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A59653
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A sermon at the funeral of Mr. Christopher Glascock, the late eminent school-master of Felsted in Essex preached there Jan. 22, 1689/90, by William Shelton ...
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Shelton, William, d. 1699.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S3100; ESTC R38233
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17,524
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37
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Mankind shall be cursed and commanded to depart from God The same Lord Jesus who is here said to take holy Men to be for ever with himself in the next Epistle to these Thessalonians has his coming described in other terms The Lord Jesus 2 Thess 1. 7 8. shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ There is everlasting Death as well as everlasting Life and they who trifle away their time in this World without performing the Conditions upon which eternal Happiness is promised will find it to their astonishment true when though they call Rev. 6. 16. for the Rocks and Mountains to hide them yet the great Day of God's Wrath will come and they shall not be able to stand Wherefore happy they of whom these words speak who when they are called to meet the Lord in the Air shall never depart from him Which according to the tenor of the Scripture cannot be the Portion of all Men therefore there can be no difficulty or doubt in restraining my Third Observation to holy Men. Thirdly After Death all the holy People of God shall for ever be with the Lord. I confess these words do not assure us that immediately after Death our Souls shall be translated to Glory and Happiness but only tell what shall befal us after the Resurrection It is now 1600 Years and upwards since this Epistle was written and yet the end of the World is not come And when it will come none of us knows How long soever it may be it is but a small space of Time in comparison of Eternity and therefore it being otherwise certain that our Souls do not sleep in the interval between the Death and the Resurrection of the Body I consider it now without any distinction and express it indefinitely of the future State Then holy Men shall ever be with the Lord. So has our Blessed Saviour assured us If any John 12. 26. Man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be Again In John 14. 2 3. my Father's house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a Place for you And if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also And the same assurance we have from other Texts in other Phrases Now what it is to be with the Lord is not easy for us in this present State fully to say But sure we are it describes a very great and happy State And we may in the consideration of it join some other Texts compared together with those I have named out of the Gospel of St. John We are willing rather to 2 Cor. 5. 8. be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Now we see through a Glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 12. but then Face to Face His Servants shall serve Rev. 23. 3 4. Psal 16. 11. him and they shall see his Face In thy presence is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand are Pleasures for evermore And one place more particularly describes the Glory of our Bodies Who shall Phil. 3. 21. change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious Body So then to be with the Lord is not to be advanced only to a proximity of Place but there is an Affinity a nearness of State a resemblance and a participation also of that Glory and Happiness in which our Lord is Now let us consider a little Holy Men shall ever be with the Lord that is they shall be exalted to Honour and Glory as our Lord is Not in the same degree for of that we are not capable but in our Measures and according to our Capacities This it is to be where Christ our Lord is To be honoured of his Father and our Father If any Man serve me him will my Father honour John 12. 26. The honour that our Lord Jesus did to our Nature in becoming Man shall then redound to our Persons we shall be taken up to be with God He who is set down in the Throne of his Glory will ennoble and raise us so that even our Bodies that are sown and laid in the Grave in dishonour shall be raised in Glory The difference 1 Cor. 15. between Beauty and Deformity is esteemed considerable in this Life but the reflections that will beam upon us in that glorious State shall beyond what we can now conceive dignify our Persons That which now turns to Dust and Ashes shall be transfigured and the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Mat. 13. 43. Kingdom of their Father God has now honoured Man by making him an excellent Creature fit to govern the rest of the Creation if he could but govern himself but we are now in a very low form of excellence in comparison of the Honour and Dignity which our Lord Jesus will put upon us when he calls us as the Blessed of his Father to inherit a Kingdom prepared Mat. 25. 34. for us Therefore is that which we shall be possessed of called Glory a Crown of Glory a Kingdom an Eternal weight of Glory In comparison of which all the Sceptres and Crowns of this lower World are Trifles and Toys and not worth looking after But again To be with the Lord is to be delivered from all the Encumbrances and Necessities and Perplexities of this present Life to be raised to fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore To be secured from all Wants and Weaknesses from Sins and Sorrows and Fears from the Devil and Hell and Death from whatsoever would disturb and dissatisfy To be with the Lord is to have the Lord for our God and to dwell with us and the consequence of God's dwelling with us is as is descrbed God shall wipe Rev. 21. 4. away all Tears from our Eyes and there shall be nor more Death neither Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more Pain for the former things are past away The Imperfections of this State shall pass away and the Necessities of it too We shall no more hunger nor thirst no more be sollicitous what will become of us no more amused and frighted with Wars or rumours of Wars no more in danger of Plots and Conspiracies under no discontent for decay of Trade or loss of Friends under no pains of Body nor trouble of Mind beyond the reach of Sickness and Diseases and effectually secured from all distrubing Accidents Yea and beyond all this which is but the absence of Misery to be with the Lord is to be in our Father's house in those pleasant Mansions where Peace and Joy dwell and triumph where the Eyes of our Understanding shall be inlightned and inabled to take a full view of the
