DIRECTIONS ABOUT OUR COMMUNION WITH HOLY SOULS DEPARTED, AND NOW WITH
CHRIST.
The oversight and neglect of our duty concerning the souls of the
blessed, now with Christ, doth much harden the papists in their
erroneous excesses here about.[185] And if we will ever reduce them,
or rightly confute them, it must be by a judicious asserting of the
truth, and observing so much with them as is our duty, and commending
that in them which is to be commended, and not by running away from
truth and duty that we may get far enough from them and error: for
error is an ill way of confuting error. The practical truth lieth in
these following precepts.
_Direct._ I. Remember that the departed souls in heaven are part, and
the noblest part, of the body of Christ and family of God, of which
you are inferior members; and therefore that you owe them greater
love and honour, than you owe to any saints on earth. "The whole
family in heaven and earth is named of Christ," Ephes. iii. 15. Those
are the happiest and noblest parts, that are most pure and perfect,
and dwell in the highest and most glorious habitations, nearest unto
Christ, yea, with him. If holiness be lovely, the most holy are the
most lovely; we have many obligations therefore, to love them more
than the saints on earth: they are more excellent and amiable, and
Christ loveth them more. And if any be honourable, it must especially
be those spirits that are of greatest excellencies and perfections,
and advanced to the greatest glory and nearness to their Lord. Make
conscience therefore of this as your duty, not only to love and honour
blessed souls, but to love and honour them more than those that are
yet on earth. And as every duty is attended with benefit, so we shall
find this exceeding benefit in the performance of this duty, that it
will incline our hearts to be the more heavenly, and draw up our
desires to the society which we so much love and honour.
_Direct._ II. Remember that it is a part of the life of faith, to see
by it the heavenly society of the blessed, and a part of your heavenly
conversation, to have frequent, serious, and delightful thoughts of
those crowned souls that are with Christ.[186] Otherwise God would
never have given us such descriptions of the heavenly Jerusalem, and
told us so much of the hosts of God that must inhabit it for ever;
that must come from the "east and from the west, and sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God." When it is said that
our conversation (πολίτευμα) is in heaven, Phil. iii. 20, the
meaning extendeth both to our relation, privileges, and converse: we
are denizens or citizens of the heavenly society; and our title to
their happiness is our highest privilege and honour; and therefore our
daily business is there, and our sweetest and most serious converse is
with Christ and all those blessed spirits. Whatever we are doing here,
our eye and heart should still be there: for we look not at the
temporal things which are seen, but at the eternal things which are
not seen, 2 Cor. iv. 18. A wise christian that hath forsaken the
kingdom of darkness, will be desirous to know what the kingdom of Christ
is into which he is translated, and who are his fellow-subjects, and
what are their several ranks and dignities, so far as tendeth to his
congruous converse with them all. And how should it affect us to find
that "we are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant!" Heb.
xii. 22-24. Live then as the members of this society, and exclude not
the chief members from your thoughts and converse: though our local,
visible communion be only with these rural, inferior inhabitants, and
not with the courtiers of the King of heaven, yet our mental communion
may be much with them. If our home and treasure be there with them,
our hearts will be there also, Matt. vi. 21.
_Direct._ III. It is the will of God that the memory of the saints be
honoured on earth when they are dead. It is some part of his favour
which he hath promised to them. Prov. x. 7, "The memory of the just is
blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot." Matt. xxvi. 13,
"Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in
the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done, be
told for a memorial of her." The history of the Scripture recordeth
the lives of the saints to their perpetual honour. And God will have
it so also for the sake of his abused servants upon earth, that they
may see that the slanders of malicious tongues shall not be able to
obscure the glory of his grace, and that the lies of the ungodly
prevail but for a moment. And God will have it so for the sake of the
ungodly, that they may be ashamed of their malicious enmity and lies
against the godly, while they perceive that the departed saints do
leave behind them a surviving testimony of their sanctity and
innocency, sufficient to confound the venomous calumnies of the
serpent's seed. Yea, God will have the names of his eminent servants
to be honoured upon earth, for the honour of their Head, and of his
grace and gospel; so that while malice would cast dishonour upon
Christ; from the meanness and failings of his servants that are alive,
the memory of the dead (who were once as much despised and slandered)
shall rise up against them to his honour and their shame. And it is
very observable how God constraineth the bitter enemies of holiness to
bear this testimony for the honour of holiness against themselves!
