continually nearer towards its perfection and make us likewise to abound in all the fruits of the spirit which are the highest expressions of our love and the best preparation for the day of Christs Appearing For true Devotion doth not terminate in the heart it goes further and hath its effect in the life and actions And especially excites us to love or charity towards all mankind and above all to our Christian Brethren as that which bears the greatest resemblance to him whom we love The Commandment which St. Paul charges Timothy to keep without spot till our Lords appearing was for the most part acts of Charity as you will find briefly touched in this Book And therefore these we should labour to inliven by our Devotion which is then truly Great when it makes us so and raises our spirits above all anger and peevishness covetousness and eager desire of wealth envy and vain ambition evil surmises and jealousies fretfulness and impatience with all those other mean qualities which are the enemies of Christian Charity Some Readers perhaps may think that I strain Devotion here unto too great an height and may be apt at the entrance to lay this Book aside because they imagine I have expressed that passion of love which we should indeavour after towards Christs appearing beyond the truth But I must intreat them to do me the right and themselves the kindness to read on and they will find in conclusion the whole description of it made good by the plain words of the holy Scriptures In the study of which if we did all conscientiously imploy our selves it is to be hoped God would still preserve to us that inestimable Treasure which contains such admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the forenamed Father speaks Medicines of the soul both to cure our diseases and to comfort and restore our tired or languishing spirits For they are that living water our Lord speaks of which whosoever drinks hath in himself a Well or Fountain of comfort and perpetual refreshment springing up into everlasting life xxij Rev. 20. COME LORD JESVS St. Chrysostom Tom. vj. p. 709. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IMPRIMATUR Hic Liber cui titulus The Glorious Epiphany c. Geo. Thorp Reverendissimo in Christo Patri D no D no Gulielmo Archiep Cantuar. à Sacris Domesticis April 30. 1678. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. COntaining an Introduction to the ensuing Discourse CHAP. II. Shewing what is meant by the APPEARING of our Lord Jesus Christ CHAP. III. A further Illustration of the APPEARING of our Lord Jesus Christ CHAP. IV. The certainty of this APPEARING of our Lord Jesus Christ CHAP. V. Containing the Vse we should make of what hath been delivered in the foregoing Chapter CHAP. VI. Of the means to excite that LOVE in our hearts which we ought to have for Christs APPEARING CHAP. VII Two further steps in this Love of Christs Appearing CHAP. VIII The Progress of this Love to Christs Appearing in three steps more CHAP. IX This Love to the Appearing of our Lord further described in three other fruits or marks of it CHAP. X. All this shown to be the sense of the Holy Scriptures CHAP. XI Reasons for our Love to this Appearing drawn from the respect we ought to have to our Lord himself CHAP. XII Other Reasons why we should love his appearing drawn from the love we have to our selves CHAP. XIII Two other Reasons why if we love our selves we must needs love this Appearing CHAP. XIV Two Reasons more to induce us to raise our thoughts and affections to the Appearing of our Lord. CHAP. XV. Three Considerations more to draw our Affections to the Appearing of our Lord. CHAP. XVI Of the mighty power and pleasure of Love when it is setled in the heart CHAP. XVII Of the means whereby this Love may be setled in our hearts and the Benefit thereof CHAP. XVIII A continuation of the former Argument concerning the mighty power of the Divine Love and the Benefit we have by loving our Lords Appearing CHAP. XIX More expressions of this devout affection towards our Lords Appearing and the way whereby we may excite them CHAP. XX. The Conclusion The Glorious Epiphany with the Devout Christians love to it CHAP. I. Containing an Introduction to the ensuing Discourse WHEN we observe how the desire of life is so deeply fixed in all mankind both in old and young in Kings and Beggars in Wise men and Fools that as Lactantius * L. III. In stit C. 12. well noteth they will endure any miseries to preserve and prolong it we are led thereby to this Consideration That the highest and most perfect Good to which the soul of man aspires is a life without end and without those laborious toils and troubles which attend us here in this present world We are naturally form'd to wish that we may be so happy and find no thought so sad and dismal as this of being quite extinct and never enjoying any more pleasure after we are laid in our graves Upon which account it must be acknowledged that we are infinitely indebted to the Grace of God who hath made that so sure which is so desirable and that our Blessed Saviour justly challenges our most ardent love and cheerful obedience whose Religion is nothing else but an acknowledgment of the Truth which is after godliness in hope of eternal life They are the words of St. Paul Tit. i. 1 2. which import that the Gospel is a Doctrine which teaches us to be pious and promises to reward our piety with an happy immortality This is the glorious hope of Christians whose Master Christ Jesus who is our Hope 1. Tim. i. 1. hath brought life and immortality to light and made that which was but obscurely delivered in times past as clear and bright as the Sun at noon-day There are so many Witnesses of this that their Testimonies have filled a large Volume The FATHER the WORD the HOLY-GHOST have all declared that we have eternal life and this life is in our Saviour the Son of God So say the WATER also the BLOOD and the SPIRIT they all consent in this Truth That Jesus is alive from the dead and lives for evermore and because he lives we shall live also Which welcome news filled the hearts of all those who believed it with excessive joy even when they were in heaviness through manifold temptations 1 Pet. i. 6 8. And why it should not have the same effect on us there is no other reason can be given but because we do not believe as they did For they of whom S. Peter speaks had never seen our Lord when he was on earth no more than we nor had they any such sight of him as S. Stephen and S. Paul had after he went to Heaven and yet believing they rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of glory All our business therefore is to settle this belief stedfastly in our minds Which will have the greater power upon our
IX This Love to the Appearing of our Lord further described in three other fruits or marks of it VIII AND now can any Soul chuse but think of that perpetually which it most dearly loves Doth not every Good use to present it self continually to the mind that is inamour'd of it and remember us of its beauty There is no question to be made of it The very ardency of our affection for it doth more imprint and engrave it on our mind and when by any participation of it we feel how good it is we press it harder and sink it deeper into our hearts There is no man for instance who hath setled his love upon an agreeable person but He finds the image of that friend always before his eyes It accompanies him every where and cleaves inseparably to his thoughts It is a great part of his pleasure to entertain himself with the shadow of that in which he hath lodg'd his heart And therefore if we love the appearing of our Lord we shall solace our selves often with the kind In the multitude especially or tumult of our thoughts within us as the Psalmist speaks xciv 19. the comforts of it will delight our souls We shall be daily calling upon them and exhorting them to look towards it and to fix their thoughts and affections upon it We shall be inclin'd to say as the voice is in the Song of Songs Come my fair one come away O my chiefest Good what shall I desire or wish for so much as for thy coming What is it that I ever saw which should detain my eyes from thy incomparable beauty Or where can I expect to satisfie their hunger but only with the filling sight of thee at thy appearing The spacious Heavens hope to be filled with the Majesty of thy Glory The Sun is but a weak image of thy brightness and will be content to go out to make room for thee when thou appearest All the Stars of light are ready to resign their places and leave the skie to be illuminated by thee alone Whatsoever is lovely and surprises us with its beauty here confesses it is but thy shadow and that when thou breakest forth it must disappear Fix my mind therefore upon thy glory and let it henceforth imploy my busie thoughts Possess thy self O Lord of life and glory intirely of this heart which hath been too long estranged from thee Impress such a lively sense of thee and of thy glory there that I may sooner forget my self than thee and thy appearing Make it my greatest pleasure to sit hours and days and years to think of thy so much desired coming When I meet with my dearest Relations and Friends let nothing entertain us with such delight as to think of being caught up together in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the air Let us love to speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and to talk of thy power to utter abundantly the memory of thy great goodness and to sing of thy righteousness Let us wish with united hearts to see thy power and glory and to behold thee coming according to thy faithful promise out of thy heavenly Sanctuary Let it be our sweetest joy to inspire each others hearts with these holy hopes and to stir up one another to love and to good works And when thou comest O Lord may every one of us be found so doing IX These are some of the pantings of an heart which loves and bears in mind the appearing of Christ For to say the truth Love is the original and source of all the passions that we feel in our hearts They all flow from this as from their spring-head They are but several motions which have their rise from Love Or if you will so conceive it nothing but different figures and shapes wherein it appears It is love which fears and love which grieves and love which hopes and love which rejoyces there would be none of these were it not for some good which we love to which these and all the rest of their kindred owe their birth and nourishment When this is hindred in its designes it breeds anger or impatience or fear or sadness or some such like commotion And when this succeeds and prospers in the pursuance of its ends there arises hope and contentment and joy and gladness as the natural issue of it They that love then Christs appearing will fear nothing so much as to lose the blessedness which He will bring along with Him Nothing will excite such a displeasure in their hearts as that evil which would rob and defraud them of his favour at that happy day And what is there that can give them such a touch of sadness as the thought that they are so far distant from their Dearest Lord Or what can create such joy such exultation of spirit as to hope they shall one day see Him so as never to part from Him any more In one word all the passions of their Souls will run this way and be concern'd for nothing so highly as this that they may be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy True indeed O blessed Saviour doth such an heart meditate in it self I have had a thousand fears in my breast I have dreaded every small danger in this world as if it would prove my utter ruin The terrors that have affrighted me are as innumerable as the things I have fancied to be my happiness But now all these are willing to be gone that they may make way for one greater fear lest I should not enter with thee when thou appearest into thy rest O prevent so intolerable a mischief Whatsoever I lose I shall account my self a gainer if I lose not the blessing which thou wilt give us Take all if thou pleasest I am content so thou wilt give me a share in thy glory when thou comest I have been too long pestered with a world of sensual passions Sometimes sadness hath oppressed me and then anger hath set me all on fire Now vain joyes have swelled my heart and puffed me up and again they have given place to grief and sorrow hath shrunk up my soul and dried up my spirit Fears and Hopes have tossed me up and down as in a tempestuous Sea A small matter hath created me much trouble and I have longed for things which promised much but gave me little satisfaction What a comfort is it but to expect the day which will settle and compose these tumults in perpetual peace and quiet I feel the thoughts of it already appeasing my spirit and bringing a ealm into my breast And if the brightness of thy appearing did but always shine in my mind it would dispel all the clouds and scatter the darkness wherein all this confusion reigns O let the splendor of that day irradiate my soul even at this distance from it and leave no space void of its light and comfort Yea let it eclipse all other joyes and by
shall be an honour to him to have such subjects who by his Almighty Power are so nobly preferred The magnificence and greatness of his Kingdom will appear in the greatness and splendor of all his Friends and followers It shall be seen in them what he is and how highly God the Father hath exalted him whom he gave him to be the head over all things to the Church which is his body i. Ephes 22 23. the fulness of him that filleth all in all Certain it is he cannot be perfect as he is the Head of the Church without all his members In which regard several both of the Greek and Latine Fathers * V.S. Chrys Oecumenium S. Hieron think that his Body the Church is called his FULNESS because he will not be absolutely compleated and consummated till all his members be knit together in one body and joyned to him in such a glory as is befitting those that are so nearly related to him who is able to communicate to them out of his fulness what excellencies he pleases This says St. Chrysostom is the hope of our calling which the Apostle speaks of before the riches of the glory of the inheritance the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe For whom he hath such an affection and loves us with so great tenderness that he doth not think himself intirely happy unless we be promoted to be with him where he is and to reign with him for ever So much is his heart set upon our advancement that he accounts himself to be but in part glorious till we be numbred among his Saints in glory everlasting Then will he shine in greater splendor and majesty than ever according to those words of St. Paul in another place 2 Thess i. 10. where he saith He shall come to be GLORIFIED in his Saints and to be ADMIRED in all them that believe For first of all as Oecumenius hath collected the sense of the ancient Fathers about this business it will be a glory to him that he hath so many Saints to whom he will distribute his goods and make illustrious with him For as his riches saith he is our salvation so it will be a glory to him And secondly He will be glorified also by his Saints when they shall behold him sitting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in his Fathers Glory the God and the Judge of all And thirdly We may add that the Saints will procure him glory from the spiritual powers when they shall see what a recompense of reward he hath vouchsafed to his servants Who as they shall give occasion to his being glorified so to his being admired also because it will be a most wonderful and amazing sight to see those who were thought so vile and abject in this present life that they were persecuted and murdered accounted worthy then of such and so great good things as he will bestow upon them And truly as our Lord will be thus magnified and admired at that day so this ought now to be very wonderful in our eyes Who have little consideration if we be not exceedingly in love with his appearing when self-love so strongly inclines and prompts our affection to it Can we find in our hearts to turn away our eyes from that or cease to long for it with ardent desire which Nature it self calls for as the greatest Good Here our own interest combines with his to make us wish for that blessed day which shall make him more illustrious by the brightness of our glory Here two great Seas meet and run into one to make our souls swell and rise up in bigger expectations of his happiness Come should your heart and mine say come O blessed Jesus and at once make us and thy self intirely glorious Arise O thou Sun of Righteousness and shed thy beams so plentifully upon us that we may shine with thee as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Great are the things which are spoken of thy coming when the exceeding greatness of thy power shall appear to us-ward who believe O come and compleat thine own fulness by filling us out of thine exuberant Goodness with all the blessings of thine heavenly Inheritance Do not want that happiness any longer which will make us happy too together with thee Delay not to put on those Kingly Robes wherein when thou appearest we shall be promoted to reign as Kings with thee for ever How will our ravisht spirits then rejoyce in that great salvation How will they triumph to see every knee bow to thine exalted Name Nay to see thee admired in us cxlviij Psal 14. when thou shall exalt the honour of thy people the praise of all thy Saints O come that the greatness of thy Glory and Majesty may appear in thy Saints and thy wonderful power and love in all those that believe And till thou comest lot all thy Saints be joyful in glory cxlix 4 5. Let them sing aloud in perfect quiet and repose Yea let the high praises of our God be in their mouth who hath given us hope of victory over all our enemies Let them never cease to praise him who takes pleasure in his people and will beautifie them with his Salvation Praise him who hath promised to come and visit us in greater love than ever praise him who is the head over all things to the Church and will prefent it to himself a glorious Church v. Eph. 27. not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing Let his name be alway engraven upon our hearts who hath comforted us with the blessed hope of seeing him in all his glory Let the memory of his transcendent love be ever most dear unto us who intends to lift us up to sit with him in Heavenly places Let us never forget to rejoyce in his holy Name with whom we expect to rejoyce in the highest happiness of endless Life And O blessed Jesus that we may be so happy now as to long for that day on thy account as well as our own May it delight us to think how thou wilt be admired and highly praised in our exaltation Make us so much in love with thee as to desire to see our selves raised unto honour because it will make thee also appear in greater glory CHAP. XII Other Reasons why we should love his appearing drawn from the love we have to our selves THus I have made a fair way to introduce the second thing which I propounded for the compleating of this Discourse Wherein I am to show how the natural Affection we all bear to our selves should powerfully dispose us to love the Appearing of our Lord Jesus And this will admit of no less than these TEN Considerations which will instantly at the very first hearing win our assent to the truth of them For I. First We cannot but passionately desire if we have any belief of this Appearing to see so great an honour as will then be done to our Nature So
