shall be seen through the Body in such a sort as the life of the Soul is seen and observed in and by the vivacity and liveliness which it imparts by action and motion to the outward visible parts of the Body Dr. Rich. Sheldon of mans last end and not only did the face of Christ shine as the Sun at his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor but also his rayment was white as the light Matth. 17.2 St. Mark addeth that his rayment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them Mark 9.3 Now his garments did cover his Body yet such was the glory and clarity of his Body that his rayment became white as snow for it became not Christ or the Angels to appear in naked Bodies Cyril Hierosol Catech 18. Cyril of Jerusalem speaking of this point saith The Just shall shine as the Sun and as the Moon and as the brightness of the Firmament And God foreseeing the incredulity of Men Ut Anima ista dum exercet functiones suaâ— in corpore impertit ei colorem totam hanc externam Corporis gloriam ita tum cum Deus erit omnia in omnibus spiritus Christi in nobis habitam induet Corpora nostra gloriosissima quibusque qualitatibus Rolloc in Johan cap. 5. hath given unto little Worms called Glow-worms a shining Body that they might shine therewith that from those things which do appear we might believe what we do expect he that hath made a Worm so to glister will make the Bodies of the Saints much more bright and shining SECT II. Of the agility of glorified Bodies THe Bodies of the Saints in Heaven shall also have a wonderful agility whereby they shall be able to move from place to place with incredible swiftness this agility is a glorious quality whereby the Bodies of the glorified are totally subject to the Souls as to most powerful movers to be moved by them without the least reluctancy or resistance for the Soul shall then as some Learned men say have a most absolute dominion over the Body and by a redundancy and emanation impart to it a glorious quickning and vivacity far beyond that which any mortal Creatures in their bodily heavy parts can have for glorified Souls shall then be made perfect and glorified Bodies shall have more perfect instruments for motion then those which corruptible Bodies usually have and the weight of their Bodies shall not in the least hinder their motion And albeit the same Father saith Certe ubi volet Spiritus ibi protinus erit Corpus that the Body will presently be there where the Soul would have it Yet may we not grant unto the same Bodies any instantanean motion so that in an imagined instant of time they may make any true real corporal motion for time in a proper speech hath no true or real instant either as part or period or end of it self for then a glorified Body must pass thorow the beginning middle and end of a space at once if it move from place to place in an instant which were more then utterly impossible involving a contradiction and would be destructive to the nature of a true Body Yet the motion of glorified Bodies may be very sudden and in so short a time as it were imperceptible Augustine compares it to the Sun-beams August Epist 4â— the which as it were in an imperceptible moment of time do fill this whole Hemisphere with their glorious lustre The Author of the Book of Wisdom saith The Righteous shall shine and as sparks among the stubble they shall run too and fro Sap. 3.7 Whereby some think the agility of the Saints Bodies in Heaven and their facility for motion is figured One saith that its agility will be so great that it will out-pass the winds and lightning it will flie without wings through the spacious Regions of the Air it will walk upon the water and not sink and in a very short time passing from one end of the World to the other will be no longer a clog and torment to the Soul Moreover which way soever they shall move they shall have the glorious presence of God with them in Heaven the Saints live move and have their glorious being in him they live of him by partaking of his glorious life move before him like the holy Angels by a most prompt and ready obedience and are in him being entered into the joy of their Lord. SECT III. Of the spirituality of glorified Bodies A Farther degree of the happiness of a glorified Body is that it shall be spiritual It is sown a natural Body but it riseth a spiritual Body 1 Cor. 15.44 It is called a spiritual Body not as though the Body were changed into the Soul and Spirit for so that which is raised should not be Man consisting of a Soul and Body but a third distinct thing differing from Man it shall not then cease to be a Body it shall change condition but not change nature were its nature changed the mystery of the resurrection of the flesh should be quite taken away and so the same thing that fell should not be raised again Neither is it called a spiritual Body as though the Body after the resurrection were rarified like the Air and Wind as the Eutychians of old affirmed denying glorified Bodies to be palpable but I call it spiritual 1. Because as the Body shall be re-united to the Soul so it shall be perfectly submitted to it as the Spirit serving the Flesh may not unfitly be called carnal so the Body obedient to the Soul is rightly termed spiritual The Soul shall have a more powerful influence upon and dominion over the Body after the resurrection then it ever had or could have in the time of her mortality it shall no longer be the Prison but the Temple of the Soul then the Body shall readily yield to every motion of the Spirit 2. The Body shall be endued with spiritual properties the Bodies of the Saints shall be even as the Angels are now in Heaven they shall be able to live without sleep without eating and drinking without marriage they shall need none of such things as these natural Bodies in this mortal condition do Our Bodies now are but so many clogs to our Souls subject to toyl and weariness but then the Body will have such advantages as will free and clear it from all such corporal imperfections and defections as bodily and corporal substances are obnoxious to the corruptible Body overladeth and oppresseth the Soul and this earthly tabernacle presseth down the mind meditating on heavenly things but in Heaven when the Souls of the Blessed shall see the glory of God and be for ever in the contemplation of him they shall then be freed from all clogs and hinderances that so they may bend themselves with all their might to the contemplation love and fruition of God whose goodness will then be most clearly and fully presented
been exercised in extending themselves and mercy to the poor be for ever bound by the ingratitude of death shall those knees which have bowed with such willing reverence be so held down by the violence of mortality that they can never rise up again Where are then thy tears O David if thine eyes shall not enjoy the happiness of their own sorrow What then O Job is become of thy faith and patience if thy body be now as much without hope as before it was without rest Where are then O Esaias thy victorious sufferings if after the ignorant fury of the saw and schism of thy body thy body suffer a wider disordation from thy soul for tedious eternity Where are thy travels then O Paul if after thy Christian Geography and Conquest of Paganism thou art for ever confin'd to the dull peace of a Grave No the Almighty which hath made man with wisdom of Art will neither lose his glory nor his work but as he made the greater Heaven for his Angels so made he the less and mortal Heaven of Man's Body as I may so speak for his Soul and will have it eternal as his Soul SECT VII THere is more excellency of workmanship in the Soul but more variety in the Body the Soul doth more truly express God the Body more easily the Soul judgeth best but the Body first and though the eyes of the Soul do behold the work of God more clearly yet doth the eye of the Body most properly Nay should not the Body be raised to life and Heaven how great a part of Heaven and that life would be lost whiles not enjoyed and be as unnecessary as it is wonderful God hath prepared joys for the Saints which the eyes have not seen nor the ears heard but which the eye shall see and the ear shall hear and without the pleasure of a trance for ever possess as much without error as without measure such honour will the Creator of our Bodies do to the Bodies of all his Saints They shall acknowledge Corruption yet overcome it they may in their journey be the Guests of the Grave but at last they shall be the Inhabitants of Heaven Yet the Lord cannot hereafter honour Humane flesh by raising it as he hath already by assuming it it was before his Servant now his Companion that was a resurrection of the flesh when it was raised unto God but the only resurrection of our flesh is when it is raised unto the Soul At the last day of Judgement though there be no Marriage of sexes yet there shall be of parts when Souls shall be united to Bodies in so entire and so inexorable a Matrimony that it shall admit no hope nor fear of a divorce nor need we fear in the jealousie of this Match the Ignoble Parentage of the flesh since what it wanteth by Birth is supplied by Dowry and flesh now is become such refined earth being made wonderful in shape and office that the Soul may be thought scarce more noble but that it seems more reserved by being invisible this mortal body shall put on immortality this Body sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption it shall not only be freed from death but also from corruption yea and whatsoever savoureth of mortality or the least decay And notwithstanding these principles of earth fall into such an heap of dust that they are with as much difficulty to be seen as numbred yet thus divided among themselves retaining still though not an appetite yet an obedience to a resurrection Nature hath not lost this and God will supply that and as easily unite as distinguish each dust to yield to this is the Creed of the Creed If any mans faith in the assent to this mystery be as weak as his reason he may help both his faith and his reason by sense by which he shall be either convinced or perswaded If you will be but as hardy as Antiquity you may propose to your selves the solemn Poetry of the Phoenix a Creature rarer then the Resurrection though not so admirable in whose ashes you may find the fire of life expecting but to be fann'd to the resurrection of a flame as if this Creature by a riddle of Fate would by a fire both perish and revive But without the courtesie of supposition you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot forth new quills wherewith may be written and testified his endeavor of immortality thus doth God teach Nature how to teach us mysteries and without the magical learning of the language of Birds to understand without their voice their secret instruction But perhaps you will think that to discern this truth in the nature of Eagles would require a sight as sharp as the Eagles Remove then your eyes from the Fowls of the Air but to the Trees whereon they nest and with a negligent view you may observe how after the nakedness and death of Winter they bud forth afresh into life and beauty yet why should we in the sloth of this easie contemplation study so broad an object let our eye with more grateful industry confine it self with the small seed of corn and at least take the pains to see the pains of the Husbandman and shall we not admire at his delightful Arithmatick of nature to behold a seed whose hope seems as small as it self by being cast away to be found by destruction to receive increase from the same furrow to take both a Burial and a Birth He that shall now see a little drop of man's seed in a glass and a lump of earth together would think the one as unlikely to become a man as the other and yet we see how miraculous and curious a work the Lord makes every day of the principle of seed which made David cry out I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139. and he can easily restore our Bodies out of a praeexistent something which may confute the erronious opinion of the Sadduces who denied the resurrection Matth. 22.23 of the Athenian Philosophers who derided it Acts 17.18 holding the Pythagorean transmigration of Himeneus and Philetus who said the resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 and lastly of all those Atheists and Epicures Isai 22.13 that cry out and say Mors ultima linea rerum SECT VIII BUt now the Soul will have its old Companion again for should the Soul for ever want the Body it should want both perfection and wonder Is not the Soul most perfect when it is most noble is it not most noble when it is most bountiful and is it not most bountiful when it gives life to the dead Is it not likewise most full of wonder when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect when it mixeth with corruption and yet is incorruptible when it is most burthened and yet is most variously active Thus by this necessary inclination of the Soul the Resurrection is as natural in respect of the union as it is above Nature in respect of
more set forth the thankfulness of the Labourer and these the magnificence of the Lord. If you will take the words of the Rabbins whom in story of custom we have no more cause to distrust then to feign they will tell you when the Husbandman carried up those Fruits to the holy City he had a Bull went before him whose horns were guilded and an Olive-garland upon his head this was the picture of his Master's affection and state as if by the impetuous Beast he would express the courage of his joy by guilded horns the riches of his plenty and by the Olive-garland the Crown of peace Behold the displayed Herauldry of his happiness and that it might be increased by applauses a Pipe played before him to charge all to take notice of it until they came to the Mountain of the Lord. Shall not these first-fruits be likewise paid at our great resurrection shall they not be brought to our heavenly Jerusalem the City of the great King shall they not have Angels go before them shall there not likewise be Crowns and shall they not likewise be ushered by the voice of a Trumpet It was the sound that the Jews used at their braver Funerals and may it not then fitly be used when they shall be awaked from their Tombs Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if we once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let us no more say that they are dead but that they sleep yet all before the resurrection shall not sleep some instead of rising shall be only new dressed by being cloathed with incorruption and so have rather a change of rayment then of life they shall not put off their bodies but their mortality and be made like unto Christ both in the truth of the resurrection and of glory The Eutychian shall then confess that the two natures in Christ are not mixed though joyned and that his Humanity though exalted is not changed the Pythagorean shall then recover the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond Soul the Sadduce shall then rise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with the eyes of his body see the errour of his Soul the Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seen and it shall certainly prove that it is not everywhere by being not in the same grave whence it was risen that is in respect of his corporal presence for otherwise as he is God he was there and in all other places of the World CHAP. XVI SECT I. Of the glory of the Bodies of the Saints in Heaven and first of the beauty and clarity of glorified Bodies BUt now to speak more particularly of the glory of the Body the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.43 the Body is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory that which is here called glory is by Divines generally termed clarity and this no way varying from the sense of the Apostle for vers 41 42. he saith that the glories of the Saints Bodies in Heaven at the general resurrection shall be different and divers one exceeding another in clarity as one Star differs from another in glory so shall the resurrection of the dead be St. Paul saith in Phil. 3.21 Christ shall change our vile bodies and fashion them like unto his glorious body This is very admirable that a poor sinful Creature should be so changed transformed exalted as to be like the Son of God in glory Our Bodies now are but as loathsome Carcasses what a vile Body had Job when he sate upon the Dunghil what a vile Body had Lazarus when he lay at the Rich Man's gate full of sores When Children are young break out in the face in hands and body there is no beauty in them so sin breaks out in these mortal Bodies and makes them ugly in God's eyes there are many corporal imperfections in mens Bodies now but when Christ shall appear then our Bodies shall be as his Body beautiful and glorious Tradition upheld by reason teacheth us that he was beautiful without art that the Holy Ghost who formed his Body in the Virgins Womb would have it adorned with comliness he consecrated beauty in his Person when he took our nature upon him though he assumed the pain of sin he would not assume the ugliness thereof and as there was no ignorance in his Soul so was there no deformity in his Body His very types in the Old Testament were all comely David and Solomon the one of which represented his Victories the other his Triumphs were both of them famous for their beauty the Angels took upon them his visage when they treated with the Prophets while they spoke in his name they would appear in his form Jacob had the honour to see him when he wrestled with him before the break of day the three Children that were thrown into the fiery Furnace saw him in the midst of the flames But how gloriously did the face of Christ shine at his Transfiguration Christ's face did shine upon Earth and now in Heaven doth shine like the Sun And our Saviour intimateth that the Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Matth. 13.43 Lazarus his Body shall be a beautiful Body he shall have no imperfection Sampson shall then have his eyes which the Philistines pulled out Mephibosheth shall not be lame in Heaven there shall be no imperfection in a glorified Body The Scripture mentioneth some Persons eminent for beauty as David Joseph and especially Absalom who though he had a deformed Soul yet for his out-side was without blemish and had no peer among those many thousands of Israel There was none to be so much praised for beauty as Absalom for from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him 2 Sam. 14.25 But the most exquisite earthly beauty is but skin-deep and but like the painting of a rotten post it is but a fresh colour laid on mortality the foundation of it is weak and crasie and therefore it soon fadeth but he that is like to Christ in holiness shall be like to him in heavenly beauty and glory the beauty of glorified Bodies shall be a shining beauty The expression of Divines is thus As Iron when it is heated in the Fire we cannot see the Iron for the Fire it appears nothing else but fiery so in Heaven we shall not be able to see the Body for the glory thereof and as the Air is now fully possessed with the light so shall our Bodies be fully possessed with glory and the Soul full of the light of glory shall be diffused thorow the whole Body Lessius de summo bono lib. 3. cap 5. and all the parts of it according to the opinion of the Learned therefore it behooveth that the whole Body be resplendent according to the dignity of the Soul inhabiting it Yea it is conceived that the glory of the Soul
violent impressions yet may we not deny but that there shall be such sensitive actions of seeing hearing c. and consequently answerable passions which include not corruption as may be fitting for that glorious place each sense shall there have its own proper delight and glory doubtless the Bodies of the Saints shall not be destitute of their senses but be compleatly furnished with most perfect organs and spirits fit for their use and therefore shall have the most perfect use of their senses and verily in vain should the Body be resumed if there might not be the use and delight of the senses seeing the Body of man is not necessary or useful to the Soul but for the use of the senses neither shall there be wanting objects which may be perceived and may delight and refresh the senses 1. Because the Soul is not only rational but also sensitive and in both parts is capable of taking its delights therefore it must not only be made happy in the rational part which shall be done by the vision and fruition of God but also in the sensitive part which shall be brought to pass by the perception of the most excellent sensible objects fitted to every sense 2. The Saints in this life had many grievous afflictions and mortifications for Christ's sake in their senses for the greatest part of the torments which the holy Martyrs endured was in their senses They were tortured they had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprâ—sonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder they were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11.36 37. And the greatest part of the work of mortification lies in the mortification of the senses there is by nature an inordinateness in all our outward and inward senses thence we read in Scripture of a wanton eye 2 Pet. 2.14 Genes 21.7 of itching ears 2 Tim. 4.11 the lust of the palate Numb 11.4 5. of the lust of the nose Prov. 7.18 so of the touch Prov. 7.13 so that we cannot with safety trust them without Job's covenant Job 31.1 or the Prophet Hosea's hedge Hos 2.6 or Solomon's knife Prov. 23.7 or David's bridle Psalm 39.1 Not only the rational and intellectual but also the whole sensitive part of man is subject to lust and much of the work of mortification lies in subduing the inordinateness of the bodily senses so in Heaven likewise the sensitive parts and faculties which have been instruments of the Soul in the exercises of righteousness and in suffering for righteousness sake shall also receive their appointed rewards and consolations which shall be accommodated to every one of the senses 3. This is confirmed by the contrary for the damned in Hell shall be greatly tormented in all their senses the wanton eyes shall always be terrified with the sight of ugly Devils which should they behold here when they are alone would almost scare them out of their wits the delicate ears shall be affrighted with the horrid noise of damned Ghosts crying and roaring out with doleful shriekings cursing the day that ever they were born they shall famish and pine away for ever without one bit of bread to stanch their hunger and without one drop of water to cool their tongues tormented in the infernal flames your dainty delicate persons that now cannot brook the least unsavoury smell shall lie down in a stinking dungeon in a loathsome lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever Now if the Damned in Hell shall be so grievously tormented in their senses then shall the senses of the glorified Saints be exceedingly refreshed for God is not more severe in punishing then bountiful in rewarding SECT VII HEre let us consider some of the particular Senses and parts of the Body and take notice what notable things might be spoken of them 1. The Eyes those windows in the upper story how lightsome shall they be and what high and glorious objects shall they behold the Eyes shall then be renewed and made more bright and clear then the light of the Sun the very act of seeing shall be most clear and perfect they shall be freed from all darkness dimness obscurity and defect no glorious object shall dazle the eyes of the Inhabitants in Heaven for the brightness of the heavenly Bodies shall not trouble the spirits of the eyes as the light of the Sun troubleth them now but shall most sweetly strengthen them We may conceive that those that are in this place of blessedness at one single aspect may perfectly see from one end of the Heaven to the other there being no defect in the objects medium or organ or any thing to intercept the sight the objects being so transparent and glorious here we may see a Star in a dark night at many thousand miles distance but as the objects in Heaven shall be most glorious so the eyes of the Saints shall be enabled perfectly to behold them Again the medium shall no way be defective here the thickness or darkness of the Air often dulls our sight but in Heaven there shall be nothing but a perfect serenity round about them as in Hell is utter darkness so in Heaven there shall be most perfect light The organ also the instrument of sight the eye shall be wholly free from all dimness and be able to discern any glorious object presented to it it shall be free from weakness able to bear the brightest splendor nor shall it be any way offended with the glory of any visible thing though never so transcendently glorious I shall now speak of the glorious objects which the bodily eye shall behold in Heaven I. It shall behold the glory of God himself in a most glorious manifestation of himself to it It is a question whether we shall see God with our bodily eyes But I will not burden you with variety of opinions but take these things in answer to the question The sight of God in Heaven is to be referred to the understanding to the eye of the mind not to the eye of the body The Reasons of it are these Reas 1. Because the Divine Essence is most spiritual therefore it altogether exceeds the power of bodily eyes though glorified and raised to a far more admirable ability to discern far above what now it possibly can see Potentia organica ultra corpora non potest extendi by the sight of sense with our bodily eyes we can only see corporal things and materially bodily objects and so we cannot see our own Souls much less the Essence and Substance of God Reas 2. Because the Apostle saith of God that he is absolutely invisible 1 Tim. 6.16 whom no eye hath seen nor can see namely with bodily eyes And though it be said of Jacob that he saw God face to face Genes 32. and that God talked with Moses mouth to mouth as a man talketh with his friend Numb 13. yet they saw not
