Heaven there is eternity but no old age the joyes of heaven are alwayes young The flowers of Paradise of which the Saints Posie is made do neither wither nor change colour the drops of their morning dew standing thick upon them like orient Pearls preserve them in their perpetual verdure and odoriferousness God himself the fountain and spring of all those glorious beings is not a moment older than he was from all eternity and therefore all their fresh springs being in God their roots feed their branches with continual and unchangeable moisture and influence God who is an Object of infinite fulness doth alwayes feast the glorified Saints and Angels with fresh visions of delight and wonder Yea God himself the fountain and spring-head of all those glorious Beatitudes doth wash their roots perpetually with fresh moisture and influence though God be but one and the same ineffable essence yet he being an Object of such infinite fulness it cannot be conceived but he must needs feast the eye of the glorified Angels and Saints with fresh discoveries of delight and wonder to all eternity so that they can never be cloyed or furfeited with the same beatifical vision All the joyes of Heaven are present 9. Property Present there is nothing in the beatifical vision antecedaneous or future but as God himself is but one pure Act or Being alwayes the same from eternity to eternity so are all the felicities of Heaven There are no fragments in glory There is nothing in glory which shall be and is not nor any thing in fruition which shall ever cease or change Glory borrows that immense title of the God of Glory what the Jews say of the ten Commandements is Rev. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was and is to come a name that is not to be divided or taken asunder but must be spoken all together in one word So Is as that it was so was as that it shall be so shall be as that it is Eternity is a single Point such are all the blessednesses of the Saints were and are and shall be so Past as to come and so to come as present this is a mystery and it is marvellous in our eyes Out of these nine Ingredients or Properties there ariseth a tenth the very top of all scil Delight and Complacency 10 Property Complacency and this makes Heaven to be Heaven indeed the joy of the Lord even the same joy which God himself possesseth the same for kind though not for degree Propriety Possession Intimacy Suitableness Satiety Reflexion Immutability they all meet in God essentially making up an infinite delight and complacency in the Saints and Angels they are perfectly though bounded and limitted according to the capacity of the Creature We cannot conceive it until it receive us making up a delight and joy which on this side Heaven passeth all understanding of which the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Behold faith in the glorious Redeemer doth at times raise the Soul of the poor Believer to a marvellous high pitch of joy and ravishment 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though ye now see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The expression is very full faith brings the Soul in love with an unseen Christ and fills the heart with joy not ordinary joy such as men do easily express upon all occasions but unspeakable the heart conceives such joy that the tongue cannot utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ineffabilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea it is not to be uttered by the tongue of men or Angels it cannot be spoken it is ineffable and that is not all it follows it is glorious and our translation gives it an addition very emphatical Of the Saints jâ—y and delight in heaven see incomparable Mr. Baxter's Saints everlasting rest p. 41 part 1. And else where abundantly full of glory and yet that reacheth not the top of this joy for the Greek signifieth not glorious only but Glorified faith fills the heart with glorified joy a joy that rivals as it were the joy of the glorified Saints a joy which sets the Soul for the present above it self and puts it into Heaven before its time Oh Christians if faith which must not enter in within the veil can transport the Soul into such extatical raptures what can vision and fruition do Oh the mountings of mind the ravishing joys of heart the solace of soul which glorified Saints possess in the beatifical vision The Soul shall live in joy and be filled with delight in the mirrour of all delights love and joy shall run in a circle and mutually empty themselves into one another love shall dissolve into joy and joy shall resolve into love a River an Ocean of unmixed Complacency wherein the Soul shall bathe it self for ever The Saints are so pleased with their own beatitudes that as they cannot spare any joy they have so they know not what their souls can wish for more This is pure complacency there are none above them that they need envy none beneath them capable of their pity Oh blessed state The fourth and last Priviledge contained in cohabitation is Conformity Even in the Evangelical state below Conformity is the fruit of vision vision produceth Assimilation We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Surely the heavenly vision will beget so much more full and perfect conformity by how much the mirrour is more vital and energetical The Apostle reacheth forth this blessed truth and the reason of it together as a known Doctrine Beloved now we are the Sons of God 1 John 3 2. that were dignity enough for a poor sinner one would think I but that 's not all it is well and it shall be better God hath laid out much upon us but how much glory he hath laid up for us we cannot conceive it doth not yet appear what we shall be This only we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him That 's infinite honour indeed But how doth he prove it Why he proves our conformity from our vision we shall be like him for we shall see him Him ver 3. God in Christ the Godhead in the glorified humane nature of Jesus Christ even while he was here in the dayes of his flesh the flesh of Christ was a veil 1 Tim. 3 1â— through which the deity of Christ did appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God was conspicuous in the humane nature John 1.14 the invisible God was as it were made visible in a body of flesh We beheld his glory sayes the Evangelist if it were so upon earth how much more will it be verified in heaven The
much as you know your labour is not in vain in the Lord. And accept of this imperfect Monument set up for your continual Inspection and the blessed Childrens Memorial By Your Faithful and most Affectionate Father-in-Law THOMAS CASE To the Reverend Author SIR THis Paper cometh to you with a design to beg a larger draught of that discourse of yours on 1 Thes 4.14 whereof in the other days converse you were pleased to give me a taste and to beg it not for my self only but a more common good what more profitable Argument can you recommend to the World than a discourse about those better things which are Reserved in Heaven for us You know better than I that all true Wisdome consisteth first in a fixed intention of the end next in a choise of apt meanes lastly in diligent pursuit our great End and scope is or should be to be for ever with the Lord which if men would more steadily fix and propound to themselves they would sooner understand their way for their End would shine to them all along their Course and level and direct all their actions yea not only become a measure to them but a motive to quicken them to seek what they hope for with Industry Vigilancy and Self-denyal and so cast off those many Impertinencies and Inconsistencies with which we usually sill up our Conversations and with all the Labours Sorrows and difficulties of the way would be the better overcome Sir what have we Ministers to do but to Convince people of the Truth and worth of things unseen We owe it to the inconsiderate part of the world the far greatest part of mankind is sensual and bruitish and blind and cannot see a-far off therefore live as if they only came into the world to Eat Drink and Sleep or to camber themselves with much serving That they may do well here We cannot enough awaken these sleepy Sensualists that they may remember Home and make earnest and serious preparation for the World to come We owe it to the Afflicted part of the World whose true and proper solaces and supports are to be drawn from the Everlasting Estate of the Blessed Comfort one another with these words saith your Apostle Yea we owe it to the better and more serious part of the World who need continually to be warned to open the eye of Faith and shut that of Sense to overlook things seen which are Temporal but to have always in the eye of their Faith and Hope things unseen which are Eternal and Glorious how little would Temptations make Impressions upon us could we learn to wink out both the Terribleness and Amiableness of the Creature and how would all present things be lessened in our opinion estimation and affection had we once but the Eagle-eye of Faith to look beyond the Mists and Clouds of this lower and vain World to that Blessed Estate above Sir Let your discourse go Abroad and try what it can do to the Cure of in Unbelieving and Inconsiderate World I know what you Object the many writings of this kind Extant But necessary things must be often enforced and every one hath his peculiar gift and way of Writing which if it relish not with all meeteth with an answerablâ—â—â—â—â—st in other Readers and surely discourses are most apt to edifie which come from them who have a deeper sense of the World to come than others have and where is that to be presumed to be but in them who are in the very Confines of Eternity where your Good Old Age and late soar Sickness have placed you and so given you a stronger sense and clearer Prospect of the things you write of Sir trust it with Gods Blessing and let the Church enjoy this increase of its Treasure I am Yours in all Christian Observance THOMAS MANTON TO THE READER The Author Wisheth Grace and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ Reader TO help the Weaker sort of Christians in the understanding of this more dark and difficult Context which containeth the Description of our Lords last coming and to quicken the more slow and drowsie Spirits to a greater vigour in the pursuit of the Glory which is to be Revealed at that Coming have I not without the importunity of divers Friends sensible of their need of the meanest helps put my self upon the Publishing of these more private Essaies Calculated only for the use of mine own Family Yet since they may by the blessing of God be of a larger Influence Bonum quò communius eò melius and knowing that Good is so much the more Good by how much it is a more diffusive Good I chose rather to adventure my name than be guilty of Sacriledg in not Casting in my Mite into the Publique Treasury of the Churche's Service I must confess had I consulted a Reputation to my self I could never have made choice of a more improper Season wherein endless Opinions and Interests do inevitably expose a man that will be writing to a necessity of Censure not the most gentle Condemnation of the times and the unskilfulness inadvertency of Mechanique Artists whom the Learned Montacute late Bishop of Norwich justly calleth Animalia ad perdendam Remp. Literariam nata Vid. Thean thropicon p. 6. doth not a little gratifie the malevolence of opposite parties who are glad of any shadow that may justifie their disparagement of others who are not of the same Sentiments with themselves As for me I can truly say Acts 20.24 none of these things trouble me But being by the good Providence of God hitherto spared and kept alive I have looked upon it as my duty the Death-Watch every night in my bed sounding in mine ears to leave some Watch-word behind me to awaken this sleepy and secure Generation wherein the most I would it might not be said the better part of Christians have lost the sight of Heaven and are digging hard into the Earth to search whether possibly they might not meet with a Summum Bonum between this and the Centre But oh that before they go off the Supersicies they would look back Rev. 2.5 to see from whence they are fallen and Repent and do their first works Behold I am here shewing you the thing which you are so eagerly pursuing It is risen it is not here Oh that you would with Moses get up into the Mount from whence you might take the Prospect of that good Land where only Blessedness dwelleth I must Confess the Vision is much darkned by the dimness of the Eye and the feebleness of the Hand which drew this imperfect Land-skip But this I dare be bold to say that by the Optick-glass of Faith upon the knee of Prayer a man may make such a discovery of glory here as when he cometh down from this Mount may serve quite to extinguish all the Glory of this neather World and to fix the eye with that * Act. 7.25 proto-Martyr
safely brought in thither also onely it must stay its time appointed by the great Husband-man whose method is this first Christ the first Fruits and afterward they that are Christs at his coming Be of good cheer Christians weep not it is the Fathers good pleasure that not a Sheaf not an Ear not one grain be lâ—st so witnesseth the Truth and the Life the Truth to testifie it and the Life to make it good John 6.39 this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing of all that c. i.e. not the least Person nor the least Member of the least person how mean and contemptible soever Will this content thee Christian Thy sweet Relation is not lost but sowen and that which is sowen is not quickned unless it dye At the Harvest time thou shalt have thy seed again revera faenore interitu injuria usura lucro damno Tertul. de Resur when that which thou callest perishing shall be thy improvement thy treasure is not cast away but put to use and thy loss shall be thy gain Christians This believed is a word of Comfort indeed so the Text tells us If we believe that Jesus died and rose again thy dead men shall live Together with his dead body shall they arise Obj. But what not else Answ Oh not so not our Resurrection or the Resurrection of our gracious Friends depend upon our Faith but our assurance and comfort of their Resurrection depends upon our Faith The Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our Faith it stands upon a four-fold foundation as you have heard Sc. The Merit Influence Design Vnion which is between Christ his Saints A Foundation which stands surer than Heaven and Earth Heaven and Earth may pass away but not one of these Foundations shall ever pass away or faile The Foundation of the Lord stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 So then not their Resurrection but our comfort in their Resurrection is that which depends upon our Faith Sence stands blubbering and crying my Parent is dead my Yoke-fellow is lost my dear Child is perished No saith Faith no such matter they are alive they are safe they are happy And all this Faith inferreth upon Christ His Resurrection So that whosoever hath Faith enough to put Christ's Resurrection into the premises may by the same act of Faith put the Saints Resurrection into the conclusion He that by an eye of Faith can look upon Christ's Resurrection as past may by the same eye of Faith see the Resurrection of the Saints as to come he that by Faith can say Christ is risen may with the same breath of Faith say also The Saints shall rise because I live you shall live also as a pledge and instance whereof when Christ arose many of the Saints which slept were enlarged out of the Prison of the Grave the heart strings whereof were now broken to attend the Solemnity of their Lord's Resurrection Math. 27.52 53. and were as an other kind of first fruits of the last Resurrection of all Believers By all these evidences and demonstrations Jesus Christ now in Heaven speaks to his mourners as once he did in the days of his flesh to Martha thy Brother shall rise again so he speaks to us man woman thy Yoak-fellow shall rise again thine Isaac whom thou loved'st shall rise again And oh that we had but Faith enough to answer with Martha I know he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day This would be a soveraign Cordial to keep our hearts from fainting under our sorrows If indeed we have not Faith to realize this comfortable truth our dear Relations if they could speak would cry to us out of their Graves in some such language as that in which our Saviour rebuked the women which followed him to his Cross Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me c. So ours Son Daughter Husband Wife Father Mother and whatever other dear Relations weep not for us but weep for your selves and for the unbelief of your own hearts I Christians there is the spring-head of all our misery Hinc illae Lacrymae our unbelief It is unbelief which robs us first of our sweet Relations and afterwards of our comfort in their gains and if we look not to it the better it will keep us and them asunder to all Eternity we cannot enter in to their rest if we continue in our unbelief Mark 9.24 cry we then with the Father of the Child I believe Lord help my unbelief If we believe that Jesus rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which brings me to the fifth word of Comfort Them that sleep in Jesus The first word of Comfort in this model was Fifth word of Comfort the Saints sleep in Jesus that our Christian Relations departed this life are not dead but fallen asleep Here followeth a word of Comfort of a richer import which tells us that as they do but sleep so they sleep in Jesus This expression noteth to us that blessed and admirable Vnion which is between Jesus Christ and his Saints 1 Cor. 15.18 They who are fallen a sleep in Christ an Union frequently set out to us in Scripture under a twofold notion Scil. 1. Christ in the Believer 2. The Believer in Christ First Christ in the Believer Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead c. Colos 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory and here in the Text they are said to be in Jesus Secondly The Believer in Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made c. 2 Cor. 5.14 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Colos 1.2 the Saints in Christ See both together John 14.20 You in me and I in you 15.4 Abide in me and I in you 5. He that abideth in me and I in him These expressions are the same for substance both setting forth to us the Vnion it self a mutual intimate in-dwelling or in-being between Christ and his Saints He in them and they in him so making one They differ somewhat in the notion and import of the phrase hinting to us a different mode and fruit of this mutual In-being viz. Christ is in the Believer by his Spirit 1 Jo. 4.13 and 1 Cor. 12 13. The Believer in Christ by Faith John 1.12 Christ in the Believer by Inhabitation Rom. 3.17 The Believer in Christ by Implantation Jo. 15.2 Rom. 6 35. Christ in the Believer as the Head in the Body Col. 1.18 as the root in the branches Jo. 15 5. Believers are in Christ as the Members are in the Head Ephes 1.23 as the Branches in the Root John 15.1.7 Christ in the Believer implieth Life and Influence from Christ Col. 3.4 1 Pet.
wailing and gnashing of Teeth which shall never have an end For Use In the first place it may serve as a Cordial to the Saints of God Use 1. A Cordial whether in reference to their own dissolution or the dissolution of their precious Relations already fallen asleep Behold the descent of the Saints of God into the Grave is not with so much weakness ignominy and abasement as their Ascent after the Resurrection to meet their Lord in the Air shall be with Power Triumph and Glory Christ shall draw them Clouds shall carry them Angels shall conduct them Yea they shall mount up to Heaven by vertue of those Christ-like impressions stampt upon their glorified bodies in the Resurrection Each one of these were sufficient All these must needs be exceeding Glorious yet Such honour have all the Saints Secondly There is Caution in it as well as Comfort Use 2. Caution And that is Begin this Ascention betimes Labour to experience this Heavenly motion on this side of the Grave Sursum corda Lift up your heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up Oh ye everlasting Doors behold The Resurrection and Ascention in the future state of happiness have their spring and rise in the present state of holiness they are linke in and joyned one to another in the eternal counsel and purpose of God with the very same Connexion wherewith Birth and Conception are lincked together Harvest and Seed-time So that look what impossibility there is in nature that there should be a Birth where was no Conception or an Harvest where no Semination the same impossibility there is that such a person should share in the Resurrection of Glory that is a stranger to the Resurrection of Grace the new Birth or that a Man or Woman should Ascend to meet Jesus Christ in the Clouds who in the state of Regeneration labours not often to meet Christ in the Mount of holy Meditation If therefore ye be risen with Christ Colos 3.1 2. seek those things which are above where Christ sits at Gods right hand set your affections on things above Christ after he arose from the dead did often ascend to his Father till at the end of 40 days He went up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples Acts 1.9 10. Do ye also imitate your blessed Lord in your frequent ascentions after him and thereby evidence to your selves not only that you are already risen with Christ in the Resurrection of Holiness but that ye shall also arise with Him and Ascend to Him at his coming in his Glory Christians let not that man think ever to be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air who is patient of being a stranger to Christ in the Spirit without God in the world Eph. 2.12 and without hope he burieth his hope of Ascending where Christ is who burieth his heart and affections in the dunghil of worldly and sensual fruitions Oh labour to say with the Apostle though our Commoration be on Earth our * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Traffique Burgesship Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Phil. 3.20 though ye walk below Aug. The Saints do uti mundo but frui Deo Carnal men do uti Deo frui mundo Corpore ambulamus in terra corde habitamus in coelo Aug. yet live above Though ye use the world yet labour to enjoy God and to be able to say with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.26 Though ye have your converse with men let your Communion be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Labour to say with Augustine Our bodies are on Earth our hearts in Heaven while the men of the world Earthlize Heavenly things do you study how to Heavenlize Earthly things labour as he did to eat and drink and sleep Eternal Life So may you with an holy Confidence go along with the Apostle from whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christians can no further look for the Lord Jesus to Descend from Heaven then as they themselves in the mean time labour to be often Ascending with him into Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is the Saints Evidence and first-fruits of their Heavenly-blessedness I have done with the second Consequent I come to the third Consequent of Christ's Coming Thirdly Third Consequent of Christs Coming The Saints joyful meeting and it is two-fold 1. One with another 2. With Christ their Head The one is Implied the other Exprest The Saints meeting one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is implied in this Adverbial particle Vnà Together we shall be caught up together with him i. e. We which shall be found alive upon the face of the Earth at Christs coming together with them which being fallen asleep before of elder or later time Christ hath now raised up out of their Graves we and they shall All be caught up together c. This I say presupposeth their meeting together antecedaneous to their Ascention how else can they co-Ascend if not congregated before they Ascend And therefore in order of nature though the Saints meeting together should have been spoken to before their Ascention yet the series of the words not well admitting this method it will not be improper to consider it where it meets us The Scripture takes notice of the Saints meeting one with another as distinct from their meeting with the Lord Jesus Mat. 24.31 The Elect shall be gathered together from the four winds from one end of the Heavens to another At what distance soever imaginable they were disperst and scattered they shall all meet together into one distinct body or Assembly And then co-ascend to meet their Lord. Some of the School-men apply that passage of the Prophet Isa 10.34 They shall Mount up with wings as Eagles to this ascention of the Saints after the Resurrection Whether that be so or no we may not incongruously suppose the Elect of God to be gathered together into some one * Some suppose the Valley of Jehâ—shaphat vast capacious tract or region of ground on the right hand of the Judgment-seat from thence to take their flight together to meet the Judg in the Air. We must understand the placing of the Sheep on the right hand and the Goats on the left hand to be upon the ground for the Wicked shall not Ascend to meet Christ and the Godly when Ascended shall be placed on Seats round about the Throne Mat. 25.33 And of this Congregation of the Elect the Scripture assigneth a two-fold Cause 1. CHRIST the principal efficient Cause The Son of man shall come in the Clouds and shall send his Angels and shall gather the Elect from the four winds from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven He not They Christ not the Angels shall gather his Elect together Christ Autocratorically by
cheeks with Tears asking solicitously of every one they met Saw ye not him whom my Soul loveth I say To meet him now on the Throne of his glory of whom could they have had but a glimpse in a glass darkly in the Evangelical Ordinances Can. 6.12 their Souls would have made them like the Chariots of Aminadab To see him whom having not seen they loved and in whom though they then saw him not yet believing they rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of glory I say now to see him and so to see him as to have a full sight of his unveyled face shining more gloriously than ten thousand Suns at Noon-day Once more So to see him as never to lose the sight of him to all Eternity How will this transport their Souls with unspeakable extasies of joy which will cause them to break forth into Triumphant Hymns yea and to call to their now fellow Angels to help them with their Coelestial Hallelujahs Behold such and infinitely more than tongue can express or heart conceive will be the mutual joy triumph between Christ and his Saints at his blessed appearance Go forth in the mean time Use Oh ye Daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown Cant. 3.11 wherewith his Father will Crown him in the day of his Marriage and in the day of the gladness of his heart Gird up the loyns of your minds 1 Pet. 1.13 be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Ch. 4.13 that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad with exceeding joy Thus I have done with the first thing considerable in this meeting The Persons meeting Christ and the Saints I come to the second The place of meeting and that is In the Air. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air That is the place where Christ stays for his Saints There they meet him and there this great Oecumenical Assize will be held The Judge shall sit upon the Throne and all the Saints shall be placed on bright Clouds as on seats or Scaffolds round about him The Wicked remaining below upon the Earth there to receive their final doom and sentence and from thence to be drag'd away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance Infernal Spirits to the place of Execution the bottomless-Pit yet standing and to the greater aggravation of their horror looking on If it be demanded Qu. Why this Solemn Meeting must be in the Air. Answ It may suffice for answer The Lord Jesus hath made choyce of this place It is the priviledg of earthly Judges in their Circuits to appoint the place where they will keep their Assizes or Sessions wherein if stat pro ratione volunt as their will is a sufficient reason surely it is not less the prerogative of this great Judg of the quick and the dead to appoint the place where he will hold this last and tremendous Judgment And we may well acquiesce in the choyce not only because his will is the soveraign Law of the Creature but as his insinite Wisdome hath judged it the place most convenient for the designe And yet if it be lawful to make our Conjectures where Scripture is silent we may humbly suppose this two-fold Account of it 1. The Capacity of the Place 2. The Conspicuity of the Judgment 1. The Capacity of the Place Vast For the Capacity of the Place and as to us insinite will be the numberless numbers of those that do meet in this universal Assembly Behold the Lord will come with ten thousands of his Saints Jude 14. Yea thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him All the Saints that slept in Jesus from the Creation of man and all the Saints which are found alive upon the Earth at Christs Coming must all appear before the Lord Josus And besides these the Judge cometh with his Royal Satellites his Officers of State Myriads and Legions of Angels All his holy Angels Math. 25.31 There shall not be an Angel as it were left in Heaven as it were Jacob met two Hosts or Camps of Angels of God in his Travel Gen. 32.12 Our Saviour mentions more then 12 Legions which as a commanded party Math. 26 53. would have been in an instant sent out for his rescue if there had been need What an infinit Army of Angels must it needs be then when all the Angels come in Christ's Train An innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12.22 And all these must not appear in confused heaps and multitudes but in their distinct ranks and order and the Saints are to sit in Order in their several degrees round about the Throne Why now the Place had need be of an huge extent and circumference that will suffice to receive and contain such variety of multitudes So that even in this respect no place so fit for this August and solemn Convention as the Air for its vast extensiveness and capacity But Secondly Much more in respect of Conspicuity that so the Judg and Judgment with all the Assessors and Attendants might be more eminently visible from Heaven above to the Earth beneath that the whole process of this general Assize may be heard and seen by all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Heaven and Hell Heaven would be too high the Earth would be too low the smoke of the bottomless pit would obscure this glorious vision The Air where is no interposition of Hills and Mountains and now serened and brightned by the confluence of so many glorious Suns will render this last tremendous Transaction visible and audible to every Creature Behold he cometh with Clouds Clouds which will not obscure him but bright Clouds which filled with the beams of his glory shall render him most visible and conspicuous Math. 24.30 Rev. 1.7 So it is Prophesied Every eye shall see him c. Thus it shall be and this will make for the exceeding Glory and Majesty of the Judg For thus it is even in humane Judicatories upon Earth the Tribunal of the Judg and Bench of Assessors is erected in open Court and lifted up on high in the sight of all the people that all may see and hear the whole judicial procedure of the Law with the posse Comitatus attending in Arms for the greater solemnity and honour of the Judge Upon the same accompt hath our Lord made choyce of the Air to keep his great Arsize in there to erect his Royal Throne and to place seats of Judgment for all the Saints to sit upon round about him all the holy Armies of Angels surrounding them This will make Christ very glorious in the eyes of all the Spectators Hence it is said He shall come in the glory of his Father and his own glory The Father sends the Son about this great Work of the last Judgment with as much pomp and glory as can
be put upon him for the recompencing of the ignominy and abasement of his first coming in the flesh I come now to the ends of this Meeting And the ends why the Saints ascend to meet Christ in the Air we may conceive to be such as these 1. Their publick Reception and owning by Christ 2. Their full and perfect Justification 3. The Consummation of their unptial Contract 4. Their Consession or Sitting together with Christ in the Judgment 5. Their compleat and sinal Benediction or blessed Sentence 6. Their solemn and triumphant Attondance on the Judg going to take possession of the Kingdom These or the like ends of the Saints meeting with the Lord in the Air are not obscurely hinted to us in Scripture The first is Their publick reception and owning by Christ come now to judge the world The Elect Angels having gathered together the Elect Saints according to the Commission upon which they were sent forth Go ye and gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and having carried them up into the Air where the Judge stayeth for them for he will do nothing until they come I say their Angels shall now present them before Him in the rich and glorious attire of their now perfected Resurrection wherein their once vile bodies are now made like to Christ his glorious body With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought into the King's presence and the first publick Act which the King shall do is solemnly to receive them Come ye blessed of my Father and embraceing them in his armes and kissing them as it were as Joseph once did his Brethren in the open view of Heaven and Earth he will solemnly own them and acknowledg them and that First in their Persons and Relation unto himself A Prerogative long-before promised Mal. 3.17 Christ will own the Saints 1. In their persons They shall be mine when I make up my Jewels That is the very work which Christ is now come about to make up his Jewels to lay them up in their Heavenly Cabinet And the first word he will speak is These are mine he appropriates them for his own they be mine my Jewels my Gems my * Sâ—gullah precious Treasure As the Saints have not been ashamed of Christ before men so neither will Christ now be ashamed of them before his Father Luk 9 Heb. 1.11 2 In their Relations and all his mighty Angels he will not be ashamed to call them Brethren yea he will appropriate them as his Children a Seed given him of his Father as the great reward of is Passion saying These be the Children which God hath given me Ver. 13. my Sons and my Daughters who have served me thus he owns them in their Relations Secondly 3. In their Duâ—ies and attendance He will own and acknowledg all the holy duties publick and private which they have done in obedience to his Commands their hearing praying fasting and afflicting their Souls for their own sins and for other mens sins their fearing of God and laying to heart the reproaches of Religion and Blasphemies cast upon his Name their mutual holy conferences Mal. 3.16 one with another c. All these were written in a book of Remembrance of old and laid up before him that they might never be forgotten and now the Book shall be brought forth and read in the Audience of the world for their greater honour even the very secret duties which they have performed in their Closets when no eye saw them but God's even they shall be proclaimed in the Audience of this Universal Assembly at the last day Mat 6.6 Thy Father which saw in secret will now reward thee openly not a prayer but it was filed up not a sigh Psal 56.8 nor groan but it is booked not a tear but is botled not an holy ejaculation but was upon Record and shall be now publickly produced and acknowledged I know your Works and your Labour and your Charity and your Service Rev. 2.19 and your last Works to be more then the first c. Thirdly 4. In their fidelity and perseverance Rev. 2 13. Jesus Christ at that day will own the fidelity of his Saints their constancy and perseverance in their holy Profession and confess them before all the world I know your Works and where you have dwelt even where Satan's seat was and you have held fast my Name Chap. 2.10 and have not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. were my faithful Martyrs who were slain among you where Satan dwelleth behold to you who have been faithful to the death do I now give a Crown of Life To you who have overcome do I grant to sit with me in my Throne Chap. 3.21 as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne 5 In their sufferings Fourthly He will own and acknowledg the Saints in their sufferings for his sake All the reproaches hard speeches * Lâ—quntur lapides incivilities abuses scandals persecutions which ever they sustained in their names persons lively-hoods and lives upon Christ's and the Gospels account he will acknowledg and bespeak them in some such language as this Isa 66.7 Your Brethren which hated you that cast you out for my names sake said * So mocking God and deriding the Godly for their confidence in God Luk. 22.28 29 30. 6. In all the Offices of love done to him or his Let the Lord be glorified but now I appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Or as he once encouraged his Disciples in the days of his flesh You are they which have continued with me in my temptations and behold I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome c. Fifthly and lastly The Lord Jesus will own all the Services and Offices of Love done to Himself or to any of his Members Cloathing Feeding Visiting them when Sick coming to them when in Prison He will acknowledge all before Heaven and Earth yea what they themselves have forgotten never thought-worthy of their own notice much less of Christ's notice Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c Observe by the way the difference between Saints and Shadows Hypocrites can boast of what they never truly did they can own what God will disown We have fasted say they nay saith God In the day of your fast ye find pleasure ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness c. We have say they afflicted our Soul no such thing saith God Ye have bowed down the head like a bul-rush for a day ye have spread Sack-cloath and Ashes under you Is this a Fast will you call this Soul-afflicting if you will I will not I but now
