A Christian Directory, Part 2: Christian Economics

There you shall be delivered from the darkness of this world. How dimly did we see through the lantern of the flesh! how little did we know! and how much were we ignorant of! and what pains did our little knowledge cost us.! But there, one sight of the face of God will put an end to this longsome night; and will show you that, which all the reading and study of a thousand years could never satisfactorily have shown you. There you shall understand the works of God: the frame of the creation; the place, and office, and reason of all things, which here you knew not. The mysteries of the gospel, which angels pry into, will be there much more unfolded to you, than the clearest divines were able to explain them.143 All sciences there shall be one pansophy; and all things knowable shall appear to you in their wondrous, perfect harmony. What welcome will those blessed angels give you that here disdained not to minister for you, and bear you up in all your ways, and interested themselves in your concernments, rejoicing before God at your conversion! How glad then will they be of your safe arrival at the promised harbour of felicity with themselves! What joy will it be to you to be presently entertained, and welcomed into the acquaintance of those blessed spirits, and of all the holy souls that are delivered from this flesh and world; and to see their order, and be numbered with their society, and to be employed in their joyful work. Oh how much better company is that than the best below! There is no ignorance, and therefore no error; no want of love, and no contention; nor narrow, private interests to contend for, but all made happy in perfect love in him that is their universal end and happiness. There is no dissension, nor perverse disputes; no ignorant zeal, nor blinding passions; no proud or covetous designs, and therefore no hurtful means to prosecute them; no seeming necessity to hurt our brethren, to advance, or enrich, or save ourselves; no slanderers there condemn the souls whom Christ doth justify, nor take away the righteousness of the righteous from him; no cruel mockings, imprisonments, or banishments; no wandering, destitute, afflicted, or tormented; nor more suffering for the sake of righteousness; but having suffered with Christ they are now reigning with him; and those, of whom the world was not worthy, are taken to God from an unworthy world. There are no troublesome mutations or confusions; no wars, nor rumours of wars, because no lusts to war in their members; but united souls in the harmony of love, do without any discord praise the Lord.144 The church is not there divided into sects and factions, either through the pride or peevishness of its members; none scrupleth communion with the rest; none silence others from speaking the praises of their Redeemer; nor drive away others from their brotherhood and communion. There is neither unrighteous law, nor disobedient subject, nor unpeaceable neighbour, nor unfaithful friend, nor hurtful or malicious enemy! There is no afflicted friend to mourn for, nor any disconsolate soul to grieve with; no ignorant person to instruct, nor obstinate heart to persuade or pray for; no fearful, doubting christian to be comforted, nor weak and wavering soul to be confirmed; no imprudent, scandalous actions of the godly to be lamented; no remnants of pride, self-conceitedness, or any delusion to keep out the light; no blemishes in them for the enemies to reproach, nor any malignant enemies to reproach them; no misrepresentations of things or persons; no raising or receiving false reports; no sin of our own to grieve for, or to strive against; and no sin of others to trouble the society, or be lamented. There we shall have no suffering friend to suffer with; none labouring of want, while you have plenty; nor any groaning in pain and sickness, while you are well. As no want or pain of your own will afflict you, so no suffering of your friends will interrupt your joy. Your comforts shall not be turned into lamentations, for the madness and obstinate wickedness of a sodomitical generation about you; nor your righteous soul be vexed with their filthy and sottish conversation.145 You shall not dwell in a world where the most part is drowned in heathenism and infidelity, nor in a church defiled with papal tyranny, cruelty, covetousness, or profaneness. The whole society will shine in light, and flame in love, and none through any weakness or corruption will be a clog or hinderance to another.

You shall above all this behold the person of your glorified Redeemer! You shall see that body, in its glorious change, which once was humbled to the virgin's womb, and to a life of poverty, and to the scorns of sinners; to be spit upon, and buffeted, and crowned with thorns, and first made a laughingstock, and then hanged up to die upon a cross, at the will of proud, malicious persecutors. You shall there see that Person whom God hath chosen to advance above the whole creation; and in whom he will be more glorified than in all the saints.146 The wonderful condescension of his incarnation, and the wonderful mystery of the hypostatical union, will there be better understood.

