not communicate with them in the Lord's-supper, but separate from them into distinct congregations. I persuade thee to no such ungodly separation, as I never found one word in Scripture where either Christ or his apostles denied admittance to any man that desired to be a member of the church, though but only professing to repent and believe; so neither did I ever there find that any but convicted heretics, and scandalous ones, and that for the most part after due admonition, were to be avoided or debarred our fellowship. And whereas it is urged that they are to prove their title to the privileges which they lay claim to, and not we to disprove it. I answer, If that were granted, yet their mere sober professing to repent and believe in Christ, is as to us a sufficient evidence of their title to church-membership, and admittance thereto by baptism, supposing them not admitted before; and their being baptised persons, if at age, or members of the universal visible church, into which it is that they are baptised, and owning their baptismal profession, is sufficient evidence of their title to the supper, till they
do by heresy or scandal blot that evidence; which evidence, if they do produce in the church of which they are members, yea, though they are yet weak in the faith of Christ, who is he that dare refuse to receive them? And this, after much doubting, dispute, and study of the Scriptures, I speak as confidently as almost any truth of equal moment: so plain is the Scripture in this point, to a man that brings his understanding to the model of Scripture, and doth not bring a model in his brain, and reduce all he reads to that model. The door of the visible church is incomparably wider than the door of heaven; and Christ is so tender, so bountiful, and forward to convey his grace, and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all, that surely Christ will keep no man off: if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ, they shall be welcome; if they will come but only to a visible profession, he will not deny them admittance there, because they intend to go no farther, but will let them come as near as they will; and that they come no further, shall be their own fault: and so it is not his readiness to admit such, nor the openness of the door of his visible church, that makes men hypocrites, but their own wickedness.
Christ will not keep such out among infidels, for fear of making hypocrites: but when the net is drawn unto the shore, the fishes shall be separated; and when the time of harvest comes, "then the angels shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity." (Matt. 13:41.) There are many saints, or sanctified men, that yet shall never come to heaven, who are only saints by their separation from paganism, into fellowship with the visible church, but not saints in the strictest sense, by separation from the ungodly into the fellowship of the mystical body of Christ. (Heb.
10:29; Deut. 7:6, 14:2, 21, 26:19, and 28:9; Exod. 19:6; 1 Cor. 7:13, 14; Rom. 11:16; Heb. 3:1, compared with verse 12; 1 Cor. 3:17, and 14:33;
1 Cor. 1:2, compared with 11:20, 21, &c.; Gal. 3:26, compared with Gal. 3:3, 4, 4:11, and 5:2–4; John 15:2.
Thus far have I digressed, by way of caution, that you may not think that I dissuade you from lawful converse, but it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men, and too much familiarity with unprofitable companions, though they be not so apparently ungodly, that I
dissuade you from. There are many persons whom we may not avoid or excommunicate out of the church, no nor out of our private society, judicially, or by way of penalty to them, whom yet we must exclude from our too-much familiarity in way of prudence for preservation of ourselves. It is not only the profane, the swearer, the drunkard, and the enemies of godliness, that will prove hurtful companions to us, though these, indeed, are chiefly to be avoided; but too frequent society with dead-hearted formalists, or persons merely civil and moral, or whose conference is empty, unsavoury, and barren, may much divert our thoughts from heaven, and do ourselves a great deal of wrong.e As mere idleness and forgetting
God, will keep a soul as certainly from heaven, as a profane, licentious, fleshly life; so also will the useless company of such idle, forgetful, negligent persons, as surely keep our hearts from heaven, as the company of men more dissolute and profane. Alas! our dulness and backwardness is such, that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps. A clod, or a stone that lies on the earth, is as prone to arise and fly in the air, as our hearts are naturally to move towards heaven. You need not hold nor hinder the earth and rocks, to keep them from flying up to the skies; it is sufficient that you do not help them. And, surely, if our spirits have not great assistance, they may easily be kept from flying aloft, though they never should meet with the least impediment. Oh, think of this in the choice of your company. When your spirits are so powerfully disposed for heaven that you need no help to lift them up; but, as the flames, you are always mounting upward, and carrying with you all that is in your way, then you may, indeed, he less careful of your company: but till then, as you love the delights of a heavenly life, be careful therein. As it is reported of a lord that was near to his death, and the doctor that prayed with him read over the Litany; "for all women labouring with child, for all sick persons and young children,
