speak of the Triumphant Church The Angels shall admire at it O that these poor worms should be raised from this low estate to such a glorious condition they pry into the mystery of Salvation Then the love of Christ shall be enflamed to his people that love which caused him to plead with God for his people from all eternity that caused him to undertake this great work for his people from this love there will be most glorious embracements If at one salutation of the mother of our Lord John Baptist springs in the Womb for joy how shall the heart of a glorified Saint spring at the glorious embracements of Christ himself when he is in his glory And when we shall be in such a condition as we shall be fitted for communion with him we shall be able to understand Christ in another way we shall know the hypostatical union of his two natures and know Christ fully and be fitter to entertain the manifestation of his love whereas here we are not able to entertain much Christ looks through the lattess and we have but some few drops of his love but then when his love shall be enflamed and fully let out we shall be fitted for it And it shall be such a communion with Christ as we shall never leave but follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes There shall be no moment to all eternity wherein Christ shall be out of the sight of so many thousand thousands of Saints And though that Text in the Revelations be meant of the Church in this world and the following of Christ wheresoever he goeth here following of him in the ordinances but if it be an happiness here to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes much more in heaven You that are willing to suffer any thing to follow the Lamb in his ordinances here know there is enough to pay for all you shall be always following the Lamb in heaven and you shall always be in the company of Christ and this is the fifth particular namely The communion that the souls of Gods people shall have with Christ There are yet two things to be opened in this branch to shew what the recompence of reward of Gods people is and they are the enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints and the keeping a perpetual Sabbath in Heaven The enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints The Angels and Saints are joyned together under one head the Angels rejoyce here in being ministring spirits unto the Saints O what rejoycing will there be then in communion with them the Saints of God shall enjoy communion with the Angels in a familiar way they shall be fitted for communion with God and Christ himself much more fitted for communion with Angels yea the Angels shall account it part of their happiness to have communion with the Saints The sight of an Angel to us now in the flesh though he comes to bring good tidings is a great amazement but then the sight of the Angels shall be no amazement but we shall look upon them as our fellow creatures to have communion with them Heb. 12. 23. Ye are come vnto Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels This is spoken of the priviledge of the Gospel before by the Law there was nothing but terror that made Moses to fear and quake now we are not to come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God Before without Christ we were vagabonds wandring up and down in the wilderness of the Word but by Christ we are gathered unto the City of the living God and the heavenly Ierusalem there were nothing but troubles before but now they are gathered to Ierusalem into peace and to an innumerable company of Angels Before the Angels were as Gods Host ready to revenge the quarrel of God upon us but now we are come to the innumerable company of Angels who are ministring spirits to us here and we shall enjoy communion with them The Angels are full of wisdom and therefore when the Scripture would set forth the excellency of wisdom it sets it forth by the wisdom of the Angels Doctor Taylor the Martyr rejoyced that he came into prison with Master Bradford that Angel Bradford though he was but one that had the likeness of an Angel and in prison yet he rejoyced in being with him What rejoycing will there be to be with all the Angels that are Angels indeed and that in our Fathers house The way and maner of the converse of Saints with Angels is very obscure how spirits do converse one with another we know but little we converse one with another by speaking there can be no such way of converse with Spirits The Schoolmen say By the act of their wills they come to make known what is in their mindes but we shall know more of the maner of converse with them afterwards CHAP. LI. The happiness of enjoying communion with the Saints in glory BUt it is more familiar to us to know our excellency in the converse with the Saints Heb. 12. 