hath made them sc by vertue of their Union with Jesus Christ Doth Christ call God his Father and his God behold He Heb. 2.11 being not ashamed to call them Brethren lets them know that he is their God and Father God to my Brethren and say to them John 20.17 I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Once more Hath the Father appointed him a Kingdom so doth he appoint unto them a Kingdom Luk. 22.29 Hath the Father assigned him a Throne so doth Christ assigne unto his Saints a Throne also To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me Rev. 3.21 in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne My Brethren what a Soul-enriching beatifical Union is this There be Unions in nature which convey nothing communicate nothing but empty and insignificant titles which make the person admitted into them not a whit the richer the better not a jot the more noble or happy but this Union as that divine essential Union between the Father and the Son doth invest Christ into all divine properties and prerogatives with the Father so this between Christ and the Believer invests the Believer into the whole Christ and all his riches and all his glory in so much as the Spouse gives in the whole accompt in this vast and invaluable sum Cant. 2.16 My Beloved is mine and I am his he is mine the whole Christ is mine in his natures offices excellencies prerogatives and inheritance In all he is and in all he hath it is all mine for my good and for my glory This is the voice of her Faith and then I am his this is the voice of her love I am his in all I am in all I have in all I can make by my interest in the world and if it were a thousand times more he should have it all and all too little for him who hath loved me and washed one in his own Blood and hath taken me into so rich and glorious an Vnion with his own self To him be glory for ever Amen This is the fourth Property I proceed to a fifth property of the Union Fifth Property an intimous Vnion and it is a near inward intimous Union To hint the intimateness of this Union the Holy Ghost in Scripture carries us through the climax of all Unions under Heaven and compares it with them of what nature and kind soever Whether Artificial Whether Political Whether Natural Wherein although you may find different degrees one exceeding another yet all falling short of this blessed Vnion in respect of closeness and intimacy It tells you that look how the house and foundation are one so are Christ and Believers 1 Pet. 2.4 5 6. yea higher It tells you that look how Husband and Wife are one so is Christ and his Saints Hos 2.19 Eph. 5.30 only with this incomparable difference Husband and Wife make but one flesh 1 Cor 6.16 17. but Christ and the Believer make one Spirit ut supra It tells us yet higher that look how the Head and Members are one so is Christ and his Church 1 Cor. 12.12 how root and branches are one John 15.1.6 so Christ and Believers and closer yer the Scripture tells us that look how Food and the body are one so also is Christ and the Believer one hence we hear of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood John 6.51 53 54 55 56. and nearer yet if nearer can be It 〈◊〉 that look how the Soul and Body are one how Life and the subject wherein it resides are one so is Christ and the Believer Colos 3.4 when Christ who is our life shall appear c. Behold here Christians is an Union which amounts tantum non to an identity say only with Cyprian it is not such an Union as is between the two natures in Christ Non miscet personas nec unit substantias Cypr. It is indeed an Union of persons but not a personal Union Mystici Theologi A Believer trans-essentiated into God and Bread and Wine transsubstantiated into Christ are much of a Language So they call the Holy Ghost auram zephyri caelestis and pardon of sin Deos superos manesque pacare Card. de Bemb which makes them but one person not such an Union as is between the three glorious Persons in the blessed Trinity who notwithstanding the distinction of their personality are but one nature and essence and you cannot say or think too highly of this Vnion yea whatsoever you can say or think will be short of the intimacy and excellency of this Union Onely we must tell the world that those mystical divines amongst the Papists as they call themselves who talk of the Saints being trans essentiated into God and those Seraphicks amongst us as they would be called but Phanatiques more truly and properly who rant at the same rate Christed with Christ and Godded with God these speak as men so ambitious of being accounted sublime and Angelical in comparison of all other men whom they scorn as illiterate Literatists that they think it a lessening to them to speak in a common and sober Dialect and rather then not speak bigger words then other men they fear not to speak Blasphemy The Lord convince them Notwithstanding I must add this to what I have said that because no Union under Heaven was close enough to express the oneness which is betwixt Christ and the Believer therefore our Lord Jesus himself carries us up to Heaven there to contemplate the essential Union which is between the Father and the Son Jo. 17. and puts them into the same parallel As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us yet still we must be careful to understand the words of Christ in a sober sense lest whil'st our Lord doth honour our Union with himself by comparing it to divine Union in the Trinity we do in the least dishonour that Union by levelling it with ours we must duly remember that this comparative particle as doth not here intend equality but likeness oâ—â—y the truth of the intimacy and not the nature or the degree of it to lift up this mystical Union above all other Unions in nature but we must still keep the divine Union in its own place This is the fifth property The sixth property Sixth property total It is a total Union The whole Christ is United to the whole Christian as the whole humane nature in Christ is joyned to the whole divine nature so the whole person of a Believer is joyned to the whole person of Christ yet not so as to make Christ and the Believer but one person but as in the conjugal Union between Man and Wife making up one mystical body or as in the body natural every Member is joyned to the head and the head to every member so is Christ and the Believer Yea once
the more impurity the dimmer the vision Blessed are the pure in heart Mat. 5.8 for they shall see God Why now in glory all these maculae and spots shall be perfectly wiped off and the vessel shall be made a clear burning glass to receive and contain the glorious rayes of divine excellency which do immit themselves into it Hence this vision of God is called by Divines a clear distinct and perfect sight of God not as if the blessed did see all whatever is in the divine essence but as opposed to our present dim glassy vision 1 Cor. 1â— so that it perfectly takes in what the divine will is pleased to reveal without any the least obstruction or diminution Thirdly 3. Perfection Capacity The faculty in glory shall be widened and extended to a vast capacity now the understanding is large there is no bounding or limitting of it it is higher than the Heavens and deeper than the Sea and wider than the World it is said of Solomon in respect of his understanding 1 Kings 4.25 that he had wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart even as the sand that is upon the Sea-shore but all that was specially in order to the mysteries of nature as it follows there in his character from verse 30 to 34. But in glory the understanding shall be widened to a vaster capacity scil to take in not the little things of the Creature only Magnalia Dei but the infinite God I do not say infinitely but apprehensively though not comprehensively for then the vessel must be as large as the object yea larger since the thing containing must be somewhat bigger than the thing contained but the understanding shall apprehend God clearly certainly and fully the object it self shall extend the faculty and make it capacious for it self It is worth our notice to compare those two expressions of the beatifical vision the one Matth. 18.10 where it is said The Angels do alway behold the face of God the other where the Angels and Saints the number of whom is said to be Rev 5.11 ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands are described surrounding Gods Throne they are round about the Throne compare them together They alwayes behold the face of God and yet are round about and it hints us this blessed notion God hath no back parts in Heaven God to the blessed Inhabitants there is all face and they are alwayes beholding it how should not so transplendent an object confound the spiritual organ with the immense splendor and glory thereof but that the object it self doth sustain and nourish the faculty A fourth Perfection is Sanctity 4. Perfection Sanctity Heb. 12.23 the understanding shall be made perfect in holiness In the state of separation The spirits of just men are made perfect and surely the soul looseth nothing of its sanctity by being united to the body in glory Now of all divine qualities none doth more capacitate the Soul for the vision of God than holiness witness that holiness is called the divine nature 1 Pet. 1.4 Holiness assimilateth unto God and the perfection and delight of vision is founded in conformity it is so in the Evangelical vision Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God according to the purity of the heart is the vision of God What a glorious vision of God will that be which the perfection of holiness shall advance the soul unto when the glorious object shall both enlarge and purifie the faculty The fifth Perfection is Strength 5. Perfection Strength The vision of God doth fortifie the understanding In nature the more vehement and intense the object the more it hurts and crâ—sheth the sence the vision of God though but under a veil Câ—â—e vehement sensibile destruit sensum Dan. 10.7 8 Rev. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lumen gloriae superaddita perfectio qua intellectus confortatur ad videndum Deum Tho. Aquin. did undo the Prophet Isaiah Holy Daniel's vision though but a vision did dispirit him and left him without strength Saint John his vision though but the darker side of the beatifical sight of God stayeth him outright for a time I fell at his feet as dead The souls of the blessed in Heaven are set beyond all fear of such a surprise of glory while God fills their faculty he doth also sustain and perfect it by means whereof the faculty shall never be weary of its object but still behold it with fresh vigour and delight So it follows A sixth and last Perfection is Fixednese 6. Perfection Fixedness In the state of grace the mind is exceeding slippery like that of little Children whom you cannot six we lye upon spiritual objects as upon a bank of ice where we slide and slide and never leave sliding till we be in the dirt and this comes to pass by reason of those mixtures of impurity which are in these natural minds of ours the objects are pure and simple James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the faculty is wofully clogged with superfluity of naughtiness hence the lubricity and floating that is in the understanding like the Sea it self but now in glory all that mixture is abolished so that there is nothing remaining to divert or distract the faculty yea the object it self still shall unite the faculty to it self though not so as to make it its self yet so as to make it like its self to make it capable of its self in all the communicable dimensions of the divine nature In a word the faculty shall be made perfectly sutable to the object not only in the properties but in the very nature of it whereby it shall be enabled to know it and understand it to perfection Oh blessed and blessed-making vision Glorious things are spoken of thee oh thou vision of God! Truly beatifical for ever Eye truly hath not seen c. Before we leave this Vision let us make some use of it And the Use may be two-fold 1. Study holiness 2. Labour to see God before you come to Heaven First Study holiness there be two Visions of God mentioned in Scripture First The Vision of God in Grace Secondly The Vision of God in Glory The Evangelical Vision The Angelical Vision The Vision of God in Ordinances The Vision of God Without Above Ordinances In the Vision of Grace the Evangelical vision the Saints see Gods back parts but in the Vision of Glory the Angelical vision they see God face to face in the Evangelical vision they see God darkly and know him in part but in the Angelical vision they know him even as they are known by him the Saints shall have a full prospect of God in Heaven But of both these Visions holiness is the indispensable qualification without holiness there is no admission into Heaven Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth And when entred