&c.; from lightning and tempest, from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle, murder, and sudden death," &c. "Alas!" saith he,
"What is this to me who must presently die?" &c. so mayest thou say of such men's conference, who can talk of nothing but their callings and vanity. Alas! what is this to me who must shortly be in rest, and
should now be refreshing my soul with its foretastes? What will it advantage thee to a life with God, to hear where the fair is such a day, or how the market goes, or what weather is, or is like to be; or when the moon changeth, or what news is stirring? Why, this is the discourse of earthly men. What will it conduce to the raising of thy heart God-ward, to hear that this is an able minister, or that a serious
Christian, or that this was an excellent sermon, or that an excellent book; to hear a violent arguing, or tedious discourse of baptism, ceremonies, the power of the keys, the order of God's decrees, or other such controversies of great difficulty, but little importance? Yet this, for the most part, is the sweetest discourse that thou art like to have of a formal, speculative, dead-hearted professor. Nay, if thou hadst newly been warming thy heart in the contemplation of the blessed joys above, would not this discourse benumb thine affections and quickly freeze thy heart again? I appeal to the judgment of any man that hath tried it, and maketh observations on the frame of his spirit. Men cannot well talk of one thing and mind another, especially things of such differing natures. You young men, who are most liable to this temptation, think sadly of what I say. Can you have your hearts in heaven on an alehouse bench, among your roaring, singing, swaggering companions, or when you work in your shops with none but such whose ordinary language is oaths, or filthiness, or foolish talking, or jesting? Nay, let me tell you thus much more; that if you choose such company when you might have better, and find most delight and content in such, you are so far from a heavenly conversation, that as yet you have no title to heaven at all, and in that estate shall never come there: for were your treasure there, your heart would not be on things so distant. (Matt. 6:21.) In a word, our company will be part of our happiness in heaven, and it is a singular part of our furtherance to it, or hinderance from it. As the creatures living in the several elements are commonly of the temperature of the element they live in, as the fishes cold and moist like the water, the worms cold and dry as the earth, and so the rest: so are we usually like the society which we most converse in. He that never found it hard to have a heavenly mind in earthly company, it is certainly because he never tried.
Sect. IV. 4. A fourth hinderance to heavenly conversation, is, too frequent disputes about lesser truths, and especially when a man's religion lies only in his opinions: a sure sign of an unsanctified soul.
If sad examples be doctrinal to you, or the judgments of God upon us be regarded, I need to say the less upon this particular. It is legibly written in the faces of thousands; it is visible in the complexion of our diseased nation: this facies hypocritica is our facies hypocratica.
He that hath the least skill in physiognomy may see that this complexion is mortal, and this picture-like, shadow-like visage affordeth our state a sad prognostic. You that have been my companions in armies and garrisons, in cities and countries, I know have been my companions in this observation, that they are usually men least acquainted with a heavenly life, who are the violent disputers about the circumstantials of religion. He whose religion is all in his opinions, will be most frequently and zealously speaking his opinions; and he whose religion lies in the knowledge and love of God in Christ, will be most delightfully speaking of that time when he shall enjoy God and Christ. As the body doth languish in consuming fevers, when the native heat abates within, and an unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds; so, when the zeal of a Christian doth leave the internals of religion, and fly to ceremonials, externals, or inferior things, the soul must needs consume and languish: yea, though you were sure your opinions were true, yet when the chiefest of your zeal is turned thither, and the chiefest of your conference there laid out, the life of grace decays within, and your hearts are turned from this heavenly life. Not that I would persuade you to undervalue the least truth of God, nor that I do acknowledge the hot disputers of the times to have discovered the truth above their brethren; but in case we should grant them to have hit on the truth, yet let every truth in our thoughts and speeches have their due proportion, and I am confident the hundredth part of our time and our conference would not be spent upon the now common themes. For as there are a hundred truths of far greater consequence, who do all challenge the precedency before these, so many of those truths alone are of a hundred times nearer concernment to our souls, and therefore should have an answerable proportion in our thoughts.
