absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Here you may see that while the Souls of the Saints are present in the Body as they are during this life they are absent from the Lord albeit Jesus Christ dwelleth in them by his Spirit and they are spiritually united to him yet in regard of local distance they are absent from Christ in respect of his Humane nature not seeing him face to face they walk by faith not by sight Moreover when their Souls are absent and seperated from the Body by death they shall be present with the Lord not walking by faith at a distance from Christ but resting in his presence immediately beholding him The Souls of the Saints then do not die with the Body but live in the presence of their Saviour at the very same time when they are absent and seperated from the Body by death This must needs be meant of the state of the Soul not after the resurrection but between death and the resurrection for that is the only time when the Soul is absent from the Body and during that time the Apostle saith it shall be present with the Lord. To these may be added that gracious answer of Christ to the penitent Malefactor Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 27.43 viz. the very same day wherein he died Now the heavenly Paradise is no burying place for dead Souls but a glorious habitation for the living spirits of just men made perfect Observe likewise that argument of Christ grounded upon the speech of God to Moses at the bush which strongly proveth both the resurrection of the Body and the immortality of the Soul as well before as after the resurrection Matth. 22.31 32. Have you not read what is spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living This was spoken long after the natural death of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and so the Argument standeth thus Those who have God for their God by Covenant are not dead but living but Abraham Isaac and Jacob have God for their God by Covenant Ergo they are not dead but living So then they live in their principal parts their Souls while they are absent from the Body whereunto their Bodies are to be re-united at the great day that their whole persons may fully enjoy their God and perfectly possess the fruit and benefit of God's covenant verse 34. this argument silenced the Sadduces Finally consider what meant Stephen's prayer at his death Lord Jesus receive my Spirit or Soul Acts 7.59 If his Spirit or Soul had died with his Body why should he call upon Christ more for the receiving his Soul but because he knew his Spirit or Soul was immortal and must live and subsist when it was seperated from the Body he prayed Christ to give present entertainment to his Soul that he might rest in the bosome of his love until his Body should be raised and reunited to it Now as this may stop the mouth of this lying Spirit which of late is crept forth into the World again so it may demonstrate according to the point in hand that the Souls of the Faithful after their seperation from the Body are instated into blessedness By which places fore-mentioned and such like is refuted their Heresie who either directly deny the immortality of the Soul or imply it as the Socinians who say that Mori est penitus extingui V.d. Gens in Confes remonstrant p. 254 256. resurgere est ex non ente iterum existere And this Opinion some others have seemed to favour in the Declaration of their Opinions about the Articles of Religion in that they are altogether silent in the point that concerneth the blessed rest of the Saints Souls after this life CHAP. XVIII Of the blessedness of the Soul in general MUch more might have been spoken of the blessedness of the Soul in glory when it is absent from the Body but because these things belong as well to the Soul re-united to the Body when it hath full possession of salvation I chuse to treat of them under that consideration 1. This shall be the wonderful felicity of the Soul in that it shall have a Body every way suitable to it self immortal spiritual incorruptible glorious as its habitation for a pure immortal glorious Spirit to dwell in in this respect the glorified Souls now in Heaven all the time of their seperation do even vehemently desire and wait for the redemption of their Bodies who were their yoke-fellows in the day of their pilgrimage upon Earth Though the Soul of a Believer reign with Angels yet hath she a passion for her Body and all the good she doth possess cannot take her from the desire and memory thereof though she hath made trial of its revolts though this friendly Enemy hath oftentimes persecuted her and that she hath desired death to be freed from the tyranny thereof yet doth she languish as it were and vehemently long after it Though the Body be reduced to dust though it cause pity in its Enemies and though it cause horror in those to whom it was lovely yet she forbears not to desire it and to expect the resurrection with a kind of impatience that her Body may partake of the bliss which she enjoyeth The Souls of the Saints departed this life do not account their glory their blessedness compleat till their Bodies be reunted hence they do naturally desire their re-union and as they cry under the Altar How long Lord how long will it be ere thou avenge our blood so all the Souls of just men made perfect with one voice cry out How long Lord how long will it be ere thou redeem our Bodies that we may be perfectly blessed in the full fruition of thy self Oh then how shall the glorified Soul rejoyce in its glorified Body raised from among worms dust and rottenness rescued from its captivity from under the power of death and corruption and now again made one with the Soul no longer to be a snare or burden to it but a companion meet for it taking in no object by the senses that may in the least degree endanger the polluting of the Soul and having nothing in it that may stupifie the affections or any way discompose the eternal rest disturb the peace eclipse the joy of the Soul interrupt its enjoyment of God or any way diminish its compleat happiness 2. There shall be a perfect harmony between the Body with all its parts and the Soul with all its powers and both Soul and Body shall be fully conformed to Christ and so shall most sweetly comply each with other and I conceive the very remembrance of that dulness sottishness earthiness and drossiness which in the state of mortality is in the Body shall be matter of great joy to the Soul now that it
have sin in you you do deserve that all plagues miseries curses deaths should make a prey on your Souls and bodies but glory is altogether undue the meer and free gift of God in Christ your Title to it is of meer grace so shall be your Possession of it meer grace you were Elected to glory Redeemed to glory Called to glory engrafted into Christ by faith and so become heirs of glory before you suffered any thing for Christ True it is God hath made our sufferings a condition of the Promise of glory it is of his own meer pleasure to ordain our sufferings to be the condition of glory I may say of this condition as Naaman's servant said to him murmuring at the Prophet bidding him go wash in Jordan and be clean My Lord if the Prophet had bid thee do a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it how much more seeing he saith wash and be clean so had God required of us harder conditions Go suffer Hell torments for Millions of years and afterward you shall be glorified should not we do it but now when he requireth and commandeth us to suffer afflictions but for this present time but for a moment but for a short life in the World shall not we couragiously and cheerfully suffer with Christ for this present time 7. There is no comparison between afflictions and future glory if we consider the subject of both the subject of afflictions is either our bodies or our estates liberties