An exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things 3/3

Heaven is a kingdom that cannot be shaken—Christ an abiding portion—his graces and comforts, sure waters that fail not, but spring up into eternal life.  The quails that were food for the Israelites’ lust soon ceased, but the rock that was drink to their faith followed them.  This rock is Christ.  Make sure of him, and he will make sure of thee; he will follow thee to thy sick-bed, and lie in thy bosom, cheering thy heart with his sweet comforts, when worldly joys lie in cold upon thee, as David’s clothes on him, and [when] no warmth of comfort [is] to be got from them.  When thy outward senses are locked up, that thou canst neither see the face of thy dear friends, nor hear the counsel and comfort they would give thee, then he will come, though these doors be shut, and say, ‘Peace be to thee, my dear child; fear not death or devils; I stay to receive thy last breath, and have here my angels waiting, that as soon as thy soul is breathed out of thy body, they may carry and lay it in my bosom of love, where I will nourish thee with those eternal joys that my blood hath purchased, and my love prepared for thee.’

           Fourth Argument. Earthly things are empty and unsatisfying.  We may have too much, but never enough of them.  They oft breed loathing, but never content; and indeed how should they, being so dis­proportionate to the vast desires of these immortal spirits that dwell in our bosoms?  A spirit hath not flesh and bones, neither can it be fed with such; and what hath the world, but a few bones covered over with some fleshly delights to give it?  ‘The less is blessed of the greater,’ not the greater of the less. These things therefore being so far inferior to the nature of man, he must look higher if he will be blessed, even to God himself, who is the Father of spirits.  God intended these things for our use, not enjoyment, and what folly is it to think we can squeeze that from them, which God never put in them?  They are breasts, that, moderately drawn, yield good milk, sweet, refreshing; but, wring them too hard, and you will suck nothing but wind or blood from them.  We lose what they have, by ex­pecting to find what they have not.  None find less sweetness and less and more dissatisfaction in these things, than those who strive most to please them­selves with them.  The cream of the creature floats atop, and he that is not content to fleet it, but thinks by drinking a deeper draught to find yet more, goes further to speed worse, being sure by the disap­pointment he shall meet to pierce himself through with many sorrows.  But all these fears might happily be escaped, if thou wouldst turn thy back on the creature, and face about for heaven.  Labour to get Christ, and through him hopes of heaven, and thou takest the right road to content; thou shalt see it before thee, and enjoy the prospect of it as thou goest, yea, find that every step thou drawest nearer and nearer to it.  O what a sweet change wouldst thou find!  As a sick man coming out of an impure un­wholesome climate, where he never was well, [finds] when he gets into fresh air or his native soil, so also wilt thou find a cheering of thy spirits, and a reviving [of] thy soul with unspeakable content and peace. Having once closed with Christ,

