THE GLORY and HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN OR A DISCOURSE Concerning the Blessed State of the Righteous after Death By Nathanael Ranew late of London Bookseller London Printed for N. R. and sold by J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat. 1694. TO THE READER Christian Reader I Dare not suppose thee in an Age of somuch Light and Knowledge to be ignorant of a future State and Condition that doth abide thee and all Men after this Life for this were to conceive of the contrary not only to the sentiments of all Christians but even of Heathens themselves Neither can I think any to be so far blinded and hardned as to believe that this State which shall befall all Men after Death to be the same unto all Persons whether they be good or bad for though the Wise Man tells us in Eccles 9.1 2. That in this Life All things come alike unto all Men and there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked to the Clean and to the Vnclean So that in the way of God's common Providential dealings with Men in this World no Man knoweth Love or Hatred by all that is before them Yet when Death and Judgment come a discriminating Sentence shall pass upon all Men According to what they have done in the Body whether it be good or bad And then as the Apostle speaks All those who have not obeyed the Truth but have lived in Sin and Vnrighteousness shall receive Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that hath thus done Evil But to them who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for Glory and Honour and Immortality shall be Eternal Life And of this none that live under the Light of the Gospel can be ignorant Now as to the former of these that State of Woe and Misery that is to be the Portion of Sinners in Hell it is not my design in the following Discourse to say any thing Having confined my Thoughts and Meditations therein unto the latter and that is that State of Bliss and Happiness that shall be the Portion of Holy Souls in Heaven All Men now will say they desire and seek after happiness but few there are that attain thereunto not that there is no such Thing or State attainable for Holiness always lays a sure Foundation for Happiness But Man being fallen from God and sunk into the Creature cannot without the help of Divine Grace raise up his Soul his Affections and Desires towards God towards Heaven and Heavenly things but takes up with what is suitable to his Earthly and Fleshly part and so the World and the Enjoyments thereof being adapted to the Inclinations of his present State and Condition here below accordingly with the greatest eagerness he pursues the Riches the Honours the Pleasures and Delights of this World as those things which when attained he vainly fansies will make him truly Happy but when he comes to enjoy them meets with Frustration and Disappointment All Men being forced sooner or later to subscribe unto what the Wisest of Men faith as a great Truth concerning all things under the Sun that they are but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Wouldst thou not Christian Reader when thou comest to die be eternally deceived in thy Hopes and Expectations of Happiness Let not the World and the Enjoyments thereof take up thy Thoughts and Affections now God hath provided the good things thereof and by his Care and Providence brings them to thee daily for thy use that with this Gracious and Liberal Allowance of his thou mayest serve him with the greater Chearfulness and Delight of Soul in thy Passage through this World But he never intended thou shouldst take up with them as thy Happiness Believe it God hath provided better things for holy Souls in another World he intends himself to be their Portion his Heaven to be their Habitation and Dwelling place Angels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles to be their Associates and Companions where they shall live in the light of God's Countenance see his Face behold his Glory and be filled with his Love to all Eternity O blessed State of infinite Bliss and Happiness beyond what words is able to express Well may holy Souls with wonder and amazement cry out with the Apostle and say Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor can it enter into the heart of Man to conceive what God hath provided for them that Love him And why mayest not thou who now castest thine Eyes upon these lines make one of that great number of holy Souls that shall be thus Eternally Happy and Blessed God hath not Excluded thee out of Heaven and why shouldest thou exclude and shut out thy self God is now displaying before thee the Excellencies and Glory of that Blessed State and wherefore doth he do so but to invite and draw Sinners to come and partake of this Happiness not that God needs us or any thing that we can do for he is as Happy without us as he can possibly be with us But we need him and cannot be happy without him Now therefore since he is pleased to continue the offers of such rich Grace and Mercy let none be found slighters and contemners thereof Disappoint not O Sinners the design of God in seeking to bring Souls to Heaven Frustrate not your own Expectations of Bliss and Happiness Make not your selves Eternally miserable by choosing any sinful course or walking in any allowed way of Wickedness Nor yet provoke God by any sinful delays or any sluggish and lazy desires and endeavours in seeking to obtain this Everlasting Happiness to deal with you as obstinate despisers and contemners thereof and swear in his Wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest If God may be Glorified and Souls receive benefit hereby unto Eternal Life the Author hath the desire of his Soul and an abundant Reward for what he hath done in the ensuing Discourse and that a Blessing from Heaven may make is thus Successful unto all that shall read it is and shall be the Prayer of the Publisher The CONTENTS CHAP. I. AN Introduction A State of Future Glory and Happiness proved What it is that makes the Happiness of Heaven so Excellent and Glorious with a short and brief Description thereof CHAP. II. A more particular Consideration of the Happiness of Heaven Of the Company and Society Believers shall enjoy in Heaven As 1. Communion with all the People of God 2. Communion with Angels 3. Enjoyment of Jesus Christ their Redeemer 4. Sight and Fruition of God What kind of Sight or Vision of God Saints shall have in Heaven Which shall be 1. Immediate and Clear 2. Transforming 3. Joyful 4. Permanent and Perpetual This Sight and Vision of God in Heaven will be a great Happiness because God is 1. An Vniversal Good 2. A Pure and unmixed Good 3. A Suitable Good 4. An All-sufficient Good 5. A Satisfying Good 6. An Everlasting Good
arose again for their Justification and Glorification that this was he that with the price of his own Blood not only bought their Pardon but purchased that glorious Inheritance for them which now they are instated into the possession of this must needs put a new Life of Joy into their Souls and create a new kind of Happiness in them which they never were acquainted with nor was it possible for them to understand before Christ is the Desire of all Nations the Joy of Angels the Delight of God himself he in whom he is always well pleased All the Glory and Happiness of Heaven is wrapp'd up in him The Treasures of the Divine Wisdom Love and Kindness which were sometimes hid and concealed are now laid open in Heaven to the view of all the Saints O with what ravishing Joy and Delight then must those Souls be eternally filled with that live in the Sight Possession of him as theirs for ever Is not his Love better than Wine Will not the lifting up of the light of his Countenance upon the Soul administer more cause of Joy and Rejoycing than the greatest increase of all worldly enjoyments whatsoever O is not this the Language of holy Souls His Love is Life yea his loving kindness is better than Life O how shouldst thou chide thy self O Believing Soul whose Faith gives thee an Interest in him that thou art so afraid of his Appearance Whence is it that thou art so backward to go unto him Is the Enjoyment of him in Glory who is all Love all Life all Joy all Peace a frightful thing How comes it to pass that thou art so unwilling to die and be for ever with him whom thou callest thy Saviour Hath he laid down his Life and shed his Blood to redeem thee and will he now make an eternal Slave of thee What hath his Ascension into Glory changed his Nature and rendered him less lovely or the Happiness of Heaven in the Enjoyment of him less desirable No certainly he is not less lovely in himself because of his Exaltation into Glory but the more Nor is the Happiness of Heaven in the Enjoyment of him less but the more desirable and the more easily to be obtained for as the Apostle says If when we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his Life And because he lives glorified in Heaven therefore shall Believers live with him there and therefore also should they be the more desirous to be there because he is there Awake therefore O ye drowsie Saints rouze your selves up out of your Security and Slothfulness for a careless indifferent frame of Spirit doth not become those who are Expectants of so great and glorious a Redeemer and of so great a Happiness as is the eternal Enjoyment of him O what a holy Impatience and Vnquietness of Soul should rather be found in Believers after this Blessed Redeemer Is it not he by whom you expect to escape the Wrath and Vengeance of God Was not his Body broken and his Blood poured forth to make an Oblation for your Souls Was it not he whose Death and Sufferings have made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for your Sins Is it not he who to deliver you from the Curse of the Law was himself made a Curse for you Is it not he by whom alone you escape everlasting Burnings and hope to obtain an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you Is there any thing either in this World or in the World to come that is comparable to him Look upon him well O Believing Souls both in respect of what he once was and in respect of what he now is and you cannot but say he is made up of Love Henceforth therefore wonder not O blind and ignorant World that the People of God express such passionate longing Desires after the Enjoyment of this Blessed Jesus but rather wonder at your selves that such Blindness and Darkness should be found within you that you should not be able to discern those Excellencies and that Loveliness that is in him Were the Eyes of your Understanding opened had you but a Spirit of discerning bestowed upon you to see into those glorious Excellencies and Perfections that are in the Lord Jesus and the Happiness that is in the Sight and Fruition of him in Heaven you would then say We see now there is the greatest Reason in the World why the Saints and People of God have such vehement Desires after him are so covetous of being in his Presence and beholding of his Glory For what Soul that knows him that hath tasted of his Love and experienced the Manifestations of his Grace and Favour towards it but doth most earnestly wish not only to see him but to live for ever with him O my Soul Whence is it then that thou that canst say thou lovest him in Truth and in Sincerity dost yet make it no more thy daily Care and Study to gain more and farther Knowledge of him and a more dear and intimate Acquaintance with him that so thou maist be brought into a more full and immediate Enjoyment of him And O thou infinitely Blessed Lord Jesus who hast all Loveliness and Amiableness in thee look down graciously upon thy poor Creatures and discover unto them more of those ravishing transcendent Beauties and Excellencies that are in thee and let us every day have more and farther insight into those never to be fully known Perfections of Glory and Loveliness that are in thy self that thereby we may be enabled not only to commend thee a thousand times more feelingly and affectionately unto others but may thereby also win upon yea command the Affections and Desires of all that hear of thee unto thee that nothing short of the Enjoyment of thy self and the Manifestations of thy Love and Favour in Eternal Glory may satisfie and content us or them but that we may continually be crying out in that known Language of thy Church Come Lord Jesus come quickly Fourthly and Lastly The Saints Happiness in Heaven consists in this That there they shall have the Vision and Enjoyment of God himself being always where he is seeing his Face and beholding his Glory Now in speaking to this great Happiness of the Saints the Beatifical Vision of God I shall content my self with those things that are most plain and will be most benificial Now the Sacred Scripture gives us an Account of this Great and Mysterious part of the Saints Happiness in many high and lofty expressions calling it sometimes a seeing of the Face of God Rev. 22.4 They shall see his Face Sometimes it is set forth by our becoming like unto God and seeing him as he is so in 1 John 3.2 Now says the Apostle we are the Sons of God but it doth not no nor can it yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall
you have continued waiting but a few days longes God will grant your Desires for when you come to Heaven whither Death will certainly and suddenly bring you Sin an unholy Heart and Nature shall never more afflict or trouble you for Sin that was here your Burthen to feel shall there be your Delight to be for ever without that impenitent unbelieving Heart those vain yea sinful Thoughts which were wont to lie down and rise up with you which did use to follow you to every Duty and accompany you in every Place and Service and which you could no more leave behind you when you went to Pray to Hear to Read or to Meditate than you could leave your selves behind you shall all be left behind you when you come to die they did and would keep you company while you lived but they shall not go one step with you beyond Death then you take your leave of them bidding an eternal Farewel to all Sin O my Soul when shall that blessed day come that thou shalt thus take thy leave of Sin never to wound thy Conscience never to defile thy Soul nor never to displease thy God thereby any more O what a blessed state will that be when Death shall send a godly Man to Heaven perfectly free from all Sin not only as to the Power of it but also as to the vexing and disquieting Presence of it where he shall spend ars Eternity in serving and praising of God without the least interruption imperfection or weariness of Soul for ever And doth not Death in this appear a Believer's great Friend in that what Prayers and Tears Sighs and Groans together with the assistance of the Spirit of God did gradually that is mortifie and destroy Sin that Death doth for a Believer at one blow perfectly freeing him from the Burthen and Being of Sin for ever Fourthly In Heaven the People of God shall arrive unto a Perfection of Grace and Holiness As all that the Saints have here is but mean compared to what they shall attain to hereafter so all that the Saints do here is but mean compared to what they shall be enabled to do hereafter Grace in a godly Man in this Life is in its minority and therefore the acting of Grace must needs be accordingly The Excellency and Beauty of a Saint lies inward in the hidden Man of the Heart or as the Psalmist speaks he is one that is all glorious within And because Grace in him is inward therefore its Excellency is not so visible and apparent Grace in a godly Man neither doth nor can shine forth in its Glory and Beauty here because Sin in him eclipses the splendor of its appearance The imperfection of Grace is discernable here but the Perfection and Beauty of Grace is neither known nor attainable here The highest degrees of Grace and Holiness that the best of God's People reach unto here comes infinitely short to what they shall attain to in Heaven It is true a little Grace in a Saint now makes him glorious in the eyes of those who have a Spirit of discerning to behold it in respect whereof the Saints are called the excellent ones of the Earth Psal 16.3 Now if the weakness and imperfection of Grace for that which the People of God attain to of Grace here it no more compared with what they shall attain to in Heaven if this weakness and imperfection of Grace be so excellent and glorious O how exceeding glorious will the perfection and beauty of Grace be hereafter How glorious have some of the Saints of God of old appeared when their Excellency hath chiefly appeared in the Oriency and sparkling Beauty but of some one particular Grace as for instance How glorious was Abraham for his Faith Moses for his meekness self-denial Nehemiah for his zeal for God and his Glory David for his Love to God and his Ordinances Job for his Patience S. Paul for his unwearied Industry and Laboriousness in the Work of God and the Service of Souls O how eminently glorious have the particular actings of these particular Graces in these Servants of God made them in all Ages insomuch that the Spirit of God hath thought good to record their Excellencies in the holy Scriptures and their Praise shall be in all the Churches of God to the end of the World Now if the Saints Eminency in some particular Graces have made them so glorious notwithstanding their Imperfections other ways how glorious and excellent will they appear when all that Grace and Holiness that shall accompany them to Heaven and is there necessary unto their Happiness that they may see and enjoy God to eternity shall be fully and compleatly perfected having nothing of the least allay of any spot or imperfection in their Graces or in their Persons to take off from the Beauty and Glory of the one or of the other for ever In Heaven Grace in a Saint is in its excellency and in its visibility there is Grace and nothing but Grace there is Grace and all Grace yea there is all Grace shining forth in its fulness and utmost perfection of Glory to eternity In this Life Grace in the People of God is never perfect in some things they are always defective in other things always wanting they are continually aiming at and going on unto Perfection though while they are here they do not attain unto it In the Work of Regeneration they are truly sanctified and made holy but it is in Heaven only that they are perfectly sanctified The Lord Jesus Christ now loves his Church and he hath abundantly manifested that he doth so in giving himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word as the Apostle speaks But he never presents it to himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle till he brings it to Heaven By a work of Sanctification he is now daily cleansing and purifying of it but the full Perfection and Beauty of Holiness is not put upon it till the Marriage between him and his Church be consummated in Glory Here in this Life there is much Imperfection in the Righteousness and Holiness of the Saints many Faults and Infirmities they have that others may censure and condemn and themselves ought to bewail and mourn for but in Heaven they shall be Faultless so saith the Apostle Jude 24. Whilst the Church is Militant upon Earth though she is black and hath her spots yet is she comely but when she comes to be Triumphant in Heaven then will she be as a beautiful Bride adorned with fulness and perfection of Grace and Holiness fitted and prepared for her Lord and Husband's Company Rev. 22.2 where every Saint shall behold and love the Blessed and Holy God and their dear Lord Jesus with a Love equal to Angels and Cherubims satiating and delighting their Souls in him with a Joy far exceeding the highest Joys that any of the People of God ever were
without any Satiety or Weariness Here on Earth they are often starting aside to the Creature with an inordinate Love and Delight but in Heaven there shall be an eternal fixedness of Soul with infinite Complacency and Delight in God Here our Affections are under great Irregularities To instance in two briefly and they are the Affections of Love and Joy As to the Affection of Love It is well known unto all what is a Christian's commanded Duty namely To love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind and with all our strength And this Love to God operating by Love to our Neighbours is so acceptable a Duty that it is called by the Apostle the fulfilling of the Law But alas how do the best of God's Servants fall short in this respect when all they attain to is only to love God in Sincerity and with some degree of prevalency above all other Enjoyments But to love God so as to desire him so as to rejoice and delight in him above all other things with the utmost extremity of Love and Affection in Perpetuity and Constancy Oh where is the Soul that can be found that doth sol Vain and foolish yea sinful Objects also entangle our Affections and draw away our Hearts from God to an over-loving and delighting in them and to an impairing and weakning of our Love and Affections towards God How often do we meet with such Complaints as these in the mouths of God's People Oh that we could love God more Oh that we could love Christ more but alas we cannot Their Faith discovers to them a wonderful Amiableness in God and Christ which draws out the Desires of their Souls after them So saith the Apostle to you that believe he is precious or desirable But yet they find they cannot love God as they ought nor as they desire to do for by reason of that Earthliness that is still in them their Hearts and Affections are divided and carried out after other Objects so that as the Apostle complains they cannot do the things that they would But now in Heaven these Complaints shall cease and all the disorders and Irregularities of the Affections shall be cured and the Soul shall perfectly and everlastingly love God and contemplate the Excellencies and Perfections that are in him with unspeakable Delight and Satisfaction For where ever there is the Actings of these Affections it always carrieth much Pleasure and Delight along with it especially where the Object beloved is deserving and the Affections are strong towards it Now in Heaven the Object is most deserving to be beloved for it is the ever blessed God and the Affections of the Soul will be strongest for there Love shall be in its Height and Perfection and that which results from hence must be infinite Satisfaction and Delight unto the Soul so that it cannot chuse but it must love God There holy Souls shall have continual views of the perfect Beauty of him who is altogether lovely yea who is Love it self the sight of whom will not only wonderfully draw their Hearts and Affections towards him but fill their Souls with continual Ravishments of Love and Joy in him so that it is impossible they should do otherwise than rejoice and delight in him O this Life of Love which Saints always live in Heaven It is that which fills them with unspeakable Satisfaction and Contentment yea Love in Heaven is that which will be both the Work and the Reward of a Saint at once and that in Constancy and Perpetuity And so for a Saint's Joy which is another Affection of the Soul How irregularly doth it frequently act we rejoice when we should mourn and we mourn when we should rejoice or if not so yet we often exceed in our Joy and Delight Commonly it is with us in our Enjoyments of the World as it is with us in our Losses in the World When we lose the Comforts of the World we over grieve and are cast down so excessively as if we had nothing left to take any Delight or Comfort in And just so is it with us in our Enjoyments of the World when God blesseth us with outward Comforts we over-love and delight in them so that that which God gives us to draw our Hearts nearer to himself by the Excesses of our Joy and Delight in them takes away our Hearts more from him insomuch that we are more forgetful of God by our inordinate rejoicing in what he bestows upon us A very evil and ungrateful return unto God for his Kindness to us but yet it is that which we are very inclinable unto Hence therefore is it that we are so often caution'd against all excessive Love of or Delight in things here below for Love to and Joy and Delight in any thing always go together the Apostle therefore bids us 1 John 3.16 Love not the World nor the things of the World if any Man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Not that it is absolutely unlawful to express any kind of Love to or Delight in Worldly Things But it is as if he had said so hard and difficult a thing it is for Christians in loving and delighting in worldly Enjoyments to keep their Affections within their bounds and to express no more of Joy and Delight in those things than is due to them that it is almost necessary to lay a Command upon them not to love the World at all such a proneness is there in the best of Christians to transgress when any allowance is given unto these carnal Hearts and Affections of ours towards worldly Enjoyments It is true a Believer is not only allowed but commanded to rejoice yea and to rejoice always and none have more cause so to do than he But it is not in the persons or things of this World but in God so runs the Command 1 Thes 5. Rejoice always in the Lord and again I say rejoice But yet all rejoicing in outward Enjoyments is not forbidden him neither A Christian who is accepted of God may as the wise Man speaks eat his Bread with Joy and drink his Wine with a merry Heart Eccles 4.7 that is he may rejoice and be chearful in the use of those Comforts and Refreshments that God bestows upon him But yet in the greatest abundance of them his Moderation ought to be known unto all Men and still he must rejoice in them as if he rejoiced not that is use them and rejoice in them with a holy kind of Indifferency of Soul But now here is the great failing of Christians they exceed those bounds and limits that God allows them letting out their Hearts and Affections inordinately towards them But now in Heaven these delightful Affections of the Soul shall be regulated A Saint's Joy there shall be always rightly placed and duly bounded God will there be the only Object of our Joy and the right bounding of our Joys