that many who are the cruelest persecutors and murderers of the living
saints, do honour the dead even to excess.[187] How zealous are the
papists for the multitude of their holidays, and the honouring of
their names and relics, and pretending many miracles to be wrought by
a very touch of their shrines or bones, whilst they revile and murder
those that imitate them, and deprive temporal lords of their dominions
that will not exterminate them. Yea, while they burn the living
saints, they make it part of their crime or heresy, that they honour
not the days and relics of the dead, so much as they; to show us that
the things that have been shall be, and that wickedness is the same in
all generations. Matt. xxiii. 29-33, "Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and
garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in
the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in
the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves
that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up
then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" I know that neither
did the Pharisees, nor do the papists, believe that those whom they
murdered were saints, but deceivers and heretics, and the troublers of
the world; but if charity be the grace most necessary to salvation,
then sure it will not keep any man from damnation, that he had malice
and uncharitableness sufficient to persuade him, that the members of
Christ were children of the devil. But thus God will force even the
persecutors and haters of his saints to honour them. And if he
constrain his enemies to it, his servants should not be backward to do
it according to his will.
_Direct._ IV. Only such honour must be given to departed saints, as
subserveth the honour of God; and nothing must be ascribed to them
that is his prerogative. All that of God which was communicated to
them and appeared in them, must be acknowledged; but so that God must
still be acknowledged the spring of all; and no honour given
ultimately to them; but it is God in them that we must behold and
love, admire and honour.
_Direct._ V. The honour of the saints departed must be only such as
tendeth to the promoting of holiness among the living. It is a most
horrid aggravation of those men's sins, who make their honouring of
the saints departed a cover for their hating and persecuting their
followers; or that make it an engine for the carrying on some base
design. Some make it a device for the advancing of their parties and
peculiar opinions. The papists make it a very great means for the
maintaining the usurped power of the pope, giving him the power of
canonizing saints, and assuring the world what souls are in heaven. A
pope that by the testimony of a general council (as Joh. 23. Eugenius,
&c.) is a heretic, and a wicked wretch, and never like to come to
heaven himself, can assure the world of a very large catalogue of
persons that are there. And he that by the papists is confessed
fallible in matters of fact, pretendeth to know so certainly who were
saints, as to appoint them holidays, and command the church to pray to
them. And he that teacheth men that they cannot be certain themselves
of their salvation, pretendeth when they are dead that he is certain
that they are saved. To pretend the veneration of saints for such
carnal, ambitious designs, and cheats, and cruelties, is a sin unfit
for any that mentioneth a saint. So is it when men pretend that saints
are some rare, extraordinary persons among the living members of the
church;[188] to make men believe that honouring them will serve
instead of imitating them; and that all are not saints that go to
heaven. God forbid, say they, that none but holy persons should be
saved; we confess it is good to be saints, and they are the chief in
heaven; but we hope those that are no saints may be saved for all
that. But God saith, "that without holiness none shall see him," Heb.
xii. 14. Heaven is the inheritance of none but saints, Acts xxvi. 18;
Col. i. 12. He that extolleth saints to make men believe that those
that are no saints may be saved, doth serve the devil by honouring the
saints. The same I may say of those that give them divine honour,
ascribing to each a power to hear and help all throughout the world
that put up prayers to them.
_Direct._ VI. Look up to the blessedness of departed souls, as members
of the same body, rejoicing with them, and praising God that hath so
exalted them. This is the benefit of holy love and christian unity,
that it maketh our brethren's happiness to be unto us, in a manner, as
if it were our own. 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26, "That there should be no
schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one
for another--that if one member be honoured all the members rejoice
with it." So far as selfishness is overcome, and turned into the
uniting love of saints, so far are all the joys of the blessed souls
in heaven become the joys of all that truly love them upon earth. How
happy then is the state of all true believers, that have so many to
rejoice with! Deny not God that thanks for the saving of so many
souls, which you would not deny him, if he saved but your friends,
estates, or lives. Especially when afflictions or temptations would
deprive you of the joy which you should have in God's mercies to
yourselves, then comfort yourselves with the remembrance of your
brethren's joy. What an incongruous, indecent thing is it for that man
to pine away in sorrows upon earth, who hath so many thousand friends
in heaven, in joy and blessedness, whose joys should all be to him as
his own.