And, which is all in all, you shall see the most blessed God himself;147 whether in his essence, or not, yet undoubtedly in his glory, in that state or place, which he hath prepared to reveal his glory in, for the glorifying of holy spirits. You shall see him whose sight will perfect your understandings, and love him, and feel the fulness of his love, which is the highest felicity that any created being can attain. Though this will be in different measures, as souls are more or less amiable and capacious, (or else the human nature of Christ would be no happier than we,) yet none shall have any sinful or troublesome imperfection, and all their capacities shall be filled with God.

O dear friend, I am even confounded and ashamed to think, that I mention to you such high and glorious things, with no more sense and admiration! And that my soul is not drawn up in the flames of a more fervent love; nor lifted up in higher joys, nor yet drawn out into more longing desires, when I speak of such transcendent happiness and joy! O had you and I but a glimpse with blessed Stephen or Paul of these unutterable pleasures, how deeply would it affect us! And how should we abhor this life of sin; and be weary of this dark and distant state; and be glad to be gone from this prison of flesh; and to be delivered from this present evil world!148

This is the life that you are going to live; though a painful death must open the womb of time, and let you into eternity, how quickly will the pain be over! And though nature make death dismal to you, and sin have made it penal, and you look at it now with backwardness and fear; yet this will all be quickly past, and your souls will be born into a world of joy, which will make you forget all your fears and sorrows. It is meet that as the birth of nature had its pains, and the birth of grace had its penitent sorrows; so the birth of glory should have the greatest difficulties, as it entereth us into the happiest state.149 Oh what a change will it be to a humbled, fearful soul, to find itself in a moment dislodged from a sinful, painful flesh, and entered into a world of light, and life, and holy love, unspeakably above all the expressions and conceptions of this present life. Alas! that our present ignorance and fear should make us draw back from such a change! that whilst all our brethren that died in faith, are triumphing in these joys with Christ, our trembling souls should be so loth to leave this flesh, and be afraid to be called to the same felicity! Oh what an enemy is the remnant of unbelief, to our imprisoned and imperfect souls! that it can hide such a desirable glory from our eyes, that it should no more affect us, and we should no more desire it, but are willing to stay so long from God! How wonderful is that love and mercy, that brings such backward souls to happiness! and will drive us away from this beloved world, by its afflicting miseries! and from this beloved flesh, by pain and weariness! and will draw us to our joyful blessedness, as it were, whether we will or not! and will not leave us out of heaven so long, till we are willing ourselves to come away!

You seem to be almost at your journey's end. But how many a foul step have those yet to go, whom you leave behind you in this dirty world. You have fought a good fight, and kept the faith; and shall never be troubled with an enemy or temptation when this one concluding brunt is over. You shall never be so much as tempted to unbelief, or pride, or worldly-mindedness, or fleshly lusts, or to any defects in the service of your Lord. But how many temptations do you leave us encompassed with! and how many dangers and enemies to overcome! And alas! how many falls and wounds may we receive! You seem to be near the end of your race, when those behind you have far to run. You are entering into the harbour, and leave us tossed by tempests on the waves. Flesh will no more entice or clog your soul! You will no more have unruly senses to command, nor an unreasonable appetite to govern, nor a straggling fantasy, or wandering thoughts, or headstrong lusts, or boisterous passions, to restrain. You will no longer carry about a root of corruption, nor a principle of enmity to God. It will no more be difficult or wearisome to you to do good. Your service of God will no more be mixed and blemished with imperfections. You shall never more have a cold, or hard, or backward heart, or a careless, customary duty to lament. That primitive holiness which consisteth in the love of God, and the exercise and delights thereof, will be perfected; and those subservient duties of holiness, which consist in the use of recovering means, will cease as needless. Preaching, and studying, and books, will be necessary no more. Sacraments, and church discipline, and all such means have done their work. Repentance and faith have attained their end. As your bodies, after the resurrection, will have no need of food, or raiment, or care, or labour; so your souls will be above the use of such creatures and ordinances, as now we cannot be without. For the glass will be unnecessary, when you must see the Creator face to face.150 Will it not be a joyful day to you, when you shall know God as much as you desire to know him? and love him as much as you desire to love him? and be loved by him as much as you can reasonably desire to be beloved? and rejoice in him as much as you desire to rejoice; yea, more than you can now desire? I open to you but a casement into the everlasting mansions, and show you but a dark and distant prospect of the promised land, the heavenly Jerusalem. The satisfying sight is reserved for the time, when thereby we shall have that satisfying fruition.

