Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A41090
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The eternal joys of God's presence a sermon / preach'd at the Temple Church upon All Saints Day by Henry Felton.
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Felton, Henry, 1656-1701.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing F664; ESTC R28626
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12,054
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31
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able to understand what the Joys of Heaven are and not before unless thou comest to feel them as now I do No there is but one way of understanding them perfectly and that is by attaining them This the Blessed Saints and Martyrs whom we this Day commemorate have long since experienced And this way I humbly beseech God to bring both you and me with them one day to a full and perfect understanding of them And that he may the better do this give me leave to Apply what has been said in few words and so conclude If then God has provided for us Full Joys and Eternal Pleasures in another Life which exceeds both our Power to express and our Hearts to conceive is it not our bounden Duty to render Him all the Honour and Praise due unto his Name For they that know his Name will put their trust in him Let this first of all excite our Hearts to praise and magnify God for his infinite Goodness and Love to Mankind that he hath ordained so happy an End and such transporting Joys for us poor Mortals as the Eternal Fruition of Himself Lord what is Man that thou shou'd exalt him above the other Works of thy hands and so far too as to make Thy self the Inheritance of his Rest and the Substance of his Triumphant Joy Is there any greater Happiness that thou couldst have given him than that thou shouldest give him thy self for his Happiness Is there any surer than that which is founded upon thy Immutability and Eternity What couldest thou have done more for thy Creatures How then can we do less than exalt and magnify thy infinite Goodness Mercy and Bounty to us for ever As thy Love is inexpressibly Glorious in giving thy Son for our Saviour so is it also in making thy self our Salvation and Felicity 2. Let us settle our Thoughts and Endeavours upon this as our main End to seek seriously these Full Joys and Eternal Pleasures of Heaven We would all willingly I make no question have such Contentment and Full Joys as may last for ever But are we in good earnest Let us seek them where they may be found You have heard already and your own Experience sufficiently witness the Truth of it The Joys and Pleasures of this World do all come far short of this Contentment Where then must we seek them but in the Bosom of the Father where only true Transporting and Everlasting Joys are to be found 'T is true indeed God has been pleased to put a Touch of Delight and Pleasure into these inferior Things the better to quicken the Spirits of Men for the necessary Actions of this Life And Christian Piety allows us the use of them if we would but keep her Rules and Measures in the Enjoyment of them And thus if God sees it so fit I cou'd wish you your Parts in both But yet I humbly and earnestly intreat you Do not lose the one for the other the Eternal for the Momentary the Satisfactory for the Unsatisfactory As a Merchant who Loads himself here and sets out for the East-Indies sets down before-hand what Ports and Havens God blessing him he will make for yet by the way he may perhaps touch in upon this or that Coast for fresh Water or other Refreshments and barter away there some small Trifles So I would persuade you to do Let this be your best-resolved Conclusion That Heaven and the Full Joys thereof shall be the Port and Haven which you will make for As for Earthly Delights and Pleasures you may touch in upon them by the way as for fresh Water or other Refreshment but barter away only some small Trifles for them Let not your best Loading your precious Souls go in Exchange for them Thus may you taste the Delights of this World here and be fill'd with the Full Joys of Heaven hereafter 3. And Lastly Let us be careful to walk in the Way which may bring us to these Full Joys and Eternal Pleasures of Heaven and what that Way is St. Paul tells us It is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. This is what I principally aimed at this day by setting before you the Joys of Heaven as powerful Motives to stir you up unto a Holy Religious Life on Earth as the necessary Condition of enjoying them in Heaven Others may have set before you the Terrors of the Lord Death and Hell to persuade you to the same thing but I have set before you Life and Heaven chuse whether you will But I know your Choice you had rather have Life than Death rather enjoy a Fellowship with God and his Holy Angels in the Pleasures of Heaven than a Partnership with the Devil and his Angels in the Torments of Hell But chuse this I beseech you not like Fools who chuse the End neglecting the necessary Means but like Rational Creatures chuse the Means together with the End and for the End-sake As you desire the Eternal Joys of Heaven so enter into the Right way which may bring you surely to it and that is to fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied with it Prov. 14. 23. He that tells us In thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Tells us likewise The upright shall dwell in thy presence Psal 140. 13. 'T is the Upright and Godly shall dwell in the Presence of God's Favour here and in the Presence of his Glory hereafter Let us therefore walk Uprightly both with God and Man that we may in some measure feel the Presence of God here in Divine Comforts and Consolations as Tasts and Assurances of the Full Joys of Heaven that await us When our Blessed Lord shall come with this Euge Well done thou true and faithful servant receive the Kingdom prepared for you That this may be the happy Condition of all here Let us humbly beseech God to give us Grace so to follow thy Blessed Saints in all Virtuous and Godly Living that we may come to those Unspeakable Joys which thou hast prepared for them that love Thee through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Power Praise and Thanksgiving now and for evermore Amen FINIS
