Arms should be such as that holy Martyr Mr. Hooper had when Installed Bishop of Worcester A Lamb in a Flaming-bush with raies from Heaven shining on it A Lamb for meekness innocency and profitableness in a Bush burning amidst wicked men brambles and thorns set on fire of Hell and burning with malice Yet 1. Sweet influences of Heaven let out upon it he hath the grace and enjoys the consolation of the Blessed Spirit Now Heb. 13.20 21. that you may be truly righteous righteous before God then you will shine forth here 1. With a clear a glorious light such a convincing light as may condemn the world of sinners for their aberrations and shame some Saints out of their deviations from the ways of holiness and righteousness and encourage weaker Christians to make a farther progress in them 2. With your own innate light as true Nathanaels Jews inwardly and not only in outward show and profession as such in whom there is no guile then your conversation will be as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 3. With a constant durable light in Heaven your light of glory will everlastingly shine before Saints let your light of grace and holiness on earth continually shine before men To quicken you thereunto Consider again and again security of the Coelestial Kingdom the glory of it and the seasonableness of the time when you shall there shine forth in glory as you have heard 1. It 's a most safe and secure place 1. By reason of its height 't is above far out of the reach of scandals such as do offend and do iniquity of all sinners and persecutors be they men or Devils Luther being asked when many were engaged and enraged against him and sought his life Where he thought he might be safe replied either in one corner or other under heaven or in heaven I 'le assure you you will have little content comfort and peace on earth if your hopes and hearts be not much in Heaven and they will never fix on Heaven if your thoughts and affection be not set upon it Every day cast up an eye towards Heaven and by the Telescope of your faith taâ—e the height of it 2. 'T is a most holy place after Saints have been in heaven upon earth had much communion with God and comfort they fall into some sin and such a condition that all their hopes of ever getting to heaven are in a manner lost and gone When God hath once seated you in heaven you need not fear being plucked or falling thence Adam abode not in Paradise Divines think one day some Angels that dwelt in heaven preserving not their original excellency soon left their habitation But God takes his children to his house that they may abide and dwell there for ever 2. Take an exact observation view the glory of it 't is the Kingdom of our Father where he sits in his Majesty in glory 'T is ours our own Inheritance our Father prepared it for us before the foundation of the world Every morning every evening through the perspective of the Word contemplate Heaven some mornings Lords-days at least rise before the Sun look up through the Aereal to the Sidereal Heaven and thus meditate Yonder are the glorious Heavens where God hath pitched a Tabernacle for the Sun that glorious bridegroom comes out of his chamber how doth he smile and rejoice to run his race from the end of the heaven to the ends thereof Through grace I shall hereafter be even in this body more glorious than that Sun There 's another the Empyrean the third heaven the place of residence of the God of glory Thither one day will he take me up to live for ever with himself in glory my Redeemer is already gone thither and sits at his right hand in the glory of the Father Oh the height of that heaven 't is infinitely higher than that inferior heaven whence the Sun comes forth to shine for a while yet a little while and that Sun will be laid aside and set set once for all and be and shine no more when I with blessed Saints and Angels shall be with Christ and God and shine with them in glory to all eternity Oh the height of that heaven 't is infinitely above the reach of Persecutors of all the Devils of all the Damned they will never pluck them thence out of the hands of Jesus the Son of God they can't pluck him out of the right hand of his Father nor his Father from his Throne Oh the holiness of that place And when your thoughts and meditations have made you more spiritual more holy more heavenly and to shine more in grace and holiness that day then at the evening when ye look out of your doors or windows or walk forth behold and think how do those Stars an innumerable company differ in glory yet all glissen What a vaste resplendent body is the Moon each of the Planets all the light they have was imparted to them by the Sun that shined in the day-time all is nothing to the glory of Heaven Oh the holiness of the highest heavens Where all the Stars the Saints that shined as lights in the world shall give forth their light and shine as the Sun and with light and glory imparted from the Lord Jesus the Sun of Righteousness shall shine out in the glory of the Father How incomprehensible even to Saints Angels Christ himself as man must the glory of the Father be that communicates such light to Christ Angels and Saints This bespangled firmament seems glorious 't is