and Delights in him will be to joy and rejoice in him without bounds and limits Let our rejoicing in him be never so great it cannot be so great as he deserves Were it possible for one glorified Soul in Heaven to contain in it all the Affections of Love and Delight that are scattered up and down in all the Saints and Angels in Heaven and to put forth the Extremity of those Affections towards the great and blessed God in loving and delighting in him to the utmost of its Capacity yet when that Soul hath acted with the greatest ardency of all these Affections towards God still is there more of Worth and Excellency in God than all these Affections can reach unto and infinitely more doth he still deserve to be loved and delighted in It is true a gracious Soul in Heaven shall have other Objects to delight in as Saints and Angels and the glorious place of its Habitation the highest Heavens But whatever Joy or Delight the Soul expresseth in or towards any of these Objects it is because of the Divine Excellencies and Perfections that are communicated to them and do shine forth gloriously in them But still God is the chiefest Object of their Joy Here on Earth a Saint's Joy is chiefly in God Hab. 3. I will rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my Salvation Psal 34.2 My Soul shall make her boast in the Lord Psal 33.1 Rejoice in the Lord O ye Righteous And if it be thus with the People of God here much more will it be so with them in Heaven that which is now their Duty shall there be their eternal Reward always to rejoice in God for in his presence is fulness of Joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore And oh what a support may this be to a Soul that by the excess of its Joy and Delight in worldly Enjoyments hath provoked God to hide his Face from it and being sensible of its Sin is returning unto God seeking after him with weeping and mourning because of its offending him though as yet it cannot find God graciously smiling upon it Go on still O Soul seek him and mourn after him and remember for thy Comfort though weeping may endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning there is a time coming when thy Sorrow shall be turned into Joy yea when thou shalt have fullness and perpetuity of Joy in Conjunction for it shall be that in which thou shalt bathe thy Soul with infinite Pleasure and Delight to all Eternity I shall now close this Chapter with a short Discourse of that which is a necessary addition unto all that hath been said for the compleating the Saints Happiness in Heaven and that is the perpetuity or eternity thereof This is a Crown unto our Crown of Glory that it shall be eternal It is true God is the chief Happiness of a Saint in Heaven but tho' God be the chief yea the only Happiness of glorified Souls and Heaven it self were no Happiness to a Saint without God there yet if it be not an eternal Enjoyment of God in Heaven a Believer's Happiness there would be as it were no Happiness to him for the greater the Good is that is enjoyed if mixed with continual Fears of losing it the less Joy and Delight is there unto any in the possessing of it because the fear of being deprived of so great a Good abates so much of the Happiness and Comfort that otherwise would accrue unto the Soul in the enjoying of it that it makes it to be very little comparatively to what it would be That which otherwise would be unexpressibly delectable in the Enjoyment by our Fears of losing it gives little Contentment to us while we are possessed of it Now though there be just Cause for us to fear the loss of all earthly Enjoyments and possibly it may be necessary that God should suffer such Fears to prevail upon us that worldly things may have less of our Hearts and Affections and himself the more yet as to Heaven and the Happiness thereof there is no ground for any such Fears Nay though the Happiness of Heaven be Ten thousand times greater than what we can promise our selves in all worldly Enjoyments yet that which adds to the excellency of that Happiness is this that it is a thousand times more certain and secure than any worldly thing can be The Happiness of Heaven is not only a full and compleat Happiness but it is also a secure Happiness It is a full Happiness holy Souls though they are never satisfied till then yet are they then fully satisfied In Heaven there is a Cessation of Desire In the enjoyment of God in that glorious Place there is more of Happiness than the Soul is able to receive or bear And as this Happiness is full and satisfactory so is it also secure it is a Happiness that cannot be lost The Gates of the New Jerusalem that is of Heaven are therefore said to stand open to shew there is no fear of any Enemies Approach to take away the Happiness of a Saint there God will never take away the Happiness of a Saint from him the Devil nor Sin cannot take it away neither shall Man himself either lose or throw it away The Happiness of a Saint in Heaven is not like the Happiness of Man in Paradise which was in his own keeping and so was soon lost by him but it is in God's hands and so it cannot be lost As the Power of God now preserves and keeps a Saint for the enjoyment of Heaven therefore says the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.5 You are kept by the mighty Power of God through Faith unto Salvation So the Love the Grace the Mercy of God that hath bestowed the Happiness of Heaven upon them will for ever secure the Enjoyment of it to them And as the Happiness of Heaven cannot be lost so it shall never decay it is therefore called by the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.4 An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away And says the same Apostle chap. 5.4 When the chief Shepherd shall appear you shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away neither Moth nor Thief comes there neither internal nor external Means of Corruption or Decay Here on Earth the sweetest Comforts soonest fade as the sweetest Rose soonest withers But in Heaven there 's an eternal Freshness and Greenness upon a Saint's Blessedness When glorified Souls have sung the Song of Moses and the Lamb Millions of Millions of Years it is a new Song still and as pleasant and delightful as ever And that a Saint's Happiness may be perfect and compleat it is that which shall never have an end Heaven is not a Tenement at Will but an Inheritance purchased for the Saints by the Blood of Christ and setled upon them for ever We know says the Apostle that when this earthly house of our Tabernacle shall be dissolved we have a Building of
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me on my Throne even a I have overcome and am set down with my Father on his Throne Rev. 3.21 Believers are the greatest Heirs in all the World for as the Apostle speaks They have the Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come And says the same Apostle All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Life or Death or things present or things to come all is yours and you are Christ's and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 Secondly The Certainty of a future state of Glory and Happiness may be demonstrated from the great Undertaking of the Lord Jesus Christ And indeed this was a Work fit for none but him to undertake for none else were able to accomplish it Whatever worth or excellency there is either in all the Men on Earth or in all the Saints and Angels in Heaven should they have proffered to have done and suftered all that their Natures are capable of to have purchased the Love and Favoun of God to have been enjoyed though but by one Soul and that but for one moment of time in Heaven it would have been rejected and despised by God But now the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ were of equal worth and value with Heaven and the Enjoyment of God to eternity for his Blood was the Blood of God and therefore the shedding of it deserved the Presence Love and Favour of God to be bestowed upon Believers as their Portion for ever This Jesus Christ hath done for this he hath both suffered and died and because he hath made a Purchase of these things with his Blood Believers shall therefore enjoy them for Christ will not lose his Purchase nor shall Believers therefore lose their Happiness The bringing many Sons unto Glory was the End which Christ designed in the laying down of his Life and therefore he willingly submitted unto the Way by which he was to accomplish it and that was by his suffering Death and from hence therefore the People of God are said to obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith in him Thirdly Another Ground or Reason we have to believe a state of Glory and Happiness hereafter may be taken from the Spirit 's introductory or preparatory working in the Hearts of Believers here in this Life By this now I mean the Beginning of Grace wrought in the Soul for Grace and Glory are one and the same thing Grace is Glory and Glory is Grace all the Difference between them is only in the degree Grace is Glory begun and Glory is Grace perfected And when the Spirit of God works Grace in any Soul he then gives the first Fruits the Earnest or Fore-taste of Glory Grace therefore is sometimes called Glory in Scripture so we read 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory unto Glory that is from one degree and measure of Grace unto another And Grace there is called Glory because when Grace is advanced unto its highest degree of perfection it is Glory Now where ever any receive the first fruits of Heaven in Grace and Holiness they shall receive the full Harvest of Glory it self Grace therefore is called the Spirit 's forming or fitting of the Soul for Glory Hence the Apostie speaking of himself and others as groaning and longing to be cloathed with their House which is frown Heaven that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life In 2 Cor. 5.3 4. he adds in the 5th verse He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit which in Ephes 1.14 is called the Earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased Possession Where ever Grace is in truth it is always in Growth and it shall be in perfection So saith the Apostle Phil. 1.6 He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the Day of Jesus Christ Where the Spirit gives unto any the Nature and Disposition of the Children of God he thereby gives them an undoubted Right and Title unto Heaven and Glory yea such a Right and Title as shall never be lost or broken off So saith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 17. For the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint-Heirs with Jesus Christ and if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Fourthly and lastly Imight argue the Certainty of a future state of Glory and Happiness from the constant believing Hopes and Expectations yea and Sufferings also of the Saints and People of God in all Ages If Believers had hope only in this Life they were then as the Apostle speaks of all men most miserable But it is not so for their Hopes and Happiness lies in those things that are to be enjoyed beyond Time even in Eternity And hence it is that they have such strong Consolation as bears up their Souls above all the Sufferings that they meet with in this present Life because they have sled for Refuge to lay hold on the Hope that is set before them which Hope they have as an Anchor of the Soul that is sure and stedfast because it entreth into that within the Vail Heb. 6.18 19. It is the Nature of the New Creature where-ever it is to cause the Soul to look upwards and hence it is that the People of God are said to be begotten again unto a lively hope of an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them 1 Pet. 1.3 4. From this now springs great Joy and Consolation and therefore upon this account it is that Believers are said to rejoyce in hopes of the Glory of God Rom. 35.2 Should I now attempt to lay down a Description of Heaven that Place of perfect Bliss and Happiness I should prevent my self in what I intend to speak more fully and largely to afterwards Only in the General to excite and quicken our Desires and Affections after it take this following short Sum of it Heaven is a Place where there is a total and everlasting exclusion of all that is evil and imperfect and where there is a full perfection and perpetual enjoyment of all that is Good and that in the largest latitude and extent of it In Heaven there is nothing to afflict or torment but every thing that is satisfactory and delightful There is nothing of Sin there and therefore nothing of Sorrow Saint in Heaven enjoy the best Company There is the Great and Glorious God seen and known in all his glorious Excellencies and Perfections There is the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Life
for my Name sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Thus whatever condition the People of God are in yet still they ought always to joy and rejoyce in God and the Reason is this because they have the special Presence of God with them and where that is there are frequent though secret discoveries of God's Love unto them How often doth God lift up the light of his Countenance upon such whilst they are attending upon him in holy Duties secretly whispering to their Souls that they are accepted in the Beloved vouchsafing to them some Discoveries of the invisible and unseen but yet real Glory and Happiness of Heaven and of their Interest in it whereby their Souls are even ravished with an excess of strange and unusual Joy and Delight beyond what they are able to express And yet all this is whilst as the Apostle speaks Believers walk by Faith and not by Sight Now if this little Sight and these small Enjoyments that the Saints have of God here which in comparison of what they shall see and enjoy of God hereafter may be said to be no Sight for so the Apostle calls it 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom as yet having not seen if this Sight of God which as it follows in the next Words is only our Believing in God if this fills the Soul of a Believer with so great Joy and Delight what then shall the Beatifical Vision of God in Heaven do If Faith and Hope do so ravish the Souls of Believers with Joy and Delight even then whilst we are absent from the Lord for as the Apostle speaks Whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. If yet the Joy of Faith and Hope be so great O what then shall the Joy of Vision be when Believers shall not only be absent from the Body and present with the Lord but shall be ever present with the Lord both in Soul and Body seeing him face to face and enjoying him as he is Surely this Joy must needs be unspeakably great and glorious indeed this Sight of God is that which will not only amaze the Eye with wonder but ravish the Heart with eternal Ecstasies of Joy and Delight Fourthly The Saints Sight and Vision of God in Heaven shall be permanent and perpetual In this Life the People of God have not always the Presence of God with them nor the Manifestations of his Love and Favour towards them but are often in the dark for either they sin away God's Presence from them which is most frequent or else God for wise and holy Ends sees good to withdraw himself from them for a time and when either of these happen it is a sad time with such Souls especially if Sin hath been the Cause of it Such therefore walk very dejectedly and the Truth is their Case is very sad but yet it is that which many of the People of God have experienced See how the Church complains Esa 49.14 But Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me So the Spouse Cant. 5.6 I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawn himself my Soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no Answer And as it hath been thus with the People of God formerly so sad Experience tells us it is so with many of them still Sometimes they enjoy something of God his Presence and the Manifestations of his Love towards them in a Duty and O how sweet and delightful is it to their Souls when they thus meet with God! It is Heaven upon Earth but these things do not last for when Duties are ended the People of God grow careless and remiss yield to Temptations give way to Sin become vain and worldly and so lose the Presence of God by reason whereof they walk in Darkness have no Manifestations of his Love and Favour towards them insomuch that their Souls are even ready to faint and sink within them under a despair of Mercy This now is the Case of many a Child of God in this World sometimes he hath the benign Instuences of the Divine Favour darted into his Soul which makes him greatly to rejoyce but what God thus graciously gives he doth not wisely and holily retain These joyful Seasons abide not always with the People of God but they soon lose them the Light of God's Countenance is eclipsed and his Face hid from them by reason of their Foolishness But it is not thus in Heaven no Sin comes there to intercept between the Face of God and those holy Souls for ever There is no complaining of any Saint in Heaven that God hath forsaken him or hides his Face from him But it shall ever be with those holy Ones as our Lord tells us it is now with their Angels Matth. 18.10 They shall always behold the Face of God in Glory This blessed Object of the Saints Happiness in Heaven shall never be withdrawn from them to eternity nor shall their Sight ever be wearied with beholding of it nay without this constant Vision and enjoyment of God Heaven would not be a Happiness great enough to fill and satisfie the Desires of the Saints Their Souls are so raised so capacious that they cannot be content with any thing even in Heaven it self unless they enjoy God there Should God bestow upon them the Glory of all the Creatures either in Heaven or in Earth should he confer upon them the Glory of all the Kings and Emperors in the World yea should he add to that the Glory of the Sun Moon and Stars nay should he add to them the Glory of all the Angels and Cherubims in Heaven yet still they would say they had not enough to make them happy for all these are not God When therefore God hath given Heaven to the Saints he must there give them the Vision and Enjoyment of himself or else they will not account themselves happy Nay I will go a little farther still it is not the Vision and Enjoyment of God in Heaven for a little time suppose it were for a few Days or Years nay were it for many Thousands of them this would not give their Souls full Satisfaction and Contentment unless they could eternally enjoy God This only can make them compleatly happy and now and never till now do they say they have enough And O how sweet is this Word Ever unto the Saints in Heaven in the sense I am speaking of Ever to be with the Lord ever to have him smile upon the Soul ever to behold his Face ever to have his Presence with it and ever to be under the Manifestations of his Love and Favour Here here is Heaven and Happiness indeed thus to see and enjoy God for ever And so much for the First Thing What kind of Sight or Vision of God the Saints shall have in Heaven Secondly Wherein doth it appear that this Vision of God
refined Nature of the Soul yea it is a great Affront and Abuse that we put upon our Spiritual Heaven-born Souls when we give them nothing to feed upon or to delight in but what the Dregs of Earthly Enjoyments will afford them Alas the Soul is of so pure and refined a Constitution that it cannot live in much less be delighted with the foggy thick Air of Earthly and Sensual Enjoyments It is a debasing the noble and high-born Soul of Man to attempt to match it with the low and base things of this World Spiritual Beings and Existences must have spiritual Objects to be pleased and delighted with for they can take no Delight in other things because they are unsuitable to them But now when Souls are joyned unto God spiritual things are joyned unto that which is spiritual the spiritual Soul unto God who is a Spirit and the God of Spirits And therefore from the Soul 's enjoying of God and having eternal Communion with him who is the Father of Spirits those Joys Delights that hereby will everlastingly fill the Soul must needs be inexpressibly great and glorious And the Reason is this because here is a suitableness between the Soul and the Object to which it is united and Suitableness always produceth Love and where there is Love there will be Joy and Delight And always the more of Suitableness there is between one Person and another or between a Person and an Object still the more of Love and the more of Love the more of Joy and Delight Thus now it is between God and the Soul no Object so suitable unto the Soul as God no Object so loved and desired by the Soul as God and consequently no greater Joy and Delight can befal the Soul than in the eternal Enjoyment of God And this shall be the Happiness of the Saints in Heaven for ever Fourthly God is an All-sufficient Good and therefore the Enjoyment of him must needs be a great Happiness to the Saints in Heaven Were it possible for a Man to live in this World free from all Pain and Suffering in the Enjoyment of all outward Abundance even to the utmost of what there is in all the Creatures to make a Man happy yet if all that Good that he enjoys be not enough if it doth not answer all his Wants and fill all his Desires to the full so that he can crave nothing more this Man notwithstanding all his Enjoyments hath not attained unto Happiness It is true he is in a happier condition than most men are in regard whereof possibly he is become the Envy of his Neighbours but yet is he not compleatly happy because there is an Insufficiency in all things here below to make a Man happy The Philosopher tells us that Happiness is a State wherein there is an aggregation or meeting together of all good things whatsoever So that according to this Definition of Happiness if a Man could be supposed to enjoy all good things and yet want but one that Man could not be a happy Man But God is an All-sufficient Good and in the Enjoyment of him we enjoy all that is good He is Self-sufficient for himself and All-sufficient to his Creatures This Title he gives himself Gen. 17.1 I am says he to Abraham God all-sufficient There is in him a Sufficiency of all that is desirable an immense Fulness an Ocean of Goodness all that Good that is in all other things whatsoever is in him with the addition of an incomprehensible Over-plus Whatever Good any have found in Relations Friends Health in Learning Wisdom Wealth and Honours all this and much more is to be found in the enjoyment of one God The whole World and God put together are not at all more excellent than God alone for whatever Excellency there is in the Creature it is more eminently and transcendently in God already all Additions to him therefore signifie nothing Nay let me add all the Creatures in the World if they stand by themselves are but so many Cyphers that signifie nothing unless the great God as a Solid Number be added to them Set God aside and in the whole Creation there is not an All-sufficiency to be found for one Soul But that Soul that enjoys God hath an All-sufficiency such an one may say with the Apostle I have all I abound I am full and with Holy David The Lord is my Portion I shall not want For having him who is all to be ours we have All. And this now is the Happiness of the Saints in Heaven that there God shall be all in all unto them Fifthly God is a satisfying Good and therefore the Enjoyment of him must needs be a great Happiness to the Saints in Heaven Pleasure and Delight is of the Essence of Happiness and flows from that satisfaction that our Desires receive in the enjoyment of a Good we possess And whatever it be that we enjoy if it be not enough to fill and satisfie our Appetites from craving more we are still short of Happiness let our Enjoyments be what they will Such a Good now is God a Good beyond whom there is nothing imaginable to be conceived and therefore it is impossible there should or can be any thing desired But nothing else is so if we leave God out whatever we take in the Heart will still be capable of desiring more All the World and all the Creatures that it is stock'd withal should they conspire and meet together to make up a Happiness for one Soul they could not do it God hath not given a Commission to any thing here below no nor to all of them put together to give us Contentment and Satisfaction he hath commidionated the things of the World to feed us to cloath us to strengthen us and to refresh us in the House of our Pilgrimage but it is only himself that can give us Contentment and Satisfaction Worldly Things are so far from giving us Contentment that there is this Curse of God upon them all that whoever sets his Heart and Affections inordinately upon them shall never be satisfied with them for as the Wise Man saith Eccles 5.10 He that loveth Silver shall not be satisfied with Silver nor he that loveth Abundance with Encrease Now the true Reason why nothing here below can give Satisfaction and Contentment unto the Soul is because none of these Things are so good as the Soul nor none of them are so great as to be able to fill up the vast capacity of the Soul The Soul of Man is like unto a bottomless Gulf throw in what you will of worldly things nay throw in the whole World it self yet is there a Vacuity and Hollowness that cannot be filled up thereby Moreover the Soul of man is of a Noble and Excellent Being and next to Angels the Top and Flower of the Creation and all Things here below are inferiour to it nay they are Dregs and Lees compared to it Now that which