to give me some tasts of their incomparable sweetness May I relish no joys so much as those May I always have the remembrance of them fresh upon my soul And may I be so happy as to be preserved by the savour of them from the sinful allurements of all other pleasures Hence hence all you beggerly delights which would have me forget my happiness Stand aside you Images of true joy and hinder not my prospect of that heavenly Paradise Lend me your help or else get you gone and trouble me no more Assist my benighted thoughts and represent that blissful place to them or else I desire not your company I have eaten of all your dainties but still am empty and void of satisfaction I know what you have to say the very utmost you can offer me therefore follow me with no further importunities For my heart is set on that fair that delicious place where the Great Lord keeps his Court and entertains his Friends with endless pleasures O holy City of God what glorious things are spoken of thee How free how sprightly and how full of joy are all thy happy Inhabitants What heart is there that is so dull as not to long to dwell in that blessed place where every head wears a Crown of Life and every hand carries a Palm of Victory Where every eye overflows with joy and every tongue with Psalms of praise Where light shines in every face and love smiles in every Countenance Where every heart is perfectly satisfied in the fulness of its own bliss and satisfied again with the pleasure it hath to see the felicity of others It is too much trouble to me that I am not there O let me not lose the thought of it too I sigh to think that I stand at such a distance from my Fathers House and shall I suffer a further remove by turning away my eyes from thence Go O my soul go thither in thy thoughts and daily meditations Send a thousand wishes before thee thither to tell thy Lord that thou art coming to him Say whom have I in Heaven but thee who wentest thither to open it to all thy faithful Followers What have I on Earth but my hope by following thee to arrive at last where thou art gone before me Whither should I look but unto Heaven now that thou my Dearest Lord art ascended thither to prepare a place for me A place of rest and secure peace a place of joy and constant enjoyment a place from whence I am loth my thoughts or my heart should descend to return to this poor earth again for there they grow so dull that it is hard to lift them up to look to thee O keep them with thee keep them with thee thou King of Heaven Settle and fix them there where I my self expect to be where thou also expectest me where they shall find ease for every grief and joy in the midst of the greatest tribulation O fix them unmoveably in this quiet place this eternal Rest And when they must attend the affairs of this lower life may they only look not come down to them and still remain and stay with thee IX And when these things shall be fulfilled the Apostle tells us in the place before named 1 Thess iv 17. that we shall be ALWAYS WITH THE LORD who passed his promise to his Disciples a little before he left the world that he would come again and receive them to himself that where he is there they may be also xiv John 3. Of which promise he was so mindful after he went to Heaven that he further informs St. Paul who spake this by the word of the Lord that he will not part with us when he hath conducted us to his Fathers house but keep us ever with him there in joys and pleasures that never fade away A condition which we cannot but love and passionately long for if we have any love for him or for our selves For there are none of our enjoyments here but must be frequently intermitted and are too often interrupted even the enjoyment of our blessed Lord himself and the sense he gives us of celestial things we find to our sorrow suffers this inconvenience Neither are we diverted from them only by the troubles of this life or the violence of other worldly temptations which press too boldly and rudely upon us but by the most necessary occasions and the most innocent fruitions to which nature not only inclines us but requires our frequent attendance Of how much of our time doth sleep possess it self though we desire never so earnestly to continue awake How little do we live in the account of reason if we do but remember this Image of Death which hath us so many hours every night in its arms And yet besides this eating and drinking journeys and visits the businesses and cares of this life which challenge some of our thoughts devour no body knows how great a portion of every day To say nothing of those hours when we are fit for little or nothing but are forced to find as we significantly speak some pastime for the entertainment of our wearied minds O blessed Jesus how few are the minutes that these souls inclosed in flesh can spend in thy company Into what a little room are the thoughts of thee and of thy unmeasurable love most wretchedly crowded How soon are we weary and how often are we forced away when we have the greatest mind to thy sweet Society O the cares that not only divert but sometimes oppress us O the multitude of troubles which are wont to disquiet us the sicknesses and infirmities of our bodies which indispose us besides the great weakness and feebleness of these spirits which are not able long to bear thee company It is but a wish I see that I may always stay with thee I feel my self pulled away and cannot keep my soul above even when thou hast lifted it up unto thee And therefore I cannot but renew my desires that thou wouldest be pleased to hasten thy coming That 's the time I long to see because I would be ever with thee and always behold thy face and perpetually speak of thee and declare thy love without ceasing in the height of love and devotion to thee O what a change will that day make in me when I shall be all Life and see not so much as the image or shadow of death any more When I shall neither slumber nor sleep much less be sick or grow old and dye but always wake and enjoy a perfect health a vigorous youth and immortal life O the blessedness of that change when I shall be hungry no more nor have my head disturbed with the fumes and clouds of food When all my journeys will be at an end and I shall never lose nor leave the company I love When I shall neither be crost by others nor vext with the violence of my own passions When I shall be no more perplext
together and therefore cannot but be of mighty power to ravish our spirits and ennoble our natures by making them divine Hither let us vigorously and cheerfully bend our thoughts let our hearts send many and many a wish this way and then it will be as impossible for any thing to hinder us from being made heavenly as it is to keep the stone from its centre or the tenderest heart from becoming like to that which it dearly loves Here we see what God the Father Almighty will do for his Son Jesus and what our Lord Jesus will do for us who depend upon his Love We behold our selves here ranked among the Heavenly host changed into spirits made perfect in love crowned with immortality beautified with the light of Divine knowledge and with unspotted purity of heart brought into the presence of our Lord and unto the sight of God On which incomparable happiness while we fix our eyes it must needs snatch us quite from all other things and make us live out of our selves But it will be only to place us above our selves and by a most desireable departure from what we are to put us into so blessed a condition that we shall never wish to return to our selves any more And indeed the more or less our souls are drawn forth of themselves either way so much the harder or easier it is to go back into themselves again For if we be much ravished with these heavenly things if we love the Appearing of Christ exceedingly and attentively fix our minds in expectation of it we shall have little mind to turn our hearts towards corporeal enjoyments during the sense and lively relish of those Divine pleasures which have withdrawn us from them And when the inclinations and necessities of our earthly Nature call us back again unto them it will be with a remembrance of those celestial joys still remaining which will preserve our souls from immersing themselves in things below them Just as when a mans heart is engaged in the strictest bonds of love which have tied him fast to a very agreeable person whatsoever company he comes into he will secretly steal out of it to cast a glance upon that beloved object So will our mind be apt to look up towards Heaven even when we are in the charming society of that person if the Lord and the glory of his appearing be our chiefest love and highest delight As on the contrary if we have but a slight touch and taste of these heavenly truths we shall be the easier diverted from them and perswaded to yield up our selves to seek our satisfaction in the cold enjoyment of these earthly delights And thus it is in like manner when men follow brutal pleasures the more strongly they are ravisht with them and addict themselves to them the more they lose the use of their reason and understanding and the more uncapable they grow being so attentive to these delights to receive any gust of nobler enjoyments Whereas if our taste of these things be more superficial and we do not apply our minds with all their force unto them nor dwell upon them we shall be the easier called off from them and stand in need of fewer importunities to quit their company for better entertainments Which demonstrates how necessary it is that we should indeavour to be well acquainted with the coming of our Lord to believe it with an unshaken faith to perswade our selves of it as if we saw it to set our hearts upon it and place our comforts in it that so it may have the greater authority over us and command us irresistibly from all things beneath us and force us to give our selves intirely to our Lord Jesus CHAP. XVII Of the means whereby this Love may be setled in our hearts and the Benefit thereof AND for the better effecting this which so nearly concerns us we ought as to think frequently and seriously of it so to use all the means that are in our power to represent our blessed Lord and his glorious Appearing in the most lively manner unto our hearts Among which I believe you will find none more effectual than to frequent his society in the Communion of his Body and of his Blood Where we not only meet with a fair occasion both to imprint upon our hearts a sense of his love and to express all the love we have to him but have a most powerful instrument also put into our hands to enkindle and stir up the most hearty vehement and burning Affection towards him For there he is set before our eyes in such a posture of love as cannot but wound any heart that hath the grace to consider what it sees There we behold him hanging for our sake upon a Cross from whence his mighty love shoots the most piercing darts into our breasts We see him there in such flames as offered him up intirely to do the will of God and if we come near them will touch us so sensibly that we shall be disposed to make our selves also a devout oblation to him His Body broken his Blood shed his very Life sacrificed for our safety are there so evidently and distinctly set before our eyes that as it will be hard for us not to be tenderly affected with his astonishing love to us so we are hereby assured of his continued kindness till he bring us to eternal life We do not indeed behold him there as sitting on the throne of his glory nor as appearing again the second time to give us salvation But yet it plainly shows us what he underwent to purchase for us as well as for himself that glory wherein he is and bids us rest satisfied he will do more for us even all that he hath promised of which by these tokens and pledges of his love which he hath left behind him when he departed this world he doth most affectionately assure us And by partaking of them we become also one body with him and have communion with him in his death and passion and all the benefits he hath thereby obtained for his Church Among which this is the last and the greatest that we shall be with him where he is and see the glory which the Father hath given him We ought not to doubt of it being thus incorporate with him and so united to him that in him we already live and reign and are glorious and can no more fail of appearing at last with him in his glory than the Members can fail to be advanced when the Head to which they are firmly and inseparably joyned is highly honoured and dignified As a loving Wife therefore married to an Husband most completely qualified but gone into a remote country cannot but fix her thoughts very much upon his coming and often wish for the happy day which will bring them nearer and make them meet and live together and in the mean time if she have his picture exactly taken cannot refrain from looking often on it and
a great while for certain reasons which he best knows before he come as he stayed two days after he heard of Lazarus his sickness notwithstanding the love he had for him and his intentions to rescue him from death yet we ought not to be discouraged if we be sure he loves us but believe that he will appear at last and that he will raise us up though we lye dead in our graves and have lain so perhaps many years and that he will bid us come forth and go along with him whither his endless love will lead us CHAP. XVIII A continuation of the former Argument concerning the mighty power of the Divine Love and the Benefit we have by loving our Lords Appearing HAve we not great reason then to love him and to love his appearing since that will be the best argument of his love to us and his love you see will prove such an assurance of all his blessings What will move us if this cannot do it Need there any thing more be said to draw our affections towards him If there do then let me assure you that love will even transform us into him There is nothing more discernible in this passion than that it assimilates us unto the Thing or Person which we love Which should teach us indeed to have a great care what and whom we love but should excite us to love him our Dearest Lord without any measure Because nothing is so desireable as to be like to him and nothing can prepare us so surely for his glorious appearing In that which every man loves in that he lives saith St. Austin upon those words of the great Apostle St. Paul not I live but Christ liveth in me So great so mighty a thing is true love that it carries the heart from the place where it is and translates it thither where it loves If thou lovest thy self merely then thou livest altogether in thy self But if thy heart be set on any other person or thing then thou livest in that which hath ingaged thy affection And if it be Jesus whom thou lovest in sincerity it is certain that in him also thou livest Of so great importance it is that we love aright For he that loves ill lives ill and he that loves well cannot but live well too But there is no danger at all in loving our Lord and his appearing and therefore we need not stand to ask our selves whether we should love him or no or how much we shall love him or with what passion and concernment we should set our hearts upon his coming again to take us into his glory There is nothing to hinder us from loving here as much as ever we are able no fear our affections should be too far ingaged as they may be in other cases all that caution is useless here which when we are in pursuit of lesser injoyments is but necessary to put a check upon our hearts and cool a little our love towards them The more we love him the more we shall be like him the more we love him the more we shall live in him This love makes us divine and heavenly it purifies us and makes us fit to live with him I must add also that according to this rule by loving his appearing we shall be formed to some likeness of it as much as we are capable here to be wrought and fashioned to an imitation of a thing so bright and full of glory It will raise our minds that is to a noble pitch and highly improve our degenerate nature It will invite him to manifest himself to us and graciously to shine upon us It will possess us with a lively sense of him and of the glory wherein he lives The light of his countenance will be lifted up on our souls and he will fill us with a stronger sense of life and immortality It will chase away the base fear of death and kill all vitious affections in us We shall be purified and refined from all our dross by these holy fires There is no sin will be able to live in the same place with this heavenly love but will continually languish and decay as this increases and grows stronger in our souls Our spirits thereby will become more cheerful light and aerial They will ascend more easily towards those celestial places and be less inclined though they feel its attractions toward this lower world O what a Coronet of Glory will this love place before-hand on our head It is it self a royal ornament and a diadem of glory It 's a participation of a Divine Nature an entrance upon the life of God an Heaven upon earth a pleasure whereby we anticipate the joys of the other world for if all love have a sweetness in it this Divine love sure cannot but entertain us with a transcendent satisfaction By this we have our conversation in Heaven and it is there only to be ever with the Lord as much as our condition here will give us leave for nothing but love will make him familiar to our thoughts and present him frequently to the eye of our minds Yea this is the best glass we have while we are here below wherein to see God If there be any way to know the meaning of those words we must learn it of this Teacher which alone can discover to us so great a mysterie Nothing else can lead us into that secrecy and reveal to us what lies hid in that retirement the Vision of God Never hope for any key to open a door into the Holy of Holies unless it be this of heavenly love If it be possible to peep a little behind the veil it is love only that enjoys so singular a priviledge For God you see is love and the Apostle tells us that when Faith and Hope shall be done away it is charity alone that still remains as a thing of longer duration than this world and whose proper place is Heaven This is one of the Cherubims of Glory that inhabits the most holy place and attends upon the Majesty on high This is of an Angelical Nature and is always there where God is It waits upon him it ministers to him it knows his mind it is privy to his thoughts and designs and makes us understand more of him than all the wit in the world can do beside There is nothing can lend wings to the soul but only love which raises us above this world and sets us in the presence of him that made it And what a sight doth it give us there of his boundless bottomless Goodness If it can show us nothing else it will not fail to let us see how gracious how wonderfully gracious the Lord is With what kindness doth love behold almighty Providence spreading it self in tender mercy over all its works It is this alone can make us feel how inclinable the Divine Nature is to pour out its Benefits Nothing but love can make us know what an everlasting spring
moved by the merits and the pretious promises of so great a love Thy Preaching was Love thy Miracles were love thy whole Life was love thy Death was the most singular love thy last breath in a manner was love one of thy last words was love even to the bitterest enemies thy Sacraments are love the Holy-Ghost the Comforter is love thy Embassadors were love thou art we see All love and yet dull and stupid blocks that we are we are nothing less than this Divine love O sweet Saviour what wilt thou do with such vile such wretched hearts as these of ours Canst thou endure so much as to look upon such souls as are so frozen before thy fires Canst thou shed one beam more upon such icy hearts that are so insensible of all thy flames Is it possible that thou shouldest be so patient as to bear with the prayers of those whose breasts are so full of love so propense to this affection so free to pour it out to every thing and yet allow so few or no drops of it unto thee who deservest all the love we have O Dearest Lord if there be any room still left in thy heart for such as we are be pleased once more to cast thine eyes upon us most miserable sinners If thou canst lend thine ears to the requests of such foolish such obstinate hearts as have been so senslesly deaf to all thy gracious intreaties hear the sighs and the groans of all those penitent souls who cry unto thee and say Lord Jesus look upon us Spare us Good Lord if it be but one dram of thy pity and tenderest compassion O spare us but the least touch more from thine all-powerful hand if thou art not weary of striking such rocky hearts as now petition thee for thy love O mollifie them most gracious Lord mollifie them we beseech thee with thy Dear love towards us Now that they are a little tender and yielding to thee melt and dissolve them into the like love towards thee Enter into all our hearts O that thou wouldst enter and fill them with thy love Overcome them with this powerful engine thy mighty thy wonderful Love Thy love I say thy most stupendious love for no word pleases me so much as love Give me leave therefore to repeat it over again and to pray thee by thy love by thy dear and tender love that thou wilt not pass by this heart of mine among all the rest which now at last would fain be replenished with thy love I lye here in the humblest devotion prostrate at thy feet and gasping there before thee my soul pants and says O Love inspire me O Love breath thy soul and life into me As thou hast overcome so possess this heart intirely and vouchsafe to dwell in me And do thou my incomprehensibly loving Saviour make me ever thus to sigh and groan out of the very center of mine heart after thee Make me always to be saying thus to thee O my life my joy my hope my all do not despise this languishing soul which intreats thee to dwell in it by thy surpassing love Draw me after thee and touch me so that I may look upon nothing so much as thy love Turn my heart about and bend it wholly to thy love Make me to speak of nothing with such delight as of thy love to breath nothing to study nothing to desire to do nothing but only love Let no day at least pass without some serious meditations of thy love Let no Sun shine but what shows me thee and thy love shining brighter by far upon me Let no night close mine eyes but do thou shut up a sense of thy self and thy love in my breast Let no friend come to visit me but give him thy love to bring along with him and let him present thy self unto me Let the sight of him enkindle thy love in me Let the embraces of him knit me in faster affection to thee Let the remembrance of him and his kindness recall to mind thy infinitely greater love to me Let every motion of my heart towards him rest at last in the love of thee who art the hope and the satisfaction both of him and me Still may I therefore think of thee more frequently Still may I desire thee more passionately Still may I obey the more universally May the following acts of love and vertue still out-strip the former and one conquest of my self make way for a nobler May thine Almighty love still grow and prevail till there be no affection that dare appear no passion that dare presume to show its head against the soveraign power of thy love in mine heart And now O my Lord I know not how to leave thee untill I hear thee say Thou lovest me Prostrate still will I here lye at thy feet for I cannot have the heart to rise up again unless thou wilt speak that kind that gracious word and tell me that thou dost not cease to love me Nay I dye unless thou lovest me I shall make my grave here in this very place and expire with these words in my mouth LORD WHETHER I LIVE OR DYE IT MATTERS NOT LET ME BVT KNOW THAT THOV LOVEST ME. And may I be so bold as to conclude thou hast some love to me because I feel my heart beat thus passionately towards thee and my soul thirsts and cryes thus after thee Will it not be too great a presumption to think thou hast not forsaken me because I cannot forsake my request but above all things long and labour to be beloved of thee Is this love thou hast wrought in my heart to thee an incouragement to hope thou lovest me Truly then my Lord I am well satisfied Then I know thou bearest a favour to me For my soul follows hard after thee it cleaves unto thee it loves thy memory and delights it self in thy Commandments It sayes continually nothing but more of thy love nothing but abundance of thy love I open my heart unto thy exuberant love I expose my self to the power of thy transcendent love I chuse and desire the pleasures of thy love above all the delights wherewith the world can entertain me Above the admired heaps of wealth and the dazling heights of honour Above the loudest praises of fame and the bewitching applause of numerous spectators Above the charms of beauty and the more inticing delights of curious knowledge Nay above the solid joyes of health and the most necessary refreshments of nature Above all that even thine own bounty can give to those that love thee O let me but love thee make me but always thus to love thee alwayes despise all other delights compared with those of loving thee do but fill my heart with that love and with those delights and I am perfectly satisfied I am at rest now I have given my self to thee intirely And if I had a thousand hearts they should be devoted to thy service with the most affectionate
