Heaven upon earth, or, The best friend in the worst of times. Delivered in…

Stand forth O ye suffering Saints, and speak your experiences; the world objects your state to us a sad state, and they think you have good reason to accuse God, and if any have any thing to say against the comfortableness of a religious life, and this friend, it is you. Well then, will you promise, O sinners, to stand to the judgement of the greatest ⟨p. 74⟩sufferers. We will enquire of them that have been sawn asunder, tormented, roasted for Gods sake; look into that little Book of Martyrs, and you shall find as uncomfortable as their state was, yet they would not accept of deliverance; none of them all that would open his mouth against this Friend for all this. What say you, O Paul and Silus, now your backs are raw, and your feet are in the stocks? their singing speaks significantly enough for them that they were not over sad; and they are so busy in crying Hallelujahs, that they can't attend to give an answer to so sorry a question. What say the Martyrs out of the Flames. Doth not their love burn as hot then as ever? Did ever any of them from Abel to the least that suffered in Christs cause, say that God was an uncomfortable Friend? Do not all the children of Wisdom, from first to last justify Wisdom, and say, That all her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths, peace? Of those that have God for their Friend and know it, bring me any of them all that complains of God. How doth he come and cheer them up when all the world is against them? Joh. 16.33. What made that Holy Man in Psal 23. say, That though he should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he would fear no evil. What, not fear then? Why, what Friend is it that keeps up your spirits? that bares you company in that black and dismal Regions; he will soon tell you God was with him, and in those slippery ways he leaned upon his staff, and these were the Cordials that kept his heart from fainting. I challenge all the Gallants in the world out of all their Merry Jovial Clubs, to find such a company of merry cheerful ⟨p. 75⟩Creatures as the friends of God are. 'Tis not the company of God, but the want of it that makes sad. Alas, you know not what their comforts he; and strangers intermeddle not with their joy. You think they can't be merry when their countenance is so grave, but they are sure you can't be truly merry when you smile with a curse upon your souls.