our glorified Redemer as that the Comforts of the Heavenly State will be exceedingly abated were not his glorious Presence there And when he comes from Heaven to judg the World the Hosts and Citizens of that blessed State will joyfully attend his motions 1 Thess 3.13 Mat. 25.31 2. If there be no Love to Christ there would be no Joy in Heaven Those that have stumbl'd at his Holiness will be confounded at his Glory Mark 8.34 to 38. The Crown of Life and Glory is reserv'd for and shall be only given to those that are lovers of his Appearance For who can think that the Glories of the Heavenly State and the Pleasures of beholding Christ therein can be their Portion upon whom the great Sentence of Anathema Maranatha i. e. cursed till the Lord come is past 1 Cor. 16.22 Heaven cannot countenance and reward Contempt of Christ The Son of Righteousness Heaven's Glory and the Temple of that blissful State above must either be the Heart's Delight or Christ and Heaven can be no Portion 3. No Christ no Heaven Heaven must needs be lost where Christ is miss'd of Act. 4.12 No Christ no entrance into Glory for Heaven is called the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess 2.14 Christ must be glorifi'd if ever Heaven be reach'd The Lord from Heaven is Lord of Heaven Matth 28.18 19. And he must be Crowned and own'd as Lord in Hearts and as the only Holy One of God by those to whom he will give the Crown of Life The Key of Heaven is in his Hand and he will let in none but faithful Subjects He cannot bear the presence of the Sons of Belial there nor hath he any Mansions for them they are too contrary to his Holiness to have admission into his Presence To let in rotten Hearts would be to patronize and crown Rebellion And is it meet that the Cross the Crown and Glory of the Son of God should serve the Devil What! shall Christ prostitute his Blood and Scepter unto the first-born of Apostacy and Wickedness or to the Seed thereof 4. Then Christ in Heaven should be address'd unto to lift up Hearts and Persons thither Thus Stephen saw the Lord in Heaven and begg'd his gracious help and that not without success Act 7.55 to 59. It is not every Arm no nor any Arm but Christ's that is fit to deal with such dark heavy Souls as ours so as to lift them up and let them into Heaven Acts 4.12 Jude 24 25. O then desponding Hearts go make your moans to Christ look up to him with your Hearts in your Eyes and cry Fain would I come to thee but cannot Jesus thou Son of David help and thou who rulest all things if thou canst do any thing who art the revealed Arm of God to bring great things to pass O have compassion on me and raise up Heart and Soul and all to thee Mark 9.22 Christ cry'd to God as to one able to save from Death and he was heard Heb. 5.7 Cry you to Jesus Christ for he can save you to the uttermost Heb. 7.25 Lifts at the last and deadliest pinches are the most satisfying and endearing Lifts Remember that a dying Christ once bare a Malefactor from the Cross to Heaven and bravely rescu'd him from great destruction and fixt him in his own Presence This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise O it was a Blessing won by Prayer and that to Christ himself Luk. 23.42 43. 5. Then Heaven should have no Rivals if Christ be there to be with Christ is far better and that abandons all Comparisons Phil. 1.23 Christ knew the purest Mansions where they were Below they could not be for Sin hath chang'd the Glory of all lower things to shame and blackness And little is there in them now save Names and Shadows and till these fly away Christ and our Life with him is still hid in God Cant. 4.6 Col. 3.2 to 4. And should not our Hearts then be gone to Heaven and bound for those most vast and glorious Regions where our Dear Lord will keep his Residence for ever What! Christ on his Throne concerned and preparing for gathering up all his Favorites to himself and we not courted from a Dung-hill all the World without one Christ is but a Trifle No Christ no worth in things what Heart then for them those Joys Relations Gifts Possessions and Accomplishments are but vain and small nothing but dangerous Charms and Pageantries whose Soul and Savour the Lord of Glory is not Phil. 3.7 8. Prize things as they speak Christ for all the World without him is not worth one Heart there is neither Gain nor Glory in it 6. Were Heaven possess'd by Christless Hearts yet would Content be wanting Frowns from the Master of the Feast would spoil the pleasing Relishes of the Banquet One Friend how cam'st thou in hither would make men sit at Table with little Confidence and less Joy Mat. 22.12 7. The Hopes of raised quickned Hearts are safe and may be great Christ in the midst of what we hope for may and should quiet all Heb. 6.19 20. It 's pity such a Passage should be pass'd over without a considerate pause Hath Christ broke through the Vail and is he got within it to leave our Souls without an Anchor of Hope that may prove sure and stedfast Can Christ enter Heaven for us and then forget his Work Can the Fore-runner quite desert those lively and solicitous Members that breath and strive so much to trace and to tread his Steps after him He that hath lost his Blood below what hath he lost his Heart above surely our Head was never crown'd to shame his Members Hopes and Joys Our expectations of that State may be invigorated greatly by this That Christ our Hope is set upon his Throne therein Christ is our blessed Hope Tit. 2.13 According to our earnest expectation and our hope in him we cannot be asham'd Phil. 1.20 to 23. 