are pleasures for evermore 5. This life shall be a life of Holiness and Righteousness a life of Piety and Justice and of sobriety a life of integrity for then we shall be arrived to the supreme degree of perfection as well as of happines we shall come to that perfect stature of regeneration which is in Christ Jesus our Lord The works of the Devil shall then be utterly destroyed and that great disorder which his Apostacy hath caused shall then be reformed In Heaven no impure thing shall enter Rev. 21. Heb. 12.14 For without holiness none shall see God The glorified shall never be able to offend their God for the inward motions of the soul being rightly disposed according to his Will and our affections perfectly reformed the outward actions of the body must needs be conformable When there should be another Serpent to tempt us and another Eve to assist him they could never prevail upon us because we shall be no more in a possibility of sinning for our understandings shall be no more capable of mistakes nor our wills corrupted with importune desires nor our actions forced from us against our election And besides this blessed disposition from whence shall proceed a constant practice of the Commandments of God he will also by his continual influence to strengthen our resolutions and determine our wills that they shall abhor whatever might displease him the sight of his holiness shall convey the same disposition into our minds as St. John tells us and his infinite power shall be engaged 〈◊〉 â—â—eserve them whom his love hath espoused and for whom he hath been at so vast an expence to raise them to that estate Therefore God we shall for ever adore with all the powers of the soul and body his service we shall attend with delight our brethren we shall love without dissimulation How pleasant will this life be when there shall be a continual Emulation between God and his creatures and between themselves who shall exceed in love and affection when all the glorified in Heaven shall interchange daily expressions of kindness when there shall be a perfect agreement a living correspondency a sweet fellowship a delightful conversation without envy or malice without care or tediousness This is sufficient to render us most happy when all other things should be wanting for happiness consists rather in a perfect disposition of the mind than in a plentiful enjoyment of outward advantages But besides our bodies shall be adorned with heavenly qualities the present shall see a most happy change with the visible substance Conveniens est us sicut damnati habent extremas tenebras ita beati habeant extremam lucem Basil lib. Hexa Caro sine moln pondera sine deformitate ita ut sit animae ornamentum non tormentum Aug. Serm. 139. de tempor c. 3. and other qualities shall be added with which we are not at present acquainted It is therefore needless to question whether we shall know one another seeing we shall scarce know our selves the change will be so great It is certain that we shall move without trouble we shall ascend without help our strength shall be encreased our deformities removed our infirmities deposed our appearance shall be full of majesty and glory as Daniel informs us They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever In which words you may further observe a difference in the glories of Heaven sutable to their inclinations and employments on earth for the one shall shine as the Firmament the other as the Stars a sensible distinction shall be both in the nature and the greatness of their Rewards for according to the several dispositions of men and their several capacities God will accordingly bestow upon them his riches and his glory Therefore a Father adviseth us to enlarge our perfections and the faculties of the soul by a continual exercise in humane sciences that they may be then more capable to receive and contain the mysteries of Gods Wisdom and better able to bring forth glorious actions for this eternal Sabbath is an estate where all our abilities shall be in the highest perfection where we shall act and move without the least inconveniency Occasions we may have to exercise our Vertues not such as will cause us to suffer but such as without that strength of nature we should find a default in our happiness It is therefore our wisdom now to accustom our selves to that which shall be our employment for ever and upon which shall depend our satisfaction and glory which shall be revealed in us as St. Rom. 18.18 Paul informs us In our souls by a perfect enjoyment of supernatural excellencies in our bodies that shall be free from all weakness and beautified with glorious qualities Therefore this estate is called a Crown of Life for as the Crown is of a round and a perfect figure it is most proper to express the infiniteness and perfection of those heavenly delights that shall accompany that life besides the Crown is the sacred emblem of joy and honour this expression therefore presents us with the notion of the most pleasant and the most honourable estate together for there is nothing more acceptable than life nor more glorious than a Crown and that we may better