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
must be swallowed up of life this corruptible must put on incorruption this mortal must put on immortality then and not before shall the surpassing glory of the Saints appear as Christ saith we must not put new wine into old bottles nor patch an old garment with a piece of new cloth thus Christ will not put the soul-ravishing joys of Heaven into these old bottles nor will he patch up these fading perishing Bodies with the glory of Angels Reas 5. That he might quicken their desires after their glory that our hearts may pant after those Water-brooks those Rivers of Pleasure that we may cry out with Monica the Mother of St. Augustine in her ravishing contemplation of Heaven volemus in Coelum volemus in Coelum let us fly let us fly into Heaven or as Austin himseâ—f fontem vitae sitio esurio I thirst I greedily long after the fountain of life CHAP. VII Sect. 1. ALbeit the unspeakable glory of Believers be for the present hidden yet in due time it shall be revealed Colos 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Before Christ shall appear in the brightness of his glory we shall not but when the time of his appearing in glory shall come then shall all the Saints manifestly appear with him Quest Here it may be demanded What is the glory that shall be revealed Resp 1. The glory of God himself God will manifest and display his glory before them we shall see God as fully and clearly as we are capable by God's immediate communication of himself to us without any external means 1 Cor. 15.24 God will be all and in all that is God the Father Son Holy Ghost will then reign immediately over his Church by himself without any outward means and will fill his Church with his own light life love and glory It is a disputed case whether we shall see God with our bodily eyes it is answered that the Essence of God being purely spiritual cannot be seen with bodily eyes and God is styled by the Apostle absolutely invisible Again the Angels behold the glory of God and the Souls of the Saints now in Heaven see him but have not eyes therefore the sight of God is rather an act of the mind then of the Body intellectual knowledg not corporeal light But though we shall not with our eyes see the Divine Essence yet the Divine Essence will abundantly manifest it self in the Humane Nature of Christ now glorified to our eyes they shall see him God in him his Attributes in him in this life the Ordinances are a Glass to give us the sight of God in Heaven the Humane Nature of Christ is a Glass to give our bodily eyes the sight of God 2. The glory of Christ shall be revealed his glory as Head of the Church as Saviour of the Body to which he is united his glory as Judge of the World shall be revealed it is said of him that he shall appear in glory Colos 3.4 and that he shall come in his own glory and in the glory of his Father and in the glory of his holy Angels Luke 9.26 and his appearing to judge the World is called a glorious appearing Tit. 2.13 His first appearing was mean the second shall be glorious SECT II. THe Reasons that the appearing of Christ shall be glorious are these 1. Because God hath appointed Christ to judge the World therefore Christ will in the latter day appear gloriously whom God appointed to be the Saviour of the World him hath God appointed to judge the World John 5.22 Christ is God's Delegate to judge the World God will have his Judge to appear in glory Earthly Kings will have their itinerary Judges to appear in pomp and to judge Malefactors they appear both in terror and honour how do all the Gentry give their attendance how are they attended with Spear-men and the Trumpets sounding before them and are invested with Robes of honour Thus God will have his Judge of all the World to appear in glory upon his Tribunal and therefore chargeth all the Angels of Heaven to attend his glorious Majesty chargeth the Arch-angels to sound the Trump to awaken the sleepy Prisoners in the Grave the dark Prison of Death think ye what a glorious appearance it will be If Peter was amazed at Christ upon Mount Tabor when he saw but a glimpse of his glory at the Transfiguration what appearance will that be when Christ shall come in the brightness of his glory and all the Angels and Saints with him cloathed in brightness of glory 2. Because Christ will be glorious before those that did dishonour him Christ did appear to men in the form of a Servant then he was a despised a rejected Christ then was he crowned with a Crown of Thorns and had no better Sceptre then a Reed then was he a reviled a buffeted Christ the malicious Jews did most contumeliously spit on his face and every Sinner would contradict oppose and persecute him then was he a crucified Christ a Man of sorrows and of shame every one looked upon him as a despised Man none would own him for the Son of God yea the Jews did accuse him for Blasphemy for telling them that he was the Son of God therefore Christ will appear in glory one day to the horror and terror of these men that did thus blasphemously abuse him that was King of Kings that did reject him that came to save them that so Christ might be glorified before them and upon them in taking vengeance on their Souls and Bodies then those that did mock at him put a Crown of Thorns on his head a Reed in his hand shall see he was Heir of a better Crown then the Crowns of the greatest Kings and Emperors then they that did contumeliously spit upon and buffet him in scorn shall see they did this to one whom the Angels reverence he will make Kings to throw down their Crowns and Scepters to his feet then those that scorned and despised him shall see that verily he is the Son of God 3. Because glory is terrible the more glorious Christ appears at the last day the more terror will be upon the wicked therefore the glorious appearing of Christ to judge the World is called the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 6.11 If the sight of one Angel in glory be terrible what will the sight of Christ be who will appear ten thousand times more glorious then all the Angels be if godly men that had good consciences were so horribly affrighted at the appearance of an Angel in lesser glory how will wicked men that have accusing consciences be afraid at the beholding Christ's glorious appearance if holy men were so amazed at good tidings because brought to them by a glorious Messenger how will wicked men be amazed to hear the sentence of condemnation pronounced against them by the Lord of glory To see God in Christ is 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
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