no more for ever yea the Lord Jesus nailed all their sins to his Cross Colos 2.14 Rom. 4.15 and buried them all in his Grave yea and crossed the debt-book with the red lines of his own blood If now he should call them to remembrance to charge the Saints with their sins he should undo what he had done he should cross the great design of his Cross Rom. 4.25 upon the matter deny himself to be risen again from the dead and disown his own hand and seal Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that sin the least sin the least circumstance of sin should be so much as once mentioned by the Judg in the process of that judicial tryal unless it be in a way of Absolution and so sin shall be mentioned indeed The Saints Absolved of Sin in the day of Iudgment in what sence 1 In their own Conscience but in order to the magnifying of their Pardon and Absolution Their sins may then be said to be blotted out in a two-fold respect First Because the Saints shall then be fully and finally Absolved in their own Consciences It is true there be some of the Saints even in this life to whose Consciences the Spirit of God doth evidence and seal up Remission of sin who are not only safe but sure and possess not only the blessedness of a pardoned estate but the comfort and assurance of that blessedness nevertheless 1. Not all the Saints 2. Nor any at all times 3. Nor alwaies in the same degree as they have their lucida intervalla so they have also and more frequently their dark times their Eclipses as well as their Transfigurations and no wonder since the Sun of Righteousness himself suffered an Eclipse upon the Cross so dreadful as forced the great Master of Astrology in Egypt to cry out Either the God of Nature suffers Aut Dâ—us naturae patitur aut mit di machina dâ—ssolvituâ— or the whol frame of nature is dissolved and caused the Lord Jesus Himself to the just astonishment of Heaven and Earth to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Is it any wonder then if many of the poor Saints of God with Paul and his Ship-wrack't Company see neither Sun-light nor Star-light for many days together and no small tempest doth often lye upon them Act. 27.20 so that all hope of being saved is taken away yea not a few precious deserted Hemans are there Psal 38.15 who from their youth up are afflicted and ready to dye and while they suffer the terrors of God are even distracted yea and that which is more tremendous their Sun as to any observation which Standers by could make though very rarely hath set in a Cloud I but now at this blessed day the Judg of the Quick and the Dead shall Absolve the Saints of God not only at the Tribunal of his own Justice but at the Tribunal of their Conscience He will proclame that Name in their Bosoms which he Proclamed before Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin c. And He will speak so audibly that every Saint shall hear the voyce and so particularly that every one shall know he speaketh to him and shall all eccho back again with joy and joynt acclamation Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 pardoning Iniquity c Nor shall any reflexion either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more Though the Saints cannot plead Not-guilty in regard of fact yet they shall be acquit by the Sentence of Christ Not that they never sinned but that they are before the Judg as if they had never sinned Not in His Account only but even in their own Consciences and that will fully and finally resolve the Question which all the Ministers in the world while they lived on Earth could never resolve with all the Absolutions which ever they applied to their doubting Souls though it were even Clave non errante from the testimony of the Word This Proclamation shall do it and leave no room for doubting or misgiving thoughts for ever Secondly 2ly The Saints absolved in open Court The Saints are then said to receive their full and final Absolution because then their Absolution shall be Proclaimed in open Court the Judg in Person shall pronounce their Absolution in the Audience of God and all the Elect Angels and of the whole world of Men and Devils what Christ in the days of his flesh said to one poor trembling Penitent he will now say to all Sons and Daughters be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you This will be good Cheer indeed These be the times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord when the sins of the Saints shall be blotted out Acts 13.19 blotted they were before out of God's book but now they shall be blotted out in the sight of all the world so that now indeed Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect since Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self must be witnesses to the Crossing of the book and to the Cancelling of the Bond wherein they stood obliged to Divine Justice Oh what inexpressible inconceivable refreshment will this be to the Saints of God even the perfecting of all their former refreshments The sense of their pardon pronounced by the Spirit to some of their Consciences within was wont to be exceeding sweet yea any Scriptural hopes of purdoning mercy though apprehended by a weak and trembling hand of Faith were a reviving to their drooping Spirits What must needs then the highest plerophory ratified by the most solemn Proclamation of the great Judg before the upper and neather world as well as to Conscience be but life from the dead Surely it will be even Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Nor shall any reflection either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more nor shall Willow-boughs mix with the Palms of the Saints Triumph in that blessed Jubile but everlasting joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and sighing shall flee away The Second Branch of the Saints Justification is that the Judg will pronounce them perfectly Righteous This may seem superfluous as supposed to be included in the sentence of Absolution Not to be a Sinner seemeth to imply a Saint To be pardoned all sin and all the degrees of sin and all kinds of sin omissive as well as commissive all defects of perfection all want of conformity to as well as transgression of the Law of God this seemeth to be perfection Answ It doth seem so and truly it doth but seem so for Pardon relates to what is past only Rom. 3.25 Remission of sins that are past it is but privativum quid a freedom from Guilt and a freedom from Punishment it doth not suppose any real and positive Righteousness which may set a man rectus in
hated them because they were not of the world even as I was not of the world O Righteous Father for these I opened my mouth and for these I opened my sides and my heart for those was I mocked and scourged and blindfolded and buffetted and Crucified for these I wept and sweatt bled and died Father I will that they whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou hast loved me before the Foundation of the world c. Then shall the Father rise from his Throne and say unto them Come near unto me my Sons and my Daughters that I may kiss you See the smell of my Children is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Then shall he call for Crowns to put upon their heads bracelets upon their Arms Rings upon their fingers palms of Victory Scepters of Royalty into their hands appoint them their several Thrones the Mansions which their Lord went before to prepare for them upon which they shall be placed that they may sit and live reign with Christ their Heavenly Bridegroom for ever and ever everlasting joy shall be upon their heads all Tears shall be wiped from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall fice away And so shall they ever be MOVNT PISGAH OR THE THIRD PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Come to the tenth and last word of comfort The Saints blessed cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord so shall we beever with the Lord. This consequent of Christ's coming is the perfection and crown of all the rest cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord together with the extent and duration of it Ever Now cohabitation containeth four glorious Priviledges viz. 1. Presence 2. Vision 3. Fruition 4. Conformity 1. 1 Priviledge The first Priviledge which cohabition implieth is presence The Saints after their triumphant reception by Christ into his glory shall ever be where he is The Scriptures abound with expressions of this nature appearing in Gods presence Psal 42.2 Col. 3.4 Luke 21. â—â— Psalm 15.1 Rev. 3.21 and 1.5 6 John 17.24 and 14.3 standing before him abiding in his tabernacle dwelling in his holy hill yea dwelling in him and he in us sitting upon his throne and following of him where-ever he goes if at least that Scripture be to be underderstood of Heaven a glorious priviledge certainly for it is the purchase of Christ's blood the fruit of his prayer and one of the great ends of his coming in person at the end of the world that his Saints may be where he is dwell in his family be as near him as â—ationally they can desire 1 Kings 10.8 even stand before him and enjoy â—â—terrupted cohabitation and fellowship with him If the Queen of Sheba accounted it the happiness of Solomon's Servants that they might stand continually before him and hear his wisdom how much rather may we proclaim them happy thrice happy whose feet may stand within the gates of the new Jerusalem for behold a greater than Solomon is here even he Psalm 16.11 of whom the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore A second Priviledge is Vision 2 Priviledge Vision The Saints shall not only be where Christ is 〈◊〉 but they shall enjoy the beatifical viston they shall see and beh'ld that which the seeing and beholding of will make them blessed for ever Now there are six beatifical Objects in Heaven 1. The seat and mansions of blessed Souls 2. The glorified Saints 3. The elect Angels 4. The glorified body of the Lord Jesus 5. God in the Divine essence 6. All things in God The first vision which the Saints shall see 1 Vision the seat of the blessed John 14.2 2 C◠〈…〉 Luke â—â— 4 2 Cor. 12.4 Rev. 2.7 is that which is called Sedes beatorum the seat or babitation of blessed souls the mansions of glory which our Lord hath purchased for his redeemed and which he went before to prepare for them the third Heavens the Palace of the great King A glorius place certainly for therefore it is called Paradise to set forth the beauty and pleasantness of the scituation that as the Paradise wherein God put man in his innocency was the beauty and delight of the whole neather world so Heaven the place which God hath prepared for man restored to perfection is the beauty and glory of all the upper Regions the top and perfection of the whole Creation Behold the outside of this stately Palace is very glorious beautified and adorned with all those bright and glittering Luminaries the Sun Moon and Stars what think you is the inside Consult that description which the Spirit of God hath made of it in the Revelations Chap. 21.18 19 20 21. the wall of jasper the City of pure gold the foundations of the wall of the City garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates of twelve pearls every several gate of one entire pearl the street of the City of pure gold as it were transparent glass and you will surely say Heaven is a glorious place and yet behold this description of it is levelled to the low and childish capacity of our weak and fleshly senses as we judge of things in this imperfect state of mortality what think you then will the glory of the new Jerusalem appear when glorified sense shall be â—levated and raised up to a perfection sutable to its object Surely Heaven will as much exceed the description of it in glory as the bodies of the Saints in the Resurrection shall exceed in beauty these vile bodies of ours when they are resolved into dust and rottenness What shall I need say more Heaven is a place as beautiful and glorious as the wisdom and power of God could devise to make it that it might be the Royal Palace of his own Residence That august and magnificent fabrick which the proud Babylonian Tyrant stood tracking and boasting over Dan 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty was but a prison or hovel in comparison of this building of God 1 Cor. 5.1 that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and those words are proper only for the mouth of God Is not this the new Jerusalem which I have built for the house of the Kingdom and for the glory of my Majesty What David spake of the Temple that little type of Heaven in decimo sexto The house that is for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory c. must be infinitely more august and magnificent in the antitype this the glorified Saints shall behold and it will beyond conception be marvellous in their eyes Secondly a
the Saints know one another upon the account of a temporal alms and shall they not know one another upon the account of spiritual offices performed one for another Lo here is probability if not demonstration for the stating of the Question the fruit of it certainly is as sweet as the truth it self is probable a mighty spur it is to holy and heavenly converse here on earth to converse with one another in grace so that we may promote our mutual converse in glory Ministers so to preach so to live Parents and Governours so to educate and govern their children and families as that they may mutually rejoyce one in another and for another in heaven It cannot but add much to their blessedness and joy in heaven and be matter of praise and glory to God to all eternity especially over such as to whom God hath made us instrumental either to their conversion or to their edification whiles in this vale of tears here we mourned and wept bitterly when we kissed their pale lips and cold cheeks when we follow the corps to the grave and laid them down in their cold beds of dust but there will be joy and glory with infinite compensation when we shall see and say The more unthankful are they that having received so infinite a mercy from God by their ministry would never in their liveâ— open their mouths to acknowledge it to their ministers for their encouragement oh here is my spiritual father who begot me to Christ under whose Ministry I drew my first spiritual breath how sweet are such acknowledgments here Certainly they are the richest rewards of Gods despised and persecuted Servants and Ambassadours here on earth oh what will it be in heaven when grace shall be seen what it is when grace shall have put on its royal apparel Oh what a joy to Parents by nature or by trust to see the dear Child that got into heaven as it were before its time and the Child to embrace the Parent oh this is my Father my Mother my Grandfather my Grandmother that travelled with me the second time till they saw Christ form in my heart oh blessed be God that ever I saw their faces on earth and now shall see them for ever in heaven and so for friends oh this was my soul-friend this was a brother that a kinsman who loved me with a spiritual love an heavenly love that loved me into Christ to heaven to this glory I now possess Christians if these things be not so Aug. Ep. 6. then Augustin mistook his Cordial which he wrote to the Lady Italica after her Husbands death telling her That she should know him amongst the glorified Saints yea know him and love him batter than ever she did in this life yea a greater than Augustin was mistaken else even the great Apostle who himself had been caught up to the third Heavens and saw what was done there even he was mistaken when 1 Thes 2.19 20 by an Apostolical Spirit he dignifieth his Thessalonians with those glorious titles his hope his joy the crown of rejoycing his glory and joy and that in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming Could they be all this to the Apostle in the resurrection and he not know them and be able to distinguish them from all other Saints of God that shall stand on Christs right hand at that day It cannot be What although all such relations do cease in Heaven must the remembrance of such relations cease also Or what if the glorified state make such an alteration in the Saints bodies that they are not the same for colour gesture and some other accidental circumstances as when we knew them in the valley of tears shall there be no lineâ—â—â—ent or property of individuation remaining whereby the quick acute eye of glorified sence may possibly discern who they were There want not instances in our experience of some who from their childhood even unto full age have been absent from their friends whom yet many years after upon a deliberate interview their relations have called to perfect memory again and if such a thing be possible in the imperfect state here why should it seem a thing incredible that the glorified eye and intellect should revive a distinct remembrance of their gracious relations even out of the imperfect bints and notions of their former knowledge If the resurrection do shew nothing of the old individual distinction of persons it may seem to be rather another Creation than a Resurrection and may shake a main Article of our Christian Faith But as clearer evidence than all this I demand further How did Adam know Eve upon the first sight even before God spake a word who she was or whence she came And did he own her as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Will ye say it was by divine instinct and revelation Grant then but so much in this case and it shall suffice especially the rather because this solution of the difficulty will take in the case of elect infants dying before their form and figure can well be discerned possibly stilborn surely a distinct knowledge who they are when glorified will be no small joy to the elect parents to consider that free grace made them the happy vessels to help to people Heaven with such Inhabitants We may not presume to speak definitively in cases not clearly stated by the holy Scriptures but this we may with safety and modesty conclude that if such a mutual knowledge of godly relations in heaven may contribute any glory to God and any addition to the joy of the Saints the absolute perfection of the glorified estate will not permit any doubt about this matter surely if our natural affections of love and delight and joy be not extinguished in heaven but perfected it cannot but add to the elect Mothers joy to see her elect Infant now adult in glory and so for other nearest relations will it not be some accent to their hallelujahs to say This was my precious yâ—ak-fellow this my holy parent this my gracious brother kinsman friend with whom I had sweet communion on earth in holy duties We went to the House of God as friends c. Especially when it may be added whom God made Instrumental to the pulling me out of the infernal lake where the Devil and his Angels are tormented for ever and for the bringing of me into this place of rest and glory Thanks be to God for ever and ever Object If it be objected Doth not this distinct knowledge of our elect relation infer a distinct knowledge also of the Saints reprobate relations in hell And may not that be a Vision of as much terrour as the other of rejoycing Answ I answer No And that upon a two-fold ground First It stands with the analogy of faith to believe that all those affections which imply defect or imperfection shall be totally abolished in Heaven as inconsistent with
Eph. 3.10 Lectures read in the Assemblies of the Saints for some insight into the mystery of Christ in the Gospel Oh how ready and able will they be to pay their debts with an abundant interest out of the immense volumes of knowledge which they have treasured up The Communications of their love their holiness their zeal their heavenliness c. what united flames will they make when they be joyned in communion and converse with the graces and perfections of the Saints Object If it be objected Is there not enough in God to fill the Saints to the vastest capacity What need then of Star-light when the Sun shines Yea may not the Saints conversing with Angels and one another be thought to be a diversion from the supreme object of light and love Sol. To this I answer No and the reason is because all the perfections and excellencies which are in the Creature are as so many beams and emanations leading the eye of the beholder to the Sun it self the body and fountain from which they do spring August saith we shall see God in his Saints and their glorious actings as well and as manifestly as now we see mens bodies in the vital actions of their bodies De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 29. or as learned and holy mens Commentaries and Expositions are to the holy Scripture which do neither detract from nor add to that immense volume of truth but serve only to illustrate it and to render it more intelligible to the dark and imperfect understanding of the Creature Surely such an infinite full Text as God is will stand in need of some marginal notes as it were To see God in his Saints and the Saints in God this will be no diminution of the bentifical Vision All the excellencieâ— in the Creature are but drops from God the Fountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The glorious Angels and Saints are alwayes sunning themselves in the presence of â—od and will keep company together to all Eternity A fourth Object The glorified body of the Son of God to help the Reader as Christ is said in the dayes of his flesh to be the Exegesis or Interpreter of the Father unto us John 1.18 So may the Angels be to the Saints in Heaven and such is all the glory of Heaven yea so is the humane nature of Christ himself now in glory the great Expositor of the Divine Essence a Mirrour or Glass wherein we come to see God more clearly and fully Which brings me to A fourth Object of the beatifical Vision and that is Christ himself or the glorified humane nature of the Lord Jesus Christ in his humane nature exalted to the right hand of his Father the highest seat in glory far above all principality and power Eph. 1.21 and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come This is the highest beatifical object in Heaven next to the divine Essence the sight of Christ as man it was the great design which the Lord Jesus had in redeeming them with his blood â—â—â—n 17.24 Father I will that they whom thou host given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me And sâ—rely this will be a glorious sight indeed behold of the glory of Christ in his transfiguration it is said That his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light If the glory of his transfiguration was so excellent what will the glory be of his exaltation If the glory of his foot-stoul was so excellent how will the glory of his throne excel in glory If he appeared so bright upon an carthly Mountain how transplendent will he appear upon Mount Sion the Mountain of God that heavenly Mountain If such were his lustre in his state of humiliation before passion what beams of Majesty will shine from his face in his state of glorification when he is to receive the reward of his passion Behold there appeared then with him only Moses and Elias what will his glory be when all the Patriarchs and Prophets all the Apostles and Martyrs the whole Society of the Saints with the whole host of the mighty Angels that begirt his Throne with their hallelujahs and joyful acclamations Mark 9.6 That vision of Christ on earth did fill Peter and the Disciples with wonder and astonishment even to an extasie so that the Text tells us He knew not what he said Oh with what joy and ravishment shall the sight of Christ in glory fill the glorified Saints when their faculties shall be so raised that they shall understand what they see and profess what they unstand Surely Peter and all his fellow Saints will then say and know what they say Lord it is good for us to be here What a beautiful beatifying Object this will be Considerations evidencing the glory of Christs humane nature 1 Considerat The reward of his Passion we may guess for more we cannot by these three Considerations The first Consideration is this The glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ in Heaven is the reward of his Passion here on earth In respect of the divine nature and as Jesus Christ was the second Person in Trinity the glory which the Lord Jesus now possesseth at his Fathers right hand was the glory which he had with the Father from before the foundation of the world John 17.24 but as to the assumption of the humane nature it was glory given him by the Father Christ had a twofold right to the Kingnom of glory sc natural and constitutive natural as he was the only begotten Son of God and so of the same nature and essence with the Father from all eternity and so whatever power and glory was essentially the Fathers was essentially the Sons also But then besides that Heb. 1.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tuit Jesus Christ had also a constitutive right or a right by donation as he was appointed and made heir of all things now this constitutive glory as I say was the fruit and reward of his sufferings Phil. 2.7 8 9 Because he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Therefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a name above all names c. Because and Therefore the exaltation of his humane nature was the merit and compensation of his humiliation and abasement Now then if we would make an estimate of the glory of Christ now at his Fathers right hand we cannot find out a more proper medium than to make a serious and if it were possible a thorow search and enquiry into his abasement and humiliation And certainly if there had been nothing else in it but his incarnation or the assumption of our flesh it had been an infinite abasement to the Son of God so deep an abasement as it had been blasphemy for men or Angels to
which shall fill the memory and the remembrance of them comparing the type with the antitype if I may so say things past with things present will fill the Soul with admiration and delight If any thing of evil do occur whether of sin affliction as soon as ever it enters within that glorious firmament it loseth the nature of evil and is naturalized into matter of rejoycing and thankfulness In a word the entire Image of God Eph. 5.1 It was their duty in the state of grace it shall be their infinite dignity in the state of glory which was imprinted upon the Soul in the first Creation and reprinted upon it though in an imperfect character in the new Creation shall now be perfected to the life in the Regeneration the Saints shall be as like God as ever they can look as like God as ever Children were like their Father so that there will be nothing but looking and liking the one upon the other Prevent that holy gaze now oh ye children of the most high God be often taken up in the beholding and contemplation of the face of your heavenly Father behold will it not Quicken you to duty Comfort you in your droopings Cause you to overlook the contempt of the world with an holy pride And even be the dawnings of glory upon your faces whereby some line and lineaments of beauty shall be added daily to that blessed draught begun already against that day Once more before we go off from this pleasing contemplation add we The very bodies of the Saints shall share in this blessed conformity as well as the soul It had its degree in the first Paradise man had a kind of resemblance to God in the very make of his body The bodies of the Saints Os homini sublims dâ—dit caelumque tueri jussit c. beautiful upright active no such visible picture of God in Heaven or Earth as man was not Sun Moon or Stars not Earth and Sea or the visible Heavens themselves have so much of their Maker in them as the body of man his very corporeal sences had much of God in them they were Vestigia Dei though not Imago one might easily have known who was their Father But now in glory saith the Apostle Our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The glorified body of Christ next to the divine essence to which it is hypostatically united shall be the glory and the wonder of Heaven and our body saith the Apostle shall be like his conformable unto his glorious body What a mirrour of glory will the Saints be in their souls conform'd to the divine nature and their body conform'd to the glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Oh wonderful astonishing transfiguration Well said the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be surely eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man c. This will be an infinite compensation to the Saints of God for all their holy endeavours of being like to God that as obedient Children they have been followers of their heavenly Father Eph. 5.1 and for all the reproaches and abasements they susteined from a reprobate world because of those endeavours The earth was not able to bear the hard speeches wherewith the enemies of God have reproached the footsteps of Gods anointed ones labouring to insist in the steps of their heavenly Father willing to be Nonconformists to the will and lusts of men and striving to be conformable to the will and pattern of their holy King and Law giver the Lord Jesus the King of Saints Now I say it shall be no shame nor grief of heart unto them when they shall reap the fruit of their weak and imperfect conformity on earth in the most full and perfect consummation of that conformity in heaven when behold whatsoever is glorious and wonderful in the person of their glorious Redeemer or in the thrice glorious and blessed Trinity the very print and Character of it shall be stampt upon the glorified Saints in their created capacities causing them to appear not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as so many Angels but even to resemble God himself and to shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father and they that laughed them to scorn shall see it and their faces being filled with shame their consciences with horrour and their hearts with envy they shall now revile and curse themselves howling out Wisd 5.4 We fools accounted their lives madness c. Oh how much better are the reproaches of Christ than all the grandieur and applause in the world Be of good chear all ye Servants of God the time is coming when you shall not repent of your conformity to God and Christ in holiness but shall ever sing I thank the Lord who gave me counsel and taught me to chuse the better part which shall never be taken away from me I come now to the Complement and perfection of this last fruit and consequent of Christ his coming the Saints cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord namely The extent and duration of it in this particle ever We shall ever be with the Lord. The extent and duration ever Ever a little word but of immense signification a Child may speak it It was a witty reply of a Grandchild of Doctor Reynolds now Bishop of Norwich He asking the Child How long Eternity is The Child answered If you will tell me how long half eternity is I will tell you how long whole eternity is but neither Man nor Angel can understand it Oh who can take the demensions of eternity Yea who can tell me how long half eternity is Behold I shew you a Mystery half eternity is eternity yea every part and particle of eternity is eternity for eternity is not made up of hours or dayes or years or lustrums or jubiles or ages or millions of Ages the whole space between the creation of the world and the dissolution of it would not make a day in eternity yea so many years as there be dayes in that space would not fill up an hour in eternity Eternity is one entire Circle beginning and ending in it self This present world which is measured out by such divisions and distinctions of times is therefore mortal and will have end 2 Cor. 4.18 If eternity did consist of finite times though never so large and vast it would not be eternity but a longer tract of time only that which is made up of finite is finite Eternity is but one immense indivisible point wherein there is neither first nor last Deus est octus simplicissimus ex quo omnia sâ—nt in â—uem omnio redeuâ— beginning nor ending succession or alteration but is like God himself one and the same for ever From hence we infer this Doctrine The blessedness of the Saints in Heaven is everlasting Their
