the House of my God then to dwell in the Tents of wickedness If the enjoyment of God in his Ordinances be so unspeakably sweet and delightful how incomprehensibly comfortable and complacent wil the Saints perfect fruition of God in Heaven be I know not how to express it let your souls think of it but there is more yet For Thirdly The perfect blessedness of that happy condition of heavenly rest and glory called an eternal weight of glory that penâ—tent and pious believers shall go into at the last day consists in the Eternity of it their glorious conformity unto Christ and their blessed enjoyment of God in Christ will never end nor ever alter but will continue to be the same for ever ever Hear what sacred Writ saith concerning the Saints future Eternity They shall go into life eternal they shall have everlasting life they shall ever live and never dye they shall be ever with the Lord and shall reign with him for ever and ever in the Kingdom of Glory where they shall wear an incorruptible Crown of Life and Glory and where they shal possess an Eternal inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. How clearly and fully do these words Eternal everlasting ever ever and ever prove that the blessed life or happy condition that the righteous shall go into at the last day will never end but ever continue ever ever and ever After the Saints in heaven have been happy in their glorious conformity unto Christ and in their blessed enjoyment of God in Christ as many years as there are stars in the heavens as there have been drops of water rained down from heaven since the begining of the world as there have been things thought upon words spoken and actions done by all mankind since the day that God created man and as there have been letters written and printed since letters writing and printing were found out in the world when they have lived with the Lord in heavenly glory and happiness so many years nay so many thousands of years their blessed life wil be no nearer an end for it will ever last and never end Because I live saith Christ to his disciples ye shall live also As Christ who is the head of his Church liveth for evermore so his people who are his members shal live for evermore and in this respect he wil satisfie them with long life even with everlasting Life which had indeed a beginning but shal never have an end Psalm 91. 16. John 10. 28. Their souls are immortal by creation and their bodies shall be immortal at their resurrection the heaven of heavens which they shall inhabit is eternal Their God whom they shal enjoy is everlasting their blessed Head and Saviour in whom they shall enjoy the Lord is ever-living Therefore their blessed life shall be everlasting everlasting What can I say more After the inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven have lived in Celestial Glory and Felicity as many millions of years as all mankind could ever number they will be as far off from the end of their everlasting blessedness as they were at the beginning of it for their blessed and eternal Eternity after they are once entred into it is like a Ring that hath no end at all and it shall be as an immortal Ring which they shall eternally wear in remembrance of the Lords everlasting Love unto them All our Earthly enjoyments are damped and made less comfortable to us because they are but temporal for a while we may leave them or they may leave us to day before tomorrow But the Heavenly enjoyments of the Saints in glory are heightned and made more happy and joyful because they are eternal and wil be altogether the same for ever and ever 1 Thes. 4. 17. Heb. 13. 8. If any now ask me what is the Saints Eternity in Heaven My answer is this It is the infinite length of their blessed life and heavenly happiness whereby it will never end but ever continue ever ever and ever O all ye blessed and thrice happy Saints see here in this blessed Eternity Eternity Eternity what the Lord hath prepared for them that wait upon him see Here where the narrow way of Humility Faith and Piety will end even within the strait gate of the great City of Heaven where are joyes unconceivable and pleasures for evermore Behold here how they that sow in tears shall reap in joy and how the Lord wil in mercy reward those with the enjoyment of himself who diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. And rejoice ye hapyy heirs of Heaven rejoine in the hope and expectation of this Heavenly glory and happiness to â—ome and comfort one another with these things and let the joy and recompence of reward which hath been set before you move you to go on unweariedly in the wayes of God alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Heb. 12. 2. Though all the Saints shall be members and fellow-Citizens of the Heavenly â—â—rusalem and shall be fully and everlastingly happy in their holy and glorious conformity unto Christ and in their blessed enjoyment of God in Christ Yet it is probable by how much any of them through the Grace of Christ have glorified God on earth more then others of them by so much their degrees of glory in Heaven will be the greater according to the Judgement of most Divines upon these places of Scripture Dan. 12. â— Matth. 10. 41 42. Ch. 19. 28. 1 Cor. 3. 8. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 2 Cor. 9. 6. It is the general Opinion of godly learned men that the Saints in Heaven will perfectly and personally know one another to the mutual comfort one of another This is usually proved by arguments taken from these Texts of Scripture Matt. 17. 1 2 3 4. Matth. 8. 11. Luke 16. 23. 1 Cor. 13. 12. After the resurrection the Saints will neither marry nor be given in marriage but shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven And their bodies being spiritual in quality they shall be freed from the necessities and imperfections of the animal life and upheld immediately by the Almighty power of God without the use of food and raiment and all other means that are requisite to the preservation of the life that now is 1 Cor. 15. 28. When all the Saints shall be like Christ and shall be brought to the blisful fruition of God in Christ in those eternal Mansions of heaven assigned for them then prophesying hearing and praying and all duties graces and actions that were used as meanes to that blessed end shall cease and then they shall have that everlasting rest that now remaineth for them which is the endlesse rest of rests and so they shall keep that everlasting Sabbath which is the Sabbath of Sabbaths and the
