THE MYSTERY OF CONTENTATION In and Through CHRIST LONDON Printed by A. M. for Joseph Cranford at the Signe of the Phoenix in St Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO THE Right Honourable and truly Religious Lady JANE Countesse Dowager of Marr Encrease of Grace and Peace Madam THE certain knowledge I have had for a long time of your devout affection toward the saving Truths of Jesus Christ the recent sense of manifold favours received at your hands both since and in the time I had the honour of employment for many years in that Noble Family and the experience of your gracious acceptance of my hearty endeavours unto your service makes me bold to offer to your Ladiship this part of my weak Labour as a small Testimony of my humble acknowledgement of much duty I do here present you with some refreshing drops from that Mystery of Contentment found in the Fulnesse of Jesus Christ In him is enough to supply all defects in the inward man and more then enough to supply all wants in the outward man which can befall us from the disappointing and discontenting changes in persons or things of this world yea it is of the Lords wisedome and mercy that our waies are hedged up with thorns that we may return to our first love Hos 2.6 7. That we may delight our selves in him and enjoy that solid satisfactory and unchangeable Contentment which in experience we perceive cannot be found in the empty insufficient uncertain and perishing comforts of the poor creatures Many times the Children of God enjoy most of himself when they enjoy least of the Creature As the Sufferings of Christ abounded in Paul so Consolation also abounded by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 He had most of Gods presence when he had least of mans countenance 2 Tim. 4.16 17 Stephens face shined like an Angels when men looked on him like Devils Act. 6.15 Such enjoyments at such a time are no other as Jacob said from his experience of light arising out of darknesse then the gate of heaven a prelude on earth of that immediate Contentment we shall have in heaven in God alone without either opposition or interposition of the Creature Hence it is that the Children of God from the comfortable sense of this love have most vigour of grace sometimes under greatest outward pressures they can glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 And sing praises to God in a prison Act. 16.26 Then have they enlarged spirits when their bodies are under restraint As the Sunne re-enforceth his light in the time of an Eclipse so the graces of the Spirit in the inward man are the more united and strengthened in an hour of darknesse from outward troubles The heat of our love as the Sunne-beam from the hard rock is the more reflexed toward the Sunne of righteousnesse from the cold and hard re-encounters of the Creatures In a day of prosperity our affections lagge and straggle here and there seeking Contentment in things farre below our happinesse and no waies proportionable to the vast desires of the spirit of man Therefore our God in great wisedome and mercy so orders the removall of worldly objects that our affections may be retired amazed and with greater vigour set upon himself that according to our measure of enlargement of heart our measure of delight and contentment in Christ may be the greater he dryeth up the brinks to the end we may seek and be filled with purer and sweeter contentment in the Fountain This earnest and first-fruits of absolute and full satisfaction abiding them in heaven makes the Children of God humble in their greatest prosperity and patient with much contentment in their greatest adversity Faith looks to things not seen It reckons all worldly advantages but losse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord and also reckons that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory which shall be revealed in us A look to things not seen preserves the soul from fainting at what we see or feel And though the Children of God be subject to some qualms of fear in time of storms and trials yet all these will be gone as a sea-sicknesse when our Lord shall bring us within the port of eternal salvation Madam You know both whom and what ye have beleeved As it 's his will ye should look to the glory set before you and endure the Crosse So that ye should also rejoyce in the hope of that Kingdom which cannot be shaken that eternal mansion above all possibility of decay and that Inheritance incorruptible which cannot be defiled and fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you by his Intercession who purchased it by his merit That your Ladiship may be comforted guided and guarded by his Spirit in this life and brought into the possession of that full happinesse in the other life is and shall be the humble prayer of him who in all duty is obliged to shew himself Madam Your Ladiships most faithfull and devoted Servant WILLIAM COLVILL THE MYSTERY OF CONTENTATION In and Through CHRIST PHIL. 4.11 12 13. For I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me AMongst the many sweet and excellent fruits of the Crosse of Christ Contentation most necessary for a beleever Contentation of minde to a Beleever in all conditions of life is one exceeding necessary Hereby a beleever becomes Master both of the little and great world Of unruly desires within himself and of temptations in the world without It makes him acceptable to all with whom he converseth and to be admired and envied by his enemies His contentation is their bane