go to receive his reward With this consideration Hilarion speaks to his trembling Soul upon his Death-bed Hieron in vit Hilar Egredere Anima cur times egredi go forth my Soul go forth depart out of this prison of pain into a place of pleasure hast thou served Christ these seventy years and dost thou fear to take thy wages now thou hast done thy work Let this therefore be matter of shame to us that we have done so little work considering the greatness of the reward as a holy dying Martyr said I am exceedingly grieved that being now to receive so great a reward I have done so little work Truly O Lord thou art great above all gods and great is thy reward for thou art not great August in Soliloq and thy reward little thou art the rewarder and the reward of eternal happiness it self saith St. Augustine SECT VII Sheweth that Heaven is the place where God shall give his People a kind welcome and loving entertainment HEaven is also the place where God will most affectionately receive all his Children to himself with much love and tenderness of affection at the last day they shall be received into the arms of his embraces Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Psal 73.24 that is thou shalt receive me with a most vehement and ardent affection When the prodigal Son was but coming towards his Father when he was yet afar off his Father ran toward him and fell upon his neck and kissed him now this is but a shadow of that full and glorious reception of the Saints to himself when God shall make them all glorious and receive them without spot or wrinkle if this Prodigal returning from his Harlots and coming in his rags was thus acceptable and welcome to his Father Oh what abundance of love will God then express to his Saints at the last day when they shall be all cloathed in long white robes and be received into the perfection of glory Mark what is said to the faithful Servant Well done thou good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Matth. 25.23 Then will the Lord Jesus most affectionately say to all his Servants Enter my dear Friends and receive your consolation enter Servants and receive your wages enter my Children and take possession of your patrimony and inheritance enter my Brethren and receive your portion and all ye that have fought the good fight and kept the faith and offered violence to the Kingdom of Heaven enter ye and take your Crowns He doth not say Come toward it and look upon it with a greedy desire and earnest longing after your happiness but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come into the joy of thy Lord take part and possession of it with abundance of delight and satisfaction The soul of man in this World is capable of more pleasure then the eye or ear yea then all the senses can bring in to her our soul can drink up all the pleasures at one draught it can presently swallow them up but the joys of Heaven do exceed the desires of our souls therefore saith Christ Enter thou into thy Master's joy he doth not say let the joy of thy Master enter into thee it is to shew that the joy of our glorious condition doth infinitely surpass the largest capacity of our souls though they be stretched to the uttermost So at the last day Christ will say to the Sheep on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Matth. 25.34 The first word is Venite Come it is the voice of the Bridegroom that saith Come Come to me my Spouse that where the Husband is there the Bride the Lamb's Wife may be that where the Head is there the Members may be where the Father is there the Children may be where the Master is there the Servants may be where the Prince and Captain of our Salvation is there his Fellow-Souldiers may be When Christ was going out of the World he chears up the hearts of his Disciples with these consolatory words Let not your hearts be troubled in my Father's House are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you and if I go I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there you may be also John 14.1 2. See how much affection Christ expresseth in these words if Christ said when he was upon Earth Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you take my yoke upon you and you shall find rest to your souls Matth. 11.28 29. then much more will he retain the same sweetness of affection when he cometh to sit down in his Judgment-seat Christ is as it were a Servant among his People Luke 22.27 I am among you as he that serveth He condescendeth to serve his People he went to Heaven in Person to prepare a place for them and he will come again in Person to receive them thither True it is he will do it with a glorious Train of Angels yet he will come himself and take them home to his Father's House that where he is they may be also and then will he receive them with much affection Come my Love my Dove my Spouse my Undefiled where hast thou been so long all this while out of my presence come ye into my bosome which is now wide open ready to receive you If Jacob's and Joseph's meeting were so unexpressibly comfortable when they had thought never to have seen the faces of each other after so long a distance Oh what shall the joy of that last day be and how shall those noble souls rejoyce yea leap for joy to whom these soul-ravishing words are spoken Come ye blessed of my Father all the Musick in Heaven and Earth will not so ravish them as this voice will do Now though they were the out-casts of the World Heaven gates shall be set wide open for their reception the King of glory will bid them come and welcome the Spirit and the Bride say come c. Come ye blessed of my Father the World hath cursed you but God hath blessed you yea and you shall be blessed Come ye and inherit a Kingdom I have heretofore told you of a Kingdom promised you a Kingdom you have often prayed for Lord let thy Kingdom come come now my dear Friends I am come to put you into the possession of that Kingdom I will make you all Kings and you shall reign with me for ever Great reason there is for us to think that God will take home all his People to himself with abundance of affection at the last day they are the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty and will not our heavenly Father receive all his Sons and Daughters to glory with a most
