perfect Lineaments of Christ will then be drawn upon it A weak and small measure of Grace which is the highest attainment that any Saint reacheth to here compared with what we shall do hereafter and is also the Image of Christ upon the Soul of a Believer yet even this imperfect Grace and Holiness makes the Soul to shine gloriously here how much more then shall Glory that is the Perfection of Grace and the perfecting of the Image of Christ upon the Soul make the Soul of a believer to exceed in Glory Not that the Saints in Heaven shall be continually receiving new additions to their Grace or Glory and so be made more and more like unto Christ by the Vision they shall there have of him No this is a Saint's Work and Employment here on Earth whilst he beholds Christ only by an eye of Faith in the Glass of Duties and Ordinances thus to be changed into his Image from Glory to Glory But this Sight of Christ shall vanish away in Heaven and the Saints shall have an immediate Vision of God and Christ and their Souls shall thereby be changed into an exact and perfect conformity unto the Image of Christ It shall not then be from Glory to Glory from one degree of Grace to another as it is now but Grace and Holiness in Heaven shall be always in them in its height and perfection The Souls of Believers upon their entrance into that Holy Place become perfectly and compleatly glorious having the perfection of Grace and Holiness in them without the least remainders of Sin and Corruption which in this World the holiest Persons are not totally free'd from But to speak a little more particularly concerning the Happiness of the Souls of Believers in Heaven and here First In Heaven the Vnderstandings of the Saints shall be enlarged Knowledge is a necessary Engredient unto the Soul's Happiness in Heaven and the more enlarged the Vnderstanding of a Saint is the greater is his Happiness An ignorant Soul cannot be a happy Soul neither on Earth nor in Heaven Ignorant Persons are look'd upon with pity and contempt That the Soul be without knowledge says the Wise Man is not nor cannot be good Prov. 19.2 Knowledge is a great Ornament in any Man but much more in a Christian It is a great Commendation to have an insight into the Secrets of Nature to be skill'd in Arts and Sciences to understand Logick Philosophy Metaphysicks and the like but the Excellency of Knowledge lies not in these things but in the knowledge of the Highest and Chief Good of all and that is God and Christ This the Scripture calls the Excellency of Knowledge So says the Apostle Philip. 3.9 I count all things but Loss and Dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord and John 17.2 This is Life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is excellent Knowledge indeed to know God to know the Lord Jesus Christ to understand the wonderful Work of Man's Redemption to be acquainted with the Mysteries of Divine Providence This is a knowledge wherein Angels may delightfully busie themselves in the contemplation of and not stoop below the Excellency and Dignity of their Natures Something of Light and Knowledge they have into these Objects now But alas it 's little we know of God of Christ of the Mysteries of Redemption and Providence to what shall be known in Heaven Some of these blessed Objects are far above out of our sight others are far above the reach of our Vnderstanding to comprehend the depth of those Mysteries of Wisdom Grace and Love that are contained in them But in Heaven our Capacities shall be enlarged to take in the Knowledge of these high and glorious Objects In Heaven God will take off the Vail from his Face that we may see him Face to Face and not only so but will strengthen us that we may be able to look upon and behold his Glory and Excellency which otherwise would astonish and confound us There shall we see the blessed Lord Jesus who for our sakes was for a little while made a little lower than the Angels crowned with Glory and Honour All the wonderful and astonishing Mysteries of our Redemption shall be there unfolded to us There it is that we shall see all the glorious Attributes of God Wisdom Justice Mercy Holiness Faithfulness and Truth sweetly reconciled and fully satisfied and contented in the contrivance of our Redemption by Jesus Christ There we shall with great satisfaction understand the deep and obscure Mysteries of Religion which here the most profound Scholars were never able fully to comprehend There shall the most dark and difficult Passages of that divine and heavenly Book the Scriptures be made clear and plain to our Understanding There it shall be given us to discern how exquisitely the several parts of Holy Writ were by the All wise and Fore seeing Author of them God fitted and adapted unto the several Times Places Persons and Occurrences for which they were intended chiefly to be used We shall then plainly see not only a Reconcileableness but a Friendship and perfect Harmony between those Sacred Texts in Holy Writ that seem'd most to jarr and be at greatest variance Yea there shall we discover not only the meaning of the most dark and obscure Passages of that Sacred Book but how fit it was that they should be so together with the infinite Wisdom of the great God that caused them to be written so obscurely There it is that those Riddles of Divine Providence shall be expounded and laid open before us which have made not only wicked Men to deny but tempted even good Men themselves sometimes to call in question the infinite and unerring Wisdom of the great God in his Government of the World when they behold wicked and ungodly Men to prosper grow rich and great having all their Hearts can wish whilst upright and righteous ones are continually exposed to Poverty Reproach and Contempt There shall we be fully convinced that all these seeming Irregularities are not only consistent with God's Justice and Goodness but are the wise productions of them And though the Belief hereof doth to wise and understanding Persons seem to be a piece of great Self-denial yet when we come to Heaven it will appear to be as highly rational as now we find it to be hard and difficult Man of himself is no fit Judge of the Providence of God at any time but especially not in this World because he cannot see the whole of his Providential Workings at once His Days as Job speaks are but as a shadow upon Earth and they fly away So that he can see but little of what God is doing But when we come to Heaven the whole Conduct of God's Providence in the Administration of Affairs in the World shall be laid open to our view Then shall all the Revolutions and Occurrences of Empires States
Heaven and Happiness not upon any good works he had done but upon what Christ had done and suffered for him though he had whereof to Glory as himself saith yet he looked upon all as nothing and desired only to be found in Christ And whatever Conceit or Opinion sinners may have of themselves and of the Merit of their Duties and Services in their Health and Prosperity when Death and Judgment according to their Apprehensions seems to be many years distant from them or whatever men may say in the heat of a Dispute concerning the Merit of their good Works yet certainly they will be of another mind when Death lays hold of them with its cold hands and when an awakened Conscience is hurrying them on to make their appearance before the Tribunal of the great God the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth There are few if any that are so bold and presumptuous as to boast of their Merits upon a Death-bed No Death and Judgment convince and alter mens minds making them speak quite another Language than what they did formerly It is not then Lord deal with me according to my Deserts but Lord deal with me according to thy Mercy Blot out mine Offences O Lord not according to the Merit of a dying sinner but according to the Merit of a dying Saviour This this is the Language of a sinner upon a Death bed Then a Bellarmine will confute himself and cry out Oh it is safest trusting to the Merit of Jesus Christ Thirdly The final Cause of the Saint's Happiness is the Honour and Glory of God We read Luk. 2.13 14. when our Lord Jesus came into the World on this very Errand that he might obtain eternal Redemption and Salvation for Sinners the Angels those extraordinary Ambassadors of Heaven proclaim the Tydings thereof to the Shepherds saying Glory to God in the Highest on Earth Peace and good Will towards Man Not only is Man commanded to do all things for the Glory of God but God himself doth all he doth with respect to his own Glory As for Man God made him for himself and it is highly rational that as the enjoyment of God is Man's highest Happiness so his Glory should be his chief end and unless this be a chief Ingredient into all our Duties and Services they are neither acceptable to God nor comfortable to us The Scripture commands this as our great Duty that we make the Glory of God our supreme End in all our Actions Matth. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your Good Works for what end that they may glorifie your Father that is in Heaven So 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the Glory of God Yea in Heaven where the Saints shall be fully and compleatly happy yet shall it be their eternal Exercise to ascribe Blessing Honour Glory and Praise unto him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Rev. 5.13 And not only is Man commanded to do all that he doth to the Glory of God but God himself doth all he doth with respect to his own Glory The Work of Creation the Works of Providence the Work of Redemption they are all transacted here in Time and perfected in Eternity that God thereby may be glorified Our next Enquiry shall be concerning the great Qualification of the Saints for Heaven and that is Holiness Now by Holiness I mean not any one single Grace wrought in the Heart of a Believer but the universal Operation or Conjunction of all the Graces of the Spirit of God wrought in the Soul of a Saint Holiness is a real inward thorough Change wrought in the whole Man by the powerful Operation of the Spirit of God whereby not only the Heart is purged from the Love of all Sin and the Life from the Dominion and Practice thereof but it is that also whereby the whole Man is carried out in Ways of Duty and Obedience in the daily Exercise of Grace till it be brought to eternal Glory in Heaven Now that Holiness is the great Qualification of a Saint for Heaven the Scripture abundantly manifests Psal 15.1 Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle Who shall ascend into thy Holy Hill The next Words tell us He that walketh uprightly and worketh Righteousness and that speaketh the Truth in His Heart Matth. 5.6 Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God Heb 12.14 Follow Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. Heaven is so holy a Place that no unclean thing shall in any wise enter therein Acts 26.18 To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of Sins and an Inheritance among them that are sanctified Sanctification and Holiness is the great Qualification of all those that shall partake of the Happiness of Heaven Not that Holiness is the meritorious Cause of that Happiness no that is nothing but the Blood of Christ Holiness is only that which qualifies and makes a Believer fit to partake of the Happiness of Heaven And this is the meaning of the Apostle Col. 1.12 Giving Thanks to God and the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light There is an absolute necessary connexion between Holiness and Heaven Holiness is Heaven and Heaven is Holiness Holiness is Heaven begun and Heaven is Holiness consummated they are but one and the same thing though greatly differing in degrees Holiness in a Saint here is mixed with Sin and Corruption and so is imperfect in this Life But now in Heaven Holiness shall be without Imperfection there is nothing to oppose or hinder the Holiness of a Saint Holiness is there come to its full Growth and highest Perfection for there is Holiness and nothing but Holiness Now Grace and Holiness in a Saint here being the same with that Glory that is the expected Consummation of a Saint's Happiness hereafter it shews the great necessity that there is that all that desire to be happy hereafter should endeavour to be holy here Now how Holiness qualifies for Heaven and why it is so necessary to the obtaining of Heaven will appear in two Particulars One is because Holiness and Heaven are one and the same thing And the other is because of the great unsuitableness between Heaven and an unholy Soul First There is an agreeableness yea a sameness between Holiness and Heaven The Glory of Heaven lies not in this that a Saint shall there out-shine the brightness of the Sun that there he shall not be exposed to Heat to Cold to Nakedness or Want that there he shall be free from Diseases Sickness and Death it self that he shall not stand in need of Meat Drink and Clothing no nor that he shall always be in the hearing of melodious Songs and Hallilujahs of Saints and Angels These Things indeed are in Heaven
