came in the form of a Servant among the Jews who expected his coming in Princely pomp it was also the many troubles he endured for our sins because he was Crowned with a Crown of Thornes and had not a Crown of Glory upon his Head therefore his glory did not appear the carnal and blind Jews thought the promised Messiah when he came would not be thus miserable and so generally hated as Christ was thus when the wicked see godly men almost overwhelmed with troubles and even buried in the Gulf of outward calamities and look upon them as of all men the most miserable and despicable they presently think there is no glory in an holy life The miseries of the Saints are publique their advantages walk in the dark men see what they suffer but doubt of what they hope for and in the judgment of Infidels their Religion passeth for an imposture because the good things it promiseth are invisible but the evils it threatens are sensible and present We are saith August August Psal 36. like those great Trees which during the sharpness of the Winter are naked of all their leaves their life is enclosed in their roots their vigour is retired into their Sap and all their Soul and vegetation they have is hid from the eyes of the beholders but their death is conspicuous every branch publisheth it and all the mischiefs the Winter hath brought upon them are so many arguments to make us doubt of their life Thus it is with God's Children they are dead and they are alive but their Life is in a Cloud their Death manifest the persecutions they suffer the temptations they encounter the conflicts they undergo perswade wicked and unbelieving persons that their Life is but a languishing and doleful Death but their vigour is over-shadowed their glory is hid with Christ in God and as the Spring must needs return to convince the ignorant that a Tree that hath lost its leaves in the Winter is not dead so must the general Resurrection happen to assure the unbelieving World that the Life of a Christian persecuted by the World is hid with Christ in God 2. Because there is no outward excellency in grace therefore their glory cannot appear to wicked men nothing pleaseth a carnal eye but external excellency and grace hath little of that St. James Jam. 2. tells us That gay clothes and a gold Ring is in more esteem then Faith but Christ goes contrary to the World Cyrus in his speech to his Soldiers told them that were Footmen if they would follow him he would make them Horsemen he told them that were Horsemen if they would follow him he would set them over Chariots if they were Rulers of Villages he would give them Cities if of Cities he would make them Rulers of Provinces Christ Preached otherwise He that will be my Disciple let him deny himself and take up his Cross let him deny his honours and become base for my sake let him deny his riches and become poor for my sake let him deny his life and become miserable what happiness what glory is there will a wicked man say I can see no excellency in Piety if this be the portion of God's Children Grace indeed is like the Ark which within was over-laid with pure Gold and a pot of Manna was in it but the out-side was covered with Badgers-skins and Sheep-skins so grace is inwardly overlaid with pure Gold cloathed with glory and within it there is a pot of Manna even joy unspeakable Yet because the outside of grace is covered with Badgers skins and wicked men do judge according to the outward appearance therefore the inward excellency and glory thereof doth not appear to them 3. Because wicked men think that holy men because they are miserable in this life belong not to God and that their miseries here are but the fore-runners of eternal sorrows It is a good saying of Mercer Hoc est ingenium Mundi ut quibus videt deum extrinsecus maledicere maledicit quibus extrinsecus benedicere benedicit Mercer This is the guise of the World that it thinks those to be cursed of God whom he seems to cross with outward troubles and to think that they are the only blessed men whom he seems to bless with outward things Wicked men think that the love and hatred of God appeareth in outward things and that because all things go well here and every thing succeeds according to the desires of their hearts they verily presume that God by these outward dispensations intends no less then their eternal happiness and because they see that very often trouble upon trouble falls upon the godly they think they are Hypocrites and so God will deal with them to all Eternity Alas the World is blind the God of this World hath blinded their eyes that the future glory of God's Children doth not appear to them they little think that where the godly man's misery endeth there the happinesâ— of the wicked endeth and where the wicked m◠〈◊〉 misery beginneth there the hapâ—â—◠〈◊〉 th◠〈◊〉 â—â—ginneth It is Peter Martyr's 〈…〉 â—icked are called the inhabitant◠〈…〉 therefore are compared to 〈…〉 â—odly are called So journers and 〈…〉 â—â—nderers in a strange land and 〈…〉 â—â—â—ared to the Planets the Pl◠〈…〉 West to East in a contrary moâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—rs do set where the Planets riâ—e 〈…〉 â—icked and the godly that move i◠〈…〉 the one riseth where the oâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—th the glory and happiness 〈…〉 then the glory of th◠〈…〉 â—appiness doth appear SECT II. .2 THE glory of the Saints doth not yet appear to themselves it is not yet manifest what they shall be the fullness and perfection of their glory and happiness cannot be comprehended by them they must enter into their Master's Joy before they can fully see what glory belongeth to them God must make them perfectly glorious before their glory will appear Josua might have spies from Canaan that might bring with them a bunch of Grapes but yet they could not shew him the abundance of Vineyards the Rivers of honey and milk till he came into Canaan to possess it so God's Spirit may bring joy and comfort from Heaven and make the Sons of God to taste of Heaven as Josua did of the delicacies of Canaan in the Wilderness or the Spirit of God may open a cranny that the Sons of God may peep through and behold a glimpse of their future glory but their eyes can never be so fully opened while they are in the flesh as to behold the greatness of their glory and the perfection of their happiness Gorran Our glory is like a candle held in our hands covered with our fingers through which but a little of the light can be seen Indeed in some sort our glory is revealed in the Gospel in that we know that it shall be but the fullness of it is sealed up to the day of Redemption then shall it appear what the
him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day 2. Christ hath promised it Hosea 13.14 I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O Death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction John 6.54 Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day Yea Christ hath considered it by his last will and testament John 17.22 24. 3. It is evident by the Saints profession Job confesseth thus much plainly Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my flesh worms destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh whom I myself shall see mine eyes shall behold and no other for me though my reins be consumed within me Our Saviour who called himself the resurrection and the life refutes the Sadduces and confirms the doctrine of the Pharisees as to that opinion producing a place out of the Law of Moses and using it as an argument for the proof thereof As touching the resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22.32 with the weight of which argument he astonished the multitude and silenced the Sadduces And St. Paul also asserteth the doctrine of the resurrection being brought before the Councel the one part whereof were Sadduces the other Pharisees one denying the other asserting the resurrection Acts 23.6 SECT II. I Shall now prove the resurrection of the Saints bodies by arguments 1. Else why should the Saints in all ages crucifie themselves to the World suffer afflictions for faith in and hope of the resurrection 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable for the wicked esteem the godly as the most miserable men in the World and had they only hope of the things of this life they were then most miserable forasmuch as these temporal pleasures are not a sufficient reward of temporal afflictions 2. The bodies of the just are instruments and companions in the work of holiness therefore also in the reward of them in glory now if we be dead with Christ we also believe that we shall live with him Rom. 6.8 without this the bodies of the just were of all mens most miserable 3. If the bodies of the wicked shall rise again to receive the reward of condemnation then by the same rule must the bodies of the Saints rise to receive the reward of life and salvation Christ saith that the hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation John 5.28 29. if it were not so then God should delight or exceed in justice more then in mercy 4. Because God is able to raise them out of their graves again As the Lord by the resurrection of dry bones revived the dead hope of Israel Ezek. 37.10 11 12. and made them to know that he would open their graves and cause them to come out of their graves and bring them into the Land of Israel so when the bodies of the Saints go down to the dust and their bones are dried there and their hope seems to be lost yet then doth their flesh rest in hope for God will not leave them in the grave nor suffer his holy ones always to see corruption Psal 16.9 10. 5. Otherwise the second Adam could not repair the loss of the first Adam and Christ were not so strong to save as Adam was to destroy for as in Adam all die even so in Christ all shall be made alive 1 Cor. 15.21 22. Adam was the Author of Death's strength and Christ of Death's resurrection 6. Christ is an eternal King and hath an everlasting Kingdom which cannot be unless his Subjects also be eternal for these are relatives and do sese mutuo ponere tollere Also his covenant is everlasting and that not with the dead but with the living sc such as live in soul Matth. 22.32 and shall at the end of the World live eternally both in soul and body and unless we make Christ's body a monster we must not seperate the head from the members which we shall do if we deny the resurrection of the just Luke 14.14 7. If we deny the resurrection of the Saints bodies we deny Christ to be risen upon which many absurdities gross heresies and all manner of impieties will ensue 1 Cor. 15. from 13. ad 19. verse If there be no resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain yea and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if the dead rise not SECT III. BUt Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 let us therefore consider the personal types or figures of our Saviour's resurrection 1. Adam was a type of Christ among other things in this viz. that as he slept in the Garden so Christ died on the Cross and was buried in a Garden When Adam descended into a sleep there was a resurrection of his Rib which awaked into a Woman Adam's sleeping was a type of Christ's suffering and dying and his awaking of Christ's rising again yea this resurrection of the second Adam doth well resemble the nativity of the first Adam for in Genesis Chap. 2. you shall find Adam taken out of the ground and fashioned out of the dust of the earth so was it with our blessed Saviour at his resurrection he was as I may speak born again of the earth rose out of the dust of death the grave was in travail with him and Death it self was compelled to bring forth the Lord of life and so he is the first-born of the dead Colos 1.18 But see here the malice of the Jews towards our blessed Saviour which ended not upon the Cross but as they began with him in his cradle so they persecute him to his grave where as though they had not laid him up safe enough they invent bonds beyond death they watch and seal him up in the grave as if they could have held in him who had the keys of Hell and death but for all the great stone which they had brought with much heaving no doubt to lay upon the mouth of the grave for all their seal set upon the stone and a diligent watch set to
attend the Sepulchre yet notwithstanding our Saviour who had wrought many miracles upon others hath wrought a greater upon himself the sealed stone iâ— removed the watchmen are deceived and a dâ—ad carâ—cass revived 2. The Antients makâ— Isaac a type of Christ's passion and resurrection as namely Abraham's taking Bâ—â—a in Geâ—es 22. Isidor dâ—â—ccâ—es offic lib. 1. cap. 29. binding and laying his Son upon the Altar was a type of Christ's death and passion and as Isaac carried wood for himself so did Christ Jesus carry the wooden Cross Now will ye see a rising without death or sleep behold Isaac as near the stroke as the hand of his Father arising from the funeral pile he had taken the knife in his hand stretched out his hand to slay his Son and then between the sacrificing knife and Isaac's throat God sheweth favour to Abraham bidding him to stay his hand and a Ram was brought by the power and providence of God to rescue and redeem Isaac from death here was a sacrifice offered yet not slain and though not slain yet accepted Heb. 11.8 Thus Abraham received his Son Isaac from the dead in a figure verse 19. being a type of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead who by the power of his Divinity raised his Humanity from death to life 3. But perhaps it will more gratefully affright you to see a man taught to be buried alive and more yet to out-live his funeral behold then Joseph a most excellent type of Christ Joseph is basely betray'd and sold by his Brethren into Egypt is falsly accused by his Mistress and cast into prison and after three years imprisonment is delivered so Jesus is betray'd to the Jews by Judas his own Apostle Friend and Follower and falsely accused before Pilate by the Jews and is put to death but on the third day Christ is raised up from the dead and as Joseph after his deliverance out of prison is advanced in the Kingdom of Egypt so Christ after his resurrection is glorified in the Kingdom of Heaven Behold then Joseph from the Tomb-stone of his Prison rising into a triumph as eminent as innocency which before had conquered his passion and now his affliction behold in Joseph the mystical Body of our Saviour a Body admirably mortal and incorruptible a Body that suffered rather the Grave then Death 4. Sampson was also a type of Christ as in many things so in these two especially of his his death and resurrection for after he had slept at Gaza when the Gazites compassed him in and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the City that they might kill him in the morning he arose at midnight and carried away the gates of the City upon his back carrying them up to the top of an Hill that is before Hebron carrying away the doors of the gates of the City and the two posts bar and all upon his shoulders So maugre the watch that the Jews set to keep Christ's Sepulchre Vide Ferum in Matth. p. 292. Christ arose with the mystical Gates of Hell and Death upon his back no marvel Hell-gates cannot prevail against his Church together with the Posts and Pillars thereof and as Sampson by pulling down the House upon the heads of the Philistines was avenged of his Enemies so Christ by opening the sealed Sepulchre hath subdued Death yea conquered him in his own Den and Cabin 5. But what more proper type can there be then Christ makes of himself and that is Jonas Matth. 12.40 which is thus fitted and parallell'd Jonah's casting into the Sea was a sign of Christ's Death his being taken by the Fish and received into his Belly a sign of his Burial and his casting on shore again a sign of his Resurrection Three days he lay in his new night of astonishment as if he had found an Egypt in the belly of the Whale and did acknowledge the watry Purgatory at last the grave of the Prophet casts up the living he had surely died had he not been buried here 's a resurrection of this rare Anchorite though not a reviving for he and his Tomb were both alive But the Tomb of our Saviour was as desperate as his Death yet was it not possible that he should be holden of it Acts 2.24 for he arose on the third day from the Grave the Humane Soul of Christ did not of it self return and quicken his Body but his Divinity which rested raised his Humanity that suffered that is by the vertue and omnipotent power of his God-head whereby he is able to do all things he reduced and brought back his reasonable Soul and re-united it to his organical Body and this Body that arose was altogether glorious being void of all infirmities and weakness whatsoever being now no more subject to hunger thirst cold weariness or the like True it is he called for meat after his resurrection Luke 24.41 42. and did eat it truly but not that he needed any meat or nourishment his Body being then immortal Edebat Christus non ut necessitati satisfaceret sed ut veritatem humanae naturae ostenderet Pet. Mart. and impassible but he doth it to prove himself to be really risen again for as when he had restored others to life as Jairus's Daughter Lazarus and others to prove that they were truly restored to life he caused meat to be set before them so to manifest and declare the truth of his own resurrection he calleth for meat and eateth it before them and that it might appear there was no falshood nor forgery in the business he brought not his meat with him but he takes such things as he found them furnished with and which they had provided and although he eateth he doth it not for his own sake by reason of the necessity of nature or the infirmity of the flesh but for the sake of his Disciples for the strengthening of their faith and not for the nourishing and cherishing his own flesh Though the necessity of eating and drinking in glorified bodies be taken away saith Augustine yet it was free and in his power to eat if he would Peter Martyr tells us he did sometimes after his resurrection ad testandam veritatem humani Corporis to testifie the truth of his humane Body as namely his affording himself to be seen and felt of Thomas and others and his eating and drinking with his Disciples And some again ad suam gloriam demonstrandam to shew forth his glory of which sort was his conveying himself from them they knew not how and his coming in among them clausis januis the doors being shut If you demand what became of the meat that Christ did thus eat I answer it was a most easie matter for him that made all things of nothing to cause a little meat and drink to consume and vanish to nothing Stell Enarrat in Luc. 24. Stella out of Chrysostome saith that Christ laid aside all accidental properties in