only outward things not the Soul Caesar himself hath no power over that said the Martyr to his Persecutors So saith our Saviour Fear not them that can kill the Body they can when God permits kill thy Body imprison thy Body spoil thee of thy goods expose thy Body to hunger cold nakedness and such like outward evils but as for thy Soul the wrath the malice of men cannot reach it But now the subject of glory is both Soul and Body unspeakable glory shall be revealed in your Souls and in your Bodies God kills the Souls and Bodies of the Wicked and he will save the Souls and Bodies of his People God will fill the Souls of Believers with knowledg pureness and joy and their Bodies with immortality and incorruptibility and Sun-like splendour so that they suffer but in part but shall be glorified in the whole they suffer but in these vile Bodies which are by nature mortal and because of sin subject to misery but both Soul and Body must partake in glory 8. There is no comparison between them if we regard the measure and degrees of our sufferings and the degrees and measure of future glory no Christian suffereth in the highest degree God is pleased to mitigate their sufferings and to restrain the rage of their Enemies that they cannot they shall not act according to their wills he that suffereth most may suffer more but future glory shall be in the highest degree to the utmost as far as our natures are capable The measure of our sufferings is not full pressed down and running over but the measure of glory shall be full pressed down and running over therefore the Apostle in the same fore-cited place 2 Cor. 4.17 saith that our glory shall be far more exceeding weighty Observe the gradation 1. It shall be weighty when as afflictions in the highest degree are but light 2. Glory shall be exceeding weighty beyond the weight of our afflictions 3. As if this were too little he addeth shall be more exceeding weighty 4. As if this were too little he addeth the word far shall be far more exceeding weighty The Apostle useth these words because he could not express the ultimate degrees of that glory which shall be revealed in suffering Christians the future happiness of Believers passeth all utterance and understanding 9. There is no comparison if we consider how that we suffer but some one or some few evils but in Heaven we shall receive all kinds of goods all kinds and degrees God gives out sufferings by parcels but glory in the gross or lump some he permits to be tortured others to be mocked others to be imprisoned Heb 11.35 36 37 38. others to be stoned some to be sawn in sunder others to wander hither and thither to be destitute of necessaries some suffer one kind of evil others another one doth not suffer all but now their future glory is made up of all that goodness which God in his wisdom knows conducible to make them eternally blessed Oh how great is that goodness which thou hast laid up for them that love thee cries David Psal 31.19 He gives them drops of sorrow seas of joy and comfort he gives them sparks of torment and gives them a Sun full of glory what goodness is in Heaven is for their happiness God placed in Paradise trees of all sorts for Adam's delight Heaven is God's own Paradise there is nothing wanting there for delight and blessedness In a word God himself will be their glory he will be all in all to them his own joy his own glory his own comfort and goodness shall be theirs they shall then need nothing 10. Consider this one thing and you will see there is no comparison between them the afflictions of this present time are common to wicked and godly they suffer the same evils from men but for different causes the wicked suffer as evil doers the godly suffer for doing well The community of afflictions St. Paul brings as an argument to perswade Christians to bear the burthen patiently 1 Cor. 10.13 There is no temptation hath taken you but such as is common to man Look over your afflictions under which you groan and you shall see other men under the same burthen with you But now this future glory is a Believers peculiar portion wicked men may drink of the cup of their sufferings but shall not have one drop of their joys they may endure cruel mockings but shall never share with them in honour that glory is peculiar to the Saints reserved only for Believers makes it the more invaluable Put case the light of the Sun were but for some men and all the rest lived and walked in darkness we should judge the state of such men incomparably comfortable above others the glory of Heaven is peculiar to Believers the darkness of affliction is common to Unbelievers with them in this respect there is no comparison CHAP. XI Vse THis may inform us what cause Christians have to rejoyce according to the Apostle's exhortation when they suffer and fall into affliction after affliction James 1.2 My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations Do not only count it joy but count it all joy joy in nothing more then in this joy only in this when ye fall into temptations that is afflictions A strange exhortation to a carnal heart what is it all joy to be mocked reviled persecuted hated imprisoned tortured to have our Bodies bound at stakes should
Men or Angels is able sufficiently to set forth the height of this blessedness III. It shall be at such a time when the Devil and all his Instruments the Enemies of God and his People shall be cast into outer Darkness and swallowed up of everlasting Destruction when their day shall wholly end their glory be finished and their prosperity be utterly extinguished and overthrown when they shall be for ever seperated from God the fountain of all blessedness of which Separation Chrysostome thus speaketh That if a thousand fires of Hell were joyned together in one they should never be so great a pain to the Soul as it is for the Soul to be separated in this wise for ever from Almighty God We read Isa 14.9 10. That the Kings and Potentates of the Earth seem to be brought into rejoycing at the fall of Lucifer viz. the King of Babilon when he was brought low it was matter of triumph to the Children of Israel that the Lord saved them from the hand of Pharaoh and the Aegyptians that pursued them to the red Sea and that Israel saw the Aegyptians dead on the Sea shore the Waters covering the Chariots the Horsemen and all the Host of Pharaoh that came into the Sea after them that there remained not so much as one of them the Children of Israel walking upon dry Land in the midst of the Sea the Waters being a wall to them on the right hand and on the left Exod. 14.28 29. Was it not a great priviledg for Noah to sit secure in the Ark above the Waters that covered the tops of the highest Mountains at the same time when the whole World of the Ungodly were drowned and buried in the Flood what then may we conceive the happiness of the Saints will be when they shall be advanced to the heigth of heavenly glory when their Enemies shall be overwhelmed with the depths of shame and misery what encouragement may this be to us to raise our hearts Heaven-ward and to have our affections set on things above while the hearts of Worldlings are rooted in the Earth that at the same time when their end shall be destruction we may be put into the possession of eternal glory should not we be as unwilling now to have fellowship with them in their unfruitful works of darkness as we are desirous to be in Heaven when they shall be cast into Hell fire IV. It shall be at a time when all the labours sorrows and sufferings of the Saints shall be at an end Write saith a Voice from Heaven to St. John Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them Rev. 14.13 They shall then be eased from the toilesome and troublesome travels of this Life being translated from this worlds vanity into Heavens felicity where shall be neither labour in action nor pain in