regard they are free from any Mixtures The Joys of the Wicked are always mixed with Fear and Sorrow and so are oftentimes the Joys of the Saints also And herein God manifests great Wisdom and Goodness to his People thus to temper their Joys Even as it is with Men of weak Constitutions who must have their Wine mingled with Water for fear of distempering their Bodies And so must the Godly in this Life such is their Weakness have their Joys mingled with Fears and Sorrows lest they should grow proud or wanton Sometimes their Joys are mixed with Fear Hence it is Psalm 2.11 that we are commanded to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoice with trembling And thus we read of the two Women Matth. 28.8 who though assured by Angels that Christ was risen yet 't is said they departed from the Sepulchre with fear and great joy And so is it with a godly Man though by an Eye of Faith he beholds the Death and Sufferings of Christ and looking into his Grave is assured that he is risen from thence for his Justification and Salvation yet cannot but have his heart filled with a fearful trembling kind of Joy And as a Saint's Joy here is mixed with Fear so is it also sometimes mixed with Sorrow for when a Believer by Faith looks upon Christ crucified and considers that a person so infinitely great and glorious should die such a painful shameful cursed Death for so vile a Sinner and so great an Enemy unto God as he was the consideration of this so great and incomprehensible a Love manifested towards him in reconciling God and him together in delivering him from Wrath and Hell and in obtaining Eternal Life for him in Heaven Though this Love of Christ in doing all this for him cannot but affect him with great Joy yet the Consideration of his Sins that pierced and wounded yea crucified the Lord of Life and Glory cannot but break his Heart with godly Sorrow But now in Heaven the Joy of a Saint will be free from all mixtures both of Sorrow and Fear there shall be no Sorrow for present Troubles nor any Fears of future Dangers all their Sorrows will then be turned into Joy The sight of their Eyes will then affect their Hearts that is the sight and knowledge of the great God the Supreme and Insinite Good whom the Saints shall always have with them in Heaven is that which will fill and ravish their Souls with unspeakable Joy Secondly the Joys of a Saint in Heaven are spiritual Joys Now spiritual things are things both of the greatest Reality and of the greatest Excellency Spiritual things are things of the greatest Reality all other things comparatively are not they are such things as have no Being no Subsistence therefore says the Wise Man Why wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not speaking of the admired things of the World We do but abusively call Men that abound with worldly Enjoyments rich substantial Men for Substance is no where but with God he only is the true substantial Good the things of this World are no more than a shadow If a Man were hungry would painted Bread satisfie him if a Man were starving with Cold would painted Fire warm him No why truly all the things of this World will appear no better to a Man when he comes to die there 's no Comfort nor Satisfaction to be fetch'd from them The Reality and Substantialness of Good is only laid up in God and in the Enjoyment of him who is the Saint's Happiness both on Earth and in Heaven There is a Vanity as in all the Troubles of the World so also in all the Comforts of the World There is a Vanity in the Troubles that the Saints endure they are but skin-deep a varnish of Trouble so says the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things And as it is with the Troubles of the World so is it with the Comforts of the World all that sense looks at it is meerly out-side and appearing all the Enjoyments of the World are but a shadow an appearance of that which is Good God and Heaven are Realities but whatever else is Good is but appearingly so The things of the World are not when they are they are not in Reality when they are in Appearance It is a very great mistake to think nothing to be real but what we can touch and handle with our hands or what we can see with our Eyes such as Gold Silver Houses Lands these are not really substantially good things they make a fair show outwardly they have a Gaudery and Excellency as to Sense but nothing of real Excellency as to the Soul Nothing is real but what is spiritual though the Body be more seen than the Soul yet the Soul is a more real Good because it is a spiritual Good and comes nearest to God who is a Spirit and who only is so says the Prophet speaking concerning God Isai 43.11 who only art and there is none besides thee God Christ Grace and Heaven these are spiritually and substantially good and therefore it is said of Christ I cause them that love me to inherit Substance Prov. 8.21 And the Apostle tells the believing Hebrews Heb. 10.34 Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your Goods knowing that in Heaven you have a better and an enduring Substance The Joys and Delights of Heaven they are real because they are spiritual But this is not all for the Saints Joys in Heaven because they are spiritual they are therefore excellent yea the most excellent There is nothing that is earthy in Heaven but all of a spiritual and refined Nature and therefore the more real and the more excellent and by how much the more spiritual by so much the more real and the more excellent also All Joy and Delight placed upon any thing below God is carnal and earthly that which hath dregs in it and comes not up to the Excellency of the Soul it may refresh the Senses and delight the outward Man but it reacheth not the Soul and Conscience it must be something that is spiritual for its Nature and refined for its Excellency that must suit with and be the Delight of a Soul that is spiritual and such is Heaven and the Joys and Delights that are there superlatively excellent and spiritual flowing into the noblest and most excellent part of Man his Soul and Spirit from God who is a Spirit Thirdly The Joys of Heaven are full Joys The Psalmist calls them Fulnesses of Joy and Rivers of Pleasures for the abundance of them Psal 116.11 And the Apostle speaking of Believers tells us 1 Pet. 1.8 That though now they see him not yet believing they rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory If now the Joy of Faith in the Promises of God from some small experience of his Love and Favour to the Soul be above
expression what will be the Joy of the Beatifical Vision of God in Heaven If now the believing Soul doth so greatly rejoyce in hearing from its Lord and Saviour in preaching and reading of his Word wherein there are such secret Messages of Love sent down from Heaven unto it O what will be the Joy of such a Soul in seeing him and dwelling with him for ever It shall never be said unto the Saints in Heaven what our Lord said unto his Disciples Hitherto you have asked nothing ask and you shall receive that your Joy may be full No the Joys of the Blessed in Heaven are always perfect and full For how can it be otherwise when there is nothing in Heaven but what is Matter of Joy to the Saints They are there in their Father's House come to the Inheritance and Possession of Children in an everlasting glorious Kingdom where they continually behold the Face of God and of the Lamb. The Joys of Heaven far exceed not only all earthly Joys such as the Joy of Marriage the Joy of Harvest but the Joy of Ordinances the Joy of Faith yea the Joy of the Holy Ghost All these Joys are swallowed up in Heaven and are almost as no Joys compared with the Joys thereof for in that holy Place there is nothing to disturb or to diminish the Joys of the Saints for ever O why then do not the People of God more fetch their Joys and Delights from Heaven while they are here This if any thing should comfort their Hearts and support their Spirits under all the Troubles they meet with here for though this World he a Valley of Tears yet in Heaven there will be Fulness of Joy and Rivers of Pleasures of which they may drink as deep and take in as much as their Hearts can hold though enlarged to their utmost capacity Fourthly The Joys of Heaven are permanent and everlasting and this makes it full Consolation indeed When our Lord told his Disciples he was to leave them and to return to Heaven unto his Father their Hearts were filled with Sorrow thereupon what course now doth our Lord take to comfort them Why he tells them John 16.20 Their Sorrow should be turned into Joy But when was this to be Why it was when he should come again and receive them to himself Not that they were to be without comfort until then no for he tells them when he departed he would send the Comforter to them who was to continue with them while they continued in the World But the Fulness and Perfection of their Joy they were to wait for till they come to Heaven and then when he shall come for that end and purpose to receive them to himself their Hearts should rejoyce and their Joy no Man should take from them for at God's right hand there are Pleasures for evermore A Believer hath always cause of Rejoycing in God but by reason of many sharp Trials that God sees good to lay upon his People there are some sad interruptions of his Joy for a time The Joy that the People of God partake of in this Life is like the Joy of the Husbandman in time of Harvest which though it be great for the present yet is it soon over and if he expect to partake of any more of the same nature he must first be at the pains and trouble of a Seeds-time So after the People of God have had their Joys here they again sow in Tears before they receive another crop of Comfort It is in Heaven only that our Joy will be everlasting there is fulness of Joy without any mixture of Sorrow a continual Feast a Joy that is ever in fulness and perfection even as the Fruits are in time of Harvest A Believer shall never sow in Tears there but have a perpetual Joy without weariness because there shall continually arise infinite variety of fresh Delights in God which shall fill the Soul with a continual Festival of Joy for ever Sixthly In Heaven the Saints shall partake of excellent Glory and Honour Heaven is the Palace of the great King of Glory the Presence-Chamber where he unvails himself and manifests his Glory both to Saints and Angels and this indeed is the most glorious Sight in Heaven and that which makes Heaven to be the most glorious Place We read in Acts 6.15 That when Stephen stood before the Councel his Face did shine with an Angelical Brightness This was a glorious Sight to see the Face of a Man to shine as the Face of an Angel But this is nothing compared with that Glory with which the Saints shall shine when they shall stand before the great God of Heaven seeing him face to face The Scripture describing to us this part of the Saints Happiness in Heaven abounds with variety of Expressions that discover the Greatness and Excellency thereof Thus the Saints Glory there is set forth by the Glory of Kings at their Coronation and taking possession of their Kingdoms which is the greatest and highest of all worldly Glory Every Saint in Heaven is a Crowned King having taken possession of a glorious Kingdom prepared for them before the foundations of the world when also they receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Sometimes it is described by the Glory of the Sun Thus our Lord tells us Matth. 13.43 The Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Sometimes it is compared to the Glory of the Angels who as they excel in strength so do they also excel in Glory all the Princes of the Earth Hence we read the Saints in Heaven shall not only he like unto but equal with the Angels Luke 22.36 Sometimes also this Glory of the Saints is set forth by the Glory of Christ himself who is the Lord of Glory which is the highest pitch of Glory that can be Thus we read that when Christ shall come at the last Day to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in them that believe the Saints also shall then appear with him in Glory Col. 3.4 Shining gloriously by reason of his Glory that he will put upon them for then shall they be made like unto him for ever seeing him as he is so says the Apostle 1 John 3.12 Sometimes the Glory of Heaven is called a weight of Glory so we read 2 Cor. 4.17 An exceeding excessive eternal weight of Glory High Expressions setting forth the Glory of Heaven and almost to an Hyperbole but that Christ and Heaven can never be Hyperbolically expressed Sometimes again this glorious State of Believers is called Eternal Glory 2 Tim 2.10 That they may attain that Salvation that is in Christ with eternal Glory So 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all Grace who hath called you to his eternal Glory Worldly Honour and Glory is transitory inconstant and vanishing The Fashion of the World passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 And the Glory of Man says St. Peter is as the Flower of
Families and particular Persons which peevish Men were wont here to find fault with be all disclosed and made appear to be so just and righteous yea so necessary and seasonable that those very things which here were a Temptation to us to deny God shall in Heaven prove a powerful Engagement for us to praise God And then shall we not so properly be satisfied with what his Providence hath brought about as ravished with the Wisdom and Beauty that we shall behold in it But in a more especial manner shall we be transported with Admiration and Gratitude when the great God shall vouchsafe to discover to each particular glorified Soul in Heaven the reasonableness of all his Dispensations towards them making visible to them not only how necessary and righteous but how merciful and gracious he was in bringing those very Afflictions upon them which they usually accounted severe Dispensations there being no Rod that ever God took into his hand to chastise them withal that ever came sooner fell heavier or abode longer upon them than the Occasion that extorted it from him did require it should And though sometimes their Expectations were disappointed yet was it always a happy Disappointment for them because intended by God to secure their Title unto far better things which now they enjoy than any they could hope for here And who is there that hath tasted the pleasurable and delightful Life that a Holy Soul leads whose Mind is frequently taken up in the Study and Contemplation of those two excellent Theams the Word of God and the Providence of God but must profess as a Great Noble and Learned Person doth both very ingeniously and piously also that though there be something of Difficulty in a studious employment of our Thoughts in the Contemplation of these things yet are they also so pleasing and inviting That to give you his own Words should Heaven says he afford me no greater Blessing than a clear accompt of the abstruse Mysteries of Divinity and Providence I should value the having my Vnderstanding gratified and enriched with Truths of so noble and precious a Nature enough to court Heaven at the rate of renouncing for it all those unmanly Sensualities and trifling Vanities for which inconsiderate Mortals are wont to forfeit that Interest their Saviour so dearly bought them in it But I must not dwell upon this part of the Soul's Happiness in Heaven though a most pleasing and delightful Subject Secondly In Heaven the Souls of Believers shall be perfected in Holiness Here the People of God are truly sanctified but not throughly Sanctified they are in every Part though but in part sanctified still there are the Relicks of Sin the Remains of the Old Man in them while they are here The Truth of Grace they have but not the Perfection of Grace An absolute State of Perfection is rather to be wished for than enjoyed in this Life The utmost that a godly Man can attain to here is not to commit great Sins nor to allow himself in little Sins when thorough daily Infirmity he doth commit them Now the People of God have the first Fruits of the Spirit but yet they have the remainders of the Old Man in them Now the Spirit of God helps them to mortifie Sin and to keep it under but it doth not enable them perfectly to destroy it as it shall be in Heaven Here the Righteous are delivered from the prevalency of their Corruptions for so is God's gracious Promise to his People that Sin shall not have Dominion over them and blessed be God for this But in Heaven they shall be for ever free'd from the presence of Sin There is a continual mortifying of Sin by Believers here on Earth but in Heaven Sin shall be totally abolished It is in a dying languishing Condition now but in Heaven it shall be dead for ever cease to be Perfection of Grace and Holiness is the aim and endeavour of every godly Man but it is not his attainment So the Apostle tells us concerning himself who doubtless had as great a measure of Grace as any have attained to since Phil. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect No says he I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do for getting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before I press forward towards the Mark for the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus This is all a godly Man can do here in the use of Means to strive and endeavour after Perfection of Grace though he cannot attain it But in Heaven no godly Man shall be defiled with any Sin or defective of any Grace no nor yet wanting in any measure or degree of Grace and Holiness as now he is The Spirits of just Men made perfect are there that is there is a Perfection of Grace and Holiness in Heaven that shall beautifie the Spirits of just Men when they come there In this World the People of God are partly carnal and partly spiritual partly holy and partly sinful But in Heaven they shall he perfectly holy and spiritual free'd from all sinful Mixtures no Dross with their Gold no Corruption mingling it self with their Holiness Their Vnderstandings shall be perfectly holy without the least Cloud or Mist of Ignorance or Error to darken or sully them That Glorious Sun of Righteousness whom they shall always behold in Heaven shall for ever scatter all Clouds and Darkness quite away Their Thoughts shall all be holy no blasphemous unclean or envious Thoughts shall ever arise in their Souls no nor the least Vanity or Impertinency pass through their Minds to Eternity but all shall be holy being brought into a perfect Obedience unto the Lord Jesus Christ Their Memories shall there be holy being strengthned to retain and bring forth out of their Treasuries whatever things may tend to feed and increase their Love and Joy and to elevate their Souls in the high Praises of God Their Wills shall then be perfectly holy for there shall they obtain that which they so often pray'd for on Earth namely that the Will of God may be done by them as the Angels do it in Heaven O what a delightful Harmony will there then be for ever between their Wills and the Will of God! Then shall they always have a perfect compliance in them with that sweet and blessed Law that they shall then be under without the least contrariety or opposition Never more shall they have any motion or inclination in them to that which is evil for ever Thirdly Another thing wherein the Happiness of the Saints in Heaven as to their Souls doth consist is the Regularity of their Affections which shall all be set right for and continually drawn out after God by an unalterable Regularity There the Saints shall in their Hearts and Souls constantly and perpetually cleave unto God having always their Love and Delight in him
their Glorification also is of Grace Rom. 9.23 That he might make known the Riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy that he had afore prepared unto Glory The work of Heaven is to Praise and Glorifie God for ever and nothing will draw forth the Praises and Thanksgivings of the Saints there so much as the consideration of the freeness and richness of his Grace and Love When a Soul is brought to Heaven meerly by the free Grace and Love of God and sees that Happiness it there enjoys and shall do to all Eternity is bestowed upon it on no other account but from the free and undeserved Grace and Mercy of God Oh how doth this enlarge and fill such a Soul with Praises unto God and so will do to all Eternity because free Grace and Mercy hath done it Secondly There is the Meritorious Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven and that is the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Not their Works not their Prayers their Tears their Fastings their Alms deeds no nor their Sufferings also To make our Good Works the Purchase of Heaven is a great wrong to the Blood of Christ Who ever thinks by their Doing or Suffering to merit Heaven and Salvation they put their Duties and Services in the place of Christ for he and he only hath deserved Heaven and Glory for us It is true Good Works are the Causey or Path-way in which we must walk towards Heaven but they are not the Meritorious procuring Cause of our obtaining Heaven that is only the Blood of Christ Our Duty is to be zealous of Good Works but when we have abounded most in the practice of them we must rely on the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ for God's acceptation of them and for our Happiness and Glorification after them All that we do of our selves shews us to be sinful Servants and all that we do when assisted by the Grace and Spirit of God makes us still to be but unprofitable Servants because we have done no more than what was our Duty to do All our Duties and Services even the best of them are both Defective and Defiled Defective of the good that God commands and Defiled with the Evil that God forbids now that which is Defective and Defiled cannot be Meritorious that which deserves Eternal Wrath and Vengeance in the doing of it cannot by the doing of it procure everlasting Grace and Favour There are none of our Prayers we send up unto Heaven but stand in need of the Intercession of Christ to make them prevalent with God None of our Tears shed for offending of God by Sin but wants the Blood of Christ to wash them or else they are but puddle-water None of our Sighs but must be perfumed with the Incense of Christ or else they are no better than howling in the Ears of God Conscience can pick a thousand holes in the best Duties that ever any of us tendered unto God and what then doth God see in them who is a thousand times greater than our Consciences and knows all things Heaven and Glory accompany Grace and Holiness not by virtue of any inherent Worth and Excellency in them to deserve so great a Happiness but by virtue of a Promise that God hath made that those that do persevere in Grace and Holiness shall inherit Eternal Life and Glory God was a free Promiser and he might have chose whether he would have made his People a Promise of Heaven and Happiness and if he had not Freely and Graciously done it it was not all their Duties nor all their Sufferings no nor all their Graces that could have deserved or procured that Happiness for them But since God hath so Freely and Graciously been pleased to make a Promise to his People of Heaven and Glory he is now become a Debtor to his own Promise and he will be True and Faithful in keeping of his Word And thus we are to understand those Scriptures that speak of the Justice and Righteousness of God as that in 1 John 1.19 If we confess our sins he is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins So God is not unrighteous to forget your Labour of Love So 2 Thes 1.6 It is a Righteous thing with God to recomperse Tribulation to them that trouble you but to you who are troubled rest So 2 Tim. 4 6. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give unto me at that day In all these places Justice and Righteousness is not to be taken for Commutative Righteousness but for the Righteousness of God's Promise and Fidelity and God is said to be a Righteous God in these places because he will keep his Word and make good his Promises made unto his People And to note it by the way what abundant matter of Joy and rejoycing doth this afford unto those who have true Grace though but in a small degree yet if it be in Truth here is great comfort unto such Souls because Grace doth not as a Natural Cause produce Glory but by the Covenant and Promise of God and so the weakest Grace may plead this as well as the strongest and the lowest Believer may say I have as good and as faithful a Promise for Heaven and Happiness as the strongest He that gives a Cup of cold water to a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet and because he belongs to Christ he shall not lose his Reward no not the Reward of Heaven and Glory But yet still all a Believers merit with respect to the Love and Favour of God here and the Eternal enjoyment of him in Heaven is in Jesus Christ his Death and Sufferings is that which obtains all for him Rom. 5.1 2. Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce in Hope of the Glory of God So in 1 Pet. 1.4 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us And the Blessed Apostle St. Paul who doubtless after his Conversion was as Holy a man as ever lived yet all his Glorying and Rejoycing all his Faith and Confidence was only in Christ I desire to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him Crucified Cor. and in Phil. 3.3 9. I count all things but loss and dung for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I suffer the loss of all things and count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness of God by Faith This was all St. Paul gloried in that upon which he built his Hopes and Expectations of