like my God glorious in holiness this is not only an evidence of heaven but heaven it self Thirdly Evidence 3. Again an universal hatred of sin is a good token that heaven is designed for thee for hatred of sin is the negative part of holiness and heaven is a place provided by God on purpose that there the Saints may be as holy as they will without disturbance or reproach fear not to think much and often of heaven if sin be an offence to thee if sin be an hell on earth to thee heaven is designed for thee to be thy Paradise Learned men conceive the sin of the apostate Angels went no further than the first ambitious thought fear not to be often solacing thy self in the contemplation of that place where sin never entred or if it did it was cast out as soon as ever it was conceived Indeed it is but a fancy men have taken up that they love happiness while they continue to love sin a chast love of heaven can never consist with the love of impure lusts Sin is the Devils image holiness is Gods he loves not the beauty of holiness that would have the Devil advanced thither If men would not have it so why else do they give sin such free entertainment in their own bosomes and will by no means give it a bill of divorce Fourthly Evidence 4. A superlative love to him that hath purchased this state for us and us for it is an infallible evidence of our right to it and interest in it that is the Lord Jesus Christ and a strong motive upon which gracious souls are so often in heaven by their contemplations is that thereby an eye of faith they may behold not the purchase only but the purchaser whom having not seen we love and whom loving we would fain see and this is the glory of every one that is so affected so it is expresly said 1 Cor. 2.9 The good things prepared for them that love him Dost thou love the Lord Jesus Ascend often in the Chariot of love that thou mayest see his face and in his face the glory and beauty of heaven Surely such as love not Christ and yet think they love heaven are miserably mistaken they know neither Heaven nor Christ and may well cry out Isa 44.20 Is there not a lye in my right hand Well Christians you that would gladly have your portion in this glory shut your eyes downward I may invert the Angels Question to the men of Galilee and say Acts 1.11 Why stand ye paring upon the â—arth Yea why crawl ye with your bellies upon the ground as if you had inherited the Serpents curse as well as your own Sursum corda lift up your hearts let your souls often withdraw and bid the body farewell for a time that you may with Paul be wrapt up to the third heaven and then see things which may even ravish your souls out of your bodies seek the things above set your affections on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Pregustation by faith is a kind of prepossession an entrance beforehand into the glorious joyes of our Lord and Master an ascent into the Mount of transfiguration when the soul may truly say Master it is good for us to be here and the oftner ye come the more welcome Christ will make you they that know the divine relishes of such contemplation would not exchange them for the most delicious fruitions of the whole inferiour creation Oh strive to antidate glory and to get into heaven before your time Yet give me leave to add one Caution I do not say every one that hath a right to heaven hath an assurance of heaven or else no right or warrant to meditate on heaven but this I say 1. Though every Christian hath not assurance every one may if not by way of special prerogative and extraordinary revelation yet in a way of holy duty the mediums whereby Christians attain to assurance being common to all 2. Though all attain not to the same degree of assurance the plerophory of Gods love yet all may attain to such a degree of Scripture-hope good hope through Grace 2 Thess 2.16 as may quiet their hearts and cause them to go on their way rejoycing looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 16. 3. I say not it is the duty of all to have assurance in what degree soever but it is the duty of all to labour for assurance in the highest degree not to labour for assurance argues a defect of love to God true love can rest in nothing short of assurance and even this may sustain the soul till assurance comes 4. Therefore I say let not thy want of assurance be the fruit of thy sloth do not continue without assurance for want of holy industry in the pursuit of it for want of giving all diligence as the text saith to make thy calling and election sure and thy want of assurance need not discourage thee from taking a full and frequent prospect of heavens glory let God bear witness to thy Conscience that assurance is thy design and that you are not voluntarily and habitually wanting to God and your selves as to the pursuit of that design in a concurrent use of all those mediums which God hath sanctified for the attainment thereof and you may with as much boldness and considence get within the vail and there take a full prospect of the upper Canaan Northward Southward Eastward Westward in all the dimensions of it as God once spake to Abraham Gen. 13.14 concerning the â—â—ather Canaan and with the same promise All the land all the glory which thou seen to thee will I give it for ever I say with as much boldness as if thou hadst got the plerophory of faith and were already sealed with the Spirit of promise to the day of redemption and who knows but in the same Chariot wherein Love ascends into Heaven Assurance may come down from heaven and or ever thou art aware thy soul may make thee like the Chariots of Amminadib Quest But what are those mediums in the concurrent use whereof assurance of an interest in the heavenly inheritance may be had Answ The Question being but occasional 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall with much brevity but hint only at some special Helps 1. Take heed of determining before inquiry 1. Means 2. Study well your evidences 2. Help Take heed of false evidence and verily this is an evidence to be sollicitous about your evidences Take heed that neither your evidences be false evidences nor you make a false application of the true that you neither take exclusive evidences for inclusive i. e. Jam. 1.22 such as are only to shut out bold presumers as bare doing of duties hearing praying c. for such as do necessarily conclude a state of grace counterfeit graces for the fruits of the Spirit of God
that shall be revealed at the appearance of the Lord Jesus they cannot take up with such miserable comforts as men usually dye with And it must needs be an addition to the torments of hell to leave godly Relations mourning under the dreadful apprehensions of a Relation miscarrying to all eternity And to be regardless of our friends anxiety of spirit even in this respect is somewhat less charity than they have in hell Dives in hell was sollicitous to prevent his brethrens coming thither Graceless Relations dying with the marks of their unregeneracy upon them do even scorch the hearts of their gracious surviving friends with the sence of those flames which they suffer So it will be to them while they are yet in the body Woodcock his Sermon of Heaven p. 657. though at the Resurrection as one saith it shall be no more allay to their joy than if they saw so many fishes caught in a net Impartially therefore and accurately examine your own estates make your Consciences faithfully to answer this Question Can I give my self or friends comfort in this present state should I dye this very moment If Conscience assisted with Scripture light say no this is a lost estate this is a damnable condition I am now in oh poor wretch how highly doth it concern thee this very hour to look about thee for thou knowest not how near thou art to the last point and period of thine appointed time Vide Morning Exercise Giles in the Fields 1659. It is a vain thing for thee to comfort thy self without some Scripture grounds of interest in Christ who is the resurrection and the life Paul sends Tychichus to comfort the Colossians but he must know their state first Colos 4.8 That he may know their state and comfort their heart We have a generation that comfort others without knowing their spiritual estate which is to clap on a plaister without searching the wound a way to lead men to hell hoodwinkt the spiritual estate must be known before comfort can be well applied Examine therefore and suffer others to examine and search how it is with your souls in relation to Christ and Grace what knowledge what repentance what faith what mortification what contempt of the world what love to Christ what thoughts of the world to come If these things be in you and abound then comfort your hearts For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In the tenth and last place 10. Branch of Information Hence we are informed how much it concerns every man and woman that would comfortably observe this blessed Command of administring comfort to himself or others who are in tribulation I say how much it concerns them to search the Scriptures O study the Scriptures that Magazine and Store-house of all divine comfort especially in the reading of Scriptures to make a Collection of the Promises which are the nests and boxes of Christs Cordials and Antidotes against the fainting Fits to which Believers themselves are subjects there are the soul-refreshing water-brooks the wells of salvation ever sending forth streams of consolation to make glad the City of God Here is Christs Wine celler and Banquetting-house Cant. 2.4 to which he doth invite his disconsolate Spouse and where he doth revive her fainting soul according to her longing desire Stay me with apples and comfort me with flaggons for I am sick of love What though the Scripture and the Promises do abound with consolation if we be ignorant and unacquainted with the variety nature and use of these heavenly Ingredients they signifie no more to us than for a man to be in an Apothecaries shop fraught with the richest Drugs but he knows not the boxes where they are laid nor the vertue of them he and his friends may dye in a Fit and miscarry in the midst of all those Preservatives or if he venture on them he may peradventure take poyson instead of Cordials Wherefore study the Promises and in studying of them be careful to refer them to their distinct heads Make your selves Catalogues of Promises that refer to several soul distresses and exigencies and do as Apothecaries Collect the Promises of Scripture into distinct heads write their titles over their Heads Promises for pardon Promises for power against corruption Promises for comfort prison Promises sick-bed Promises Promises relating to the loss of gracious Relations c. I say be careful skilfully to sort your Promises that you may know whither to go when you repair to the Scriptures and may not administer mistaken Ingredients Corasives instead of Cordials as Job's friends did nor Cordials instead of Corasives as the generality of ignorant Christians do 2. Study the great art of officing the Promises labour to know to which of the Offices of Christ every Promise doth relate which to his Kingly Office as the Promises of grace and increase of grace and power against temptation the conquering of death and the fear of death which belong to his Prophetical office as promises of knowing God and Christ and the Spirit promises of being taught of God inward powerful experimental knowledge what Promises belong to his Sacerdotal office as promises of reconciliation to God peace with God acceptance of person and performances peace of Conscience joy in the Holy Ghost comfort in the loss of sweetest Relations and this will be of great use to inable you in prayer to plead the Promises and to put them in suit in the proper office a great honour to Christ and a mighty help and incouragement to faith 3 Pray for the Spirit whose Office is to make good the Promises to the Children of Promise and upon that very account called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter The Promises are never comfort until the Spirit apply them to the Conscience and then they are Cordials indeed whether to our selves or others then they are full of life and power and can with one taste comfort more than all the Arguments of Philosophy in the world And verily Christians as all the Cordials in Scripture are no Cordials until they are applyed to the Conscience by a powerful hand and breathed into the soul by the warm vital animation of the Spirit of God to know it your selves are Physicians of no value in this great work of comforting one another until ye learn to joyn the words of prayer with the words of comfort until by prayer you call in the presence and power of the Comforter who only is able to make these words to be so many real consolations Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS A TABLE Of the principal things contained in this TREATISE The first Figure notes the Part The second the Page A A Basement of Christ 3.20 Christ his abasement and exaltation compared together 3.21 Absolution the Saints shall be absolved in the last day from all guilt and punishment 2.134 And in what sense 2.136
of conscience and the book of Gods remembrance will agree exactly together 2.172 Whispers of conscience to be hearkened unto 2.172 Conversion in conversion how sins past present and to come are pardoned and how not 2.134 Righteousness imputed to the saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 Converse knowledge of one another in heaven a great motive to converse one with another on earth 3.11 Covenant a comparison between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace 3.81 Creature we should sit loose from it 3.113 Cross the merit of Christ's cross is for justification and the power of his cross for mortification 2.156 Cup the cup that Christ drank was bitter but it was sweetned with three ingredients 1 But a cup not a sea 2.151 2 His Fathers cup not the Devils ibid. 3 A gift not a curse ibid. D Dead how to behold dead friends 2.103 Relations that die only fallen asleep 1.2 Death our Relations not alone in it 1.9 Our wages 1.10 Every person subject to it 2.65 At the hour of death the Saints are fully pardoned 2 134 Not terrible to a child of God 3.140 Death of some persons dreadful to themselves and to standers by 3.160 It is but a sleep 1.2 Resembled to it in two respects 1.3 Not a total privation of the habit 1.4 The godly infinite gainers by it 1.6 Degree different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 Delusion how are the whispers of God distinguished from the delusions of Satan 3.129 Denyal there will be no denying of sin at the great day 2.167 Desertion Saints under desertion often bely themselves 2.131 Devised the world have counterfeit cordials 3.154 Disappointment a most afflicting evil and admits of three aggravations 3.115 Divine essence we shall not have an intuitive vision of it 3.27 How far we shall have a vision of it 3.30 Do this and live not a commandment only but a covenant 2.144 Draw all men to me how to be understood 2.105 Duties all the Saints duties performed publick or private shall be owned at the last day 2.128 Duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 E Earth the place where the wicked will receive their sentence 2.124 It cannot be made sure 3.112 Election and purchase both perfected by the sanctification of the Spirit 2.123 Holiness not the cause of election but the end of it 3.43 Elect the future estate of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Endeavour after assurance an evidence heaven 3.119 Enjoyments worldly enjoyments not what we fancy them 3.70 Eternity a description of it 3.84 97 Souls not eternal a parte ante and why 3.86 The future estate both of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.88 Eternity of God is an assurance of heaven being eternal 3.92 Evidences of heaven 3.119 A good evidence to be sollicitous about evidences 3.123 Exaltation Christ his exaltation and abasement compared together 3.21 Examination we should examine our selves and suffer others to examine us 3.162 Excuse no excuse for sin at the great day 2.167 172 Eye Gods essence cannot be seen by the bodily eye though glorified but by the eye of the understanding 3.23 F Faith the great saving office of it is to unite the soul to Jesus Christ 1.43 It is an hand to apply the righteousness of the first covenant as fulfilled by our Surety 2.146 Many do believe and yet do not believe that they do believe 3.71 Fear there is never a fear in a Christian but there is a fear not in the Scripture as an Antidote 3.147 Fidelity the faithfulness of the Saints will be owned at the last day 2.128 Fruition whatever the Saints see they enjoy in heaven 3.58 It consists of a tenfold Ingredient 1 Propriety 3.58 2 Possession 3.61 3 Intimacy 3.63 4 Fulness 3.65 5 Suitableness 3.67 6 Fixedness 3.70 7 Reflection 3.71 8 Freshness 3.73 9 Present 3.75 10 Complacency ibid. G Glory different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 The glory of God will swallow up all private and personal considerations 3.14 God he can do what he will 2.100 His essence cannot be seen by the glorified corporeal eye but by the eye of the understanding 3.26 Godly Christ his being Judge great comfort to them 2.75 Good the good of the Saints will be mentioned not their evil at the great day 2.130 None of the good that ever the wicked did shall be mentioned to their honour 2.170 Gospel and Law reconciled in the mystery of justification 2.153 Tryal by the Gospel will be the most severe of any 2.166 Grace in the Saints is under a covenant 1.39 A comparison between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works 3.81 Graves the wicked raked out of them in their ugliness 2.102 They are beds wherein the bodies of the Saints are laid to rest 1.4 Guilty to be not guilty and to be righteous are two different capacities 2.139 H Happiness looking more after holiness than happiness is an evidence of heaven 3.120 Heaven it belongs to the Saints 1 By inheritance 3.60 2 By purchase ibid. In heaven none have the less for what others do enjoy but every one an whole God 3.65 It is a place of unmixed joy 3.69 It may be made sure 3.111 To look after an interest in heaven is an argument of wisdom 3.115 Evidences of it 3.119 Heavenly mindedness the evidence of 〈◊〉 heavenly blessedness 2.112 Hell separation from Christ the worst part of it 2.105 It is a place of unmixed sorrow 3.69 Holy Ghost why so called 2.122 Holiness by the Spirit of holiness Rom. 1.4 what meant 1.12 It doth best capacitate the soul for the Vision of God 3.39 41 In the Saints it is the divine nature not the divine being 3.42 God loveth it more than the creature how it is true and how in Arminius his sense not true 3.42 It is not the cause but the end of election 3.43 What holiness that must be that can capacitate us to see Gods face 3.44 Looking more after holiness than happiness an evidence of heaven 3.120 Humane nature of Christ the highest beatifical object in heaven next to the divine Essence 3.18 The glorifying of Christ's humane nature is the reward of his passion 3.19 Hypocrite no hypocrite in heaven 3.8 I Image that the Image of God suffered a miscarriage was not of improvidence but of ordination 3.80 Imitation it is the duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 Immutability the immutability of God giveth assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.91 Imputation of righteousness is the positive part of justisication 2.133 Imputed righteousness is the same materially that the Law requireth 2.149 Indictment the sinners indictment and plea 2.147 Innocence is no security against oppression and cruelty 1.51 Intercessor there is no Intercessor at the great assize 2.171 Interest to look after an interest in heaven an argument of wisdom 3.115 Justice of God an assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.95 Judge Christ must be the Judge of great terror to
the wicked 2.73 Of great comfort to the godly 2.75 Judgment-day whether the Saints that are then alive must die literally or analogically only 2.65 Why concealed 2.68 Whether Christ will sit upon a visible throne 2.70 Christ will appear in the same humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin and why 2.71 Christ will appear personally for three reasons 1 The judgment must be personal 2.70 2 A recompence to his abasement 2.71 3 To perfect his mediatory office 2.72 Justification the Saints shall be fully and finally justified at the last day which consists 1 In their publick absolution 2.133 2 In the Judge his pronouncing them perfectly righteous 2.138 God justifieth a sinner in that way wherein he may justifie himself 2.141 It is not by any intrinsick merit in faith but extrinsick object that faith layeth hold on 2.148 It is variously denominated according to its causes 2.153 Legal and evangelical what it is 2.154 Law and Gospel reconciled in the mystery of justification 2.153 K Kindness all kindnesses done to Christ or his members will be owned at the day of judgment 2.129 Knowledge whether the Saints shall know one another with a distinguishing knowledge in heaven affirm 3.8 Knowledge of one another in heaven a great motive to converse one with another on earth 3.11 Whether the knowledge of our elect relations in heaven do not infer a distinct knowledge of our relations in hell and whether that may not be terrible Neg. 3.13 How many wayes we shall have knowledge of God set forth by several steps 3.31 L Law pardon is not the qualification that the Law requireth but perfection 2.139 That which God at first wrote in mans heart and afterwards in two tables of stone was a law of a most holy and absolute perfection 2.143 The law the image of Gods nature and will 2.143 It was given to be 1 A rule and pattern of an holy life 2.144 2 A condition of eternal life ibid. It is of perpetual necessity 2.144 It is not to be dispenced withall 2.144 Christ did not bring in another law but another medium to fulfil the former 2.144 Christ as Mediator was born under the law 2.145 Christ his fulfilling the law was performed in and by the humane nature 2.149 Law and Gospel reconciled in the great mystery of justification 2.153 Likeness we shall be like God in 1 Our understanding 3.78 2 Our will 3.80 3 Our affections 3.80 4 Our memories 5 the whole image 1 The soul 3.81 2 the body 3.82 Loss fear of loosing of heaven would make it worse than hell 3.96 Love of God a great assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.94 A superlative love to Christ an evidence of heaven 3.120 M Marriage of the Lamb consummated at the last day and the solemnity of it 2.162 Marriage its happiness consists in suitableness 3.67 Maityrdom like Elijah 's Charriot 3.139 Means God not tyed to them 3.48 Memory the Saints shall be like God in their memories 3.80 Of the Saints shall be like the ark of the covenant 3.80 Mercy the mercy of God an assurance of heavens eternity 3.92 Ministers must preach nothing but what is warranted by the word 2.67 They may preach with success and yet be cast out 2.171 They must see that the comforts they administer be Gods comforts 3.154 Miscarriage of the image of God in Adam not of improvidence but ordination 3.80 Mistake no mistake of one anothers condition in heaven 3.7 Mixture of Saints and sinners will be here 2.116 Mortification exercise the duties of it 3 130 Motives to assurance 3.111 Mourners are to open their ears and hearts to words of comfort 3.156 Mystery divers mysteries mentioned namely 1 Of the Trinity 2 Of the Incarnation 3 Of Election and Reprobation 4 Of the Creation of the World 5 Of the Resurrection 6 Of all the Arcana Naturae 3.51 We must not pry too much into them 3.55 N Nature the fulfilling of the Law was performed in and by the humane nature 2.149 Negatives cannot fill a dying man with comfort 3.160 O Omnipotence all things are alike to it 2.100 It supports the Saints under their happiness as well as the wicked under their misery 3.90 92 It is omnipotence in God that he cannot sin 3 90 Ordinances a dangerous notion of being above them 3.48 In what sense it is good to live above them ibid. Not to rest in or contented with them 3.49 P Pardon pardon of sin is the privative part of justification 2.133 How sins past present and to come are pardoned in conversion and how not 2.134 Sin fully pardoned at death ibid. It makes sin as if it had never been 2.135 It is not sufficient to capacitate the Saints for glory 2.139 It looks backward Righteousness forward 2.142 It is not the qualification which the Law requireth but perfection 2 139 If God should only pardon and not justifie it would seem to reflect upon 1 Gods Wisdom 2 142 2 Gods â—ll-sufficiency ibid. 3 Gods Veracity and Justice ibid. It maketh not a man righteous 2.148 No pardon at the Judgment-seat 2.169 Perseverance stands not in the nature of grace 1.39 It stands not in the liberty or rectitude of the will though regenerate 1.39 It stands upon 1 Divine compact 140 2 Vnion with Christ ibid. Pleasure sensitive pleasures have only their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 108 Praâ—se Saints shall be praised for their graces at the last day though wrought in them c. 2.132 Prayer get the faithful to pray for thee and pray for thy self 3.131 Words of prayer are to be joyned with words of comfort 3.165 Presence the Saints shall ever be in the presence of Christ 3.2 Precepts in one place are promises in another 3.112 Pride there is much of pride in refusing comfort 3.157 Promises ought to be studied 3.163 Learn to which of Christs Offices each promise relateth 3.164 Promises in one place are precepts in another 3.112 Refer them to their distinct heads 3.163 They then bring comfort when they are applied by the Spirit 3.164 Propriety to enjoy heaven and to know I do enjoy it is the happiness of happiness 3.71 Punishment shall not be mitigated at the judgment 2.170 Purchase and election are both perfected by the sanctification of the Spirit 2.123 R Recompence Christ his speaking honourably of the Saints in the last day will abundantly recompence the reproaches they have here 2.133 Reconciliation God is first in reconciliation though sinners first in the transgression 2.169 Redeemer he undertook two great works for the redeemed 1. One to make satisfaction for sin 2. The other to yield absolute conformity to the Law of God 2.140 Regeneration Conformity of the Saints to Christ in the Resurrection hath its beginning in it 2.101 111 Relations ours not alone in their death 1.9 When dead they are not lost but sowen 1.19 Though they cease in heaven yet the remembrance of them ceaseth not 3.12 Remembrance the book of Gods remembrance and book of conscience
stedfastly looking up into Heaven to see the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the Right Hand of God which if it may be in any measure the fruit of these poor labours let them take the praise of men whose portion it is while I shall with more alacrity leave these ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Septuagint Translates the Hebrew Text. Tents of Kedar where my Pilgrimage hath been thus far prolonged and mount up to that full-eyed Vision where Blessedness and Eternity are of one length Ever with the Lord Ambitious of that Epitaph by a Learned hand set upon the Monument of that incomparable Culverwell What this to know as we are known should be The Author could not tell but 's gon to see And who for that little moment while inter vivos is Thine Christian Reader in Tears and Prayers THOMAS CASE A TABLE Of the Scriptures more or less Explained in this Treatise GEn. Cap. 2. Ver. 2. Page 96. Part 3. Job cap. 19. ver 26 27. pag. 87. Psal cap. 16. ver 7. page 150. ver 16. page 10. cap. 19 ver 7. page 63. cap. 25. ver 14. page 131. p. 3. cap. 27. ver 8. page 49. p. 3. cap. 32. ver 1. page 135. in tot pag. 98. p. 3. cap. 39 ver 5â— page 91 cap. 45 ver 7 page 24 Margent cap. 49 ver 12 page 106 p. 3 cap. 63 ver 2 page 49 p. 3 cap. 89 ver 47 page 87 p. 3. cap. 103 ver 13 page 148 p. 3 cap. 110 ver 3 page 16 cap. 136 ver 13 page 143 part 3 Proverb Cap. 16 ver 4 page 88. p 3â— cap. 23 ver 5 page 113 p 3 Eceles Cap. 12 ver 3 4 5. page 92. ver 14. page 131. Cantâ—cles cap. 2 ver 16 page 32 cap 7 ver 12 page 132 p 3 Isaiah Cap 1 ver 18 page 135 cap. 26 ver 14 page 84. Marg ver 19 page 16 cap. 30 ver 18 page 133 p. 3 cap. 45 ver 23 page 73 ver 24 pag. 147 cap. 53 ver 5 6 7. page 10 cap 57 ver 18 page 148 p 3 cap. 66 ver 5 page 129 Jerem. Cap. 31 ver 20 page 148. p. 3 Ezâ—k Cap. 1â— ver 6 page 162 cap. 37 ver 3 page 99 Malaâ— Cap. 3 ver 17 page 127 Matth. Cap. 5 ver 17 page 145 146 cap. 6 ver 25. 34 page 113. p 3 cap. 7 ver 25 page 171 cap. 13 ver 26 ad 31 page 116 ver 43. page 4 part 3 cap 19 ver 28 page 66 cap. 25 ver 34 page 175 cap. 26 ver 39 42 44. page 150 cap. 27 ver 2 page 10 part 3 Mark Cap. 13 ver 32 page 56 part 3 Luke Cap 12 ver 20. page 140 part 3 cap. 13 ver 26 page 1â—1 ver 43 page 3. part 3 ver 28 page 46 part 3 cap. 27 ver 37 page 67. Iâ—hâ— cap. 6 ver 39 page 19 76. ver 55.63 page 28 ver 70 page 171 page 7 part 3 cap. 11 veâ— 11. page 2 ver 25 page 48 cap 12 ver 32 page 105 cap. 14 verse 3 page 79 verse 19 page 18 verse 20 page 57 part 3 cap 16 verse 2 page 118 cap. 17 verse 12 page 122 verse 21 page 29 verse 22 page 25 verse 24 page 19 part 3 cap. 20 verse 15 page 72 part 3 Acts. Cap. 1 verse 9 10. page 108 cap. 17 Verse 31 page 76 79 Rom. cap. 1. verse 4 page 12 cap. 3 verse 9 page 147 verse 31 page 144 cap. 5 verse 1 page 154 verse 15 ad fin page 158 cap 7 verse 24 page 39 cap. 8 verse 3 page 144 verse 34 page 147 verse 35 38 39. page 35 cap. 9 verse 8 14â— page 149 cap. 10 verse 4 page 145 cap 14 verse 9 page 15. 1 Cor. cap 1 verse 30 page 30 cap 6 verse 2 3 page 49 cap. 7 verse 12 page 61 Marg. verse 31 page 70 part 3 cap. 15 verse 12 13.20 page 19 verse 35 page 86 verse 37 page 88 verse 41 page 5 part 3 verse 42 43 44. page 89 ad 95 verse 51 page 65 2 Cor. cap 2 verse 16 page 25 cap. 4 verse 17 page 89 part 3 verse 18 page 104 part 3 cap. 5 verse 1 2 page 141 part 3 cap. 12 verse 2 page 3 part 3 verse 4 page 3 part 3 verse 2 4 page 62 Galat. cap. 2. verse 19. page 155. verse 20. page 29 cap. 5. verse 24 page 30 cap. 6 verse 14 page 30 Epâ—es cap. 1 verse 23 page 17 cap. 3 verse 10 page 17 part 3 cap. 5 verse 25 page 162 verse 27 page 162 verse 30 page 24 Philip. cap. 2 verse 7 8 9. page 20 21. part 3. verse 10 page 73 cap 3 verse 6 page 157 verse 20 page 112 verse 21 page 82 part 3 page 97 21. part 3 Colos cap 1 verse 27 page 43 cap. 2 verse 9 page 23 part 3 cap. 3 verse 4 page 29. 1 Thes cap. 4 verse 14 page 9.12 21.45 verse 15 16 17. page 56 57. 67. 70. 76. 80. 86. 104 page 1.84 part 3 1 Tim. cap. 3. verse 16 page 24 p. 3 page 51 part 3 Titus cap. 1 verse 2 page 90 part 3 cap 3 verse 8 page 91 part 3 Heb. cap. 1 verse 2 page 19 part 3 verse 3 page 23 part 3 page 90 cap. 2 verse 11.16 page 26 verse 16 page 149 cap. 7 verse 26 page 157 cap. 10 verse 7 9. page 149 cap. 11 verse 24 25 26. page 101 ad 104. part 3. 1 Peter cap. 1 verse 4 page 73. part 3 verse 5 page 24 36 verse 8 page 76 part 3 verse 15 16 page 44 part 3. cap. 2 verse 9 page 31. 2 Peter cap 1 verse 19 page 63 1 John cap. 3 ver 2. cap. 4 ver 17. page 102 cap. 3 verse 21 page 172 verse 2 page 30 part 3 cap. 5 verse 3 page 30. Jude verse 6 page 164. Revel cap. 1 verse 4 page 75 part 3 cap. 5 verse 11 page 38 part 3 cap. 11 verse 12 page 1â—9 cap. 21 verse 9 page 163 verse 25 page 96 part 3. Scriptures Misquoted PAge 6. Line 3. for Prov. 14.23 Read 14.32 p. 8. maâ—gem for Mark 10.4 r. 10.14 p. 24. margâ— for Eph. 2.29 r. 5 30. p. 51. marg Psa 94 6. r. 94.21 p. 62. marg for 1 Cor. r. 2 Cor. p 73 l. 5. for Phil 2 20. r. 2.10 p. 74. marg for Rev. 6 26 27 r 6.16 17. p. 78. marg for 1 Cor. 15 9. r. 15.19 p. 82. marg for Num. r. Exod p. 90. marg for 2 Thes 2.10 read 1.10 page 99. marg for Ezek 27.3 read 37.3 page 113 marg for Isa 10 34 r. 40.31 page 118 marg for 1 Joh 16.2 read Joh. marg for Prov. 17.17 r. 9.71 page 121 marg for Joh. 10 6. read 17 6. page 128. marg for Heb. 1 11 read 2 11 page 130 line 34 for 2 Chron. 22 23 read 32 31 page 135 marg for Jerem. read Isa marg for Num 23 24. read 23 21 page 137
thoughts of death O ye Saints of God! and why do you indeed what the Jews supposed Mary did John 11.31 go so oft to the Sepulcher to weep there behold your beloved Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth yea that which is of an infinitely higher consideration he sleeps in Jesus Did he live in Christ behold he died in Christ also Did he dye in Christ behold he sleeps in Christ Christ is nearly related to the Saints dust their ashes are not laid up in the Grave so much as in Christ yea though after death they should pass through never so many changes and revolutions and should be scattered at length into all quarters and corners of the world Dormire in Christo est conjunctionem retinere in morte quam habemus cum Christo Calv. in loc he that calls the Stars by their own names knows every dust of their precious bodies keeps them in his hand and is as really united to them as to his own humane nature in Heaven This may be as Jonathan's honey upon the top of the rod taste of it oh ye mourners of hope and your eyes will be enlightned look not on your pretious Relations so much as they lye rotting in the Grave or resolved into dust as upon their dust as it is laid up in a sacred Vrn in the hand and bosome as it were of Jesus Christ for which he himself will be responsible and bring it forth safely and entirely in the morning of the Resurrection there shall not be so much as a dust wanting for so it followeth Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which is a wider breach The sixth Word of Comfort Sixth word of Comfort God will bring his Sleeping Saints with him God will come and when he cometh He will bring them with him which sleep in Jesus God will or God shall c. Some understand it of God the Father others of God the Son I know not why they should be separated they that say God the Father include God the Son i. e. God the Father shall bring them with him in Christ of by Christ referring he shall bring unto the former clause in Jesus The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Erasmus and Tertul. Or by Jesus so reading it God shall bring them by Jesus And they who understand here God the Son exclude not God the Father And verily the order of working which is between the three glorious Persons in Trinity will not allow us to seclude either in this place For as all the external works of the Trinity are common Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa and undivided so Divines observe this method or order in their working The Father worketh all things of himself in the Son by the Holy Ghost The Son worketh from the Father by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost worketh from the Father and from the Son by himself The Original of the action is ascribed to the Father The Wisdom and manner of working to the Son The Efficacy of the operation to the Holy Ghost All external operation begins in the Father is continued in the Son and terminated in the Holy Ghost This is a mystery rather to be adored Psal 139.6 than curiously to be pried into such knowledg is too wonderful for us it is high we cannot attain unto it But as to the words of the Text God will bring them with him I conceive they relate more properly and peculiarly to the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Lord. For so it follows The Lord himself shall descend c. And when he cometh he will bring them with him that sleep in him The propriety of the work is ascribed to Jesus Christ God-man the Mediator between God and man he shall bring them with him when he descendeth from Heaven And that in a four-fold respect 1. Their Spirit or Souls from Heaven 2. Their Bodies from the Grave 3. Body and Soul united he shall take up to himself into the Clouds 4. And then carry all his Saints back with him into Heaven First when the Lord shall descend he will bring the spirits of just men made perfect with him from Heaven The Souls of all his glorified Saints whose bodies to this moment have slept in the Grave shall follow Christ out of the gates of the New Jerusalem to attend that glorious solemnity so it is prophesied Behold Jude v. 14. the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints When Christ cometh to judg the world there shall not be a Saint left in Heaven saith Chrysostom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven shall as it were be left empty to attend the King of Glory going forth out of his Royal Palace to finish the work of the great and last Judgment of the world he shall come attended with all his Saints they shall fill up his Train Secondly As Christ will bring their Souls with him from Heaven so he will bring their bodies from the Grave It is noted how that in the Transfiguration the body of Moses which was hid in the Valley of Moab appeared in the Mount of Tabor which assures us that the bodies of the Saints where-ever they be lodged are not lost but laid up to be raised to glory the same numerical body that was laid down in dust Christ at his coming to Judgment will first go to the Graves of the Saints and cry to them aloud in some such language as once he did to their Souls in the days of their unregeneracy when dead in sins and trespasses in the Gospel-call Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee Life Or as somtimes in the days of his flesh he did to Lazarus John 11.41 when he had lien four days rotting in the Grave Veniet aliquando Christus cum potestate et majestate carnem illam quaerere illud corpus cadaverosum configurare corpors claritatis suae Bern. a lively Emblem and Type of the general Resurrection Lazarus come forth and they that are dead shall come forth It was the tenour of his own prediction while yet in the world The hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man and shall come forth c. I shall not stay here to inquire into the nature and properties of the Saints bodies when Christ shall raise them up out of their Graves that inquiry will be more proper and seasonable in some of the following clauses of this context Concerning the manner of it for the help of our Infant-understandings briefly The manner of the Resurrection we may conceive it after this method First The holy Angels of God shall be sent abroad to gather together the scattered dust of the Saints though separated one from the other at never so great a distance into all the quarters and extremities of the earth Math. 24.31 and