passion where they shall be neither annoyed with pinching cold nor parching heat and as sleep is a resting and refreshing to our weak frail and weary bodies so our bodies being laid down in the bed of our Graves they shall rest and be free from all sickness and sorrow weakness weariness and all work and whatsoever else are fruits and effects yea punishments of sin and attendants of this life yea the Saints after they have wearied themselves in striving against sin in subduing corruption after they have spent themselves in the work of the Lord and after the Enemies to piety have tyred out themselves with malice scoffs reproaches slaunders persecutions they shall rest from all their labours and sufferings in perfect peace and blessedness and the fruit comfort and reward of their works shall follow them and abide with them for ever They shall then arrive at a safe harbour after a dangerous passage through Shelves Storms Rocks and Pirates which then shall be so much the more welcome to them Read St. Pauls Catalogue 2 Cor. 11.23 And think how sweet Heaven will be to one that hath had such a hard passage thither Through labours more abundant stripes above measure many prisons chains fetters whippings scourgings shipwracks deaths journeyings perills of Waters Robberies by his own Countrey-men by the Heathen True it is he gives in a large bill of his charges as it were but when he cometh to speak of his wages he makes nothing of his labours and sufferings in comparison of the reward 2 Cor. 4.17 For these light and momentany afflictions do work out for us an exceeding eternal weight of glory The highest Mountain in the World is very light in comparison of the whole Earth even so are the greatest afflictions of the greatest sufferers in comparison of the glory of Heaven It is said of Isachar Gen. 49.15 That he saw that rest was good and that the Land was pleasant therefore he put his shoulders to labour and became servant to Tribute So I may say the rest and glory of the Saints is good but the Land that brings forth this rest will be best and most pleasant to them after all their labours and sufferings are fully ended then to receive this glorious rest will be most sweet unto them and most seasonable Were Heaven nothing else but an Haven of rest we know how welcome the one is to a Sea sick weather-beaten Traveller and by that we may conceive how welcome the other will be to a Soul that hath been long tossed in the Waves of this troublesom World sick of its own sinful imaginations and tyred out with outward temptations the happiest Soul that ever hath sailed over this Euripus in the best Ship in the most healthful body that ever was never had so calm a passage saith a good Divine but that it hath had cause enough often to wish it self on shoar Sa. Ward on the life of faith in death Is there any Palace or Tower here so high or strong that can keep diseases from the body or cares sorrows fears or Satan's assaults from the Soul were there but such an Island as some have dreamed of here on earth that might free mens bodies or minds from disquiet but for the time of this life how would people strive to dwell there Certainly in this heavenly Countrey there shall be perfect tranquillity to all the Inhabitants thereof Oh how will it ravish the hearts of the Saints when they have finished their course and are come to the end of their race oh how sweet will Heaven and how glorious will the Crown of Immortality be to them in the end If Seamen when they have been many moneths upon the Sea where they have encountred with many dreadful storms and boystrous tempests and have been often in danger of drowning and shipwracks when they shall at last descry but a Creek of Land do leap for joy and cry out Oh Land land we are nigh to such a Coast where we would be then much more those that have run
vehement affection and take them home to his own House after a tedious pilgrimage in the World wherein they have met with harsh unkind usage How did Jacob tender Benjamin that he would not let him go from him till he was forced to it and saw the necessity of it but his joy is not exprest upon his return because he heard that his beloved Joseph was alive and when he saw the Waggons and Charets that Joseph had sent to fetch him and his family into Egypt Oh then it is inconceivable and inexpressible with what affections our heavenly Father will take home his Children to his everlasting habitations when they are of full age and ready to receive their inheritance Moreover they are the temples of the holy Ghost and with what abundance of love think you will God receive the Saints when they are perfumed all over with sweet odours from Heaven with all the graces of God's Spirit The Spirit here is the source of all Divine gifts for being the prime radical donation of our heavenly Father there is no grace he confers upon us which bears not the image of this first and prime gratuity the Spirit is the pandora through which all other blessings are bestowed upon us Now the Spirit is given to sanctifie those whom Christ hath redeemed and to preserve them to God's heavenly Kingdom whom Christ had purchased and delivered from everlasting destruction God manifested much love to his People on Earth in that his Spirit dwelling in his Saints when it was often grieved by them yet would not leave nor quit his old habitation what abundance of love then will he express to them when he shall find nothing in them that is contrary or displeasing to him Besides the Saints are espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ and that great day wherein they are to be received to glory shall be the full consummation of the Marriage Oh what abundance of love will the Lord Jesus express to his Bride when she shall be brought home to him after a long time of separation one from another With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought unto the King and enter into the Kings Palace Psal 45.15 Though the Church sigh here below she knows her Beloved will keep his word that having had a part in his sorrows she shall have a share in his heavenly triumphs Oh how shall the countenance of the glorious Son of righteousness chear the hearts of God's People at the last day with abundance of joy when he that is an universal Friend shall supply the place of a gracious Lord of a loving Father and act the part of a loving Brother Tu mihi qui conjux pariter scaterque paterque Tu Dominus tu Vir tu mihi Prater eris Ovid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian in Epictet of a Head of a Husband of a Root and be every thing to us Methinks the serious consideration hereof should be a forcible attractive to draw Sinners to Christ and to cause them to receive him into their hearts by faith whatsoever offers the Devil can make them or whatsoever entertainments they may have from the World they are not worth a naming to the magnificent and sumptuous entertainment that the Lord Jesus will give to his Spouse at the last day Oh what a Feast will Christ make for all his Children when he shall bring them all together into the House of his Father and if that word be too strait into the City of the great King and if that be too strait into the World to come where there shall be room enough for them all What comfort may the meditation hereof afford to you that are poor Christians that are now the out-casts of the World know ye though the World exclude you yet Heaven will receive you though the World afford you no house-room but shut you out of doors yet the everlasting Gates shall be opened to you and God shall take you into his own House yea into his own Bosome ye have a Father in Heaven his House is richly furnished and there you shall be sumptuously and royally entertained though the World refuse to feed you with the crumbs that fall from their tables yet you shall eat and drink with Christ at his