clearly understand the Divine Perfections that our present knowledg compar'd to that is but as the seeing a dark resemblance in a Glass to the clear view of a Person in the native beauty of his Face God is most gloriously present in Heaven For according to the degrees of excellence in the Work such are the impressions and discoveries of the Vertues of the Cause Now all sensible things in the low order of Nature are but weak resultances from his Perfections in comparison of their illustrious Effects in the Divine World The Glories of the Place and of the Inhabitants the Angels and Saints clearly express his Majesty Goodness and Power But in a transcendent manner he exhibits himself in the glorified Mediator He is stiled the brightness of the Father's Glory and the express image of his Person not only for his equal Perfections in respect of the unity of their Nature but to signifie that God in the Person of the incarnate Mediator is so fully represented to us that by the sight of him we see God himself in his unchangeable Excellencies This appears by the following words that having purged us from our sins he sate down on the right-hand of the Majesty on high for they respect the Son of God as united to the humane Nature in which he perform'd the Office of the Priesthood and took possession of his glorious Kingdom During his humble state the Divine vertues Wisdom Goodness Holiness Power were so visible in his Person Life Revelations and miraculous Works that when Philip so long'd for the sight of the Father as the only consummate Blessedness Shew us the Father and it suffices He told him he that has seen me has seen the Father also But how brightly do they appear in his triumphant Exaltation 'T was his Prayer on Earth Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory Inestimable Felicity whether we consider him in the respect of an Object that incomparably transcends all the created Glory of Heaven or in the relation of our Head on a double account partly because he was debased into the form of a Servant and suffered all Indignities and Cruelties of Sinners for us has received the Recompence of his Meritorious Sufferings the triumph of his Victory being glorified with the Father with the Glory he had before the World was and partly because every Member shall be conformed to him in his Glory We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And all Felicity and Glory is compriz'd in that Promise The sight of the Face of Moses when radiant had no transforming efficacy for the light of it was not in him as its source but by derivation But God is Light essentially and the sight of his Perfections will be productive of his Likeness in us so far as it may be in a restrained subject When our Saviour was upon the holy Mount and one vanishing Beam of Glory appear'd in his Transfiguration Peter was so transported at the sight that he forgot the World and himself How ravishing then will the sight of him be in his triumphant Majesty when we shall be transfigured our selves 2. As they shall behold God's Face know his most amiable Excellencies so they shall love him as perfectly as they know him To the illustrations of the Mind there are correspondent impressions on the Heart In the present state our Love is imperfect and as Fire out of its sphere dies away by our neglect to feed it with proper materials enamouring considerations of God But 't is not so in Heaven there the Divine Sun attracts every Eye with the light of its beauty and inflames every Heart with the heat of his Love The continual Presence of God is in different respects the Cause and Effect of our Love to him For there is no more powerful Attractive to love him than to see him And Love keeps the thoughts undivided from him God is Love and will kindle in us a pure Affection that Eternity shall never lessen Our Affections that are now scattered on many things wherein some small Reflections of his Goodness appear shall joyn in one full Current in Heaven where God is all in all We shall then understand the riches of his Love that God who is infinitely happy in himself should make Man for such a Glory and such a Glory for Man And that when for his Rebellion he was justly expell'd from Paradise and under a sentence of Eternal Death God should please to restore him to his Favour and give him a better state than was forfeited We shall then understand our infinite Obligations to the Son of God who descended from the Heaven of Heavens to our Earth and which is more from the Majesty wherein he there reign'd from the Glory wherein he was visible to the Angelical Minds and became Man for Men Redemption for the Lost to purchase Immortal Life for those who were dead to that blessed Life In short then God will express his Love to us in the highest degrees that a finite Creature is capable to receive from Love it self and we shall love him with all the strength of our glorified powers 3. Compleat satisfaction flows from union with God