In comparison whereof all the Thrones and Kingdoms upon earth are less than the drop of a bucket Deut. 10. 14. 2 Cor. 12. 2 4. Isai. 66. 1. Heaven in Scripture is compared to a Kingdom for Soveraignty to a Throne for preheminency to a Crown for state and majesty to an Inheritance for perpetuity to a Marriage-feast for plenty pleasure and delicacy and to whatsoever else may set forth its excellency though indeed in these comparisons there is little or no comparison as I might shew you in many particulars if I would be large for instances in this case would be endless There death shall have no more dominion over us Rom. 6. 9. The Sun shall not burn us by day nor the Moon by night Ps. 121. 6. There all tears shall be wiped from our eyes Rev. 7. 17. There shall be no sorrow nor pain nor complaint there is no malice to rise up against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst wearisomness temptation to disquiet us Mat. 6. 19 20. Heb. 9. 12. There is no death nor dearth no pining nor repining no fraud sorrow nor sadness neither tears nor fears defect nor loathing Rev. 7. 16 17. and 21. 4. Heb. 9. 12. There O there one day is better than a thousand there is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedom from our sins c. John 3. 17. Heb. 4. 3. 9 10 11. Rev. 14. 13. Heb. 9. 12 15. Sect. 2. Unto which Negative Priviledges there are also added Positive of all sorts as I might plentifully prove but I study brevity Do we delight in good company What pleasure shall we take in the company of Saints and Angels In whom there is nothing but amiable comfortable delectable Nothing in us that may cool the fervour of our love and affection to them And so of all other enjoyments As Dost thou desire beauty riches honour pleasure long life or whatever else can be named No place so glorious by Creation so beautiful with delectation so rich in possession so comfortable for habitation nor so durable for lasting Heb. 12. 22. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. Rom. 9. 3. and 8. 18. There are no Estates but Inheritances no Inheritances but Kingdoms no Houses but Palaces no Meals but Feasts no Noise but Musick no Rods but Scepters no Garments but Robes no Seats but Thrones no Coverings for the Head but Crowns Rom. 8. 17. Tit. 3. 7. Heb. 9. 15. Mat. 25. 31. 34. 2 Tim. 4. 8. Gal. 4. 7. 1 Pet. 3. 9 10. Mar. 10. 23 24 25. Rev. 7. 13 14 15. 6. 11. There we shall see the blessed face of God which is the glory of all sights the sight of all glory Yea we our selves shall out-shine the Sun in brightness Mat. 13. 43. For if the brightness of the body shall match the Sun what will the glory and splendour of the soul be And yet such honour shall all the Saints have For when Christ which is our head and life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory And he shall change our vile and mortal body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body Col. 3. 4. Phil. 3. 21. Briefly Our joy shall there be full and none shall be able to take it from us or diminish it John 15. 11. and 16. 22. There is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal. 26. Joys and pleasures never ebbing but ever flowing to all contentment There we shall rejoyce for the pleasantness of the place we possess for the glory of our souls and bodies which we have put on for the world which we have overcome for hell which we have escaped for the joys of heaven which we have attained to We shall have joy above us by the beatifical vision and sight of God joy within us by the peace of conscience even the joy of the holy Ghost and joy round about us by the blessed company and fellowship of our associates the holy Saints and Angels Sect. 3. And in reason if a Christian-soul in this Tabernacle of the body wherein we see but as in a glass be so delighted to see the face of God manifested in Jesus Christ If it so glads a Child of God when he can but in the least measure master his corruptions or hath occasion to manifest the sincerity of his affectionate love to his Maker and Redeemer and to serve his brethren in love How joyful will he be when these graces shall be perfected and he freed from all grievances inward outward Yea if the communion and enjoyment of Gods Spirit and Christ in his Gospel and Ordinances be so sweet here that one day with us is better than a thousand with the ungodly Psal. 84. 10. What will it be to enjoy the immediate presence and glory of God our Father Christ our Redeemer and Elder-brother The holy Ghost our Comforter The Angels and Saints our Comforts and Companions Our condition there will be so joyful that look we outwardly there is joy in the society Heb. 12. 22. if inward there is joy in our own felicity 1 Cor. 2. 9. Look we forward there is joy in the eternity 1 Pet. 5. 10. Mark 10. 30. So that on every side we shall be even swallowed up of joy Isai. 35. 10. and 51. 11. Mat. 25. 23. and 18. 10. Heb. 12. 2 22. Psal. 16. 11. As oh the multitude and fulness of these joys so many that only God can number them so great that he only can estimate them of such rarity and perfection that this world hath nothing comparable to them 2 Cor. 12. 