all are burning and shining lights 2. They shall shine out here as the Greek word intimates are they under a cloud hereafter they shall break forth shine clearly and gloriously as the light of the Sun doth when on a sudden it breaks out as we think from under a Cloud there 's too much here that darkens and obscures their lustre splendor radiant and shining brightness which then shall be scattered dispel'd driven away and that for ever 1. Alas they are much darkened here by bodily weaknesses and distempers 2. Much more by humane frailties though regenerate they are but men though Saints not glorified remainders of inbred corruption and prevalent temptations much obscure them Paul the chief of the Apostles speaks most of his Infirmities 3. Most of all in the eyes of others by abundance of dirt a world of slanders as false as foul aspersions flung upon them which at present too much Eclipse their light and lustre but will serve then only for the better setting of it off Besides 4. Here they are under the Cross and manifold Afflictions which make many speak and censure hardly of them and yet work together only to purge their filth away and to file off their dross 1 Pet. 1.6 7. For then 3. they shall shine forth as the Sun i. e. 1. With a most full perfect and glorious light such as we are not able to conceive of much less to express 'T is therefore shadowed out by a familiar Metaphor from the Sun which even Children know to be the greatest and the clearest light Here they appear and twinkle now and then like the Stars those lesser lights of Heaven then shall they shine with a far greater an incomparably more glorious light like the Sun it self 2. Nativo lumine with their own light received at their first Creation their Regeneration and from that time encreasing in Grace till it advance to its full growth and perfection in glory The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day Whereas Hypocrites like the Ignes faetui Fire-drakes blaze a little here with an Adventitious light which will evaporate quickly be extinct and dye with them as soon as those gross vapors sumes and exhalations from the Earth whereof they consist are spent and gone whilest the Coast is clear and the Air serene they glister but when the wind and storms arise they go out in a snuff and stench 3. With a perpetual yea an everlasting light The light of the Sun who is the fountain of light and the Eye of the World is constant and cannot be extinguisht unless you could pluck or put it out 2. The place where The Kingdom of their Father that is Mat. 5.16 in Heaven where he sits upon his Throne in Majesty Isa 66.1 So it is 1. a most glorious place God as to his Essential Powerful Providential presence is every where fills Heaven and earth Jer. 23.23 24. Psal 139.8 c. But his most special glorious presence is in Heaven called 2 Cor. 12.1 the third Heaven Whatever Philosophers may opine concerning the number of the Heavens Scripture enumerates them to be three 1. The place betwixt the visible Firmament and the Earth Gen. 1.20 2. Where the Sun Moon and Stars are fixed Gen. 1.14 Psal 19.1 4. The third above all where is Gods Dwelling-place Psal 123.1 and Sion-Colledg the Mansions and Lodgings of Blessed Angels and glorified Saints They have all their name from the Hebrew word which signifies light Some light there is in the Aereal Heaven from the Sun Moon and Stars which makes it comfortable much more in the Sidereal where those glorious lights are set up Infinitely more in the Empyrean where God is light 1 Joh. 1.5 the Sun the fountain of it Jam. 1.17 and dwells in light 2 Tim. 6.16 the sight whereof no creature can endure till glorified and made meet for it so great is the supereminence of the Divine Glory yet here the righteous partaking thereof shall shine forth as the Sun according to the several degrees of Divine light which they receive 2. A most secure place Their several Orbs are so fixed here they shall never fall or be plucked out An Astrologer observed a new Star in Cassiopea others fancy they have seen more but was it ever found that any of the old Stars were extinct and lost but these lower Heavens 2 Pet. 3.10 in the twinkling of an eye shall pass away and be seen no more with a great noise as many famous places the Exchange did in the dreadful Conflagration a ratling noise or like the noise of the wheels of Chariots that run swiftly or of waves in a storm at Sea rushing by us or as Parchment hizzeth when 't is cast into the fire the Firmament that scroll of the Heavens shall be rolled up thrown into the fire and shrivel up with fervent heat and the Sun shall no more set as Poets fancied in Thetis her lap a sea of waters but shall be extinct in an Ocean of fire and so put out then that Heaven wherein righteousness the spirit of the just made perfect Christ and God dwell for ever For 2. It is the highest Heaven far out of the reach of the Prince and all the