And is there any such thing to be hoped for on earth? Will health or wealth, will the highest places or the greatest pleasures, make men happy? You know it will not. Or if it would, the happiness would be so short, as maketh it little worthy of our regard. Have you not seen an end of all perfection? Have you not observed and tried what a deluding dream, and shadow of felicity, the world puts off its followers with? How they act their parts as players on a stage; and they that in a dream, or mask, did yesterday seem princes, lords, or conquerors, to-day are buried in a darksome grave! And they that yesterday seemed great and rich, to-day have no more of their furniture, or possessions, than a coffin and a winding-sheet, and a place to hide their loathsome flesh! And they that yesterday were merry, and jovial, and in health, and honour, to-day lie groaning in painful misery, are leaving their dear-bought, beloved riches, never to be delightful to them any more. How little doth it concern them, that must dwell in heaven or hell for ever, whether they live in wealth or poverty, in honour or shame, in a palace or a cottage, in pain or pleasure, for so short a time as this transitory life, which is almost at an end as soon as it is begun! How many millions of dying parents have cried out of the world as vanity and vexation! and yet their besotted posterity admire it, and through the love of it lose their souls and everlasting hopes! They boast or rejoice in the multitude of their riches, as if their houses would continue for ever; though in their honour they abide not, but are like the beasts that perish, and death feedeth on them, when like sheep they are laid in the grave; and though this their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings, and follow them by the same sin to the same perdition, Psal. xlix. 6, 7, 10-14, 17, 19, 20. And is this a world for a holy soul to be in love with? Hath it merited our affections? Doth it love us so much, or use us so well, that we should be loth to leave it? John xv. 18-20. As it loved our Lord, it will love his followers: as it used him, it will use us, if he restrain it not. Is a blinded, bedlam world, a malicious, cruel, and ungodly world, a false, perfidious, deceitful world, a place for a saint to be loth to leave? O blessed be that love, that blood, that grace, which hath provided better for us! And shall we be unwilling to go to so sweet a feast? and to partake of a happiness which cost so dear?151

Come on then, dear friend, and faint not at the last; and fear not to encounter with the king of fears! It is the last enemy, and it is a conquered enemy! Conquer this, and you have no more to conquer. Lift up your head, and look to your victorious, reigning Lord; gird up the loins of your mind, and let faith and patience hold out yet a little while, and play well this last part, and all is your own.152

If the tempter now assault your faith, and sinking flesh do give him any advantage, abhor his blasphemies, and cry for help to him that conquered him. Do you think yonder high and spacious mansions are uninhabited; when every part of sea and land hath its inhabitants? Why have those blessed angels been so long employed in ministering for you, but to let you know, that your souls are not so distant from them, but that they are glad of familiarity with you, and you may be like them, or equal with them in felicity? Nature hath put you out of doubt, that there is a God of infinite, eternal being, power, wisdom, and goodness, who is the efficient, dirigent, and final cause of all; the Creator and Governor of the world. And the same nature hath put you out of doubt, that all that his creatures have, or can do, is due to him from whom they have it; and that so far as you are capable to know, and love, and serve him, that you should employ your faculties herein: and nothing is more undeniable to you, than that it is our duty to love and serve our God, with all our heart, and soul, and might. And it is as clear to you, that neither are these powers given us in vain, nor this duty required of us in vain, nor yet that man's natural, highest duty is made to be the way of his misery and undoing. And sure that way, which turneth the mind from sensual pleasures, and casteth a man on the malice and cruelty of the world, and engageth him in so much duty, which both the flesh and the world are utter enemies to, would be his misery and torment, if there were no rewards and punishments hereafter, and no future judgment to set all straight, that seemed crooked in the judgments of men. If all the intrinsic evidences of credibility, in the sacred word, were not sufficient; if all the antecedent evidences of prophecy were too little; if the concomitant evidence of