eternal God himselfe who is goodnesse and perfection wholly incomprehensible shall be with them and will be their God their exceeding great reward their portion their heaven their life eternall their happinesse and their all in all with whom they will be fully satisfied and in whom they will comfortably acquiesce and contentedly rest to all eternity yea the Lord their God will rejoyce over them with joy and will rest in his love unto them Zeph 3. 17. O Sirs if the blessedness of the life to come be but revealed in part and if we who know but part of that part of it which is revealed and that thorow a glasse darkly do conceive the glory and bliss of it to be unspeakably great How unconceivably glorious and blessed will the Saints in heaven find it to be when they shall fully know it by comfortable experience In summe the happiness of heaven and of the blessed life to come called by Divines the state of glorification is such as that it will please and satisfy all who shall have a part in it it is infinitely greater and better then can be uttered or conceived therefore let us humbly leave the rest of the felicity of it to the future experience of such as shall enjoy it as we may hope we shall within a short time if our hearts be right in the sight of God It is reported of the Duke of Bovillon and his army that when they went to Jerusalem as soon as they saw the high Turrers they shouted for joy â—rying out Jerusalem Jerusalem what cause have we poor pilgrims strangers on the earth who are travelling towards the â—elestial Jerusalem our heavenly country to rejoyce with joy unspeakable as soon as we see by faith any glimpse of the exceeding glory and happinesse of it saying with a joyful noyse to God Hallelujah Hallelujah blessed and for ever blessed be the Lord that we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens An house yea a pallace of heavenly state and magnificence neither is it lesse then a kingdome that abides there for us a kingdome so much above these worldly Monarchies as heaven is above this â—lod of earth CHAP. V. Renders the principall Reasons why all mankinde after the day of judgement shall go in their bodies and soules into an everlasting condition either of felicity or misery THe great and important Truth of mans eternal state to come having been both proved and explained I shall now give you the Reasons of it which are principally these two First the Elect of God amongst all mankind who were interessed in Christ shall go in their bodies and soules after they have received their joyful sentence of absolution into an everlasting condition of happinesse for the everlasting glorifying of the mercy of God Rom. 9. 23. When Jesus Christ shall say to his Elect people in the sight and hearing of all the world Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and when afterward he shall bring them triumphantly into the possession of the everlasting kingdome of glory Then and from thenceforth and for ever it will be fully knowne that God is essentially mercifull and that his mercy towards them whom he hath chosen in Christ to life eternal is infinite everlasting and immutable to the everlasting glory and honour of the mercy of the Lord and to the perpetuall praise of the glory of his grace Rom. 9. 23. Ephes. 1. 5 6. As now the best of Saints do but see the saving mercy of God towards them thorow a glasse darkly and do but weakly believe it so they do very imperfectly praise him for it but when they shall perfectly know at the day of 〈◊〉 compleat Redemption that it was the mercy of God and nothing but his â—ender mercy and free grace in Christ towards them that elected them that created them that redeemed them that called them that justified them that sanctified them and that hath compleatly saved them and all for this great end that they might for ever magnify him for it Then they will perfecty praise the Lord and give him the glory due to his name for this gracious and golden chain of mercy that reacheth from their everlasting predestination to their everlasting glorification Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. Rev. 4. 8 9 10 11 12. As the saved in heaven will know by joyful experience the â—â—â—at things the Lord hath done for them and that it is eternal love unto them in Christ that hath delivered them from the nether-most hell and that hath brought them to the highest heaven so they will affectionately praise him for it and will delight to give glory to the Lord their God who hath brought them unto his incomprehensible bliss and glory through the communication of his grace and glory unto them And as they will perfectly apprehend that the favour that God beareth unto them in Christ shall endure for ever and ever so they will glorify him for it for ever and ever and will sing without ceasing the high praises of God not as the Acaemets at Constantinople who sung day and night divine praises to God onely one company after another But all the Elect angels and Saints in heaven will unanimously and perpetually praise the everliving God Father Son and holy Ghost for the infinite felicity they shall enjoy together in his beatifical presence Psal. 84. 4. Rev. 7. 10 11 12. Secondly all the Reprobate of Mankinde who had no part in Christ shall go in their bodies and souls immediately after the dolefull sentence of condemnation hath been pronounced against them into an everlasting condition of misery for the everlasting glorifying of the justice of God Rom. 9. 22. When Jesus Christ shall say to the Reprobate in the presence of his elect Angels and Saints Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels and when he shall at that instant cast them into hell to be everlastingly punished then and ever after it will be absolutely known that God is essentially just and that his justice is infinite eternal and unchangeable to the everlasting glory and honour of the justice of God and to the eternal praise of his unalterable purpose to punish final impâ—nitent and unbelieving sinners according to the desert of their sins Rom. 9. 22. 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 The wicked in the world will not now believe the justice anger and displeasure of God against sin and impenitent sinners nor will they glorify it when it is executed upon secure sinners either in temporal or spiritual judgements But when the great day of the Lords wrath is come then they shall feel it by woful experience and shall be forced to know and acknowledge the Lord to be just and their damnation to
