Imatges de pàgina
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Can | from his Spirit, or whither wilt thou fly from his
If it presence? If thou ascend up into heaven, he is
there; if thou make thy bed in hell, thou wilt feel
him there; if thou take the wings of the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even
there shalt thou find him to be to thee as thou art.'
Thou mayest think, with sinful Adam and Eve,
to hide thyself from the presence of the Lord : but
thou wilt quickly find that he observes thee; and
be sure thy sin will find thee out.' Thou mayest
with Cain be turned out of the gracious presence
of God, and cast out of his church and mercy;
and with the damned thou mayest be turned out
of the presence of his blessedness and glory:
but thou shalt never be out of his essential pre-
sence, nor so escape the presence of his justice.
It is the presence of his grace where the upright
are promised here to dwell, and out of which
they fear lest they be cast.
'Cast me not away
from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me.' It is the presence where is fulness
of joy, which they aspire after, but there is also
a presence that the earth shall tremble at, and
that the wicked shall perish at; so that a par-
ticular providence must be remembered by them
that believe and remember the immensity of God.

it make them greater or better than itself?
any thing give that which it hath not?
must needs be greater and better than the crea-
tures, then as it must be wiser than they, and
more holy, gracious, and just than they, so must
it be more comprehensive than all they. Who-
ever made this earth, is certainly greater than
the earth, or else he should give it more than he
had to give. If he be greater, he must be pre-
sent: if thou shouldst be so vain as to account
any other higher thing the maker of this world,
that is not God, thou must ascribe also a suffi- |
ciency to that maker, to exercise a particular
providence, and moreover be put to consider who
did make that maker. Nothing therefore is
more certain, even to reason itself, than that the
maker of the world must be greater than the
world, therefore present with all the world; and
therefore must observe and regard all the world.
When thou canst find out a thought, or word,
or deed that was not done in the presence of
God, or any creature that is not in his presence,
then believe and spare not that he sees or re-
gards it not; yea, and that it has no being.
O blind atheists! you see the sun before your
eyes, which enlightens all the upper part of the
earth at once; even millions of millions see all by
its light; and yet do you doubt whether God
beholds, regards, and provides for all at once.

Tell me, if God had never a creature to look to in all the world but thee, wouldst thou believe that he would regard thy heart, words, and ways or not? If he would, why not now, as well as then? Is he not as sufficient for thee, and as really present with thee, as if he had no other creature else? If all men in the world were dead save one, would the sun any more illuminate that one than now it doth? Mayest thou not see as well by the light of it now, as if it had never another to enlighten? And dost thou see a creature do so much, and wilt thou not believe as much of the creator? If thou think us worms too low for God so exactly to observe, thou mayest as well think that we are too low for him to create, or preserve; and then who made us and preserves us? Doth not the sun enlighten the smallest bird, and crawling insect, as well as the greatest prince on earth? Doth it withhold its light from any creature that can see, and say, I will not shine on things so base? And wilt thou more restrain the infinite God that is the maker, light, and life of all? It is he that filleth all in all, the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and is he absent from thee? 'He doth beset thee before and behind, and layeth his hand upon thee; whither wilt thou go

CHAP. V.

The eternity of God is the next attribute to be known which also must have its work upon the soul. And, 1. This also shows us that God is incomprehensible; for man cannot comprehend eternity. When we go about to think of that which hath no beginning nor end, it is to our mind as a place a thousand miles off is to our eye; even beyond our reach; we cannot say there is no such place, yea, we know there is; but we cannot see it: so we know there is an eternal being; but our knowledge of his eternity is not intuitive, or comprehensive. Eternity therefore is the object of our faith, reverence, and admiration, but forbids our busy bold inquiries. O the arrogancy of those ignorantly learned, and foolishly wise disputing men, that have so long perplexed, if not torn in pieces, the church, about the priority and posteriority of the knowledge and decrees of God, when they confess them all to be eternal! As if they knew not that terms of priority and posteriority have not that significancy in or about eternity, as they have with us.