23. To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven c. To enjoy communion with the Saints here is sweet to enjoy communion with all the Saints with all the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Iacob and Moses and Aaron and Ioshua and all the good Prophets and the good Kings and all Martyrs and Worthies of the Lord If to have communion with one or two be sweet then to have communion with all at once must needs be sweet it is worth the enduring much to get to heaven if it were onely to have communion with the Saints Secondly to have communion with none but them to have communion with the Saints is sweet though we are forced to have communion with the world but to have communion with the choicest of Gods servants with none else that is sweet indeed Thirdly to have communion with them made perfect The best now have many weaknesses and many frampold moods and offensive carriages that there must be a great deal born in communion with the best but then we shall be delivered from imperfections there shall be no ignorance but we shall have communion with those that are knowing and perfectly glorified The life of my Lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life it is the blessing of Abigail to David Now Interpreters expound it thus It is a Metaphor taken from binding up of yong plants that are removed from one place to be set in another Now there is a great deal of difference between a bundle of plants laid in the water to preserve them till they be set in the garden and those plants growing and flourishing in the garden It is a great blessing to be bound up amongst Gods people here that are plants that have life but we are here but as plants bound up and
amongst the pots says the Psalmist yet you are as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and whose feathers are covered with yellow gold We read of the Christians that lived in the time between the Prophets and Christ in the latter end of this Chapter that were as mean as almost the rage of men and poverty and disgrace could make them wandring up and down in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins and in the dens and caves of the earth and yet says the Text they were such as the world were not worthy of Chrysostom carries it thus Take all the men of the world they are not worth one of the people of God though never so mean in regard of outwards But I rather take it thus The world was not worthy of such a priviledge to have them live amongst them they are fitter to be set as Stars in Heaven and to be continually before the Throne of God Many times under mean outsides there are precious things within in earthen vessels rich treasures The Tabernacle of God covered meanly outwardly and yet precious within It is said of Christ himself that he had no form and comeliness at all outwardly Isa 53. No beauty to a carnal eye And yet in Cant. 5. where the Church is put upon the description of Christ she says He is altogether lovely altogether desires so it is in the Original See what a different esteem is of Christ in the thoughts of the world and the thoughts of a gracious heart And as of Christ so of Christians Christ is precious to them that do believe To you he is precious says the Apostle but to others a rock of offence so to a godly gracious heart the godly are precious though contemned of those that are ungodly The arguments that a gracious heart goes upon or reasons why a spiritual eye should see so much excellency in Gods people under their outward means are First because they judge as God judges it is of the Spirit of God that they have received and therefore they must needs judge of things as God judgeth A childe esteems of things usually as his father doth if there be any of you manifest a slight esteem of any among whom you live before your children your children will have the like esteem of them if you manifest a high esteem of any your children will do the like Hence it is if those that are prophane do despise and scorn at Gods people before their children their children will quickly learn to despise them Now because Gods people have Gods Spirit and God is their Father they judge as their Father does Righteous men and Kings in Scripture phrase are made all one those who are Righteous God looks upon as Kings and such as are Kings are not respected of God if they be not Righteous Compare those two Scriptures Mat. 13. 17. and Luke 10. 24. in the one it is thus Many Prophets and Righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see But in the other it is Many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see God does not judge of men in regard of outwards what are outwards before the Lord What is it to have gold and fine clothes before God Those things that are braveries in the world and take up the eyes of men to admire at them what are these to God God does not esteem of men at all for these things neither doth he disesteem them for the want of them the want of clothes and of money and of the things of the world what is this to God Does God look at any man the worse for want of these things God is no respecter of persons if he looks at any with high esteem he looks at the poor and humble and contrite God delights to look down into the world upon those that are poor he reserves a poor people that shall trust in his name Zeph. 3. 12. The Lord passeth by the great things of the world he brings down the mighty and regards the low estate of his handmaid the low estate of his people It is a poor and contrite spirit that he that dwelleth on high looketh at the prayer of the destitute he regards Psal 102. 