arose again for their Justification and Glorification that this was he that with the price of his own Blood not only bought their Pardon but purchased that glorious Inheritance for them which now they are instated into the possession of this must needs put a new Life of Joy into their Souls and create a new kind of Happiness in them which they never were acquainted with nor was it possible for them to understand before Christ is the Desire of all Nations the Joy of Angels the Delight of God himself he in whom he is always well pleased All the Glory and Happiness of Heaven is wrapp'd up in him The Treasures of the Divine Wisdom Love and Kindness which were sometimes hid and concealed are now laid open in Heaven to the view of all the Saints O with what ravishing Joy and Delight then must those Souls be eternally filled with that live in the Sight Possession of him as theirs for ever Is not his Love better than Wine Will not the lifting up of the light of his Countenance upon the Soul administer more cause of Joy and Rejoycing than the greatest increase of all worldly enjoyments whatsoever O is not this the Language of holy Souls His Love is Life yea his loving kindness is better than Life O how shouldst thou chide thy self O Believing Soul whose Faith gives thee an Interest in him that thou art so afraid of his Appearance Whence is it that thou art so backward to go unto him Is the Enjoyment of him in Glory who is all Love all Life all Joy all Peace a frightful thing How comes it to pass that thou art so unwilling to die and be for ever with him whom thou callest thy Saviour Hath he laid down his Life and shed his Blood to redeem thee and will he now make an eternal Slave of thee What hath his Ascension into Glory changed his Nature and rendered him less lovely or the Happiness of Heaven in the Enjoyment of him less desirable No certainly he is not less lovely in himself because of his Exaltation into Glory but the more Nor is the Happiness of Heaven in the Enjoyment of him less but the more desirable and the more easily to be obtained for as the Apostle says If when we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his Life And because he lives glorified in Heaven therefore shall Believers live with him there and therefore also should they be the more desirous to be there because he is there Awake therefore O ye drowsie Saints rouze your selves up out of your Security and Slothfulness for a careless indifferent frame of Spirit doth not become those who are Expectants of so great and glorious a Redeemer and of so great a Happiness as is the eternal Enjoyment of him O what a holy Impatience and Vnquietness of Soul should rather be found in Believers after this Blessed Redeemer Is it not he by whom you expect to escape the Wrath and Vengeance of God Was not his Body broken and his Blood poured forth to make an Oblation for your Souls Was it not he whose Death and Sufferings have made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for your Sins Is it not he who to deliver you from the Curse of the Law was himself made a Curse for you Is it not he by whom alone you escape everlasting Burnings and hope to obtain an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you Is there any thing either in this World or in the World to come that is comparable to him Look upon him well O Believing Souls both in respect of what he once was and in respect of what he now is and you cannot but say he is made up of Love Henceforth therefore wonder not O blind and ignorant World that the People of God express such passionate longing Desires after the Enjoyment of this Blessed Jesus but rather wonder at your selves that such Blindness and Darkness should be found within you that you should not be able to discern those Excellencies and that Loveliness that is in him Were the Eyes of your Understanding opened had you but a Spirit of discerning bestowed upon you to see into those glorious Excellencies and Perfections that are in the Lord Jesus and the Happiness that is in the Sight and Fruition of him in Heaven you would then say We see now there is the greatest Reason in the World why the Saints and People of God have such vehement Desires after him are so covetous of being in his Presence and beholding of his Glory For what Soul that knows him that hath tasted of his Love and experienced the Manifestations of his Grace and Favour towards it but doth most earnestly wish not only to see him but to live for ever with him O my Soul Whence is it then that thou that canst say thou lovest him in Truth and in Sincerity dost yet make it no more thy daily Care and Study to gain more and farther Knowledge of him and a more dear and intimate Acquaintance with him that so thou maist be brought into a more full and immediate Enjoyment of him And O thou infinitely Blessed Lord Jesus who hast all Loveliness and Amiableness in thee look down graciously upon thy poor Creatures and discover unto them more of those ravishing transcendent Beauties and Excellencies that are in thee and let us every day have more and farther insight into those never to be fully known Perfections of Glory and Loveliness that are in thy self that thereby we may be enabled not only to commend thee a thousand times more feelingly and affectionately unto others but may thereby also win upon yea command the Affections and Desires of all that hear of thee unto thee that nothing short of the Enjoyment of thy self and the Manifestations of thy Love and Favour in Eternal Glory may satisfie and content us or them but that we may continually be crying out in that known Language of thy Church Come Lord Jesus come quickly Fourthly and Lastly The Saints Happiness in Heaven consists in this That there they shall have the Vision and Enjoyment of God himself being always where he is seeing his Face and beholding his Glory Now in speaking to this great Happiness of the Saints the Beatifical Vision of God I shall content my self with those things that are most plain and will be most benificial Now the Sacred Scripture gives us an Account of this Great and Mysterious part of the Saints Happiness in many high and lofty expressions calling it sometimes a seeing of the Face of God Rev. 22.4 They shall see his Face Sometimes it is set forth by our becoming like unto God and seeing him as he is so in 1 John 3.2 Now says the Apostle we are the Sons of God but it doth not no nor can it yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him for we shall see him as he is These are some of those great and glorious those deep and mysterious Expressions by which that unknown Happiness of the Saints in the Vision of God is set forth to us in Scripture What is comprehended in these great and mighty I had almost said almighty Expressions of seeing God of beholding him Face to Face of being made like unto him and seeing him as he is at present we are much in the dark about being beyond the reach of our finite Understandings Certain it is that there is something of an extraordinary Happiness intended unto the People of God thereby but how full how glorious an Happiness it is and in what way and manner it shall be communicated to them are things that pose our Reason and nonplus our Understanding to search into the bottom of O this great Word GOD as it signifies the Divine Essence and Being and as it holds forth a Happiness that shall be communicated unto the People of God according to the meaning of those Expressions before-mentioned of seeing of God of beholding him Face to Face of being made like unto him and seeing him as he is of which our Ignorance at present is greater than our Knowledge I say this great Word GOD hath more in it than all other Words can express to us yea there is more in it than all the Understandings of Men or Angels can unfold to us A Happiness there is contained in it that is so great as can only be known and understood by the Enjoyment of it yea it is a Happiness so great as shall never be fully understood no not by those that enjoy it for from this Blessed Vision of God which Glorified Souls always behold there shall continually arise such fresh Discoveries of new and glorious Excellencies in the Divine Being as shall ravish the Saints with new Joys and Pleasures to all Eternity In speaking to this Vision of the Saints I shall endeavour to explain these Two Things First What kind of Sight or Vision of God the Saints shall have in Heaven Secondly Wherein it doth appear that this Sight and Vision of God will be so great a Happiness to the Saints in Heaven First What kind of Sight or Vision of God the Saints shall have in Heaven Now to this I Answer First The Saints Vision of God in Heaven will be immediate and clear What Representations the Saints have of God in this Life comes to them by the interposition of some Means by which God is pleased to make himself known which is a dark and imperfect way of Revelation though suitable to our present State compared with what the Saints shall have in Heaven In this Life the People of God see him as the Spouse saw her Beloved through the Lattice Cant. 2.9 Or as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 13.12 Through a Glass that is darkly and indeed it can be no otherwise because it is through a Glass Now the Word of God is a Glass in which great Discoveries are made of God The Works of God also are another Glass held before our Faces continually in which we may see more of his Excellencies and Perfections displayed But neither in the Word of God nor in the Works of God is God so clearly discovered to us as he shall be to the Saints in Heaven While we are in this World God makes use of the Ministry of Men like our selves to instruct us in the knowledge of himself and though they may do something towards the enlightning of our Minds and the building up of our Souls in the Knowledge and Love of God when assisted by the Spirit of God yet is it but little that they themselves know of God and therefore is it but little that they can communicate unto others So saith the Apostle and he puts himself into the number 1 Cor. 12.9 We know but in part and therefore We prophesie but in part As if the Apostle had said There are great and glorious things to be known hereafter when we come to Heaven but at present our shallow Understandings cannot reach them All that we can do in our present state is to receive and take in a little knowledge of them to know in part And according to that Knowledge which we have such is the Knowledge we communicate unto others we know but in part and therefore we prophesie but in part This now is the present state of a Christian and the highest he can attain to in this World to know something of God to have some Sight of the Divine Excellencies and Perfections but it is but mediately and but in part not immediately and clearly as the Saints shall do in Heaven This is indeed according to their present Capacity and according to their present Necessity but not according to what shall be It is according to their present Capacity that is according to what they can bear for should God make immediate Discoveries of himself unto us this would sink and overwhelm our Beings and we should not be able to bear up under them It is also suitable to the Saints Necessities for when a Soul is begotten again by the Word of Truth unto a lively hope of Glory and Immortality the building up of that Soul in Grace and Holiness that it may be sit for the Vision and Enjoyment of God is to be carried on gradually in the Use of Means and Ordinances instituted and appointed by God for that End and Purpose But as it is in a Building when that which is designed thereby is accomplished and perfected the Scaffolding and other Instruments that are made use of for the erecting thereof are all taken down and removed out of the way So is it here while Believers are in the way to Heaven that is in a state of Preparation for the Enjoyment of God Means and Ordinances are necessary but when they are come to Heaven these things are at an end Prophesying and Teaching shall there cease as the Apostle speaks there being no use of them in Heaven because Believers are there come to their perfect State and God will there communicate himself to them immediately and clearly In Heaven God unvails himself to the Saints displays himself to them in his Glory according to their ability to receive and bear it and that which adds much to their Happiness in this blessed Vision of God is this That there the Understandings of the Saints shall be enlarged and strengthened that they may be able to take in according to what a finite Capacity can bear of the Fruition of an infinite God in which Vision and Enjoyment of God they shall be spending an Eternity with everlasting Joy and Delight Secondly The Saints Vision of God in Heaven will be transforming not barely speculative or notional but influential and operative upon the Mind and Soul By seeing God we shall become like him It is not so with us here if a deformed Man look upon the
