City where shall be no night nor darkenesse saith the Prophet Againe I have beene more large in this to confirme that truth which some most idly as not loving nor desirous to excell in those vertues which must be as measures of distinct degrees of Reve. 21. 17. glory for one and the same is the measure of men and Angells I say as some most idly would call in question to weet that there shall be a true variety and diversitie of glories and glorious Mansions 1 Cor. 15. in that triumphant City Some cleare like Chrystall some bright like Saphire some glittering like Iasper others fresh and greene like Emerald c. Mens Soules shall there differ in glory and their bodyes in Clarity even as the starres in the firmament do differ in Clarity each from other This though it be a most evident truth yet the wanton wills of many who have placed al sanctity in conceit apprehension perswasion I might say presumption will not admit of the same charme the Charmer never so wisely But let the pious read seriously the 20. of this prophesie Reve. 20. 12. and he shall finde that the very Iudgements of God touching great and small great and smal shal be according to what is written in the bookes And that the levell measure and square is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their workes that is faith love patience zeale truth c. So just is God that he is to all those that seeke after him in a holy feare a faithfull rerewarder Heb. 11. 6. giving to every man according as he may have done Againe thirdly I have beene herein the more large to shew the surpassing felicity of that place where the whole bodyes of the Saints and every part of them yea those parts that are now esteemed basest and vilest shall shine and glitter like most precious Margarites and Pearles they shall not onely then appeare without blemish and free from all deformity cleare from corruption without all difficulty but they shall be filled within and compassed about without with Clarity they shall be indowed and invested all over with Spiritualty they shall be quickned and enlived with Agility they shall be replenished and possessed 1 Cor. 15. 43. 44. with Impassibility for that which was sowne in corruption shal rise in incorruption that which was sowne in dishonour shall be raised in glory that which was sowne in weakenesse rising againe in power that which was sowne a naturall body rising againe a spirituall body Seneca perhaps had some obscure knowledge hereof when as he writes thus of the state of the Godly after this life ended These things saith he speaking of the joyes of this life cease but they perish not yea Seneca epist 36. death which we feare and shunne changeth but taketh not away life the day will come which will place us in rest and light Thus he like a Christian though not so fully nor so clearely as that renowned Father St. Austen most sweetly and divinely There shall be life without death Youth Angust in Soloqui without ould age beawty without deformity strength without debility joy without dolour rest without labour such an aeternall refection shall be to the glorified bodyes thus he Surely the splendour and glory of the body is so great that passes all explication it goes beyond all apprehension and accordingly not onely in respect of the happinesse of the soule but also in respect of the glory of the body we may well take up that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 4. 17. That the momentany and short tribulations of this life doe worke in us and for us a weight of aeternall glory O that the wantons of these dayes so full of vanity and presumption who thinke themselves nobly adorned by their Pearles Diamonds and other costly ornaments would seriously thinke of the glorious and resplendaÌ„t Clarity of the bodyes of Saints glorified how would they despise all those vanities in comparison where on now they set their fancyes If we call to minde how St. Peters soule was gladded and ravished with the only beholding of Christs glorified body upon Mat. 17. 2. Mark 9. 3. mount Thabor though his body at that time received no part thereof we cannot otherwise thinke but that the joy of the beatified shall be exceedingly and surpassingly great when they shall not onely behold the glorified body of Christ and see his glory but withall shall see their owne bodyes and soules participants of the same Phil. 3. 20. brightnesse and glory So So shall God heale the infirmities of his Saints crowning them in mercyes Psal 103. 3. 4. and miserations So so shall the faithfull be delivered from the servitude of Corruption into the liberty Rom. 8. 21. of such glory as beseemes the Sonnes of God So so shall all those who instruct others to Godly Dan. 12. 3. life shine as starres in the firmament for all aeternities O that our soules might be truely enamoured with the love and desire of this Celestiall place and state O how would we despise all transitory flashes and sparkes of earthly pleasures if we could but seriously thinke of those joyes and Psal 16. 