by Knowledg and Love In his Presence is fulness of Joy at his Right-hand are Pleasures for ever The Causes and Excellencies of the Heavenly Life are in those words exprest The Causes are the influxive Presence of God the revelation of his attractive Perfections the beholding his Face the declaration of his peculiar Favour This our blessed Lord himself had a respect to as the compleat Reward of his Sufferings Thou shalt make me full of Joy with thy Countenance And his Right-Hand his Bounty that dispenses and Power that secures that Felicity The Excellencies of this state are fulness of Joy and that without diminution or end When the Soul opens its eyes to the clear discoveries of the first Truth and its breast to the dear and intimate imbraces of the Supream Good beyond which nothing remains to be known nothing to be enjoy'd what a deluge of the purest Pleasures will overflow it We cannot ascend in our thoughts so high as to conceive the excess of Joy that attends those operations of the glorified Soul upon its proper object But something we may conjecture Those who are possest with a noble Passion for Knowledg how do they despise all lower Pleasures in comparison of it How do they forget themselves neglect the Body and retire into the Mind the highest part of Man and nearest to God The bare apprehension of such things that by their internal nature have no attractive influence upon the Affections is pleasant to the Understanding As the appearance of Light though not attended with any other visible beauties refreshes the Eye after long darkness so the clear discovery of Truths how abstract so ever that were before unknown is grateful to the intellective
what impatience does he pursue the pleasure of Sin which is but for a season An Ambitious Person with what an intemperate heighth of Passion does he chase a Feather A Covetous Man how greedily does he prosecute the Advantages of the present World that passes away and the Lusts thereof Ah! how do they upbraid our indifferent desires our dull delays and cold endeavours when such an high Prize is set before us Who is able to conceive the excesse of Pleasure the Soul feels when it first enters through the beautiful Gate of Paradise and sees before it that incomprehensible Glory and hears a Voice from Him that sits upon the Throne Enter into thy Masters Joy for ever be happy with him The serious belief of this will draw forth all our active powers in the service of God The feeding by lively thoughts on this supernatural food will add new vigor and lustre to our Graces and make our Victory easy over the World If we believe indeed that our Bodies shall be spiritual and our Souls divine in their perfections it will make us resolute to subdue the Rebel Flesh and rescue the captiv'd Spirit from all Intanglements of Iniquity Having the promise of such an excellent Reward let us always abound in the work of the Lord. 3. The lively hope of this Blessedness is powerful to support us under the greatest Troubles can befal us in this our mortal condition Here we are tost upon the alternate waves of Time but hereafter we shall arrive at the Port the blessed Bosom of our Saviour and enjoy a peaceful calm and so we shall ever be with the Lord. Words of infinite sweetness This is the Song of our Prosperity and Charm of our Adversity We shall ever be with the Lord. Well might the Apostle add immediately after therefore comfort one another with these words More particularly They are a Lenitive to moderate our Sorrows upon the Departure of our dearest Friends who dye in the Lord for they ascend from this valley of Tears to the happy Land of the Living What Father is so deserted of Reason as to bear impatiently the parting with his Son that goes over a narrow part of the Sea to a rich and pleasant Country and receive the investiture and peaceable possession of a Kingdom Nay by how much the Stronger his Love is so much the more transporting is his Joy especially if he expects shortly to be with him to see him on the Throne in the state of a King and to partake of his happiness If then it be impossible to Nature to be grieved at the felicity of one that is loved according to what principle of Nature or Faith do Believers so uncomfortably lament the Death of Friends of whom they have assurance that after their leaving our Earth they enter into an everlasting Kingdom to receive a Crown of Glory from Christ himself Our Saviour tells the Disciples If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go to my Father to sit down at his right-hand in Majesty A pure Affection directly terminates in the happiness and exaltation of the Person that is loved I am not speaking against the exercise of tender Affections on the loss of our dear Friends and a pensive feeling of God's hand in it which is an natural and necessary duty There is a great difference between Stupidity and Patience but violent Passion or unremitting Sorrow is most unbecoming the blessed Hope assur'd