understand wherefore Christ promiseth Heaven under this notion we must take notice that chiefly four sorts of persons were dignified with a Crown amongst the Ancients Kings to express their Authority and supream Command A new married couple at the nuptial Feasts therefore by the Greeks they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priest in the solemn Sacrifices to render the offering more acceptable and the devotion more glorious or rather to shew what qualification was anciently required in one that presented to the Divinity the Homages of the people Another sort were crowned they who had given open testimony of their valour and cunning either in private Disputes and Plays allowed by authority or in a publick War in the maintenance of the general interest To these several sorts of Crowns were given which were in value and esteem according to the nature of the vertuous action Now the faithful in Heaven shall be Kings enjoying a supream command over the infernal Spirits and damned Souls They shall be Priests Rev. 2.26 sending up unto God the perfume of their praises They shall be married unto Christ in love and affection In these several respects this Crown may become them But our Saviour in this promise hath more especially an eye to the Crowns that were the rewards of a generous Perseverance that had obtained the Victory for he mentions the difficulties that were to be overcome A death to be endured and adds this encouragement I will give thee O faithful soul a Crown of Life It was the ancient custom to crown the Temples
the discovery of our natural weakness and necessities we shall no longer weary our selves in the pursuance of things unable to satisfie us with content Upon God we shall depend in his favour we shall be satisfied and by his happiness we shall be happy not as we are at present for the happiness of the world is increased as much by our wants as by our enjoyments but then as the constitution of our beings and our estates shall be altered we shall no longer know pleasure and felicity by their contraries in God we shall meet with the true and genuine taste of all Excellencies without the least mixture of evill Unto this glorious dependency upon God which St. Paul styles Rom. 8.21 A freedom from the bondage of corruption and the liberty of the Saints God labours at present to bring and train us up by weaning our affections from the world and by inspiring nobler desires that are not to be concerned for the possessions of this life 1. Cor. 7.30 It is the drift of St. Pauls Exhortation who wills us To be indifferent in the use of the creatures and not to abuse our selves or them by any fond Embraces or impatient wishes for that which is to subsist but for a moment It is the concern of us all that aspire to this independency not to fix our hearts nor our happiness upon the world but to be always ready to part with that which is but an impediment to our perfection and felicity for that reason God exercises us with wants and afflictions and prepares us for a Crown as Philip of Macedo did Alexander his son by actions and employments suitable to the Majesty that we are one day to represent and to the Excellency of that estate unto which we shall be promoted 3. This glorious dependency upon God that shall free us from all dependency upon the creature shall proceed from an inward and perfect communion and unspeakable union with this supream Being we shall be united unto him by our affections Gods love shall be no more clouded with judgments and trials it shall shine upon us without interruption our love in requital shall return him continual expressions of thankfulness our desires shall rest in his sufficiency all the motions of our soul shall tend to his Glory We shall also be united unto God as the members are united unto the Head by an inward and continual infusion of his divine Spirit in our souls and by an humble submission to the motions of divine Wisdom that shall govern us or as the subjects are one with their Prince so God shall be one with us 1 Cor. 15.2 he shall reassume the supream Authority which he exerciseth at present by a Mediator and shall appear as our soveraign Lord whose glory will be our interest we shall also be united unto God by such a manner as is not to be expressed Joh. 17.24 Admirald de vita aeterna Such will be this union as shall promote us to an inward sight of God to a perfect resemblance with him and to an eternal familiarity with God the Father such will be this union that we shall enjoy with the Incomprehensible Being the same felicity Rev. 21.9 and be swallowed up in the immensity of his glory Rev. 21.11 This union is signified unto us by a marriage because Christ considered there not only as a Mediator but as God shall enter into a stricter alliance with men and shall become one with them in an unspeakable manner Therefore St. Paul styles it a great mystery Ephes 5.32 At present we are united unto God by the Holy Ghost that is called the Spirit of Christ by the reception of his benefits in the Sacraments and by Prayer that causeth a continual entercourse and correspondency to be entertained between God and our souls But then these imperfect unions shall cease and give place to a more perfect and glorious Ephes 3.19 to a limited participation of all the divine Attributes that are communicable to such a union as shall raise us above all natural capacities our divine Estate unto which God designs us By the present we may judge of the future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide colos 1. 