Neither is it any excuse for our casting by those great, fundamental truths, because they are common and known already; for the chief improvement is yet behind, and the soul must be daily refreshed with the truth of Scripture, and the goodness of that which it offereth and promiseth, as the body must be with its daily food, or else the known truths that lie idle in your heads will no more nourish, or comfort, or save you, than the bread that lies still in your cupboards will feed you. Ah! he is a rare and precious Christian who is skilled in the improving of well-known truths. Therefore let me advise you that aspire after this joyous life, spend not too much of your thoughts, your time, your zeal, or your speeches, upon quarrels that less concern your souls; but when hypocrites are feeding on husks or shells, or on this heated food which will burn their lips far sooner than warm and strengthen their hearts, then do you feed on the joys above. I could wish you were all understanding men, able to defend every truth of God; and to this end that you would read and study controversy more; and your understanding and stability in these days of trial is no small part of my comfort and encouragement. But still I would have the chiefest to be chiefly studied, and none to shoulder out your thoughts of eternity. The least controverted points are usually most weighty, and of most necessary frequent use to our souls.
For you, my neighbours and friends in Christ, I bless God that I have so little need to urge this hard upon you, or to spend my time and speeches in the pulpit on these quarrels, as I have been necessitated, to my discontent, to do elsewhere; I rejoice in the wisdom and goodness of our Lord, who hath saved me much of this labour, 1.
Partly by his tempering of your spirits to sincerity. 2. Partly by the doleful, yet profitable example of those few that went from us, whose former and present condition of spirit makes them stand, as the pillar of salt, for a continual terror and warning to you, and so to be as useful as they were like to be hurtful. 3. Partly by the confessions and bewailings of this sin that you have heard from the mouth of the dying, advising you to beware of changing your fruitful society for the company of deceivers. I do unfeignedly rejoice in these providences,
and bless the Lord who thus establisheth his saints. Study well these precepts of the Spirit, "Him that is weak in the faith, receive, but not to doubtful disputations." (Rom. 14:1.) "But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes; and the servant of the Lord must not strive," (2 Tim. 2:23;) "but avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain." (Tit. 3:9.) "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions, and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railing, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. From such withdraw thyself." (1 Tim. 4:3–5.) Sect. V. 5. As you value the comforts of a heavenly life, take heed of a proud and lofty spirit. There is such an antipathy between this sin and God, that thou wilt never get thy heart near him, nor get him near thy heart, so long as this prevaileth in it. If it cast the angels from heaven that were in it, it must needs keep thy heart estranged from it. If it east our first parents out of paradise, and separated between the Lord and us, and brought his curse on all the creatures here below, it must needs then keep our hearts from paradise, and increase the cursed separation from our God. Believe it, hearers, a proud heart and a heavenly heart are exceeding contrary. Intercourse with God will keep men low, and that lowliness will further their intercourse. When a man is used to be much with God, and taken up in the study of his glorious attributes, he abhors himself in dust and ashes, and that self-abhorrence is his best preparative to obtain admittance to God again. Therefore, after a soul-humbling day, or in times of trouble, when the soul is lowest, it useth to have freest access to God, and savour most of the life above. He will bring them into the wilderness, and there he will speak comfortably to them.
