sanctification and redemption They shall know him as their Pledg and Surety as one that satisfied the justice of his Father and bore all the pains and torments their sins deserved they shall know him as their Head that gave them life and motion they shall know him as their Tutor and Guide that hath led them through their Pilgrimage in this World to the heavenly Canaan they shall then know how he carried a world of Saints over the same Seas they are now sailing in how Christ paid the fare of the ship himself and that not one of them was found dead on the shore They shall know him as a Father that was more tenderly affected with the sorrows and sufferings of his Children then of his own they shall then know how Christ's eye and heart was upon his Spouse making their salvation his end and the measure of his love his rising early his night watching his toyling his sweating his sore and hard travel and all that he might have a redeemed People Then shall they know him as their King Priest and Prophet who offered up himself for them they shall look upon him as one who presented all their prayers to his Father and procured acceptance who taught them the mind of God who came out of the bosome of God and revealed the Father to them who governed them and protected them all their days they shall look upon him as one that brought them through fair and foul ways to his Fathers House The perfect knowledg of these things and the like will abundantly satisfie the Saints in Heaven Then Jesus Christ shall be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe 2 Thes 1.10 I. He shall be glorified in his Saints which glory shall result to Christ two ways 1. By putting glory on his Saints in glorifying them he glorifieth himself he manifesteth what a King of glorious state he is what treasures of glory are in him that he can put so much glory on innumerable Saints without any diminution of his own glory all that glory which the Saints enjoy is Christ's originally he is the Fountain they the Cisterns he infinitely full though they are filled with it also they receive grace for grace from Christ and they receive glory for glory happiness for happiness joy for joy from him Christ sheweth the riches of his glory as a King sheweth the riches of his treasury when he can make many rich and he not wax poor but what King can do so excepting Christ the King of Kings 2. He shall be glorified in his Saints that is as Chrysostom expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his Saints Chrysost in 2 Thes 2.10 All his Saints shall with one heart and mouth ascribe to him all the glory of their glory and for their glory Revel 4.10 Then all the Saints will take their Crowns of glory from off their heads and cast them down before the Throne of Christ saying Thou art worthy to receive honour and glory and power He is infinitely worthy in himself because he is God over all but he is also relatively worthy in respect of the Saints because all the glory they have they received from him he purchased their glory he hath brought them to glory he hath glorified his power in making them glorious and he counts them worthy of this glory II. Christ shall be admired in all that believe Wonder and astonishment ariseth ex magnitudine novitate rerum the greatness and strangeness of a thing causeth admiration in all beholders The glory which Christ will put on his Saints shall be exceeding great and exceeding strange beyond all conceit and imagination the heart of man cannot now perceive it but when the eye shall see this glory and the heart shall perceive it Christ will be wonderfully admired in them and by them The glory of his power will be admired in that such poor dust and ashes should be advanced to such an height of glory that he can make his Creatures so glorious They will admire his love toward them in communicating such glory to them they will admire his grace in bringing such worthless Creatures to such glory even from the Dunghil to the highest Throne of glory Moreover they shall clearly understand that great mystery of the Trinity of the Persons in the unity of one God-head and Divine essence which is now so far above the understanding of the sincerest Christian they shall see how the Son is begotten of the Father as the word and wisdom of the Father and abideth in the Father how the Holy Ghost proceedeth from both and abideth in both they shall see how these three are distinguished by a personal propriety so that they are three Persons subsisting in themselves and yet together in number are one essence or simple Deity one power one wisdom one goodness one majesty one immensity one eternity then shall they see how the Father is in the Son how the Son is in the Father and the Holy Ghost in both how all are in each and each in all This is a mystery which here no heart can conceive or tongue express it is as Hilary saith Extra sermonis significationem extra sensus intentionem extra intelligentiae conceptionem no speech can set it forth no sense can sound the depth of it no reason reach the reason of it but in Heaven the Saints shall perfectly understand this great mystery This is the Heaven saith Gregory Nazianzen that I look for Nazian orat contra Arrian that I may have a view of the glorious Trinity and understand that great mystery This truth that hath met with so much contradiction from many blasphemous Hereticks in former ages such as Nestorians Arrians Sabellians Macedonians they shall then most clearly understand SECT IV. GLorified Saints shall also look into the great mystery of godliness with great delight shall they read the Book of Life the eternal Decree of God electing them to Salvation how shall it fill their hearts with joy to look into the original Records of eternity to see into that depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledg of God at which the Apostle made a stand The Apostle was at a stand as one whose stature in that condition of mortality was too low to wade any further into that great deep therefore he cries out Rom. 11. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out The waters are too deep I can find no bottom for who hath known the mind of the Lord or been his Counsellor But in Heaven the Saints shall fully understand this unsearchable depth viz. how God should so carry on the great designs of the declaration of his pardoning mercy to some and his punishing justice to others and that in both these God was free in his grace and just in his judgments though he neither chose nor called according to works that the damned Creature was most guilty and that God was both severe and
