Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A27558
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Of the happiness of the saints in heaven a sermon preached before the Queen at Whitehall, October 12, 1690 / by William Beveridge.; Of the happiness of the saints in heaven
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Beveridge, William, 1637-1708.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing B2097; ESTC R14203
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15,307
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36
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title to this Inheritance not only to some part of it but to the whole and all and every one of them equally possess it all It is not like an earthly inheritance that is divided among the co-heirs some taking one part of it and some another But every one that hath any share in this heavenly inheritance enjoys it all himself as much as if he was the sole heir and there were none else to partake of it but himself Neither are the Saints joynt-heirs only with one another but as the Apostle there speaks with Christ himself And if so their inheritance must needs be very large For Christ is appointed heir of all things And if they be joynt-heirs with him as be sure they are every one of them must inherit all things too as he doth And so be sure they do For God himself asserts it saying He that overcometh shall inherit all things And I will be his God and he shall be my Son Where we may observe both the vast extent of this inheritance of the Saints and likewise the reason of it As to its extent it is not confined to a Parish or County or Kingdom upon Earth no not to the whole Earth nor to the Moon nor Sun nor to any Star nor to all the Stars of Heaven nor to the whole Heavens where they are nor yet to the greatest part of the Creation but extends it self to the whole For they inherit all things all things that are good or amiable all things that are pleasing or delightsome all things that are necessary or convenient for them All things they can desire or hope for all things they can love or take comfort in all things that can any way contribute to their happiness As all things in the whole world shall do one way or other For even while they are upon Earth all things work together for their good how much more when they come to Heaven Where they shall clearly see how all things that ever happened to them through the whole course of their lives concurred to bring them thither and so will be matter of joy and comfort to them when they are there By which means they will then take pleasure not only in all the devotions alms and good works they ever performed but likewise in all the losses crosses disappointments pains sicknesses and troubles of all sorts that ever befell them Yea and in all things that God ever made or did or suffered to be done in the world For all things are theirs even while they are here below as St. Paul assures the Saints at Corinth saying All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours All things are settled upon them at their new-birth and when they come to full age that is as soon as they get to Heaven they will have the actual possession of all things and then must needs enjoy whatsoever any thing in the world can afford them And what is there in the world but what affords the Saints in Heaven something to delight and please them The Heaven of Heavens affords them most commodious and pleasant Mansions All the holy Angels there afford them their most agâ—ceable company and conversation All the Devils and damned in Hell afford them matter of praise and thankfulness to God that they are not there All the glorious lights in the firmament afford them a most delicious prospect In short All the Animals and Plants and Earths and Stones and Metals and Minerals and whatsoever else God ever made either in Heaven or Earth afford them a clear and perfect view of his divine perfections which cannot but affect their hearts with the highest transports of joy and wonder Thus doth every Saint in Heaven inherit all things All things are his And it is no marvail for God himself is his As it follows in the place before quoted He shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son He shall be my Son that is the reason he is an heir I will be his God that 's the reason that he inherits all things For he who hath him that hath all things cannot but have all things in him Yea infinitely more than all things else all things that God hath made being in a manner nothing in comparison of him that made them Who therefore to complete the happiness of his Saints doth not only give them all he hath but even himself too saving I will be their God or rather as the words signifie I will be God to them By virtâ—e of which promise they enjoy not only whatsoever God hath made or done but likewise whatsoever he is even all those infinite eternal incomprehensible Perfections which are concentred in him But here I must confess my self at a loss not knowing how to conceive much less to 〈…〉 ss either how the Saints in heaven enjoy God or how great an happiness that is to them Only in general we know they see God face to face as not only St. Paul but likewise St. John aquaints us saying Beloved now we are the Sons of God And it doth not yet appear what we shall be But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is From whence it is evident that they see God not only as manifesting himself in his creatures but as he is in himself Which blessed sight must needs fill them with the highest joys their finite nature is able to bear To see Wisedom and Power and Greatness and Goodness and Justice and Mercy and Immensity and Eternity to see the Lord of Hosts the chiefest the only Good to see God himself unvailing himself and shining forth in all his Glory before them yea to see him smiling as it were upon them rejoycing over them meaning himself as well-pleased with them Who is able to conceive how much their blessed Souls are affected delighted transported with this blessed sight None certainly but only they that have it They know yea they feel it to be the g 〈…〉 est the only perfect happiness they can possibly enjoy And that all things else could never satisfie their desires and so make them happy without this whereas this would do it without all things else It being impossible for them to desire any thing but what they have in God infinite Goodness it self In whom by consequence all their inclinations meet as in their proper center and so their Minds are always at rest and quiet and their Souls full as they can hold of solid and substantial joy which makes them break forth continually into Praises and Hallelujahs to Almighty God and to the Lamb that sitteth upon the Throne who purchased such a glorious Inheritance as this is for them and settled it upon them for evermore But how can these things be How is it possible for the Saints in Heaven