_Direct._ VII. When you feel a cooling of your love to God, or of your
zeal, or reverence, or other graces, think then of the temper of those
holy souls, that see his glory! O think, with what fervour do they
love their God! with what transporting sweetness do they delight in
him! with what reverence do they all behold him! And am not I his
servant, and a member of his family, as well as they? Shall I be like
the strangers of this frozen world, when I should be like my
fellow-citizens above? As it will dispose a man to weep to see the
tears and grief of others; and as it will dispose a man to mirth and
joy to see the mirth and joy of others; so is it a potent help to
raise the soul to the love of God, and delight in his service, to
think believingly of the love and delight of such a world of blessed
spirits.
_Direct._ VIII. When you draw near to God in his holy worship,
remember that you are part of the same society with those blessed
spirits that are praising him in perfection. Remember that you are
members of the same choir, and your part must go to make up the
melody; and therefore you should be as little discordant from them as
possibly you can. The quality of those that we join with in God's
service, is apt either to dull or quicken us, to depress or elevate
us; and we move heavenward most easily and swiftly in that company
which is going thither on the swiftest pace. A believing thought that
we are worshipping God in concert with the heavenly choir, and of the
high and holy raptures of those spirits, in the continual praise of
their great Creator, is an excellent means to warm and quicken us, and
raise us as near their holy frame, as here on earth may be expected.
_Direct._ IX. When you would possess your hearts with a lively sense
of the odiousness of sin, and would resist all temptations which would
draw you to it, think then how the blessed souls with God do judge of
sin, and how they would entertain such a temptation, if the motion
were made to them! What think they of covetousness, pride, or lust?
What think they of malice, cruelty, or lying? How would they entertain
it, if lands and lordships, pleasure or preferment, were offered them
to entice their hearts from God? Would they venture upon damnation for
a whore, or for their games, or to please their appetites? Do they set
as light by God and their salvation as the ungodly world doth? O with
what scorn and holy indignation would they refuse a world, if it were
offered them instead of God! with what detestation would they reject
the motion to any sin!
_Direct._ X. When you would revive in your minds a right apprehension
and estimation of all earthly things, as riches, and honours, and
greatness, and command, and full provisions for the flesh, bethink you
then how the blessed souls with Christ esteem them. How little do they
set by all those things that worldlings make so great a stir for, and
for which they sell their God and their salvation! How contemptible
are crowns and kingdoms in their eyes! Their judgment is more like to
God's than ours is. Luke xvi. 15, "That which is highly esteemed among
men is abomination in the sight of God." All the world would not hire
a saint in heaven to tell one lie, or take the name of God in vain, or
to forget God, or be estranged from him for one hour.
_Direct._ XI. When you see the godly under the contempt of sinners
here, accounted as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all
things,[189] defamed, reviled, hated, and persecuted, look up then to
the saints with Christ, and think how they are esteemed and used. And
when you would truly know what a believer is, think not how they are
esteemed and used by men, but how they are esteemed and used by
Christ. Judge not of them by their short afflictions, nor by their
meanness in the flesh, but by their endless happiness and their glory
above. Look up to the home and world of saints, if you would know what
saints are, and not to the few, scattered, imperfect passengers in
this world, that are not worthy of them, Heb. xi. 38.
_Direct._ XII. When you are tempted to think meanly of the kingdom of
Christ, as if his flock were so small, and poor, and sinful as to be
inconsiderable, look up to the world of blessed souls which dwell
above. And there you shall see no such paucity, or imperfections, or
blemishes, as here below. The subjects there are such as dishonour not
their King. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, John xviii. 36. If
you would know it in its glory, look up to the world where it is
glorious. If when you hear men contemn the kingdom of the saints of
Christ, and at the same time did but see (as Stephen did) a glimpse
into that kingdom, and all the glory of the blessed there, what
thoughts would you have of the words which did dishonour it?
_Direct._ XIII. When you hear sinners boast of the wisdom or numbers
of their party, and appealing to the learned or great ones of the
world, look up to the blessed souls with Christ, and ask whether they
are not more wise and numerous than all the sinners upon earth. The
greatest doctors are ignorant and unlearned in comparison of the
meanest soul with Christ: the greatest monarchs are but worms in
comparison of the glorified spirits with God. If they say to you, Are
you wiser than so many and so wise and learned men? ask them, Are you,
or all the ungodly, wiser than all the blessed souls with Christ? Let
the wiser party carry it.