without doors in comparison of this but this is within it is a sin so inward to the Body that it diffuseth it self through the whole Body and makes it wholly a slave and instrument to its lust yea the Body is as it were the object of these sinful lusts they do in a peculiar manner defile the Body What greater indecorum can there be for one that hopeth to have his Body glorified in Heaven then thus to debase and vilifie it upon the Earth Take heed likewise of intemperance in meats and drinks of gluttony and drunkenness for this also dishonoureth the Body takes away the heart and makes it to stick fast in the mire of sensuality and makes a man a stranger to heavenly-mindedness it sets a man below a rational man much more below a spiritual man whose heart whose hope whose conversation is in Heaven St. Paul saith Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them If you expect to have your Bodies lifted up to heavenly glory be not ye Sâ—rvants to the belly and to meats and drinks both which are appointed to destruction Miserable then is the condition of those persons now whose god is their belly whose greatest delight is to pamper their bodies and please their palates that have not the least savour of heavenly things The more heavenly minded any man is the more he raiseth his heart far above these things and denieth himself in them and it shall be no little ground of comfort to a glorified Saint when after the mortification and diligent looking to the senses which continued so short a time he finds himself so wholly immersed in that deep fountain of glory without finding any bottom or end of so many and such exceeding great joys Oh then let us make it our meat and drink to do the will of our Father which is in Heaven using these outward blessings as not abusing them as furtherances and not as hinderances in the service of God eating and drinking for Heaven and whatsoever we do doing all for Heaven that this among other may be one good evidence to our Souls that we are Vessels of Honour prepared for glory fitted for Heaven where we shall be full of God and have no need nor desire to fill our selves with meats and drinks Vse 2. This may exhort us to a patient bearing of all afflictions and present evils be they many be they grievous Suppose your Bodies are as full of diseases as the Body of Lazarus was full of sores they are sick weak crazy deformed blind maimed ulcerous leprous if all these or any of these be upon thy Body bear it patiently for Christ will one day redeem thy Body from all these and make it glorious like to his own Body Vse 3. Be hence encouraged to give up your Bodies to suffer for Christ what evil soever cruel Tormentors through God's permission shall inflict upon your Carcasses if they judge thee to the loss of ears of eyes of tongue of hands yea the whole Body to be burned at a stake or to be devoured by wild Beasts such torments Martyrs have endured willingly submit to all Christ will restore those eyes ears tongues hands or any other member whatsoever which your Adversaries shall pull from you Vse 4. Be not afraid of dying neither let the thoughts of the dissolution of thy Body into dust and the long abode of thy Body in the dark prison of the grave be a trouble to thee God will redeem this Body of thine from the grave saying Give up the dead which are in thee give up my Saints and he will make thy Body to out-shine in glory The Grave is God's Refining-pot where he refineth our vile Bodies it is the mould in which he casteth our glorious Bodies to new mould them it is his Work-house wherein he sheweth his power and wisdom in transforming our Bodies Death causeth the Saints to put off these vile Bodies that they may put on more glorious Finally be exhorted to glorifie God in your Bodies since he will one day make them glorious Bodies 1 Cor. 6.20 CHAP. XVII I Have spoken somewhat largely of the substance of that happiness which Christ hath purchased for the Saints so far as concerneth the Body in the next place I shall speak somewhat of that unconceivable blessedness to which the Soul the principal part of man shall be advanced and here is something peculiar in that glory prepared for the Soul above that of the Body not only that the Soul in its own nature is capable of a greater perfection and excellency then the Body but also in respect of the time for whereas the Body shall remain under the power of Death and corruption until the general Resurrection the Soul in the mean time shall be triumphing in glory so that the Souls of the Saints will come under a double consideration 1. Before the Resurrection 2. After the Resurrection 1. Before the Resurrection when the Soul shall remain seperated from the Body of which I shall speak somewhat briefly because among other wretched Doctrines hatched of old and lately revived this is found to be one viz. that the Soul dieth or sleepeth with the Body and so abideth till the great day of the general Resurrection when it shall be raised again with the Body But two clear Scriptures may be opposed against this Opinion the first is in Heb. 12.23 where the Apostle speaking of the priviledge which the Saints have while they are upon Earth said they were come to the spirits of just men made perfect not the Souls of any of the Saints living on the face of the Earth for they are imperfect for we know in part and prophecy in part but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away Hence then it remaineth that the spirits of just men made perfect must be no other then the Souls of the Saints seperated from the Body and translated unto glory Now if the spirits of just men seperated from their Bodies are made perfect they are not dead for death is the destruction of perfection the Body is never so imperfect as when it is dead a diseased Body is much more perfect then a dead Corpse so then if the Souls of the Saints were dead with their Bodies they should be so far from being made perfect that they should utterly lose those beginnings of perfection which they had while they were in the Body their graces would be extinguished and there would be a loss to them of that enjoyment of God and communion with him which they had here upon the Earth The second place of Scripture I shall produce against this Opinion of the Mortalists is in 2 Cor. 5.6 7 8. Therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be
absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Here you may see that while the Souls of the Saints are present in the Body as they are during this life they are absent from the Lord albeit Jesus Christ dwelleth in them by his Spirit and they are spiritually united to him yet in regard of local distance they are absent from Christ in respect of his Humane nature not seeing him face to face they walk by faith not by sight Moreover when their Souls are absent and seperated from the Body by death they shall be present with the Lord not walking by faith at a distance from Christ but resting in his presence immediately beholding him The Souls of the Saints then do not die with the Body but live in the presence of their Saviour at the very same time when they are absent and seperated from the Body by death This must needs be meant of the state of the Soul not after the resurrection but between death and the resurrection for that is the only time when the Soul is absent from the Body and during that time the Apostle saith it shall be present with the Lord. To these may be added that gracious answer of Christ to the penitent Malefactor Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 27.43 viz. the very same day wherein he died Now the heavenly Paradise is no burying place for dead Souls but a glorious habitation for the living spirits of just men made perfect Observe likewise that argument of Christ grounded upon the speech of God to Moses at the bush which strongly proveth both the resurrection of the Body and the immortality of the Soul as well before as after the resurrection Matth. 22.31 32. Have you not read what is spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living This was spoken long after the natural death of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and so the Argument standeth thus Those who have God for their God by Covenant are not dead but living but Abraham Isaac and Jacob have God for their God by Covenant Ergo they are not dead but living So then they live in their principal parts their Souls while they are absent from the Body whereunto their Bodies are to be re-united at the great day that their whole persons may fully enjoy their God and perfectly possess the fruit and benefit of God's covenant verse 34. this argument silenced the Sadduces Finally consider what meant Stephen's prayer at his death Lord Jesus receive my Spirit or Soul Acts 7.59 If his Spirit or Soul had died with his Body why should he call upon Christ more for the receiving his Soul but because he knew his Spirit or Soul was immortal and must live and subsist when it was seperated from the Body he prayed Christ to give present entertainment to his Soul that he might rest in the bosome of his love until his Body should be raised and reunited to it Now as this may stop the mouth of this lying Spirit which of late is crept forth into the World again so it may demonstrate according to the point in hand that the Souls of the Faithful after their seperation from the Body are instated into blessedness By which places fore-mentioned and such like is refuted their Heresie who either directly deny the immortality of the Soul or imply it as the Socinians who say that Mori est penitus extingui V.d. Gens in Confes remonstrant p. 254 256. resurgere est ex non ente iterum existere And this Opinion some others have seemed to favour in the Declaration of their Opinions about the Articles of Religion in that they are altogether silent in the point that concerneth the blessed rest of the Saints Souls after this life CHAP. XVIII Of the blessedness of the Soul in general MUch more might have been spoken of the blessedness of the Soul in glory when it is absent from the Body but because these things belong as well to the Soul re-united to the Body when it hath full possession of salvation I chuse to treat of them under that consideration 1. This shall be the wonderful felicity of the Soul in that it shall have a Body every way suitable to it self immortal spiritual incorruptible glorious as its habitation for a pure immortal glorious Spirit to dwell in in this respect the glorified Souls now in Heaven all the time of their seperation do even vehemently desire and wait for the redemption of their Bodies who were their yoke-fellows in the day of their pilgrimage upon Earth Though the Soul of a Believer reign with Angels yet hath she a passion for her Body and all the good she doth possess cannot take her from the desire and memory thereof though she hath made trial of its revolts though this friendly Enemy hath oftentimes persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the tyranny thereof yet doth she languish as it were and vehemently long after it Though the Body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in its Enemies and though it cause horror in those to whom it was lovely yet she forbears not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with a kind of impatience that her Body may partake of the bliss which she enjoyeth The Souls of the Saints departed this life do not account their glory their blessedness compleat till their Bodies be reunted hence they do naturally desire their re-union and as they cry under the Altar How long Lord how long will it be ere thou avenge our blood so all the Souls of just men made perfect with one voice cry out How long Lord how long will it be ere thou redeem our Bodies that we may be perfectly blessed in the full fruition of thy self Oh then how shall the glorified Soul rejoyce in its glorified Body raised from among worms dust and rottenness rescued from its captivity from under the power of death and corruption and now again made one with the Soul no longer to be a snare or burden to it but a companion meet for it taking in no object by the senses that may in the least degree endanger the polluting of the Soul and having nothing in it that may stupifie the affections or any way discompose the eternal rest disturb the peace eclipse the joy of the Soul interrupt its enjoyment of God or any way diminish its compleat happiness 2. There shall be a perfect harmony between the Body with all its parts and the Soul with all its powers and both Soul and Body shall be fully conformed to Christ and so shall most sweetly comply each with other and I conceive the very remembrance of that dulness sottishness earthiness and drossiness which in the state of mortality is in the Body shall be matter of great joy to the Soul now that it
findeth such a wonderful change in the Body transformed unto such a glorious perfection even as it is a great refreshment to the mind of a man after a perfect cure to find the Body lightsome full of spirits and in perfect health after a lethargy or some other dulling disease that hath debilitated nature exhausted the spirits and indisposed it for action Then shall the happiness of man be perfect when a glorified Soul shall be united to an immortal Body and mutually communicating all their advantages the Soul shall be happy in the felicity of the Body and the Body happy in that of the Soul all their differences shall then be composed in this general peace the Soul shall then forget all the revolts of the Body nor shall the Body any more complain of the severities of the Soul but both of them remembring only the good they have done each other they shall reign in Heaven in a community of glory CHAP. XIX Of the more distinct blessedness of the Soul SECT I. Of the perfection of the apprehensions of the Saints in glory LEt us now more distinctly consider of the blessedness of the Soul first laying this general rule that it shall be perfect for the Apostle plainly sheweth that the Spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12. Now the perfection of the Soul principally consisteth in the knowledg of God Now there is Scientia directa intuitiva a direct knowledg of God upon view and sight Now this is either perfect or imperfect A full and perfect knowledg of God himself none hath but God himself no creatures no man no Angel is capable of it God himself fully and perfectly seeth himself which no other can do for a full and perfect knowledg of an infinite Beeing is infinite as that Beeing is He that hath a full and perfect knowledg of any thing whatsoever it be hath the full measure of that thing in his understanding which he fully and perfectly knoweth Now what is the shallow and narrow capacity of any created understanding of Man or Angel that it should measure the infinite essence and excellency of the God-head it is not so much as a spoon to the Ocean and there is less disproportion between the water of the Sea and the capacity of a spoon then the understanding of Man or Angels and the infinite majesty and excellency of God Now God knoweth himself fully and perfectly in himself If the Sun-beams were animated and living creatures endued with reason how clearly and perfectly would they know and see through themselves every way being altogether light and transparent God is the light of lights a most pure bright and glorious Beeing and he is of infinite wisdom and so fully and perfectly knoweth himself On the other side there is a knowledg of God direct and intuitive or upon view which is not perfect and this is of those blessed Creatures already possessed of glory such knowledg have the Angels who see God face to face as our Saviour saith Matth. 18.10 The Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven They do not only see his back-parts as Moses did but his face by an immediate view beholding the beauty and glory of the Lord. Whether the Saints departed before the resurrection of the Body do thus see the face of God I determine not doubtless they do already enjoy a great degree of blessedness the fruition whereof is more sweet for one day then the enjoying of all the World for a mans life howsoever after the resurrection when they shall be fully possessed of glory they shall see the face of God as the Angels do Job 19.25 26 27. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and not another c. So David compareth the temporal prosperity of Worldlings which they enjoy in this life with the blessed estate which he expected after the resurrection of the Body he calleth them Psal 17.14 15. Men of the World which have their portion in this life and whose belly the Lord filleth with his hid treasures which are full of Children and leave the rest of their substance to their Babes This was their seeming happiness all worldly and temporary Now on the other side he speaketh of his own condition As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness He cared not for those hidden treasures locked up in the mines and bowels of the earth nor for a portion in this life nor for large portions for his Posterity c. but to behold the face of God in righteousness to see him face to face which he was assured of by faith and so to be satisfied with his Image Object But why is this knowledg said to be imperfect sith the Apostle speaking of this glorious condition of the Saints saith That then that which is perfect shall come and that which is imperfect shall be done away Sol. I answer this knowledg of God which the Angels have and the Saints shall have in God himself is Perfect in regard of the Subject in which it is Imperfect in regard of the Object of whom it is Perfect in regard of the Subject and that in two respects 1. Because it filleth the understanding and satisfieth the spirit with a fulness of light resulting from so glorious an object so that the Soul hath a beatifical vision of God so far as it is capable And as the eye is refreshed by an object fitly proportioned and hurt or dimmed by a disproportionable eminency or excellency in the object surpassing its strength and ability so the Soul perfected and glorified and the Angelical Spirits have such a knowledg of God in himself as filleth them not such as confoundeth them and this is perfect in regard of them because it is such a perfection as they are capable of and can contain 2. It is perfect in respect of the subject in which it is in that it is as much as is due and requisite to make their happiness compleat and perfect without any defect it is so perfect that they need no more knowledg of God then that which they have and who can deny but that this is a perfection of knowledg in respect of the subjects they are as blessed every way and so especially in regard of the knowledg of God as such creatures can be and that is a perfection though relative and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they say in relation to the subjects in whom it is Secondly on the other side this knowledg which these glorified spirits have and shall have of God in himself is imperfect in respect of the Object of whom it is viz. God whom they know in himself that is it is not a knowledg matchable to the infinite essence and
this life and they shall also have an everlasting enjoyment thereof 2. They shall likewise rejoyce in the good things of the mind and chiefly in the perfection of all their graces and that cleer knowledg they shall have of all things which shall wonderfully delight them They shall also be much affected with joy from the consideration of the evils and dangers as well temporal as eternal which they shall then perceive themselves to have escaped from the danger whereof they shall see themselves to be secure for ever and beholding the horrible fire of Hell and the numberless multitudes of those that are cast into everlasting burnings and the danger to which themselves were exposed how shall their hearts be fill'd with joy upon the meditation of God's infinite mercy by which they were saved from everlasting destruction and carried in safety into the Port of eternal blessedness 3. They shall likewise rejoyce in the glory of their bodies when they shall perceive their bodies to shine as the Sun to be swift as it were like lightening to be like a Spirit immortal incorruptible impassible 4. They shall rejoyce in the amiableness of their habitation seeing themselves now translated from Earth to Heaven into the glorious Kingdom of Heaven into the Paradise of all delights into the Region of light into the Vision of peace into the Land of the living into the celestial Jerusalem into the place of the Blessed a place abounding with all delights and with all good things and void of all discommodity grief and sorrow out of every one of these good things of their own ariseth to them unspeakable joy SECT III. FUrthermore they shall rejoyce every one in the good things of each other and in the felicity of all their companions for they shall most ardently love all as the Sons of God and their own Brethren and Sisters and fellow Heirs and withall they shall rejoyce in their splendour glory excellency wisdom vertues blessedness as in their own and that much more than any Parent in this life can rejoyce in the felicity of his Children or one Friend in the prosperity of another Quest But with what affection shall the Parent and the Child the Husband and Wife and one Friend greet another in Heaven Sol. We must not surely imagine that any of these conjugal or paternal affections which had their consummation on Earth can be of any use in Heaven nor that there shall be any return of by-past and mortal affections towards Friends Kindred and Children but as the body must put on incorruption and immortality e're it can be a fit companion for the Soul so must the soul likewise be devested of all such desires as are apt again to wed it to earthly and transitory delights before it can be received into the blessed communion of the Saints and as the Soul shall assume the hand the eye and every member of the body unto a participation of glory without soliciting them again to undergo the fore-past drudgeries in the flesh so the Father and the Child and one Friend may behold another without the intimation of such duties or any resultance of such mortal desires as are implied in those relations But as the Soul is permitted to resume its own body rather than another and reason exacts it should gratifie that flesh whose inmate it had been rather than another so likewise those persons whom some nearer relations had formerly united may be conceived to retain so much partiality in the dispensation of their joy as in the first place to rejoyce that they are again united in the participation of glory excluding none from being an argument of their joy but preferring some in the order of their rejoycing but it may be that this affection must comply with the justice of the divine bounty and that we shall there bestow a greater measure of our joy where he hath been pleased to confer a greater portion of his glory It would seem unreasonable that the Soul alone should inherit that glory which was procured perhaps by the torments and sufferings of the body as in holy Confessors and Martyrs and the same reason which makes the Soul and Body sharers of the same happiness begets a mutual claim among the Saints to each others joy for one man may be a powerful Instrument of another's blessedness the Father's care may preserve the Child and the piety of the Son may enflame the Father the Mothers tears may reduce the perverted Son the believing Husband may save the unbelieving Wife and one Friend may with happy success instruct admonish rebuke and pray for another Now is it more reasonable to think that these immortal benefits and obligations shall be promiscuously and undiscernably swallowed up in the Sea of glory or to say that these parties whom it may concern shall see each other face to face some gratefully rejoycing that the Instruments of their Salvation like Stars of a greater magnitude are more eminently glorious others alwayes rejoycing in beholding their labours so highly bless'd as to have procured the endless bliss of their fellow-creatures Our Saviour tells us what joy there shall be for the conversion of a Sinner in the presence of the Angels who by reason of their nature are strangers to us if Angels who are in the presence of God and but of a remote alliance to us be as it were turned aside from the contemplation of the chiefest good to behold with joy a repenting Sinner shall not men who are of the same stock and lineage be much more allowed some expressions of joy suitable to the greatness of the wonder when they behold one another no longer repenting Sinners but glorious Saints In those parts of the world near the Line where the Sun is near them all the year they are said to have no Winter the Earth and Trees being alwayes green as in a perpetual Spring so the Saints in glory upon whom the face of God and Christ shall shine for ever shall never see one cloudy day one winters night nor feel any sorrow or discomfort but shall enjoy a constant plenitude or fulness of joy as a perpetual Spring for ever To conclude the frame of their bodies and spirits the place of their abode their company the objects which they shall see and hear all things within them and without them shall concur to make their joy compleat and to cause their hearts to rest in everlasting peace CHAP. XXVI SECT I. AS for the affection of desire it shall have no place in Heaven the infinite sweetness which the Saints shall tast in God and Christ and in the love of God and Christ shall abundantly satisfie them and leave no place for desire their perfect enjoyment of God shall admit no hungring or thirsting after further delights they shall find it is enough they shall be fully satisfied but never cloyed nor satiated Whence S. August saith August Tract 3. in Joâ—n such shall that delight of beauty in