19. de Christo What means our gracious God to bestow that cost to employ those glorious Agents in our present satisfaction if he intended not to bring us to a condition suitable to these hopeful beginnings What means the Father to sacrifice his onely begotten Son to expose him to all the affronts that nature is able to receive What means he to send the Holy Spirit to enrich us with his most precious and divine Graces Is it onely to restore our natures to their Primitive Integrity that needed not the concurrency of such a Saviour nor the expressions of so great a Love or is it onely to fit us for an entrance into the Angelical Hierarchies I hey would not have been so inquisitive into that estate which they would have then understood and the Sacred Trinity had never been employed in such a manner in mans Redemption nor had never honoured him with those unspeakable testimonies of divine love if God had not intended him for an estate near unto himself The holy Angels had never been ministring Spirits unto us unless we had been the adopted sons of God and unless there had been something in us that is to be worthy of their services and labours which God designs for his eternal enjoyment Wherefore is it also that our nature is advanced to an Hypostatical union with the divine Word is it onely to enable Christ for the office of a Mediator or is it not also to declare unto what honour God would promote the rest of mankind were they as he is free from error and vice Wherefore do we labour to bring our lives and affections to a conformity with Christ but that we that are his brethren might enjoy in some measure that advantage which he possesseth before us and be united unto God if not in the same unseparable manner yet in such as may have some relation with that witness Christs Words in his Prayer to God at the eve of his Passion John 7.21 22 23. I pray for them that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Unity is the perfection as well as foundation of number all things have a natural tendency to it in the world Therefore the Church of Christ of several Nations being called to a participation of the rules of his goodness 1 Cor. 15.28 they must first as the Rivers that run into the Ocean unite with God the ocean of all good before they can come to the enjoyment of those endless joyes
were created in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible Dan. 4.35 c. who doth according to his will in the Army of Heaven and amongst the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou What difficulties will be able to frustrate his design unto whom the Elements the dumb Creatures the Devils and all things do yield obedience who hath conquered Death in its own Territories who hath an Infinite Wisdom as well as Power to bring to pass his intentions So that what Christ promiseth he is fully able to perform 3. Christ is Truth it self he is not subject to change nor able to deceive us He is not as Xerxes was he crowned his Steers man in the morning and beheaded him in the evening He is not thus unconstant in his Affections and Promises The heaven and the earth shall pass Matth. 5. but one jot of his word shall not pass until all be fulfilled Seeing therefore that he hath promised to bestow this Crown of life upon every faithful soul he will preserve them here by his spirit he will convey and guard them at their separation from the Body by the ministry of his Angels and will at last receive them unto this glorious estate Here are sufficient securities for this Immortal Reward Gods almighty Power his eternal Justice his Infinite Goodness and Love and his unchangeable Truth are all engaged to see the faithful crowned with Glory so that it is as impossible that they should fail of their expectation as it is impossible that God should deny himself St. Pauls Perswasion Jobs Confidence and the Assurance of the holy men were grounded upon this infallible foundation Were we possessed with the same spirit we should not need to seek for any other confirmation of this Truth than the authority of Scripture that often repeats the promise of this Crown unto the faithful But this sensual age will scarce do God that justice to give credit to his Word as if he could have a design to deceive us whose glory is our happiness and perfection as if he were an enemy to our good who gives us whatever we enjoy as if there were danger to expect the Rewards of Honesty and Vertue and to yield obedience when both Duty and Interest do require it Consider the folly of our Modern Witts extraordinary advantages are promised unto men to oblige them to actions full of honour and satisfaction when there should be no such future advantages it is their present concern to entertain this perswasion