love to thee But yet alas when I think of thy wondrous love I am apt to conclude again that I did amiss to say I was satisfied All this upon better thoughts seems a great deal too little and I am as short me thinks of thy love as if I loved thee not at all For what have I given thee when I have paid thee all my acknowledgements What have I bestowed on thee when I have given thee my self and absolutely offered all my affections to thee What is my heart what are a thousand such hearts as this worth that I should think such a present will be of any esteem with thee If all my life were nothing else but the most affectionate the most cheerful obedience to thee what requital should I have made thee for all thy love to me Alas I have so little ability to do any thing worthy of thee that I have not the skill how to speak as becomes me of my duty to thee What do I talk of acknowledgements to thee That 's as if I could number or value thy favours And it is a worse absurdity to speak of giving thee my affections as if I were not a debtor to thee and of bestowing my heart on thee For that 's as if I had any thing I received not from thee But it is worst of all I am ashamed of it to mention a requital of thy favours for that 's as if they were so small or so few as to admit of any return like a recompense unto thee No No I am nothing at all I have nothing I can do just nothing but what is thine more than mine if it be worth any thing I here most solemnly protest that I think my self indebted to thee for all I have I my self am thine my love is thine my prayers and desires are thine my praises and thanksgivings are thine so is my Faith and my Hope my comforts and my joyes they are all thine I cannot so much as confess my debts and obligations but it is from thee I cannot be sensible of my faults but I contract a new debt to thee That I can so much as see and say I am nothing I owe it unto thee What shall I do therefore How shall I express my self to thee Or in what manner shall I approach thee All that I can think of is only this still to cast down my self in the humblest devotion before thee and all thawed and dissolved with thy love to pour out my heart unto thee saying LORD WORK THINE OWN GOOD PLEASVRE IN ME. Make me what thou thy self best likest and lovest And when thou hast loved and obliged me as much as thou pleasest here compleat thine own benefits and crown them with as great a glory as thine own great love can bestow hereafter CHAP. XX. The Conclusion AND here I think it is best to put a period to this discourse which is already come to a competent length For where can I leave you better than in the arms of our Lord intirely resolved into his will and wishing to be united to him and made one spirit with him as much as he pleases And yet how hard is it to cease to desire that happiness in its utmost perfection How can we chuse but ask him leave at least to repete that wish over again The very thoughts of it make the ravished soul thrust it self with the more ardent affection into the bosom of his love They stir it up to ply him with new petitions that he will draw it more strongly after him and knit it more closely to him that he will inspire it with more of his love and by perfecting his likeness in it inseparably unite it to himself O blessed Jesus surely thou wilt appear I believe in due time thou wilt appear I am fully perswaded thou wilt not fail to make good thy word of coming to fetch us to thy self and making us exceedingly more happy than now in our most inlarged thoughts we can conceive I see me thinks the sky cleave and the day break and the Arch-angel thy Harbinger begin to look forth and thrust his head out of the clouds which makes my heart leap for joy as if it would leave this world and instantly go to meet thee my infinitely Dearer Saviour For what splendor is there in Gold Greg. Nyssen Orat. V. in Beatitud that I should desire it What brightness in pretious stones What ornament in the most sumptuous apparel compared with that Good which our hope in thee supposes and sets before us When thou who reignest over all creatures shalt reveal thy self to mankind sitting most magnificently upon a lofty Throne when innumerable millions of Angels shall be seen about thee and when the Kingdom of Heaven which now is such a secret shall be set wide open before all our eyes O let the thoughts of the Trump of God which shall then sound awaken my soul more powerfully to lift up it self to look for thee and for that glorious sight thou wilt bless us withal at thy appearing O let the faith that is in thy heart grow daily more active and work in me a most vigorous love of thee And let my love be inlarged till this heart be stretched to its utmost capacity and thou the infinite Good still fill and overflow it For I am afraid thou shouldest come and find me unprepared for thee I would not for all the world be found unready to meet thee and unfit for the blessings thou wilt bring along with thee If an heart that desires thee most passionately be of any worth if thou canst have any kind thoughts of a mind that prefers thee and thy love above all other things if to love thine appearing far more than the most glorious condition wherein a man can possibly appear in mortal flesh can find any grace in thine eyes behold then a soul that is able to say through thy great goodness that it most earnestly longs for thee See here an heart that desires to be like thee that had rather dye than displease thee and that will welcome thy coming with more joy than a sick man wearied with the restlessness of a long night doth the morning light or a Traveller doth his much desired home or a Virgin espoused doth her long absent Bridegroom the dearly beloved of her soul It is thou who hast begot in me these longings I have received all thou seest in me from thy gracious hands which have made me and fashioned me and made me unsatisfied in any thing but thee and thy love O let not these pious longings also be unsatisfied Let me not want the pleasures from which I have turned mine eyes away here and those pleasures too which I look for so earnestly and promise my self at thine appearing But let the same reason which moved thee to give me so much incline thee to give me more Let that mighty love which hath wrought in me desires bring me to the enjoyment And after thou hast pleased thy bounty in making me receive as much as thou wilt in this present state let it be thy pleasure to receive me to thee in a better and by giving me all I would have in the sight I expect of thee to leave no desires remaining in me Amen and Amen THE END Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick and Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Amen-corner 1. THE Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Third Edition Corrected in Twelves 2. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God Or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane life The second Edition in Twelves 3. An Advice to a Friend The second Edition in Twelves 4. The Witnesses to Christianity or The Certainty of our Faith and Hope In a Discourse upon 1 S. John v. 7 8. In two Parts in Octavo new 5. A Sermon Preached before the King on St. Stephen's day Printed by His Majesty's special command in Quarto Angliae Speculum a Glass that flatters not Presented to a Country Congregation at the late Solemn Fast April 24. 1678. In a Parallel between the Kingdom of Israel and England Wherein the whole Nation is desired to behold and consider our Sin and our Danger By a dutiful Son of this Church in Quarto The true Intellectual System of the Universe The first Part wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted and its Impossibility Demonstrated By R. Cudworth D. D. in Folio A Sermon Preached before the King Feb. 10th 1677 8. By Z. Cradock D. D. Preacher to the Honourable Society of Grays-Inn and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty in Quarto XXXI Sermons Preached to the Parishioners of Standford-Rivers in Essex upon several Subjects and Occasions By Charles Gibbes D. D. Rectour of that Church and Prebendary of St. Peter's at Westminster in Quarto new The Jesuits Loyalty manifested in three several Treatises lately written by them against the Oath of Allegiance with a Preface shewing the Pernicious Consequence of their Principles as to Civil Government Also Three other Treatises concerning the Reasons of the Penal Laws viz. I. The Execution of Justice in England not for Religion but for Treason II. Important Considerations by the Secular Priests III. The Jesuits Reasons Unreasonable in Quarto
his death before he was crowned with glory and honour was a place of very much happiness it will not be compleated till he come again to bring us that Great Salvation which the Scripture speaks of at the Resurrection of the dead When we are at rest from our labours in the other world I cannot but think we shall long for that happy day and that it will be part of our joy to expect it with perfect assurance of its coming And therefore it cannot but be a very delightful entertainment to think of it to hope and wish for it now as the greatest refreshment we have of our labours here in this life For while our thoughts and desires are thus imployed we tread if I may so speak upon the threshold of Paradise and begin to enter into the joy of our Lord. But there is one expression of St. Paul which I mentioned in the conclusion of the second Advice to a Friend p. 64. which excels all the rest for he makes it the proper mark of a Christian to LOVE his appearing Which I have undertaken therefore to explain in this Discourse that devout Christians may know what the Blessedness of that time will be and what the Affection is we should have for it and what Reason there is we should be so affected towards it The subject is so unusual that I have not seen it any where handled which made me the more willing to set about it that I might in part both satisfie the desire I have to do all the honour and service I am able to our Blessed Lord and Master Christ Jesus and the delight I take in explaining his holy Scriptures Of which to be ignorant is to be ignorant of Christ himself as St. Hierom's words are in the beginning of his first Book of Commentaries upon Isaiah I do not expect indeed nor is it possible that you should have your minds alwayes possessed with such thoughts and that your hearts should perpetually burst out into such passions as I have here expressed I my self cannot think them over again nor any like them whensoever I please It is enough good Readers and as much as we can reach if you be thus affected at certain times when your spirit is most serious and retired into it self and if you indeavour to habituate your selves to such thoughts and desires that they may be so familiar and natural as to become easie and delightful when you will stand most in need of them More particularly when the days wherein you live are evil or when you are under any private trouble or when you would at any time retreat from the world and solace your self in angello cum libello in a nook with a Book to speak with Tho. à Kempis who thought this the highest pleasure upon earth or when the Church calls upon you to sequester your self for devotion and especially when old age you feel creeping upon you and you think of drawing your selves by degrees out of this life At all such seasons as these and chiefly when you come near to your journeys end this Prospect cannot but be most pleasant and such aspirations and sighs after the day of Christs appearing be the most ravishing musick and to be transported with such ardent longings as are here represented make Afflictions light and easie solitary retirements exceeding sweet and delightful old age cheerful and death it self very comfortable But you must not imagine that Love can arrive at its highest pitch presently nor must you be troubled or discouraged because you cannot instantly or when you would raise in your selves such passionate longings after Christs appearing Love is a thing that grows and as I may say steals upon us by degrees and the passion we feel at certain seasons disposes us by little and little to be perfectly in love with that Good which is set before us A Good so great and so desireable that we do not follow our own best inclinations if we use not our utmost indeavours to be so happy as to behold that admirable Countenance to speak in the language of St. Chrysostom of our blessed Saviour the King of Glory For if saith he * Homil. penult in S. Johan p. 925. when we read the story of his life death and resurrection we are so inflamed that our hearts burn within us and we wish we had lived in those days when he was conversant on earth that we might have heard his voice and seen his face and kept his company and touched him and ministred unto him think with your selves what it will be to see him not any longer in a mortal body nor doing humane things but attended with the hosts of Angels when we also our selves shall be freed from this mortality and beholding him shall enjoy such felicity as exceeds all expression Let us do all we can I beseech you that we may not miss of so great a glory There is nothing too hard for us if we have a will to it nothing too burdensom if our mind be not averse from it For if we suffer or endure we shall also reign with him And what is it to suffer If we bear afflictions if we endure persecutions if we walk in the narrow way which to nature indeed is laborious but to them who chuse it and have a good will to it is light and easie by the hope of things to come For our light affliction which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at those which are not seen Let us lift up our eyes then from these things here and direct them towards Heaven let us imagine always these unseen joyes and look upon them For if we be conversant with these things we shall neither be inticed with the sweet things of this world nor sink under the load of those that are grievous to be born But we shall laugh these and all such like to scorn and never suffer any thing either to depress us or to puff us up provided we still stretch forth that desire and look towards that love What did I say that we shall not feel the evil things of this world to be grievous to us More than that we shall scarce mind them or think that we see them For such is the nature of love that it makes us imagine we see even those who are absent from us but much desired by us every day with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for great is the soveraign power and as we speak the tyranny of love It neglects all things and tyes the soul fast to those it loves And therefore if we thus love Christ Jesus all things here will seem but a shadow but an image but a dream and we also shall say Who shall separate us from the love of Christ I pray God increase it and make it abound more and more in all our hearts that it may draw
hearts when we consider the abundant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ towards us and how excellent the Hope is which he hath given us For he hath not only assured us that He hath all power in heaven and in earth and that he will bestow the inestimable gift of immortality upon us But that he himself will once more come from heaven to crown us with it We know as I have shown in two former Treatises that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true and This is the true God and Eternal Life which he hath revealed to us But besides this first coming to teach us the will of God to dye for our sins and to open to us the Kingdom of Heaven after He had shown us the way to it He hath bid us believe there is a Second When He will come to judg us by those Laws which he hath left his Church and to put the observers of them into the possession of that Heavenly Kingdom which He hath promised And there are none of the Witnesses who testifie that He is the King of Glory but assure us of this also that He will appear in that glory to take us up unto Himself More especially the HOLY-GHOST who as Epiphanius * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Haeres LXXIV n. 10. admirably speaks is the only Guide of Truth the Expounder of holy Laws the Inspirer of the Spiritual or Christian Law the Leader of the Prophets the Teacher of the Apostles the Luminary of the Evangelical Doctrines He made his Apostles and Evangelists clearly understand this to be our Saviour's meaning and authorized them to proclaim this comfortable news to all Believers Insomuch that S. Paul triumphs in this when he was ready to be offered for the service of Christ and the time of his departure was at hand that there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord saith he the righteous Judg shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. iv 6 7 8. In the last part of which words there seems to me to be contained so much of the Christian Hope that they deserve to be explained with the same care and labour that I have bestowed upon the RECORD which the Father the Son the Holy-Ghost and all the other Witnesses have left us to testifie that Jesus is the Son of God and that in Him we have Eternal Life For as it transports all true Believers with joy to read of a Crown of Life a Crown of Glory a Crown of Righteousness which is laid up safe with our Lord in his Heavenly Sanctuary as He himself and his Apostles in this and other places confidently assure us So it very much raises and encreases that joyful Hope to know from their own mouths that He who hath receiv'd and keeps it safely will condescend so much as to appear again one day to confer the very same felicity upon us which He hath obtained himself who is crowned with glory and honour Next to the belief of the truth of this report there is nothing we are so much concerned to know as who the persons are that shall wear this Crown and have their heads eternally honoured with it Piety it self indeed is very apt to perswade those in whom it lives that the unfeigned practice of it shall meet at last with some considerable recompence But that it shall receive such a Royal such a magnificent Reward as deserves the name of a Crown of Eternal Glory is a thing which that great Modesty and Humility which is essential to true Piety and its highest Ornament and Crown forbids us to be too forward to conclude A Person perhaps of such eminence and lustre as S. Paul one of the Stars of the first Magnitude in our Saviour's right hand may be advanced hereafter to shine in such Majesty But that we dull heavy souls should be thought worthy of the like favour none but a man so divinely illuminated as He was by the power of the HOLY-GHOST is sufficient to secure us And blessed be God we do not want such a Divine Testimony For after this great Apostle had related what a course he had run what agonies he had sustained with what difficulties he had wrestled in the service of his blessed Master Jesus and that he nothing doubted but He would remember him at his coming again and confer the honour on him which was laid up in Heaven for such victorious souls He encourages all other Christians to comfort themselves with the same expectations and not imagine they should lose the Crown though they came far behind him in the holy race if they did but LOVE THE APPEARING * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph Haeres LIV. n 5. of Christ Jesus That 's the particular Mark and Character which he gives of the persons to whom this honour shall be done For the understanding of which and that we may the better comprehend both the happiness it self and that pious affection we ought to have for it which is the principal drift of this Discourse we are to make an enquiry into these three things First What may be conceived to be the meaning of this APPEARING of our Lord. Secondly What certainty there is of it And Thirdly What the LOVE is which they should bear to it who hope to enjoy the blessings of it CHAP. II. Shewing what is meant by the APPEARING of our Lord Jesus Christ IT is not hard to give an account of the first of these if we carefully observe and examine the Words whereby the Holy Books express it And there are Three of them every one of which signify that our Blessed Lord who now reigns in unseen Glory will once more appear visibly to all Mankind 1. The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render only his Coming but it is a different word from that in our Creed and in its proper signification denotes his presenting himself to us after he hath been thus long absent from us In the Creed we profess to believe that He is ascended into Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence he shall come c. But that we may know what kind of Coming we are to expect and not imagine it is meerly by an invisible power as he came to destroy Jerusalem we are to mind how the Apostles speak of it as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and teach us to understand that word in the strictest sense concerning his personal appearance to us Thus St. Paul discourses to the Corinthians 1. xv 23. where we first meet with this word in the Apostolical Writings that every man shall arise from the dead but in due order Christ the first-fruits and then they that are Christs at his coming in person that is as the King and the Judg of the World For so he presently after directs us to expound the word