utter darkness but through God's permission Satan's chain is sometimes lengthened but then no more lengthening now he walketh up and down assaying to devour and seeking whom he may devour but then he shall walk no longer the Saints shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth and shall not in all their walks meet with a Devil to tempt them to any sin whatsoever 5. The state of glory is liberty from death from the fears of it and from all things tending to mortality bondage to death will be swallowed up of this life of liberty glory is triumphant over Death Hell and the Grave bidding defiance to them O Grave where art thou O Hell where art thou O Death where art thou 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.14 By Hell there we must understand the Grave Death and the Grave shall be damned as well as the wicked 6. The state of glory is a liberty from the rage wrath and persecution of all the wicked men in the world their rage and persecution is a bondage and captivity to the Saints hindring them from serving God with desired freedom they cannot put forth their godliness but they expose themselves to the scoffs hatred rage and persecutions of the world now the state of glory will put a great gulf between the Godly and the Wicked which will hinder them from all intercourse for know that if the damned could again be in company or in the place where the godly are they would persecute them again to the uttermost though they know they must be damned and therefore the Devils now hate and tempt them though they aggravate their own torments 7. It is a liberty from all imperfections of graces and weakness in their serving God 1. From all imperfections of their graces which in this present life are very imperfect we know but in part saith the Apostle so we believe but in part we love God but in part we are Holy but in part we are zealous for God but in part there is more doubts and ignorance than knowledge more unbelief than faith more want of love than love there is more sin than grace and holiness now the state of glory is a state of perfection we shall know as we are known our understandings will be enlarged that we shall know God fully and perfectly our faith will be turned into sight our hope into possession we shall then love God with all our hearts with all our souls c. The Angels are called Seraphims because as some say they burn in love and zeal toward God so shall all the Saints be filled with this Seraphical love we shall be as holy as our natures are capable The Church and people of God in this life are compared to the Moon because of those spots in her which are imperfections but in the state of glory they are compared to the Sun which hath no spots in it and as the Prophet speaks of the Sun and Moon that the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold more resplendent than now so the graces the holiness of the Saints shall be seven-fold more holy than now they are 2. It shall be a liberty from all weaknesses and infirmities in serving God this is the necessary consequent of the former for the more glorious and holy a man is the more able he is to serve God if perfectly sanctified then he serveth God perfectly the Angels fulfil the whole will of God because they are filled with grace they run yea they fly in the wayes of his commandements this liberty and enlargement shall all the Saints have in the state of glory while they are here they are in bondage to much spiritual deadness and slothfulness they pray they praise God acceptably though they cannot pray nor praise him perfectly they may pray and purpose to run the wayes of God's Commandements but cannot because they are too weak and are fettered with spiritual slothfulness and deadness glory will do away all this and make us as ready and able to do the whole will of God as Angels do 8. It is a liberty from all natural clogs which the body in this state of union fastens upon the soul insomuch that the body is animae ergastulum the prison of the soul it is pondus or onus animae the burden or weight of the soul the regenerate soul cannot act vigorously because the body is so unweildy the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak but when the soul and body shall be reunited and meet in a state of glory the body will be a nimble handmaid and pliable to all the motions and commands of the soul the body then which is now the souls prison will be the souls paradise and both soul and body will act most vigorously the soul will never tyre out the body nor will the body clog the soul they will both be unwearied in their glorious services the body then will be spiritual though not a spirit and become immortal incorruptible as the soul is 9. It is a liberty from many duties and services and spiritual exercises which are now required of us the Saints work shall be lessened in Heaven The Service of the Church and people of God under the Gospel is much less than it was under the Law hence the state of the Church under the pedagogy of the Law is by the Apostle called a state of bondage a state of subjection but the state of the Church under the Gospel is called a state of liberty but when the Church shall be taken up into glory then their services shall be far less than now they are many duties and graces shall be done away in Heaven we shall pray no more for any mercy for our selves all praying shall be turned into praising of God we shall not hear the Word nor receive the Sacraments any more nor fast and afflict our souls any more we shall no longer mourn for sin repentance will be done away yea faith it self as many Divines conceive shall be done away Pray we shall not because then we shall never be in want our souls shall be so abundantly satisfied with the fulness of God's house we shall mourn and repent no more because we shall sin no more Our service in the state of glory will be taken up in praising God in admiring God in loving God rejoycing in God giving him praise and glory for the riches of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus 10. In respect of the place it is a state of liberty indeed the vast Heaven of Heavens O ye Saints shall be the place of your habitation and delight what is the whole world compared to it it is but a narrow prison an house of correction an house of bondage to a gracious spirit it is but as a Cage to a bird so is the world to the soul of a Godly man 11. It is a liberty from all fears or dangers of everlosing their glory and blessedness
11. A twofold use made hereof Chap. 12. Sheweth how the creatures shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God wherein many questions are propounded and answered Chap. 13. Of the time when the Saints shall be glorified Chap. 14. Of the place of the Saints happiness how Heaven is the house of God and shall be the habitation of the Saints that in this house are many mansions and these sufficient to receive many Inhabitants shewed in three Sections Sect. 4. Sheweth that Heaven is the Throne and Kingdom of God Sect. 5. Sheweth that Heaven is the place where the Saints inheritance lyeth Sect. 6. Sheweth that there they shall receive their reward and what that reward is Some Objections resolved Sect. 7. Sheweth that Heaven is the place where God will give his people a kind welcom and loving entertainment Chap. 15. Of the Antecedent to the Saints glory viz. the resurrection of their Bodies their resurrection proved by seven Arguments Of the personal types of our Saviour's resurrection and the proofs of his resurrection That the same bodies of the Saints shall be raised proved by five arguments An Object answered Chap. 16. Of the glory of the Saints bodies in Heaven Of the clarity agility spirituality impassibility incorruptibility and immortality of glorified bodies and of their sensitive actions and answerable passions which include not corruption And what glorious things may be spoken of the particular senses and parts of the body and of their several objects with the uses that are to be made thereof Chap. 17. Of the blessedness of the Soul before the resurrection when the soul shall remain separated from the body The opinion of the mortalists that the soul dieth or sleepeth with the body refuted Chap. 18. Of the blessedness of the Soul in general shewed in two things Chap. 19. Of the more distinct blessedness of the Soul Of the perfection of the Saints apprehensions and judgments in glory Chap. 20. A description of what things shall be seen in God by the Saints in Heaven and how they shall fully see what God is to themselves how they shall behold the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Man and as the Author and finisher of their faith and how they shall look into the great mysterie of godliness Chap. 21. Of their knowledge of that innumerable company of Angels Chap. 22. Of the Saints mutual knowledge of each other in Heaven Two Objections answered Chap. 23. Of the purity and perfection of the wills of glorified Saints Chap. 24. Sheweth how their affections shall be enlarged composed and rightly placed there Chap. 25. Of the joy of glorified Saints what it is and to what it extendeth it self Chap. 26. Sheweth what affections shall have no place in Heaven Chap. 27. Of the adjuncts of the glory of Heaven that the glorious estate of God's children is a state of liberty shewed in divers respects Chap. 28. Of the eternity of the glory of Heaven Chap. 29. Of the certainty of the Salvation of the Saints Chap. 30. Sheweth that no afflictions shall rob the Saints of their crown of glory Chap. 31. A cordial to them that are in affliction and a preparative to them that are not Chap. 32. An exhortation to Christians to believe the promise of God touching their Salvation and so to lay claim to it Chap. 33. Sheweth how a man may know whether he hath a title to Heaven Chap. 34. Setteth forth the danger of those that are in a state of damnation Chap. 35. An exhortation to offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us CHAP. I. THE Apostle having set forth the work and wages the duty and the reward of the Sons of God shewing that their work is to suffer with Christ their reward to reign with Christ in glory in this Verse he preventeth an Objection which might arise in the mind of a Believer that might discourage him from suffering valiantly and patiently as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ for it might be objected you tell us of glory but that glory is dearly bought that must cost so many grievous trials and afflictions as we are like to meet with yet this is satisfied by setting forth the pettiness of the afflictions of this life in comparison of future glory Be your afflictions never so many be they as great as grievous as can be imagined and endured yet the glory which shall be revealed in you is far greater then all your sufferings The words are a peremptory conclusion in which we may observe 1. The Person making the conclusion I Paul 2. The Things concerning which the conclusion is made the Afflictions of this life and future Glory 3. The Thing concluded that there is no comparison between the one and the other Now for explication of the words I reckon I Paul that have had great experience of the sufferings of this life we may read a narrative of his sufferings 2 Cor. 11.23 ad vers 31. I also that have had this high priviledg above all the Apostles to be rapt up into Paradise and saw such glory and heard such unspeakable words or things which are impossible for a man to utter with his tongue therefore St. Paul's peremptory conclusion is to be credited Rhem. Test 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I reckon This word importeth not a probable conjecture of the Apostle as the old Translation Existimo and the Rhemists would have it which Erasmus Erasm disliketh because it doth not fully express the sence of it who interprets the word reputo I account or resolve in my mind But the word properly signifieth to decree and determine a thing after much reasoning on both sides therefore many render it statuo I do ordain decree or determine and so it noteth a tried weighed and experienced conclusion proceeding from an infallible spirit and judgment and is a Metaphor taken from such as casting an Account do find what the Sum amounts unto He doth not say I think or it is my opinion but it is my reckoning St. Paul did put afflictions in one seale of the ballance and glory in the other and this he determineth that glory doth by far weigh down all our present sufferings This is the matter of his account he instanceth rather in the passive than in the active obedience of the Saints not because it is more excellent or difficult for an ungodly man may be brought to suffer but cannot truly perform a gracious work but because it is more grievous and painful The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passiones translated sufferings includes all manner of evils which we do or can suffer as reproaches cruel mockings scourgings revilings troubles pains diseases hunger cold nakedness perils loss of liberty and life it self These afflictions are said in the Greek
blotted out his grace is the Fountain of their Salvation and therefore they may expect it from his mercy God is unchangeable in his decrees the design he hath laid touching the saving of his people from all eternity is not changed in time nor can all the Powers on Earth hinder the execution of his will It is impossible that any should be Predestinate and not saved saith Peter Lombard Lomb. sent Lib 1. Dissin 40. Jesus Christ hath said That he knoweth all his Sheep that he gives unto them Eternal Life that they shall never perish that no man shall be able to pluck them out of his hands John 10.27 28. 2. God hath called them unto glory Whom he hath Predestinated them hath he called whom he hath called them hath he Justified and whom he hath Justified them also hath he Glorified Rom. 8.30 He speaks of it as of the time past as if it were already done partly because part of it is present as Peace Joy c. and partly because it is as sure as though it were in present possession we are called unto glory and vertue we are called to the obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Gospel 2 Thes 2.14 And S. Paul exhorteth the Thessalonians to walk worthy of God who had called them to his Kingdom and Glory 1 Thes 2.12 God hath called the Saints out of this World they are no sooner admitted into the School of Christ but they learn that the Earth is their banishment and Heaven their Countrey the end why God calls his people out of the World is that they might not seek for happiness upon Earth and that they may make no account of what the wicked do possess and thereby see that riches and honours are not the portion of the righteous because God bestoweth them chiefly upon his enemies he leaveth the fairest part of the World to those that persecute him to teach his Children that Heaven is their patrimony and Inheritance 3. God hath prepared Heaven for them Christ at the last day will say to the Sheep whom he will place at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Mat. 25.34 When Christ was leaving the World he comforteth the hearts of his disconsolate Disciples thus In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you John 14.2 The glory must be incomparable which God hath treasured up and been preparing from eternity Neither doth God only prepare Heaven for his Saints but he also prepareth them for Heaven he makes them meet partakers of the inheritance among the Saints in light Col. 1.12 For as wicked men are vessels of wrath sitted for Destruction so the Saints are vessels of glory prepared unto glory Rom. 9.22 23. The Saints do not presently pass from a corrupt to a glorious estate but there is a fitting and an holy preparation cometh between if a man will wear a Garment he fits it before he weareth it so God will have his people cast into a new mould that he may fit them for Heaven before he puts them into the possession of it 4. God hath promised to bestow Heaven upon his people He will give grace and glory Psal 84.11 The Crown of life hath he promised to them that love him Jam. 1.12 Heaven cometh to us by deed by good assurance there is no better deed then that which is written by the finger of God and sealed by the blood of Christ as a judicious Divine well noteth Dr. Holdsworth Sermoon Jam. 1.12 therefore though we cannot see the glory of Heaven in the thing yet we may see it in the Promise Psal 50.23 To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God he hath chosen the poor of the World rich in Faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Jam. 2.5 Heaven is a Kingdom engaged to the Saints by promise and they are to look upon it as a promised Kingdom and to judge him faithful that hath promised St. Augustin Debtor factus est non aliquid a nobis accipiendo sed quod ei placuâ—t promittendo August saith God is become a debtour not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us what it pleased him hereupon saith he we say not to God repay that which thou receivedst but pay that which thou hast promised let us hold him therefore a most faithful debtour because we have him a most merciful promiser the promise was made in mercy the performance thereof depends upon the fidelity of the promiser Yea we have not the bare word of God only but also his oath Heb. 17.18 God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it with an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Now he is Jehovah and will give existence to all his promises and the making good his promises to his Children will tend to the greater manifestation of God's Glory SECT II. DIvers reasons also may be given why the Lord will glorifie his people in respect of themselves 1. Glory is the great design of the Saints therefore it shall be unto them St. Paul sets it down as a distinguishing Character of the Saints from other men Rom. 2.7 And saith To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life i. e. To them shall be eternal Life This is the main thing that the Saints aim at some of them do differ in some Opinions but in this they all agree viz. in aiming at everlasting glory the glory of the God of glory therefore the Lord will not suffer them to miss of the main end and aim of their Souls The Spouse cries Come Lord Jesus come quickly Their affections are set on things above their conversation is in Heaven their treasure is in Heaven and Heaven hath their hearts they seldom look up to Heaven but they sigh after it and are afflicted at their banishment grief makes the Heaven-born Soul cry Wo is me because my habitation is prolonged 2. Glory is the expectation of the Saints Phil. 3.20 21. and they are said to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 Saving hope is a siducial and undoubted expectation of eternal glory and happiness promised to us in the word and purchased by Christ for us or else a patient waiting for the manifestation of the glory of the Sons of God when Christ shall appear this is the hope that is meant Rom. 8.23 24. there waiting hope and expectation are the same waiting for the adoption i. e. for the inheritance of glory to which by our adoption we
still keeps its splendor but when the Cloud is gone we see it So Christ in regard of his Deity had this glory always it was hidden from him in regard of the infirmities which he took upon him as sufferings death c. Now Christ our Head being glorified all his Members that suffer with him shall also be glorified together they are now glorified in capite and when Christ hath prepared places for all his Members then he will take them home to his Father's house Christ is now preparing their glory and fitting their heavenly Mansions he is decking their Crowns of Righteousness he is trimming their Robes Christ is now in his own Person glorious but Christ mystical is not glorious it is in a suffering condition there are many of his Members that are not yet brought home to God Christ hath a care of his mystical Body as of his natural Body he gave his natural Body to redeem his mystical Body therefore as he is glorious in his natural Body so he will be glorious in his mystical Body for St. Paul saith he shall come to be glorified in his Saints The Son of God rose gloriously out of his Tomb and after he had given assurance of it to his Apostles he was taken up into Heaven to reign there eternally with his Father the Angels made a part of his Triumph his Body that was pierced with the nails rent with stripes torn with thorns was set at the right hand of his Father on a Throne whose Ornament was Justice and the Foundation Mercy as one well noteth His mystical Body shall receive the like glorious entertainment the Saints shall be admitted into the Society of the Blessed and reign in Heaven with the Angels Those Members that have suffered in the quarrel of Jesus Christ shall be freed from all miseries and reign in glory everlastingly with their Head that the blessedness of Jesus Christ may have its accomplishment and he may be as happy in his Members as in his Person Jesus Christ and his Members are united in their sufferings on earth and by a necessary consequence we may be assured they shall be so one day in their glory in Heaven To this end Christ prayed for his Church to his Father when himself was upon earth The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me John 17.22 24. It is observable that in other things when Jesus Christ speaks to his Father it is with so much respect that he seemeth rather a Servant then a Son but when he asks that his Members may reign with him in glory it is with so much liberty of speech that his Request is rather a determination then a Prayer Volo Pater Father I will that where I am there my Servants may be CHAP. V. Of the quality of the Saints glory NOw that I may set forth the nature of the Saints glory you are to know that there is no specisical or essential difference between our gracious and glorious estate as there is no specifical or essential difference between the Corn of the First-fruits and that of the whole Harvest only some accidental differences as there is no specifical difference between a Child and a grown Man they have both the same essential parts and principles there is only an alteration of degrees not of parts gradus non variat speciem Now our present estate is our Infancy our future estate is our Man-hood for the present the Children of God have glory given them godly Men are for the present glorious the Scripture calls them nothing else but blessed yea even then they are blessed when the world looks upon them as most miserable when shame reproach and trouble is cast upon them then doth the Spirit of glory rest upon them they having grace bestowed upon them have glory Glory is nothing else but the splendour the brightness of grace Vita gratiae nihil est aliud quam aetas infantilis gloriae he that is gracious is glorious We shall have the same individual Bodies and Souls after the Resurrection as we have in this life only some alteration in respect of some new qualities as in our first Resurrection from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness there is no transmutation of the essence but an alteration of the qualities or a super-introduction of new qualities by which we are said to be new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 not in quantity but in quality so in Heaven we shall become new Creatures in respect of what we are now and those very qualities which do principally concur to the constitution of our happiness in Heaven are in some measure communicated to us in our first regeneration now we have drops then rivers of delights Psal 36.8 both the same in nature This will be the more evident if we examine wherein our happiness hereafter doth consist and compa ing it with our present estate Our spiritual and supernatural blessedness consisteth in the fruition of such an object as is perfectly all-sufficiently and principally good which is only God therefore it standeth in our perfect union to and communion with God the faculties of the soul being by the Almighty power of God dilated extended and enlarged so far as to be as it were capable of the fulness of God and by the perfect operations of the understanding will and affections united to God in all their actions and when these natural weak and vile Bodies of ours by the same hand of Omnipotency are transfigured and transformed into spiritual powerful and glorious Bodies and so united to the Soul then are we come to the perfection of our blessedness the properties of which blessedness are First That it is everlasting Secondly That we shall discern it so to be And thirdly That as it fulfilleth the largest desires of our hearts so we shall be extraordinarily affected with it and perpetually affected to it and incessantly desirous of it our glory consisteth not in having what our weak Souls can now wish for but what they can desire when they are gloriously corroborated and enlarged So that now you see there is no specifical or essential difference but only a gradual or circumstantial difference between the state of grace here and the state of glory hereafter for Regnum coeleste est Dei contemplatio glorificatio Gregor Nazianzâ—n Orat. contr Arrian celebratio cum Angelis communis saith one of the Fathers who commonly describeth the state of the blessed to be nothing else but the full and perfect accomplishment of such spiritual blessings as are already begun in us and in part already communicated to us when God shall by a most perfect and immediate irradiation of the understanding and sanctification of the will and affections to know love and delight in God and transformatâ—on of the Body into the likeness of Christ's effect
