And whereas, here in this World, Men are apt to love beyond all reason, whereby their Love becomes adulterate, and is mix’d with so many discontents, that it proves but a bitter sweet; there our Understanding will be in its full growth, and highest pitch; so that as nothing which is reasonable shall be omitted to be done; nothing likewise shall be done that is unreasonable: This Love will be grounded upon the clearest Judgment; this Flame kindled by the purest Light; so that there shall be no trouble or disquiet in it, but perfect rest and peace.

And whereas in this World, Mens Affections flow to things that are not near so big as themselves (i. e. as their own Desires) and so they languish, and faint, and fall sick; even in the enjoyment of the best good it affords, because they find it is not a supply proportionable to their want, or to their expectation: There will be no such emptiness, or want of satisfaction in those Coelestial Enjoyments; because we shall embrace not only our proper good, but that which is commensurate to our desires, and beyond our hopes: Our Affections will not fall then upon that which cannot sustain the whole weight of them; but feeling themselves born up to the greatest height of Love, by a good so full, that it will leave no room for complaint or uneasiness, they will enjoy the most solid rest and satisfaction.

Do but conceive them in your Minds, what a pleasure it is, here in this Life, to love, and to be beloved; and you will have some notion whereby to take a measure of the Life we are speaking of, which will consist in such mutual Love, and delightful correspondencies. And they who have neither Father nor Mother, Wife nor Children, near Kindred, nor Relations, whereon to place their Affection, let them consider, if they have but a singular Friend, what the pleasure is that two persons, who sincerely and purely love, take in the sweet Company and Conversation of each other. Or if I must suppose any Man to be so unkind, and so unhappy, as to have no love for any body but his own self, let him think what contentment he hath, and how he is pleased, if he can arrive any thing near to a quiet enjoyment of his dear self. And such a delightful state may be a small Image of Heaven, where holy Souls will love God with a far greater flame than ever they did (or shall then) love themselves; because he will appear infinitely more lovely, and to bear also a far greater love to them, than it is possible for them to do to themselves.

Now none can tell how transporting it will be to a good Soul, when it feels it self the beloved of God, as well as full of love to him; because we cannot think how great the Love of the Almighty is, unless we could know how great he is himself. This is a thing that cannot fail to have a strange power over our affections, and to master them; so that we shall be quite taken out of our selves, for we all extremely love to be beloved.

If any Neighbour shews us an unexpected and undeserved Kindness, we are apt to think he is the best person in the World: And the poorest Wretch in the World, if we see in him the undoubted signs of an hearty love to us, we cannot chuse but requite it with some expressions of kindness back again; nay if a Dog, or such a dumb Creature do but fawn upon us, or delight in our Company, and with a great deal of observance follow us wheresoever we go, we cannot but be so far pleased with this inclination towards us, as to make much of it, and to be troubled to see any harm befall it, and to love to see it play, and be well pleased. Judge then what a pleasure it will be to pious Souls to find themselves beloved of him, who hath put these kind Resentments into our Natures. To what an height will the sweet breathings of his Love blow up the Flames of theirs? Into what Extasies will they fall, when they feel by the happy fruits what an exceeding great affection their heavenly Father bears to them? It is above our present thoughts to apprehend the Joy that will then overflow them: But we may conceive a little of it, if we remember, that God is love, and that by our Love he will be in us, and by his Love we shall be in him.

He proceeds to speak of the love of Saints and Angels: The pleasure, joy, and delectation that naturally and necessarily flows from this knowledge and love of God, the Happiness which the Body shall be exalted to, and the eternal duration of all these.

This Eternal Life our Blessed Saviour hath brought to light through the Gospel, and hath promised it to all those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, Rom. 2.7. 1 John 2.25. And this is the promise that he hath promised, even eternal life.

Some perchance may say, The great disproportion that is between the Services and Rewards makes this Promise of Eternal Life difficult to be believed: For who can think that God should recompence our poor and imperfect Duties and Services, performed for a very short time, with such an immense and eternal weight of Glory and Happiness?

To this I answer; That though indeed it cannot consist with God’s Justice to punish any Creature without, or beyond its demerit, yet nothing hinders but that he may be as bountiful as he pleases, and in his Rewards exceed all the deserts, and even expectations of his Creatures, an hundred or a thousand fold.