2. The eternity of God must draw the soul from transitory to eternal things. It is an everlasting blessedness, even the eternal God, that our souls are made for; the brutes are made for a mortal happiness; the immortal soul can

velations, of all graces, of all ordinances, and means, and of the destruction of the whole creation that was made for man: for he that destroys the end, destroys all the means: but the infidel destroys and denies the end of every one of these, and holiness only doth give them up, and use them to their ends.

1. He is guilty of the destruction of all souls : for as much as in him lies they are destroyed, while they are all made useless to the end for which they were created. If there be no other life and happiness everlasting, what are souls good for? What is the reasonable creature good for? Is it to be happy here? In what? Here is no happiness? Is it in eating, drinking, and sleeping? Why, these are to strengthen us for our service which tends to our end, and therefore cannot be themselves our end. Is it not better to be without either meat, or drink, or sleep, in point of happiness, so be it we also were without the need of them, than to need them and have them for our need, especially with the care and trouble which they cost us? I had an hundred times rather, for my part, if it were lawful to desire it, never have meat, or drink, or sleep, and be without the need of them, as I had rather be without a sore, than to have a plaster that will ease it, and be every day at the pains to dress it. Brutes have some advantage in these above men, in that they have not the care, fear, and sorrow of mind as we have, in the getting or

not be fully content with any thing that will | destruction of all souls, and the destruction of have an end. As a capacity of. this endless all mercies, and the destruction of all divine reblessedness distinguishes man from the beasts that perish; so the disposition to it distinguishes saints from the ungodly, and the fruition of it distinguishes the glorified from the damned. Alas, what a silly thing were man if he were capable of nothing but these transitory things! What were our lives worth, and what were our time worth, and what were all our mercies worth, or what were all the world worth to us, or what were we worth ourselves? I would not undervalue the works of God: but truly if man had no other life to live but this, I should esteem him a very contemptible creature. If you say that there is some excellency in the brutes, I answer, True; but their usefulness is their chief excellency; and what is their use but to be a glass in which we may see the Lord, and to be serviceable to man in his passage to eternity? They are not capable of knowing, or loving, or enjoying God themselves: but they are useful to man, who is capable of this; and so they have an everlasting end and this is their excellency. Therefore the atheist that denies an everlasting life to man, brings himself into a far baser state then the brutes are in. For the brutes have an everlasting end, in promoting the happiness of man: but if man have no everlasting end himself, there is no other whose everlasting happiness he can promote. The unbeliever therefore debases his own soul and the whole creation: and faith and holiness advance the soul and all things with it, that are useful to our advance-keeping what they have or need. If you go ment. The true believer honours his horse, his dog, his food and raiment, the earth he treads on, and every creature, incomparably more than the infidel doth honour his own or any other's soul, or than he honours the greatest prince on earth. For the believer uses all things, even the vilest, in reference to eternity; but the infidel uses his life and soul but to a transitory end; and takes the greatest prince on earth to be but for a transitory use. As eternity is invaluable in comparison of time, so the use and excellency that a believer doth ascribe to a piece of bread, or the basest creature, in the sanctified improvement of it, is ten thousand times, even unspeakably, above the use and excellency that an unbeliever ascribes to his soul or to his prince. He that stamps the image of a dog or a toad upon gold, instead of the image of the prince, and would have ten thousand pounds worth go but for a farthing, doth not by a thousand degrees so much debase the gold, as the infidel debases his soul and all things. Infidelity is guilty of the

downward, and say that men are made to govern brutes, then what are brutes made for, unless to manure the earth; and so the basest shall be the end of the noblest, and God may be as wisely said to be for man, because he is to govern him. Truly if there were no everlasting life, but man were a mere terrestrial animal, I had rather never have been born, or should wish I had never been a man: I knew not what to do with myself, nor how to employ the faculties of my soul or body, but they would all seem to me as useless things. What should I do with my reason, if I had no higher an end than beasts? What should I do with a mind that knows there is a God, and another world, and that is capable of desiring him, seeking and enjoying him, if it must be frustrated of all? What should I do with a heart that is capable of the love of God, and delighting in his love, if I have no God to love and delight in, when this life is ended? Why have I a heart that so desires him, in fuller vision and fruition, if I be capable of no such thing? What then

should I do with my time and life? Verily I horse to him that hath no use for him. O what an ungrateful wretch is that, who will deny all the mercies of God to himself, and to all others! For once deny the use and the eternal end, and you deny the mercy.