to see God To that the Apostle answers in my Text by calling it the Inheritance of the Saints in light It is true All men are born at sirst spiritually blind and so generally live in the dark seeing no more of God or any spiritual object than as if there was no such thing in being But when a man is born again his eyes are opened and he is turned from darkness to light as well as from the power of Satan unto God And therefore all such are called the Children of light and the Children of the day because they have a marvellous light as St. Peter calls it constantly shining in them whereby they discover many glorious things which lye perfectly hid to all other mortals By this Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw the Mountain full of Horses and Chariots of sire even a whole Legion of the heavenly Host round about his Master By this St. Stephen saw the Heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God yea by this Moses saw him that is invisible God himself And thus all that are real Saints being the Children of light see more or less of God at least so much as to make them love and desire and fear and trust on him above all things in the world Indeed they cannot see his face and live as he himself told Moses But they see him as Moses did in his back-parts in his works the effects and products of his divine Perfections And the reason why they cannot see his face and live in this world is because they are still in their imperfect state and therefore cannot possibly have a perfect sight of so glorious a being or if they had it would strike them dead for they could not possibly bear it or as Job expresseth it by reason of his highness they could not endure so as to live under it But seeing God himself saith that no man shall see his face and live he thereby gives us to understand that some shall see his face when they are dead and departed out of this life And so questionless do all the Saints that are in Heaven For they live in a City which hath no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it For the glory of God doth lighten it and the lamb is the light thereof Or as the Prophet Isaiah words it The Lord is to them an everlasting light So that as the Sun is to us upon Earth the fountain of all that light whereby we see any object here below so to the Saints that are above in Heaven God himself is pleased to issue forth light immediately from himself which exceeds the light of the Sun infinitely more than that exceeds the glimmering of a Glo-worm Neither doth it only shine as the Sun doth upon them but into them and so enlightens themselves too as well as all things that are about them And what is there in the world which they cannot see by such a glorious such an insinite light as this is By this light they see not only the supersicies but the very substance and contexture of every creature they have a mind to look upon as exactly as if it was perfectly anatomized and laid open before them By this they see the several vertues qualities and operations of things here below and the great ends and purposes for which they are designed By this they see the causes of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and other great Phoenomena of nature which so much puzzle Philosophy and make it but a meer conjecture By this they see the secret and wonderfull Powers that God hath put into all Animals and Vegetables of propagating their respective Species so that none of them ever did or can ever fail to be in the world By this they see both the composition and the several motions of the Sun and all the other Planets as well as fixed Stars and what insluences they have upon terrestrial bodies By this they see the wise establishment of second Causes how they depend upon one another and all upon the first The sight of which and such-like things must needs be an extraordinary pleasure to them by reason of the most admirable Art and Contrivance they observe in them and also because their faculties are by this means employed to the proper uses for which they were made and to which they therefore tend For as God made all things for the manifestation of his own glory he endued men with reason on purpose that they might behold and admire the glory of those Perfections which he manifested in them And hence it is that all things naturally tending to their end all men naturally desire to know and many apply their minds wholly to find out such things as those are And if they can but guess at any of them with the least shew of reason or so much as probability they are mightily pleased with it But what a pleasure then must it be to have a full view and prospect of them and of that infinite Wisedom Power and Goodness which appeareth in them as the Saints in Heaven have by that light which shines upon their inheritance Moreover by this light they look back upon their former lives and see the steady hand of providence ordering and over-ruling not only the greater occurrences but even the least circumstances in them and the holy Spirit of God making some use or other of every one of them to work them over to himself By this they see God's infinite love and goodness to his Church militant here on earth in all the straits and difficulties he brings it into and how good and necessary it is for it that every thing should be just as it is By this they see the holy Angels and all their fellow Citizens in the new Hierusalem and converse familiarly with them as we do with one another By this they see their ever blessed Saviour the eternal Son of God in their nature exalted at the right hand of the Father far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named in Heaven or Earth By this they see all the glory which the Father hath given him as he himself once prayed they might Yea by this they see the most high God face to face even as we see the Sun by his own light and that too as clearly as fully as perfectly as it is possible for creatures to doe it Which so refreshes enlivens elevates and cheers their Spirits that they are always rejoycing and singing and praising God admiring adoring magnifying and giving thanks to his almighty all-glorious and all-gracious Majesty Father Son and Holy Ghost for his creating redeeming and sanctifying them so as to bring them through the various changes and chances of this mortal life to such an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away eternal in the heavens in glory in bliss in