his Body after his resurrection but retained the essential as longitude latitude circumscription c. SECT IV. BUt will you see the manifold proofs of Christ's resurrection if you will turn over the notes of time you may believe that Pharaoh as about that time of the year when Christ rose from the dead was invaded by an host of waves which conquering his Charets made him without wheels to hurry faster into Hell while Moses led his Israel through the Wilderness of the Sea passing through the shadow of death in the monument of Waters Did not our Lord also leave his Tomb without an equal and contrary wonder then the Waters seemed to be firm rising into Alps as now the Earth was made to quake like the Waters and well might the Earth tremble when the Lord conquered it and forsook it The Angel too made a little Earthquake in the Grave when he removed the mighty Stone with which the senseless Jew tried to oppress our Saviour after death as if he would have sealed him up to an utter impossibility of rising again the Earth now moveth and danceth for his exaltation and the Stones give place to his omnipotency The Angel having opened the Tomb shall we look into the place whence Christ is risen but behold he is not there to be found an Angel supplieth his place which he had conquered to obedience as if he had meant to rest himself in triumph after the conflict of his miracle his rayment white as snow which he did imitate in purity his countenance was like lightning but more wonderful for that 's of so instant a terror that it 's rather the object of our memory then our eye but this with a courteous Majesty was patient to be beheld the terrified Women quickly behold this sight being encouraged by the Angel but first by their innocence the Souldiers beheld it too but with such guilty faintness that they seemed as much to disgrace their sex as their profession disarming themselves at once both of their weapons and souls together they became as breathless carcasses and were rather the Captives then the Keepers of the Grave But now the Women being comforted they receive a commission from the Angel to preach the Resurrection of our Saviour and out of the Tomb they hasten with the confused speed of fear and joy and while they seek the Disciples they find their Saviour himself who comforteth them with his presence and speech and again sendeth them to teach his own Disciples and to shew their obedience to be as quick as their love they depart from Christ to their duty and speedily find Peter and John for their Auditors who no sooner hear the news of Christ's resurrection but they run as fast to the Tomb as the Women ran from it where no sooner are they entered but they perceive Christ's victory over Death acknowledged by the Linnen cloathes his spoils of Death and these spoils too had been divided the Napkin off his head being laid up by it self It seems the Angel at our Saviour's resurrection attended to be a Witness of it to the Women and to leave a testimony of it to the Disciples Thus that he was not stoln away as was given out appears by the inconvenience and leisure of his undressing and by the method of the Linnen which the affrighted policy of the Souldiers did no more touch then observe and they no more observed it then the Women who after the sight of the Angel had their eyes as much amazed as their minds the Souldiers too did more tremble then watch but the Disciples had less fear and more time Besides they learnt somewhat which they were not taught and could now teach the Women this news of the Grave Lo here the Lion of the Tribe of Juda whose Almighty strength vouchsafed to couch under the power of the Grave and lo the greatness of his love hath raised him up from the sloth of the Grave Will ye behold how he was raised behold how the Potter worketh upon the wheel he taketh clay he maketh it a vessel and this vessel being made in the hands of the Potter he makes it again as he best pleaseth Christ was immortal Clay and Earth purer then Heaven when by the wonder of Omnipotency the Creator and Creature were made into one and of one matter did consist both the Potter and his Pot from this broken Clay there did arise the same and a renewed Christ Could any man in this point be yet an Infidel if any could see how he converts them he lets Thomas disgrace himself to a belief and by his distrust mercifully and miraculously encreaseth his faith Can any body doubt he was renewed in a Body of glory when he was full of God had he not a glorious Body whom the doors that were shut when he entered to his Disciples did obediently acknowledge to be the King of Glory though he were patient under Death three days yet since the first part of the first was spent before he died and the last part of the last after he revived there was the number but not the length of three days and thus he made so short a change as seemed rather a sleep then death He rose not sooner lest he might have been thought not to bâ— fâ—lly dead he lay no longer lest he might have been thought to have seen corruption This resurrection of Christ proved him to be true God as his birth life death burial proved him to be true Man It was his own Argument against the Jews Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again John 2.19 And St. Paul among other things tells us He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 Methinks this might have stopt the black mouthes of the blasphemous Jews who at the time of his execution bade him come down from the Cross and save himself and they will believe on him Matth. 27.42 which though he would not do yet here he doth a greater matter Plus fuit ex Sepulchro resurgere quam de Cruce descendere Gregor to rise was more saith Gregory to rise again out of his Grave then to descend from the Cross This likewise declareth his dominion over Sin Death Hell and all Enemies Christ therefore died rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living if he had died and not risen again then had he at least seemed not to have conquered and overcome death but to have been foyled in the Field and overcome of Death and then how could he have been the death of Death and the destruction of the Grave and have delivered us from the power of Hell Hosea 13.14 This likewise sheweth us the sufficiency of his satisfaction and him to be an absolute and all-sufficient Saviour whereof we might have doubted had he only died for we think not a mans debts then paid when he or his Surety goes
for one of Fabritius it is all spoken that you might sooner have turn'd the Sun out of his course than him from his integrity and uprightness Yet the best of them were but guilded potsherds and the fairest vertues they talkt of were but painted rags they never knew what God or Christ was what Heaven or Hell were Blessedness is a thing that every man hath in his eye it is the mark that every one shoots at a thing that every man desireth blessedness is that estate that every man coveteth boni mali both good and bad men saith S. Augustine August in Psal 119. Serm. 1. Good men do therefore labour to be good yet that is no wonder but even wicked men also do therefore labour to be wicked that they may be happy there is some appearance of good in it unto them they aim at a kind of blessedness even in the pursuit of wickedness and many there are that have Heaven and happiness at their tongues end that have the earth continually at their fingers end O curas hominum O quantum est in rebus inane Alas Mans cares how full of pain Alas Mans wayes how vile and vain But though blessedness be in every man's heart yet many men are strangers to it Many things are subject to the eye but of blessedness we may say eye hath not seen it other comforts and good things are taken in by the ear but we may say of blessedness ear hath not heard it nor is it possible to enter into the heart of man to conceive how great that good is that is comprised in blessedness The blessed man is defined by some to be one Qui habet omnia quae vult nihil patitur quae non vult that hath every thing he would have and suffereth nothing he would not suffer so that it is an estate to be considered privatively and positively Privatively in respect of what must be wanting Positively in respect of what must be had 1. There must be an absence of all that is evil whatsoever is in any degree evil or whatsoever a man in his own understanding doth apprehend to be evil or conceit to be evil that he must want and be without for if there be any evil at all that he either feels or feareth so long as he is in that estate he cannot be in a blessed estate yea though it be but an imaginary evil his own fears imaginations and apprehensions are to him a kind of unhappiness while man is under the apprehension fear or imagination of any evil he is vexed disquieted tormented and cannot be truly happy 2. On the other side as there must be an absence of all that is evil so there must be an affluence of whatsoever things are good every good thing the heart can wish a man must enjoy for look how much of any good thing he wanteth so much of his blessedness he wanteth Therefore the word in the Hebrew that signifies blessedness is a plurall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and never found in the singular number Some give this reason for it because it is not hoc aut illud unum aut aliud it is not this or that one or the other good thing that can make a man's estate blessed but he that will be in a blessed estate must omnibus bonis affluere abound with all good things and no good that he can desire must be wanting to him Blessedness is the enjoyment of good correspondent to all the desires of a Christian it is both the first and last good of a Christian the first and last of things to be desired the first for excellency the last for enjoyment it is the spring of all good when blessedness cometh all good cometh along with it it comprehendeth all good whatsoever Moreover blessedness is the Crown and remuneration of all good though God doth endue men with several gifts and graces and albeit as there are several gifts and employments of men so there shall be several rewards yet the reward of all is but one blessedness And hereunto I will add one thing more viz. that blessedness hath ever perpetuity annexed to it and that same perpetuity of happiness addeth all in all to the perfection of it Non est ista beatitudo de cujus aeternitate dubitatur for there is no perfection of felicity where there is no assurance of perpetuity which perpetuity doth neither depend upon the nature of the thing it self nor proceed from any natural necessity that our souls should so exercise themselves for ever in beholding and loving God but from the will of God which doth freely perfect our nature in so high a degree and continue it so perfected From hence this conclusion will follow that the blessed estate being such an estate as we have spoken of it is not to be attained in this life The blessedness of man in this life is but like the girding on of the Sword before the fighting of the Battel till the battel be fought the victory cannot be judged nor the Crown given Alas in this life there are many good things wanting to us that our Souls do desire many evils present with us from which we would fain be delivered we have now health and anon sickness now plenty anon want now peace anon trouble but in Heaven there is all joy and no sorrow in the world there are reciprocal vicissitudes of joy and sorrow joy and sorrow be as it were the interchanging sails of the worlds wind-mill it is therefore the hand of death that must open the door for us to an happy life according to that of the Poet. ultima semper Expectanda dies homini dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Ov. Mâ—â— lib. 3. Our lives last day must be expected when By death we shall be happy not till then Thus Epiphanius Epiphan Haeres 6â— brings in Methodius disputing against Proclus the Originist that God as the true Physitian hath appointed death as a Medicinable purgation for the utter rooting out and putting away of sin that we may be made happy and unblameable and that as a goodly golden Image sightly and seemly in all parts if it be broken and defaced by any means must be new cast and framed again for the taking away the blemishes and disgraces of it Even so Man the Image of God being maimed and disgraced by sin for the putting away these blemishes and the repairing his ruines and decayes must by death be dissolved into the earth thence to be raised up again in a state of perfection and blessedness How should the consideration hereof wean us from the love of this life why should our love be there set where no blessedness is to be had the things of this life are of that nature Quae possessa onerant amata inquinant amissa cruciant as Bernard speaketh things which while we possess they burthen us while we love they defile us