ever they shall see God in all his workings to eternity What a ravishing thing would it have been Burr in Beatitud if any of us should have been admitted into the presence of God and there to have seen what God hath done from the beginning of the World to this day but when this World shall be at an end as it will shortly be God and his Saints will then remain everlastingly and they shall be for ever with the Lord and they shall be there where they shall see what God will do for ever 5. They shall see the infinite love of the infinite God of which now they have but a taste they shall then clearly understand that love of God which is the spring of all spiritual blessings in heavenly things out of which they were elected to holiness eternal life and glory that love out of which Christ himself as a Mediator and Redeemer issued and out of which all things were given them that appertain to life and godliness that love which prevented them in their lost condition which turned the eye of God's compassion towards them when they lay in their blood that love which issued out a pardon of all their sins from the Court of mercy which lengthened out the patience of God toward them when they lingred in their sins Then shall they know fully where this love was bred and that none but the eternal love and delight of the Father could have outed so much love then shall they see themselves over head and ears drown'd in many obligations to his infinite love 6. They shall see him as the Fountain of light and wisdom as the only wise God as the Father of lights in whose light themselves see light from whose face all those beams do shine whereby their Souls are filled with heavenly wisdom they shall see clearly that God is light filling Heaven with his brightness and glory and fixing the eyes of all the Angels and Saints upon him as an object infinite altogether lightsome and lovely They shall behold that infinite wisdom of God which created Heaven and Earth which great piece of workmanship had nothing but nothing for its materia how all the different parts whereof it is composed had the same original and how this vacuum by the word of God brought forth the Heavens with their Constellations the Earth with all its Fields the Sea with all its Rocks how the Heavens and Earth were created in an instant though there went six days to their disposal The Saints in Heaven shall also understand that wisdom of God which in all ages hath governed the World and directed all creatures to their courses and motions how this admirable work hath endured numberless ages contrary to the Laws of Nature which suffereth that soon to perish which she is not long in forming Then shall the mysteries of Providence be fully opened and we shall see the Births in the Womb of Providence which on Earth are invisible to us then shall we understand all the ways circuits lines turnings of Providence and see how Christ hath steered the helm of Heaven and Earth when means have failed and men and times have changed They shall likewise know that wisdom that hath ordered the sins of Men and Devils to holy ends never intended by the Actors which hath over-reached the craftiest devices of the Serpent and his Seed They shall likewise behold that manifold wisdom of God that contrived the whole method of mans Redemption and Salvation the very Master-piece of Divine wisdom that wisdom that hath given light to the blind wisdom to the foolish and abundance of light to those that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and which made those that were darkness to become light in the Lord. This shall be matter of admiration to Men and Angels that the great God should condescend to look on such vile Sinners so far below the free love and majesty of the most High Then shall the Saints understand all the counsels of God concerning themselves from all eternity when they shall be admitted into the House of God they shall not only see what God himself is but they shall see his heart his will and all his ways and glorious contrivances for their salvation 7. They shall see him as that God who is truth it self they shall exactly discern how every promise of his every prophesie delivered by his spirit to the Churches and recorded in his word is fully accomplished not one failing or falling to the ground and that whatsoever God promised or bound himself by covenant to perform though it seemed difficult or long before it was fulfilled yet it came to pass at last in its appointed time Oh the sweet satisfaction which the Saints in Heaven shall find in the full contemplation of the truth of God every way manifested and so gloriously verified in and upon themselves in keeping them by his power unto salvation in preserving them to his heavenly Kingdom in guiding them by his counsel and bringing them to glory when they shall see that all the art malice skill and power of Men and Devils could never frustrate nor make void the least tittle of God's sacred truth 8. They shall see him as a God infinite in holiness of perfect purity they shall with great delight look directly into that overflowing fountain of holiness which hath streamed into so many thousand Souls which hath washed so many unclean hearts from their filthiness which filleth all the Saints and Angels in Heaven with perfect holiness then shall they behold those fair hands as I may speak that stooped to wash such black-skinned and defiled Sinners and purged away the filth of the Daughter of Sion If the Egyptians for many ages have had a great desire to find out the fountain of that River Nilus which by his yearly inundations watereth the Land in that hot climate having no showres of rain and maketh it abundantly fruitful Oh then how shall glorified Souls rejoyce to be brought to the Spring-head of holiness which hath watered so many barren Souls and made them bring forth the fruits of the Spirit 9. They shall clearly see him as an all-sufficient God they shall see that rich treasury opened out of which all that good was given which was received by any or all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth The Lord by many notable instances of his own glorious works Job 38.22 convinced Job of ignorance and posed him by a multitude of interrogations among the rest saith he Hast thou entered into the treasures of snow or hast thou seen the treasures of hail But in that state of glory not only this holy man but every one of the Saints shall be admitted to view the treasures of God's all-sufficiency out of which all good things concerning this life and the life to come have been and shall be dispensed and distributed among the Creatures life breath all things grace and glory grace of justification grace of
when we foregoe they torment us and therefore better a great deal that we honourably contemn what we cannot but sorrowfully lose blessedness is not to be attained on earth but to be hoped for in Heaven and this should stir us up to the seeking after a better life for that condition where we may be blessed for ever The fruition of eternal glory is a future good there is difficulty to attain it it is no easie entrance into Heaven God hath made viam lacteam in coelis not ad coelum God hath made a milky way in Heaven paved with stars but not to Heaven no the way to Heaven is paved with sundry difficulties the way is narrow the gate is strait many seek and cannot find it Yet although Heaven be difficult to obtain there is a fair possibility for any man to win the crown of eternal glory There was never a Saint that lived and fought this Christian warfare but when they had finished their course they received Palmes the Ensign of triumph and the Crown of righteousness which Christ the righteous Judge hath laid up for them Laertius writeth of one that had been thirty and three years traveling to seek out the natures of Bees indeed Bees are excellent creatures and there is excellent use of the honey that they make but here is that which is sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb they that take pains for temporal things it is not bread that they labour for it is not that which will satisfie now if it bring no satisfaction with it it can bring no blessedness with it but everlasting glory and blessedness is the bread that will satisfie this will be as marrow and fatness to our souls let us labour for this and our soul shall live Now much honoured in the Lord I have written this Tract of