same Objects before their eyes when there shall be nothing to divert them neither one nor other from being exercised without any intermission in the contemplation of excellent things and that God who is all in all shall fill them with the illuminations of his Spirit it is difficult to conceive how some shall be more advanced than others in this Knowledge Nevertheless it is not my intention to determine any thing concerning it in this place and it is much more to the purpose to be exercised in embracing the Cross of Christ by which alone we have right to partake with him in the inheritance of the Heavens than to busie our selves in computing our good actions or measuring the degrees of our virtues that one day in the highest Heavens we may see if our Rewards be proportionable unto them it remains therefore that we explain in a few words what fruit the Contemplation of all these wonders will produce towards what concerns our happiness We have in us two Faculties absolutely inseparable the Understanding and Will and as to what concerns the Understanding forasmuch as its felicity consists in its Perfection and that its Perfection lies in knowledge and a Perfection of what it knows it cannot be filled with so many Divine Illuminations as I have essaied to represent by my words as if I should have drawn the Sun with a Cool but it must perceive it self eternally happy and taste therein inexpressible pleasure They which think that the contentment that we take in seeing things depends of this that they excite the operation of our faculties and that by the Operation of our faculties we perceive that we are and that the perception of our own Being gives satisfaction and joy joy indeed something very considerable and very true for Being if you compose it with Not-Being seems to be good in some kind infinite the sense of the enjoyment whereof must give a great deal of content Nevertheless because griefs also give us a sense of our Being 't is necessary to add to this opinion that the Objects whereupon we act must have such proportion with the faculties whose operations they do excite in us that they do not at all offend them otherwise instead of giving us pleasure they importune and trouble us We may yet go a little farther and say that excellent things being more active than others do also more powerfully awaken our faculties and excite our operations in such manner that giving us more sense of our Being than things common and ordinary do they render the pleasure that ariseth from them proportionably more excellent and sensible To conclude it seems to me that as grief depends of this that the thing which causes it tends to the destruction of the faculty in which it produces this afflictive and troublesom sentiment so the pleasure and the joy that comes to us from the fruition of our Objects depends of this that our faculties are perfected and raised to a more noble and advantageous condition by their presence for by reason that the faculty is designed unto certain operations and that Operations are not performed without Objects and by consequence do not act at all they remain imperfect as Matter void and destitute of Form which desires some one that may fill it with extream greediness according to the same measure therefore that the Object is excellent encreases the perfection of that estate in which the faculty is placed and by consequent the pleasure which is generated from the Perception of the Perfection of its Essence as if the Matter whereof bodies are formed here below had any knowledge of it self there is no doubt but it would receive incomparably less content to see it self filled and possessed with the Form of a vile and contemptible Stone than with that of a rich and precious Diamond and of whatsoever Matter Elementary or Quint-essential the Heavens be made I know not whether in that insensibility which is attributed to them they do not experiment some pleasing touch of joy to see themselves united to a Form so pure so incorruptible and shining our understandings therefore being so marvellously filled with the forms of so many excellent Objects and becoming if I may so say one and the same thing with them by the power of Contemplation it can neither be expressed nor conceived what will be the greatness of their content and happiness to see themselves transformed into those admirable Idea's wherewithal they will be enlightned and into the Perfections of Jesus Christ and those of God himself Concerning the Will its happiness consists in loving things amiable according to the knowledge that the Understanding hath of them and in that which necessarily follows the perception that it loves them Not only for that we perceive our Being in perceiving that we love them and that in the degree that the things that we esteem worthy of our love are excellent in the same they awaken this perception with much the greater efficacy but also for this that as the Understanding transforms it self in some manner into the nature of its Objects by Contemplation the Will unites it self so to his by the force of love that it confounds it self with them and incorporates them with it self So that there being so many brave things in the world whose excellency and worth we shall perfectly understand it cannot be but that we must earnestly love them nor that according to the proportion of our love we should not have a sense of pleasure and joy There is yet more the nature of things that we love on Earth is such that there is nothing in them surely permanent Be it therefore that they absolutely cease to be or that they only cease to be amiable the fear of not loving them at some time or other mingles it self ordinarily with the affection that we bear them and so holding our minds in suspense it weakens both our love and the exercise of it and by consequent so much diminish the content and joy thereof And it hath been well said by some that this maxim that we ought to love so as we may one day hate ruins all friendship from bottom to top it being impossible it should subsist with thoughts as bespatter the object which at present we ought to love with qualities worthy of hatred wherewith it may be possessed in the time to come This is it that causes it to give us an aversion whereas it should attract our good will and affections The love therefore that we shall have for so many brave Objects as will be in the Heavens will have this advantage which cannot be sufficiently esteemed that never suffering any change they will always be presented to us under one and the same Idea and that being always considered by us under the same aspect they will enkindle in our hearts an affection the pleasant and agreeable flame whereof will endure eternally To Conclude as it happens that there are two sorts of things that