(Hos. 2:14.) The delight of God is an humble soul, even him that is contrite, and trembleth at his word; and the delight of an humble soul is in God; and surely, where there is mutual delight, there will be
freest admittance, and heartiest welcome, and most frequent converse. Heaven would not hold God and the proud angels together, but a humble soul he makes his dwelling; and surely if our dwelling be with him, and in him, and his dwelling also be with us, and in us, there must needs be a most near and sweet familiarity. But the soul that is proud cannot plead this privilege. God is so far from dwelling in it, that he will not admit it to any near access, but looks upon it afar off. (Psal. 138:6.) The proud he resisteth, and the proud resisteth him, but to the humble he gives this and other graces. (1 Pet. 5:5.) A proud mind is a high mind in conceit, self-esteem, and carnal aspiring. A heavenly mind is a high mind indeed in God's esteem, and in higher, yet holy, aspiring. These two sorts of high-mindedness are more adverse to one another, than a high mind and a low: as we see that most wars and bloodshed is between princes and princes, and not between a prince and a ploughman. A low spirit and an humble is not so contrary to a high and heavenly, as a high and à proud. A grain of mustard-seed may come to be a tree; a small acorn may be a great oak; the sail of the windmill that is now down may presently be the highest of all; a subject that is low may be raised high, and he that is high may be yet higher, as long as he stands in subordination to his prince, who is the fountain of honour; but if he break out of that subordination, and become a competitor, or will assume and arrogate honour to himself, he will find this prove the falling way. A man that is swelled in a dropsy with wind or water, is as far from a sound, well-fleshed constitution, as he that is in a consuming atrophy. Well, then, art thou a man of worth in thine own eyes, and very tender of thine esteem with others? Art thou one that much valuest the applause of the people, and feelest thy heart tickled with delight when thou hearest of thy great esteem with men, and much dejected when thou hearest that men slight thee? Dost thou love those best who highly honour thee, and doth thy heart bear a grudge at those that thou thinkest do undervalue thee, and entertain mean thoughts of thee, though they be otherwise men of godliness and honesty? Art thou one that must needs have thy humours fulfilled, and thy judgment must be a rule to the judgments of others, and thy word a law to all about thee? Art thou ready to quarrel with
every man that lets fall a word in derogation from thy honour?q Are thy passions kindled if thy word or will be crossed? Art thou ready to judge humility to be sordid baseness, and knowest not how to stoop and submit; and wilt not be brought to shame thyself by humble confession when thou hast sinned against God, or injured thy brother? Art thou one that honourest the godly that are rich, and thinkest thyself somebody if they value and own thee, but lookest strangely at the godly poor, and art almost ashamed to be their companion? Art thou one that canst not serve God in a low place as well as in a high; and thinkest thyself the fittest for offices and honours, and lovest God's service when it stands with preferment?
Hast thou thine eye and thy speech much on thy own deservings; and are thy boastings restrained more by wit than by humility? Dost thou delight in opportunities of setting forth thy parts, and lovest to have thy name made public to the world, and wouldst fain leave behind thee some monument of thy worth, that posterity may admire thee when thou art dead and gone? Hast thou witty circumlocutions to commend thyself, while thou seemest to abase thyself, and deny thy worth? Dost thou desire to have all men's eyes upon thee, and to hear men observing thee, say, 'This is he?' Is this the end of thy studies and learning, of thy labours and duties, of seeking degrees, and titles, and places, that thou mayest be taken for somebody abroad in the world? Art thou unacquainted with the deceitfulness and wickedness of thy heart; or knowest thyself to be vile only by reading and by hearsay, but not by experience, and feeling of thy vileness? Art thou readier to defend thyself, and maintain thine innocency, than to accuse thyself, or confess thy fault? Canst thou hardly bear a close reproof, and dost digest plain dealing with difficulty and distaste?
Art thou readier in thy discourse to teach than to learn, and to dictate to others than to hearken to their instructions? Art thou bold and confident of thy own opinions, and little suspicious of the weakness of thy understanding, but a slighter of the judgment of all that are against thee? Is thy spirit more disposed to command and govern, than it is to obey and be ruled by others? Art thou ready to censure the doctrine of thy teachers, the actions of thy rulers, and the persons of thy brethren; and to think, if thou wert a judge, thou wouldst be
more just; or, if thou wert a minister, thou wouldst be more fruitful in doctrine, and more faithful in overseeing? Or, if thou hadst the managing of other men's business, thou wouldst have carried it more honestly and wisely? If these symptoms be undeniably in thy heart, beyond doubt thou art a proud person. I will not talk of thy following the fashions, of thy bravery and comportment, thy proud gestures and arrogant speeches, thy living at a rate above thy abilities.