are interested that look as the creature is said verse 19. earnesty to expect they do as it were put forth their heads to look for the glorious appearing of the Sons of God so all the Saints do earnestly expect their future promised glory saith Parisiensis Guilielm Parisiens their hopes are altogether taken up with Heaven they long for this eternal habitation the moments that stop them here below seem ages the diversions illusions the pleasures of the world seem torments to them the happiness of the world a dangerous temptation Now the Spirit of God inspires them with strong desires of Heaven points out the glory of the Blessed fills them with hope of the shortning of their exile they live always in their desire after Heaven comfort themselves with the expectation and by a certain hope taste the happiness they shall one day be satisfied with in an everlasting enjoyment Now the hope of a Christian is sure and being founded on the promises of God who cannot lye never deludes the Believer that listens to them Jesus Christ hath given to his People such favors as whereby he strengthens their hope for what happiness they yet enjoy not the death he suffered for us is an assurance of that life he prepares for us neither can we doubt saith Augustine Aug. that we shall not reign with him in glory seeing he was willing to die for us upon the Cross for what good things may we not expect when his death is a pledg of his love and an assurance of the happiness we look for he that hath this hope may boast himself happy before hand for Philo Philo Jud. the Jew calls it the fore-runner of joy a harbinger pleasure preceeding the eternal one an ante past of blessedness 3. God hath already given them the beginnings of glory they are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of their inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession c. Ephes 1.13 Here indeed the Saints are Sons but they are not Heirs invested into that blessed estate they have title to God reserves not all their happiness for the world to come but gives them somewhat here to bear up their spirits to mitigate and sweeten their troubles in their absence from their Husband and to render them happy in the midst of their miseries he sheds the graces of his Spirit into their spirits with so much complacency that conversing with men they may relish the bliss and happiness of Angels He gives them the Holy Ghost as a pledg of that glory which one day they shall receive with him you know an earnest is for security of a contract so the Holy Ghost doth secure us of that blessed estate we shall have hereafter in Heaven An earnest likewise is part of the bargain a part of the whole that is secured though it be never so little yet it is a part so it is in the operations of the Spirit upon us in that peace and joy that it worketh in the heart it is a part of that peace and joy the Saints shall for ever enjoy in Heaven Moreover an earnest is given rather for the security of the party that receives it then in regard of him that gives it so God by giving us this earnest of his Spirit gives us assurance of salvation he makes us thereby to read our Names written in the Book of Life he takes us into that Privy Chamber where the definitive sentence of our eternal happiness is pronounced he applieth to us the merits of Jesus Christ and himself interposeth the caution of his Promises he blots out those mortal discontents that labour to throw us into despair advancing our hope by a prelibation of glory and handles us with so much tenderness that he that hath this assurance cannot be made to believe that he can be miserable in the other world that hath been so happy in this The Saints also have glory here in primitiis they are said to have received the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 to assure them that they shall have a rich harvest and a good crop Look as sometimes it falls out with wicked men in their merry sports God sends some horror of conscience into them that like an unwholesome damp choaketh all their pleasure which is the first fruits of Hell a taste of the cup of wrath which the damned drink of in Hell so when a godly man is in his sad dumps when he is almost buried in the gulf of troubles then God's Spirit doth as Jonathan take a little honey upon the top of his rod and gives it him to eat which comforteth his fainting spirit the Spirit of God then droppeth a little comfort upon an afflicted heart gives him a taste of the rivers of pleasures and secretly assureth him of the favor of God in Christ and that one day he shall enjoy communion with him to all eternity these are the very first fruits of Heaven The godly are already glorified in part because that wherein eternal life and glory do consist they have now in part they know God in part they do here enjoy God and Christ in part they have now communion with God in Christ and Christ is said to live in them and God is said to make his abode in them that Soul must needs be glorious wherein God and Christ do make their abode It is true what a holy Man said a Believer hath Coelum in se Christum in illo Coelo A Christian hath Heaven within him and Christ in that Heaven Where God and Christ is certainly there is Heaven 4. Because Christ their Head is glorified therefore must the Members also be glorified they are united to Christ he is their Husband they are his Spouse now where he is they must also be as he himself tells his Disciples John 14. Now is the time of contract only the time of the Marriage solemnity shall be at the appearing of Christ Now we are the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be 1 John 3.2 But when he who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory Colos 3.4 Christ in his own Person is now glorious Ought not Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory Luke 24.26 This glory is given him by God his Father 1 Pet. 1.21 John 17.24 Now when it is said God the Father gave him glory it cannot be meant of essential glory because he had that from all eternity but by glory is meant the glory of his Mediatorship and the glory he had after his Resurrection wherein we shall be made like unto him sitting at the right hand of God Now real glory is given to Christ in regard of his Humane Nature so it was manifest in time but in respect of his Deity he had it with his Father before the world was John 17.5 As the Sun when there is a Cloud between us and it the Sun
still keeps its splendor but when the Cloud is gone we see it So Christ in regard of his Deity had this glory always it was hidden from him in regard of the infirmities which he took upon him as sufferings death c. Now Christ our Head being glorified all his Members that suffer with him shall also be glorified together they are now glorified in capite and when Christ hath prepared places for all his Members then he will take them home to his Father's house Christ is now preparing their glory and fitting their heavenly Mansions he is decking their Crowns of Righteousness he is trimming their Robes Christ is now in his own Person glorious but Christ mystical is not glorious it is in a suffering condition there are many of his Members that are not yet brought home to God Christ hath a care of his mystical Body as of his natural Body he gave his natural Body to redeem his mystical Body therefore as he is glorious in his natural Body so he will be glorious in his mystical Body for St. Paul saith he shall come to be glorified in his Saints The Son of God rose gloriously out of his Tomb and after he had given assurance of it to his Apostles he was taken up into Heaven to reign there eternally with his Father the Angels made a part of his Triumph his Body that was pierced with the nails rent with stripes torn with thorns was set at the right hand of his Father on a Throne whose Ornament was Justice and the Foundation Mercy as one well noteth His mystical Body shall receive the like glorious entertainment the Saints shall be admitted into the Society of the Blessed and reign in Heaven with the Angels Those Members that have suffered in the quarrel of Jesus Christ shall be freed from all miseries and reign in glory everlastingly with their Head that the blessedness of Jesus Christ may have its accomplishment and he may be as happy in his Members as in his Person Jesus Christ and his Members are united in their sufferings on earth and by a necessary consequence we may be assured they shall be so one day in their glory in Heaven To this end Christ prayed for his Church to his Father when himself was upon earth The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me John 17.22 24. It is observable that in other things when Jesus Christ speaks to his Father it is with so much respect that he seemeth rather a Servant then a Son but when he asks that his Members may reign with him in glory it is with so much liberty of speech that his Request is rather a determination then a Prayer Volo Pater Father I will that where I am there my Servants may be CHAP. V. Of the quality of the Saints glory NOw that I may set forth the nature of the Saints glory you are to know that there is no specisical or essential difference between our gracious and glorious estate as there is no specifical or essential difference between the Corn of the First-fruits and that of the whole Harvest only some accidental differences as there is no specifical difference between a Child and a grown Man they have both the same essential parts and principles there is only an alteration of degrees not of parts gradus non variat speciem Now our present estate is our Infancy our future estate is our Man-hood for the present the Children of God have glory given them godly Men are for the present glorious the Scripture calls them nothing else but blessed yea even then they are blessed when the world looks upon them as most miserable when shame reproach and trouble is cast upon them then doth the Spirit of glory rest upon them they having grace bestowed upon them have glory Glory is nothing else but the splendour the brightness of grace Vita gratiae nihil est aliud quam aetas infantilis gloriae he that is gracious is glorious We shall have the same individual Bodies and Souls after the Resurrection as we have in this life only some alteration in respect of some new qualities as in our first Resurrection from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness there is no transmutation of the essence but an alteration of the qualities or a super-introduction of new qualities by which we are said to be new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 not in quantity but in quality so in Heaven we shall become new Creatures in respect of what we are now and those very qualities which do principally concur to the constitution of our happiness in Heaven are in some measure communicated to us in our first regeneration now we have drops then rivers of delights Psal 36.8 both the same in nature This will be the more evident if we examine wherein our happiness hereafter doth consist and compa ing it with our present estate Our spiritual and supernatural blessedness consisteth in the fruition of such an object as is perfectly all-sufficiently and principally good which is only God therefore it standeth in our perfect union to and communion with God the faculties of the soul being by the Almighty power of God dilated extended and enlarged so far as to be as it were capable of the fulness of God and by the perfect operations of the understanding will and affections united to God in all their actions and when these natural weak and vile Bodies of ours by the same hand of Omnipotency are transfigured and transformed into spiritual powerful and glorious Bodies and so united to the Soul then are we come to the perfection of our blessedness the properties of which blessedness are First That it is everlasting Secondly That we shall discern it so to be And thirdly That as it fulfilleth the largest desires of our hearts so we shall be extraordinarily affected with it and perpetually affected to it and incessantly desirous of it our glory consisteth not in having what our weak Souls can now wish for but what they can desire when they are gloriously corroborated and enlarged So that now you see there is no specifical or essential difference but only a gradual or circumstantial difference between the state of grace here and the state of glory hereafter for Regnum coeleste est Dei contemplatio glorificatio Gregor Nazianzâ—n Orat. contr Arrian celebratio cum Angelis communis saith one of the Fathers who commonly describeth the state of the blessed to be nothing else but the full and perfect accomplishment of such spiritual blessings as are already begun in us and in part already communicated to us when God shall by a most perfect and immediate irradiation of the understanding and sanctification of the will and affections to know love and delight in God and transformatâ—on of the Body into the likeness of Christ's effect
unserviceable to him it is against their will saith the Apostle it is against their very natural instinct and inclination that they must be slaves and drudges to sinful Rebells Moreover the Creatures by a natural instinct do naturally tend to their own highest and ultimate perfection Sin spoiled them of it and keeps them from this perfection but this natural inclination is still in the Creature perfection and duration is the desire of all Creatures But this perfection shall not and cannot be enjoyed by the Creature till there be a manifestation of the Sons of God hence 't is said they earnestly expect that manifestation the Saints expect Christ's manifestation in glory for till he appear they shall not appear in glory The Creatures expect their appearance for till the Sons of God appear they shall not be delivered from their vanity and corruption SECT VI. NOW if the Creature who shall not have any answerable measure of glory but be only brought into glorious liberty not into glory it self as Calvin Calvin in Loc. noteth doth thus wait for this glorious manifestation how much more should we whom it mainly concerneth and for whose sakes that day was created and ordained and who shall enjoy a fullness of glory in comparison of them how should we wait all the days of our appointed time till our change shall come This expectation of the Creature should teach the godly whose duty it is to expect to long for to hasten to the manifestation of this glory Solomon sends the Sluggard to the Pismire and bids him learn of him diligence and industry the same may be said to the godly man Go to the Creature thou dull and sloathful man and learn of the Creature to look for and to be more and more in expectation of the manifestation of thine own glory The Creatures expect when you shall be manifested in glory is it not a shame then to those who are Sons and Heirs of glory not to expect their own glory the Creatures lift up their eyes to Heaven crying How long Lord is it not a shame then to the Sons of God that they should cast their eyes down to the Earth on the glory of it which passeth away like a Flower of the Field The creatures put forth their heads and cry why are the wheels of the Chariot so long in coming is it not a shame then for the Sons of God to hang their heads down is it not a shame to us that senceless creatures should be earnest and we slack in our expectation shall senceless creatures outstrip those who are endued with reason and grace shall their hope outstrip our hope If you believe there shall be such a manifestation and that you in particular shall be manifested to be the Sons of God shew me your faith by your earnest expectation you have but poor desires of Christ's coming and your own glory whose expectation is so cold and faint if the creatures were to be partakers of that very glory that you shall be how much more earnest would they be in expecting the manifestation of it the very cause why we do not more earnestly expect our glorious manifestation is our earthly-mindedness we mind Earth so much therefore do we expect Heaven so little CHAP. X. Sheweth there is no comparison or equality between a Believer's present sufferings and his future glory SECT I. THe next Proposition I shall lay down from this Text is that there is no comparison proportion or equality between the present sufferings of the Saints and their glory that shall be revealed their present afflictions are not worthy to be laid in the ballance with glory comparisons between them are odious we should not speak of our afflictions on that day we speak of glory That there is no comparison or proportion between them will appear if we consider the ensuing particulars I. If you look at the things themselves which you suffer for the present and what you shall enjoy hereafter there is no more comparison between them then there is between a Mole-hill and the Sun a drop and the sea of Water a little pibble and a rock of Diamonds 1. You suffer perhaps the loss of goods you shall enjoy God who is all goodness what comparison is there betwixt the Creature and the Creator all the Nations of the World are but as a drop of a Bucket before him what then are thy goods thy riches to God himself 2. Suppose you suffer the loss of Houses and Lands you shall possess a great Kingdom fear not little flock it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom what comparison is there between thy earthly possessions and that heavenly Kingdom the whole Earth in comparison of the Heavens is but a point what are thy Houses and Lands to that heavenly Kingdom 3. Do you suffer mockings revilings evil speakings reproaches before men and from men Christ will confess you before his Father and before his holy Angels what are mens revilings and defamations to the confession of Christ before an innumerable company of glorious Angels 4. Perhaps you suffer imprisonment you may lie in nasty dungeons your feet may be in the stocks your hands manacled what are these things to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God which they shall enjoy when you shall walk at large in Heaven and follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth here ye are mens Prisoners there ye shall be the Lord's Free-men here ye are fettered Captives there you shall be crowned Kings 5. You may suffer present banishment from your Country from your Wives Children Parents Kinred Friends in Heaven you shall enjoy communion and fellowship with God with Christ with an innumerable Company of Angels with the general Assembly of the First-born and live among all glorious Saints 6. For the present you may suffer much sorrow tears may be your meat and drink continually but what is your present sorrow to the joy of the Lord to the comforts of Heaven one drop of which falling down from Heaven on the Soul of a Believer makes him for the present to rejoyce with glorious and unspeakable joy what are your dropping tears to the rivers of pleasure which are at God's right hand 7. At present you may be put to shame and confusion men may set crowns of paper upon your heads having Devils painted on them as they did upon John Huss or you may have crowns of straw put upon your heads in derision as some other Martyrs or crowns of thorns as Christ had but what is this to the Crown of Glory the Crown of Righteousness the Crown of Immortality which Christ the righteous Judg will set upon your heads 8. Put case you suffer death for Christ of which cup many millions of Heavens Worthies have drunk put case it be a shameful tormenting death a burning a sawing asunder ye are stoned or buried alive or starved to death or torn in pieces by Lions whatsoever the death be 't is the worst
