A Godly Man Is an Heavenly Man

14. A godly man is an heavenly man;¹Heaven is in him, before he is in Heaven; the Greek word for Saint, […], signifies a man taken off from the earth: a person may live in one place, yet belong to another; he may live in Spain, yet be a free Denizon of England; Pomponius dwelt at Athens, yet was a Citizen of Rome: So a godly man is a while in the² world, but he belongs to the Hierusalem³above; that is the place to which he aspires; every day is Ascension day with a Believer: The Saints are called Stars, for their sublimeness; they are gotten above into the upper Region, Pro. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise: A godly man is Heavenly six ways.

15. In his Election.

16. In his Disposition.

17. In his Communication.

18. In his Operation.

19. In his Expectation.

20. In his Conversation.

21. A godly man is heavenly in his Election; he chuseth heavenly objects: David did chuse to be a Residentiary in Gods house, Psa. 84. 10. A godly person chuseth Christ and grace, before the most illustrious things under the Sun: That a man is that his choice is; and this chusing of God is best seen in a critical houre: When Christ and the World come in competition, and we part with the world to keep Christ and a good Conscience, a sign we have chosen the better (Luke 10. 42) part.

22. A godly man is heavenly in his Disposition; he sets his affections on things above, Col. 3. 2. He sends his heart to heaven before he comes there; he looks upon the world, but as a beautiful prison, and he cannot be much in love with his Fetters, though they are made of gold: An holy person contemplates glory and Eternity; his desires have gotten wings, and are fled to heaven: Grace is in the heart like fire, which makes it sparkle upwards in Divine breathings and ejaculations.

23. A godly man is heavenly in his Communication, his words are powdred with salt to season others, Col. 4. 6. As soon as Christ was risen from the grave, he was speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God, Act. 1. 3. No sooner is a man risen out of the grave of Unregeneracy, but he is speaking of heaven, Eccles. 10. 12. The words of a wise mans mouth are gracious: He speaks so heavenly, as if he had been already in heaven; the love he bears to God, will not suffer him to be silent; the Spouse being sick of love, her tongue was as the pen of a ready writer, Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy, his head is of fine gold, &c. If Wine be in the house, the Bush will be hung forth, and where there is a principle of godliness in the heart, it will vent it self at the lips; the Bush will be hung forth.

How can they be termed godly, 1. Who are possessed with a dumb devil? They never have any good discourse; they are fluent and discoursive enough in secular things; they can speak of their wares and drugs, they can tell what a good crop they have, but in matters of Religion they are as if their tongue did cleave to the roof of their mouth: There are many persons, if you come into their company, you cannot tell what to make of them, whether they are Turks or Atheists, for they never speak a word of Christ.

2. Whose tongues are set on fire of Hell: Their lips do not drop honey but poyson, to the defiling of others. Plutarch saith, speech ought to be like gold, which is then of most value, when it hath least dross in it: O the unclean malicious words that some persons utter! What an unsavoury stench comes from these dunghils; those lips had need have Davids (Psa. 39. 1) Bridle, that gallop so fast in sin: Can the body be healthful when the tongue is black? Can the heart be holy when the devil is in the lips? A godly man speaks the language of Canaan, Mal. 3. 16. They that feared the Lord, spake often one to another.

3. A godly man is heavenly in his Operation. The motions of the Planets are Caelestial: A godly man is sublime and sacred in his motions, he works out salvation, he puts forth all his strength, as they did in the Olympicks, that he may obtain the Garland made of the Flowers of Paradise; he prays, fasts, watcheth, he offers violence to heaven, he is divinely acted, he carries on Gods Interest in the world, he doth Angels work, he is in his Operations Seraphical.

4. A godly man is heavenly in his Expectation; his hopes are above the (Psa. 39. 7) world, Tit. 1. 2. In hope of eternal life: A godly man casts Anchor within the⁴ vail; he hopes to have his fetters of sin filed off; he hopes for such things as eye hath not seen; he hopes for a Kingdome when he dies; a Kingdome promised by the Father, purchased by the Son, assured by the Holy Ghost; as an Heir lives in hope when such a great Estate shall befall him, so a Childe of God, who is a Co-heir with Christ, hopes for glory: This hope comforts him in all varieties of condition, Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God.

5. This hope comforts a godly man in affliction; hope doth lighten and sweeten the most severe Dispensations: A Childe of God can laugh with tears in his eyes; the time is shortly coming, when the Cross shall be taken off his shoulders, and a Crown set upon his head: A Saint at present is miserable, with a thousand troubles, in an instant, cloathed with Robes of Immortality, and advanced above Seraphims.