When we so esteem it and look upon it with such a regard as it is presented to us in the glass of Gods Word immediately we shall feel our hearts begin to draw towards it This is the first business of a devout Christian who would love the appearing of his Saviour to perswade his heart to have a respect to it far above all other things That blessed day all pious hearts who have any hope of his favour should think of and look for as the brightest that ever shone The Coronation of a King the Triumph of a Conquerour the publick applause in the Olympick Games the most famous Showes that have ever been or can be made are all they must remember but as so many little Puppet-plays in comparison with that grand spectacle When all the world shall be in a gaze when Angels as well as men shall wonder and admire when the Sun shall blush to see it self out-shone and overcome in brightness when the hosts of blessed Spirits shall be the only Stars and our great Lord the only Sun that appears in the firmament when the righteous themselves shall shine in the same splendor by the reflection of his rayes upon them Thus we must discourse with our selves continually if we would be sensible of our happiness as St. Chrysostome * Tom. V. Orat. 1. in Pentecost p. 608. advises those who would understand their high birth and nobility We must look unto Heaven to the very Throne the Royal Throne for there sits says He the first-Fruit of mankind Who will come again will certainly come again leading all his Hosts along with Him the Legions of Angels the several Squadrons of Arch-Angels the Societies of the Martyrs the Quires of the Righteous the Tribes of the Prophets and Apostles and in the midst of these immaterial Camps the King Himself will appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a certain unutterable and inexpressible glory O Dark House or cave of Earth will every one who believes this heartily be apt to say How willingly would I leave thee if I might be transported to meet our blessed Lord thus royally incamped in the air O poor world How come I so far to value thee as to suffer thee to captivate this heart How glad should I rather be to see thee no more if I might but behold him whom my soul loveth appear Nay it ought not to grieve me to see this earth and all things in it in a flame if that coelestial glory would but show it self There is nothing here so dear which I should not chuse to part withal most chearfully for the sake of so great a Blessedness Come my Friends and my Relations the dearest goods in this world let us set our hearts on this and desire to meet together with our Lord. Let our hearts be united in this love as much as they are in all things else There is nothing we enjoy of such esteem but we ought to be content to see it vanish and disappear before that illustrious sight Happy will that time be which shall eclipse all that beauty which now presents it self unto us with so much address Blessed will be the day that shall put out the luster of the whole world which now so strangely dazzles our eyes A great deal better will that moment be which shall dissolve if God think good all our stately Palaces than that which reared them and built them up Away away you trifling Vanities Why do you thus bewitch our eyes and inchant our ears and draw aside our thoughts with your flattering inticements Trouble us no more you false or unsatisfying glories But leave our minds free to think of that great and solemn day when you must all be benighted not by the want but by an excess of light and brightness Awake awake and open thine eyes upon us O thou sweet morning of our happiness Arise shine forth O thou Sun of Righteousness and make us blessed with a sight of thy glory Nay it would content us more than if we had all the world if we might but see the clouds break if we could but behold the shadows of the night beginning to haste away if thou Lord wouldst but dissipate these dark vapours that now incompass us and cause the light of Divine Faith as the day-star to shine continually in our hearts II. But hitherto we have only laid the foundation of Love Which supposes moreover that we have some sympathy as I may call it with that which we apprehend to be so Good for us and that we take our selves to be very much concerned in it For there are some things that are excellent in themselves to which notwithstanding we find little or no inclination because they are not sutable to our dispositions necessities and desires The greatest Perfections and merits oftimes meet with more Admirers than they do Vassals and we see those every day who bow other hearts to their service but find us inflexible to their attractions As we have not an appetite to all sorts of meats even those which we judge to be wholesome and good so we have not an inclination to all persons and things even those which we hold to be well deserving We praise many things which we do not love We allow divers objects our approbation which we cannot much affect And that which in reason we needs must commend yet doth not always command our hearts and draw them to its embraces The Loadstone as is commonly observed which draws Iron to it finds Lead and Copper to have no perception of its touches and that face as I said before which bewitches some eyes leaves others insensible of its beauty The Love then which we contract with any Good arises from the convenience that is between us and it We perceive an agreeableness in it either to our needs or to our nature and thence affection springs The likeness and resemblance that there is between two beings is not the only cause of their readiness to embrace each the other but the correspondence also and proportion which the one bears to the others necessities is a sufficient ground of it A man that languishes under a dangerous sickness may conceive a great affection for an incomparable and very compassionate Physician though there be no similitude between them because he apprehends that sufficiency in him which is able to supply the great defects and wants that are at present in himself But when these two correspondence and similitude which several have such power over the affections shall both meet together in one thing so that what we want is that to which by nature we incline it cannot fail to produce a love exceeding all other in intire union ardency and perpetuity For how can we refuse to yield to that Good or what would we have more than that which our hearts feel at once to bear a great resemblance to them and to answer all or most of their needs a Good which is what we are
and what we would be too a Good wherein we see the image of our selves in that perfection to which we desire to be advanced All they therefore who would be truly disposed to love the appearing of our Lord must have a deep apprehension of the meanness and vileness of this present state They must be possessed with a serious sense of their many imperfections and great weakness in the best condition that this world affords of the poverty and emptiness of all earthly enjoyments yea and of the scantiness and narrowness of all those Divine participations which their Souls are here capable to be blessed withal And then the Appearing of our Lord will seem a Good so suitable to them that they cannot chuse but have the same affection for it that a crazy and diseased person hath to the most skilful Physician In hope that He will perfect their nature cure the disorders under which they labour supply their defects fill their appetites nay enlarge their capacities and raise them to a greater pitch of true goodness and bliss Let us suppose such persons to be so much in the favour of God as to have a liberal share even in the blessings of this World as well as of those which are more peculiarly in the gift of our Saviour Christ yet it is impossible one would think they should be so much pleased in the highest Dignities that can be conferred on them in the rarest Delicates that the bounty of Nature or curiosity of Art can provide for them in the society of the choicest and dearest Friends or I may add in their own secret joy though descending from heaven to them as not to think still that it is far more desirable to see the Lord Jesus come to promote them and all their pious Relations and Friends to an incomparably better condition in his Coelestial Kingdom It is their interest to have Him appear again and besides they have such a likeness and resemblance to Him that the bent and inclination of their Souls cannot but make them long after the sight of Him as a good more delightful and agreeable than any other For there is another Coming of Christ before that which we expect Quo per totum tempus in Ecclesia sua venit c. as St. Austin speaks * L. xx de Civ Dei Cap. v. by which He comes through all the time between his first appearing and the last in His Church that is his members particulatim atque paulatim working in every one of them by little and little according to his promise xiv Joh. 21 23. that if any man keep His Commandments He will look upon it as such a testimony of his love that He will love that man and the Father will love him and we will come saith He unto him and make our abode with him Now when we heartily entertain Him and He is so truly setled there that we are made partakers of his Blessed nature and disposition and all the lineaments of Him if I may so speak are drawn upon our hearts We shall find them inclined to wish for the day when he will compleat his work and fill up the whole image of Himself to the very life and not only make us glad with the light of His countenance but make us look perfectly like Him and intirely assimilate us to His own most Blessed nature Do you not see how the holy Scriptures represent this Appearing of Jesus as the most lovely of all other things and therefore apt to draw our hearts with an irresistible force towards it It is expressed there I observe under the character of that which is wont to touch the Soul with such an agreeable stroke that it ravishes it from it self I mean Beauty For as that is nothing else according to Plato but the splendor and glittering of that which is good so this appearing is set forth as exceeding bright splendid and glorious and as that which will make us so also to the end we may be affected with it as the most beautiful sight that ever was Read ij Tit. 13. xiij Mat. 43. And St. Luke I told you before mentions a threefold glory wherein He will appear His own His Fathers and His holy Angels ix 26. which is said I believe to make this day appear the more illustrious and amiable in our eyes The only visage of Scipio we read made him Master of some barbarous Nations he piercing further into their hearts by his countenance than by his sword And Heliogabalus as bad as he was was no sooner shown by his Mother to the Souldiers but from Priest of the Sun he became Emperour of the World Why then should not the beauty of that day when the Prince of all the Kings of the Earth shall appear in the most glorious splendor attended by the greatest Principalities of Heaven with all their shining Hosts in admirable order captivate the hearts of all those that love Him since there is none so powerful did they but behold His glory as the Apostles did and look upon Him as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth to draw those to his Religion who love Him not How can they refuse to yield to do Him homage and suffer themselves to be carried after Him as the Conquerour of all Souls and above all desire to wait upon Him at his appearing which they discern will be so glorious and render them so amiable that they will become as I doubt not to show a considerable addition to his Triumphs The hearts of all the faithful cannot chuse but leap for joy at the very thought of so great a Good though widely distant from them and wish it would come nearer to make them happy by its presence with them They are apt to sigh and say when they deeply ponder these things with the Prophet David in another case ci Psal 2. O when wilt thou come unto me It is a long time O Lord since thou didst promise to come We have waited for thee and for thy salvation more than they that wait for the morning I say more than they that wait for the morning May I not pray thee to hasten thy desired coming O when wilt thou display thy self and show thy glory more openly before us O when wilt thou be pleased to impress thine own image more fairly on us When shall those little touches that we have received of thee be perfected and figured into a more exact resemblance of thy beauty We cannot refrain but we must long to have all our defects supplied out of thy fulness to have all spots wiped off our souls to be rendred clear as the Sun free as the Air and as unstained as the pure influences of heaven For how should we think O blessed Lord that we bear any love to thee if we can be content to remain as we are so much unlike thee There is none can see thee and not ardently love thee There is none
so sweetly to it and this is properly Love As soon as ever we discover any thing that is suitable to us we feel our hearts instantly struck with a secret joy and are marvellously delighted in it And this delectable touch is no sooner perceived but it sweetly yet strongly draws us to go towards that thing which at first sight gave us such a pleasure and will yield we hope a far greater when we approach so near it as to get possession of it Complacence or delight then is but the first stirring or motion which a good thing causes in our heart This pleasing motion and agitation of the Spirits is attended presently with a melting and as it were effusion of the heart whereby we run out to meet that beloved object and entertain it into our souls and in this as I said properly consists the very being of Love Which is so manifest in an heart duly affected towards the appearing of our blessed Lord that there cannot be a greater proof of the truth of this description For it feels so great a pleasure in the lively belief of his coming that it is drawn thereby quite out of it self and cannot chuse but resign up it self intirely to that glorious Prince that He may make it appear together with Him It easily dissolves in that heavenly warmth and losing all its power to contain it self in its former bounds flows to Him the Lord of Life as to its proper place It is lifted up towards heaven and would fain be there where He is from whom this pleasure comes For with Him is the fountain of Life and therefore where should a devout soul set its affections but on those things which are above as S. Paul speaks 3 Col. i. 3 4. where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Which when they mightily affect the heart it feels as if it were dissolving into that life which is hid with Christ in God That future life or bliss is safe indeed because it is in the custody of Christ and in a glorious place where God dwells in light inaccessible But who can abstain from desiring it should be no longer hid and reserved but made manifest and shown as it will be at the appearing of Christ For so the Apostle adds immediately as if He would answer their Question who might ask when shall this Life be discovered When Christ who is our Life i.e. the cause of it who will give us this life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in glory O what a joyful word is this what should hinder an heart that is possessed with a full belief of it from running thither with all speed whither it is called by so great a joy as sent from thence into it Into whose arms should it leap but only His the expectation of whose appearing creates that exultation There is none in heaven it can desire but Him with whom its life is hid and whom is there on earth that it can desire besides Him Come saith such a soul to it self and lift up thy head Thy Lord I hear is coming let us arise and go and meet Him Let us leave this earth and ascend up towards heaven where He is who is our Life Let us raise up our dull thoughts thitherward and fix our minds as oft as we can on the glory that shall be revealed Let us stir up our selves and with the most ardent desires and affections of our heart get as near Him as ever we are able let us go O my Soul and at least make a present of our very heart to Him beseeching Him most earnestly to possess Himself intirely of it Let us invite Him to prevent His appearing and to come a little beforehand to manifest Himself unto us and to take up His abode with us O blessed Jesus let us say who art our Life be intreated to come hither now that we cannot come up to thee and live in us Show thy self in this soul and let not me live any longer but do thou live in me let the life I live in the flesh be by thy faith O thou Son of God Thou hast loved me and given thy self for me O love me so much I again beseech thee as to live in me I would begin that life which is hid with thee in resigning my self to thee that thy will may be done in me Never did I feel such complacence in following mine own as I have since I was inclined to follow after thee who wilt lead me I see to immortal glory Blessed be that day which made me sensible of such happiness Blessed be the day which directed mine eyes to look for thy appearing What can I wish for more than to be blessed with the sight of it and till it come to have my heart always in love with it I am going towards it by these desires and I will excite my self to go the faster because that blissful sight is still making nearer approaches What do we mean my soul to hang thus towards this earth Why do we stay here when we see Jesus preparing Himself to make another journey to us Why do we not advance towards Him as if we were desirous to have Him come and to let us see Him Why do we not with all speed make our selves ready to receive Him What is it that makes us so slow in our motions towards Him who when He appears will come as swift as the lightning unto us Vp up O my soul let not thy Lord find thee when He comes posting after these worldly vanities pursuing of thy sinful pleasures but onward in thy way gone very far in devout affections ardent desires and holy hopes to meet His Glorious Majesty CHAP. VIII The Progress of this Love to Christs Appearing in three steps more V. AND yet this Love cannot content it self with inward motions and aspirations of the Soul towards the appearing of our Lord but constantly excites all such actions as are requisite for the attaining of so great a Good If we esteem any thing highly and feel it exceeding agreeable to our hearts desire we do not willingly rest in the pleasing passions it raises up in our hearts but they carry us out in earnest endeavours to be owners of it And the influence it hath upon us is so powerful and it doth so strongly draw us after it that it will not suffer any thing to put a stop to the current of our affections when they are issuing out unto it There are certain imperfect motions in our hearts which we are apt to call Love that by no means deserve that name being only a good liking of that which we do not yet truly love They are called in the Schools Velleities wishes and wouldings as we speak half a will which we feel for divers excellent things but never come to any effect The reason is because the appearance of some extream great difficulty or the force of some contrary desire either holds the soul