than we are now and as he did not perceive unless it were a far off in the darkness of what to come the manifestation of a Redeemer so also he did not see so clearly as we do the hopes of the Resurrection nor had not such distinct knowledg of the glory that attends us in Heavenly places I observe that David as he approached nearer to the time of our Saviours appearance did both receive from God and deliver to his Church much greater explanations upon these matters than did any of his Ancestors and yet nevertheless had experience of very different emotions of Spirit when he saw himself in danger or in likelyhood of death Sometimes in the Psalms he gives evidence that he was much afraid of death and desires of God with great earnestness that by his good providence and the power of his hand he would hinder his falling under it and these motions of his so frequently reported and repeated in his Writings accompanied with vows so ardent and praises so vivid and full of Devotion when God had rescued him from his dangers do sufficiently shew that this object when it presented it self unto him occasioned terrible agitations to his mind And nevertheless when he was to die he disposed himself to it with great Tranquillity and gave no Testimony of fear or any the least alteration If you enquire of those that think the perceptions of the Soul perish and die with those of the body why David feared death so very much they will say that he himself gives the reason of it 'T is because in death he makes no mention of the name of God nor sings unto him any Songs of praise Psal 6. which proves according to their opinion that death takes away at once both from Soul and Body the knowledg of all things But if this were the only reason why did he not fear death as much when he was old Will it hinder the loss of all sense and memory of objects to die old Or would it be a greater affliction to David when in the flower of his age to lose by losing life the means and opportunity of singing the praises of God than to be deprived of this pleasure and content by dying in a good old age It is therefore much more reasonable to say that David and other Saints of times past did think that God sent them into the world for two ends the one which respects his glory was to advance and celebrate it as much as they were able the other was to enjoy therein for a long time the Testimonies of his Faviour in those Temporal blessings the promises whereof he had given unto them When therefore any danger of death did threaten them before the time which nature seems to have appointed for it viz. seventy or eighty years or if there were in the time of David any other natural and ordinary term of life They were extraordinarily moved and troubled because it seemed that death before full age was a Testimony of the anger and curse of God So that to prevail with God to protect them from it after having begged the pardon of their sins they alledge this reason that otherwise he himself will in some sort be deprived of the end to which he had respect when he sent them into the world For it is as if some young plant should complain to the Gardiner or Master of the plants that having put him in the rank with others to bear some quantity of fruits he would nevertheless cut it off at the root when it began to bud and to give some good hopes thereof But concerning that great tranquillity of Spirit wherewith they received death when it came in such time wherein the untimeliness of it was no mark of the anger of God it came without doubt from hence that it was accompanied with the peace of God and some hope of happiness for their Souls Otherwise by the confession of those with whom I now discourse the being deprived of praising God after death and of perceiving any taste of his love towards them should have given them great fears and inconceivable aversions Some of the Pagans as Socrates have sometimes supported themselves by this meditation against the fears of death that either it did or it did not take from them all sense and perception of things If it did not those that die ought if they be honest men to hope for Contentments after death in the Conversation of those persons that had gone hence before them the company of Cepheus Museus Homer Hesiod Vlysses and Agamemnon without doubt as they imagined would give them incomparable satisfaction if it did there was no reason to fear death since it reduced men to a state of utter insensibility but these persons never tasted any thing of the sweetness of the peace of God nor of the Contentment that arises from the assurance of his paternal love Having therefore no experience of any other good things than such as this world affords they might well depart from life as they themselves do express it as from a banquet after they had been satisfied therewith without much complaint that they are obliged to leave the fruition and use of it to those that were to come after but as for David and other servants of God to whom he had given the beginnings and foretasts of his glory with what grief ought they to receive the news of death whensoever it should be if they had been not only reeling