of evils you can suffer for Christ yet what comparison is there between this death and that life which you shall live in Heaven Had you as many lives as hairs on your heads as a Martyr wished he had had you millions of lives to lose for Christ yet the loss of all these are not worthy to be compared to the life which suffering Christians shall live in Heaven put all together and you shall see there is no comparison between your present sufferings and your future enjoyments of good See what Christ saith Mark 10.29 30. There is no man that hath left House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time c. There is no comparison between your present losses and present gains your present sufferings and present reward your present reward is an hundred-fold more then all you can lose the grace of God is present the savour of God is present the right to Heaven which Believers have for the present is far above all their present sufferings Now if the reward which suffering Christians have in this life be an hundred-fold better then their sufferings then doubtless their glory in Heaven shall be a thousand-fold more transcendent SECT II. II. THere is no proportion or comparison if you respect the properties of our present sufferings and our future glory 1. There is no comparison between earthly and heavenly things your present sufferings are earthly the goods of which you are spoiled are earthly your liberty your houses your lives your joys your ease are earthly things but your glory is heavenly every part every degree of your future glory is heavenly 2. There is no proportion between that which is transient passing away and cannot endure and that which is permanent enduring your present sufferings are transient they pass away they endure not Athanasius said of persecution Nubecula est quae cito transiret There is nothing more transient and swift then time your sufferings pass away together with time they cannot endure always all you which are the subject of them shall not endure always now your glory is permanent it shall abide and endure when time shall be no more 3. There is no proportion or comparison between a moment and eternity a moment a minute and for ever and ever your present sufferings are but for a moment a short space of time your glory is eternal for ever and for ever your pain and torment is but for a moment your ease and rest is for ever and ever your suffering imprisonment is but for a moment your glorious liberty is eternal you suffer death but for a moment your life is eternal what comparison is there between the twinkling of an eye and eternity You say you have suffered long as Asaph you are plagued every morning you have been in bitterness all your days ever since you began to look after Heaven you have been afflicted from your youth up to your age even to the day of your death Grant all this to be true yet thy whole life is but a moment compared to eternity the sufferings of a thousand years is but a moment to eternity yea millions of years are but a moment compared to eternity nor will they pass for so much if we did but consider what eternity is 4. There is no comparison between light things and heavy between a feather and a rock between chaff and a mountain of lead your present afflictions are light your future glory is ponderous and weighty 2 Cor. 4.17 observe what a most elegant opposition the Apostle makes he opposeth glory to afflictions he opposeth eternal to momentany he opposeth weight to light and he addeth a most transcendent expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate it A far more exceeding weight of glory Some by adding some other words do give this sense Our afflictions are out of measure moment any our glory is out of measure eternal our afflictions are out of measure light our glory is out of measure weighty Whatsoever your afflictions are and how grievous soever they are in themselves and how long soever yet they are but light being compared with the glory of Heaven and with the weight of it If you look only on your sufferings and judge of them according to your sense so they are not light but judge of them as opposed to future glory and so they are out of measure nothing 5. Afflictions do not seize on us at all times Christians have their lucida intervalla their moments of ease as well as their moments of trouble their present times of rejoycing as well as their present times and Now 's of sorrowing they even they have their times to sing and dance as their times to weep and mourn Paul had his raptures as well as his pressures David had his time to play on the Harp as times to hang it up and there is no Christian that is afflicted at all times they have their sad Eclipses but now and then but now their glory shall be at all and every moment during eternity they shall have perpetual glory without one moment of shame perpetual joy without one moment of sorrow God will wipe away all tears from their eyes they shall continually sing for superabundant joy of Soul and Body their eyes shall ever see God they shall not see sorrow any more they shall be as the Angels of God who never felt sorrow since their Creation they shall be as very strangers to sorrow as the Damned shall be to joy this present time shall be no more then the afflictions of this present time shall be no more That was an arrogant and false self-deceiving speech of Babilon Lo I sit as a Queen and shall see no more sorrow The godly when taken up into glory shall say it truly now we sit as Kings and shall not see any sorrow no not for a moment whilst eternity lasteth Eternity is nothing else but a perpetual moment of unspeakable and glorious joy and happiness 6. There is no proportion because afflictions are justly due are ye hated of all men ye deserve it and more ye deserve to be hated of God of his Angels for ever Are ye cast by men into Prison into Dungeons ye deserve it and more even to be cast into Hell fire are ye banished from your Countrey friends and acquaintance you deserve that and more ye deserve to be banished from Heaven from your God from your Saviour to Eternity Are ye spoiled of your goods ye deserve it and more even to be spoiled of eternal mercies of eternal Salvation Are your bodies condemned to be burnt or to be cast to Lyons and wild Beasts to tear them to pieces you deserve this and more even to have both body and Soul condemned to Hell fire to be cast to Devils to be devoured ye that sin daily deserve to suffer daily ye that
it not rather be said Count this a cause of weeping sighing wringing of hands No saith the Apostle count it all joy when trouble cometh upon trouble wave upon wave storm upon storm when the winds blow and the rain falls and the waves beat upon you then count it all joy call upon your souls to rejoyce call upon your hearts to Magnifie God clap your hands leap for joy 2. It informs us that they are the happy ones of the Earth who are the greatest sufferers for Righteousness sake thus St. James Chap. 1.2 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation or tribulation James 5.11 Behold we count them happy which endure saith the same Apostle What a paradox is this to a man that mindeth earthly things Call you him blessed that is imprisoned in fetters in a dungeon reviled mocked tortured persecuted hated of all count you him an happy man that is spoiled of his goods destitute of friends who is ready to perish through famine count you a man in misery an happy man Yes saith the Apostle he is a blessed man we count him happy whom all men hate who suffer hunger cold nakedness imprisonment death banishment for the name of Christ we count him happy who endures most misery with and for Christ we count him and him only a miserable man that can laugh and sing away care and sorrow who sits like a Queen and sees no sorrow who fares deliciously every day who can eat drink and play and so pass his time of life away he is a miserable man For 't is not what a man is for the present which makes him happy or miserable but what a man shall be to eternity he that is miserable for the present but shall be happy to eternity we count him happy and he that is happy for the present time but shall be miserable to eternity we count him a cursed man Lazarus in the depth of his misery was an happy man because he is glorious to all eternity the rich Glutton was a miserable wretch in the height of his jollity because he is miserable to eternity Hence I conclude that the glory that shall be revealed in us will make us perfectly blessed but our present sufferings cannot make us miserable for the Saints are happy in the thickest of them Math. 5.11 12. Then doth the Spirit of God and of glory rest upon them 1 Pet. 4.14 Our present miseries at the uttermost can but rob us of a temporal life which will come they or come they not fail us at length but glory bestows upon us and crowns us with an everlasting blissful life He that hath an interest in Christ may cry out with that great Apostle What shall separate us from the love of Christ and may say I am perswaded that neither Death with its terrours nor life with its charmes neither Angels with their beauties nor Devils with their deformities things present with their allurements things future with their promises or threatnings nor Hell with its torments can ever separate me from the love of God in Christ and indeed how should they saith St. Augustine because death though never so hideous leads us to him life is found in his possession Angels and Devils are the Ministers of his justice or his mercy things present are false things to come uncertain Hell with God would be our happiness and Heaven without him would be our torment or we may say again with the same Father that nothing can separate a Christian from Jesus Christ and make him miserable Not death because there is no Christian can be brought into so dismal an estate as to be deprived of his love not the Angels because being united to Christ we are stronger then all Spirits combined together against us not the vexations of life because they are sweet when undergone for his honour and serve only to give us a nearer conjunction to his person Not things to come because nothing can be bestowed nor promised which can countervail him Not Heaven because it is the recompence of them that serve him Not Hell because it is made for none but those that forsake him by all which we see that a man firmly united to Christ cannot by these outward things be removed from him Oh the solidity perspicuity and self-sufficiency of that Paradise and place of delights of that Celestial company and Crowned society who is able to express the comfort and contentment of that estate and condition where we shall have all blessedness Internal External and Eternal what can be done or suffered to answer so great a reward the diseased will endure the cutting and searing of their Members for the enjoyment of a short tedious life Heathens have suffered great things for a little vain glory if they prize the shadow so much at what rate should we value the substance what are a few drops of blood for the Kingdom of Heaven how may this comfort us under afflictions considering that the afflictions of this life are but small showers at the most but some short storms which are followed with an Eternal calm Isa 54.8 CHAP. XII Sect. I. I shall now in the next place by Divine assistance adventure to speak something of the excellency of Heavens glory though some there be that think silence and astonishment to be the best commendations we can give it I confess our understandings are too shallow to comprehend the greatness of it When the great Voice saith Come up hither come and see then we shall be best resolved concerning it If the Queen of Sheba confessed that the one half was not told her of the Wisdom Prosperity and Glory of Solomon which she had heard reported in her own Countrey when she came in person to his Court how much more shall the Saints confess when they come to Heaven that the Thousandth part was not told them of all the honour glory and blessedness which they shall find in that heavenly Jerusalem Here then let us consider The Circumstances of this glory The Substance of this glory The Adjuncts of this glory The Circumstances are two Time and Place as for the Time it shall be 1. In the day of the Creatures Restoration we read Act. 3.21 That the Heavens must conlain Christ until the time of the restitution of all things And St. Paul tells us That the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 Here divers questions are to be propounded Quest 1. What Creatures are to be delivered into this glorious liberty Resp 1. Under this word Creature we are not to comprise the Elect Angels because never subject to vanity nor the reprobate Angels and Men because they are destroyed with an everlasting destruction from the presence of God 2. Neither are we to comprise the godly Elect men under this Word Creature in this place for although it be most true that all the godly shall be perfectly delivered from all
Men or Angels is able sufficiently to set forth the height of this blessedness III. It shall be at such a time when the Devil and all his Instruments the Enemies of God and his People shall be cast into outer Darkness and swallowed up of everlasting Destruction when their day shall wholly end their glory be finished and their prosperity be utterly extinguished and overthrown when they shall be for ever seperated from God the fountain of all blessedness of which Separation Chrysostome thus speaketh That if a thousand fires of Hell were joyned together in one they should never be so great a pain to the Soul as it is for the Soul to be separated in this wise for ever from Almighty God We read Isa 14.9 10. That the Kings and Potentates of the Earth seem to be brought into rejoycing at the fall of Lucifer viz. the King of Babilon when he was brought low it was matter of triumph to the Children of Israel that the Lord saved them from the hand of Pharaoh and the Aegyptians that pursued them to the red Sea and that Israel saw the Aegyptians dead on the Sea shore the Waters covering the Chariots the Horsemen and all the Host of Pharaoh that came into the Sea after them that there remained not so much as one of them the Children of Israel walking upon dry Land in the midst of the Sea the Waters being a wall to them on the right hand and on the left Exod. 14.28 29. Was it not a great priviledg for Noah to sit secure in the Ark above the Waters that covered the tops of the highest Mountains at the same time when the whole World of the Ungodly were drowned and buried in the Flood what then may we conceive the happiness of the Saints will be when they shall be advanced to the heigth of heavenly glory when their Enemies shall be overwhelmed with the depths of shame and misery what encouragement may this be to us to raise our hearts Heaven-ward and to have our affections set on things above while the hearts of Worldlings are rooted in the Earth that at the same time when their end shall be destruction we may be put into the possession of eternal glory should not we be as unwilling now to have fellowship with them in their unfruitful works of darkness as we are desirous to be in Heaven when they shall be cast into Hell fire IV. It shall be at a time when all the labours sorrows and sufferings of the Saints shall be at an end Write saith a Voice from Heaven to St. John Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them Rev. 14.13 They shall then be eased from the toilesome and troublesome travels of this Life being translated from this worlds vanity into Heavens felicity where shall be neither labour in action nor pain in passion where they shall be neither annoyed with pinching cold nor parching heat and as sleep is a resting and refreshing to our weak frail and weary bodies so our bodies being laid down in the bed of our Graves they shall rest and be free from all sickness and sorrow weakness weariness and all work and whatsoever else are fruits and effects yea punishments of sin and attendants of this life yea the Saints after they have wearied themselves in striving against sin in subduing corruption after they have spent themselves in the work of the