all the miracles of Christ, and his apostles, and other of his servants, with his own resurrection and ascension, did seem too distant from you; yet mark what subsequent continued evidences it hath pleased God to bring even to your very sense, to assure you of the truth of this gospel, and of the life to come. Whence cometh that universal, unreasonable enmity, which in all generations and nations of the world, from Cain and Abel till this day, is found in the carnal against the spiritual, holy seed? Even a Seneca telleth us of it among heathens, against that remnant of virtue, and temperance, and sobriety that was found in the better sort of men. Could all mankind be thus infected, and hate a saint that never hurt them, much more than those that themselves confess to be most vicious, if the fall of Adam were not true? Have we a whole world before our eyes, that are visibly polluted with that irrational leprosy, and yet shall we doubt whether our common father was sick of that disease? And do you not see that the gospel, wherever it is heartily entertained, doth renew the soul, and change the life, and make the man to be another man; not only amending some little things that were amiss, but making us new creatures, and turning the bent of heart and life another way? Though the carnal, nominal christian, that never heartily received the gospel, do differ from a heathen but in opinion and formality; yet serious christians are other men, and so transformed, as that their holy desires and endeavours do contain the seed of life eternal, and are such a preparation for it as cannot be in vain. Would God concur thus with any word, which is not true, and holy, and good, to make it effectual for the renovation of so many millions of souls? Have you not found that his work of grace is carried on by heavenly wisdom, love, and power? and is a witness of his special providence? and containeth his own image upon the soul? And shall we then question the author of the seal, when we see that the image and superscription which it imprinteth is divine? And have you not had such experiences yourself of the fulfilling of this word, in the answer of prayers, manifest both on men's souls and bodies, which are enough to confute the tempter, that would shake your faith, when he seeth you in your weakness, unfit to call up all those evidences, which at another time you have discerned? For my own part, I must bear this witness to the truth, that I have known, and felt, and seen, and heard such wonders wrought upon fervent prayer, as have many a time convinced me of the truth of the promises, and the special providence of God to his poor petitioners. I have oft known the acute and chronical diseases of afflicted ones relieved by prayer without any natural means. Some of the most violent cured in an hour; and some by more slow degrees. Besides the effects upon men's souls, and estates, and public affairs, which plainly demonstrated the means and cause. And shall a promise thus sealed to us, be ever questioned again? Nay, have you not the witness in yourself, 1 John v. 10-12; even the Spirit of Christ, which is the pledge and earnest of your inheritance, and the seal and mark of God upon you? In a word, it is an unquestionable truth, that the rational world neither is, nor ever was, nor can be governed agreeably to its nature, without an end to move and rule them, which is beyond this life; and without the hopes and fears of a reward and punishment hereafter. Were this but taken out of the world, man would no longer live like man, but as the most odious, noxious creature upon earth. And it is as sure that it agreeth not with the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of God, to govern so noble a creature by a lie, and to make a nature that must be so governed. And it is as certain that all other revelation is defective, and that life and immortality, the end and the way, were never so brought to light, as they are in the gospel, by Christ, and by his Spirit.153

Say then to the malicious tempter, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee," Zech. iii. 2. "O full of all subtlety and mischief! thou enemy of God and righteousness! wilt thou not cease to be a lying spirit, and to pervert the truth and right ways of the Lord?" Acts xiii. 10. Lift up your soul to God, and say, I believe, Lord, help mine unbelief! Though Satan stand to resist me at my right hand, am I not a brand plucked out of the fire? Am I not thine? and have I not resigned this soul to thee? and didst thou not accept it in thy holy covenant? O then defend it as thy own! Plead thou my cause, and confirm thy work, and justify both thy truth and me, against the malicious enemy of both. O let the intercession of my Saviour prevail, that