and staggering as were the Pagans between the hope of seeing Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the fear of losing all kind of sense and perception but deeply and fully perswaded that in stead of being put into the full fruition of what they had had some foretasts here below death would utterly ravish from them even the total memory of it This same David testifies in many places a very sensible and deep regret and trouble for being separated from the Ark of God because 't was there that God gave demonstrations of his presence in an extraordinary manner Nevertheless in Caves and Deserts and the wildest Forests he might entertain himself with God and derive from the Fountains of his own Meditations as it appears he often did abundance of pleasant consolations to allay the trouble which was occasioned by his estrangment and separation from it I pray you therefore if he had believed that death would have taken from him all knowledg and memory of God for so many ages what Lamentations would he have made Or could he have found words sufficient to express the anguish of his Soul on this occasion Ever and anon he enquires with some kind of impatience when shall I see the face of my God If by these words he understands the Ark how much more ought he to desire to see the face of God after his death and with what unquietness must he be filled when he considers that death takes from him not only the pleasure of seeing the
Crown his Battels and Victories after this manner A good old man of Lacedemonia that Travelled even to the furthest part of Asia only to see Alexander after he vanquished Darius said with very great emotion and pleasure of mind that the Greeks that died in the Battel of Marathon and that of Salamine were deprived of a marvellous contentment in that they did not see this Prince sitting upon the Throne of Xerxes and Triumphing gloriously over the pride of the Enemies of Greece When we see how Historians report the Proclamation made by Calaminius in favour of all the Greek Nations and how they represent the affections of the people the acclamations that they made the Coronets of Flowers that they wrought and the Garlands that they threw upon him and the incomparable demonstrations of Love which they gave to his person we cannot contain without feeling some emotion of mind and partaking in some sort in their joy Now what is either this assembly of Greece in comparison of that of all the faithful of the Universe or this Calaminius or Alexander in comparison of the Lord Jesus Christ or the liberty of these people in comparison of that of the Sons of God or of deliverance from the dominion of the Persians the Macedonians the Tyrant of Lacedemon and other Usurpers from whom these deliverers set them free in comparison of being delivered from Sathan and Death to be put into the enjoyment of Eternal life and glory Moreover it is said that the comparing of the Calamity of another doth assist in making us more sensible of our own proper felicity And indeed the Poet saith that he took pleasure in seeing upon the bank of the Sea a Ship tossed upon the waves not for that he had any pleasure in the danger of another but for that he saw it from without and that Perils either passed or present but where we have no part do give some sense of joy If it be so certainly the horrour of the condemnation of unbelievers must infinitely add to the joy of our pardon and glory Christ will shew to them a visage severe and full of rigour to us one supreamly pleasant and full of serenity Christ will fill their minds full of trembling and horrour whereas he will overwhelm our hearts with assurance and consolation Christ will set them at his left hand with indignation and us at his right hand with demonstration of love and peace Christ will examine them as a Judge inflexible and implacable to their incredulity And us as our advocate and witness of our faith Christ will pronounce to them go ye cursed into eternal fire to us he will say come ye blessed of my Father Christ will effectively throw them down into Hell and as to us he will advance us to Eternal glory in his Kingdom Concerning the Happiness of Believers after the Resurrection The Fourth Discourse WE are now come to the Consideration of the last degree of that happiness to which we aspire let us therefore see briefly what is revealed concerning it in the word of God and let us not approach it with less discretion and wariness than we have done the former Questions The Apostles writing to the Corinthians and speaking to them of the mysteries of the Gospel whereof the Spirit of God had given the Revelation to him and his Companions in the Apostleship says after the Prophet Esaias that they are things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred in t o the heart of man to conceive what God hath laid up for those that love him words that we use to accommodate to the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven of which we are speaking And truly it is not without good reason For although this way of interpretation be not suitable to the subject whereof they were first spoken so it is that such as was the Condition of the Jews which lived under the old Covenant with respect to us such well nigh is our Condition now with respect to what it will be when God shall have assembled us altogether in the Heavens And as in this comparison of the Jews with us they are compared to Children with respect to the measure and degree of their knowledg and we in the Scripture are esteemed as perfect men so the Apostle in comparing himself with himself makes a different judgment thereon For he says that now he is as a Child that he knows as a Child and speaks as a Child but when that which is perfect shall come and we expect it not absolutely but in the Kingdom of Heaven then that which is in part shall be done away and he shall know as he is known that is to say in a light which will not be mixt with any darkness For