Lord and after the Enemies to piety have tyred out themselves with malice scoffs reproaches slaunders persecutions they shall rest from all their labours and sufferings in perfect peace and blessedness and the fruit comfort and reward of their works shall follow them and abide with them for ever They shall then arrive at a safe harbour after a dangerous passage through Shelves Storms Rocks and Pirates which then shall be so much the more welcome to them Read St. Pauls Catalogue 2 Cor. 11.23 And think how sweet Heaven will be to one that hath had such a hard passage thither Through labours more abundant stripes above measure many prisons chains fetters whippings scourgings shipwracks deaths journeyings perills of Waters Robberies by his own Countrey-men by the Heathen True it is he gives in a large bill of his charges as it were but when he cometh to speak of his wages he makes nothing of his labours and sufferings in comparison of the reward 2 Cor. 4.17 For these light and momentany afflictions do work out for us an exceeding eternal weight of glory The highest Mountain in the World is very light in comparison of the whole Earth even so are the greatest afflictions of the greatest sufferers in comparison of the glory of Heaven It is said of Isachar Gen. 49.15 That he saw that rest was good and that the Land was pleasant therefore he put his shoulders to labour and became servant to Tribute So I may say the rest and glory of the Saints is good but the Land that brings forth this rest will be best and most pleasant to them after all their labours and sufferings are fully ended then to receive this glorious rest will be most sweet unto them and most seasonable Were Heaven nothing else but an Haven of rest we know how welcome the one is to a Sea sick weather-beaten Traveller and by that we may conceive how welcome the other will be to a Soul that hath been long tossed in the Waves of this troublesom World sick of its own sinful imaginations and tyred out with outward temptations the happiest Soul that ever hath sailed over this Euripus in the best Ship in the most healthful body that ever was never had so calm a passage saith a good Divine but that it hath had cause enough often to wish it self on shoar Sa. Ward on the life of faith in death Is there any Palace or Tower here so high or strong that can keep diseases from the body or cares sorrows fears or Satan's assaults from the Soul were there but such an Island as some have dreamed of here on earth that might free mens bodies or minds from disquiet but for the time of this life how would people strive to dwell there Certainly in this heavenly Countrey there shall be perfect tranquillity to all the Inhabitants thereof Oh how will it ravish the hearts of the Saints when they have finished their course and are come to the end of their race oh how sweet will Heaven and how glorious will the Crown of Immortality be to them in the end If Seamen when they have been many moneths upon the Sea where they have encountred with many dreadful storms and boystrous tempests and have been often in danger of drowning and shipwracks when they shall at last descry but a Creek of Land do leap for joy and cry out Oh Land land we are nigh to such a Coast where we would be then much more those that have run
and women of all sorts that lived before the flood after the flood before the law after the law before Christs coming in the flesh after his incarnation until this day and from this day that shall live to the end of the world of all Nations under heaven then who can tell the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part the four hundredth part of this Israel of God the remnant and gleanings of those that have lived in so many thousand years will arise to an unspeakable multitude After the sealing of the hundred and forty four thousand of the twelve Tribes St. John saith I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and Kinred and People and Tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palms in their hands How should this rejoyce every faithful Soul resting in hope of this sweetest and most blessed Society Though in the mean time thou seest many frown upon thee and sleight thee to thy face yea even shun thy company yet labour thou for an assured part in thy Father's House and then rejoyce in assured hope there to find many dwelling places and in those places many Dwellers many sweet Companions Though a man were constrained to live like an Eremite or Anchoret all his time from the company of men on Earth yet the assured hope of this Society to be enjoyed for ever in our Father's House were sufficient to refresh him Ascend my Soul mount up on Eagles wings And get above these Sublunary things Make haste and flie unto that lofty Hill Where God abides with Saints and Angels still Oh how should every Christian so love the Lord as to long after his House and Kingdom and a more near and full enjoying of his presence Laban noted in Jacob an earnest longing after his Father's house Genes 31.30 saith he to him Thou wouldest needs be gone because thou sore longedst after thy Father's house Jacob had such a love to his Father Isaac though very old and blind that he sore longed to be gone from Laban to his Father's house how much more should we labour for such love to our heavenly Father who is infinite in all excellency and glory as should make us weary of being here and exceedingly to long after our heavenly Father's House It was a good change for Jacob to go from Laban an unkind Father-in-law unto Isaac a loving and tender-hearted Father but what a blessed change is it for the Children of God to go from the World a cruel Step-mother yea a dangerous Enemy unto God their heavenly and most gracious Father to go from among Swearers Worldlings Drunkards Prophane Persons Scorners of Religion Persecutors to go from Snares and Temptations to go from Sin and the danger of Sin to go from the lower Region which is as it were under the feet of Satan who is as it were over our heads being the Prince of the power of the Air I say to go from all these and to go into the arms of the Lord our most gracious Father should not a Child of God long after this exceedingly It sheweth want of love in a Child and an ungracious disposition when he secretly longeth for his Father's Lands or Goods because he cannot enjoy them unless his Father die whose life should be much dearer to a Child then all his Goods or Lands but it argueth the truth of our love to our heavenly Father when we have an earnest longing after that glorious Inheritance of his because we shall live with him in the everlasting Habitations And to this end let us labour to get our Souls fully assured that the Lord is our Father in Jesus Christ and that we are his Children that so we may long after our Father's House If we saw our Father's House we would cry to be over the Water and to be carried in Christ's arms out of this borrowed Prison The Earth is the Lord's lower House while we are lodged here we have no assurance to lie ever in one Chamber but must be content sometimes to remove from one corner of our Lord 's nether House to another resting in hope that when we come up to the Lord 's upper House we shall remove no more because then we shall be at home We now see and hear at home and abroad nothing but matter of grief and discouragement which indeed maketh our life bitter but let this comfort all faithful Christians that Christ is coming to fetch them to his Father's House his Father will make them welcome and give them house-room and though they change dwelling places yet they shall not change their Master nor their services His Servants shall serve him Revel 22.3 SECT IV. MOreover you are to understand that Heaven is the Throne and Kingdom of God Thus saith the Lord Heaven is my Throne Isai 66.7 Here is the height of a Christians glory and exaltation to be taken up into the Throne of God according to that speech of our Saviour Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and sate down with my Father in his Throne Christ at the last day will say to the Sheep on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World You that have followed me in the regeneration to you I have appointed a Kingdom Luke 22.29 Fear not little Flock it is your Father's will to give you a Kingdom Rev. 2.10 Be faithful to the death and I will give thee thâ— Crown of life In one place it is called a Crown of righteousness in another a Crown of glory in a third a Crown of incorruption and elsewhere a Crown of life Now Crowns you know are given either as Ensigns of Majesty or Rewards of Virtue 1. As Ensigns of Majesty therefore we see they are worn on the heads of Emperors and Princes when at times of highest solemnity they will shew their greatest magnificence 2. As Rewards of Virtue therefore by ancient stories it appeareth that almost all Nations such as excelled in Valour or in Learning they were Crowned with one thing or another some with Roses some with Laurel or Bayes some with Olives some with Gold that so they might cherish the profession and exercise of Arts and Virtues to these the Scripture alluding it promiseth Crowns and a Kingdom as the goodliest rewards we can either desire or receive to such as through faith and patience overcome either the affections of their sinful Nature or the afflictions of this wretched World Hence I infer how abject soever the condition of the Saints be upon Earth it shall be most glorious in Heaven glory shall follow their sufferings as the day followeth the night there is no glory upon Earth you know greater then the glory of Kings it is true Popes of late days have striven to out-climb them so the Bramble in Jotham's
Parable would have out-climbed the Cedar they would perswade the World that they were created as the Sun to rule the Day that is over the Clergy and that Kings are but as the Moon to rule over the Night that is say they over the Laity But Popes are no Creatures of God's making Kings are the anointed of the Lord God himself hath given testimony sufficient of their magnificence in that it hath pleased him to change Names with them and taken their Name to himself he is called a King and gives them his own Name in exchange for therefore he hath said they are Gods I urge it the rather because of the inference that followeth for the greater Kings are the greater Christians are for Christians are said to be Kings Rev. 1.6 He hath made us all Kings and Priests unto God And to the meanest and most abject Christian a Crown shall be given infinitely far more excellent and glorious then the Crowns of all earthly Kings 1. In respect of the Soveraignty that belongs to it Crowns are Ensigns of Soveraignty as I hinted before and Soveraignty is a thing much accounted of to be but as the Centurion was would put a spirit of ambition into us that we might have those under us to whom when we say Go they should go when Come they should come when Do this they should do it If we could have not only Persons but Provinces under our subjection and could make our selves Commanders and Rulers over Countries and Kingdoms so that People should serve us and Nations should bow before us this would kindle a great fire of ambition in us it would make one that had the aspiring mind of Absalom to snatch the Crown from his Father's head If we could climb higher yet and get to be not only Soveraigns over divers Provinces as Ahasuerus was but also be Monarchs of the whole World as it is said Alexander was so that the Princes of all Nations should pay Tribute to our Coffers Si jus violandum regni causa violandum Caesar ex Euripide and the People of all Countries bow their knees before our foot-stool this if any thing would enflame our ambition and if at all for a Kingdom one would violate the bonds of Nature or Justice as one long ago was wont to say for such a Kingdom as this he would be provoked to the doing of it Alas Beloved all this is nothing in comparison of the Soveraignty belonging to the heavenly Crown and Kingdom the poorest Saint in Heaven shall be more glorious in Soveraignty then ever Ahasuerus or Alexander were or then ever Adam was when he was Lord of the whole World for look what was said of our Saviour Heb. 2.8 All things shall be subdued all things shall be brought in subjection to him and when it is said all things shall be subdued there 's nothing left out that shall not be subdued the same may be said of every faithful Member of Christ they shall every one have a share in this Rule and Dominion even all things shall be brought under their subjection the very Angels shall then be made subject to them where Christ sits they shall sit whom Christ judgeth they shall judg and as Christ reigneth they shall reign also 2. In respect of the safety that belongs to it there is no Crown so setled upon the head of any earthly Prince as that he can promise to himself perpetual safety under it either safety from sickness and diseases or safety from Adversaries and Enemies either domestical or forreign but that he is in danger of both Kings are as much in danger of sickness as other men for Chairs of State are not Castles of health nor can their Crowns keep their heads from aking they are as much in danger of Enemies as other men nay they more then others every railing Shimei hath a tongue to bark at them every traiterous Sheba will be blowing trumpets of rebellion against them but the Crown of glory shall sit sure upon the heads of the faithful even with as much safety as majesty no sickness shall be able to blast it no Enemy to endanger it St. Paul saith that all our Enemies shall be put under our feet 1 Cor. 15.27 And the Prophet saith All tears shall be wiped from our faces Isai 25.8 3. In respect of the peace and tranquility of it the Princes of the Earth though they have a great many more honours yet they have a great many more burthens then other men their Crowns are thicker stuck with cares then with gems That made one of the Emperours say when the Imperial Robe was brought him to put on Oh nobilem magis quam faelicem pannum Oh here 's a Robe saith he fuller of bravery then felicity 'T is otherwise with the Crown of glory this Crown is as free from troubles as from dangers they that are crowned with it are crowned with peace as well as with honour it shall not disquiet them with cares but give them rest from their labours rest and peace shall ever wait upon them whom God shall vouchsafe so to dignifie as to let their Temples be empall'd with this glorious Crown 4. In respect of perpetuity therefore the Apostle calls it a Crown of Life James 1.12 because they that are crowned with it shall never taste more of death Herein again it differs from all earthly Crowns and excells as much as it differs earthly Kingdoms and Crowns are subject to alteration to dissipation Job tells us that God sometimes looseth the collars of Kings Job 12.13 It was told Saul when he had been a while King over Israel that God had rent his Kingdom from him and given it to his Neighbour 1 Sam. 15.28 But howsoever though the Crown be not translated yet he that wears the Crown must be translated Death will translate the greatest Princes to another place though while they live their Crowns be not translated to other Persons but sit fast upon their own heads but 't is otherwise with this Crown of life there shall be no alteration nor removal at all either from it to us or from us to it when once we shall have it confer'd upon us Were the Kingdoms of the Earth never so full of glory and happiness yet what they want of perpetuity they want of perfect felicity there can be no perfection of blessedness but where there is perpetuity of continuance so there shall be here St. Paul calls it an immarcessible Crown St. Peter calls it an immortal inheritance that shall never fade away 1 Pet. 1.4 It is said of the Bread of life John 6. that he that eats of it shall hunger no more and of the Water of life John 4. he that drinketh thereof shall thirst no more so I may say of this Crown of life whosoever is crowned with it he shall die no more How should the consideration hereof make us to labour for this glorious Crown what a shame is it to see