24. As oh the transcendency of that Paradise of pleasure where is joy without heaviness or interruption peace without perturbation blessedness without misery light without darkness health without sickness beauty without blemish abundance without want ease without labour satiety without loathing liberty without restraint security without fear glory without ignominy knowledge without ignorance eyes without tears hearts without sorrow souls without sin where shall be no evil heard of to affright us nor good wanting to chear us for we shall have what we can desire and we shall desire nothing but what is good Deut. 10. 14. Isai. 66. 1. 1 Kings 8. 27. Mark 10. 21. Luke 18. 22. 1 Pet. 5. 10. John 4. 36 and 10. 28. Mat. 25. 46. Sect. 4. While we are here how many clouds of discontent have we to darken the Sunshine of our Joy When even complaint of evils past sense of present and fear of future have in a manner shared our lives among them Here we love and loath in an instant like Amnon to his Sister Tamar in heaven there is no Object unlovely nothing which is not exceeding amiable and attractive and not attractive only but retentive also for there we shall not be subject to passion nor can we possibly there misplace our affection Here we have knowledg mixed with ignorance faith with doubting peace with trouble yea trouble of
3 6. Rev. 16. 10 11. which does sadly presage what will be his portion for ever unless repentance quench those flames and so of the like offenders Ps. 9. 17. Rev. 22. 12. As what says the Apostle Neither fornicators nor thieves nor murtherers nor drunkards nor swearers nor raylers nor lyars nor covetous persons nor unbelievers nor no unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but shall have their part and portion in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Rev. 21. 8. which did they well consider they durst not continue in the practice of these sins without fear or remorse or care of amendment Sect. 5. Now what heart would not bleed to see men run headlong into those tortures that are thus intolerable Dance hoodwinkt into this perdition O that it were allowed to the desperate ruffians of our days that swear and curse drink and drab rob shed blood c. as if Heaven were blind and deaf to what they do to have but a sight of this Hell how would it charm their mouths appall their spirits strike fear and astonishment into their hearts Yea if a sinner could see but one glimpse of hell or be suffered to look one moment into that fiery Lake he would rather chuse to die ten thousand deaths than wilfully premeditately commit one sin Nor can I think they would do as they do if they did but either see or foresee what they shall one day without serious and unfeigned repentance 〈◊〉 And indeed therefore are we dissolute because we do not think what a judgment there is after our dissolution because we make it the least and last thing we think on yea it is death we think to think upon death and we cannot endure that doleful hell which summons us to judgment Lam. 1. 9. Deut. 32. 29. Oh that men would believe and consider this truth and do accordingly Oh that thou wouldst remember that there is a day of account a day of death a day of judgment coming Heb. 9. 27. Mat. 25. wherein the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to render vengeance unto them which obey not his Gospel and to punish them with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power as the Apostle speaks 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 9. Jude 15. Isa. 33. 14. Mat. 25. 46. As consider seriously I beseech you whether it will not be worth the while so to foresee the torments of hell that you may prevent them Or if otherwise will you not one day wish you had when death comes and arrests you to appear before the great and terrible Iudge of all the world Luke 16. 23. to 32. Mat. 13. 30 38. at which time an Assizes or Quarter-Sessions shall be held within thee where Reason shall sit as Judge and Satan shall put in a Bill of Indictment as long as that Book in Zachary chap. 5. 2. Ezek. 2. 9 10. wherein shall be alledged all the evil deeds that ever thou hast committed and all the good deeds that ever thou hast omitted with their several circumstances that may aggravate them Eccles. 11. 9. and 12. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 10. and all the curses and judgments that are due to every sin Thine own conscience shall accuse thee and thy memory shall give bitter evidence against thee and thou shalt condemn thy self before the just condemnation of thy Judge who knows all thy misdeeds better than thy self John 3. 20. Which sins of thine will not then leave thee but cry unto thee We are thy works and we will follow thee Rev. 14. 13. And then who can sufficiently express what thy grief and anguish will be when the summons both of the first and second 〈◊〉 do overtake thee at once Prov. 1. 27. And when at once thou shalt think of thy sins past the present misery and the 〈◊〉 of thy torments to come and how thou hast made earth 〈◊〉 Paradise thy belly thy God and lust thy Law so sowing 〈◊〉 and reaping misery and finding that as in thy prosperity thou neglectedst to serve God so now in thy adversity God refuseth to save thee Prov. 1. 