which shall fill the memory and the remembrance of them comparing the type with the antitype if I may so say things past with things present will fill the Soul with admiration and delight If any thing of evil do occur whether of sin affliction as soon as ever it enters within that glorious firmament it loseth the nature of evil and is naturalized into matter of rejoycing and thankfulness In a word the entire Image of God Eph. 5.1 It was their duty in the state of grace it shall be their infinite dignity in the state of glory which was imprinted upon the Soul in the first Creation and reprinted upon it though in an imperfect character in the new Creation shall now be perfected to the life in the Regeneration the Saints shall be as like God as ever they can look as like God as ever Children were like their Father so that there will be nothing but looking and liking the one upon the other Prevent that holy gaze now oh ye children of the most high God be often taken up in the beholding and contemplation of the face of your heavenly Father behold will it not Quicken you to duty Comfort you in your droopings Cause you to overlook the contempt of the world with an holy pride And even be the dawnings of glory upon your faces whereby some line and lineaments of beauty shall be added daily to that blessed draught begun already against that day Once more before we go off from this pleasing contemplation add we The very bodies of the Saints shall share in this blessed conformity as well as the soul It had its degree in the first Paradise man had a kind of resemblance to God in the very make of his body The bodies of the Saints Os homini sublims dâ—dit caelumque tueri jussit c. beautiful upright active no such visible picture of God in Heaven or Earth as man was not Sun Moon or Stars not Earth and Sea or the visible Heavens themselves have so much of their Maker in them as the body of man his very corporeal sences had much of God in them they were Vestigia Dei though not Imago one might easily have known who was their Father But now in glory saith the Apostle Our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The glorified body of Christ next to the divine essence to which it is hypostatically united shall be the glory and the wonder of Heaven and our body saith the Apostle shall be like his conformable unto his glorious body What a mirrour of glory will the Saints be in their souls conform'd to the divine nature and their body conform'd to the glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Oh wonderful astonishing transfiguration Well said the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be surely eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man c. This will be an infinite compensation to the Saints of God for all their holy endeavours of being like to God that as obedient Children they have been followers of their heavenly Father Eph. 5.1 and for all the reproaches and abasements they susteined from a reprobate world because of those endeavours The earth was not able to bear the hard speeches wherewith the enemies of God have reproached the footsteps of Gods anointed ones labouring to insist in the steps of their heavenly Father willing to be Nonconformists to the will and lusts of men and striving to be conformable to the will and pattern of their holy King and Law giver the Lord Jesus the King of Saints Now I say it shall be no shame nor grief of heart unto them when they shall reap the fruit of their weak and imperfect conformity on earth in the most full and perfect consummation of that conformity in heaven when behold whatsoever is glorious and wonderful in the person of their glorious Redeemer or in the thrice glorious and blessed Trinity the very print and Character of it shall be stampt upon the glorified Saints in their created capacities causing them to appear not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as so many Angels but even to resemble God himself and to shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father and they that laughed them to scorn shall see it and their faces being filled with shame their consciences with horrour and their hearts with envy they shall now revile and curse themselves howling out Wisd 5.4 We fools accounted their lives madness c. Oh how much better are the reproaches of Christ than all the grandieur and applause in the world Be of good chear all ye Servants of God the time is coming when you shall not repent of your conformity to God and Christ in holiness but shall ever sing I thank the Lord who gave me counsel and taught me to chuse the better part which shall never be taken away from me I come now to the Complement and perfection of this last fruit and consequent of Christ his coming the Saints cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord namely The extent and duration of it in this particle ever We shall ever be with the Lord. The extent and duration ever Ever a little word but of immense signification a Child may speak it It was a witty reply of a Grandchild of Doctor Reynolds now Bishop of Norwich He asking the Child How long Eternity is The Child answered If you will tell me how long half eternity is I will tell you how long whole eternity is but neither Man nor Angel can understand it Oh who can take the demensions of eternity Yea who can tell me how long half eternity is Behold I shew you a Mystery half eternity is eternity yea every part and particle of eternity is eternity for eternity is not made up of hours or dayes or years or lustrums or jubiles or ages or millions of Ages the whole space between the creation of the world and the dissolution of it would not make a day in eternity yea so many years as there be dayes in that space would not fill up an hour in eternity Eternity is one entire Circle beginning and ending in it self This present world which is measured out by such divisions and distinctions of times is therefore mortal and will have end 2 Cor. 4.18 If eternity did consist of finite times though never so large and vast it would not be eternity but a longer tract of time only that which is made up of finite is finite Eternity is but one immense indivisible point wherein there is neither first nor last Deus est octus simplicissimus ex quo omnia sâ—nt in â—uem omnio redeuâ— beginning nor ending succession or alteration but is like God himself one and the same for ever From hence we infer this Doctrine The blessedness of the Saints in Heaven is everlasting Their
have sought for or so much as to have thought of Such a wish in the standing Angels Oh that God would give his own essential eternaly begotten Son to take the humane nature upon him and therein to recover lost man would have been a presumption without doubt which no less than the first ambition of the Apostate Angels probably conceived only in thought might have justly merited their ejection also out of Heaven Oh for the second Person in the glorious Trinity to take upon him the nature of man and that too when it was at the worst when it was fallen and stript of all its original beauty and excellency was more than for all the Angels of light to have been degraded if I may so say into so many Chimney-sweepers or Kennel-rakers or to have been condemn'd to have been made hewers of wood and drawers of wtaer for the service of the reprobate world had it been to have stood for ever This this is the great stupendious mystery which may fill the understanding of men and Angels with wonder and delight to all eternity * Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh the Son of God incarnate Justly then may it swallow up our thoughts with horror and astonishment to descend step by step to the bottom of the Lord Christ his mediatory humiliation and abasement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex omni Scipsum ad nihilum redegit exhausit Tertul. lib. 5. adversus Maâ—cion v. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he debased or vilified himself to find him emptying of himself as it were to the last drop of his glory meekly submitting himself to all the affronts and insolencies of a reprobate world all the temptations and harassing of infernal Spirits and at length to death it self even the death of the cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the cross that death which was proper only to accursed slaves and therein drinking up the bitterest cup that ever was put into the hand of a sinner the cup of his Fathers wrath the venom whereof filled his soul with unconceivable anguish and made him cry out to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth My God my God why bast thou forsaken me In a word if you would come to the bottom of our Lords abasement you must dig to the very bottom of hell it self if there be a bottom there for though Christ did not suffer poenas inferni he did suffer poenas infirnales hellish pains though not the pains of hell Why now then if you would make any discovery of that glory wherewith the humane nature of our blessed Lord is invested at the right hand of God you must skrew up your thoughts to a glory every way adequate and commensurate to his inanition and abasement for less than that not only the love but the justice of his Father could not proportion to him It were good sometimes in our thoughts to compare the abasement of Christ and his exaltation together to set them as it were in columes one over against another He was born in a Stable but now he reigns in his Royal Palace then he had a Manger for his Cradle but now he sets in a Chair of state then Oxen and Asses were his Companions now thousands of Saints and ten thousand thousands of Angels minister round about his Throne then in contempt they called him the Carpenters Son now he obtains by inheritance a more excellent name than the Angels for to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Then he was led away into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil now it is proclaimed before him let all the Angels of God worship him then he had not a place to lay his head on now he is exalted to be the heir of all things in his state of humiliation he endured the contradiction of sinners in his state of exaltation he is adored and admired of Saints and Angels then he had no form or comeliness when we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him now the beauty of his countenance shall send forth such glorious beams that shall dazle the eyes of all the celestial Inhabitants round about him once he was the shame of the world now the glory of heaven the delight of his Father the joy of all the Saints and Angels once he was the obiect of the Reprobates scorn and the Devils malice now they shall be the objects of his most righteous vengeance he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Crucifiges will then be turn'd into Hallelujahs he that was called the Deceiver shall now be adored as the Amen of the Father the faithful and true witness a man of sorrows then but now the mirror of glory Prince of peace then accounted a servant of servants now he shall be called the Lord of Lords King of Kings then they put upon him a mock-robe a fools-coat but now he shall be cloathed with a royal garment down to the foot girt about the paps with a golden girdle the feeble reed shall now be turned into a massie Scepter of gold his Cross of wood into a Throne of glory and the Crown of Thorns into a Crown of Stars In the day of his abasement he was the foot-ball of his enemies kickt up and down the world by every prophane fool but now in the day of his exaltation his enemies shall be made his footstool yea Thrones and principalities being made subject unto him Surely the very prints of his hands and feet and the holes that were bored in his sides shall be so many signal marks and trophies of victory and Thomas 〈◊〉 set now above all doubting may sing in triumph My Lord and my God And lastly the Lord Jesus himself instead of his desertion the lowest step of all his abasement shall solace himself for ever in the vision and fruition of his Father and of the blessed Spirit and instead of my God my God why hast thou forsaken me shall be that triumph I and my Father are one thou Father in me and I in thee These be some crevices through which we may have a glimpse of the glory of our Lords once crucified body the full discovery of it you will never be able to make until you come eye to eye to see and enjoy it in the Kingdom of Heaven witness a second Consideration A second consideration evidencing what a glorious beatifying object the glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus will be in Heaven is 2. Consider The personal and hypostatical union which the humane nature hath with the divine nature of the Son of God Col. 2.9 the sulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily i. e. in his body the fulness of the divine essence dwells in the humane nature and is as it were transparent through his flesh and this makes it to be the most beatifying vision next to the vision of God