3.20 It is by Christ that our Hope is laid up in Heaven Col. 1.5 He makes the Promise sure to all the Seed Rom. 5.10 Christ came from Heaven to be a Ransom and so he was Heb. 9.15 and he is in Heaven to plead his Wounds and by his Intercession to animate and succeed the regular Claims and Expectations of all his Members Rom. 8.34 35. Vp then with Hearts and Hopes and bid defiance unto all Discouragements Christ by his entrance into Heaven and by his possessing it as our raised and exalted Head hath given one Lift and surely then his next lift will effectually bear up all Savoury full and pertinent is that both witty and weighty Passage in Tertullian de Resurrectione Carnis cap. 51. Quemadmodum enim nobis Arrhabonem reliquit ita à nobis Arrhabonem carnis accepit vexit in Caelum pignus totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae securae estote caro sanguis Vsurpâstis caelum regnum Dei in Christo
innocence and designs of such a Person as the Son of God was ingaged in such Mediatorial Work and all pursuant to this great Design That Life and Immortallity might be intail'd upon us who our selves could not live till he himself had undergone and conquer'd Death Nor would he bring us to himself but under such advantages and upon such terms as should evidently and greatly minister to universal satisfaction and renown So black was that thick Cloud wherein this Sun of Righteousness did set and pass into his glorious State thus to prepare our way to himself in Heaven as that the sight thereof made his awakened Soul to tremble and to solicite God for help Mark 14.34 Heb. 5.8 9. Yet through this Cloud he wrought his Way to diffuse his Glory through the Heavenly Regions and to make the Hosts and the Inhabitants thereof the amazed Witnesses of his triumphant Grace and Faithfulness And thence to afford those Influences which should prepare us for and suit us to that State. Blessed is Heaven that Christ is in it and blessed are holy Hearts below that Christ in Heaven is theirs and for them Christ there inthron'd and imploy'd for us should loosen all our Hearts from all save what his Heart is upon His Work and Presence in that holy Place hath both its Voice and Force He speaks not now to us in roaring Thunder-claps from the burning Mount nor doth that Blood through which God brought him from the Dead and consecrated the High Priest of our Profession to his most noble Work within the Vail cry like the Blood of Abel for Revenges to fill our Hearts with Enmity or Anguish but it is an alluring grateful Whisper from betwixt the Cherubims of Grace and Glory a Call to Pisgah thence to behold Emanuel's Land that promised and expected State of Holiness and Joy hence therefore let us send our Hearts to Christ as a poor Widow's Mite only to acknowledg our Obligations to him and to testify how much we love our Lord and Head. And O thou Prince of Life and Glory thou Oracle of Truth the sealed Amen of all God's Promises and of our glorious Expectations thou Conqueror of Graves of Hearts and Hell whom to behold is our great Hope and Joy for without Thee the Prince of Life we cannot live and never look to know what it is indeed to live till we be got to Thee Lend us a Beam of Light to view thee by that every Look may melt our Hearts and make them shine and burn That thus our Admirations and Affections may bear some small proportion to their Object and more effectually secure us from losing Hearts below and throwing them away upon unworthy things We lose Affections in mistaken worth and thou get'st little else hereby but Slights and Stabs and all because we know not Thee the Lord of Glory How little is thy Love admir'd by us because we feel it not how little are we affected with thee because we have not seen thee how little do we bemoan our absence from thee because we are so little apprehensive of what thy glorious Presence so liberally produces and dispenses how easily are we courted and prevail'd upon to forget thee because we do so little think upon and are so little affected with thy Wounds below and thy Worth and Joys above Eyes have not seen Hearts cannot love O lift and help and warm and fix and conquer all O let our Hearts be made as fast and pure as Heaven Let preparations be compleat in Hearts as well as in those Mansions of eternal Glory with thy self which thou hast order'd and incourag'd us to expect O let not Grace and Love as large as Heaven be under our Feet any more but upon our Hearts Could ever Heaven be ours or found and valu'd by us as Heaven indeed without thy Sufferings Triumph Grace and Presence And can we think on Heaven indeed and yet forget the Throne of Majesty and Grace that is there and him that sits thereon acting pursuantly to this delightful Hope that we shall see him in his Meridian Glory and be with him for ever 10. Let nothing have or influence your Hearts below but that which suits the Heart of Christ above All must be like the Lord that are to live with him and he that hath this Hope in him must