God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 And says our Lord My Sheep hear my Voice and they follow me and I give unto them eternal Life Rom. 6.23 The Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mortality is the Disgrace of all earthly Enjoyments To a carnal Eye indeed the things of this World appear great and glorious but the brevity and shortness of their continuance should not only disparage but render them contemptible to a gracious Soul No Man can greatly delight in that which he knows will quickly be taken from him It must needs spoil our carnal Mirth and Jollity when we find our pleasant and delightful things dying in our hands No Man can cast a greater Reproach and Disgrace upon any thing of the greatest Excellency than to call it a frail perishing thing Now such are all worldly Enjoyments they will soon be at an end for as the Apostle speaks they pass away yea they will quickly not be at all What says the Psalmist Psal 39.6 Surely every Man walketh in a vain shew he disquieteth himself in vain he heapeth up Riches and knows not who shall enjoy them Why wicked Men reckon that they themselves shall enjoy them It is true they do so but so short and uncertain is the Life of Man that the Psalmist doth as it were pass by him that is the gainer of them as one not fit to be mentioned for an enjoyer of what he hath taken so much pains for because by that time he hath with great toil and labour and it may be with a great deal of sin and guilt also obtained what he desired his Life is at an end and he forced to leave it unto others but who shall enjoy it he knows not O this shortness of our Lives and the uncertainty of our Enjoyment of all wordly Things should put a check to our eager pursuits after them for they and we must soon part again There may be indeed some ignorant and forgetful Persons who may have no such sad and melancholy Thoughts to disturb them in their carnal Pleasures and Delights and such may for the present be outwardly merry and jovial but what will become of this Mirth and Jollity when they come to lie upon a Death-bed It will be but a poor relief that the Thoughts of having enjoyed abundance of worldly Things will yield unto any at such a time It 's a sorry Happiness and that which deserves not the Name of it that consists in an ignorance or forgetfulness of an approaching Misery But now in Heaven a Saint's Happiness is eternal Once in Heaven and for ever there Oh blessed Eternity Happy are those Souls that arrive in that state of perfect Bliss for none are there perplexed with any sad and melancholy Thoughts nor are the Joys of those blessed ones interrupted with any Fears of the Expiration of their Happiness All that enter into that holy Place become Pillars in the Temple of God where they abide for ever Rev. 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the house of my God and he shall go out no more Into that earthly Paradise wherein God put our first Parents there was a way out but no way in again But into the Heavenly Paradise there is a way in even a pleasant and delightful way unto Believers though a thorny and bloody way unto Christ But there is no way out again What says Abraham to the rich Man in Hell Luke 16.26 They that would pass from hence unto you cannot What a strange kind of Expression is that Can it be thought that any would pass from Heaven a place of inexpressible Joy and Happiness unto Hell a place of inexpressible Misery and Torment if they might Certainly Hell is not a place so desirable nor is Heaven a place so contemptible that any of those happy Souls that are now in Glory should be desirous to make an Exchange of the Bliss and Happiness of the one for the Pain and Torment of the other No that is not the meaning of the place but it is an Expression spoken only to shew the impossibility of the Saints losing the Happiness of Heaven They may as well be thought to be covetous of exchanging the Happiness of that blessed place for the Anguish and Torment of the Damned in Hell as it can be supposed that they should ever be deprived of the Happiness of Heaven for says Abraham if it were possible to suppose this of the Saints in Heaven that they should be willing to do this yet says he They cannot that is they cannot nor shall not to Eternity ever lose the Happiness they enjoy in Heaven Misery it self to Eternity may as soon be desired and embraced by them as Happiness it self can be supposed to be parted with and lost by them For they that would come from us to you cannot Oh happy and blessed State who would not with the greatest diligence contend to be a partaker of it O my Soul loose then thy hold of the World and all the Enjoyments thereof All thy Pleasures and Delights here below are but Dreams and Fancies compared with what the Saints shall Eternally enjoy in Heaven Chearfully therefore quit thy Interest in what is but appearing and uncertain for that which hath the greatest Reality and Permanency in it Let it not grieve thee that thou partest with thy dearest Friends and Relations nay let it not trouble thee tho' thou partest with thy life it self if thy parting with these be the way of God's appointment through which thou must pass to enter upon that State and Condition where not only all thy Fears and Troubles shall cease and come to an end but where they shall all be changed into an Eternity of Joy and Delight as they shall most certainly be in Heaven And now O Christian Reader let me persuade thee for some little time once a day to withdraw thy self from the World and the business and affairs thereof and seriously consider with thy self of this great Word or rather State of Eternity Doth it not highly concern thee nay is there any thing that can be of greater moment unto thee than to know how it shall go with thee to all Eternity Holy Souls are sure to enjoy a state of Eternal Happiness in Heaven this the Scripture abundantly confirms and thou thy self dost believe to be a great Truth but is this state of Eternal Happiness like to be thine hast thou it made sure unto thee upon such grounds as will not deceive thee another day That an Eternal State doth abide thee is beyond all doubting but whether is it a State of Eternal Happiness or Eternal Misery is the great question thou art to be resolved in Consider O Soul it is thy being Eternally in either of these states that will make thee Miserable or Happy indeed It is not thy being among the Damned in Hell comparatively that will make thee miserable but
this World wicked men at once both vex and laugh at the Purity and Holiness of the Saints inwardly they vex and fret at it though outwardly in their Speeches and Countenances they laugh and deride it Yea and to some it is though it be a Devilish Contentment to them that they can reproach the Defects of the Godly Should such as these enter Heaven while they are such Heaven would be a place of exact Torture and Torment to them because there they would find nothing of that Sin and Wickedness which is agreeable to their corrupt Hearts and Natures but contrarily all that Purity and Holiness which they hate yea and nothing but perfect Purity and Holiness which hath no defects for them to abuse O the woful and deplorable but withal certain and unavoidable Misery of all unregenerate unsanctified persons for tho' Heaven be a place of unconceivable Bliss and Happiness yet Heaven it self cannot make such as they are happy Tell me O all ye wicked and prophane wretches who think no time mispent or lost but what is thrown away in Holy Duties that grudge at every word spoken in Prayer that think much of every sand in the Glass that runs at a Sermon and unto whom every Summons to the publick Service of God is as unacceptable as their Passing Bell that cry when will the Sabbath be gone and the Ordinances be over What would you do in Heaven or what can such unholy hearts as yours do there where a Sabbath shall not be barely as long as a day or a week or a year but as long as Eternity it self where there shall be nothing but a continual performance of Holy Duties and Services without so much as one spare minute or a vain thought or an idle word for ever where whatsoever you shall hear see or converse with shall be all Holy And let me add this by how much the more perfect the Holiness of Heaven is than what the Holiness of the Saints here on Earth was by so much the more irksome and intolerable will it be to the wicked for if their sore Eyes cannot endure the light of a Star how will they be able to bear the dazling brightness of the Sun Secondly Wicked men are not only unsuitable to the Work of Heaven but they are unsuitable to the Reward of Heaven The Work of Heaven is Holy and Spiritual and so is the Reward of Heaven a Holy and Spiritual Reward and it lies chiefly in two things both of them unsuitable to a wicked and carnal heart one is a clear and constant Vision of the Great and Blessed God and the other is an unconceivable entireness of Communion and Fellowship with him Now of all things in the World these are the things which as unboly Persons are unacquainted with so of all things in the World they cannot endure to speak of each of these briefly First For the Reward of Heaven that consists in a clear constant Vision of the Great God this a Sinner cannot bear Nothing is more terrible to a guilty Sinner than the sight of a Righteous and Holy God The Scripture acquaints us that many of God's own People have had dreadful apprehensions of God upon some though but restrained discoveries that he hath been pleased to make of himself unto them Thus Job in Job 42.5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye sees thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes So the Prophet Esay cries out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts And when our Saviour put forth his Divine Power in the working of a Miracle the Glory of it was so terrible that Holy Peter cries out Luke 6. Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man What was it now that made these Holy Men so full of fear and trembling upon these discoveries of God Why it was only from a likeness that was in them unto Wicked men from those remainders of Sin and Corruption that still abide in them whereby they too much resemble ungodly men which Grace in this life cannot perfectly destroy Adam in Innocency had not nor have the Saints in Heaven any such dreadful apprehensions of God No Adam then did and the Saints in Heaven shall for ever enjoy the smiles of God's face beaming forth upon them If now the faint and weak discoveries of God that he hath made of himself unto Holy Men be so astonishing O what a confounding sight will it be unto Sinners to have all the Glorious Attributes of God break forth in a full flash of Lightning not only upon the Faces but into the Consciences of Sinners and when particularly among the rest of them they shall behold that dreadful Attribute his provoked Justice not only sworn but armed with Power and bent for their Destruction Is this such a Sight of God and wicked men shall behold no other as will make Heaven desirable unto Sinners surely it is not O that such would think of it before it be too late Secondly Another part of the Reward of Heaven stands in that unconceivable entireness of Communion and Fellowship with God which the Saints there enjoy This is their great Happiness both on Earth and in Heaven Holy David therefore tells us He had none in Heaven but God and that there was none on Earth that he desired in comparison of him And the Apostle speaking of himself and other Believers saith Their Fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And O how sweet and delightful are those intercourses that pass between God and Holy Souls in the Duties of his Worship and Service O what blessed exchanges of Love for Love what returns of Obedience and Praise for Grace and Mercy received which is the sweetness of every Duty and that which powerfully draws and engages Holy Souls to the daily performance of them And in Heaven in self the fulness and perfection of the Saints Happiness is that there they shall be for ever with the Lord. Now these Spiritual and Heavenly Enjoyments wicked men are not only unsuitable to but they are things which they also hate they were ever strangers to them here on Earth and how then shall they be fit for them in Heaven Certainly for wicked men to be tyed up to such Spiritualities as these will make Heaven it self but an uncomfortable place to them But though wicked Men are neither fitted for the Work nor suited to the Reward of Heaven yet is there both a Work and a Reward in Heaven that remains to be performed and enjoyed by the People of God That Heaven is a Place of Rest Ease and Refreshment is the common and received Notion that all Men have of it but that is not all that the Happiness of Heaven is made up of For it is not only a place of Rest but it is also a place