himself and indeed is in a very high degree the vision of the essence because the glorious properties and excellencies of the Godhead are as it were radiant and refulgent in the flesh of our Redeemer therefore he is called Heb 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brightness of his Fathers glory the brightness or refulgency of God the Fathers glory not only in reference to his divine essence the second-Person in Trinity but as he is Verbum incarnatum the Word incarnate as he is God-man because all the beams of divine Majesty do shine forth with a most resplendent brightness in his flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 augasma is that which hath brightness and glory in it self such is the divine nature and essence it is the fountain and body of glory from whence all brightness and splendour doth beam and issue but apaugasma is that which receiveth that brightness into it self as a glass or mirrour receives into it the beams of the Sun such a mirrour is the flesh of Christ to the divine essence wherein all the glorious beams of divine wisdom holiness mercy goodness and truth c. do shine forth This is the mystery Saint Paul admireth 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.14 God was manifested in the flesh or God made visible in a body of flesh Jesus Christ was nothing else as it were but visible Deity and so he was even while he was on earth The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father The flesh of Christ was but as it were a veil through which men might look upon the Sun of Righteousness which open and naked would have been too vehement and strong for mortal eyes we saw his glory there did beam forth at times such rays of glory through the body of Jesus Christ that whoever had not wilfully shut his eyes might have discovered him to be more than man and been constrained with the Centurion to cry out Surely this was the Son of God we saw it saith the Apostle of himself and the rest that were Christs witnesses Now if by vertue of the personal union of the two Natures in Christ so much of God was conspicuous in the flesh of Christ while he was on earth how much more abundantly do the emanations of divine glory dart themselves forth through the humane nature now it is exalted to the right hand of the Father in Heaven And that upon a two-fold account 1. Partly because there the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is a glorified body the very body of Christ is made more spiritual and shining than the Angelical nature I had almost said the very flesh of Christ transubstantiated into the divine nature it is so diaphanous and transparent that it is nothing else as it were but a vail through which the Saints may look upon the face of God more steadily surely that sight of Christ will be God manifest in the flesh indeed the invisible God made visible in the humane nature that will be a most beatifical Object 2. And partly because the organ or faculty in the Saints shall be glorified also the eye of sence in them shall be raised to a wonderful degree of quickness and activity able to receive in this glorious object clearly and fully Here the world saw no beauty in Christ not because Christ wanted beauty but because they wanted eyes yea the godly themselves their eyes were held that they could not perfectly discern his glory but oh now when the object shall be perfected and the organ perfected to receive it what a blissful vision will the very Man Christ Jesus be in glory Go forth then oh ye Daughters of Sion Vse Cant. 3.11 behold your heavenly Solomon with the Crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his solemn Nuptials when he was married to his heavenly Bride in the day of the gladness of his heart prevent oh my Soul that beatifical vision by spiritual and fixed meditation get into Heaven before thy time and so much the rather not only because of the eminency of the Object but because of Thirdly The Saints interest in this Object 3 Consider Christ in glory and Christ ours as much of the eternal brightness of the infinite God as is possibly visible to an eye of glorified sence will be seen in the humane nature of Christ that will be glorious and as much of that glory made ours as the Creature can be capable of this will be joyful to see all this glory that is put upon the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to see it with propriety to see it mine And how mine Why mine by purchase he that is the object of this Vision was the purchaser of it he bought it for me yea he purchased both it and me by his blood it for me and me for it the sight of his glorified body was the fruit of his crucified body as once he gave his crucified body to my faith so now he gives his glorified body to my sight to be my portion and my bliss for ever Oh blessed vision wherein indeed purchaser and purchase and purchased do all meet together to suffer no more separation for ever This sure will make the Saints sing their Hallelujahs Rev. 1.5 6 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen I come now to the fifth Object in the beatifical Vision which is the Divine Essence 5th Object The Divine Essence This is denied by some and well it may if the assertion were so to be understood that the essence of God is to be discerned by the bodily eye though in its glorified capacity for where ever the excellency be which God will put upon the glorified bodies of the Saints in Heaven yet still they retain the nature of corporeal beings and Gods essence is so infinitely pure and spiritual that the Angelical nature compared with it would seem to be but quid materiale of a material and corporeal constitution so that now to affirm God to be visible to an organical eye though glorified would seem to imply one of these two things scil that 1. Either the Divine essence hath matter and corporiety in it 2. Or that the glorified sence were made altogether immaterial and spiritual either of which is repugnant to the analogy of faith Vorstius himself was aware of this and therefore though at first he seemed to affirm that the glorified eye being made as all the rest of the body shall be spiritual might see God though a Spirit yet afterward he so explained himself as only to assert that from the divine essence there did flow a certain light which light and not the essence it self immediately is the object of the glorified eye its sight But
marg for Acts 13.19 read 3 19 page 145 marg for Matt. 5.27 read 5 17 page 155 marg for Psa 30 3. read 130 3. PART 3. page 2 marg for Luke 21 46 read 21 36 marg for Rev. 3 2 r. 14 4 page 8 line 16 for Mat. 24.21 read 24 51 page 29 marg for Matt. 8 10 read 18 10 page 30 marg for Joh. read 1 Joh. page 31 marg for Gen. 13 24 30. read 32 24 30 page 34 marg for Psal 48 2 read 84 2 page 38. marg for 1 King 4 25 read 4 29 page 46 marg for Maâ— read Matth. page â—â— marg for Mark 12 32 read 13 32 page 60 line 31 for Matr. 25 24 r ad 25 34 page 62 marg for Matt 18 1. read 8 11. page 79 marg for Rom. read Revel page 81 marg for Eph. 5 1. read 4 24 page 110 marg for 2 Thes 1 9. read 2 Cor. 4 4. page 125 marg for 2 Cor. read 1 Cor page 132 line 13. for Cant 6 12 read 7 12 page 135 marg for 1 Cor 9 52. read 9.25 page 150. marg for 1 Pet. 1 18. read 1.8 page 153. line 1â— for Psal 94.10 read 94.19 p. 164. l. 20. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first Epistle Dedicatory p. â— l. 6. for weak r. mean In the second Epistle Dedicatory are these 3 pages mistaken in the Title vâ—z p. 7 p. 10 p. 11. for The Epistle to the Reader read The Epistle Dedicatory And in the same Epistle page 9. l. 9. for their excess read this excess page 10. line 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MOVNT PISGAH OR WORDS of COMFORT OVER THE Death of our Gratious Relations 1 Thes 4.18 Wherefore Comfort one another with these Words THese words what words are these Scripture words in their general Nature more particularly the Words of Comfort conteyned in this Context from v. 13. I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren c. down to my Text. For therein doth the Apostle by the dictate of the Holy Ghost lay down a model or platforme of Consolatory Arguments as so many soveraign Antidotes against immoderate sorrow for our pretious Relations which are departed And with these words the Apostle would have Christians be able to comfort themselves and one another Comfort one another with these words For the handling of the Text I will do these two things 1. I will shew you what these words are and open the sense and meaning of them as they lye in the order and method of the Context 2. I will improve them for 1. Comfort 2. Counsel For the first of these The words of Comfort laid down by the Apostle in this model 10 Words of Comfort may be reduced unto 10 Heads some of them very comprehensive and all of them like mother of Pearl dissolved exceeding Cordial and Restorative The first word of Comfort is this The first word of Comfort namely That our pretious Relations over whose departure we stand mourning and weeping are but fallen asleep I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep We may say of departed Saints as our Saviour said concerning the Damsel Math. 9.24 They are not dead but sleep the same phrase he also used to his Disciples concerning Lazarus John 11.11 our Friend Lazarus sleepeth A notion which the Disciples at first understood not because their understandings were not yet inlightened they dreamed of a natural sleep saith the Text of taking Rest in sleep And yet as men in their sleep do somtimes dream true so did they in this dream of theirs speak truer than they were aware of they said Lord if he sleeps he shall do well it is true indeed the Saints of God do but sleep when they lye down in the Grave that which we call death in such is not death indeed It is but the Image of Death the shadow and metaphor of death deaths younger Brother a meer sleep and no more The Holy Ghost who best knoweth what things be hath phrased it so and that not so little as twenty times in Scripture to shew that it was not a sudden expression incautelously dropt from the Pen of any one of the Secretaries of Holy Writ but the true proper and genuine notion of death suggested to them by the infallible dictate of the Spirit of God they do but sleep and if they sleep they shall do well their sleep shall be sweet unto them as sweet as once the Prophets was Jer. 31.26 I shall not follow the Analogy that is between Death and Sleep in the latitude of it sufficient to our purpose it will be to take notice of two main properties of Death which do carry in them a lively resemblance of sleep The first is Isâ— Ligath suâ—â—â— That sleep is nothing else but the binding up of the senses for a little time a locking up of the Doores and shutting of the Windows of the body for a season that so nature may take the sweeter Rest and Repose being freed from all disturbance and distractions Sleep is but a meer Paerenthesis to the Labours and Travels of this present life Secondly Sleep is but a partial privation a privation of the Act only not of the Habit of Reason They that sleep in the Night do awake again in the Morning then there is a regress or return of the habit to its Act again The Soul returneth to the discharge of all her Offices again In the internal faculties to the act of Judging and discourse in the Intellect to recalling things for the present and recording things for future use in the memory It returns to its Empire and command in the will to its judicature in the Conscience Excusing Accusing Condemning Et sic in caeteris So likewise the soul returns again to the execution of all her functions in the external senses to seeing in the eye to hearing in the ear to tasting in the pallate as also to working in the hands to walking in the feet and so in the rest In a word the whole man is Redivivus restored again to its self as it were by a new * Providentia est continuata Creatio Creation that which lay as senseless and useless tantum non dead all the night is raised again more vive and fresh and active in the morning than it lay down at night Such a thing as this for all the world is that which we commonly call Death but with this considerable advantage that in the interim of Death the soul acts more vigorously than before as being released from the weights and intanglements of the body First It is but a longer and closer binding up of the senses Nature's long vacation The Grave is a bed wherein the body is laid to Rest with its Curtains drawn close about it that it may not be disturbed in its repose so the Holy Ghost pleaseth to phrase it Isa 57.2 He