powers of Darkness and their Comrades the Beast and false Prophet All which accursed crew shall be thrown into the lowermost hell And it is the Kingdom of God Almighty who is able to preserve them The Rabbins do not groundlesly assert that the souls of the righteous in Heaven do adhâ—re unto and hold fast by the right hand of God for ever in that he held the Stars his faithful Ministers and Saints here and can any think you if they would attempt it in Heaven pluck them out 2. It is Psal 24.3 the Lords holy place the Holy of holies where there can be no sin as there was in Paradise or temptation unto sin From eternity God was a Heaven to himself Then with his own hands he created and built Heaven of old Ps 102.25 not that he might be comprehended there but to be a palace for his residence the habitation of his holiness Psal 103.19 and an house for his children to live comfortably in safety Saints of themselves could not it may be would not continue in grace here in glory hereafter but God is not only able to preserve them in glory but their gracious God and Father and he will do it After 3. The time then which carries a double Antithesis in it 1. More generally of time future of eternity I should say to this now this moment of their life here Job 14.1 the few days of Saints are full of trouble Act. 14 22. The clearest Sun-shining day succeeds the darkest night and glorious deliverances of particular Saints and the whole Church after days of most sore affliction at length after that time of trouble such as never was before Dan. 12.1 2. understand it
ΕΚΛΑΜΨΙΑ ΤΩΠΔΙΚΑΙΩΠOR THE Shining forth of the RIGHTEOUS A SERMON PREACHED Partly upon the death of that Reverend and Excellent Divine Mr. STEPHEN CHARNOCK And in part At the Funeral of a godly Friend By JOHN JOHNSON M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyssen Orat. de Mortuis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys hom in Matt. 49. Cum a propriâ ingenita Corruptione immunes ab ascittiâ improborum inquinatione separati non tum ut alim sicut Luna quae suâ Luce mutabilis est sed ut ipse Sol infinito fulgore fulgebunt Cartwr in Mat 13.43 LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst Will. Miller and Benj. Alsop at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside at the Acorn in St. Pauls Church-Yard and at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry 1680. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Thought when it was told me that my only bosom-friend amongst the Ministers that excellent Divine Mr. Stephen Charnock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay a dying that I heard a Voice from Heaven which whispered to him Go up and Die but spake aloud to us Do the Prophets live for ever It awakened me to review a Sermon which I had preached at the request of some godly friends in Leicestershire upon a Text given by their Father the day before his Death and to repeat it to some very few of Mr. Charnocks Hearers My intent in publishing of it is not so much to gratifie them both as to endeavour some small benefit to the souls of some weaker Christians as well as theirs before I go hence and be no more May not a little milk be handed by me to new born babes but one or another must think strange of it What if they should I leave it to others to seed strong men with stronger meat This prevails with me Mr. Charnock is dead I 'm a dying Some other reasons I have acquainted him with who knows my thoughts afar off Here 's nothing of an Elogium on my Country friend that I delivered formerly to his Relations little concerning Mr. Charnock I should have said at least attempted much more but I heard a Narrative of his Life will be drawn by an able hand All my skill could not have done it to the life If this Sermon beyond my intention should fall into the hands of any Ministers besides some few my acquaintance and Juniors who may challenge it from me I shall add only this following character taken out of several of the Fathers Writings more applicable I dare avouch it to Mr. Charnock than those to whom they affixed it I cite not the places they are known to Scholars He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pray they may be delivered into this expressed form as these lines were into their Types and commend them and the following Discourse to the blessing of our good God and rest Thine in our Lord John Johnson THE Importunity of some constraâ—ns me to render into English the Character in the Epistle to the Reader though far short of the copiousness and elegancy of the Greek Language i. e. He was as to manners and comportment venerable and grave like an aged person from his youth Then well train'd up and learned in all the wisdom couched under exotick and foreign languages In his skill in both the Originals of Sacred Writ the wisdom taught by the holy languages was he instructed and so augmented and grew ripe as in years