17. The word in the Original is A poor shrub that which is in the Wilderness and the beasts tread upon that no man regards that seems to be altogether worthless It may be one comes with brave words and hath mighty expressions God throws them as dirt in his face There comes another and can hardly groan out his meaning and yet there being grace God regards him If a proud scornful spirit should hear a poor gracious heart groan out his complaints to God he would think it non-sence but God knowing the meaning of his Spirit and seeing his grace he hath respect to him A broken and contrite heart thou canst not despise God can despise Princes and Emperors of the earth when they sit upon their Thrones but a broken and a contrite heart he cannot despise let him be never so despicable in the eyes of the world God cannot despise him no more then he can deny himself and cease to be God It is Gods judgement of men that the righteous is more excellent then bis neighbor Prov. 12. 26. Let his neighbor be the most excellent in regard of parts riches honors and other excellencies and the godly man despised and every way contemptible in regard of outwards yet he is more excellent then his neighbor It is observed that the Eagle and the Lyon those brave creatures were not offered in sacrifice to God but the poor Lamb and Dove God regards the Lamb and the Dove before the Eagle and the Lyon to note that your great and brave spirits of the world that are as Eagles high and lofty and as the Lyon God regards not those but your poor Lambs and Doves your poor meek spirits that are contemptible in the eyes of the world those are precious to God Not many mighty great and noble but God hath chosen the base things of the world the foolish contemptible things of the world to confound the wise and the great things of the world It is very observable when John sent to Christ to know whether he were the Messiah or no whether they should look for another he did not send him a direct answer but says he Go tell him The blinde see the lame go the dead are raised and the poor receive the Gospel Mark how Christ puts the poors receiving of the Gospel amongst the rest the other were arguments of Gods power and glory but what argument of Christs glory was this that the poor a contemptible people received the Gospel Yes God does as much glory in the poors receiving the Gospel as in raising up the dead Some would think that this should be an offence to John that the poor receives the Gospel one would rather think he were the Messiah if the rich had received the
yet their glorious end raiseth their worth exceeding high and a spiritual eye looks much at the end and issue of things and therefore looking upon the Saints in regard of the issue of all they cannot but have a high esteem of them Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the excellent things that God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. And now a spiritual eye can see these things which a natural eye cannot as if they were present the glorious things that are to come and the glorious condition that such a one shall be in a spiritual eye cannot but fasten upon such a one and bless him as the blessed of the Lord. We do use to look upon great heirs that are appointed for great things and shall have great possessions with honorable respect though now they be meanly clothed in russet cloth or eating course bread and playing with beggars children so Gods servants howsoever they are in the esteem of the world yet those that know what they are to inherit what they shall receive hereafter cannot but look upon them as honorable A spiritual eye sees that that body that is now clothed so meanly within a few years shall shine more bright then the Sun in the firmament and that soul that is weak in parts and gifts it sees it as a vessel that shall be filled to the brim with all the glory of God and the Image of God to be made perfect and to have perfect knowledge of God and of the blessed Trinity and the mystery of the Gospel and all the great works of God A spiritual eye can see within a little while when Christ shall come in his glory he will own them before men and Angels and tell men and Angels These are those for whom the eternal councels of my Father did work and I was content to shed my blood for them and all that was intended in the great work of Redemption was for these A spiritual eye can see that within a while they shall be taken up with our Savior to judge the whole world to judge the Angels with Crowns upon their heads and palms in their hands triumphing ascending up with Christ to see the Father and to enjoy him everlastingly And if these things be seen as real and certain they cannot but raise esteem there is so much in Gods people here as not onely does convince a gracious heart but sometimes will convince one that hath but natural principles of their excellency Some men and women that do sometime rail at Gods people if we could see into their bosoms do sometimes bless them and wish that their condition were such as theirs shall be As Balaam wished he might dye the death of the Righteous and John the Baptist though he was mean for outwards yet Herod reverenced him because he saw some glimmerings of the excellency that was in him And that is observable that we have of Joash King of Israel 2 Kings 13. 14. he was a wicked man yet when he comes to Elisha and sees the Prophet was to dye says he O my Father my Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof this is the speech of one that was ungodly he had a reverend esteem of Elisha and it seems he walked so as he gained mighty esteem from wicked men as in 2 King 3. 