of it Use upon a two-fold Account Comfort to living Saints First To the Saints yet living First In reference to the Saints of God yet living You are now scorned and persecuted the ungodly world doth now judge you and condemn you the Psalmist observed it in his time Psal 94.6 they gather themselves together against the Souls of the Righteous and condemn the Innocent blood Innocence is no security against cruelty and oppression yea it seems no wine so sweet to wicked men as Innocent blood Jam. 5.6 ye have condemned and killed the just and yet that open violence may not want a pretence of Justice they act in the form of a legal process before they kill they do condemn but alas those Fig-leaves will not cover their nakedness It is the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom they do unjustly Condenm and Murder so it was in Davids time and so it was in St. James his time One saith I should suspect him to be no Abel who hath not a Cain to persecute him ver 7 8. and so it is now the Reprobate world holds on its course to this day and so it will be to the end of the World God's Righteous Abels must expect no better justice at the Tribunals of these unrighteous Cains But be patient my Brethren till the Coming of the Lord and stablish your hearts for that coming of the Lord draweth nigh and then the Scene shall be altered you shall have the Law as it were then in your own hands your turn shall be to sit upon the Bench and your Enemies shall stand at the Bar They Judg and Condemn you now but there is a day coming when you shall Judg and condemn them and they indeed Vnrighteously but you shall Condemn them Righteously because your Judgment shall be according to the Judgment of that Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth the Searcher of the hearts who will judg men by those two impartial Books the Book of his own Remembrance and the Book of their Consciences Yea you shall judge them for their Vnrighteous judging of you So it was Prophesied of old Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to Execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him not in his person only but in his Members also Loqâ—untur lapides all their ungodly deeds and all their hard speeches wherewith they have unjustly judged the Saints of God shall be judged over again And this honour shall all the Saints have they shall judg their Judges and not be guilty Psal 49.14 The Righteous shall have the Dominion over them in the morning Surely this is an advancement which the poor oppressed people of God could never have expected were they not assured of it from the mouth of him that shall be the Judg at that day Let this stay and stablish your hearts Secondly Secondly In reference to the Saints departed It is a word of comfort in reference to the Saints departed our precious Relations the sense of whose loss and absence we are not able to bear while we think of them as smothered and extinguisht in their own ashes silent in the land of forgetfulness in whose sweet converse we were wont to solace our selves with much delight their souls having left the habitation of their bodies and their bodies resolved into dust and that dust possibly mixt with the dust of wicked men or of the brute Creatures it may be dispersed into the remotest part of the world Ah these be some of the heart-dividing thoughts wherewith we do afflict our Souls But give check to your passions Oh ye mourners of hope and make use of the Cordials which your Heavenly Physitian hath prescribed to keep you from fainting Remember that although their bodies are in the Grave their Souls are with the Spirits of just men made perfect beholding the face of their Father which is in Heaven from whence Jesus Christ God-man when he shall come in the glory of his Father attended with all his mighty Angels will bring them with him And then shall he go to their Graves and as he formerly said unto them Come my people enter into thy Chambers shut the doors about thee go to bed in the Grave and take thy rest so now he will awaken them out of their sleep with a sweet voyce Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust Arise shine for thy light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee c. yea he will kiss them awake with the kisses of his mouth and then as a Father and a Priest will give the Soul in Marriage to the Body again and unite them one to another and both to Himself in an indissoluble bond Oh Christians think with your selves what a joyful meeting that will be when two such ancient Friends that have been parted so long shall meet and embrace and kiss one another never to suffer any more Divorce or fear of Divorce to Eternity How will the Soul bless God when it shall receive its own body again it 's true Yoak-fellow and Fellow-labourer which laboured with it much in the Lord and which was wont to be its Oratory and Temple wherein the Soul performed all its Sacra its holy devotions in season and out of season And how will the Body rejoyce to see the Soul again to whom it was espoused which was the guide of its youth that in its capacity which Christ is to the Soul it 's King Priest and Prophet and by vertue of whose conjunction with it the very body as poor and mean as it was in its original extraction was preferr'd and admitted into Fellowship and Communion with the Son of God and upon that account not forgotten all the while it slept in the land of forgetfulness and thought not of it self I say Solace your selves with the praevision of that Triumph and Exultation that will fill this blessed new-Married couple especially when they shall receive one another so much more excellent than themselves at their last parting that the body shall seem to be Transessentiated into a Soul and the Soul transformed into an Angel of Light Rejoyce O Christian Soul to think how these two morning Stars will sing for joy in this their new and for ever blessed Conjunction Thirdly Thence follow them in your Contemplations following the Judg to the place where the Thrones shall be erected for judgment and there placed on Thrones not as Spectators only but as joynt-Commissioners Where the Saint of a day shall judg the Sinner of an hundred years old yea they shall judg the Old Serpent himself and all his infernal Angels And as that Sentence leaves them so shall they remain to all Eternity Fourthly and in the last place Christians think not so much on your precious Relations
the Angels of Heaven but the Father there 's the doctrine and then the use is verse 42. Watch therefore for ye know not the hour when the Lord doth come Therefore indeed is the last day concealed from us that we may watch every day And therefore Christians look about you what have you been doing so many years together under the ministry of the Gospel are your accompts yet ready are your evidences cleared is your pardon sealed your interest in Christ secured your calling and Eleclion made sure have ye wrought out your salvation with fear and trembling Luk. 12 35 36. Are your lights burning and your loynes girded and you your selves like unto men that wait for the coming of the Lord that when he cometh and knocketh you may open to him immediatly up and for the Lords sake yea for your own sakes make haste this may be the day the hour when the Son of man may come Wo unto that man to whom the coming of the Lord will be a surprize Therefore I say again watch what you do do quickly I come now to the third branch of this seventh word of Comfort sc Third branch of the seventh word of Comfort The ground and reason of this comfortable truth which lieth in the first clause of the next verse For verse 16. the Lord himself shall descend c. The words are of a twofold consideration sc Absolute And Relative The absolute and positive holds forth a main Article of our Faith sc Christ's last coming to judgment in person The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative and so they are a confirmation of this comfortable truth They which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep and why so For the Lord himself shall descend c. In their absolute sense the words are as I say a main Article of our Faith concerning Christ's coming to judgment in person and therefore may justly challenge their room to make up one entire and distinct word of Comfort in this divine context And so I will first consider them and then in their relative tendency sc as they are a ground or reason of the former Comfort In the order of this second part they are the second but in the method of the whole Context 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are The Eighth word of Comfort Eighth word of Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself shall Descend Here the Apostle describes unto us the last coming of Christ to judgment In which description we have three considerable particulars sc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person that shall come The Lord himself 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The certainty of his coming He shall come 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of his coming With a shout I begin with the first of these The Person that shall come 1. The Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself i. e. Jesus Christ God-Man the Mediator between God and Man He that came at first to purchase and redeem the Elect of God the same person will now come to raise them out of their Graves to gather them together and to bring them with him unto Glory He will not send a Deputy-Angel about the solemn work of that day but will descend Himself in Person to finish that last and grand trust of his Mediatory-Office And that upon a twofold account 1. R. Why Christ will come personally sc because the Judgment must be visible 1. The Lord himself will Descend in his own Person Because the judgment must be visible and therefore the Judge must be so too There is a dispute whether Christ shall sit on a visble Throne and it is very probable he shall sure we are from the Scripture that he shall appear in the Clouds of Heaven that He may be heard and seen of all Behold Rev. 1.7 he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him Clouds are visible things and these Clouds shall not obscure him but rather render him more conspicuous Every eye shall see him He shall so come with Clouds that they shall be a Throne to exalt and lift him up to the view of all the world therefore is the posture noted as well as the Throne Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power Math. 26.64 and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Clouds shall be his Throne and sitting will be the posture the posture of a Judge To judge the world is an act of supream Authority and therefore it must be done by one of the three Persons Now the Father and the Spirit are invisible therefore hath the Father appointed a day Act. 17.31 wherein he will judge the world by the man Christ Jesus The Flesh of Christ is a Veil to his Deity by which God is made visible to an eye of Flesh Christ is God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God conspicuous in the humane nature and in that humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin will Jesus Christ appear in Judgment that so every eye may see him the wicked to their terror but the Godly to their unspeakable joy Isa 66.5 Secondly 2. R. for the recompence of his abasement The Lord himself shall appear for a recompence to his abasement It is requisite that he that was judged by the world should now come to judge the world He came at first humble lowly despised sitting upon an Ass spit upon Crucified but he shall come again in power and great glory It is good somtimes to compare the two Comings of Christ together At first he came into the Flesh In Carâ—â—â— he shewed himself in the nature of man to be judged But at his second coming he shall come in the flesh In Carne He shall come from Heaven in the same humane nature which he carried up with him into Heaven there to be the Judg both of the quick and the dead His fore-runner then was John the Baptist the voyce of one crying in the Wildeâ—ness At his second coming his fore-runner shall be an Arch-Angâ— With the voyce of an Arch-Angel and the Trump of God as in the Text. Then his Companions were poor Fisher-men Now his Attendants shall be the mighty Angels of Heaven 2 Thes 1.7 Then he came riding on an Ass a Colt the Foal of an Ass Now he shall come riding on the Clouds sitting on a Throne At his first coming he appeared in the form of a Servant Now he shall come as a Lord in the glory of his Father Then he came in the likeness of sinful Flesh to suffer as a Sinner for Sinners Now he shall appear the second time to them that look for him Heb. 9. last without sin unto Salvation Then he drunk of the brook in the way but now shall he lift up his head This for the recompence
awakened and set upon their feet again in a most beautiful perfect state I say where He and none but He who long since became their Adocate shall now by the appointment of the Father be their Judge Oh what matter of Joy and Triumph will this administer unto the Saints at that day How may they lift up their heads with joy because their Redemption and Redeemer shall then draw nigh Second branch of Comfort in reference to the Saints departed Again The Doctrine of Christ his Personal Appearance at the last day affords no less Consolation in reference to the Saints departed and to this very end doth the Holy Ghost mention it in this place The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative consideration I told you the words have a Relative consideration in them as they do imply an account why the Saints which are alive at the coming of Christ shall not prevent them which are asleep why it immediatly follows For the Lord himself shall descend The Saints of God need not doubt of this either in reference to themselves or to their Relations whom they have sent before them to the Grave The Lord that bought them will see to Their Resurrection in the first place It was the will of him that sent him that of all which he hath given him Joh. 6.39 he might lose nothing but that he should raise it up again in the last day And Jesus Christ is so punctual to his trust that He will not delegate it to any of the Angels or Seraphims but will come in Person to accomplish that charge that so not any one of his little ones may possibly be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing may be lost neither Person nor Member nor Dust but that Christ may present it entirely to his Father at his coming in the same language he spake when he went out of the world Those that thou gavest me John 17. I have kept and none of them is lost He bought them at too dear a rate to leave any one of them in the Grave and therefore to make all sure He will come in Person and finish his work Himself As sure as He ascended up into Heaven after his own Resurrection so surely shall he descend from Heaven to perfect that Resurrection in his Saints which brings me to the second Particular The second particular in this Eighth word of Comfort The second word of Comfort He shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is The Certainty of his coming couch'd in the Verb here He 〈◊〉 shall descend from Heaven He shall i.e. most certainly and infallibly And so all the Scriptures which mention the Coming of the Lord speak of it in the notion of a most unalterable Decree and Statute of Heaven thus the Apostle to the Athenians God hath appointed a day wherein he will judg the world in righteousness Act. 17.31 by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given us assurance c. See how many words here are heaped one upon another to assure our Faith of the infallible certainty of Christs Coming First he hath appointed a day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Statuit diem There is the divine Appointment and Decree past upon it in Gods Eternal purpose and Counsel It is a Statute enacted in Heaven that there shall be a future Judgment a Statute more sure than ever the Laws of the Medes and Persians for Heaven and Earth may pass away but Gods Decree shall stand c. And then there is a certain Day appointed for it a stated time by the same Power A day which can neither be adjourned nor accelerated The time is fixed He hath appointed a day and it cannot be altered And then the Work is determined as well as the day and that is judgment wherein He will Judge The Judgment is not left Arbitrary or Contingent but God is resolved on 't He will Judg not peradventure he may Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as sure as He is God he will Judg. The Persons to be judged are also specified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not less than the whole world He will Judg the world not a single Person shall escape that Judgment 2 Cor. 5.10 we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ As the Persons to be Judged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise the Person that is to Judg is named and designed to it already That man that special that peculiar man the man Christ Jesus And to make all sure he hath his Commission already That man whom he hath Ordained the Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 6.27 is Elected and commission'd under the broad Seal of Heaven is passed And if all this be not enough there is yet further Assurance and evidence given of it already to the world open and evident demonstration if men will not shut their eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fide palam facta omnibus of which he hath given assurance unto all men what that assurance is I shall shew anon In the mean time see how the Holy Ghost useth all the words and expressions which may create a firm assent to the doctrin of Christs coming to Judgment that there may be no room for doubting left Formid Oppositi as the Schools calls it no hesitancy in the minds of men And not here only but in many other Scriptures 2 Cor. 5.10 that hinted even now We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ c. Not we may only but we must Christ must Judg and we must all appear But not to multiply Scriptures take we a brief account of the Grounds And Behold 1. Reason says Reasons or Grounds of the certainty of Christs coming He may Come 2. Faith says He must Come 1. Reason saith He may Come The very Course of Providence shews it The Godly are not the happiest in this world 1 Cor. 15.9 If in this life only says the holy Apostle we had hope in Christ we were of all men most miscrable Vertue hath not a full reward nor Vice sufficient punishment in this life Dives the Representative of the Voluptuous world flowed in ease and pleasure while Lazarus a godly man afflicted with pain and hunger was glad to dine with his Dogs at the dore The Dogs were both his Almoners and his Chirurgeons Things must not go after this rate for ever Sooner or later a man shall say i. e. He that is no more than a man that hath no better eye in his head than the eye of Sense and Reason shall be convinced of this and compelled to confess of a truth There is a reward for the Righteous Verily he is a God that judgeth the Earth Sin is now somtimes punished with * In judicijs suis quae Deus in hoc mundo exercet non est ista plena mensura justitiae quae erit in judicis ultimi Dici
a while and all will not do but down it will come Roof and Walls and Props and All. Or again Natural i. e. such as hath natural motions operations and affections such as are proper only to the fallen Nature of man feeble slow limited and temporary But now behold in opposition to all these acceptations it is raised a spiritual body not in regard of the substance of it as if it were turned into a Spirit but 1. Because animated and acted by the Soul now in its glorified capacity made perfect with all heavenly qualifications and so Spiritualized in all its faculties and operations Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of just men made perfect that it is called no more by the name of a Soul but of a Spirit To the conduct and motions whereof the body NOW shall yield absolute and immutable obedience and conformity Here the Soul depends as it were upon the body Anima sequitur temperamentum Corporis because though the body be acted by the Soul yet the Soul acts according to the temperament of the body and the disposition of the Organs The difference if we take notice of it between men and men in respect of Wisdome and judgment and other natural excellencies Omnes animae sunt ejusdem perfectionis ariseth not from any disparity that is between their Souls for all Souls are of a Size the Soul of a Fool is as perfect as the Soul of a Wise man But the difference ariseth from the Crasis and Complexion of the body which many times puts Yokes and Manacles upon the Soul so that at the best it is but as a close Prison or dark Lant-horn which obstructs and restrains the more noble and liberal operations of the Soul and penn's in those beams of light which if within more transparent Walls would send forth a greater luster to enlighten the world But now in the Resurrection it shall not be so the body then shall depend wholly upon the Soul and be acted properly and indistarbedly by the Soul Here the Soul seems to be flesh it self because acted by the flesh Every way subject to the motions and desires of the Soul Spiritui subdita and is oft subservient to the flesh but then the very body shall seem to be a Spirit because acted by the Spirit and shall be universally and uniformly serviceable to the Spirit The Soul shall immediatly be acted by God and the body shall immediatly be acted by the Soul thus it shall be a Spiritual body Secondly It is raised a spiritual body because it shall subsist as a Spirit it shall stand in no need of those gross material Aliments of meat and drink and sleep by which it is now underpropt but it shall be susteined meerly by vertue of its union with the Soul as the Soul by vertue of its union with Jesus Christ this is to be a spiritual body when the body shall subsist as a Spirit or as an Angel doth subsist Thirdly Spiritual because the motions operations Care Angelica Angelified flesh Tert. de Res and affections of the body shall then be all Spiritual it shall be in the Resurrection of so pure and refined a Complexion that it shall be diaphanous and transparent and move up and down with the agility and celerity of a Spirit Zanchius resembleth it to the motion of birds in the Aire Zanch. De Operibus Dei that the body being hatcht as it were in the Resurrection shall be able to mount up into the Heavens and as lightly flie through the skies as if it had wings David shall then need to wish no more for the wings of a Dove but be able to contend with fouls of the swiftest flight Augustin hath an higher streyn and saith that Miraceleritate The body shall move from place to place with what celerity it listeth and after him Luther expresseth it by the swiftness of a Thought as instantaneous as the Lightning which in the twinkling of an eye passeth from one end of Heaven to another Likewise the operations of the body shall then be all spiritual operations It shall then be abased no more to any of the servile drudgeries of this present state it shall work no more toyl no more sin no more the Offices of the body shall be as far above its present functions as the work of a King transcends the imployment of a Swine-herd or Scullion they shall for ever be freed from all those uses which do imply a state of infirmity and shall be taken up wholly in Heavenly and Angelical Services sc to stand before the Throne of God and of the Lamb and to praise him for ever and ever And lastly the body shall then be Spiritual because it shall be indued with Spiritual Affections it shall not be liable to weariness sickness pain or external injuries no more than a Spirit is It shall not indeed be an Aerial and Spiritual body as the Socinians and others do inconsequentially inferr from this and other Scriptures but it shall be no more capable of a stroke or wound or any other violence than the Air or Sun or the Heavens themselves It shall be a true real body but no more vulnerable or penetrable than if it were a Spectrum an imaginary body a meer Apparition It is true Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God but the meaning is not that in the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints shall cease to be flesh and blood Ver. 50 51. but that they shall be devested of all the defects and infirmities of flesh and blood This is the mystery of it The Fire of the last day the only Purgatory We shall be changed The fire of the last Judgment that only Purgatory of the Saints that we dull Protestants know shall not consume the bodies of the Saints but their corruption only it shall not destroy the substances but refine their qualities as the Goldsmith maketh a new Vessel of old Plate not by altering the mettal but by changing the form and fashion The furnace of the Resurrection shall purge out all the slime and dross and filth and imperfection out of the bodies of the Saints and refine them into a body that shall exceed the Celestial bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars in clarity and purity This is that Affection and Property which the Schools call Impassibility No more capable of a blow or wound than the Air or Heavens or the Sun it self they shall be put into a blessed incapacity or irreceptiveness of any even the least injury or prejudice incident to the humane nature in this state of mortality They shall be no more liable to suffering than the glorified Angels in Heaven or the Spirits of just men made perfect Behold these be now the beatifical properties wherewith the very bodies of the Saints shall be arayed and beautified in the Resurrection Of Corruptible Ignominous Weak Natural It shall be made Incorruptible
the Sheavs into his Barn I will say to the Reapers but gather the Wheat into my Barn Behold this is the Angels Office their work is not done till the good Corn be Inn'd This in the Metaphor of the Marriage of the Lamb is nothing else but the Angels attendance on the Saints the Lambs Wife while She is making ready Revel 19.7 8. that when She is arayed in fine Linnen clean and white they may then take her up in their winged Arms and conduct her in state to the place where her Royal Bridegroom is staying for her Thirdly Third Medium The Spirituality of the Saints bodies The Spirituality and Power wherewith the bodies of the Saints are endowed in the Resurrection may well concurr also to this Ascention By vertue of that marvellous Spirituality and Agility wherewith the Resurrection shall if I may so say inform the Saints bodies they shall be able to mount upward ut sup and move with admirable celerity up and down to and fro in the Air as Swallows in a Sun-shine day dart themselves through the skie or as the Angels themselves who with equal facility Descend and Ascend with a motion as swift as their Wills In the Resurrection indeed the Saints were purely passive as passive as when their bodies were first formed out of the dust and had the breath of Life breathed into them But now in their Ascention they shall be active and agil Mooved indeed they shall be by an extrinsick power why else are they said to be caught up into the Air But yet not so but that they may move themselves by an intrinsick Principle Else 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. God and Nature do nothing in Vain those supernatural affections of their re-divine bodies might seem to be superfluous and insignificant Sutably to this it is storied of Elijah his Ascention a Prophesie and figure of this universal Translation of the Saints that although a Charet of fire parted Him and Elisha yet He went up by a whirlwind into Heaven He was carryed and yet he went up so the Saints c. Thus I have shewed the probability at least of a threefold Medium in the Saints Ascention 1. Christs Power 2. The Angels Ministry Object 3. The Agility of the Saints bodies But it may be Objected What meaneth this Concurrence of Mediums For if any one of these be sufficient What use of them all For Answer Ans Twofold I shall offer two things to your consideration First This Concurrence of Mediums is no other than we meet with in the Ascention of our Lord in his own Person For First Act. 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Lord Jesus Himself after his Resurrection it is said He was taken up or lifted up the phrase may import the Power of the Father as formerly in raising him up from the dead So now also in lifting him up into Glory according to that Act. 5.31 Him hath God the Father exalted with his right-hand Here is the power of the Father in the Sons Ascention And then you have the subserviency of second Causes added first a Cloud is prepared as a Royal Charet to carry up this King of Glory to his Princely Pavilion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24.51 He was carryed up into Heaven A Cloud received him out of their sight And then a Royal Guard of mighty Angels surround the Charet if not for support yet for the greater state and solemnity of their Lords Ascention He was carried up into Heaven Luk. 24.51 Yet notwithstanding all this it is said of the Lord Jesus He went up Act. 1.10 while the Disciples looked stedfastly towards Heaven He went onward or he went upward as implying that his motion was not only passive but active he mounted up into Heaven by his own divine power He Ascended Behold here we have a perfect Pattern of the Saints Ascension in all the Mediums of it they hold exact proportion with their Lord. The Father lifted up the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus He lifts up his Saints A Cloud received Him the Saints also are caught up in the Clouds Angels attend upon their Lord in his Ascension nor do they refuse their attendance on the Saints in their Ascension Jesus Christ notwithstanding Ascended by the Power of his own glorified Person The Saints likewise Ascend by vertue of those supernatural properties wherewith their bodies were adorned in the Resurrection I Answer Secondly Second Answ That in both Christ's and the Saints Ascention this variety of Mediums is neither superfluous nor inconsistent but signal instances of that sweet harmonious subordination of Causes which the only wise God hath established in his own Counsel for the managing of his works and wonders of providence viz. Second Causes working together in their several Sphere and Orb. The supream cause ordering influencing and actuating the second causes to his own ends and designs And lastly See a notable instance of this subordination Hos 2.21 22. Rev. 11 12. Particular Beings and Persons lest to act according to the mpressions of their own individual natures notwithstanding their subordination All these Mediums we may observe once more concurring in the Resurrection of the Witnesses mentioned in the Revelations There you have 1. A great voyce from Heaven calling them Come up hither There 's th Power of Christ It was a great voyce a voyce of Power a voyce which did what it commanded Second The subserviency of the Clouds the Witnesses rode upon a Cloud into Heaven in Triumph Thirdly And to shew their motion was not violent but free also and voluntary it is said they Ascended Fourthly And there is yet one Circumstance more of special remark and that is This was in the sight of their Enemies Their Enemies beheld them beheld them with great fear verse 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horrour and Astonishment took hold of their Persecutors Envying their Advancement and vexing themselves that they should have no more power to Persecute the Witnesses and add to all this confounded in the expectation of their own succeeding judgment This one Scripture is a perfect prediction and model of the general Resurrection of the Saints in the last day The Lord Jesus from his Throne shall call them up by a powerful voyce Come up hither Clouds shall be their Chariots and Horses to carry them And yet they shall Ascend upwards by a supernatural principle spontaneously and of their own proper motion While in the mean time the whole world of reprobate Men and Angel shall be left below upon the Earth looking upward and gnashing their Teeth to see such a sudden and tremendous Turn of things the Saints whom they despised and persecuted snatcht out of their reach and ascending in so much pomp and royalty to meet their glorious Redeemer they themselves being left behind with a certain looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the adversaries Then shall begin their weeping and
Seed of the Woman nor è contrà but there shall be a perfect separation The Sheep shall be separated from the Goats the Elect from the Reprobate there shall not be a Servant of the Lord amongst the Worshipers of Baal nor a Son of Beltal among the Sons of God Sinners and none but Sinners Saints and none but Saints shall make up these two distinct Congregations Nay so terrible will the glory which Christ will put upon his Saints be upon the faces of the Reprobates and so great the horrour of their own guilty Consciences that they shall now as much dread their Society as once they hated it and chuse rather to leap alive into the burning Lake then to mix themselves unto them or so much as to put their head within that holy Assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praestituto tempâ—re Verse 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Christ assureth to his Mourners shall be effected in the appointed time if not in our time yet in Gods time in the time of Harvest But what shall we do in the mean time why saith our Lord Suffer them to grow together suffer them not by sinful toleration in Rulers nor by sinful compliance in people Expectardo non temeâ—è occupando If we cannot separate from Churches yet separate from their Corruptions and defilements 2 Use but suffer them by patient expectation in case of necessity having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reproving them If you cannot avoyd the Workers yet avoyding the Works of darkness and then in your patience do you possess your Souls 2. This Circumstance of the Saints separation from the Wicked is improved for comfort by our Lord Jesus Christ himself In case of undue exclusion from Church Ordinances of such as Christ would not have excluded Our Lord Jesus hath foretold that the power of the keys should fall sometimes into such hands as would so diametrically pervert the use of them as that oft-times none should be excluded but whom Christ would have admitted nor admitted but such as Christ would have shut out They shall put You out of their Synagogues 1 Joh. 16.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Excommunicate you You my Disciples you my Friends Hard measure I but here is comfort the time is coming wherein all the Elect shall be Congregated into one universal Assembly never to suffer exclusion or ejectment any more to all Eternity And then their unrighteous Excommunicators shall be righteously Excommunicated yea they shall be Excommunicated with the highest sort of Excommunication higher than any Church of Christ ever used Excommunicated for ever delivered unto Sathan not for the destruction of the flesh only but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.9.10 and from the glory of his Power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints That 's a dreadful Excommunication indeed the Anathema Maranatha in the highest sense quum Dominus venit quia Domino quasi in manus citra veniae spem dedentur Jude 14. Now the Saints of God are glad to get into Corners by twoes and by threes and blessed be God not without a promise to seek the face of God so making the Harlot's Text Prov. 17.17 speak chast language Stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant But in that glorious Morning of the Resurrection they shall meet by millions and myriads of millions and there shall be none to disturb or offend them yea their Enemies shall look on and gnash their Teeth for anguish and vexation of Spirit to see them now got for ever out of their power 3. 3 Use And lastly for Comfort in case of the Saints separation one from another whether by the unrighteous hand of Violence or the righteous hand of Providence Now by means of Dispersions Imprisonments Exile c. the people of God are like Arms and Legs torn out of the body and lye bleeding in their separations Yea God Himself is pleased to make sad breaches between them and their sweetest Relations by Death Under which they are many times like Rachel not without sin weeping for her Children and refuse to be Comforted because they are not lifting up their voyces and crying Oh! my Father Abraham and Oh! my Son Isaac O Absolon my Son my Son Absolon would God I had dyed for thee I will go down to the Grave to my Son mourning c. But here is Comfort the time is coming when the Parent and Child Husband and Wife Friend and Friend with the whole Family of Heaven and Earth from all their dispersions from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven shall meet together and embrace one another Everlasting Joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and mourning shall flee away In a word how may all the Saints of God in what state or condition so ever for the present solace themselves in the fore-contemplation of the Triumphant gathering together of the Elect of God What a joyful Sight will it be when all the Saints and Servants of the most high God which ever saw one anothers faces or heard of one anothers names yea and all they which never saw or heard each of other All of every Tongue Nation Kindred or Family of the Earth of what Age Sex Generation soever from the day wherein God made time to the day wherein time shall be no more shall meet together and stand on tip-toe ready to take their flight to meet their Lord and Bridegroom coming in the Clouds with his mighty Angels Yea what a glorious sight will it be to see all The glorious Company of the Apostles The goodly Fellowship of the Prophets The whole Army of Martyrs with The holy Church throughout all the World A Congregation of Kings and Priests in all their Royal Robes Yea as I may so say a Congregation or Constellation of Morning-Starrs yea of so many Noon-day Suns arising from the Earth co-Ascending through the several Regions of the Air to meet the Sun of Righteousness now descending from his own Orb of Supream Glory and Majesty in the highest Heavens to Judg both the quick and the dead Surely such an Assembly eye never saw ear never heard of nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive how immense how august how exceeding it will be in glory While in the mean time the Congregation of the Reprobate the Malignant Church that are left below upon the Earth on the left hand shall stand trembling looking upwards and gnashing their Teeth to see this sudden and tremendous turn of things the Saints whom they despised and persecuted before thus snatched out of their cursed power and fellowship Ascending in so much Pomp and Royalty to meet their glorious Redeemer They themselves left behind to curse themselves and one another for their Prejudices Envy and Rage which once they breath'd out against Gods people
