ΕΚΛΑΜΨΙΑ ΤΩΠΔΙΚΑΙΩΠOR THE Shining forth of the RIGHTEOUS A SERMON PREACHED Partly upon the death of that Reverend and Excellent Divine Mr. STEPHEN CHARNOCK And in part At the Funeral of a godly Friend By JOHN JOHNSON M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyssen Orat. de Mortuis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys hom in Matt. 49. Cum a propriâ ingenita Corruptione immunes ab ascittiâ improborum inquinatione separati non tum ut alim sicut Luna quae suâ Luce mutabilis est sed ut ipse Sol infinito fulgore fulgebunt Cartwr in Mat 13.43 LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst Will. Miller and Benj. Alsop at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside at the Acorn in St. Pauls Church-Yard and at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry 1680. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Thought when it was told me that my only bosom-friend amongst the Ministers that excellent Divine Mr. Stephen Charnock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay a dying that I heard a Voice from Heaven which whispered to him Go up and Die but spake aloud to us Do the Prophets live for ever It awakened me to review a Sermon which I had preached at the request of some godly friends in Leicestershire upon a Text given by their Father the day before his Death and to repeat it to some very few of Mr. Charnocks Hearers My intent in publishing of it is not so much to gratifie them both as to endeavour some small benefit to the souls of some weaker Christians as well as theirs before I go hence and be no more May not a little milk be handed by me to new born babes but one or another must think strange of it What if they should I leave it to others to seed strong men with stronger meat This prevails with me Mr. Charnock is dead I 'm a dying Some other reasons I have acquainted him with who knows my thoughts afar off Here 's nothing of an Elogium on my Country friend that I delivered formerly to his Relations little concerning Mr. Charnock I should have said at least attempted much more but I heard a Narrative of his Life will be drawn by an able hand All my skill could not have done it to the life If this Sermon beyond my intention should fall into the hands of any Ministers besides some few my acquaintance and Juniors who may challenge it from me I shall add only this following character taken out of several of the Fathers Writings more applicable I dare avouch it to Mr. Charnock than those to whom they affixed it I cite not the places they are known to Scholars He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pray they may be delivered into this expressed form as these lines were into their Types and commend them and the following Discourse to the blessing of our good God and rest Thine in our Lord John Johnson THE Importunity of some constraâ—ns me to render into English the Character in the Epistle to the Reader though far short of the copiousness and elegancy of the Greek Language i. e. He was as to manners and comportment venerable and grave like an aged person from his youth Then well train'd up and learned in all the wisdom couched under exotick and foreign languages In his skill in both the Originals of Sacred Writ the wisdom taught by the holy languages was he instructed and so augmented and grew ripe as in years even to perfection and became not only the lively representation but the original it self of humanity love and kindness towards the sons of men Keeping no consort but only grace and vertue He was the Rational house of God Christs spiritual building the Temple of the Holy Ghost framed made up of Orthodox Doctrines and good works A person really transformed into the very Image of God himself Always serving the only true and living God as becomes such a God All the work wherein he employed and exercised himself with diligence skill and constancy was love to God and souls His life he examined and squared until it was in every thing exact according to the rule of the Word His Gravity not affected in the least his very silence was more efficacious many times than his own very often than the speech of others But all his Ministerial service always such as brought down fire from Heaven upon the spiritual Sacrifices He being a fountain of Divine Truth a larger beam of great light which always carries much warmth and heat as well as light along with it He was the very mouth by which the Lord Christ spake and a genuine Interpreter of the Holy Ghost of his mind in the words of his meaning in the Doctrines of the Gospel That Golden Urn in the Ark of God that preserved Divine Manna and was fill'd to the brim with Coelestial food to nourish souls in spiritual unto eternal life his heart ever-flowing and over-flowing love and grace abundantly poured round his lips The Doctrines he set forth before his Hearers for food and physick were most Divine