and a part of the Happiness thereof as every thing that the heart of Man can desire or imagine that is truly excellent doth make up the Happiness of that blessed State But that which chiefly constitutes Heaven is Holiness there is a holy God there is a holy Place there is holy Company and Society yea every thing that is holy and nothing but what is holy There it is that holy Souls shall be for ever united to a holy God by a continual fervour of holy Love there it is that they shall always holily depend upon God by holy and heavenly Acts of Faith and Hope There it is that they shall eternally obey God with a holy Joy and Delight and all this with the same holy Love Faith Hope and Joy which they did put forth towards God here upon Earth only in Heaven these Graces shall be advanced and exalted above all those Imperfections and Frailties that in this Life did attend them This now is the Glory of Heaven and indeed what greater Glory can there be than this Holiness being the Glory of God himself Thus Moses stiles God in his triumphant Song Exod. 15.11 Where he tells us though he be a God that is fearful in Praises and infinite in Power yet that wherein he is most glorious is his Holiness Who is a God like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods Who is like unto thee glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises doing Wonders And what is the Glory of the Saints in Heaven but only a Reflexion of the Glory of God cast upon them Now as God is in an especial manner glorious in his Holiness so are they glorious in their Holiness And what then will become of all the hopes of wicked and profane Sinners whose Hearts are full of Hatred and Malice not only against those that are holy but against Holiness it self witness their impious and profane scoffing at Holiness their persecuting all those that make a stricter Profession of it than themselves What a strange kind of Heaven do these Men hope for and how miserably do they deceive themselves for if Grace and Glory if Holiness and Heaven be one and the same thing as they are then certainly all the hopes of such wretched Sinners are built upon a rotten Foundation For how can they that hate and persecute a little Holiness in a Saint on Earth where it is mingled with much Sin and Corruption take delight in Heaven where there are greater measures and degrees of Grace and Holiness than all the Saints that ever lived here upon Earth did or could attain to in this World yea where there is nothing else but Grace and Holiness In vain O Sinner dost thou wish or hope for a Heaven where there is nothing but Ease and Pleasure a Place where thou may'st be above all thy Cares and Fears where thou may'st enjoy a constant Freedom from all thy Pains and Distresses that now afflict and torment thee such a Heaven as this is impossible God never made any such nor canst thou in reason expect it but contrarywise know thou must to thy Terror and Amazement that the great God hath joyned sin and the curse so close together that Heaven it self would be no Sanctuary to secure thee either from the stinging Horrors of an Evil and now too late awakened and accusing Conscience nor from the ghasty and tormenting Fears of Wrath and Hell if sin and guilt should enter with thee into that Holy Place Secondly Holiness is a necessary Qualification for Heaven because without it there is no suitableness between us and Heaven All true Pleasure and Delight is caused from the suitableness that there is between the Object and the Power or Faculty in man that receives it It is therefore a pleasant thing for the Eyes to behold the Light and so is it also for the Ears to hear melodious sounds because these Objects are suited unto those Sences which otherwise would not be delightful to them as we see in those that are Blind and Deaf the one takes no Pleasure in the Light nor the other in Musick And so it is with us in reference unto Heaven there is nothing there would be Pleasant and Delightful to us did not God before hand prepare and suit our Souls by his Grace unto that Glory that shall there be revealed to us Hence we find the Apostle Col. 1.12 Giving thanks unto God who by a work of Sanctification had made them meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light To illustrate this a little further there is a two fold unsuitableness between every wicked man and Heaven he is unsuitable to the work of Heaven and he is unsuitable to the Reward of Heaven both which are Holy First Every wicked man is unsuitable to the work of Heaven What shall be the work of Holy Souls in Heaven but to admire and adore to Bless and Praise and with Pleasure and Delight to Love and Serve God for ever This is that joyful work wherein Saints and Angles shall spend an Eternity in And canst thou O Prophane Sinner who hast all thy life time accustomed thy self to wallow in sin and uncleanness impose such a cheat upon thy Soul as to think thou shalt be able to croud into the number of that Holy and Blessed Company in Heaven and there joyn with them in those Holy and Blessed Works that will be the Delight of those Holy ones to all Eternity If Sanctification and Holiness be the only Qualification that manifests any do belong to that Holy Place What shall we then say unto all wicked and prophane sinners who not only take no Delight in the practice of Holiness but unto whom the thoughts of it are grievous and burthensome who are so far from keeping up in their minds constant Meditations of Holy things accompanied with strong and lively affections towards them that they know no Task or Burthen so heavy upon them nor so affictive to them nor that they undertake so unwillingly as the Duties of Holiness and Obedience Oh what a trouble to them is it sometimes to be drawn though but to the external performance of Holy Duties witness their so seldom engaging in them with their so slight and careless management of them If I should now enquire what is the reason of all this why truly that which lies at the bottom of all is an unholy Heart an unsanctified Nature and what would such as these do in Heaven would not that Holy place be a Hell rather than a Heaven to them a place of Torment rather than a place of Happiness it being that place where Saints and Angels spend an Eternity in the most Holy fixed Contemplations and most ardent Love of God And surely they that cannot bear the weak and imperfect Holiness of the People of God here without railing at it as a piece of unnecessary and peevish preciseness will never be able to bear that perfect spotless Holiness that is in Heaven In
what it is to have this God to be our God and truly no more are we able to tell what it is to have the Heaven of God to be ours and as God himself so the Heaven in which God dwells both which shall be the Reward of the Saints hereafter by reason of their infinite Greatness and Glory are better known to us by what they are not than by what they are and we may best conceive of that Recompence of Reward that the Saints shall partake of in Heaven when we are told there is nothing there that may affright or afflict us nothing that may grieve molest or trouble us but an everlasting Enjoyment of the highest and sweetest Delight and Satistaction that the now but much more then vast and capacious Soul of Man can receive desire or in agine Art thou now O Soul oppressed with the grievous and intolerable burthen of thy Sins those daily though also unavoidable Infirmities by which thou dishonour est God grievest his Spirit woundest thy own Conscience under which thou criest out as a Man distracted O wretched Man that I am where and by whom shall I find Deliverance Why assure thy self the Old Man shall never more molest thee in Heaven there is no Entrance for this Body of Sin and Death into Life All the motions and stirrings of Sin shall forever cease in that eternal Rest Art thou now overwhelmed with Grief and Sorrow and doth the smart of one Affliction no sooner wear off but the bitterness of another comes in the room of it and is there thus daily a Succession of them one after another for the Trial and Exercise of thy Patience So that thou may'st say thou art continually a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief as thy Lord and Master was before thee Why in Heaven God shall wipe away all Tears from thy Eyes and Sorrow and Sighing shall for ever fly away Art thou now continually harassed with Temptations Will not the Evil One let thee rest Day nor Night but is perpetually haunting thee with horrid and blasphemous Thoughts as black as Hell it self can invent In Heaven thou shalt not only be out of the reach of his fiery Darts but shalt have an everliving Fountain within thy Soul that shall be eternally springing up in such spiritual Contemplations and heavenly Raptures beyond whatever thou wert acquainted with in thy State of Mortality even when thou wert in the most spiritual and heavenly Frame Art thou here under Clouds and Desertions And doest thou walk up and down mournfully and disconsolately for want of the Light of God's Countenance and the manifestations of his Love and Favour towards thee Doth God seem to hide his Face from thee in Anger and Displeasure so that thou roarest and criest out by reason of the Disquietness of thy Soul Why in Heaven all those Clouds shall vanish away and thou shalt have such clear and full Discoveries of God's Love and Favour and the Light of his Countenance shall beat so fully and everlastingly upon thee that it is impossible thou shouldst be under the least Fears or Doubtings thereof for ever For thou shalt then no more see him through a Glass darkly but Face to Face without any interruption or obscurity to all Eternity This now is something of that great and glorious Reward that shall be bestowed upon the Saints in Heaven but the fulness and perfection of it cannot be known but by Enjoyment CHAP. VI. An Essay towards the Resolution of some Questions as 1. Whether the Saints shall know one another in Heaven 2. Whether there are different Degrees of Glory in Heaven 3. How the Saints are said to be equal with and like unto the Angels in Heaven 4 In what respects Heaven is called a Reward or Recompence Some Vseful and Necessary Inferences from the Consideration of that Happiness the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven deduced in order unto Practice as 1. Hopes of Heaven should make the World contemptible unto Believers 2. None that expect Heaven hereafter should be offended at any thing they meet with in their way thither 3 Expectations of Heaven should make Christians live as those that are Heirs of so great a Happiness 4. Frequent Thoughts and Meditations of Heaven should possess the Minds of those that Hope to partake of the Happiness of Heaven 5. The greatness of the Happiness of Heaven should put Christians upon examining themselves what Right and Title they have thereunto 6. Hopes and Expectations of Heaven hereafter should reconcile to Believers the Thoughts of their own Death and moderate their Sorrows for the Death of their Godly Friends and Relations 7. Hopes of Heaven should put Christians upon unwearied Diligence that is attended with such a Reward 8. The consideration of so great a Happiness as Heaven is should cause in all Believers a Holy longing of Soul after the Enjoyment of it The Conclusion THat which remains to be Discoursed of before we come to the Conclusion of this delightful Subject is to endeavour to give some light into though not full Solution of some Questions the Answering whereof will tend much to the further illustration of the greatness of the Saints happiness in Heaven And here First Some may be inquisitive whether the Saints shall know one another in Heaven or not To this I Answer it is highly probable that the Saints shall know one another in Heaven Were Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob David Hezekiah Josiah Esay Jeremiah Daniel Paul Peter John with all the rest of the Apostles Saints and Martyrs of God in all Ages of whom we have either read in Scripture or heard of in History who have been Eminent in Grace and Holiness some for their Humility some for their Meekness some for Faith some for Patience some for Self-denial some for Zeal some for Contempt of the World and the like were all these Blessed Saints of God living together at one time and in one place here on Earth as they now are in Heaven would not every Godly man be greatly desirous if it were possible to see them and to live with them especially if there were none but such among them that they might be particularly and distinctly acquainted with them and would not this Knowledge tend much to their Delight and Satisfaction surely it would And is it Irrational to suppose that when all the Saints that have lived from the beginning of the World unto the end of it shall all meet together in Heaven that they might be desirous of a particular Knowledge of one another then Or was it so Delightful and therefore so desirable a thing to be acquainted with the Saints of God particularly when they lived here on Earth when they were men of like Passions and Infirmities as we now are And will it not be a much more desirable thing to have a particular acquaintance with them in Heaven when all their Sins and Imperfections shall be done away and they have nothing in them
continued perseverance and improvement of Grace here For Grace and Glory are one and the same thing and differ only in degree the Scripture therefore gives it the same Name changed 2 Corinth 3.18 from Glory unto Glory that is from one degree of Grace unto another And as there is the same nature in a spark as there is in the Body of the fire in a drop of water as in the Ocean so there is the same Nature in Holiness that is in Happiness Now indeed is the Infancy of Grace and then is the Mature Age. Now the Twy-light then the Noon-tide Glory of it But still Grace and Glory differ only in degree And therefore it is suitable to the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God to reward Good and Holy Works with Glory because they are the Dispositions and Preparations for it Now before I put a period to my Discourse concerning this sweet and delightful Subject of the Saints Happiness in Heaven I shall from what hath been said draw some useful and necessary inferences in order unto Practice and so conclude And First If there be such a State of Happiness to be enjoyed hereafter How are they then to be blamed that let out their Hearts and Affections inordinately towards any Worldly Enjoyments O how many low base Spirited persons are there to be found who seek no greater nor higher good than to enjoy the Comforts and Delights that the World affords them could they but attain so many hundreds or thousands could they compass such an Earthly Possession or Enjoyment O this would be enough to make them Happy the things of the World is all the Portion they crave for themselves But surely such Noble Affections as God hath endowed Man withal should not be so lavishly laid out upon such vile and contemptible things as all Worldly Enjoyments are An Earthly Conversation is very unsuitable to a Spiritual and Heavenly Hope and Expectation Hast thou O Christian laid up thy Treasure above what then do thy Heart and Affections so much here below Is thy Life hid with Christ in God whence then is it that thy Converse is so much with Creature Enjoyments as if thy Life and Happiness lay in them and not in God If thou lookest for a State of Bliss only in Heaven what is the reason then that thy Conversation is no more there dost thou believe and count upon it as thy Blessedness that thou shalt one day with the pure in Heart for ever see and enjoy God in Heaven how comes it to pass then that thy Desires and Inclinations go out so eagerly after the Perishing Enjoyments of this World now For shame O Christian let thy Hopes of Heaven moderate thy Affections towards the World You that look for so much from God in another World may very well be content if he cuts you short here giving you but a little of this Nothing is more unbecoming a Heavenly Hope than an Earthly Heart It was an Observation that I once heard from a Holy Man of God now in Heaven whereof I have since read other where that though there are many Spots and Blemishes charged upon the Saints and Servants of God in Scripture as instances of humane frailty yet there is not one Godly man to be found in all the Book of God the Story of whose Life is blotted with the sin of Covetousness If this be a Truth as some affirm may it not well be matter of great astonishment unto us in these days of the Gospel wherein Knowledge doth so much abound that this should be called the Professors Sin so that prophane men have nothing to lay more commonly unto the charge of those that are strict in the ways of God than this That they are a company of Covetous persons and that none are more eager in their pursuits after the World than those that make the greatest shews and pretences for Heaven for shame O Christian wipe off this Reproach from Religion let not wicked men by beholding thy scandalous practices herein blacken the Names of those that are really Godly with such reproachful Aspersions as if to be Covetous were a necessary consequent unto the Profession of Religion Make it appear that thy hopes of Heaven can inable thee to live above the World yea to contemn and despise all its Enjoyments Surely thou mayest well be content with a little here who expectest so much hereafter If the Hopes and Expectations of what is laid up for a Believer in Heaven doth not take off his Heart and Affections from inordinate pursuits of the things of this World nothing will Secondly Hath God provided a Heaven for Believers hereafter Surely then they have no cause to be offended at any thing they meet withal in their way to it Hath the faithful God for whom it is impossible to lye promised to bestow Heaven and eternal Happiness upon a Believer though not for yet in the way of Duty and holy Obedience this should certainly take him off from being scandalized at the Cross No Christian but should walk chearfully in that way in which he is sure he shall find Heaven at the end though he meet with Afflictions and Troubles in his passage to it The Cross should never cause a Believer to stumble in much less to turn out of that way that leads to Heaven No Man should think much to do or suffer any thing to partake of so great a Happiness as the Enjoyment of Heaven speaks That Man knows little what Heaven means that can think or speak hardly of any way of God that leads to it It is a great Discouragement unto many when they are looking Heaven-ward that they meet with so many Troubles and Afflictions in the Way especially if they be great and of long continuance but knowest thou not O Christian that thou oughtest not to be troubled at any Afflictions that befal thee in thy Way to Heaven knowing that thereunto thou art appointed as the Apostle speaks I Thes 3.3 And though thou canst not conclude that Heaven belongs to thee because thou art afflicted for in an evil Way thou may'st justly expect to meet with Sufferings Yet this thou may'st assure thy self of that if thou leave the Ways of God and holy Obedience because of Sufferings thou art for the present turned out of the Way that leads to Heaven and if God hath any Love for thy Soul and intends to bestow Heaven and Happiness upon thee he will reduce thee back though by some Affliction and probably by some smart and severe one too But why O Christian should Afflictions and Sufferings discourage thee Will not Heaven make amends for all thou endurest here What says the blessed Apostle St. Paul who doubtless under-went as many Sufferings as any we read of in Scripture And yet says he Rom. 8.18 I reckon and his reckoning was according to Truth that the Sufferings of this present Life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed
come Frequently therefore O Christian have recourse unto Heaven dwell much there in thy Thoughts and Contemplations this will inflame thy Soul with Love to God this will make thee pray with Zeal and Fervour hear with earnestness and attention and perform all the Duties God requires of thee with activity and liveliness Thirdly A Heart set upon Heaven will make a Christian live the most joyful and comfortable Life in the World A Heavenly Mind will be a joyful Mind A Saint on Earth hath the same ground of Joy that a Saint in Heaven hath he derives his Joy and Peace from the Apprehensions he hath of God's being his God and Father in Jesus Christ and from the sence and enjoyment of his Love and Favour manifested to his Soul And so doth a Saint in Heaven only he hath a clearer knowledge and discovery as also a larger and fuller enjoyment thereof at present than a Saint on Earth hath but what he wants in Enjoyment he hath in the Promise and the Promises to a Saint on Earth are as certain and as true as the performance of them to a Saint in Heaven for God is never worse but usually better than his Word to his People here but to be sure they always find it so when they come to Heaven Now they that are Rich in Promises as all the People of God are and can act Faith upon them may very well live a Life of Peace and Joy for whatever they have not in possession they have in reversion And when a Believer's Faith and Hope is entertained above with the delightful Views and Contemplations of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven which he shall ere long be in the possession of what should make him walk uncomfortably and sadly here below In Heaven all is Peace and Joy and most of Peace and Joy here below resides with those that live most in Heaven while they are here on Earth an instance of this we have in the Holy Apostle none ever lived a more Heavenly Life on this side Heaven than Blessed St. Paul did and none also ever lived a more Peaceable and Joyful Life than he did How full of Joy doth he express himself upon all Occasions I Joy and Rejoice with you all says he Philip. 2.17 I am filled with comfort I am exceeding Joyful in all our Tribulations 2 Cor. 7.4 So in Rom. 5.1 2. Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and Rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God And not only so but we Glory in Tribulation And Verse 11. We also Joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the Atonement So in 2 Tim. 4.8 I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give unto me at that Day Now he that could say all this must needs be full of Joy and Comfort and being thus filled with Joy and Peace in believing though he knew that Bonds and Imprisonments did abide him in every place yet could he say that none of these things moved him neither counted he his Life dear unto him so he might finish his Course with Joy as himself speaks Acts 20.23 24. And this Joy of the Lord being his strength how earnestly and passionately doth he expostulate and chide with those Friends of his that would have disswaded him from Suffering Acts 21.13 What mean ye to weep and break mine Heart I am ready not only to be bound but to die for the Name of the Lord Jesus at Jerusalem From whence now came all this Courage and Boldness from whence did he receive and draw all this Joy and Consolation why it came from thence where his Hope his Heart his Life and Conversation was and that is from Heaven for so himself tells us Philip. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ O this Hope of Eternal Life laid up for the Saints in Heaven as the Scripture calls it This laying hold of the blessed Hope set before us as it is called Heb. 6.18 19. This this was that which the Aposile had as an Anchor to his Soul sure and stedfast being that which entereth into that within the Vail that is into Heaven This made him not only to be content in every State and Condition but to rejoice in the worst that did befal him witness that strange Triumphant Speech of his 2 Cor. 12.3 I take pleasure says he in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in disiresses Now this peaceable joyful Life that this Blessed Apostle lived was not a Priviledge granted only unto him by way of special Grace and Favour because he was so eminent an Apostle and Servant of God but it is a Priviledge that is extended more commonly also unto other Believers it being that of which the Kingdom consists as the Apostle himself tells us Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And therefore as a Duty incumbent upon Christians he urgeth the practice of it in several Scriptures So we read Philip. 3.1 Finally my Brethren rejoice in the Lord and in 1 Thess 5.10 Rejoice evermore Phil. 4.4 Rejoice always in the Lord and again I say rejoice Now the way for Christians to attain unto a Life of Peace and Joy is to be much conversant above to live a Heavenly Life to exercise his Thoughts and Contemplations daily upon Heaven and that State of Bliss and Happiness that is to be eternally enjoyed there Heaven is a place full of Peace and Joy yea a place where there is nothing else and the more of Heaven comes down into any Soul in this Life or the more any Soul ascends up into Heaven in Divine Contemplations the more comfortable and joyful Life doth that Soul lead while it is here upon Earth Fifthly Is there such a State of Bliss and Happiness to be enjoyed by the People of God hereafter let every one then examine themselves what Right and Title they have thereunto whether they are such as are qualified for the enjoyment of that blessed State First Examine thy self whether ever thou didst experience a work of Sanctification and Holiness wrought upon thy Soul if not whatever thy pretences for Heaven may be they are false and groundless and will end in Horror and Vexation of Soul The Command of God is that we should be Holy in all manner of Conversation that we should be Holy as God is Holy and the great Pattern and Exemplar of our Holiness is the Lord Jesus Christ who as the Apostle tells us was Holy Harmless Vndefiled separated from Sin and from all pollution and defilement both from Sin and Sinners Here now is both a Christian's Rule and a Christian's Example Now though a Christian cannot reach the exactness and perfection