purify himself as Christ is pure 1 Joh. 3.2 3. Whatever Christ died to start below he lives above to propagate to vindicate and compleat He hath as true a Heart for Godliness now as ever and he was call'd the Holy Child after his Exaltation Acts 4.27 Christ's Heart is pure so are his Joys for they are the Joys of Holiness in its utmost luster vigour and extent You must be pure or Christ and you must part the Constitution of the heavenly State admits of no disorder His holy Soul abhors what seems to shake his Father's Throne He cannot bear it that a filthy Soul should stand before him for God's Name is in him Exod. 23.21 In that he lives he lives to God Rom. 6.10 He dy'd with Holiness upon his Heart and as a Martyr for it as well as to make an atonement for us 1 Pet. 2.22 23. With a pure Heart he went to Heaven and can you think that Purity can wast and rot when fac'd with the most immediate Visions of God and entertain'd with all things most expressive of God's complacency in it Surely God's greatest Favours must bear the clearest Characters and Signatures of his essential Purity and Holiness Hath Holiness lost its Interest in Heaven since Christ went thither Or hath Sin gotten ground by Christ's ascent to Glory O Sinners be no longer doting Fools and stupid Sots Lay by your Venom and cleanse your Hearts and Hands Jam. 4.8 1 Cor. 6.9 to 11. The Heart the Blood the Inheritance the Crown and Triumphs of our Lord are all engag'd to revive Holiness in the World Psal 130.4 Dote not upon deceitful Riches Christ is the Pearl of Price by whom you are to be inrich'd in every thing Let not the Mammon of Unrighteousness usurp the Throne of Christ the over-valued World is a perfect Enemy to Christ to Heaven and Heavenliness Be not perplexed nor over-charg'd with Cares be not intangl'd whilst you are allow'd to be imploy'd Take heed of Delilaes lest you lose your Locks and be bereav'd of your Christian Strength and Hopes Fear not the Frowns prize not the Smiles of Mortal Dust beyond Divine Allowance Christ hates Competitors Christ did it not below he loves it not above Be not buri'd alive in Sloth Rom. 12.11 there is nothing in Heaven but Life and Joy in full conformity to all the Laws and Purposes of that compleat Theocracy Diligence brings in rich Delights 't is Sloth that makes Hell so full and Heaven so empty Be not high-minded neither court nor cherish Self in any dress by Pride and Rage Haman's preferment made him but high enough to reach a Halter Learn
severe and awful Reprimand Who is this that darkens Counsel by Words without Knowledg Job 38.2 But this may shew how little our Words or Thoughts can reach God's own essential Perfection Yet is this Godhead united to the Man Christ Jesus But how I solemnly profess I know not though I believe it to be true and think it easily demonstrable from Sacred Writ And I think it as copiously asserted and plainly proved as almost any Article of the Christian Faith and I take the Gospel to have very little Mystery comparatively if so far diluted as to lose this central Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 And hence it plainly follows that to be with the Lord is a great aggravation of the Glory and Delightfulness of the Heavenly State it being not improbable to me that Christ himself will be the Mediator of Fruition as he hath been of Acquisition And therefore to proceed we cannot think that to be with Christ infers a Peerage with him or Partnership in his Divine Excellencies and Prerogatives Rev. 3.21 We are to worship him and not to be worshipped with him Rev. 5.13 Phil. 2.10 11. John 5.12 13. What is Worship but Obsequium alicui praestitum propter excellentiam A reverent acknowledgment of Excellence and fit Respects and Homage paid thereto And if then Christ the Mediator be God-Man hath he not therein the preeminence above all other Creatures in the Universe and the Respects which must be paid thereto what Worship will you call it Names are to be suited unto things they cannot otherwise duly represent them Christ then as Mediator is more excellent than any meer Creature therefore as a middle Person to be more regarded And what then will you call this over-plus of Respects if I may call it so I know we may distinguish where we cannot divide and whether Divine Worship may fitly be distinguished upon or not I leave to the more accurate to determine But I conceive that God expects that the Humane Nature as individuated in that exalted Person Jesus Christ shall have such Honour paid thereto as none besides in Heaven or Earth shall be allowed to have In a word Christ as Mediator is not so great as God therefore the Worship must not rise so high Yet as Mediator he is above all Creatures and more than they to be respected Consider well Heb. 1 3-6 As Man there is Humane Excellence in its Height as God there is increated Excellence As Mediator there is a sitting at God's right Hand and he that sits there must and will be accordingly acknowledged and had in reverence by all in Heaven And now let us see a little what that State imports that we may form right Notions of it And here we will 1. Premise the Excellence of the Place as suited to all the Grandieurs of the State Ephes 4.10 the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 the Building made by God 2 Cor. 5.1 Heb. 11.10 16. 