on the contrary as to true real Saints God owneth what themselves dare not own but though they have forgotten God is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love which they have shewed towards his Name Math. 2◠7 in ministring to the Saints but all shall be remembred even from the Alabaster-box of costly Spikenard to the Cup of cold water given in the name of a Disciple and proclaimed in the Audience of that general Assembly Math 25 40. For as much as you have done it to one of these little ones ye have done it unto me yea those very acts of Charity which have been done so secretly that the left hand did not know what the right hand did Math. 6.3 shall be now published upon the house-top the great house of Heaven and Earth they were not so closely done but they shall as openly be rewarded the book of God's remembrance shall be brought forth and opened and publickly read that all the good which any of the Saints of God ever did may be mentioned to their everlasting praise and that with a double circumstance of signal honour First A twofold advantage of the Recital made of the Saints Graces That in that large Recital which shall then be read of the Saints lives there is not the least mention made of sin they had sure enough the remainders of their original corruption surviving their conversion defiling molesting their most holy Services which were as so many scourges in their sides and Thorns in their eyes uncessantly tempting them and exposing them to temptation forcing from them sad laments and out-cryes Rom. 7.24 O Wretch that I am who shall deliver me They had and not rarely their actual Surprises and Seductions their Lapses and Relapses which brought them upon their knees with holy Job's Confession Job 7.20 I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men but none of these things come up into remembrance against them in that day As here below God saw no Iniquity in Jacob nor perversness in Israel to impute it to them so in their appearance before the Judge God remembreth no iniquity against the Saints to charge it upon them or to reproach them with it In the petty Sessions which Christ held with some of his Saints and Churches here on Earth amongst their Commendations there were some Exceptions and some faultinesses were charged upon them an Howbeit 2 Chron. 22.33 a Nevertheless Ch. 33.17 as abatements of their excellencies Nevertheless I have a few things against thee Rev. 2. So in the Process against the Church of Ephesus verse 4. Nevertheless a But against Pergamos verse 14. Against Thyatira v. 20. a Notwithstanding c. But now in the judicial Process of this last and Vniversal Assizes there is not found in all those voluminous Records which shall be opened so much as one unsavoury But to blemish the fair Characters of the Saints as if even before they got into Heaven they had obtained that priviledg to be just men made perfect This is very wonderful Had Reprobate men and Angels had the drawing up of the Report of the Saints lives Heb. 12.23 See the reason of it page 134. sub fine what a black Bill of Inditement would they have preferred against them to be sure all the evil which they ever did in their whole lives with all their blackest aggravations should have been raked up and produced against them Yea if the Saints themselves had been trusted with giving in the story of their own lives they would not have dealt much more kindly by themselves than the Seed of the Serpent would have done to be sure if there were any thing worse than other they would not have concealed it vilifying the good and aggravating the bad as somtimes they were wont to do in their desertions even beyond truth and justice as if Satan had hired them to bely themselves I but now the Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth He is far from dealing so with them but as if he himself had never known any evil by them he brings in Omnia bene in his presentment all fair and well and so it is proclaimed in that High Court of Justice This is no small Encouragement for the poor self-accusing Saints of God! Use Rev. 12.10 Although the accuser of the Brethren and his seed do not cease to accuse them before God day and night yea and doth often taking advantage of their natural distempers even to force them to accuse themselves not much more Righteously then He himself doth yet will not the Righteous Judg accuse them But is it not Prophesied of the day of Judgment Object Eccles 12.14 that God shall bring every work into judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil How then is there no mention made of their sins That Scripture is to be understood Respective Sol. sc with a just respect to the two great parties which are to be judged good and bad godly and ungodly that is to say All the good of the good shall be brought into the judgment of mercy and all the evil of the wicked into the judgment of Condemnation the godliness of the godly that it may be gratiously rewarded and the wickedness of the wicked that it may be righteously punished Here Caution I say is encouragement for the Saints howbeit not to sin such a vile Conclusion would ill become such Premisses and were sufficient evidence to un-Saint any person that should deliberately make such Inferences as being a Logick taught in the Devils School not in Christ's and exploded by all real Saints with the greatest abhorrency Ab sit God forbid Rom. 6.1 Comfort then here is for the Saints but such as will make them more Saints 1 Jo. 3.3 Every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure But Secondly Secondly The Crown of praise is put on the Saints Head Another Circumstance of honour in Christ's acknowledgment of the Graces in and Duties performed by his Saints is that although their Graces were nothing else but so many drops of Christ his own fulness Grace for Grace and their duties so many operations of his own Spirit in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.16 nothing their 's but the very act of Believing and the act of Repentance and the act of Love to Christ and the act of Prayer sic in caeteris yet Christ is pleased to ascribe all the Praise and all the Glory both of their Graces and Duties unto the Saints assuming nothing to himself to whom the whol was wholly due as if not only the act it self but the principle also from whence they acted had been their own This is truly wonderful here is the bredth and length depth and height of the Love of Christ Eph. 3.18 19. which passeth knowledg Christ then will indeed be glorified in his Saints and admired in
Vision the glorified Saints They shall see the glorified Saints in their souls as well as in their bodies all the elect of God that ever were in the world * In their souls as well 〈◊〉 in their bodies from Adam until the second coming of Jesus Christ and it will be a glorious sight to see the King and all his Peers and Nobles in their Parliament Robes with Crowns and Embellishments of honour fitting in their state and order is a â—ight which every one covets and crowds to see What will it be to see the King of Saints with all the Redeemed ones of God in their Robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb and Crowns of gold upon their heads and palms of victory and triumph in their hands a Parliament all of Kings and Priests every one of them shining forth as the Sun Mat. 13.63 in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father The Sun when it breaks forth out of a cloud and displayes its refulgent beams in full lustre and brightness what a glorious Creature is it and with what a beauty doth it guild and adorn the world Oh my soul what a sight will that be when I shall see an Heaven full of Suns scattering their rayes of glory through all those celestial Regions There is another Scripture which makes the glory of this Vision yet more splendid and radiant every one of the glorified bodies of the Saints shall be made conform to Christs own glorious body Phil. 3.21 the glory of the Father shines forth in the Son and the glory of the Son shall shine forth in the Saints He in his Fathers glory is even in his humane nature and they in his Surely the Luminaries of the first magnitude in the visible heavens the Sun and Moon will be turned into darkness before the glory of this Vision they shall shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their Father that will be a glorious Vision indeed Not to speak any thing of the several degrees and orbs of Saints orbs of several degrees of Grace and orbs of several degrees of offices and services in the Church Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors c. of which the Apostle gives us not an obscure hint 1 Cor. 15.41 As one star differeth from another in glory so also is the resurrection of the dead q. d. as the Luminaries of these visible heavens are of a different magnitude and brightness each above the other in their orbs and sphears so also is the Kingdom of glory there be different forms of Saints one excelling another in brightness and glory I say to pass by this in silence which yet certainly hath somewhat in it for the heightning of the beauty of this vision as we see in the Luminaries of this inferiour world their different orbs and magnitudes contribute not a little to the beauty and ornament of these visible heavens We may add this before we go off viz. That the communion and converse with the Saints in heaven will be as sweet to the tast as the vision of them will be glittering to the eye there will be heaven in both Behold their fellowship and converse here was so sweet that David could say All my delight is in the Saints that are in the earth Psalm 16.3 and in the excellent ones David could take no pleasure in the company of any in the world but only in Gods holy Ones who were beautified with his Image Oh what will their communion and fellowship think you be in heaven when they shall be totally divested of all their sinful corruptions their ignorance their pride their passion their peevishniss their tenaciousness their impurity their envy their impatience their câ—nsoriousness their unseriousness their infincerity and their unsavouriness whereby they are apt to offend and hurt one another Yea when they shall have put off their natural infirmities as well as their sinful their impertinencies their mistakes their weaknesses their indispositions their hunger and thirst their drowsiness their vanity their mutability whereby they are not more unlike to other men than to themselves sometimes their diversions and reservedness c. whereby they are less able to do one another good What will their converse be when they shall put off all their defects and all their imperfections When there shall be no dissent amongst them much less dissention but when they shall all speak the same thing and there shall be no division but they shall be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment which the Apostle commends so passionately even to the Saints on this side Heaven 1 Cor. 1.10 When there shall be such a perfect harmony amongst the Saints as if there were but one soul to act that whole Assembly of the first-born When there will be nothing in them to converse with but pure grace grace without mixture grace and nothing else but grace Yea not pure grace only but perfect grace when every grace shall be in its perfect state and have its perfect works when every grace shall act to the highest degree yea when there will be â—o use of those inferiour graces which are but for the way as patience repentance simpathy pity fear hope yea none of the highest of all the graces hath faith it self now abideth faith hope now is in this imperfect state faith it self belongeth unto the imperfect state but when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away when sight is come then faith shall cease and the Saints shall converse one with another only in their superiour graces their marriage-graces their glorious graces that are proper to their adult state love joy delight in God mutual complacency zeal obedience praising God thankfulness when they shall love God as much as they would love him yea as much as God would be beloved and obey God as much as God would be obeyed and praise God as much as God would be praised c. Oh when the Saints are cast into such an heavenly mold yea and we our selves are capable of such pure converse for here in this imperfect state the Saints of God are not alwayes in the same frame one with another or with themselves whâ—n one Saint is up the other is down like an Instrument out of tune jarring and disharmonious when one is alive the other dead when this is hot the other is cold when one is ready to give the other is not fit to receive the communications of grace But oh when now I say all the Instruments of Glory are alike strung and equally tuned in their several capacities what sweet ravishing harmony what heavenly musick will they make Oh might we but see such a Saint on earth as one of these are how would every one be ready to kiss his lips yea to kiss his very feet and hardly forbear even to worship him Acts 10.25 Rev. 22.9 as Cornelius would have worshipped Peter or as John
the glorified estate Rev. 7.14 21.4 God shall wipe all tears from their eyes Secondly We answer that there shall be such a perfect conformity of will between God and the Saints that there will be no dissent in the least It shall not be then as it is now to the no little imbittering of their present estate first by sin and then by grief for sin but what pleaseth God shall abundantly please them This the Saints pray for here but there shall they be fully possessed of it here it is their duty but there it shall be their reward the Saints in glory would have nothing otherwise than God would have it so that now to the full and perpetual silencing of this Objection I answer That the glory of God shall so perfectly swallow up all private personal considerations that I am confident it is no breach of charity to say that the believing Husband shall rejoyce in the damnation of the unbelieving Wife the holy Parent in the damnation of the stubborn and ungodly Child Et sic in caet Gods Will is the Law and his Glory the triumph of the Heavenly Inhabitants Oh let Parents and Ministers and Governours and Tutors and Yoke-fellows Brethren Friends c. be but as good now as Dives was in hell I mean let them be but in as good carnest here as he was there that their Relations may never come into that place of torment and if they do wilfully cast themselves headlong into that irrecoverable Gulf it will be no grief of heart to them when they come to Heaven But even as God himself they being then swallowed up in God they will even laugh at their calamity and mock when they see their condemnation This shall suffice to have spoken of the second Vision in Glory A third Vision which the Saints shall have in Heaven is that of the elect Angels Gregor do Valent. in Thom. Aquin gives many reasons of that multitude of Angels asserted by Tho. Aquin. and ads Certum est in hac multitudins Angelorum nt mero differentium jus esse Hierarchlas quarum quaelibet contineat tres ordines ita in universum esse novem ordines Angelorum neâ—pe Seraphin Cherubin Thronos in primo Dominationâ—s Virtutes Potestates in secunda Principatus Archangelos Angelos in tertio Gregor tom 1. pa. 10â—6 1027. Certum est saith he de fide in his ipsis ordinibus alios Angelos esse afficio dignitate superiores alios inferiores The Platonists assert as many Angels as there are Species or sensible Creatures Aristotle makes as many Angels as Orbs. R. Moses affirms all the powers and operations of superiour and inferiour things to he so many Angels Tho. Aquinas confidently asserts the number of the Angels incomparably to eâ—ceed the number of material Substances Maniminus Arrianus saith there are ninety nine times more than the number of men in the world they shall see those glorious ministring Spirits those flames of fire the Angels of God by what names or titles soever they are dignified or distinguished in their Hierarchical orders if there be any which because it is a dispute of greater fancy than Scripture evidence and hath filled the world with more empty speculation than substantial knowledge I shall wholly wave it Heaven will be the place only where we shall exactly know their nature number order distictions if any and not so only but have sweet and heavenly converse and communion with them About the way and manner of the Saints knowing and conversing with the Angels is a query of some difference amongst the Learned Some are of opinion that the Angels shall assume aerial bodies to entertain the eyes of the Saints withall and to bring them into a nearer capacity of conversing with them Some è contra conceive that the bodily eyes of the glorified Saints shall be spiritualized and angelified that they shall be able to see the very essence of the Angels as not being so remote from materiality as the Divine Essence Others tell us of a vehiculum Caro Angelificata Text. dâ— Resur or a visible glory as the rayes about the Sun wherein the Angels do move and whereby they are discerned and distinguished from one another But all these are but so many uncertain Comments of mens brains As for that Opinion which makes them knowable only by their operations The Sadduces vigour and activity it is too narrow for so they are known unto us even in this life The immediate and continual converse which the Saints shall have with them in Heaven doth necessarily infer an higher way and manner of knowing them The seeing of them by the glorified eye of the understanding is the clearest and surest way we can pitch upon on this side the place of their constant Residency So they know one another and so they know the Saints and so for the Saints to see and know them is not inconsistent with the analogy of Scripture and Reason In what way and manner this mutual converse and communion betwixt the Saints and Angels in glory shall be managed is not determinable by us poor mortals until this mortal shall put on immortality how they communicate their minds and thoughts one to another is yet dark to us Concerning the Angels converse amongst themselves the Schools speak very rationally when they say it is by the opening of their wills one to another when ever they would communicate their minds and notions and meanings one to another it is done when they would be understood by one another they are understood And the same way they converse with one another it is most probable they converse with the Saints and the Saints with them the Saints may more rationally be conceived to communicate their thoughts to the Angels by opening their minds than by opening their mouths partly because the Angels have no corporeal organs to receive what the Saints express by their corporeal instruments of speech and partly because the superiour part of the Saints their glorified souls being of so spiritual and cognate a nature to the Angels that way of communication which is most agreeable to divine Spirits we may well conceive to be common to those heavenly Inhabitants Whatever the way or manner be this we may be sure of sc that the communion and converse with the Angels in Heaven will be no small augmentation of their happiness and of their joy if we consider their Angelical perfections especially those two of Knowledge and Zeal therefore called in Scripture flaming fire flames for brighiness of illumination and fire for the ardency of their love and zeal Oh what rare notions and experiences will the Angels be able to communicate to the Saints in Heaven having ministred about the Throne of God from the foundation of the world and been sent forth continually to manage the great affairs of the world but especially of the Churches The Apostle tells us they are beholden to the *
have sought for or so much as to have thought of Such a wish in the standing Angels Oh that God would give his own essential eternaly begotten Son to take the humane nature upon him and therein to recover lost man would have been a presumption without doubt which no less than the first ambition of the Apostate Angels probably conceived only in thought might have justly merited their ejection also out of Heaven Oh for the second Person in the glorious Trinity to take upon him the nature of man and that too when it was at the worst when it was fallen and stript of all its original beauty and excellency was more than for all the Angels of light to have been degraded if I may so say into so many Chimney-sweepers or Kennel-rakers or to have been condemn'd to have been made hewers of wood and drawers of wtaer for the service of the reprobate world had it been to have stood for ever This this is the great stupendious mystery which may fill the understanding of men and Angels with wonder and delight to all eternity * Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh the Son of God incarnate Justly then may it swallow up our thoughts with horror and astonishment to descend step by step to the bottom of the Lord Christ his mediatory humiliation and abasement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex omni Scipsum ad nihilum redegit exhausit Tertul. lib. 5. adversus Maâ—cion v. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he debased or vilified himself to find him emptying of himself as it were to the last drop of his glory meekly submitting himself to all the affronts and insolencies of a reprobate world all the temptations and harassing of infernal Spirits and at length to death it self even the death of the cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the cross that death which was proper only to accursed slaves and therein drinking up the bitterest cup that ever was put into the hand of a sinner the cup of his Fathers wrath the venom whereof filled his soul with unconceivable anguish and made him cry out to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth My God my God why bast thou forsaken me In a word if you would come to the bottom of our Lords abasement you must dig to the very bottom of hell it self if there be a bottom there for though Christ did not suffer poenas inferni he did suffer poenas infirnales hellish pains though not the pains of hell Why now then if you would make any discovery of that glory wherewith the humane nature of our blessed Lord is invested at the right hand of God you must skrew up your thoughts to a glory every way adequate and commensurate to his inanition and abasement for less than that not only the love but the justice of his Father could not proportion to him It were good sometimes in our thoughts to compare the abasement of Christ and his exaltation together to set them as it were in columes one over against another He was born in a Stable but now he reigns in his Royal Palace then he had a Manger for his Cradle but now he sets in a Chair of state then Oxen and Asses were his Companions now thousands of Saints and ten thousand thousands of Angels minister round about his Throne then in contempt they called him the Carpenters Son now he obtains by inheritance a more excellent name than the Angels for to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Then he was led away into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil now it is proclaimed before him let all the Angels of God worship him then he had not a place to lay his head on now he is exalted to be the heir of all things in his state of humiliation he endured the contradiction of sinners in his state of exaltation he is adored and admired of Saints and Angels then he had no form or comeliness when we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him now the beauty of his countenance shall send forth such glorious beams that shall dazle the eyes of all the celestial Inhabitants round about him once he was the shame of the world now the glory of heaven the delight of his Father the joy of all the Saints and Angels once he was the obiect of the Reprobates scorn and the Devils malice now they shall be the objects of his most righteous vengeance he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Crucifiges will then be turn'd into Hallelujahs he that was called the Deceiver shall now be adored as the Amen of the Father the faithful and true witness a man of sorrows then but now the mirror of glory Prince of peace then accounted a servant of servants now he shall be called the Lord of Lords King of Kings then they put upon him a mock-robe a fools-coat but now he shall be cloathed with a royal garment down to the foot girt about the paps with a golden girdle the feeble reed shall now be turned into a massie Scepter of gold his Cross of wood into a Throne of glory and the Crown of Thorns into a Crown of Stars In the day of his abasement he was the foot-ball of his enemies kickt up and down the world by every prophane fool but now in the day of his exaltation his enemies shall be made his footstool yea Thrones and principalities being made subject unto him Surely the very prints of his hands and feet and the holes that were bored in his sides shall be so many signal marks and trophies of victory and Thomas 〈◊〉 set now above all doubting may sing in triumph My Lord and my God And lastly the Lord Jesus himself instead of his desertion the lowest step of all his abasement shall solace himself for ever in the vision and fruition of his Father and of the blessed Spirit and instead of my God my God why hast thou forsaken me shall be that triumph I and my Father are one thou Father in me and I in thee These be some crevices through which we may have a glimpse of the glory of our Lords once crucified body the full discovery of it you will never be able to make until you come eye to eye to see and enjoy it in the Kingdom of Heaven witness a second Consideration A second consideration evidencing what a glorious beatifying object the glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus will be in Heaven is 2. Consider The personal and hypostatical union which the humane nature hath with the divine nature of the Son of God Col. 2.9 the sulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily i. e. in his body the fulness of the divine essence dwells in the humane nature and is as it were transparent through his flesh and this makes it to be the most beatifying vision next to the vision of God
himself and indeed is in a very high degree the vision of the essence because the glorious properties and excellencies of the Godhead are as it were radiant and refulgent in the flesh of our Redeemer therefore he is called Heb 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brightness of his Fathers glory the brightness or refulgency of God the Fathers glory not only in reference to his divine essence the second-Person in Trinity but as he is Verbum incarnatum the Word incarnate as he is God-man because all the beams of divine Majesty do shine forth with a most resplendent brightness in his flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 augasma is that which hath brightness and glory in it self such is the divine nature and essence it is the fountain and body of glory from whence all brightness and splendour doth beam and issue but apaugasma is that which receiveth that brightness into it self as a glass or mirrour receives into it the beams of the Sun such a mirrour is the flesh of Christ to the divine essence wherein all the glorious beams of divine wisdom holiness mercy goodness and truth c. do shine forth This is the mystery Saint Paul admireth 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.14 God was manifested in the flesh or God made visible in a body of flesh Jesus Christ was nothing else as it were but visible Deity and so he was even while he was on earth The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father The flesh of Christ was but as it were a veil through which men might look upon the Sun of Righteousness which open and naked would have been too vehement and strong for mortal eyes we saw his glory there did beam forth at times such rays of glory through the body of Jesus Christ that whoever had not wilfully shut his eyes might have discovered him to be more than man and been constrained with the Centurion to cry out Surely this was the Son of God we saw it saith the Apostle of himself and the rest that were Christs witnesses Now if by vertue of the personal union of the two Natures in Christ so much of God was conspicuous in the flesh of Christ while he was on earth how much more abundantly do the emanations of divine glory dart themselves forth through the humane nature now it is exalted to the right hand of the Father in Heaven And that upon a two-fold account 1. Partly because there the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is a glorified body the very body of Christ is made more spiritual and shining than the Angelical nature I had almost said the very flesh of Christ transubstantiated into the divine nature it is so diaphanous and transparent that it is nothing else as it were but a vail through which the Saints may look upon the face of God more steadily surely that sight of Christ will be God manifest in the flesh indeed the invisible God made visible in the humane nature that will be a most beatifical Object 2. And partly because the organ or faculty in the Saints shall be glorified also the eye of sence in them shall be raised to a wonderful degree of quickness and activity able to receive in this glorious object clearly and fully Here the world saw no beauty in Christ not because Christ wanted beauty but because they wanted eyes yea the godly themselves their eyes were held that they could not perfectly discern his glory but oh now when the object shall be perfected and the organ perfected to receive it what a blissful vision will the very Man Christ Jesus be in glory Go forth then oh ye Daughters of Sion Vse Cant. 3.11 behold your heavenly Solomon with the Crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his solemn Nuptials when he was married to his heavenly Bride in the day of the gladness of his heart prevent oh my Soul that beatifical vision by spiritual and fixed meditation get into Heaven before thy time and so much the rather not only because of the eminency of the Object but because of Thirdly The Saints interest in this Object 3 Consider Christ in glory and Christ ours as much of the eternal brightness of the infinite God as is possibly visible to an eye of glorified sence will be seen in the humane nature of Christ that will be glorious and as much of that glory made ours as the Creature can be capable of this will be joyful to see all this glory that is put upon the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to see it with propriety to see it mine And how mine Why mine by purchase he that is the object of this Vision was the purchaser of it he bought it for me yea he purchased both it and me by his blood it for me and me for it the sight of his glorified body was the fruit of his crucified body as once he gave his crucified body to my faith so now he gives his glorified body to my sight to be my portion and my bliss for ever Oh blessed vision wherein indeed purchaser and purchase and purchased do all meet together to suffer no more separation for ever This sure will make the Saints sing their Hallelujahs Rev. 1.5 6 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen I come now to the fifth Object in the beatifical Vision which is the Divine Essence 5th Object The Divine Essence This is denied by some and well it may if the assertion were so to be understood that the essence of God is to be discerned by the bodily eye though in its glorified capacity for where ever the excellency be which God will put upon the glorified bodies of the Saints in Heaven yet still they retain the nature of corporeal beings and Gods essence is so infinitely pure and spiritual that the Angelical nature compared with it would seem to be but quid materiale of a material and corporeal constitution so that now to affirm God to be visible to an organical eye though glorified would seem to imply one of these two things scil that 1. Either the Divine essence hath matter and corporiety in it 2. Or that the glorified sence were made altogether immaterial and spiritual either of which is repugnant to the analogy of faith Vorstius himself was aware of this and therefore though at first he seemed to affirm that the glorified eye being made as all the rest of the body shall be spiritual might see God though a Spirit yet afterward he so explained himself as only to assert that from the divine essence there did flow a certain light which light and not the essence it self immediately is the object of the glorified eye its sight But