the glory of Heaven and of eternal blessedness which I humbly dedicate to you partly that I might feed my own mind with this Heavenly contemplation and partly that I might stir you up to the more serious consideration of the same things there is nothing will make us more contemn the world and kindle in us an earnest desire and longing after Heaven than the frequent and diligent meditation on the glory of Heaven and the blessedness of the Saints in the world to come will do Oh did we frequently consider what pure and unmixt deâ—ights lye for ever on those everlasting Hills and Gardens of Spices that are alwayes green and flourishing how should we rouze up our selves and say what do we here Oh why do we weary our selves like the bird that toileth to gather a few sticks together to build a nest in the spring time which after a little time will be pulled down and forsaken Remember I beseech you that blessedness is not to be had here but in Heaven in Heaven where life eternal is there and there only true and perfect blessedness is as this ensuing Treatise will fully demonstrate Therefore let no temptation of Satan at any time overcome you let not the love of any sin possess you let no evil example of the world seduce you let no evil advantages or pleasures steal away your heart from you go on still in making you friends of the unrighteous Mammon and great profit shall thereby come unto you You may not think saith Chrysostome Chrysost Homil. in Luc. 16. that God made the rich for the profit of the poor but the poor for the profit of the rich when they make them friends of the riches of iniquity as if rich men should one day find that the poor were their best friends for when they come to be received into everlasting habitations God seems to make his poor Saints the Porters of Heaven God will then remember all the kindnesses you have shewed to any of his distressed servants and abundantly reward them yea he will recompense a cup of cold water given to a Disciple of Christ in the name of a Disciple with the whole fountain of the water of life and two mites with the whole treasure in the Temple there for Gold you shall have Glory for earthly Mannours heavenly Mansions for Silver that perisheth solace without end Mirth without measure pleasure without pain there you shall be clothed in white which is the innocence of the Saints have palmes in your hands in token of victory and be Crowned with a Diadem of pure Gold which is immortality your happiness then will be for God to make you of his Court though here you are not of his Council Finally let me excite you to raise your thoughts and meditations beyond these sublunary things and lift them up to those that are above settle your affections upon them exercise your study in them feed your desires and hopes with them and ever think of one thing that all the Kingdoms in the world are not to be compared with the poorest Mansion in Heaven there onely is the centre and seat of blessedness for there as an Ancient saith Quicquid amabitur aderit August Medit nec desiderabitur quod non aderit whatsoever is to be loved shall be there and there shall be nothing wanting that is to be desired there shall be all that good is even our greatest God who is our greatest good we shall have him with us there or rather he indeed shall have us there with him in whom we shall be perfectly blessed and with whom our blessedness shall be perpetually established Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified The Lord deliver you from every evil work and preserve you unto his Heavenly Kingdome So prayeth Your affectionate Servant in the Gospel William Gearing THE CONTENTS OF THIS TREATISE Chap. 1. THe Text Romans 8.18 Explained Chap. 2. Many notes of instruction raised Chap. 3. Sect. 1. A general description of glory and a particular description of the glory of the Saints in Heaven Sect. 2. Sheweth that God will raise his Children to an higher pitch of glory than Adam was in Paradise and how they shall â—e like to Christ in glory Chap. 4. Sets down the reasons why God will glorifie his Children both in respect of Himself and in respect of themselves Chap. 5. Of the quality of the Saints glory Chap. 6. Sheweth that the perfect glory and happiness of the Saints is invisible for the present five reasons thereof Chap. 7. Sheweth that this glory in due time shall be revealed viz. when Christ shall appear in glory divers reasons thereof Chap. 8. A threefold use to be made of it Chap. 9. Sheweth that the Creatures themselves do earnestly and continually expect the manifestation of the glorious state of the Godly wherein many weighty points are discussed and many doubts resolved Chap. 10. Sheweth that there is no comparison or equality between a Believer's present sufferings and his future glory Chap.
still keeps its splendor but when the Cloud is gone we see it So Christ in regard of his Deity had this glory always it was hidden from him in regard of the infirmities which he took upon him as sufferings death c. Now Christ our Head being glorified all his Members that suffer with him shall also be glorified together they are now glorified in capite and when Christ hath prepared places for all his Members then he will take them home to his Father's house Christ is now preparing their glory and fitting their heavenly Mansions he is decking their Crowns of Righteousness he is trimming their Robes Christ is now in his own Person glorious but Christ mystical is not glorious it is in a suffering condition there are many of his Members that are not yet brought home to God Christ hath a care of his mystical Body as of his natural Body he gave his natural Body to redeem his mystical Body therefore as he is glorious in his natural Body so he will be glorious in his mystical Body for St. Paul saith he shall come to be glorified in his Saints The Son of God rose gloriously out of his Tomb and after he had given assurance of it to his Apostles he was taken up into Heaven to reign there eternally with his Father the Angels made a part of his Triumph his Body that was pierced with the nails rent with stripes torn with thorns was set at the right hand of his Father on a Throne whose Ornament was Justice and the Foundation Mercy as one well noteth His mystical Body shall receive the like glorious entertainment the Saints shall be admitted into the Society of the Blessed and reign in Heaven with the Angels Those Members that have suffered in the quarrel of Jesus Christ shall be freed from all miseries and reign in glory everlastingly with their Head that the blessedness of Jesus Christ may have its accomplishment and he may be as happy in his Members as in his Person Jesus Christ and his Members are united in their sufferings on earth and by a necessary consequence we may be assured they shall be so one day in their glory in Heaven To this end Christ prayed for his Church to his Father when himself was upon earth The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me John 17.22 24. It is observable that in other things when Jesus Christ speaks to his Father it is with so much respect that he seemeth rather a Servant then a Son but when he asks that his Members may reign with him in glory it is with so much liberty of speech that his Request is rather a determination then a Prayer Volo Pater Father I will that where I am