he adds that now we see nothing but the simple images of things as in a glass whereas then we shall behold things in their proper realities Moreover we consider not these images but as we regard riddles where we know not what they signify but through a great deal of darkness whereas when the time of perfection shall come we shall see says he face to face When the Jews formerly did attempt to expound the Oracles of the Prophets touching things to come and thence clearly and distinctly to Divine of events they were marvellously mistaken in their conjectures and had apprehensions touching the Kingdom of the Messiah which were found infinitely distant from the nature thereof when it came to be manifest and for that reason 't is necessary that we take head that we do not fall into the same inconveniencies and that being willing to anticipate things to come by the Curiosity of our Spirits depaint imaginations in the fancy which the event of things will one day refute to our shame Notwithstanding provided we be mindful of the modesty that becomes us the search of what it will be is not at all forbidden us And the faults that others have formerly committed in such matters may be helpful to hinder us from falling into errours of like nature in the subject whereof we are discoursing For that which made them to stumble was that they followed the inclinations of the flesh in the interpretation of prophecies and whereas they ought to have placed the Soveraign perfection of the Kingdom of the Messiah in the clear knowledg of the nature of God and the means of their Salvation and in true and spiritual sanctity which this clear knowledg was to produce they dreamt of worldly grandeur and dominion and of the Triumphs of Conquerours Therefore if now we do separate our thoughts from all earthly and carnal imaginations and following the steps of our Lord and his Apostles we place the principal part of this Kingdom in knowledg and sanctity we shall escape the precipice on which these persons have fallen and if it should happen that we should commit any fault in this discourse at the least it will not be of like consequence with theirs
we love One whereof are insensible of our love because they are so in themselves The other have knowledge of our affection and on their part correspond unto it the love that we have for the first gives not a pleasure that comes near that of the love that we have for the second then when we are assured that they love us reciprocally And the reason thereof is two fold The first is that the things that cannot love us reciprocally however excellent they may otherwise be are nevertheless void of understanding those that are capable of a true affection for us are partakers of it Now things endued with understanding are infinitely better than those that are not if therefore the satisfaction that we receive either from our contemplation or from our love encreaseth as we have seen above according to the proportion of the excellency of the object upon which our faculties display and exercise themselves the love that we have for things endued with understanding must infinitely over-weigh the other The second is that as we love nothing earnestly which we do not value much so we cannot perceive our selves loved but we perceive our selves also valued and esteemed by those that love us Now 't is a thing supreamly sweet and pleasant to be valued and esteemed by those that we believe do exactly know us and which otherwise we know are themselves to be valued and esteemed in a Soveraign manner For either they esteem us for the sake of our proper worth as when we love our Friends for the sake of their virtue Or else they esteem us for this that although in our selves in comparison of them we be of no marvellous great price so it is nevertheless that they have made us and 't is by them that we are what we are So we love our Children so every understanding Cause loves the work that he hath produced with some Understanding and Art The first is marvellously pleasant For if it be a thing agreeable to be and to know that we are how much more is it to possess a Being accompanied with commendable qualities The second ought to be much more For although we do not perceive our selves commendable in our selves 't is no small commendation to be dependances of a great Cause and parts of a Noble Principle from whom we are derived Now in the Estate in which we shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven we shall possess both all these degrees and all these kinds of happiness For as we shall love both the Angels and the faithful that shall there be partakers with us in one and the same glory with tenderness unimaginable so will they on their part love us so heartily that they will perfectly correspond to our affections And in the same manner that we shall love them as well with that kind of love wherewith we embrace our Friends by reason of their Holiness and virtue which we shall see arrived at the highest pitch of its perfection as with that kind of love wherewith we love our Brethren For the sake of the Communion we shall have with one and the same Heavenly Father So we do certainly know that we shall be perfectly loved of them on the same considerations because our virtue and perfections will be the same with theirs and we shall be equally the Sons of God So that as by the love that we shall bear to them we shall be so closely joined to them that we shall have them perpetually in our minds they will be joyned so closely to us by the affection wherewith they will embrace us that they will have us perpetually in theirs and so our Souls shall be as it were melted and mingled together And this will be wonderful in the vehemence and sincerity of this love that whereas 't is impossible here below to have many such Friends for whom we have such deep and great affection there will be above in the Heavens Millions with whom we shall have these indissoluble Tyes and Obligations For