_Direct._ XIV. When you are tempted to be weary of a holy life, or to
think all your labour is vain, look up to the blessed souls with
Christ, and there you will see the end of holiness. There you will see
that of all the labour of your lives, there is none that you are so
sure to gain by; and that in "due time you shall reap, if you faint
not: and if you sow to the Spirit, of the Spirit you shall reap
everlasting life," Gal. vi. 8, 9; and that when you have "done the
will of God," if you "have but patience, you shall inherit the
promise," Heb. x. 36. Ask yourselves, whether any of those blessed
souls repent now of the holiness of their lives on earth? or their
mortifying the flesh, and denying themselves the delights of sin?
_Direct._ XV. When you are tempted to turn back in the day of trial,
and to forsake Christ or his cause when persecution ariseth, then look
to the blessed souls above, and see what is the end of suffering for
the sake of Christ and righteousness. To foresee the great reward in
heaven, will convince you that instead of being terrified by
sufferings, you should "rejoice and be exceeding glad," Matt. v. 11,
12. Are you to lie in prison, or to burn in the flames? so did many
thousands that are now in heaven. And do you think that they repent it
now? Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian, and many such holy men, were once
used as hardly as you are now, and put to death by cruel men. Rogers,
Bradford, Hooper, Glover, and multitudes with them, were once in
prison and burnt in the flames; but where are they now, and what is
the end of all their pains? Now whether do you think the case of
Bonner or Bradford to be best? Now had you rather be Gardiner or
Philpot? Now which think you doth most repent, the poor Waldenses that
were murdered by thousands, or the popes and persecutors that murdered
them?
_Direct._ XVI. When you are dismayed under the burden of your sins,
the greatness of your corruptions, the weakness of your graces, the
imperfection of your duties, look up to the blessed souls with Christ,
and remember that all those glorified spirits were once in flesh as
you now are, and once they lay at the feet of God, in tears, and
groans, and cries, as you do: they were once fain to cry out of the
burden of their sins, and mourn under the weakness of their graces, as
you now do. They were once as much clogged with flesh as you are; and
once as low in doubts and fears, and bruised under the sense of God's
displeasure. They once were as violently assaulted with temptations,
and had the same corruptions to lament and strive against as you have.
They were once as much afflicted by God and man; but is there any of
the smart of this remaining?
_Direct._ XVII. When you are deterred from the presence of the
dreadful God, and think he will not accept such worms as you, look up
to the blessed souls with Christ; and remember how many millions of
your brethren are there accepted to greater familiarity than that
which you here desire. Remember that those souls were once as dark and
distant from God, and unworthy of his acceptance, as you now are. A
fearful child receiveth boldness, to see his brethren in his father's
arms.
_Direct._ XVIII. When you are afraid of Satan lest he should prevail
against you and devour you, look up to the blessed souls with Christ;
and see how many millions are there safely landed, that once were in
as dangerous a station as you are. Through many tribulations and
temptations they are arrived at the heavenly rest: Satan once did his
worst against them: they were tossed on the seas of this tempestuous
world; but they were kept by the power of God, through faith unto
salvation, and so may you.
_Direct._ XIX. When you would duly value all your present means and
mercies, and see whither they tend, look up then to the souls with
Christ, and see whither the like mercy hath conducted them. The
poorest cottage and the hardest fare are great mercies, as they tend
to endless blessedness. This now and heaven after, is great, though
the thing in itself be never so small. Heaven puts the value and
signification upon all your mercies. The wicked make ciphers of their
greatest blessings, by separating them in their esteem and use, from
God and heaven, which is the measure of their estimate.
_Direct._ XX. When you see divisions among believers, and hear one for
this party, and another for that, and hear them bitterly censuring
each other, look up then to the saints with Christ, and think what
perfect love, and peace, and concord is among them. Consider how
unlike our factions and schisms are to their fervent love and unity;
and how unlike our jarring strifes and quarrels are to their
harmonious praise of God. Remember in what work it is that they are so
happily united, even love and praise incessant to Jehovah: and then
think, whether it would not unite the saints on earth, to lay by their
contendings for the pre-eminence in knowledge, (covered with the
gilded name of zeal for the truth of God,) and to employ themselves in
love and praise, and to show their emulation here, in striving who
shall love God and each other with the more pure heart and fervent
love, 1 Pet. i. 22, and who shall praise him with the most heavenly
alacrity and delight. Consider whether this work of blessed souls be
not like to be more desirable and excellent, than the work of
self-conceited, wrangling sophisters. And whether there be any danger
of falling into sects and factions, or falling out by emulations or
contentions, while we make this work of love and praise the matter of
our religious converse. And consider whether almost all the schisms
that ever vexed the church of God, did not arise, either by the
pastors striving "who should be the greatest," Luke xxii. 24, 26, or
by the rising up of some sciolist or gnostic, proudly pretending to
know more than others, and to vindicate or bring to light some
excellent truth which others know not, or oppose. And when you see the
hot contendings of each party, about their pretended orthodoxness or
wisdom, (which James iii. is purposely written against,) remember how
the concord of those blessed souls doth shame this work, and should
make it odious to the heirs of heaven.