merit but in regard of order because as wages is usually given at the end of the labour so this reward is given at the end of our days Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee the Crown of life Rev. 2.10 5. In regard of faith that looks at salvation as the end and wages of all her labours St. Peter writing to those of the dispersion speaks of their receiving the end of their faith the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.9 Object But it may be said this reward is conditional Rom. 8.17 that if we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him where merits seem not to be excluded Sol. I answer the condition notes out there the order not the cause of reigning which may serve to comfort us in afflictions Luke 17.7 8. Now I shall make it evident that this reward is a reward of mercy not out of merit For 1. In a merit there must be relatio muneris remunerati a relation between our giving to God and his giving to us and it is not possible for the infinite God to receive any thing from us we can give nothing to him but what at first came from him as David speaks 1 Chron. 29.11 14. Who hath first given to God and it shall be recompensed to him again Rom. 11.35 2. The obedience performed must be materia indebita to make it meritorious but we are every way bound to God we are bound by the bond of Creation to be serviceable to him By Nature we owe him our service from whom we receive our being We are also bound by the bond of Redemption we are none of our own but his that hath ransomed us and therefore wholly uncapable of meriting any thing at the hands of God Every meritorious work must be free proceeding from our own meer good pleasure it must not be a duty which we are bound to do now all that we do or suffer is but duty commanded by God and we stand bound under many obligations to do them works of duty cannot merit 3. Every meritorious work must be a man 's own proper work now the good we do is not of our selves but of God that gives us the ability of performing it it is by the grace of God we are enabled to do and suffer To you it is given to believe and to suffer for Christ Phil. 1.29 It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh all our works in us and for us Isai 26.12 We are infinitely indebted to God for enabling us to do any thing for God and the giving of one gift is an obligation that therefore one should give another ex condigno 4. In a merit the work done must bear proportion with the reward now what is the giving of a mite or penny to the purchase of a Kingdom what proportion is there between an infinite reward and a finite work an eternal reward and a temporary work such is our work such is God's reward So Christ to his Disciples Luke 17.10 When you have done all those things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do 5. There is so much defect in our best works that it is impossible they should merit any thing out of justice for who can think they should deserve punishment out of justice and merit a reward out of justice too That work which meriteth must be perfectly perfect there must be no flaw not a shadow of privative imperfection in it if God should be extream to mark what we have done amiss Hell would be the reward â—our best works Now though glory be called a â—eward yet 't is a meer gift of grace Eternal life is the gift of God saith the Apostle Rom. 6.23 Christ saith of his Sheep I give unto them eternal life John 10.28 It is called both a gift and a reward secundum quid and in respect it is called a reward but simply and absolutely Abbot de Meritiâ— it is only a gift compare eternal life to the work and look no further so the Scripture calls it a reward but consider the original from whence the work it self also proceedeth and all is meerly and wholly gift saith learned Bishop Abbot 6. Hereby the merits of Christ would be made of no validity Christ hath merited for us to the uttermost and nothing can be contributed by us because he hath done it alone so then eternal life follows upon an holy life not as remunerated from any merit of ours but as conferr'd in much mercy by God for the merits of Christ I shall now shew that the reward in Heaven is a great reward Aquinas on Matth. 5.11 Aquin. Suppl 3. portis quaest â—6 assigneth to three Orders of glorified Saints namely to Virgins Doctors and Martyrs a special Crown of glory excelling in glory the Crowns of other Saints I should spend time but to little purpose should I tell you the idle figments of the Schoolmen about these Crowns as that the Virgins shall have a white Crown the Doctors a green Crown the Martyrs a red Crown such hay straw and stubble have the over-curious heads of the Schoolmen laid upon this foundation I shall wave this and shew you how the reward in Heaven is called a great reward I. It is great absolutely in it self considered the great God himself is the reward of his Saints the Kingdom of Heaven is their reward we should count an earthly Kingdom a great reward much more all the Kingdoms in the World that is a vast reward indeed but what is all the World and the Kingdoms thereof in comparison of Heaven 't is but as a drop of a Bucket compared to the Sea the dust in the Ballance compared to the Earth and a spark of Fire compared to the Sun there is some comparison in these for both are finite but there is no proportion between God and the whole World perfection of holiness perfection of glory perfection of joy perfection of pleasure is this great reward II. Consider the properties of this reward and you will see it is a great reward 1. It is an infinite reward far above the sight of the eye it cannot comprehensively behold it the ear cannot hear the greatness of it the heart cannot conceive it Were the Sea ink and the Heavens parchment and all Angels and Men set on work to delineate the greatness of it they could not describe it the reward is great according as God is and who knoweth how great he is 2. It is an all-sufficient and all-satisfying reward why doth the holy Ghost call it after so many names sometimes calling it the Kingdom of Heaven the sight of God a Crown a Crown of life joy Rivers of pleasures sometimes a Supper the Marriage of the Lamb white Robes Paradise the reason is because it is so great that one expression is not enough to describe it it is an
to prison for them and there abideth but when he cometh out again with a general discharge so that he dares bid defiance to all Bailiffs and Serjeants whatsoever or whosoever can pretend any thing to say to him thus much Christ declared to the World by his rising from the dead for though he discharged our debt by dying yet we have our acquittance by his rising again 1 Pet. 3.21 Rom. 4.25 SECT V. WIll ye consider the wonder of the resurrection as well as the change do but imagine that in the dawning birth of the morning you saw the revelation of a grave emulating the morning a Coarse rising with more comfort and glory then the Sun a winding-sheet falling away like an empty cloud the feet and the hands striving which shall first recover motion the hands helping to raise the body and the feet helping to bear the body and the hands the tongue so eloquent that it can tell you it can speak again the ears so pure that they can perceive the dull silence of the grave the eyes looking forth of their tombs as if they were glad to see their own resurrection Would you not be affrighted as well as instructed at the Divine power would you not be turn'd into very Coarses to see this living Coarse would you not be struck as pale as the very winding-sheet you lookt upon But when all this shall be done as well in mercy as in majesty as well to raise thee to an hope of eternal life as to strike thee with a remembrance of a temporal death as well to make thee like unto God as to make thee know that thou art not like him how then wilt thou dissolve into compassion as if thou wouldst hasten to the like resurrection how wilt thou then kiss those hands which before thou fearedst and then stedfastly examine and adore the resurrection of that Body which is the hope and cause of the resurrection of our Bodies for therefore did he raise himself that he might raise us Christ rose not as a private but as a publick Person as a Burgess in a Parliament representeth the whole Body of the Incorporation for which he is chosen so Christ as our Head represents the Persons of all them that are Heirs of Salvation Ephes 2.6 Christ as in his Passion so in his Resurrection sustained the Persons of the Elect and so we in him as in Capite rise with him St. Paul tells us that Christ standing in our stead representeth our persons Rom. 5.18 19. this appeareth in that he rose not alone but many bodies of the Saints rose with him and attended him Matth. 27.52 53. to shew that the vertue of him our Head diffused and extended it self unto all the Members of the Church his Body and his rising first shewed him to be the first-fruits of them that slept Christ rose by his own power and not as we by a borrowed power from Christ I have power to lay down my life saith he and power to take it up again John 10. â—8 it was prophesied of him Psal 110. ult therefore shall he lift up the head As in his Passion when he suffered he bowed down his head and gave up the ghost with a loud voice to note that his sufferings were voluntary John 19.30 so in his Resurrection he is said to lift up the head himself to note that he had life in himself and that it was impossible he should be holden under death who was the Lord of life SECT VI. NOw he that could raise up his own Body by his Divine power can much more raise up our Bodies also he it is that shall quicken our mortal Bodies Rom. 8.11 a privatione ad habitum non datur regressus and therefore however the Angels are instruments in respect of some antecedent and consequent cause of the Resurrection Matth. 24.31 yet the immediate cause is God alone Christ himself in respect of his Humane nature being excluded for howbeit the Resurrection is ascribed to his Person yet only according to his Divine nature yet in the communion of both natures we acknowledg Christum agere quod suum est verbo operante quod verbi est carne exequente quod carnis est Yet I grant as in the raising up Lazarus and the Widows Son of Naim Luke 7.14 so in the general resurrection Christ's Humane nature shall perform what belongs to it that is give some evident sign of his coming to Judgment which shall be as an instrument of his Divine power for the raising up of the dead which shall have its instrumental force as that voice in raising the Widows Son of Naim Luke 7.14 and that voice in raising Lazarus John 11.43 44. And this sign is exprest diversly in Scripture John 5.28 it is said all that are in the graves shall hear his voice In Matth. 24.31 He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds from the one end of Heaven to the other And St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15.52 The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed And the same Apostle saith 1 Thes 4.16 The Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first By all which places I suppose may be gathered that the voice of Christ shall be used at that day as an instrument to awake all that sleep in the dust But what shall we rise too and shall this dust be taken up and breathed on shall every man by this second Adam be made as wonderful as the first Adam Beloved shall we want faith when God wanteth not power or shall we think it harder to unite the Body then to make it he that made us etantillo semine shall he not be able to raise us etantillo pulvere It were an impious discourtesie to deny that to God which God denied not to his own Servant Did not the Widow of Sareptah thus receive a Son by Elias who was neither the Father nor the God nay did not his Servant do more for the Shunamite to whom he promised a Son before he was conceived and restored him after he was dead nay did not the bones of this Elias give life to one that was as dead as themselves teaching him to confess the mercy of a grave It is an high act of mercy of the living God to give life to the dead yet by a greater mercy he makes it an act of justice freely binding himself to admit our boldness not so much to request as to claim a resurrection for shall the Bodies of the Saints be more remembred by their tombs then their labours or shall they be worse oppressed by death then they were by their torments shall those eyes that did still watch or mourn for ever want respect as much as sight shall those hands that have
been exercised in extending themselves and mercy to the poor be for ever bound by the ingratitude of death shall those knees which have bowed with such willing reverence be so held down by the violence of mortality that they can never rise up again Where are then thy tears O David if thine eyes shall not enjoy the happiness of their own sorrow What then O Job is become of thy faith and patience if thy body be now as much without hope as before it was without rest Where are then O Esaias thy victorious sufferings if after the ignorant fury of the saw and schism of thy body thy body suffer a wider disordation from thy soul for tedious eternity Where are thy travels then O Paul if after thy Christian Geography and Conquest of Paganism thou art for ever confin'd to the dull peace of a Grave No the Almighty which hath made man with wisdom of Art will neither lose his glory nor his work but as he made the greater Heaven for his Angels so made he the less and mortal Heaven of Man's Body as I may so speak for his Soul and will have it eternal as his Soul SECT VII THere is more excellency of workmanship in the Soul but more variety in the Body the Soul doth more truly express God the Body more easily the Soul judgeth best but the Body first and though the eyes of the Soul do behold the work of God more clearly yet doth the eye of the Body most properly Nay should not the Body be raised to life and Heaven how great a part of Heaven and that life would be lost whiles not enjoyed and be as unnecessary as it is wonderful God hath prepared joys for the Saints which the eyes have not seen nor the ears heard but which the eye shall see and the ear shall hear and without the pleasure of a trance for ever possess as much without error as without measure such honour will the Creator of our Bodies do to the Bodies of all his Saints They shall acknowledge Corruption yet overcome it they may in their journey be the Guests of the Grave but at last they shall be the Inhabitants of Heaven Yet the Lord cannot hereafter honour Humane flesh by raising it as he hath already by assuming it it was before his Servant now his Companion that was a resurrection of the flesh when it was raised unto God but the only resurrection of our flesh is when it is raised unto the Soul At the last day of Judgement though there be no Marriage of sexes yet there shall be of parts when Souls shall be united to Bodies in so entire and so inexorable a Matrimony that it shall admit no hope nor fear of a divorce nor need we fear in the jealousie of this Match the Ignoble Parentage of the flesh since what it wanteth by Birth is supplied by Dowry and flesh now is become such refined earth being made wonderful in shape and office that the Soul may be thought scarce more noble but that it seems more reserved by being invisible this mortal body shall put on immortality this Body sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption it shall not only be freed from death but also from corruption yea and whatsoever savoureth of mortality or the least decay And notwithstanding these principles of earth fall into such an heap of dust that they are with as much difficulty to be seen as numbred yet thus divided among themselves retaining still though not an appetite yet an obedience to a resurrection Nature hath not lost this and God will supply that and as easily unite as distinguish each dust to yield to this is the Creed of the Creed If any mans faith in the assent to this mystery be as weak as his reason he may help both his faith and his reason by sense by which he shall be either convinced or perswaded If you will be but as hardy as Antiquity you may propose to your selves the solemn Poetry of the Phoenix a Creature rarer then the Resurrection though not so admirable in whose ashes you may find the fire of life expecting but to be fann'd to the resurrection of a flame as if this Creature by a riddle of Fate would by a fire both perish and revive But without the courtesie of supposition you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot forth new quills wherewith may be written and testified his endeavor of immortality thus doth God teach Nature how to teach us mysteries and without the magical learning of the language of Birds to understand without their voice their secret instruction But perhaps you will think that to discern this truth in the nature of Eagles would require a sight as sharp as the Eagles Remove then your eyes from the Fowls of the Air but to the Trees whereon they nest and with a negligent view you may observe how after the nakedness and death of Winter they bud forth afresh into life and beauty yet why should we in the sloth of this easie contemplation study so broad an object let our eye with more grateful industry confine it self with the small seed of corn and at least take the pains to see the pains of the Husbandman and shall we not admire at his delightful Arithmatick of nature to behold a seed whose hope seems as small as it self by being cast away to be found by destruction to receive increase from the same furrow to take both a Burial and a Birth He that shall now see a little drop of man's seed in a glass and a lump of earth together would think the one as unlikely to become a man as the other and yet we see how miraculous and curious a work the Lord makes every day of the principle of seed which made David cry out I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139. and he can easily restore our Bodies out of a praeexistent something which may confute the erronious opinion of the Sadduces who denied the resurrection Matth. 22.23 of the Athenian Philosophers who derided it Acts 17.18 holding the Pythagorean transmigration of Himeneus and Philetus who said the resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 and lastly of all those Atheists and Epicures Isai 22.13 that cry out and say Mors ultima linea rerum SECT VIII BUt now the Soul will have its old Companion again for should the Soul for ever want the Body it should want both perfection and wonder Is not the Soul most perfect when it is most noble is it not most noble when it is most bountiful and is it not most bountiful when it gives life to the dead Is it not likewise most full of wonder when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect when it mixeth with corruption and yet is incorruptible when it is most burthened and yet is most variously active Thus by this necessary inclination of the Soul the Resurrection is as natural in respect of the union as it is above Nature in respect of