13.14 Joh. 14.2 But where and how 't is situated divided and accommodated no Pisgah high enough on Earth for us to see it from Rev. 21 9-23 22 1-5 And 2. the Perfections of the Subjects to make them receptive of that State. Defecated Souls and Spiritual Bodies Heb. 12.14 Mat. 5.3 1 John 3.3 with 1 Cor. 15 50-54 2 Cor. 4.14 1 Thess 14 14-17 For none must go with Christ to Glory nor live with him for ever whose Hearts and Lives are not for him whilst here and whose Spirits are not transform'd and so adapted or suited to the Privileges and Ministrations of the Heavenly Kingdom Rev. 21.27 And therefore 't is supposed and concluded that the Constitution of the Soul be sound and sweet and fit for its immediate entrance into Heaven and its abode with Christ for ever Rom. 8 9-11 The Spirit of Christ imprinciples Providence exercises all these heavenly Principles our Covenant-state obliges us to the most lively exercise thereof Habits are fix'd and strengthned by Acts and the Soul's first immediate look at Christ compleats its Transformation and then is it admitted into the presence of its Lord. So that in strictness of Thoughts and Speech the Temper of the Person must be distinguish'd from his State as that which qualifies him for his admission thereinto And then as to the Body it must not be Flesh and Blood for that will be too weak and gross for Christ his so glorious and majestick Presence and for the Visions and Employments of the State above Saul could not bear the Glory of Christ's personal Appearance to him without astonishment and blindness Acts 9 3-12 And in his Extasy he knew not where and what he was embodied or not 2 Cor. 12.2 3. And the appearance of an Angel made others as dead Men Mat. 28 2-4 And the Royal and Great Prophet when he saw his Glory cried out Wo is me I am undone Isa 6.5 with John 12.41 How strangely did Christ's Transfiguration confound Peter James and John Mark 9 2-6 So that the Body must it self be changed in order to its meeting and being with the Lord 1 Cor. 15.52 53. These things are then to be distinguished from the State it self as needful Preparations for it Now therefore to the State it self and here I shall avoid all fond Imaginations and Conjectures and speak hereof as God shall enable me and doth instruct me This State must then include these things and how much more I know not 1. The Visions of the Glory of our Lord or beholding Christ in all his Glory And so our being where he is Joh. 17.24 and that not to astonishment and consternation but to delightful admiration John 16.22 Jude 24. And here both Mind and Body have their looks at Christ to feast them both for ever The symmetry and delicate Proportions of his Humane Body the Beauty of his Face the Majesty of his Countenance the Pleasingness of his Speech the placid Aspects of his smiling Looks at us the Glory of his Throne the orderly Disposals Attendances and Ministrations of all his Favorites and Attendants with all the awful and yet delightful decencies of his Gestures and Deportments towards all with him and the Expressions of Divinity in all this O what an ocular Entertainment will this amount unto What shall our Souls say then to all his evident Prerogatives his wise Conduct his excellent Government his bounteous Dispensations his intimate Converses with us and the delight he evidently takes in the Harmony and welfare of that State And who knows what besides But this I now remember was touch'd upon before 2. The glorious Benefits and Pleasures that will result herefrom There is Glory given as well as Glory seen John 17.22 called an Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 the Crown of Life Jam. 1.12 A Kingdom prepared to be inherited Mat. 25.34 The Joy of our Lord ver 21. Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 We shall be honourable triumphing Members of the glorified Church
in Heaven and there and such for ever signalized with the Name of God and of that perfected Corporation and of our glorified Redeemer Whether the Deity will or can be the Object of our immediate Vision I much doubt and am prompted so to do from 1 Tim. 1.17 6.16 I only say I doubt it much but I cannot judg my self infallible but when with Christ in Glory our Knowledg of God will be more clear than now and have more deep Impressions and livelier Influences upon the whole Man than now it hath We shall be like to Angels being the Children of God and of the Resurrection Luk. 20.36 for then the Privileges and Prerogatives of our adopted raised State will be in our actual and full Possession We shall be ever under the smiles of infinite Love and under the most invigorating Influences of the God of Life whose constant overshadowings of us shall draw forth all the vital Energies of our Faculties and perhaps of some Faculties which yet are latent in us as being fitter for the Felicities and Employments of the End than of the Way which yet I rather offer than assert and when exalted Faculties and Powers are placed amongst such glorious Objects in such vast multitudes and with such great variety when we converse and dwell with Angels so numerous excellent and endearing when we have such glorious Entertainments and Employments with and for the Lord Redeemer when we shall from