SERM. prayer in general, and ours in particular, is a very great help. I. Do but observe these plain and necessary rules in using of the Common Prayer, (without which you cannot be truly said to use, but rather to abuse it) and you will soon find what I have said about it to be true, even that "all things in it are done to edifying." And therefore I would to God, that not only you that hear me at this time, but all the people of the nation, could be once persuaded to do so. What a holy nation, what a peculiar people should we then become! How pious towards God! How loyal to our sovereign! How just and charitable to one another! For by our constant worshipping Almighty God in so solemn and devout a manner as this is, our hearts will be overawed with so great a fear of His Divine Majesty, that we should never dare willingly to offend Him; our minds would be filled and impregnated with such a sense of His power and sovereignty, that we should honour and reverence it in those also whom He hath set over us our souls would be raised up so much above the world, that we should not do an ill act to gain it wholly to ourselves. In short, we should be every day edified more and more in faith, in love, in humility, in selfdenial, in temperance, in patience, in all true grace and virtue; and so we should go from strength to strength, from one degree of grace unto another, until at length we arrive at glory and perfection in the highest Heavens; where we shall spend eternity itself in praising and adoring the Most High God, as for all the other mercies which He hath vouchsafed to us, so in a particular manner for our being members of such an Apostolical Church, wherein all things are done to edifying. Which God of His infinite mercy grant we may all do, in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to Whom, with the Father and Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. SERMON II. OF THE HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. Preached before Queen Mary at Whitehall, October 12, 1690. COLOS. i. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father, Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light. ALTHOUGH the greatest part of the numerous offspring, which hath hitherto proceeded from Adam's loins, be departed out of this life, and are seen no more among us, yet we must not therefore think that they are ceased to be, or to live; for still their souls are as really alive in the other world, as we are now in this. And as it is with us here, that some live ill, and others well; so it is with them too, only in a higher degree: for some, and as we have just cause to fear, the greatest part of them, live with the fiends of Hell in the infernal pit, where they have no light, nothing but darkness and horror to the utmost extremity round about them; where they are always weeping, and wailing, and gnashing their teeth; fretting and tormenting themselves at the remembrance of their former sins and follies; where, as Christ Himself hath told us, "The worm dieth not, and the fire is Mark 9. 44, not quenched;" that is, their consciences, like greedy and insatiable worms, are always gnawing, and the fire of God's wrath is continually burning in their breasts, never to be quenched or abated; they cannot forbear thinking of what they have done, though every thought cuts them to their very hearts, and seems ready to split them in sunder. They cannot forbear looking upon God, although they can see nothing in Him but the wrath and anger which they II. SERM. themselves have kindled; which so incenses and enrageth their minds, that they are all in a flame with fury and indignation at themselves for it: by which means they are continually, as it were, upon a rack, distorted, afflicted, distracted, confounded; hurried about from place to place, but can find no rest, no quiet; every thing is uneasy and troublesome to them, yea, they are a burden to themselves, they cannot endure themselves, but wish ten thousand times they had been better, or had never been at all, or could cease to be, or could be any thing but what they are: but all in vain. And, which is worst of all, they do not only suffer the extremity of pain and anguish at present, but they can see no end of it; yea, they see there will be no end at all, being fully assured that this must be their portion for ever. Whereas, on the other side, there are others, who are not only free from all the miseries and torments which those poor creatures undergo, but always live in Heaven, in light, and love, and joy, and peace, and glory, the highest that they are able to imagine or desire; being brisk and lively, cheerful and pleasant, holy and happy all over: and that too, (as we shall see more presently) not only now and then, but continually; nor for some time only, but to all eternity. Now we, who are still upon earth, are as yet in neither of these states, neither so extremely miserable as the first are, nor so perfectly happy as those are we spake of last; but as it were in the middle between both. But so soon as ever we depart out of this life, we shall be immediately in one of them, as certainly as we are now here. And I do not question but that you all hope for and