on one side here are found but few that upon Trial we have judged or can judge worthy of this degree of love and on the other side our minds in this natural Constitution in which they are cannot supply to so many Operations of so great and extraordinary vehemence Whereas there we shall be fully assured of the excellency and merit of all our Objects without any need of Tryal and our minds having obtained by their glorification a supernatural and extraordinary vigour they will become as it were fruitful and inexhaustible fountains of these kinds of operations from whence love and kindness will run down not as little streams or brooks which presently grow dry but as floods abounding and remaining to eternal ages Again as we shall love the Lord Jesus and the Heavenly Father all as much as the properties infinitely and supremely amiable that are in them shall be known by faculties such as ours will be that is to say with the whole extent of the power of a reasonable Creature raised to glory in like manner they both the one and the other will love us all as much as such Creatures can be loved by those that are wholly love Insomuch that although we do not find in our selves to whatever perfection we do arrive what may correspond to the honour of so great love Nevertheless we shall not cease to esteem our selves supremely happy in it and to receive unspeakable joy from it For this Relation which we shall have with God of being his Children and that which we shall have with Jesus Christ of being his beloved Brethren will certainly be sufficient to give us esteem and value and to make us eternally the objects not only of those which shall partake with us in the same Salvation but the admiration of Angels themselves Behold will they say those that were taken from the Earth raised above the Heavens those that had deserved Eternal confusion advanced to the top of glory and honour those that have deserved to inhabite Hell with Devils partaking Heaven with the Son of God Those that were sometimes worthy that God should separate them from his presence Eternally received into his own bosom there to enjoy the Communion of his Holy Spirit in Eternal life and glory Now to him that shall have all the powers of his Soul filled with so great and perfect contentment what can be wanting of a most perfect and Soveraign happiness Observe principally as I have above represented it that the Body shall become shining incorruptible and immortal and that the enjoyment of this happiness will be given us in an Habitation Eternally glorious For it is not for nothing that St. John representing the Jerusalem that is on high saith that 't is full of the glory of God and that its light is more sparkling than that of Pretious Stones That the wall thereof is Jasper the buildings thereof of pure Gold like unto transparent glass The foundations thereof so many Quarries of Pretious Stones That its twelve gates were twelve Pearls its Streets paved with Gold and that the Lord Almighty and the Lamb that accomplished our Salvation is the Temple thereof That it hath no need of Sun nor Moon For God enlightens it on all sides and the Lamb is the Torch which makes it sparkle with an Eternal light For although these terms be Prophetick and Mysterious their sense is nevertheless a representation of a magnificence which cannot be expressed And although it have a particular regard to the light of knowledge and the perfect holiness of the Church of God nevertheless it includes the quality of its remaining happiness and the beauty of its Habitation Now although it be not unprofitable thus to bring down if I may so express it Heaven to Earth by our Meditation and from thence to form some imperfect Idea thereof in our minds 'T is yet notwithstanding incomparably more advantageous to raise as far as our infirmity will permit Earth to Heaven and even now to fix our hearts and affections on high expecting that the Lord Jesus will do us the favour and bestow on us the priviledge really to contemplate there what we do not yet see but in the promises that he hath given us to him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory power and dominion for ever and ever Amen FINIS ERRATA PAge 3 l. 14 r. merry l. 16 r. occurence p 4 l. 1 r. of p 5 l. 7 r. fails l. 21 r. consequence p 6 l. 14 blot out forms p 9 l. 22 for to r. so p 14 l. 25 r. there p 15 l. 4 r. that l. 9 r. abstractions p 17 l. 1 r. those l. 28 r. on p 18 l. 8 r. he p 19 l. 22 r. how p 21 l. 12 r. affixed l. 22 r. retained p 22 l. 28 r. 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part Corporeal there is great probability that this faculty being extinct with the Body its images will by that means be obliterated in such sort that there is no great appearance that we can call to mind at the Resurrection the sensible and Corporeal shape of those that we have seen and known during the time of life But though we should retain some memory of them knowledge depends on the conformity that is found between the qualities which at present you find in the objects that are offered to your eyes and other senses and the images of those qualities which they had when you formerly knew them which are remaining in your memories So that if you find them such as you have seen them you may indeed remember them But if they be so changed that there be no likeness between their qualities and the Idea's which you have formerly received of them as if you had known some infant and should see him again along time after well advanced in years it would be impossible for you ever to recal him to mind Now we have already said that there will be a change marvellously great in all the constitution of our Bodies so that those that have seen us here below will find nothing at all of that by which we may become knowable unto them Moreover whilst the state of nature subsists the natural affections are both necessary to its subsistance and very beautiful and lovely in themselves when they are