even to perfection and became not only the lively representation but the original it self of humanity love and kindness towards the sons of men Keeping no consort but only grace and vertue He was the Rational house of God Christs spiritual building the Temple of the Holy Ghost framed made up of Orthodox Doctrines and good works A person really transformed into the very Image of God himself Always serving the only true and living God as becomes such a God All the work wherein he employed and exercised himself with diligence skill and constancy was love to God and souls His life he examined and squared until it was in every thing exact according to the rule of the Word His Gravity not affected in the least his very silence was more efficacious many times than his own very often than the speech of others But all his Ministerial service always such as brought down fire from Heaven upon the spiritual Sacrifices He being a fountain of Divine Truth a larger beam of great light which always carries much warmth and heat as well as light along with it He was the very mouth by which the Lord Christ spake and a genuine Interpreter of the Holy Ghost of his mind in the words of his meaning in the Doctrines of the Gospel That Golden Urn in the Ark of God that preserved Divine Manna and was fill'd to the brim with Coelestial food to nourish souls in spiritual unto eternal life his heart ever-flowing and over-flowing love and grace abundantly poured round his lips The Doctrines he set forth before his Hearers for food and physick were most Divine whom he never directed into any way of truth wherein he had not walked before them Christs most fruitful Vine over-spread the walls of his Auditory well hung with lovely clusters and flourishing with pleasant fruit of all the salutiferous Doctrines of the Gospel whence Ministers others carried home baskets full to rejoice the hearts of new-born babes which they were to bring up for Christ Herein lay his Eminency he had resigned all into the hands of his Lord and Saviour that had received him viz. his Estate Reputation Health Life and what ever might be for his comfortable being here even his Learning and Learned Discourses enjoying only thus much of all these things that he over-looked them and had wherewith he might make it appear how much he pre-esteemed Christ before them MAT. 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father OUR Lord in this and the two precedent verses ascertains us what Discrimination at the end of the world shall be of Saints and Sinners They can hardly be distinguisht here In the Lords field pure corn grows and also tares i. e. not such noisome and noxious weeds as cockle darnel c. openly known notorious sinners such should be weeded out But as the Learned Brederodius after him Scultetus and others do expound it burnt or blasted corn which cannot be extirpated before Harvest without endangering the plucking up good corn with it From the same root I have observed blasted ears sprang up-must then since 't would sully and damage the good corn Amongst the truly righteous Hypocrites grow up which are but 1. Things that offend i. e. not Dissenters they are persons scandalized offended Nor 2. only men Heterodox or Hereticks that lay Traps to ensnare others But 3. All such as lay or lye themselves as stumbling-blocks and snares in the
Arms should be such as that holy Martyr Mr. Hooper had when Installed Bishop of Worcester A Lamb in a Flaming-bush with raies from Heaven shining on it A Lamb for meekness innocency and profitableness in a Bush burning amidst wicked men brambles and thorns set on fire of Hell and burning with malice Yet 1. Sweet influences of Heaven let out upon it he hath the grace and enjoys the consolation of the Blessed Spirit Now Heb. 13.20 21. that you may be truly righteous righteous before God then you will shine forth here 1. With a clear a glorious light such a convincing light as may condemn the world of sinners for their aberrations and shame some Saints out of their deviations from the ways of holiness and righteousness and encourage weaker Christians to make a farther progress in them 2. With your own innate light as true Nathanaels Jews inwardly and not only in outward show and profession as such in whom there is no guile then your conversation will be as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 3. With a constant durable light in Heaven your light of glory will everlastingly shine before Saints let your light of grace and holiness on earth continually shine before men To quicken you thereunto Consider again and again security of the Coelestial Kingdom the glory of it and the seasonableness of the time when you shall there shine forth in glory as you have heard 1. It 's a most safe and secure place 1. By reason of its height 't is above far out of the reach of scandals such as do offend and do iniquity of all sinners and persecutors be they men or Devils Luther being asked when many were engaged and enraged against him and sought his life Where he thought he might be safe replied either in one corner or other under heaven or in heaven I 'le assure you you will have little content comfort and peace on earth if your hopes and hearts be not much in Heaven and they will never fix on Heaven if your thoughts and affection be not set upon it Every day cast up an eye towards Heaven and by the Telescope of your faith taâ—e the height of it 2. 