24. to 32. Ezek. 23. 35. When thou shalt call to mind the many warnings thou hast had of this doleful day from Christs faithful Ambassadors and how thou then madest but a mock or jeer at it Prov. 1. 25. and think how for the short sinful pleasures thou hast enjoyed thou must endure eternal pains Luke 16. 24 25. and Rev. 6. 12. to 18. Which yet thou shalt think most just and equal saying As I have deserved so I am served for I was oft enough offered mercy yea intreated to accept thereof but I preferred the pleasing of my senses before the saving of my soul and more regarded the words of wicked men and the allurements of Satan than the word of God or the motions of his holy Spirit Prov. 1. 24. c. Mark 16. 16. And which I would have thee think upon Hell-fire is made more hot by neglecting so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. This is the condemnation saith our Saviour none like this that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil John 3. 29. Now salvation is freely offered but men reject it hereafter they would accept of salvation but God will reject them Yea then a whole world if thou hadst it for one hours delay or respite that thou mightest have space to repent and sue unto God for mercy but it cannot be because thy body which joyned with thy soul in thy sinful actions is now altogether unfit to joyn with her in the exercise of repentance and repentance must be of the whole man Besides death will take no pity the devil knows no mercy and the God of mercy will have utterly forsaken thee Then wilt thou say O that I had been more wise or that I were now to begin my life again then would I contemn the world with all its vanities yea if Satan should then offer me all the treasures pleasures and promotions of this world he should never entice me to forget the terrors of this dreadful hour and those worse which are to follow Luke 16. 24. c. and 13. 28. But oh wretched Caitiff that I am how hath the Devil and my own deceitful and devilish heart deluded me Anâ— how am I served accordingly For now is my case more mâ—serable than the most despised Toad or Serpent that perisâ—â—â— when it dieth in that I must go to answer at the great Judgment Seat for all my sins that am not able to answer for one of the least of them Eccles. 12. 14. Mat. 18. 34. that I who heretofore gloried in my lawless liberty am now to be enclosed in the very claws of Satan as the trembling Partridge within the griping tallons of the ravening and
any further exercise my self in things too high for me Psal. 131. 1. For as St. Paul tells us The heart of man is not able to conceive those joyes which being so How should I be able to express them in words And yet though we cannot comprehend this glory this far most excellent exceeding and eternal weight of transcendent glory yet may and ought we to admire the never enough to be admired bounty and goodness of God and our Redeemer in crying out O the depth c. O the sweetness of his love how unsearchable are his thoughts and intendments to man-ward once miserably forlorn lost and undone and his ways past finding out Rom. 11. 33. CHAP. XXI Sect. 1. BUt for the better confirming of this so important a truth in these Atheistical times see some reasons to confirm it As First If the Sun which is but a Creature be so bright and glorious that no mortal eye can look upon the brightness of it how glorious then is the Creator himself Or that light from whence it receives its light if the frame of the heavens and globe of the earth be so glorious which is but the lower house or rather the foot-stool of the Almighty as the holy Ghost phraseth it Isa. 66. 1. Mat. 5. 35. Acts 7. 49. How glorious and wonderful is the Maker thereof and the City where he keeps his Court Or if sinners even the worst of wicked men and Gods enemies have here in this earthly Pilgrimage such variety of enjoyments to please their very senses as who can express the pleasurable variety of Objects for the sight of meats and drinks to satisfie and delight the taste of voyces and melodious sounds to recreate the hearing of scents and perfumes provided to accommodate our very smellings of recreations and sports to bewitch the whole man And the like of honour and profit which are Idols that carnal men do mightily dote upon and take pleasure in though these earthly and bodily joyes are but the body or rather the dregs of true joy what think we must be the soul thereof viz. those delights and pleasures that are reserved for the glorified Saints and Gods dearest darlings in heaven Again Secondly If natural men find such pleasure and sweetness in secular wisdom lip-learning and brain-knowledge For even mundane knowledge hath such a shew of excellency in it that it is highly affected both by the good and bad As O the pleasure that rational men take therein It being so fair a Virgin that every clear eye is in love with her so rich a Pearl that none but Swine do despise it yea among all the Trees in the Garden none so takes with rational men as the Tree of Knowledge as Satan well knew when he set upon our first Parents