1. The guilt of all thy sins is gone, and this spoiled all thy mirth before.  All your dancing of a child, when some pin pricks it, will not make it quiet or merry; well, now, that pin is taken out which robbed thee of the joy of thy life.
2. Thy nature is renewed and sanctified.  And when is a man at ease, if not when he is in health? and what is holiness, but the creature restored to his right temper, in which God created him?
3. Thou becomest a child of God, and that can­not but please thee well, I hope, to be a son or daughter to so great a King.
4. Thou hast a right to heaven’s glory, whither thou shalt ere long be conducted to take and hold possession of that thy inheritance for ever, and who can tell what that is?  Nicephorus tells us of one Agbarus, a great man, that—hearing so much of Christ’s fame, by reason of the miracles he wrought —sent a painter to take his picture, and that the painter when he came was not able to do it, because of the radiancy and splendour which sat on Christ’s face.  Whether this be true or no, I leave it; but, to be sure, there is such a brightness on the face of Christ glorified, and that happiness which in heaven saints shall have with him, as forbids us that dwell in mortal flesh to conceive of it aright, much more to express [it].  It is best going thither to be informed, and then we shall confess [that] we on earth heard not half of what we there find, yea, that our present conceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have, than the sun in the painter’s table is to the sun itself in the heavens.  And if all this be so, why then do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not, yea, for that which keeps you from that which can satisfy?  Earthly things are like some trash, which doth not only not nourish, but takes away the appetite from that which would.  Heaven and heavenly things are not relished by a soul vitiated with these.  Manna, though for deliciousness called angels’ food, [is] yet but light bread to an Egyptian palate.  But these spiritu­al things depend not [so] on thy opinion, O man, whoever thou art—as earthly things in a great measure do—that the value of them should rise or fall as the world’s exchange doth, and as vain man is pleased to rate them.  Think gold dirt, and it is so, for all the royal stamp on it.  Count the swelling titles of worldly honour—that proud dust brags so in—vanity, and they are such; but have base thoughts of Christ, and he is not the worse.  Slight heaven as much as you will, it will be heaven still.  And when thou comest so far to thy wits, with the prodigal, as to know which is best fare, husks or bread, where best living, among hogs in the field or in thy Father’s house, then thou wilt know how to judge of these heavenly things better.  Till then, go and make the best market thou canst of the world, but look not to find this pearl of price—true satisfaction to thy soul —in any of the creature's shops; and were it not better to take it when thou mayest have it, than after thou hast wearied thyself in vain in following the creature, to come back with shame, and may be miss it here also, because thou wouldst not have it when it was offered?

An exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things 2/3

Some would have heaven, but if God save them he must save their sins also, for they do not mean to part with them; and how heaven can hold God and such company together, judge you.  As they come in at one door, Christ and all those holy spirits with him would run out at the other.  Ungrateful wretches, that will not come to this glorious feast, unless they may bring that with them which would disturb the joy of that blissful state, and offend all the guests that sit at the table with them, yea, drive God out of his own mansion-house.

           A second sort would have heaven, but—like him in Ruth, chap. 4:2-4, who had a mind to his kinsman Elime­lech’s land, and would have paid for the pur­chase, but liked not to have it by marrying Ruth, and so missed of it—some seem very forward to have heaven and salvation, if their own righteousness could procure the same—all the good they do, and duties they perform, they lay up for this purchase—but at last perish, because they close not with Christ, and take not heaven in his right.

           A third sort are content to have it by Christ, but their desires are so impotent and listless, that they put them upon no vigorous use of means to obtain him; and so, like the sluggard, they starve, because they will not pull their hands out of their bosom of sloth to reach their food that is before them.  For the world they have mettle enough, and too much; they trudge far and near for that, and when they have run themselves out of breath, can stand and ‘pant after the dust of the earth,’ as the prophet phraseth it, Amos 2:7.  But for Christ and obtaining interest in him, O how key-cold are they!  There is a kind of cramp in­vades all the powers of their souls, when they should pray, hear, examine their hearts, draw out their af­fections in hungerings and thirstings after his grace and Spirit.  It is strange to see how they [who] even now went full soop to the world, are suddenly be­calmed—not a breath of wind stirring to any purpose in their souls after these things—and is it any wonder that Christ and heaven should be denied to them, that have no more mind to them?