there my Servants may be CHAP. V. Of the quality of the Saints glory NOw that I may set forth the nature of the Saints glory you are to know that there is no specisical or essential difference between our gracious and glorious estate as there is no specifical or essential difference between the Corn of the First-fruits and that of the whole Harvest only some accidental differences as there is no specifical difference between a Child and a grown Man they have both the same essential parts and principles there is only an alteration of degrees not of parts gradus non variat speciem Now our present estate is our Infancy our future estate is our Man-hood for the present the Children of God have glory given them godly Men are for the present glorious the Scripture calls them nothing else but blessed yea even then they are blessed when the world looks upon them as most miserable when shame reproach and trouble is cast upon them then doth the Spirit of glory rest upon them they having grace bestowed upon them have glory Glory is nothing else but the splendour the brightness of grace Vita gratiae nihil est aliud quam aetas infantilis gloriae he that is gracious is glorious We shall have the same individual Bodies and Souls after the Resurrection as we have in this life only some alteration in respect of some new qualities as in our first Resurrection from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness there is no transmutation of the essence but an alteration of the qualities or a super-introduction of new qualities by which we are said to be new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 not in quantity but in quality so in Heaven we shall become new Creatures in respect of what we are now and those very qualities which do principally concur to the constitution of our happiness in Heaven are in some measure communicated to us in our first regeneration now we have drops then rivers of delights Psal 36.8 both the same in nature This will be the more evident if we examine wherein our happiness hereafter doth consist and compa ing it with our present estate Our spiritual and supernatural blessedness consisteth in the fruition of such an object as is perfectly all-sufficiently and principally good which is only God therefore it standeth in our perfect union to and communion with God the faculties of the soul being by the Almighty power of God dilated extended and enlarged so far as to be as it were capable of the fulness of God and by the perfect operations of the understanding will and affections united to God in all their actions and when these natural weak and vile Bodies of ours by the same hand of Omnipotency are transfigured and transformed into spiritual powerful and glorious Bodies and so united to the Soul then are we come to the perfection of our blessedness the properties of which blessedness are First That it is everlasting Secondly That we shall discern it so to be And thirdly That as it fulfilleth the largest desires of our hearts so we shall be extraordinarily affected with it and perpetually affected to it and incessantly desirous of it our glory consisteth not in having what our weak Souls can now wish for but what they can desire when they are gloriously corroborated and enlarged So that now you see there is no specifical or essential difference but only a gradual or circumstantial difference between the state of grace here and the state of glory hereafter for Regnum coeleste est Dei contemplatio glorificatio Gregor Nazianzâ—n Orat. contr Arrian celebratio cum Angelis communis saith one of the Fathers who commonly describeth the state of the blessed to be nothing else but the full and perfect accomplishment of such spiritual blessings as are already begun in us and in part already communicated to us when God shall by a most perfect and immediate irradiation of the understanding and sanctification of the will and affections to know love and delight in God and transformatâ—on of the Body into the likeness of Christ's effect
vehement affection and take them home to his own House after a tedious pilgrimage in the World wherein they have met with harsh unkind usage How did Jacob tender Benjamin that he would not let him go from him till he was forced to it and saw the necessity of it but his joy is not exprest upon his return because he heard that his beloved Joseph was alive and when he saw the Waggons and Charets that Joseph had sent to fetch him and his family into Egypt Oh then it is inconceivable and inexpressible with what affections our heavenly Father will take home his Children to his everlasting habitations when they are of full age and ready to receive their inheritance Moreover they are the temples of the holy Ghost and with what abundance of love think you will God receive the Saints when they are perfumed all over with sweet odours from Heaven with all the graces of God's Spirit The Spirit here is the source of all Divine gifts for being the prime radical donation of our heavenly Father there is no grace he confers upon us which bears not the image of this first and prime gratuity the Spirit is the pandora through which all other blessings are bestowed upon us Now the Spirit is given to sanctifie those whom Christ hath redeemed and to preserve them to God's heavenly Kingdom whom Christ had purchased and delivered from everlasting destruction God manifested much love to his People on Earth in that his Spirit dwelling in his Saints when it was often grieved by them yet would not leave nor quit his old habitation what abundance of love then will he express to them when he shall find nothing in them that is contrary or displeasing to him Besides the Saints are espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ and that great day wherein they are to be received to glory shall be the full consummation of the Marriage Oh what abundance of love will the Lord Jesus express to his Bride when she shall be brought home to him after a long time of separation one from another With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought unto the King and enter into the Kings Palace Psal 45.15 Though the Church sigh here below she knows her Beloved will keep his word that having had a part in his sorrows she shall have a share in his heavenly triumphs Oh how shall the countenance of the glorious Son of righteousness chear the hearts of God's People at the last day with abundance of joy when he that is an universal Friend shall supply the place of a gracious Lord of a loving Father and act the part of a loving Brother Tu mihi qui conjux pariter scaterque paterque Tu Dominus tu Vir tu mihi Prater eris Ovid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian in Epictet of a Head of a Husband of a Root and be every thing to us Methinks the serious consideration hereof should be a forcible attractive to draw Sinners to Christ and to cause them to receive him into their hearts by faith whatsoever offers the Devil can make them or whatsoever entertainments they may have from the World they are not worth a naming to the magnificent and sumptuous entertainment that the Lord Jesus will give to his Spouse at the last day Oh what a Feast will Christ make for all his Children when he shall bring them all together into the House of his Father and if that word be too strait into the City of the great King