CHAP. III. Further Discoveries of the Saints Happiness in Heaven manifested in their being freed 1. From all Afflictons 2. From all Temptations both from Satan and the World 3. In a perfect freedom from all Sin 4. In a Perfection of Grace and Holiness 5. In partaking of fullness of Joy being Pure Spiritual Full and Everlasting 6. In Excellent Glory and Honour that shall then be put upon them CHAP. IV. Of the Resurrection of the Body in order to the Saints Enjoyment of the Happiness of Heaven A more particular Description of the Happiness of the Bodies of the Saints in Heaven which shall there be 1. Incorruptible 2. Spiritual 3. Powerful 4. Beautiful Of the Happiness of the Soul in Heaven as 1. In having its Vnderstanding enlarged 2. In its being perfected in Holiness 3. In having its Affections brought into a perfect Regularity Of the Eternity of the Saints Happiness in Heaven CHAP. V. Of the Efficient Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven namely the Free Grace of God Of the Meritorious Cause of the Saints Happiness namely the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Of the Final Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven namely the Glory of God Holiness the Saints great Qualification for Heaven Wicked Men unsuitable to the Work of Heaven and to the Reward of Heaven both which are Holy In Heaven there is both an Eternal Work for Saints to be employed in and an Eternal Reward for Saints to enjoy CHAP. VI. A Resolution of some Questions as 1. Whether the Saints shall know one another in Heaven 2. Whether there are different degrees of Glory in Heaven 3. How the Saints are said to be equal with and like unto the Angels in Heaven 4. In what respects Heaven is called a Reward or Recompence Some useful and necessary Inferences from the consideration of that Happiness the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven deduced in order unto Practice as 1. Hopes of Heaven should make the World contemptible unto Believers 2. None that expect Heaven hereafter should be offended at any thing they meet with in their way thither 3. Expectations of Heaven should make Christians live as those that are Heirs of so great a Happiness 4 Frequent Thoughts and Meditations of Heaven should possess the Minds of those that hope to partake of the Happiness of Heaven 5. The Greatness of the Happiness of Heaven should put Christians upon Examing of themselves what Right and Title they have thereunto 6. Hopes and Expectations of Heaven hereafter should Reconcile to Believers the Thoughts of their own Death and moderate their Sorrows for the Death of their Godly Friends and Relations 7. Hopes of Heaven should put Christians upon unwearied diligence in the Service of God that is attended with such a Reward 8. The Consideration of so great a Happiness as Heaven is should cause in all Believers a Holy longing of Soul after the Enjoyment of it The Conclusion THE GLORY AND HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS CHAP. I. The Introduction A State of future Glory and Happiness proved What it is that makes the Happiness of Heaven so excellent and glorious in a short and brief Description thereof THE framing a Discourse of Heaven that Place of inexpressible Bliss and Happiness the Portion of Holy and Righteous Persons to Eternity is a Work fitter for an Angel one of those Heavenly Courtiers who have ever since their Creation and for many Ages and Generations now past been happy partakers of that blissful State than the lisping and stammering of any mortal Tongue Sense here being the best Orator and they fittest to describe Heaven unto others who live in the fruition of it themselves And indeed all Discourses of this nature by poor frail Creatures are rather a darkning and diminution of that Glory and Happiness than an ample Illustration or Discovery what it is And when the People of God shall come to the enjoyment thereof they will soon find themselves wonderfully but happily deceived by the most glorious Descriptions that ever were laid before them What the Prophet saith in Hab. 3. where after he had given us a short description of some of the glorious Excellencies and Perfections of God he tells us in the 4th Verse His Brightness was as the Light that he had Horns coming out of his hands which usually are a signification of Strength and Might but says the Prophet There was the hiding of his Power As if he had said Whatever Strength and Might God had thereby put forth it was so far from manifesting the fulness and greatness thereof that it was rather a Hiding than a Revelation of his Power there being infinitely more Power in him than was ever yet put forth by him The like may truly be said concerning Heaven and its Glory and Excellency Take all the Descriptions that since the Creation of the World have been made of the Glory and Happiness thereof and put them all together and we may say of them all that they rather hide and eclipse the Glory of Heaven than any way come near to a manifestation of the Fulness and Excellency thereof still is there infinitely more hid from us than can possibly thereby be made known to us Heaven is like God himself an infinite Good and Happiness and so cannot be fully known or enjoyed by any who are but of finite Capacities and Understanding And therefore after all that we have heard thereof from Men or received from God himself either by what he hath revealed to us in his Word or secretly elapsed down immediately into our Souls by his Spirit yet what holy Job saith of God we may say of the Heaven of God Oh how little a Portion of it is known And therefore those Words of St. Paul need not be looked upon with admiration when he tells us Phil. 1.23 he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ that is in Heaven where God and Christ are known and enjoyed for that is it which makes Heaven so desirable yea to be best of all as the same Apostle speaks For why should any think it strange that the blessed Apostle who had been wrapt up into the Third Heaven by extraordinary priviledge as well as in an extraordinary manner and there heard and saw so much of that Glory and Happiness that was there enjoyed as that himself said was unutterable that he should long after a fuller enjoyment of it Christians who profess their Hopes and Happiness is laid up in Heaven should rather wonder at his willingness to abide here any longer in the Flesh And certainly had not Love yea great Love to him who had prepared and purchased so great and inexpressible a Happiness for him wrought very powerfully in him it may seem almost impossible that Heaven and St. Paul should have been kept longer asunder if any thing in him or to be done or suffered by him could have brought him thither sooner than his appointed time Great and glorious things doth the Scripture
and Glory exalted in our Nature at the Right Hand of God through whose meritorious Undertakings we come to be presented unto God and to stand in his Presence with Confidence and Joy as having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing There are the glorious Angels the Cherubims and Seraphims with all the glorified Saints and Servants of God that have lived in all Ages of the World as Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles who are always standing round about the Throne of God crying Alleiuja Praise Honour and Glory unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore In Heaven there is not only a perfect freedom from all Sin but from all Inclinations yea from all Temptations thereunto Grace and Holiness are there in their Fulness in their Perfection and Glory There it is that this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on Immortality There it is that these vile Bodies of ours shall be made like unto the glorious Body of Jesus Christ There it is that these Souls of ours shall be enlarged in their utmost Capacities and Desires and yet filled and satisfied to the utmost also There it is that there is fulness of Joy excellency of Glory with an Eternity of Enjoyment of both This now is the Building of God that House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 This is that Kingdom that is to be inherited by the People of God prepared for them from the foundation of the World Matth. 25.46 This is that City that hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 The Streets whereof are paved with Gold and the Gates whereof are Pearl Rev. 21.21 In which there is no Temple for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Where there is no more Night no more Candle nor any need of the Sun or of the Moon to shine in it for the Lord God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 22.5 This now is Heaven and much more than all this for when we have spent all our Days and Time in Hearing in Reading in Discoursing in Meditating upon Heaven and upon nothing else yet after we have done all we can said all we can thought all we can yet can we never set forth the Thousandth Part of that Happiness that is to be enjoyed in Heaven for it is that which is beyond expression beyond imagination but blessed be God it is not beyond enjoyment for the having and possessing of these things in their Fulness in their Perfection and in their Perpetuity is that which as it makes the Happiness of Heaven so excellent and glorious so doth it make it also so desirable to be enjoyed CHAP. II. A more particular Consideration of the Happiness of Heaven Of the Company and Society Believers shall enjoy in Heaven as 1. Communion with all the People of God 2. Communion with Angels 3. Enjoyment of Jesus Christ their Redeemer 4. Sight and Fruition of God What kind of Sight or Vision of God Saints shall have in Heaven Which shall be 1. Immediate and clear 2. Transforming 3. Joyful 4. Permanent and perpetual This Sight and Vision of God in Heaven will be a great Happiness because God is 1. An Vniversal Good 2. A Pure and Vnmixed Good 3. A Suitable Good 4 An All sufficient Good 5. A Satisfying Good 6. An Everlasting Good HAving in the Conclusion of the Former Chapter laid down a brief Description of Heaven and the Happiness thereof I now come to a more particular distinct handling of the several Branches of it Now here the First Thing that I shall instance in as a Part of that Happiness is the Company and Society that the Saints shall eternally enjoy in Heaven Which is comprehended in these Four Particulars Fellowship with all the Saints Communion with Angels The Sight of Jesus Christ as our Blessed and Glorious Redeemer And the eternal Vision and Enjoyment of God himself First The Happiness of Believers in Heaven consists in their Fellowship and Society with the Saints and People of God that have lived in all Ages of the World The Communion of Saints and the great Delight the People of God have taken therein is that we often read of in Scripture Holy David speaks of it with great pleasure Psal 42.4 I went says he to the House of God with the voice of Joy and Praise But why so it was says he with a Multitude that kept Holy-Day Such Society were the Delight of his Soul Psal 16.3 But to the Saints the excellent ones of the Earth in whom is all my Delight O how rejoycingly doth his Soul speak when such Company came unto him I was glad when they said unto me Come let us go up unto the House of the Lord Psal 122.1 It is true David's greatest Delight was in God and in the enjoyment of him and therefore says he I will go unto God my exceeding Joy and Chear Psal 42.4 But next unto God the People of God and Communion with them were those he most esteemed And therefore though his going to the House of God was chiefly to meet with God whom his Soul did most pant and breath after yet was it no small matter of Joy to him that he went to the House of God in such Company And if the People of God now be accounted by a Godly man to be such delightful Company here on Earth whilst Sin as well as Grace is in them in conjunction O how delightful will their Company be in Heaven when they shall be free from all Sin and Corruption having nothing but Grace in them in Perfection Here on Earth the Communion of Saints is sweet and desirable though mixed with Communion with the World so that while we have Fellowship with them we are to have Fellowship with Sinners at the same time and indeed there is no Society so pure and holy but there are and will be a Number of unholy ones among them To be full of Holiness our selves and to have none but holy ones in our company is a desirable thing on Earth but enjoyed only in Heaven Here the Chaff and the Wheat must grow together All that are now called by the Name of the Lord are not all holy but Saints and Sinners dwell together in the same House sit together at the same Table lie together in the same Bed yea eat both of the same Spiritual Meat and drink the same Spiritual Drink enjoy the same Ordinances partake of the same Sacrament even the Body and Blood of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ So that the People of God though they have Communion one with another yet have they Fellowship with Sinners also And this will always be the state of the People of God while they are here But now in Heaven Believers shall have Communion with the Saints and Servants of God and with none but them for all Sinners shall be eternally excluded out