and discontent It is their torment they cannot spoil him of this little heaven when possibly they have robbed him of his earthly emoluments It is a treasure hid in his soul that he carrieth with him to the third heaven where an exceeding weight of glory and contentation with full satisfaction to our desires will be added to the little stock of our contentment here which as Jacob said of that gracious manifestation Gen. 28. is no other but the house of God and the gate of heaven For God al-sufficient dwels in the heart of a beleever and giveth contentation to the soul where he dwels though the out-let of his allowance here to a beleever be not comparably such as it will be in heaven where we shall see him face to face and be filled with God yet it is the gate of heaven it is the porch wherein we wait for an entrance to the Temple not made with hands wherein the measure of our contentation according to the full measure of our knowledge and enjoyment of God will be full and
the glory of it is incorruptible 3. Our happiness is called a Crown Jam. 1.12 A Crown He that endureth trials shall receive the Crown of life The four and twenty Elders had on their heads Crowns of Gold Rev. 4.4 The Romane Senate of old after some great victory did send to their Generals and great Captains a triumphal Crown and they did also send to the Souldiers chains bracelets and garlands Our Lord and great Captain of our salvatâ—on Iesus Christ after he had overcome all our enemies was Crowned with glory Heb. 2.9 He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow Phil. 2.8 9 10. This glory of the subjection of all things is peculiar to the Son of God exalted to the right hand of the Father in our Nature in which he was promoted to glory and Crowned as the Kings Purple Robe is advanced with him when he ascends into the Throne so the humane nature wherewith our Lord was invested was glorified with him in his Ascension and exalted to the right hand of God in glory like as the Captain of our salvation after his victory obtained his Crown super-eminent a name above every name so every one that fighteth the good fight under his command and in his strength shall receive their Crown of glory also which he by the merit of his valour in spoyling principalities and powers on the Cross hath purchased for them and to them 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness Then our righteousness begun here will be crowned with perfection and glory God will crown not our merits but his own gifts it is a crown that fadeth not away 1. Pet. 5.4 a crown incorruptible 1 Cor. 9.25 then both head and Crown will be immortal the person and the glory will endure for ever 4. An inheritance It is called an inheritance incorruptible that cannot be defiled that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.5 It is an inheritance infinitely large which will satisfie all the children and heirs without any occasion of envy or contention it is not like that land that could not contain both Abraham and Lot with their substance which was the occasion of quarrelling to the heards-men 5. It is called an house not made with hands An house not made with hands c. eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 here we are as men remaining for a time in Tabernacles our life is subject to changes and decays our bodies must be dayly repaired our spark of life would soon languish and dye without entertainment our bodies like a house of clay do daily fall down in one place or other with every new shower of a defluxion or distillation from our heads that are the roof of this house but in heaven our condition will be fixed and permanent as in a large house there is much ease and room for the Inhabitants so Ioh. 14. In my fathers house saith our Lord are many Mansions there is abundance of happiness and glory for every child of God it is a house full of light Rev. 21.23 there is no need of Sun nor Moon the Lamb will be the light thereof it is a house full of all provision for eternity in our fathers house saith the Prodigal is bread enough bread of life and water of life yea God himself will be all in all to us we shall live in him and with him and shall be continually refreshed and entertained by the seeing and enjoying of God 6. A plentiful common Table Our happiness in heaven is set forth by a plentiful common Table where all the glorified Saints will be entertained with a communion of one essential glory in the perpetual beholding of the face of God Luke 22.29 30. I appoint unto you a Kingdom saith our Lord that ye may eat and drink at my Table Our Lord in such expressions condescends to our weak and childish capacity thereby to signifie that satiety of pleasure and joy that shall redound unto the affections and sensitive part of our souls from the blessed Vision of God and also to set forth that Communion of glory with Angels and glorified Saints all the heavenly guests will be refreshed with the cleer vision of an infinite glorious God the entertainment will be great eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 there will be good and solacious company Angels and just men there will be sweet and pleasant melody no jarrings there but perfect harmony singing that Trisagium Rev. 4.8 holy holy holy Lord God almighty which was and is and is to come This heavenly feast will not have an end as Ahasuerosh his feast had though it lasted many dayes But Psal 16. At thy right hand are pleasures for ever As to the manner how we participate this happiness and vision of God The manner how we participate of the vision of God there is something of it in the general revealed in holy Scripture but the particular and distinct knowledge of it is reserved to our experience and feeling in heaven that which is revealed to us is 1. 