and if that be too strait into the World to come where there shall be room enough for them all What comfort may the meditation hereof afford to you that are poor Christians that are now the out-casts of the World know ye though the World exclude you yet Heaven will receive you though the World afford you no house-room but shut you out of doors yet the everlasting Gates shall be opened to you and God shall take you into his own House yea into his own Bosome ye have a Father in Heaven his House is richly furnished and there you shall be sumptuously and royally entertained though the World refuse to feed you with the crumbs that fall from their tables yet you shall eat and drink with Christ at his table in his Kingdom yea he shall be your meat and drink who is the bread of life and the well-spring of Salvation the Lord will think nothing he hath too dear for you but you shall have part with Jesus Christ and share with him in all his enjoyments I have read of Cyrus who never liked any dish of meat but he sent a part of it from his table to his Friends he loved most yea sometimes the very bread and meat he had upon his own trencher with this kind and friendly salutation Cyrus tibi ista quod ipsi fuerint jucundissima King Cyrus sends you this because he likes it best himself and holds it to be most choice and dainty So the Lord will entertain his People with his own glory and felicity whereupon St. Bernard hath this expression Non aurum pollicetur Dominus the Lord doth not promise gold nor silver nor pretious stones but himself he will be their substantial joy and everlasting comfort What tongue or pen is able to set forth that large and kind entertainment that God will give to his Children on that day when they shall see the Lord Jesus like a faithful Shepherd conducting all his Flock to the Fold which was ordained for them before the foundations of the World were laid when they shall see him like a valiant General and triumphant Conqueror riding in the Heavens in the head of his troops and glorious train who shall follow him with Crowns on their heads and Palm branches in their hands Oh the shoutings oh the songs of joy and vollies of praises and Hallelujahs that shall fill the World in that great and glorious day when Jesus Christ shall come in his own glory and in the glory of his Father and of the holy Angels Luke 9.26 CHAP. XV. SECT I. Of the substance of the Saints glory HAving spoken of the circumstances let us now consider more particularly the substance of that glory and blessedness which the glorified Saints shall possess in their souls and bodies and first in their bodies but before I speak of that glory which God will put upon the bodies of the Saints I shall speak of that which goes before it and leads unto it viz. the resurrection of their bodies However God's Children are subject to death as well as others yet they shall be raised again to a state of blessedness and their bodies shall be re-united to their souls For 1. God hath decreed it and it shall certainly come to pass John 6.39 40. Christ saith This is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of
absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Here you may see that while the Souls of the Saints are present in the Body as they are during this life they are absent from the Lord albeit Jesus Christ dwelleth in them by his Spirit and they are spiritually united to him yet in regard of local distance they are absent from Christ in respect of his Humane nature not seeing him face to face they walk by faith not by sight Moreover when their Souls are absent and seperated from the Body by death they shall be present with the Lord not walking by faith at a distance from Christ but resting in his presence immediately beholding him The Souls of the Saints then do not die with the Body but live in the presence of their Saviour at the very same time when they are absent and seperated from the Body by death This must needs be meant of the state of the Soul not after the resurrection but between death and the resurrection for that is the only time when the Soul is absent from the Body and during that time the Apostle saith it shall be present with the Lord. To these may be added that gracious answer of Christ to the penitent Malefactor Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 27.43 viz. the very same day wherein he died Now the heavenly Paradise is no burying place for dead Souls but a glorious habitation for the living spirits of just men made perfect Observe likewise that argument of Christ grounded upon the speech of God to Moses at the bush which strongly proveth both the resurrection of the Body and the immortality of the Soul as well before as after the resurrection Matth. 22.31 32. Have you not read what is spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living This was spoken long after the natural death of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and so the Argument standeth thus Those who have God for their God by Covenant are not dead but living but Abraham Isaac and Jacob have God for their God by Covenant Ergo they are not dead but living So then they live in their principal parts their Souls while they are absent from the Body whereunto their Bodies are to be re-united at the great day that their whole persons may fully enjoy their God and perfectly possess the fruit and benefit of God's covenant verse 34. this argument silenced the Sadduces Finally consider what meant Stephen's prayer at his death Lord Jesus receive my Spirit or Soul Acts 7.59 If his Spirit or Soul had died with his Body why should he call upon Christ more for the receiving his Soul but because he knew his Spirit or Soul was immortal and must live and subsist when it was seperated from the Body he prayed Christ to give present entertainment to his Soul that he might rest in the bosome of his love until his Body should be raised and reunited to it Now as this may stop the mouth of this lying Spirit which of late is crept forth into the World again so it may demonstrate according to the point in hand that the Souls of the Faithful after their seperation from the Body are instated into blessedness By which places fore-mentioned and such like is refuted their Heresie who either directly deny the immortality of the Soul or imply it as the Socinians who say that Mori est penitus extingui V.d. Gens in Confes remonstrant p. 254 256. resurgere est ex non ente iterum existere And this Opinion some others have seemed to favour in the Declaration of their Opinions about the Articles of Religion in that they are altogether silent in the point that concerneth the blessed rest of the Saints Souls after this life CHAP. XVIII Of the blessedness of the Soul in general MUch more might have been spoken of the blessedness of the Soul in glory when it is absent from the Body but because these things belong as well to the Soul re-united to the Body when it hath full possession of salvation I chuse to treat of them under that consideration 1. This shall be the wonderful felicity of the Soul in that it shall have a Body every way suitable to it self immortal spiritual incorruptible glorious as its habitation for a pure immortal glorious Spirit to dwell in in this respect the glorified Souls now in Heaven all the time of their seperation do even vehemently desire