           Lastly. Some have zeal enough to have Christ and heaven, but it is when the Master of the house is risen, and hath shut to the door, and truly then they may stand long enough rapping, before any come to let them in.  There is no gospel preached in another world.  But as for thee, poor soul, who art persuaded to renounce thy lusts, to throw away the conceit of thy own righteousness, that thou mayest run with more speed to Christ, and art so possessed with the excellency of Christ, thy own present need of him, and [of] salvation by him, that thou pantest after him more than [after] life itself, in God’s name go and speed, be of good comfort; he calls thee by name to come unto him, that thou mayest have rest for thy soul.  There is an office in the Word where thou may­est have thy soul and its eternal happiness insured to thee.  Those that come to him, as he will himself in no wise cast away, so [he will] not suffer any other to pluck them away.  ‘This day,’ saith Christ to Zac­chaeus, ‘is salvation come to this house,’ Luke 19:9. Salvation comes to thee, poor soul, that openest thy heart to receive Christ; thou hast eternal life already, as sure as if thou wert a glorified saint now walking in that heavenly city.  O sirs, if there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies, enough gold for all that went, and a certainty of making a safe voyage, who would stay at home? But alas, this can never be had. All this, and infinitely more, may be said for heaven; and yet how few leave their uncertain hopes of the world to trade for it?  What account can be given for this, but the desperate atheism of men’s hearts? They are not yet fully persuaded whether the Scripture speaks true or not; whether they may rely upon the discovery that God makes in his Word of this new found land, and those mines of spiritual treasure there to be had, as certain.  God open the eyes of the unbelieving world, as he did the prophet’s servants, that they may see these things in our hearts.  By faith Moses saw him that was invisible.

 Third Argument. Earthly things, when we have them, we are not sure of them.  Like birds, they hop up and down, now on this hedge, and anon upon that; none can call them his own.  [We may be] rich to-day, and poor to-morrow; in health when we lie down, and arrested with pangs of death before mid­night; joyful parents, one while solacing ourselves with the hopes of our budding posterity, and may be, ere long, knocks one of Job’s messengers at our door to tell us they are all dead; now in honour, but who knows whether we shall not live to see that buried in scorn and reproach?  The Scripture compares the multitude of people to waters—the great ones of the world sit upon these waters.  As the ship floats upon the waves, so do their honours upon the breath and favour of the multitude; and how long is he like to sit that is carried upon a wave?  One while they are mounted up to heaven, as David speaks of the ship, and then down again they fall into the deep.  ‘We have ten parts in the king,’ say the men of Israel, II Sam. 19:43; and in the very next verse Sheba doth but sound a trumpet of sedition, saying, ‘We have  no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse;’ and the wind is in another corner presently, for it is said, ‘Every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba.’  Thus was David cried up and down, and that almost in the same breath. Unhappy man he, that hath no surer portion than what this variable world will afford him.  The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand.  We shall see them, as Eglon’s servants did their lord, fallen down dead before us, and weep be­cause they are not.  What folly then is it to dandle this vain world in our affections, whose joy, like the child's laughter on the mother's knee, is sure to end in a cry at last, and [to] neglect heaven and heavenly things, which endure forever?  

O remember Dives stirring up his pillow, and composing himself to rest! —how he was called up with the tidings of death before he was warm in this his bed of ease, which God had made for him in flames; from whence we hear him roaring in the anguish of his conscience.  O soul! couldst thou get but an interest in the heavenly things we are speaking of, these would not thus slip from under thee.  

An exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things 1/3

An exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things 

           Use Third.  Is heaven and all that is heavenly that Satan seeks to hinder us of? let this provoke us the more earnestly to contend for them.  Had we to do with an enemy that came only to plunder us of earthly trifles, would honours, estates, and what this world affords us stay his stomach; it might suffer a debate, in a soul that hath hopes of heaven, whether it were worth fighting to keep this lumber; but Christ and heaven sure are too precious to part withal upon any terms.  ‘Ask the kingdom for him also,’ said Sol­omon to Bathsheba, when she begged Abishag for Adonijah.  What can the devil leave thee worth, if he deprive thee of these? and yet, I confess, I have heard of one that wished God would let him alone, and not take him from what he had here.  Vile brute! the voice of a swine and not a man, that could choose to wallow in the dung and ordure of his carnal pleasures, and wish himself for ever shut up with his swill in the hog’s coat of this dunghill earth, rather than leave these, to dwell in heaven’s palace, and be admitted to no meaner pleasures than what God himself with his saints enjoy.  It were even just if God gave such brutes as these a swine’s face to their swinish hearts; but alas! how few then should we meet that would have the countenance of a man? the greatest part of the world—even all that are carnal and worldly —being of the same mind, though not so impudent, as that wretch, to speak what they think.  The lives of men tell plain enough that they say in their hearts, it is good being here—that they wish they could build tabernacles on earth for all the mansions that are pre­pared in heaven.  ‘The transgression of the wicked,’ saith in David’s heart, ‘that the fear of God was not before them,’ Ps. 36:1; and may not the worldliness of a muck-worm say in the heart of any rational man, that heaven and heavenly excellences are not before their eyes or thoughts?  O what a deep silence is there concerning these in the conversations of men!  Heaven is such stranger to the most, that very few are heard to inquire the way thither, or so much as ask the question in earnest, What shall they do to be saved?  The most express no more desires of obtain­ing heaven, than those blessed souls now in heaven do of coming again to dwell on earth.  Alas! their heads are full of other projects; they are either, as Israel, scattered over the face of the earth to gather straw, or busied in picking that straw they have gathered, labouring to get the world, or pleasing themselves with what they got.  So that it is no more than needs to use some arguments to call men off the world to the pursuit of heaven, and what is heavenly.

