Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A59653
|
A sermon at the funeral of Mr. Christopher Glascock, the late eminent school-master of Felsted in Essex preached there Jan. 22, 1689/90, by William Shelton ...
|
Shelton, William, d. 1699.
|
1690
(1690)
|
Wing S3100; ESTC R38233
|
17,524
|
37
|
ravishing Beauties of Truth and Goodness which are too dazling for mortal Eyes where our Wills shall be reduced to a sweet and blessed composure and our Affections centred and united in God and Goodness and filled with those Ardours of which we are not now capable But when we are filled with all the fulness of God when we Ephes 3. 19. shall know and see and adore and magnify God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for bringing us into eternal Glory when we shall be past the Dotages of this present Life and shall have none in Heaven but God when Psal 73. 25. we shall have gathered up the wandring Powers of our Souls and fixed them upon God the Author and the Object of our Happiness Then shall we find words fit to express those incomparable Attainments about which we do now but chatter and give imperfect accounts of as Children do when they talk of Mens Affairs But when we shall be with the Lord we shall then understand the happy change of our Society We now converse with Men of variable Tempers of difficult Passions of contradicting Interests of ungovernable Lusts so that a solitary Wilderness is many times more desirable than such unacceptable Company But when we shall be with the Lord we shall also be with the Spirits of just Men made perfect Heb. 12. 23. with Men refined and purged from Dregs and Dross from all that would abate of the purity and sincerity of Pleasure that we shall there enjoy from suitable Correspondencies In a word To be with the Lord is to perfectly happy And that the fore-thoughts of an End may not disturb the present Enjoyment we shall be for ever with the Lord. We shall not enter upon Possessions to be ejected again but shall receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken We shall find a Treasure that fails not a lasting Glory a perpetual Spring a never-dying Happiness Joys that will not wither or decay in sixty or eighty Years And many times a great deal sooner the Pleasures of this Life have no relish in them but all our remaining Days are Evil in which we say that we have Eccles 12. no pleasure in them But the duration of the Happiness of Heaven does not waste or diminish it It remains fresh and flourishing and full of satisfaction We shall ever be with the Lord so as never to desire to change our Place or Company We shall never be weary of what we do nor of what we enjoy And there can no addition be made to this Happiness but by a consideration that we shall not enjoy it as single Persons by our selves alone but all holy Men who are called together shall be equally in his Presence and if not equally yet fully as happy as their Capacities will admit Fourthly Which is the 4th thing I have to consider from these words So shall we ever be with the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after that manner with reference to what was before said We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That every holy Man and Woman shall have a distinct knowledg of and a particular correspondence with every other Member of the same Triumphant Church I do not define But that there shall be a Knowledg of and converse with one another we may very reasonably believe when we consider That it is a great part of our Comfort and Content now to enjoy the society of our Friends And it cannot be thought that that blessed Company will derogate from but will rather add to each others happiness To the torment of wicked Men they shall see who are admitted into the Kingdom of God There shall be weeping and Luke 13. 28. gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kindgom of God and you your selves thrust out And why should it be difficult to believe that they who are there shall see and know one another And it follows in the same place And they shall come from the East and Vers 29. from the West and from the North and from the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God In the verse of my Text it is said they shall meet together They shall all meet the same Lord and partake of the same Happiness and join in the same Songs of Praise and Triumph And who can think when they are called together to meet their Lord that they shall then be separated and know nothing of one another's particular State No sure The Communion of Saints will be perfected in Heaven So shall we ever be with the Lord. So in Company and Consort so as to be together loving one to another as well as loving God and making accessions to each others Happiness by being so far ever with the Lord. From this account of these words I might make divers Inferences I take up with Three 1. If Holy Men shall be thus for ever with the Lord then we may be content to wait with patience for a compleat Happiness till that day comes If it please God to exercise us with Sorrows and Troubles in this Life we must remember it is the Kingdom of God to which Acts 14. 22. we are passing through these many Tribulations All the Afflictions of this Life cannot make us throughly miserable not finally miserable we are able to see through them to what is reserved in the Heavens for us When we are for ever with the Lord we shall never be diverted or disturbed or called off from the continual enjoyment of that fulness of Joy we cannot be for ever miserable Afflictions are but for a while and in comparison of Eternity they endure but for a moment But when all these Clouds are blown over then at the Morning of the Resurrection there will open upon us a Glory brighter than the Noon-day Sun A Glory that will never set or fade Because our Lord will one day take us to be so near himself we ought to be well content whilst we are here in the Body to be exercised as it shall please the Wisdom of God 2. We shall ever be with the Lord but this is not the portion of all Men as has been already said And besides the concurring Testimony of the whole Scripture the next Epistle tells us what will become of wicked Men at the second coming of Christ Wherefore this Exhortation has here a proper place that we would so live now as that we may hereafter be for ever with the Lord. And that I express in the words of our Saviour If any Man John 12. 26. serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be There can be no hopes of being hereafter where our Lord and Master is unless we now follow him by Obedience to him and Imitation of him