must be swallowed up of life this corruptible must put on incorruption this mortal must put on immortality then and not before shall the surpassing glory of the Saints appear as Christ saith we must not put new wine into old bottles nor patch an old garment with a piece of new cloth thus Christ will not put the soul-ravishing joys of Heaven into these old bottles nor will he patch up these fading perishing Bodies with the glory of Angels Reas 5. That he might quicken their desires after their glory that our hearts may pant after those Water-brooks those Rivers of Pleasure that we may cry out with Monica the Mother of St. Augustine in her ravishing contemplation of Heaven volemus in Coelum volemus in Coelum let us fly let us fly into Heaven or as Austin himseâ—f fontem vitae sitio esurio I thirst I greedily long after the fountain of life CHAP. VII Sect. 1. ALbeit the unspeakable glory of Believers be for the present hidden yet in due time it shall be revealed Colos 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Before Christ shall appear in the brightness of his glory we shall not but when the time of his appearing in glory shall come then shall all the Saints manifestly appear with him Quest Here it may be demanded What is the glory that shall be revealed Resp 1. The glory of God himself God will manifest and display his glory before them we shall see God as fully and clearly as we are capable by God's immediate communication of himself to us without any external means 1 Cor. 15.24 God will be all and in all that is God the Father Son Holy Ghost will then reign immediately over his Church by himself without any outward means and will fill his Church with his own light life love and glory It is a disputed case whether we shall see God with our bodily eyes it is answered that the Essence of God being purely spiritual cannot be seen with bodily eyes and God is styled by the Apostle absolutely invisible Again the Angels behold the glory of God and the Souls of the Saints now in Heaven see him but have not eyes therefore the sight of God is rather an act of the mind then of the Body intellectual knowledg not corporeal light But though we shall not with our eyes see the Divine Essence yet the Divine Essence will abundantly manifest it self in the Humane Nature of Christ now glorified to our eyes they shall see him God in him his Attributes in him in this life the Ordinances are a Glass to give us the sight of God in Heaven the Humane Nature of Christ is a Glass to give our bodily eyes the sight of God 2. The glory of Christ shall be revealed his glory as Head of the Church as Saviour of the Body to which he is united his glory as Judge of the World shall be revealed it is said of him that he shall appear in glory Colos 3.4 and that he shall come in his own glory and in the glory of his Father and in the glory of his holy Angels Luke 9.26 and his appearing to judge the World is called a glorious appearing Tit. 2.13 His first appearing was mean the second shall be glorious SECT II. THe Reasons that the appearing of Christ shall be glorious are these 1. Because God hath appointed Christ to judge the World therefore Christ will in the latter day appear gloriously whom God appointed to be the Saviour of the World him hath God appointed to judge the World John 5.22 Christ is God's Delegate to judge the World God will have his Judge to appear in glory Earthly Kings will have their itinerary Judges to appear in pomp and to judge Malefactors they appear both in terror and honour how do all the Gentry give their attendance how are they attended with Spear-men and the Trumpets sounding before them and are invested with Robes of honour Thus God will have his Judge of all the World to appear in glory upon his Tribunal and therefore chargeth all the Angels of Heaven to attend his glorious Majesty chargeth the Arch-angels to sound the Trump to awaken the sleepy Prisoners in the Grave the dark Prison of Death think ye what a glorious appearance it will be If Peter was amazed at Christ upon Mount Tabor when he saw but a glimpse of his glory at the Transfiguration what appearance will that be when Christ shall come in the brightness of his glory and all the Angels and Saints with him cloathed in brightness of glory 2. Because Christ will be glorious before those that did dishonour him Christ did appear to men in the form of a Servant then he was a despised a rejected Christ then was he crowned with a Crown of Thorns and had no better Sceptre then a Reed then was he a reviled a buffeted Christ the malicious Jews did most contumeliously spit on his face and every Sinner would contradict oppose and persecute him then was he a crucified Christ a Man of sorrows and of shame every one looked upon him as a despised Man none would own him for the Son of God yea the Jews did accuse him for Blasphemy for telling them that he was the Son of God therefore Christ will appear in glory one day to the horror and terror of these men that did thus blasphemously abuse him that was King of Kings that did reject him that came to save them that so Christ might be glorified before them and upon them in taking vengeance on their Souls and Bodies then those that did mock at him put a Crown of Thorns on his head a Reed in his hand shall see he was Heir of a better Crown then the Crowns of the greatest Kings and Emperors then they that did contumeliously spit upon and buffet him in scorn shall see they did this to one whom the Angels reverence he will make Kings to throw down their Crowns and Scepters to his feet then those that scorned and despised him shall see that verily he is the Son of God 3. Because glory is terrible the more glorious Christ appears at the last day the more terror will be upon the wicked therefore the glorious appearing of Christ to judge the World is called the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 6.11 If the sight of one Angel in glory be terrible what will the sight of Christ be who will appear ten thousand times more glorious then all the Angels be if godly men that had good consciences were so horribly affrighted at the appearance of an Angel in lesser glory how will wicked men that have accusing consciences be afraid at the beholding Christ's glorious appearance if holy men were so amazed at good tidings because brought to them by a glorious Messenger how will wicked men be amazed to hear the sentence of condemnation pronounced against them by the Lord of glory To see God in Christ is the
unserviceable to him it is against their will saith the Apostle it is against their very natural instinct and inclination that they must be slaves and drudges to sinful Rebells Moreover the Creatures by a natural instinct do naturally tend to their own highest and ultimate perfection Sin spoiled them of it and keeps them from this perfection but this natural inclination is still in the Creature perfection and duration is the desire of all Creatures But this perfection shall not and cannot be enjoyed by the Creature till there be a manifestation of the Sons of God hence 't is said they earnestly expect that manifestation the Saints expect Christ's manifestation in glory for till he appear they shall not appear in glory The Creatures expect their appearance for till the Sons of God appear they shall not be delivered from their vanity and corruption SECT VI. NOW if the Creature who shall not have any answerable measure of glory but be only brought into glorious liberty not into glory it self as Calvin Calvin in Loc. noteth doth thus wait for this glorious manifestation how much more should we whom it mainly concerneth and for whose sakes that day was created and ordained and who shall enjoy a fullness of glory in comparison of them how should we wait all the days of our appointed time till our change shall come This expectation of the Creature should teach the godly whose duty it is to expect to long for to hasten to the manifestation of this glory Solomon sends the Sluggard to the Pismire and bids him learn of him diligence and industry the same may be said to the godly man Go to the Creature thou dull and sloathful man and learn of the Creature to look for and to be more and more in expectation of the manifestation of thine own glory The Creatures expect when you shall be manifested in glory is it not a shame then to those who are Sons and Heirs of glory not to expect their own glory the Creatures lift up their eyes to Heaven crying How long Lord is it not a shame then to the Sons of God that they should cast their eyes down to the Earth on the glory of it which passeth away like a Flower of the Field The creatures put forth their heads and cry why are the wheels of the Chariot so long in coming is it not a shame then for the Sons of God to hang their heads down is it not a shame to us that senceless creatures should be earnest and we slack in our expectation shall senceless creatures outstrip those who are endued with reason and grace shall their hope outstrip our hope If you believe there shall be such a manifestation and that you in particular shall be manifested to be the Sons of God shew me your faith by your earnest expectation you have but poor desires of Christ's coming and your own glory whose expectation is so cold and faint if the creatures were to be partakers of that very glory that you shall be how much more earnest would they be in expecting the manifestation of it the very cause why we do not more earnestly expect our glorious manifestation is our earthly-mindedness we mind Earth so much therefore do we expect Heaven so little CHAP. X. Sheweth there is no comparison or equality between a Believer's present sufferings and his future glory SECT I. THe next Proposition I shall lay down from this Text is that there is no comparison proportion or equality between the present sufferings of the Saints and their glory that shall be revealed their present afflictions are not worthy to be laid in the ballance with glory comparisons between them are odious we should not speak of our afflictions on that day we speak of glory That there is no comparison or proportion between them will appear if we consider the ensuing particulars I. If you look at the things themselves which you suffer for the present and what you shall enjoy hereafter there is no more comparison between them then there is between a Mole-hill and the Sun a drop and the sea of Water a little pibble and a rock of Diamonds 1. You suffer perhaps the loss of goods you shall enjoy God who is all goodness what comparison is there betwixt the Creature and the Creator all the Nations of the World are but as a drop of a Bucket before him what then are thy goods thy riches to God himself 2. Suppose you suffer the loss of Houses and Lands you shall possess a great Kingdom fear not little flock it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom what comparison is there between thy earthly possessions and that heavenly Kingdom the whole Earth in comparison of the Heavens is but a point what are thy Houses and Lands to that heavenly Kingdom 3. Do you suffer mockings revilings evil speakings reproaches before men and from men Christ will confess you before his Father and before his holy Angels what are mens revilings and defamations to the confession of Christ before an innumerable company of glorious Angels 4. Perhaps you suffer imprisonment you may lie in nasty dungeons your feet may be in the stocks your hands manacled what are these things to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God which they shall enjoy when you shall walk at large in Heaven and follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth here ye are mens Prisoners there ye shall be the Lord's Free-men here ye are fettered Captives there you shall be crowned Kings 5. You may suffer present banishment from your Country from your Wives Children Parents Kinred Friends in Heaven you shall enjoy communion and fellowship with God with Christ with an innumerable Company of Angels with the general Assembly of the First-born and live among all glorious Saints 6. For the present you may suffer much sorrow tears may be your meat and drink continually but what is your present sorrow to the joy of the Lord to the comforts of Heaven one drop of which falling down from Heaven on the Soul of a Believer makes him for the present to rejoyce with glorious and unspeakable joy what are your dropping tears to the rivers of pleasure which are at God's right hand 7. At present you may be put to shame and confusion men may set crowns of paper upon your heads having Devils painted on them as they did upon John Huss or you may have crowns of straw put upon your heads in derision as some other Martyrs or crowns of thorns as Christ had but what is this to the Crown of Glory the Crown of Righteousness the Crown of Immortality which Christ the righteous Judg will set upon your heads 8. Put case you suffer death for Christ of which cup many millions of Heavens Worthies have drunk put case it be a shameful tormenting death a burning a sawing asunder ye are stoned or buried alive or starved to death or torn in pieces by Lions whatsoever the death be 't is the worst
we shall know him as we are known Object But even in the state of glory we cannot see God with our bodily eyes therefore lest our bodily eyes should be destitute of an apt delightsome object the glory which God will put on the Creature will be the delight of glorified eyes then we shall be ravished with the infinite Wisdom and Power of God in investing the whole Creation with such glory Sol. Though this is probably true that the glorified Saints shall delight in beholding the glory of the Creatures and shall admire God in their glory yet if there should be no Renovation of the Creature there would be most admirable objects for the glorified Saints to behold as namely 1. Christ's glorified Body the brightness whereof will obscure the brightness of Sun Moon and Stars as the brightness of the Sun puts out the light of the Fire and in this respect it is said there shall be no need neither of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in heaven Rev. 21.23 2. As Christ's body so likewise the glorious bodies of all the Elect shall be the delight of their eyes which shall shine more bright then the Sun What delight then can the Creatures clothed with glory bring and in beholding the bodies of the Saints in glory we may behold the infinite Wisdom Power Love Grace of God in making handfuls of Dust and Earth such glorious Creatures as our bodies then shall be Yet we may rationally assert 1. That God will ordain the Creature to some use it is not to be imagined that the Creatures shall continue after the day of Judgment and yet not serve to some use if you ask to what use Lombard Lombard sentent makes this answer Ego nescio I know not the same answer Peter Martyr Pet. Mert. in Rom. 8.21 gives to the same question though it be contrary to nature and common reason that the Creature after its Renovation shall be idle yet if you ask how they shall be employed facile nos fateamur ignorare we may easily be brought to confess our ignorance 2. Doubtless God will adapt and fit the Creature to the use of the glorified state of his Children as was hinted before which they shall then fully and perfectly know when they shall be actual possessors of the new Heavens and new Earth 3. Learned Bain gives this answer 1. It may be God will have the whole Creation to stand as a Monument of his former Power Wisdom and Goodness to his people in the day of their Pilgrimage on Earth 2. Or God will have them stand for the honour of his Majesty meerly for greater State as we see it is a State belonging to Earthly Princes to have sumptuous Houses here and there which yet they do not once visit in all their Reigns 3. God will have them stand as appurtenances to the glory of his own Children the Creatures shall be kept as additions to their honour saith Calvin Chrysostome Calvin in loc Chrysost homil speaking of this useth this comparison it is no wonder that the Creature shall be decked with glory for as Kings in that day wherein they do solemnly Crown their Sons with some Crown of Principality they will not only take care that their Sons appear in great Pomp and State but also the Pallace and all the Courteours shall and must appear in the bravest attire so God setting the Crown of Immortallity and Blessedness on the heads of all his Children and placing them on their prepared Thrones will have the Heavens and Earth and all his Creatures appear in glory in that day These things being considered how should this cause the Saints to be willing to leave the World and to die chearfully since in due time they shall find the World in a more glorious estate then they left it but the wicked shall be thrust naked out of all CHAP. XIII II. THis glory of the Saints shall be when all the drossie part of the Earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up when all the heaps and mines of Gold and Silver shall be consumed to the last dram when all Cities Towns and stately Edifices shall be destroyed when all the outward pomp and glory of the World shall be burnt to ashes when the high Mountains shall melt under the feet of the Lord and the Valleys shall be cleft as wax before the sire and as the Waters that are powred down a steep place Mich. 1.4 Then shall all the dwellers on earth be disseized and turned out of their Possessions then must Kings for ever part with their Thrones Crowns and Scepters and the greatest Rulers on Earth lay down their Authority at the feet of Christ then shall the high and lofty ones be brought low and many great Captains shall call to the hills and mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6.10 Then shall all Trades and Occupations in the World cease every where and all desire and study of purchasing and gaining shall be at an end then shall the Sea at that time shew the greatest rage and fury and the Waves thereof be so high and furious that it shall seem as if they would utterly overwhelm the whole Earth now at such a dreadful time as this when they that had their portion in the things of this life must be stript of all and leave all for ever then shall God's Children take full and everlasting Possession of the House of their heavenly Father in which are many Mansions and this highly advanceth the felicity of the Saints because it cometh so seasonably to them Give a man an house well furnished when his own is plundred and burnt and the whole neighbourhood is undone and all the Countrey round about is laid waste and made desolate how pleasant is it and when the whole World shall be in a flame and all things in it are consuming to ashes then to be put into the possession of the World to come when our earthly habitations are burnt then to have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens what an inconceiveable happiness is it A word in season saith Solomon Oh how good is it Heaven is sweet at any time but Heaven at such a time as this Oh how good how unspeakably good is it St Paul 2. Tim. 4.7 saith I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith finished my Course henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give unto me at that day on that day when the veriest Earth-worm that now creepeth upon the ground shall be convinced that there is nothing in the World worth the having theâ— to be put into the heavenly Mansions in the day of the Worlds funerals and to enjoy an enduring substance in the day of the Worlds conflagration no tongue of
Men or Angels is able sufficiently to set forth the height of this blessedness III. It shall be at such a time when the Devil and all his Instruments the Enemies of God and his People shall be cast into outer Darkness and swallowed up of everlasting Destruction when their day shall wholly end their glory be finished and their prosperity be utterly extinguished and overthrown when they shall be for ever seperated from God the fountain of all blessedness of which Separation Chrysostome thus speaketh That if a thousand fires of Hell were joyned together in one they should never be so great a pain to the Soul as it is for the Soul to be separated in this wise for ever from Almighty God We read Isa 14.9 10. That the Kings and Potentates of the Earth seem to be brought into rejoycing at the fall of Lucifer viz. the King of Babilon when he was brought low it was matter of triumph to the Children of Israel that the Lord saved them from the hand of Pharaoh and the Aegyptians that pursued them to the red Sea and that Israel saw the Aegyptians dead on the Sea shore the Waters covering the Chariots the Horsemen and all the Host of Pharaoh that came into the Sea after them that there remained not so much as one of them the Children of Israel walking upon dry Land in the midst of the Sea the Waters being a wall to them on the right hand and on the left Exod. 14.28 29. Was it not a great priviledg for Noah to sit secure in the Ark above the Waters that covered the tops of the highest Mountains at the same time when the whole World of the Ungodly were drowned and buried in the Flood what then may we conceive the happiness of the Saints will be when they shall be advanced to the heigth of heavenly glory when their Enemies shall be overwhelmed with the depths of shame and misery what encouragement may this be to us to raise our hearts Heaven-ward and to have our affections set on things above while the hearts of Worldlings are rooted in the Earth that at the same time when their end shall be destruction we may be put into the possession of eternal glory should not we be as unwilling now to have fellowship with them in their unfruitful works of darkness as we are desirous to be in Heaven when they shall be cast into Hell fire IV. It shall be at a time when all the labours sorrows and sufferings of the Saints shall be at an end Write saith a Voice from Heaven to St. John Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them Rev. 14.13 They shall then be eased from the toilesome and troublesome travels of this Life being translated from this worlds vanity into Heavens felicity where shall be neither labour in action nor pain in passion where they shall be neither annoyed with pinching cold nor parching heat and as sleep is a resting and refreshing to our weak frail and weary bodies so our bodies being laid down in the bed of our Graves they shall rest and be free from all sickness and sorrow weakness weariness and all work and whatsoever else are fruits and effects yea punishments of sin and attendants of this life yea the Saints after they have wearied themselves in striving against sin in subduing corruption after they have spent themselves in the work of the Lord and after the Enemies to piety have tyred out themselves with malice scoffs reproaches slaunders persecutions they shall rest from all their labours and sufferings in perfect peace and blessedness and the fruit comfort and reward of their works shall follow them and abide with them for ever They shall then arrive at a safe harbour after a dangerous passage through Shelves Storms Rocks and Pirates which then shall be so much the more welcome to them Read St. Pauls Catalogue 2 Cor. 11.23 And think how sweet Heaven will be to one that hath had such a hard passage thither Through labours more abundant stripes above measure many prisons chains fetters whippings scourgings shipwracks deaths journeyings perills of Waters Robberies by his own Countrey-men by the Heathen True it is he gives in a large bill of his charges as it were but when he cometh to speak of his wages he makes nothing of his labours and sufferings in comparison of the reward 2 Cor. 4.17 For these light and momentany afflictions do work out for us an exceeding eternal weight of glory The highest Mountain in the World is very light in comparison of the whole Earth even so are the greatest afflictions of the greatest sufferers in comparison of the glory of Heaven It is said of Isachar Gen. 49.15 That he saw that rest was good and that the Land was pleasant therefore he put his shoulders to labour and became servant to Tribute So I may say the rest and glory of the Saints is good but the Land that brings forth this rest will be best and most pleasant to them after all their labours and sufferings are fully ended then to receive this glorious rest will be most sweet unto them and most seasonable Were Heaven nothing else but an Haven of rest we know how welcome the one is to a Sea sick weather-beaten Traveller and by that we may conceive how welcome the other will be to a Soul that hath been long tossed in the Waves of this troublesom World sick of its own sinful imaginations and tyred out with outward temptations the happiest Soul that ever hath sailed over this Euripus in the best Ship in the most healthful body that ever was never had so calm a passage saith a good Divine but that it hath had cause enough often to wish it self on shoar Sa. Ward on the life of faith in death Is there any Palace or Tower here so high or strong that can keep diseases from the body or cares sorrows fears or Satan's assaults from the Soul were there but such an Island as some have dreamed of here on earth that might free mens bodies or minds from disquiet but for the time of this life how would people strive to dwell there Certainly in this heavenly Countrey there shall be perfect tranquillity to all the Inhabitants thereof Oh how will it ravish the hearts of the Saints when they have finished their course and are come to the end of their race oh how sweet will Heaven and how glorious will the Crown of Immortality be to them in the end If Seamen when they have been many moneths upon the Sea where they have encountred with many dreadful storms and boystrous tempests and have been often in danger of drowning and shipwracks when they shall at last descry but a Creek of Land do leap for joy and cry out Oh Land land we are nigh to such a Coast where we would be then much more those that have run