whom he never directed into any way of truth wherein he had not walked before them Christs most fruitful Vine over-spread the walls of his Auditory well hung with lovely clusters and flourishing with pleasant fruit of all the salutiferous Doctrines of the Gospel whence Ministers others carried home baskets full to rejoice the hearts of new-born babes which they were to bring up for Christ Herein lay his Eminency he had resigned all into the hands of his Lord and Saviour that had received him viz. his Estate Reputation Health Life and what ever might be for his comfortable being here even his Learning and Learned Discourses enjoying only thus much of all these things that he over-looked them and had wherewith he might make it appear how much he pre-esteemed Christ before them MAT. 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father OUR Lord in this and the two precedent verses ascertains us what Discrimination at the end of the world shall be of Saints and Sinners They can hardly be distinguisht here In the Lords field pure corn grows and also tares i. e. not such noisome and noxious weeds as cockle darnel c. openly known notorious sinners such should be weeded out But as the Learned Brederodius after him Scultetus and others do expound it burnt or blasted corn which cannot be extirpated before Harvest without endangering the plucking up good corn with it From the same root I have observed blasted ears sprang up-must then since 't would sully and damage the good corn Amongst the truly righteous Hypocrites grow up which are but 1. Things that offend i. e. not Dissenters they are persons scandalized offended Nor 2. only men Heterodox or Hereticks that lay Traps to ensnare others But 3. All such as lay or lye themselves as stumbling-blocks and snares in the
all are burning and shining lights 2. They shall shine out here as the Greek word intimates are they under a cloud hereafter they shall break forth shine clearly and gloriously as the light of the Sun doth when on a sudden it breaks out as we think from under a Cloud there 's too much here that darkens and obscures their lustre splendor radiant and shining brightness which then shall be scattered dispel'd driven away and that for ever 1. Alas they are much darkened here by bodily weaknesses and distempers 2. Much more by humane frailties though regenerate they are but men though Saints not glorified remainders of inbred corruption and prevalent temptations much obscure them Paul the chief of the Apostles speaks most of his Infirmities 3. Most of all in the eyes of others by abundance of dirt a world of slanders as false as foul aspersions flung upon them which at present too much Eclipse their light and lustre but will serve then only for the better setting of it off Besides 4. Here they are under the Cross and manifold Afflictions which make many speak and censure hardly of them and yet work together only to purge their filth away and to file off their dross 1 Pet. 1.6 7. For then 3. they shall shine forth as the Sun i. e. 1. With a most full perfect and glorious light such as we are not able to conceive of much less to express 'T is therefore shadowed out by a familiar Metaphor from the Sun which even Children know to be the greatest and the clearest light Here they appear and twinkle now and then like the Stars those lesser lights of Heaven then shall they shine with a far greater an incomparably more glorious light like the Sun it self 2. Nativo lumine with their own light received at their first Creation their Regeneration and from that time encreasing in Grace till it advance to its full growth and perfection in glory The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day Whereas Hypocrites like the Ignes faetui Fire-drakes blaze a little here with an Adventitious light which will evaporate quickly be extinct and dye with them as soon as those gross vapors sumes and exhalations from the Earth whereof they consist are spent and gone whilest the Coast is clear and the Air serene they glister but when the wind and storms arise they go out in a snuff and stench 3. With a perpetual yea an everlasting light The light of the Sun who is the fountain of light and the Eye of the World is constant and cannot be extinguisht unless you could pluck or put it out 2. The place where The Kingdom of their Father that is Mat. 5.16 in Heaven where he sits upon his Throne in Majesty Isa 66.1 So it is 1. a most glorious place God as to his Essential Powerful Providential presence is every where fills Heaven and earth Jer. 23.23 24. Psal 139.8 c. But his most special glorious presence is in Heaven called 2 Cor. 12.1 the third Heaven Whatever Philosophers may opine concerning the number of the Heavens Scripture enumerates them to be three 1. The place betwixt the visible Firmament and the Earth Gen. 1.20 2. Where the Sun Moon and Stars are fixed Gen. 1.14 Psal 19.1 4. The