A base If thou sence of the Lord. Justice for this makes no difference, O England, between thy men and horses, no more of one than of the other, because so like in qualification, one looking no higher than the other. The noblest blessings, the greatest favours, heaven and heavenly things, which God gives with his own hands to the soul, these thy wantons and worldlings, O sensual England, have not esteemed. sunk spirit, hath sunk thee, England. couldst have but the mercies of a brute, fat pasture and peace to graze in it, it would be as much as thy heart wishes; as for those greatest favours, which God in state dispenses, with his own hand, to the heart, thou hast many children who will dispense with these, and many who will scoff at them. Multitudes amongst you care not for the smile of God, so you may have but the smiling countenance of some great man; so you may but sleep in a whole skin, and enjoy fleshly delights; whether God or your soul ever change a good word, you heed not. Ye base spirited wretches, who care not for heaven, so that ye may have but earth, know, that ye are the plague of poor England. The blood of the land will be laid at your door. Had not you grown so earthly and base in a fat land, as to slight heaven, and slight the greatest favours, we had not come to this day. It is the badge of an Esau to prize earth and slight heaven; to serve sense and to care for no nobler nor nearer fellowship with God, than providence brings to the belly. God may bring a heaven to your bodies, if this will serve your turn, and a hell to your souls. Let every man know the plague of his heart, and repent; carnality will kill you all. Spirituality only covets the noblest things. A spiritual man cannot feed so low, nor so coarse as others do; he must have a dish from God's own table, or all dainties at his own table relish not. The creature is sweet, but there is a heaven beyond this, saith he. He cannot sit down without God, nor rise up without him. All is wanting, when God cannot be found; nobody at table, when Christ is not there. What dropping from heaven upon my soul, from every thing? that is still the inquiry with a spiritual man. Immediate favours, noblest; God alone, all to this man. "Whom have I in heaven but thee? whom have I in earth in comparison of thee?" Words of men weighed; words of God within, laid up more choice than jewels. The opportunity is still lost, when Christ and the soul have had no talk. Vanities ensnare; I am too fleshly for Christ to take me by the hand, says a spiritual man. One spirit is still panting after another; two spirits would be one in the bosom of another: no less than the jewels which hang about Christ's own neck will content a noble spirit. The inquiry is not, how much the body hath of the creature, but how much the soul doth enjoy of God. What immediate mercies do I enjoy? What hath God laid in, for spending in these hard times, with his own hands? what faith? what experiments? what divine resolutions? Spirituality carries the soul on high; every thing is in price, as it comes from heaven, and brings heaven along with it. That is preaching, which brings heaven and the heart together; he is a christian whose breath smells like a garden which the Lord hath blest; in whose mouth heaven opens. As things are wrapped up in Christ, so they have their price still to a spiritual man. S Carnality makes you mind no high things; earth is heavy; earthly souls cannot fly high, no higher than the top of a golden dunghill. Let these things hint a bad state, and better it. The noblest things make the noblest condition, both here and hereafter. Live low now, and live low for ever, as low as hell! SERMON XX. COLOSSIANS I. 12. GIVING THANKS UNTO THE FATHER, WHO HATH MADE US MEET TO BE PARTAKERS OF THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN LIGHT. It is considerable how Christ makes his will: how he disposes of all, where he gives most; where he casts his blessings, namely, in the bosom of the best persons. Heaven is the inheritance of saints. Divine fruition is still made according to capacity. Men, many times give place and honour where there is no capacity nor fitness, but Christ never doth. Christ brings not hell to heaven; wickedness inherits wrath, grace only inherits glory. Heaven is hell to a depraved state. As guilt shuns justice, so doth sin holiness. A wicked man would not be where sin is punished, nor where grace is only practised; he is as unwilling to go to heaven as to hell, yet to one he must go. Holiness makes capacity of happiness, purity will bosom purity. Christ puts no toads in his bosom, but saints; "The inheritance of the saints in light." Corruption cannot inherit incorruption. Things heterogeneous will not incorporate. Choice flowers, will not grow by stinking weeds. Capacity is absolutely necessary, respecting the inheritance above. If sinners would enter heaven, they cannot. Light and darkness are inconsistent: fire and water oppose. God and ungodly men cannot live near. Justice will fight it out with sin to the death. "Without holiness man cannot see God;" without this, God cannot endure to see the man. There are thousands, and ten thousands in heaven, but not one sinner amongst them all; that land will not bear snakes, toads, serpents, no poisonous creatures, only saints; "The inheritance of the saints." Justice makes exact distinction. Sheep and goats though many, yet all are parted; not a goat upon Christ's right hand. Every attribute is exact at its office mercy brings her children from the four winds of the earth, to heaven, and leaves not one short, nor fails to bring any one over. Justice gathers the children of wrath, too, from the four winds, and leaves not one for any higher preferment than hell will afford. The Lord knows who are his, that is the seal of heaven; a seal is for exact distinction. What a seal is unto us for exact distinction, that Christ's knowledge is to him; he doth as firmly, as lastingly, as exactly distinguish by virtue of this all persons in the world, as we do by our seals and marks distinguish amongst multitudes of things. Though the devil have many thousands here below, and Christ but a few, and these tumbled and down amongst the wicked; yet Christ knows which is which, and who are his and only his shall have all he hath; saints inherit. up : God moves in relation. Children only inherit, : bond-servants have a little, and are turned off when their time is out. "If children, then heirs joint heirs with Christ." A saint is a child of God out of question; the nature of God is only manifest in a saint. A holy man, plainly and without controversy, speaks out himself to be a son of God. A legal right carries the inheritance to him. The wicked are of their father the devil; they may not lay claim to heaven upon pain of hell. If they touch the tree of life, they die; when they promise heaven, wrath then smokes, and hell never is so near as then. Bond-slaves do not inherit, bastards do not inherit, the case is the same of either, respecting heaven. No bastard christians, no bastard saints, but saints indeed inherit. Let every man look to his sanctity: it doth not merit, but it entitles to the inheritance. "If children, then heirs." A man may look into his bosom and tell what he shall be for eternity. Know your hearts and know them thoroughly, you cannot do well else. My query to you all is, What have you to take to for eternity? heaven? How do you make that good? Can you make demonstration of a holy state? Yes, I live justly; I pray to God; I hear his word. This is not infallible demonstration of sanctity. Mere conscience calls and thrusts to all these, as it is so principled and under such a government. A man may be just to men, and not just to God. Heathens have been as just as any of you all. That young man who came to Christ, when the law was read that he should not kill, nor steal, but love his neighbour, &c. said, "All this have I done from my youth." He was exact for justice, and yet but in a sorry state for heaven, if one may believe his own words. Drawing near to God in |