God in glory that they shall be Priests of God and Christ Rev. 20.6 As they are all made spiritual Kings and Priests to God on Earth Rev. 1.6 so they shall be Priests to God in Heaven and reign with him for ever and ever They shall be Priests to God two ways in Heaven First As soon as they leave this life in the interim before the second coming of Christ they shall perform the offices of Priests in Soul only offering to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that themselves are already delivered out of the miseries of this World and praying for their Brethren upon the Earth that they may shortly be delivered For so St. John tells us that he saw under the Altar the Souls of those that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held crying out with a loud voice How long O Lord holy and true dost not thou avenge our blood upon them that dwell on the Earth Rom. 6.9 10. And secondly at Christ's second coming both they that are deceased already and they that shall then be found alive shall joyntly and joyfully sing Hallelujah salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgments Rev. 19.1 2. and v. 6. St. John saith he heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings saying Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready The high praises of God shall then be in the mouthes of all his Saints being now made perfect in holiness and freed from all frailties they shall never mourn but ever sing and laud their Redeemer without defatigation or satiety But to pass by this it is needful in few words to shew how the Heavens cannot properly be said to be the house of God as those buildings wherein men dwell are called their houses least any should be so ignorant as to entertain any vain thoughts not beseeming the infinite Majesty of God 1. Heaven cannot contain and hold the infinite being of the Divine Nature as the house holdeth him that dwelleth in it Behold the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee 2. God hath no need of Heaven either for rest or safety as a man hath of his house he is not subject to weariness no work is toilsome to him he slumbereth not sleepeth not he is above all dangers one word of his mouth is enough to crush all Enemies to powder he needeth not this House as a Castle of defence unto him 3. He is not more essentially present there then in any other place nor more absent from any other place then from it but every where alike essentially present though there he giveth forth more glorious demonstrations of his presence then in any other place SECT II. SEeing Heaven is God's house then there should our hearts be even at home with our Father how can we sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land how can we please our selves so well in this house of our pilgrimage when we are from home thus far absent from our Father's house why are our minds so knit unto the earth that nothing â—ut leath will part it and us as if not Heaven but this lower sinful part of the World were the Lord 's dwelling place with what face can we call him our Father which is in Heaven and in the mean time our strongest and most hearty affections are deeply buried in the Earth St. Paul was of another temper I desire to be dissolved saith he and to be with Christ which is best of all Best of all so the blessed Apostle found and felt it he spake out of a true discerning spirit he spake as he found he desired Heaven for love of Christ and not so much for love of his own ease and happiness though he could not but long for that also but principally for love of Christ therefore he longed to leave the Earth and go to Heaven because that was the house of Christ the house where God the Father sheweth his glorious presence the house where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty on high Oh that I were there saith that holy Apostle let me go through poverty through persecution fire sword stripes imprisonment and a thousand deaths and dangers so that I can but get unto my Saviour it is best of all to be with him what shall I say better then to be with sinful men better then to be with a multitude of unruly corruptions cleaving to me shall I say better then to be in the midst of heaps of Gold or all manner of earthly abundance I will not for the honour of my Saviour once bring him in comparison with these dunghils and heaps of dross but it is best of all to be with him It is better to be with him then simply to be in Heaven it self it were better to be with him out of Heaven then to be in Heaven without him if that were possible yea if being with Christ were not salvation it self I would say that to be with Christ were better then salvation it is best of all Now then when Heaven is thus glorious when our dearest Saviour the King of glory is entered within those everlasting doors when it is the very house of God how should we long after it that we might be with the Lord what shame should it cast upon our faces who have the First-fruits of the Spirit Is our Gaol now become more pleasing to us then our Father's house do we grow more and more earthly minded Oh that we had more of Heaven in us to raise and draw our hearts thither and less Earth to sink us downward let us pray and labour for more supernatural and heavenly affections then we shall find our hearts rising and lifted upwards Moreover if Heaven be the house of God and the place of his special presence this should move us all to labour to be such as may be fit for the presence of God Do we not all desire to be in Heaven alas many of us do little consider what Heaven is or what it is to be in Heaven It is true that none even those that are most heavenly minded can consider of it according to its excellent glory yet some there are who though they cannot conceive it for the height of its excellency yet they conceive the nature of it though not the measure they conceive of what kind of what temper that glory and happiness is which they shall receive by that earnest of the Spirit which they have received as a man knoweth in what coyn he shall be paid by that money which he hath received in earnest already But many others know not what Heaven meaneth how many are there that cannot now endure the presence
of God and yet would fain be in Heaven that hate this house of God and yet long to be in that heavenly house of God Assure thy self that unless thou couldest delight in God's presence here thou canst have no delight in his presence there The happiness of that house is heavenly and spiritual there is nothing to please the covetous heart nothing to fill the wanton eye nothing to satisfie the Drunkard's and Glutton's appetite no wanton dancing no idle sports nothing but holiness and holy exercises and that glory which is the ornament of holiness and ariseth from it There is not a word nor a thought but what becometh the presence of God such as abide his pure eyes Now then do thou O Christian bend thy heart and soul toward this house and presence of God so shalt thou be a pillar in the house of God and shalt go out of it no more but shalt possess fulness of joy in his presence for evermore SECT III. NOw in this House of God are many Mansions In my Father's House are many Mansions saith our Saviour John 14.2 Heaven is sufficient to receive many Inhabitants I mean not that it is like some great Houses that have no Inhabitants but that it is appointed of God to be a dwelling place for many Many I say not in comparison of those multitudes which shall be shut out of doors but many in an absolute consideration taken by themselves yet these many shall be very few in comparison of the droves of men that throng together in the broad way of destruction Of the largeness of this House of God Solomon speaketh when he compareth it with that Temple which he had built 1 Kings 8.27 Will God indeed dwell upon the Earth behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this House which I have built What do I speak of the Lord 's dwelling in this little House which I have built then he puts in a special note of attention and admiration Behold even those large and spacious Heavens which himself hath builded and spread out like a glorious curtain over the whole Earth and all things between the Earth and it cannot contain him how much less this House which I have made As if he had said the Heavens are incompaâ—â—bly greater then this House which I have built but he is infinitely greater then the Heavens Yea our eyes may teach us that it is of wonderful greatness although we cannot see how large it is if we consider that the Earth is of a wonderful compass and yet that it is but as a spot or little Ball hanging in the midst of the Heavens and encompassed round with those goodly Spheres and Orbs. Yea even a Child may learn thus much from the light of Reason with a little help that seeing the Sun is big enough to give light to half the Earth at once and yet seemeth so little to our eye it must needs be at a wonderful distance from us perhaps many thousand miles Now then of what wonderful bigness is the Heaven it self being so far above the Earth and yet compassing all those huge spaces round about the Earth that are between the Earth and Heaven Neither may we think but that this Heaven of Heavens the House of God is yet far above the Chamber of the Sun out of which the Psalmist saith he cometh at his rising Consider then Christian Reader what did ever any man find in the Earth that should make him so willing to sell Heaven for it if a man could have it all it were not comparable to the lowest Mansion in Heaven if any be lower then other All is vanity saith the Preacher speaking of all things under the Sun especially when they be compared with those large spacious and glorious Mansions above the Sun Who then can sufficiently detest that folly which preferreth the least part of the earth which the Lord treadeth under foot as his foot-stool above the glorious Heaven the large extent whereof surroundeth and encompasseth the whole World How should this comfort Christians that though they be pent up and straitned here yet in Heaven they shall have room enough there shall be Rehoboth there the Lord will make room for us Here is comfort against those engrossing oppressors which joyn house to house and leave no room for the poor if thou labour to be rich in faith thou shalt find that they cannot shoulder thee out from an happy and large possession in that heavenly Kingdom Mayst thou not take comfort in a smoaky Cottage assuring thy self of thy part in a most glorious Pallace what if thou hast but little of the Earth or none at all is it not abundantly sufficient that thou shalt enjoy so much of Heaven as thy Soul can desire yea that there shall be no enclosures there but all that glorious Inheritance shall lie common to all the Heirs of promise Look not with a longing eye upon a fairer or more convenient House then thine own upon wider Fields and greater Possessions then any that thou art owner of upon Earth but over-look all these and say to the praise of God's grace with an heart rejoycing in the Lord yet I have more then all the World is worth Moreover none of the Faithful need to fear that he should be shut out for want of room in this heavenly Palace here is many Mansions here is a place appointed for every true Believer the poorest Christian shall not miss of an happy habitation in this House of our Father Lazarus though he lie full of sores and rags without doors there on Earth yet there he shall have a sweet repose in Abraham's bosome Let this comfort a Believer against all solitariness and want of company in this life in the House of thy heavenly Father are many Mansions and these shall not stand empty for want of Inhabitants Oh what Troops of glorious Angels and Saints shall live together in those heavenly Mansions how shall they flock together from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South there sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom It is a strange weakness to be discontented for want of company but a greater and worthy of all reproof to go out of the narrow way because it is so solitary and to turn into the common road because of company Oh the folly and infidelity of our hearts can we not with patience stay for so much good Company as we shall find and for ever enjoy in our Father's House For although the number that shall be saved shall be but a very small number in comparison of the numberless multitude that are already lost and do hasten to destruction although when the Church was greatest upon Earth as in the Apostles times the number of the wicked did much exceed it yet take those many thousands of holy Angels which keep their first estate and joyn to these multitudes of holy men
all-sufficient and an all-satisfying reward When the great day of recompence shall come wherein God will bestow his reward upon his Saints all Heaven shall cry out Lord I have enough I need no more I desire no more this reward is common to millions of glorified Saints and all are satisfied with it Christ himself is a most satisfying object the beauty of his face the smell of his garments the Sea and Rivers of Salvation that capacious and wide Heaven where God his Angels and Saints are are intrinsecally and of themselves most ravishing and soul-satisfying objects there the Soul drinketh and drinketh abundantly and is fully satisfied so that the vessel can hold no more there the Soul is always quietly reposing it self in the arms and embraces of the glorious Prince Immanuel always sucking the breasts of his eternal consolations and delighting it self with the abundance of glory 3. It is called a great reward comparate compared to the active and passive obedience of Saints in this World For as learned Spanhemius observeth on Matth. 5.11 Spanhem dub Evangel our Saviour doth not make comparison between reward and reward of Saints the greater and the lesser between Crowns of glory one more illustrious then another but between our service on Earth and God's reward in Heaven it is then a great or muâ—h reward in order to our sufferings let the measure of our persecutions be full pressed down and running over yet our reward shall be infinitely more full pressed down and running over the joy of the Saints in Heaven shall infinitely exceed the smart of all their sufferings as hath before been largely declared Quest Here it may be demanded Whether we may have an eye to the reward in our obedience The Papists cry out upon us as if we did deny that the godly ought to have respect unto the promised reward to quicken them to duty And it is true that some mistaking Divines have subscribed to this opinion that in no case a godly man is to eye the glory promised to quicken him to duty because say they in so doing we shew forth mercenary not filial duty and we do not do and suffer for God's sake but for the reward Resp There is no doubt but we may have an eye to the glorious reward else why doth our Saviour here and in other places propose the reward to us and promise a reward And it is said of Moses that he had an eye to the recompence of the reward Heb. 11.26 Yea it is said of Christ Heb. 12.2 that for the glory set before him he endured the cross and despised the shame Although we may not chiefly aim at our own profit but the performance of God's pleasure yet surely we may be moved to the doing our duties for hope of reward as also restrained from sin though not principally yet partly for fear of punishment else why would God use threatnings and promises in the Scripture saith Peter Martyr Pet. Mart. loc com Here let us observe these Rules 1. The glory of God must be the primary mark at which we must chiefly aim as he made all things primarily for his glory so must we do all to the same end did our lives stand in competition with God's glory we ought to chuse rather to seek the advancing of God's glory then to seek to preserve our lives nay if our very salvation stood in competition with the glory of God we ought to chuse rather the advancement of God's glory then to seek for our own salvation yet God's mercy is so great to us that his glory and our salvation are so compacted together that we cannot seek the one but we shall infallibly obtain the other 2. Our own duty must next to the glory of God have the uppermost room in our hearts the duty which we owe to God in doing and suffering must be respected before the reward which God will give us his holy commands must be a stronger incitement to duty then his gifts It was a notable act of a Woman reported by Gregory Nazianzen who carried fire in one hand and water in another saying Bellarmine saith Magis honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito quam ex sola donatione Tapper saith Absit ut justi vitam aeternam expectent sicut pauper cleemosynam multo honorificentius est ipsos quasi victores triumphatores cam possidere tanquam palmam suis sudoribus debitam Tapper Tom. 2. Act. 9. With fire she would burn the Heavens with water she would drown the World that she might know her own heart whether she loved God for God's sake or for his rewards 3. We must not eye the reward qua merces as it is a reward due but as 't is a gift of free grace not as it is a remunerating act of God's justice but as a crowning act and fruit of free mercy Then see the pride of Papists who say it were not for their honour to have eternal life gratis 4. We may look on the reward as God's favour and as an encouragement he proposeth to us to move us the more swiftly to run the race that is set before us Every one propoundeth this to himself in any undertaking Quid habebo What shall I have if I do or suffer And St. Peter proveth the question Lord we have left all and followed thee and what shall we receive It was a custom among great Princes when they set upon any notable work they would encourage the undertakers to come to the work by the propounding of wages prizes and rewards but we must have an eye to the reward non tam ut utile nobis quam ut bonum in se not so much as it is profitable to us and looking to our own advantage as to the goodness of the reward it self 5. We may look on the recompence of the reward as an incitation to patience under sufferings we need encouragement to move us to patience under all those miseries and discouragements that attend our following Christ Hence it was that Christ to allay the sharpness of suffering propounds the greatness of the reward this caused Moses to chuse rather to suffer afflictions with God's people then to enjoy the pleasures of sin which are but for a season esteeming the reproaches of Christ greater riches then all the treasures of Egypt for or because he had an eye to the recompence of the reward Heb. 11.25 26. Now how should the consideration of this great reward in Heaven which a Christian shall receive for his poor labours and sufferings in this World make him willing to die that he may receive his reward for as a weary Traveller having even almost tired himself with heavy labour or hard journying is willing to go to receive his wages of his Master and afterwards to betake himself to his rest so should a good Christian that hath fought a good fight kept the faith and almost finished his course be willing to die to
go to receive his reward With this consideration Hilarion speaks to his trembling Soul upon his Death-bed Hieron in vit Hilar Egredere Anima cur times egredi go forth my Soul go forth depart out of this prison of pain into a place of pleasure hast thou served Christ these seventy years and dost thou fear to take thy wages now thou hast done thy work Let this therefore be matter of shame to us that we have done so little work considering the greatness of the reward as a holy dying Martyr said I am exceedingly grieved that being now to receive so great a reward I have done so little work Truly O Lord thou art great above all gods and great is thy reward for thou art not great August in Soliloq and thy reward little thou art the rewarder and the reward of eternal happiness it self saith St. Augustine SECT VII Sheweth that Heaven is the place where God shall give his People a kind welcome and loving entertainment HEaven is also the place where God will most affectionately receive all his Children to himself with much love and tenderness of affection at the last day they shall be received into the arms of his embraces Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Psal 73.24 that is thou shalt receive me with a most vehement and ardent affection When the prodigal Son was but coming towards his Father when he was yet afar off his Father ran toward him and fell upon his neck and kissed him now this is but a shadow of that full and glorious reception of the Saints to himself when God shall make them all glorious and receive them without spot or wrinkle if this Prodigal returning from his Harlots and coming in his rags was thus acceptable and welcome to his Father Oh what abundance of love will God then express to his Saints at the last day when they shall be all cloathed in long white robes and be received into the perfection of glory Mark what is said to the faithful Servant Well done thou good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Matth. 25.23 Then will the Lord Jesus most affectionately say to all his Servants Enter my dear Friends and receive your consolation enter Servants and receive your wages enter my Children and take possession of your patrimony and inheritance enter my Brethren and receive your portion and all ye that have fought the good fight and kept the faith and offered violence to the Kingdom of Heaven enter ye and take your Crowns He doth not say Come toward it and look upon it with a greedy desire and earnest longing after your happiness but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come into the joy of thy Lord take part and possession of it with abundance of delight and satisfaction The soul of man in this World is capable of more pleasure then the eye or ear yea then all the senses can bring in to her our soul can drink up all the pleasures at one draught it can presently swallow them up but the joys of Heaven do exceed the desires of our souls therefore saith Christ Enter thou into thy Master's joy he doth not say let the joy of thy Master enter into thee it is to shew that the joy of our glorious condition doth infinitely surpass the largest capacity of our souls though they be stretched to the uttermost So at the last day Christ will say to the Sheep on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Matth. 25.34 The first word is Venite Come it is the voice of the Bridegroom that saith Come Come to me my Spouse that where the Husband is there the Bride the Lamb's Wife may be that where the Head is there the Members may be where the Father is there the Children may be where the Master is there the Servants may be where the Prince and Captain of our Salvation is there his Fellow-Souldiers may be When Christ was going out of the World he chears up the hearts of his Disciples with these consolatory words Let not your hearts be troubled in my Father's House are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you and if I go I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there you may be also John 14.1 2. See how much affection Christ expresseth in these words if Christ said when he was upon Earth Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you take my yoke upon you and you shall find rest to your souls Matth. 11.28 29. then much more will he retain the same sweetness of affection when he cometh to sit down in his Judgment-seat Christ is as it were a Servant among his People Luke 22.27 I am among you as he that serveth He condescendeth to serve his People he went to Heaven in Person to prepare a place for them and he will come again in Person to receive them thither True it is he will do it with a glorious Train of Angels yet he will come himself and take them home to his Father's House that where he is they may be also and then will he receive them with much affection Come my Love my Dove my Spouse my Undefiled where hast thou been so long all this while out of my presence come ye into my bosome which is now wide open ready to receive you If Jacob's and Joseph's meeting were so unexpressibly comfortable when they had thought never to have seen the faces of each other after so long a distance Oh what shall the joy of that last day be and how shall those noble souls rejoyce yea leap for joy to whom these soul-ravishing words are spoken Come ye blessed of my Father all the Musick in Heaven and Earth will not so ravish them as this voice will do Now though they were the out-casts of the World Heaven gates shall be set wide open for their reception the King of glory will bid them come and welcome the Spirit and the Bride say come c. Come ye blessed of my Father the World hath cursed you but God hath blessed you yea and you shall be blessed Come ye and inherit a Kingdom I have heretofore told you of a Kingdom promised you a Kingdom you have often prayed for Lord let thy Kingdom come come now my dear Friends I am come to put you into the possession of that Kingdom I will make you all Kings and you shall reign with me for ever Great reason there is for us to think that God will take home all his People to himself with abundance of affection at the last day they are the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty and will not our heavenly Father receive all his Sons and Daughters to glory with a most