in her course as she is moving towards them and beats her affections back again or else turns the stream of them quite another way Love therefore is a generous vigour in the heart which incites and strengthens it to fair and noble actions for the effecting its desires though opposed by never so many enemies It is called by some the fire wherewith the soul is clothed which forces its way through all resistances A certain ardor in us which inspires us to worthy though difficult undertakings An Heroick passion which makes us think nothing impossible that is needful to be done for the compassing the end at which it aims Thus then must our souls be carried with such strong affections towards the appearing of Christ if we heartily love it We must omit nothing that we know is required of us for the obtaining the blessings which it will bring unto us We must bid all things stand aside that would impede us and tell them they must pretend to no interest at all in us when we are in pursuit of so great a good The love of which will soon reconcile us to the hardest duties and endear to us the most self-denying courses It will alter the countenance of sufferings and make all the troubles of this life cast a kinder aspect on us Nay it will enable us to look death in the face with a cheerful heart For it will present it to us in another shape and make the Grave that house of darkness seem like the beautiful gate of the Temple of God Whatsoever our Lord declares to be his pleasure this will bid us do it though we be undone by that means in all our temporal concerns And when they tempt us to murmur and repine to cry and lament at our parting with them Love will bid us be of good comfort because this is the way to have a fair reception by our Lord when He shall see we have quitted all for His sake We cannot indeed keep them always if we would yet such is his love our faith tells us that if we consent to forsake them beforehand upon his account He will not suffer us to be losers by it And therefore our love both to Him and to our selves prompts us not to stick at any thing which will be pleasing to Him though for the present it be harsh to us It teaches us to reason as St. Peter doth 2 Pet. iij. 11 12. Seeing all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord What manner of persons Truly such as are preparing a room in their hearts for their Lord. Such as hope then to compleat their Espousals to Christ And therefore must be holy and without blame before Him in love 1. Ephes 4. and study nothing so much as to be found acceptable in his sight who is the Lord of their hearts and their very life and to be nobly entertained by Him when He shall come again to receive His loving subjects up unto Himself We have our conversation in heaven saith St. Paul from whence we expect the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working whereby He can subdue all things unto Himself For in all reason they that expect such a sight should fit themselves for it by a conversation suitable to the dignity to which they shall be then preferred So Oecumenius I remember expounds these words of St. Paul to Timothy when he answers the Question who is it that loves his appearing in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that doth things worthy of excellent recompences Which if we love it will not fail to raise us unto a heavenly life If we wait for Him to come from Heaven it will lift up our hearts and carry them thither We shall disburden them of all carnal affections and throw off the load of the cares of this world that we may be light and airy ready to fly up above when He calls us to be with Him We shall labour to cleanse and purifie our souls as He is pure to adorn them with His Graces and in one word to put on the Lord Jesus that He may see Himself in us when He comes And wilt thou come then O blessed Saviour are such souls apt to say may we confidently look for thee from Heaven to be our Saviour Why do we question it sine we have thy faithful word for it who haste promised that we shall see thee as thou art and be for ever with thee O astonishing love what riches of grace is this Was it not enough that thou condescendedst once to come and save us but that thou determinest to come again Canst thou not satisfie thy love unless we be where thou art And wilt thou leave thy seat in heaven to come and fetch us rather than leave us here upon the earth O Love what is like unto thee Thou hast a mighty power who can understand the wonders that thou dost O make it great in us good Lord as well as in thy self Cause it to do marvels in our hearts as it hath done in thine Let our souls be unsatisfied till they come to thee Call forth all their powers as thou hast done their desires that they may restlesly move towards thee Make them unwearied in well-doing stedfast unmovable and abundant in thy work that they may not miss of thee O most gracious Lord suffer nothing in this world to discourage these hearts that have wholly given themselves to thee Cease not still to excite and quicken them since they have been already touched and awakned by thine Omnipotent love But preserve such a flame alive in them that they may ardently follow thee Inspire them with zealous resolution never to desist in their pursuit of that blessed Hope thou hast set before them Strengthen them against all the power of their enemies and let thy love burn with such fervour in them that none of the opposers of their holy desires may be able to stand before it Arm them good Lord with this invincible force of heavenly love which may make them noble conquerors and prepare them for thy glorious Triumph VI. But true love cannot stay here neither nor content it self with some endeavours to enjoy that Good which propounds it self to its affections for it ever tends to an Vnion with that lovely thing towards which it is moved When the Soul runs forth to see what it is that calls out its desires the intention of that motion is to possess it self of that amiable object if it answer its first pretences and prove such as it promised No sooner doth any thing appear beautiful and lovely to the mind or imagination but presently the heart sends messengers as I may call the spirits that issue out of it to bring it home and
conduct it to take up its lodging there This is the meaning of that effusion of the Soul which I spoke of before whereby it would dissolve it self into that which it loves and be so mingled as to become perfectly one with it When an agreeable object I told you hath imprinted its image on the mind it casts a certain light into the soul and shines so comfortably on the affections that they are powerfully warmed and excited by it Now when the heart is full of this splendor it doth not satisfie it self with those rays and emissions of light and heat which are imparted to it but strives to unite it self to the very center of it and would feel the spring from whence such life and pleasure flows Just as Iron when it is impregnated with the vertue of the Loadstone is not contented with those effluxes it hath received but moves towards the body from which they stream so is it with an heart which receives this joyful news from our Lord that He will appear again in glory It amuses not it self in those delightful thoughts it sits not down in those ravishing joys nor thinks it enough to be melted in the passion of love to Him and to so great a blessedness But it seeks to knit it self to the very mind and spirit of Christ that it may feel how blessed He intends to make it It studies I mean to be changed and transformed more and more into His likeness and by an intire agreement of will with his will to begin its transfiguration and be prepared for a perfect and eternal union with Him It is not sufficient to a heart that is in love with that great day to live in a constant expectation of it which is excited by the Revelation He hath made of it in his Gospel and is the light which he now sends from heaven into us but it would gladly prevent as I have already noted that happy time by feeling Him appear every day more gloriously there It longs to shine more clearly in the light of his heavenly knowledge to burn more brightly in the ardors of his love and by being more richly adorned with the Graces of His Spirit to be recommended to all in the beauty of His Holiness There is nothing can better explain all that hath been hitherto said than the example of the Loadstone which I just now mentioned As soon as a piece of Iron feels the power of it we see how it turns it self towards it and by its quivering declares the complacence and pleasure as we may call it that it takes in its touches Then we behold how it creeps a little towards it still advancing and bearing it self more and more that way till it come to join it self with that thing from whence it first received those inclinations Here you have all the parts of love that have been already mentioned most lively represented First the mind apprehends and is made sensible of some Good which communicates an image or picture of it self unto it Then the heart is secretly surprised with a certain delight by which the agreeableness of that image intices it from its self And then it moves towards it and goes to see it And at last when it finds it to be what it appeared it flies as I may say into its embraces and endeavours to knit it self so fast unto it that they may never hereafter be divided And just such like is the temper of that soul which heartily loves our Lords Appearing Which it perceives to be a happiness so great that it cannot be satisfied with any entertainment it finds in this world but presses forward to the blessed sight of Him in all his glory Nothing can quiet it nor hinder its motion till it become one spirit with Him All that it hath as yet attained all the wisdom wherewith it is filled all the joys of piety which it sometime feels are little and inconsiderable in comparison with what it desires to feel And therefore on it proceeds in a serious study to be more like Him out of a design never to cease its earnest endeavours till it come to be for ever with Him O thou great and most Magnetick Good should every pious heart say O thon soveraign attractive of all souls I feel my self wonderfully touched by thee Thou hast put my spirit which was foolishly wandring after other things in a setled motion unto thee O what an inclination hast thou awakned in my heart to be with thee Thou hast mightily stirred all the powers of my soul which is wholly turned about to look most earnestly towards thee O cease not to shine perpetually into this cloudy mind which is all in darkness without thee Cease not to invigorate this dull and sluggish spirit which is thus excited by thee O spare not those mighty effluxes of thy love but draw me still after thee I cannot be willing to stand at any distance from thee nor to stop my progress till I be closely united to thee Therefore still continue to make me feel thy power till I be so happy as to move no more but to rest in thee Couldst not thou be pleased O blessed Lord with any thing less than an union with such sinful flesh as this of ours is would it not suffice thee to look down from heaven upon us and show us a glympse of thy glory but thou must come also and dwell among us and make thy self to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh that we might be one with thee How can I be contented then only with looking up unto thee How should I be satisfied if I have nothing more but meerly some glances from thee O my most gracious Lord give me leave to imitate thy love Suffer me to desire and seek to become what thou art by being perfectly transformed into thy likeness And do not think it too great a presumption if I wish and long to be so united to thee My Love as to be for ever with thee Let me have the happiness at least to sigh and mourn after thine Appearing Affect my heart so sensibly with it that I may groan in spirit if I can do no better for that blessed time when I shall lose the sight of thy face no more when I shall lye under the warm beams of the light of thy countenance when I shall live in the very element of love when I shall be so near thee that I shall feel my self to move in the very same Orb with thee thou bright Sun of Righteousness I seem now alas to be a great way off from thee I feel my self like the cold earth in the winter which turns towards the Sun and looks upon that glorious Light of Heaven that great lover of all the world but alas is very far removed from its comfortable rays O that I might be so happy as to approach nearer to thee O that I were fixed and might never turn about any more from
its glistering beauty cause the small contentments of this world to seem but as so many Glow-worms which shine only in the night I am sensible how short the sweetest enjoyments of this life are of that celestial happiness The society of my Saviour and of the inhabitants above O how much is it to be preferred even before the delightful company of those that most deserve my love Who can do me no greater service than by the innocent passion I have for them to transport me with far greater to that blessed country where I shall enjoy them without fear and love them without danger And O that all the fears I at any time have of losing the Dearest Creature in this world may presently expire into a greater fear of heing separated from my Lord. Let all my hopes and joyes also about that conclude in better hopes and joyful expectations of living together in the joy of our Fathers house But as for other things I discharge and renounce you all you frivolous sinful delights I am not afraid of any evil that man or other creature can do unto me while my trust and my joy is in the Lord. Come troubles come reproaches come loss of Goods I am not angry at it so Jesus will but come and they will also excite me to fasten mine eyes more stedfastly on Him and his appearing This is my hope this is my joy this is the support and the satisfaction of my heart This is the thing I am resolved to entertain my thoughts withall and if I may but have this let all the rest O blessed Jesus be even as thou pleasest X. I have but one thing more to add which is that the Love which deserves this Character is a setled constant affection an habit and temper of the soul which alwayes abides Not a sudden fit of passion but a fixed inclination and rooted disposition to seek such a good as it desires And so the word here used by St. Paul signifies not barely they that love but they that have loved his appearing For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in the time perfectly past denotes that this hath been the stedfast bent of their hearts to look for Christ and prepare themselves in this manner for his coming The Image of any lovely person when it first presents it self before us is wont to come in a posture of humility and submission and seems to crave to be admitted into our hearts It invites us with so much sweetness and respect as if it would be beholden to us for our kind acceptance of it into our favour But when it is once passionately entertained and hath possessed it self of our hearts we find it changes its behaviour and grows so imperious that it requires what before it seemed to intreat It becomes absolute master of our hearts and placing it self there as the Governor of all our affections will no more be denied in any of its demands And such is the progress of the love of Christ and his appearing in pious souls He comes and intreats us at the first or rather beseeches us that we would be so sensible of his kindness as to let Him have a room in our hearts and to receive from His hands so great a good as He offers to bless us withall We feel thereupon only some inclinations to Him and good affections for Him but do not come presently to a full resolution to surrender our selves intirely to Him Nay it is too manifest that we are off and on as the phrase is and seem as if we could choose whether we will love Him or no. But when He hath once got within us when we perceive how gracious the Lord is and have opened our hearts to let Him dwell there then He exercises an absolute Empire over us He will have none of His commands refused or disputed A ready and chearful compliance with His will is the fruit of His Authority and nothing can have a room there but what shall ask Him leave He rules and reigns over us in so soveraign a manner that He carries us whither He pleases And more than that it pleases us to be ruled by Him and it is the most perfect liberty to be under the uncontroulable power of his Love All the world cannot hinder Him from being obeyed but every signification of his will and pleasure to us becomes a Law as strong as Fate which cannot be resisted Let him ask what he will it is sufficient that he is pleased and that he loves us so much as to think of appearing again to make us perfectly like himself That 's a Good incomparably great which needs nothing to procure our love to it but only to be known And when it is loved needs nothing to secure it but not to slip out of our mind Or rather we cannot forget what we have once so dearly loved The pleasures of that passion are its preservation It s activity and force will not let it dye or fall asleep O come come saith a soul possessed with this Love for I cannot wish for any thing like thy appearing It is impossible I should refrain from desiring that joyful day I cannot live but I must long for thy coming O when wilt thou come my blessed Redeemer when wilt thou come when shall we see that welcome morn that shall bring the news of thine approach It cannot but be most welcome sure to all those that have waited for it with so much patience and cryed out so often make no long tarrying O my Lord. The brightness of thy face I know can throw no scorching flames into those eyes that look for thee That sweet Sun will arise with a smiling countenance upon all such hearts They can never fear an evil day when the Bridegroom comes most gloriously deckt to compleat his love to them And therefore I cannot but say again and let all them that love thee joyn their desires with me and say continually come come O blessed Jesus Come while our hearts are warm with love to thee Come while these passionate sighs are calling for thee Come now that these souls stand open with outstretched arms to receive thee What greater felicity can we wish than to pass away in such aspirations towards thee What gentler or sweeter breath than these holy desires can waft our souls into the air to meet thee Who can fancy any thing more desireable than to evaporate all together in ecstasies of devout affections to thee Happy were it for us if our hearts were scrued up to such a pitch of love that we needed no other instrument but that to crack those strings that tye our souls to our bodyes Happy were it for us if in such a fiery chariot we might be transported unto thy heavenly mansions We can conceive no greater pleasure than this to expire in such ardent flames into thy bosom there to rest for ever in thy love CHAP. X. All this shown to be the sense of the Holy
so bright and glorious an object And happy were it for us if it were nothing else but mere Love that made me resume this Discourse and begin it again and that made those who read it to be willing or rather desirous to know further what are the causes of this heavenly affection to the appearing of our Lord. For that is it wherein I intend to imploy the remainder of my thoughts upon this subject Love is a passion that is very desirous to feel it self and to be satisfied of its own sincerity by the strength and force and restlesness of its motion It fills the heart also with such a secret joy that it would fain know the very spring of all its delectable motions and be led to the rise of every one of its desires and inclinations Both the strangeness and the variety of its surprising pleasures are so great that our hearts cannot but be invited thereby to the very bottom of it to see from whence it flows as we perceive whither it tends And therefore as I have touched upon the general cause and reason of this passion of love in the foregoing part of this small Treatise so it is not fit to deny it in the following part a brief consideration of the particular reasons why it should be set upon the appearing of Christ And they may be reduced to these two Heads First The great affection that all good souls have for our blessed Saviour himself And Secondly The natural affection we all bear to our own good and welfare Which when we have considered we shall be ashamed that we do not with greater fervour say with respect to this in our daily prayers THY KINGDOM COME And be mightily excited to call upon our souls more frequently to meditate on that blessed hope and to look with much affection for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Who will be so much honoured thereby himself and then confer such upon us as should make us long for the accomplishment of both CHAP. XI Reasons for our Love to this Appearing drawn from the respect we ought to have to our Lord himself AS for the first of these the affection that is due to our blessed Saviour it ought to be strong you will easily confess that death it self should not be an equal match for it That which conquers all things should it self be conquered by this and the king of terrors should yield all his force and yield himself a Captive to the love of the King of Love For since there is so great a power in hearty and unfeigned love to beget love in those to whom it is expressed and since the love whereby our Lord attracts our affection doth so vastly exceed all other it is a prodigious obstinacy or negligence that the dullest and heaviest souls are not drawn by so big a Loadstone Do we not feel as I have said elsewhere some motions of kindness in our hearts for the most contemptible creatures when they constantly fawn upon us and follow us and lye down by us and will by no means leave us but take our part if any body assault us Are we not much pleased with this affection they have to us and concerned for their safety and ready to reward them with tokens of our love to them We must be infidels then or very inconsiderate and regardless of our blessed Saviour or else find our hearts put into the greatest passion when we read and seriously weigh the strange expressions which our Saviour hath made of the most endearing love to us When we remember Low he neglected himself to serve us how he indured hunger and thirst that we might be satisfied how he gave the people the very bread out of his mouth and forgot to feed himself that he might nourish them when we see how he addresses himself unto us how he wooes and courts us to speak in our own language with the greatest kindness to come to him how solicitous he is for our happiness how he sighed for us how he groaned in spirit to see men so obstinate how he sweat how he bled how he gave his very life for us and was content to be exposed to the greatest shame rather than we should perish what heart can be so insensible as not to be mightily affected with it and to think of returning back his love and that in some proportion to the wonderful greatness of it But then alas it must be confessed that we find when our passion is stirred up and our hearts begin to burn within us we have little or nothing there that is worthy of him A present we would fain make to him but have none fit to be offered to so great a Majesty Nay so void many times and empty are our hearts of all that is good that we may well be ashamed to let him see them Our thoughts are so dull and the resentments we have of his kindness so feeble and weak that we our selves in whom they are can scarce feel them And at the best our affections are so small and so short that we cannot but blush to come furnished with no better oblation to him What shall we do in this case How shall we behave our selves with some due regard to his incomprehensible love Love him we must but love him as he is worthy and as we would we are not able We cannot choose but bring him our hearts and yet we are sensible they are not worth the bringing We shall find our selves naturally inclined in these circumstances to do just as a grateful Poor man doth who being unable himself to requite a Friends courtesies rejoyces to hear that so very great a Person will take that care upon him Or as the Divine Psalmist doth who finding his own thoughts too short and low calls upon the Angels who excel in strength to set forth the praises of him whose name is highly exalted above all blessing and praise That is since we our selves cannot requite the benefits our Lord hath done us nor worthily magnifie his goodness towards us we ought in all reason to be exceeding desirous that God the Father of glory as St. Paul calls him would be pleased to reward his love and make his praise glorious Since there is nothing here whereby we can considerably honour him we must needs wish the day would come when the Blessed and only Potentate will show the respect he bears unto him As it is a joy to think that he is gone to the Father and there is recompensed for his sufferings so it is a matter of greater gladness if we have any love for him to remember that at his appearing which he who is able will in due time show he shall still be more magnified This therefore all serious Christians cannot but much desire to see For this they cannot but long extreamly and call with earnest expectation for the coming of that joyful day That since they cannot laud and