1. Intellectual That this vision of God in heaven is intellectual and mental for whereas it is said 1 Ioh. 3.2 We shall see him as he is and 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall see him face to face it is expounded by the Apostle in the same place of knowledge then shall I know even as also I am known It is true we shall see our Lord Iesus Christ in his glorified humane nature but God being a Spirit cannot be seen with the eye of the body for nothing can be seen but that which hath colour And God is of a most simple essence without all composition whatsoever 2. 2. Immediate This vision and fountain of God will be immediate 1 Cor. 13.12 H re we see as through a Glass we receive some representations of God in the two glasses of his word and works as in a glass we see here only the representation and some reflex of the face of God but in heaven we shall see him face to face without the interposition of any midds here we see him through the Lattess Cant. 2.9 But in heaven we shall see him within that eternal house of glory here we know God by his word but in heaven Prophecying and Teaching shall cease 1 Cor. 13. As when the building is perfected the scaffolding and other means necessary in the time of building are removed Though in heaven there will be no midds intervening betwixt the soul God in that blessed vision yet mans finite understanding will be corroborated and supported by the mean and midds of a glorious created strength that it may
be fully manifested in the day of the glorious resurrection of our bodies Object Object But is not the punishment of sin as well as the fault taken away in our Justification by the blood of Jesus how comes it to pass that the children of God notwithstanding the forgiveness of their sins are yet punished by temporal death Answ I answer Answer Death is not inflicted on Believers in wrath that death temporal is formally and properly a punishment when it is inflicted by God as a Judge in his wrath and when it is a door and passage to the second death and to a perpetual separation from the face of God But the death of the godly is not inflicted by God in wrath for these reasons 1. Because in the remission of their sins and reconciliation with God in their justification all wrath is taken away God forgiveth and forgetteth their sins Isa 43.25 I blot out thy transgressions for my own names sake and will not remember thy sins But where wrath remaineth sin is not forgotten 2. That which is sent and turned by God into a blessing is not inflicted in wrath but death is turned into a blessing to the children of God Rev. 14.13 it is a passage unto their eternal rest in their countrey that is above It is as a speedy passage by sea to a traveller returning home to his Fathers house 3. That which which is precious in the eyes of the Lord is not inflicted in wrath for precious things are testimonies of love and not evidences of wrath but the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of God Psal 116.15 Next I answer death to the godly is not a door of fear and condemnation but of hope and salvation Rom 8.1 There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus There may be in a great Princes house a common door and gate at which Malefactors do enter and go down into the dark dungeon at which also the children may enter and go up to the rooms above that are full of light The door is one and the same but the use of it is far diverse in the respect to the one and the other So dissolution at death is common both to the godly and wicked but the relation that death hath to them is diverse to the one it is a passage for glory and to the other for eternal pain from whence it appeareth that the punishment standeth not so much in the dissolution of the person which is common both to the godly and wicked As in that ordination of the first death to be a passage unto eternal death which in Gods purpose is ordained and in justice executed on the wicked It is true death wil be bitter in the pains of it even to the godly but this bitterness of death is not properly a punishment to the godly as a bitter potion given out of the hand of a loving father to his weak child is not given as a punishment but as a medicine that though it be painful for a time yet he may have stronger health in time to come So after the bitterness of death is passed the children of God get confirmed health and salvation in the kingdom of heaven Object Object But hath not Christ by dying once fully satisfied for us how is it then that Believers are not freed from that debt of death for the which their surety hath given satisfaction Answ I answer true it is Our Lord died Answ Believers dy not to satisfie divine justice that by his death he might satisfie divine justice fully but to this end we dy not that we may satisfie divine justice for a finite creature cannot satisfie infinite justice yea the wicked in hell do not by their sufferings fully satisfie they will be ever in satisfying but never able to make out the satisfaction The end of the death of the Godly is not as was the end of Christs death to satisfie the justice of God as a Judge but to subject themselves to his fatherly pleasure and wisdom that by death they may be purged from the dross of inbred corruption