torments have not power to destroy our souls they can never have power to deprive us of Heaven 2. That which can never separate us from God can never shut us out of Heaven let us be sure that God is ours and we may be sure that Heaven is ours our sins may separate us from God Isa 59.2 but our sufferings our afflictions shall never separate us from him you may remember that heroical challenge of S. Paul Rom. 8.35 What shall separate us from the love of Christ There be three things to be noted in that challenge 1. That the godly are subject to all those evils that the Apostle there reckons up he reckons up seven in all and still that which cometh after aggravateth that which went before Tribulation or trouble that 's the first but to be in trouble and in anguish too in anguish to be driven into persecution and banishment in banishment to suffer hunger and nakedness with these to be in continual peril and danger after all to dye violently by the sword these are great evils all of them and all of them exceeding one another and yet it is certain the godly are subject to all of them 2. That in these evils the main end that the Devil aims at is to separate God from us and us from God as may plainly be seen in Job's case where the Devil laid all the load he could upon him and all to set God and him at variance to make him to blaspheme God and God to forsake him 3. That yet the anchor of our safety is so firmly cast as that no such tempests as these shall ever cause such a Shipwrack in vain shall the Devil ever labour by any of these cords to pull God and us asunder they shall not make the faithful for their parts to shrink any whit from him nay they will rather stick the closer to him as wind puts not out the fire but rather kindleth it so that same wind of affliction which is sent out to blow upon them it shall not be a means to put out but rather to kindle the fire of their love God on the other side for his part will never the sooner forsake them nay he is so far from forsaking his Children in afflictions as he doth then draw the nearer to them Perhaps they are not alwayes so sensible of his presence but afraid that he hideth his face away yet certain it is he is then ever at hand and near unto them ready to do by them as Christ did by Peter in the storm as soon as they begin to sink to put his hand under them and to save them from drowning David saith God hath compassion on us as a Father hath compassion on his Children now Fathers have most compassion on their Children when they see them in most trouble and distress if natural Fathers have so God our Heavenly Father cannot then be void of the bowels of affection when he seeth us in affliction and distress God doth then pity us and those are infallible arguments of his love toward us now if troubles and afflictions cannot separate God's love from us sure they cannot shut up God's Kingdom against us but notwithstanding all the hardships they make us to suffer for the time yet when we have been tryed we shall receive the crown of life CHAP. XXXI Setteth down a cordial to them that are in affliction and a Preparative to them that are not A Twofold use may be made of what was laid down in the precedent Chapter and it concerns them that are in affliction and them that are not for them that are in affliction a cordial of unspeakable comfort for what can more comfort an afflicted soul when he seeth how all earthly joyes have forsaken him and that he is every day fain to eat the bread of sorrow and to mingle his drink with tears what can more comfort him than to know and to be assured that yet for all this he is never the farther from God never the farther from Heaven the world powreth contempt upon him but God hath not cast him out of his favour his outward man peradventure is weakened and decayed but his inner man is safe and untouch'd Earth hath denyed him peace and comfort but in Heaven there 's laid up for him a crown of blessedness This was it that gave Job comfort and made him Victor in stercore made him sing Songs of Triumph even when he was sitting on the dunghill his substance was gone his Children were slain his Wife tempted him his Servants scorned him his enemies insulted on him his Friends forsook him the Devil was a scourge to him God himself seemed to hide his face from him yet for all this saith he I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him at the last day there is no comfort in the world comparable to this so we may be sure to come to Heaven at the last no matter though we go thither in a a whirlwind and a fire no matter whether a smooth way or a rugged Better go a fowl way to a Banquet than a fair way to a Gibbet The reward we look for in Heaven is sometime compared to a reaping to a harvest now you know when the corn is sown once before we come to reap it it suffers a great deal of hard weather many dashing rains many nipping frosts