Perhaps thy incompetency of estate, or thy competency of wit, may suffice to restrain these unmanly fooleries. Perhaps thou mayest rather seem sordid to others, and to live at a rate below thy worth, and yet, if thou be guilty of the former accusations, be it known to thee thou art a person abominably proud; it hath seized on thy heart, which is the principal fort; there is too much of hell abiding in thee, for thee to have any acquaintance in heaven. Thy soul is too like the devil for thee to have any familiarity with God. A proud man is all in the flesh, and he that will be heavenly must be much in the Spirit. It is likely that the man whom I have here described, hath either will or skill to go out of himself, and out of the flesh, as it were, and out of the world, that so he may have freedom for converse above. A proud man makes himself his God, and admires and sets himself as his idol; how, then, can he have his affections set on God? As the humble, godly man is the zealot in forward worshiping of God, so the ambitious man is the great zealot in idolatry; for what is his ambition but a more hearty and earnest desire after his idol, than the common and calmer idolaters do reach? And can this man possibly have his heart in heaven? It is possible his invention and memory may furnish his tongue both with humble and heavenly expressions, but in his spirit there is no more heaven than there is humility.
I entreat you, readers, be very jealous of your souls in this point.
There is nothing in the world will more estrange you from God. I speak the more of it, because it is the most common and dangerous sin in morality, and most promoting the great sin of infidelity. You would little think (yea, and the owners do little think) what humble carriage, what exclaiming against pride, what moanful selfaccusings, may stand with this devilish sin of pride. O, Christian, if
thou wouldst live continually in the presence of thy Lord, and lie in the dust, he would thence take thee up: descend first with him into the grave, thence thou mayest ascend with him to glory. Learn of him to be meek and lowly, and then thou mayest taste of this rest to thy soul. Thy soul else will be as the troubled sea, still casting out mire and dirt, which cannot rest; and, instead of these sweet delights in God, thy pride will fill thee with perpetual disquietness. It is the humble soul that forgets not God, and God will not forget the humble. (Psalm 9:12, 10:12.) As he that humbleth himself as a little child, shall hereafter be greatest in the kingdom of God, (Matt. 8:4,) so shall he now be greatest in the foretastes of the kingdom; for, as whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, so he that humbleth himself shall be, in both these respects, exalted. (Matt. 23:12.) God therefore dwelleth with him that is humble and contrite, to revive the spirit of such with his presence. (Isa. 57:15.) I conclude with that counsel of James and Peter, Humble yourselves, therefore, in the sight of the Lord, and he shall now in the spirit lift you up, (Jam.
4:10,) and in due time shall perfectly exalt you. (1 Pet. 5:6.) And when others are cast down, then shalt thou say, "There is a lifting up, and he shall save the humble person." (Prov. 15:33; 18:22; Job
22:29.) Sect. VI. 6. Another impediment to this heavenly life, is, wilful laziness, and slothfulness of spirit; and I verily think for knowing men, there is nothing hinders more than this. Oh, if it were only the exercise of the body, the moving of the lips, the bending of the knee, then it were an easy work indeed, and men would as commonly step to heaven as they go a few miles to visit a friend; yea, if it were to spend most of our days in numbering beads, and repeating certain words and prayers, in voluntary humility, and neglecting the body, after the commandments and doctrines of men; (Col. 2:21–23;) yea, or in the outward part of duties commanded by God, yet it were comparatively easy. Further, if it were only in the exercise of parts and gifts, though we made such performance our daily trade, yet it were easy to be heavenly-minded. But it is a work more difficult than all this to separate thoughts and affections from the world; to force
them to a work of so high a nature; to draw forth all our graces in their order, and exercise each on its proper object; to hold them to this till they perceive success, and till the work doth thrive and prosper in their hands. This, this is the difficult task. Reader, heaven is above thee, the way is upwards. Dost thou think, who art a feeble, short-winded sinner, to travel daily this steep ascent without a great deal of labour and resolution? Canst thou get that earthly heart to heaven, and bring that backward mind to God, while thou liest still, and takest thine ease? If lying down at the foot of the hill, and looking toward the top, and wishing we were there, would serve the turn, then we should have daily travellers for heaven. But the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matt. 11:12.) There must be violence used to get these first fruits, as well as to get the full possession. Dost thou not feel it so, though I should not tell thee? Will thy heart get upwards, except thou drive it? Is it not like a dull and jadish horse, that will go no longer than he feels the spur? Dost thou find it easy to dwell in the delights above? It is true, the work is exceeding sweet, and no condition on earth so desirable; but therefore it is that our hearts are so backward, especially in the beginning, till we are acquainted with it. Oh, how many hundred professors of religion, who can easily bring their hearts to ordinary duties, as reading, hearing, praying, conferring, could never yet in all their lives, bring them, and keep them to a heavenly contemplation one half hour together! Consider here, reader, as before the Lord, whether this be not thine own case. Thou hast known that heaven is all thy hopes; thou knowest thou must shortly be turned hence, and that nothing below can yield thee rest; thou knowest, also, that a strange heart, a seldom and careless thinking of heaven, can fetch but little comfort thence; and dost thou yet for all this let slip thy opportunities, and lie below in dust, or mere duties, when thou shouldst walk above, and live with God?