not heaven nothing like it not like the floor and pavement of our Fathers house 't is an out-room which shall be pulled down and burnt Above above is the Presence-Chamber I long to see the King in his Beauty in his Palace and will through grace live as a child of God and hold forth the word of life in my conversation 3. Ponder upon the seasonableness of the time not now but 1. at the Resurrection day when sin affliction sorrows shall flee away and so forward an inconceivable tract of time Eternity not measured by the duration of any creature but of the ever-living God shall ye shine out Think then through the disposition of the only wise God some have their Sun-shine others rainy and tempestuous seasons all their days say what though I have been most if not all my days disesteemed yea contemn'd and scorned in the world under many various long and sore afflictions and had small comfort but in suffering with and for Christ This is my lot and portion Hereafter I shall reign with Christ and be glorified My Saviour once said â—o sinners this is your hour and the power of darkness You have your authority by Divine permission and your Father the Devil the Prince of Darkness his Usurpation by your high Court of Justice to extinguish me the Sun of Righteousness the
all are burning and shining lights 2. They shall shine out here as the Greek word intimates are they under a cloud hereafter they shall break forth shine clearly and gloriously as the light of the Sun doth when on a sudden it breaks out as we think from under a Cloud there 's too much here that darkens and obscures their lustre splendor radiant and shining brightness which then shall be scattered dispel'd driven away and that for ever 1. Alas they are much darkened here by bodily weaknesses and distempers 2. Much more by humane frailties though regenerate they are but men though Saints not glorified remainders of inbred corruption and prevalent temptations much obscure them Paul the chief of the Apostles speaks most of his Infirmities 3. Most of all in the eyes of others by abundance of dirt a world of slanders as false as foul aspersions flung upon them which at present too much Eclipse their light and lustre but will serve then only for the better setting of it off Besides 4. Here they are under the Cross and manifold Afflictions which make many speak and censure hardly of them and yet work together only to purge their filth away and to file off their dross 1 Pet. 1.6 7. For then 3. they shall shine forth as the Sun i. e. 1. With a most full perfect and glorious light such as we are not able to conceive of much less to express 'T is therefore shadowed out by a familiar Metaphor from the Sun which even Children know to be the greatest and the clearest light Here they appear and twinkle now and then like the Stars those lesser lights of Heaven then shall they shine with a far greater an incomparably more glorious light like the Sun it self 2. Nativo lumine with their own light received at their first Creation their Regeneration and from that time encreasing in Grace till it advance to its full growth and perfection in glory The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day Whereas Hypocrites like the Ignes faetui Fire-drakes blaze a little here with an Adventitious light which will evaporate quickly be extinct and dye with them as soon as those gross vapors sumes and exhalations from the Earth whereof they consist are spent and gone whilest the Coast is clear and the Air serene they glister but when the wind and storms arise they go out in a snuff and stench 3. With a perpetual yea an everlasting light The light of the Sun who is the fountain of light and the Eye of the World is constant and cannot be extinguisht unless you could pluck or put it out 2. The place where The Kingdom of their Father that is Mat. 5.16 in Heaven where he sits upon his Throne in Majesty Isa 66.1 So it is 1. a most glorious place God as to his Essential Powerful Providential presence is every where fills Heaven and earth Jer. 23.23 24. Psal 139.8 c. But his most special glorious presence is in Heaven called 2 Cor. 12.1 the third Heaven Whatever Philosophers may opine concerning the number of the Heavens Scripture enumerates them to be three 1. The place betwixt the visible Firmament and the Earth Gen. 1.20 2. Where the Sun Moon and Stars are fixed Gen. 1.14 Psal 19.1 4. The third above all where is Gods Dwelling-place Psal 123.1 and Sion-Colledg the Mansions and Lodgings of Blessed Angels and glorified Saints They have all their name from the Hebrew word which signifies light Some light there is in the Aereal Heaven from the Sun Moon and Stars which makes it comfortable much more in the Sidereal where those glorious lights are set up Infinitely more in the Empyrean where God is light 1 Joh. 1.5 the Sun the fountain of it Jam. 1.17 and dwells in light 2 Tim. 6.16 the sight whereof no creature can endure till glorified and made meet for it so great is the supereminence of the Divine Glory yet here the righteous partaking thereof shall shine forth as the Sun according to the several degrees of Divine light which they receive 2. A most secure place Their several Orbs are so fixed here they shall never