12. three Kings came down to the Prophet to speak with him they do not send for him True it is one of them was a good man but the other two were wicked it was indeed in the time of their affliction yet it was a mighty honor the Prophet had from them It is reported of the Emperor Severus when Origen came to him he came very meanly cloathed onely one garment Severus sent him a Chariot and change of garments to come in pomp to him he refused to come in pomp and yet when he saw the piety and gravity of the man he was mightily convinced and it gained much respect from him The godly will gain respect from wicked men much more from a gracious heart that can judge as God judges and see the ends of things CHAP. XVII What we are to learn from that high esteem a gracious heart hath of the Saints in their sorest afflictions HEnce we see what a difference is between the men of the world and Gods people The men of the world are such as in all their outward pomp and bravery are base and wretched and Gods people in all their baseness and meanness are precious and honorable The wicked men are so vile as all the glory that the world hath cannot make them blessed and Gods people are so blessed as that all the evil of the world cannot make them any way miserable If a man had his hearts desire in all things that are here below he may remain as a base cursed creature but let him be gracious and godly and let him have all the misery that can be put upon him in the world he is one that God and the Angels and Saints look upon as the glory of the earth That is very observable we have of Antiochus Epiphanes in Dan. 11. 21. In his estate shall stand up a vile person and yet he was the great King of Assyria And Josephus reports the Samaritans wrote to him because he tormented the Jews to excuse themselves that they were no Jews and they writ Antiochus the mighty God and his name Epiphanes in English does signifie one that is illustrious and famous above others Though he was the great King of Assyria and by flattery was called the Mighty God and by his name called Illustrious famous above others yet by the holy Ghost he is called a Vile person But David speaking of Gods people whom he should do good unto says They are the excellent of the earth in whom is my delight Psal 16. the word signifies the magnificent of the earth The one is called The vile of the earth in the Psalm before and the other called The magnificent in this Psalm God hath made a separation between the wicked and the godly and therefore Moses says in Exod. 33. ver 16. Thou hast separated between us and other people the word that is translated separated is thou hast wonderfully separated between us and other people so God hath wonderfully separated between us and the world that the one should be so cursed that all the good of the world cannot make them blessed and the other so blessed as all the evil of the world cannot make them miserable When Agrippa was so admired that the people cryed The voyce of God and not of man God gives an Angel authority to smite him and he was eaten up with worms John though he was mean in the world the Holy Ghost calls him the greatest that was born of a woman Secondly this rebukes those that can see no excellency in those that are godly
but as a little drop of the sea and a little spark of the great furnace Those good things of eternal life are so many that they exceed number so great that they exceed measure so precious that they are above all estimation Augustine in one of his Epistles hath this relation That the very same day wherein Jerome dyed he was in his study and had got pen ink and paper to write something of the glory of heaven to Jerome suddenly he saw a light breaking into his study and a sweet swell that came unto him and this voyce he thought he heard O Augustine what doest thou doest think to put the sea into a little vessel when the heavens shall cease from their continual motion then shalt thou be able to understand what the glory of heaven is and not before except you come to feel it as I now do this therefore is beyond the expression of man Fifthly all the desires of all the souls of Gods Saints in the world they come infinitely short of that which shall be hereafter We are straightned here in our spirits in our desires if we could enlarge our desires in a spiritual way it would hereafter adde much to our glory our desires are not onely straighter then that we shall have but the straightness of our desires here hinders much the capacity of the good that hereafter is to be revealed and communicated and therefore Christians should labor in a spiritual way to enlarge their desires to the utmost to get their hearts to be working after great things here so that they may by them engreaten their hearts and extend their hearts to prepare them for the great things that are to be revealed I may say concerning our straight desires as the Prophet did to Joash 2 Kings 13. 