know not, if I were fully of this sad opinion, whether I should turn brute in my life agreeably to my judgment, or whether I should make an end of my life to be eased of a useless burden; but confident I am I should not know what to do with myself; I should be like a cashiered soldier, or like one turned out of his service, that knew not where to have work and wages: and if you found me standing all day idle, I must give you the reason, because no man hath hired me. What do those wretches do with their lives, that think they have no God to serve and seek, or future happiness to attain? As men use to say of naughty ministers, so may I say of all mankind, according to the doctrine of the infidels, 'a naughty priest is good for nothing,' and it is true of him as such, for as Christ himself saith, 'Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men: ye are the light of the world: men do not light a candle to put it under a bushel.' So I say of the reasonable creature: the grass is useful for the beasts the beasts are serviceable unto man: a swine that cannot serve you living, is useful being dead. But if there were no God to seek and serve, and no life but this for us to hope for, for ought I know man were good for nothing: what were light good for, if there were no eyes? or eyes, if there were no light to see by? What is a watch good for, but to tell the hour of the day? All the curious parts and workmanship of it is worth no more than the metal is worth, if it be not useful to its proper end. And what reason, will, and affections in man are good for, I know not, if not to seek, to please, and to enjoy the Lord. Take off this poise, and all the wheels of my soul must stand still, or else do worse.

2. The infidel and ungodly man that looks not after an eternal end, destroys all the mercies of God, and makes them as no mercies at all: creation and our being, is a mercy; but it is in order to our eternal end. Redemption by Christ is an unspeakable mercy; but it is denied by the infidel, and rejected by the ungodly: what is Christ worth, and all his mediation, if there be no life for man but this? Peace and liberty, health and life, friends and neighbours, food and raiment, are all mercies to us, as a ship and sails are to the mariner, or a fair way, or horse, or inn, to a traveller: but if by denying our eternal end, you make our voyage or our journey vain, these mercies then are little worth: no more than a ship on the land, or a plough in the sea, or a

3. He that believes not, or seeks not after an eternal end, destroys all the doctrine, law and government of God: for all is but to lead us to this end. All the holy scriptures, the precepts of Christ, and his holy example, the covenant of grace, the gifts and miracles of the Holy Ghost, the light and law of nature itself, are all to bring us to our eternal end: therefore he that denies that end, doth cancel them all, and cast them by as useless things.

4. He denies all the graces of the Spirit: for what use is there for faith, if the object of it be a falsehood? What use for hope, if there be no life to be hoped for? What use for holy desires and love, if God be not to be enjoyed? Grace is but the delusion and deformity of the soul, if the infidel and ungodly be in the right. 5. They destroy also all the means of our salvation, if they deny salvation, which is the end. To what purpose should men study, or read, or hear, or pray, or use either sacraments or any other means, for an end that is not to be had? To what end should men obey or suffer, for any such end that is not attainable?

6. Yea, they let loose the soul to sin, and take off all effectual restraint. If there be no eternal end, and no reward or punishment but here, what can effectually hinder the men of this opinion from stealing, whoredom, or any villany, when it may be done with secresy? What should hinder the revengeful man from poisoning or secretly murdering his enemy, or setting his house on fire in the night? If I know a man or woman who believes that there is no life to come, I take it for granted they are revengeful, thieves, deceivers, fornicators, or any thing that is bad, if they have but temptation, and secret opportunity. For what hath he to seek but the pleasing of his flesh, that thinks he hath no God to seek or please, or no future reward or punishment to expect? He that confesses himself an infidel to me, confesses himself to be in all things else as bad as ever he can or dare Honesty is renounced by that man or woman that profess themselves to be atheists or infidels: methinks, in congruity with their profession, they should take it for a wrong to be called or reputed honest! If you tell me that heathens had a kind of honesty; I must tell you again, that most heathens believed the immortality of the soul, and that kind of seeming honesty which they had was only in those of

them that thus expected a life to come. But those that believe not another life where man is to have his punishment and reward, have nothing like to honesty in them, but live like greedy, ravenous beasts, where they are from under the laws and government of them that look for another life. The cannibals that eat men's flesh, and some such savages as they, are the nations that expect no life but this. It is believed so commonly by all the civil infidels and Turks, as shows it to be a principle that nature reveals.