fall or be plucked out An Astrologer observed a new Star in Cassiopea others fancy they have seen more but was it ever found that any of the old Stars were extinct and lost but these lower Heavens 2 Pet. 3.10 in the twinkling of an eye shall pass away and be seen no more with a great noise as many famous places the Exchange did in the dreadful Conflagration a ratling noise or like the noise of the wheels of Chariots that run swiftly or of waves in a storm at Sea rushing by us or as Parchment hizzeth when 't is cast into the fire the Firmament that scroll of the Heavens shall be rolled up thrown into the fire and shrivel up with fervent heat and the Sun shall no more set as Poets fancied in Thetis her lap a sea of waters but shall be extinct in an Ocean of fire and so put out then that Heaven wherein righteousness the spirit of the just made perfect Christ and God dwell for ever For 2. It is the highest Heaven far out of the reach of the Prince and all the powers of Darkness and their Comrades the Beast and false Prophet All which accursed crew shall be thrown into the lowermost hell And it is the Kingdom of God Almighty who is able to preserve them The Rabbins do not groundlesly assert that the souls of the righteous in Heaven do adhâ—re unto and hold fast by the right hand of God for ever in that he held the Stars his faithful Ministers and Saints here and can any think you if they would attempt it in Heaven pluck them out 2. It is Psal 24.3 the Lords holy place the Holy of holies where there can be no sin as there was in Paradise or temptation unto sin From eternity God was a Heaven to himself Then with his own hands he created and built Heaven of old Ps 102.25 not that he might be comprehended there but to be a palace for his residence the habitation of his holiness Psal 103.19 and an house for his children to live comfortably in safety Saints of themselves could not it may be would not continue in grace here in glory hereafter but God is not only able to preserve them in glory but their gracious God and Father and he will do it After 3. The time then which carries a double Antithesis in it 1. More generally of time future of eternity I should say to this now this moment of their life here Job 14.1 the few days of Saints are full of trouble Act. 14 22. The clearest Sun-shining day succeeds the darkest night and glorious deliverances of particular Saints and the whole Church after days of most sore affliction at length after that time of trouble such as never was before Dan. 12.1 2. understand it
of the calamities which befell the Jews under Antiochus at that very time the Church shall have an eminent Temporal deliverance a pledg of one more glorious eternal Salvation by the coming of the great Prince Michael the eternal Son of God Who is like him the Lord of hosts that standeth on his Churches side against the Devil and all in confederacy with him So in the Antiparallel Rev. 20.8 when the City is begirt assaulted battered and storm'd the Lord Christ the Captain-General comes in to its relief works such a deliverance as soon ends in everlasting salvation for then many all an innumerable companies of Saints whose bodies slept in the dust shall arise unto an eternal life in glory as appears by its being opposed to that shame and everlasting contempt the rest shall awake unto Isa 66.24 and stand as statues of ignominy to all eternity 1 Joh. 3.2 Now we are and shine as the children of God in grace but it appears not what we shall be and how we shall shine in glory hereafter The Excellencies of the righteous innate light Grace Holiness and righteousness of Truth appear only to a few Some Philosophers unwise as they are have gone about to number the Stars but Gen. 15.15 Jer. 32. God only Psal 147.4 all don't appear at all time to all persons nor to any at the first view and at too great a distance They that have the best eye-sight and longest and most carefully view them observe most In the Church some Saints give forth more light and are very conspicuous 2 Cor. 8.18 Some less which yet is well discerned by such as take an exact view of them and as near as they can true grace will shine where ever it is but some persons graces are little observed by others that think they have none Some cast out a very little light which is seen only by those that have the spirit of discerning after long observation and some do not go for Saints which would appear such if exactly viewed and not at too great a distance and will be approved at the day of Judgment 1 Cor 4.6 2 Tim. 2.19 1 Joh. 3.1 But as to the blind world Saints shine not they that are most eminent for grace holiness seem mean obscure very contemptible in the eyes of the generality both sinners and hypocrites especially of your Don Illustrissimo's and Virtuoso's in the world 2. That instant when the Excellencies of Saints shall shine forth is opposed to that moment of time when the Tares all hypocrites unrighteous ones shall be thrown head-long by the Angels into the flaming fiery furnace that deep yea bottomless pit of far worse than Egyptian darkness when the world was drowned Noah and his family were saved and when God will not spare hypocrites but give them their portion Mat. 24.51 