Let us then admire the transcendent and unmerited goodness and love of God, in doing such great things for us, as sending his Son into the World to take our nature upon him, to suffer Death for our Sins, and to give us the great Promise of Eternal Life; and let us endeavour in some measure to answer this Love by sutable Affections of the most ardent Love and Gratitude.

Let us also love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, which we have all the reason in the World to do, considering the greatness of his Love to us, manifested by the great things he hath done and suffered for us, John 15.9. As the Father hath loved me (saith our Saviour to his Disciples) so have I loved you. And v. 13. he proceeds to say, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for hi[…] friends. Ye are my Friends, &c. By which Words he intimates, that he was about to make the greatest demonstration of his Love to his Apostles, and to all true Believers, by laying down his Life for them. The Apostle Paul carries this yet higher, Rom 5.7 8. For scarce for a righteous man will one die; yet, peradventure for a good man some would even dare to di[…]. But God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This exceeds the highest degree of love Man ever attained to, Ephes. 5.2. As Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. Philip. 2 6, 7, 8. Who being in the f[…]rm of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross That the Eternal Son of God, equal with his Father, should so highly advance our Nature, as to unite it to the Divine in one Person, that so he might be qualified by the Sacrifice of himself to expiate our Sins, to make an atonement for us, and to reconcile us unto God: The greatness of this Love, together with the freeness and unmeritedness of it, there being not any the least Motive on our part to invite him to it, is so matchless and stupendious, that it challenges the highest degree of reciprocal affection and gratitude Magnes amoris amor; Love is the Loadstone of love. We cannot chuse but love them again, in whom we discern any Expressions of unfeigned love to us, as I have before noted: And our love for the degree of it must be in some measure answerable to the Dignity, and to the merit of the Person who loveth us: For Favours done us, and Benefits bestowed upon us, Gratitude is the most natural, I might say, necessary ebullition of the Mind of Man.

To this purpose Seneca, Epist. 81. In hoc fidei populi credamus, Nihil esse grato animo honestius. Omnes hoc urbes, omnes etiam ex Barbaris regionibus gentes conclamabunt: In hoc bonis malisque conveniet. Erunt qui voluptates laudent, erunt qui labores malint; erunt qui dolorem maximum malum dicant, erunt qui; nè malum quidem appellent: Divitias aliquis ad summum bonum admittet; alius illas dicet humanae malo vitae repertas; nihil esse eo locupletius, cui quod donet Fortuna non invenit. In tant[…] judici[…]rum diversitate, referendam bene marentibus gratiam omnes uno tibi, quod aiunt ore affirmabunt; in hoc tam discors turba c[…]nsentiet.

In this let us believe what People generally agree in, That there is nothing more honest and commendable than a grateful Mind. All Cities, all Nations, even of Barbarous Countries; all Men, both good and bad, consent in this. There are some who commend Pleasures; others prefer Labours: Some there be who say that pain is the greatest Evil; others who will not grant it to be any Evil at all: One will admit Riches to be the chiefest good; another affirms them to be the Mischief of human Life; and that none can be richer than he upon whom Fortune cannot find any thing which she may bestow. In such a diversity of Judgments about other things, that thanks are to be returned to those who have deserv’d well of us, all with one Mouth affirm: In this these Dissenting Parties are all agreed.

We are by Nature inclined to requite kindnesses; non docti sed facti, non instituti sed imbuti sumus: And if we cannot do that, to retain, at least, a grateful sense and memory of them, and upon all occasions to acknowledge our obligations to such Benefactors, as we are not able to recompence, to honour and love them, and to do all we can to please and gratifie them. Ingratum si dixeris, omnia dixeris: You cannot say worse of a man, than that he is ungrateful; Ingratitude being an unnatural Sin. Seeing then we cannot requite this transcendent kindness of our Saviour’s to us, nor make him any amends for that great Salvation he hath wrought for us, and those inestimable Benefits he hath bestowed on us, let us not be wanting to do what in us lies, to express our gratitude, by acknowledging, and celebrating his goodness to us, and the great things he hath done for us, singing with the holy Psalmist,¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. And by devoting our selves to his Service, and doing always those things which are pleasing and acceptable to him. Let his love constrain us not to live any longer to our selves, but unto him who hath died for us, and rose again, 1 Cor 5.16. Who hath redeemed us to God by his blood. Revel. 5.9. And made us Kings and Priests unto our God. Let us have a care that we do not frustrate the Grace of God, as to our selves, and render this great undertaking of our Saviour in vain to us; nay, an aggravation of our Condemnation; For how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? As the Apostle speaks, Heb. 2.3.