7. Yea, the whole creation that is within the sight of man, is destroyed opinionatively by the infidels that look for no immortal life: for all things were made to further our salvation: the heavens to declare the glory of God, and the firmament to show his handy work, and all creatures to be our glass in which we must behold the Lord, and our book in which we must read and learn his nature and his will. The sun is to light us, and maintain our life, and the life of other lower creatures, while we prepare for immortality the earth is to bear us, and to bear fruit for us; and the trees and plants and every creature to accommodate and serve us, while we serve the Lord and pass on to eternity. Therefore the atheist that denies us our eternity, denies the usefulness of all the world; what were all the creatures here good for, if there were no men? The earth would be a wilderness, and the beasts would for the most part perish, for want of sustenance, and all would be like a forsaken cottage that no man dwells in, and doth no good; and if man be not the heir of immortality, they can do him no good. All creatures are but our provision in the way to this eternity: therefore if there were no eternity, what should we do with them? And who will travel to a place that is not, or a city that is no where but in his imagination, besides a madman? It is evident therefore, that as all the tools in a workman's shop are made useless to him if he be forbidden to use his trade, and all the books in my library are useless, if I may not read them to get knowledge; so all creatures under heaven are made useless and destroyed doctrinally by the atheist, that thinks there is no eternal life for which they should be used. I must seriously profess if I believed this (being in other things of the mind I am) I knew not what to do with any thing. What should I do with my books, but to learn the way to this eternity? What should I do with my money, if there be no treasure to be laid up in heaven, or friends to be made with the mammon abused commonly to unrighteousness? What should I do with my

tongue, my hands, my time, my life, my self, or any thing, if there were no eternity? I think I should dig my grave, and lay me down in it, to die and perish, to escape the sorrows of a longer life that must be my companions.

Remember then, Christians, and still remember it, that eternity is the matter of your faith and hope. Eternity is your portion and felicity; eternity is the end of all your desires, labours, and distresses. Eternity is your religion, and the life of all your holy motions; and as without the capacity of it, you would be but beasts, so without the love and desire of it, and title to it, you would be but wicked miserable men. Set not your hearts on transitory things, while you stand near unto eternity. How can you have room for so many thoughts on fading things, when you have an eternity to think on? What light can you see in the candles or glow-worms of this world, in the sunshine of eternity? O remember, when you are tempted to please your eyes, your taste, and sensual desires, that these are not eternal pleasures. Remember, when you are tempted for wealth or honour to wrong your souls, that these are not the eternal riches; houses and lands are not eternal: meats and drinks are not eternal: sports and pastimes, and jocund, sinful company, are not eternal. Alas, how short, how soon they vanish into nothing! But it is God and our dear Redeemer that are eternal. The flower of beauty withers with age, or by the nipping blast of a short disease; the honours of the world are but a dream; your graves will bury all its glory. Down comes the prince, the lord, the gallant, and suddenly takes his lodgings in the dust. The corpse that was pampered and adorned yesterday, is corruption to-day. The body that was bowed to, attended, and applauded but the other day, is now interred in the vault of darkness, with worms and moles. To-day it is corruption and a most lothesome thing, that lately was dreaming of an earthly happiness. One day he is striving for riches and pre-eminences, or glorying and rejoicing in them, that the next day may be snatched away to hell. O fix not your minds on fading things, that perish in the using, and by their vanishing mock you that set your hearts upon them. You will not fix your eye and mind upon every bird that flies by you, as you will on the houses that you must dwell in nor will you mind every passenger, as you will do your friends that still live with you. And shall transitory vanity be minded by you above eternity?