of any Soul after them certainly that Object is God and that Place is Heaven where God is fully and eternally to be enjoyed and in the enjoyment of whom there is not only nothing but what is lovely and desirable but where there is every thing that is lovely and desirable also We read frequently of the Expressions of many Holy Men that set forth the greatness of their Love and Affection towards God but there is none that we meet with in Sacred Writ whose Soul did more delightfully vent it self in pathetical expressions of this Nature than Holy David The Book of Psalms abounds with them Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul is athirst for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my Heart and my Flesh cryeth out for the living God A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a Door-keeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness Psal 63.1 2 3. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is that I may see thy Power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Now all these expressions of this Holy Man are but the streamings forth of the Love and Affection of his Soul at several times and upon several occasions after the enjoyment of God in his House and Ordinances which he was then deprived of And if the mediate presence of God and the comnications of his Grace and Love to a Soul in Holy Duties be so much to be defired because therein it enjoys God and hath thereby the manifestations of his Love and Favour sealed and confirmed to it Is not then the immediate presence of God in Heaven much more to be desired where the Soul shall stand in no need of any Duties or Ordinances to confirm the Love of God unto it because there shall be no Sin in it to provoke God to hide his Face from it or to interrupt the Peace and Joy of the Soul 's delighting it self in him to Eternity To be in such a frame as to be able to say though I experience not those ravishing Joys in the Hopes of Heaven that some Servants of God attain unto though I am a Stranger unto those vehement longings and holy pantings of Soul after God and Heaven that some are acquainted with whereby they are ardently desirous of a dissolution yet to be able to say I bless God I am very well content to submit to his Will the thoughts of Death are not terrible and amazing to me but I am willing to yield my self up unto the good pleasure of God when he sees good to call me hence This indeed is something of the temper of a good Christian and that which God takes well at the hands of any if it be done upon good grounds But this is not all that God expects nor is it all that the Christian Religion teaches and requires the certain and sure Principles of Christianity founded on the Divine Oracles will enable a Believer to go further for it discovers an unbodied State of Happiness to be enjoyed by Holy Souls in another World after which there should be such strong Workings and earnest Groanings as should carry forth the Soul in Holy Longings and Desires after the participation thereof And this now is not a frame of Soul to be found in a Believer upon a Death bed only but it is that which should be the joyful Companion of his Life in the time of his Health and Strength and the Reason is this because God and Heaven have the same loveliness and desireableness in them at one time that they have at another in Health that they have in Sickness in Life as they have in Death and therefore they call for and deserve the same height of Love and Affection and the same strength of Joy and Delight to be exercised towards them when a Believer hath the greatest enlargements of outward Prosperity as when he is under the greatest confinement of Adversity or Sickness Live therefore O Believer with a Holy Longing and Desire of Soul springing up in thee continually after Heaven be earnestly desirous after thy departure hence that thou may'st be with God This was that Blessed Frame Holy Souls of old lived in so the Apostle speaks of himself and others in that excellent Scripture 2 Cor. 5.2 4 8. We says he that are in this Tabernacle do groan earnestly that we may be cloathed upon with our House that is from Heaven And we groan being burthened that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life And yet again says he We are always confident or we do always with confidence expect and desire to be absent from the Body But why so Oh there is good Reason for it because says he Whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent or we are kept at too great a distance from the Lord. To be content to Die is a good temper of Soul and that which is rarely found in any wicked man to be sure not upon good grounds but truly when I consider how much farther a Christian might go and what he is yet short of that might tend to the Glory of God the Credit of the Christian Religion and the Peace and Comfort of his own Soul methinks his present attainment compared with what is his Duty to Labour after is no extraordinary great thing For consider a little what a strange kind of expression is it and how harshly doth it sound to say concerning a Believer that he is content to be Happy As to Worldly enjoyments it is not usual to say of any Man that he is Content to have them who says concerning Silver and Gold that a Man is Content to be enriched with them No the common expression in this case is not that Men are Content to be Rich but that they are Covetous after Riches And so for Honour and outward Greatness we say not that Men are Willing to be Honoured and Advanced above their Neighbours but they are Ambitious in seeking after Promotion And why then should it be said of a Christian only that he is Content to be Happy Content to be with God in Heaven Now if Worldly Mens desires work thus strongly after Earthly and Temporal Enjoyments which cannot make them Happy when attained surely the desires of a Christian should work as strongly after Heavenly and Eternal Enjoyments which when attained can and will make them truly and really Happy And here I will add one thing let the whole Creation be ransackt let Earth and Heaven be searcht there is nothing no Person no Object to be found in either that can
make up a Satisfactory Bliss and Happiness for an Immortal Soul but what is Supreamly Superlatively Perfectively and Eternally good and that is the Blessed God himself the Enjoyment of whom in Heaven can only make the Soul perfectly and compleatly Happy Were I to perswade wicked men I will not say long for Death but only to be willing to Die my task were not only difficult but impossible for who can by any Arguments prevail upon a Rational Creature willingly to run himself into Miseries and Torments though but of a short continuance much more to rush upon those Miseries and Torments that shall be everlasting into which every wicked man when he comes to Die shall fall And this Sinners know not only from Scripture Revelation but from the Terrors and Accusations of their own Consciences before hand Unto such therefore all perswasions of this nature are vain and to no purpose such stand in need of the most powerful Exhortations backt with the strongest Arguments that can be to stir them up to a speedy preparation for their approaching Dissolution lest thereby they fall into a State of Misery that is unalterable for ever But when I am speaking to the People of God unto whom Death will be of such infinite Gain and Advantage methinks my Work should be easie though my Exhortation runs much higher for unto such I am not now speaking by way of perswasion unto a fitness for Death because I take it for granted that this Work in the main of it is already done with them nor yet am I stirring up in such a bare willingness to Die but I would press them unto something further still and that is that they would entertain the thoughts of Death in their Meditations with Holy Longings and Desires of Soul after it and certainly there is no need of any other Arguments to urge this Duty upon such than barely to tell them that Heaven stands open ready to receive them and all the hurt Death will do unto such is to give them admission into such a State of Bliss and Happiness as shall extend it self unto the Satisfaction of all their Desires unto the utmost both as to the Nature and Quality of them and also as to the duration and continuance of them The Happiness of Heaven being so great that it requires the Capacities of the Soul should be enlarged to take in the fullness thereof it being impossible the Soul of Man should now receive or bear up under the oppressing weight of so great a Happiness as is there to be enjoyed Rest not thy self therefore satisfied O believing Soul with a bare Contentment of mind that when thou diest thou shalt certainly go to Heaven but let thy frequent Thoughts hereof fill thee with Holy Longings and Pantings of Soul after that blessed State The Miseries of this Life and the uncomfortableness of a Christian's manner of living while he is here in respect of Sin Sorrow Doubts Fears Ignorance and Temptations which are in a great measure the daily and afflictive Companions of his life are Arguments strong enough to make such a one willing to Die but in Conjunction with these a Believer hath a Prospect of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven in the Eye of his Faith unto which he knows Death will carry him this should fill the desires of his Soul with Holy Longings after the Enjoyment of it Open therefore O believing Soul the Eye of thy Faith and look upward and see if thou canst not espy a Glory and Happiness in the highest Heavens that is worthy of the most earnest Breathings and Desires of thy Soul after it Canst thou in the whole Vniverse find out better Society in conversing with whom thou canst enjoy such Soul-satisfying pleasure yea such ravishing Joys and Delights as are there to be found There are Holy Angels that never sinned whose Nature as well as whose Happiness in this State of Mortality is beyond the reach of thy understanding to fathom There are Glorified Saints advanced to that perfection of Grace and Holiness that they shall never sin more There is the Blessed and never to be sufficiently admired Saviour and Redeemer of Sinners the Lord Jesus Christ who as he once in our Natures shed his Blood here on Earth to purchase Heaven for Believers so is he now residing in the same Nature there preparing places for them ready to receive them into the Embraces of his Love and Favour Yea in that Glorious place there is that which should much more excite the Desires of Believers after it for there is the infinitely Great and Glorious God whose Excellencies and Perfections are such that as none can understand none can make known so none can bear the discoveries of them Such dazling Excellencies of Glory and Beauty are there in the Face of God that Angels themselves are not able to behold them and yet so lovely and desirable an Object is he that Angels cannot refrain from looking on him and certainly if the Great and Holy God should display but a little of himself in his Glory and Beauty unto the Soul of a Believer should he open though but a little of the infinite Treasures of his goodness unto the view of the Soul O with what Ravishments of Joy would that Soul press into the presence of God and with what a Holy kind of impatience would it throw it self into his Arms what need would there be of setting bounds to the Mount to keep such a Soul from breaking through unto the Lord The Happiness of Heaven is so great that had not God mercifully concealed from us the infinite Excellencies and Glory thereof in a great measure our Desires would be so vehemently bent upon it that we should be under such an impatiency of Spirit after the enjoyment of it as would render us unfit for any Employment that God calls us to in this World Some therefore upon this account have taken notice of the infinite Wisdom of God in engaging the Soul in so near and dear a Union with the Body that it might have such a care for and Love towards it as might tend to its preservation and not be desirous of quitting its habitation with it yea some of the Heathens themselves have observed the Wisdom of God in concealing the Happiness of Separate Souls that Men might be contented to live out that time God hath allotted to them in this World Alas the most and the best of us see and know but little of these things and what we do see is but through a Glass darkly and that is the reason our Affections go not out more earnestly after them did we know and understand more of Heaven and the Glory and Happiness thereof we should with a Holy impatiency of Desire long after it for is it not in Heaven that we shall never sin more never offend God more never wound our Consciences more never do any thing that shall either break our Peace disturb our Joy or indanger
and every Month as a Year yea as an Age until that blessed time doth come But O how little of this Holy Longing of Soul after Christ and Heaven is there to be found among Christians now Most of those that call themselves by that Name resting upon Hopes and Probabilities of their interest in that State of Blessedness never seeking to attain unto the Riches of the full Assurance of Hope accompanied with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory But sure I am such a frame of Spirit hath not always been enough to satisfie some Christians in their pursuits after Heaven Oh with what Ravishments of Joy and Delight have I both heard and read some Holy Souls expressing their longing Desires after Christ and Heaven There was a certain Noble Person whom I well knew from under whose own hand writing I Copied out this following Relation concerning her self Being employed in Holy Meditation which was both her daily Practice as also her daily Delight and Solace and Contemplating of the Joys of Heaven and how to secure her Interest in that State of Blessedness she did with great Desire of Soul as her own words are strive to take the Kingdom above with a Holy Violence and to Storm Heaven by importunate Prayer and God was pleased as she adds Blessing his Name to carry her up as it were unto Mount Nebo and from thence to give her a Prospect of the Heavenly Canaan by the sight whereof as one in an Ecstasy of Joy she cried out Lord I would not live here always for I am now convinced it is better for me to die than to live It is therefore O Lord the great Desire of my Soul that as Elias was so I might instantly be taken up into Heaven without returning any more to bid them farewel of my own House or ever seeing the Faces of any Mortal Relations more here on Earth Prayer and Meditation had as her Expression is Associated her Spirit to such Company that I rather thought says she I had a Body too much with me than found a want of it After which shedding plentiful Tears of Joy and the offering up of many Sighs and Groans accompanied with earnest Desires and Longings after Heaven with fervent Prayers to be a partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light she returned from her Devotions Blessing and Praising of God who had so refreshed and comforted her Soul with Divine and Heavenly Consolations There was also a very Eminently Godly Person some of whose Relations are yet living who lying upon his Death-bed there came one to Visit him who told him he hoped it would please God to restore him to his Health again says the good Man to him Do you think to please me with such a Discourse as this know O Friend you are much mistaken in me if you apprehend the thoughts of Life and Health are pleasing to me Alas the World hath quite lost its Excellency in my Judgment it is but a poor contemptible thing in all its Glory compared with the Glory of the invisible World which I now live in the sight of it would be a far more Pleasant and Delightful thing to me if you could tell me for certain that I am no Man for this World long and that before to morrow I should be in Eternity for I do so long to be with Christ that I could be content to be cut in pieces and put to the most exquisite Torments might I but die and be with Christ Death through Grace is nothing to me it hath lost its terribleness and therefore may do its worst I fear it not I can as easily Die as shut my Eyes or turn my head and Sleep yea I long to Die that I may be with Christ come therefore O Lord Jesus come quickly why O why are thy Chariot Wheels so long a coming O says another How cold is thy kindness O Death in being so slow and backward to come and loose a poor tired Prisoner from his Bonds I live a dwindling Life with much Pain and much Love-Sickness for my sweet Lord Jesus O what would I give to have a Bed made for my wearied Soul in my Dear Lord's Bosom I cannot express what pains and delightsome Torments there are in his Love O Fairest among the Children of Men yea thou who art Fairer than all the Children of Men why stayest thou so long The Fire of Love burneth so hot in my heart towards Jesus Christ that neither Hell nor Earth can cast water enough to quench or extinguish it O Time Time how dost thou torment the Souls of those that would be swallowed up in Christ's Love because thou movest so slowly O how am I pained with the Love of Christ he hath left an Arrow in my Heart which hath wounded me that I am swallowed up with desires after him so that I am to be pitied for want of real possession of him my greatest pain is the want of Christ not of his Joys and Comforts but of a nearer Vnion and Communion with him O Heavens move fast O Time run run and hasten the Marriage Day for Love is tormented with delay Hope and Love woven through one another make Christ's absence a Spiritual Torment It is a pain to my Soul to wait for him but Hope that maketh not ashamed but ends in Enjoyment swalloweth up the pain O Lord when wilt thou fold the Heavens together like an old Cloak and Shovel Time and Days out of the way and make ready in haste the Bride for her Husband What do we here but sin and suffer O when shall the Night be gone and the Shadows fly away and the Morning of that long long Day without Clouds or Night dawn The Spirit and the Bride say come O when shall the Lamb's Wife be ready and the Bridegroom say I come also Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly I do not mention these things as if I thought these Holy Pantings and Longings of Soul after God and Heaven were the stated frame which is commonly attained by all Christians much less do I not think that none are truly Godly but such as attain to this frame of Spirit for I believe there are a great Number of Holy Souls that daily go to Heaven without them But yet is it a State that hath been attained by some and may be attained still by others And truly such a Heaven upon Earth as is hereby enjoyed by such Holy Souls should be motive sufficient to excite and provoke Christians to a diligent pursuit hereof the Effect whereof is Joy unspeakable and Glorious To conclude this whole Discourse I have been long in treating concerning the Glorious State of the Saints Happiness in Heaven and much larger than at first I intended but the excellency and deliciousness of the matter herein contained hath drawn out my Meditations to so great a length and the truth of it is in contemplating upon so delightful a Subject it is very hard and difficult when the
ever known that a Man who had the use of his Reason and Understanding and had forfeited his Life to his Prince by some Treasonable Act for which he was condemned to Die and had his Life proferred him if on such a Day he would come and submit himself to his Sovereign and ask his Pardon and instead of so doing he should rather choose to spend that Day among his sinful and riotous Companions in Drinking and Gaming and so lose the opportunity of saving of his Life Such Acts of Folly as these are committed by any Men would make them unpitied and unlamented under the extremity of Miseries and Sorrows that should befal them thereupon But the generality of Men in these cases are more wise and considerative than thus to ruine and undo themselves O then let it not lie any longer as a reproach upon Christians that the Men of the World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Why shouldst not thou O Christian be as careful and prudent in thy Spiritual Concerns as the Men of the World are in their Temporal Concerns Is not Heaven of as much worth and value as Earth Is not thy Right and Title to an Eternal Inheritance above of as great moment to thee as a Title to an Earthly Inheritance here below is unto them Is not the Love and Favour of God as much to be prized and endeavoured after as the Favour of an Earthly Prince Is not the Salvation and Happiness of thy Soul in Heaven to all Eternity of as great importance as the saving of a short Temporal Life of the Body which with the improvement of the utmost care and diligence that can be used cannot long be kept from falling into corruption and rottenness What then canst thou render as a Reason of thy carelessness and negligence herein Surely thy Folly is as much greater than theirs as Heaven is better than Earth and the enjoyment of God to Eternity is better than the enjoyment of the World for a short moment of time The Blessedness and Happiness therefore propounded to thy consideration being of the greatest concernment that ever was or can be proposed unto any the despising yea the slighting and neglecting of an offer of such rich Grace and Bounty is that which shall be punished with infinitely far greater misery and torment than ever yet was inflicted upon any yea or upon all Mankind in the World put together Were it possible to make up a Misery and Torment of all the Rage and Malice that ever Men or Devils since the Creation invented or executed upon any yea and add to it the sum the quintessence and extremity of all those Pains and Diseases both of Body and Mind that the Justice of the Holy and Righteous God hath justly and righteously inflicted upon any yea upon the whole Race of Mankind from the beginning of the World unto this Day and let all this be laid upon one Man and he strengthened and enabled to live under all those Pains and Torments in the extremity of them for a thousand years Who would not say this Man were a miserable Man indeed Why truly such nay ten thousand times far greater shall be the Eternal never-ending Misery and Torment of that Man who finally persists in his contempt and slighting of Heaven and Eternal Happiness and so do all those whose pains and care is not with diligence and industry laid out in securing to themselves an interest in the Heavenly Inheritance For certainly the utmost extremity of Desires and Endeavours is due unto and ought to be laid out in the pursuit of an extremity of Bliss and Happiness and such is Heaven and the Blessedness there to be enjoyed it being that which will fill and satisfie the Desires and Cravings of the Soul unto the utmost to all Eternity I have no more to say to thee O Christian Reader than this if neither the greatest extremity of misery that can be endured yea the enduring of all Miseries and Torments heaped up together not for Thousands or Millions of years but to an endless duration never to expire will not move thee to look after Heaven nor yet the Happiness and Blessedness yea the Eternity of an inexpressible and unconceivable Happiness and Blessedness that there is and shall be for ever enjoyed by the Saints in Glory and may be also enjoyed by thee if thou art wise and prudent if thou art diligent and careful in improving thy time and opportunities If I say thine own Interest thine own Misery or Happiness will not move nor work upon thee to bestir thy self to make sure of Heaven and Eternal Life I know not what will neither do I know what to say more unto thee However I shall turn my Advice and Counsel to thee into Prayer unto God for thee whoever thou art that shalt read this Discourse that God would graciously be pleased to open thine Eyes and shew thee convincingly and powerfully by a Work of his own Spirit on thy Heart thy great Misery if thou persist in thy neglect of Heaven and thy great Happiness and Blessedness if thou embrace and close with the offers thereof before it be too late Which God of his infinite Mercy grant unto all those that shall read this Discourse for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake who by his Death and Sufferings hath purchased this Heaven and this Happiness and is thereby become the Author of Eternal Salvation to all those that believe in him and obey him Amen FINIS Books lately Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King 's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard PRactical Preparation for Death The Wisdom and Interest of Christians The Folly and Misery of those that are negligent therein The great benefits of a Life spent in a daily Preparation for our latter end with Motives and Directions for the performance thereof Discourses or Sermons on several Scriptures By Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry In Octavo An Exposition on the Ten Commandments with other Sermons By Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry In Quarto The Holy Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker late Wife of Dr. Walker of Fyfield in Essex giving an Account of her exemplary Piety and Charity with some useful Papers and Letters written by her self upon several occasions The Naked Gospel Discovering 1. What was the Gospel which our Lord and his Apostles Preached 2. What Additions and Alterations latter Ages have made in it 3. What Advantages and Damages have thereupon ensued Of Faith Of the Trinity The Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour And the Resurrection of the Body Published by Arthur Bury D. D. Rector of Exeter College in Oxford The Vertuous Woman Or the Life of the most excellent Lady Mary late Countess of Warwick To which are annexed some of her Ladyships pious and useful Meditations Aurea Legenda Or Apophthegms Sentences and Sayings of many Wise and Learned Men useful for all Persons Collected out of many Authors by Samuel Clerk In Twelves Redemption of Time the Duty and Wisdom of Christians Or a practical Discourse shewing what special Opportunities ought to be redeemed what mis-spendings of time are to be avoided with convincing Reasons quickning Motives and proper Directions for the right improvement of precious Time By John Wade In Octavo The Danger of Delaying Repentance A Sermon Preached to the University at St. Mary's in Oxford By Arthur Bury D. D. Rector of Exeter College in Oxford In Quarto An earnest and compassionate suit for forbearance to the Learned Writers of some Controversies at present By the Bishop of Cork and Rosse In Quarto The End