the manner But now see the curious zeal of the Soul it will not only have a Body again but in a precise society it will have only its own again not any other new created Bodies but the same numerical and substantial Bodies shall rise again and be re-united to their proper Souls 1 Cor. 15.53 54. Phil. 3.21 Job 19.26 27. St. Paul saith This corruptible shall put on incorruption and Christ shall change our vile Bodies And Job saith in his flesh he should see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me There may be some general alteration in respect of their stature deformities superfluities c. to a glorified perfection but still it shall remain the same essential Body and good reason there is for it 1. The justice of God requireth that the same Body which hath been instrumental in the actions of righteousness or unrighteousness should be rewarded or punished The Godly must receive their rewards according to what good they have done in these Bodies 2 Cor. 5.10 It were injustice that this flesh should be killed and that should be crowned that the same Body in which we served God wherein God was glorified Absurdum Deo indignum ut haec caro lanietur illa vero coronetur ut corpora quae in via sacta fuerint membra Christi in patria aliis suffectis in eorum locum arcerentur Tertul. de Resurrect cap. 56. which suffered for God and was for Christ exposed to all the injuries indignities and torments of wicked Persecutors should be eternally laid up in the dust and another Body should be created to receive the reward due to the Body in the grave 2. Because if God should not raise the very same Bodies of his People in which they lived and served God in their generation then God shall not deal so honourably with the dead Saints as with those that shall be found alive at Christ's coming for their very same Bodies shall be delivered from the bondage of mortality and corruption into incorruption and immortality 3. Because Christ who is the pattern of the resurrection did not rise in another Body but in that in which he was fastened to the Cross in which also after his death appeared the prints of the nails in his hands and the holes in his side John 20.27 Therefore Christ after his resurrection for the cure of Thomas his unbelief whose faith lay in his fingers bids him put his finger into his hands and side and not be faithless but believing It seems those scars remained in Christ's Body after his resurrection Vulnerum signa virtutum insignia Aquinas else how could Thomas see and feel them as he is willed to do But these scars were no blemishes in his Body then they were no signs of defect but ensigns of Victory For as that worthy and renowned Captain Caius Marius being on a time accused of Treason in the Senate tore his clothes and shewed his wounds and scars and slashes he had received in the Wars in the service and for the safety of his Country saying Quid opus est Verbis Vulnera clamant What need is there of my Words my Wounds cry loud enough So Christ might shew his pierced Side goared Hands and Feet not only to shew that it was the very same organical Body of his that was crucified on the Cross but also to shew his love to his People and what he did and suffered for them And when the eleven Disciples were gathered together at Jerusalem Jesus appeared to them and they being affrighted supposing they had seen a Spirit he said unto them Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet it is I my self a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me to have Luke 24.39 40. A Spirit hath not parts members and dimensions as I have therefore you may be sure being infallibly taught by your sense that it is my very Body which you see in which I long conversed with you suffered and was buried which is now truly risen again Whence as Theodoret saith he proveth it was his true Body that was crucified on the Cross that was now raised from the dead 4. Should not the Saints rise with the same Bodies it were no resurrection but a new creation Moreover the same Souls do rise unto Grace from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness which is called in Scripture the first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 therefore the same Body shall rise unto Glory in the second Resurrection 5 Consider that Death in Scripture is called a Sleep a Dream and the Resurrection an awaking from Sleep Psalm 17. ult therefore as the same Body that lies down to sleep at night awaketh in the morning so the same Body that lies down to sleep in the dust shall awake and rise again in the morning of the Resurrection Hence we see that the Soul will have its own numerical Body again for the preserving of such numerical identity there shall be wonderfully restored the substantial union which is but formally distinguished from the parts united there shall be restored a personality and lastly the native temperament which doth contain the individuating dispositions whereby such a matter hath a peculiar appetite to such a form which matter by vertue of such inclination remains as formerly the same though it may be varied by extension as when the Infant shall be raised into a Man the person shall be enlarged but not multiplied Object But that of the Apostle may be objected who saith That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 Resp St. Paul speaks of corruptible qualities of flesh and blood not of the substance of it Identitas formae in quacunque materia consistit q. ex identitate formae consequitur identitas materiae cum materia nullam per se habeat actualitatem sed esse suum accipit à forma Numerica identitas non continetur in sola identitate primae materiae nudae sed etiam identitate corporis humani Durand sent 4. distinct 44. plura de resurrectione Vide Synops purior theol disput de resurrect as is manifest in the last clause of the verse neither doth corruption inherit incorruption But flesh and blood by the Almighty power of God may be without corruption as the Body of Christ was after his Resurrection incorruptible immortal and spiritual not converted into a spirit but to the distinction of a living body that must be maintained by food Luke 24.39 This then may confute those that deny the identical resurrection of the Body and affirm that our Bodies at the resurrection must be aerial of a more subtil nature not consisting of flesh and members such were divers of the Anabaptists of Germany and Socinus with his Followers who call into question this Article of our Creed Credo resurrectionem carnis I
us Gal. 6. that he that soweth to the Spirit shall reap life everlasting When the Husbandman soweth his seed in the Earth the seed dieth and is dissolved in the ground there it lies hid he sees no more seed till the harvest cometh but then he reapeth many Bushels for one so he that soweth to the spirit worketh in the strength of those graces shall reap life everlasting he shall have no use of those graces in the life to come but reap the fruit of it even life eternal when the Saints come to possess Heaven as a portion cast out by God's own lot for them from all eternity they shall for ever enjoy the fruit of their piety and the end of their Faith and Hope Oh how sweet shall the remembrance of their work of faith and labour of love and patience of Hope be to all eternity CHAP. XXVII Of the Adjuncts of the glory of Heaven HAving spoken of the Circumstances and substance of the glory of the Saints in Heaven in the next place I shall treat of the adjuncts thereof 1. The glorious state of the Sons of God is a state of liberty Rom. 8.21 I will shew in what respects it is a state of liberty I. A liberty from all subjection Natural Servile Magistratical in this state of liberty all yokes shall be broken to pieces Fathers shall no more exercise their paternal authority and Sons shall not be under their command men shall be no more servants to men the highest Potentates shall no more exercise authority over men as it is said of Marriage They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage so I may say of subjection they shall neither command nor obey in the resurrection 1 Cor. 15.24 He shall put down all rule and all authority and power Christ will put down all the authority which Fathers have over their Children which Masters have over their Servants which Princes have over their Subjects and Vassals all the authority which both the Enemies and Persecutors have over the Church then it shall have no more nursing Fathers and Mothers all Crowns and Scepters shall be cast down at the feet of Christ he will put them down the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enervabit he will at the last day put them down not onely that they shall not prevail but that they shall be utterly abolished II. They shall be delivered even from that sweet and gracious subjection to Christ as King and Mediator Christ shall rule over his body not as Mediator but as God he himself will lay down the Crown of his Mediatorship and deliver up his whole government into the hands of God 1 Cor. 15.24 28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him then c. When Christ hath levelled all authority with the ground and shall have trodden down all his Enemies then he will rule no more as Mediator but give up the Kingdom to God the Father and God will be all in all he will immediately govern all his Saints III. A liberty from all spiritual Tyranny in divers respects 1. It is a liberty from the Tyranny of Sin Sin though it doth not rule in the Godly as a King yet as a Tyrant though the Saints do not and never will sell themselves to work evil yet while they are in this body they are sold under sin no slavery is more intollerable to a Holy man than this slavery to sin it is a Godly man's hell to be under the Tyrannical power of any lust Slavery to Pharaoh is liberty compared to slavery to pride to worldly-mindedness or to any lust whatsoever It was the doom of a Godly Martyr to have a dead man chained to him his eyes to the dead man's eyes his breast to the dead man's breast that he might perish by the stench of the dead Carcass Such is a Godly man's present condition to be tyed to the body of sin which is a very death to him in whom is the life of grace Now the state of glory will set all the Children of God at liberty from this thraldome sin will then be put off when glory is put on when the new man is perfectly renewed in respect of degrees and parts the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts shall be perfectly destroyed in respect of presence and operation in the state of glory they will not be afraid of sinning such will their liberty be from sin they shall be as free from all sin as the Sun from the least shadow 2. It is a state of liberty from all tokens effects yea fears of the wrath and displeasure of God Now and then God writes bitter things against his people in this life and makes them his mark to shoot the arrows of his displeasure into their very Consciences What doleful complaints have the Godly made and still do make of God's dealings with them some of them live in Bondage to the fear of God's wrath all the dayes of their lives Now there is no liberty from the fears of God's displeasure in this life so long as there is the remnant of sins within them while we have a body of sin within us we shall have a miserable body now in the state of glory they shall enjoy a perfect liberty from wrath and all their chains of fears shall be knockt off the glorified shall no more fear wrath than the glorified shall hope for favour they shall no more dread Hell than the damned truly desire Heaven their perfect sense of God's love toward them and their perfect love of God will cast out all these fears the state of glory is a fearless estate as far above fear as Heaven above earth the mountain of glory cannot be removed with the greatest tempest of the fears of any evil 3. It is a state of freedom from all afflictions now afflictions are compared in Scripture to Bonds Fetters Chains Yokes and such Engines and Instruments of miserable bondage The evil of sin and afflictions are twins born together and shall cease and dye together when the Soul takes her flight to the mountain of glory she casteth off the mantle of suffering Glory and misery are as inconsistent together as the most contrarious extreams sooner shall East and West meet in one point noon and midnight in one moment than perfection and glory and the least affliction Lazarus is now as great a stranger to afflictions as Dives to pleasures 4. It is a freedom from all temptations and rage of Satan it is impossible for the Devil to tempt a man in glory When man was in a perfect state of grace he tempted him to sin but when man is in a perfect state of glory he cannot tempt him the Devils are cast out of Heaven never to appear there to tempt any who have made their entrance into it the Church hath a promise that Satan shall be bound up a thousand years but then he is bound to eternity the Devils are now in chains of
