Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A43776
|
A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable Robert Earl and Viscount Yarmouth, Baron of Paston and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk by John Hildeyard.
|
Hildeyard, John, b. 1662 or 3.
|
1683
(1683)
|
Wing H1982; ESTC R28072
|
19,112
|
41
|
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE Right Honourable ROBERT EARL and VISCOUNT Yarmouth Baron of PASTON and Lord Lieutenant of the County of NORFOLK By JOHN HILDEYARD D. LL Commissary of the Arch-Deaconry of Norfolk and Rector of Cowston in the Diocess of Norwich Mors aequo pede pulsat Pauperum tabernas Regumque Turres Horat. LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for George Rose Bookseller in Norwich and Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard in London 1683. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Truly Vertuous and Regularly Pious Lady THE LADY REBECCA COUNTES DOWAGER Yarmouth The Author wisheth all Prosperity on Earth and Eternal Happiness in Heaven And in all Humility as a Testimony of his Gratitude Dedicates this Sermon owning himself Her Honours Most Faithful and Ever Devoted Servant and Chaplain JOHN HILDEYARD Revel IV. 4. And round about the Throne were four and twenty Seats and upon the Seats I saw four and twenty Elders sitting cloathed in white Rayment and they had upon their Heads Crowns of Gold IT is our Christian Priviledge that sometimes we May and when Spectacles of Mortality lye before us as now it is our Christian Duty that we should take a View of the Top of Tabor even whilst we dwell upon this our Native Calvary mount up our Thoughts and fix our Meditations on the Thrones in Heaven whilst we have our Conversations on Earth 'T is true the Excellency Glory and Splendor of Heaven no finite Brain no created Understanding can possibly perceive or comprehend according to its full Proportion for it is a Fruit of our Fall with Adam and an Inseparable Adjunct of this mortal and unglorified State here below concerning things Coelestial That what we know we know it but in part Yet as a tender affectionate Father by giving of his Child a Glimps of some Rich and Orient Pearl makes the Child big with Desire and Impatient for a full Sight thereof and a grasping of it in his own Hand So our Heavenly Father full of Compassion to the Sons of Men though he detains from the Eye of our Sense a full Comprehension of that Glorious State while we are in the body yet now and then he is pleased to give us a glimpse to let fall in his Word some Sparkles of it that he may Inflame our Affections and set our Faith on Tip-toes that so we having the Eyes of our Souls within the Vail in this Valley of Tears and Troubles may always be refreshed with the very Remembrance of those Glories that are about His Throne A Telescope is an Instrument of Man's Invention that he may take a better View than his weak Eyes of themselves can have of those splendid Lamps that so much beautifie the Cope of the nearest Heavens Whereto the Apostle seems to allude when he tells us that we can only behold the things placed above this Region of our Mortality as through a Glass Such a Glass such a Telescope is this my Text which gives a general Description to us of that great and unexpressible Glory which the Saints have who are glorified with God in Heaven There were some indeed called Chiliacts whom later days by exposition of the Name have stiled Millinaries who looking for a New Heaven on this Old Earth would have these words understood of the Church Militant But I could produce a Cloud of Witnesses to make good his Words who tells us it is not imaginable that any Company of Men any Congregation of Saints should ever be found on Earth of so unmixt a Purity and so exact Perfection as is here described The words then must be understood of the Church Triumphant as clearly appears from the 2d ver of this Chapter which testifies That the Throne about which the Seats of these Elders stood was fixed not on Earth but in Heaven And round about the Throne were four and twenty Seats c. From what hath been said you see my Text is a true Jacobs Ladder on which our Souls in their Meditations may ascend from Earth to Heaven And in this Ladder I shall remark to you five most beautiful Rounds or Staves which in plainer Terms I would call the Parts of the Text. First The transcendent Excellency of those Places in which the Saints were made Conspicuous to St. John 24 Seats 2dly The Transcendent Dignity of the Persons upon those Seats they were Elders 3dly Their Posture they were sitting the Saints of God were represented to St. John in the same posture our Creed describes the Blessed Jesus sitting in Heaven to express their permanent perpetual and unalterable Rest they are at Quiet they are at Ease without Molestation without Trouble and that to all Eternity 4. Their Vesture clothed in White Whence we note that however Foul-mouths may bespot it yet White Rayment is the fittest most comely and significant Habit for those that wait at God's Altars yea for them too to be represented in that sit about his Throne 5thly Their Ornament And they had upon their Heads Crowns of Gold We in England borrowed our Proverb from the Latines That The End Crowns the Work give me leave here too to borrow from a Latine Author the Observation That a Crown ends my Text importing that the greatest Men Kings on Earth can have no greater Glory than to be Saints in Heaven And Saints on Earth shall have so much Glory as to be Kings in Heaven And being met to Celebrate the Funeral of a Person Great Indeed Great in his Descent Great in his Worth Great in the Favour of his Prince and what is best of all Great in the Favour of God I shall not doubt with all your Approbations to determine his Earthly Coronet is changed into an Heavenly Crown and so the Text and the Occasion will friendly conclude alike From the first General of the Text the Transcendent Excellency of those Places in which the Saints were made Conspicuous to St. John I must denote unto you Three eminent Circumstances First Their. Names Seats 2dly Their Situation Round about 3dly Their Number Their Names Twenty Four First their Names Seats So indeed our English Translation renders it and so the Vulgar with respect I presume to the following word Sitting But Cornelius a Lapide Beza Complutensis Regius with our own Learned Hamond and a Multitude more express them by the Name of Thrones according to the Original and agreeable to the Title our Blessed Lord gives them St. Matthew the 19th where telling his Disciples it is equally impossible for a Camel to be squeezed through the Eye of a Needle as for a Man whose Heart is swelled with pride of and enlarged with desires after Riches to enter in at the straight Gate of Eternal Life At which Doctrine whilst the Disciples stood mute and astonished St. Peter breaks silence and saith But we have forsaken all and followed thee and what shall we have therefore What Reward what Compensation shall be given us for this To whom our