third above all where is Gods Dwelling-place Psal 123.1 and Sion-Colledg the Mansions and Lodgings of Blessed Angels and glorified Saints They have all their name from the Hebrew word which signifies light Some light there is in the Aereal Heaven from the Sun Moon and Stars which makes it comfortable much more in the Sidereal where those glorious lights are set up Infinitely more in the Empyrean where God is light 1 Joh. 1.5 the Sun the fountain of it Jam. 1.17 and dwells in light 2 Tim. 6.16 the sight whereof no creature can endure till glorified and made meet for it so great is the supereminence of the Divine Glory yet here the righteous partaking thereof shall shine forth as the Sun according to the several degrees of Divine light which they receive 2. A most secure place Their several Orbs are so fixed here they shall never fall or be plucked out An Astrologer observed a new Star in Cassiopea others fancy they have seen more but was it ever found that any of the old Stars were extinct and lost but these lower Heavens 2 Pet. 3.10 in the twinkling of an eye shall pass away and be seen no more with a great noise as many famous places the Exchange did in the dreadful Conflagration a ratling noise or like the noise of the wheels of Chariots that run swiftly or of waves in a storm at Sea rushing by us or as Parchment hizzeth when 't is cast into the fire the Firmament that scroll of the Heavens shall be rolled up thrown into the fire and shrivel up with fervent heat and the Sun shall no more set as Poets fancied in Thetis her lap a sea of waters but shall be extinct in an Ocean of fire and so put out then that Heaven wherein righteousness the spirit of the just made perfect Christ and God dwell for ever For 2. It is the highest Heaven far out of the reach of the Prince and all the powers of Darkness and their Comrades the Beast and false Prophet All which accursed crew shall be thrown into the lowermost hell And it is the Kingdom of God Almighty who is able to preserve them The Rabbins do not groundlesly assert that the souls of the righteous in Heaven do adhâ—re unto and hold fast by the right hand of God for ever in that he held the Stars his faithful Ministers and Saints here and can any think you if they would attempt it in Heaven pluck them out 2. It is Psal 24.3 the Lords holy place the Holy of holies where there can be no sin as there was in Paradise or temptation unto sin From eternity God was a Heaven to himself Then with his own hands he created and built Heaven of old Ps 102.25 not that he might be comprehended there but to be a palace for his residence the habitation of his holiness Psal 103.19 and an house for his children to live comfortably in safety Saints of themselves could not it may be would not continue in grace here in glory hereafter but God is not only able to preserve them in glory but their gracious God and Father and he will do it After 3. The time then which carries a double Antithesis in it 1. More generally of time future of eternity I should say to this now this moment of their life here Job 14.1 the few days of Saints are full of trouble Act. 14 22. The clearest Sun-shining day succeeds the darkest night and glorious deliverances of particular Saints and the whole Church after days of most sore affliction at length after that time of trouble such as never was before Dan. 12.1 2. understand it
person so he rode in triumph into Heaven sits and shines there at the right hand of God in glory as Head of the Church of all his members that are by faith united to him And they now de jure Ephes 2.6 and de facto hereafter shall sit down with him as a Father he went to prepare and take up Heaven for the children God gave him to be brought unto glory as soon as he has prepared them for it he will receive them that where he is in heaven in glory they may be also Joh. 14.3 There 's both causaelitas efficientis causae exemplaris in the glorification of Christ the head as to the glorifying of his members 2 Cor. 4.14 Joh. 14.19 20. And since he doth all true believers shall shine out in glory Which glory is 1. Christs purchase he bought them for it and it for them and therefore prays for all believers with such boldness and freedom for such a perfect Union with himself as he had with the Father in happiness and glory 1. As God 2. As man in his humane nature united to the Divine and consequently 3. As God-man in both natures united unto one Joh. 17.20 That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us And the ground of his prayer we have v. 4. because he glorified God on earth by active and passive obedience and finished the whole work God gave him to do in order to their Redemption which is called Ephes 1.14 The redemption of the purchased possession Being a redemption from all sin and misery to an inheritance of life and glory hardly procured bought with his own precious blood 2. 