_Direct._ XXI. When you are afraid of death, or would find more
willingness to die, look up to the blessed souls with Christ, and
think that you are but to pass that way, which all those souls have
gone before you; and to go from a world of enmity and vanity, to the
company of all those blessed spirits. And is not their blessed state
more desirable than such a vain, vexatious life as this? There is no
malice, nor slandering, nor cruel persecuting; no uncharitable
censures, contentions, or divisions; no ignorance, nor unbelief, nor
strangeness unto God; nothing but holy, amiable, and delightful. Join
yourselves daily to that celestial society: suppose yourselves
spectators of their order, purity, and glory, and auditors of their
harmonious praises of Jehovah. Live by faith in a daily familiarity
with them: say not that you want company or are alone, when you may
walk in the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, and there converse with
the prophets and apostles, and all the glorious hosts of heaven.
Converse thus with them in your life, and it will overcome the fear of
death, and make you long to be there with them: like one that stands
by the river side, and seeth his friends on the further side, in a
place of pleasure, while his enemies are pursuing him at his back, how
gladly would he be over with them! And it will imbolden him to venture
on the passage, which all they have safely passed before him. Thus
death will be to us as the Red sea, to pass us safe to the land of
promise, while our pursuers are there overthrown and perish. We should
not be so strange to the world above, if we thus by faith conversed
with the blessed ones.
_Direct._ XXII. When you are over-much troubled for the death of your
godly friends, look up to that world of blessed souls, to which they
are translated, and think whether it be not better for them to be
there than here; and whether you are not bound by the law of love, to
rejoice with them that are thus exalted. Had we but a sight of the
world that they are in, and the company that they are gone to, we
should be less displeased with the will of God, in disposing of his
own into so glorious a state.
All these improvements may be made by a believer, of his daily
converse with the souls above. This is the communion with them which
we must hold on earth: not by praying to them, which God hath never
encouraged us to do; nor by praying for them (for though it be lawful
to pray for the resurrection of their bodies, and the perfecting of
their blessedness thereby, yet it being a thing of absolute certainty
as the day of judgment is, we must be very cautelous in the manner of
our doing this lawful act; it being a thing that their happiness doth
not at all depend on, and a thing which will-worshippers have showed
themselves so forward to abuse, by stepping further into that which is
unlawful; as the horrid abuses of the names, and days, and shrines,
and relics, of real or supposed saints, in the papal kingdom, sadly
testifieth). But the necessary part of our communion with the saints
in heaven, being of so great importance to the church on earth, I
commend it to the due consideration of the faithful, whether our
forgetfulness of it is not to be much repented of, and whether it be
not a work to be more seriously minded for the time to come.
And I must confess I know not why it should be thought unlawful to
celebrate the memorial of the life or martyrdom of any extraordinary
servant of God, by an anniversary solemnity, on a set appropriate day:
it is but to keep the thankful remembrance of God's mercy to the
church; and sure the life and death of such is not the smallest of the
church's mercies here on earth. If it be lawful on November the fifth
to celebrate the memorial of our deliverance from the powder-plot, I
know not why it should be thought unlawful to do the like in this case
also: provided, 1. That it be not terminated in the honour of a saint,
but of the God of saints, for giving so great a mercy to his church.
2. That it be not to honour a saint merely as a saint, but to some
extraordinary eminent saints: otherwise all that go to heaven must
have festivals kept in remembrance of them; and so we might have a
million for a day. 3. That it be not made equal with the Lord's day,
but kept in such a subordination to that day, as the life or death of
saints is of inferior and subordinate respect to the work of Christ in
man's redemption. 4. And if it be kept in a spiritual manner, to
invite men to imitate the holiness of the saints, and the constancy of
the martyrs, and not to encourage sensuality and sloth.
[185] I have said more of this since, in my "Life of Faith."
[186] Heb. xi. 1.
[187] Concil. Later. sub Innoc. III. Can. 3.
[188] Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2; xiv. 33; Eph. i. 8; ii. 19; iv. 12; v.
3; Rom. xv. 25, 26.
[189] 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13: Lam. iii. 45.