to them But as for subtilty which properly signifies a property whereby such things as are spiritual have a penetrative vertue to pass through the corpulent parts of any thing that hath a Body having parts and dimensions I cannot see how it can be attributed to glorified Bodies which after the resurrection shall have the same extensive and bodily parts for quantity and material substance as they had before and can no more pierce thorow any true bodily substance which hath the dimensions of quantity as length breadth thickness then they could before their resurrection during the time of their mortality and corruption Although divers of the Antients affirm that Christ after his resurrection entered into the room where his Disciples were the doors being shut John 20.26 by passing thorow the door yet if it were so we may not attribute the same as a thing natural to his glorified Body it having the same dimensions of quantity for fulness of matter it had before but must rather be attributed to the power of his God-head to whom nothing is impossible but I suppose though the doors were shut presently before and after his passage yet they opened of their own accord or by his Divine power at the instant of his passage as Acts 12.10 the Creature giving place to the Creator otherwise we must hold the Body of Christ made a penetration thorow the doors and then there must be two solid Bodies in one place at the same time which were impossible And St. Augustine saith even of glorified Bodies Tolle spatia corporibus corpora non erunt take away spaces from the Bodies and they will cease to be bodies SECT IV. Of the impassibility of glorified Bodies MOreover the Bodies of the Saints in glory shall be made impassible in this life we are subject to many infirmities to thousands of miseries our Bodies are Butts against which miseries and afflictions which are the Arrows of the Almighty are shot but glorified Bodies are subject to none of these they suffer no pain Christ will wipe away all tears from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall flee away and be sent packing to Hell among the Devils and damned Wretches their afflictions are their portion Heaven and the blessed state of the Saints in Heaven is as free from misery as from sin this World to the godly is as the Prison to Joseph as Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace to the three Children as the Lions Den to Daniel this World to the godly is like an House of Correction wherein is much toyl and labour and very much scourging besides We are born to be miserable we shall do nothing else but suffer but we shall be taken out of Prison our Bodies shall be drawn out of the Furnace freed from the House of Correction and no grief nor misery shall evermore touch our glorified Bodies Their impassibility will then free them from all the injuries of the Elements the natural heat which now wasteth them shall no more consume the natural moysture the contraries that compose man will then agree and the Body being no longer tormented with hunger and thirst will stand in need neither of meat nor drink he will be in a state of consistency wherein he will have his just proportion The Apostle tells us that what is sown in weakness shall be raised in power and vertue so that the Body shall not need that propping up as the weak pillars thereof do now need support in this state of mortality But this power is no supernatural vertue making the elementary parts and qualities to be of another nature then now they are for there must be no change nor destruction but only a perfection of Nature neither shall these elementary qualities by the power of God be limited or obstructed in their operations that they shall not fight against each other to their mutual destruction for then the impassibility of glorified Bodies should not be an internal vertue as abiding in the Body which is against the Apostle's intent but only an external assistance of God Aquinas saith Aquin. supplem qu. 82. art 1. that this vertue and power of impassibility floweth immediately from the Soul her self which informing the Body doth so fully and perfectly subdue all the powers and qualities of the same unto her self that no contrary Agent can be able to make any violent impression upon or act violently against the Body either to corrupt or destroy it or in the least to be able to draw it from that quiet and peaceable state wherein it resteth SECT V. Of the incorruptibility and immortality of glorified Bodies FInally the glory of the Body shall be so firm and stable that it can never wither or decay it shall be incorruptible The Body is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption 1 Cor. 15.42 This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality verse 53. The Bodies of the beatified shall then be embalmed with the Spirit that shall cause them for ever to be incorruptible their Bodies shall be made incorruptible and immortal like the glorious Body of Christ these earthly Tabernacles or demicilia Animae must be taken down and then these Bodies of dust must return to dust we must say to Corruption thou art our Mother and to the Worm thou art our Sister and the Soul must suffer a divorce from the Body But when Christ shall appear our mortality shall be swallowed up of life then our corruption shall put on incorruption these vile dusty Bodies of ours shall be made glorious Mansions for our Souls and our Souls shall be for ever united to our Bodies again so that they shall never suffer a divorce from the Body and the Body shall never see corruption any more We shall then enjoy an eternal spring of years which shall never wither our days will pass on yet shall we never feel any decay or declension in our selves our budding verdure will fear no Winter the Lillies and Roses of our Countenances will keep their freshness and as original Righteousness served to Man as a Garment in the state of Innocence so Glory will be instead of a Robe to the Blessed God hath made the Soul of so powerful a nature August Epist 66. ad Dioscor saith one of the Antients that from her glorious happiness there redounds to the Body the vigour of incorruption and so long as the glorified Soul shall be subject to God and the glorified Body be subject to the Soul so long it shall be impossible for any bodily agent whatsoever to have any transient action or impression which may any way change or hurt the same But as St. Paul saith Rom. 6.10 In that Christ died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God so we shall then live with God and unto God as Christ for ever SECT VI. ALbeit glorified Bodies shall be impassible and incorruptible so that they shall not be subject to any contrary or
God in his nature essence and substance wherein he is invisible but in some visible created form which it pleased him to assume and wherein he appeared to them Athanasius saith that they saw God in some manifestations of himself but not in his own nature so it is conceived that the Servants of God even after this life when they be perfectly sanctified and glorified shall not see God the Father and the Holy Ghost in their essence for they shall still have their true bodies and true eyes and therefore they shall see but their proper objects Reas 3. Because the Angels who have no bodily eyes and stand continually before the Lord and the blessed Souls of Saints in Heaven do now see God and yet have no bodily eyes wherefore their sight of God is only mental not ocular Reas 4. Because the Apostle expresseth the seeing God face to face by perfect knowledge 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known where to know God as he knows us is to see him face to face II. Although we shall not see God with our bodily eyes yet notwithstanding the glorified organ of a glorified body informed by a glorified Soul shall have most glorious objects to look upon in Heaven as 1. Heaven it self is a most glorious sight for our glorified eyes what a glorious sight is the outside of Heaven bedeckt with the Sun Moon and innumerable Stars if the outside be so glorious what is the inside wherein the glory of God is displayed if the porch and pavement of this Palace be so glorious what then is the Presence-Chamber It was Chrysostom's wish that he could see Christ in the flesh Paul in the pulpit Rome in her glory In Heaven you shall see Christ not in his state of humiliation but in the highest degree of glory not Paul in the Pulpit but Paul sitting on a Throne of glory not Rome but Heaven it self the heavenly Jerusalem in its fulness of glory 2. These eyes of our bodies shall see the glorious man Christ Jesus in whose Humane nature as in a glass God will in an ineffable manner manifest the glory of his Divine essence hence the Apostle calls him the brightness of his person the beam the splendour of his person In Rev. 21.23 it is said The City hath no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the Glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof that is Christ himself is the light by which we shall see God Oh what a glorious ravishing object will Christ's body be to the eye A Philosopher was so ravished with the Sun that he thought himself made for no other end but to look upon the Sun Christ's Body in Heaven is a thousand times more bright then the Sun Non in forma servi sed in forma the Sun is blackness of darkness in comparison of it here we see Christ as he will manifest himself to us otherwise but there we shall see him as he is 1 John 3.2 Ferus expounds the words thus we shall know him as he is that is Ferus in 1 Joan. 3.2 saith he we shall know Christ no more under the notion of a Servant we shall not know Christ as the Son of Man but then we shall know him as God as he is the Son of God the King of glorious state the Lord of glory Cajetan Cajetan in loc saith that this particle sicut as he is excludit omnem visionem per representans excludeth our knowledge of Christ from any thing that represents him sed sicuti est sicut ipse seipsum offert i. e. we shall know him by himself and not by the creature or any thing whatsoever Much of Christ is discovered here in the Word in the the Gospel and in the Ordinances and great manifestations of Christ are made to the Souls of his People by the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation but all comes short of this when they shall see him as he is in himself see him face to face as Friends talking together do look one another in the face so shall Christ and godly Men see one anothers face There 's a great difference between the sight of a Picture though it be a true Picture of a dear Friend when he is many hundred miles distant from us and the sight of his own face far more blessed shall the Children of God be when they shall see Christ as he is then now they can discern him while they are in the body and absent from him and can see him only by representations If old Simeon when he saw Christ as he was in his infancy embraced him in his arms and said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luke 2.29 How then shall the sight of him as he is transport the Souls of the Saints with unspeakable joy and admiration if it were so delightful to see Christ in his infancy in his swadling cloathes what joy will it be to see him in Heaven all glorious if the fight of Christ in the types and promises which were but prefigurations of him were so sweet to the Saints of old what will the sight of Christ himself the Antitype be Abraham foresaw by the eye of faith the first coming of Christ in the flesh he saw my day afar off saith Christ and was glad Qui bona egerint fulgebunt sicut Sol cum Angelis in vitam aeternam cum Domino nostro Jesu Christo videntes eum semper ab eo visi incessabili laetitia quae apiso provenient perfruentes Damascen lib. 4. de Fide John 8.56 Much more glad would he have been with old Simeon to have seen Christ himself If John Baptist leaped in the Womb for joy at the presence of Mary the Mother of our Lord how will our hearts dance for joy when we shall see the Lord Jesus himself in his great Majesty and glory if it be sweet to behold him in his Image and in his People who are but shadows of Christ if sometimes an heavenly vision of Christ hath driven a man into an extasie and hath ravished him out of himself Oh then what shall it be to see him as he is if the inward sight of him by a few beams darted upon us by this glorious Son of righteousness doth transform us from glory to glory Oh how will it then ravish our hearts when we shall have both an ocular and intellectual sight of the Lord Jesus Oh what running thronging and posting was there to see Christ when he was upon earth in his state of abasement Zacheus being a man of a low stature climbed up a Sycamore-tree that he might see Jesus passing by Luke 19. what then will the sight of Jesus be when you shall see the Son of man coming in power and
the Gentiles and the rest What a ravishing sight will it be to see the glorious company of the Apostles to behold the goodly fellowship of the Prophets to set your eyes on that noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors that have shed their blood for the cause of Christ What a joyful sight will it be to see those holy Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and the rest above the reach of their cruel Persecutors cloathed with long white garments with Palms in their hands and with the glorious ensigns of their victorious triumphs Will it not be a goodly sight to behold that glorious fore-runner of Christ who chose rather to lose his head then to dissemble the filthiness of an incestuous King and no less delightful will it be to see St. Stephen who was stoned to death for Christ and that holy Apostle St. James who was slain with the sword of Herod that cruel Tyrant now reigning with Christ in glory What an excellent sight shall it be to see those famous Lights of the Church of Christ Peter and Paul shining there very gloriously with the Trophies of their Martyrdom wherewith they were Crowned and this shall add to the perfection of this sight that the Saints shall all enjoy the glories of each other as if they were properly their own If the sight of the Saints in communion here be so sweet even an Heaven upon Earth what will it be when all the blessed Souls that have been from the beginning of the World and shall be to the end shall meet all together and they wholly freed from all corruptions and imperfections what a blessed sight will that be If there be such great pleasure in the sight of Flowers and Jewels what great delight will there be in the sight of the innumerable company of the Blessed who shall all shine as the Sun especially when all shall be dearer to their Parents Children Relations then now they are to behold multitude the beauty and excellency of the inhabitants of Heaven and their sweet familiarity with one another will be a most pleasant spectacle Their multitude will be innumerable God hath many Sons and Daughters that must be brought to glory Heb. 2.10 there are a numberless number that are to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Rev. 14.1 there shall be no empty places in Heaven nor any void of inhabitants Likewise the beauty of all shall be admirable they shall be like unto the Angels of God and be the most excellent images of their heavenly Father and how pleasant a thing will this be to behold In dignity all shall be the Citizens of Heaven and the Children of God all shall be triumphant Kings having had the victory over the World the Flesh and the Devil We count it an admirable sight if we could see one King among an hundred thousand persons in his glory Oh then what a sight shall this be when we shall see millions of glorious Kings and Christ the King of infinite glory in the midst of them All shall be Priests unto God offering the sacrifice of praise perpetually to him In brief the least Saint in Heaven shall be greater in dignity and glory then all the Kings of this World Moreover they shall be most delighted to behold that sweet converse they shall have together If it be a delightful thing in the Court of some great Prince to obtain the favour and good will of all what pleasure will it be to enjoy the friendship and familiarity of such an innumerable company of noble Persons Oh what a royal Feast and most magnificent Banquet will the Lord make for his Children when they shall all meet together in his holy Mountain let Worldlings get them to their gluttonous and carnal feasts let them even burst themselves with their superfluous excesses such a Feast as this where the choicest dainties are served in by the holy Angels where even Christ himself the Master and maker of the Feast will as it were gâ—rd himself and serve is convenient only for God and his chosen People SECT IX ANd as the eyes shall be freed from all dimness so the ears shall be freed from all defects of deafness the ears shall always hear that ravishing Musick sounding forth from the heavenly Quire where a consort of innumerable Angels and glorified Saints are singing Hallelujahs to their God and magnifying their glorious Redeemer for ever for the high praises of God shall be in the mouthes of all his Saints Psal 149.6 by reason of their ardent love to God who hath heaped so many good things upon them they shall break forth into praises and thanksgivings They shall praise him out of all his works and benefits from his works of Creation and Providence from his works of Redemption and Justification Adoption and Sanctification from his works of Mercy and Justice from the Rewards he bestoweth on the Righteous and the Punishments he inflicteth on the Wicked and from all his secret and revealed Judgements They shall have all these things before the eyes of their minds and shall clearly understand the counsel of God in them all and shall be filled with incredible consolation and by reason of the greatness of their joy shall praise him for all peculiarly blessing him and giving him immortal thanks they shall not want matter for everlasting praise and they shall not only praise him with their heart but also in their body with their tongues there shall be a most excellent harmony of voices incomparably surpassing the musick in the World this will be exceeding sweet and pleasant that one only sound of it were able to bring the whole World asleep Now as the Saints shall incessantly with vocal praises magnifie the Lord so without doubt their vocal Hallelujahs shall be heard and understood of one another what ravishing expressions of love shall they then hear from Christ and from each other what Songs of joy and triumph Upon the consideration whereof devout St. Augustine breaks forth into this meditation Omne opus sanctâ—rum leus Dei sine fiâ—e sine defectione sine labore faelix ergo vero in perpe tuum faelix si post resolutionem hujus corpusculi audivero iila cantica caelestis enelodiae quae cantantur ad laudem Regis aeterni ab illis superâ—ae petriae civibus beatorumque spirituum agminibus c. August medâ—t cap. 25. The whole work of the Saints in Heaven shall be to praise God without end without failing without labour happy therefore and truly happy am I for ever if after the resolution of my body I shall be counted worthy to hear those Songs of heavenly melody which are sung in praising the everlasting King by those Citizens of the Country that is above and by the Troops of those blessed Spirits which are there Oh how happy shall I account my self to be if I may be admitted to sing those songs and stand by my King my God the Captain of my salvation and behold
graciously merciful and that none hath cause to complain of God and that the fundamental cause of this various administration with Nations and Persons is the holy and soveraign will of God who hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth This is the depth without a bottom that St. Paul speaks of But in Heaven the Saints shall be filled with the knowledg of these mysteries the bosome of God being opened to their understandings What are the events that have hapned in the World or in the Church but the effects or consequents of those decrees which have been everlastingly in the mind of God Now if the Saints in Heaven shall perfectly see God then nothing of God shall be hid from them which may make up their compleat happiness they shall then clearly understand the mysteries of justification and glorification and all the deep things of God all the mysteries of the holy Scriptures all the Prophecies all the Figures Types and Symbolical shadows all the mystical Senses all these things they believed here either expresly or implicitely but the reward of faith is vision and clear knowledg The same doth St. Augustine insinuate saying August de Civit. Dei cap. 21. What shall we see in Heaven but God and all those things which now believing we see not CHAP. XXI MOreover the Saints shall see and know that innumerable company of Angels their natures each of their persons in particular As the Angels know every Elect person because it is their work to gather the Elect from all the corners of the Earth and to seperate them from the wicked Matth. 13.41 so the glorified Saints shall know the holy Angels whom the Lord sent forth to minister for them whom the Lord appointed for their guard while they were upon Earth who encamped round about them while they were encompassed with so many dangers Some Divines are of opinion that the number of the Angels is so great that they exceed without comparison all corporal and material things in the Earth and like as the greatness of the Heavens exceedeth the greatness of the Earth without any proportion even so doth the multitude of the glorious Spirits exceed the multitude of all corporal and material things that are in the World with the like advantage and proportion Now what thing can be imagined more wonderful then this Again if every one of the Angels yea though it be the least Angel among them all be more beautiful and goodly to behold then all this visible World what a glorious sight shall it be then to see such a number of beautiful Angels to see the perfections and offices that every one hath in that high and glorious City there do the Angels go as it were in Embassages are exercised in their Ministry there the Principalities and Thrones triumph there do the Cherubims give light the Seraphims burn with fervent love All of that heavenly Court are perpetually singing Praises and Hallelujahs to God Almighty and to the Lamb that sits on the Throne for ever Oh what honour is this which God will do to his Children hereafter when he shall exalt them to so high a dignity as to place them among the Angels in Heaven and make them like unto the Angels of God CHAP. XXII SECT I. Of the Saints mutual knowledg of each other in Heaven FInally the Saints shall know each other the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and People of God in all Ages and Nations the Saints shall behold numberless hosts and troops of glorified Pieces redeemed Saints in that highest Orb and Region of glory there they shall behold the general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are now written in Heaven Heb. 12.23 immediately illuminated studying preaching and praising Christ for evermore There you shall see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God saith our Saviour Luke 13.28 It was propounded as a doubt to Martin Luther Chemnit harmon evang cap. 87. a little before his Death-bed Whether glorified Saints should have mutual knowledg of each other he thus resolved his Friends that as Adam knew his Wife in Paradise when she was first presented to him and as St. Peter ravished with a heavenly vision at the Transfiguration of Christ Matth. 17.4 took notice of Moses and Elias when as Tertullian saith he never saw so much as any of their Pictures Tertul. contr Marcion lib. 4. the Law prohibiting such things to the Jews if in this short taste of glory he and the other two Disciples with him had a knowledg of these glorified Saints then doubtless when the Saints shall enjoy fulness of glory they shall have a clearer knowledg of each other As we think it reasonable to conclude the Soul to be immortal because it desireth to be so before it be enflamed by any studied notions and apprehensions of eternity so with equal probability we may prefigure and delineate some parts or shadows of our future happiness being guided by those innate and universal propensions which encline every Soul to desire and wish the same thing Among those transcendent desires which issue from our natures this is one that those acquaintances which were virtuously begun on Earth may be renewed and perfected in Heaven This desire was once of so great authority that former ages had respect unto it for when they found it easier to overcome all other terrors of death then that one of an everlasting absence from a Friend they were careful to chear a departing Soul by assuring it that the happiness of the other World next to the contemplation of the Divine nature consisted in the gaining of new and the indissoluble recovery of old acquaintance What they made a part of their happiness we admit but as an appendix to ours and as we think it not safe to joyn any Creature unto God to make up the object of our happiness so we believe it would derogate from the glory of his goodness if particular Souls like so many divided channels should have their own banks full but yet be debarred from all commerce and mutual knowledg of each others blessedness Our Creed moreover calls upon us to believe a communion of Saints which if it be a matter of our faith here it must be an object of our knowledg hereafter if we must believe that there are some who sincerely communicate with us in the faith in this life then we shall hereafter clearly know who were our fellow-members in that communion and as faith it self shall be done away by evidence so shall that communion which is here by faith be hereafter perfected by that communion which shall be by vision Those who have laboured to find out the most intimate and peculiar properties of the humane nature do affirm that it was made and fashioned for Society Now as Divines use to say That Christ came not to abolish but to perfect the Law so may we pronounce of our blessedness in