because it is a friend to Piety and it tends to strengthen their resolutions to appease their discontents and to fill our souls with a glorious expectation As that Athenian that in his greatest poverty did feel the contentments of the wealthiest Citizens Men should labour to comfort themselves in their present miseries with the assurance of a more blessed estate and suffer their hopes to frustrate the design of worldly misfortunes It seems therefore strange that Rational Beings should be so great enemies of their good as to discredit this beneficial perswasion and willingly to deprive themselves of an Antidote able to fortifie their souls against the venom of evil The excellency of that estate the vileness of ours and our natural unworthiness may justly fill us with wonder and admiration But we are not to question this Truth when not onely Scipture but Reason also is able to convince us that it is certain according to the natural course of things that he that is faithful unto Christ must needs attain unto the greatest happiness I understand the word faithful in the largest acception for a vertuous man faithful in the management of the several interests with which God hath intrusted him for one whose life and profession is conformable to Christianity who labours to reduce his Passions to reason his desires to content his wants to sufficiency and that endeavours to strengthen himself with all the natural and revealed perswasions that are intended to assist our Vertue against the inconveniencies that assault us Such a one hath a degree of happiness begun in him and if he continues exercise will bring him to that perfect disposition of the mind and to that noble temper as may brave all the attempts of evil The Stoicks by the strength of nature did attain unto a seeming insensibility witness the resolution of Possidonius in the midst of the tortures of the Gout he could never be forced to confess it to be a pain witness Anaximander pounded in a morter he laughed at the folly and cruelty of the Tyrant How much more power shall man have over himself when his resolution is backt by such strong perswasions as Christianity teaches when such divine helps do assist him as the graces of the holy Ghost an invincible hope and a well-grounded faith that makes him rejoyce in tribulation It is therefore plain that he that practises the Rules of Christianity must needs be happy not onely in regard of himself that he renders thereby capable of happiness but also in regard of those with whom we have a communication that are invited by an amiable correspondency and good offices to the same returns and behaviour and in respect of God who cannot but vouchsafe his blessings and his favour to that Being that is inspired with so noble an ambition and that in obedience to his holy Laws labours to arrive to perfection and holiness But besides this reason which onely proves a natural happiness attainable by a vertuous Christian in this life we may meet with others in that great proportion or relation between the estates of the faithful on earth and of the Saints in heaven Cast your eyes upon both and tell me what hinders a soul washed in the blood of Christ adopted amongst the sons of God united unto him by his divine Spirit what hinders a soul full of heavenly affections a soul that bears the Image of God from an immediate fruition of his presence and favour If therefore that be granted that may be proved by the experience of the faithful as well as by the authority of Scripture that they do really enjoy a present correspondency with their Creator and that they do not in vain flatter themselves with the conceits of an extraordidinary possession of the graces of the divine Spirit because they feel the inward operation of this spirit in their souls Unius Sp. Sancti opus est regeneratio Ambros de Sacr. and see a notable change in their dispositions and affections wrought in them by his power alone that fashions us in the womb if this be granted with the other priviledges of the Elect we shall find no difficulty to believe the happy consequences that do naturally flow from thence that God that favours them with such powerful helps in order to their perfection must needs design them for a greater happiness than their present mortality and weakness are capable of That he
do never come to that perfect Estate they may thank their unworthy behaviour and vicious disposition But Christ that promiseth this Crown unto the faithful removes the grand impediments of Salvation Guilt and Corruption and brings them to that estate So that besides the helps of nature they only have an Almighty Power and an Infinite goodness for their assistants We may therefore conclude from the former reasons That there is such an Estate as happiness That man was designed for it that it is possible for him to arrive unto it that whoever is faithful to Christ and labours to follow the rules prescribed by him must needs according to the natural course of things become happy which cannot be in a perfect manner but by an union and communion with his God That this happiness is not attainable in this life I need not spend my