to us in the Gospel Chrysostom treating of this Argument and reflecting upon the custom of those Times wherein at Funeral Solemnities a train of Mourning Women attended the Corps tearing their Hair and Face and crying out with all the expressions of desperate Sorrow breaks forth Ah Christian Faith and Religion that was triumphant over thine Enemies in so many Battels and Victories by the Blood and Death of the Martyrs how art thou contradicted by the practice of these who profess thee in words Is this not to be sorrowful as those that have no hope Are these the affections the expressions of one that believes the blessedness of Immortal Life What will the Heathens say how will they be induc'd to believe the Promises of Christ to his Servants of a glorious Kingdom when those who are so in title behave themselves as if they had no stedfast faith in them 4. The hopes of this blessed state is able to free us from the fear of Death This last Enemy gives an hot Alarm to Mankind both as it deprives them of all that is pleasant here and for the terrible consequences that attend it To the eye of Sense a dead Body is a spectacle of fearful appearance He that a little before heard and discours'd and with a chearful Air convers'd and enjoy'd the World now is dead and all his senses in him the Eyes are dead to light and the Ears to sounds the Tongue to words and the Heart to feel any Affections and the Countenance to discover them nothing remains but silence horrour and corruption Besides after Death comes Judgment and a state of unrelenting Torments to the Wicked But a true Believer that has been obedient to his Saviour sees things by another light than that of sense and has living hopes in his dying Agonies He knows that Death to the Saints is but a sleep and while the Body rests in the Grave the Soul is as it were all Act continually exercising its most noble faculties on the best Objects Does the Soul sleep in that all-enlightned World that sees with open face the infinite Beauty of God that hears and bears a part in the hymns of the Angels Saints encircling his Throne that drinks of the Rivers of Pleasure that flow from his Presence that freely and joyfully converses with all the Celestial Courtiers the Princes of that Kingdom the Favourites of God Then it truly lives This reconciles Death to a Christian who has nothing more in his wishes than to be with Christ and knows that diseases and pains the forerunners of it are but as the breaking down the Walls of this earthly dark Prison that the Soul may take its flight to the happy Region and for ever enjoy the Liberty of the Sons of God And for his Body that shall be reunited to the Soul in Glory Methinks God speaks to a dying Believer as he did to Jacob when he was to descend to Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will bring thee up again The same Almighty Voice that gave being to the World shall awake those who sleep in the dust and reform them according to the Example of Christ's glorified Body O how should we long for that triumphant day and with most ardent Aspirings pray Thy Kingdom come in its full power and glory I Shall now come to speak of the Mournful Subject the Cause of my Appearing here at this time the Deceased Reverend and Excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton A Name worthy of
remedy and accepted as a benefit And though the Saints have reviving Cordials yet their joys are mixt with sorrows nay caused by sorrows The tears of Repentance are their sweetest refreshment Here the living stones are cut and wounded and made fit by Sufferings for a Temple unto God in the New Jerusalem But as in the building of Solomon's Temple the noise of a hammer was not heard for all the parts were fram'd before with that exact design and correspondence that they firmly combin'd together They were hew'n in another place and nothing remain'd but the putting them one upon another in the Temple and then as sacred they were inviolable So God the wise Architect having prepar'd the Saints here by many cutting Afflictions places them in the Eternal Building where no voice of Sorrow is heard Of the innumerable Company above is there any Eye that weeps any Breast that sighs any Tongue that complains or appearance of Grief The Heavenly State is called Life as only worthy of that title There is no infirmity of Body no Poverty no Disgrace no Treachery of Friends no Persecution of Enemies There is no more Death nor Sorrow nor Crying nor shall there be any more Pain for former things are past away God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his People Their Salvation is compleat in all degrees Pure Joy is the Priviledg of Heaven unmixed Sorrows the punishment of Hell A concurrence of all positive Excellencies is requisite to Blessedness And these are to be considered with respect to the entire Man 1. The Body shal be awak'd out of its dead sleep and quickned into a glorious immortal Life The Soul and Body are