immerse them in a deluge of everlasting fire Mat. 25.41 46. Then Mal. 3.17 18. they shall appear most glorious when the childten of the Devil shall be tormented and seeing the children of God thus dignified advanced shall envying them and their happiness fume and fret and for rage and madness gnash their teeth which it seems will be their posture and guise to all eternity For the demonstration of this truth the foregoing Scripture-exposition of the subject affords us these undeniable arguments for satisfaction of our judgment and confirmation of our belief of it 1. Because they are the children of God he hath designed them for future for eternal glory 1. He has chosen them in Christ that they should be holy and shining in grace here and most happy and glorious hereafter to the praise of his own glorious grace Eph. 1.3 4 6 11. 2. In pursuance thereof God hath out of his electing love through his abundant mercy regenerated them Now consider 1. The Kingdom of Heaven is his and the power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the right to confer it on as many and whom he pleaseth and Luk. 12.13 't is his good pleasure to bestow it upon all the righteous and only upon them Amongst men the eldest son goes away with the Inheritance the younger with Portions only the regenerate as children of men may not be born to any great matters but as they are the children of God they are born to the glorious Kingdom of their Father in Heaven 2. All the glory of and in Heaven is Gods own and at his sole disposal Rom. 5.2 He loves the righteous whom he hath made so near and dear to himself as that he will confer it on them An earthly King can bestow his Kingdom only upon the Prince his eldest Son but the God of glory hath Phil. 4.19 riches in glory enough for the Prince and all his other children whom he makes coheirs with Christ of that incorruptible inheritance even heirs of God himself This is not gotten by them but they are begotten to it by a mighty work of God upon their hearts and that according to his abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1.3 out of meer grace and love will he freely confer it on them 2 Because they are one with Christ here and shall have a more perfect indissoluble union with him hereafter Christ doth therefore all that are by faith united to him shall shine in glory 1 Tim. 3.16 he was re assumed into glory not only received assumed and taken up into glory So Saints that never were in Heaven shall be received or assumed Psal 49.15 after God has guided them with his counsel he will receive them to glory i e. assume and take them up into a copartnership to have their share in it every one his proportion but Christ that came down from Heaven was again received or assumed into glory according to his prayer Joh. 17.5 Christ was glorious within both as God and man here but his glory did not shine out only the few that were near and had an exact view of him Joh. 1.14 he was covered with a vail of flesh as to humane infirmities in the likeness of sinful flesh which darkened his glory A world of contumelies yea blasphemies cast on him did more obscure it That which did eclâ—pse it was Divine desertion when under the sense of Divine wrath for our sins laid upon him with a great skreik he gave up the Ghost when the Sun also in the Firmament as it were in sympathy put on mourning and seemed a meer lump of darkness which made the Philosopher that observed it cry out Either the God of Nature suffers or the world will be dissolved Christ abased himself and emptied himself of his glory during the state of Humiliation At his glorious Ascension into Heaven he shone forth as God with the glory he had with God from eternity and the humane nature sharing with the Divine according to its capacity as God man he is glorified with God himself and shines forth in the glory of the Father What he suffered was as our surety as a publick
way weaker Christians can hardly get to Heaven for them not without stumbling wounding their Consciences and making their hearts to ake 2. Persons that do iniquity no good much mischief in the Church and that make it their employ Too many such there are in the visible Church because they whose concern it is take not that care of and inspection over them as they ought When both these shall be bundled up by the Angel and hurl'd into the fiery furnace as fewel for Hell yet not be consumed but Salamander-like live in the devouring fire and dwell with everlasting burnings Consider these four Particulars 1. The Subjects of future Glory the Righteous 2. What their Dignity preferment and eternal happiness will be viz. 1. They shall shine as they do in Grace and Holiness much more in glory 2. Shine forth i. e. be perfectly freed from every thing that eclipses their light or obscureth the splendor and brightness of their Grace and Holiness 3. Shine forth as the Sun i. e. gloriously incomparably not as the Moon that changeth as the Sun in its noon day glory with unchangeable everlasting light shall they be perfectly glorified 3. The Firmament or place where In the Kingdom of their Father God may as soon be pulled out of Heaven his Being and Glory be extinct as they plucked out of their Orbs and their light