governed and conducted by that judgment and right reason that ought to preside over all our passions So 't is supreamly agreeable that Husbands love their Wives and Wives their Husbands and that Parents have great tenderness for their Children and Children vehement affections and profound respects for their Parents And by consequent it agrees perfectly well to the institutions of nature that those should cordially love each other between whom it hath established these Relations but when the estate of nature shall be changed and all things put in a supernatural state there is great probability that the necessity of these affections ceasing they will either be totally extinct or at least they will certainly lose much of their heat and vigour and our Lord Jesus answering to the Question which was made to him concerning the Woman that had seven Husbands and teaching us that in the Kingdom of Heaven all these Relations will cease hath as it seems likewise taught us that the affections that depend thereon will also be reduced to nothing Add to this that we know nothing more sweet nor more affecting in this life than the affections that we mutually bear to each other be it that they proceed from the inclinations and sentiments of nature and the Relations that it doth establish between us be it that familiar conversation and a conformity of humours and inclinations do generate and produce them Therefore as we are inclined to measure all things by the knowledg that we have and as it were conceive nothing above it Scarcely can we imagin that in the Heavens there be enjoyment more agreeable and pleasant than those that we have here on earth even our Lord accommodating himself to these inclinations and to the capacity of our minds promises us as it hath been said above that we shall there sit at Table with the Ancient Patriarchs but nevertheless there is great probability that as when St. Peter saw the transfiguration of Christ he was so swallowed up in the admiration of those objects that he forgot all those that at other times he knew and said 't is good for us to be here So then when we shall have our Souls filled with that love and joy which the presence of the Redeemer and the vision of God himself will beget within us we shall no more remember any of all that tenderness of affection that we had experience of in the present life Notwithstanding I shall not in this place neglect to observe two things that concern this matter the first is that St. Paul writing to the Thessalonians and being willing to exhort them effectually to something of importance speaks to them after this manner Brethren we beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him the meaning is without doubt that he conjured them by that which might be most glorious and most desirable for them in the coming of our Saviour and by all that which might be one day most sweet and consolatory in our Holy Communion then when we shall be found together and from all our dispersions assembled round about him which seems to signify that he expected to enjoy content in their presence as they should enjoy in his at the coming of our Lord. Now 't is difficult to conceive what that manes if their be no mutual knowledge of each other I think therefore if it may be permitted to speak our apprehensions in things concerning which we have but little light from the word of God that the intellectual memory that is in us retaining the remembrance of general things which have been committed to it neither the Apostle St. Paul will forget that he Preached the Gospel to the Thessalonians nor will the Thessalonians forget that by the Preaching of St. Paul they had been called to the Communion of the Gospel If then St. Paul have any signal or mark by which he may be known among the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ and we shall see by and by what can be said about it the memory of it may awaken in the Thessalonians their ancient affections so that they may approach St. Paul and give unto him and receive from him as far as the glory of their Condition will permit them mutual Testimonies of their love and good will And forasmuch as our happiness will not be only for that day but for all Eternity and this Eternity will not pass in Solitude but in most pleasant and agreeable Communication who doubts but that in so long a consequence of Ages there may be presented an infinite number of accidents which may awaken in us those general remembrances which do remain of what we have seen here below and which by this means will reanimate our affections towards those persons which we have dearly loved in this life But as a Father which equally loves his Children perceives his love for a time more lively towards him among them which returns from a far Country after a very long absence than towards those that have been always with him but afterwards when time hath quieted that extraordinary emotion he returns to that equality of affection wherewithal he doth embrace them in like manner that joy which St. Paul and the Thessalonians will have to find themselves together at the appearance of Christ will not hinder but that in a short time their love will return and equally divide it self to all the faithful which they shall see partaking with them in the glory of the Saviour of