End than we see in this Life or else all her noblest Acts and ingenious Devices are but Services for the Contentment of the Sensitive Part or which is worse and must be affirm'd of Acts meerly Speculative are vain frivolous and to no purpose Thus Reason and Scripture unitely conspire to assure us of the Certainty of this most desirable Truth That there are Joys full-satisfying Joys and eternal Pleasures attainable by Men. Which was the First Proposition I proposed to speak to The Second is That these Joys and Pleasures are in the Presence of God or at his Right hand Before I enter upon the Proof of this it will be necessary to explain what is meant here by the Presence of God and his Right hand The Presence of the Face of God as the Original signifieth hath divers Significations in Scripture but they may all be reduced to these Four 1. It signifieth the visible Sacred Assemblies of the Church of God on Earth in which because God is present after an especial manner they are therefore call'd his Presence As the King who is Lord and Owner of the whole Court yet hath one Room especially for his Chamber of Presence so God who is Lord of the whole World hath his Church and specially the visible Assemblies of it for his Chamber of Presence So the Word is taken Psal 42. 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God or in the presence of God The Original hath the same word that is used in my Text which we translate before the Face of God or in the Presence of God i. e. in his Holy Temple 2. It signifies the Almighty Power or the All-viewing Sight of God Psal 139. 7. Whither shall I fly from thy presence i. e. From thy Power and from thy Sight 3. The Special Favour and Grace wherewith God loveth his Elect. So Psal 51. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence i. e. Cast me not out of thy Favour and Love 4. It signifieth that Communication of himself face to face in Glory whereby God for ever maketh Blessed the Holy Angels and Saints in Heaven which is call'd by Divines the Beatifical Vision and by St. Jude the Presence of Glory Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory c. St. Jude v. 24. And in this sense we must understand the Presence of God in my Text. The Perfection of our Heavenly Happiness is well express'd by St. Paul and expounds this of David's David's Phrase is In thy presence is fulness of joy St. Paul's thus But now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. i. e. When we shall see God not as now through a Glass darkly but our Face as it were to his Face our Presence in his Presence 'T is of this the Royal Prophet here speaks In thy presence is fulness of joy So much for the Exposition of the first word Presence The Right hand of God is another Metaphor whereby the same thing is express'd to us This word also is used in Scripture to signify many things but ususally these Three 1. The great and mighty Power of God So Psal 89. 13. Strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand i. e. Great and Wonderful is thy Power 2. The Soveraign Dignity and Prerogative of Honour Glory and Power unto which God hath advanced the Human Nature of Christ above the Angels and every Creature So Eph. 1. 20. And set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion c. 3. The happy Estate and Condition in which God shall settle his Elect Children at the last day So Matt. 25. 33. where it is said That God shall separate the godly from the wicked as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left i. e. He shall settle the one in an Estate of Everlasting Joys and Happiness but send the other into a Condition of unspeakable Grief and Misery And in this sense we must take the Right hand of God in this place So then the Scripture it self doth sufficiently explain what we may here understand by God's presence and his Right hand i. e. The immediate Society of God in a Beatifical Vision of his Glorious Excellency and the Happiness thereby arising to such Beholders of God Having thus explain'd these Two Terms I will proceed to the Proof That the full Joys and eternal Pleasures of Man consist in the Presence or blessed Fruition of God As this is the Doctrine of David in this place and elsewhere so is it likewise of St. John as appears by the Description he gives of the Blessedness of the Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem Rev. 22. 4. They shall see the face of God says he and v. 5. The Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever And to this purpose are those words of the Psalmist Psal 36. 8 9. They shall be abundantly fill'd with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light Thus St. John likewise in the fore-mention'd Description of the Heavenly Jerusalem useth the same Metaphor He shewed me a pure river of waters of life clear as chrystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb Rev. 22. 1. Which metaphorical Expressions do admirably and elegantly set forth both the Fulness and Purity as well as the Perpetuity and Eternity of those Pleasures which arise unto us from the Vision of God The Pleasures of a Man which the Creatures afford him are like Plashes and Puddles mixed shallow and of short Duration but the Divine Joys issuing from the Fruition of God are like a great River clear and unmix'd deep and profound without overflowing full and perpetual As the Scriptures are express in this matter so Natural Reason dictates the same thing For if there be no uniting or concentring of all Good any other way but only in God for he that hath God in possession hath in him all Good which can be desired As he being intirely and infinitely perfect can want nothing to make himself more happy so he that enjoys him can want no manner of thing that is Good and therefore his Heart must needs be filled because it hath no farther progress of Desire But there is no other Good or uniting together of Good but only in God in which there is not some Want and therefore cannot yield a Fulness of Joy and Contentment As for instance Health is a great Blessing but yet in Health there may be a want of Riches Riches are a comfortable Blessing but yet in them there may be a want of Wisdom in Wisdom a want