of us all Jesus Christ was the Center in whom the sins of all the Elect of God did meet and unite together to make Him as it were the common sinner For God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him and under the insupportable burthen of our sin he swet and wept and bled and groaned and gave up the Ghost Behold Rom. 8.31 So God the Father Loved us that he spared not his own Son but delivered him up to the death for us all and shall we think much to give up the dearest Treasures of our blood in death to Him So much did God the Son love us that He died for love of us he died the first death that we might not die the second death he died for us that we might live with him And shall we count our lives or the lives of our dearest Relations too dear for him especially when no such advantage can accrue to the Lord Jesus by our death as did accrue to us by his death also in as much as neither we nor ours are in any capacity to reap the fruit and advantage of his death until we dye also and the sooner we dye the sooner shall we reap those fruits Behold God's First-borne was laid in the Sepulchre and shall we think God deals hardly with us if we follow our first-born to the Grave and leave them there till our Lord himself come to awaken them Especially since therefore Jesus died and was buried that he might sanctifie death to us by his death and by his being buried might perfume the Grave and make it a sweet Dormitory or bed of spices for his members to rest in until the Morning of the Resurrection Oh Christians Let us comfort our selves and one another with these words also Jesus dyed The fourth word is yet more Cordial A fourth word of Comfort and that is although Jesus dyed yet He rose again He died indeed but he rose again from the dead God suffered his dear Son to be laid in the Sepulchre but he did not leave him there nor suffer any taint of Corruption to seize upon his precious Body And to that end Christ made hast to rise again out of the Grave he rose the third day and that very early in the Morning saith the Text as soon as ever it could be called day The Alarm no sooner went off as it were but the Lord Jesus did lift up his Royal head and put on his Glorious Apparel and came forth out of his Grave as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber in State and Triumph And this was the Cordial which our Lord himself took before his passion Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell Psal 16.10 neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth c. This was his Triumphant Song And it may be ours as well as his yea therefore ours because his whether in reference to our selves or to our gratious Relations For therefore was not Christ left in Hell i. e. in the state of the dead that he might lift up us also out of the pit and therefore his body saw i. e. sustained no corruption or putrefaction no not for the least particle of time that our mortal bodies might not inherit Rottenness and Oblivion in the dust for ever And indeed in this phrase in the Text Jesus arose again there be three things implied which interest every believer in this Triumph of Christs Resurrection c. Jesus rose again implieth three things First Power Secondly Right Thirdly Office First 1st Power 〈◊〉 Jesus Rose again it implieth Christs power Viz. That Jesus Christ rose by his own power It is not said Jesus was raised which might have spoken Him passive onely in his Resurrection but Jesus rose which speaketh Him active namely that he rose as a Conquerour by his own strength as Himself professeth I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again Joh 10.18 What power that was Rom. 1.4 will tell us declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead It is true it is elsewhere said that Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 And likewise that he was quickned by the Spirit Pet. 3.18 To shew that neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost were excluded from a joynt share and concurrence in his Resurrection but here as elsewhere it is said also that Christ rose to shew that he was not merely passive in his Resurrection as the Children of the Resurrection are but that he rose also by the mighty power that was seated in his own Royal person The divine Nature in Christ to which the humane nature was personally united Alteram Christi naturam intelligamus nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbi incarnati potentiâ was that Spirit of Holiness by which the Lord Jesus did rise Triumphantly from the dead In the same language speaks another Apostle he was put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit i.e. by the Divine essence which was in Christ Death and the Grave had swallowed a morsel which they could not keep but as the Whale when it had swallowed Jonas in this the Type of Christ was forced to vomit him up again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being impossible Christ should be holden by death The power of the word incarnate loosed or dissolved the bonds of Death as a thread of Tow is broken when it is touched with the fire Yea Sampson-like herein also another type of his Jesus Christ did break in sunder the bars of the Grave and carried away the Gates of death upon his shoulders making a shew of them openly Thus Jesus rose again as a Conquerour by his own power and this is our Triumph and Rejoycing For surely He that thus raised up himself can raise up us also and will indeed raise us up by the same power Phil 3 21. whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself Secondly Jesus rose again it implieth his Office Second Office he rose as a Jesus a Saviour the Mediator of our peace who having finished the work he came about namely to satisfie divine Justice and to bring in everlasting Rightcousness so making peace by the blood of his Cross God the Father sent a publique Officer from Heaven to open the Prison doores Math. 28.2 an Angel to rool away the stone from the mouth of the Sepulchre thereby proclaiming to all the world that the debt was paid and that God had received full satisfaction for the sins of the Elect saying as it were Deliver him for I have received a Ransom This is another ground of our Triumph that Jesus rose that is he rose as our Jesus our Saviour and so by dying hath
cast forth her dead The dead shall arise by vertue of this dew the warm animating influence of Christs Resurrection Hence it is as I have hinted before that our Lord calls himself the Resurrection and the Life namely to intimate to us that by the same spirit of holiness whereby he raised himself from the dead he will also quicken their mortal bodies This is a second Connexion which inseparably links in the Resurrection of the Saints with the Resurrection of Christ For surely were it not so the Resurrection of Jesus Christ would signifie no more than the Resurrection of Lazarus or any other of the Saints mentioned Math. 27.52 53. Yea the Resurrection of Christ would not be of so great vertue and influence as the dry bones of the Prophet the very touch whereof raised the dead man 2 King 12.21 which was cast into his Grave Thirdly There is between the Resurrection of Christ Third Connexion of Design and the Resurrection of the Saints at the last day a Connexion of Design The Lord Jesus had a design upon the Saints in his rising again from the Dead and what that was he tells us in the last passionate prayer before his passion John 17.24 Father I will that all those whom thou hast given me be with me that where I am they might be also Therefore Christ arose and ascended that he might come again and awake them out of their Graves and take them home to himself into Mansions of Glory So he comforted his Disciples before his departure Joh. 14.3 If I go and prepare a place for you I will come and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also Christ counts not himself full Eph. 1.23 The Head is not compleat without the Members Although I thus sence the words yet I would not be thought to exclude every other meaning as knowing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well quod impletur as quod implet till he hath all his Members with him therefore is the Church called the fullness of him that filleth all things marke it Christ is the fulness of all things and yet the Church is called the fulness of Christ how so Christ is the fulness of the Church as the Head is the fulness of the Members supplying them with Life and Influence and the Church is the fulness of Christ as the Members are the fulness of the Head making of it a compleat and perfect man Christ is the fulness of the Church for internal animation and the Church is the fulness of Christ for external consummation The Church is Christs outward not inward fulness see Jeans on Colos 1.19 page 19. This is then a third inseparable Connexion between Jesus rising again from the Dead and the Saints rising again because without this Christ should loose the very plot and project of his own Resurrection and be defective even in his state of Glory as an Head without his Members This must not be it cannot be And this casts us upon the fourth Connexion Fourth Connexion of Vnion before we are aware of it sc A Connexion of Vnion The Connexion which is between Christ his Resurrection and the Saints Resurrection is that very Connexion which is between him and them namely the Union which is between the Head and Members The wicked rise not by vertue of Christs Resurrection there being no such Vnion between Christ them they are raised by a general power of Christ as a Judge Christ is the Head Eph. 1.22 and the Saints are the Members of his body v. 23. his Mystical body It would not be proper here to discourse largely concerning the nature of this Vnion especially in as much as I shall have occasion to meet with it again in the process of this discourse sufficient to my design it is to shew you how this spiritual Vnion that is between Christ and Believers is one of the * In Nature we see that the Winter Trees which seem to be dead revive again in the Spring because the Body Armes and Graines of the Tree are joyned to the Root where the Sap lies all the Winter and by means of its Conjunction it conveys vegetation to all parts of the Tree Even so our life is hid with Christ in God And in the day of the Resurrection by reason of this mystical Conjunction Divine and quickening Vertue shall stream from Christ to his Elect and cause them to rise again c. Foundations whence the Resurrection of the Saints is necessarily inferr'd upon the Resurrection of Christ himself For if the Head be risen the Members cannot be long behind witness the Word of Christ to his Disciples and in them to all Believers a word more precious than the whole Creation Because I live ye shall live also The Resurrection of the Saints is bound up in the Resurrection of Christ as the effect is bound up in the cause because I live you shall live because Jesus rose again Saints shall rise again Christ is our life and therefore when Christ shall appear we shall appear with him in Glory Can the cause be without the effect can the Head live and the Members remain dead Yea can the Saints life live and they themselves continue in a state of death This is an happy contradiction a blessed impossibility Oh write this comfortable word upon your hearts Christians Christ is our life Christ is your Life and the Life of your Christian Relations and as sure as Christ as risen they shall rise and because he lives those Members of his for whom you weep and bleed as dead shall live also with him Surely if the Devil and all the powers of darkness were not able to keep Christ in the Grave neither shall they be able to hold one of his Members there for ever Hence you shall find the holy Apostle disputing from the Resurrection of Christ to the Resurrection of Christians If Christ rose from the Dead 1 Cor. 15.12 how say some that there is no Resurrection of the Dead and back again from the Resurrection of Christians ver 13. to the Resurrection of Christ if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then Christ is not risen Indeed the form of words is Negative but the sense is Affirmative and for the greater assurance it is repeated over and over in the following verses backward and forward as Convertibles grant one and ye grant the other deny one and ye deny the other And the result is this But now is Christ risen from the Dead ver 20. and become the first Fruits of them that sleep Christ is risen Christ rose as the first fruits in which the whole Harvest is considered and risen as our first Fruits as a pledge and part of the whole Harvest for if the first Fruits be holy the Lump is also holy if the first Fruits be laid up safe in Gods Barns the whole Harvest shall in due time be