the World The other thing is that it seems that the holy Apostle would not that we should doubt but that there is something remarkable at the Coming of Christ which will make him knowable to those to whom he preached the Gospel of Salvation You are says he to the Philippians my joy and Crown in the day of Christ And things of like nature or manners of speech have given occasion to some to think that glory will be unequally divided among Believers at the day of Christ because it cannot appertain to all to make such discourses and that the Apostle doth design thereby to tell us that there is some peculiar honours reserved for him in that day Certainly if Believers shall be unequa lly partakers in the enjoyments of the happiness that is on high 't is a thing that may deserve very attentive consideration and the diversity of Opinions of great Persons upon this Subject do sufficiently demonstrate that the proofs that are produced on both sides are not at the first sight extreamly evident whatsoever be the force of the Reasons of those that hold an inequality of glory in the Heavens So it is that there is not one among us which humility doth not oblige to have this apprehension aforehand imprest upon his mind that he will be none of the number of those that will be so advanced above their Brother for eminence of glory is presupposed to be the Reward of eminent Virtues on which account 't is not permitted us to esteem our selves more excellent than others Now if this opinion be true and confirmed by the event in any of us 't will be difficult to comprehend in what this opinion will be found verified that there will be some that must have great advantages in this inheritance and if some must be more advantageously partakers of it there there must be some notable variety in the dispensation of the will of God concerning glory and the degrees thereof for to obtain glory it self God hath expresly appointed us to believe that we shall have it and by how much the more firmly we believe it by so much the more certain is it that it shall be given to us Whereas to obtain the most sublime degrees thereof 't is most suitable that we do not hope or believe it at all and for as much as humility which hinders us from expecting it is one of the most excellent virtues the less we hope to obtain them the more certain it is that our humility will be recompensed And lastly to excite us to reach after the supream pitch of Virtue the Scripture sets the reward of glory before our eyes whereas to come to its most raised degrees 't is necessary that we turn our minds from it humility which is that which must make us highest there not permitting us to affix our thoughts thereon So that we come to glory as he that runs a Race who sees the Butt whither he tends whereas we obtain the highest degrees thereof as Rowers which always turn their backs upon the Port to which nevertheless at last they do arrive However it be for this is not as yet the proper place to speak of the glory of Heaven but of that of the most happy day of the Saviour of the World I say that 't is certain that God will make some difference in the testimony that he will give unto his Servants in that day and that those who besides many labours that they have undergone and many journeys which they have made have besides as St. Paul passed through many reproaches here below shall receive this testimony from the mouth of their good Master that they have been faithful and loyal Servants and that they deserved other things than the Calumnies whereof they had experience This is that which will then make them known and I do not at all doubt but that the Apostles will be particularly signallized among others and if there be any one now not which may be equallized with the Apostles in gifts and authority for there hath been nor will be none such but in passing through Trials like unto those that have exercised them doth imitate in those Combates the example of their Piety of their Zeal and their Constancy I do not conceive that he will do ill to comfort himself by this hope that God will put all things in open light at his Coming so that if Athanasius Bazil and Chrysostom among the Ancients if John Husse Jerom of Prague Wickliff Luther Colain and many other good Servants of God which may with regard to the former be reckoned among the Moderns have in the midst of the Persecutions that they suffered both from within and from without had regard to this Consolation surely they will not find themselves deceived in their expectation Now these had many Friends in this life that knew them and may have retained an intellectual remembrance of this knowledge in such sort that what happened to St. Paul may very well happen to them nevertheless preserving with proportion the inequality that is between the least and the greatest things But be the particularities of our happiness what they will in general it will be such in that happy day that I dare not attempt to describe it through fear of obscuring the splendor of it Assuredly I shall diminish by the feebleness of my Expressions the Efficacy of what he may conceive of it whoever he be who shall set himself very attentively to consider what I have said concerning the estate of each of us of the World and that of the whole Church When our Saviour appeared at his first Coming as all the Church was in a marvellous expectation of his appearance so those that saw and believed in him did thence receive an incomparable Contentment Simeon testifies that he could dye in peace having seen the Salvation of God in this little glorious Infant Zachary was ravished to see his forerunner the Virgin that Conceived and brought him forth had such Transports as cannot be expressed the Angels themselves that declared him to the Shepherds although they had no part neither in the need nor hopes of Redemption nevertheless conceived thence a marvellous joy at the sight of his miracles and the hearing of his Preaching some one cryed out blessed are those that see and hear him and then when he entred into Jerusalem on the day which is yet observed by the solemnity of boughs all the people cryed Osanna with unimaginable pleasure what will it be then to see him come accompanied with Angels in the glory of his Father with a shout with the sound of Trumpet and the voice of an Archangel making king the clouds his Chariots and preparing a Throne in the Air there to pronounce eternal judgments upon all the World and to confirm the hopes and promises of Salvation that he hath made to believers What Triumph was ever to be compared to a spectacle so glorious What pomp of a Conqueror did ever