many biting winds yet none of all these do hinder the harvest they make the corn never the worse either for ripening or reaping in due season we shall reap as the Apostle saith notwithstanding all these Afflictions are to us while we are living in the world as hard weather to the corn while it is growing in the field they nip us they pinch us they blow cold they beat hard upon us yet they shall not spoil us of the harvest we look for they shall not bereave us of the least of those sheaves of joy that lye a ripening for us but in due season we shall reap the full crop into our garners let this then be a cordial to all that are in affliction Let it be also a preparative for those that are not prepare your selves O Christians for the patient bearing of all trials that God shall send upon you by laying up before hand this comfort and assurance that no trials shall rob you of your crown Object Peradventure you will object that yet they have done so by some extremity of affliction hath driven them into extremity of despair so instead of receiving the Crown of life they have caused their portion in the second death Resp Affliction hath not caused this but the ill use that hath been made of affliction we are to judge of affliction as we are to judge of prosperity they are either of them good or evil according to the good or evil use that is made of them it 's certain that some that are in prosperity shall come to Heaven yet their prosperity is not the cause
Fourth King of the Turks who hearing that Tamerlane had taken his City Sebastia and there slain his eldest Son Orthobules Knoll's Turkish History on Bajazet 4th he was so much grieved at it that marching with his great Army against Tamerlane and by the way hearing a Countrey Shepheard merrily reposing himself with his homely Pipe as he sate upon the side of a mountain feeding his poor flock standing still a great while listening unto him to the admiration of many at last fetching a deep sigh brake forth into these words O happy Shepheard which hadst neither Orthobules nor Sebastia to lose This will be all the comfort that the despisers of the Word and the rejecters of everlasting life so freely tendered in the Gospel shall have at the last day when in the anguish and bitterness of their souls they shall cry out happy are ye dark mountains on whom the Sun of righteousness never shined happy ye dry and barren deserts that were never refreshed with spiritual dew nor watered with the rain of Heavenly doctrine who had never any Moses to drop doctrine upon you no Paul to plant no Apollo to water you with the word happy ye benighted Gentiles who never had any Gospel nor a Christ nor a Kingdom of Heaven to lose by your Rebellion against Christ this will be all the comfort such souls will have for all the priviledges they have had beyond others and all the opportunities they have lost it is an honour here to enjoy God's Oracles and to be under the call of the Gospel but to have the word of Grace and means of Salvation and not to bring forth fruit thereby to everlasting life it will turn to their greater confusion in another world CHAP. XXXV An exhortation to offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven THese things being so how should the consideration hereof stir up to labour after eternal life and blessedness eternal life is the stipend of our warfare the hire and wages of our works God hath not appointed Heaven for idle Droans and Loiterers but for such as labour for it Heaven is a Crown or Garland win it and wear it it is an Harvest labour for it if thou wilt enjoy it it is a Field of Treasure thou must purchase it if thou wilt possess it it is a strong City and must be taken by force and violence S. Bernard hath this division Alii mercantur alii furantur c. Some do Merchandize for Heaven and they are such as make friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness others do steal Heaven and they are like the Woman that was healed by the secret touch of our Saviours garment many invade Heaven and take it by force for indeed the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and they may be compared to Jacob that strove with God wrestled with the Angel and prevailed but none of these shall merit eternal life hereby but life eternal shall be the consequent of a Holy life and the reward of their labour that strive to enter in at the strait gate God having so ordained the one to be the way whereby he will bring us to the other S. Paul saith of himself 2 Tim. 4.8 I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness c. where observe 1. He acted like a mighty man of war fighting valiantly against all the enemies of his Salvation both within and without that went about to hinder him from getting the crown 2. He finished his course he ran with all his might he put forth himself to the uttermost that so he might finish his course 3. He kept the faith he would not suffer men or Devils to rob him of this precious jewel and he was sure to speed here was his confidence henceforth saith he is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness Iren. lib. 4. c. 27. Now saith Irenaeus the good combatant exhorteth us to the combat of immortality that we may be crowned and may think the crown precious as being obtained by sight and not of it self accrewing to us and by how much the more it cometh by fight so much the more precious it is and the more precious it is so much the more we may love it and ought so much the more to labour after it So run that you may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 He that runs for a prize runs with all his might he runs himself all over in a sweat I run saith Paul not as uncertainly so fight I not as beating the air he ran but not as some do in a cold and negligent way not knowing whether he should come to the end of the race or not but with all earnestness as one that was resolved to finish his course A Soldier that fighteth in the Wars fighteth with violence he fighteth for life and honour both so much more one that fighteth the good fight even for eternal life and glory a Soldier that fighteth in the War fighteth to save his own life and for glory besides so a Soldier of Jesus Christ fighteth to save his life from eternal ruine and to gain eternal glory Some of God's Children are so violent that the world looks upon them as mad men they may think them out of their wits but they may answer with Paul If we are beside our selves it is for God and Christ it is for Heaven and everlasting Salvation The Apostle thus exhorts the Philippians Work out your own salvation Phil. 2.