indeed Believers to be so far one with Christ Idem velle Idem nolle vera est amicitia and that is a very sweet and precious union to will and nill the same things is an high degree of love and oneness but to say no more of the Union betwixt Christ and his Saints is to say too little Sixthly Neither is this Union barely a Sacramental Vnion whereby Christians in either of the Sacraments or any other Evangelical institution are in an Elemental professional way joyned to Christ and Christ to them Thus all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Simon Magus as well as any of the Believing Samaritans Acts 8.12 13. Judas as well as Peter all I say are made one with Christ in an external professional use of those Gospel-institutions while in the mean time a real Believer in a true living spiritual saving way is made partaker of Christ and of all his benefits in all Gospel-Ordinances Seaventhly In contradistinction to the Union which we have with Christ by vertue of his assuming our humane nature Christ was incarnate in the Womb of the Virgin and thereby was personally united to our flesh which is the highest advancement of the humane nature that can be conceived Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Christ assumed mans nature being God from all Eternity he took on him the one to the other and so made of those two natures one person by this we have a kind of Union with Jesus Christ ver 11. He which Sanctifieth and they which are Sanctified are both of one i.e. of one God say some the Son of God and Saints are all of one God the Father others understand it of Adam Christ as concerning the flesh and all the sanctified are of one common root and Father though by a different generation But of one here is to be referred principally to the nature whereof both the sanctifier and sanctified are partakers i.e. Acts 17.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are of the same blood and kindred of the same mould constitution of the same humane nature This is a near and an honourable Conjunction for by this means Jesus Christ is become our Immanuel God with us bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh but yet this Conjunction is common to all sanctified and unsanctified prophane and holy and verily it will be found an high aggravation of sin in the great day that sinners should dare to profane and prostitute that nature to sinful purposes Heb. 2.11 which the Son of God hath sanctified by so wonderful an assumption of it into one and the same personality with the divine nature Thus the sanctified are one with him that sanctifieth but that 's not all Eighthly It is real in contradistinction to that contemplative Vnion which the Saints have with Christ in their holy Meditations Meditation doth bring the object and the faculty together and makes them one And thus the Saints are often united to Jesus Christ in holy contemplation whereby they let in Christ into their Souls and their Souls into Christ and become as it were One Spirit or one in Spirit with him but neither is this all for even common gifts and parts may produce this Conjunction as well as Grace Art may thus Unite Christ and the understanding as well as Faith One may be thus United to Christ for a time and yet be separated from Christ for ever Again Ninethly It is a real Union in contradistinction to Reconciliatory Vnion Falling out separates between person and person Reconciliation makes them one again Reconciliation is the Attonement of Enemies and thus indeed God and Sinners are Reconciled by Christ by him we have received the Attonement those whom sin made two Rom. 5.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciliation Christ makes one This is a choyce fruit of Christ's death a concomitant of our Union with Christ yet not the very Vnion it self or not the whole of this Union there is between Christ and Believers the Union of Friendship 2 Cor. 5.18 19. But neither is that all Tenthly and lastly This Vnion is real in contradistinction to affectionate Vnion Crederes unam animam in duobus esse divisam Min. Fel. Oct. Love is as an uniting affection it makes the lover and the beloved one as if two persons had but one Soul between them thus Christ loves the Saints Rev. 1.5 and the Saints love Christ again 1 Pet. 1.8 Christ's love to them is the cause their love to Christ is the effect 1 Jo. 4.19 Yet this Union is rather a fruit of that Union we are now speaking of than the Vnion it self as in Marriage the conjugal bond and conjugal love are distinct things Indeed Love doth Unite Christ and the Saints but Love is rather the fruit of this Union than the Union it self there is somewhat more real in this Union than the Love it self None of all these reach the nature of this Union The Scripture describes it to be a real and a solid Union as real as that beween Head and Members Root and Branches for although it be a Spiritual Union yet doth it not therefore cease to be real things are not therefore less real because Spiritual yea therefore more God who is the most absolute and real Being a Being which gives Being to every thing which hath a being is most spiritual John 4.24 God is a Spirit and the nearer any being or excellency approximates unto God the more real it is the more it self as we see in Angels and the Souls of men Our Saviour his giving of us his Flesh to eat is not as the Papists believe or rather as they would make us believe they do believe literal and carnal the truth it self bearing witness John 6.63 The Flesh profiteth nothing q. d. If you could literally tear my Flesh with your teeth and pour my Blood down your throats this would not profit you at all in point of Salvation What then will Why the words which I speak are Spirit and Life i. e. they are to be understood in a Sacramental and spiritual sense c. And yet although Christs Body be not food in a fleshly but in a spiritual sense Jo. ◠55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly or Verily it is not therefore less real no my flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed it is neither painted nor Enchanted meat but real and substantial yet not corporal but spiritual yea it is so real that in comparison of that all other corporal food is but imaginary and metaphorical it is but like bread it is but like wine painted bread Quasi food and painted wine not so indeed and in truth compared with Christ in the holy Supper Such is this Union although yea because it is not a corporal but a spiritual Union therefore it is so true and real that in comparison of it all Unions and
more By vertue of this Union with Christ the Believer is likewise united to the whole divine nature and essence in the Deity though not essentially and he is likewise united to each person in the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as to the Son John 17.21 Behold that thus it is done to the man whom God will honour Thanks be to God for this unspeakable Grace This is the sixth Property The Seaventh and last Property This Union is an indissoluble Vnion Seventh property Indissoluble This Union between Christ and the Believer is not capable of any separation They are so one that all the violence of the world or all the powers of darkness can never be able to make them two again Hence the Apostle's Triumph Challenge Rom. 8.35 who shall separate us from the love of Christ If the question did not imply a strong negation ver 38 39. the Apostle himself doth give us a negation in words at length neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us c. A long Catalogue consisting of a large induction of various particulars but in all these 't is observable he only instanceth in the creature nor any other creature he leaveth out God and why because God himself is the Author of this Union 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus It is of God and that Upon a three-fold Account 1. It is of God's Preordination This Union of Christ and his Saints was the design of God's everlasting Electing Love Ephes 14. He hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World As the Vnion so the very purpose of it was founded in * Tanquam in capite though not tanquam in causâ not as the cause of Election but as the cause of the good of Election for it is not said for him but in him Vid. Twiss vindic grattae lib. 1. part 2. Digres Prim. Secund. Tert. Christ He hath chosen us in him 2. It is of God the Fathers efficiency the Father tyeth this Marriage knot between his Son and his Spouse for we are his Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus c. The new Creation it is God's work and it is founded on Christ or in Christ created in Christ Jesus c. 3. It is of Gods support As in the first Creation when God had finished the world he took not his hand off but upholds it still by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 So in this second and new Creation when he hath wrought it he takes not off his hand if he should it would quickly collapse into its first nothing How comes it then to pass it doth not why saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.5 you are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation Faith keeps the Believer in this Union but the power of God keeps Faith Why now if after all this God should at any time suspend the influence of this power or by any malice or fraud of men or Devils suffer this Union to miscarry he should fail and cross his own project he should desert his own design this cannot be Here is the Foundation then upon which the Apostle erecteth this Triumph God who only can dissolve this Union will not the Creature which only would dissolve this Union cannot so it stands on a surer bottom then Heaven and Earth our life is hid with Christ in God The Believer is in Christ as Christ is in God hence the unseparableness of this Union John 10.28 29. There is no more pulling the Believer out of the bosome of Christ then there is of Christ out of the bosome of his Father And therefore once more upon this account it is that our Lord compareth this blessed Vnion to that substantial Vnion between the Father and the Son that they may be one as we are one namely to express as the reality and inwardness so also the indeficiency of this spiritual Vnion as thou Father art in me and I in thee As i.e. as fixedly as inseparably as immutably This is the transcendent excellency of this Union above all others it is Eternal Indeed it had a beginning but it shall never have an end All other Unions may suffer a dissolution a Whirl-wind may throw the house off from its foundation Job 1.18 19. as we see in the case of Job's Children a Bill of Divorce may dissolve the Union betwixt Man and Wife in case of the violation of the Marriage Bed Math. 5.31 32. An Axe may dissolve the Union between the Head and Members Death dissolves the Union between the Soul and body c. I but nothing can dissolve the Union between Christ and the Believers nothing shall be able to separate us c. My Text gives us a further instance of this the Saints sleep in Jesus The Union ceaseth not no not in the Grave The Saints sleep in Jesus Observe the progress of it it began in their Regeneration then they received their first Implantation into Christ Rom. 6.3 4 5. whence the Apostle makes Regeneration and being in Christ synonimous Rom. 6.3 4. Next they are said to live in Christ and Christ in them Gal. 2.20 Then to shew there is no in and out * In to day and out to morrow in this Union as some fondly dream we read of their abiding in Christ not only by way of precept which might possibly imply duty only as John 15.4 5. but by way of promise also as 1 John 2.27 Ye shall abide in me which certainly doth express assurance and establishment for ever Rom. 4.16 Therefore they are said in the next place to dye in Christ Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord so verse 16. after the Text makes mention of the dead in Christ so that that which dissolves all other Unions dissolves not this death it self when the Union between body and Soul is dissolved the Union between Christ and Believers dissolveth not Yea see one strain higher yet not only in death but even after death The Soul sleeps not Heb. 12.23 this Vnion holds the Saints are said to sleep in Jesus that part of the Saints which is capable of sleep is not capable of separation from Christ while their more noble part is united to Christ in Heaven amongst the Spirits of just men made perfect Christ is United to their Inferiours and more ignoble part in the Grave their very dust they sleep in Jesus Thus I have opened unto you the blessed and admirable Union which is between Christ and his Saints and it 's most excellent and transcendent properties scil as it is 1. Spiritual 2. Real 3. Operative 4. Enriching 5. Intimous 6. Total 7. Indissoluble Opened did I say Alas it is impossible This Union is a mystery a great mystery Ephes 5.32 next to that Union betwixt the