of that holy Plaee no thing or person that is defiled or polluted shall ever enter there and certainly this must needs be sweet and delightful Were it a thing that we might suppose possible as indeed it is not that here we could have Communion with the People of God and with them only yet the best of them have now so many Weaknesses and Imperfections as would render the purest Society of them sometimes uncomfortable for here being in their imperfect state they must be born withal in many things for they are still Men subject to like Passions and Infirmtiies with others Moses a Man eminent for Meekness so that there was none like him on Earth yet sometimes spake unadvisedly with his lips Job a patient Man even to a Proverb yet had sometimes his Fits of Impatience and Discontent Jonah a Prophet of the Lord yet very froward and peevish and justifies his Passion and Anger not only before Men but even unto the Face of God himself saying I do well to be angry even unto the death Yea most if not all the Saints and People of God mentioned in Scripture though eminent for Grace and Holiness yet have they had some Sins some Infirmities or other recorded of them that it might be known they were Men yea sinful Men also as well as Saints and if we expect Communion with any while we are here that are not Sinners as well as Saints we must then go out of the world as the Apostle speaks for all the People of God here have Flesh in them as well as Spirit Sin and Corruption in them as well as Grace and Holiness And yet notwithstanding all their Frailties and Infirmities they are still the best Company and Fellowship and Society with them most desirable And if while they have their Spots their Stains upon them their Company is so excellent and desirable what shall they be when they shall be free from all their Imperfections when they shall have no Ignorance no Blindness no Pride no Impatience no Spots no Blemishes nor any thing whereby they may be polluted or defiled but shall be adorned and beautified with all Grace and Holiness in the Fulness and Perfection of it Surely then their Company must needs be far more desirable yea even a kind of a little Heaven it self Secondly The Happiness of Believers in Heaven consists in their Communion with Angels the highest the noblest and most excellent of God's Creatures The Welfare of Man is that in which the Angels delight When Man was at first created those Morning-Stars sang together and those Sons of God as holy Job speaks shouted for joy Job 38.7 When Jesus Christ the Saviour of Mankind came into the World for this very end and purpose that he might be a Redeemer unto Man it is said that a multitude of the Heavenly Host joyned together in praising of God saying Glory to God on high on Earth Peace and Good Will towards Man Luke 2.13 And when any Sinners are turned unto God there is joy says our Lord among those Blessed Spirits Luke 15.10 This Heavenly Host of God now as the Apostle speaks rejoyce to be ministring Spirits unto the Saints Heb. 1.14 They are therefore called Ministring Spirits sent forth by God to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation Many Offices of Love and Kindness they do for the People of God now when they are in danger which they cannot observe nor take notice of for though their Help and Assistance be always real as to the effect and operation thereof yet is it always invisible as to their knowledge and observation it being impossible for them to understand how often and after what manner they are employed by God for their Benefit The Angels are the continual Guardians and Attendants of the People of God while they are in this world hence therefore our Lord bids those he spake to in Matt. 18.10 Take heed that they offended not any of those little ones that believed in him for says he in heaven their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in heaven And that the Angels do protect and defend the People of God here is very clear in Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them And that 's a great Scripture and adds much to the confirmation of the Happiness of the People of God both in respect of their Fellowship with the Saints and their Communion with the Angels in Heaven in Heb. 12.22 23. Ye are come unto Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just men made perfect While we carry about with us these earthly Tabernacles of our Bodies we are scarce capable of Communications with such spiritual heavenly Creatures but at Death the Saints shall know their old Friends and Fellow-Servants and then those Heavenly and Triumphant Chariots shall carry up their departed Souls with Shoutings and Acclamations of Joy into the Presence of God where they shall make Relations of the strange and wonderful Providences of God towards them while they were here and joyn together in the high Praises of God for evermore In this world the sight of one Angel though a Messenger of Peace and one that brings good Tidings along with him yet doth cause Fear and Amazement But in Heaven the Saints shall behold all the Angels of God and that not only without Dread and Horrour but with Joy and Delight as being their Fellow-Creatures with whom they shall eternally maintain a blessed Communion and Correspondency And oh what happy and delightful Company will those Glorious Creatures be in whom there is nothing but what is Amiable and Lovely yea nothing but what is Admirable and Wonderful And though this Communion with Angels be a part of that Happiness which the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven and a Truth of great Certainty yet the Way and Manner of the Saints converse with them there is very dark and obscure and that to which we are now altogether strangers Let therefore the Certainty thereof suppress our Curiosity and satisfie our Minds until we come thither when we shall have a full Revelation and Enjoyment thereof together being made not only like unto but equal with the Angels Thirdly The Happiness of the Saints in Heaven lies in this that there they shall have a Sight and Enjoyment of Jesus Christ as their Blessed and Glorious Redeemet Now this is a Happiness so great that a Saint cannot but account himself recompensed with infinite Gain and Advantage though he lost his Life in the attaining of it Christ says the Apostle Col. 3.11 is all in all It was doubtless a blessed and glorious sight to behold the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here upon Earth when in the days of his Flesh he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a Servant for certainly he was the comiiest Person
expression what will be the Joy of the Beatifical Vision of God in Heaven If now the believing Soul doth so greatly rejoyce in hearing from its Lord and Saviour in preaching and reading of his Word wherein there are such secret Messages of Love sent down from Heaven unto it O what will be the Joy of such a Soul in seeing him and dwelling with him for ever It shall never be said unto the Saints in Heaven what our Lord said unto his Disciples Hitherto you have asked nothing ask and you shall receive that your Joy may be full No the Joys of the Blessed in Heaven are always perfect and full For how can it be otherwise when there is nothing in Heaven but what is Matter of Joy to the Saints They are there in their Father's House come to the Inheritance and Possession of Children in an everlasting glorious Kingdom where they continually behold the Face of God and of the Lamb. The Joys of Heaven far exceed not only all earthly Joys such as the Joy of Marriage the Joy of Harvest but the Joy of Ordinances the Joy of Faith yea the Joy of the Holy Ghost All these Joys are swallowed up in Heaven and are almost as no Joys compared with the Joys thereof for in that holy Place there is nothing to disturb or to diminish the Joys of the Saints for ever O why then do not the People of God more fetch their Joys and Delights from Heaven while they are here This if any thing should comfort their Hearts and support their Spirits under all the Troubles they meet with here for though this World he a Valley of Tears yet in Heaven there will be Fulness of Joy and Rivers of Pleasures of which they may drink as deep and take in as much as their Hearts can hold though enlarged to their utmost capacity Fourthly The Joys of Heaven are permanent and everlasting and this makes it full Consolation indeed When our Lord told his Disciples he was to leave them and to return to Heaven unto his Father their Hearts were filled with Sorrow thereupon what course now doth our Lord take to comfort them Why he tells them John 16.20 Their Sorrow should be turned into Joy But when was this to be Why it was when he should come again and receive them to himself Not that they were to be without comfort until then no for he tells them when he departed he would send the Comforter to them who was to continue with them while they continued in the World But the Fulness and Perfection of their Joy they were to wait for till they come to Heaven and then when he shall come for that end and purpose to receive them to himself their Hearts should rejoyce and their Joy no Man should take from them for at God's right hand there are Pleasures for evermore A Believer hath always cause of Rejoycing in God but by reason of many sharp Trials that God sees good to lay upon his People there are some sad interruptions of his Joy for a time The Joy that the People of God partake of in this Life is like the Joy of the Husbandman in time of Harvest which though it be great for the present yet is it soon over and if he expect to partake of any more of the same nature he must first be at the pains and trouble of a Seeds-time So after the People of God have had their Joys here they again sow in Tears before they receive another crop of Comfort It is in Heaven only that our Joy will be everlasting there is fulness of Joy without any mixture of Sorrow a continual Feast a Joy that is ever in fulness and perfection even as the Fruits are in time of Harvest A Believer shall never sow in Tears there but have a perpetual Joy without weariness because there shall continually arise infinite variety of fresh Delights in God which shall fill the Soul with a continual Festival of Joy for ever Sixthly In Heaven the Saints shall partake of excellent Glory and Honour Heaven is the Palace of the great King of Glory the Presence-Chamber where he unvails himself and manifests his Glory both to Saints and Angels and this indeed is the most glorious Sight in Heaven and that which makes Heaven to be the most glorious Place We read in Acts 6.15 That when Stephen stood before the Councel his Face did shine with an Angelical Brightness This was a glorious Sight to see the Face of a Man to shine as the Face of an Angel But this is nothing compared with that Glory with which the Saints shall shine when they shall stand before the great God of Heaven seeing him face to face The Scripture describing to us this part of the Saints Happiness in Heaven abounds with variety of Expressions that discover the Greatness and Excellency thereof Thus the Saints Glory there is set forth by the Glory of Kings at their Coronation and taking possession of their Kingdoms which is the greatest and highest of all worldly Glory Every Saint in Heaven is a Crowned King having taken possession of a glorious Kingdom prepared for them before the foundations of the world when also they receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Sometimes it is described by the Glory of the Sun Thus our Lord tells us Matth. 13.43 The Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Sometimes it is compared to the Glory of the Angels who as they excel in strength so do they also excel in Glory all the Princes of the Earth Hence we read the Saints in Heaven shall not only he like unto but equal with the Angels Luke 22.36 Sometimes also this Glory of the Saints is set forth by the Glory of Christ himself who is the Lord of Glory which is the highest pitch of Glory that can be Thus we read that when Christ shall come at the last Day to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in them that believe the Saints also shall then appear with him in Glory Col. 3.4 Shining gloriously by reason of his Glory that he will put upon them for then shall they be made like unto him for ever seeing him as he is so says the Apostle 1 John 3.12 Sometimes the Glory of Heaven is called a weight of Glory so we read 2 Cor. 4.17 An exceeding excessive eternal weight of Glory High Expressions setting forth the Glory of Heaven and almost to an Hyperbole but that Christ and Heaven can never be Hyperbolically expressed Sometimes again this glorious State of Believers is called Eternal Glory 2 Tim 2.10 That they may attain that Salvation that is in Christ with eternal Glory So 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all Grace who hath called you to his eternal Glory Worldly Honour and Glory is transitory inconstant and vanishing The Fashion of the World passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 And the Glory of Man says St. Peter is as the Flower of