10. pleasures which are layed up in Gods right hand for his Saints for evermore Iacob served seven yeares twice told to obteine his beautifull Rachell and the dayes though so many seemed to him but as few in respect of the greatnesse of his love O that the love of our soules were in like sort great after the Celestiall Rachell so comely in state and glory then should we think all the labours but light all the tarriance but short all the dayes but as moments wherein and wherewith our heauenly Laban shall exercise us in these dayes of our Pilgrimage and mortality O thou gracious God Father of lights Illustrate our understandings O thou God fountaine of life refresh our memories O thou God burning fire of love enflame our wills and sanctifie our affections O thou God our cheefest last and only good the God of our hearts and our portioÌ„for ever be thou to us all in all things O thou that hast made us for thy selfe thou hast framed us according to thy owne Image we know none we acknowledge Gen. 1. 27. none nor desire any other end of our selves to make us happy but thy selfe O do vouchsafe to conduct us safe and to bring us sure to the heaven of thy happinesse to the haven of our eternall felicity teach us thy paths wherein we shall walke guide us with thy Counsell and receive us into thy glory To thee we confesse in all humble longing desires of our soules Truely O Lord August â—n Soâ—â—q about the end thou art great aboue all Gods and great is thy reward for thou art not great and thy reward litle but as thou art great so also is thy reward great for thou art not one thing and thy reward another but thou
soule hath a most absolute dominion over them and doth by a redundancy and emanation impart unto them a glorious quickning and vivacity or livelines farre beyond that which any mortall creature in their bodily heavy parts can have And this either by the meanes of a greater perfection of glorified Soules or by the meanes of more perfect instruments for motion then those which corruptible bodies usually have This Agility or Facility for motion although it make the bodies glorified very tractable to the soules for motion so that we may in a sort say with St. Austen Whereto soever the will shal intend August lib 22. de Civit. cap. altimo there presently the body as it were in a momēt shall or may be yet we may not graunt unto the said bodies any instant tanean motion so that in an imagined instant of time I say imagined instant for time hath no true or reall instant either as part or period and end of it selfe they may make any true reall corporall motion or mooving Howsoever diverse Schoolemen may to the contrary have dreamed For doth it not imply in termes and involve contradiction that that motion which is a successiue passing over or in space from place to place as all corporall motion and moving is should be and not in some durance and continuance of time according to the greater or lesse velocity and swiftnesse thereof And yet notwithstanding the corporall motion of glorified bodies may be very sodaine and in as it were imperceptible moments of time like as the Sunne beames the which as it were in a moment because in an unperceivable moment of time doe fill this whole hemisphere with their glorious Aug. epist 44. Sap. 3. 7. Lustre Austen affirmes it and I dare not deny it And so I interpret those words of the booke of Wisdome if they are to be understood of the glorified The righteous shall shine and as Ioh. 20. and 21. Luk 24. sparks among the stubble they shall runne too and fro Whereby I take it their agility and facility for motion is figured And if we arightly consider what is recorded in sacred Scriptures touching the sundry soudayne corporall apparitions and disapearings of our Saviour after his resurrection and how that the bodyes of the beatified shall be made conformable to the Clarity and so answerably Phil. 3. 20. to other glorious qualities of his glorified body there will no just reason be shewed for denying such a glorious agility either to the body of Christ or to the glorified bodyes of his Saints And although we give to the glorified bodyes of Christ and his Saints such a glorious nimblenesse and Agility yet if we observe the phrases of sacred Scriptures we shall finde that the glorified in that glorious state of happinesse are seldome recorded to have used such extraordinary agility and nimblenesse of motion We reade that they shall follow the Lambe whithersoever he Reve. 14. 4. goeth which following is interpreted even by the Lambe himselfe to be a walking which must be so decent and grave as becomes that glorious state For thus he professeth hereof They shall Reve. 3. 