thoughts of death O ye Saints of God! and why do you indeed what the Jews supposed Mary did John 11.31 go so oft to the Sepulcher to weep there behold your beloved Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth yea that which is of an infinitely higher consideration he sleeps in Jesus Did he live in Christ behold he died in Christ also Did he dye in Christ behold he sleeps in Christ Christ is nearly related to the Saints dust their ashes are not laid up in the Grave so much as in Christ yea though after death they should pass through never so many changes and revolutions and should be scattered at length into all quarters and corners of the world Dormire in Christo est conjunctionem retinere in morte quam habemus cum Christo Calv. in loc he that calls the Stars by their own names knows every dust of their precious bodies keeps them in his hand and is as really united to them as to his own humane nature in Heaven This may be as Jonathan's honey upon the top of the rod taste of it oh ye mourners of hope and your eyes will be enlightned look not on your pretious Relations so much as they lye rotting in the Grave or resolved into dust as upon their dust as it is laid up in a sacred Vrn in the hand and bosome as it were of Jesus Christ for which he himself will be responsible and bring it forth safely and entirely in the morning of the Resurrection there shall not be so much as a dust wanting for so it followeth Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which is a wider breach The sixth Word of Comfort Sixth word of Comfort God will bring his Sleeping Saints with him God will come and when he cometh He will bring them with him which sleep in Jesus God will or God shall c. Some understand it of God the Father others of God the Son I know not why they should be separated they that say God the Father include God the Son i. e. God the Father shall bring them with him in Christ of by Christ referring he shall bring unto the former clause in Jesus The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Erasmus and Tertul. Or by Jesus so reading it God shall bring them by Jesus And they who understand here God the Son exclude not God the Father And verily the order of working which is between the three glorious Persons in Trinity will not allow us to seclude either in this place For as all the external works of the Trinity are common Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa and undivided so Divines observe this method or order in their working The Father worketh all things of himself in the Son by the Holy Ghost The Son worketh from the Father by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost worketh from the Father and from the Son by himself The Original of the action is ascribed to the Father The Wisdom and manner of working to the Son The Efficacy of the operation to the Holy Ghost All external operation begins in the Father is continued in the Son and terminated in the Holy Ghost This is a mystery rather to be adored Psal 139.6 than curiously to be pried into such knowledg is too wonderful for us it is high we cannot attain unto it But as to the words of the Text God will bring them with him I conceive they relate more properly and peculiarly to the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Lord. For so it follows The Lord himself shall descend c. And when he cometh he will bring them with him that sleep in him The propriety of the work is ascribed to Jesus Christ God-man the Mediator between God and man he shall bring them with him when he descendeth from Heaven And that in a four-fold respect 1. Their Spirit or Souls from Heaven 2. Their Bodies from the Grave 3. Body and Soul united he shall take up to himself into the Clouds 4. And then carry all his Saints back with him into Heaven First when the Lord shall descend he will bring the spirits of just men made perfect with him from Heaven The Souls of all his glorified Saints whose bodies to this moment have slept in the Grave shall follow Christ out of the gates of the New Jerusalem to attend that glorious solemnity so it is prophesied Behold Jude v. 14. the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints When Christ cometh to judg the world there shall not be a Saint left in Heaven saith Chrysostom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven shall as it were be left empty to attend the King of Glory going forth out of his Royal Palace to finish the work of the great and last Judgment of the world he shall come attended with all his Saints they shall fill up his Train Secondly As Christ will bring their Souls with him from Heaven so he will bring their bodies from the Grave It is noted how that in the Transfiguration the body of Moses which was hid in the Valley of Moab appeared in the Mount of Tabor which assures us that the bodies of the Saints where-ever they be lodged are not lost but laid up to be raised to glory the same numerical body that was laid down in dust Christ at his coming to Judgment will first go to the Graves of the Saints and cry to them aloud in some such language as once he did to their Souls in the days of their unregeneracy when dead in sins and trespasses in the Gospel-call Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee Life Or as somtimes in the days of his flesh he did to Lazarus John 11.41 when he had lien four days rotting in the Grave Veniet aliquando Christus cum potestate et majestate carnem illam quaerere illud corpus cadaverosum configurare corpors claritatis suae Bern. a lively Emblem and Type of the general Resurrection Lazarus come forth and they that are dead shall come forth It was the tenour of his own prediction while yet in the world The hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man and shall come forth c. I shall not stay here to inquire into the nature and properties of the Saints bodies when Christ shall raise them up out of their Graves that inquiry will be more proper and seasonable in some of the following clauses of this context Concerning the manner of it for the help of our Infant-understandings briefly The manner of the Resurrection we may conceive it after this method First The holy Angels of God shall be sent abroad to gather together the scattered dust of the Saints though separated one from the other at never so great a distance into all the quarters and extremities of the earth Math. 24.31 and
the Saints in the Resurrection that they shall be glorious even to admiration They shall be admired by the very Angels by one another and even by themselves also they shall wonder to behold this strange Change wrought upon themselves as a poor Captive-maid taken out of the Dungeon stript of her nasty stinking raggs and cloathed with Prince-like Robes adorned with rich and costly Jewels to be Married to a King would stand fill'd with wonder and delight to look round about upon her self and behold the beauty and lustre of every part So shall it be with the Saints in the Resurrection The reflexes of Christs glory shall shine forth in them even to wonder and astonishment Christ shall be glorified in his Saints and in all them which believe Christ shall not be glorious in Himself only but glorified in all his Saints Thirdly It is sowen in weakness weakness indeed What more impotent than Man while yet alive Vanity it self Psal 39.5 Yea hear that Text out and you will say he is vanity indeed for first it is every man Kings as well as Beggars Câ—l Adam Giants as well as Pygmies every man take where ye will And secondly as it is every man so it is Every vanity or * Col-Hebel Vniversa Vanitas altogether vanity Every man is the Center of every vanity he is not only mixt vanity partly somthing and partly nothing some solidity and some froth but vanity throughout vanity and nothing else And then again it is every man in his * Nitztzab best Estate or according to the Heb. * Nitztzab Standing Yee need not stay till he is down when he is languishing suppose in his sick bed but take him standing in his most erect posture when he is most himself in his bravery Heb. Chasde or as it is Isa 40.6 take him in his goodliness Gallantry in his freshest colours and excellencies and yet then even then he is vanity every man is every vanity Ach. Vtique and that you may not doubt of it the Holy Ghost hath set a double seal to it one in the front Verily and another in the heel of the Text Selah Verily every man in his best Estate is altogether Vanity Selah such a piece of vanity that he is not able at his best to free himself of or fence himself against the injuries of the most contemptible creature that ever God made Frogs and Flies Lice and Worms have courage enough to encounter and strength enough to conquer the proudest potentest Tyrant as we see in Pharaoh Herod c. Thus weak he is in his Strength what is he in his Weakness So feeble he is when he stands how feeble when he is fallen in sickness in his old decrepit age his second Infancy Read and ponder on that graphical description which the Holy Ghost hath drawn of him Eccles 12. Eccles 12. We will pick out but some of those lively Characters ver 3. The Keepers of the House tremble the Arms and Hands the principal instruments in repelling evil from the body they tremble with Palsies and shakings The Strong men bow themselves the leggs and thighs which were wont to carry the body upright with strength and vigour now faulter and shrink under their weight and buckle together for very debility the ligaments of nature being now untied The Grinders cease because they are few the Teeth that were wont to grinde the Food and prepare it for the Stomach they cease from their function because but few and having lost their keâ—nness Those that look out at the Windows are darkned the eyes those Spies and Intelligencers of this little world by reason of the driness and ineptitude of the Organs defluxion of humours c. do fail in the execution of their office The Doors are shut in the street All the Senses which are the Doors by which objects enter are so weakned that they are unusefull and of very little service They rise up at the voyce of the Bird Old men through difficulty and want of sleep rise at the crowing of the Cock or the chirping of a Sparrow the least noise disturbs their sleep See the more full and accurate exposition of this description of Old Age in the English Annot. upon Eccles by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Reynolds verse 5. They are afraid of that which is high they go slowly and timorously lest they should stumble at every stone or the least unevenness in the way The Grasshopper shall be a burden the lightest hop of the least creature is burthensome to Old Age. Desire fails all the sensual appetitions of Youth are now undesired and unsavory Behold here is weakness to perfection And yet all-this-while there is Life the Soul yet imbalms the body and keeps it from putrifying But Man returns to his long Home This same dry Seed is sown and it is sowen in weakness indeed not only meat for Worms but it turns into Worms and Vermin and hasteneth into its first feeble principle of dust to which it was sentenced by Divine Justice Dust thou art Gen. 3.19 and to dust thou shalt return But now behold this feeble thing shall be raised in power 3. Property Powerful The body even of the weakest Infant shall be invested with an Angelical power A Monument whereof the formidable Host of Sennacherib King of Assyria hath erected for all posterity wherein 2 King 19.35 one Angel went out and smote one hundred fourscore and five thousand who over-night like so many Goliahs defied the Armies of the Living God but in the morning lay upon the ground so many blasted life-less Corpses and all by the Ministry of one Angel Such Vessels of strength and Activity shall the bodies of the Saints be in the Resurrection they shall be indued with such power saith one that they shall be able to remove the Globe of the Earth with their foot as if it were but a foot ball they shall be cloathed with a kind of Omnipotence Gideon Sampson Jephtah David and all his famous Worthies are but as suoking Babes to the Children of the Resurrection He that is weak among them shall be as David and he that is as David shall be as the Angel of God Again It is sowen a natural body according to the Greek word for word an * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abnimal body i. e. such a body as is animated susteined and acted by the Soul The holy natural 1. Because acted by a natural Soul yet in so low a way that it is subject to Corruption and is no sooner deserted by the Soul but it resolves into dust ut supr à or Natural i. e. such a body as stands in need of natural helps of meat drink rest sleep 2. Because it stands in need of natural props 3. Because endued only with natural affections c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fourth Property Spiritual to shore up the feeble Tabernacle of dust for
