Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
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A32879
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The glorious reward of faithful ministers declared and improved in a sermon upon the occasion of the funeral of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ Henry Newcome ... / by John Chorlton.
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Chorlton, John, 1666-1705.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing C3927; ESTC R39213
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27,703
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44
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Subservient to the Glory of the other The Soul is enshrined in the Corporeal Light and Splendour of the Body and the Body is animated all over by the Intellectual Light and Glory of the Soul The Glory of the Soul shall shine through the Transparent Brightness of the Celestial Body The Soul shall not abase the Body nor that seduce the Soul any more for ever There shall be an equal fitness in the one to command as in the other to obey and in both to glorifie and enjoy the God of Glory The Spiritual Union and Agreement for the Services of that Holy State between Soul and Body shall be more exquisite and intimate than now the Natural and both shall be yet more Sacredly united to God than they are or can be to each other Both shall live and move and have their Beings in God and together with Being Life and Acting in him they shall possess the Prefection of Glory The Soul shines in the Celestial Body the Body in the Celestial Society and Regions but all in God and God in them all and infinitely above and beyond them On him they all depend as the original Light to him they are all Subordinate as the supream Light to him they all conform as to the grand exemplar of Purity To God and to the Lamb as immediately Subordinate there is a constant Subjection and Resignation of Persons Possessions and Powers with a constant Reference of all Acts and Archievements to his Glory Hence all the Beauty Dignity and Felicity of the Heavenly State result eternally This will be further explained in the next Head in which having considered the Subject of this Glory and the formal nature of it I come to enquire 3. To whom they shine Shining is a term partly relative something is supposed to be irradiated where there is any Exhibition of Light And surely that which is true concerning the meanest kind and lowest degree of Light will not be found wanting in the highest Instances of the most excellent kind of Light that the Universe affords the Light Celestial The following Particulars will shew what various and endless Reflections and Repercussions of Light the Heavenly Mansions are filled with 1. They shine to God in his Holy Abode and Presence They shine with the Approbation and Acceptance and to the Honour of God the Father as Creator He will have Complacency in them as those who have Ministred on Earth not to the Recovery only but even to the Improvement and Advancement of lapsed Creatures above the Felicity of that State from which they fell God the Son our Redeemer will be glorified in them as those who have received Authority from him and acted under him on Earth as he was a Prophet in revealing the Will of God as a Priest in offering up Spiritual Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise and making Intercession for the People and as King in governing the several parts of the Catholick Church over which they did preside The Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier and Comforter of Souls will be glorified in their Glory Because they improved the Gifts and Graces received from him in illuminating and converting the Elect of God in Quickning Comforting Strengthning and Edifying them to Salvation and in vanquishing and expelling all his and their Enemies Thus does the Light of these Stars reflect back to the Source and Center of Light and Glory 2. They shall shine to the great Satisfaction of the Angelick Orders and of the whole Heavenly Host We all know how the Angels rejoyce at the Conversion of a Sinner and how gladly they officiate in conveying Souls to their own Calm and Blissful Regions upon their Separation from the Body With what Applauses then will they receive the Souls of Ministers that were nor only Sanctified themselves but successfully employed about turning others many others to Righteousness so as none of the Angels ever were What special Interviews may be between Ministers and the Souls they have converted and whether any extraordinary Intercourse amongst these Stars themselves I pretend not to determine Only it seems no less probable that these Spiritual Relations as they stood on Earth should be recognized in Glory than that those should which are founded in Acts purely Natural and which were most immediately accommodated to this earthly State 3. Those that turn many to Righteousness shall shine to themselves Every one of them shall be a Mirrour of Divine Glory to himself and shall find ineffable Complacency in the Views and Surveys he takes of his own perfect Rectitude and Glory 4. They shall shine to the Devils and Damned Spirits With what Regret and Anguish will they behold Ministers ascend to that Glory from which they long since irrecoverably fell How will their Malignant Rage and Envy torment them when they shall see poor despised Ministers arrayed with everlasting Light and that too for the Service they have done against the Prince of the Kingdom of Darkness Yea and how will wicked Persecutors gnash their Teeth to see those very Men triumphing in Glory whom they insulted and basely entreated as the Off-scouring of all things and would not suffer to live quietly on Earth How will all those Wretches be confounded for ever that shall see the self-same Ministers as Stars shining with so transcendent a Lustre whose Counsels and Admonitions they rejected and whose Authority perhaps they disputed and disdained to stoop to 4. The fourth and last general Head concerns the Eternity of this Glory Here the brightest Stars shine but for a very short Season and presently Death comes with his Dismal Shade which not only eclipses but quite extinguishes their Light The Prophets do they live for ever Zech. 1.5 but after they once come to shine above as it will be without Imperfection so it will be without Intermission and with out end Sooner shall all the Stars in the visible Heavens be disrobed of their Light than one of these brighter Stars shall suffer the least Diminution of its Splendour Both the Glory it self and the Eminency of it shall last for ever They shall be ever Glorious and ever Superlatively so Those that are once admitted into the Presence of God and united to him as the Fountain of Glory can neither be separated from him nor fail of Supply whilst that Fountain of Light is ever overflowing It is a Glory that not only exceeds the Merits and is adequate to all the Capacities of its Possessors but also is commensurate to their Immortal Duration and runs parallel with the Line of Eternity This may suffice to be spoken concerning the Glorious Reward of Faithful Ministers in the other World There indeed is the principal Reward of all Vertue but it is not without all Reward in this present State Pleasure and Honour the most Pure and Genuine are truly inseparable from all vertuous Actions but they do most visibly and sensibly attend us when we are employed in doing good to others And the greater the Good is