the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Object But it will be objected What profit is there then of the beatifical Vision Or What advantage have they who see God in Heaven above the Saints who see him in the Evangelical vision Answ I answer Much every way Concerning which not to say any thing that exceeds sobriety and yet to say somewhat that may help our understandings I would ascend to the highest pitch of what my weak narrow apprehension can reach unto of this blessed Vision by these several steps and gradations First First Step. We shall see more of God than either we or any of the Worthies of God ever saw We shall know more of God than ever we understood of him in this life either by faith or by the highest revelation that ever God made of himself to our Souls more than ever the best of the Saints discovered by faith or divine manifestation yea we shall know more of God than ever the most holy of the Patriarchs the most illuminate Prophet the most seraphick Evangelist the most inspired Secretaries and Amanuenses of the Holy Ghost à secretioribus on this side Heaven did ever know yea what Abraham the freind of God Jacob who at one time had God in his arms Gen. 13.24 ver â—0 and at another time had his Peniel the facial vision of God Moses the savourite of Heaven Exod. 33.11 to whom God is said to talk as a man speaketh to his friend and to know face to face Elijah Deut. 34.10 James 5.17 who wore as it were the keys of Heaven at his girdle and could open and shut them as he pleased and at length ascended thither in a fiery Chariot Daniel who had the visions of God John the Evangelist whose Patmos was turned into a Paradise Dan. 10.6 7 8 where he had and writ the Revelations of Jesus Christ and finally holy Paul who was wrapt up into the third Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12 4â— and heard things inessable what these I say or any of these knew of the most high God was but as the Primier learning of Children to the vast readings of the greatest Masters of learning in comparison of that of God which shall be known to blessed Souls the least of Gods elect Infants going from their Mothers womb to the grave shall know more of God the first moment it entreth into glory than the profoundest Divine in the Church of God could by study or revelation ever attain to in this world this is much Secondly Second Step. The glorified Saints shall know more of God and the divine nature than Adam did in Paradise he was prevailed upon by the Tempter to affect a greater and higher degree of knowledge than he had above what the Creator saw fit to bestow more than belonged to his nature and state he would have known as God knows that is to full satisfaction and complacency Thirdly Third Step. The glorified Saints know God affirmatively The greatest part of our knowledge of God in this life is either By 1. Dem cognoscitur per mo dum Negationâ— Eminentiae Causationis Denying or 2. Comparing or Ascending 3. By way of Causation First By denying we come to know God in this life by removing all imperfections and defects and limitations by taking away all things which are inconsistent with a Deity conceive a spiritual being and pare off whatsoever is imperfect or defective and that which remains is God we can go in our conceptions or descriptions of God very little farther Or Secondly We come to know or rather to ghess what God is by comparing God with the Creature take in all that is amiable or formidable in the Creature go over all imaginable perfections and excellencies in the Creatues Men Heavens Sun Moon Stars Angels and ascribe them all to God and there you lay a foundation of knowing God but infinitely short and narrow of what he is therefore we must ascend For when we have gone through all the ranks and gradations of perfections in the subordinations of created beings when we have searched out the utmost excellency of each classis we may say this is in God and more whether Man or Angels go higher and higher till we come to the top of Jacobs Ladder still all this is in God and infinitely more The Creature must be winnowed from all imperfection and the finest of them must be taken to give some weak resemblance of a Deity Thirdly Per modum Causationis Whatever is in the effect is more perfectly in the cause God is Causa fontana a fountain essence of all the perfections which sparkle in the Creature we know God by the Creature as the cause by the effect as the fountain of all power goodness and perfection whatever is lovely and illustrious we must needs say this is in God and infinitely more God is stronger than the mightiest Man or Angel wiser than the wisest holier than the holiest Saint or Angel he being the fountain and cause of all perfection This I say is all we can reach to in spelling out God for be it said we must add infinite to all these perfections and that is God this is also by denying for what is infinite but without bounds and limits That is to say God is strong without weakness wise without ignorance holy without impurity c. If we would conceive these excellencies which seem to us to be affirmative we are glad to be beholding to negation As for example if I would know what is Gods eternity the negative must help me it is his being without beginning and without end What his holiness I cannot tell affirmatively but must answer my self it is to be without the least sin defilement or shadow of impurity c. In all this there is little to satisfie the covetous inquiry implanted in the Soul Quid sit What is holiness And what wisdom But now in Heaven our knowledge of God shall be affirmative we shall be able to apprehend God though not to the utmost extent of his esse yet without being beholding meerly to his non esse we shall be able to say as well what God is as what God is not and when we have said what he is we shall not need to expound our meaning by what he is not Fourthly Fourth Step. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 22.30 We shall know God as much as the Angels in Heaven do They behold the face of God Matth. 18.10 Glorified Saints are with the Angels Rev. 4.8 and are said to be like Angels and equal to the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Angels Angels incarnate And what inconsistency is there to the analogy of faith to conceive that the Saints shall enjoy as full a prospect of God in Heaven as the Angels themselves do 5. Gradation for though their bodies be united to their souls yet shall not their bodies be any hindrance to their
souls vision of God since the soul dependeth not now upon any corporeal organ of the body inward or outward sence and i. e. the body shall be refined by the power of Christ in the resurrection to such a spiritual alloy that it is it self even of an Angelical nature Fifthly The Saints shall know God up to the height of that Principle which God imprest upon the Soul in the Creation For God intending to make a Creature perfectly happy implanted in its nature * Concupivit anima mea Psal 48.2 This Candle of the Lord doth aspire that without sin to be a Sun it being the just and modest desire of the end which God himself created it not that it would be the Sun butunited to the Sun and now that innoâ—ent ambition shall be satisfied Sixth Step. 1 Cor. 13. a disposition covetous and capable of knowing God wherein only the summum bonum of the soul consists now if God should not satisfie this holy concupiscence in the soul and fill its capacity to the utmost he should fail not the desire of the Creature only but his own project the soul will not be contented with such an imperfect knowledge of God as it hath here Sixthly They shall know him properly Junius tells us it is the Judgment of all Protestants and Willet upon Exodus expounds that notion by apprehensively though not comprehensively that is we shall understand clearly certainly and fully what God is Clearly in opposition to dark created mediums we shall see God by his own light Psal 36.9 Certainly in opposition to ghess opinion and imperfect knowledge And fully not objective in reference to God but subjective in reference to our selves the faculty shall be full of God as it can hold †nor all alike but according to the capacity of every vessels heat degrees of happiness do spring from that lumen gloriae being variously shed among these blessed Souls as a vessel in the Sea that is full of the Sea though it contains not all the Sea in it Seventhly The Saints shall know God fruitionally Seventh Step. that is they shall know him so as to possess God and to be possessed of God The soul doth as it were enter into God and God into the soul the joy of the Lord enters into the soul here there the soul enters into the Lords joy Eightly It shall be a transforming knowledge Eighth Step. we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is But these two latter my method propounded leads me to speak too distinctly by themselves Of these therefore in their own place In a word The Saints shall know God to perfection though not to infinitude they shall see him so as to repose themselves in him with full complacency and delight so that they shall say they have enough In this life some of the Saints at sometimes have had such manifestations of God as have made them weep as bitterly as ever any under desertion crying out Lord withdraw thy glory else the vessel will split and I shall dishonour God And it may justly be our wonder how it should be otherwise to the Saints in the other world a wonder that a created finite faculty should be able to bear the weight of glory which filleth the infinite Object and not be destroyed by the immensity of it especially since we read of the very Angels themselves Omne vehemons sensibilo destruit sensum who in a vision of somewhat an inferiour nature to that facial vision in glory for the exceeding brightness of it are said to veil their faces and their feet their faces as having their eyes dazeld with the exceeding brightness of his glorious appearance and their feet as abashed in the apprehension of their own meanness and imperfection in comparison of Gods incomparable and incomprehensible perfections But as to this difficulty First Our most learned English Annotator upon that place tells us that those expressions signifie rather the intenseness of the Angels reverence and fear in their approaches to the Supreme Majesty than their incapacity to take in what of his glory he is pleased to manifest The Angels being said alwayes to behold the face of God Matth. 18.10 For saith he this is certain that the nearer the Creature makes his approaches to God and in the more glorious manner he is pleased to manifest himself the more apprehensive the Creature is of its own meanness baseness vileness and nothingness in regard of Gods infinite greatness Secondly We are taught from the Scriptures that Divine manifestations in Heaven though they beget greatest veneration yet they cause pleasure not pain and do rather nourish and perfect the faculty than any wayes hurt or oppress it the vessel shall be made capacious enough to hold any liquor which the thice blessed Trinity shall see meet to put into it To this end we may take notice from Scripture it self that the glorified understanding shall be adorned with a six-fold perfection scil 1. Spirituality 2. Clarity 3. Capacity 4. Sanctity 5. Strength 6. Fixedness The first perfection of the understanding shall be spirituality 3. Perfection Spirituality it shall be spiritualized spiritual it is now as spiritual is opposed to corporeal though not as spiritual is opposed to natural The Soul is now forced to be a Caterer for a body of flesh to provide things that are necessary for the sustentation of the animal life it busieth it self to satisfie the appetites of hunger and thirst c. if it can redeem a few hours for actions more proper and peculiar to it it is so clogged so pressed down with the bodies infirmities as that it soon drops down to the earth and is drawn aside to attend the impertinencies of this present life But when it shall be joyned to an animate a spiritual body and it self in its glorified capacity then it shall be wholly taken up with objects spiritual and heavenly and made as it were connatural to them elevated by the light of glory to the vision of God This lumen gloriae is not so much for the discovery of the object as for the help and advancing of a created faculty which would else be much opprest with the weight of glory it is not so much the raising and screwing of nature higher but it is the adding of a new disposition that may close with the divine object so that though there be still an infinite disproportion between God and the Creature in esse naturali yet there is a just proportion in esse intelligibili Secondly 2. Perfection Clarity By vertue of this supernatural influx of the divine object the faculty shall be brightned and cleared There is now upon this mirror of the understanding many labes and stains whereby the vessel is defiled the breath of the world and the steam of corruptions from within do so fully this christal glass that it cannot receive into it the beams of light which shine upon it
without holiness there is no vision for without holiness no man can see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And holiness doth dispose the Soul for this blessed Vision three wayes First By removing the distance between God and the Creature Secondly By assimilating the Soul to God Thirdly By causing mutual delight and complacency between them First Holiness disposeth the Soul for the seeing of God by taking away that distance which is between God and the Soul Sin is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Gulf In this respect sin is Hell which separates between God and the Creature and surely sin sets a vaster distance between the holy God and a sinner than there is between Heaven and Hell yea than there is between God and the Devil that is between God as a Creator and the Devil as he is a creature Until this distance be removed there is no possible access for the Soul to God this partition wall is broken down when holiness is set up and according to the degree of purity is the degree of vision as the Soul passeth from one degree of holiness to another so it passeth from one state and degree of vision to another 2 Cor 3. We all beholding as in a glass c. The purer the glass the brighter the vision Secondly Holiness disposeth for the vision of God by approximation and assimilating the Soul to God Holiness is the very Image of God the divine nature not in a fanatick sense not the divine being Indeed holiness in God is the divine essence but holiness in the Creature is but a gracious quality whereby the Creature resembleth God 1 Pet. 1.15 and is made pure as he is pure holy as he is holy This advanceth the Soul to a nearer vicinity to God whereby it is put into a passive capacity of seeing God passive I say for the formal visive power of seeing God is from the object more than the subject of it scil so far as God is pleased to beam in his glory into the faculty and enableth it to bear it Lumen confortans Schol. holiness only gives the Soul a sutableness to receive in those divine irradiations Thirdly Holiness causeth mutual delight and complacency between God and the Soul all liking is founded in likeness conformity is the fountain of complacency so that until holiness be formed in the Soul neither can God delight in the Soul nor the Soul in God verily without this mutual complacency the vision of God would be penal to the Creature rather than beatifical not much better than that vision which the damned themselves may be conceived to have of God in hell whose vision of God makes full one half of hell at least Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire they see God and despair this is the Worm that never dyeth they only see what they have lost Christians as ye love Gods face look to your boliness God loveth holiness more than he loveth the Creature saith Arminius and I say so too if we understand it of the holiness that dwelleth in God for that is his essential holiness Exod. 15 11 God himself so loving holiness he loveth himself Gods holiness is his glory glorious in holiness he accounts it the most radiant Jewel in his Crown Royal the very varnish and beauty of all his glorious Attributes for the love he beareth to which he loveth to see the very image and likeness of it in the Creature but he loved the Creature so well in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did elect the person unto the qualification though not for the qualification God chose the elect Eph. 1.4 not because he foresaw they would be holy but that they might be holy holiness was not the cause but the end of their election Oh love that dear Souls which God loves so much and loveth to see in his Saints who are therefore called Saints from their holiness There is nothing can make you so beautiful in Gods eye as holiness because in your holiness he seeth the reflection of his own beauty Ezek. 16.14 Taliter pigmentatae Dei habebitis Amorem Tert. Thou wast comely through the comeliness which I put upon thee God cannot chuse but love his own likeness where ever he seeth it oh love the Lord all ye his Saints and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Psal 30.4 Let your hearts leap within you as oft as you think what an holy God you have who if he can but see true holiness in your faces will admit you to see that holiness which is in his face for ever Love holiness I say but be sure it be such an holiness as God loves there is an holiness in the world which is but a thing like holiness but is not so moral righteousness an harmless innocence a sober retiredness from sensual excesses a pretty ingenuity a readiness to do offices of love a negative Religion concerning which you may better tell what it is not than what it is yea there is a thing called holiness in the world that hath not so much as the appearance or shaddow of holiness freedom from grossest impieties and that but partial too not to swear at the highest rate to be soberly drunk and privately unclean Apud vos optimi censentur quos comparatio pessimorum sic facit Arnob. not to be overmuch wicked c. in a word as Arnobius speaks of the Gentiles not to be so bad as the worst is a kind of being good even this Sirs will pass in the world for holiness And lastly there is a superstitious holiness which to the Evangelical holiness is no better than what the Ivy is to the Oak and hath eaten out the very heart of it a Brat which as * Gurnats Christians Compleat Armour p. 2. one saith the Devil hath put to nurse to the Romish Church which hath taken a great deal of pains to bring it up for him and it hath brought in no small revenue as to her self of worldly riches and treasure so to Him of Souls for such holiness is the very road to Hell the followers of Antichrist fill up the greatest part of it But hear our Lord plainly telling you Except your righteousness exceed the best of these ye cannot enter c. Oh Christians get you a copy of grace out of the Scripture-Records those Court-Rolls of Heaven which may be seen and allowed by God and Angels and Saints if ever you desire to see Gods face Holiness of a peculiar strain Titus 2.14 Perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Holiness to the Lord not an holiness that may approve it self to men only that is easily done but unto God Vnblameable holiness in Gods fight Colos 1.22 His holiness Heb. 12.10 That is An holiness which hath God for its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 16. An holiness which hath God for its motive 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Be ye holy as God
is holy be ye holy because God is holy In a word study an holiness that knows no limits but what it shall have in Heaven an holiness without any stint still pressing after further degrees of conformity unto Jesus Christ unless your holiness be of this impression you can never hope to see Gods face and if your hope be a true Scripture hope your holiness will be a right Scripture-holiness 1 John 3.3 S◠diaeeru fot est periisti He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Where ever you stick you perish Labour for such an holiness as will give you admittance not into the Church only but into Heaven without which no man shall see God no men of what classis or form soever they be whether such as have no holiness and care for none all profane persons Shall eyes full of adultery ever see God the holy God Shall eyes full of anger and revenge see God! the meek merciful God Et sic in caet All such as deride holiness or despise holiness or persecute holiness such as have neither name nor thing yea that perfectly hate both shall they enjoy God The Apostle sends them this word expresly There is no room for them in Heaven And indeed what should such do there There is nothing in Heaven but what is holy holy Angels and holy Saints and above all a thrice holy Trinity Father Rev. 4.8 Son and Holy Ghost Holy Holy Holy the Lord God Almighty the beauty of whose face is holiness alas there is nothing for them to see or hear but what is an abomination to their souls Holy words yea the very word Holiness they now stop their ears at it it is vinegar to their teeth they make faces at it holy Ordinances they cannot bear them the impurer the Ordinance is the better they like it An Holy God they say of him Isai 30.11 Cause the holy One of Israel to depart from before us preach as much as you will of the merciful One of Israel and of the bountiful One of Israel c. but tell us not so much of the holy One of Israel Molest us no more with messages of holiness and the severities thereof yea See learned Gataker in loc they say not only so of God but they say as much to God to his very face They say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes they say so by interpretation if not in words at length he that can expound actions as well as language tells us they say so yea they are not ashamed of the very language it is a piece of their gallantry to profess to them that reprove them or but meekly admonish them I say to answer with scorn enough We are none of your Saints Proud scorner what art thou then An unclean swine yea an unclean spirit incarnate Devil a profane Hellitean as one faith for thy speech betrayeth thee What need farther proof Ex ore suo c. Put such an herd of Swine into Heaven and verily they would need no other damnation But God made Heaven for better purposes than to be an Hell for the haters of holiness Tophet is prepared of old for them Isai 30.33 and thither they must be packt away with the reprobate Angels down they came when they had laid aside their holiness and shall such maligners of holiness and holy ones ever come there Let them not fear the company of Saints shall never molest them they would have none of their society on earth and they shall have none of their society in heaven Possibly with their elder brother Dives they may have a prospect of Heaven where they may see * Luk◠16.23 Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and with others of the reprobate family they may see Abraham Luke 13.28 Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire Et ante praeteritur conspectum perire but that vision will be so far from beatifical as that it will be the aggravation of their damnation for as it follows verse 28. They themselves shall be thrust out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast out with as much contempt and violence as ever they themselves cast the Saints out of their Societies Certainly that vision will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth These haters of holiness would have none of God Psal 81.11 They said to the holy One of Israel Depart from us When it was too late And now God will have none of them I know you not whence ye are they bad the first word but will have the last They said depart from us Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity not a man of them shall stand in Gods presence but be cast out for ever into utter darkness Then shall the back slider in heart be indeed filled with his own wayes Mal. 25.41 They banished God and his Saints out of their company and now they themselves shall be punished from the presence of the Lord and his Saints and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 Second Use Vse 2 Labour to see God on this side glory to begin your vision on Earth which shall never cease in Heaven Indeed the vision in Grace and the vision in Glory are one and the same vision the object is the same God and the faculty is the same the eye of the Soul they differ only in two circumstances First In the Medium Here we see in glasses the Works of God Psal 19.1 2. the Creatures are a glass the Heavens declare the glory of God Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum and the providences of God are a glass Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Every dayes experience and every nights experience is a glass wherein much of God is to be seen and the Gospel is a glass wherein we all as in a mirrour 2 Cor. 3.18 behold the glory of the Lord And lastly the glass of Ordinances Preaching and Prayer and Sacraments all these be glasses and meditation is a glass faith is another way of vision by faith Moses saw him who is invisible all these I say Heb. 11.27 are glasses wherein we may see God But alas The glass takes away from the object and darkens our vision as painted glass in the Church windows they let in some light but keep out more but in Heaven we shall see without glasses face to face the Lamb shall be the light in that Temple Secondly These visions differ in their degree of light and clearness here we see in part this is but a partial vision that in glory is extensive a full-eyed vision as one calls it a most ample perfect vision we shall know as we are known the understanding here is dark dim and narrow there clear and vastly capacious Now that which this word of Exhortation calls
all things to be known the knowing whereof may any way make us happy in Heaven we shall know as much of all the mysteries of Grace and Nature as we would know Etiam curiositas satiabitur Anselm John 14.20 Curiosity it self shall be satisfied we shall know whatsoever it is we desire to know with this our Lord satisfieth his Disciples concerning those two great mysterious unions the essential union union between the Father and the Son that I am in my Father and the mystical union that is between him and all believers you in me and I in you q. d. although now ye are ignorant of these high transcendent mysteries yet let this stay and comfort your hearts when I shall come again in glory to take you unto my self that where I am there you may be also then these shall be no mysteries unto you but so many evidential Revelations At that day ye shall know then and not till then And so it may abundantly satisfie the insatiable desires of inquisitous spirits into the deep mysteries both of Creation and Redemption That when Christ shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory and then shall the veil be taken away and they shall see God and all things in Gods face which their souls desire to see the soul shall be filled and inebriated with variety of all desirable knowledge that may any way tend to its perfection This may satisfie save that it may set their souls a longing for that day and cause them to cry out with the Bride Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly The third Priviledge contained in Cohabitation is Fruition A third Priviledge implyed in the Saints being with the Lord 3. Priviledge Fruition is Fruition Vision in Glory is accompanied with fruition and this is that which makes it truly beatifical whatever glorified Saints see they do enjoy else this Vision would not differ much from Report nor that state of glory from an Heaven in a well-drawn Launskip The very Reprobate it seemeth have a prospect of Heaven Luke 13.28 but to their torment they themselves being thrust out Now Fruition consists of a ten-fold Ingredient or Property Viz. 1. Propriety 2. Possession 3. Intimacy 4. Suitableness 5. Satiety or fulness 6. Freshness 7. Present 8. Fixedness 9. Reflection 10. Complacency The first Ingredient into Fruition is Propriety 1. Ingredient Propriety Whatsoever the Saints see in Heaven is their own God saith to Abraham Gen. 13.14 now in the heavenly Canaan what he once said to him of the earthly Lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward Southward Eastward and Westward for all the land which thou seest 〈◊〉 thee do I give it whatever is within that vast circumference of Heaven it is Abraham's and all his spiritual seeds for ever Now David may tune his Michtam a key higher and instead of Gilead is mine Psal 60.7 8 and Manasseh is mine Ephraim and Judah c. he may now sing God is mine and Christ is mine and the Spirit is mine all the elect Angels are mine and all the whole Congregation of the first-born mine all the glory of Heaven is mine And so may the best of the Saints in heaven triumph all is mine and what pleasures or riches or honours or glory or joyes are in the presence of God they are all mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.13 They did sing so while yet in the valley of tears or they might have sung so Faith gave them a title their Jus adrem a right to Heaven but the blessed vision giveth them now real interest Jus in re right in Heaven and they need not now fear to call it theirs they might have said my God my Christ and my Comforter here below but one thing was to be done first sound Scripture evidence was to be cleared out and sealed up to their souls but some or other defect therein did not seldom check their confidence and damp their joy for a time But now in glory Propriety is beyond all dispute their evidences were seen and allowed at their first admission into Heaven and now mine mine is their song and triumph to all eternity and God is not ashamed to be called their God truly he was not ashamed to be called so even when they had but too much cause to be ashamed of themselves and gave God too much cause to be ashamed of them But now God is so far from being ashamed of owning them that he rejoyceth in them and glorieth over them This people I have formed for my self Isai 43.21 they shall shew forth my praise And again Fear not for I have redeemed thee verse 1 I have called thee by thy name thou art mine Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee The Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren to own them for Subjects Friends Rev. 15.3 chap. 14.1 Coheirs with himself in glory his Bride And they claim their Propriety in him as such The King of Saints chap. 1.6 verse 5 9 with their Fathers name written in their foreheads they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth chap. 21.9 Mat. 18.10 owning themselves as his beloved his redeemed Kings and Priests unto God and his Father yea as the Lambs Wife They have a propriety in all the elect Angels of God they be still their Angels as ready to do them brotherly offices as ever and take more complacency in their company and in them than ever by how much more purified and Angelified they are then when they lay among the pots of the earth now made like themselves fellow Angels as it were as well as fellow Saints They have propriety in one another although they may know some of the Saints under the notion of natural relations yet do these all cease there as now being retired into the first and chief root and Spring-head of divine Relation Children of one heavenly Father in whose House they are all together embracing and courting one another in purest communion and communications of love each Saint not more himself than his fellow Saints In a word the place where the Saints are met together never to part it is their own not a strange Country where they see one another as Strangers and Pilgrims do sometimes visit and comfort one another Heaven is not a borrowed Palace where they are admitted by curtesie to celebrate a Festival for a few dayes or years but the Saints in Heaven are at home now 2 Cor. 5.2 in their own house and Kingdom Their own 1. By Inheritance Col. 1.13 An Inheritance prepared for them from before the world had any foundation but what it had in Gods Decree Matth. 25.24 2. By purchase Therefore is Heaven called the Purchased possession Ephes 1.14 Their dear Lord and Bridegroom purchased them and their Inheritance together with his own blood 1