4. walke with me in whites for they are worthy Now this walking must be such as beseemes the glorious Majesty of Christ and the honour of his Saints Glorious Grave Divine Magnificent Aud surely it were no lesse then folly once to dreame that the glorified shall have any games or sports in coursing and running up and downe No no such vanities which earthly minds do over highly prise do not beseeme their states of glory and Majesty And yet though we deny them to have any unseemely runnings or dancings we may not affirme them to be so penned up as though they had no glorious restings perambulations and walkings They have doubtlesse their sittings on seates of Iudgement They have their religious and Reverentiall standings up bowing downe prostrations and Ephe. 2. 5. Revelat. 3. 2. Luk. 22. 30. Mat. 19 28. Revelat. 4. 4. 10. and 7. 9. the casting downe of their Crownes before the state of Majestye How then can we deny unto them seemely divine motions And notwithstanding whitherto soever their motions leade them they have the glorious presence of God with them for God by the vertue and immensity of his all-presence being in all his Creatures the glorified Mat. 18. 10. weresover they be they alwayes see his face not onely above in the heavens but even in the lowest bowells of the earth if any occasion of service should require their presence there And can wee otherwise dreame but that those glorious Angells who did minister to Christ in the Mat. 4. 12. wildernesse did there for by definitive presence the substances and natures were in the wildernes not in heaven did there I say behold the glorious Majesty of the Father And surely that which Gregory affirmes of the Angells truely That they Greg. hom 34. in Ezekiel runne as it were within God and in God whitherto soever they are sent may also be truely affirmed of the glorified Saints wheretosoever they roule and wheresoever they abide they abide in God and roulle in God It was truely said by the Poet and afterwards confirmed by the Apostle that in God we live we moove and have our being as certainly Act. 17. 28. it may be said of the beatified that they live moove are and have their glorious being in him live of him by partaking of his glorious life move before him by most prompt and ready obedience alwayes doing his will are in him by a glorious inpresence of God in them and they in God being entered Mat. 25. 23. into his owne glory Againe in him with him and before him with him never to be separated from him in him diving into and swimming in the infinite ocean of his joy before him alwayes beholding and delighting to behold the glory of his Majesty and the Majesty of his glory So likewise God in them with them and before them In them by the glorious bright and light of his countenance illustrating them within with them ever supporting them with the left hand of his protection and filling them with the joyes and pleasures of his right hand of consolation before Psal 16. them for all aternityes by their glorious vision and fruition of him himselfe to satiate them but never to sade or cloy them ever desirous to see and delighting to see O how amourously in longing desire after these things cryed out that sweet singell of Israell Glorious things are spoken of thee O Psal 87. 2. City of God! O thou City of God so glorious are the things which are in thee that no tongue can with sufficiency speake the least part of them and no marvell for what tongue can speake them which Isa 64. 4. 1 Cor. 2. 9. eye hath not seene eare hath not heard neither the heart of man hath conceived neither can conceive in this
state of mortality what God hath prepared for those that love him Clarity THat which the Apostle calls glory speaking 1 Cor. 15. 43. thus The body is sowen in ignoblenes it riseth againe in glory is generally by Divines termed and called Clarity and this nothing at all from the Apostles sense for in the place alleaged he teaching that at the Generall resurrection the Glories of the bodies glorified shal be different and diverse one exceeding the other hee useth this declaration 1 Cor. 15. 45. for the same Like as onestarre differeth from another in Clarity the brightnesse of the starres being more properly called Clarity then glory so shall the resurrection of the dead bee Now what manner of Clarity this shall bee it is not difficult to expesse if wee call to mynd what manner of Clarity and Glory that was wherwith the body of Christ was adorned at the time of his Mat. 17. 2. Transfiguration when his face did shyne as the sun and his rayment was white as the light S. Mark addes that his rayment became shyning exceeding whyte as the snow so as no fuller on the earth can whyten them Mark 9. 3. But cleare it is that our vile and humble bodyes at the daye of the Resurrection shall bee transformed and by a glorious immutation bee made like to the resplendant and bright shinning body of Christ so sayth Paule in his Epistle to the Philippians Phil. 3. 20. And Christ promiseth in the Gospell That the Righteous shall shyne like the Sun in the kingdome of their Father Loe Christs face on earth did shine Mat. 13. 