'T is his gift he purchased it upon no other account but this that he lawfully might and he will bestow it on them Joh. 10.28 I give unto them eternal life in happiness and glory And ch 17.22 The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one q.d. By infallible promise I have conveyed it and by my last Will and Testament made it sure unto them upon their believing on me they have jus ad rem and when I am come again they shall have jus in re at their Resurrection I 'le see them take and have actual possession of it 3. Because they are in part sanctified by the Spirit they shall be perfectly glorified their bodies and their fouâ—s much more are the Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 who is called the living God 2 Cor. 6. Now God the Father will have his children the Son his members the holy Spirit his Temple to be in Heaven which he will beautifie and adorn for the habitation of the ever glorious one God Father Son and Spirit to live and dwell in for ever 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Rev. 21.3 Here in part are they filled with grace inherent righteousness the fruits of it the fruits of the Spirit and shall hereafter be perfectly fill'd with glory as full as humane natures are capable Then shall they shine I had almost said infinitely in glory and should have said so but that I know they will remain creatures I will say infinitely beyond the Sun 'T is but an hyperbole and yet so mean as is far short of adumbrating the greatness of their glory 'T is a known saying of Plato Could Virtue be seen with corporeal eyes 't would appear the most comely beautiful thing in the world His Scholar spake the like of Moral Righteousness What 's Grace in it self the most amiable and glorious thing in the world Psal 45.13 as it shines out of the hearts and lives of gracious persons into the minds of other Saints how great a lustre doth it carry with it Yet though always visible 't is not always seen many things intervening intercept its light Oh how lovely glorious will all the graces of all the Saints appear in Heaven when they shall all be in the flower expanded to the full in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full growth and most absolute perfection for such glory is 'T is nothing else but grace in its growth Or all graces blown up by the blessed Spirit to the full and shining out in perfection Saints shall be perfectly renâ—wed after the Image of God whose light and glory mainly consists at least appears in his holiness and righteousness Adam was a glorious creature till he had lost the Image of God his righteousness Righteous persons excel their neighbours 1. They are glorious within being created after Gods Image in righteousness and true holiness 2. They shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life but Oh how glorious how excellent or how excellently glorious are glorified Saints who are the Temples of the Holy Ghost filled in their capacities enlarged to the utmost with the Divine the Gracious yea the most Glorious Presence of God! They are made perfectly like Christ who is the brightness of the glory of God and the express image of his person Heb. 1.3 i. e. as much after the Image and as perfectly like to the Son of God as is possible for the Almighty to make them to be when he shall try his wisdom and put his last hand to the making of them so But I foresee an Objection which I will anticipate Wherefore should Saints that are sanctified but in part be so perfectly glorified Why 4. Out of Gods grace and favour because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Favourites Though we spoke highly of their Gratiae gratis datae yet they are not gratos facientes much less are they facientes gloria dignos and so glorificantes i. e. Graces given to them wrought in them yet as they make them not accepted with God here so not to be glorified by God hereafter 'T is God that accepts them here in the beloved that glorifies them hereafter They are righteous 't is by gracious acceptation they shall be glorious 't will be by gracious Remuneration Holy Austin writes some where to this effect If a man should live and serve the Lord a thousand years he could not by his service of God all that time earn so much as one hour of the glorious reward in Heaven much less an eternity of happiness and glory no Death is the wages of the least sin be it but an omission of duty or a neglect to persevere in it Gal. 3.10 And eternal life in glory in the gift of God through Christ Rom. 6. ult It 's given to the righteous that work righteousness but neither for their being righteous and having righteousness in them nor for their doing of it They both are from free and meer grace much more is the reward Through the same grace it is that an eternal life in Heaven and happiness in glory is the inheritance lot and portion of the righteous i. e. sincere upright Saints according to the Covenant