table in his Kingdom yea he shall be your meat and drink who is the bread of life and the well-spring of Salvation the Lord will think nothing he hath too dear for you but you shall have part with Jesus Christ and share with him in all his enjoyments I have read of Cyrus who never liked any dish of meat but he sent a part of it from his table to his Friends he loved most yea sometimes the very bread and meat he had upon his own trencher with this kind and friendly salutation Cyrus tibi ista quod ipsi fuerint jucundissima King Cyrus sends you this because he likes it best himself and holds it to be most choice and dainty So the Lord will entertain his People with his own glory and felicity whereupon St. Bernard hath this expression Non aurum pollicetur Dominus the Lord doth not promise gold nor silver nor pretious stones but himself he will be their substantial joy and everlasting comfort What tongue or pen is able to set forth that large and kind entertainment that God will give to his Children on that day when they shall see the Lord Jesus like a faithful Shepherd conducting all his Flock to the Fold which was ordained for them before the foundations of the World were laid when they shall see him like a valiant General and triumphant Conqueror riding in the Heavens in the head of his troops and glorious train who shall follow him with Crowns on their heads and Palm branches in their hands Oh the shoutings oh the songs of joy and vollies of praises and Hallelujahs that shall fill the World in that great and glorious day when Jesus Christ shall come in his own glory and in the glory of his Father and of the holy Angels Luke 9.26 CHAP. XV. SECT I. Of the substance of the Saints glory HAving spoken of the circumstances let us now consider more particularly the substance of that glory and blessedness which the glorified Saints shall possess in their souls and bodies and first in their bodies but before I speak of that glory which God will put upon the bodies of the Saints I shall speak of that which goes before it and leads unto it viz. the resurrection of their bodies However God's Children are subject to death as well as others yet they shall be raised again to a state of blessedness and their bodies shall be re-united to their souls For 1. God hath decreed it and it shall certainly come to pass John 6.39 40. Christ saith This is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of
without doors in comparison of this but this is within it is a sin so inward to the Body that it diffuseth it self through the whole Body and makes it wholly a slave and instrument to its lust yea the Body is as it were the object of these sinful lusts they do in a peculiar manner defile the Body What greater indecorum can there be for one that hopeth to have his Body glorified in Heaven then thus to debase and vilifie it upon the Earth Take heed likewise of intemperance in meats and drinks of gluttony and drunkenness for this also dishonoureth the Body takes away the heart and makes it to stick fast in the mire of sensuality and makes a man a stranger to heavenly-mindedness it sets a man below a rational man much more below a spiritual man whose heart whose hope whose conversation is in Heaven St. Paul saith Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them If you expect to have your Bodies lifted up to heavenly glory be not ye Sâ—rvants to the belly and to meats and drinks both which are appointed to destruction Miserable then is the condition of those persons now whose god is their belly whose greatest delight is to pamper their bodies and please their palates that have not the least savour of heavenly things The more heavenly minded any man is the more he raiseth his heart far above these things and denieth himself in them and it shall be no little ground of comfort to a glorified Saint when after the mortification and diligent looking to the senses which continued so short a time he finds himself so wholly immersed in that deep fountain of glory without finding any bottom or end of so many and such exceeding great joys Oh then let us make it our meat and drink to do the will of our Father which is in Heaven using these outward blessings as not abusing them as furtherances and not as hinderances in the service of God eating and drinking for Heaven and whatsoever we do doing all for Heaven that this among other may be one good evidence to our Souls that we are Vessels of Honour prepared for glory fitted for Heaven where we shall be full of God and have no need nor desire to fill our selves with meats and drinks Vse 2. This may exhort us to a patient bearing of all afflictions and present evils be they many be they grievous Suppose your Bodies are as full of diseases as the Body of Lazarus was full of sores they are sick weak crazy deformed blind maimed ulcerous leprous if all these or any of these be upon thy Body bear it patiently for Christ will one day redeem thy Body from all these and make it glorious like to his own Body Vse 3. Be hence encouraged to give up your Bodies to suffer for Christ what evil soever cruel Tormentors through God's permission shall inflict upon your Carcasses if they judge thee to the loss of ears of eyes of tongue of hands yea the whole Body to be burned at a stake or to be devoured by wild Beasts such torments Martyrs have endured willingly submit to all Christ will restore those eyes ears tongues hands or any other member whatsoever which your Adversaries shall pull from you Vse 4. Be not afraid of dying neither let the thoughts of the dissolution of thy Body into dust and the long abode of thy Body in the dark prison of the grave be a trouble to thee God will redeem this Body of thine from the grave saying Give up the dead which are in thee give up my Saints and he will make thy Body to out-shine in glory The Grave is God's Refining-pot where he refineth our vile Bodies it is the mould in which he casteth our glorious Bodies to new mould them it is his Work-house wherein he sheweth his power and wisdom in transforming our Bodies Death causeth the Saints to put off these vile Bodies that they may put on more glorious Finally be exhorted to glorifie God in your Bodies since he will one day make them glorious Bodies 1 Cor. 6.20 CHAP. XVII I Have spoken somewhat largely of the substance of that happiness which Christ hath purchased for the Saints so far as concerneth the Body in the next place I shall speak somewhat of that unconceivable blessedness to which the Soul the principal part of man shall be advanced and here is something peculiar in that glory prepared for the Soul above that of the Body not only that the Soul in its own nature is capable of a greater perfection and excellency then the Body but also in respect of the time for whereas the Body shall remain under the power of Death and corruption until the general Resurrection the Soul in the mean time shall be triumphing in glory so that the Souls of the Saints will come under a double consideration 1. Before the Resurrection 2. After the Resurrection 1. Before the Resurrection when the Soul shall remain seperated from the Body of which I shall speak somewhat briefly because among other wretched Doctrines hatched of old and lately revived this is found to be one viz. that the Soul dieth or sleepeth with the Body and so abideth till the great day of the general Resurrection when it shall be raised again with the Body But two clear Scriptures may be opposed against this Opinion the first is in Heb. 12.23 where the Apostle speaking of the priviledge which the Saints have while they are upon Earth said they were come to the spirits of just men made perfect not the Souls of any of the Saints living on the face of the Earth for they are imperfect for we know in part and prophecy in part but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away Hence then it remaineth that the spirits of just men made perfect must be no other then the Souls of the Saints seperated from the Body and translated unto glory Now if the spirits of just men seperated from their Bodies are made perfect they are not dead for death is the destruction of perfection the Body is never so imperfect as when it is dead a diseased Body is much more perfect then a dead Corpse so then if the Souls of the Saints were dead with their Bodies they should be so far from being made perfect that they should utterly lose those beginnings of perfection which they had while they were in the Body their graces would be extinguished and there would be a loss to them of that enjoyment of God and communion with him which they had here upon the Earth The second place of Scripture I shall produce against this Opinion of the Mortalists is in 2 Cor. 5.6 7 8. Therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be