6. This hope comforts a godly man in death, Pro. 14. 32. The righteous hath hope in his death: If one should ask a dying Saint, when all his earthly comforts were gone, what he had left? he would say, the Helmet of Hope. I have read of a Martyr Woman, who when the Persecutor commanded that her breasts should be cut off, she said, Tyrant do thy worst, I have two breasts which thou canst not touch, the one of Faith, the other of Hope. A soul that hath this blessed hope, is above the desire of life, or the fear of death: Would one be troubled to exchange a sorry Lease for an Inheritance that will be for him and his Heirs? Who would care to part with life, which is a Lease will soon be run out, to be possessed of a glorious Inheritance in light?

7. A godly man is heavenly in his Conversation; he casts such a lustre of Holiness, as adorns his Profession; he lives as if he had seen the Lord with bodily eyes; what zeal, sanctity, humility, shines forth in his life: A godly person doth emulate not only the Angels, but imitate Christ himself, 1 Iohn 2. 6. The Macedonians celebrate the Birth-day of Alexander, on which day they wear his picture about their necks, set with Pearl and rich Jewels; so a godly man carries the lively picture of Christ about him, in the heavenliness of his deportment, Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven.

Use 1. They must needs be cast over the Bar for ungodly,⁵ who are eaten up with the world; godly and earthly is a contradiction, Phil. 3. 18, 19. For many walk, of whom I now tell you even weeping, that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things. We read the earth swallowed up Korah alive, Numb. 16. 32. This Judgement is on many, the earth swallows up their time, and thoughts, and discourse, they are buried twice; their hearts are buried in the earth before their bodies: How sad is it that the soul, that Princely thing, which is made for Communion with God and Angels, should be put to the Mill to grinde, and made Mancipium terrae, a slave to the earth? How is the soul become like the Prodigal, chusing rather to converse with swine, and feed upon husks, than to aspire after Communion with the blessed Deity? Thus doth Satan befool men, and keep them from heaven, by making them seek an heaven here.

Use 2.⁶ As we would evidence our selves to be born of God, let us be of a sublime heavenly temper: (Exhort) We shall never go to heaven when we die, unless we are in heaven whilest we live: That we may be more Noble, and raised in our affections, let us seriously weigh these four considerations.

1. God himself sounds a retreat to us, to call us off the world, 1 Iohn 2. 15. Love not the world: We may use it as a posie of flowers to smell to, but it must not lie as a bundle of myrrhe betwixt our breasts, Rom. 12. 2. Be ye not conformed to this world; do not hunt after the honors and profits of it, and as Gods Precepts, so his Providences, are to beat us off the world: Why doth he send War and Pestilence? What means the heat of this great anger? Surely dying times are to make men die to the world.

2. Consider how much below a Christian it is to be earthly-minded: We laugh sometimes at Children when we see them busying themselves about toys, blowing bubbles in the ayr out of a shell, kissing their Babies, &c. when in the mean time we do the same; at death what will all the world be which we so hug and kiss, but as a Baby of Clouts, it will yield us no more comfort then; and to be taken up with these things, how far is it below an heaven-born soul! nay, for such as profess to be enobled with a principle of Piety, and to have their hopes above, for them to have their hearts below, how do they […] disparage their Heavenly Calling, and spot their silver wings of Grace, by beliming them with earth?

3. Consider what a poor contemptible thing the world is, it is not worth setting the affections on, it cannot fill the heart; if Satan should take a Christian up to the Mount of Temptation, and show him all the Kingdomes and glory of the world, what could he show him but a phancy, an apparition? Nothing here can be proportionable to the immense soul of man, Iob 20. 22. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in streights: Here is want in plenty; the creature will no more fill the soul, than a drop will fill the bucket; and that little sweet we suck from the creature, is intermixed with some bitterness, like that Cup which the Jews gave Christ, Mar. 15. 23. They gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrhe. And this imperfect sweet will not last long, 1 Iohn 2. 17. The world passeth away. The creature doth but salute us, and is presently upon the⁷ wing· The world rings Changes, it is never constant but in its disappointments; how quickly may we remove our lodgings, and make our pillow in the dust? The world is but a great Inne, where we are to stay a night or two, and be gone; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our Inne, as to forget our home?

4. Consider what a glorious place heaven is: We read of an Angel coming down from heaven, who did tread with his right foot on the Sea, and with his left foot on the earth, Revel. 10. 2. Had we but once been in heaven, and viewed the superlative glory of it, how might we in an holy scorn trample with one foot upon the earth, and with the other foot upon the Sea: Heaven is called a better Country, Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better Country, that is an heavenly: Heaven is said to be a better Country, in opposition to the Country where we now sojourn: What should we mind but that better⁸ Country.

Quest. In what sense is heaven a better Country?

Answ. 1. In that Country above there are better delights; there is the Tree of Life, the Rivers of Pleasure; there is amazing beauty, unsearchable riches; there are the delights of Angels; there is the Flower of Joy fully blown; there is more than we can ask or (Eph. 3. 20) think; there is glory in its full dimensions, and beyond all hyperbole.