the Grass which flourisheth for a while but is soon withered and gone 1 Pet. 1.24 But the heavenly Glory is permanent and perpetual a Flower that never withers Saints shall receive a Crown that fadeth not away CHAP. IV. Of the Resurrection of the Body in order to the Saints Happiness in Heaven A more particular Description of the Happiness of the Bodies of the Saints in Heaven which shall there be 1. Incorruptible 2. Spiritual 3. Powerful 4. Beautiful Of the Happiness of the Soul in Heaven which consists 1. In having its Vnderstanding enlarged 2. In its being perfected in Holiness 3. In having its Affections brought into a perfect Regularity Of the Eternity of the Saints Happiness in Heaven A Discourse of the Happiness of Heaven is like the breaking of the Bread by our Saviour in his miraculous feeding so many Thousands with a few Loaves and a few small Fishes which multiplied and increased by being broken And so doth the Happiness of Heaven by being search'd into for the more we look into it the more we discover of its Excellency and Perfection In this blessed Search much of Sweetness and Delightfulness hath been found out already but upon farther Enquiry into what the Scripture reveals concerning it we shall find much more than what hath hitherto been discovered Now that which presents it self to us as the Matter of our Discourse in this Chapter is the Consideration of the Subject of this Happiness in Heaven and that is the Bodies and Souls of the Righteous I begin with the First of these and that is to shew That the Bodies of the Righteous shall be the Subject of the Happiness of Heaven Now before the Body can be a partaker of this Biessedness it must first have a Resurrection from the Grave for till that be done it is not capable of enjoying the Glory and Happiness of Heaven Now that there shall be a Resurrection of the Body out of the Dust notwithstanding the seeming difficulties yea impossibilities also unto Sense and carnal Reason is very clear from the Scripture which though it be not against Reason yet is it in many things above Reason as it seems to be in this particular case and therefore though a Christian is not here wholly to lay aside his Reason yet must he chiefly make use of his Faith in this Point yet were it my Employment to treat of this Subject I doubt not but it might be demonstratively proved That the Resurrection of the Body is a great Truth not only by Scripture but by Reason also though when all that is or can be said our chief Light and Knowledge into this great Truth must and doth come from Divine Revelation But this is not my Work at present being only discoursing of it as a necessary Introduction to the Happiness that the Body shall be a partaker of hereafter in Heaven which that it may it must of necessity first be raised from the dead Now the Resurrection of the Body is that which is the Inlet as it were to all its future Happiness and Glory The Bodies of the Saints are as the Apostle speaks sacred Temples wherein the Holy Ghost dwells and therefore God will not suffer them to lie buried always in forgetfulness It is true their Bodies do dissolve into dust in their Graves but it is as true they perish not there God takes notice of them then and even at that time is their Dust precious in his sight and so it will appear at the last Day when by his All-powerful voice he shall call them forth out of their Graves and raise them up thence shining with such excellent Beauty and Glory as shall exceed the Sun in its Brightness and Glory It is a very difficult thing to believe that the Bodies of Men some whereof have lain rotting in the Grave Thousands of Years and others whose Bodies have been eaten up of wild Beasts or burnt and consumed to Ashes by Fire and those Ashes blown up and down the Earth or into the Water by the Wind or that when so many Multitudes of Ages and Generations of Men dying one after another and their Dust mingled one with another should all of them rise again and the same several Parcels of Dust come together again to make up the same Bodies of Men as once they were before O how impossible is it that such a thing as this is says carnal Reason should ever come to pass Were this great and wonderful Work to be effected by the combined strength and power of all the Saints and Angels in Heaven we might despair of its accomplishment but when we consider who is the Undertaker of this great Work even the Great and Almighty God this may well silence all Objections that can be made against it For he hath undertaken it for whom nothing is impossible And as none of us know what God is in himself so none of us know what this great God can do As it is with the sowing of Seed when Men cast it into the ground they sow not as the Apostle saith that Body that shall be and if the Seed sown did spring up by chance it might possibly bear Wheat or some other Grain but says he God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him and to every Seed his own Body And so shall it be in the Resurrection at the last Day God raiseth up all Mens Bodies out of their Graves but this is not all but that every Man may have his own Body he giveth unto every Body it s own Dust And what reason is there that any should doubt of the Truth hereof For if a Gardener that hath a hundred several Seeds in his hand at once is able to distinguish between Seed and Seed Or if a skilful Chymist is able to extract one Metal out of another yea to take all the four Elements out of one and the same thing shall not the Almighty Omnipotent God be much more able to distinguish and separate one Man's Dust from another and give to every Man his own Dust Why then O why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should thus raise the Dead Consider a little who this God is one that is of infinite Power and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth both in Heaven and in Earth it is he that at first made the World out of nothing and cannot he rally together our lifeless Dust and scattered Bones and make them stand up and live surely he can Is he able to raise up Children unto Abraham out of stones as our Lord tells the Jews and can he not raise up our Bodies out of the same Dust into which they were dissolved Nay doth he not every day do as great Wonders as this is What is every Night but the Burial or Grave of the Light of the Day And what is every Morning but the Resurrection of the Day Again what is the cold Winter but the Death of the Fruits of the Earth And what is
Heaven is by the Apostle called an excessive weight of Glory Now it is not possible for a weak Head to bear an excessive weight of Glory What the Saints shall there see with their bodily Eyes is so excellent and glorious that it would now sink and overwhelm their weak Bodies to behold it Those ravishing Transports of Joy and Delight which glorified Souls shall have in the Vision of God will crack yea break a weak Vessel into pieces The Bodies of the Saints therefore must be made strong to bear the Glory of that Place otherwise the Excellency of the Object will destroy the Faculty When the Sun in the Firmament shines in its full strength the Glory of it is so great that the strongest Eye is not able to behold it but is soon overcome by its dazling Brightness O how much more unable then is any mortal Eye to see God and to behold his infinite Glory The Scripture therefore tells us He dwells in Light that is unapproachable 1 Tim. 6.16 And says the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. and 50. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Now by Flesh and Blood he doth not mean Sin and Corruption though that is very true but he means a Natural Body a Body as it is in this irail State so it cannot enter into Glory No the Soul must be purified and the Body must be spiritualized made powerful and strong before it can enter into Glory for otherwise it is not able to behold God and to enjoy the Glory and Happiness of Heaven Moreover the Bodies of the Saints must endure to all Eternity in Heaven and that without Reparation by Meats or Drinks or Sleep Doubtless therefore their Bodies at the Resurrection entring into a Place of so great Glory and Happiness as Heaven is shall be raised to a high and eminent degree of Power and Strength that they may be able to bear that weight of Glory that shall then be put upon them Fourthly The Bodies of the Saints in Heaven shall be Beautiful and Glorious The Words of the Apostle are very clear 1 Cor. 15.33 Speaking of the Body and that disgrace that it is brought under when thrown into the Grave it is sown says he in dishonour This indeed is but poor comfort to a Believer to think that his Body shall be vilified and disgraced in the Grave where it shall turn to corruption and rottenness But as if the Apostle had said Let not this trouble you for there will be a Time when the Body shall have a blessed Resurrection from that contempt and Disgrace that it now suffered under for though it be sown in dishonour yet it shall be raised in Glory and become a far more glorious and beautiful Body than ever it was here on Earth Some Glory and Majesty there is put upon the Bodies of Men now above the Bodies of all other Creatures in respect whereof our Bodies are said to be God's Workmanship Thy hands have made me and fashioned me says Job Yea they are said to be fearfully and wonderfully made and to be curiously wrought by God himself so we read Psal 139.14 15. But yet that Glory which the Bodies of the Saints now have is no Glory compared with that Glory that their Bodies shall be cloathed with in Heaven There is a vast difference between Celestial Bodies and Terrestrial Bodies How glorious is the Body of the Sun compared with the Body of a Worm or a Fly But there is a far greater difference between the Bodies of the Saints on Earth and the same Bodies when glorified in Heaven for then they shall become celestial and Heavenly Bodies shining with a Glory and Beauty that shall transcend the Stars yea the Sun in the Firmament The Apostle gives us the Sum of it in a few words Phil. 3.21 he tells us our Body of Christ They are now vile Bodies as he calls them made so by Sin being Instruments thereunto and they are Earthy because they bear the Image of the Earthly Adam but they shall be made Glorious Bodies because they shall for ever bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam the Lord Jesus Christ Exod. 34.29 We read when Moses had been in the Mount with God forty days and came down among the Israelites again his Face did shine so gloriously that they were not able to behold it Now if Moses's Body that was but a frail mortal Body and was shortly to lie in the Dust did by being with God for a little time shine so gloriously Oh with what Glory and Beauty shall the Bodies of the Saints shine in Heaven when they shall become immortal and enjoy the Presence of God with them to all eternity Secondly As the Body shall be a great sharer in the Glory and Happiness of Heaven so shall the Soul be also Not only the Excellency but the Capaciousness of the Soul renders it an Object of greater Happiness and Glory than the Body As the Soul is the more excellent part of a Saint than the Body so shall it have a more excellent Glory put upon it than the Body In Gen. 48.19 When Jacob was blessing the Two Sons of Joseph Manasseh and Ephraim Jacob tells Joseph that Manasseh the first-born should be a great Man but his Brother should be greater than he the same may be said of the Bodies and Souls of the Saints in Heaven It is true their Bodies shall be very beautiful and glorious but truly their Souls shall far excell them in Glory In Heaven the Bodies of the Saints shall be suited to and capacitated for that Glory and Happiness that is designed for and to be enjoyed by them there which now they are not But their Souls as they shall then take in more of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven than their Bodies so are they now in some measure but shall then be much more capacitated both to receive and bear the greatness of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven than the Body can or will be for the Happiness of Heaven being of a spiritual and refined Nature it is most suitable unto the spiritual part of Man which is his Soul And this is the Reason why we understand so little of the Happiness of the Soul in Heaven because it is spiritual Here we understand little what our Souls are and therefore can understand but little what that Happiness is that they shall attain to hereafter The Scripture calls it a Glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 The Sufferings of this present Life are not to be compared to the Glory that shall be revealed in us that is in the Soul A Glory and Happiness there is that waits for Believers in the other World but it is not yet revealed what or how great it shall be No says the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be but when Christ who is our Life shall appear we shall be like him The Beauty of the Soul will then be excellent and glorious because the