desire the latter, even to live with those blessed souls which enjoy perpetual rest and felicity in the other world; and that one great end of your coming hither at this time, is to learn what you must do in order to it: and, verily, ye do well to take all opportunities you can get, of being assisted and directed in it; for it is a great thing that you propose to yourselves, which can never be attained without much care and pains about it. And you are not certain how long time you have to do it in, but most certain it is not very long. But, blessed be God, you are all as yet in a capacity of obtaining it, and it is your own fault if any of you shall happen to miss of it: for Almighty God plainly shews how desirous He is to have you live with Him, and so be happy in the other world, in that He is still pleased to afford you all the means that He hath appointed for that purpose. Witness your meeting together here at this time, to join together in prayer to His Divine goodness for His assistance in the pursuit of it; and to be put in mind. of the course and method which you are to take for the accomplishment of so great and good an end. Concerning which, therefore, I shall give you the best and plainest directions I can from the words which I have now read. In which we may observe, I. What kind of persons they are, who are or shall be happy in the other world; they are Saints. II. The happiness they enjoy there, here called, inheritance of the Saints in light." "The III. They who desire to enjoy that happiness, must be duly qualified for it, or, as it is here expressed, " made meet to be partakers of it." IV. All who are so qualified, must ascribe it wholly unto God, and give Him thanks for it, as we see here St. Paul doth; "Giving thanks to the Father, Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light." I. Therefore, as to the persons who live so happily in the other world, they are here called Saints. It is the inheritance of the Saints, of all the Saints, and of them only; it is proper and peculiar to them, so that none else have any right or title to it, nor can ever have any part or portion in it. And that there is such a company and society of men in the world, which are truly called Saints, cannot be denied by any Christian; it being one of the articles of our Creed, wherein we profess to believe, there is a Communion of Saints; and unless we be of that communion, we can never partake of the inheritance of the Saints. But the great question is, What it is to be a Saint? or who may be truly and properly called Saints, men of holiness, or holy men, as the word signifies? But this we can never fully understand, unless we first state the true notion of sanctity or holiness, from whence they are so called. Now holiness and sanctity, in its highest perfection, is one of the D D II. Isa. 6. 3; SERM. perfections of God Himself, Who often calls Himself "the Holy One of Israel," and sometimes absolutely," the Holy Ps. 89. 35. One." And as He sometimes swears by Himself, at other times He swears by His Holiness. Whereby He gives us Amos 4. 2. to understand, that He Himself is Holiness; or, which is all one, Holiness is Himself, His own Divine Nature or EsHeb. 12. 10. sence. And that is the reason why they who partake "of 2 Pet. 1. 4. His Holiness," are said to partake " of His Divine Nature." And hence it is, that when the holy Angels would celebrate the praises of the Most High God in the highest manner they can, they cry, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory." And hence also it is, that when God designed to make man after His Own image, as like Him as a creature could be, He made him perfectly holy. And now that this image is defaced in us, if it be restored again to any man, so that he becomes Eph. 4. 24. a new man,” he is said to be "created after God," that is, after the likeness of God, in "righteousness and true holiness." So that this is the great perfection wherein we are at first made, and ought again to become like to God our Maker, Who therefore commands us to be holy, as He is 1 Pet. 1. 15. Holy: "As He Which hath called you is Holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." From whence it appears, that though we cannot be holy in the same measure as God is, Who is so without and beyond all measure; yet we should be so, after the same manner as He is; or rather our holiness should be of the same kind or nature with His, and as like it, as it is possible for it to be. 66 Hence, therefore, as holiness, when attributed to God, denotes the purity and excellency of His Divine nature, whereby He is exalted above all things else; so, when attributed to men, it signifies the purity and excellency of their nature, whereby they are refined and raised above the rest of mankind. This the Apostle teacheth us, where he op1 Thes. 4. 7. poseth holiness to uncleanness, saying, "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness ;" and David, where Ps. xvi. 3. he calls the Saints that are upon earth," the excellent," implying, that Saints, as such, excel all other persons, by reason of their holiness, that is, the highest excellency which their nature is capable of; which, therefore, doth not consist |