and thus enter into the glory and Joy of their father for corruption cannot inherit incorruption did not our Lord fulfill all righteousness for us in his active obedience and yet we stand obliged to the mandatory power of the Law as we have endeavoured to prove elsewhere in Serm. 4. on Ezek 36 6.27 though we be not bound to obey the Law for the same end our Lord obeyed it to wit for our justification yet we are bound thereto for this end that by our obedience we may testifie our thankfulness to the Lord our creator and redeemer likewise in our Lords passive obedience his end was to satisfie for our guiltiness and obligation to punishment but a special end in all our sufferings is that we may be conformable to the Lord our head Rom 8.29 not by satisfying with him but by our patient submission to the will of our heavenly father like as our Lord in all things submitted to the will of his father Object Object But many of the dear children of God are not freed from the fear of death as David and Ezechias had their own fears in a large measure Psal 116. Isa 38. How then say ye that Christ hath delivered us from the fear of death Answ Answ Believers have a natural fear of death I answer it is no wonder the godly have a natural fear because they have as all creatures a natural desire of self-preservation and this natural fear being concreated with man in the state of integrity was not sinful But sometime this natural fear exceeds in the godly when faith and hope is weak This excess of natural fear is in them a sinful infirmity not to be defended by any but to be pitied by others and mourned for by themselves and prayed against by all weakness of faith at such times makes their fears great and strong when the children of God have deep apprehensions of death and but weak apprehensions of Iesus Christ and of eternal life by him then is their eye fixed on the bitter potion which breeds astonishment until the time they gather their thoughts and by faith and hope look to that eternal health which will follow upon this bitter potion Our Lord said to Peter Mat. 14 Why art thou so fearful O thou of little faith little faith makes much fear but a vigorous faith into Gods special presence though it do not altogether expel yet will it moderate and regulate our natural fear of death Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me They are as children in their loving Fathers hand and fear not to pass through that dark trance to their eternal Mansions of light and glory This doctrine serves to rouse raise our hearts unto the duty of Thankfulness
the body ye cannot read one syllable in all the heathen writers Such Doctrine was mocked at by the Philosophers of heathens Act. 17. they could not give an assent to it And therefore Paul saith Act. 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead They measured Divine Mysteries by the short plummet of humane reason Likewise from this ground that of nothing there can be nothing produced they could not believe that Mysterie of the infinite power of God in the work of Creation in like manner having their understandings prejudiced with this received maxim that from a privation there cannot be any regress unto the habit they could not assent to the Doctrine of the resurrection of the body Humane reason cannot reach Divine Mysteries they are above its capacity 1 Cor. 2.14 the only ground whereon rests our assent to such a Divine Mysterie Augustine is the infallible testimony of God in holy Scripture Augustin saith well that a natural man requires a reason of evidence in the matter it self before he believe it intelligam saith such a man ut credam let me understand it that I may believe but the Disciple of Iesus Christ who hath captivated his thoughts unto the word of God saith credam ut intelligam let me once believe that God hath spoken it then shall I understand it to be true and evident from the testimony of God when we consider the goodness of our God in revealing to us this great Mysterie hid from many of the wise in the world let every one of us say with our blessed Lord Math. 11.25 26. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight It serveth also for comfort to three sorts of persons Vse 2 1. To such of the children of God as are under any trouble and pain in the body Comfort to Saints under bodily pain though it were a painful languishing disease yet here is a sure ground of hope and comfort It is most certain thy bodie will be raised and in the bodie thou shalt have a comfortable rest from all labour and pain This was Iobs comfort in the day of his sore trouble that in the same body he should rise and see God Iob. 19.25 26. It was the Apostles comfort 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable because they suffered more in the body then other men did yet the hope and comfort of the resurrection upheld them It is some ease and comfort to one that is Sea-sick to look a far to the Land but their comfort and joy of heart is much greater when they come safely to it so in all our troubles in the body which are as a Sea-sickness in our passage towards our Country above let us look by Faith to the certainty of the resurrection of the body and if there be some comfort and joy as undoubtedly there is from Faith into the Promise and from hope of the promised resurrection What then will be the measure of thy comfort and joy when in a glorified body thou shalt see the Son of God manifesting his glory and transcendent beauty in his body It serveth for a ground of comfort to them