insomuch that Plato thinks in case wisdom could but represent it self unto the eyes it would set the heart on fire with the love of it And others affirm That there is no less difference between the Learned and the Ignorant than there is between the living and the dead or between men and beasts And yet the pleasure which natural and moral men take in secular and mundane knowledge and learning is nothing comparable to that pleasure that an experimental Christian finds in the Divine and Supernatural knowledge of Gods Word Which makes David and Solomon prefer it before the hony and the hony-comb for sweetness and to value it above thousands of gold and silver yea before pearls and all precious stones for worth How sweet then shall our knowledge in heaven be For here we see but darkly and as it were in a glass or by moon-light but there we shall know even as we are known and see God and Christ in the face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Thirdly If meer Naturians have been so taken with the love of Vertue that they thought if a vertuous soul could but be seen with temporal eyes it would ravish all men with love and admiration thereof yea if the very worst of men drunkards blasphemers and the like though they most spightfully scoff at and back-bite the people of God yet when they know a man sincere upright and honest cannot choose but love commend and honour him in their hearts as it fared with Herod touching John and King Agrippa touching Paul Sect. 2. Or rather if Gods own people are so ravished with the graces and priviledges which they enjoy upon earth as the assurance of the pardon of sin the peace of a good conscience and joy of the holy Ghost which is but glorification begun What will they be when they shall enjoy the perfection of glory in heaven As see but some instances of their present enjoyments here below First if we were never to receive any reward for those small labours of love and duties we do to the glory of God and profit of others we might think our selves sufficiently recompensed in this life with the calm and quietness of a good conscience the honesty of a vertuous and holy life That we can do and suffer something for the love of Christ who hath done and suffered so much to save us That by our works the Majesty of God is magnified to whom all homage is due and all service too little For godliness in every sickness is a Physician in every contention an Advocate in every doubt a Schoolman in all heaviness a Preacher and a Comforter unto whatsoever estate it comes making the whole life as it were a perpetual Hallelujah Yea God so sheds his love abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost that we are in heaven before we come thither Insomuch that as the fire flieth to his sphere the stone hastens to the center the river to the sea as to their end and rest and are violently detained in all other places so are the hearts of Gods people without their Maker and Redeemer their last end and eternal rest and quietness never at rest like the Needle touched with the Loadstone which ever stands quivering and trembling until it enjoys the full and direct aspect of the Northern Pole But more particularly How doth the assurance of the pardon of sin alone clear and calm all storms of the mind making any condition comfortable and the worst and greatest misery to be no misery To be delivered of a child is no small joy to the mother but to be delivered from sin is a far greater joy to the soul But to this we may add the joy of the holy Ghost and the peace of conscience otherwise called the peace of God which passeth all understanding These are priviledges that make Paul happier in his chain of iron than Agrippa in his chain of gold And Peter more merry under stripes than Caiaphas upon the Judgment-seat and Stephen the like under that shower of stones Pleasures are ours if we be Christs whence those expressions of the holy Ghost The Lord hath done great things for us wherefore we rejoyce Be glad in the Lord and
rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Let all that put their trust in thee rejoyce let them even shout for joy Rejoyce evermore and again I say rejoyce Rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience Your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you c. So that it is a shame for the faithful not to be joyful and they sin if they rejoyce not whatsoever their condition be The Eunuch no sooner felt the pardon of sin upon his being baptized into the Faith of Christ but he went on his way rejoycing Acts 8. 39. He then found more solid Joy than ever he had done in his riches honours and great places under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians At the same time when the Disciples were persecuted they are said to be filled with joy and with the holy Ghost Acts 13. 52. And as their afflictions do abound so their consolations do abound also 2 Cor. 1. 5. For these are comforts that will support and refresh a child of God in the very midst of the flames as the Martyrs found for maugre all their persecutors could do their peace and joy did exceed their pain as many of them manifested to all that saw them suffer Sect. 3. Where observe before we go any further what Sots they are that cry out It is in vain to serve God and unprofitable to keep his Commandments as it is in Malachy 3. 