the essential parts of Man and though the inequality be great in their operations that respect Holiness yet their concourse is necessary Good Actions are design'd by the Counsel and Resolution of the Spirit but perform'd by the Ministry of the Flesh. Every Grace expresses it self in visible actions by the Body In the sorrows of Repentance it supplies tears in Fastings its appetites are restrain'd in Thanksgivings the tongue breaks forth into the joyful praises of God All the victories over sensible pleasure and pain are obtain'd by the Soul in conjunction with the Body Now 't is most becoming the Divine Goodness not to deal so differently that the Soul should be everlastingly happy and the Body lost in forgetfulness the one glorified in Heaven the other remain in the dust From their first setting out in the World to the Grave they ran the same Race and shall enjoy the same Reward Here the Body is the Consort of the Soul in obedience and sufferings hereafter in fruition When the Crown of Purity or Palm of Martyrdom shall be given by the great Judg in the view of all they shall both partake in the honour Of this we have an earnest in the Resurrection of Christ in his true Body who is the first fruits of them that sleep He shall change our vile Bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious Body according to the working of his Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself A substantial unfading Glory will shine in them infinitely above the perishing Pride of this World that is but in appearance like the false colours painted on the feathers of a Dove by the reflection of the Light which presently vanish when it changeth its posture or the Light is withdrawn Indeed what can be more glorious than to be conform'd to the Humanity of Christ the seat of all Beauty and Perfection This Conformity shall be the work of his own hands And when Omnipotence interposes nothing is difficult The raising the Body to an unchangeable state of Glory is as easy to the Divine Power as the forming it at the first in the womb As the Sun labours no more in the Mines in the forming Gold and Silver the most precious and durable Metals than in the production of a poor short-liv'd Flower II. The Soul shall be made perfect in all its faculties 1. The Uuderstanding shall clearly see the most excellent Objects Now we know but in part The naked beauty of Divine Things is vail'd and of impossible discovery And the weakness of the mind is not proportionable to their dazling brightness But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away In that enlightned state the glorious manifestation of the objects shall as much exceed the clearest revealing of them here as the Sun in its full lustre one beam of Light strain'd through a crevice in the Wall And the Understanding shall be prepar'd to take a full view of them Therefore the Apostle compares the several Periods of the Church in respect of the degrees of Knowledg to the several Ages of this Life When I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a Man I put away childish things In Children the organs either from an excess of moisture or their smalness are indisposed for the vigorous exercise of the Mind some strictures of Reason appear a presaging sign what will be but mixt with much obscurity But when the organs are come to their just proportion and temperament the Soul displays its strength and activity All things of a supernatural order shall then be clearly discovered The contrivance of our Salvation the wayes of conducting us to Blessedness which are objects of a sublime nature will afford an exquisite pleasure to the Understanding All the secrets of our Redemption shall be unsealed The great Mystery of Godliness the Incarnation of the Eternal Son and his according Justice with Mercy shall then be apparent The Divine Counsels in governing the World are now only visible in their wonderful effects either of Mercy or of Justice and those most dreadful but the Reasons of them are past finding out But what our Saviour said to Peter What I do thou knowest not now but shalt know hereafter is applicable to these impenetrable dispensations All the original Fountains of Wisdom as clear as deep shall then be opened We shall then see the beauty of Providence in disposing temporal things in order to our eternal felicity We now see as it were the rough part and Knots of that curious Embroidery but then the whole Work shall be unfolded the sweetness of the Colours and proportion of the Figures appear There we shall be able to expound the perplexing Riddle How out of the Eater came meat and out of the Strong came sweetness For we shall know as we are known We shall see God Our Saviour tells us This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The beginning and perfection of our Happiness consists in this knowledg The Deity is spiritual and invisible to the Eye of the Body infinite and incomprehensible to the Soul But we shall then so