my faith fail not. And take away the filthy garments from me, and cause mine iniquities to pass away. And though my soul be troubled, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But then what passage shall I have into thy presence? I was born a mortal wight, and go but the way as all generations have gone before me; and follow my Lord and all his saints: Father, receive and glorify thy servant, that thy servant may glorify thy name for ever! Receive, O Father, the soul which thou hast made! Receive, O Saviour, the soul which thou hast so dearly bought, and loved to the death, and washed in thy blood! Receive the soul which thou hast regenerated by thy Spirit, and in some measure quickened by the immortal seed! Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; my age before thee is as nothing; and every man at his best estate is vanity. When thy rebukes correct us for iniquity, thou makest our beauty to consume as a moth. And now, O Lord, what wait I for? is not my hope alone in thee? Deliver me from my transgressions, and impute not to me the sins which I have done. Remember not against me the sins of my youth; and forgive the iniquities of my riper years. Charge not upon me my grieving of thy Spirit, and neglects and resistances of thy grace. Forgive my sins of ignorance and of knowledge, my sins of slothfulness, rashness, and presumption, especially those which I have wilfully committed, against thy warnings and the warnings of my conscience. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret sins. O pardon my unprofitableness, and abuse of thy mercies, and my sluggish loss of precious time! that I have served thee no better, and loved thee no more, and improved no better the day of grace! Though folly and sin have darkened my light, and blemished my most holy services, and my transgressions have been multiplied in thy sight, yet is the sacrifice sufficient which thou hast accepted from our great High Priest, who made his soul an offering for sin. In him thou art well pleased: he is our peace: in him I trust: he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners: he did no iniquity: he fulfilled all righteousness; and by once offering of himself, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified: he is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Accept me, O Father, in him thy Well-beloved: let my sinful soul be healed by his stripes, who bare our sins in his body on the cross. Let me be found in him, not having any legal righteousness of my own, but that which is through the faith of Christ; that being made conformable unto his death, I may attain to the resurrection of the dead; and may by him be presented without spot or blemish. My God, thou hast encouraged my fearful soul, by the multitude of thy mercies, as well as by thy promises, to trust thee, and yield itself to thee. Thou hast filled up all my days with mercy: every place that I have lived in, and every relation, and all that I have had to do with in the world, are the witnesses of thy love and mercy to me. Thy eyes beheld my substance being yet imperfect, and all my members were written in thy book. My parents were instructed by thee to educate me, and all things commanded by thee to serve for my preservation, comfort, and salvation. Thou hast brought me forth in a land and age of mercies, and caused me to hear and see the things which others have not seen or heard. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; my life hath not been spent in a howling wilderness, nor in banishment from thy sanctuary, or the communion of thy saints; nor hath it been wholly consumed in darkness, and sorrow, and unserviceable barrenness. But often have I heard the joyful sound, and I have gone with the multitude to the house of God, and there have seen the light of thy countenance, and drank of the rivers of thy pleasure, even of the waters of life, and have been solaced with the voice of joy and praise. How oft have I cried unto thee in my trouble, and thou hast delivered me out of my distresses! When for my folly and transgression I was afflicted, thou broughtest me out of darkness and the shadow of death.154 Thou renewedst my age as Hezekiah's, and causedst the shadow of my dial to go back! and hast set me at liberty to praise thee for thy goodness, and declare thy works to the children of men. In the day of trouble I called upon thee, and thou didst deliver me that I might glorify thee. Thou causedst me to receive the sentence of death, that I might trust in God that raised the dead. My Shepherd hath led me in his pleasant pastures, by the silent streams; he restored my soul, and conducted me in the paths of righteousness. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. And will that mercy now forsake me, which hath abounded to me, and supported me so long? Thou hast said, I will never fail thee nor forsake thee. Having loved thy own, that are in the world, thou wilt love them to the end; for thy mercy is great and reacheth to the heavens, and it endureth for ever. O therefore when I awake, let me be with thee! And as thy loving-kindness is better than life; and to depart and be with Christ, is far better than the best condition upon earth; so let thy servant depart in peace, his eye of faith beholding thy salvation: and when my earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, let me have that building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Let my present burden of sin and suffering make me more earnestly to groan, not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life; that being absent from the body, I may be present with the Lord.155 And seeing this cup may not pass from me, and I must not look for the chariot of Elias, to carry me unto heaven; let thy will be done, and let me rest therein, and let death be the gain and advantage of my soul; and while this outward man is perishing, let the inner man be renewed from day to day: for what am I better than my fathers, and all thy saints, and the generations of mankind, that I should think of another passage, than this of death, to the world of immortality?156 O let this fainting heart be glad, and let my glory rejoice, and in love and joy, in thankfulness and praise, let me pass into the world of love and joy, where thanksgiving and praise shall be my work for ever. And though my flesh and heart will fail, be thou the strength of my heart, O God, and my portion for ever.157 Though I must walk through the valley of the shadow of death, let me fear no evil; but be thou still with me, and let me be comforted by thy rod and staff: let the goodness and mercy which hath followed me thus far all my days, receive me at the last, that I may dwell with thee for ever. For it is the will of my Redeemer, that those which thou hast given him, be with him where he is, to behold the glory which thou hast given him. And that his servants should follow him, that where he is, there also may his servants be. Amen, Lord Jesus! good is thy will and the word which thou hast spoken! Into thy hands I commend my spirit which thou hast redeemed. Receive it, and let me be with thee in paradise. O thou that hast called us thy brethren, when thou didst ascend to thy Father and our Father, and to thy God and our God, take up this poor unworthy soul to the mansions which thou hast prepared for us, that I may be with thee where thou art.158 And though this flesh must perish, let it rest in hope, and be but sowed as a grain of wheat; till thy powerful call shall raise it from the dust, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and this natural body shall be raised a spiritual body, and death shall be swallowed up in victory.159 For though I be dead, my life is hid with Christ in God; and when thou appearest who art my life, then let me appear with thee in glory. O hasten that appearance, and come with thy holy, glorious angels, to be glorified in thy saints, and admired in and by believers! When thou wilt change our vile bodies, and make them like to thy glorious body, by the mighty working, by which thou canst subdue even all things to thyself. Hast thou not said, "Behold, I come quickly?" Even so come, Lord! and let the great marriage day of the Lamb make haste, when thy spouse shall be presented spotless, unblamable, and glorious; and the glory of God in the New Jerusalem, shall be revealed to all his holy ones, to delight and glorify them for ever. In the mean time, remember, Lord, thy promise, "Because I live, therefore shall ye live also: " and let the dead that die in thee be blessed: and thou that art made a quickening Spirit, and art the Lord and Prince of life, and hast said that not a hair of our heads shall perish; gather our departing souls unto thyself, into the heavenly Jerusalem and mount Sion, the city of the living God, and to the myriads of holy angels, and to the general assembly and church of the first-born, and to the perfected spirits of the just; where thou wilt make us kings and priests to God, whom we shall see, and love, and praise for ever. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things; and for his pleasure they are, and were created. And O thou the blessed God of love, the Father of spirits and King of saints, receive this unworthy member of thy Son, into the heavenly choir which sing thy praise! who rest not saying, night and day, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who is, and was, and is to come! For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.160