labours in vain to prove therefore it must be in another Now this Crown is called a Gift I will give thee c. It is freely bestowed notwithstanding our undeservings it is recovered for us by the blood of Christ and enriched with more precious Jewels because of his Infinite merits and the means by which we are raised to this Estate is procured unto us by our Saviours sufferings and Ascension So that what Nature had intended and was not able to perform because of our Apostacy and revolt from a dependency upon God grace doth fully accomplish in the faithful In the last place I might bring to confirm this truth the common Reasons upon which the Heathens did build the hopes of a future happiness and of another life Of the Justice of God that will render unto every one according to his deeds Of the Goodness of God that cannot be forgetfull of those that mind the advance of his Glory on Earth and of the Power of God able to reward them that lead a just and a religious life From hence Zoroastes that learned Genius and great Prince taught his Disciples That the chief care of man should be so to behave himself now that he might come to happiness hereafter Many other reasons may be brought to confirm this important truth but I cannot include them all in so narrow a compass as a Sermon Some I know stumble at the difficulties of the Resurrection of our bodies when it is proved to them by their experience that it is possible Si ergo potent est Deus facere quod non fuit nonne potest reparare quod fuit Aug. lib. de catech Serm. 1. Secret dont oncomprent que quoy que le corps meure Les formes font pourtant aux cendres leur demeure Consider I beseech you if a lesser power be not required to restore what was than to create or to make what was not Where was this world before its Creation and if that be doubed where was this age 200 years ago not so much as in appearance yet now it subsists Why shall not therefore that same intelligent Being who created the World and who onely is able to have formed us in the womb with all our members so well proportioned be able to restore us to our subsistance again seeing there is as great a disposition in the essential parts of the body reduced to ashes to return to their former shapes as there is in the original substance to dilate it self and form the several members of a man I might here alledge the natural experiments which some have tried with success That have given occasion to believe that the forms of things do remain in their ashes The herb called by the Greeks * It signifies not onely a Palm but another herb mentioned by Dioscor lib. 4. cap. 151. and by Coel. Rodigin Resurrectio non est contra naturam Aug. in Sent. suis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth rise again out of the dust when it hath been consumed to ashes This causes the Fable of the Phaenix I could also bring Nature and Providence to attest this truth both are full of sacred emblems of the Resurrection they are as incredible did they not daily appear before our eyes The faithful therefore may brave this and all other difficulties in the language of St. Paul I am perswaded that neither death nor life c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day I will give thee a crown c. Cast your eyes Cristians once more upon this Crown of Life View the Blessedness the Riches the Glory and Honour of this Estate and tell me whether this deserves not our obedience and a perseverance in Duty It shall be free from all weakness pain fear and inconveniency it shall be accompanied with unspeakble joyes and pleasures with the fruition of all good with the Vision of God and with an eternal communion and union with him It shall be adorned with all perfections holiness and content O rich and glorious Crown O Immortal Reward How long shall we be at such a distance from thee Earthly Crowns are troublesome and the more glorious they are the more heavy insomuch that Dioclesian having exchanged one for a Spade and the Empire for a Garden when some were sent to perswade him to return to his former State he told them they would never have undertaken that message unto him if they had but seen the Ranks of Trees and the Musk-melons that he had planted with the pleasure that he did feel in that retired condition But this Crown is of another nature the glories and honours are sweetned with unspeakable delights and there is no such wait as should make us weary of the carriage Let therefore this consideration encourage us to encounter Death without fear seeing it is a passage into this immortal Bliss and to prepare our selves for its enjoyment by a behaviour worthy of a Crown Be faithful unto the interest of Christ and his Religion maintain his honour in the management of your several employes follow his sacred footsteps shake off all vicious inclinations and customs make it your business to reform your lives and affections labour to relish the true pleasures of the soul and wean your selves from all worldly enjoyments that they may not hinder your entrance into this estate Into which God of his mercy receive us for the sake of his dear Son and our Saviour Christ Jesus Amen FINIS