Let not the difficulty of obeying God’s Commandments, and leading a holy life, deter or discourage us from endeavouring it: We know that neither Learning nor Riches, nor any thing that is excellent is to be obtained without painstaking. Now nothing so excellent, so desirable, so worthy our utmost endeavours as Eternal Life; this will abudantly recompence all our labour and travel; nay, though we were put to suffer Persecution, Imprisonment, or even Death it self, for Conscience sake· and bearing witness to the Truth, we should have no need to repent it: Our Reward shall be answerable to, nay far exceed our Work, 2 Cor. 4.17. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory.

To sum up all in brief: Since then 1. A Holy Life and Conversation here secures to us an interest in a Future State of Eternal Bliss and Happiness, Glory and Immortality in the World to come, and thereby delivers us from the fear of Death, that King of Terrors, as it is denominated, Job 1[…].14 that […], as aristotle calls it, The most terrible of all terribles: Which the wisest Philosophers by all their Argumentations could never either arm others against, or secure themselves from the fear of; the very best of them, even Socrates himself, being doubtful of the immortality of the Soul; our Saviour alone having brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel: Of which [Death] wicked men cannot but have a dreadful apprehension, because of that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, which is threatned against those who obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, Rom. 2.8.9.

2. Since also it conduceth much to the well being and happiness of the outward and inward Man in this present Life as I have endeavoured to demonstrate in this Discourse.

Moreover (3.) Since this Holiness and Obedience is even in the judgment, and by the confession of vicious Persons themselves better and more eligible than the life they lead.

And Lastly, Since it is more facile, easy and pleasant than the Slavery and Drudgery of Sin and Satan.

Since I say all this is true and certain, surely it is the greatest folly and madness imaginable, for a little false and transient Pleasure, and to gratify some deceitful Lust, as the Apostle justly calls them, Ephes. 4.22. to forego not only our hopes of that Eternal Life and Happiness, which our Saviour hath purchased for us, and upon our Obedience promised to us, those sincere and solid Pleasures which are at God’s right hand for evermore: Rev. 22.14. our right to the Tree of Life, and of entring in through the Gates into the New Jerusalem; which is their portion who keep God’s Commandments; but also that present comfort and satisfaction of mind, that inward peace and joy which attends the Conscience of well doing here.

Mark what a² Heathen saith of these sensual Pleasures, Dimitte istas voluptates turbidas, magno luendas: non venturae tantùm, sed & praeteritae nocent. Quemadmodum scelera etiamsi non sint deprehensa cùm fierent, solicitudo non cum ipsis abit, it à voluptatum improbarum etiam post ipsas poenitentia est. Non sunt solidae, non sunt fideles; etiamsi non nocent, fugiunt. Dismiss (saith he) these troubled, or muddy and impure pleasures, which you must pay dearly for, they are hurtful not only when they are coming, but when they are past: As crimes though undiscovered when they are committed, leave not the committers of them without solitude, so Repentance always attends unlawful Pleasures; they are not solid, they are false and deceitful; and though they were not hurtful, yet are they transient, only in motion, and suddainly gone.

As for Riches or Honours, or any other worldly good, they are also unsatisfactory. We find our Expectations in the pursuit of them frustrated in the acquisition and enjoyment; being presently full and weary of that which we did most eagerly and impotently desire and long after.

And yet were there never so much worth and goodness in them, they are 1. Uncertain, as the Apostle calls them, 1 Tim. 6.17. they may be taken away from us before we die. 2. They are of short continuance; if they abide with us till death, we must then necessarily part with them: For as the same Apostle saith ver. 7th of the same Chapter, We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

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← Chapter 11. Of the Happiness of the Inward Man · Contents · Additions to the Discourse →

Footnotes

1. Psal 103.1. ↩

2. Seneca, Epist. 27. ↩