2. In that Country there is a better dwelling house: 1. It is an house not made with hands, 2 Cor. 5. 1. To denote the excellency of it: There was never any house but was made with hands; but the house above surpasseth the art of man or Angel, none besides God could lay a stone in that building. 2. It is eternal in the heavens; it is not a sojourning house, but a Mansion-house, it is an house will never be out of repair, Wisdome hath built this house, and hewn out her seven (Pro. 8. 1) Pillars, which can never moulder.

3. In that Country there are better provisions, in our Fathers house is bread enough: Heaven was typified by Canaan, which did flow with milk and honey: There is the Royal Feast, the spiced Wine, there is Angels food, there are those rare viands and dainties served in, as exceed not only our expressions, but our faith.

4. In that Country is better Society: There is God blessed for ever: How infinitely sweet and ravishing will a smile of his face be? the Kings presence makes the Court: There are the glorious Cherubims; in this terrestrial Country where we now live, we are among Wolves and Serpents; in that Country above, we shall be among Angels: There are the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12. 23. Here the people of God are clouded with infirmities, we see them with spots in their faces, they are full of pride, passion, censoriousness; in that Hierusalem above, we shall see them in their Royal attire, deck’d with unparallell’d beauty, not having the least tincture or shadow of sin upon them.

5. In that Country there is a better ayr to breathe in: We go into the Country for ayr; the best ayr is only to be had in that better Country, 1. It is a more temperate ayr, the Climate is calm and moderate, we shall neither freeze with the cold, nor faint with the heat; 2. It is a brighter ayr, there is a better light shines there: The Sun of Righteousness enlightens that Horison with his glorious beams, Rev. 21. 23. The Lamb is the light thereof. 3. It is a purer ayr: The Fens, which are full of black vapours, we count a bad ayr, and unwholesome to live in: This world is a place of Bogs and Fens, where the noxious vapours of sin arise, which make it pestilential and unwholesome to live in, but in that Country above, there are none of these vapours, but a sweet perfume of holiness; there is the smell of the Orange-tree, and the Pomgranate; there is the Myrrhe and Cassia coming from Christ, which send forth a most odoriferous smell.

6. In that Country there is a better soil; the Land or Soil is better

7. For its altitude; the earth lying low, is of a baser pedigree; the Element, which is neerest heaven, is purer and more excellent, as the fire; that Country above is the High Country, Psal. 24. 3. it is seated far above all the visible Orbs.

8. It is a better Land for its fertilness, it bear a richer Crop: The richest Harvest on earth is the golden Harvest, but the Country above yields Nobier Commodities, there are Pearls Caelestial, there is the Spiritual Vine, there is the honey-comb of Gods love dropping, there is the Water of Life, the hidden Manna; there is fruit that doth not rot, flowers that never fade; there is a Crop which cannot be quite reaped, it will be ever reaping time in heaven, and all this the Land yields, without the labour of ploughing and sowing.

9. It is a better Land for its inoffensiveness: There are no bryars there; the World is a Wilderness where are wicked men, and the best of them is a bryar, Mica 7. 4. They will be tearing the people of God in their spiritual Liberties; but in the Country above there is not one bryar to be seen, all the bryars are burned.

10. It is a better Land for the rareness of the prospect; all that a man sees there is his own: I account that the best prospect, where a man can see furthest on his own ground.

11. In that Country is better union; all the Inhabitants are knit together in love: The poysonful weed of malice doth not grow there; there is harmony without division, and charity without envy: In that Country above, as in Solomons Temple, no noyse of Hammer is heard.

12. In that Country is better imployment; while we are here we are complaining of our wants, weeping over our sins, but there we shall be praising God: How will the Birds of Paradise chirp when they are in that Caelestial Country? There the Morning Stars will sing together, and all the Saints of God shout for joy.

O what should we aspire after, but this Country above? Such as have their eyes opened, will see that it doth infinitely excel: An ignorant man looks upon a Star, and it appears to him as a little silver spot; but the Astronomer who hath his Instrument to judge of the dimension of a Star, knows it to be many degrees bigger than the earth: So a natural man hears of the heavenly Country, that it is very glorious, but it is at a great distance; and because he hath not a spirit of discerning, the world looks bigger in his eye; but such as are Spiritual Artists, who have the Instrument of Faith to judge of Heaven, will say, it is far the better Country, and thither will they hasten with the Sails of desire.

Footnotes

1. 14 Character. ↩

2. Patria loci. ↩

3. Patria juris. ↩

4. Viget spei immobilis virtus. Cypr. ↩

5. Vse 1. ↩

6. Vse 2. ↩

7. […]. socr ad Demon. ↩

8. Sistitur appetitus in via satiatur in Patria. ↩