utter darkness but through God's permission Satan's chain is sometimes lengthened but then no more lengthening now he walketh up and down assaying to devour and seeking whom he may devour but then he shall walk no longer the Saints shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth and shall not in all their walks meet with a Devil to tempt them to any sin whatsoever 5. The state of glory is liberty from death from the fears of it and from all things tending to mortality bondage to death will be swallowed up of this life of liberty glory is triumphant over Death Hell and the Grave bidding defiance to them O Grave where art thou O Hell where art thou O Death where art thou 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.14 By Hell there we must understand the Grave Death and the Grave shall be damned as well as the wicked 6. The state of glory is a liberty from the rage wrath and persecution of all the wicked men in the world their rage and persecution is a bondage and captivity to the Saints hindring them from serving God with desired freedom they cannot put forth their godliness but they expose themselves to the scoffs hatred rage and persecutions of the world now the state of glory will put a great gulf between the Godly and the Wicked which will hinder them from all intercourse for know that if the damned could again be in company or in the place where the godly are they would persecute them again to the uttermost though they know they must be damned and therefore the Devils now hate and tempt them though they aggravate their own torments 7. It is a liberty from all imperfections of graces and weakness in their serving God 1. From all imperfections of their graces which in this present life are very imperfect we know but in part saith the Apostle so we believe but in part we love God but in part we are Holy but in part we are zealous for God but in part there is more doubts and ignorance than knowledge more unbelief than faith more want of love than love there is more sin than grace and holiness now the state of glory is a state of perfection we shall know as we are known our understandings will be enlarged that we shall know God fully and perfectly our faith will be turned into sight our hope into possession we shall then love God with all our hearts with all our souls c. The Angels are called Seraphims because as some say they burn in love and zeal toward God so shall all the Saints be filled with this Seraphical love we shall be as holy as our natures are capable The Church and people of God in this life are compared to the Moon because of those spots in her which are imperfections but in the state of glory they are compared to the Sun which hath no spots in it and as the Prophet speaks of the Sun and Moon that the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold more resplendent than now so the graces the holiness of the Saints shall be seven-fold more holy than now they are 2. It shall be a liberty from all weaknesses and infirmities in serving God this is the necessary consequent of the former for the more glorious and holy a man is the more able he is to serve God if perfectly sanctified then he serveth God perfectly the Angels fulfil the whole will of God because they are filled with grace they run yea they fly in the wayes of his commandements this liberty and enlargement shall all the Saints have in the state of glory while they are here they are in bondage to much spiritual deadness and slothfulness they pray they praise God acceptably though they cannot pray nor praise him perfectly they may pray and purpose to run the wayes of God's Commandements but cannot because they are too weak and are fettered with spiritual slothfulness and deadness glory will do away all this and make us as ready and able to do the whole will of God as Angels do 8. It is a liberty from all natural clogs which the body in this state of union fastens upon the soul insomuch that the body is animae ergastulum the prison of the soul it is pondus or onus animae the burden or weight of the soul the regenerate soul cannot act vigorously because the body is so unweildy the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak but when the soul and body shall be reunited and meet in a state of glory the body will be a nimble handmaid and pliable to all the motions and commands of the soul the body then which is now the souls prison will be the souls paradise and both soul and body will act most vigorously the soul will never tyre out the body nor will the body clog the soul they will both be unwearied in their glorious services the body then will be spiritual though not a spirit and become immortal incorruptible as the soul is 9. It is a liberty from many duties and services and spiritual exercises which are now required of us the Saints work shall be lessened in Heaven The Service of the Church and people of God under the Gospel is much less than it was under the Law hence the state of the Church under the pedagogy of the Law is by the Apostle called a state of bondage a state of subjection but the state of the Church under the Gospel is called a state of liberty but when the Church shall be taken up into glory then their services shall be far less than now they are many duties and graces shall be done away in Heaven we shall pray no more for any mercy for our selves all praying shall be turned into praising of God we shall not hear the Word nor receive the Sacraments any more nor fast and afflict our souls any more we shall no longer mourn for sin repentance will be done away yea faith it self as many Divines conceive shall be done away Pray we shall not because then we shall never be in want our souls shall be so abundantly satisfied with the fulness of God's house we shall mourn and repent no more because we shall sin no more Our service in the state of glory will be taken up in praising God in admiring God in loving God rejoycing in God giving him praise and glory for the riches of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus 10. In respect of the place it is a state of liberty indeed the vast Heaven of Heavens O ye Saints shall be the place of your habitation and delight what is the whole world compared to it it is but a narrow prison an house of correction an house of bondage to a gracious spirit it is but as a Cage to a bird so is the world to the soul of a Godly man 11. It is a liberty from all fears or dangers of everlosing their glory and blessedness
which then they shall enjoy they shall never be afraid of losing God Christ Heaven Happiness but shall be secured to all eternity which is the Crown of this glorious liberty of the Children of God It is a sore thraldome to be perplexed with fears of losing our enjoyments it imbittereth all our joyes it is death to a worldling to think he must die and leave all his riches honours friends delights much more will it be a very Hell to the afflicted if they should be afflicted with the fears of losing Heaven but no such fears or thoughts shall at any time during eternity perplex the hearts of the Godly it casteth out all such fears they shall see it is impossible for them to lose what they do possess Notable is that phrase Luk. 16.26 Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed that if the glorified would get out of Heaven they cannot come to the damned and the damned cannot come out of Hell to Heaven God hath fast bolted the gates of Heaven and Hell with an everlasting decree CHAP. XXVIII Of the eternity of the glory of Heaven II. THe second adjunct of this glory is the perpetuity of it it shall be everlasting this is abundantly witnessed in the Scriptures I give to them eternal life saith Christ and they shall never perish Joh. 10.28 He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life Joh. 5.24 To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life Rom. 2.7 it is called eternal life eternal glory eternal salvation 2 Tim. 2.10 Hebr. 5.9 Hebr. 9.15 The Hebrews when they did speak of eternal life they would speak in the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitae not vita lives not life implying eternity Quest Here it may be demanded how the blessedness of the Saints is made perpetual endless everlasting Adam was made perfect after the Image of God perfectly blessed perfectly holy and yet he fell both from holiness and happiness this blessed estate of his seemed to have been of very short continuance yea many of the Angels which were more excellent and glorious than man and had none to tempt them yet left their habitation and fell from this blessed estate how then cometh it to pass that the happiness of man shall be everlasting Resp For answer hereunto if I should say that they shall see God face to face and so shall be filled with God and so all occasions of sin and revolting from God shall be prevented and they shall be so abundantly satisfied in God and so invincibly strengthened and confirmed by God dwelling in them that nothing shall so far prevail over them as in the least degree to withdraw their affections from God I see not how this might suffice for doubtless the Angels that kept not their first estate did thus see and enjoy God yet they fell totally and finally Therefore the sole reason is the will of Almighty God his infinite goodness his eternal love toward them according to which he hath made a covenant of grace with them in his Son by his promise and oath assuring them of eternal life and this immutable will and love of God declared in the infallible truth of his gracious promise and covenant is a better and firmer assurance than the highest perfections and excellencies that any meer creature is capable of yea a child of God here on earth having the least measure of true grace mixt with many corruptions almost stifled with the body of death opposed discouraged discountenanced by a wicked and ungodly world assaulted by all the powers of darkness and with numberless temptations is in a safer condition for perseverance and is better assured to hold out to eternal life because of the verity of God's promise and the firmness of his covenant grounded upon the rock Christ-Jesus than one that were by creation perfectly upright and happy if his holiness and happiness were only in his own keeping and not established upon this everlasting foundation the will of God and the infallibility of his promise This being the cause we may also conceive divers holy ends for which as he doth preserve every child of his by his effectual working power unto salvation so having brought them thither he will for ever preserve them in his Heavenly Kingdom As I. That he may have some of the lost seed of Adam to be everlasting Monuments of his rich grace who to all eternity shall be real demonstrations of his infinite love and unspeakable mercy and goodness in redeeming justifying sanctifying cleansing and preserving them II. That he may be to eternity praised for his glorious victories over all his enemies that when the Devil and his Angels have used the utmost of their craft might and malice when the hands of the world have been hot and smoking with the blood of the Saints and their hearts sick with blasphemy and malice against Christ and his followers when sin hath thrown out its most deadly poyson or when death hath been devouring Man-kind so many ages yet shall the Almighty power of God be so prevalent over all as to make and everlastingly to keep his elect in a blessed state and he in them and they with him shall celebrate an eternal and most glorious triumph in the Kingdom of Heaven III. That Jesus Christ may be eternally honoured as a Redeemer God the Father will have the fruit of his Son's purchase to be perpetual and everlasting he will magnifie the infinite value of that price which Christ hath paid the infinite vertue of that blood which Christ shed for the redemption of lost souls by establishing his ransomed ones in everlasting happiness therefore it is said He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1.10 Christ is now very admirable and glorious in the hearts of his redeemed ones who are illightened with saving knowledge who have an experimental taste in themselves of the efficacy of his blood and the fruit of that redemption which he hath wrought But oh how admirable and glorious shall he then appear when they shall enjoy the fulness of his redemption in an unchangeable state of blessedness for evermore IV. That he may have everlasting objects of his love to whom he may communicate his goodness sweetness fulness whom he may enrich with the treasures of his Kingdom feast with his love beautifie with his salvation and adorn with the brightness of his glory for ever and this is that wherein the infinite goodness of God delighteth even to give forth and to communicate it self such is his blessedness and perfection that it is beyond all possibility of addition he can receive nothing from any but delighteth to give and communicate and as he is an everlasting fountain of blessedness so he will have everlasting vessels of honour into whom fulness of blessedness may stream and
made in mercy the performance thereof dependeth upon the fidelity of the promiser not upon the merit of the worker the promise is sure not according to our merits but according to his mercy therefore go to God and say Lord thou hast promised to bestow the Crown of glory upon all that come unto thee Lord we have thy word there is a promise wherein thou hast caused me to hope Be it to thy servant according to thy Word CHAP. XXXIII SECT I. Sheweth how a man may know whether he hath a title to Heaven Quest BVt here peradventure thou may'st demand how shall I know whether the promise of eternal life belongeth to me or not Sol. I answer first dost thou love God the promise of giving the crown of life is made to them that love him Jam. 1.12 He that is the best lover is the best and most accomplished Christian it is not so much what thou doest or what thou sufferest what thy actions or what thy sufferings are as what thy love to God is so then the greatest Saint is not barely he that hath done most or suffered most but he that loveth most as it was said of Mary Magdalen Luk 7.47 that many sins were forgiven her because she loved much If thou hast true saith it will be the fountain of thy love to God who believing God to be such and so merciful to to thee it swalloweth up thy affections and draweth out thy love and devotion toward him which is not unfelt in us but by the feeling thereof in our selves we gather a further confirmation and assurance to our selves that we are beloved of God both which S. Bernard well declareth saying that the love of God breedeth in the soul love toward God and by feeling it self to love it is also out of doubt that it self is beloved now if thou art one that lovest God thou maist conclude thou art beloved of him for we love him because he loved us first and therefore thou hast an interest in the crown of life which God hath promised to them that love him True it is sometimes it is said it shall be given to such as the Lord loveth his love to us that is it that shall set this glorious crown upon our heads The Apostle Eph. 2.4 speaking both of our Sanctification and Salvation makes God the Author of them both and in God the cause of both the riches of his mercy and the greatness of his love God who is rich in mercy through his great love wherewith he hath loved us hath raised us up together and made us to fit together in Heavenly places So S. John saith it was God's love to us that he sent his onely Son to us in him to give us life and salvation herein was the great love of God manifested towards us in that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4.9 Yet S. James tells us the crown of life shall be given to them that love the Lord as if it were not so much his love to us as did graciously vouchsafe it as our love to him that did deservedly merit it But these may both stand together the promise of eternal life may be said to belong both to those whom the Lord loveth and to those that love the Lord for first this love of God to us and our love to him do alwayes go together like fountain and stream seed and fruit fire and light cause and effect whensoever his love takes hold upon us it generates and begets in us love toward him again We read of Solomon that he was named Jedidjah because he was the beloved of the Lord 2 Sam. 12.25 and we likewise read of him 1 Kings 3.3 that he loved the Lord he was the beloved of the Lord and he loved the Lord God's love working upon him it wrought in him again love toward God now they that are beloved of God and they that love God they have both of them the promise of eternal life God's love to them is properly the cause of it their love to him that 's onely the Seal of it What S. John saith of the love of our Brethren the same may we say of the love of God We know by it that we are translated from death to life 1 Joh. 3.14 which life is a token of assurance by which we know we shall be saved The cause of our salvation is in God's loving us our loving of God is a token only by which we know we are sealed up unto salvation SECT II. 2. ARt thou Holy thou hast hence good ground and reason to expect whatsoever reward God hath promised unto holiness Being made free from sin and become servants unto God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 Are ye pure in heart they onely shall see God Math. 5.8 Are ye holy in life then shall you see the Lord Hebr. 12.14 Beware how thou dost go on in any sin answer thy lusts thy temptations thy wicked company that seduce and entice thee to sin as Solomon answered Bathsheba when she desired Abishag for Adonijah let him take my Kingdom too so say thou to thy lusts to thy temptations to thy wicked company if you beg my company then take away my Kingdom too take away my glory take away my happiness too take heed of laying down thy head in the lap of any lust as Sampson did in the lap of Dalilah What said she to him The Philistines be upon thee Sampson So if thou sufferest thy self to be deceived by thy lusts by thy sinful pleasures I will not say the Philistines be upon thee but all the Devils in Hell be upon thee it may be thou expectest Angels to carry thee like Lazarus into Abraham's bosome and the evil Angels will take thee and hurry thee into Belzebub's bosome nothing but sin will make thee uncapable of glory it is only Christ and interest in Christ by saving faith and grace and holiness that can fit thee for glory that can make thee capable of glory and happiness we must be gracious here otherwise we shall never be glorious hereafter consider the nature of this glory which God will communicate to his Saints it is pure glory therefore it is necessary that the subjects which must receive it be pure also God will put pure glory into pure vessels What ado had Queen Esther before she was brought to the King Est 2.12 She was to purifie her self a whole year before she could attain to be Queen six months with oyl of Myrrh and six moneths with sweet Odours then she was brought to the King shall an earthly Prince expect such exact purification before he will bestow his honours and shall not God expect our purifying our selves before we come and sit upon thrones of glory can we think that God will cloath our Bodies of sin with Robes of glory and that God will put the pure white