Dost thou commend the sweetness of a heavenly life, and judge those the excellent Christians that use it; and yet didst never once try it thyself? But as the sluggard that stretched himself on his bed, and cried, 'Oh, that this were working!' so dost thou talk and trifle, and live at thy ease, and say, 'Oh, that I could get my heart to heaven!'
This is to lie a-bed and wish, when thou shouldst be up and doing, 'How many a hundred do read books, and hear sermons, in expectation to hear of some easy course, or to meet with a shorter cut to comforts, than ever they are like to find in this world! And if they can hear of none from the preachers of truth, they will snatch it with rejoicing from the teachers of falsehood; and presently applaud the excellency of the doctrine, because it hath fitted their lazy temper, and think there is no other doctrine will comfort the soul, because it will not comfort it with hearing and looking on. They think their venison is best, though accompanied with a lie, because it is the easiest catched, and next at hand, and they think it will procure the chiefest blessing, and so it may, if God be as subject to mistake as blind Isaac. And while they pretend enmity only to the impossibilities of the law, they oppose the easier conditions of the Gospel, and cast off the burden that is light also, and which all must bear that will find rest to their souls; and in my judgment may as fitly be styled enemies to the Gospel, as enemies to the law, from whence they receive their common title. The Lord of light and Spirit of comfort show these men in time a surer way for lasting comfort. The delusions of many of them are strong, and ungrounded comforts they seem to have store. I can judge it to be of no better a kind, because it comes not in the Scripture way. They will some of them profess, that when they meditate and labour for comfort themselves, they either have none, or at least but human, and of a lower kind; but all the comforts that they own and value, are immediately injected without their pains: so do I expect my comforts to come in, in heaven; but till then, I am glad if they will come with labour, and the Spirit will help me to suck them from the breasts of the promise, and to walk from them daily to the face of God. It was an established law among the Argi, that if a man were perceived to be idle and lazy, he must give an account before the magistrate, how he came by his victuals and maintenance. And surely, when I see these men lazy in the use of God's appointed means for comfort, I cannot but question how they came by their comforts. I would they would examine it thoroughly themselves, for God will require an account of it from them. Idleness, and not improving the truth in painful duty, is the common cause of
men's seeking comfort from error; even as the people of Israel, when they had no comfortable answer from God, because of their own sin and neglect, would run to seek it from the idols of the heathens. So, when men were false-hearted to the truth, and the Spirit of truth did deny them comfort, because they denied him sincere obedience, therefore they will seek it from a lying spirit.
A multitude also of professors there are, that come and inquire for marks and signs, How shall I know whether my heart be sincere? and they think the bare naming of some mark is enough to discover it; but never bestow one hour in trying themselves by the marks they hear. So here, they ask for directions for a heavenly life; and if the hearing and knowing of these directions will serve, then they will be heavenly Christians; but if we set them to task, and show them their work, and tell them they cannot have these delights on easier terms, then, here they leave us, as the young man left Christ, with sorrow.