A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN GLORY A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN OR A TREATISE OF THE Happiness of the Saints in Glory WHEREIN Is Described the Nature and Quality the excellency and certainty of it together with the Circumstances Substance and Adjuncts of that glory the unspeakable misery of those that lose it and the right way to obtain it Shewing also the disproportion between the Saints present Sufferings and their future Glory Many weighty questions discussed and divers cases cleered By William Gearing Rector of Christ-Church in Surrey near Southwark In Regno Caelorum vocabimus videbimus videbimus amabimus amabimus laudabimus id quod erit in fine sine fine Et quis alius noster esset finis quam venire ad regnum cujus nullus est finis August London Printed for Tho. Passenger and Benj. Hurlock at the three Bibles on London-Bridge and over against St. Magnus Church 1673. To the much honoured Sr. WILLIAM TVRNER Kt. and Alderman of the City of LONDON And to Sir JAMES LANGHAM of the same City Knight Grace and Peace be multiplyed Honoured Sirs THe Heathen Philosophers discoursed much of true blessedness yet never knew they what it meant nor wherein it consisted Varro Varro lib. 19. August de Civ Dei cap. 1. Cicer. de finib lib. 1. and out of him S. Augustine saith they were divided into 288 opinions about this one point yet not one true â—mong them all They ran all of them toward his mark but not as they that run in a race â—hey had several Goals but none of them obtained â—he Crown Some of them would have it consist a pleasure so Epicurus thought variety of â—leasure was the only summum bonum the only â—hief good of man but as the Orator said well â—f him it was vox pecudis non hominis the â—oice of a beast not of a man that this was the opinion of the Epicureans is no wonder seeing they acknowledged not the immortality of the soul but thought that the soul died together with the body therefore they placed blessedness in bodily pleasures But the Mahumetans acknowledge the resurrection of the body and after the resurrection the immortality of the Soul and a life that shall never end therefore it is the more to be wondered at that they should place the chiefest good of the life to come in bodily pleasure The Turks in scorn are wont to call Christians dogs but more truely and more justly they may be called Dogs and Swine whose God is their belly and whose chiefest good lieth in eating and drinking and in fleshly delights and pleasures but even Salust In regno voluptatis virtuti non est locus Salust could say that in the Kingdom of pleasure vertue hath no place and the wisest Philosophers have called sensitive pleasures the poison of the mind of the which we must the more carefully beware for that these pleasures are accompanied with a certain sweetness which flatters the Soul at its first approach surprizeth our judgement and charmeth it in such sort as it helpeth to deceive it self These pleasures put out the eye of reason and smother all the seeds of Wisdom and Vertue in man the which they effect more powerfully when they are most violent wherefore a wise man was wont to say that he had rather fall into frenzy than suffer himself to be surprized with pleasures for said he Physicians may cure madness by purging the brain with Hellebore Coesset tabuâ— Human. passion whereas brutish pleasures do deprive man of his judgement without hope of remedy for his infirmity Some again have made blessedness to consist in Honours Dignities Superiorities popular Acclamations and all sorts of preferments but happiness consisteth not in these things these are all very empty things a bladder when it is blown seems to be full when it hath nothing in it but a little thin air a small pin is sufficient to pierce it and empty it of all that is in it so it is with those that love popularity and the praise of men more than the praise of God and receive honour from men themselves in the mean time being strangers to God many of them seem to be full but they are but as bladders full of wind full of vanity a slight occasion is enough to empty them of all their happiness Others would have it consist in wealth and riches So Antisthenes said that he onely was happy that died in the affluence of worldly prosperity but when a man expecteth happiness and satisfaction from these things he findeth nothing less Solomon tells us he made him great works builded houses planted Vine-yards got him Servants and Maidens and had great possessions of great and small Cattel above all that were in Jerusalem before him that he gathered to him Silver and Gold and the peculiar treasure of Kings and of the Provinces c. so he became great and increased more than all that were before him Eccles 2. from v. 4. to 11. Now v. 11. he looks back on all the work and labour of his hands and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and ver 17. he hated life it self because the work that was wrought under the Sun was grievous to him and ver 18. he hated all his labour which he had taken under the Sun therefore these things were far from giving him sound contentment they did rather increase the Disease and make the Soul more restless than before Now if such a one as Solomon that had interest in God did thus far lose that sweet content he had in God by an eager pursuit of these perishing things then much more impossible is it that the soul that never had interest in God should find happiness and contentment in the creature it is impossible for those that neglect the fountain of living waters to quench their thirst at a broken cistern nor can man be made happy by any thing inferiour to himself now all earthly creatures are inferiour to the reasonable soul of man and the substance and faculties thereof doth far surpass all the riches and honours of the world and if man cannot find sound contentment and true happiness in himself it will be in vain to seek it in these things Others there were that came nearest to the point that would have blessedness to consist in vertue and yet alas there were none even of the wiser Heathens that ever knew what true vertue meant and consequently what true blessedness meant They wrote much of some that were excellent among them men renowned and famous for vertue it was said of Cato that he was vertues true image Qui nunquam recte fecit ut facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non potuit who never did any thing well that he might seem to do it but because he could not do otherwise it was also said of him that he was suae fortunae Faber let him live in any time or common-wealth he would make shift