and wait for the redemption of their Bodies who were their yoke-fellows in the day of their pilgrimage upon Earth Though the Soul of a Believer reign with Angels yet hath she a passion for her Body and all the good she doth possess cannot take her from the desire and memory thereof though she hath made trial of its revolts though this friendly Enemy hath oftentimes persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the tyranny thereof yet doth she languish as it were and vehemently long after it Though the Body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in its Enemies and though it cause horror in those to whom it was lovely yet she forbears not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with a kind of impatience that her Body may partake of the bliss which she enjoyeth The Souls of the Saints departed this life do not account their glory their blessedness compleat till their Bodies be reunted hence they do naturally desire their re-union and as they cry under the Altar How long Lord how long will it be ere thou avenge our blood so all the Souls of just men made perfect with one voice cry out How long Lord how long will it be ere thou redeem our Bodies that we may be perfectly blessed in the full fruition of thy self Oh then how shall the glorified Soul rejoyce in its glorified Body raised from among worms dust and rottenness rescued from its captivity from under the power of death and corruption and now again made one with the Soul no longer to be a snare or burden to it but a companion meet for it taking in no object by the senses that may in the least degree endanger the polluting of the Soul and having nothing in it that may stupifie the affections or any way discompose the eternal rest disturb the peace eclipse the joy of the Soul interrupt its enjoyment of God or any way diminish its compleat happiness 2. There shall be a perfect harmony between the Body with all its parts and the Soul with all its powers and both Soul and Body shall be fully conformed to Christ and so shall most sweetly comply each with other and I conceive the very remembrance of that dulness sottishness earthiness and drossiness which in the state of mortality is in the Body shall be matter of great joy to the Soul now that it
sanctification and redemption They shall know him as their Pledg and Surety as one that satisfied the justice of his Father and bore all the pains and torments their sins deserved they shall know him as their Head that gave them life and motion they shall know him as their Tutor and Guide that hath led them through their Pilgrimage in this World to the heavenly Canaan they shall then know how he carried a world of Saints over the same Seas they are now sailing in how Christ paid the fare of the ship himself and that not one of them was found dead on the shore They shall know him as a Father that was more tenderly affected with the sorrows and sufferings of his Children then of his own they shall then know how Christ's eye and heart was upon his Spouse making their salvation his end and the measure of his love his rising early his night watching his toyling his sweating his sore and hard travel and all that he might have a redeemed People Then shall they know him as their King Priest and Prophet who offered up himself for them they shall look upon him as one who presented all their prayers to his Father and procured acceptance who taught them the mind of God who came out of the bosome of God and revealed the Father to them who governed them and protected them all their days they shall look upon him as one that brought them through fair and foul ways to his Fathers House The perfect knowledg of these things and the like will abundantly satisfie the Saints in Heaven Then Jesus Christ shall be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe 2 Thes 1.10 I. He shall be glorified in his Saints which glory shall result to Christ two ways 1. By putting glory on his Saints in glorifying them he glorifieth himself he manifesteth what a King of glorious state he is what treasures of glory are in him that he can put so much glory on innumerable Saints without any diminution of his own glory all that glory which the Saints enjoy is Christ's originally he is the Fountain they the Cisterns he infinitely full though they are filled with it also they receive grace for grace from Christ and they receive glory for glory happiness for happiness joy for joy from him Christ sheweth the riches of his glory as a King sheweth the riches of his treasury when he can make many rich and he not wax poor but what King can do so excepting Christ the King of Kings 2. He shall be glorified in his Saints that is as Chrysostom expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his Saints Chrysost in 2 Thes 2.10 All his Saints shall with one heart and mouth ascribe to him all the glory of their glory and for their glory Revel 4.10 Then all the Saints will take their Crowns of glory from off their heads and cast them down before the Throne of Christ saying Thou art worthy to receive honour and glory and power He is infinitely worthy in himself because he is God over all but he is also relatively worthy in respect of the Saints because all the glory they have they received from him he purchased their glory he hath brought them to glory he hath glorified his power in making them glorious and he counts them worthy of this glory II. Christ shall be admired in all that believe Wonder and astonishment ariseth ex magnitudine novitate rerum the greatness and strangeness of a thing causeth admiration in all beholders The glory which Christ will put on his Saints shall be exceeding great and exceeding strange beyond all conceit and imagination the heart of man cannot now perceive it but when the eye shall see this glory and the heart shall perceive it Christ will be wonderfully admired in them and by them The glory of his power will be admired in that such poor dust and ashes should be advanced to such an height of glory that he can make his Creatures so glorious They will admire his love toward them in communicating such glory to them they will admire his grace in bringing such worthless Creatures to such glory even from the Dunghil to the highest Throne of glory Moreover they shall clearly understand that great mystery of the Trinity of the Persons in the unity of one God-head and Divine essence which is now so far above the understanding of the sincerest Christian they shall see how the Son is begotten of the Father as the word and wisdom of the Father and abideth in the Father how the Holy Ghost proceedeth from both and abideth in both they shall see how these three are distinguished by a personal propriety so that they are three Persons subsisting in themselves and yet together in number are one essence or simple Deity one power one wisdom one goodness one majesty one immensity one eternity then shall they see how the Father is in the Son how the Son is in the Father and the Holy Ghost in both how all are in each and each in all This is a mystery which here no heart can conceive or tongue express it is as Hilary saith Extra sermonis significationem extra sensus intentionem extra intelligentiae conceptionem no speech can set it forth no sense can sound the depth of it no reason reach the reason of it but in Heaven the Saints shall perfectly understand this great mystery This is the Heaven saith Gregory Nazianzen that I look for Nazian orat contra Arrian that I may have a view of the glorious Trinity and understand that great mystery This truth that hath met with so much contradiction from many blasphemous Hereticks in former ages such as Nestorians Arrians Sabellians Macedonians they shall then most clearly understand SECT IV. GLorified Saints shall also look into the great mystery of godliness with great delight shall they read the Book of Life the eternal Decree of God electing them to Salvation how shall it fill their hearts with joy to look into the original Records of eternity to see into that depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledg of God at which the Apostle made a stand The Apostle was at a stand as one whose stature in that condition of mortality was too low to wade any further into that great deep therefore he cries out Rom. 11. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out The waters are too deep I can find no bottom for who hath known the mind of the Lord or been his Counsellor But in Heaven the Saints shall fully understand this unsearchable depth viz. how God should so carry on the great designs of the declaration of his pardoning mercy to some and his punishing justice to others and that in both these God was free in his grace and just in his judgments though he neither chose nor called according to works that the damned Creature was most guilty and that God was both severe and
Heaven that it shall not extinguish but establish confirm and perfect those desires which are appropriated to the Soul as reasonable and immortal If the Soul may carry with it a sociable inclination then may it for the use and exercise of this desire be admitted to the knowledg of other Souls and of those especially with whom it had sojourned on Earth that like fellow-travellers who have been equally afflicted with the difficulties of the way they may thenceforth interchangeably communicate their joys springing from their present rest and peace Object But it may be said that in our union unto God shall be supplied all imaginable contents and that the Souls of the blessed shall be held in so great admiration as that they cannot admit the mixture of any second or less joy Resp Though this opinion seem specious and agreeable to reason yet we must consider that as in the Divine nature we admit no useless Attributes such as the Divine justice and mercy would be if there were not a Creature to exercise them on so likewise in the Humane we must either say it hath no aptness eternally to desire or rejoyce in the good of another which a sociable nature inwardly abhorreth or else we must allow it an object whereon to practice its endless love and joy This love we conceive shall be the perfection of that desire which was begun on Earth but always mixt with fear and jealousie being subject to those common infirmities which attend both the powers acts of the Soul in this life and this joy we believe shall succeed in the place of that condolency and compassion which on Earth we sustained one for another This love therefore and this joy must have such an object as was once the subject of our fear and compassion which cannot be either God or Angels but a Creature only of the same nature and condition with us These are perhaps but wild and ranging conceits which assert that there is no nature but it is capable of happiness no happiness without society no society without a plurality of individuals of the same kind Yet by the power of these imaginations did that Disputer in Plutarch create a plurality of Worlds for society sake and by them was Hortensius in Tully puzzelled and made to doubt how God may be said to be blessed if alone And I think that those rude and untaught ages measuring the blessedness of God by what themselves most delighted in did easily admit a multitude of gods to prevent a solitude which in their belief overthroweth all happiness Though these opinions relish of the blindness of the age that brought them forth yet as the darkest Bodies by collision may send forth some light so out of these assertions some sparks and glimmerings of truth may be produced for though in God there be an infinite fulness to satisfie an infinite desire and so he alone may suffice to make himself happy yet is he pleased not so precisely to love himself as not also to be delighted with the blessedness of his Creature and if God who is essentially blessed and hath all blessedness in himself be notwithstanding by his own goodness enclined to delight in the glory of a poor Creature it must needs be that Man who is the image of this goodness hath imprinted and stamped upon his nature a proneness to delight in the blessedness of his fellow-creature as well as a desire to see himself happy SECT II. Object BVt it may be feared that our knowledg of one another and our mutual delight in each other may beget some interruptions in our union with God taking the Soul aside from the contemplation of its Maker to gaze on and delight in the beauty of a Creature therefore those acts of the Soul love and joy seem not to be admitted being but digressions of the Soul and an allay to our blessedness Sol. This fear I think will vanish so soon as we consider that it is the same beauty which we behold in God and love in the Creature though of a different splendor and as the Stars the Air and Water by their borrowed lights do raise us to behold the Sun the fountain of all that light so wheresoever the rayes of glory are cast whether on Angels or Men we cannot but behold God shining on each nature and confess him to be all in all Moreover it is not a glance but a fixing on the Creature which in that state is not to be feared can endanger our happiness otherwise neither God nor Angels are truly blessed for the Divinity of former ages would perswade us that God as it were cometh daily out of himself to behold his own image in the Angels and the Angels look upon the same resemblance as cast from them and reflected by the Soul but neither God nor Angels are so ravished with those dimmer beauties as to dwell upon them but do suddenly return back to the Fountain God to himself and the Angels unto God But to let pass these excusable conjectures let us remember upon what ground we are solicited to believe how the Angels are daily conversant about us in acts of knowledg and love in their ministerial employments in fulfilling the Divine justice mercy yet notwithstanding these seeming interruptions of their vision they continue blessed And we believe also that Christ himself though in perfect glory continueth his intercession for us which being an act of mediation between divers parties cannot be performed without a knowledg and love of those for whom he interceedeth And though it may be conceived that in God there can be no intermission in the contemplation of himself because by the same single act he at once beholdeth himself and all things else yet we must not imagine such an infinite comprehensiveness in the creature as to be able within the same Act to involve and circumscribe all that may be known or desired in every object for this were to extol the Creature above it self making it equal with God The Angels therefore and Christ himself as man have their actions bounded and those acts by which they immediately behold and love the Creature are not the same by which they immediately contemplate and necessarily love the Creator Wherefore I think we may without rashness believe that our blessedness which is a cleer and everlasting contemplation of the Godhead may consist with such inferiour acts in the soul as are requisite to constitute a blessed society among the Saints SECT III. IT was no small contentment and satisfaction to S. Paul that he should meet his beloved Thessalonians in the presence of Christ for thus much seemeth to be intimated by that his exulting demand What is our hope or joy or Crown of rejoycing are not ye even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming And the same Apostle when he would set bounds and limits to a Christians sorrowing for the dead tells us that we must not sorrow as those that