bodies shall be transfigured into the likeness of his own Glorious body How according or suitably to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself God can do what he will and that 's enough And thus I have opened the first Consequence of Christ his Last Coming sc The Resurrection of the Saints as formerly in respect of the 1. Author The Lord Jesus 2. The Precedency of it they that are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep they shall rise first So also now 3. In respect of the manner of it the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with four glorious qualities 1. Incorruptible 2. Glorious 3. Powerful 4. Spiritual By all which it shall be conformed to the Glorious Body of our Lord Jesus It may be of Use 1. For Counsel 2. For Comfort and but a word of either First It may serve by way of Counsel 1. Use Of Counsel and that unto all indefinitly You that would secure unto your selves an interest in the glory which shall be put upon the Saints bodies in the Resurrection labour to experience this beatifical transfiguration first in your Souls on this side of the Grave Labour to get your vile spirits to be made like to his glorious Spirit Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ put Him on by an holy and universal Imitation Labour to be meek as He was meek Holy as He was Holy Pure as He was Pure Merciful as He was Merciful Heavenly as He was Heavenly And Joh. 4.34 Let it be your meat and drink to do the will of him that sent you and to finish his work * A. Christ was the brightness of his Father's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insculpta forma the express Image of his Person So do ye study in your finite capacity to be the brightness of Christ his glory the express Image of his Person Oh labour to get his Image and similitude to be deeply engraven upon your hearts and to scatter the beams of it in your Conversations Philip. 2.15 for the enlightning of a dark world Behold this shall be the evidence and first-fruits of your future conformity to Him in the Resurrection of the just The ground and Reason is because that blessed Transfiguration which shall conform the Saints to Christ their Head and Husband in the Resurrection and from thenceforth to all Eternity hath its beginning here in Regeneration Ephes 4.23 24. or the New Birth wherein they are renewed in the Spirit of their minds Bâ—ta referts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit upon twelve â—nâ—â—nes and do put on habitually the New man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true holiness Jesus Christ is formed in their hearts And upon this very account is the Resurrection styled also the Regeneration Math. 19.28 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit i. e. in the Resurrection ye also shall sit c. And it is therefore called the Regeneration because the Resurrection shall perfect in the Saints what the Regeneration begun sc Conformity to Christ their Head and Husband in Holiness Yea at the Resurrection the Image of Jesus Christ shall be compleated as on their Souls so on their bodies also because that Image was begun upon their Souls on this side the Grave in their New Birth accordingly as they were predestinated to both in the purpose of God Rom 8.29 from all Eternity The Resurrection to Grace here and to Glory hereafter is but one and the same Regeneration Whosoever therefore is a Stranger to this Transformation of Spirit in the Resurrection to Grace shall never partake of that Transfiguration of body in the Resurrection to Glory The bodies of the wicked shall be raked out of their Graves with all their defects and excesses all their mis-shapes and deformities which they carried with them to their Graves in their perfect ugliness which were the shame and curse of the fallen nature an abhorrency to God and Angels c. Yea to the very Devils themselves whom they shall have to be both their Companions and Executioners The Saints of God were the world 's derided persecuted Non-Conformists here but themselves shall be Christs and his Saints Non-Conformists hereafter when their Carcasses shall be cast out for a spectacle of shame and abhorrency unto all flesh for ever Isa 66. ult Christians as you love your Souls and would bear the Image of the Son of God in his Kingdom and glory Study this Soul-Conformity now and make it your business Labour to feel this blessed change wrought in your hearts and let the world behold it in your lives without which all your Confidences concerning that day will prove but so many delusions Rom. 5.5 to aggravate your shame and everlasting dispair Hear oh hear how the Disciple of Love doth argue When He shall appear we shall be like Him Glorious But why 1 Joh. 3.2 cum c. 4.17 Because As He is so are we in this world He disputes from Conformity to Christ in the Gospel-state to Conformity to Him at this Appearance We shall c. because we are c. By such Argumentations Christians Philip. 2.12 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 1 Joh. 4.17 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling that ye may have boldness in the day of Judgment c. Secondly It may serve by way of Comfort Second Use Consolation and for that end it is written by the Comforter Himself in this model for Comfort I say in reference to our sweet Relations that sleep in Jesus over whom not seldom we spend our fruitless Tears take we heed lest sinful also while we compare their once lively sweet amiable Countenances which sparkled so much beauty and delight in our eyes with their pale ghastly Visages in the Grave where they say to Corruption Job 17.14 thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister We look upon them I say not without a kind of trembling and horrour as if their Ghosts appeared to us out of their Graves or that we our selves were buried with them alive in the same Coffin Ah Sirs why stand ye not with the men of Galilee Act. 1.11 gazing up into Heaven but with Peter stooping down and looking into the Sepulcher Behold I bring you glad tydings of great joy The day is coming when that Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and that Mortal shall put on Immortality when that poor dust over which thou now mournest that vile body shall put on its Angelical Robes and shall more surpass it self in its freshest and liveliest colours while yet in the land of the living than that beautiful pile of flesh and blood did exceed it self when it was resolved into rottenness and dust Look not then oh ye Children of God upon your Selves or your Relations as they lye in the Grave but contemplate them as
precious Souls of Men which they being damn'd themselves ceased not to draw into the same Condemnation The Angels which kept not their first Estate or principality Jude 6. but left their own habitation he hath reserved in chams under darkness unto the judgment of the great Day With these chains ratling at their heels shall they be drag'd to the bar of divine Judgment and there having received their dreadful Sentence they shall be hanged up in those * There be two Chains viz. God's Wâ—ath and their own Guth chains in the mid'st of unquenchable flames to all Eternity but first they shall have a just and a fair Tryal And as the Reprobate Angels so the Reprobate world of ungodly men and women shall be judged for all the wickedness done in the body For the sin of their Natures Eph. 2.3 for they were by Nature Children of Wrath And for their actual sins for as they were Children of Wrath so also they were Children of disobedience they shall be judged for their Atheism whether secret by which as Fools Psal 14.1 they have said in their hearts only There is no God or open whereby as proud Blasphemers they have set their mouth against the Heavens Psal 73 9. saying How doth God know and Is there knowledg in the most High who through the pride of their Countenance Psal 10 4 13. would not seek after God yea contemning God said concerning all this wickedness and that to God's Face Tush thou wilt not require it But that Judgment shall fully convince the Atheist and he that would not believe a God shall know him by the judgments which he executeth Then shall the Idolater whether Ethnick or Romish or of what other impression soever the Blasphemer of God's Name whether by prodigious Oaths or by lighter taking his Name in vain the Prophaner of the Sabbath which violateth that holy day of God by work or sport either by sinning or idling out that holy time either by writing against the Sabbath or by living down the Sabbath the disobedient to Fathers or Mothers Natural or Political the Murderer the Adulterer the Thief the false Accuser the Covetous whom God hateth all these I say in what degree of wickedness soever even to every idle word Rom. 2.16 Math. 12.36 and every vile yea vain thought which with David Psal 119.113 they have not hated shall be judged I say out of those books The Gospel-Sinner shall then be brought to the Bar to answer for his unbelief impenitency his rejecting of Christ's Yoke his despising the tenders and offers of free grace his ignorance of and disobedience to 2 Thes 1.8 the Gospel shall then be judged the Lord Jesus is now revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take Vengeance of them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ All the Persecutions whether by the mouth of the Sword Imprisonment Banishment Martyrdom c. or by the sword of the mouth revilings scandals false accusations cruel mockings of proud Sinners now they shall be all charged upon the world of ungodly men whether out of the Church Jude 15. or in the Church Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly men have spoken against Him whether his Person or Members every sin with all the Circumstances and Aggravations yea Omissions shall then be reckoned to them that thought themselves safe because they were not gross and scandalous Sinners Math. 25.42 43. men shall be judged for their nots yea for defects and coming short in the manner of duties as well as the matter Mal. Rom. 2.12 1.14 Formality and Perfunctoriness and Hypocrisie shall then come into open view In a word all the world of ungodly men that have sinned and not repented of their Sin shall be judged at Christs Tribunal and every man according to the Light and Law under which he hath lived As many as have Sinned without Law shall Perish without Law Heathens shall be judged by the light of Nature and as many as have Sinned * Bez. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum lege Verse 16. in the Law shall be judged by the Law And they that have Sinned under the Gospel shall be judged by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Yea they that sin against the Gospel shall be judged by the light of Nature by the Law of Moses and by the Gospel too as having not only sinned against Moses's Ink but against Christ his Blood And all these Tryals will be severe but especially the Tryal in the Gospel Court So that whereas Sinners flatter themselves with thoughts That Tryal by the Gospel will be the easiest Tryal as if the Gospel were all Mercy the Tryal of the Gospel will be found to be the most severe and above all others intolerable It was indeed a Gospel of Mercy and a Gospel of Peace in the tenders and invitations and expostulations and woings and beseechings that were used the Tears of the Ministers and the blood of a Crucified Redeemer while once the long suffering of God waited in the day of Grace but all these are now past and gone having been rejected despised and laughed to scorn by wretched proud Sinners who with the bloody Jews preferred a Barabbas before a Jesus a base Lust before a precious Saviour now is the time of Recompence come the day of Vengance from the presence of the Lord is come and the Sinner shall know it The terrour of which day will further appear in these following Particulars First There will be no denying of any matter In the day of Judgment there will be 1. No denying of sin small or great that shall be charged upon those guilty Malefactors By the mouth of those two Witnesses the book of Gods Remembrance and the book of Conscience shall every branch of the Indictment be established the one of these books was kept before the Face of the Lord continually so that the great Accuser himself nor any of his malignant Agents could get in thither to alter or add to any thing upon Record in that sacred Register unless per-adventure he could find a time when God was a-sleep And the other book the book of Conscience was in the Sinners own keeping and who could break in there to interline it Indeed the Sinner writ down many sins there with the juice of a Lemon but the Fire of the day of Judgment will make it legible he writ them with the point of an Onion but God writ them with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond deep and durable Characters that should never be raced out of the Conscience of a Sinner Now these two Books will agree so exactly like two Tallies one with another that it will be