11. A twofold use made hereof Chap. 12. Sheweth how the creatures shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God wherein many questions are propounded and answered Chap. 13. Of the time when the Saints shall be glorified Chap. 14. Of the place of the Saints happiness how Heaven is the house of God and shall be the habitation of the Saints that in this house are many mansions and these sufficient to receive many Inhabitants shewed in three Sections Sect. 4. Sheweth that Heaven is the Throne and Kingdom of God Sect. 5. Sheweth that Heaven is the place where the Saints inheritance lyeth Sect. 6. Sheweth that there they shall receive their reward and what that reward is Some Objections resolved Sect. 7. Sheweth that Heaven is the place where God will give his people a kind welcom and loving entertainment Chap. 15. Of the Antecedent to the Saints glory viz. the resurrection of their Bodies their resurrection proved by seven Arguments Of the personal types of our Saviour's resurrection and the proofs of his resurrection That the same bodies of the Saints shall be raised proved by five arguments An Object answered Chap. 16. Of the glory of the Saints bodies in Heaven Of the clarity agility spirituality impassibility incorruptibility and immortality of glorified bodies and of their sensitive actions and answerable passions which include not corruption And what glorious things may be spoken of the particular senses and parts of the body and of their several objects with the uses that are to be made thereof Chap. 17. Of the blessedness of the Soul before the resurrection when the soul shall remain separated from the body The opinion of the mortalists that the soul dieth or sleepeth with the body refuted Chap. 18. Of the blessedness of the Soul in general shewed in two things Chap. 19. Of the more distinct blessedness of the Soul Of the perfection of the Saints apprehensions and judgments in glory Chap. 20. A description of what things shall be seen in God by the Saints in Heaven and how they shall fully see what God is to themselves how they shall behold the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Man and as the Author and finisher of their faith and how they shall look into the great mysterie of godliness Chap. 21. Of their knowledge of that innumerable company of Angels Chap. 22. Of the Saints mutual knowledge of each other in Heaven Two Objections answered Chap. 23. Of the purity and perfection of the wills of glorified Saints Chap. 24. Sheweth how their affections shall be enlarged composed and rightly placed there Chap. 25. Of the joy of glorified Saints what it is and to what it extendeth it self Chap. 26. Sheweth what affections shall have no place in Heaven Chap. 27. Of the adjuncts of the glory of Heaven that the glorious estate of God's children is a state of liberty shewed in divers respects Chap. 28. Of the eternity of the glory of Heaven Chap. 29. Of the certainty of the Salvation of the Saints Chap. 30. Sheweth that no afflictions shall rob the Saints of their crown of glory Chap. 31. A cordial to them that are in affliction and a preparative to them that are not Chap. 32. An exhortation to Christians to believe the promise of God touching their Salvation and so to lay claim to it Chap. 33. Sheweth how a man may know whether he hath a title to Heaven Chap. 34. Setteth forth the danger of those that are in a state of damnation Chap. 35. An exhortation to offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us CHAP. I. THE Apostle having set forth the work and wages the duty and the reward of the Sons of God shewing that their work is to suffer with Christ their reward to reign with Christ in glory in this Verse he preventeth an Objection which might arise in the mind of a Believer that might discourage him from suffering valiantly and patiently as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ for it might be objected you tell us of glory but that glory is dearly bought that must cost so many grievous trials and afflictions as we are like to meet with yet this is satisfied by setting forth the pettiness of the afflictions of this life in comparison of future glory Be your afflictions never so many be they as great as grievous as can be imagined and endured yet the glory which shall be revealed in you is far greater then all your sufferings The words are a peremptory conclusion in which we may observe 1. The Person making the conclusion I Paul 2. The Things concerning which the conclusion is made the Afflictions of this life and future Glory 3. The Thing concluded that there is no comparison between the one and the other Now for explication of the words I reckon I Paul that have had great experience of the sufferings of this life we may read a narrative of his sufferings 2 Cor. 11.23 ad vers 31. I also that have had this high priviledg above all the Apostles to be rapt up into Paradise and saw such glory and heard such unspeakable words or things which are impossible for a man to utter with his tongue therefore St. Paul's peremptory conclusion is to be credited Rhem. Test 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I reckon This word importeth not a probable conjecture of the Apostle as the old Translation Existimo and the Rhemists would have it which Erasmus Erasm disliketh because it doth not fully express the sence of it who interprets the word reputo I account or resolve in my mind But the word properly signifieth to decree and determine a thing after much reasoning on both sides therefore many render it statuo I do ordain decree or determine and so it noteth a tried weighed and experienced conclusion proceeding from an infallible spirit and judgment and is a Metaphor taken from such as casting an Account do find what the Sum amounts unto He doth not say I think or it is my opinion but it is my reckoning St. Paul did put afflictions in one seale of the ballance and glory in the other and this he determineth that glory doth by far weigh down all our present sufferings This is the matter of his account he instanceth rather in the passive than in the active obedience of the Saints not because it is more excellent or difficult for an ungodly man may be brought to suffer but cannot truly perform a gracious work but because it is more grievous and painful The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passiones translated sufferings includes all manner of evils which we do or can suffer as reproaches cruel mockings scourgings revilings troubles pains diseases hunger cold nakedness perils loss of liberty and life it self These afflictions are said in the Greek
to it An Infant in the day of his Birth may be like the Parents but not equal to them Adam was made in the likeness of his Maker but when he sought to be his equal it was his ruine So great is the difference between likeness and equality that the former the Lord gave him freely but his affecting and seeking the latter was so displeasing to the Lord that he deprived him of the former also so that whereas being like to God he sought to be equal also he became neither equal to him nor like him but contrary to him So in this case the faithful shall be like to Christ but not his equals as the Stars are in some degree like the Sun but not equal in glory and brightness Now 1. Christ being God and Man having two Natures united into one Person each Nature hath a peculiar glory The Divine Nature being infinite incomprehensible eternal the glory of Christ is his very Nature it is infinite incomprehensible and eternal glory it is called light inaccessible The Humane Nature of Christ being a finite being the glory thereof is but finite this glory was given him by his Father God raised him from the dead and gave him glory 1 Pet. 1.21 Our Natures being the same with his Humane Nature we shall be like him in this glory our Natures being capable of the same glory 2. Yet although the glory of Christ's Humane Nature be but as his Nature finite yet this glory doth above all measure exceed all the glory of all the Angels and glorified Saints All the glory of Saints and Angels compared to Christ's glory is no more then all the light of the