that are on their death-bed Vse 3 Comfort to Saints against the apprehensions of death and have received in themselves the sentence of death be of good comfort the day is coming when thy body shall be raised out of the dust Consider for thy comfort 1. The mystical union of the bodies of Believers with Jesus Christ their head and thou mayst be confident our Lord and glorious head will not want any part of his Mystical body 1 Cor. 15.20 Christ is the first fruits of them that sleep as the first fruits were a sure evidence that the harvest was coming on a pace so the resurrection of Christ is a sure ground of hope and comfort for assuring us of the resurrection of our bodies 1 Cor. 15.16 If the dead be not raised then is not Christ raised 2. Consider the end of Christs death and of his second coming 2 Thes 1.7 It is a righteous thing with God to render to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels It is true in the grave thy body will have a kind of a negative rest then no pain in the body but in the day of resurrection thou shalt have a positive and refreshing rest in God himself like a man awakened and resting on a bed of Roses 3. Consider the endurance of the Kingdom of the Mediator in respect of the manner of the administration of it in this world 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign until he have put all his enemies under his feet One of those enemies is the grave which our Lord before subdued and will also put under our feet when our bodies shall be raised out of the grave and we shall be above the power of corruption Therefore thou that believest in Christ mayest dye with great comfort and exult with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Commend thy Spirit into his hands and thy dying body to his Fatherly care to be kept in the grave by him he is a Faithful Creator and Conservator of both at the day of resurrection he will render both Thou mayst be assured the Lord who requires men to be faithful in rendering again the pledge intrusted to them Deut. 24.13 he will in the day of restoring all things render again to thee thy soul and body with increase of glory beauty and strength Thirdly Comfort to Saints mourning for the death of their friends It serveth for comfort to those who mourn for the death of their dear friends I grant it is not only lawful to mourn but it were unnatural not to do so Our Lord wept over Lazarus Joseph mourned many days for his old Father The death of dear friends is one of Gods visitations and it becomes us well to take notice of Gods visiting us we must neither slight and despise the chastisement of the Lord nor be faint-hearted when we are rebuked of the Lord Heb. 12.5 The first is a brutish stupidity and Heathenish Apathie the other is a sillyness and pusillanimity proceeding from unbelief and repining of Spirit but let thy mourning be qualified and moderated with the comfort and hope of the resurrection 1 Thes 4.13 Sorrow not even as others which have no hope That Heathen Moralist could say We have not lost our friends but sent them before us what then should Christians say who believe not only the immortality of the soul but also the resurrection of the body
endeavour to glorify God in the body Vse 3 Sound comfort to the Godly let the meditation on these glorious qualities of the body in the day of resurrection comfort thy heart under all the pains and troubles in the body Thy vile body will be changed now thy body is decaying and dying daily thou art troubled in underpropping thy ruinous house of clay and do what thou canst one time it will fall down but there is thy comfort it will be raised in incorruption This was the ground of the Apostles comfort against the decay and dissolution of the body 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens there we will get a Mansion John 14.2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions then our condition will not be subject to alterations like men dwelling in a Tabernacle and removing from place to place but it will be fixed and permanent without any change it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an abiding of glory and joy 2. Though now possibly there be some deformity in thy body yet in that day thy body shall be compleat and comely though at thy death thy body were full of fores and ulcers yet if thou dye in the Lord thy body shall be raised in honor and comely beauty in that day Lazarus will have no sores as the body will be fully purged in that day from all contagion of sin so will it be freed from all deformity which was only a Symptom of indwelling corruption 3. Whereas thy body is now weak and frail a little thing doth soon distemper thy Spirit and little labour makes thy body weary This is thy comfort that in the day of resurrection thy body will be raised in strength though now thou canst not go up a little hill without some weariness in the body yet in that day thou shalt go up in the body to the third heaven and shalt not be weary 4. Now thou art much troubled about the natural operations and imployments of the body for food and rayment and other things pertaining to this decaying life but in that day thou wilt have appetite after nothing but God himself and all thy appetite will be fully satisfied by a perpetual delight in thy God infinite all-sufficient unchangeable and eternal in glory goodness and bounty towards thee Thou who art vexed disquieted in this life with the relicks of inordinate concupiscence remaining in the body thou hast cause to be humbled