live in these remote places and ages of the world and have heard indeed with the hearing of the ear of Christ Jesus our Dearest Saviour and of his incomparable love and of the honour he hath done us and still intends to do us But have not yet been so happy as to have our eyes intertained much less satisfied with the blissful sight of him as theirs were who lived near him and conversed with him at his first appearing If we had any hope therefore of his appearing again though in less splendor than I have told you we could not but look up unto Heaven where he lives with earnest expectations and say When will he come when will he come and manifest himself visibly unto us Because as yet we know nothing of him but by the report of those who had the honour to be EYE-WITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY We have been told by them that they saw this amiable and gracious person and clearly discerned that he was God manifested in the flesh They have assured us that he was born of a spotless Virgin that his name was Jesus that he was acknowledged the Son of God by voices from Heaven and by the descent of the Holy-Ghost in a visible manner upon his head and yet that he was contented to become poor and mean that he might inrich us to suffer his hands and his feet and his heart to be pierced that he might heal our wounds yea we have heard that he descended into the lowermost parts of the Earth for our Salvation and that he rose from the dead again after three dayes and that he ascended up on high and now sits at the right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the world and to take up his faithful Servants unto himself And most comfortable news all this is which hath arrived at our ears and we must needs with all thankfulness dutifully acknowledge that we are marvellously beholden to the Almighty Goodness which hath taken such care to perswade and fully assure us of its truth But still every pious heart that sincerely and ardently loves Him is apt to say When will he come again that then we may see as now we believe the certain truth of all this which we have heard of him with our ears When shall we be satisfied by such evidence as the Apostles and other of his Attendants had who beheld his person and saw his glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth May not we also hope to be as they were eye-witnesses of his Majesty O when will his holy Angels descend unto us and say as they did to them Come and see that he is risen When shall we hear a voice from Heaven saying come up hither and behold my beloved Son in whom I am ever well pleased When will the trump of the Archangel sound and proclaim in all our ears that he is Judge of quick and dead O how many days must we stay and wait before we rise again to ascend up to him where he is How long will it be before we leave this earth to behold him exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high O most gracious Saviour who hast done such great things for us Come and let us see that thou art alive and still lovest us Come and put us out of all doubt that thou livest for evermore Let us behold those bright those loving eyes which wept so oft and with so much kindness over us Let us see that sweet and now most glorious face which sweat as it had been drops of blood for our sake Stretch forth those hands that were wounded in our service O stretch them out to lay hold on us and lift us up to the vision of thee Do not long defer before thou lettest us enjoy what we now believe Make no long tarrying O blessed Lord but turn the faith of thy servants into sight And by thy second appearing be pleased to make us as sure as thou didst those who then lived by thy first We are perswaded that the fame of those things which we wait for is nothing comparable to the sight of them We cannot but think that all present reports fall far short infinitely short of future enjoyment Thy type the great Solomon O Lord puts us in mind of thee and makes us more desirous to see thee We would fain go like the Queen of Sheba from these furthermost parts of the earth that we may stand before thee in thy heavenly Jerusalem Not the half we believe of thy Magnificence hath been related to us No not the shadow of thy glory and Majesty hath been brought to these far distant climates where we hear little or nothing of thee Nay we believe we cannot now understand thy greatness if it should be all related to us If we should see thee as thou art in thy royal apparel on the Throne of thy Glory with all thy Heavenly Attendants and noble Ministers round about thee there would be no more spirit left within us We should faint away under the weight of that sight unless thou O Lord wouldst disburden us of this flesh and make us become all Spirit And that 's the happiness indeed which we desire and groan in Spirit till we injoy There is no greater good we can wish than to be caught up from this earth and have eyes bestowed upon us bright and strong enough to behold thy Majesty We cannot but long for this that we may stand in thy presence and be satisfied with thee that we may see thee who hast loved us and given thy self for us thee whose love hath won our hearts and conducted us thus far in our way towards thee thee who art our hope and with whom our life is hid That we may see thee O Lord in the height of thy glory and thy face may shine upon us and our eyes sparkle for joy with the light of thy Countenance Of which we are the more desirous because we never yet had the favour to see thee who art so dear unto us O favour us therefore so much most gracious Lord as to come and gratifie our desires with that unknown that long lookt for sight of thee III. And there is still a greater reason to desire it and to be in love with his appearing because then we hope to be perfected and consummated in Love This is an affection you have heard so pleasurable that we are inticed thereby or rather sweetly forced to strain our souls to the utmost expression of it When we have found an object worthy of this passion the delight it gives us invites nay compels our hearts to the most abundant effusion of it that so we may not want the highest degree of delight and joy But alas Love in this world though exceeding sweet is not as we usually speak all Hony but there is some bitterness mingled together with it The heart that is struck with it receives a wound which
cannot be perfectly healed till it enjoys its desires and that you know is not without the company of anguish and pain 1. For we find that when men admit into their hearts the love of any mortal creature like themselves the soul which before was whole unbroken and intire is as it were separated and torn by this passion both from it self and all other objects save only that which hath engaged its affection Now all men know that no heart can be thus parted and divided without a sense of grief and smart attending on such a divulsion and rending of it from it self till it feel that soul which it loves as another self effectually joyned to it And then 2. we find that after it hath obtained well assured hopes of this yet those eager desires and longings that are in this passion still carry their sting in them and make the heart but ill at ease until they be accomplished Both which it were easie to apply to that devout affection wherewith pious souls are touched towards our blessed Saviour which is very unquiet and full of trouble till they know and feel that he loves them 3. But I shall rather observe which is peculiar to this holy love that the wounds as I may call them which are made in any heart by the wonderful kindness of our Saviour who loved us so much as to dye for us are wont very oft to be a torment to it because it can love him no more and doth not feel such vehement transports of affection to him as it desires and he hath merited And then 4. though we are fully perswaded that we do sincerely and heartily love him yet this proves a great trouble to us here in this present state that we fancy him sometimes to be a stranger to us and he seems to treat us as if he were suspicious of our Love And 5. when we have the greatest sense of his most tender mercies and he sheds abroad his love in our hearts This creates a new grief because he stays no longer with us and we cannot call him back as oft as we please to give us those delicious tastes of his infinite Love But 6. there is nothing so considerable in this matter as that we cannot enjoy those gracious visits from our Lord of which we are so desirous and which fill the heart with the greatest love to him and delight in him but they conclude in sighs and groans and leave us much unsatisfied while we are in this mortal body That very love which God himself excites those Heavenly impressions which his own hand makes upon our hearts the greatest ardors of divine affection wherewith we are inspired from above are not without their pangs of trouble in all those who with earnest intention of mind and most hearty desires give up themselves to follow them and seriously endeavour to comply with them For while a devout soul that is in a lively manner touched by him stretches its wings as I may say and spreads it self with great affection that it may mount up in vehement love unto him It presently feels how unable it is to answer those divine motions and sees to its sorrow that its wings are not grown large enough to bear it so high as it then aspires There is a powerful spirit indeed which stimulates it to fly aloft where he is but while it endeavours to obey its inspirations it is strongly dragged and pulled down by the earthly tabernacle to these inferiour enjoyments It is born away with violent and swift desires and at the same time sinks below and sadly flaggs for want of power Like the Bird that is not yet fully fledg'd which would fain fly when it hears the Mother call but finding its wings too weak is forced to fall into some hedge or tree and there is content to hop up and down and please it self in its little chirpings among the branches so doth the devout soul feel it self when it is very desirous to correspond with the heavenly motions that are stirring in it and when it thinks it hears the Father of Spirits saying Come up hither It fails in the attempt and can only make some small but feeble essays towards its celestial country It is soon tired and grows weary and while it pants and breaths after high and excellent things cannot reach them or come nigh them but faints away and spends it self in sighs which are so much the sadder because it sees the spatious Heavens before its eyes and yet must be content to drop down and sit still upon the Earth Yea the very stretching of her wings puts the soul to pain when she cannot fly The straining of her self is very uneasie when she can only groan but not raise up her self to the pitch that she desires She suffers a kind of torment between these two the strength of her affections and the weakness of her ability the sharpness of her sight and the dulness of her enjoyment O miserable Creature that I am what shall I do is the dejected soul in this case apt to say Pardon me Dear Lord if my great love to thee make me call my self miserable when I know that I am very happy It is my desire to be nearer to thee which makes me deplore not only my distance from thee but the feebleness of my soul in its endeavours to approach thee O what a change have a few moments made in me I thought just now I was going up to Heaven and alas here I lye at this present sighing upon the ground The Divine breath methought was carrying me above and I unable to accompany it am still here below I felt as if I was all life and spirit a little while ago and now I am almost dead I seemed as if I should have quite forgot this world and now I can scarce think of any thing else O how sweet would it be but to remember the tasts that I had of thy transcendent love whereas now alas I can scarce relish any thing that is good What shall I do with my self Or what shall I desire for this poor soul which is thus sadly burdened and pressed down by the corruptible body My heart is with Jesus but O how little do I enjoy of him I am not my self I am become another thing than I was before and yet how little is there of Jesus in me How wide is the distance still between me and my dearest Lord How do I long to be exactly like him but how short O how vastly short am I of him And how like a stranger doth he sometime seem How do I lose in this blind and dark estate the sight and sense of his most pretious love I know my heart loves him but what a grief is it that my love is so weak so dull so little worthy of him O blessed Jesus what a favour is it that thou wilt be pleased to cast at any time a gracious look upon such a cold
brightness of his appearing Do we pity our Palaces and costly Furniture which we think are then in danger to be consumed Are we concerned for our Money and Jewels our ancient Demesn and places of pleasure our Pictures and Statues with such like things which we strive to perpetuate to all posterity Will all these do we fear be in a flame and serve for no other use than those great Fires do wherewith we honour the Coronations and Victories of Kings or any other such like noble spectacle Let it be so I see no cause to be troubled at it when I remember that together with these the Graves and the Sepulchres the Tombs and such like Monuments of Deaths conquests the Vaults and the Charnel-houses with every other Trophee that sin hath erected shall be cast into this huge Bonfire which shall be made we conceive by the conflagration of this Globe of earth to adorn our Saviours Triumph Why should we dread O my soul to behold such Flames as these Let us look and fix our eyes upon them as most cheerful blazes Let us warm our hearts at the very thoughts of such fires And though they should prove to be this worlds Funeral yet let us rejoyce in them as accompanying our most happy Resurrection O Death I fear none of thy threatnings O Grave I am not astonisht any longer at thy darkness I see the fatal day is coming which shall put an end to both your dominions And till then I yield my self your subject and intend not to struggle against your power But I fear it not because unless you can prevent that day or prevail against my Saviour as well as over me I am safe enough It is not much you can rob me of at present The pleasures we enjoy in this crazy body are not so considerable that we should mightily lament the loss of them Our Friends indeed have taken such fast hold of our hearts that we cannot easily consent to leave them but setting them aside what is it that you can take away which I am loth to part withal And they I consider shall at last triumph together with me over your now prevailing power We shall only part to meet again and see you swallowed up in victory And we shall be revived in bodies far more glorious with hearts full of more vigorous love In which we shall live with endless pleasure without any fears of being severed any more Amen I wish thou wouldst come O blessed Jesus and carry us all to a place of secure and peaceful love where we might sit together and chaunt thy praises for ever V. We cannot but be inclined to such meditations and bear an affectionate love to our Lords appearing unless we be in love with Sin which at that time we should further consider shall quite cease and not have so much as the least shadow of it remaining Are not all pious souls very much afflicted to think that God is every where so much dishonoured Is it not exceeding grievous to them to see his most high authority daily affronted without any remedy for it and that Image he hath placed of himself in man after such a lamentable manner and without any remorse continually mangled Nay is it not a considerable part of their trouble that they are afraid lest through the violence of temptations or the weakness of their nature or the inadvertency of their minds by sudden surprises they should add to the number of those disorders which are already so prodigiously increased What is there then for which they can more reasonably wish than that they may be delivered out of this fearful danger and the Heavens may be secured from this rude violence A blessing to be desired and expected not only upon their own account but in respect to our blessed Lord and Saviour also who is now we read in the most holy place above there presenting himself with his pretious blood before God for us Which he must continue to do till the time of his Appearing be fulfilled when he shall come out from thence without sin ix Heb. 28. as having discharged all his Office in that heavenly Sanctuary While he stayes therefore in that place the care of all the people lies upon his shoulders there is a daily charge he is to attend that he may cure and expiate the sins of men This is the constant imployment of his high and Royal Priesthood and it cannot cease till he come out again on the day of his appearing which it is manifest will free both him and the world from this great burden of transgressions Then there shall never be any more objects of his pity and compassion He shall have no sense then of our infirmities no feeling of our pains our grief and our anguish Then he will cease to be afflicted with us and be put to no further trouble about us But be all delight all joy all complacence and pleasure in his members who will be so well as to call for none of his care any more for ever And shall not the thoughts of this blessed time be our joy and pleasure too We have very much reason to suspect our faith if we can find such contentment here that we would not have it make too much haste For nothing is so sad to pious hearts as that it seems to be so far off and comes so slowly to them They groan and sigh here under many weaknesses They complain most heavily and mourn under the weight of many imperfections From which they would fain be delivered that they may turn their sighs into songs of praise to the triumphant Captain of their salvation Christ Jesus Nay should we suppose there will be a time before the end of all things when righteousness will more universally prevail which is the best sense that can be made of the Saints reigning upon the earth with Christ a thousand years which some are perswaded is still to come Yet such and so many are the weaknesses that will hang upon us and so great are the dangers to which they will make us subject while we dwell in these earthly Tabernacles that Good men would but be the more desirous our Lord would appear to perfect what they saw so happily begun in their intire reformation to a better state O what a long time am I like to stay cries such an oppressed soul before I be eased of this burden which is too heavy for me How many days and years more must I spend under the load and pressure of this flesh and blood Give me patience Dear Lord to wait for that day which shall free me from it Make me able to support my self in contentment with the hopes that the time of release at last will come I am so far from being unwilling that thou shouldest come that I beseech thee to make me willing to stay till thou canst come Only give me leave sometime to sigh and say when wilt thou come O when wilt thou