18 19. where the Prophet bade him strike upon the earth and he struck thrice the Prophet was angry and said You should have struck five or six times and so often shouldst thou have smitten thy enemies So according to the truth and spiritual working of our desires here shall we be made capable of glory hereafter but now if we be straightened in our hearts and we desire to be in heaven and to have some good thing there but our hearts are not after great things not enlarged in our desires it will be in some measure in some proportion according to our desires and therefore it is an evil thing for Christians to have their desires straightned here There are glorious things to be had in God and therefore our desires should be more enlarged then they are It is an excellent expression of Basil It grieves it irks it is tedious to our most munificent great glorious King he hath one word that expresses as much as all these if we ask any thing little of him he would have us ask great things of him Again they are beyond all our hopes It is said of Abraham He believed above hope we cannot believe above hope in this sense that is above the great things that are hoped for and yet God loves to have his people raise their hopes high Yea lastly it is beyond all imagination if men and Angels should set themselves to imagine what they would have they would think if such and such things were that would be a glorious condition this reward shall be beyond imagination we may imagine that which we could not almost desire but whatsoever you can invent or imagine you shall have that happiness or that which is beyond it sometime we think what a sweet thing will it be in Heaven to meet our Father our Mother our Brother or Sister our Husband or Wife these relations shall cease there but we may conclude though we have not that there we shall have that which shall be better and that which we would rather chuse But then if it be thus that all the world be but a dark shadow if that which is revealed in the word be but a glimpse if all the comforts of the Saints here be but the first-fruits if all the expressions of men come beneath if all our desires come short if all our hopes reach not to it if all be above the imagination of men and Angels what is it then what is that which is thus great we can tell you somewhat of this recompence of reward negatively and somewhat comparatively but very little of it positively yet somewhat that way too First negatively There shall be no evil there shall be such an estate of Gods people wherein they shall be fully absolutely everlastingly free from all kinde of evil in this world evil sticks to every Christian but there they shall be in an estate beyond all evil When the Sun is got to the heighth there is no shadow so when Gods people come to the top of their blessedness there shall be no shadow of any evil at all that God that is infinite in good certainly will not suffer evil to be always in his people Freed from all evil of sin and that is the greatest evil of all never troubled with any hard heart any more never pestered with an unbelieving straightned heart any more never dull and heavy in Gods service any more there shall never be any more blindeness and ignorances any unconstancy any mistake any weariness in Gods service delivered wholly from sin yea delivered not onely from the sin that we have but from the very savor of sin and from all the remainders of sin A man may be delivered out of prison but he may smell of the prison men may be healed of a wound and yet have a scar remain so it is with Gods people here they are delivered from the guilt and power of their sin but they smell of their prison garments and there are some scars upon them but all the smells and scars of our sin shall be taken from us yea delivered from the very possibility of sin To be in an estate without sin is a blessed estate but to be in an estate wherein there shall be no possibility to sin that is a blessed condition indeed It is a kinde of misery that a godly man counts himself to be in not onely that he does sin but that he may sin that he hath a possibility to sin but to be free from that that is a blessed condition And this is the happiness of God himself that there is no possibility that he should do any thing in the least degree to sin And as they are delivered from sin so from sorrow for that is the immediate consequent of sin All tears shall be wiped from their eyes And as from moral evil so from natural evil from external and internal evil from all weakness of parts and from all pains and sickness and deformities from all labors all incumbrances here in the world freed from the company and madness and opposition and tyranny and injustice of wicked men they shall be above Satan and above
while their hearts are narrow and they cannot receive much from God but the Saints look for good hereafter when their hearts shall be enlarged when as the wicked when their souls shall be enlarged they shall have nothing but misery There is a twofold love when one shall will onely good to himself by another or will good to another now the love of good will is most glorious in God and it is mutual God shall will his good to the creature and the Saints shall will all good to God What good can they will to God It is true there can be no addition to the essential goodness of God but they can will that this his goodness be honored and praised and this shall be in the blessed communion between God and his Saints in the mutual working of their wills Thirdly in communion there is the communication of what one have unto another where there is right communion there is a communication on both parts if on receive good and the other do not labor to communicate it is not communion Now there is a glorious communication on Gods part First immediate Secondly full Thirdly free Fourthly everlasting First immediate whereas here