the happiness of their life eternal and as it were the highest pitch of their heavenly felicity All the Elect people of God by whatsoever names and Religions they were called and distinguished here on earth they shal all have in heaven Communion one with another fellowship with the holy angels and a full fruition of the ever-blessed Godhead in Trinity of Persons and that in these three respects which I shal the rather express in Scripture-Language for the help of our weak understanding herein 1. They shall enjoy God in Christ in being present with him in the same Empyrean heaven and ever-blessed Eternity where he enjoys himself and where his glorious angels and the blessed souls of his people enjoy him Christ hath promised his people that he will receive them to himself that where he is there they may be also and therefore there they shall be in his appointed time Again the Apostle Paul plainly tells us that we shall be ever with the Lord so we shall partake of that fulness of joy that is in his presence and of those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. This this is that which the Saints here on earth do so earnestly and ardently desire as that their souls are restless and unsatisfied until they come to the full fruition of God in the highest heaven which he hath prepared for their everlasting home and entertainment in the world to come 2. They shall enjoy God in seeing of him as he is For then saith Saint Paul we shall see face to face and know even as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Again the Apostle John saith that then we shall see the Lord as he is and so we shal enjoy him by our immediate and blessed Vision of him 1 Joh. 3. 2. All the Saints shall behold the glory of their blessed Saviour in his heavenly kingdom with the eies of their glorified bodies and they shall see the blessed Deâ—ty in three glorious Persons with the eies of their understanding fully enlightened with the light of glory They shal all know the Lord apprehensively in all his admirable excellencies and perfections and they shall see him whom their soul loveth as it were face to face clearly and perfectly and so they shal have a full satisfactory knowledge of God who is the first Truth and of all Truths else which may conduce to their complete happiness Zuingerus was so fully perswaded of this as that he said at the point of death I am glad that the time is now come when the Lord will shew himself unto me face to face 3. They shall enjoy God in Christ in being perfectly one with the Father and Him as they are one after such a real manner as that they shal never be parted from him but shal be indissolubly joined unto him to their unspeakable comfort and happiness Jesus Christ who cannot but be heard hath prayed both for the beginning and the accomplishment of this blessed union His prayer is That all his people may be one with the Father and him as they are one They cannot therefore but be partakers of this blisful one-ness with the blessed Trinity and being partakers of it they will enjoy God by their happy conjunction and immediate communion with him All believers through the Holy Ghost are now inseperably united to the glorious Person of the Son of God as members to their Head and by Christ they are united to God the Father the Fountain of Grace and Glory whereby they are now made partakers of the Divine Light and Life of Grace 2 Pet. 1. 4. And this spiritual and mystical union begun here shall be perfected for ever hereafter whereby they shall partake of the everlasting Light and Life of glory immediately from the Lord of Glory in such a heavenly all-satisfying sort as that they shall be as fully happy as possibly they can wish or desire to be As all the Elect shall be beatifically united to God in Christ so they shall be perfectly united one to another in judgement wil and affection how much soever they differed on earth they shall all accord in Heaven in one scope and act of giving glory and praise to God and in one perpetual adoration and fruition of one infinite Deity in Trinity of Persons and so they wil be mutually happy in God in themselves and in each other Although it is the Soul which doth enjoy God or that doth partake of the good which is in God yet the body also shall have a share in the happiness of the souls enjoyment of God in the Kingdom of glory 1 Thes. 4. 16 17. Sith God is an infinite self-existing Spirit from Eternity in Eternity to Eternity and is his own happiness and the author and object of All happiness therefore the full enjoyment of God blessed for ever who is self-sufficient in his Being and all-sufficient in his Communications will be a satisfying felicity and as high an happiness as either Saints or Angels can desire to enjoy Ps. 73. 25 26. I could not but be affectionately taken with the judgement of a pious writer about this particular Enquire saith he of such as are yet militant upon earth wherein their happiness consists the answer will be In their having fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Let those who are triumphant be asked What it is that renders their heaven so glorious their glory so incomprehensible ye shal have no other account but this it is because they have now attained a compleat fruition of that all-sufficient all-satissying ever-blessed and ever-blessing Object God in Christ. It is the Doctrinal Observation of a worthy Preacher That God alone is more desirable then any thing then all things in heaven and earth and no wonder if we consider That the Lord is such a depth of Divine perfections as that he possesseth in one onely perfection the excellencie of all perfections in so excellent sort as that none is able to comprehend it but himself Therefore the everlasting enjoyment of him can be no other then perfect blessedness We may piously think according to the Scriptures that when the Saints shal partake of this heavenly fruition of God in Christ they wil have such a full sence and real experience of the everlasting love of God unto them as that they will be for ever affected with it and constrained by it perfectly to love the Lord their God perpetually to rejoyce in him and everlastingly to land him and praise him for their blessed enjoyment of him and so their Love to God joy in him thankfulness to him shal never cease because it is a part of that heavenly happiness which wil redound from their beatifical fruition of God in Christ. A day in thy Courts saith Sacred King David unto God is better then a thousand I had rather be a door-keeper in