dead shall be CAUGHT UP TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR v. 17. There he will shew himself and not upon this earth Thither they shall be carried up unto him and not he come down hither unto them And if you well observe it the Apostle teaches you to believe that this ascent of the Saints unto him will bein a very glorious manner Just as he comes from Heaven shall they go up thither For St. Paul saith we shall be caught up IN THE CLOUDS as so many triumphal chariots sent to fetch us from this earth and transport us to himself Who when he stood before his Judges to receive his sentence from them thus describes his own coming to judge them xxvj Matth. 64. Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the CLOVDS of Heaven Though now that is I am arraigned and condemned by you as if I were the vilest of men you shall one day see that I am the Son of God by whom you shall be judged for with amazement you shall behold me clothed with Divine Majesty and coming as the Vicegerent of the supreme Lord of all to call you to an account For every one knows that clouds are called the Chariot of God civ Psal 3. and therefore his coming in the CLOVDS of Heaven can signifie nothing else but his appearing in the glory and with the Authority of his Father as Lord of the world that hath conquered all his enemies and is come to pronounce the sentence of God upon them In such a splendid manner with the like pomp and state shall we be carried up to him as so many Princes going to wait upon him and to receive the honour he will delight to confer upon us in the sight of all the world Nay it will be part of our honour to be conveighed to him just as Elias yea he himself ascended into Heaven For a Chariot of Fire appeared for the transportation of the one 2 Kings ij 11. and a cloud which is the same received the other out of the Apostles sight i. Act. 9. O blessed Day O happy Appearing doth an heavenly minded Christian often think with himself when a sight of my Saviour will draw me up to him to be where he is O most glorious most beautiful Spectacle when his beams which fall upon me shall make me ascend from this earth as the Vapors do before the rayes of the Sun O the joy that will fill my heart when I shall see those gilded Chariots sent from my Saviour to fetch me unto himself How shall I sing when I am uncooped and let out of this Cage wherein I am now confined to accompany the free people of the air in their heavenly melodies What a pleasure will it be to look behind me as I fly up unto Jesus and see what a poor spot this Earth is of which I shall then have taken my leave for ever O how glad shall I be that I am to return no more to a place so dull so dark and so full of miseries How happy shall I think my self that I am gone quite away from this vile Orb which will not seem then to my exalted soul so big as a pins-head Nay how joyful will it make me to find that I am at last ascended up so high as to have lost the sight of this little Globe and of all the Kingdoms and Empires that it contains O my Gracious Lord pardon me if I be sometime apt to think that thou stayest too long before thou comest to call me up unto those heavenly places This flesh is too unweildly a load when I think of that aerial state It hath made me groan ever since thou madest me believe that thou wilt bestow a lighter garment upon my soul Heretofore indeed I fancied nothing more than a body fresh and plump a tall and proper stature a fair face and beautiful features and I was prone to envy those who dwelt in such fine and goodly Palaces But ever since the time that I heard of going into the air to meet with thee my Lord all the love they excite in my heart makes such habitations seem no better than stately Prisons I have lookt upon my self and sweetest Friends in our most healthy estate and sighed to think that we were in Chains and Fetters Nay the best of these houses I tell them at certain seasons are but painted Sepulchres wherein the mind lies dead and buried It is thou therefore O most blessed Lord who hast made me to wish so earnestly for thine appearing I owe these longings to the discovery which thou hast made to me of another and better world whither thou intendest to transport me And if I have a mind to begin my journey thither presently if I would fain feel my wings so grown that they might be able to bear me up above this earth if my soul sometimes would willingly be released from these chains and have the freedom to leave this flesh and if I wish withal that this flesh may be changed and turned into a kind of spiritual being I must ascribe it unto thee who hast begot these desires in me by telling me of a building of God eternal in the Heavens when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved Thou hast revealed these things to me that I might desire them and who can desire them and not wish withal that he might presently enjoy them Let it not displease thee therefore I beseech thee again O my Dearest Lord if I say sometimes I am weary of being here Do not esteem me impatient if in the agonies and pangs of Love I long to come up higher and get as near as may be to thy self Suffer me to pray thee that these walls of flesh may not long immure me and exclude me from thy face At least open a window for my gasping soul that I may look into the purer air and please my self in the thoughts of the flight which I shall one day take to see thee and enjoy thee in unclouded Bliss VII But there is something beyond all this to draw our affections from all things here and to make us love and long for the coming of our Lord And that is the CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS which the Apostle tells us in this very place shall then be given to all those who are thus piously disposed for it I cannot tell you how much is contained in these two words unless I should make another Treatise little less than this For a CROWN denotes the highest degree of honour and RIGHTEOUSNESS signifies in the holy language not only freedom from all pain and punishment but the enjoyment of the greatest felicity that the most bounteous goodness of God will bestow upon his faithful servants No less than such a glory and happiness as our Lord himself hath received for a reward of his labours For we see Jesus saith the Apostle ij Heb. 9. who was made a little lower than the Angels
in our eclipsed nature O when will that sweet breath come that shall make them shine and set them free to fly to their element above When shall those flashes of light which sometime break forth be blown up into a clearer and more constant flame Can one believe and not wish to find himself in the House of God in the midst of the heavenly Ministers surrounded with such glorious sights as eye never saw nor heart can possibly conceive I am not able to refrain from saying O when shall I see my mind incircled in the rays of divine light When shall it beam forth in such heavenly thoughts and make my heart burn and sparkle with such ardors of love that they shall cast a glory round about my head This is the Crown which my soul desires to wear This is the Garland I would win the glorious Diadem wherewith my restless mind would be adorned It is not Silver and Gold Pearls and Pretious-stones or any such like things whose rich names I borrow to express my present thoughts that I wish and desire But the brightness of the knowledge of God to fold it self about my head and that I may sit invironed in a Ring of admiring thoughts of pure undisturbed never ending thoughts of thee and of thy marvellous kindness towards me Which happiness till my mind enjoy the pain that I feel will not cease unless thou Lord wilt be pleased to asswage it by comfortable hopes and joyful expectations of such an eternal weight of glory Even when I have left this world and am come to those light some Tabernacles which thou hast prepared for those that truly love thee I shall long to know more of thee and desire still to be nearer to thee and look to see thee come out of thy Royal Palace to Crown the faith and hope of thine obedient Servants And in the mean time may I be so happy as to be disposed into the Order of those who perpetually talk of thy love and sing thy praises and rejoyce with perfect confidence and full assurance and are ever lifting up their heads to see thee and often saying one to another when will he come when will he appear in the highest and most exalted glory O blessed day I when mixed with the Quire of Saints we shall fly in their company to meet the Spouse and say every one of us I have found him whom my soul loveth I have found him the sight of whom I shall lose no more but indued with the glory of immortality and the splendor of incorruption shall live for ever with the Lord. O happy state of Saints Ex L. de Viro perfecto sub nom S. Hieron Tom. iv when they shall have flesh without earth a body without sense of pain a soul without fear life without death age without time light without night and blessedness without end Christianity will never let us be satiated with these delectable thoughts This is its refreshment this is its delight this is its pleasure and joy in mind and heart to go to the Seat of God and there to take its place and seize on its share in that Seat not by its own presumption but by the promise of God Who hath already exalted our Lord Christ in that blessed place and by our relation to him we challenge a right to be so happy For he is the Head of his body the Church He is the head of all principality and power From whom all the body by joynts and bands ii Col. 19. having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God CHAP. XV. Three Considerations more to draw our Affections to the Appearing of our Lord. VIII I Have already said so much of the Happiness we expect when our Lord shall come again that here I might put an end to this Discourse if it would not be more profitable distinctly to consider that after we are caught up from this earth to meet the Lord in the air and he hath done us honour in the sight of all the world we shall all as I have already suggested march with him unto Heaven in goodly array and comely order with those Crowns of Glory which he hath given us upon our heads This should mightily move us to love his Appearing that we shall then appear together with him and not abide in the Air though incompassed with so much glory but be carried up with him far higher into the purest sky When our minds are made all Light we shall see a vast way before us and behold the Palace where God himself dwells inviting us unto it Thither our Lord will have us attend upon him and accompany him when he hath finished the judgement of the great day Where the Holy Books inform us we shall be sumptuously treated with no less kindness magnificence and joy than a King we may conceive would entertain his only Son when he brought home his beloved Bride whom he had long ago espoused to himself For whose reception he prepares the most Royal Supper a glorious Marriage-Feast to welcome her unto his house And will not this make every faithful soul who is a holy member of that Body the Church whom our Lord is pleased to own for his Bride still more desirous if not impatient of the coming of the celestial Bridegroom to perfect his love and complete the promises wherein he stands ingaged by the gracious covenant he made with us when he contracted us to himself What is there that we all so much covet as the excess of joy and the highest pitch of pleasure And where are these to be found in so much purity in such fulness and so perpetual as in his most blessed Presence Which should force us to burst out with the greatest earnestness when we think of that Heavenly Feast which he hath prepared for us into such expressions as those of David As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God even the living God O when shall I come and appear before God I have small satisfaction alas in these dull and short delights which I find on earth What taste is there in this green trash And there is little other fruit that grows in the garden of this world but what is sowre and harsh and sets my teeth on edge It is too far from thy beams to bring forth any thing very sweet Nothing can be ripened at this distance from thee to satisfie a font and yeild it all the contentment it desires Bring me therefore into thy Paradise above O conduct me into thy Eden the Garden of thy delights Lead me to those fruits which are brought to maturity by the constant presence of the Sun of righteousness Let me feast on those pleasures which are all pleasure and enter into the joy which is fulness of joy for evermore And till thou thinkest me meet for such entertainments may it please thy love but
with cares nor dampt with fears but dwell secure in assured joys for evermore Joys in the perfection of a glorified body and of an exalted inlarged spirit Joys to find my self in the company of thy Saints and welcomed into the noble society of Angels Joy at the sight of my dearest Friends the greatest joys in thy presence and in the light of thy countenance from whom I hope for all this joy O come most blessed Saviour that we may all be nothing but joy and love and peace without any end Come and bring us to our beloved Rest and where can our souls find any rest but in thy bosom Come that we may rest from our labours and where can we lay down our selves in perfect repose but only in thy love O come and fill our hearts therewith that we may hunger and thirst no more Come that we may perfectly know what the new Wine of thy Kingdom is Come that we may desire to feed on nothing else but the sweetest comforts of seeing thy blessed face smileing on us And that we may have no other business nothing else to do but to enjoy thee in all that we see not so much imployment besides as to spend any time as now we are forced to do in wishing to enjoy thee X. And yet there is still a greater reason remaining why we should love our Lords appearing because we shall be brought by that to the very top and highest pitch of bliss which is to SEE GOD Matth. v. 8. and to SEE HIM AS HE IS 1 John iij. 2. Not as the old Prophets saw him in visions and dreams nor as others saw him in the Angels of his presence But alas who can tell what this sight is What tongue unless touched as the Apostles were by the Holy-Ghost can declare any thing of such a bliss The day of Pentecost must return again if we expect to have any language to express or thoughts to conceive the meaning of these words We must intreat some Angel to come and tell us if he can what it is to see God Or rather we must confess that if he should we cannot understand such celestial language It is above our reach and we do but babble we do not speak when we adventure to discourse of it Nay when we depart this world and shall be admitted into the blessed company above we may not be able to comprehend much of it if the opinion of many of the Ancient Fathers be true that the Saints shall not enjoy that which is properly meant by the Vision of God till after the great day of our Lord. And therefore it will be our best way now to do as the Painter did who being to make a picture of Love drew nothing on his Table but a Veil which covered no body knew what under the shadow of it Not so much to show as some have poorly conceived that Love is blind as to declare that it is an ineffable thing a mysterious passion not to be described by humane art Such I am sure is this Vision of God and such is the love that it will beget It is a secret never to be known but by the enjoyment of it A mysterie reserved in the holy Place to be beheld only by entring into it We have all a natural desire indeed to pry into this as well as all other secrets A strong appetite we find within us to be admitted into an intimate acquaintance with those things which are closely lockt up from us We cannot chuse but long to go within the Veil and would fain have the curtain drawn aside that the glorious face of the Divine Majesty may appear But after all our search and busie enquiry we are able to say no more at present but this O happy Darkness O blessed O most glorious obscurity For I do not know what else to call thee How joyful is it to think that thou art more than we can ask or think What a pleasure is it to know that thou surpassest all that can now be known How comfortable is it to believe that thou art hid from our eyes only because we are not capable to behold thy brightness Thou shamest indeed hereby our small understanding but publishest thine own most excellent Greatness We are laid very low when we hear thee speaking thus at present but it lifts us up and highly exalts us in our future hopes We have no means to comprehend this gracious promise nor know we what to think when we read these words you shall SEE GOD. We must confess our weakness which is absolutely puzled with so few and so plain words If we have any thing to boast of it is only this advantageous ignorance All that we have to glory in is that such our hopes we know not what to conceive of this dark so we must now speak this unseen and hidden brightness But this we know because thou O God hast told us that when this present darkness is done away and we shall see thee as thou art WE SHALL BE LIKE THEE O most desireable sight which will so happily transform us O much wisht for day which will set us in such a light as will make us all bright and shining too Shining in the light of the wisdom of God in the light of his Purity and of his Bliss and Immortality In the light which makes the eyes of Angels shine so brightly and which preserves the youth of Saints The light which no man can approach unto till thou O God who art that Light shalt finish our hope and bring us to see thee face to face And may we not be confident of this also though we know so little that when thou O blessed God shalt cause thy Son to appear and shalt show thy self unto us the very first glimpse of thy glory at the greatest distance from thee will mightily attract our hearts unto thee No arrow sure flies more swiftly from the strongest bow no bullet can be sent with greater violence from the bended force of steel than our souls shall then move or rather shoot themselves towards thee that they may know what it is to see thee and that they may be like thee And till that joyful day shall come shine thou O blessed Light perpetually in these eyes Strike through all the clouds that incompass me round about and by the bright hopes of thee chase away all my gloomy thoughts and put out the false lustre of this deceitful world Shed O thou blessed light thy glorious beams into this heart and kindle there such holy flames as may consume all sinful desires and purifie my soul as thou art pure Let me burn continually with an ardent love of thee till thy bright day appear Till not only these walls of flesh be pulled down which intercept thee from me but my spirit fly up in a lightsome body that I may see thee That I may see thee by whose power the Heavens and the Earth were made
pleasing her eyes and her mind with the very shadow of that dear Person or if she have any token of his love left or sent her whereby to remember him is ever and anon taking it into her hands and imprinting her kisses on it so it becomes all those to do who pretend any love to our Lord Jesus who hath endeared himself to us by such incomparable loving kindness and merited so highly of us that it would be exceeding strange if we should be either insensible of his favours or let them slip out of our minds when among the rest of the expressions of his wonderful love he hath taken great care to preserve the remembrance of them there Our gracious Lord the Bridegroom of our souls is gone a long journey even as far as Heaven He hath espoused us to himself it is true in great love most assured love but hath left us for a time here in this world and removed himself so far from us that though there be nothing so desireable as his company to those who are acquainted with him and have any affection for him yet they find the distance is so exceeding great between them that they cannot attain their much wisht for enjoyment of him And therefore every good soul should look towards him and sighing within it self should often say When will he come when will he come and let me have the long desired sight of him When will he come and finish what he hath so graciously begun O that he would come and take me to him O that he would come and satisfie this soul which is ready to dissolve and sweetly melt into that blissful union with him And till he please to grant this desire we should often fasten our expecting eyes on the Picture he hath left us of himself drawn as I may say by his own hand which tells us he will certainly come and requires us to rest assured he will be as good as his word and give us immortal life in the glory where he is We should frequent I mean the holy Sacrament of his body and blood we should love there to communicate with him and knit our selves to him it should be our greatest pleasure to solace our selves in that representation of him till he comes We should affectionately receive into our hands those tokens and pledges of his love which he continually sends us by his Ministers we should take them into our mouths yea let them into our hearts and embracing him in those signs and seals of his grace towards us should rejoyce in his love till he himself appear and lay our souls to rest in his bosom for ever If there were no other benefit we should receive by this means than that thereby our love will be mightily excited towards him who hath loved us so dearly it were sufficient to commend this duty to us But we shall also grow thereby more confident of his appearing again to perfect his love towards us and in the mean time be still receiving fresh tokens of the affection he now hath for us For as the thoughts of his love hath the greatest power over our hearts so we need not fear to say that the love he sees in us is of such force and efficacy with him that it strongly moves his tender compassions towards us If any man love me saith he himself xiv Joh. 21 23. he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him O what a word is this I will love him How it pierces into the heart How it stirs and works how it revives and refreshes there Can there be any thing greater than this to be beloved of the Lord of Heaven the Prince of Life the King of Glory What will not he do for those whom he loves when we see he did not stick to dye for them even before they loved him You know that when Lazarus was sick as I think I have somewhere observed in another Treatise his Sisters sent this news to our Saviour saying Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick xi Joh. 3. This was a very short Letter And their grief perhaps would not permit them to write a longer But they did not fare the worse because they were not more ceremonious in their addresses this alone did the business O how great a power was there in these few words They say no more to move him but only this Lord thou lovest him and what doth not our Saviour do to show they were not mistaken Up he rises away he goes to the place of his abode there needed no more prayers to bring him thither And though there were many dangers in the way as the story relates though to go thither his Disciples thought was to cast himself into a showr of stones v. 8. though the Jews he knew very well sought to take him and kill him x. 39. yet love being as strong as death carried him through all impediments He could not chuse but go when he heard this charming word he whom thou lovest is sick By which we may learn that to obtain the favour and grace the help and assistance the comfort and the presence of our blessed Saviour we need no long Petitions no great address of words no courtship nor studied complements Let us be able only to tell him that he loves us and it is enough If we can but win his good affection we need no more We may then remember to him his own dear love more than ours We may tell him how much good he hath done us and that is argument sufficient to move him to do more We may relate his graciousness and sweet disposition when we can perceive in our own hearts but disgusts at our selves We may say O my Lord I have seen by many arguments the wonderful great good will thou bearest to me For thou hast instructed my ignorance pitied my weaknesses cured many of my diseases delivered me from the power of temptations I cannot tell what thou hast done for me O most merciful Saviour who art still going on by innumerable ways to testifie thou lovest me And this humble devout acknowledgement will certainly invite a further effusion of his favours For it is a pleasure to him to do benefits especially to those he loves He rejoyces over them to do them good He loves to accomplish his own good purposes and delights as much as they can desire to perfect what he hath happily begun in them And therefore we may intreat him to give himself that pleasure not to lose any of that joy which will so much please and rejoyce us also and make us his debtors his admirers his adorers and lovers to all eternity We may desire him even that it would please him to come again according to his promise because he loves us and because he loves to finish his works of love and we may be confident he will and bring his rewards with him Though he stay we think