14. For had these Fools but tasted the sweet comforts that are in the very works of piety and that Heaven upon Earth the Feast of a good Conscience and joy of the inward man they could not so speak Yea then would they say There is no life to the life of a Christian For as the Priests of Mercury when they are their Figs and Hony cryed out Oh how sweet is truth So if the worst of a Believers life in this world be so sweet how sweet shall his life be in that heavenly Jerusalem and holy City where God himself dwelleth and where we shall reign with Christ our Bridegroom and be the Lambs wife Which City is of pure gold like unto clear glass the walls of Jasper having twelve foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones the first foundation being Jasper the second Saphir the third a Calcedony the fourth an Emerald the fifth a Sardonyx the sixth a Sardius the seventh a Chrysolite the eighth a Beryl the ninth a Topaz the tenth a Chrysoprasus the eleventh a Jacynth the twelfth an Amethyst Having twelve gates of twelve pearls the streets thereof of pure gold as it were transparent glass In the midst of which City is a pure River of the water of life clear as Chrystal and of either side the Tree of Life which bears twelve manner of fruits yielding her fruit every moneth the leaves whereof serve to heal the Nations Where is the Throne of God and of the Lamb whom we his servants shall for ever serve and see his face and have his Name written in our Foreheads And there shall be no night neither is there need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Into which nothing that defileth shall enter but they alone which are written in the Lambs Book of life As is exprest Rev. 21. and 22. Chap. The holy Ghost speaking after the manner of men and according to our slender capacity for otherwise no words can in any measure express the transcendency of that place of pleasure Only here we have a taste or earnest-penny one drop of those divine dainties of those spiritual supernatural and divine pleasures reserved for the Citizens of that heavenly Jerusalem some small smack whereof we have even in the barren desert of this perillous peregrination God letting out as it were a certain kind of Manna which in some sort refresheth his thirsty people in this Wilderness as with most sweet hony or water distilled from out of the Rock As what else are those Jubilees of the heart those secret and inward joys which proceed from a good conscience grounded upon a confident hope of future salvation As what else do these great clusters of grapes signifie but the fertility of the future Land of Promise Sect. 4. True it is none can know the spiritual joy and comfort of a Christian but he that lives the life of a Christian John 7. 17. As none could learn the Virgins Song but them that sang it Rev. 14. 3. No man can know the peace of a good Conscience but he that keeps a good Conscience No man knows the hid Manna and white Stone with a new name written in it but they that receive the same Rev. 2. 17. The world can see a Christians outside but the raptures of his Soul the ravishing delights of the inward man and joy of the Spirit for the remission of his sins and the infusion of grace with such like spiritual Priviledges more glorious than the States of Kingdoms are as a covered mess to men of the World But I may appeal to any mans conscience that hath been softned with the unction of grace and truly tasted the powers of the World to come To him that hath the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the holy Ghost in whose Soul the light of grace shines whether his whole life be not a perpetual Hallelujah in comparison of his natural condition Whether he finds not his joy to be like to the joy of harvest or as men rejoyce when they divide a spoil Isa. 9. 3. Whether he finds not more joy in goodness than worldlings can do when their wheat wine and oyl aboundeth Psalm 4. 7. and 53. 17. Yea he can speak it out of experience that as in prophane joy even in laughter the heart is sorrowful so in godly sorrow even in weeping the heart is light and chearful The face may be pale yet the heart may be calm and quiet So St. Paul as sorrowing yet always rejoycing 2 Cor. 6. 10. Our cheeks may run down with tears and yet our mouth sing forth praises And so on the contrary Where O God there wants thy grace Mirth is only in the Face 2 Cor. 5. 12. Well may a careless worldling laugh more as what will sooner make a man laugh than a witty jest but to hear of an Inheritance of an hundred pounds a year that is faln to a man will make him more solidly merry within Light is sown to the righteous and joy for the upright Psal. 97. 11. My servant saith God shall sing and rejoyce but they shall weep c. Isai. 65. 14. Indeed we are not merry enough because we are not Christians enough because sin is a cooler of our joy as water is of fire And like the worm of Jonah his gourd bites the very root of our joy and makes it