to a sound and deep Repentance for their past Miscarriages to a present Reformation of what is amiss in their Hearts and Lives and to a fixed Resolution of walking with God and their Fellow-Creatures especially those of the same Holy Christian Profession in all Purity 'T is to make Men impartially and universally Good Pious towards God Just and Charitable towards their Neighbours Sober Chast and Humble in their whole Deportment 'T is to render them Useful and Exemplary in their particular Stations and by all this to make Men Blessings to themselves the Church and the World that having Served and Honoured the God that made and redeemed them in this their Pilgrimage they may arrive in his due time at the fullness of Joy which is in the Presence of God and the Pleasures for evermore which are at his right hand Nor is it their Business only to inform Persons of the Necessity of a Personal Inherent Righteousness but also to acquaint them with the Person the Offices and Righteousness of the Mediater the Lord Jesus Christ God blessed for ever On the account whereof and for whose sake all their Sins are pardoned and their Sincere though Imperfect Performances shall be accepted their Persons justified and their Souls and Bodies eternally Saved The means whereby they carry on this great Work are principally Holy and Powerful Preaching of God's Blessed Word and the Exemplary Innocency and Purity of their Lives together with their Patient and Constant Suffering of Reproach and Perfecution when called to it for the Vindication of those Truths which they preach profess and practise If by these and all other instituted means they prove instrumental through the Co-operation and principal Efficiency of the Holy Ghost to turn one Soul to Righteousness it is matter of greater Joy to them than all other Acquests could be But there is not a Faithful Minister in the Church of God that desires not above all things to gain many and many Souls to Christ whatever the Foolish World think of it or may make it cost them for so doing Every such Minister would be glad to have that fulfilled in himself which is prophesied of John Baptist Luke 1.16 And many of the Children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God Converting Sinners being the first and great Work of a Minister is here put for all that is subsequent upon it They are also careful to preserve and perfect the Work of Grace in the Souls that are turned to Righteousness by them 2. The next Particular I am to account for is to clear the Certainty of this Truth and to unfold the Reasons of God's proceeding in this manner with his Faithful Ministers The Certainty of it is evident both from this and other places of Scripture They shall shine c. They are qualified for and have a Right to an Extraordinary Reward in Heaven a more bright and massy Crown of Glory than others must expect This is and ever hath been the Priviledge of Ministers under all God's Dispensations to the Church by vertue of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Grace And as all such Rights are now already ratified above so by the Constitution of that glorious Kingdom all that die possest of them shall be solemnly invested with and admitted to their proper and peculiar Rewards immediately upon their Dissolution The Holy Angels themselves will assist at their Inthronization and the whole Heavenly Host will chearfully joyn their Applauses to it To this Consideration we may in part ascribe it that Heaven it self is stiled Abraham's Bosom Luke 16.22 And that the sitting down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 8.11 is an Expression setting forth the Felicity of that State as if it were the presence of such prime Ministers that made and must therefore denominate and describe the Glory of it Hence it is that Twelve Thrones are promised to the Twelve Apostles Matt. 19.28 and their names inscribed on the Twelve Foundations of the New Jerusalem Rev. 21.14 And as this proves the Apostles dignified above others not only Christians but Ministers so it genuinely infers that those who succeed them in the Office of the Gospel-Ministry and in the Fidelity and Diligence wherewith they discharged that Holy Function shall be joyned with them in the Participation of an extraordinary Bliss But most clearly is this distinction laid down in that Promise of our Saviour He that receiveth a Prophet c. Matt. 10.41 where the Rewards of a Prophet and of a Righteous Man are as clearly distinguished as their Persons and Stations And as it would be too bold a Restriction to confine either of them to this mortal State so there can be no doubt but the difference lies in the Excellency of that which is first mentioned above the other Thus it appears that Faithful Ministers shall enjoy an eminent Reward in Glory from the Tenour of Holy Writ But because all the Works of God carry the Signatures and Impressions of his infinite Rectitude upon them and are Harmonious and conform both to his Perfections and to each other I shall further endeavour to shew the Wisdom and Justice of the Divine Proceedings in this case And first we may note in the general that nothing is more becoming the Wisdom and Justice of Almighty God than to dispense Rewards agreeably to the Meetness and Capacity of the Receivers Now the turning of many to Righteousness is a Work of such Heroical Virtue that it is highly rewardable in it self and more pleasing to him to whom the Dispensation of the future Glory belongs than any other Service whatsoever Therefore though there be no Merit of Equivalence in the Work that might claim a Reward in the way of commutative Justice yet it is greatly expedient to the Ends of Divine Government that such a Reward should be propounded and promised to and expected by Faithful Ministers and if so it must certainly be just that it should be conferred on them That the Service we are speaking of is so highly rewardable will appear from this Consideration Besides its being an Act of Obedience to God and the Mediator which it partakes in common with all other Acts of Evangelical obedience and Duty to make it rewardable it obtains a vast Preheminence of all others in regard of its Intrinsick Excellency its grand and universal Importance and the amazing and almost insuperable Difficulties that attend it than which there can scarce be more proper Qualities thought of to recommend any Service or to render a Person the meetest and most capable Subject of a Glorious Retribution Reason 1. That this is a Work of great Excellency and Worth in it self appears from many Considerations First The Endowments and Qualifications which it supposes and requires What Knowledge of the Mysteries of Religion what Acquaintance with the Deceits of Mens Hearts and the Wiles of the Devil what a firm Belief of Divine Revelation are indispensably required to constitute