Heaven that it shall not extinguish but establish confirm and perfect those desires which are appropriated to the Soul as reasonable and immortal If the Soul may carry with it a sociable inclination then may it for the use and exercise of this desire be admitted to the knowledg of other Souls and of those especially with whom it had sojourned on Earth that like fellow-travellers who have been equally afflicted with the difficulties of the way they may thenceforth interchangeably communicate their joys springing from their present rest and peace Object But it may be said that in our union unto God shall be supplied all imaginable contents and that the Souls of the blessed shall be held in so great admiration as that they cannot admit the mixture of any second or less joy Resp Though this opinion seem specious and agreeable to reason yet we must consider that as in the Divine nature we admit no useless Attributes such as the Divine justice and mercy would be if there were not a Creature to exercise them on so likewise in the Humane we must either say it hath no aptness eternally to desire or rejoyce in the good of another which a sociable nature inwardly abhorreth or else we must allow it an object whereon to practice its endless love and joy This love we conceive shall be the perfection of that desire which was begun on Earth but always mixt with fear and jealousie being subject to those common infirmities which attend both the powers acts of the Soul in this life and this joy we believe shall succeed in the place of that condolency and compassion which on Earth we sustained one for another This love therefore and this joy must have such an object as was once the subject of our fear and compassion which cannot be either God or Angels but a Creature only of the same nature and condition with us These are perhaps but wild and ranging conceits which assert that there is no nature but it is capable of happiness no happiness without society no society without a plurality of individuals of the same kind Yet by the power of these imaginations did that Disputer in Plutarch create a plurality of Worlds for society sake and by them was Hortensius in Tully puzzelled and made to doubt how God may be said to be blessed if alone And I think that those rude and untaught ages measuring the blessedness of God by what themselves most delighted in did easily admit a multitude of gods to prevent a solitude which in their belief overthroweth all happiness Though these opinions relish of the blindness of the age that brought them forth yet as the darkest Bodies by collision may send forth some light so out of these assertions some sparks and glimmerings of truth may be produced for though in God there be an infinite fulness to satisfie an infinite desire and so he alone may suffice to make himself happy yet is he pleased not so precisely to love himself as not also to be delighted with the blessedness of his Creature and if God who is essentially blessed and hath all blessedness in himself be notwithstanding by his own goodness enclined to delight in the glory of a poor Creature it must needs be that Man who is the image of this goodness hath imprinted and stamped upon his nature a proneness to delight in the blessedness of his fellow-creature as well as a desire to see himself happy SECT II. Object BVt it may be feared that our knowledg of one another and our mutual delight in each other may beget some interruptions in our union with God taking the Soul aside from the contemplation of its Maker to gaze on and delight in the beauty of a Creature therefore those acts of the Soul love and joy seem not to be admitted being but digressions of the Soul and an allay to our blessedness Sol. This fear I think will vanish so soon as we consider that it is the same beauty which we behold in God and love in the Creature though of a different splendor and as the Stars the Air and Water by their borrowed lights do raise us to behold the Sun the fountain of all that light so wheresoever the rayes of glory are cast whether on Angels or Men we cannot but behold God shining on each nature and confess him to be all in all Moreover it is not a glance but a fixing on the Creature which in that state is not to be feared can endanger our happiness otherwise neither God nor Angels are truly blessed for the Divinity of former ages would perswade us that God as it were cometh daily out of himself to behold his own image in the Angels and the Angels look upon the same resemblance as cast from them and reflected by the Soul but neither God nor Angels are so ravished with those dimmer beauties as to dwell upon them but do suddenly return back to the Fountain God to himself and the Angels unto God But to let pass these excusable conjectures let us remember upon what ground we are solicited to believe how the Angels are daily conversant about us in acts of knowledg and love in their ministerial employments in fulfilling the Divine justice mercy yet notwithstanding these seeming interruptions of their vision they continue blessed And we believe also that Christ himself though in perfect glory continueth his intercession for us which being an act of mediation between divers parties cannot be performed without a knowledg and love of those for whom he interceedeth And though it may be conceived that in God there can be no intermission in the contemplation of himself because by the same single act he at once beholdeth himself and all things else yet we must not imagine such an infinite comprehensiveness in the creature as to be able within the same Act to involve and circumscribe all that may be known or desired in every object for this were to extol the Creature above it self making it equal with God The Angels therefore and Christ himself as man have their actions bounded and those acts by which they immediately behold and love the Creature are not the same by which they immediately contemplate and necessarily love the Creator Wherefore I think we may without rashness believe that our blessedness which is a cleer and everlasting contemplation of the Godhead may consist with such inferiour acts in the soul as are requisite to constitute a blessed society among the Saints SECT III. IT was no small contentment and satisfaction to S. Paul that he should meet his beloved Thessalonians in the presence of Christ for thus much seemeth to be intimated by that his exulting demand What is our hope or joy or Crown of rejoycing are not ye even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming And the same Apostle when he would set bounds and limits to a Christians sorrowing for the dead tells us that we must not sorrow as those that
have no hope such as are all that are imbued with those Epicurean principles of the Soul's Mortality and it's resolution into nothing such mens sorrow finds no case because that good whose absence they bemoan in their opinion is irrecoverably lost and to shake hands with a dying friend is with them as much as to bid them everlastingly farewel But a Christian's tears like drops from a cloud may sometimes fall they must not like a River be alwayes running He may sorrow because he is parted from some good suppose from a loving friend bur this sorrow must be tempered with this hope that he shall see his friend again and that good which as yet continues the object of his sorrow while considered as stoln and taken from him must after a while become the subject of his hope and comfort being put in mind that God who for a time laid it out of his sight will restore it back again unto him This the Apostle alloweth to be his meaning by bidding us comfort one another with these words for if otherwise it would fully answer the Apostle's meaning to say it is enough that God raise those that sleep to glory though he exile them from a mutual knowledge of each other Then let us see what comfort this interpretation can afford to a pensive and lamenting Soul which may suggest unto it self on this wise God will restore my friend unto himself but not to me he will bring back the Jewel into the Cabinet but will lock it up from my sight he vvill restore the thing but not repair my loss and it seemeth all one to me to lose him in an eternal nothing and not to be allowed to know that he is a glorious somthing now what comfort can we place in such a meditation This perswasion of a restauration to a mutual knowledge of each other containeth also some advantages and motives to a Godly life for the fear of being eternally divided from those I sincerely love on earth will draw me to an imitation of their sanctity if herein they be exemplary or give me the courage to lead them into the way if their course be irregular and exorbitant for those who unfeignedly desire to meet at the journeys end will study to preserve each other in the way and they who would wear the same crown of rejoycing in the presence of Christ will assist each other here that they perish not in the agony and conflict it gives an edge and sharpness to those affections which are employed for each others good when we consider that that heat and fervency which they spent in desire and travel for one another shall be turn'd into an excess and extremity of delight in each other The Egyptians embalmed the Carcasses of the dead to preserve them if it were possible through all the parts of time being guided by an opinion that so long as the body continued undissolved the soul would not forsake the earth but continue hovering about the place where the bodies lay in like manner the Souls of men which by many kinds of association may be united into one masse and heap and as it were become parts of one another will continue the more vigilant and active for each others everlasting welfare so long as they are perswaded against an eternal divorce and dissolution and do contrarily believe they shall be rewarded by a sense of each others happiness and that that union which is among themselves as of one member to another shall not be dissolved but perfected by that union which shall unite them to Christ as to their Head and through him unto God CHAP. XXIII Of the perfection and purity of the wills of glorified Saints IN the next place I will shew how the wills and affections of glorified Saints shall be raised to a fulness of glorious perfection now it is evident God must be first gloriously united to the Soul and her powers before she can by her understanding see and by her will and affections love and embrace God in Heaven God shall be immediately united to the very nature of the Soul her self which is chief in man yea formally man which can be no otherwise done than by a glorious change and immutation made in the Soul it self by communicating to her by grace a glorious and perfect estate of participated eternity which is the root and foundation of all that most glorious exercise about which the Saints in Heaven are conversant This being so the wills and affections of glorified Saints shall be perfectly pure and holy without the least tincture of defilement they shall be holy as God is holy not infinitely holy but perfectly holy without mixture of any thing contrary to holiness their wills shall suit and meet exactly in every thing with the pure and holy will of God they shall will what he willeth and nothing but what he willeth their wills shall give full consent to the will of God in all things There shall be compleat holiness in the will our wills like to the will of Christ shall be altogether conformable to the will of God we shall fulfil the will of God the conformity of our wills to God is the glory of our wills which in this life are like Nebuchadnezzar's Image partly clay partly gold here we are partly regenerate partly unregenerate but in Heaven we shall be all gold all holy glorified Saints shall never find any grudgings of their old diseases sin and corruption in them in the least degree they shall see themselves perfectly cured of all the sicknesses and distempers of their Souls they are no longer constrained to resist the motions of the flesh because this Rebel is subdued and losing in the resurrection what ever they drew from Adam in their birth they have now none but just and holy inclinations the Spirit of a glorified Saint is now no longer busied to maintain a war against sin because this monster cannot set its foot within the gates of Heaven he groaneth not now under the revolt of his passions his will cleaves to God as strongly as he can desire CHAP. XXIV SECT I. MOreover the affections of the Saints in glory are much enlarged and are most quick and lively our affections in this life are subject to distractions but then they shall be composed and rightly placed 1. In Special the Saints shall love God with all their hearts Sicut magnes impetum quendam imprimit ferro quo illud ad magnetem trahitur ei se arctè jungit ita Deus clarè conspectus impetum quendam imprimit animae quo ipsa potentissimè in illum trahitur Lessius de summo bono Ca. 11. with all their souls with all their strength from the cleer contemplation of God presently there ariseth in the blessed a love which most powerfully draws them unto God and the greater any good is that is propounded so much the more strongly doth it draw the affection to it especially if it be
Heaven be that it shall be alwayes present with thee and yet thou never satiated for if I shall say Thou shalt not be satisfied there shall be an hunger and thirst if I shall say Thou shalt be satiated thou wilt fear a cloying there where shall be neither famine hunger nor thirst nor any tedious cloying to the same purpose Cyprian saith Cyprian de laude Martyrii the Saints shall not onely taste how sweet God is but they shall be filled with a wonderful sweetness nothing shall be wanting to them In Heaven there is no more desire for Christ as a thing absent the thirst being swallowed up in Christ the Soul thirsteth no more Christ being present their desires are satisfied God shall be all in all his presence shall fill and satisfie all the powers and faculties of their Souls Holy David having here tasted of God's sweetness cries out Whom have I in Heaven but thee there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 intimating to us that he that hath God hath enough in God The Soul that possesseth God in this life hath recovered that great loss that fell upon Adam and all Man-kind by fin Man by sin lost God now he that hath God in Christ hath recovered this great loss Man in his first estate had enough by enjoying God now he that recovereth this loss wanteth nothing for he findeth enough in God And although Adam in innocence enjoyed many other things besides God as perfect health possession of the Garden of Eden and full authority over the Creatures and albeit these things were comfortable in a degree in their kind yet man's happiness in that state did not consist in possessing these things but in enjoying God and all the glory and sweetness and any thing that was desirable in all these things was derived meerly and wholly from God Now whatever God doth here give to man by the Creature he will supply in Heaven without the Creature viz. immediately by himself if the streams be sweet how much better is water in the Spring and purer there In Heaven the Saints shall want nothing yet shall they enjoy nothing there but God he will be all to them their drink their food their rest their joy their pleasure the height of all their honour he will be all and more than all unto them Which consideration made a devout man meditating hereupon to cry out Deus meus omnia ah one refreshing of thine Drexel Consider de Aeternit one enjoyment of thee is a sweet refreshing indeed for to enjoy thee is to enjoy the quintessence of all good Thou art unto me O my good God goodness it self rest in my labours pleasure in my grief security in my cares and the only true riches in my poverty thou art my strong Bulwark against all the furious assaults of men thou art my refuge whatsoever evil doth oppress me and finally Thou art all unto me whatsoever I can wish for or desire wherefore then when we come to Heaven we shall not need to seek to quench our thirst with any stream when we have so chrystal a Spring-head or fountain as this where we may lye down and drink our fills in having and enjoying God we shall have whatsoever we can desire then the Lord will wholly frame the hearts of his Children according to his own mind that whatsoever is pleasing to him shall be delightful to them the heart shall then be kept in from wandring any more after vain and sensual delights and the Soul being wholly conformed to God it hath whatever it can desire SECT II. ANd as for the affections of fear and sorrow and anger they shall have no place in Heaven for then they shall be set far above the fear of all evil the Saints being possessed of an infinite good which is God himself for their portion they shall have no cause then to fear any evil there is no evil can hurt them for no evil shall be able to reach them that are in possession of him that is an infinite good they are also possessed of God the infinite good in perpetuity they have him in everlasting possession for otherwise although they need not fear any evil while they are possessed of him yet they might fear the loss of him and their woful separation from him and then they should lye open to all sorts of evils therefore to prevent this fear the Lord hath betrothed them to himself for ever and hath given himself to them in Marriage and that in an everlasting covenant and will never be divorced from them but be theirs for ever and ever The graces of Repentance Mortification Self-denial shall have no place in Heaven which are of great use here in the way to Heaven there shall be no sense of evil to be sorrowed for nor sin to be repented of nothing distasteful to provoke their anger or to discompose those blessed Spirits that are above there shall be a perfect harmony between God and them Neither shall there be any use of those graces of Faith and Hope in Heaven S. Paul tells us Now abideth faith hope and charity these three but the greatest of these is charity why greater than the other but because this abideth immortal for ever In Heaven instead of believing we shall see here the object of faith is things not seen the thing promised but not yet performed now in the life to come when all things that are promised are fully performed to us and possessed by us there is no use of faith in relation to these things So for Hope when all the glory of Heaven is fully enjoyed that the Saints hope for there is an end of Hope in reference to the same things the affection of Hope ceaseth not until the good that is desired and hoped for be obtained and made present but that good thing being had and attained unto then the affection of Hope ceaseth for what we have and enjoy we hope not for Visibile non est objectum Spei Rom. 8.24 25. Therefore saith August Hope is a Child of Faith by which man hopeth from him whom he knoweth for that which yet he hath not Now when the good that we hoped for is obtained Hope doth end and cease Yet notwithstanding although Faith Hope and Patience shall cease in respect of their objects yet they are eternal in respect of their fruits Heb. 6.12 The Apostle stirring up the Hebrews to walk after the examples of those that are now in glory speaks thus Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises Those things that heretofore were not seen by them but by an eye of Faith they are now in full possession of they do inherit the promises on the other side they have no more sufferings to endure therefore there is no more use of patience but the fruit of those graces which they sought for that they now inherit and enjoy S. Paul tells