ravishing Beauties of Truth and Goodness which are too dazling for mortal Eyes where our Wills shall be reduced to a sweet and blessed composure and our Affections centred and united in God and Goodness and filled with those Ardours of which we are not now capable But when we are filled with all the fulness of God when we Ephes 3. 19. shall know and see and adore and magnify God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for bringing us into eternal Glory when we shall be past the Dotages of this present Life and shall have none in Heaven but God when Psal 73. 25. we shall have gathered up the wandring Powers of our Souls and fixed them upon God the Author and the Object of our Happiness Then shall we find words fit to express those incomparable Attainments about which we do now but chatter and give imperfect accounts of as Children do when they talk of Mens Affairs But when we shall be with the Lord we shall then understand the happy change of our Society We now converse with Men of variable Tempers of difficult Passions of contradicting Interests of ungovernable Lusts so that a solitary Wilderness is many times more desirable than such unacceptable Company But when we shall be with the Lord we shall also be with the Spirits of just Men made perfect Heb. 12. 23. with Men refined and purged from Dregs and Dross from all that would abate of the purity and sincerity of Pleasure that we shall there enjoy from suitable Correspondencies In a word To be with the Lord is to perfectly happy And that the fore-thoughts of an End may not disturb the present Enjoyment we shall be for ever with the Lord. We shall not enter upon Possessions to be ejected again but shall receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken We shall find a Treasure that fails not a lasting Glory a perpetual Spring a never-dying Happiness Joys that will not wither or decay in sixty or eighty Years And many times a great deal sooner the Pleasures of this Life have no relish in them but all our remaining Days are Evil in which we say that we have Eccles 12. no pleasure in them But the duration of the Happiness of Heaven does not waste or diminish it It remains fresh and flourishing and full of satisfaction We shall ever be with the Lord so as never to desire to change our Place or Company We shall never be weary of what we do nor of what we enjoy And there can no addition be made to this Happiness but by a consideration that we shall not enjoy it as single Persons by our selves alone but all holy Men who are called together shall be equally in his Presence and if not equally yet fully as happy as their Capacities will admit Fourthly Which is the 4th thing I have to consider from these words So shall we ever be with the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after that manner with reference to what was before said We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That every holy Man and Woman shall have a distinct knowledg of and a particular correspondence with every other Member of the same Triumphant Church I do not define But that there shall be a Knowledg of and converse with one another we may very reasonably believe when we consider That it is a great part of our Comfort and Content now to enjoy the society of our Friends And it cannot be thought that that blessed Company will derogate from but will rather add to each others happiness To the torment of wicked Men they shall see who are admitted into the Kingdom of God There shall be weeping and Luke 13. 28. gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kindgom of God and you your selves thrust out And why should it be difficult to believe that they who are there shall see and know one another And it follows in the same place And they shall come from the East and Vers 29. from the West and from the North and from the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God In the verse of my Text it is said they shall meet together They shall all meet the same Lord and partake of the same Happiness and join in the same Songs of Praise and Triumph And who can think when they are called together to meet their Lord that they shall then be separated and know nothing of one another's particular State No sure The Communion of Saints will be perfected in Heaven So shall we ever be with the Lord. So in Company and Consort so as to be together loving one to another as well as loving God and making accessions to each others Happiness by being so far ever with the Lord. From this account of these words I might make divers Inferences I take up with Three 1. If Holy Men shall be thus for ever with the Lord then we may be content to wait with patience for a compleat Happiness till that day comes If it please God to exercise us with Sorrows and Troubles in this Life we must remember it is the Kingdom of God to which Acts 14. 22. we are passing through these many Tribulations All the Afflictions of this Life cannot make us throughly miserable not finally miserable we are able to see through them to what is reserved in the Heavens for us When we are for ever with the Lord we shall never be diverted or disturbed or called off from the continual enjoyment of that fulness of Joy we cannot be for ever miserable Afflictions are but for a while and in comparison of Eternity they endure but for a moment But when all these Clouds are blown over then at the Morning of the Resurrection there will open upon us a Glory brighter than the Noon-day Sun A Glory that will never set or fade Because our Lord will one day take us to be so near himself we ought to be well content whilst we are here in the Body to be exercised as it shall please the Wisdom of God 2. We shall ever be with the Lord but this is not the portion of all Men as has been already said And besides the concurring Testimony of the whole Scripture the next Epistle tells us what will become of wicked Men at the second coming of Christ Wherefore this Exhortation has here a proper place that we would so live now as that we may hereafter be for ever with the Lord. And that I express in the words of our Saviour If any Man John 12. 26. serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be There can be no hopes of being hereafter where our Lord and Master is unless we now follow him by Obedience to him and Imitation of him