in the sight of God for that body of death yet there is thy comfort thou shalt be freed in that day from all such molestation in the body and thou shalt be like unto the spotless Angels without all inclination to delight in any thing but in the knowledge and love of God◠In that day great will be thy joy at the meeting of the soul and the body Though at parting here by death there was much pain and trouble like the parting of Iacob and Benjamin yet their meeting will be with great joy like the meeting of Iacob and Ioseph the soul will bring down good news from heaven to the body like the report of the faithful spies Numb 14. to encourage the body to go with it unto the heavens where they shal rejoyce together for ever in the presence of God then shall their joy be encreased at their meeting with Christ and perpetuated in their abode with Christ in the third heaven and following with praise and triumph the Lamb where-ever he goeth To him with the Father and holy Spirit be all praise honour and glory now and ever Amen Of Eternal Life by and with CHRIST PSAL. 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness AS the glorious resurrection of the body is a refreshing stream from the fulness of Christ so is also eternal life Eternal life is in and from Christ which is the full and compleat happiness of soul and body in one person This is purchased by the Merit of the righteousness and obedience of Iesus Christ Rom. 5.20 21. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord by Faith in Iesus Christ we get a right and claim unto eternal life Ioh. 6.47 he that believeth on me hath everlasting life by him we shall be put in possession of eternal life Math. 2◠34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you After that the bodies of them that have done good are raised up and inlivened with the souls then shall the Saints go with the Lord unto the third heaven and there in soul and body enjoy eternal life The great blessing of eternal life is laid before us by the Psalmist The sense of the words in these words I know some Interpreters understand the words to be meant of the lively sense of Gods favour bestowed upon his children after they have been for a time under a night of trouble It is most true light is sown even in darkness for the upright in heart though the Lord hide his face in a little wrath for a moment yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy Isa 54.8 But I conceive as many sound Interpreters do the Prophet speaketh of that confidence and hope the children of God have of rest happiness and satisfaction after this life when their bodies that sleep in the grave shall be awaked to the resurrection of life Because he opposeth the hope of after happiness as a strong prop to sustain the children of God in all their troubles and wants in this life against the temptations from the prosperity of wicked men in this present world to whom God giveth a large portion of things worldly The Prophet comforteth himself and all the Godly with the hope of that full and enduring portion in the other life some read the latter part of the verse thus I shall be satisfied when thy Image or likeness is awaked and the original will bear it as if the meaning were thus when I who was once created to thy Image shall rise again I shall be satisfied but I encline rather to the ordinary reading I shall be satisfied with thy Image when I awake by Image is understood the face of God which in the former part of this verse is called a beholding of Gods face in the immediate seeing whereof will stand our eternal happiness when we shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3.2 In the words we have The parts of the Text. 1. The time of his compleat and consummate happiness when I awake 2. The matter of his happiness and the manner of enjoying it the matter and object Gods face or likeness the manner
familiar and gracious revelation of his presence and of his holy will by some glorious visible and created representation which in comparison of Gods not revealing himself so fully unto others is called face to face Exod. 33.11 Num. 12.7 8. The Lord spoke unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend 4. The irresistible power of God throwing down every impediment in the way of his eternal purpose and counsel Isa 64.3 The mountains flowed down at thy presence or face 5. The sense of Gods favour when he comes unto a soul with healing under his wings like the Sun with his beams reviving a withered herb Psal 13.1 How long wilt thou hide thy face from me Isa 54.8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee God is said to hide his face when he restrains the sense and comfort of his love in time of great trouble and sheweth not in the face of providence any sign of his love Because pitty in the heart is oft-times seen in the face and countenance 6. The face of God signifieth that essential infinite increated and invisible glory of God Exod. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live 1 Cor. 13.12 Then shall we see face to face and in this sense it is taken in this place As to the second what is understood by beholding his face What it is to behold the face of God I answer there is a beholding of God in his works when in the creatures we behold footsteps of the power and wisdom of God as the skill of an excellent Artificer is seen in the works of his hands Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are cleerly seen 2. There is a beholding of God in a created and visible representation Thus Moses is said to have seen God Exod. 33. and Isai 6. it was not properly a beholding of God but something created by God from the which visible representation the beholders did perceive with their understanding something of the greatness and Majestie of God 3. There is a beholding of God by the eye of faith when we know and perceive him to be our God reconciled to us in Iesus Christ in whom as the only Mediator we behold Gods face and good will towards lost man 2 Cor. 4.6 God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 4. There is an immediate beholding and knowing the essentiall glory of God Mat. 18.10 Their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven So in this place to behold the face of God is to know immediately and to enjoy him fully as a man beholding a face immediately and perfectly when it is set before his eyes at noon-day The compleat and full happiness of the Saints in heaven Doct. standeth in the seeing and fruition of God Compleat happiness stands in the seeing of God Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the poor in heart for they shall see God 1 Ioh. 3.2 We shall see him as he is Our natural life consists in a union of soul and body our spiritual life in a union of our souls with Christ by faith and eternal life in an immediate union with God and communion of glory Our growth in the spiritual life of Grace here must go before our coming to the stature of the fulness of Christ in that eternal life of glory Eph. 4.12 13. For clearing the doctrine we would know wherein stands the matter and object of our happiness 2. What is the manner of our participation and fruition of that object As to the object and matter of our eternal happiness What is the matter or object of our happiness the spirit of God in holy Scriptures expresseth it in terms borrowed from things of highest esteem in this world that by such expressions he may condescend to our capacity that we may learn things invisible by things visible and that our desires may be stirred up by things earthly toward things heavenly 1. It is called â— Light It is called Light Psal 36.9 With thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light It will not be a dazelling and confounding light as was the brightness of Moses his face at his coming down from the Mount the people could not behold him it will not be an astonishing light as that in the Mount at our Lords transfiguration the Disciples fell to the ground their weak eyes could not behold those glimpses of glory that shined through the vail of flesh but the light in our heaven of happiness will be a strengthning and comforting light it will strengthen and confirm the eyes of our understanding to behold it Then shall we be enabled as the young Eagles to behold the Sun of Righteousness in his brightness and glory it was said by the Lord to Moses none can see my face and live Exod. 33.20 that glorious sight which Daniel saw took strength from him Dan. 10.8 The object being without him drew out all his spirits to behold and admire it and so weakned him but in heaven our God whom we shall see and know will be within us to strengthen us then shall we live because we see his face It will be also a comforting light like the light of the morning to the wearied watchman who longed after it in the night time 2 It is called a Kingdom Luc. 12.32 2. A Kingdom Fear not little flock for it is your fathers will to give unto you a Kingdom It is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken or moved Heb. 12.28 there will be no commotions or divisions as in these inferiour sublunary Kingdomes in that Kingdom will be everlasting peace Rev. 22.11 without are dogs to wit contentious and seditious men who like dogs barking at the superiour lights do despise dignities and dominions which God hath appointed to be as the greater lights for ruling this inferiour world such men living and dying in their seditious disposition and courses will not come within the border of that Kingdom It is a Kingdom of incorruptible glory Suppose a man were Monarch of all the world in great splendor and prosperity yet all his glory and contentment is but a flying shadow in comparison of that solid substantial and eternal glory of the least of Saints in the Kingdom of heaven as the creature is infinitely inferiour to the Creator so is created glory to the increated which the child of God beholdeth in that Kingdom of glory Isa 40 15. Behold the Nations are as the drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust in the ballance how doth the glory of earthly Kings and their Kingdoms pass away like the glory of a King in a stage-play but the glory of the Kingdom of heaven is fixed and permanent as the Kingdom is immortal so