utter darkness but through God's permission Satan's chain is sometimes lengthened but then no more lengthening now he walketh up and down assaying to devour and seeking whom he may devour but then he shall walk no longer the Saints shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth and shall not in all their walks meet with a Devil to tempt them to any sin whatsoever 5. The state of glory is liberty from death from the fears of it and from all things tending to mortality bondage to death will be swallowed up of this life of liberty glory is triumphant over Death Hell and the Grave bidding defiance to them O Grave where art thou O Hell where art thou O Death where art thou 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.14 By Hell there we must understand the Grave Death and the Grave shall be damned as well as the wicked 6. The state of glory is a liberty from the rage wrath and persecution of all the wicked men in the world their rage and persecution is a bondage and captivity to the Saints hindring them from serving God with desired freedom they cannot put forth their godliness but they expose themselves to the scoffs hatred rage and persecutions of the world now the state of glory will put a great gulf between the Godly and the Wicked which will hinder them from all intercourse for know that if the damned could again be in company or in the place where the godly are they would persecute them again to the uttermost though they know they must be damned and therefore the Devils now hate and tempt them though they aggravate their own torments 7. It is a liberty from all imperfections of graces and weakness in their serving God 1. From all imperfections of their graces which in this present life are very imperfect we know but in part saith the Apostle so we believe but in part we love God but in part we are Holy but in part we are zealous for God but in part there is more doubts and ignorance than knowledge more unbelief than faith more want of love than love there is more sin than grace and holiness now the state of glory is a state of perfection we shall know as we are known our understandings will be enlarged that we shall know God fully and perfectly our faith will be turned into sight our hope into possession we shall then love God with all our hearts with all our souls c. The Angels are called Seraphims because as some say they burn in love and zeal toward God so shall all the Saints be filled with this Seraphical love we shall be as holy as our natures are capable The Church and people of God in this life are compared to the Moon because of those spots in her which are imperfections but in the state of glory they are compared to the Sun which hath no spots in it and as the Prophet speaks of the Sun and Moon that the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold more resplendent than now so the graces the holiness of the Saints shall be seven-fold more holy than now they are 2. It shall be a liberty from all weaknesses and infirmities in serving God this is the necessary consequent of the former for the more glorious and holy a man is the more able he is to serve God if perfectly sanctified then he serveth God perfectly the Angels fulfil the whole will of God because they are filled with grace they run yea they fly in the wayes of his commandements this liberty and enlargement shall all the Saints have in the state of glory while they are here they are in bondage to much spiritual deadness and slothfulness they pray they praise God acceptably though they cannot pray nor praise him perfectly they may pray and purpose to run the wayes of God's Commandements but cannot because they are too weak and are fettered with spiritual slothfulness and deadness glory will do away all this and make us as ready and able to do the whole will of God as Angels do 8. It is a liberty from all natural clogs which the body in this state of union fastens upon the soul insomuch that the body is animae ergastulum the prison of the soul it is pondus or onus animae the burden or weight of the soul the regenerate soul cannot act vigorously because the body is so unweildy the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak but when the soul and body shall be reunited and meet in a state of glory the body will be a nimble handmaid and pliable to all the motions and commands of the soul the body then which is now the souls prison will be the souls paradise and both soul and body will act most vigorously the soul will never tyre out the body nor will the body clog the soul they will both be unwearied in their glorious services the body then will be spiritual though not a spirit and become immortal incorruptible as the soul is 9. It is a liberty from many duties and services and spiritual exercises which are now required of us the Saints work shall be lessened in Heaven The Service of the Church and people of God under the Gospel is much less than it was under the Law hence the state of the Church under the pedagogy of the Law is by the Apostle called a state of bondage a state of subjection but the state of the Church under the Gospel is called a state of liberty but when the Church shall be taken up into glory then their services shall be far less than now they are many duties and graces shall be done away in Heaven we shall pray no more for any mercy for our selves all praying shall be turned into praising of God we shall not hear the Word nor receive the Sacraments any more nor fast and afflict our souls any more we shall no longer mourn for sin repentance will be done away yea faith it self as many Divines conceive shall be done away Pray we shall not because then we shall never be in want our souls shall be so abundantly satisfied with the fulness of God's house we shall mourn and repent no more because we shall sin no more Our service in the state of glory will be taken up in praising God in admiring God in loving God rejoycing in God giving him praise and glory for the riches of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus 10. In respect of the place it is a state of liberty indeed the vast Heaven of Heavens O ye Saints shall be the place of your habitation and delight what is the whole world compared to it it is but a narrow prison an house of correction an house of bondage to a gracious spirit it is but as a Cage to a bird so is the world to the soul of a Godly man 11. It is a liberty from all fears or dangers of everlosing their glory and blessedness