CHAP. III. Further Discoveries of the Saints Happiness in Heaven manifested in their being freed 1. From all Afflictons 2. From all Temptations both from Satan and the World 3. In a perfect freedom from all Sin 4. In a Perfection of Grace and Holiness 5. In partaking of fullness of Joy being Pure Spiritual Full and Everlasting 6. In Excellent Glory and Honour that shall then be put upon them CHAP. IV. Of the Resurrection of the Body in order to the Saints Enjoyment of the Happiness of Heaven A more particular Description of the Happiness of the Bodies of the Saints in Heaven which shall there be 1. Incorruptible 2. Spiritual 3. Powerful 4. Beautiful Of the Happiness of the Soul in Heaven as 1. In having its Vnderstanding enlarged 2. In its being perfected in Holiness 3. In having its Affections brought into a perfect Regularity Of the Eternity of the Saints Happiness in Heaven CHAP. V. Of the Efficient Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven namely the Free Grace of God Of the Meritorious Cause of the Saints Happiness namely the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Of the Final Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven namely the Glory of God Holiness the Saints great Qualification for Heaven Wicked Men unsuitable to the Work of Heaven and to the Reward of Heaven both which are Holy In Heaven there is both an Eternal Work for Saints to be employed in and an Eternal Reward for Saints to enjoy CHAP. VI. A Resolution of some Questions as 1. Whether the Saints shall know one another in Heaven 2. Whether there are different degrees of Glory in Heaven 3. How the Saints are said to be equal with and like unto the Angels in Heaven 4. In what respects Heaven is called a Reward or Recompence Some useful and necessary Inferences from the consideration of that Happiness the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven deduced in order unto Practice as 1. Hopes of Heaven should make the World contemptible unto Believers 2. None that expect Heaven hereafter should be offended at any thing they meet with in their way thither 3. Expectations of Heaven should make Christians live as those that are Heirs of so great a Happiness 4 Frequent Thoughts and Meditations of Heaven should possess the Minds of those that hope to partake of the Happiness of Heaven 5. The Greatness of the Happiness of Heaven should put Christians upon Examing of themselves what Right and Title they have thereunto 6. Hopes and Expectations of Heaven hereafter should Reconcile to Believers the Thoughts of their own Death and moderate their Sorrows for the Death of their Godly Friends and Relations 7. Hopes of Heaven should put Christians upon unwearied diligence in the Service of God that is attended with such a Reward 8. The Consideration of so great a Happiness as Heaven is should cause in all Believers a Holy longing of Soul after the Enjoyment of it The Conclusion THE GLORY AND HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS CHAP. I. The Introduction A State of future Glory and Happiness proved What it is that makes the Happiness of Heaven so excellent and glorious in a short and brief Description thereof THE framing a Discourse of Heaven that Place of inexpressible Bliss and Happiness the Portion of Holy and Righteous Persons to Eternity is a Work fitter for an Angel one of those Heavenly Courtiers who have ever since their Creation and for many Ages and Generations now past been happy partakers of that blissful State than the lisping and stammering of any mortal Tongue Sense here being the best Orator and they fittest to describe Heaven unto others who live in the fruition of it themselves And indeed all Discourses of this nature by poor frail Creatures are rather a darkning and diminution of that Glory and Happiness than an ample Illustration or Discovery what it is And when the People of God shall come to the enjoyment thereof they will soon find themselves wonderfully but happily deceived by the most glorious Descriptions that ever were laid before them What the Prophet saith in Hab. 3. where after he had given us a short description of some of the glorious Excellencies and Perfections of God he tells us in the 4th Verse His Brightness was as the Light that he had Horns coming out of his hands which usually are a signification of Strength and Might but says the Prophet There was the hiding of his Power As if he had said Whatever Strength and Might God had thereby put forth it was so far from manifesting the fulness and greatness thereof that it was rather a Hiding than a Revelation of his Power there being infinitely more Power in him than was ever yet put forth by him The like may truly be said concerning Heaven and its Glory and Excellency Take all the Descriptions that since the Creation of the World have been made of the Glory and Happiness thereof and put them all together and we may say of them all that they rather hide and eclipse the Glory of Heaven than any way come near to a manifestation of the Fulness and Excellency thereof still is there infinitely more hid from us than can possibly thereby be made known to us Heaven is like God himself an infinite Good and Happiness and so cannot be fully known or enjoyed by any who are but of finite Capacities and Understanding And therefore after all that we have heard thereof from Men or received from God himself either by what he hath revealed to us in his Word or secretly elapsed down immediately into our Souls by his Spirit yet what holy Job saith of God we may say of the Heaven of God Oh how little a Portion of it is known And therefore those Words of St. Paul need not be looked upon with admiration when he tells us Phil. 1.23 he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ that is in Heaven where God and Christ are known and enjoyed for that is it which makes Heaven so desirable yea to be best of all as the same Apostle speaks For why should any think it strange that the blessed Apostle who had been wrapt up into the Third Heaven by extraordinary priviledge as well as in an extraordinary manner and there heard and saw so much of that Glory and Happiness that was there enjoyed as that himself said was unutterable that he should long after a fuller enjoyment of it Christians who profess their Hopes and Happiness is laid up in Heaven should rather wonder at his willingness to abide here any longer in the Flesh And certainly had not Love yea great Love to him who had prepared and purchased so great and inexpressible a Happiness for him wrought very powerfully in him it may seem almost impossible that Heaven and St. Paul should have been kept longer asunder if any thing in him or to be done or suffered by him could have brought him thither sooner than his appointed time Great and glorious things doth the Scripture
speak concerning Heaven the Palace or City rather of the great God but how great the Glory and Happiness of the Blessed shall there be none are able now to express The blessed Apostle therefore in 2 Cor. 12.3 4. when he sets himself purposely to relate his Journey into the other World all that he tells us of it is only this That there he heard those Words that were unspeakable and saw those Things that were not lawful or not possible to be uttered And other-where he tells us Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither is it possible for the heart of Man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him The Eye hath seen great and glorious Things and the Ear hath heard much greater but the Heart of Man is able to imagine much more than either of them But whatever the Eye hath seen or the Ear hath heard or the Heart can imagine yet neither of them can reach to apprehend or conceive the great things that God hath prepared for them that love him Hence therefore it is that the same Apostle 2 Cor. 4.17 calls Heaven a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The Happiness that a Believer attains to even on this side Glory when he hath received an Earnest or Beginning of Heaven in some glorious work of Sanctification upon his Soul Oh how doth the Joy of the Knowledge and Assurance thereof pass all understanding as the same Apostle speaks Phil. 4.7 Who is able to utter the sweetness of that Peace of Conscience and the spiritual Joy and Rejoycing of a Soul on whom the Love of God is shed abroad by the Hory Ghost Such a ravishing overcoming Joy and Delight flows in upon the Soul as it cannot express no nor sometimes is it able to bear up under it And if there be so much sweetness in a Taste of Heaven what is there then in a full enjoyment of Heaven The Beloved Apostle St. John tells us in 1 John 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be no nor indeed can it appear now for in our present state we are not able to bear it Should but a little of the Glory of Heaven be revealed to us now Oh how would it amaze and confound us That weight of Glory would be so great that it would overwhelm us We read in Exod. 34.34 That when Moses had been conversing with God in the Mount and came down to the People again that his Face did so shine that the Children of Israel could not behold him until he put a Vail upon his Face And did a a small Ray of the Glory of God reflected upon Moses's Face shine so gloriously that the Israe lites could not look upon him Oh what a dazling confounding Brightness and Glory would Heaven it self break forth upon us with if the Vail between us and it were removed out of the way surely Flesh and Blood could not be able to bear it When the same Moses therefore in Exod 33.18 besought God to shew him his Face or his Glory which is all one what Answer doth God return him Not a positive Denial of his Request for he doth not say I will not shew it thee No but he tells him Thou canst not see my face and live It is that thou canst not bear it is an Object too glorious for thee to behold As if God had said Moses thou hast had some discoveries of my self unto thee and they have begotten farther desires in thee after more and greater manifestations thereof What thou askest at my hands is not a thing too great for me to bestow but it is too great for thee to receive a happiness it is too great to be enjoyed in this Life and therefore though I do not nor will not for ever deny thy Request yet I must defer it till it may be a Happiness unto thee and that is till thou come to Heaven where thou shalt for ever see my face and enjoy my Presence in as large and ample a manner as thou canst possibly desire but now thou canst not bear it for no man can see my face and live And as no man can take in the Happiness of Heaven here so no man can understand the greatness of it So true are the Words of the Apostle The things that God hath prepared for them that love him are so many and so great that they cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive The Psalmist therefore upon this Consideration cries out with Admiration Psal 31.19 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee great it was but how great he could not express And thus truly must we do when we have said all we can concerning Heaven we must sit down and admire the Greatness and Excellency of it but the Fulness Riches and Glory of it we shall never understand till we come for ever to enjoy it But though we cannot fully understand the Happiness of Heaven yet for the raising of the Hearts and exciting and quickning the Affections and Desires of Christians towards it and that their pursuits after the obtaining of it may be more diligent and servent I shall endeavour to represent something of the Glory and Excellency of that Blessed State that is to be enjoyed there according to what God hath been pleased to discover to us thereof in his holy Word though still when all that hath or can be said it is the Enjoyment of Heaven only that can make known to us what the Happiness of Heaven shall be But before I proceed unto a particular and distinct Explication of the Happiness of Heaven it will be necessary by some convincing Arguments to prove the Reality and Certainty of that Glory and Happiness that shall be enjoyed by the Godly there Now this I shall demonstrate by these following Arguments First From the infallible Promises of the Truth-speaking God Now so many are the Promises scattered up and down in sacred Writ concerning the Certainty Futurity and Eternity of the Saints Happiness that I cannot number them and surely Believers who have by those Promises an everlasting Inheritance of Glory and Happiness conveyed to and setled upon them as their Portion cannot be supposed to be Strangers unto them upon the supposition whereof I shall instance only in a few Fear not little Flock says our Lord for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you a Kingdom Luke 12.33 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matt. 5.8 My sheep hear my voice and I give unto them eternal life John 10.28 This is his Promise that he hath given unto us even eternal life 1 John 2.25 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us says the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.3 4.
be like him for we shall see him as he is These are some of those great and glorious those deep and mysterious Expressions by which that unknown Happiness of the Saints in the Vision of God is set forth to us in Scripture What is comprehended in these great and mighty I had almost said almighty Expressions of seeing God of beholding him Face to Face of being made like unto him and seeing him as he is at present we are much in the dark about being beyond the reach of our finite Understandings Certain it is that there is something of an extraordinary Happiness intended unto the People of God thereby but how full how glorious an Happiness it is and in what way and manner it shall be communicated to them are things that pose our Reason and nonplus our Understanding to search into the bottom of O this great Word GOD as it signifies the Divine Essence and Being and as it holds forth a Happiness that shall be communicated unto the People of God according to the meaning of those Expressions before-mentioned of seeing of God of beholding him Face to Face of being made like unto him and seeing him as he is of which our Ignorance at present is greater than our Knowledge I say this great Word GOD hath more in it than all other Words can express to us yea there is more in it than all the Understandings of Men or Angels can unfold to us A Happiness there is contained in it that is so great as can only be known and understood by the Enjoyment of it yea it is a Happiness so great as shall never be fully understood no not by those that enjoy it for from this Blessed Vision of God which Glorified Souls always behold there shall continually arise such fresh Discoveries of new and glorious Excellencies in the Divine Being as shall ravish the Saints with new Joys and Pleasures to all Eternity In speaking to this Vision of the Saints I shall endeavour to explain these Two Things First What kind of Sight or Vision of God the Saints shall have in Heaven Secondly Wherein it doth appear that this Sight and Vision of God will be so great a Happiness to the Saints in Heaven First What kind of Sight or Vision of God the Saints shall have in Heaven Now to this I Answer First The Saints Vision of God in Heaven will be immediate and clear What Representations the Saints have of God in this Life comes to them by the interposition of some Means by which God is pleased to make himself known which is a dark and imperfect way of Revelation though suitable to our present State compared with what the Saints shall have in Heaven In this Life the People of God see him as the Spouse saw her Beloved through the Lattice Cant. 2.9 Or as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 13.12 Through a Glass that is darkly and indeed it can be no otherwise because it is through a Glass Now the Word of God is a Glass in which great Discoveries are made of God The Works of God also are another Glass held before our Faces continually in which we may see more of his Excellencies and Perfections displayed But neither in the Word of God nor in the Works of God is God so clearly discovered to us as he shall be to the Saints in Heaven While we are in this World God makes use of the Ministry of Men like our selves to instruct us in the knowledge of himself and though they may do something towards the enlightning of our Minds and the building up of our Souls in the Knowledge and Love of God when assisted by the Spirit of God yet is it but little that they themselves know of God and therefore is it but little that they can communicate unto others So saith the Apostle and he puts himself into the number 1 Cor. 12.9 We know but in part and therefore We prophesie but in part As if the Apostle had said There are great and glorious things to be known hereafter when we come to Heaven but at present our shallow Understandings cannot reach them All that we can do in our present state is to receive and take in a little knowledge of them to know in part And according to that Knowledge which we have such is the Knowledge we communicate unto others we know but in part and therefore we prophesie but in part This now is the present state of a Christian and the highest he can attain to in this World to know something of God to have some Sight of the Divine Excellencies and Perfections but it is but mediately and but in part not immediately and clearly as the Saints shall do in Heaven This is indeed according to their present Capacity and according to their present Necessity but not according to what shall be It is according to their present Capacity that is according to what they can bear for should God make immediate Discoveries of himself unto us this would sink and overwhelm our Beings and we should not be able to bear up under them It is also suitable to the Saints Necessities for when a Soul is begotten again by the Word of Truth unto a lively hope of Glory and Immortality the building up of that Soul in Grace and Holiness that it may be sit for the Vision and Enjoyment of God is to be carried on gradually in the Use of Means and Ordinances instituted and appointed by God for that End and Purpose But as it is in a Building when that which is designed thereby is accomplished and perfected the Scaffolding and other Instruments that are made use of for the erecting thereof are all taken down and removed out of the way So is it here while Believers are in the way to Heaven that is in a state of Preparation for the Enjoyment of God Means and Ordinances are necessary but when they are come to Heaven these things are at an end Prophesying and Teaching shall there cease as the Apostle speaks there being no use of them in Heaven because Believers are there come to their perfect State and God will there communicate himself to them immediately and clearly In Heaven God unvails himself to the Saints displays himself to them in his Glory according to their ability to receive and bear it and that which adds much to their Happiness in this blessed Vision of God is this That there the Understandings of the Saints shall be enlarged and strengthened that they may be able to take in according to what a finite Capacity can bear of the Fruition of an infinite God in which Vision and Enjoyment of God they shall be spending an Eternity with everlasting Joy and Delight Secondly The Saints Vision of God in Heaven will be transforming not barely speculative or notional but influential and operative upon the Mind and Soul By seeing God we shall become like him It is not so with us here if a deformed Man look upon the
most beautiful Persons or Objects in the World yet is there no transforming Power coming from them to work any alteration in the Complexion of the Beholder rendering him the more beautiful by the sight of those Persons or Objects He may carry away an Idea of the Beauty and Comliness of those Persons or Objects that he hath beheld in his Mind which may delight his Fancy in the thoughts of them but there is no Alteration made in him but the same Deformities and Blemishes remain still notwithstanding But it is otherwise in Heaven the Sight of the Glorious and Holy God makes the Saints that behold him to become like unto him in Holiness and Glory for so are the Words of the Beloved Apostle who lay in the Bosom of Christ 1 John 3.2 We shall be like unto him that is unto God and the Ground or Reason of it follows in the next Words for we shall see him as he is It is true the People of God are like unto him while they are in this World but their Likeness to God here and their Likeness to him in Heaven greatly differ The Likeness that the People of God have unto God in this Life is both an imperfect Likeness and a growing Likeness neither of which are the People of God capable of in Heaven First The Likeness they have to God here is an imperfect Likeness In some things they are like unto God and in other things they are not Wherein they are like unto God they are comely but wherein they are like unto the World they are deformed and therefore uncomely It was the Complaint of the Church whom Christ called his Love and his Fair One that she was comely but yet she was black also Cant. 1.5 I am black but comely She was comely with Grace and there was her Likeness unto Christ and that made her so lovely But yet she was black with Sin and there was her Imperfection and Deformity And hence it is that we read Cant. 6.10 That the Church is said to look forth as the Morning fair as the Moon now the Moon though she be one of the great Luminaries of Heaven yet hath she her Spots and the Morning-Light is but small and imperfect unto a Noon-Day-Brightness and therefore it increaseth more and more unto the perfect Day Thus it is with the best of God's People here Grace gives them a Likeness unto God but with the Moon they have their Spots Sin and Corruption still remaining in them while they are in this World But now the Saints Likeness to God in Heaven by the Vision they have of him there it is such a Likeness as excludes all Sin and all Imperfection They are so like unto God that they are nothing but what he is not as to his Being and Essence for that is incommunicable but in Grace and Holiness and so according to their Capacities they partake of the Divine Nature it self And Oh what a blessed State will this be when we shall have nothing in us but what we partake of from God and wherein we shall be in every thing like unto him Secondly That Likeness the People of God have unto God here is a growing Likeness That Grace and Holiness Believers have in this Life wherein consists their Likeness unto God it is always growing and increasing in them Hence the Apostle tells us That the state of Christians here is like unto new-born Babes who are always desirous of the breast for their Nourishment and Growth 1 Pet. 2.2 As New-born Babes that desire the sincere Milk of the Word that we may grow thereby No Saint or Servant of God ever attained to that degree of Grace and Holiness here but still there was something lacking in his Faith something defective in his Love something wanting in his Patience something that might be added to his Heavenly-mindedness to his Meekness to his Humility and to all his other Graces Hence therefore it is that the People of God are so often commanded to add to their spiritual stature to encrease with the Encreases of God to grow in Grace and in the saving knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And to explain this Truth no farther that of the Apostle is full to this purpose 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory unto Glory That is from one degree and measure of Grace and Holiness unto another Believers are now like unto God but this Likeness is Imperfect and therefore while they are here they are still growing into a greater Conformity unto him But now in Heaven Grace in the Saints is in its Perfection Heaven is a Place where the Spirits of just Men are made perfect Holiness is the Advancement the Elevation of the Soul a higher pitch of Glory and Excellency it is not capable of for Holiness is the Glory of God himself and therefore though God is said to be Infinite in regard of his Wisdom Almighty in regard of his Power yet is he only said to be Glorious in regard of his Holiness So we read Exod. 15.11 Who is a God like unto thee glorious in Holiness Now in Heaven the Saints Holiness shall be in the highest degree in the greatest eminency and perfection and because herein they shall be like unto God they also shall be glorious in Holiness for they shall then have as much of Grace and Holiness as they can desire or as God would have them to have for when that which is perfect is come that which is imperfect shall be done away And O what a blessed state will that be when the Saints shall have nothing in them that is weak and imperfect nor nothing that is wanting or defective but shall be for ever like unto God himself perfect in Grace and Holiness Thirdly The Saints Sight and Vision of God in Heaven will be happy and joyful A Believer is the only happy Person in all the World his Life is a Life of continual Joy either he doth or he may always rejoyce He hath always the Presence of God with him he hath always the Love of God towards him he hath always the Hopes shall I say nay he hath the Assurance of Heaven and Glory in the Promise continually set before him And who may rejoyce if he may not He hath the Great the Almighty God for his Shield and Protection here and to be his exceeding great reward hereafter And shall not such a one rejoyce Is not here cause of Joy O how happy is the Person that is in such a case as this Such are commanded to rejoyce evermore 1 Thes 5.17 Nay in the most afflicted state and condition such have cause of Rejoycing I am says the Apostle exceeding joyful in all our Tribulations And says our Blessed Lord Matth. 5.11 12. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly
acquainted with here continually singing Praises and Hallelujahs unto the great God and to the Lamb that sits upon the Throne and be no more weary thereof than the Angels themselves are understanding perfectly the Will of God and readily obeying it without so much as one vain Thought passing thorough their Minds or one idle Word dropping from their Mouths or one wry Look in their Countenances to Eternity O what a blessed Frame is here What would not a Gracious Soul give or do that he could attain to it now How would he rejoice to find a connaturality or perfect suitableness and agreement in himself unto Divine and Heavenly Employments O how happy would he think himself were his heart always as holy as his work Unto this tend all his Duties and performances even unto the perfecting of him in Grace and Holiness it is for this that he so often fasts and prays it is for this that he so often hears reads and meditates upon the Word of God for this it is he so often partakes of the Supper of the Lord and is so frequent in the Communion of Saints even for the destroying of Sin and Corruption and the encreasing and perfecting of Grace in his Soul Oh how full of longing Desires is he after that Day and Time Oh how earnestly doth he cry when when will the shadows flee away when will Days and Nights be at an end when will Time be spent when shall the Curtains be drawn that he may not only look at but eternally possess that blessed Place where Sin shall be for ever excluded both out of him and it where Grace and Holiness shall be perfected in him and where he shall always behold it shining in its ravishing Beauty and Glory Well be of good Chear O all ye Holy and Gracious Souls whose Desires are thus bent for in Mount Sion there shall be both a Deliverance from Sin and a Perfection of Holiness In Heaven the Spirits of just Men are made perfect Let the Thoughts therefore of your perfect Holiness in Heaven support you against all your natural Infirmities and Failings here on Earth Yea let all those that have a real Love to Holiness and a Hatred unto Sin long for Heaven and be desirous to die that they may sin no more but be for ever perfect in Grace and Holiness Fifthly The Saints in Heaven shall be Partakers of Fulness of Joy Joy is the peculiar Privilege of a Saint None in all the World notwithstanding all their great Possessions have that Cause of rejoicing that a godly Man hath That which makes a wicked Man rejoice is something that delights his Senses something that pleaseth his Fancy all which is vain and vanishing But that which delights a Godly Man is that which is solid and substantial something within that reacheth the very Soul and Conscience and that is God reconciled to him in Jesus Christ evidenced to his Soul upon Scripture grounds followed with the Testimony of the blessed Spirit in his Conscience witnessing with his Spirit that he is among the number of the Children of God upon which follows the Love of God shed abroad in his Heart by the same Spirit filling him with that Joy and Peace by Believing that is unspeakable and glorious Now though this be the Privilege of a godly Man yet hath he not always the sense and feeling of this Joy but though he hath not always the Comfort of it yet hath he always the ground of this Joy for Light is always sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in Heart Psalm 97.11 Though it doth not presently spring up and break sorth yet the Seed of it is there None in all the World do or might lead such a pleasant joyful Life as the People of God were it not their own Fault they giving way to the omission of some Duty or the commission of some Sin and this mars all their Joy It is true the Devil doth what he can to disquiet them and the Wicked of the World give them molestation and trouble sometimes they are tempted with the Allurements of Profit and Advantage and sometimes they are aw'd with Fears and Threatnings But if they would put forth their Grace into Exercise and by Prayer implore Divine Assistance they would be enabled not only to stand up against all the Enemies of their Peace but with a holy Joy and Triumph to vanquish and over come them This is that Life a godly Man might lead were he so watchful as he ought But Experience tells us it is not so for there are many Clouds of Discontent and Trouble that darken the Sun-shine of a Believer's Joy O the Complaints of past Sorrows O the Sense of present Evils and the Fears of worse for the future these in a great measure share our Lives among them But in Heaven it shall not be so there 's no Sorrow no Troubles no Evils no Dangers no nor so much as any Fears of them for all is Peace there 's nothing but Joy nothing but Pleasure and Sweetness Nor can it be otherwise with a godly Man in Heaven because that which was the Cause of all his Grief and Sorrow which is Sin is now perfectly taken away Now in the Joys of Heaven there are these four Properties they are pure they are spiritual they are full they are everlasting Joys First The Joys of a Saint in Heaven are pure Joys and pure they are in respect of the Object of them and in their being free from any Mixture First They are pure in respect of the Object of them The Joy of the Wicked is terminated upon some carnal Object His Joy is in the Flesh not in the Spirit When he rejoiceth it is among his wicked Companions his Delight is commonly in something that is sinful or sensual in Chambring and Wantonness or at best in Corn Wine and Oil. But now the Joy of a Saint is in God he now cries out with Holy David Psalm 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Thy Favour O Lord is Life and thy Loving Kindness is better than Life And with how much greater Joy and Delight doth a Saint say so of God and of the Enjoyment of him in Heaven It is true Saints in Heaven enjoy the Blessedness of Peace and Rest from all their former Troubles and Sorrows which they remember with Delight and Praise unto their Deliverer but though this eternal Peace and Rest be a great Blessing and that which passeth all Understanding yet is it the least part of the Saints Happiness in Heaven for their greatest Satisfaction and Contentment ariseth from the Joy and Delight which proceeds from beholding the Face of God in Heaven This is that which fills and satifies yea ravisheth the Soul of a Saint when enlarged to its utmost Capacity with that Joy and Delight that is unexpressibly great and glorious Secondly The Joys of Heaven are pure Joys in
perfect Lineaments of Christ will then be drawn upon it A weak and small measure of Grace which is the highest attainment that any Saint reacheth to here compared with what we shall do hereafter and is also the Image of Christ upon the Soul of a Believer yet even this imperfect Grace and Holiness makes the Soul to shine gloriously here how much more then shall Glory that is the Perfection of Grace and the perfecting of the Image of Christ upon the Soul make the Soul of a believer to exceed in Glory Not that the Saints in Heaven shall be continually receiving new additions to their Grace or Glory and so be made more and more like unto Christ by the Vision they shall there have of him No this is a Saint's Work and Employment here on Earth whilst he beholds Christ only by an eye of Faith in the Glass of Duties and Ordinances thus to be changed into his Image from Glory to Glory But this Sight of Christ shall vanish away in Heaven and the Saints shall have an immediate Vision of God and Christ and their Souls shall thereby be changed into an exact and perfect conformity unto the Image of Christ It shall not then be from Glory to Glory from one degree of Grace to another as it is now but Grace and Holiness in Heaven shall be always in them in its height and perfection The Souls of Believers upon their entrance into that Holy Place become perfectly and compleatly glorious having the perfection of Grace and Holiness in them without the least remainders of Sin and Corruption which in this World the holiest Persons are not totally free'd from But to speak a little more particularly concerning the Happiness of the Souls of Believers in Heaven and here First In Heaven the Vnderstandings of the Saints shall be enlarged Knowledge is a necessary Engredient unto the Soul's Happiness in Heaven and the more enlarged the Vnderstanding of a Saint is the greater is his Happiness An ignorant Soul cannot be a happy Soul neither on Earth nor in Heaven Ignorant Persons are look'd upon with pity and contempt That the Soul be without knowledge says the Wise Man is not nor cannot be good Prov. 19.2 Knowledge is a great Ornament in any Man but much more in a Christian It is a great Commendation to have an insight into the Secrets of Nature to be skill'd in Arts and Sciences to understand Logick Philosophy Metaphysicks and the like but the Excellency of Knowledge lies not in these things but in the knowledge of the Highest and Chief Good of all and that is God and Christ This the Scripture calls the Excellency of Knowledge So says the Apostle Philip. 3.9 I count all things but Loss and Dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord and John 17.2 This is Life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is excellent Knowledge indeed to know God to know the Lord Jesus Christ to understand the wonderful Work of Man's Redemption to be acquainted with the Mysteries of Divine Providence This is a knowledge wherein Angels may delightfully busie themselves in the contemplation of and not stoop below the Excellency and Dignity of their Natures Something of Light and Knowledge they have into these Objects now But alas it 's little we know of God of Christ of the Mysteries of Redemption and Providence to what shall be known in Heaven Some of these blessed Objects are far above out of our sight others are far above the reach of our Vnderstanding to comprehend the depth of those Mysteries of Wisdom Grace and Love that are contained in them But in Heaven our Capacities shall be enlarged to take in the Knowledge of these high and glorious Objects In Heaven God will take off the Vail from his Face that we may see him Face to Face and not only so but will strengthen us that we may be able to look upon and behold his Glory and Excellency which otherwise would astonish and confound us There shall we see the blessed Lord Jesus who for our sakes was for a little while made a little lower than the Angels crowned with Glory and Honour All the wonderful and astonishing Mysteries of our Redemption shall be there unfolded to us There it is that we shall see all the glorious Attributes of God Wisdom Justice Mercy Holiness Faithfulness and Truth sweetly reconciled and fully satisfied and contented in the contrivance of our Redemption by Jesus Christ There we shall with great satisfaction understand the deep and obscure Mysteries of Religion which here the most profound Scholars were never able fully to comprehend There shall the most dark and difficult Passages of that divine and heavenly Book the Scriptures be made clear and plain to our Understanding There it shall be given us to discern how exquisitely the several parts of Holy Writ were by the All wise and Fore seeing Author of them God fitted and adapted unto the several Times Places Persons and Occurrences for which they were intended chiefly to be used We shall then plainly see not only a Reconcileableness but a Friendship and perfect Harmony between those Sacred Texts in Holy Writ that seem'd most to jarr and be at greatest variance Yea there shall we discover not only the meaning of the most dark and obscure Passages of that Sacred Book but how fit it was that they should be so together with the infinite Wisdom of the great God that caused them to be written so obscurely There it is that those Riddles of Divine Providence shall be expounded and laid open before us which have made not only wicked Men to deny but tempted even good Men themselves sometimes to call in question the infinite and unerring Wisdom of the great God in his Government of the World when they behold wicked and ungodly Men to prosper grow rich and great having all their Hearts can wish whilst upright and righteous ones are continually exposed to Poverty Reproach and Contempt There shall we be fully convinced that all these seeming Irregularities are not only consistent with God's Justice and Goodness but are the wise productions of them And though the Belief hereof doth to wise and understanding Persons seem to be a piece of great Self-denial yet when we come to Heaven it will appear to be as highly rational as now we find it to be hard and difficult Man of himself is no fit Judge of the Providence of God at any time but especially not in this World because he cannot see the whole of his Providential Workings at once His Days as Job speaks are but as a shadow upon Earth and they fly away So that he can see but little of what God is doing But when we come to Heaven the whole Conduct of God's Providence in the Administration of Affairs in the World shall be laid open to our view Then shall all the Revolutions and Occurrences of Empires States
thy being Eternally under the Torments of Hell this is that which makes thee truly miserable And on the other hand it is not thy being in Heaven comparatively that will make thee Happy but it is thy being Eternally there that makes thee truly Happy This this is that which Accents thy Misery or thy Happiness even the Eternity of it Oh Eternity Eternity thou art the bitterest and thou art the sweetest word in all the World to the Damned thou art the bitterest of all words because their Torments are to last to all Eternity And to the Godly thou art the sweetest word in all the World for their Joys and Happiness shall last unto all Eternity There is nothing either in Heaven or in Hell but what speaks Eternity There is nothing in Hell but what is Eternal Hell it self that place of Torment is Eternal The Sufferings and Torments of the Damned in Hell are Eternal The Wrath and Vengeance of God that is the cause of those Torments in Eternal Yea all the Damned themselves together with the Devil and his Angels are all to be sufferers under an Eternity of Torments in Hell O Eternity Eternity how miserable beyond all expression dost thou make the condition of the Damned to be And as there is nothing in Hell but what is Eternal so neither is there any thing in Heaven but what speaks Eternity There is the Great and Blessed God the Father of Eternity the Sum and Heighth of the Saints Happiness in Heaven to be Eternally enjoyed It is there that the Lord Jesus Christ the Saints great and blessed Redeemer is whose Meritorious Death and Sufferings hath Deserved and Obtained for them the Eternal Enjoyment of that Happiness which there they are partakers of Heaven that place of Bliss and Happiness where God manifests and displays all his Glorious Excellencies and Perfections is Eternal The blessed Company and Society of a Saint in Heaven the innumerable Company of Glorified Saints and Angels shall Eternally be their fellow Inhabitants in that Holy place Yea both the Happiness of Heaven and every Saint that shall participate of that Happiness shall both continue in conjunction together Everlastingly Here O my Soul is a Happiness most worthy of all thy thoughts a Happiness so great that it calls for and deserves all thy Time all thy Parts yea all the Labour and Pains thou canst possibly lay out for the obtaining of it O Eternity Eternity how pleasant how delightful a word art thou for Holy Souls to contemplate upon thou art not more full of dread and horror to the wicked in Hell than thou art full of pleasure and delight unto the Saints in Heaven thou art the Sweetness the Consummation the Perfection of a Saint's Happiness God himself who is the All of a Saint's Happiness if he be not enjoyed for ever cannot make a Saint always Happy Unless an Eternity of Enjoyment be added to a Saint's Happiness in Heaven he cannot be fully and compleatly Happy It is true whilst he enjoys the Happiness of Heaven he is in a Happy state but if Eternity be not added to that Enjoyment a time will come when that Happiness shall cease and have an end Take away Eternity from a Saint's Happiness and there not only will but there must come a time when a Saint must be miserable O Eternity Eternity thou art not only a Happiness added to a Saint's Happiness in Heaven but thou art that blessed Band that unitest and tiest all the scattered parcels of a Saint's Happiness together in one bundle for his satisfaction and security for ever O my Soul study this word Eternity well as it is the Crowning addition unto the Saints Happiness It is that which will revive and quicken thee yea it is that which will put a new life into thee in thy greatest Agonies and Sufferings which thou canst undergo here for they are but of short continuance Death at farthest will come and put an end to them all but the Glory and Happiness that remains for thee in Heaven that is Eternal and Everlasting and shall never never never know an end CHAP. V. Of the Efficient Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven namely the Free Grace of God Of the Meritorious Cause of the Saints Happiness namely the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Of the Final Cause of the Saints Happiness namely the Glory of God Holiness the Saints great Qualification for Heaven Wicked Men unsuitable to the Work of Heaven and to the Reward of Heaven both which are Holy In Heaven there is both an Eternal Work for Saints to be Employed in and an Eternal Reward for Saints to Enjoy THat which is next to be discoursed of in the handling of this Subject of the Saints Happiness according to my propounded Method is the consideration of that Happiness in the several causes of it Now in speaking unto this head I shall discourse a little upon these three particulars The Efficient Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven The Meritorious Cause of that Happiness And lastly the Final Cause thereof First The Efficient Fundamental Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven and that is the Free Grace of God Now for this the Scripture is very full Ephes 2.4 5 c. But God who is rich in Mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us Even when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses hath quickened us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God So in Rom. 6.23 The Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. All is from the free Grace of God And though this Happiness of the Saints be the highest that can be bestowed upon any yet is it that which is given freely What says our Lord Luke 12.32 Fear not little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom This is to act like a God to give most bountifully and yet most freely To give the highest and best Gifts and yet to give them freely and undeservedly Thus God gives himself Heaven Glory and Eternal Life freely All that he doth for his people from their first Conversion on Earth unto their Eternal Glorification in Heaven is all from his own free Grace and Good Will Their Conversion is of Grace James 1.18 Of his own good will begat he us by the Word of Truth Their Justification is of Grace Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace Their Sanctification also is of Grace Titus 2.11 12 13. The Grace of God that hath appeared unto all men teacheth us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lust we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present evil World Yea
this World wicked men at once both vex and laugh at the Purity and Holiness of the Saints inwardly they vex and fret at it though outwardly in their Speeches and Countenances they laugh and deride it Yea and to some it is though it be a Devilish Contentment to them that they can reproach the Defects of the Godly Should such as these enter Heaven while they are such Heaven would be a place of exact Torture and Torment to them because there they would find nothing of that Sin and Wickedness which is agreeable to their corrupt Hearts and Natures but contrarily all that Purity and Holiness which they hate yea and nothing but perfect Purity and Holiness which hath no defects for them to abuse O the woful and deplorable but withal certain and unavoidable Misery of all unregenerate unsanctified persons for tho' Heaven be a place of unconceivable Bliss and Happiness yet Heaven it self cannot make such as they are happy Tell me O all ye wicked and prophane wretches who think no time mispent or lost but what is thrown away in Holy Duties that grudge at every word spoken in Prayer that think much of every sand in the Glass that runs at a Sermon and unto whom every Summons to the publick Service of God is as unacceptable as their Passing Bell that cry when will the Sabbath be gone and the Ordinances be over What would you do in Heaven or what can such unholy hearts as yours do there where a Sabbath shall not be barely as long as a day or a week or a year but as long as Eternity it self where there shall be nothing but a continual performance of Holy Duties and Services without so much as one spare minute or a vain thought or an idle word for ever where whatsoever you shall hear see or converse with shall be all Holy And let me add this by how much the more perfect the Holiness of Heaven is than what the Holiness of the Saints here on Earth was by so much the more irksome and intolerable will it be to the wicked for if their sore Eyes cannot endure the light of a Star how will they be able to bear the dazling brightness of the Sun Secondly Wicked men are not only unsuitable to the Work of Heaven but they are unsuitable to the Reward of Heaven The Work of Heaven is Holy and Spiritual and so is the Reward of Heaven a Holy and Spiritual Reward and it lies chiefly in two things both of them unsuitable to a wicked and carnal heart one is a clear and constant Vision of the Great and Blessed God and the other is an unconceivable entireness of Communion and Fellowship with him Now of all things in the World these are the things which as unboly Persons are unacquainted with so of all things in the World they cannot endure to speak of each of these briefly First For the Reward of Heaven that consists in a clear constant Vision of the Great God this a Sinner cannot bear Nothing is more terrible to a guilty Sinner than the sight of a Righteous and Holy God The Scripture acquaints us that many of God's own People have had dreadful apprehensions of God upon some though but restrained discoveries that he hath been pleased to make of himself unto them Thus Job in Job 42.5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye sees thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes So the Prophet Esay cries out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts And when our Saviour put forth his Divine Power in the working of a Miracle the Glory of it was so terrible that Holy Peter cries out Luke 6. Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man What was it now that made these Holy Men so full of fear and trembling upon these discoveries of God Why it was only from a likeness that was in them unto Wicked men from those remainders of Sin and Corruption that still abide in them whereby they too much resemble ungodly men which Grace in this life cannot perfectly destroy Adam in Innocency had not nor have the Saints in Heaven any such dreadful apprehensions of God No Adam then did and the Saints in Heaven shall for ever enjoy the smiles of God's face beaming forth upon them If now the faint and weak discoveries of God that he hath made of himself unto Holy Men be so astonishing O what a confounding sight will it be unto Sinners to have all the Glorious Attributes of God break forth in a full flash of Lightning not only upon the Faces but into the Consciences of Sinners and when particularly among the rest of them they shall behold that dreadful Attribute his provoked Justice not only sworn but armed with Power and bent for their Destruction Is this such a Sight of God and wicked men shall behold no other as will make Heaven desirable unto Sinners surely it is not O that such would think of it before it be too late Secondly Another part of the Reward of Heaven stands in that unconceivable entireness of Communion and Fellowship with God which the Saints there enjoy This is their great Happiness both on Earth and in Heaven Holy David therefore tells us He had none in Heaven but God and that there was none on Earth that he desired in comparison of him And the Apostle speaking of himself and other Believers saith Their Fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And O how sweet and delightful are those intercourses that pass between God and Holy Souls in the Duties of his Worship and Service O what blessed exchanges of Love for Love what returns of Obedience and Praise for Grace and Mercy received which is the sweetness of every Duty and that which powerfully draws and engages Holy Souls to the daily performance of them And in Heaven in self the fulness and perfection of the Saints Happiness is that there they shall be for ever with the Lord. Now these Spiritual and Heavenly Enjoyments wicked men are not only unsuitable to but they are things which they also hate they were ever strangers to them here on Earth and how then shall they be fit for them in Heaven Certainly for wicked men to be tyed up to such Spiritualities as these will make Heaven it self but an uncomfortable place to them But though wicked Men are neither fitted for the Work nor suited to the Reward of Heaven yet is there both a Work and a Reward in Heaven that remains to be performed and enjoyed by the People of God That Heaven is a Place of Rest Ease and Refreshment is the common and received Notion that all Men have of it but that is not all that the Happiness of Heaven is made up of For it is not only a place of Rest but it is also a place