'T is a most holy place after Saints have been in heaven upon earth had much communion with God and comfort they fall into some sin and such a condition that all their hopes of ever getting to heaven are in a manner lost and gone When God hath once seated you in heaven you need not fear being plucked or falling thence Adam abode not in Paradise Divines think one day some Angels that dwelt in heaven preserving not their original excellency soon left their habitation But God takes his children to his house that they may abide and dwell there for ever 2. Take an exact observation view the glory of it 't is the Kingdom of our Father where he sits in his Majesty in glory 'T is ours our own Inheritance our Father prepared it for us before the foundation of the world Every morning every evening through the perspective of the Word contemplate Heaven some mornings Lords-days at least rise before the Sun look up through the Aereal to the Sidereal Heaven and thus meditate Yonder are the glorious Heavens where God hath pitched a Tabernacle for the Sun that glorious bridegroom comes out of his chamber how doth he smile and rejoice to run his race from the end of the heaven to the ends thereof Through grace I shall hereafter be even in this body more glorious than that Sun There 's another the Empyrean the third heaven the place of residence of the God of glory Thither one day will he take me up to live for ever with himself in glory my Redeemer is already gone thither and sits at his right hand in the glory of the Father Oh the height of that heaven 't is infinitely higher than that inferior heaven whence the Sun comes forth to shine for a while yet a little while and that Sun will be laid aside and set set once for all and be and shine no more when I with blessed Saints and Angels shall be with Christ and God and shine with them in glory to all eternity Oh the height of that heaven 't is infinitely above the reach of Persecutors of all the Devils of all the Damned they will never pluck them thence out of the hands of Jesus the Son of God they can't pluck him out of the right hand of his Father nor his Father from his Throne Oh the holiness of that place And when your thoughts and meditations have made you more spiritual more holy more heavenly and to shine more in grace and holiness that day then at the evening when ye look out of your doors or windows or walk forth behold and think how do those Stars an innumerable company differ in glory yet all glissen What a vaste resplendent body is the Moon each of the Planets all the light they have was imparted to them by the Sun that shined in the day-time all is nothing to the glory of Heaven Oh the holiness of the highest heavens Where all the Stars the Saints that shined as lights in the world shall give forth their light and shine as the Sun and with light and glory imparted from the Lord Jesus the Sun of Righteousness shall shine out in the glory of the Father How incomprehensible even to Saints Angels Christ himself as man must the glory of the Father be that communicates such light to Christ Angels and Saints This bespangled firmament seems glorious 't is not heaven nothing like it not like the floor and pavement of our Fathers house 't is an out-room which shall be pulled down and burnt Above above is the Presence-Chamber I long to see the King in his Beauty in his Palace and will through grace live as a child of God and hold forth the word of life in my conversation 3. Ponder upon the seasonableness of the time not now but 1. at the Resurrection day when sin affliction sorrows shall flee away and so forward an inconceivable tract of time Eternity not measured by the duration of any creature but of the ever-living God shall ye shine out Think then through the disposition of the only wise God some have their Sun-shine others rainy and tempestuous seasons all their days say what though I have been most if not all my days disesteemed yea contemn'd and scorned in the world under many various long and sore afflictions and had small comfort but in suffering with and for Christ This is my lot and portion Hereafter I shall reign with Christ and be glorified My Saviour once said â—o sinners this is your hour and the power of darkness You have your authority by Divine permission and your Father the Devil the Prince of Darkness his Usurpation by your high Court of Justice to extinguish me the Sun of Righteousness the