Vision the glorified Saints They shall see the glorified Saints in their souls as well as in their bodies all the elect of God that ever were in the world * In their souls as well 〈◊〉 in their bodies from Adam until the second coming of Jesus Christ and it will be a glorious sight to see the King and all his Peers and Nobles in their Parliament Robes with Crowns and Embellishments of honour fitting in their state and order is a â—ight which every one covets and crowds to see What will it be to see the King of Saints with all the Redeemed ones of God in their Robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb and Crowns of gold upon their heads and palms of victory and triumph in their hands a Parliament all of Kings and Priests every one of them shining forth as the Sun Mat. 13.63 in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father The Sun when it breaks forth out of a cloud and displayes its refulgent beams in full lustre and brightness what a glorious Creature is it and with what a beauty doth it guild and adorn the world Oh my soul what a sight will that be when I shall see an Heaven full of Suns scattering their rayes of glory through all those celestial Regions There is another Scripture which makes the glory of this Vision yet more splendid and radiant every one of the glorified bodies of the Saints shall be made conform to Christs own glorious body Phil. 3.21 the glory of the Father shines forth in the Son and the glory of the Son shall shine forth in the Saints He in his Fathers glory is even in his humane nature and they in his Surely the Luminaries of the first magnitude in the visible heavens the Sun and Moon will be turned into darkness before the glory of this Vision they shall shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their Father that will be a glorious Vision indeed Not to speak any thing of the several degrees and orbs of Saints orbs of several degrees of Grace and orbs of several degrees of offices and services in the Church Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors c. of which the Apostle gives us not an obscure hint 1 Cor. 15.41 As one star differeth from another in glory so also is the resurrection of the dead q. d. as the Luminaries of these visible heavens are of a different magnitude and brightness each above the other in their orbs and sphears so also is the Kingdom of glory there be different forms of Saints one excelling another in brightness and glory I say to pass by this in silence which yet certainly hath somewhat in it for the heightning of the beauty of this vision as we see in the Luminaries of this inferiour world their different orbs and magnitudes contribute not a little to the beauty and ornament of these visible heavens We may add this before we go off viz. That the communion and converse with the Saints in heaven will be as sweet to the tast as the vision of them will be glittering to the eye there will be heaven in both Behold their fellowship and converse here was so sweet that David could say All my delight is in the Saints that are in the earth Psalm 16.3 and in the excellent ones David could take no pleasure in the company of any in the world but only in Gods holy Ones who were beautified with his Image Oh what will their communion and fellowship think you be in heaven when they shall be totally divested of all their sinful corruptions their ignorance their pride their passion their peevishniss their tenaciousness their impurity their envy their impatience their câ—nsoriousness their unseriousness their infincerity and their unsavouriness whereby they are apt to offend and hurt one another Yea when they shall have put off their natural infirmities as well as their sinful their impertinencies their mistakes their weaknesses their indispositions their hunger and thirst their drowsiness their vanity their mutability whereby they are not more unlike to other men than to themselves sometimes their diversions and reservedness c. whereby they are less able to do one another good What will their converse be when they shall put off all their defects and all their imperfections When there shall be no dissent amongst them much less dissention but when they shall all speak the same thing and there shall be no division but they shall be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment which the Apostle commends so passionately even to the Saints on this side Heaven 1 Cor. 1.10 When there shall be such a perfect harmony amongst the Saints as if there were but one soul to act that whole Assembly of the first-born When there will be nothing in them to converse with but pure grace grace without mixture grace and nothing else but grace Yea not pure grace only but perfect grace when every grace shall be in its perfect state and have its perfect works when every grace shall act to the highest degree yea when there will be â—o use of those inferiour graces which are but for the way as patience repentance simpathy pity fear hope yea none of the highest of all the graces hath faith it self now abideth faith hope now is in this imperfect state faith it self belongeth unto the imperfect state but when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away when sight is come then faith shall cease and the Saints shall converse one with another only in their superiour graces their marriage-graces their glorious graces that are proper to their adult state love joy delight in God mutual complacency zeal obedience praising God thankfulness when they shall love God as much as they would love him yea as much as God would be beloved and obey God as much as God would be obeyed and praise God as much as God would be praised c. Oh when the Saints are cast into such an heavenly mold yea and we our selves are capable of such pure converse for here in this imperfect state the Saints of God are not alwayes in the same frame one with another or with themselves whâ—n one Saint is up the other is down like an Instrument out of tune jarring and disharmonious when one is alive the other dead when this is hot the other is cold when one is ready to give the other is not fit to receive the communications of grace But oh when now I say all the Instruments of Glory are alike strung and equally tuned in their several capacities what sweet ravishing harmony what heavenly musick will they make Oh might we but see such a Saint on earth as one of these are how would every one be ready to kiss his lips yea to kiss his very feet and hardly forbear even to worship him Acts 10.25 Rev. 22.9 as Cornelius would have worshipped Peter or as John
souls vision of God since the soul dependeth not now upon any corporeal organ of the body inward or outward sence and i. e. the body shall be refined by the power of Christ in the resurrection to such a spiritual alloy that it is it self even of an Angelical nature Fifthly The Saints shall know God up to the height of that Principle which God imprest upon the Soul in the Creation For God intending to make a Creature perfectly happy implanted in its nature * Concupivit anima mea Psal 48.2 This Candle of the Lord doth aspire that without sin to be a Sun it being the just and modest desire of the end which God himself created it not that it would be the Sun butunited to the Sun and now that innoâ—ent ambition shall be satisfied Sixth Step. 1 Cor. 13. a disposition covetous and capable of knowing God wherein only the summum bonum of the soul consists now if God should not satisfie this holy concupiscence in the soul and fill its capacity to the utmost he should fail not the desire of the Creature only but his own project the soul will not be contented with such an imperfect knowledge of God as it hath here Sixthly They shall know him properly Junius tells us it is the Judgment of all Protestants and Willet upon Exodus expounds that notion by apprehensively though not comprehensively that is we shall understand clearly certainly and fully what God is Clearly in opposition to dark created mediums we shall see God by his own light Psal 36.9 Certainly in opposition to ghess opinion and imperfect knowledge And fully not objective in reference to God but subjective in reference to our selves the faculty shall be full of God as it can hold †nor all alike but according to the capacity of every vessels heat degrees of happiness do spring from that lumen gloriae being variously shed among these blessed Souls as a vessel in the Sea that is full of the Sea though it contains not all the Sea in it Seventhly The Saints shall know God fruitionally Seventh Step. that is they shall know him so as to possess God and to be possessed of God The soul doth as it were enter into God and God into the soul the joy of the Lord enters into the soul here there the soul enters into the Lords joy Eightly It shall be a transforming knowledge Eighth Step. we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is But these two latter my method propounded leads me to speak too distinctly by themselves Of these therefore in their own place In a word The Saints shall know God to perfection though not to infinitude they shall see him so as to repose themselves in him with full complacency and delight so that they shall say they have enough In this life some of the Saints at sometimes have had such manifestations of God as have made them weep as bitterly as ever any under desertion crying out Lord withdraw thy glory else the vessel will split and I shall dishonour God And it may justly be our wonder how it should be otherwise to the Saints in the other world a wonder that a created finite faculty should be able to bear the weight of glory which filleth the infinite Object and not be destroyed by the immensity of it especially since we read of the very Angels themselves Omne vehemons sensibilo destruit sensum who in a vision of somewhat an inferiour nature to that facial vision in glory for the exceeding brightness of it are said to veil their faces and their feet their faces as having their eyes dazeld with the exceeding brightness of his glorious appearance and their feet as abashed in the apprehension of their own meanness and imperfection in comparison of Gods incomparable and incomprehensible perfections But as to this difficulty First Our most learned English Annotator upon that place tells us that those expressions signifie rather the intenseness of the Angels reverence and fear in their approaches to the Supreme Majesty than their incapacity to take in what of his glory he is pleased to manifest The Angels being said alwayes to behold the face of God Matth. 18.10 For saith he this is certain that the nearer the Creature makes his approaches to God and in the more glorious manner he is pleased to manifest himself the more apprehensive the Creature is of its own meanness baseness vileness and nothingness in regard of Gods infinite greatness Secondly We are taught from the Scriptures that Divine manifestations in Heaven though they beget greatest veneration yet they cause pleasure not pain and do rather nourish and perfect the faculty than any wayes hurt or oppress it the vessel shall be made capacious enough to hold any liquor which the thice blessed Trinity shall see meet to put into it To this end we may take notice from Scripture it self that the glorified understanding shall be adorned with a six-fold perfection scil 1. Spirituality 2. Clarity 3. Capacity 4. Sanctity 5. Strength 6. Fixedness The first perfection of the understanding shall be spirituality 3. Perfection Spirituality it shall be spiritualized spiritual it is now as spiritual is opposed to corporeal though not as spiritual is opposed to natural The Soul is now forced to be a Caterer for a body of flesh to provide things that are necessary for the sustentation of the animal life it busieth it self to satisfie the appetites of hunger and thirst c. if it can redeem a few hours for actions more proper and peculiar to it it is so clogged so pressed down with the bodies infirmities as that it soon drops down to the earth and is drawn aside to attend the impertinencies of this present life But when it shall be joyned to an animate a spiritual body and it self in its glorified capacity then it shall be wholly taken up with objects spiritual and heavenly and made as it were connatural to them elevated by the light of glory to the vision of God This lumen gloriae is not so much for the discovery of the object as for the help and advancing of a created faculty which would else be much opprest with the weight of glory it is not so much the raising and screwing of nature higher but it is the adding of a new disposition that may close with the divine object so that though there be still an infinite disproportion between God and the Creature in esse naturali yet there is a just proportion in esse intelligibili Secondly 2. Perfection Clarity By vertue of this supernatural influx of the divine object the faculty shall be brightned and cleared There is now upon this mirror of the understanding many labes and stains whereby the vessel is defiled the breath of the world and the steam of corruptions from within do so fully this christal glass that it cannot receive into it the beams of light which shine upon it