us Gal. 6. that he that soweth to the Spirit shall reap life everlasting When the Husbandman soweth his seed in the Earth the seed dieth and is dissolved in the ground there it lies hid he sees no more seed till the harvest cometh but then he reapeth many Bushels for one so he that soweth to the spirit worketh in the strength of those graces shall reap life everlasting he shall have no use of those graces in the life to come but reap the fruit of it even life eternal when the Saints come to possess Heaven as a portion cast out by God's own lot for them from all eternity they shall for ever enjoy the fruit of their piety and the end of their Faith and Hope Oh how sweet shall the remembrance of their work of faith and labour of love and patience of Hope be to all eternity CHAP. XXVII Of the Adjuncts of the glory of Heaven HAving spoken of the Circumstances and substance of the glory of the Saints in Heaven in the next place I shall treat of the adjuncts thereof 1. The glorious state of the Sons of God is a state of liberty Rom. 8.21 I will shew in what respects it is a state of liberty I. A liberty from all subjection Natural Servile Magistratical in this state of liberty all yokes shall be broken to pieces Fathers shall no more exercise their paternal authority and Sons shall not be under their command men shall be no more servants to men the highest Potentates shall no more exercise authority over men as it is said of Marriage They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage so I may say of subjection they shall neither command nor obey in the resurrection 1 Cor. 15.24 He shall put down all rule and all authority and power Christ will put down all the authority which Fathers have over their Children which Masters have over their Servants which Princes have over their Subjects and Vassals all the authority which both the Enemies and Persecutors have over the Church then it shall have no more nursing Fathers and Mothers all Crowns and Scepters shall be cast down at the feet of Christ he will put them down the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enervabit he will at the last day put them down not onely that they shall not prevail but that they shall be utterly abolished II. They shall be delivered even from that sweet and gracious subjection to Christ as King and Mediator Christ shall rule over his body not as Mediator but as God he himself will lay down the Crown of his Mediatorship and deliver up his whole government into the hands of God 1 Cor. 15.24 28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him then c. When Christ hath levelled all authority with the ground and shall have trodden down all his Enemies then he will rule no more as Mediator but give up the Kingdom to God the Father and God will be all in all he will immediately govern all his Saints III. A liberty from all spiritual Tyranny in divers respects 1. It is a liberty from the Tyranny of Sin Sin though it doth not rule in the Godly as a King yet as a Tyrant though the Saints do not and never will sell themselves to work evil yet while they are in this body they are sold under sin no slavery is more intollerable to a Holy man than this slavery to sin it is a Godly man's hell to be under the Tyrannical power of any lust Slavery to Pharaoh is liberty compared to slavery to pride to worldly-mindedness or to any lust whatsoever It was the doom of a Godly Martyr to have a dead man chained to him his eyes to the dead man's eyes his breast to the dead man's breast that he might perish by the stench of the dead Carcass Such is a Godly man's present condition to be tyed to the body of sin which is a very death to him in whom is the life of grace Now the state of glory will set all the Children of God at liberty from this thraldome sin will then be put off when glory is put on when the new man is perfectly renewed in respect of degrees and parts the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts shall be perfectly destroyed in respect of presence and operation in the state of glory they will not be afraid of sinning such will their liberty be from sin they shall be as free from all sin as the Sun from the least shadow 2. It is a state of liberty from all tokens effects yea fears of the wrath and displeasure of God Now and then God writes bitter things against his people in this life and makes them his mark to shoot the arrows of his displeasure into their very Consciences What doleful complaints have the Godly made and still do make of God's dealings with them some of them live in Bondage to the fear of God's wrath all the dayes of their lives Now there is no liberty from the fears of God's displeasure in this life so long as there is the remnant of sins within them while we have a body of sin within us we shall have a miserable body now in the state of glory they shall enjoy a perfect liberty from wrath and all their chains of fears shall be knockt off the glorified shall no more fear wrath than the glorified shall hope for favour they shall no more dread Hell than the damned truly desire Heaven their perfect sense of God's love toward them and their perfect love of God will cast out all these fears the state of glory is a fearless estate as far above fear as Heaven above earth the mountain of glory cannot be removed with the greatest tempest of the fears of any evil 3. It is a state of freedom from all afflictions now afflictions are compared in Scripture to Bonds Fetters Chains Yokes and such Engines and Instruments of miserable bondage The evil of sin and afflictions are twins born together and shall cease and dye together when the Soul takes her flight to the mountain of glory she casteth off the mantle of suffering Glory and misery are as inconsistent together as the most contrarious extreams sooner shall East and West meet in one point noon and midnight in one moment than perfection and glory and the least affliction Lazarus is now as great a stranger to afflictions as Dives to pleasures 4. It is a freedom from all temptations and rage of Satan it is impossible for the Devil to tempt a man in glory When man was in a perfect state of grace he tempted him to sin but when man is in a perfect state of glory he cannot tempt him the Devils are cast out of Heaven never to appear there to tempt any who have made their entrance into it the Church hath a promise that Satan shall be bound up a thousand years but then he is bound to eternity the Devils are now in chains of
sure of his bargain and God never takes this earnest back again because it is so the earnest of our inheritance Praesentia quae jâ—m assecutus es de futuris tibi fidem faciunt Chrys in Rom. Homil. 9. until the redemption of the purchased possession as that it is an earnest also that in the mean time God establisheth us in Christ and that he hath created us even for this very thing namely to cloath us with immortality and eternal life Moreover God in giving earnest to assure the end unto us doth thereby undertake against all lets and impediments that should hinder the atchieving of that which is earnested thereby and therefore as Chrysostom saith the things present which thou hast already attained do assure unto thee those things which are yet to come But of this I have spoken before Chap. 4. And as in respect of their present estate so in respect of their future hope as well as their present earnest Futura sperant quicunque sperant August their hope of salvation confirmeth their certainty of it Rom. 8.24 Ye are saved by hope saith the Apostle though hope be properly of future things yet he speaks of salvation as of a thing present Indeed it is not with this hope as with worldly hope worldly hope doth many times fail a man but this doth never therefore it is called an anchor Hebr. 6.19 which hope we have saith the Apostle as an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast Non dixit fundamentum sed anchoram he did not say a foundation but an anchor saith Chrysostom foundations are many times so firm as that they are without any shaking or tottering at all but it is not with a Ship lying at anchor as with an house built upon a foundation a Ship when it lyeth at anchor in the Sea movetur non movetur it is moved and not moved it is moved as the winds stir it but not moved from the place where the anchor holds it Thus it is with the Christian that lies floating in the Sea of this world and yet hath cast anchor in Heaven movetur non movetur he may be both moved and not moved for he stands not like a foundation that cannot be moved the streams of temptation and trouble will agitate and toss him O thou afflicted and tossed with tempests Isa 54.11 yet not moved that he cometh in danger of being utterly overwhelmed for hope is an anchor sure and stedfast that fixeth and setleth him Where there is stedfastness of hope there is assuredness of salvation and that hope may be the anchor of the Soul saith must go before to sound the ground or hope cannot do its office for what more absurd than that hope should have any certainty at all without faith any more than an anchor should have any stay without ground to fasten upon this hope as Hilary noteth is not a presuming of things uncertain but an expectation of things known to us for that cause it is that S. Paul saith Hope maketh not ashamed They that hope saith Theodoret and are deceived of their hope do blush and are ashamed thereof now saith S. August we are certain of our hope for our hope is not uncertain that we should doubt thereof yea we are so certain thereof that S. Paul saith We rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 which confidence and rejoycing of hope groweth from that which the Holy Ghost termeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full assurance of faith that which the Saints hope for it cannot but come to pass the Spirit of God would never work this undoubted perswasion in their hearts if he did not intend their eternal good the promises of God are sure grounds to cast the anchor of our hope upon they are the pillars of hope David saith often in Psal 119. that he hoped in God's Word CHAP. XXX Sheweth that no afflictions or sufferings shall rob the Saints of their crown of glory Vse 2. HEnce we may be informed that no afflictions shall deprive the Saints of their crown of glory no temptations no trials that we suffer here shall be able to deprive us or to dis-inherit us of the Kingdom of Heaven what though through the malice of Satan the injustice and cruelty of our adversaries we may be put to endure much to suffer much yet when they have all done they shall not shut up Heaven against us we shall have our reward there for all that there we shall receive the crown of glory there are two reasons why they cannot deprive us of that crown 1. That which cannot animam laedere cannot caelo privare that which cannot hurt the soul cannot deprive him of Heaven I have Heaven sure as long as I have my soul safe but no afflictions can do that they cannot prejudice or hurt the soul not endanger the safety of it nor come neer the life of it all the hurt they can do is but to the body onely so far they can reach and no farther Our Saviour gives us that comfort Luk. 12.4 Be not afraid of them saith he that can kill the body and when they have done so there is no more that they can do indeed that 's a comfort worth a thinking on that whosoever our Enemies be or whatever our afflictions be they can onely reach to the hurting of the body but there 's no more that they can do it is a strange barbarousness of nature that some Tyrants will shew when they have killed and Martyred the poor Saints of God as if that were too little to satisfie their rage and that the fire of it could not be sufficiently quenched with their blood they 'l take pleasure to exercise fury upon their dead bodies mangle them hew them and tread them under their feet yea sometimes take them out of their graves when they have been buried as in the time of Queen Mary those merciless Popish persecutors of the Protestant Religion did by Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius when they had long lain sleeping in their graves Alas it onely shewed the barbarous fury of the bloody Papists it did no harm at all to the innocent bodies of the dead Saints when the body is once dead there is no more to be done as our Saviour saith The Heathen themselves apprehended this and cast it out as a Shield of defiance to all their Persecutors and Tormentors as Laertius writeth of Anaxarchus when he was condemned to be pounded to death in a Morter with Pestles of Iron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lâ—ert lib. 1. ca. 10. he returned the Tyrant this answer Do it saith he pound and break in pieces this case and vessel that holdeth Anaxarchus meaning his body but Anaxarchus thou shalt not touch he knew his soul was out of the Tyrants reach Afflictions and tortures hurt not the soul then 't is only sin hurts that let not sin destroy it nothing shall destroy it and if sufferings and
linnen of the Saints upon the stinking lowsie rags of the old Adam Zech. 3. Jehoshua was a Type of such whom God will glorifie he was cloathed with filthy garments when he stood before the Angel he was to put off those filthy garments and then God caused a Mitre to be put upon his head and change of raiment for his clothing so God will have you to put off your filthy conversations before he will set a crown of pure gold upon your heads and put on you the white linnen of his Saints Go to now Brethren ye that hope to be glorified with Christ consider with your selves whether the old man be put off whether your earthly members be mortified or do you walk still in the vanity of your minds do you still keep your former conversations are your lusts your Centurions still do you obey them then let me tell you you have no part in Christ you are not the Sons of God your hopes of Heaven are but presumptions you are never like to see God in glory See what you must expect Coloss 3.16 For which things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Tremble at it ye that hope for glory and yet go on in your sins your sins will bring the wrath of God upon your souls and not the glory of God you are the children of disobedience and not the children of God if you will maintain your hopes of glory and title to Heaven shew it forth by purifying your selves as Christ is pure Suppose a leper in times of legal pollutions should have pronounced himself clean while the leprousie was upon him yet he should not be admitted into the Camp unless the Priest did pronounce him clean so may you say that you are clean and that you shall be glorified yet you shall never possess glory unless Christ the High-Priest pronounce you clean CHAP. XXXIV Setteth forth the danger of those that are in a state of Damnation THis in the next place may serve to awaken all slumbring spirits and to startle all those that sleep securely in sin that are far from God and nigh to destruction and yet are well pleased with their condition and are insensible of the danger they are in if the Lord would now open their eyes as he did the eyes of the Host of the King of Syria they would see they were in the midst of Samaria in the midst of Enemies in the way to destruction that their judgment lingers not their damnation slumbers not on the one side they are hastening toward destruction and on the other side destruction is hastning toward them Oh how woful is the condition of such men who can dwell with the devouring fire who can endure everlasting burnings Secure Sinners ye are almost in the mouth of Death and in the gate of Hell and the longer you continue in the way you are in the farther you are from God and the nearer to ruine you are very near to hell and condemnation upon the very brink and border of the land of darkness it is said of the watered ground that bringeth forth nothing but briars and thorns that is rejected that it is nigh to cursing whose end is to be burnt Hebr. 6.8 Salvation is far from the wicked and destruction is near them Psal 119.150 If a man had a dwelling near the gate of hell within the hearing of the hideous cry and noise of those lost souls and damned spirits could he sleep quietly could he take any content in meat or drink or any thing else they that are far from God are near to the pit of destruction and this is their misery that they know it not Is it not a madness for a man to be at his sports and pastimes when his house is on fire and all that he hath is burning to ashes and is it not a far greater madness for you O sinners to sport your selves with sin while the flames of Hell fire are ready to seize upon you Oh have pity and compassion on your own souls you would pity a Beast if you should see him ready to break his neck down a rock and will you have no pity on your own souls that are now ready to be swallowed up in the gulf of hell Consider I pray you that to enjoy the Word of Christ and to hear it powerfully Preached and yet not to be effectually converted by it it brings not a man one step nearer Heaven and puts him not an inch farther from hell than he was before It is said Jude vers 5. that the Lord having saved the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not there was a land of Canaan a land of promise and of rest offered to them and the Lord had made way for them to enter in and possess it he had saved them out of the land of Egypt and brought them near the borders of Canaan but this did no whit avail those among them that were unbelieving and disobedient they were destroyed their Carcasses fell in the wilderness they perished in their sins this I take to be a Type of the condition of secure unbelieving impenitent persons under the Gospel there is salvation wrought Jesus Christ came into the world to save a way is open to the Heavenly Canaan to that eternal rest prepared for the people of God the fiery pillar the light of the Gospel is in sight shewing the way to the Kingdom of Heaven but when men and women do carelesly neglect it this their condition is worse than if there had never been any possibility of salvation Better it had been they had died in Egypt than at the borders of Canaan better never in any degree to be saved than to be once saved and afterward to be destroyed utter destruction after some beginnings of salvation is worse than no kind of salvation at all therefore in the 12 verse of that same Epistle of Jude it is said they are trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots I entreat you seriously to consider the woful estate of a soul twice dead twice lost twice condemned once condemned by the Law and then again condemned by the Gospel Oh tremble and beware of this double condemnation If the river of brimstone enkindled by the Law be so dreadful Isa 33.14 Oh how dreadful then shall those flames of wrath be if they shall be fed and increased with the oyl of the Gospel for the neglect and contempt of salvation wrought by Christ Oh how do multitudes of men that are now under the sound of the Gospel and have the means of salvation afforded them put away the word of life from them and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life such will one day when it is too late see their folly and wish they had never had a Christ nor a Gospel nor a Heaven nor an immortal soul to lose The Turkish History reporteth of Bajazet the
Fourth King of the Turks who hearing that Tamerlane had taken his City Sebastia and there slain his eldest Son Orthobules Knoll's Turkish History on Bajazet 4th he was so much grieved at it that marching with his great Army against Tamerlane and by the way hearing a Countrey Shepheard merrily reposing himself with his homely Pipe as he sate upon the side of a mountain feeding his poor flock standing still a great while listening unto him to the admiration of many at last fetching a deep sigh brake forth into these words O happy Shepheard which hadst neither Orthobules nor Sebastia to lose This will be all the comfort that the despisers of the Word and the rejecters of everlasting life so freely tendered in the Gospel shall have at the last day when in the anguish and bitterness of their souls they shall cry out happy are ye dark mountains on whom the Sun of righteousness never shined happy ye dry and barren deserts that were never refreshed with spiritual dew nor watered with the rain of Heavenly doctrine who had never any Moses to drop doctrine upon you no Paul to plant no Apollo to water you with the word happy ye benighted Gentiles who never had any Gospel nor a Christ nor a Kingdom of Heaven to lose by your Rebellion against Christ this will be all the comfort such souls will have for all the priviledges they have had beyond others and all the opportunities they have lost it is an honour here to enjoy God's Oracles and to be under the call of the Gospel but to have the word of Grace and means of Salvation and not to bring forth fruit thereby to everlasting life it will turn to their greater confusion in another world CHAP. XXXV An exhortation to offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven THese things being so how should the consideration hereof stir up to labour after eternal life and blessedness eternal life is the stipend of our warfare the hire and wages of our works God hath not appointed Heaven for idle Droans and Loiterers but for such as labour for it Heaven is a Crown or Garland win it and wear it it is an Harvest labour for it if thou wilt enjoy it it is a Field of Treasure thou must purchase it if thou wilt possess it it is a strong City and must be taken by force and violence S. Bernard hath this division Alii mercantur alii furantur c. Some do Merchandize for Heaven and they are such as make friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness others do steal Heaven and they are like the Woman that was healed by the secret touch of our Saviours garment many invade Heaven and take it by force for indeed the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and they may be compared to Jacob that strove with God wrestled with the Angel and prevailed but none of these shall merit eternal life hereby but life eternal shall be the consequent of a Holy life and the reward of their labour that strive to enter in at the strait gate God having so ordained the one to be the way whereby he will bring us to the other S. Paul saith of himself 2 Tim. 4.8 I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness c. where observe 1. He acted like a mighty man of war fighting valiantly against all the enemies of his Salvation both within and without that went about to hinder him from getting the crown 2. He finished his course he ran with all his might he put forth himself to the uttermost that so he might finish his course 3. He kept the faith he would not suffer men or Devils to rob him of this precious jewel and he was sure to speed here was his confidence henceforth saith he is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness Iren. lib. 4. c. 27. Now saith Irenaeus the good combatant exhorteth us to the combat of immortality that we may be crowned and may think the crown precious as being obtained by sight and not of it self accrewing to us and by how much the more it cometh by fight so much the more precious it is and the more precious it is so much the more we may love it and ought so much the more to labour after it So run that you may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 He that runs for a prize runs with all his might he runs himself all over in a sweat I run saith Paul not as uncertainly so fight I not as beating the air he ran but not as some do in a cold and negligent way not knowing whether he should come to the end of the race or not but with all earnestness as one that was resolved to finish his course A Soldier that fighteth in the Wars fighteth with violence he fighteth for life and honour both so much more one that fighteth the good fight even for eternal life and glory a Soldier that fighteth in the War fighteth to save his own life and for glory besides so a Soldier of Jesus Christ fighteth to save his life from eternal ruine and to gain eternal glory Some of God's Children are so violent that the world looks upon them as mad men they may think them out of their wits but they may answer with Paul If we are beside our selves it is for God and Christ it is for Heaven and everlasting Salvation The Apostle thus exhorts the Philippians Work out your own salvation Phil. 2.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 break out thorow all difficulties work out work thorow all 2 Pet. 3.11 12. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God as if he had said I am not able to express what manner of persons such ought to be what exactness is required of those that will be saved how they ought to walk in all holy conversation and godliness as persons that are in hast to meet with Christ and have no leisure to turn out of the way of holiness into crooked paths with the workers of iniquity Things of the greatest worth are usually accompanied with the greatest difficulty and are hardest to be gained so it is in the things of the world the greater worldly designs men do pursue the more pains it costs them to attain their end high honour and a great estate is not gotten without much sweat and great endeavours much more when a soul will get an incorruptible crown what holy contention is required in this case Though it be most true that the Prince and Captain of our salvation hath already overcome the greatest difficulty of all without which it had not been possible for any of the Children of Adam to have come to glory yet he will have his children conformed to himself in going through many difficulties unto glory Moreover powerful enemies do beset the way unto and entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickednesses in high or heavenly places Eph. 6.12 now small forces in a narrow way are able to keep back a great Army for a long time now these strong and mighty enemies must be removed by violence or else there is no passing Oh what necessity is there now required to break thorow all these and in the power of Christ to tread the Devil and all his Angels under our feet if we will enter in at the strait gate to march on though never so many forces of the world and Legions of Hell should stand in the way to contend mightily as knowing there is no middle condition between everlasting death and victory that we must overcome or perish How vigorously and vehemently doth the Apostle press this 1 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit your selves like men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be strong Where in most pithy and sinewy expressions he giveth a fourfold exhortation of this kind and every one in the Original is delivered in one word except the second the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 watch you be not secure but very vigilant the second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stand fast in the faith keep your ground do not give back the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 play the men quit your selves like men of Heroick spirits the fourth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be strong and of a good courage in these quick expressions the Apostle as a wise Master-builder sought out choice words that he might fasten them as Nails and Goads peircing the hearts of men and quickening their dull spirits to more vehemency and holy violence in the great business of their salvation now where these mighty strivings after the Kingdom of Heaven are they are effects of God's eternal counsel and purpose in those whom he hath ordained to everlasting life and glory These are fruits of God's election because God hath chosen them therefore he hath stirred them up to act violently for the Kingdom of Heaven Occuliae praedestinationâ— indicia futurae faelicitatis pâ—aeâ—agia via regni non causâ— regnandi Bernard de gâ—at lib. arbitr they are no causes but the evidences of their election their works are not the proper cause for which the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them but as signs and tokens that they are the persons for whom Heaven is prepared they are tokens of our occult praedestination foretokens of our future happiness the way to the Kingdom not the cause of our obtaining it saith devout Bernard FINIS