and glory be put out 4. The time when when Hypocrites the unrighteous shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented with their Father the Devil and abide there for ever there to the torment of sinners their own unspeakable comfort especially to the glory of God shall the righteous in Heaven shine out Hence Note 1. They that shall be glorified are the righteous viz. through Regeneration Reputation by Sanctification and Acceptation 1. They that are righteous through Regeneration called v. 38. the children of the Kingdom by an usual Hebraism as in those terms children of death children of wrath c. 1. Because they are designed for and constituted by God heirs of the Kingdom And 2. are made capable of it being born of the Word of the Spirit of God himself 1. They are born again not of corruptible black rotting seed but of incorruptible the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 â— et 1.23 24. i. e. Not of the Word of man flowers and flourishâ—s of humane wit and eloquence which soon fade corrupt and like rotten seed come to nothing but of the Word of God pure Gospel v. 25 whence they grow and as the corn sown and the corn in the ear are of the same nature by Regeneration turn as it were very word and spirit that incorruptible seed the Word of the Kingdom being turned into Grace in their hearts changes and transforms them inâ—o new Creatures and they grow from it in Grace and Holiness 2. They are born of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 6. and thereby not only Evangelized but spiritualized 2 Cor. 3 18. Changed into the image of Christ presented to them by the Gospel who received the Spirit without measure and transformed from glory to glory from grace to grace or from one degree of the glorious grace and graces of the Lord the blessed spirit to another made very like not only to their Lord Jesus but the Lord the Spirit Yea 3 ly They are born of God 1 Joh. 3.9 so implicitely termed his children in the Text which calls Heaven by the name of the Kingdom of their Father Though 't is true they grow after in their resemblance of him as they grow more holy as he is holy Eph. 4.23 24. in holiness of Truth wrought in them by the Word of Truth and by the Spirit of Truth whereas before Conversion there is none righteous not one Jew one Gentile one in all the World All are of their father the Devil and his works they will do All are corrupt and do iniquity yea abominable iniquity and do not do good Their best actions in holy Austin's Language are but glittering sins some in our days would say the good Father is out his bolt is soon shot what were the eminent vertues of the Heathens sins how differs Grace from Vertue and Morality therefore we 'l say the best actions of the unregenerate being not from a principle of Grace have nothing of holiness truth of grace and goodness in them So are sins of omission which was Austins meaning They do no good at all 2. Such as are righteous by Reputation i. e. to whom God imputeth not sin and guilt but reckoneth and reputeth righteous in his sight not for any thing wrought in them or done by them but for the merit righteousness perfect obedience and full satisfaction of their Lord Jesus received by faith alone This is the good seed the word of truth the Gospel of our Salvation which being scattered by Ministers and blown by the Blessed Spirit into the prepared hearts of Intelligent hearers takes root and grows there They which come up thereby to trust i. e. to hope in Christ and to be justified by faith thorough him they are the good seed the righteous that shall be glorified As the Sons of the first Adam were made sinners the Sons of the second are made righteous None after regeneration can make themselves righteous if they could keep the whole Law since by Adam's disobedience theirs in him they were made sinners All and only believers are constituted righteous by the obedience of Christ who was made of God the second Adam a common head and representative of all that were given to him by the Father This righteousness is not their own but Christs yet 't is theirs being made theirs 1. by Gods Donation 2. by their thankful acceptance apprehending laying hold upon and appropriating of it by faith So if I may borrow the Learned Mr. Richard Hooker his saying God accepts them in Jesus Christ as perfectly righteous as if they had fulfilled all that was commanded in the Law shall I say more perfectly righteous than if they had fulfilled the whole Law I must take heed what I say but the Apostle saith God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 3 ly They who are by Inchoation I mean by the Word and by the spirit of Holiness truly in part though not perfectly sanctified and made righteous and daily more and more when as 't was in an instant of their being turned to God that they were regenerate of their believing in Christ that they were justified Whom he justified them he also glorified Rom 8.30 i. e. say Divines he sanctified There being not a specifical but only a gradual difference betwixt them and such have love and do righteousness 1. They have righteousness inherent in them answering to what was in the first and in some measure to that which is in the second