How our comforts are only in Christ, and yet this labour of ours is necessary thereto, I have showed you already in the beginning of this book, and therefore still refer you thither, when any shall put in that objection. My advice to such a lazy sinner is this: As thou art convict that this work is necessary to thy comfortable living, so resolvedly set upon it; if thy heart draw back, and be undisposed, force it on with the command of reason; and if thy reason begin to dispute the work, force it with producing the command of God; and quicken it up with the consideration of thy necessity, and the other motives before propounded; and let the enforcements that brought thee to the work, be still in thy mind to quicken thee in it: do not let such an incomparable treasure lie before thee, while thou liest still with thy hand in thy bosom: let not thy life be a continual vexation, which might be a continual delightful feasting, and all because thou wilt not be at the pains. When thou hast once tasted of the sweetness of it, and a little used thy heart to the work, thou wilt find the pains thou takest with thy backward flesh, abundantly recompensed in the pleasures of thy spirit. Only sit not still with a disconsolate spirit, while comforts grow before thine eyes, like a man in the midst of a garden of flowers, or delightful meadow, that will not rise to get
them, that he may partake of their sweetness. Neither is it a few formal, lazy, running thoughts that will fetch thee this consolation from above, any more than a few lazy, formal words will prevail with God instead of fervent prayer.z I know Christ is the fountain, and I know this, as every other gift, is of God; but yet if thou ask my advice, how to obtain these waters of consolation, I must tell thee, There is something also for thee to do: the Gospel hath its conditions and works, though not such impossible ones as the Law; Christ hath his yoke and his burden, though easy, and thou must come to him weary, and take it lip, or thou wilt never find rest to thy soul. The well is deep, and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be refreshed and delighted with it. What answer would you give a man that stands by a pump or draw-well, and should ask you, How shall I do to get out the water? Why you must draw it up, or labour at the pump, and that not a motion or two, but you must pump till it comes, and then hold on till you have enough. Or, if a man were lifting at a heavy weight, or would move a stone to the top of a mountain, and should ask you, How he should get it up? Why what should you say, but that he must put to his hands, and put forth his strength; and what else can I say to you, in directing you to this art of a heavenly life, but this: You must deal roundly with your hearts, and drive them up, and spur them on, and follow them close till the work be done, as a man will do a lazy, unfaithful servant, who will do nothing longer than your eye is on him; or as you will your horse or ox at his labour, who will not stir any longer than he is driven: and if your heart lie down in the midst of the work, force it up again till the work be done, and let it not prevail by its lazy policies. I know so far as you are spiritual, you need not all this striving and violence, but that is but in part, and in part you are carnal; and as long as it is so, there is no talk of ease. Though your renewed nature do delight in this work, yea, no delight on earth so great, yet your nature, so far as it is fleshly and unrenewed, will draw back and resist, and necessitate your industry. It was the Parthians' custom, that none must give their children any meat in the morning, before they saw the sweat on their faces with some labour: and you shall find this to be God's most usual course, not to give his children the tastes of his delights, till
they begin to sweat in seeking after them.b Therefore lay them both together, and judge whether a heavenly life or thy carnal ease be better, and, as a wise man, make thy choice accordingly. Yet this let me say to encourage thee, Thou needest not expend thy thoughts more than now thou dost; it is but only to employ them better: I press thee not to busy thy mind much more than thou dost, but to busy it upon better and more pleasant objects. As Socrates said to a lazy fellow that would fain go up to Olympus, but that it was so far off; "Why," saith he, "walk but as far every day as thou dost up and down about thy house, and in so many days thou wilt be at Olympus." So say I to thee; Employ but so many serious thoughts every day upon the excellent glory of the life, to come, as thou now employest on thy necessary affairs in the world; nay, as thou daily losest on vanities and impertinencies, and thy heart will be at heaven in a very short space.
To conclude this, As I have seldom known Christians perplexed with doubts about their state for want of knowing right evidences to try by, so much as for want of skill and diligence in using them; so have I seldom known a Christian that wants the joys of this heavenly life, for want of being told the means to get it, but for want of a heart to set upon the work, and painfully to use the means they are directed to. It is the field of the slothful that is overgrown with weeds, (Prov.
24:30–34;) and the desire of the slothful killeth his joys, because his hands refuse to labour; (Prov. 21:25.) While he lies wishing, his soul lies starving. He saith, There is a lion (there is difficulty) in the way, and turneth himself on the bed of his ease, as a door turneth on the hinges: he hideth his hand in his bosom, and it grieveth him to bring it to his mouth, (Prov. 26:13–15,) though it be to feed himself with the food of life. What is this but despising the feast prepared, and setting light by the dear-bought pleasures; and consequently by the precious blood that bought them, and throwing away our own consolations? For the Spirit hath told us, "that he also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster." (Prov. 18:9.)