himself receive immediately what he here promised and hath there prepared for us the Fruits and Harvest of all our Sufferings Labours Prayers and Hopes when all our Dangers Snares Fears Griefs and Maladies are gone when all Christ's Enemies and ours are underfoot when the Divine Life in its meridian Strength and Luster shews it self when all the Subjects of that State appear in their most accurate conformities unto their great Exemplar each one as Christ resembling the Children of a King as those in a far lower sense Judg. 8.18 Princes to look to as those Ezek. 23.15 Not after the manner of the Babylonians but after the manner of the Sons of God O what a State will this State be To close this Head He that hath a genuine Idea and right Notion of this State must represent it to himself as that wherein Nature is perfected as to Things and Persons and fix'd in that Perfection and Divine Government is compleated in all its Constitutions and Administrations and all the Priviledges thereof dispensed its Services perform'd exactly by all the Subjects thereof and the great Ends and Purposes thereof attained and answered to universal satisfaction and all this in the presence of the Lord upon his Throne encompassed with his Redeemed Ones who see his Glory bear his Image acknowledg his rich Grace and Love towards them and serve and glorify his Name for ever to his full satisfaction God taking great delight in them and they in him and owning his Son before them all as one that pleased his heart in bringing all these Sons to Glory whilst all these Morning Stars together sing their Hallelujahs with great harmony and chearfulness and shout for joy that God is all in all by Jesus Christ with them and that they can with so much order chearfulness and vigour serve and please him most entirely and delightfully with his own in that August Assembly for the presence of the Lord Redeemer there resembled loved and served by all the Inheritors Citizens and Subjects of that State with so much Wisdom Holiness and Vigour speaks Heaven indeed But let me not run too far 2. Comfort your selves and one another with these words 1 Thess 4.18 Think seriously upon 1 Pet. 1 3-9 Put on the Brest-plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation For God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Wherefore comfort your selves together and edify one another even as also ye do 1 Thess 5. 8-11 The word here rendred Comfort is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is indeed to play the Advocate as the Matter shall require To plead the Cause the Ground and Usefulness of this our glorious Expectation against discouraging and afflictive Providences as they are otherwise apt to dispirit or disturb us When we are prone to swoon or tire through the difficult Duties heavy Burthens smart Temptations strong Corruptions and intricating postures of Affairs below when we have little else in humane view but great Work and little Stength huge Perplexities and strange Intricacies in every Article of Concern manifold Enemies and Hindrances assaulting us continually and pressing most severely on us and very little help or hope in view O let us then our selves and quicken one another to repair unto this Hope as our best Refuge and our most sure and stedfast Anchor within the Vail whither our Prodromus or Forerunner is for us entred Heb. 6.18 Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4. 16-18 using it as our richest Cordial and urging it rationally and closely upon the Heart until we are brought to our delightful and absolute repose therein 1. Comfort your selves with those words and so begin at Home Rom. 5. 2. Phil. 3.3 For unless such grateful words come from the Speaker's Heart unto the Hearers from Principle to Principle they are not likely to have such invigorating Influences upon Souls nor to have such kindly Operations and Effects in Christian Conversation as the Case requires Vain talk about so great an Article of Hope is dreadful and it is no better as to him that speaks about it until his own Heart duly be affected with it Great Notions and high flights of Speech are but as swelling Words of Vanity to him whose Tongue is not attended and actuated with a transformed and thereupon concerned Soul. Nor can indeed the Speaker's End be right whilst his Heart is naught 2 Pet. 2.18 What God may do for the sake of Truth and with regard to his own Interest and Institution is one thing and what such an heartless Talker may expect is another thing And he that makes no reckoning of this blessed State and Hope himself will not be very much concerned how such things take with others unless as it may serve those lower Interests or popular Applauses which are so much eyed and idolized by himself But it is prophaness to the height to prostitute such a Sacred Ordinance as Christian Communion and such a glorious State and Hope as being ever with the Lord unto so mean and vile an End as ultimate selfishness O then make thorow work within and be what all must be that are to be for ever with the Lord. Your Directory in this Case you have in Tit. 2 11-14 2 Pet. 1 5-11 3 11-14 and when that is done then make this State your stated and occasional Consolation and Refreshment that so you may comfort one another with the Comforts