of Working It is true the Work there is not toilsome and laborious but sweet and pleasant and that makes the Saints delightfully spend an Eternity therein In Heaven therefore the Saints are to perform an eternal Work as they are there to enjoy an eternal Reward both go to the making up the Happiness of Heaven First In Heaven there is an eternal Work for the Saints to be employed in Much hath been said concerning that Happiness which the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven and more is there of Sweetness and Excellency in it than Words can express But yet we are not so to conceive of the Happiness thereof as some ignorant Persons do grossly imagine and wish to themselves as if Heaven were a Place where the blessed Inhabitants thereof were altogether unactive and unemployed enjoying only their Ease and Rest and so void of Cares and Fears passed away an Eternity This may be the low and brutish Apprehensions that profane Sinners may have concerning Heaven but they are such as are no way becoming the Glory and Dignity the Honour and Happiness of that holy Place for that Rest the People of God shall enjoy in Heaven is an operative working Rest or it is Rest and Exercise at once for though in Heaven the Saints do rest from their labours yet they do not rest from their working Now if any ask what that Work is in which the Saints shall be employed in Heaven I answer they shall always be blessing and praising of God there according to that in Rev. 5.13 Blessing Honour and Glory unto him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Continually are those blessed ones beholding admiring and adoring of God and burning in Love to each other and mutually rejoicing all in God and in one another This now is that eternal Work that a Saint shall be for ever employed about in his everlasting Rest a Work so full of Pleasure and Delight that it cannot be intermitted or forborn by the Saints to Eternity Secondly In Heaven there is an eternal Reward that shall be bestowed upon the Saints A Reward so great and so glorious as is beyond the Thoughts and Imaginations much more beyond the Words and Expressions of poor mortal Creatues to discover When all hath been said of it that can be still is there something of Glory and Excellency of Sweetness and Delight in this glorious Reward that exceeds all Expressions and Apprehensions Rack and torture the whole Creation extract the Quintessence of all the Glory Beauty Excellency and Goodness that is in all the Creatures in the World and let it be the Enjoyment of one Man for his Happiness yet all this is but a shadowy representation of that Glory and Happiness that the Saints shall enjoy hereafter Let the Desires Thoughts and Imaginations of Angels and Men be bent upon imagining and contriving what it is they could desire that would make the condition of any one happy in the Fruition of it the heavenly Reward there shall be a participating of that Happiness or that which is infinitely better and beyond it The Desires of Men's Souls may run out after great things which if they can attain they question not but the Enjoyment of them will make them happy But Men's Imaginations can go much farther even to the coveting after that in their Thoughts that they cannot tell how almost to desire But let the Desires and Imaginations of Men's Souls be enlarged and widened never so greatly and insatiably after a Happiness that may satisfieand content them yet still they come infinitely short both in Desire and in Imagination of what shall be the heavenly Reward And if Desires if Thoughts if Imaginations cannot reach the Greatness of this Reward Surely all Words though nttered with the greatest Eloquence to represent the Greatness and Excellency thereof must fall infinitely short of it So many good things are contained in this Reward that they exceed Number So great things that they exceed Desire and so precious that they exceed Estimation Nay this Reward of the Saints is so great and glorious that it exceeds both the Faith and Hope of a Christian The People of God believe and trust in God for great things and God loves to have the Hopes and Expectations of his People greatned and enlarged towards himself Of Abraham it is said that against Hope he believed in Hope or above Hope But in this great and glorious Reward of the Saints in Heaven we cannot believe above Hope that is we cannot believe above the great things that are hoped for Whatever we believe and hope for in Heaven that which the Saints shall enjoy there will be above it and beyond it It is true at present we know not what these great things are but when we come to Heaven we shall certainly find that they exceed both our Faith and our Hope And to add no more the Greatness and Glory of this Reward is that which exceeds all those Expressions which the Spirit of God in Scripture is pleased to set forth the the Greatness and Glory of it to us by Great Things are there spoken concerning this Happiness of the Saints But there is still abundantly more to be revealed and enjoyed than what that Holy Book hath discovered to us so great shall be the Reward of the Saints in Heaven that it exceeds Words exceeds Thoughts exceeds Faith exceeds Hope It is too great for Words to express too great for Thoughts to conceive too great for Faith to believe too great for Hope to expect For though Faith believes the Truth and Hope expects the Certainty of the things promised yet Faith doth not believe nor doth Hope expect the Greatness and Fulness of what shall be hereafter enjoyed by the Saints For saith the Evangelical Prophet from whom the Apostle makes use of the same Words Isa 64.4 and 1 Cor. 2.9 Since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for them that love him and wait for him So great shall this Happiness of the Saints in Heaven be that it can never be known but by Enjoyment There shall be nothing to Eternity that shall be afflictive or troublesome but an aggregation or meeting together of every thing that is pleasing and delightful with the continuance of them for ever That is a sweet Scripture and gives us the fullest Description of that State of Blessedness in so few Words Rev. 21.17 He that overcometh shall inherit all things and God will be his God And what can be said more to make any one happy For in this Scripture we have both the certainty of a Saint's Reward and the Fulness of it the certainty of his Reward in these Words He shall inherit I will be his God The fulness of it in these Words He shall inherit all things and God will be his God and who can tell what God is or
upon any Creature-Comforts or Enjoyments but solely and entirely live upon God maintaining constant Converse with Him everlastingly beholding his Glory and with infinite Joy and Delight solace themselves for ever in him And thus shall Glorified Saints also live for ever in Heaven their Bodies shall no more stand in need or make use of any Earthly supplies as Food Physick Rayment nor shall their Souls express any more Desires to or Longings after any Created things but as the Angels they shall be for ever possest of God being filled with that fullness that is in him All the Powers and Faculties of their Souls shall then be Refined and Spiritualized and with unspeakable Joy and Delight shall they Please and Solace themselves in the Contemplation and Participation of the Infinite and Supream Good And thus it appears that the Saints in that Happiness which they enjoy in Heaven shall be like unto the Angels Fourthly Another thing to be enquired into is In what respect Heaven is called a Reward or Recompence To this I Answer It is true the Scripture doth in many places hold forth Heaven to us as a Reward or Recompence that shall be bestowed upon the People of God after they have done and suffered the Will of God here but First not by way of Merit Heaven and Eternal Life shall be given unto those who now are diligent and laborious in the Work and Service of God but yet that labour and diligence in the Work and Service of God doth not deserve Heaven and Eternal Glory nor shall they as such be bestowed God indeed will not be served by any without a Reward neither shall those that do sincerely zealously and perseveringly Serve and Glorifie him miss of the Reward of Eternal Life but yet it is not therefore bestowed upon them because by those Services they deserve it at the hands of God Even natural Conscience in Man would blush and be ashamed to think of demanding Heaven as a Reward for any work done by him To make Works Meritorious of Reward from another there are four things requisite They must be first a Man 's own Works done by himself Secondly Such as are not due from him by whom they are performed Thirdly They must be such as are beneficial And Lastly Such Works as bear a proportion to the Reward bestowed upon the doing of them Now in all these Respects the Duties and Services that the People of God perform unto him are wanting and therefore cannot be meritorious of an eternal Reward First Works that are meritorious must be our own that is such Works as are performed by our selves and with our own strength and ability What we are enabled to do by the Assistance of another by that we cannot properly be said to merit any thing from him by whom we are so assisted Now all the good Works that any of the Saints perform unto God and are followed by him with the Reward of eternal Life they are such as are not performed in their own strength but by those assistances which God by his Spirit is graciously pleased to vouchsafe to enable them thereunto All our Sufficiency the Scripture attributes unto God Without me says Christ to his Disciples you can do nothing John 15.5 And it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Phil. 13. And 2 Cor. 5.3 We are not sufficient as of our selves to think any thing but all our Sufficiency is of God Now if in all that we do we are enabled by God unto the performance of it we cannot by so doing and we cannot do any thing that is good any other ways merit the eternal Recompence of Reward Secondly Works that are meritorious must be such as are not due from him by whom they are performed unto him from whom he expects to merit All Works or Actions that are not above Duty are always below Merit What says our Lord Luk. 17.10 Say when you have done all those things that are commanded you We are but unprofitable Servants and we have done but that which was our Dnty to do He that owes a Debt to another Man by making payment of that Debt dischargeth indeed his Obligation to that Man but he doth not thereby put an Obligation upon that Man unto whom he pays what he owed because it was no more than what was his due The Case is the same between God and us all that we do nay all that we can possibly do is all due unto God and therefore by giving him any Work of Obedience we cannot oblige God to bestow upon us eternal Recompences Nay further in all we do we come infinitely short of what is our Duty to give unto God and how then can we by doing what we ought to do nay by coming infinitely short of what we ought to do deserve that Heaven should be bestowed upon us Now that all that we can do is due unto God the Scripture is very plain and clear for he is the Fountain of all our Lives and Beings In him says the Apostle we live we move and have our Beings Now we being God's not only by Creation as we are his Creatures receiving our very Lives and Being from him but being his also by Redemption receiving from him our spiritual Life and Strength for all that we either are or can do Whatever we do therefore cannot be meritorious or deserving from him much more not meritorious of Heaven and Happiness Thirdly Works that are meriterious must be such as are beneficial unto him to whom they are performed All Actions that do not bring in some Advantage unto him to whom they are performed cannot be meritorious Now upon this Account it is impossible that any Creature should merit at the hands of God for as Job speaks Job 23.2 3. No Man can be profitable unto God neither is it gain unto him that any Man's Ways are perfect Our Righteousness as the Psalmist speaks extendeth not unto him Psal 16.3 By all our Services God receives nothing He is not worshipped as the Apostle speaks by any of his Creatures as if he needed any thing Acts 17.25 The Sun in the Firmament receives nothing by our looking upon it nor the Fountain by the thirsty Passengers drinking of it We indeed receive benefit by both for by looking on the Sun we receive Light and Warmth and by drinking of the Fountain we are cooled and refreshed but neither of them receive any Advantage by us And so it is in the present Case our Benefit and Advantage in serving of God is great much Peace much Joy much Strength comes thereby Scripture and the Experience of Saints abundantly confirm it Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 God always is and will be a Rewarder of them that diligently seek and serve him Heb. 11.6 But none of our Services are advantageous unto God He is infinitely above all the Praises and Services of