Stars compared to the light of the Sun The Moon exceeds the other Stars in light but the Sun a thousand times exceeds the Moon and all the Stars and if the Sun be wanting it will be night for all the Stars So one Saint may excel another in glory and the Angels may excel the Saints but yet the glory of the Humane Nature of Christ doth a thousand times exceed the glory of Angels and Saints One reason is because the Humane Nature of Christ is more nearly united to the Divine then Angels and Men the nearer union the greater participation of glory and can there be a nearer union then a personal union such an union is the union between the Humane Nature and the Divine in Christ If a Body that is capable of the light should be united into one substance with the Sun that Body must needs shine more glorious then the distant Stars The Humane Nature is united to the incomprehensible glorious Nature and Essence and therefore far more glorious then all other Moreover that which is the measure of things Quod est primum in unequoque genere est mensura reliquorum must needs be the chief of all those things of which it is the measure that which is the first and chief in every kind is the measure of the rest Now the glory of the Humane Nature of Christ being the measure of our glory must needs excel in glory The Sun being the measure of all the Starry light and all the Stars borrowing their light from him must needs excel the lesser Stars in light Our glory is but a borrowed light it is of his fullness of his grace and glory that we receive grace and glory his human Nature is a vast Cistern full of glory and our Natures are but the smaller vessels receiving glory flowing from this vast Cistern 3. Therefore when the Apostle saith we shall be like to Christ it is meant secundum proportionem non secundum aequalitatem our glory shall be proportionable to his we shall not equal him in glory it is meant quoad partes non quoad gradus we shall have the same glory for substance though not the same in degrees Christ shall so far excel the biggest Vessel of glory as Job in his glorious estate did excel himself when he lay upon the Dunghil full of nasty sores as Solomon in all his glory did excel himself being in his Mothers Womb. 4. Saints shall be like Christ in glory yet notwithstanding one Saint will exceed another in glory God will cloath all his Children alike yet their garments shall be made proportionable for their stature All the Saints shall be vessels of Mercy yet one Saint shall be a larger and more capacious vessel then another Christ in his answer to that curious request of Zebedees Wife Mat. 20.23 implyeth that there shall be degrees of glory and granteth that some shall sit at his right hand some at his left hand in his Kingdom They shall all have the same glory and happiness ratione objecti faelicitatis gloriae non ratione participationis in respect of the object of glory and blessedness but not in respect of participation God in Christ is the object of happiness but in regard of participation of the object one may and shall see more clearly then another In my Father's house are many Mansions saith our Saviour John 14.2 Patris domus is put for one and the same object of glory saith Aquinas Pluralitas mansionum the many Mansions sheweth there are divers degrees of glory And this is his comparison there is but one Centre unto which all things tend but some bodies are nearer to the Centre then other bodies are So God in Christ is the Centre of all our happiness Seneca calleth God Animae Centrum the Centre of the Soul but one Saint tendeth more near to God then another 5. Yet notwithstanding all the Saints shall be full of glory and happiness as Christ Jesus is Christ will give to every Saint his measure of glory Danaeus saith well that there be two things that the blessed Saints want in Heaven Carent omni invidia carent omni rerum ad beatitudinem necessariarum indigentia They want envy one Saint doth not envy another Saint's greater measure of glory because they shall be all full of glory and then there is no want of any thing for whatsoever pertaineth to make a Creature happy every Saint shall enjoy and such fullness of happiness shall he have that nec plus quaerel quam habebit nec minus habere doleit quam habet he that hath the least measure of glory shall seek for no more nor grieve that he hath so little CHAP. IV. Of the reasons why God will glorifie his Children in respect of the Lord himself SECT I. The reasons hereof are as follow 1. GOD hath Predestinated them unto glory 2 Thes 2.13 14. We are bound alwaies to give thanks to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth The Salvation of God's Children is built upon a stronger Foundation then the very Heavens even upon God's Counsel his hand hath written their names in the Book of Life in Characters that cannot be
still keeps its splendor but when the Cloud is gone we see it So Christ in regard of his Deity had this glory always it was hidden from him in regard of the infirmities which he took upon him as sufferings death c. Now Christ our Head being glorified all his Members that suffer with him shall also be glorified together they are now glorified in capite and when Christ hath prepared places for all his Members then he will take them home to his Father's house Christ is now preparing their glory and fitting their heavenly Mansions he is decking their Crowns of Righteousness he is trimming their Robes Christ is now in his own Person glorious but Christ mystical is not glorious it is in a suffering condition there are many of his Members that are not yet brought home to God Christ hath a care of his mystical Body as of his natural Body he gave his natural Body to redeem his mystical Body therefore as he is glorious in his natural Body so he will be glorious in his mystical Body for St. Paul saith he shall come to be glorified in his Saints The Son of God rose gloriously out of his Tomb and after he had given assurance of it to his Apostles he was taken up into Heaven to reign there eternally with his Father the Angels made a part of his Triumph his Body that was pierced with the nails rent with stripes torn with thorns was set at the right hand of his Father on a Throne whose Ornament was Justice and the Foundation Mercy as one well noteth His mystical Body shall receive the like glorious entertainment the Saints shall be admitted into the Society of the Blessed and reign in Heaven with the Angels Those Members that have suffered in the quarrel of Jesus Christ shall be freed from all miseries and reign in glory everlastingly with their Head that the blessedness of Jesus Christ may have its accomplishment and he may be as happy in his Members as in his Person Jesus Christ and his Members are united in their sufferings on earth and by a necessary consequence we may be assured they shall be so one day in their glory in Heaven To this end Christ prayed for his Church to his Father when himself was upon earth The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me John 17.22 24. It is observable that in other things when Jesus Christ speaks to his Father it is with so much respect that he seemeth rather a Servant then a Son but when he asks that his Members may reign with him in glory it is with so much liberty of speech that his Request is rather a determination then a Prayer Volo Pater Father I will that where I am there my Servants may be CHAP. V. Of the quality of the Saints glory NOw that I may set forth the nature of the Saints glory you are to know that there is no specisical or essential difference between our gracious and glorious estate as there is no specifical or essential difference between the Corn of the First-fruits and that of the whole Harvest only some accidental differences as there is no specifical difference between a Child and a grown Man they have both the