Saviour makes Reply ver 28. Verily verily I say unto you that ye who have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory you also shall sit upon Thrones Oh the high Dignation of God! and oh the high Dignity of Man Men are advanced to Thrones and that with God in Heaven what Imperial Majesty like this But to come closer these Thrones or Seats were about the Throne of whom of the Blessed Jesus certainly who is stiled in the Book of Wisdom Copartner with his Father in his Throne of Glory and so is the Holy Ghost the Glory of these three is equal the Majesty Coeternal the Godhead all one and the same and therefore the Throne upon which they are here represented is but one also Well therefore was that Portion of Scripture chosen by our Church for the Epistle on Trinity Sunday but of the three Christ is chiefly say the most Orthodox Interpreters intended in the Representation and therefore it follows in the 3 d ver That he which sat on the Throne was to look upon like a Jasper and a Sardine Stone and there went a Rainbow round about the Throne in sight like unto an Emrald The Rainbow fairly emblematizeth the Reconciliation which Christ wrought with God for Man being at the first placed in the Clouds as a Sign of the Covenant of that Reconciliation And it appeared here in sight like unto an Emrald more fully to explain that Christ was meant in whom and from whom we have our Spiritual Life The Emrald being of a most comfortable Colour and making all things look most fresh and lovely that are about it And all Divines I have met with have discerned the Face of Christs Divinity in the Green and Lasting Colour of the Jasper and the Face of his Humanity in the Sardine-stone which is of a Fleshly hew and complection All put together shew that it is Christ's Throne that gives Denomination to the other and his sitting upon that Throne that makes the Saints so Glorious The other in the circumference derived their names and splendor from the Throne that stood in the Center and that leads me to the second Circumstance in the first General of the Text their situation round about Situation The Glorified Saints were made conspicuous to St. John sitting in Heaven not in a square nor angular nor as some contend it in a semicircle but in a compleat and exact Circle which of all others is the most perfect and most capacious Figure well translated in our English Round about Round about the Throne of Christ from whom Beams of Glory are darted circumferentially and their Angle of Incidence being straight and directly level to the Angle of Reflection the Glory must needs glance upon all For Mathematicians tell us that the Center is Perpendicular to every Point of the Circumference Christ's Throne is represented here in the midst of the other as the Tabernacle of the Congregation the Symbol of God's Presence amongst the Jews set forward in their March Betoke Hamakanoth in the midst of the Camp And the Psalmist's saying Promise unto the Lord and keep it all ye his Rounds or all that are round about him as we render it hath Relation say Interpreters to that Encamping of the Israelites in the Wilderness And hereto it is thought also our Saviour alludes where he promiseth That when two or three are met together in his Name he will be in the midst of them And wheresoever Christ is in the midst these that are round about him must needs like the Woman that touched the Hem of his Garment draw Vertue from him For as the Children's sitting round about the Table argues their mutual participation of their Father's Love so the Saints sitting round about the Throne of Christ proves the Communication they have in their Saviours Glory with which they shine above Shine Yes and that with the same Glory that Christ himself shines withal How the same Not by way of Reflection as the Stars borrow their Light of the Sun but in their Measure with the same Essential Beams Otherwise the Saints would be so far from shining about Christ that they must vanish and disappear in his Presence as the Stars do at the rising of the Sun Again I cannot but observe that this Glory of Christ is communicated to the Saints glorified in a due Proportion but not in an equal Measure unto all though they all surround the Throne yet there is more than one Round about that Throne There are higher and lower Rounds of Saints as well as of Angels in Heaven Imagine several Vessels of several scantlings cast into the Ocean of which some hold a Pint some hold a Pottle some hold a Gallon they will all be filled but yet a respect must be had unto each of their Capacities Thus filled indeed are all the Saints in the Beatifical Vision but it is in the Apostles Phrase according to the Measure of the Fulness of which they are capable And yet you believe when both are in the Sea it is as true Water that fills the Pint as that which fills the Pottle No more is it a different Image which we stamp on a Penny from that which is stamp'd on a Shilling the Image of Caesar is on both and may be applyed by the meanest Logician to prove that there is a True community of the same Glory but no Equality which a good Bishop once of this Diocess reports thus In Heaven there is one Life one Felicity of all but divers Measures Our Heaven begins here on Earth and even here varies in Degrees one Christian enjoys God above another as his Grace his Faith is more And Heaven will be still like it self not another above from this beneath He that improved five Talents was more recompensed than he that improved but one yet both rewarded with their Masters Joy And why should we incur the check our Saviour gave to his Disciples asking Who shall be greatest in the Kingdom of God Let us all strive to get a Place about the Throne What would we more than to be Happy Though some may shine like the Sun others like the Moon others like the Stars and one Star may differ from another Star in Glory yet all about the Throne shall shine and that for ever and ever Nor need any despair of Room in Heaven of having a Seat about the Throne though the Text mentioneth but four and twenty the Third Particular or Circumstance to be spoken to Their Number twenty four Their Number This is a finite and certain Number put for an uncertain and infinite which is most frequent in the Holy Scriptures nor was there need of mentioning more Seats than Elders Who these Elders were and why no more you will see by and by In my Fathers House saith Christ are many Mansions Many how many Oh Blessed Jesus Nay that no Tongue can tell and therefore he expresseth them