3. It is eternity that must direct you in your estimate of all things. It is this that shows

on the new. The bird that is hatched is not grieved because he must leave the broken shell; nor is it the grief of man or beast that he hath

you the excellency of man above the beasts: it is this that tells you the worth of grace, and the weight of sin, the preciousness of holy ordinances and helps, and the evil of hinderances and temp-left the womb. Death doth but open the womb

:

tations the wisdom of the choice and diligence of the saints, and the folly of the choice, and negligent, sinful lives of the ungodly; the worth of God's favour, and the vanity of man's; and the difference between the godly and the unsanctified world, in point of happiness.

Were not grace the egg, the seed, the earnest of an eternal glory, it were not so glorious a thing. But O how precious are all those thoughts, desires, delights and breathings of the soul, that bring us on to a sweet eternity! Even those sorrows, groans, and tears are precious that lead to an eternal joy! Who would not willingly obey the holy motions of the Holy Spirit, that is but preparing us for eternity! This is it that makes a bible, a sermon, a holy book, to be of greater value than lands and lordships. It is eternity that makes the illuminated soul so fearful of sinning, so diligent in holy duties, so cheerful and resolved in suffering, because he believes it is all for an eternity. A Christian in the holy assemblies, and in his reading, learning, prayer, conference, is laying up for everlasting, when the worldling in the market, in the field or shop, is making provision for a few days or hours: thou gloriest in thy riches and pre-eminence now, but how long wilt thou do so? To-day that house, that land is thine; but canst thou say, it shall be thine to-morrow? Thou canst not: but the believer can truly say, My God, my Christ, is mine to-day, and will be mine to all eternity! O death! thou canst take my friends from me, and my worldly riches from me, and my time, strength, and life from me; but take my God, my Christ, my heaven, my portion from me, if thou canst! My sin is all thy sting and strength! But where is thy sting when sin is gone; and where is thy strength when Christ hath conquered thee? Is it a great matter that thou deprivest me of my sinful, weak, and troublous friends, when against thy will thou bringest me to my perfect blessed friends, with whom I must abide for ever! Thou dost indeed bereave me of these riches; but it is that I may possess the invaluable, eternal riches! Thou endest my time, that I may have eternity! Thou castest me down that I may be exalted! Thou takest away my strength of life, that I may enter into life eternal! And is this the worst that death can do? And shall I be afraid of this? I willingly lay by my clothes at night, that I may take my rest, and I am not loth to put off the old when I must put

of time and let us into eternity, and is the second birth-day of the soul. Regeneration brings us into the kingdom of grace; and death into the kingdom of glory.

Blessed are they that have their part in the new birth of grace and the first resurrection from the death of sin; for to such the natural death will be gain; and they shall have their part in the second resurrection, and on them the everlasting death shall have no power. It is eternity that tells you what you should mind, and be, and do, and that turns the scales in all things where it is concerned. Can you sleep in sin so near eternity! Can you play and laugh before you are prepared for eternity! Can you think him wise that sells his eternal joy for the ease, the mirth, the pleasure of a moment; and trifles away the time in which he must win or lose eternity? If these men be wise, there are no fools, nor any but wise men in bedlam. Dare thy tongue report, or thy heart imagine, that any holy work is needless, or a heavenly life too much ado, or any suffering too dear, that is for an eternity! O happy souls that win eternity with the loss of all the world! O bless that Christ, that Spirit, that light, that word, that messenger of God, that drew thy heart to choose eternity before all transitory things! That was the day when thou began to be wise, and indeed to show thyself a man! Thy wealth, thy honour, thy pleasure will be thine when the sensual world hath nothing to show, but sin and hell, of all they laboured for. Their pleasures, honours, and all die, when they die; but thine will then begin their perfection! The hopes of the ungodly are like an addle egg that when it is broken sends forth nothing but an odious smell, when another sends forth the living bird. O all you worldlings, rich and poor, you dream, play, and trifle, because you labour not for eternity! Even worldly princes, and nobles of the earth, your glory is but a squib, a flash, a nothing, in comparison of the eternal glory which you lose; you are doing nothing when you are striving for the world; you are trifling and befooling your immortal souls while you are grasping a shadow, the uncertain riches: it is the believer whom you despise, that seeks for something, that loses not his labour, that shows himself a man of reason, who is caring, studying, labouring, praying, watching, and suffering for eternity.

Why is a day in the courts of God so much

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