Pet. 1.19 He bought the Inheritance for them and them for the Inheritance at the same price This is the first thing implyed in Fruition Propriety without which the vision were no way beatifical for how can that make me happy which I have no title to or interest in Tolle meum tolle Deum Take away mine and ye take away Heaven yea take away mine and ye take away God good is no farther good to me than as it is mine and as I may warrantably claim my right to it and interest in it A second Property of Fruition is Possession 2. Ingredient Possession the Saints have not only propriety in Heaven but Possession of Heaven when their dearest and sweetest Lord left the world and ascended to his Father they took possession of Heaven in him as in their great Representative and Head Joh. 14.2 But when they ascended to him now they take possession of it in their own persons They had livery and seasin given them by the Father upon the consummation of their marriage with his dear Son Jesus Christ their Royal Bridegroom And it was done in the presence of the eternal Spirit the publick Notary of Heaven 1 John 5.8 All the holy Angels standing by as so many Witnesses so that God himself could not make Heaven surer to them than he hath made it While the Saints were upon earth Heaven was theirs but it was only in reversion and they counted themselves blessed in that Matth. 5.3 But now reversion is turned into possession the Saints hold nothing in Heaven by reversion that title ceaseth there All the Beatitudes in Heaven are present possession God and Christ and the Holy Ghost Angels and Saints and all the glory of the upper world are so many possessions the Saints are possest of God and possest of Christ and possessed of the Holy Ghost and possest of glory as on the contrary the damned in hell are possest of the Devil they are possest of hell and of utter darkness and of the worm that shall never dye c. Oh dreadful possession Hope was once their tenure Titus 1.2 Rom. 5.1 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye c. And they rejoyced in it Ye rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God and they blessed God for it Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus which hath begotten us again unto a lively hope c. of which hope faith was the substance and basis Heb. 11.1 and even this hope was very precious unto them a little heaven upon earth save that now and then some clouds of fear and doubts did interpose between heaven and their dim eye and so eclipsed their vision But faith and hope did set them down at the gate of heaven and then with Moses died in the mount and took leave of them for ever And if faith was so precious to them then what is sight now If hope made their hearts not seldom leap for joy how doth possession now fill them with joy unspeakable and glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all hyperbolye of expression Object If any should be so critical as to object In heaven the Saints live in the hope and faith of the continuance of heaven We make use of the Apostles Maxime for Answer Hope seen is not hope Rom. 8.24 All the glory of heaven is seen and all is present there is no futurity in heaven heaven iâ— but one point of eternity 1 Cor 13. last the Saints have all beatitudes and all at once in God now abideth indeed faith and hope but then possession Mat. 18.1 They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs and they shall sit by it All the precious priviledges of the Gospel which cost Christ so dear are now perfected into full possession Adoption is now perfect now they are the Sons of God and they know what it is to be the Sons of God Justification is now compleat Sanctification is now at perfect age In a word all their hopes are now their inheritance This is fruition A third Ingredient of which Fruition doth consist 3. Property Intimacy is Intimacy Propriety and Possession are not sufficient to constitute fruition Mutual converse will not serve the turn without intimate communion Communion not with one anothers persons only but with one anothers spirits this is fruition when friends are possest of one anothers heart and one anothers spirits In Heaven there is not mutual cohabitation only but mutual inhabitation 1 John 4.16 This is the great beatitude of heaven even vital vision with all the beatifying objects thereof mutual in dwelling and mutual in being God dwells in the Saints and the Saints dwell in God It was so here God is Love He that dwells in love dwelleth in God and God in him The Saints love to God is now made perfect without a figure and as their love is so is their mutual in being perfect I in them John 17.23 and they in me that they may be made perfect in one Perfect according to the supreme Exemplar verse 21 As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may he one in us This also had its imitation on earth it hath now its consummation in heaven the Saints can be no nearer God than they are Essential union is the sole prerogative of the glorious Trinity They dwell also in Christ I in them and they in me Eternity is their wedding day Heaven their bride-chamber their bed of love is the heart of Christ and it is alwayes green alwayes fresh and alwayes flourishing with interchangeable loves There the Saints see the place where they were conceived from all eternity and read the very original thoughts wherewith their Redeemer and Bridegroom loved them when as yet they were not formed in their Mothers belly and their Epithalamium or Nuptial song is I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 2 1â— they began this Song in the day of their espousals and continue it in their everlasting wedding-day which they celebrate in mutual embraces and festivities joying in one another and glorying in one another delighting themselves in mutual appropriations and appreciations mutually contemplating and commending one anothers beauties and perfections Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee The Angels and Saints in light behold they dwell not with one another only but in one another they inhabit as it were in one anothers hearts That primative Congregation Acts 4. was a lively type of this Royal Congregation of the first-born Acts 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crederes unam aniâ—am in omnibus â—esse divisam Chap. 4.32 They are all with one accord in one place so these one place holds them all and one soul animateth and acts them all The whole multitude of Saints in heaven are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and how wofully full of diversions Such is our heaven on earth but our heaven in glory or our glory in heaven is not so God is the only unchangeable object of the Soul there the Soul stayes and sucks and drinks immeasurably and yet there is not a drop less in the object A seventh property is Reflextion 7. Property Reflection Reflexion is one of the choicest Ingredients into Fruition to enjoy Heaven in all the beatitudes thereof and to know I do enjoy it this is the beatitude of all beatitudes Direct Acts and Priviledges of Grace scil to believe to love Christ to be united to him to have communion with him to be cloathed with his Righteousness to be acted by his Spirit c. these may make a Christian safe but alone they cannot make him sure these may constitute a Christian happy but not give him the comfort of his happiness and how many precious Saints of God are there in this vale of tears whose all consists in these bare naked direct acts the new-born Babe Vivit est vitae nescius ipso suae oft like the natural Babes in the womb hath spiritual life in him but he knoweth it not how many gracious Souls believe but know not they do believe Yea cannot believe they do believe They think they have no grace because they have so much corruption they think they have no grace because they have not so much grace as they would have they love Christ but know not they love Christ they covet so much love to Christ that they seem to themselves to have none at all they are united to Christ and have communion with him but can apprehend neither this nor the other Et sic in caeteris And this is that which makes their lives so uncomfortable to them for the present Psal 42.9 and causeth them to go mourning all the day long yea sometimes with Mary they talk with Christ and Christ with them but their eyes are held they know him not Christ and the Soul speak like strangers one to another John 20.15 Woman saith Christ Sir saith the Soul Until Christ be pleased to speak in a more familiar dialect better understood by the poor Believer Mary and then the ravished Soul turns it self unto him ver 16. and springing into his arms cryes out Rabboni My Master my Lord and my God It fareth with many a poor believer here in the wilderness of desertion Gen. 21.16.17.18 Isai 12.3 as it did with Hagar in hers they sit down to dye for want of water when there is a well before them yea ver 19. many a well of living water the precious promises out of which wells of salvation they might with joy draw water and drink and forget their sorrows but alas they see them not until God open their eyes and then they can go and fill their bottles and drink and cause others to drink also This is oft the state of the way Oh but now in the Country the land of fruition there the Saints have their reflext Acts as well as their direct Acts they see and they know they see they love and they know they love yea they are beloved and they know they are beloved They are bathing themselves in the Rivers of pleasures and they know where they are and what they do All tears are wiped from their eyes and they know who wiped them off with the kisses of his mouth They are safe yea and they are sure they are blessed and they know they are blessed The Spouse is now got into the Throne the bosom of her Beloved the King of Glory and there she singeth and she sins not in it as the Harlot did Here I sit as a Queen Rev. 18.7 and am no widow and shall see sorrow no more for ever In a word all the acts of love and joy and delight in Heaven are acts of highest assurance without the least mixture of doubt and uncertainty There is no fear in this love because love being now perfected hath cast out fear And now the Saints come to see the reason of their love to God to be Gods love to them and the reason of Gods love to them to be God himself and in this the Soul sweetly acquiesceth triumphing for ever I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine for he hath loved me with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness will he draw me and I shall remain in his love for ever Eighth Freshness 8. Properly Freshness The Joyes of the glorified Saints are alwayes fresh from the Spring-head that makes them so sweet and luscious what we receive by the mediation of Creature-Conduits loseth much of its native delicacy Heaven is an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drusius The name of a flower called Amarantus and that fadeth not away It is incorruptible not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only that cannot dye but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not obnoxious to corruption it is made all of materials that cannot corrupt and as it is in incorruptible so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also still fresh and green Adam and Eve were created in the prime ripeness and bravery of the humane nature in perfection of beauty and strength and such shall all the Saints be restored of what age and state of body soever they lay down in the grave the Children of the Resurrection shall rise in the morning in the most sparkling gallantry of youth and in that posture shall be for ever Like as the Angels are pictured to us in the adult and perfect beauty of youth not indeed of infancy that would import immaturity nor yet of old age that would intimate a declining state but I say of youth to shew they still retain the vive impressions of their first Creation The most delicate of all our sublunary delights of which we are at first so fond that we cannot spare them a moment out of our eye but are alwayes courting of them and solacing our selves in their fruition do quickly grow stale and flat upon our hands What is storied of Tython a beautiful active young man holds full analogy with all our Creature-felicities Aurora for the elegancy of his person and industry begg'd him of Jupiter to be her Husband withall praying that he might never dye both which Jupiter granted but she through her womanish inadvertency forgetting to pray that he might not grow old as well as not dye in his old age he grew impotent and burdensome to himself and to Aurora too so that repenting of her choice Jupiter out of pity turn'd him into a Grashopper Such are all our worldly beatitudes we would fain espouse them to our selves and write eternity upon them but how brave and sprightly soever they appear in our first appetitions of them they quickly grow old and fastidious and signifie no more than so many impotent Grashoppers But now there is no such thing in
glorified body of our Lord will be as transparent glass through which the glorious beams of Divinity will display themselves to the eye of the blessed beholders And in the beholding whereof there will go forth a transforming vertue which will change them into the same Image if it were so I say in the Gospel vision how much more will it be so in the beatifical The Soul by enjoying God cometh nearer to the pleasure of God himself The sight of God hath a conforming power in it to assimilate the beholder into the likeness of God he converts all into its own nature God as he is a consuming fire to the wicked so he is a purifying refining fire to the Saints by purifying out their dross to make them partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 It was the design of their correction in this world and the perfecting of that conformity is the ultimate and supreme design of the facial vision we shall be like him for we shall see him we shall be as he is when we shall see him as he is we shall be like him Like him in Our Souls Our Bodies Like him in our Souls like him in all the faculties of our Souls The Saints like God in their understanding our understandings shall be like the divine understanding we shall know all things past present and to come we shall know all things as God knows them for we shall know all things and see all things in God ut supra Then Adam for the promise of a Redeemer being first preacht to him Gen. 3.15 and that by God himself giveth us more than a probable ground to believe that he is in heaven Adam I say shall have his ambition satisfied in a better sence than he intended oâ— the Tempter suggested of being like unto God knowing good and evil Gen. 3.5 now he knows universal good to be filled and satisfied with it and evil in all the distinctions of it as it is now through the infinite grace of a Redeemer the Tempters portion and not his own The will is made like unto Gods will not a fountain indeed but a large vessel full of goodness and holiness the Saints shall be holy as God is holy pure as God is pure perfect as he is perfect they were so on earth truly now in Heaven they are so perfectly the will shall be as holy as it would be as holy as the holy God would have it be so holy that there will be mutual joy and delight between God and the Saints in the contemplation of their holiness the Saints shall rejoyce in the holiness of God that they have such an holy God it was their duty in the state of Grace Psal 30.4 Sing unto the Lord oh ye Saints of his give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness They rest not and yet they are not wâ—â—â—y Rom. 4.8 It is their work and wages their labour and their rest now in the state of glory They rest not day nor night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty c. See how the Saints are ravished with the contemplation of Gods holiness they double and treble the mention of this glorious attribute they cry Holy holy holy for once Almighty c. And it seems God if I may so say is as much taken with the beauty of their holiness they have their denomination from their holiness Saints in English Holy ones such as God accounts to be his Inheritance yea the glory of it they were so while they were below Eph. 1.18 The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints What is it above where their holiness is consummate where the Saints are now presented by Christ a glorious Church even like their God glorious in holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having spot or wrinkle neither sin nor shadow of sin neither spot nor appearance of a spot but holy and without blemish immaculate holiness there is not so much as a stained thought not an inordinate motion in the whole Region of Heaven to defile that upper world this God delights in because in the holiness of the Saints he sees the reflection of his own face God pleaseth himself to see how like himself he could make a Creature such was the design in the first Creation Let us make man in our own image after our likeness Gen. 1.26 it was the counsel of the thrice blessed Trinity and now though once it suffered a miscarriage it is perfected with advantage by the second Adam They will what God willeth and nill what God nilleth An Argument that it was not a miscarriage of improvidence but of ordination In a word in Heaven there is but one will between God and the Saints and that will is Gods Moreover In their affections Love Hatred Joy His exaltation to the right hand of his Father Isai 62.5 the Saints are like God in their affections They love what God loveth and hate what God hateth their joy is Gods joy they rejoyce in God and in his glory they rejoyce in Jesus Christ their Bridegroom and he rejoyceth in them As the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee that was but the word spoken to the Church at her Espousals what must the joy be think we upon her wedding-day All the affections which either were inordinate or suitable only to the imperfect state as envy malice fear hope desire c. they are all abolished as either inconsistent with or useless to the heavenly state and therein consists no small part of their conformity to God as being capable of nothing which denoteth infirmity or imperfection The Saints are like God in their memories they shall have holy memories their memories shall be like the Ark of the Covenant which was overlaid with gold wherein according to the Apostles Inventory were The golden Pot that had Manna And Aaron's Rod that budded And the Tables of the Covenant The Ark of the Memory now overlaid with glory likewise shall contain the Manna that Angelical food of Word Sacraments Promises Ordinances Providences Experiences wherewith God was wont to feed the Soul while in the wilderness of the world Aaron's Rod that budded Gods fatherly Rod of correction which though for the present seemed not joyous but grievous yet afterward it yielded the peaceable fruits of Righteousness Heb. 12.11 in them that were exercised thereby And the Tables of the Covenant The two Covenants which God made with man the one of Works the witness of Gods holiness and perfection the other of Grace the witness of Gods goodness and commiseration The Covenant of Works the standing evidence of mans guiltiness The Covenant of Grace the standing evidence of Gods righteousness The Covenant of works the lasting monument of mans impotency and changeableness The Covenant of Grace the everlasting monument of Gods omnipotence and immutability These with all the particulars included in either are the chief things
felicity amongst sensual men who live no higher than the brate beasts of the earth meerly by sight and sence but when all is done the pardoned man is the blessed man yea he is blest and blest and blest again double and treble blessednesses are his portion for ever In like manner we may conceive our holy Apostle calling after sinners and even beseeching them not to loose themselves and their precious souls in the pursuit of a lye They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies Jonah 2.8 Here therefore he discovers to them who are blessed and what it is that will make them happy for ever only with this difference David's Maschil in the Psalm describes initial blessedness the holy Apostle here describes perfect and consummate blessedness David describes the blessedness of the way Paul sets forth to us the blessedness of the Country and state whither the Saints are travelling David speaketh of the blessedness which lieth in order and tendency to blessedness Saint Paul of ultimate and supreme blessedness the summum bonum the chief and most transcendent good which either the Creature is capable of or God can confer on it even immediate vision and fruition of himself to all eternity Ever with the Lord. Adam by that first candle which God lighted in his first creation clearly saw in what his summum bonum did confist and for a moment enjoyed it but the Angel who kepe not his first estate envying his happiness Ad solamen calomitat is suae incipit perditus pordere well remembring the method of his own apostacy tempts him by the same medium of pride to cast himself down from the pinnacle of happiness whereon he stood whereby himself fell down from heaven and the temptation unhappily took for while Adam was ambitious to be a sun he miserably put out his candle and so lost his way and himself too since which time none of his unhappy posterity could ever by the help of that snuff which remained find their way again to true happiness How miserably did the great Sophiâ—s of the world the Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 21. In their ratiocinations those Secretaries of Nature the reputed Masters of Knowledge and Learning cum ratione insanire and in the Apostles language Grow vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened How did they weary themselves with the blind Sodomites to grope out the door which openeth to happiness but lost themselves instead of finding the truth Varro the learnedst of the Romans maketh report of no less than two hundred and eighty Opinions in his time concerning mans chiefest good Aul. Gol. each differing from the other and all from the truth as Basilis is reported to have asserted one hundred sixty five Heavens To this very day we see all the sons and daughters of Adam seeking for happiness but few or none finding what they seek for all agree in the notion but they differ in the object People generally go for happiness to the worlds Trinity Scil. The lust of the flesh 1 John 2.16 Scil. The lust of the eyes 1 John 2.16 Scil. The pride of life 1 John 2.16 But alas Nihil dat quòd non bobâ—â— these have it not to give men would fain squeeze that out of the world which God never put into it As an evidence whereof it is highly observable that the wisdom of God who best knows the worth of things hath not in that Scripture 1 John 2.16 dignified these elements of the world with those innocent titles of their primitive institution pleasures riches honours but calls them by the odious names which the first apostacy and the habitual degeneracy of nature hath justly imposed the lust of the flesh instead of pleasures the lust of the eyes instead of riches and the pride of life instead of honours in which respect the Apostle denieth them their original from the Father and sends them to fetch their pedigree from a lower extraction nim from the world ver 16. And behold if these objects which contain in them the utmost latitude of all worldly excellency and that in their puris naturalibus were never ordained by the great and wise Creator for any higher service than of the inferiour part of man the sensitive part wherein he differs little from the beasts that porish now when by the malice of the Devil and the corruption of mans heart they are debauched and poysoned into so many snares and temptations how totally I say uncapable are they become of being an adequate blessedness for immortal souls Such of the sons and daughters of Adam as have had the candle of the Lord which was put out by the fall lighted anew by the Sun of Righteousness are mightily enabled by the irradiation of the Holy Ghost to discern the airiness and emptiness of all sublunary and elementary happiness and to make choice of more solid supercelestial excellencies for their summum bonum to sing with the sweet singer of Israel In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16. â—â— and at thy right hand there are pleasunes for evermore Moses in the Old Testament and Paul in the New stand as two pillars of fire to light men the way to true blessedness Moses was courted by all the honours pleasures and treasures of Egypt to espouse them as his ultimate and supreme beatitudes but he shakes them off all as once Paul the Viper into the fire not less full of poyson than that venomous beast was Acts 28. â—4 First Pride of life the honour and grandeur of Pharaâ—h's Court came to do him homage every one in the Kings Court for there he was brought up bowed the knee and saluted Moses by the Prince-like title of the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter which signified no less than Heir apparent to the Crown of Egypt Pharach having then no other Child but that only Daughter nor she but Moses whom she had adopted to be her Son from the Cradle of Bul rushes yet all this glory did Moses when he came to years able to make his own choice refuse by faith seeing what an hollow insignificant advancement this was iâ— was not the Egyptian Monarchy which could make Moses happy especially in the terms he must take it namely to turn Egyptian and forsake the society of Gods people no said Moses I 'le have none of it to suffer with Gods people here and to reign with God hereafter is a felicity infinitely to be preferr'd before all the Empires in the world This temptation failing next succeeded in the second place Pleasure called by the Apostle the lust of the flesh with her face painted her locks curled breasts naked and impudently sollicits Moses his embraces All the beauties of the Kings Court delicious fare ravishing musick beautiful gardens stately walks fruitful orchards pools of water princely sports and pastimes in a word all the delights of the sons of men the sensual fruitions of an
towards heaven from whence they came And are these the things which are proper to make up to a man a standing holding selicity No saith the Apostle the things which are not seen are eternal God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect and Heaven and Glory c. these are the only beatifying objects as being only of a pure spiritual fixed immutable nature the things that are not seen are eternal and upon that account only able to constitute an adequte blessedness for an immense and an immortal soul an intellectual being Corporeal delights like so many sparks may make a crack and vanish Sapientl nihil est magnum cui nota est aeternitotu magnitudo Luth. nothing can seem great and excellent to him that knows the infinite vastness of eternity Ever with the Lord here 's a summum bonum for an heaven-born soul this Moses kept his eye upon and therefore all terrestrial felicities were but as sounding brass and a tinckling cymbal much noise but no harmony he saw him that is invisible an elegant contradiction q. d. he saw him that could not be seen he saw him by an eye of faith whom he could not see by an eye of sence and so did Saint Paul and so did all his fellow Apostles and Saints We look on the things which are not seen i. e. we look on them and them and them alone as our ultimate unmixt and supreme good Men and women who have none but eyes of flesh such as beasts have may chuse their good as beasts do by sight and sence but man that is in honour and understands not is like the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 Man that understands not what a bubble what a shadow Ratio humans tantum in praesenti sta◠haeret nihil aliud audit sentit intelligit vider cogitat Luth. in Isai 54.7 what a dream all sublunary glory is man that understands not what immarcessible Crowns of glory are prepared for them that love God this man shall be like the beasts that perish he shall have the burial of an ass though he hath swayed a Scepter he shall fall like a brute into the ditch and dye there though he hath flourished like a green Bay-tree rottenness shall be upon his root and his blossom shall go up into smoak Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye people of the earth spend not your strength in vain and your labour for that which satisfieth not strive not to force that out of the Creature which God never put in you may as well extract fire out of the Ocean mollifie rocks into syrup wash the Ethiopian white as squeeze happiness out of mortality Behold vast sums are required to make up a summum bonum scil Goodness Fulness Sutableness and Immutability Find me such a Creature under the Moon Psal 47.4 Lam. 3.24 and do with it what you please but saith the Church Lord thou shalt chuse our inheritance for us yea the Lord is my portion saith my soul It is impossible to churn happiness out of a Chest of gold it will never come you can never make immarsible crowns of fading flowers Or I will tell you when pleasures profits honours will make you blessed when you can sow your fields with Grace and fill your barns with sheaves of Saffron when the Lord Jesus is your wine the Word of God your bread the bosom of Christ your bed of love the honour of Christ your trade the graces of the Spirit your gold then and not till then you may write happiness upon these things These are the pleasures which are for evermore this is the enduring substance these the Crowns that wither not here you may find that which your soul seeketh for here is the mine here is the vein here the spring of happiness Ever with the Lord. Loose not I beseech you eternal glory for a flash of impure joy sell not an eternal inheritance cheaper than ever Esau sold his birth right for one draught of swill out of the swine-trough of sensual pleasures The Devil offers you the glory of the world God offers eternal glory put not a scorn upon Gods offers nor a cheat upon your own souls the Devils offers are not only inconsiderable but fraudulent he offers that which is none of his own to give the world or if it were it would be insinitely too short of the price he will have for it your precious and immortal souls What shall a man give in exchange for his soul And suppose thou shouldst repent of thy bargain the Devil will not repent of his nor will he sell as he buyeth shouldst thou say to him here Devil take the world and give me my soul again I repent he 'd but laugh at thee and say as the Priests said to Judas See thou to that what is that to me thou hadst what thou agreed'st for I have done thee no wrong The sinners feast is soon served in but the Messengers of divine Justice are preparing the reckoning and then are ready to take away And how sad will the catastrophe of that pleasure be when the sting of the shot must survive in Conscience of the sinner to all eternity Glorified Saints are entertained upon freecost no affeighting thoughts need discompose them so as to break any one draught of those pleasures wherewith their cup runs over or to hinder the pleasing swallow of those delicate morsels wherewith their table is full fraught no army of evils or of devils can break in upon them to make them forsake their Nuptial feast sensitive pleasure is contracted to the narrow point of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sense hath no delight but by the enjoyment of the present object and indeed so is glorified pleasure too but with this difference that Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is eternity it self They shall ever be with the Lord. Oh what a prodigious forfeiture of reason is this for the momentany satisfaction of a sordid lust to loose eternal cohabitation with God this transcendent beatitude ever with the Lord Yea to plunge ones self into that opposite gulf of misery never with the Lord but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2. Thes 1.9 and from the glory of his power The life from God the life with God the life of God can never expire Christians here is your summum bonum chuse it and your souls shall live Use the second It may serve in the next place Vse 2 not only to inform the erroneous judgment 2. It shews how much we are concern'd to secure our interest in this blessed state but also to awaken the sleepy Conscience Is this heaven Is this the summum bonum of immortal souls Then oh how much is every one of us concern'd to secure our interest in this glory What a folly is it for men to take such indefatigable puns to make sure
an earthly inheritance to run from Lawyer to Lawyer to attend eary in the morning and late at night to give see upon fee to spend half a patrimony or an estate to secure the rest and as if heaven and the beatifical vision were the only trivial worthless thing a meer accident that might adesse or abesse sine subjecti interitu be present or absent without the least prejudice at all to a mans happiness I say to take up that upon trust and to leave this ever with the Lord upon a peradventure Oh unspeakable folly and madness Oh that the sons of the earth should thus shame the heirs of heaven Hab. 2.6 that an earthly inheritance should be more valuâ—d by sense than the heavenly is by faith more care taken to be sure of dirt and dung thick clay than of that which is infinitely more valuable than câ—ral or pearls whose price is above rubies 1 Pet. 1.18 19 as bought not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Were this errour the fruit only of incapacity as it is in little Infants that cannot judge what belongs to their present or future good verily it were a thousand pities an infelicity upon the humane nature to be lamented with tears of blood but that rational Creatures furnished with such noble faculties for such divine and heavenly purposes should through a mere brutish sensuality be so willingly content to remain at such uncertainties is the most dreadful prodigy that can possibly enter into the heart of man That adult persons grown up to maturity should despise their birth-rights and desperately neglect to look into their writings which relate to such an immortal estate argues not only the woful degeneracy of the humane nature how rife and pregnant the seeds both of ignorance and atheism are therein but even a judicial blast upon their understandings as if the God of Heaven had given them up to the God of the world 2 Thes 1.9 to blind the eyes of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them Oh that men would consider seriously what avail will it be at death and judgment to have had assurance of many large earthly possessions while they lived and then to have neither scrip nor scrol as we say to shew for heaven that blessed inheritance of the Saints in light when they come to dye to be able to say now my house and my land and my silver and my crown and my kindom but not then my Lord and my God my heaven and my inheritance I have bestowed all my time and strength to assure my earthly possessions but now I can keep these no longer and can call nothing mine own but the dungeon of darkness there to be staked down to easeless and endless torments or at best to cry out with that heathen Emperour Animula Adrianus Imp. blandula vagula quo vadis nescio I know not whither thou art going O my precious darling my never dying soul Confident and presumptuous supposals may quiet and satisfie the sleepy and slothful Conscience in fair weather but in the hour of temptation Mat. 7.27 when the rain shall descend and the floods come and the winds blow then these foolish confidences will fall because they were built upon the sand and great will be the fall thereof Then when in hell the miserable soul made now as sensible as formerly it was secure shall from thence lift up its eyes and see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and it self thrust out what furious and fiery reflexions will then rend and vex the Conscience and the sinner cry out with horrour O damned wretch that I am I might have had pardon and glory as well as others I had as many means and motives I had as much need as they it was as much my concern as any others but I trifled and took up all upon trust and would not give diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end oh now a thousand worlds if I had them for a may be which once I had oh for one of those dayes of grace which I then sinned away and idled out in the pursuit of vanity for one of those tenders and offers of salvation which then pursued me and I would not hearken but thought I might have had heaven time enough when I had done with the world but now I see how miserably I have mocked God and deceived my self the day of grace is now gone and the time of peace is at its full stop and period and instead of ever with the Lord here I must lye and boil and broil in these flames with the Devil and reprobate spirits for ever Oh that sinners would therefore in this their day be wise As I Inâ—ew a prophane wretch in Kent who lived in all kind of wickedness and debauchery against the most passionate and compassionate cautions and expostulations of his godly Minister and would not hearken to him when he came to dye he sent for his Minister who coming and asking him why he had sent for him replyed only this Oh Sir my time is done and my mork a not begun and so died and know the things which belong unto their peace before they be hid from their eyes Consider as Motives Motives to labour for Assurance 1. It may be attained First Heaven way be made sure assurance may be attained 1. God commands it Phil. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 Heb. 6.11 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope And God doth not command impossibility the Law indeed did but he giveth more grace Jam. 4.6 God in the Gospel giveth what he commandeth To which end 2. It is observable that what is a precept in one place is a promise in another that if the command find work the promise may find strength Hence His Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 Phil. 4.13 and I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me So run the promises Mat. 7.7 Augustine desired no more of God but dâ— Domini quod jubes jube quod vis Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you A multiplied use of Gospel means will bring in a multiplied increase of Gospel grace and strength 3. Many of the Saints of God have attained assurance of their salvation holy Paul in the name of himself and his fellow Saints 2 Cor. 5.1 could say We know we have an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens not we hope only but we know So the Discâ—ple of love 1 John 3.14 We know we have