           First Argument. As for earthly things, it is not necessary that thou hast them.  That is necessary which cannot be supplied per vicarium—with some­what besides itself.  Now there is no such earthly enjoyment but may be so supplied, as to make its room more desirable than its company.  In heaven there shall be light and no sun, a rich feast and yet no meat; glorious robes and yet no clothes, there shall want nothing, and yet none of this worldly glory [shall] be found there.  Yea, even while we are here these may be recompensed; thou mayest be under infirmities of body, and yet better than if thou hadst health.  ‘The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick, the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity,’ Isa. 33:24.  Thou mayest miss of worldly hon­our, and obtain, with those worthies of Christ, Heb. 11, a good report by faith, and that is a name that is better than [that] of the great ones of the earth; thou mayest be poor in the world, and yet rich in grace, and ‘godliness with contentment is great gain;’ in a word, if thou partest with thy temporal life, and find­est an eternal, what dost thou lose by the change?  But heaven and heavenly things are such as cannot be recompensed with any other.  Thou hast a heavenly soul in thy bosom; lose that, and where canst thou have another?  There is but one heaven; miss that, and where can you take up your lodging but in hell? One Christ that can lead you thither; reject him, and ‘there remaineth no more sacrifice foe sins.’  O that men would think on these things.  Go, sinner, to the world, and see what it can afford you in lieu of these. May be it will offer to entertain you with its pleasures and delights.  O poor reward for the loss of Christ and heaven!  Is this all thou canst get?  Doth Satan rob thee of heaven and happiness, and only give thee posy to smell on as thou art going to thy execution?  Will these quench hellfire, or so much as cool those flames thou art falling into?  Who but those who have foredone their understandings, would take these toys and new nothings for Christ and heaven?  While Satan is pleasing your fancies with these rattles and babbles, his hand is in your treasure, robbing you of that which is only necessary.  It is more necessary to be saved, than to be; better not to be, than to have a being in hell.

           Second Argument. Earthly things are such as it is a great uncertainty whether, with all our labour, we can have them or not.  The world, though so many thousand years old, hath not learned the merchant such a method of trading, as from it he may infallibly conclude he shall at last get an estate by his trade, nor the courtier such rules of comporting himself to the humour of his prince as to assure him he shall rise. They are but few that carry away the prize in the world’s lottery; the greater number have only their labour for their pains, and a sorrowful remembrance left them of their egregious folly, to be led such a wild-goose chase after that which hath deceived them at last.  But now for the heaven and the things of heaven, there is such a clear and certain rule laid down, that if we will but take the counsel of the Word we can neither mistake the way, nor in that way miscarry of the end. ‘And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God,’ Gal. 6:16.  There are some indeed who run, and yet obtain not this prize; that seek, and find not; [that] knock, and find the door shut upon them; but it is because they do it either not in the right manner, or in the right season.