of Working It is true the Work there is not toilsome and laborious but sweet and pleasant and that makes the Saints delightfully spend an Eternity therein In Heaven therefore the Saints are to perform an eternal Work as they are there to enjoy an eternal Reward both go to the making up the Happiness of Heaven First In Heaven there is an eternal Work for the Saints to be employed in Much hath been said concerning that Happiness which the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven and more is there of Sweetness and Excellency in it than Words can express But yet we are not so to conceive of the Happiness thereof as some ignorant Persons do grossly imagine and wish to themselves as if Heaven were a Place where the blessed Inhabitants thereof were altogether unactive and unemployed enjoying only their Ease and Rest and so void of Cares and Fears passed away an Eternity This may be the low and brutish Apprehensions that profane Sinners may have concerning Heaven but they are such as are no way becoming the Glory and Dignity the Honour and Happiness of that holy Place for that Rest the People of God shall enjoy in Heaven is an operative working Rest or it is Rest and Exercise at once for though in Heaven the Saints do rest from their labours yet they do not rest from their working Now if any ask what that Work is in which the Saints shall be employed in Heaven I answer they shall always be blessing and praising of God there according to that in Rev. 5.13 Blessing Honour and Glory unto him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Continually are those blessed ones beholding admiring and adoring of God and burning in Love to each other and mutually rejoicing all in God and in one another This now is that eternal Work that a Saint shall be for ever employed about in his everlasting Rest a Work so full of Pleasure and Delight that it cannot be intermitted or forborn by the Saints to Eternity Secondly In Heaven there is an eternal Reward that shall be bestowed upon the Saints A Reward so great and so glorious as is beyond the Thoughts and Imaginations much more beyond the Words and Expressions of poor mortal Creatues to discover When all hath been said of it that can be still is there something of Glory and Excellency of Sweetness and Delight in this glorious Reward that exceeds all Expressions and Apprehensions Rack and torture the whole Creation extract the Quintessence of all the Glory Beauty Excellency and Goodness that is in all the Creatures in the World and let it be the Enjoyment of one Man for his Happiness yet all this is but a shadowy representation of that Glory and Happiness that the Saints shall enjoy hereafter Let the Desires Thoughts and Imaginations of Angels and Men be bent upon imagining and contriving what it is they could desire that would make the condition of any one happy in the Fruition of it the heavenly Reward there shall be a participating of that Happiness or that which is infinitely better and beyond it The Desires of Men's Souls may run out after great things which if they can attain they question not but the Enjoyment of them will make them happy But Men's Imaginations can go much farther even to the coveting after that in their Thoughts that they cannot tell how almost to desire But let the Desires and Imaginations of Men's Souls be enlarged and widened never so greatly and insatiably after a Happiness that may satisfieand content them yet still they come infinitely short both in Desire and in Imagination of what shall be the heavenly Reward And if Desires if Thoughts if Imaginations cannot reach the Greatness of this Reward Surely all Words though nttered with the greatest Eloquence to represent the Greatness and Excellency thereof must fall infinitely short of it So many good things are contained in this Reward that they exceed Number So great things that they exceed Desire and so precious that they exceed Estimation Nay this Reward of the Saints is so great and glorious that it exceeds both the Faith and Hope of a Christian The People of God believe and trust in God for great things and God loves to have the Hopes and Expectations of his People greatned and enlarged towards himself Of Abraham it is said that against Hope he believed in Hope or above Hope But in this great and glorious Reward of the Saints in Heaven we cannot believe above Hope that is we cannot believe above the great things that are hoped for Whatever we believe and hope for in Heaven that which the Saints shall enjoy there will be above it and beyond it It is true at present we know not what these great things are but when we come to Heaven we shall certainly find that they exceed both our Faith and our Hope And to add no more the Greatness and Glory of this Reward is that which exceeds all those Expressions which the Spirit of God in Scripture is pleased to set forth the the Greatness and Glory of it to us by Great Things are there spoken concerning this Happiness of the Saints But there is still abundantly more to be revealed and enjoyed than what that Holy Book hath discovered to us so great shall be the Reward of the Saints in Heaven that it exceeds Words exceeds Thoughts exceeds Faith exceeds Hope It is too great for Words to express too great for Thoughts to conceive too great for Faith to believe too great for Hope to expect For though Faith believes the Truth and Hope expects the Certainty of the things promised yet Faith doth not believe nor doth Hope expect the Greatness and Fulness of what shall be hereafter enjoyed by the Saints For saith the Evangelical Prophet from whom the Apostle makes use of the same Words Isa 64.4 and 1 Cor. 2.9 Since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for them that love him and wait for him So great shall this Happiness of the Saints in Heaven be that it can never be known but by Enjoyment There shall be nothing to Eternity that shall be afflictive or troublesome but an aggregation or meeting together of every thing that is pleasing and delightful with the continuance of them for ever That is a sweet Scripture and gives us the fullest Description of that State of Blessedness in so few Words Rev. 21.17 He that overcometh shall inherit all things and God will be his God And what can be said more to make any one happy For in this Scripture we have both the certainty of a Saint's Reward and the Fulness of it the certainty of his Reward in these Words He shall inherit I will be his God The fulness of it in these Words He shall inherit all things and God will be his God and who can tell what God is or
Dead that is unto that State of Blessedness that the Saints shall arrive unto at the Resurrection from the Dead And the same Apostle in 1 Cor. 15.58 having discoursed concerning the Resurrection of Christ and thereupon proved the Resurrection of the Dead and the great Happiness of the Saints thereupon he concludes his Discourse with this Exhortation Wherefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord for asmuch as you know your labour is not in vain in the Lord Whatever any do or suffer for God they shall be no loosers by it in the end Heaven will abundantly recompense a Christian for all the Labour and Pains yea for all the cost and charge he can be at in his way thither When our Lord had wrought a great Miracle in feeding so many thousand with a few Barley Loaves and two small Fishes he bids his Disciples Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost Joh. 8.12 There is nothing that a Believer doth for God now that shall be lost his Tears are all bottled his Sighs are all numbred his Prayers are all filed in Heaven and a day of reckoning will come when all shall be brought forth and recompensed not with a thousand fold as in this Life with Persecution but with eternal Gains that shall never have an end It is not only an unsuitable thing but highly disingenious for any to be niggardly and pinching in the Service of God to give him as little as they can of Duty and Obedience who expect so Magnificent and Glorious a State of Happiness from him hereafter What a shameful thing is it and how unbecoming a Christian to think any measure of Duty enough for God who looks for a promised as well as a purchased Reward from him that shall be without measure Why shouldst thou set bounds to thy Work when God hath set none to thy Wages how unreasonable a thing is it that any measure of Duty though never so short and scanty should be thought enough by thee when the Happiness thou hopest for and God hath promised is without all measure Surely a Christian should be always abounding in the Work of the Lord who will always make him Happy Alas how little how inconsiderable is our always of Working to Gods always of Rewarding Suppose we were always abounding in the Work and Service of God in which God knows we are greatly wanting yet all our Obedience extended unto the utmost can reach no longer than to the end of a short Life but Gods Reward and our Happiness thereby runs parallel with an endless Eternity Why then should a little time spent in the serving and honouring of God here seem too much and too long when an Eternity spent in the enjoyment of God will never be too much Were there nothing of a Reward to be expected hereafter yet a Godly Man would love and serve God for the New Nature not only enclines him to it but makes him delight in the doing of it It is true the great God the Supreme Soveraign Lord of all his Creatures might have made a Law if he had pleased to bind Man to Obedience without the encouragement of a promised Reward but he hath not thought good to deal with Man in so strict a way and manner but in a way of condescending Grace and Mercy and so out of his immense Bounty and Goodness hath been pleased to sweeten and facilitate Man's Obedience with a promise of no meaner importance than the enjoyment of the Eternal Inheritance with himself in Glory O how much should this affect our Hearts and how strongly should it oblige us to abound in the Work and Service of such a Lord and Master Were it possible for the Saints in Heaven to communicate the Experiences and Enjoyments which they now are partaking of in Glory What a Confirmation and Encouragement would this be thought to spirit and quicken us in the ways of Duty and Obedience Why the Word of God that holds forth the promised Reward is as true shall I say nay much more true than such a Communication can be for in that our Senses may be deceived and we imposed upon but by the Word of God we cannot for that is Truth it self and cannot lye Wherefore the Word of God holding forth the promised Reward of Heaven should be the greatest encouragement in the World to put Christians upon the utmost diligence imaginable in the Work and Service of God And the Truth of it is as we can never begin too soon so we can never hold out too long in the ways of Duty and Obedience None ever repented when they came to Die that they had spent too much of their time in the Service of God Who ever read or heard of any that did thus repent very many upon a Death-bed have bitterly lamented that they have done no more for God that they have idled and wasted away so much of their precious time upon impertinent Vanities and Trifles and that what they have done for God hath been so poor so mean so defective and so defiled These things have been a great grief and trouble unto many yea the best of God's Servants who have been most eminent for Grace whose usefulness in their Generation others have admired have yet themselves complained of their barrenness and unprofitableness and mourned for their deficiency and falling short of what they should have done Thus that eminently laborious Servant of Jesus Christ Bishop Vsher crys out against himself upon his Death bed begging Pardon for his Sins of omission and yet his constant Labours and Diligence both in Preaching and Writing was greatly and justly applauded by all And if any one should think this a strange assertion that the People of God should at a dying hour be thus sensible of their great deficiencies I humbly conceive this may be rendred as a Reason thereof because the Saints and Servants of God at such a time standing upon the brink of Eternity and being ready to lanch forth into that vast Ocean have then enlarged and widened apprehensions both of the infinite Majesty and Holiness of God and of the unspeakable greatness of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven and this makes not only their Persons but the best of their Services appear inconsiderable in their own Eyes but causes in them an Holy blushing and shame that all their time they have done so little for that God who hath laid up so much for them that they have glorified him so little here on Earth unto whom they are now a going to enjoy a state of Eternal Glory and Happiness in Heaven Eighthly and Lastly Is there such a place of Bliss and Happiness provided for and assured unto Believers hereafter as Heaven is Let the consideration hereof cause in them a Holy longing of Soul after the enjoyment of it If there be enough in any Object or in any Place to draw forth the Love and Desires the Pantings and Breathings
our Salvation Is it not there that we shall be for ever out of the reach of Satan's Temptations with which a Believer is so assaulted and harassed here as renders his Life not only uncomfortable but even burthensome to himself Is it not there that our frail Bodies which now are subject to Pains and Diseases because defiled with Sin shall be for ever loosed from all Weaknesses and Infirmities being made like unto the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ perfectly freed from Mortality and Corruption and from all Sin and Defilement Is it not there that all the People of God shall be of one Heart and of one Mind that being taken away both from within and from without which was the cause of all their Divisions and Contentions here on Earth and instead thereof there shall be a sweet union of Hearts and Affections all of them abundantly delighting and satisfying themselves in one God as the Object of their Happiness without the least jarring or discord among them to all Eternity While the People of God are in this Vail of Tears they labour under much Blindness and Ignorance about the Mysteries of Salvation as revealed in the Gospel but in Heaven these Mysteries shall all be fully and perfectly made known to us In this Life we take in our Knowledge of God of Heaven and of the Gospel by which we are savingly enlightned in either by little and little as a Man that desires to know what is contained in a Book before it is exposed to publick view reads it Sheet by Sheet from the Press and so understands a little and a little of it by Degrees And truly so do Christians concerning the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God now they hear a Sermon and by that they gain a little light and in some short time they hear another Sermon and by that they encrease their light a little more and thus their Stock of Divine Knowledge encreaseth a little and a little at time by the help of means and opportunities that they enjoy But now in Heaven all is done without travail or trouble for though it is true Glorified Saints there cease not from working yet is it as true that they cease from labour Here our Passions are strong and prevalent by reason whereof our minds are blinded and we easily mistake Error for Truth and Truth for Error but hereafter all these Clouds shall be blown away and we shall see things nakedly and truly as they are in themselves Here the weakness and smallness of many mens Natural Parts keeps them in the dark and renders them incapable of apprehending some Truths of God which others of greater abilities can search into with pleasure and delight But then as the Apostle speaking concerning the day of Judgment tells us They that are alive then shall not prevent those that are asleep So in Heaven they that are strong shall not prevent those that are weak but the Scholar shall there know as much as his Master and the People understand as much as their Minister In this World Contentions and Quarrellings among Holy and Learned Men leave the Weak and Ignorant at great uncertainties what to Judge concerning many Gospel Truths But in Heaven there shall be a perfect Reconciliation and Agreement among them all yea while we are here it often falls out that in our most diligent searching after Truth we meet with many hindrances and disturbances sometimes the necessary Affairs of this World cause us to lay aside our Enquiries at other times many Distempers that attend our infirm Bodies divert and hinder us in our most serious Inquisitions But in Heaven our Bodies will be above all these things we shall there no more be liable to nor annoy'd with any Weaknesses and Infirmities In that Glorious place we shall not need to provide either Raiment for the back or Food for the belly O what a Happiness have Believers by dying who are thereby at once eased of all the aches of their Bodies and of all the conflicts of their Souls how comfortably may they look Death in the Face who is the only Physician that cures them of all their Distempers at once O when that blessed hour comes how joyfully may they lift up their heads for as soon as they are passed through that dark and gloomy Valley they shall be brought into a place of unconceivable Bliss and Happiness where they shall behold him whom their Souls so much loved and longed to see even their Blessed Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ not at a distance or afar off as they were wont to do by an Eye of Faith through the Glass of an Ordinance or Promise but with a Glorified Eye draw near to him and look upon his blessed Person the Glorious sight of whom they shall never more lose to all Eternity When a Believer shall not as here he hath now and then some little glimpses of his Face and some small tastes of his Love in a little Sacramental Bread and Wine but he shall lay his Mouth to the Fountain head and from his Bosom drink full and large draughts of those Rivers of the Waters of Life that proceed out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb for evermore He shall then no more have any descriptions of Heaven by fear say as he was wont to have it described to him here by the sorry Rhetorick of a Mortal Man either by Preaching or Writing of that which he himself had little Love to and less Knowledge and Acquaintance with but shall himself walk up and down and view the Streets of that Glorious City And O with what Wonder and Astonishment will a Believer bless himself there when he reflects back upon those poor and low thoughts that himself and the best of Preachers also had thereof when on Earth he did Meditate and they did Preach or Write upon that Subject One moment's sight of that Glory will give the Soul a thousand times better Information and Satisfaction what Heaven is than all the Discourses that it ever heard or all the Books it ever read here on Earth were ever able to do And canst thou O Believer hear all this concerning Heaven and thy Faith tell thee that all this is true and add also that Heaven is ten thousand times more and better than what all the Men in the World can imagine concerning it and yet not feel some springings up of Holy Joy and Delight in thee followed with earnest longings of Soul after the Enjoyment of it O whence doth this dulness and backwardness proceed this is not a temper of Soul suitable unto the Hopes of so great a Happiness as Heaven will be Why dost thou not O Believing Soul cry out with Holy Longings and Desires How long O Lord most Holy and True shall it be before thou bringest me into the Possession of this most Blissful State Every moment whilst thou art kept at a distance from it should seem to thee a Day and every Day a Month
Eternal Life beyond it He that cannot look upon Heaven as belonging unto him at the end of his Sufferings as well as behold the Sufferings that himself endures loses that Joy and Consolation that should be his support under Sufferings Where there is no Expectation of the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness by them who are exercised with Afflictions there Afflictions cannot be joyous but grievous This is the peculiar Excellency and Advantage of the Grace of Faith and therein it is like unto God himself who is the Author of it that it can at one and the same time behold the End and the Means together and if a Christian did always act in this way and manner under Afflictions and were the Eye of his Faith so brightned that he could as clearly see his Right and Title unto Heaven as he doth feel his present Sufferings what a Life of Peace and Joy might he live notwithstanding all those Afflictions that lie upon him Doubtless when our Lord Jesus suffered on the Cross there were many standing by and gazing at his Sufferings who when they saw him dying there and after that laid in the Grave did shake their Heads at him looking upon him as one that was lost and gone never more to be heard of condemning him as a foolish and indiscreet Person to throw away his Life in that Way and Manner as he did because they were ignorant what he was doing and what was to follow upon his Sufferings But surely they who now behold him dying buried rising ascended glorified and interceding at God's Right Hand as Believers do they see great Cause to admire as the infinite Wisdom of God in contriving so the infinite Grace and Love of Jesus Christ in this Way and Manner of accomplishing the Redemption and Salvation of Sinners Were but Heaven and the fitting Christians for that glorious Inheritance apprehended by them as the end that God designs in all his dealings with them none of them would seem grievous and afflictive to them He that hath learn'd this way to Heaven that is he whose Soul hath gained Acquaintance with the Glory and Happiness that is above by frequent and daily Contemplations thereon hath a rich Cordial to revive and chear his Spirits in every Affliction There are none of us know what Trials we may yet meet withal before we are called hence and if God should exempt us from Publick and Private Calamities and Distresses while we live yet all of us know there is a time a coming when we must be sick and die and then we shall find that nothing but what we can draw down from Heaven into our Hearts will be Consolation strong enough to support our then departing Souls If therefore O Christian thou wouldst either live peaceably or die comfortably inure thy self daily unto a Life of Divine and Heavenly Contemplation Secondly Consider A Heart taken up much with Heaven will make a Christian lively and fervent in Duty It is the Heavenly Christian that is the lively and zealous Christian Where there is a strangeness in any Soul unto Heaven there will be a dulness and heaviness in Duty Frequent thoughtfulness of Heaven unto which Duties have a tendency make a Christian lively and vigorous in the performance of them And the stronger the Consolations are that flow into a Christian from his daily Contemplations of Heaven and Glory the more lively and vigorous will that Christian evermore be in the performance of Duty A full and clear Apprehension of Heaven and of our Right and Title thereunto how doth it lift up the Soul in Duty and make it run with the greatest activity and cheerfulness that can be in the Ways of God It is strange to see what the Hopes of Gain and Advantage in the World will carry Men unto how will they compass Sea and Land break their Rest in the Night hazard their Health in the Day rise early go to Bed late And shall the empty perishing things of this World animate and put Life and Vigour into these Mens Designs so that they shall stick at no difficulties or dangers for the attaining of them And shall not the fore-thoughts of Heaven and the Contemplations of the Glory and Happiness that is there to be eternally enjoyed put Life and Vigour Zeal and Activity into the Soul of a Christian in all his Duties Surely it will and that in so great a measure as shall enable him to mount up with Wings like Eagles to run and not be weary and to walk and not faint in the Ways of God the Joys and Consolations of Heaven and of the God of Heaven being his continual Strength and Support The Reason of all that sloathfulness and deadness that is to be found in Christians in the performance of their Duties is because they are such Strangers unto Heaven have so little knowledge of it dwell so little in their Thoughts and Contemplations upon that Glory and Happiness that there is to be enjoyed How fervent will that Man be in Prayer how attentive in Hearing how zealous in opposing Sin how watchful against Temptation how careful to lay hold of all opportunities of doing Good who considers that all this is done in order unto Heaven and Happiness Take a Christian one whose Life is spent much in Heaven one that hath as the Apostle saith of himself and others his Conversation in Heaven how easily may he be differenced from other Men he that hath a Spirit of discerning will quickly observe something of that which his Soul is taken with in Heaven to appear in his Duties and Conversation that will distinguish him from the careless and negligent Christian yea take the same Man when he hath been conversing with Heaven and solacing his Soul with Divine and Heavenly Contemplations and how doth he excel not others only but himself also O what a difference is there between what he is then and what he is in his common and ordinary Conversation for doubtless it may be averred of such a Soul's return from its contemplating views of that blissful State that there are such Heavenly Impressions made upon it as cause it to ascend in frequent Thoughts and Ejaculations towards Heaven in the midst of its Earthly Employments and to intermingle that which is Heavenly with its Earthly Speeches and Discourses among others Whereas a Christian that is careless and negligent of himself gives way to Earthliness and Vanity abates and lessens the exercising of his Soul in the Contemplations of Heaven and Heavenly Things he soon becomes as weak as vain and sometimes as prophane also as another Man who is altogether estranged unto this Life of Heavenly Contemplation The way therefore for Christians to shake off their deadness and dulness in Duty and to be rid of their sloathfulness and heaviness in the Ways of God is to betake themselves to Heaven where Christ who is their Life and Strength is and from whence alone all their quickning and enlivening influences do