passed from death to life and God hath given us eternal life Chap. 5.11 not only will give but hath given as sure as if we were there already and thus in many Scriptures more Now this is certain what hath been may be what some of the Saints have attained and not only by special prerogative others may attain also provided they be not slothful Heb. 6.11 curn 12. but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Thus heaven may be made sure But on the other side The world nor any part of it can be made sure earth cannot 1. It is not all the ensuring Offices in the world nor all the Law or Lawyers in Westminster-hall that can make an undefeazable entail to secure an inheritance upon the third or second generation not only in respect of the brevity and uncertainty of mans life the great mutability in the Creature the wiles and frauds of men who are cunning to deceive but even in regard of the methods and intricacies of the Law it self 1 Tim. 6.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hence the Apostle calls all sublunary possessions uncertain riches to which he opposeth the living God God only is immortal not mutable all the things in the world which men make their riches are uncertain heaven only by a true Copernicisme is fixed the earth moveable and unstable 2. And God would have it so God hath on purpose filled the whole Creation with emptiness and vanity that the heart of man might not be ensnared and beguiled with it for saith God Prov. 23. â— wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not How not Not that which it appears to be a meer non-ens a nothing Not that which the heart of man promises to it self from it happiness and satisfaction nothing less Not fixed and durable for riches verily make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven Supra from whence they came God gave them and when he calls them they take wings and are gone in a moment they cannot be secured as good secure the bird upon the wing as go about to secure the world in any of the elements thereof 3. God would have us sit loose from the Creature here God would have us contented to be at uncertainties Matth. 6. ver 25. Take no thought for your life 34. Take no thought for to morrow In the concerns of the present life God would have us live at an holy kind of adventure and leave all to providence i. e. as to the issues and events of things But oh how are men turned Gods antipodes What cannot be made sure and God would not have to be sure that vain man would make sure and that which may be made sure which God commands us to make sure and what the Saints have made sure this and this only he takes upon trust and leaves it upon Why nots and peradventures Thus man stands as one saith upon his head and shakes his heels against heaven It is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation A second Consideration may be this Motive 2. To get assurance of heaven is a work never unseasonable but never more seasonable than in times of danger and uncertainty when all sublunary things are in a doubtful and wavering condition in such a juncture of time he that can secure heaven by making his calling and election sure he is like the Philosophers good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four-square cast him which way you will he alwayes falls upon a square he is built upon a Rock and cannot be shaken or though he be moved he cannot be removed but stands like a pillar in the Temple of God even like those pillars in Solomon's Temple Jachin and Boaz stability and strength This is the most important business incumbent on us and it being about an Inheritance which is fixed and sure it is both our duty and our wisdom to be so too uncertainty in things of uncertainty is no solecisme but to be uncertain in things of greatest assurance and permanency is an intollerable shame Heaven secur'd our work is done a man may sit down and sing a requiem to his own soul in an holy security Rora hora brevis mora O sidurasset saying Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years for years of eternity eat drink and be merry and not fear the rebuke of O thou fool The joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul entreth into the Lords joy the Inheritance safe a man may well be merry for he can never be miserable He that is sure of Heaven knoweth also that whatever he hath more or less in this life he hath it as The fruit of Gods everlasting electing love The purchase of Christs blood With Gods love as well as with Gods leave By promise as well as by providence As part of his childs portion in earnest of what is to come He knoweth that whatever befalls him on this side heaven Honour or dishonour Good report or bad report Health or sickness Prosperity or adversity Peace or persecution Life or death All shall work together for good his best his spiritual his eternal good Rom. 8.28 Who but a mad man would leave such an estate upon uncertainties The world may call him if they will a wise man but a greater fool goeth not about the streets with a whisk and a batible And truly without this a man cannot rationally take any delight in these inferiour enjoyments this will be a care at the bottom yea it is well now but what it will be hereafter to all eternity I know not Consider in the third place Motive 3. The more wisdom any have attained to the greater hath been their care and diligence to secure to themselves an interest in this future blessedness Witness holy David and Paul Porphyry saith of Photinâ—â— that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose indifferency about the present and contention about the future estate was such as if they had forgotten they were in the body Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee so sings David Psal 73.25 And I forget the things that are behind and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus so professeth holy Paul Phil. 3.13 14. Oh happy security they were careless of the world that they might secure themselves of heaven Fourthly and lastly consider Motive 4. That disappointment is the most afflicting evil that a rational Creature is capable of And there be three Aggravations which render it intolerable First The more precious the concernment the more grievous the disappointment to be disappointed of a common preferment is very vexatious what is it then to be disappointed of a Crown a Kingdom Secondly The higher the confidence of speeding the deeper the anxiety of disappointment to come to the Church door in expectation
of a rich and honourable match and when hands come to be joyned then to be rejected this is enough to distract Thirdly The less hope of recovery the fadder and more killing is the disappointment to be cast in a Suit of Law for an Inheritance which is uncapable of a second trial is enough to put a man besides himself Behold oh precious souls disappointment at the day of Judgment falls under the terror of this threefold aggravation and that in the most dreadful notion that tongue can express or heart conceive 1. Here disappointment is in a matter of no less value than a Crown a Kingdom A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 Life Rev. 2.10 Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 A Kingdom of God Luke 13.28 29. Heaven Matth. 5.3 Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 1.11 Oh how dreadful will that disappointment be especially with that addition Everlasting kingdom 2. This will be the disappointment of highest confidences and presumption None are so confident of beaven as those who have nothing to shew for their right to it most Christians promiscuously so caled think themselves as sure of heaven as if they were there already and oh when these shall come and knock at the door with their bold Lord Lord Mat. 7.21 22 23. cum Luke 13.16 27. open to us crying loud and pleading hard what they have done how they have preach'd and pray'd and received Sacraments and possibly converted others expecting now to have the door opened and ready to set foot over the threshold of heaven and shall then be thrust back with that terrible blast I never knew you depart from me Oh what shame and confusion will this disappointment fill their faces and consciences with for ever Surely this will be the very emphasis of damnation to have been within a step of salvation and yet miss 3. And all this without the least hope of speeding or speaking to Christ any more for ever about the matter of salvation Now therefore fear and tremble and pray that this may not be the portion of your cup from the hand of the Lord. Another Consideration may be This will make you Motive 5. fruitful in the work of Grace Christians that make their calling and election sure will and cannot but be fruitful in good works for by these you must maintain your assurance as being the fruits and evidences of your salvation A third improvement of this point Vse 3 Is this the glory and happiness of the future estate in heaven Let it then excite in us an holy ambition to be often looking into this glory to anticipate it by our frequent contemplations the sweeter the vision the more taking it should be with men of ascending and ambitious spirits Can earth-worms take such complacential contentment from beholding a bag of gold or a field of corn or a sumptuous fabrick and please themselves in a peculiar manner with the reflexion of their interest Psal 108.8 this is mine that appertains to me as David sings Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine Ephraim also is the strength of my head And shall not Saints turn their song to an higher key and be joyful in glory singing upon their beds God is mine and Christ is mine and the Holy Ghost is mine Angels are mine and Saints are mine all the glory of Heaven is mine this for ever with the Lord is mine I knew a rich Mammonist near the place where I was born In Kent that would once a day take all his bage of silver and gold out of his trunks and laying them in several heaps for he was exceeding rich upon a large table would go to the utmost end of the room and there having glutted his eyes with so delightful an object for a good while would all on a sudden take his run to the table and with stretched out arms gathering all into one vast heap as a man overcome and distracted with joy cry out All is mine Quere all is mine Why may not the Children of the Kingdom rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and collecting those treasures of glory into several heaps and embracing them with the arms of faith Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos cry out in an holy extasie All is mine all is mine Shall the adult heir of a fair Lordship or principality be often enquiring into his patrimony search into his writings and even grow great with the thoughts and contemplations of what he is born to And shall not the Heirs of the Inheritance of the Saints in light much rather delight themselves with the fore contemplation of their incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 undefiled inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them Object Yes so we would if we were sure it were ours Sol. And is that the cause of your apathy and flatness of spirits to these heavenly fruitions Truly this very uncertainty should even startle and affright us into an earnest contention to make heaven sure so infinite a weight of glory and we not ascertained of our interest upon some good Scripture-evidence is enough to make us to forget to eat our meat enough to break our sleep and to keep our eyes waking all the night long and to make us take little comfort in the present comforts we possess Quest You will surely ask then Evidences of Heaven What are the Evidences Answ 1. Why Evidence 1. truly this one thing would amount to an evidence and not the least evidence viz. Active endeavour to assure our selves of a share in this Inheritance of the Saints this would argue an high appretiation of this estate in the practical judgment as most incomparably and absolutely eligible this is the very language of an heaven-born-soul What have I to count upon but my treasure which is in heaven What business have I on earth comparable to this to ensure my portion in heaven for this cause I was born and for this end I came into the world the whole earth in comparison of heaven is but a dunghill Cabul 1 Kings 9.13 as Hiram called the Cities which Solomon gave him dirty or displeasing This will argue a child-like spirit Children mind their inheritance absent Children long to be at home at their Fathers house they are often there in their thoughts and wishes so the Saints We groan within our selves desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Secondly Evidence â— Especially if the holiness of heaven do kindle those desires in us more than the happiness when a poor foul can truly say I should not account it an heaven were it not that it is a land of holiness a land flowing with milk and honey of pure and immaculate joyes that there the beauty of holiness shines forth with unconceivable lustre and glory and there saith the soul I shall be in some degree
it with all thy might Labour hard here 's eternal rest after thy labours Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours Thou hast but a moment to work in but an eternity to rest in be industrious now and anon thou shalt be glorious Enter now into thy Lords Vineyard and soon thou shalt enter into thy Lords Joy Take pains here there remains a rest an eternal rest not an eternity of being only but an eternity of well-being Ever be with the Lord. Ply the Oar of duty Christians a blessed Haven is at hand you look for more than others what do you do more than others Never did servants expect such a recompence of reward The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. ult Oh let the fear of missing this glory urge you to the greater diligence let it stir you up to the most severe and intensive acts of holiness and obedience Phil. 2.12 Work out your expected salvation with fear and trembling he that runs for a great prize fears he should fall short Let us fear Heb. 4.1 lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to fall short you cannot merit it by your diligence but your may forfeit it by your sloth Oh work and work out your salvation Hope calleth up a Saint to duty he is said therefore to be saved by hope Christ in the soul and hope of glory Rom. 8. 1 John 3.8 cannot be an idle and sluggish principle He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure There are no bounds to his holy endeavours after conformity to Christ his hope to live with Christ in heaven puts him upon utmost essayes to live the life of Christ here on this side heaven Momentany enjoyments are strong inducements to worldlings to greatest pains and labours and will not the everlasting fruition of God make you stedfast unmoveable and alwayes abounding in the Lords work 1 Cor. 9.52 They run saith Paul for a corruptible crown but we for an incorruptible Oh how should we run They rise early to build an house that in one hour may be consumed to ashes what pains should we take to get an interest in that house which is eternal with God in the heavens They toil and moil and sweat to heap up riches for an unknown possessor and shall not we labour for that better portion that cannot be taken from us Heb. 3.2 Moses was faithful and active in the house of him that appointed him Chap. 11.26 and this did in a great measure excite him he had respect to the recompence of reward and shall we fear to over-do our work who have a clearer prospect of heaven than Moses had His face was vailed we see with open face There 's no inducement to take pains comparable to this ever with the Lord 2 Cor. 3.13 18. Ever in the Presence-chamber of the greatest Monarch in the world may ever upon the Throne giving laws to Kingdoms ever increasing treasures of gold and silver and precious stones ever bathing in the full streams of sublunary pleasures is no wayes comparable to one moments enjoyment of the presence of the Lord in heaven Let that mans money perish with him said that noble Marquess Galeacius Caracciolus who esteemeth all the gold in the world worth one dayes society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit c. I have often thought with my self that if heaven were capable of grief those very rivers of pleasures would swell with the tears of glorified souls to think that they have served God no more served him no better did no more for that God who hath prepared such an heaven full of glory for such an unprofitable servant as I have been Oh how coldly did I pray for this inestimable blessedness How unaffectedly did I hear the report of this great salvation And what little pains did I take for this exceeding and eternal weight of glory which exceeds all hyperboly While slightest expressions are too big for my diligence What! all this joy and so little pains to obtain it All this glory and so little zeal for the glory of God! So great an harvest and so little seed sown So great a reward and so little service Surely there would be a day of humiliation kept in heaven and it might well take up half eternity to bewail the Saints remissness in the work of the Lord were heaven capable of it or did not the reflection of glorified souls upon the former iniquities of their holy things issue only unto the admiration of the riches of that grace which hath brought them to glory But though heaven will not admit of grief thy present estate will mourn therefore that thou hast been so dead and so dull in the service of God who hath set before thee no less a reward than the enjoying of himself to all eternity and let the sense thereof quicken thy dead heart to work after another rate for the little remnant of mortality yet behind Say not yet there is two much sand left in the glass for God and eternity say rather Oh that were it not to keep me so much the longer from my Fathers presence oh that every hour yet behind were a day every day a month every month a year every year a life it were all too little for that hope which is laid up for me in heaven Oh had I an hundred pair of hands they were too little to imploy in my heavenly Fathers work an hundred pair of feet they would not carry me fast enough in the way of his Commandments an hundred pair of eyes were not enough to behold God in every Creature round about me Col. 1.13 a thousand tongues were not sufficient to trumpet forth his praises who hath made me meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Oh Eph. 5.16 what shall I do If I cannot love God more serve him better bring him more glory than hitherto I have done I am undone I am undone Oh redeem Christians the eternal Jubile is at hand the trumpet is ready to sound and the glorious eternal liberty of the Saints and Servants of God ready to be proclaimed up and be doing now as ye would be found when Christ shall come with his mighty Angels and his reward with him that you may hear the blessed Euge Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord. Vse 4 In the fourth place This may serve as a preservative to the people of God to keep them from fainting and falling away in time of sufferings and persecution for righteousness sake after a moments sufferings they shall have eternity of rest they shall ever be with the Lord and thenceforth there shall be no more sufferings nor sorrow all tears shall be wiped from their eyes and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads once hous'd in
will agree exactly 2.167 Reproach Reproaches for Christ better than all the applause of the world 3.83 Reprobate the future estate of the reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Resurrection three things interest a believer in the triumph of Christ's resurrection 1 Power 1.12 2 Office 1.13 3 Right 1. ibid. Christ arose by his own strength 1.12 As a publick head 1.13 On which account 1 The Saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2 They are assured they shall arise 1.15 Resurrection of Christ why called his youth 1.16 An inseparable connexion between the resurrection of Christ and of the Saints 1 Of merit 1.15 2 Of power and influence 1.16 3 Of design 1.17 4 Of union ibid. Christ is risen as our first fruits 1.19 Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our faith 1.20 How Christ shall bring the Saints with him at the resurrection 1 Their souls from heaven 1.47 2 Their bodies from the grave and how 1.47 3 Body and soul he shall take up into the clouds and why 1.48 49 4 He shall carry them back with him into heaven 1.50 It shall put believers that are dead into as good a capacity as those that are alive 2.64 Saints that shall then be found alive will be no otherwise capable of it than under the notion of the dead 2.65 The manner of it 2.86 The admirable properties of it 1 Incorruptible 2.89 2 Glorious 2.90 3 Powerful 2.93 4 Spiritual 2.94 Saints shall rise with the same bodies they lye down with 2.87 The body will depend wholly upon the soul 2.95 Our bodies at the resurrection shall he moved by an extrinsic power but shall move themselves by an intrinsic principle 2.107 Why called the Regeneration 2.101 Three consequents of the resurrection 1 The resurrection of the Saints that are dead 2.86 2 The Saints triumphant ascension 2.104 3 The Saints joyful meeting 1 One with another 2.112 2 All with Christ where 1 The persons meeting 2.120 2 The place where 2.124 3 The ends of their meeting 2.126 Christ will welcome the Saints at the resurrection under a threefold relation 1 As the Fathers election 2.121 2 As the purchase of his blood ibid. 3 As the depositum of the Holy Ghost 2.122 Reward is an encouragement to good works e contra 3.91 Riches have wings 3.105 Righteous to be righteous and not guilty are two different capacities 2.139 Righteousness a positive righteousness is required to the justification of a sinner as well as absolution from guilt and punishment which appears on the account 1 Of the justice of God 2.141 2. Of the perfection of the Law 2.143 3 Of the necessity of the sinner 2.154 4 Of the excellency of the Redeemen 2.157 It looks forward pardon backward 2.142 Righteousness imputed to the Saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 The mediatory righteousness of Christ comes to be a believers as the first Adam 's disobedience came to be his posterities viz. by imputation 2.146 Imputed righteousness the same materially which the Law requireth 2.149 T Sacrament attend often upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 3.132 Saints the dignity of them 1.41 They that are alive at Christ his coming shall have no advantage above those that are dead 2.58 They that are dead shall be first remembred at the resurrection 2.60 Those that are alive will be no otherwise capable of the resurrection than under the notion of the dead 2.65 They shall be solemnly espoused to Christ 2.162 They shall be assessors with him at the judgment 2.164 Scripture inference is Scripture 2.67 It concerns us to search the Scriptures 3.163 In reading Scripture make a collection of the Promises 3.163 Secret whatever kindness was shewed to God in secret shall be openly rewarded 2.130 Self-denyal exercise it 3.130 Separation a perfect separation from the society of sinners at the last day 2.117 Sin why sometimes punished here sometimes not 2.78 The Saints sins not remembred at the last day 2.130 And why 2.134 This is no encouragement to sin 2.131 It is fully pardoned at death 2.134 They will appear as they are at the day of judgment 2.168 A vain thing to call any sin small 2.168 The smallest is dangerous 3.128 It sets us at a great distance from heaven 3.41 An universal hatred of it an evidence of heaven 3.120 It is the Devils image 3.120 Sinner the condition of a sinner doth necessarily require an imputed righteousness 1 To settle solid peace in the conscience 2.154 2 To secure his appearance in the day of judgment 2.157 Sinners are mixed with Saints here contra 2.116 They will dread the society of the godly at the last day as much as formerly they hated it 2.117 They were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Sleep Death but a sleep 1.2 Death resembled to sleep in two respects 1.3 Socinians deceived in saying we shall not have real but aerial bodies at the resurrection 2.96 Sorrow there is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not 3.144 Souls all of one size 2.94 Not everlasting a parte ante and why 3.86 Spirit the Spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy but the blood of Christ the fountain of merit 2.122 Spirit of God hath a twofold office about attaining assurance 3.123 Be tender of it 3.127 None but friends can properly be said to grieve the Spirit 3.128 Sufferings of the Saints will be owned at the resurrection 2.129 T Tears of the Saints are bottled 2.128 Terror it will be horrible terror to the wicked to see the Saints sit in judgment with Christ 2.164 Time no farther time will be granted at the great Assize 2.171 Transgression Sinners were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Translate no translating of sin upon others at the great day 2.168 Tribunal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 Trinity the external works of it are undivided 1.46 The order of their work 1.46 Trumpet one end of the Feast of Trumpets might be to put them in mind of the last day 2.114 Last Trump will not be only audible but articulate 2.115 V Vision six things shall be the object of the Saints Vision 1 The seat of blessed souls 3.3 2 The glorified Saints 3.4 3 The elect Angels 3.15 4 The glorified body of Christ 3.26 5 God in the divine Essence 3.18 6 All things in God 3.42 Of glorified Saints will be wonderful glorious 3.4 We shall not have an intuitive Vision of the divine Essence 3.27 How far we shall have a Vision of the divine Essence 3.30 Of God in Scriture is twofold 1 In Grace 3.40 2 In Glory ibid. How these agree and how they differ 3.46 Unbelief the spring of all our misery 1.21 Understanding the glorified understanding shall have a sixfold perfection 1 Spirituality 3.36 2 Clarity 3.37 3 Capacity 3.38 4. Sanctity ibid. 5 Strength 3.39 6 Fixedness ibid. Our understandings will be like unto God in heaven 3.78 Union
priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
Rags of mortality before they put on the Robes of Glory and this must be done Partly that the Statute of Heaven may not be broken Heb. 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decreed wherein it is appointed for all men once to dye It was a Statute Law past in the Parliament of Heaven Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Heb. in dying thou shalt dye Christ himself as man submitted himself to this Statute and so must all the Sons and Daughters of Adam they must dye either literally or analogically Death makes a change in some and this change is a death in others a death to mortality and a death to corruption Partly that hereby they may also be made partakers of the Resurrection Our Saviour's prediction of the Resurrection comprehends all the Saints of God and the living Saints at that day can by no other means be counted the Children of the Resurrection than as they are begotten again as it were by this mysterious and ineffable change Math. 19.28 whence possibly it is called the Regeneration because all the Elect of God shall then begin to live their new perfect life all over in their bodies and Souls both the quick and the dead From these Premises we draw this Conclusion c. That our Apostle here doth not start any new doctrine of his own or as * 1 Cor. 7.12 somewhere he doth deliver his own judgment as an holy knowing man and not as one infallibly inspired from above but he doth expound Christ unto us and gives us the sense of His words who was both the Truth and the Resurrection So that the doctrine here laid down as it is a word of exceeding comfort to dying Saints and to their surviving Relations Non primi extitimus Resurrectionis testâ—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so here is a consideration which may adde great weight to it and make it so much the stronger consolation in as much as it hath the stamp and sanction of Christ's own Authority Christ himself hath made assidavit to it we have the word of him that cannot lye the Apostle being in this but Christs Interpreter From hence by the way we are informed of these two things Use of Inform. worth our notice First Vse 1 There is no sure and infallible foundation for our faith to stand upon but the word of God Thither therefore the Holy Ghost sends us Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them The Apostle himself would not aver such a solemn truth as this is but from the mouth of Christ himself Uncertain Revelations dubitable Traditions Authority of the Church and all humane Testimony whatsoever is too weak a foundation to build our Faith upon in any Article of Religion Search the Scriptures for in them ye hope to have Eternal Life Jo. 5.39 Secondly We gather hence that Scripture-Inference Vse 2 is Scripture that is to say That which may be inferr'd from Scripture by natural and necessary consequence is to be received as the Scripture it self The word of God rightly interpreted is the word of God Thus our Lord himself Luk. 12.27 proves the Resurrection out of the old Testament by inference and deduition from the words which God spake to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he thence inferrs God being not the God of the dead but of the living that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive in their better part sc their Souls and shall live again in their inferiour part sc their bodies So the holy Apostle here inferreth this comfortable truth that the dead Saints shall lose nothing by their not being found alive at Christs coming from Christ's own doctrine of the Resurrection in general And doubts not to honour it with this Title The Word of the Lord This I say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Let the Ministers of the Gospel take heed how they Preach any doctrine opinion or practise 1 Caution to Ministers which cannot either in terminis or at least by just and necessary consequence be justified to be the word of God lest they incurre the brand and censure of false Prophets Jer. 29.9 And let Christians take heed how they reject any doctrine which is so evidenced 2 Caution to private Christians lest they be found to reject the Word of the Lord Jer. 8.9 I have done with the second branch of the seventh word of Comfort sc the Authority quoted for it save only that there is one scruple yet to be removed and that is Quest Why the Apostle in delivering this truth doth use this phrase we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord and not rather they which are alive for Did the Apostle indeed think that he himself should live to see Christ coming in glory to judg the quick and the dead Ans Certainly No for 1. Grotius aliter opinatur quem vide in loc arque etiam Bez. The event shews that that had been a mistaken presumption in him that day is not yet come and the Apostle is long since fallen asleep 2. We hear him Prophesying of his own dissolution and that as a thing hard by 2 Tim. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Gr. it is instant upon me See the Apostle was far from flattering himself with any such conceit of being one of them that should live and remain unto the coming of the Lord. What means the expression then Ans The holy Apostle divides all the Elect of God into two ranks sc 1. Such as are fallen asleep from the fall of the first Adam to the coming of the second or 2. Such as should survive and remain unto that day not making himself of the number of either the one or of the other but one of the whole number of Gods Elect some of whom should sleep some should live till Christ's last coming and when he saith we that are alive and remain it signifies no more but this in general such of us as are then alive shall not prevent such of us as are then asleep this is all he intends in this expression Beza and others spy out a mystery in this manner of speech Doct. as if hereby the Apostle would hint unto us the uncertainty of Christ's Coming Vult omnes suspensos tenere ne sibi tempus aliquod promittant that for ought that was revealed of that day Christ might come while some of that generation were superstites living upon the face of the earth If that doctrine be in the Text Vse Christ himself hath made the use of it Lanet ultimus dies ut expectetuâ— singulis ut fideles emnibus horis parati essent Math. 24.36 of that day and hour knoweth no man no not
the more impurity the dimmer the vision Blessed are the pure in heart Mat. 5.8 for they shall see God Why now in glory all these maculae and spots shall be perfectly wiped off and the vessel shall be made a clear burning glass to receive and contain the glorious rayes of divine excellency which do immit themselves into it Hence this vision of God is called by Divines a clear distinct and perfect sight of God not as if the blessed did see all whatever is in the divine essence but as opposed to our present dim glassy vision 1 Cor. 1â— so that it perfectly takes in what the divine will is pleased to reveal without any the least obstruction or diminution Thirdly 3. Perfection Capacity The faculty in glory shall be widened and extended to a vast capacity now the understanding is large there is no bounding or limitting of it it is higher than the Heavens and deeper than the Sea and wider than the World it is said of Solomon in respect of his understanding 1 Kings 4.25 that he had wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart even as the sand that is upon the Sea-shore but all that was specially in order to the mysteries of nature as it follows there in his character from verse 30 to 34. But in glory the understanding shall be widened to a vaster capacity scil to take in not the little things of the Creature only Magnalia Dei but the infinite God I do not say infinitely but apprehensively though not comprehensively for then the vessel must be as large as the object yea larger since the thing containing must be somewhat bigger than the thing contained but the understanding shall apprehend God clearly certainly and fully the object it self shall extend the faculty and make it capacious for it self It is worth our notice to compare those two expressions of the beatifical vision the one Matth. 18.10 where it is said The Angels do alway behold the face of God the other where the Angels and Saints the number of whom is said to be Rev 5.11 ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands are described surrounding Gods Throne they are round about the Throne compare them together They alwayes behold the face of God and yet are round about and it hints us this blessed notion God hath no back parts in Heaven God to the blessed Inhabitants there is all face and they are alwayes beholding it how should not so transplendent an object confound the spiritual organ with the immense splendor and glory thereof but that the object it self doth sustain and nourish the faculty A fourth Perfection is Sanctity 4. Perfection Sanctity Heb. 12.23 the understanding shall be made perfect in holiness In the state of separation The spirits of just men are made perfect and surely the soul looseth nothing of its sanctity by being united to the body in glory Now of all divine qualities none doth more capacitate the Soul for the vision of God than holiness witness that holiness is called the divine nature 1 Pet. 1.4 Holiness assimilateth unto God and the perfection and delight of vision is founded in conformity it is so in the Evangelical vision Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God according to the purity of the heart is the vision of God What a glorious vision of God will that be which the perfection of holiness shall advance the soul unto when the glorious object shall both enlarge and purifie the faculty The fifth Perfection is Strength 5. Perfection Strength The vision of God doth fortifie the understanding In nature the more vehement and intense the object the more it hurts and crâ—sheth the sence the vision of God though but under a veil Câ—â—e vehement sensibile destruit sensum Dan. 10.7 8 Rev. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lumen gloriae superaddita perfectio qua intellectus confortatur ad videndum Deum Tho. Aquin. did undo the Prophet Isaiah Holy Daniel's vision though but a vision did dispirit him and left him without strength Saint John his vision though but the darker side of the beatifical sight of God stayeth him outright for a time I fell at his feet as dead The souls of the blessed in Heaven are set beyond all fear of such a surprise of glory while God fills their faculty he doth also sustain and perfect it by means whereof the faculty shall never be weary of its object but still behold it with fresh vigour and delight So it follows A sixth and last Perfection is Fixednese 6. Perfection Fixedness In the state of grace the mind is exceeding slippery like that of little Children whom you cannot six we lye upon spiritual objects as upon a bank of ice where we slide and slide and never leave sliding till we be in the dirt and this comes to pass by reason of those mixtures of impurity which are in these natural minds of ours the objects are pure and simple James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the faculty is wofully clogged with superfluity of naughtiness hence the lubricity and floating that is in the understanding like the Sea it self but now in glory all that mixture is abolished so that there is nothing remaining to divert or distract the faculty yea the object it self still shall unite the faculty to it self though not so as to make it its self yet so as to make it like its self to make it capable of its self in all the communicable dimensions of the divine nature In a word the faculty shall be made perfectly sutable to the object not only in the properties but in the very nature of it whereby it shall be enabled to know it and understand it to perfection Oh blessed and blessed-making vision Glorious things are spoken of thee oh thou vision of God! Truly beatifical for ever Eye truly hath not seen c. Before we leave this Vision let us make some use of it And the Use may be two-fold 1. Study holiness 2. Labour to see God before you come to Heaven First Study holiness there be two Visions of God mentioned in Scripture First The Vision of God in Grace Secondly The Vision of God in Glory The Evangelical Vision The Angelical Vision The Vision of God in Ordinances The Vision of God Without Above Ordinances In the Vision of Grace the Evangelical vision the Saints see Gods back parts but in the Vision of Glory the Angelical vision they see God face to face in the Evangelical vision they see God darkly and know him in part but in the Angelical vision they know him even as they are known by him the Saints shall have a full prospect of God in Heaven But of both these Visions holiness is the indispensable qualification without holiness there is no admission into Heaven Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth And when entred