43. and now in heaven doth shyne like the Sun and to the Righteous it is promised that though now they are as the very of scumme of the world yet their faces shall shyne like the Sun in the kingdome of their Father But here note that though it bee sayd that Christs body the Saynts bodies shall shyne like one and the same thing never the lesse this must not bee taken in full equality of Clarity brightnes Chrysost in Mat. Chrysostome excellently But if the face of the Lord did shyne as the Sun and the Saynts shall shyne as the Sun shall then the Lords Clarity and his servants bee equall Not so but because nothing is found to bee more bright then the Sun therefore to give an example of the future resurrection both the face of our Lord is sayed to shyne and the righteous also are sayd to shyne as the Sun Whereby wee cannot but observe how exceeding bright and resplendant the Clarity of our glorified bodies shall bee for if they shall shyne as the Sun and the Sun shall Isa 30. 26. Chrysost in Mat. shyne at the day of Iudgement seventimes brighter then now it doth then may wee boldly with Chrysostome say though there shall bee no chaunge in nature yet there shall be the addition or putting to of an unenarrable Clarity and brightnes Which brightnes and Clarity we may not only conceave that it shall bee a transeunt Light upon the superficies and out syde of the body like as the Suns beames without any immutation internall doe spread themselves upon a wall No no there shall bee a true internall immutation by a glorious Clarity and brightnes which shall make the glorified bodies not only bright and cleare without but also fulgent and shyning within and thoroughout So that the glory of the Soule may thorough the body is it were by a glasse in such a manner bee seene and beheld in such sort as a spirituall glory may bee beheld and seene somewhat in like sort as the Coulour of the body may be seene in a glasse or rather as the life of the soule is seene and observed in and by the vivacity and Livelines which it imparts by action and motion to the outward visible parts of the body And if I misconceane not in respect of this glorious translucency and transparency the brightnes and Clarity of the celestiall Hierusalem is in the Revelation of S. Iohn thus in like sort described And hee caryed mee away in the spirit into an high Reve. 21. 10. 11. and great mountayne and shewed mee the great City holy Hierusalem which I interpret the Glorious state of the Saints Triumphant descending out of heaven from God having the glory of God And her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a Iasperstone as cleare as Chrystall And agayne in v. 18. 19. 20. c. the 18. and other verses following And the building of the wall of it was of Iasper and the City was pure gould like unto cleare glasse and the foundations of the wall of the City were garnished with all manner of precious stones The first foundation was Iasper the second Saphire the third a Chalcedonye the fourth an Emerauld the fifth a Sardonix the sixth a Sardius the seventh a Chrysolite the eighth a Berill the ninth a Topaz the tenth a Chrysoprasse the eleventh a Hiacinth the twelfth an Amethist And the twelve gates were twelve pearles every severall gate one pearle And the streete of the City was pure gould as it were transparent glasse Thus farre the Prophet giving almost in every word a touche and description of some one or other Clarity and brightnes of that Triumphant City O let us pondering and ballancing these things in the scales of our Soules say unto them Arise ye up and be illightened for the Light of the Lord is comming and the glory of God shall appeare both over us and in us if we find truely to feare him sincerely to love him and faithfully to expect his comming Amen I have here set downe more at large the words of the Prophet that the Godly reader may well observe these things first what I have sayd to be most true touching the glorious translucency and splendour of the glorified bodyes described to be like Iasper or Crystal or Saphire or Chalcedon or some other precious pearles or Margarites the excellency and surpassing brightnesse whereof especially of Christ conformable whereunto the glorified Phil. 3. 20. bodyes of the Saints shall be made I gather out of the 23. verse of this said chapter wherein the Prophet having described that the glorious City needeth neither light of the Sunne nor of the Moone and Reve. 21. 23. gives a reason thereof for that the Clarity and brightnesse of God shall illighten the same he adds in the same verse that the Candell thereof was the Lambe Glorious brightnesse of Christs body distusing it selfe Who hath ever observed a candel lighted at noon dayes and bright to have given any light No no the brightnesse of the Sunne obscures the same be the candell never so great And yet the Lambs clarity and brightnesse that is the brightnesse of Christ as man shall through and by his glorified body be so shining resplendant that it shall be as a bright shining Sunne in that Triumphant