it is of grace and bounty and with what unwearied kindness it delights to communicate its blessings to us And what is there that we would see which is comparable to this What can we desire to see but more of this even when we are made perfect in love And what thanks do we owe to God that we see so much It ought to stir up all that is within us to bless his holy name We ought to say every day will I bless thee and praise thy name for ever and ever But for this also we must be beholden to love For it is that which indites all our Hymns and meditates the Divine Praises It puts the songs of joy into our mouth and fills our hearts with thanksgiving Our tongues are tyed without this or we do but babble not speak our Saviours praises It is love that bursts out into such effusions as these O praise the Lord of love who humbled himself do dwell among us Praise him in the beauties of his holiness praise him in his super-excellent wisdom Let all his works praise him who came to us with his hands full of Miracles and every miracle full of mercy O praise him in his almighty and most merciful kindness which made the lame to leap like a Kid and the tongue of the dumb to sing for joy which opened the eyes of the blind to see his wonders and the ears of the deaf to hear the wisdom where by he spake which restored the sick to health and the dead to life which published the Gospel to the poor and instructed the ignorant in the mysteries of the Kingdom of God O praise him before whom the Devils fled and confessed him to be the Lord. Praise him in his incomparable love which thought it not enough to do all this but also gave himself to dye for us Let all Nations praise him who are the purchase of his blood Let them mark every step of his dying love from the time he was betrayed and sold like a slave till he finished his sufferings on the Cross O the greatness of that love which endured such scorn such reproach such a bitter agony and shameful death even for all those who have little sense of this wondrous love But let no Christian soul be insensible how the hands which wrought so many Miracles and the feet which travelled up and down to do men good were cruelly nailed by them to an ignominious Gibbet Let them remember how his head was crowned with thorns and his body cloathed in a fools coat How they spit in his face blinded his eyes and then rudely buffeted him to make them sport O what love was that which made him submit to be mocked and reviled to be accounted worse than a seditious murderer and numbred among the greatest transgressors And above all let it never be forgotten how he sweat in our service as it had been drops of blood and at last bled to death after three hours shame and anguish on the Cross Praised be that incomparable Charity Praised be his inimitable meekness and humilitie Let all the world extol and praise his Lamb-like patience and innocence Let them celebrate his admirable kindness in forgiving such implacable enemies and his intire confidence and faith in God whereby he offered up himself to him and obtained an eternal redemption for us O the wonderful vertue of that sacrifice which hath taken away the sins of the world Praised be the tender mercies of our God which have forgiven us so many trespasses Praised be his mercies which have not only forgiven us but restored us to life and glory again by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead Let us rejoyce and be glad in that great salvation Let us bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by that resurrection of his from the dead Let us lift up our heads and look to Heaven our ancient Country for there he is exalted And let us thank our God who hath set him at his own right hand and made him most glorious for ever See how all the Angels welcomed him thither and falling at his feet most humbly worshipped his Majesty See how they all now wait upon him and constantly attend his pleasure And let us worship him too with the devoutest and most lowly reverence Let us praise him in his Sanctuary where he appears before God for us from whence he sends down the gracious influences of his spirit on us and commands his Angels to minister unto us Let us praise him the glorious King of Angels and men Who hath conquered death and triumphed over all the powers of darkness and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to all the faithful hath promised that they shall reign in glory together with him Let all the Angelical Ministers praise him Let the Apostles Prophets and Martyrs praise him Let all those who are departed in the true faith and fear of him praise him And let all the living who partake of the daily fruit of his bounteous love continually praise him Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is above the Earth and Heaven Let them praise him in the greatness of his Power in the Wisdom of his Counsels in the carefulness of his Providence in the riches the exceeding riches of his Grace in the stedfastness of his word and the faithfulness of all his promises And let them all joyn together and beseech him to come again that he may both accomplish our hopes and perfect his own praises O let him come that we may give him better praises in one body for ever CHAP. XIX More expressions of this devout affection towards our Lords Appearing and the way whereby we may excite them THis is some of the language of Love which wishes every knee would bow to Jesus and every tongue confess that he is the Lord to the glory of God the Father who hath thus highly exalted him For its desires are unlimited and its kindness like the fountain of it is inexhaustible and infinite It is the brightest image of Jesus There is nothing represents him so lively to the world He now appears most in those who love most and who long and wait with pure and ardent desires to see him come in all his glory For they will keep his commandment without spot unrebukeable until his appearing which in his times he will shew who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see to whom be honour and power everlasting Amen Why then O my soul do we not let this blessed guest be lodged in our heart Or why do we not entertain it so that it may stay with us and we may feel it stirring there in restless motions towards Jesus What
is the cause that we who are made to love should not let our love turn divine and address it most devoutly to him who best deserves the Love of all the world Or what may it be that keeps us from running with the whole current of our affections towards that heavenly Lover who sues so earnestly to us for our hearty love Hath he not loved us enough to make us love him Was he a cold and indifferent Lover that could not touch the heart with a sense of his kindness Was he perfectly frozen and careless in our concerns when the urgent wants of our souls called for his kind and compassionate relief Or did he pretend a great deal of kindness and made long protestations of his love but did just nothing to merit our affection There need no answer to such questions which serve only to reproach and confound our insensibleness and negligence who have nothing to say why we do not love him For so apparent is his love so confessedly great so costly and expensive so tender and obliging that as it had no example nor can be ever exactly imitated so it must needs attract all those and fill them with the greatest love who do not turn away their eyes and their ears and their hearts from this Lord of love Let us but listen a while to him and we shall hear him say was there any love like unto my love What is it that you would have had me done for you more than I have done without your desire to win your love Hath any man greater love than this that he lay down his life for his Friends But what were you for whom I died Herein God commended his love towards you in that while you were yet sinners I dyed for you And what was the purchase I made by that price which I laid down for you Who is it that hath the keys of Hell and death To whom is all power given in Heaven and in Earth Can any but I forgive your sins and open to you the Kingdom of Heaven and restore you to the joys of Paradise nay make you eat of the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God Where do you read of any King who at his Coronation gave such royal gifts to men From whom do you expect the Crown of righteousness and an eternal inheritance of which I gave the earnest so long ago Can you think of any thing comparable to the glory of my appearing Or is there any doubt whether I will come or no or whether you shall appear with me in that celestial glory What would you have me do to satisfie and assure you more than I have already done by my Word and by my Blood and by my Angels and by my Holy Spirit which I have sent down from Heaven to bear witness to me and to tell you that I will certainly come again and give you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Believe it I will as surely come again as I died and rose from the dead and visibly ascended into Heaven and according to my promise poured out the Holy-Ghost upon my Apostles and inspired them to proclaim this in all tongues and languages that I still live and that because I live you shall live also And is it possible for us to think we hear him speaking to us in this manner as he doth in his blessed Gospel and not be provoked to summon all the powers of our soul to offer up themselves in devout and hearty love to him What hath the dearest friend whom we love with so much passion nay even our tenderest Parents done for us in comparison with this love Or what can the favour of all the Princes on earth should they unite all their powers to love and honour us bestow and heap upon us worthy to be named together with this miraculous love It ought to call us from all vain delights Our minds should continually study to comprehend the breadth and length the depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Our wills ought to be more passionately bent towards him and grow every day stronger in his love Our memories should be a most faithful Treasury of the manifold tokens of his Love Our tongues and our hearts should never cease to meditate and sing the praises of his wondrous love For if we could speak to him as we may conceive him speaking to us and ask him what he did before the world he would tell us that He loved If we could ask him what moved his Almighty Wisdom to make the world he would tell you that he loved If we could further ask what he hath done ever since he would still say he loved And what brought him down from Heaven if we could ask again to be partaker of our miseries he would tell you again that he loved And could we ask again why he would humble himself so low as to take the form a servant and dye a base servile and ignominious death the death of the Cross he would again tell you that he loved And if you could still go on to ask what moved him to send the Holy Ghost and give such gifts to men you would still receive the same answer because he loved And could you beseech him not to be angry and you would inquire again what he hath been doing since those days and what he now does he would give you no new answer but that he loves And if you should pray him once more to tell you what he loves he would let you know it is nothing but love abundance of love This is the thing he would win by his love This is all that he asks and desires at our hands though he hath obliged us so much For this he solicites and beseeches having set his heart upon it as the fruit of his incomparable love He intreats for this as if it were for his life that we would be at last so sensible of all his kindness as to let him have our unfeigned love For he being Love himself loves nothing else but sincere and hearty love O blessed Jesus should all our hearts then say how much doth thy love differ from ours Love brought thee down from Heaven to us but how few of us and how slowly doth it carry up thither unto thee Love made thee dye the most shameful death but it doth not make us live the most glorious life It made thee endure the sorest pains but alas it doth not make mankind take the pleasure of following thy steps to the greatest happiness It made thee think perpetually on such poor wretches as we are but how seldom are our minds fixed or how small is the number whom love inclines to think upon so glorious a person as thy self It perswaded thee to come to us when there was nothing to call thee but only our great miseries but it doth not bring us all to thee when we are
thee Let the time come that there shall be no more night but a perpetual day with me O hasten the time when I my self shall shine like the Sun in thy Celestial glory VII Now in the mean time till love come to a perfect union as it is incessant in its motion so it grows more vehement in its desires and endeavours For as frequent agitations make the fire burn more fiercely so doth the stirring of this passion make it break out with a brighter flame The desire of union increases the swiftness of its motion and the more speed it makes the nearer it is like to come to its desired union And which is very considerable the more earnest and assiduous our motion is towards any Good the greater hopes we have that we shall enjoy it and the greater our hopes are the more are we still pricked on and spurred forward in the pursuit of that which we would fain enjoy A thing which is of exceeding great moment in this pious and devout love of Christian people For without a GOOD HOPE which St. Paul saith our Lord who is our Hope hath given us 2 Thess ii 16. 1 Tim. i. 1. our motion would slacken if not be extinguished We should have no heart to prosecute our design but let it fall immediately if it were not in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised i. Tit. 2. As on the contrary by the help of this sure and certain Hope our diligence is doubled and such oyl poured on our wheels as makes them move not only more easily but with greater speed and quickness also All the lovers therefore of Christs Appearing are said to wait for it to expect it and to look for the coming of that blessed Hope as you shall see in the conclusion of this Argument from those well known places iij. Phil. 20. ij Tit. 13. and many other And if you examine the holy Scriptures carefully you shall find that this is comprehended in the love we ought to have for his Appearing being such a natural effect of love that they are put indifferently the one for the other As may be seen by comparing these two places together 1 Cor. ij 9. with lxiv. Isa 4. in the former of which the Apostle says the things which surpass our conception are prepared by God for them that love him and in the other the Prophet saith He hath prepared them for him that waiteth for Him Just as the people of Israel praying without the Sanctuary in the Court to which they were confined waited for the Priest when he should come from the Altar of Incense or rather for the High-Priest on the day of Atonement to return from the most holy place and the Ark of the Covenant to bestow the blessing on them So do all good Souls who are devoted sincerely to the service of Christ while they remain in this outward Court the Earth wherein we dwell which is at a great distance from the Heavens look up to the holy place where Jesus the great High-Priest of our profession is iij. Heb. 1. iv 15. and wait for the time when He will come forth to bless them saying Come ye blessed of my Father xxv Mat. 34. inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world They cannot but frequently cast their eyes and turn their hearts that way as the place of their Rest which He is gone before to prepare for them They are ever calling upon their Souls to follow hard after their dear Saviour as David says lxiij Psal 8. his heart did after the enjoyment of God in his Sanctuary For this they seek as he there speaks with thirsty desires to see his power and his glory so as they have never yet seen him nor can see him no not in their nearest approaches to him while they live in these earthly tabernacles They wish therefore He would come and bless them with a clear and full sight of Him After this their desires grow daily more ardent and they endeavour to stir up stronger and more affectionate motions towards so great an happiness They are apt to cry out saying Draw us and we will run after thee yea we will fly we will take the wings of an Eagle in our passionate desires that we may mount up aloft and get more and more above this world to be with thee And this gives them good Hopes likewise that they shall be with Him insomuch that they cannnot but say O blessed Jesus thou hast set our Souls into a longing for thee and now they cannot cease to desire to come to thee Thou hast made us believe the most excellent surpassing glory wherein thou shinest and ever since we cannot chuse but look towards it and wish to behold thee in that glory If we be very earnest for this sight if our Souls sigh and say xlij Psal 2. O when shall we come and appear before thee we do but return thine own breath who hast inspired us with these desires after thee And may we not hope to come thither where thou art when thou thy self attractest our souls to thee Wilt thou not satisfie those longings which not we but thou hast raised in our hearts Give us leave to remember thee of what thou thy self hast said who didst pronounce those BLESSED WHO HAVE NOT SEEN xx Joh. 29. AND YET HAVE BELIEVED O let it be unto thy servants according to thy word For we are such believers as thou hast blessed We never saw thee and yet believe thou camest forth from God xiij Joh. 3. and art gone to God and art most high in the glory of the Father ix Rom. 5. God blessed for evermore Do not our hearts cleave unto thee though they have only heard of thee Are not our eyes continually towards thee though they have never yet beheld thee Thou wilt not always sure absent thy self but turn our faith at last into a sight of thee For what is the BLESSEDNESS of which thou spakest and hast faithfully promised to such believers Is it not that they shall one day behold thy glorious face and reign with thee in thy glory Is it not that thou wilt manifest thy self unto them here and at last appear again to take them to thy self that they may live where thou art O dear Saviour as thou hast made us to BELIEVE in this manner so make us likewise thus BLESSED As we have received thee though we have not seen thee so let this be the reward of our receiving thee that we may see thee We will hope thou wilt make us thus happy as thou hast made us thus faithful We will expect till thou makest us see what thou hast promised as thou hast made us do what thou hast commanded We will rejoyce in hope of thy glory and do thou make our joy to be full yea bring us unto thee and bid us enter into the joy of thee our Lord. CHAP.