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 break out thorow all difficulties work out work thorow all 2 Pet. 3.11 12. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God as if he had said I am not able to express what manner of persons such ought to be what exactness is required of those that will be saved how they ought to walk in all holy conversation and godliness as persons that are in hast to meet with Christ and have no leisure to turn out of the way of holiness into crooked paths with the workers of iniquity Things of the greatest worth are usually accompanied with the greatest difficulty and are hardest to be gained so it is in the things of the world the greater worldly designs men do pursue the more pains it costs them to attain their end high honour and a great estate is not gotten without much sweat and great endeavours much more when a soul will get an incorruptible crown what holy contention is required in this case Though it be most true that the Prince and Captain of our salvation hath already overcome the greatest difficulty of all without which it had not been possible for any of the Children of Adam to have come to glory yet he will have his children conformed to himself in going through many difficulties unto glory Moreover powerful enemies do beset the way unto and entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickednesses in high or heavenly places Eph. 6.12 now small forces in a narrow way are able to keep back a great Army for a long time now these strong and mighty enemies must be removed by violence or else there is no passing Oh what necessity is there now required to break thorow all these and in the power of Christ to tread the Devil and all his Angels under our feet if we will enter in at the strait gate to march on though never so many forces of the world and Legions of Hell should stand in the way to contend mightily as knowing there is no middle condition between everlasting death and victory that we must overcome or perish How vigorously and vehemently doth the Apostle press this 1 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit your selves like men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be strong Where in most pithy and sinewy expressions he giveth a fourfold exhortation of this kind and every one in the Original is delivered in one word except the second the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 watch you be not secure but very vigilant the second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stand fast in the faith keep your ground do not give back the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 play the men quit your selves like men of Heroick spirits the fourth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be strong and of a good courage in these quick expressions the Apostle as a wise Master-builder sought out choice words that he might fasten them as Nails and Goads peircing the hearts of men and quickening their dull spirits to more vehemency and holy violence in the great business of their salvation now where these mighty strivings after the Kingdom of Heaven are they are effects of God's eternal counsel and purpose in those whom he hath ordained to everlasting life and glory These are fruits of God's election because God hath chosen them therefore he hath stirred them up to act violently for the Kingdom of Heaven Occuliae praedestinationâ— indicia futurae faelicitatis pâ—aeâ—agia via regni non causâ— regnandi Bernard de gâ—at lib. arbitr they are no causes but the evidences of their election their works are not the proper cause for which the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them but as signs and tokens that they are the persons for whom Heaven is prepared they are tokens of our occult praedestination foretokens of our future happiness the way to the Kingdom not the cause of our obtaining it saith devout Bernard FINIS
graciously merciful and that none hath cause to complain of God and that the fundamental cause of this various administration with Nations and Persons is the holy and soveraign will of God who hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth This is the depth without a bottom that St. Paul speaks of But in Heaven the Saints shall be filled with the knowledg of these mysteries the bosome of God being opened to their understandings What are the events that have hapned in the World or in the Church but the effects or consequents of those decrees which have been everlastingly in the mind of God Now if the Saints in Heaven shall perfectly see God then nothing of God shall be hid from them which may make up their compleat happiness they shall then clearly understand the mysteries of justification and glorification and all the deep things of God all the mysteries of the holy Scriptures all the Prophecies all the Figures Types and Symbolical shadows all the mystical Senses all these things they believed here either expresly or implicitely but the reward of faith is vision and clear knowledg The same doth St. Augustine insinuate saying August de Civit. Dei cap. 21. What shall we see in Heaven but God and all those things which now believing we see not CHAP. XXI MOreover the Saints shall see and know that innumerable company of Angels their natures each of their persons in particular As the Angels know every Elect person because it is their work to gather the Elect from all the corners of the Earth and to seperate them from the wicked Matth. 