Apply this to thy spiritual work, and study well the meaning of it.
Sect. VII. 7. It is also a dangerous and secret hinderance to content ourselves with the mere preparatives to this heavenly life, while we are utter strangers to the life itself. When we take up with the mere studies of heavenly things, and the notions and thoughts of them in our brain, or the talking of them with one another, as if this were all that makes us heavenly people: there is none in more danger of this snare than those that are much in public duty, especially preachers of the Gospel. Oh, how easily may they be deceived here, while they do nothing more than read of heaven, and study of heaven, and preach of heaven, and pray and talk of heaven. What! is not this the heavenly life? O that God would reveal to our hearts the dangers of this snare! Alas! all this is but mere preparation; this is not the life we speak of, but it is indeed a necessary help hereto. I entreat every one of my brethren in the ministry, that they search and watch against this temptation: alas! this is but gathering the materials, and not the erecting of the building itself; this is but gathering our manna for others, and not eating and digesting ourselves; as he that sits at home may study geography, and draw most exact descriptions of countries, and yet never see them, nor travel toward them; so may you describe to others the joys of heaven, and yet never come near it in your own hearts: as a man may tell others of the sweetness of meat which he never tasted, or as a blind man by learning may dispute of light and of colours; so may you study and preach most heavenly matter, which yet never sweetened your own spirits; and set forth to others that heavenly light, wherewith your own souls were never enlightened; and bring that fire for the hearts of your people, that never once warmed your own hearts. If you should study of nothing but heaven while you lived, and preach of nothing but heaven to your people, yet might your own hearts be strangers to it. What heavenly passages had Balaam in his prophecies! yet little of it (it is likely) in his spirit. Nay, we are under a more subtile temptation than any other men, to draw us from this heavenly life: if our employments did lie at a great distance from heaven, and did take up our thoughts upon worldly things, we should not be so apt to be so contented and deluded; but when we find ourselves employed upon nothing else, we are easier drawn to take up here. Studying and preaching of heaven
is liker to a heavenly life, than thinking and talking of the world is, and the likeness is it that is like to deceive us: this is to die the most miserable death, even to famish ourselves, because we have bread on our tables, which is worse than to famish when we cannot get it; and to die for thirst while we draw waters for others; thinking it enough that we have daily to do with it, though we never drink it to our souls' refreshing. All that I will say to you more of this, shall be in the words of my godly and judicious friend Mr. George Abbot, which I shall transcribe, lest you have not the book at hand, in his 'Vindiciæ
Sabbathi,' pp. 147–149.
"And here let me, in a holy jealousy, annex an exhortation to some of the ministers of this land, (for, blessed be God, it needs not to all,) that they would carefully provide, and look that they do not build the tabernacle on the Lord's-day; I mean, that they rest not in the opus operatum of their holy employments, and busying themselves about the carnal part of holy things, in putting off the studying of their sermons, or getting them by heart, (except it be to work them upon the heart, and not barely commit them to memory,) till that day; and so, though they take care to build the tabernacle of God's church, yet they in the mean time neglect the temple of their own hearts in serving God in the spirit, and not in the letter or outward performance only: but it were well if they would gather and prepare their manna, seethe it, and break it the day before, that when the sabbath comes they might have nothing to do but to chew and concoct it into their own spirits, and so spiritually, in the experience of their own hearts (not heads), dish it out to their hearers, which would be a happy means to make them see better fruit of their labours; for commonly that which is notionally delivered, is notionally received; and that which is spiritually and powerfully delivered in the evidence of the Spirit, is spiritually and savingly received; for spirit begets spirit, as fire begets fire, &c. It is an easy thing to take great pains in the outward part or performance of holy things, which oft proves a snare, causing the neglect of the spirit of the inner man; for many are great labourers in the work of the Lord, that are starvelings in the spirit of the Lord, satisfying themselves in