Part 271

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]