Death arise from his Ignorance of what Death is in it self and of what it will be unto him and this makes him walk so uncomfortably under the thoughts of it And yet the worst that Death is and the worst it can do unto him is only to make a Separation between those two old loving Acquaintance his Soul and Body whereby the viler part the Body consumes and rots in the Grave being fed upon by Worms till it turns to Dust and Ashes for some little time after which it shall arise again a glorious refined purified Body from all its dross and corruption and made like unto the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ to be again united unto that Soul which during the time of its silent sleeping in the dust was rejoicing with Saints and Angels yea with God and Christ in a state of infinite and unconceivable Happiness unto which the Body after its re union with the Soul shall ascend with it to partake of the same Blessedness in Heaven to all Eternity Surely such a Soul instead of being timorous and fearful should rather say with the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1.21 Secondly The Consideration of so great a Happiness provided in Heaven for Believers should moderate their Sorrows for the Death of their Godly Friends and Relations It is true when such are taken away by Death the loss is great unto those that survive them and therefore the God of Bowels and Mercy allows us to mourn when by his Providence he makes such breaches among us Abraham mourned for Sarah his Wife Joseph wept for his Father Jacob the Israelites made great lamentations for the loss of Moses and both Mary and her Sister Martha mourned for their Brother Lazarus and our Lord doth not reprove them but sympathizeth with them in their loss and testifies it by his weeping also But though we are allowed to mourn at the Death of our Godly Friends and Relations yet are we to set bounds to our mourning for we are not to sorrow as those that have no Hope nor are we so to grieve and afflict our selves as to refuse to be comforted Friends use to rejoice in the advancement of one another in the World though it be in the enjoyment of that which is but Temporary and therein they shew their Love to one another And will not should not you much more rejoice when your Friends and Acquaintance are by Death preferred to the enjoyment of a Happiness that is Spiritual and Eternal Shall a Natural and contracted Relation either by Blood Cohabitation or Friendship engage to greater Love and Affection than a Spiritual and Supernatural Relation by Grace and Adoption shall do Believers are all nearly and intimately related to one another they are all Members of one and the same Body they have all one and the same Father they have all one and the same Redeemer they have all one and the same Sanctifier and Comforter they have all one Faith one Hope and shall all one day enjoy one and the same Heaven though they go thither in different ways and at different times Grieve not mourn not then O Believer that thy Friends and Relations are gone to Heaven a little before thee Time was it may be when you and they did take sweet Counsel together and walked to the House and Ordinances of God in company and very sweet and delightful was your Society one with another but now Death hath made a Separation between you so that the sweetness of that Friendship is at an end and they are not as to your enjoyment of them and this makes you passionately cry out Oh my loss my loss my Friends and Relations are dead and gone and what shall I now do But where O Believing Soul is thy love to thy dead Friends and Relations Is it at an end and all buried in the Grave with them Be patient for a while and Death will quickly open thee a passage into that place of Bliss where they now are and in the mean time shew thy Love to them by thy rejoicing in their present real though unseen Blessedness and if you cannot do this your Love to your self is great but your Love to your Friends is but little None of our Relations that die in the Lord are lost they are only gone to Heaven a little before others whither the rest of all the Faithful shall ere long be called also And while any Believers are left here behind in the World they have a God to live upon that will never leave them nor forsake them the enjoyment of whose presence and the manifestations of whose Love and Favour will abundantly more than recompense for the absence and loss of all our Friends We read in 1 Sam. 1.8 that Hannah was greatly afflicted because of her barrenness insomuch that she refused to eat what course doth Elkanah her Husband take to comfort her O why says he art thou troubled and why doest thou not eat Am not I better to thee than ten Sons Truly it may be much more said unto any Believer from whom God hath taken any dear and pious Relations why are you cast down why do you grieve and mourn is not God better than many yea than all your Friends and Relations put together and he lives still though your Friends and Relations be dead And truly this is that God expects at a Believer's hands that when he hath taken from him the comfort of near and dear Friends and Relations he should bear up himself cheerfully with this Consideration That having God to be his God doth infinitely more than countervail for the loss of all Stay up thy self therefore O desponding Christian yea solace thy Soul under all thy losses with this Consideration that God is thy God And say therefore with Holy David The Lord lives and blessed be my rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted Seventhly Is there such a place of Bliss and Happiness provided for and assured unto Believers let the consideration hereof put them upon unwearied Diligence and Constancy in the Work and Service of God that is attended with so great a Reward The Scripture abounds with Exhortations and Commands to press this Duty upon Christians Josh 22.5 Take diligent heed to do all the Commandments of the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul And in Phil. 3.11 12 13 14. the Apostle gives us his own Example and Practice I have not already attained says he nor am I already perfect but I follow after if I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting the things that are behind I reach forth unto those things that are before pressing towards the mark for the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus if by any means I may attain unto the Resurrection of the
ever known that a Man who had the use of his Reason and Understanding and had forfeited his Life to his Prince by some Treasonable Act for which he was condemned to Die and had his Life proferred him if on such a Day he would come and submit himself to his Sovereign and ask his Pardon and instead of so doing he should rather choose to spend that Day among his sinful and riotous Companions in Drinking and Gaming and so lose the opportunity of saving of his Life Such Acts of Folly as these are committed by any Men would make them unpitied and unlamented under the extremity of Miseries and Sorrows that should befal them thereupon But the generality of Men in these cases are more wise and considerative than thus to ruine and undo themselves O then let it not lie any longer as a reproach upon Christians that the Men of the World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Why shouldst not thou O Christian be as careful and prudent in thy Spiritual Concerns as the Men of the World are in their Temporal Concerns Is not Heaven of as much worth and value as Earth Is not thy Right and Title to an Eternal Inheritance above of as great moment to thee as a Title to an Earthly Inheritance here below is unto them Is not the Love and Favour of God as much to be prized and endeavoured after as the Favour of an Earthly Prince Is not the Salvation and Happiness of thy Soul in Heaven to all Eternity of as great importance as the saving of a short Temporal Life of the Body which with the improvement of the utmost care and diligence that can be used cannot long be kept from falling into corruption and rottenness What then canst thou render as a Reason of thy carelessness and negligence herein Surely thy Folly is as much greater than theirs as Heaven is better than Earth and the enjoyment of God to Eternity is better than the enjoyment of the World for a short moment of time The Blessedness and Happiness therefore propounded to thy consideration being of the greatest concernment that ever was or can be proposed unto any the despising yea the slighting and neglecting of an offer of such rich Grace and Bounty is that which shall be punished with infinitely far greater misery and torment than ever yet was inflicted upon any yea or upon all Mankind in the World put together Were it possible to make up a Misery and Torment of all the Rage and Malice that ever Men or Devils since the Creation invented or executed upon any yea and add to it the sum the quintessence and extremity of all those Pains and Diseases both of Body and Mind that the Justice of the Holy and Righteous God hath justly and righteously inflicted upon any yea upon the whole Race of Mankind from the beginning of the World unto this Day and let all this be laid upon one Man and he strengthened and enabled to live under all those Pains and Torments in the extremity of them for a thousand years Who would not say this Man were a miserable Man indeed Why truly such nay ten thousand times far greater shall be the Eternal never-ending Misery and Torment of that Man who finally persists in his contempt and slighting of Heaven and Eternal Happiness and so do all those whose pains and care is not with diligence and industry laid out in securing to themselves an interest in the Heavenly Inheritance For certainly the utmost extremity of Desires and Endeavours is due unto and ought to be laid out in the pursuit of an extremity of Bliss and Happiness and such is Heaven and the Blessedness there to be enjoyed it being that which will fill and satisfie the Desires and Cravings of the Soul unto the utmost to all Eternity I have no more to say to thee O Christian Reader than this if neither the greatest extremity of misery that can be endured yea the enduring of all Miseries and Torments heaped up together not for Thousands or Millions of years but to an endless duration never to expire will not move thee to look after Heaven nor yet the Happiness and Blessedness yea the Eternity of an inexpressible and unconceivable Happiness and Blessedness that there is and shall be for ever enjoyed by the Saints in Glory and may be also enjoyed by thee if thou art wise and prudent if thou art diligent and careful in improving thy time and opportunities If I say thine own Interest thine own Misery or Happiness will not move nor work upon thee to bestir thy self to make sure of Heaven and Eternal Life I know not what will neither do I know what to say more unto thee However I shall turn my Advice and Counsel to thee into Prayer unto God for thee whoever thou art that shalt read this Discourse that God would graciously be pleased to open thine Eyes and shew thee convincingly and powerfully by a Work of his own Spirit on thy Heart thy great Misery if thou persist in thy neglect of Heaven and thy great Happiness and Blessedness if thou embrace and close with the offers thereof before it be too late Which God of his infinite Mercy grant unto all those that shall read this Discourse for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake who by his Death and Sufferings hath purchased this Heaven and this Happiness and is thereby become the Author of Eternal Salvation to all those that believe in him and obey him Amen FINIS Books lately Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King 's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard PRactical Preparation for Death The Wisdom and Interest of Christians The Folly and Misery of those that are negligent therein The great benefits of a Life spent in a daily Preparation for our latter end with Motives and Directions for the performance thereof Discourses or Sermons on several Scriptures By Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry In Octavo An Exposition on the Ten Commandments with other Sermons By Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry In Quarto The Holy Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker late Wife of Dr. Walker of Fyfield in Essex giving an Account of her exemplary Piety and Charity with some useful Papers and Letters written by her self upon several occasions The Naked Gospel Discovering 1. What was the Gospel which our Lord and his Apostles Preached 2. What Additions and Alterations latter Ages have made in it 3. What Advantages and Damages have thereupon ensued Of Faith Of the Trinity The Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour And the Resurrection of the Body Published by Arthur Bury D. D. Rector of Exeter College in Oxford The Vertuous Woman Or the Life of the most excellent Lady Mary late Countess of Warwick To which are annexed some of her Ladyships pious and useful Meditations Aurea Legenda Or Apophthegms Sentences and Sayings of many Wise and Learned Men useful for all Persons Collected out of many Authors by Samuel Clerk In Twelves Redemption of Time the Duty and Wisdom of Christians Or a practical Discourse shewing what special Opportunities ought to be redeemed what mis-spendings of time are to be avoided with convincing Reasons quickning Motives and proper Directions for the right improvement of precious Time By John Wade In Octavo The Danger of Delaying Repentance A Sermon Preached to the University at St. Mary's in Oxford By Arthur Bury D. D. Rector of Exeter College in Oxford In Quarto An earnest and compassionate suit for forbearance to the Learned Writers of some Controversies at present By the Bishop of Cork and Rosse In Quarto The End