13.41 so the glorified Saints shall know the holy Angels whom the Lord sent forth to minister for them whom the Lord appointed for their guard while they were upon Earth who encamped round about them while they were encompassed with so many dangers Some Divines are of opinion that the number of the Angels is so great that they exceed without comparison all corporal and material things in the Earth and like as the greatness of the Heavens exceedeth the greatness of the Earth without any proportion even so doth the multitude of the glorious Spirits exceed the multitude of all corporal and material things that are in the World with the like advantage and proportion Now what thing can be imagined more wonderful then this Again if every one of the Angels yea though it be the least Angel among them all be more beautiful and goodly to behold then all this visible World what a glorious sight shall it be then to see such a number of beautiful Angels to see the perfections and offices that every one hath in that high and glorious City there do the Angels go as it were in Embassages are exercised in their Ministry there the Principalities and Thrones triumph there do the Cherubims give light the Seraphims burn with fervent love All of that heavenly Court are perpetually singing Praises and Hallelujahs to God Almighty and to the Lamb that sits on the Throne for ever Oh what honour is this which God will do to his Children hereafter when he shall exalt them to so high a dignity as to place them among the Angels in Heaven and make them like unto the Angels of God CHAP. XXII SECT I. Of the Saints mutual knowledg of each other in Heaven FInally the Saints shall know each other the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and People of God in all Ages and Nations the Saints shall behold numberless hosts and troops of glorified Pieces redeemed Saints in that highest Orb and Region of glory there they shall behold the general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are now written in Heaven Heb. 12.23 immediately illuminated studying preaching and praising Christ for evermore There you shall see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God saith our Saviour Luke 13.28 It was propounded as a doubt to Martin Luther Chemnit harmon evang cap. 87. a little before his Death-bed Whether glorified Saints should have mutual knowledg of each other he thus resolved his Friends that as Adam knew his Wife in Paradise when she was first presented to him and as St. Peter ravished with a heavenly vision at the Transfiguration of Christ Matth. 17.4 took notice of Moses and Elias when as Tertullian saith he never saw so much as any of their Pictures Tertul. contr Marcion lib. 4. the Law prohibiting such things to the Jews if in this short taste of glory he and the other two Disciples with him had a knowledg of these glorified Saints then doubtless when the Saints shall enjoy fulness of glory they shall have a clearer knowledg of each other As we think it reasonable to conclude the Soul to be immortal because it desireth to be so before it be enflamed by any studied notions and apprehensions of eternity so with equal probability we may prefigure and delineate some parts or shadows of our future happiness being guided by those innate and universal propensions which encline every Soul to desire and wish the same thing Among those transcendent desires which issue from our natures this is one that those acquaintances which were virtuously begun on Earth may be renewed and perfected in Heaven This desire was once of so great authority that former ages had respect unto it for when they found it easier to overcome all other terrors of death then that one of an everlasting absence from a Friend they were careful to chear a departing Soul by assuring it that the happiness of the other World next to the contemplation of the Divine nature consisted in the gaining of new and the indissoluble recovery of old acquaintance What they made a part of their happiness we admit but as an appendix to ours and as we think it not safe to joyn any Creature unto God to make up the object of our happiness so we believe it would derogate from the glory of his goodness if particular Souls like so many divided channels should have their own banks full but yet be debarred from all commerce and mutual knowledg of each others blessedness Our Creed moreover calls upon us to believe a communion of Saints which if it be a matter of our faith here it must be an object of our knowledg hereafter if we must believe that there are some who sincerely communicate with us in the faith in this life then we shall hereafter clearly know who were our fellow-members in that communion and as faith it self shall be done away by evidence so shall that communion which is here by faith be hereafter perfected by that communion which shall be by vision Those who have laboured to find out the most intimate and peculiar properties of the humane nature do affirm that it was made and fashioned for Society Now as Divines use to say That Christ came not to abolish but to perfect the Law so may we pronounce of our blessedness in