God communicates himself through creatures or through ordinances there are conduits of conveyance for there is such distance between God and us that we cannot expect that immediate conveyance of Gods goodness and of himself to us here as we shall have in heaven Secondly the fulness of Gods communication Suppose that God should draw out all that beauty sweetness goodness and power that he hath communicated in all creatures in the world and bring the quintessence of all and communicate that unto the soul of one Saint certainly it would not serve the turn for the happiness of one Saint there must be a greater communication But conceive if we see one creature have so much power in it by its influence upon the dunghil as to produce such a glorious creature as life which is the most glorious thing that ever God did make Saint Augustine says There is more glory in the life of a flie then in the Sun in the Firmament Now if the Sun have such power to produce life from a piece of dirt what power shall the influence of an infinite God have upon a glorified soul No marvel though the Scripture says That eye hath not seen neither ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him Thirdly it is free as free as the Sun lets out its beams It is natural to a good thing to communicate much more for goodness it self certainly God being goodness in the abstract his communication must needs be free Fourthly it is everlasting the letting out of himself to the Saints shall preserve their strength that he may let out himself unto them as if there were that power in some excellent liquor that is let out into a vessel not onely to sweeten it but perpetually to preserve it that it may be letting out it self into it so God does everlastingly in communicating himself unto his people preserve them that he may communicate himself And then the Saints of God do communicate to God in the same way that God does to them They are always worshipping God immediately not through ordinances as they shall not receive any thing of God through ordinances so they shall not worship God through ordinances but as they receive immediately so they shall worship God immediately and their communication shall be full but as they cannot will any essential good to God so they cannot communicate any essential good but they shall communicate themselves and all that they are or have to God or if they were able to make a thousand worlds they would make them all for the glory of God but because that is beyond the power of any creature therefore they communicate themselves and all that they are or have or can do to God as a drop of water is let out into an infinite Ocean so they are let out unto God as into an infinite Ocean And then the communication is free having the divine nature made perfect in them that do flow to God when they see his divine nature and this communication shall be everlasting God letting out himself to them and they letting out themselves to God This is the reward of the Righteous and this is that which Moses had an eye unto and all Gods people that have an eye beyond the vail behold it with infinite soul-satisfaction Fourthly in communion with God there is a familiar converse between God and the Saints And herein are these particulars First God manifesting himself in a suitable way to the conditions of his people so as it were condescending to their condition that though his Majesty be infinite yet it shall no way be a terror unto them Here if a Saint of God sees but an Angel he is amazed but because God would have his people enjoy holy familiarity with himself therefore he will manifest himself so as though there be an infinite glory yet there shall be no amazement but that they shall be able familiarly to converse with him as one friend does with another The Scripture speaks of the familiar converse that God hath with his people here that they are called friends Abraham was called The friend of God and the Disciples were called friends but hereafter the friendship shall be much more full and sweet Job shall have his desire O that the terror of God may not fall upon me Here when God spake by himself many of the dearest of his Saints have been afraid but when we come to be made partakers of this blessed Recompence of reward all such fear shall be done away Again another thing in familiar converse is the mutual opening of themselves one to another much is said of Gods opening of himself to his people here Psal 25. 14. Prov. 3. 32. 1 Cor. 2. 16. John 15. 15. and that is the reason why they are brought into the Chamber spoken of in Cant. 1. 4. because their secrets are discovered as they said to the King of Judah concerning the Prophet The Prophet that is in Israel does reveal whatsoever thou doest in thy bed-chamber because in them Kings reveal their secrets The mysteries of the Kingdom are revealed to the Saints here much more in heaven there are many secret things that God hath to tell his people when they come to have familiarity with him When a man comes to a woman a stranger he does not tell her his secrets but when she is marryed to him then he tells her his secrets so in heaven God will reveal his secrets and they shall not onely see his face but they shall see Gods heart And they shall open their hearts to God for they shall have nothing in their hearts that they shall be ashamed of As the Sun-flower when the