then will he return and double his temptations as he did to that man Math. 12. he returned with seven worse but watch thou and pray that thou be not led into temptation though now thou be molested with one temptation after another yet resist them being stefast in the Faith and be comforted in the hope of thy eternal rest and immunity from all temptations in thy Country that is above in it there will be no tempter Then shall Sathan be fastened to damnation by the indissoluble chains of darkness in heaven there will not be remaining in us any inordinate concupiscence to be tempted Then our will and affections will adhere so close unto to God the supreme Good that it will be impossible to draw the heart from God No ayr of temptation can intervene The Angels who stood not in the truth though they had neither a tempter from without nor inordinate concupiscence from within they being created pure and holy yet were they created of a condition mutable but the Saints in heaven will be confirmed and established as pillars in a condition immutable Revel 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God Adam in the estate of innocency had posse non peccare a power not to sin but in heaven there will be a non posse peccare an impossibility to sin 3. Here is comfort for them who groan under the burthen of indwelling corruption rejoyce in this the day of refreshment is coming Let thy indwelling corruption be the matter of thy daily grief and humiliation before God Let it be to thee as Hagar and her brood was to Sarah and as the daughters of Heth to Rebekah Let it be the occasion of thy daily wrastling and subjecting the flesh by works of mortification Let it be as pricks and goads in thy sides to push thee toward the throne of Grace with Paul 2 Cor. 12. that the strength of Gods Grace may be perfected in thy weakness In such a wrastling condition rejoyce in hope and be of good comfort though now the flesh lusteth against the Spirit yet at death thy warfare will be accomplished And after thy resurrection there will be nothing in the whole person but Spirit and grace here in an hour of temptation thou prayest for strength in heaven thou shalt praise God for thy victory over sin Sathan and the world 4. Here is matter of comfort against all thy calamities publike or private in the midst of all thy troubles rejoyce in the hope of that glory Rom. 5.3 We glory in tribulation 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Rom. 8.18 I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us That Kingdom in heaven cannot be shaken that treasure of unsearchable and durable riches cannot be robbed nor wasted There all tears will be wiped from thine eyes all enemies will be subjected to Christ and also unto all the members of his Mystical body they will be made his footstool and the footstool in below all the parts of the body in that day of perpetual separation of the wicked from the godly it will be seen as it is said of Pharaoh and his hoast that persecuted the Israelites Exod. 14.13 The Egyptians which ye have seen to day ye shall see thē again no more for ever To God who giveth us victory over all our enemies and crowneth us with everlasting mercy the father son and holy Ghost be all praise honour and glory for now and ever c. Amen I having spoken of the time when our compleat happiness will begin 3. Point the perfect disposition of glorified Saints and of the matter and manner of our happiness at our awaking in the day of resurrection from the sleep of the death we shall behold the face of God Now we proceed to speak of the the perfect disposition of the glorified Saints and of the measure of their happiness The third point considerable in the words is the perfect disposition of Saints glorified in soul and body I shall behold saith he in righteousness at my awaking and rising out of the grave I shall be perfectly righteous in my soul and body and being wholly pure shall behold thy face and so be satisfied in this life the personal righteousness of the Saints is not perfect in many things we fail all Righteousness is a conformity to the will of God the only and supream rule of right and wrong in the estate of innocency man had a righteousness pure without mixture of imperfection but not exempted from mutability in the estate of renovation the renewed man hath personal inherent righteousness firm and sure with an immunity from a total and finall decay 1 Ioh. 3.9 but it is not perfect and pure though our renovation be perfect in parts both in soul and body yet not in degrees In heaven our personal righteousness will be pure perfect in degrees and unchangable then will the Saints follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth there will be no declining from him and his commandments The Saints in heaven will be perfectly and wholly righteous in their souls and bodies then will there be a perfect conformity in all things Doct. The Saints in heaven will be perfectly righteous in souls and bodies and for ever to the acceptable will of God Eph. 5.25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word and that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle in the course of our regeneration he clean 〈◊〉 but the perfection of holiness and beauty will be in that day when the marriage between the Lamb and his Spouse shall be consummate here the Church of Christ is like an house in building but there the topstone and crown of Glory will be put on here it is as a young child growing in his dimensions but in heaven we will be at our term of consistence even our perfect measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 here there is much imperfection in the righteousness of the children of God there be many infirmities and faults that others may and themselves should censure and condemn but in heaven we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faultless Iude Ep. 24. To him that is able to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Saviour be glory and Majesty The Church triumphant will be then as a beautiful bride adorned and prepared for her Husband Rev. 21.2 here on earth is the time of her purification but at the day of resurrection she will be presented perfectly pure in that Temple not made with hands and praise him for ever for his mercy and grace bestowed on her