same essential parts and principles there is only an alteration of degrees not of parts gradus non variat speciem Now our present estate is our Infancy our future estate is our Man-hood for the present the Children of God have glory given them godly Men are for the present glorious the Scripture calls them nothing else but blessed yea even then they are blessed when the world looks upon them as most miserable when shame reproach and trouble is cast upon them then doth the Spirit of glory rest upon them they having grace bestowed upon them have glory Glory is nothing else but the splendour the brightness of grace Vita gratiae nihil est aliud quam aetas infantilis gloriae he that is gracious is glorious We shall have the same individual Bodies and Souls after the Resurrection as we have in this life only some alteration in respect of some new qualities as in our first Resurrection from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness there is no transmutation of the essence but an alteration of the qualities or a super-introduction of new qualities by which we are said to be new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 not in quantity but in quality so in Heaven we shall become new Creatures in respect of what we are now and those very qualities which do principally concur to the constitution of our happiness in Heaven are in some measure communicated to us in our first regeneration now we have drops then rivers of delights Psal 36.8 both the same in nature This will be the more evident if we examine wherein our happiness hereafter doth consist and compa ing it with our present estate Our spiritual and supernatural blessedness consisteth in the fruition of such an object as is perfectly all-sufficiently and principally good which is only God therefore it standeth in our perfect union to and communion with God the faculties of the soul being by the Almighty power of God dilated extended and enlarged so far as to be as it were capable of the fulness of God and by the perfect operations of the understanding will and affections united to God in all their actions and when these natural weak and vile Bodies of ours by the same hand of Omnipotency are transfigured and transformed into spiritual powerful and glorious Bodies and so united to the Soul then are we come to the perfection of our blessedness the properties of which blessedness are First That it is everlasting Secondly That we shall discern it so to be And thirdly That as it fulfilleth the largest desires of our hearts so we shall be extraordinarily affected with it and perpetually affected to it and incessantly desirous of it our glory consisteth not in having what our weak Souls can now wish for but what they can desire when they are gloriously corroborated and enlarged So that now you see there is no specifical or essential difference but only a gradual or circumstantial difference between the state of grace here and the state of glory hereafter for Regnum coeleste est Dei contemplatio glorificatio Gregor Nazianzâ—n Orat. contr Arrian celebratio cum Angelis communis saith one of the Fathers who commonly describeth the state of the blessed to be nothing else but the full and perfect accomplishment of such spiritual blessings as are already begun in us and in part already communicated to us when God shall by a most perfect and immediate irradiation of the understanding and sanctification of the will and affections to know love and delight in God and transformatâ—on of the Body into the likeness of Christ's effect
the everlasting glorification of the whole man Quest But will not this diminish and lessen the excellency of our future estate and make it far less eminent then the Scripture describes it to be 2 Cor. 4.17 and consequently less desirable and the hope and assurance of it less able to solace us against our present sufferings Sol. I answer no for besides the admirable alteration there shall be in our Bodies in respect of their present base condition there shall be a far greater alteration in our Souls though it be not specifical and essential as may appear in comparing the First-fruits with the whole Harvest What is an handful to the whole Crop what is a drop of Water to the whole Ocean what is the light of the Moon and Stars and Candle-light to that of the Sun and yet there is no essential difference between these no more then between a mountain and a mole-hill both having the same common nature God can raise qualities as well as substances to a most eminent and glorious perfection if we in the state of renovation find such comforts as are many times unspeakable and glorious even in this our day of small things that they make us to glory in tribulation and to triumph over the greatest evils in this life how absolute and transcendently ravishing shall our contentment be when we shall be above the reach of all evils and be filled with all perfection Hence we may learn how to conceive of the blessedness of our future estate viz. not to think of it after a carnal manner as if it did consist in eating and drinking sleeping marrying possessing of Silver and Gold and Houses richly furnished and adorned or in a Turkish Paradise in sensual delights and following our sports and recreations but rather in exercises of Holiness and Righteousness in a glorious and heavenly communion with the holy Trinity Saints and Angels as Rom. 14.17 in living a Celestial and Angelical kind of life as Luke 20.35 such as is described Isa 6.2 3. Psal 103.20 Matth. 18.20 Luke 15.7 Luke 2.13 14. A sincere Christian condition and heavenly conversation is an obscure delineation and representation of the happy condition of the glorified and the Saints do even live as it were an Heaven upon Earth they begin to live eternally and blessedly as soon as they begin to be in Christ and if Glory deserveth such great admiration and estimation Grace which is a spark and principle of it can be no mean thing therefore let those that are sanctified in Christ so far magnifie themselves against the insolencies of ungodly men CHAP. VI. Sheweth that the perfect Glory and Happiness of the Saints is invisible for the present SECT I. IN the next place I shall shew you that the full dignity glory and happiness of the Saints is not apparent Now we are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but when he shall appear we shall be like him c. 1 John 3.2 Our Salvation is hid in this life Our life of glory is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 All the flourishing beauty of the Wine is all the dead time of the Winter hidden in the root of the Vine Christ our Head our Brother our Ausband our Saviour is keeper of the Crown of glory it is hid in Christ for the present therefore it doth not appear and it is hid with Christ in God in God objective because of our happiness principally consisteth in the vision of God or causaliter because all our glory is derived from God or else in God that is apud Deum in the power of God to bestow it at his pleasure there is glory and happiness hidden in Christ for us Upon the meditation hereof the Psalmist cries out Psal 31.19 O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee how great it is particula admirativa Bruno Nimis supra quam dici potest admirativè cum nimio pondere Bruno interprets it thus How great is thy goodness it is so wonderful that the tongue of an Angel cannot express how great it is but this goodness is laid up it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thou hast hidden which thou hast in secret preserved so that it is not as yet apparent what goodness it is Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 This St. Paul spake who in that divine rapture into the Third Heaven saw a flash of the Transcendent glory of the Saints The glorious beauty of Heaven and Earth is the object of the eye yet no eye ever saw such glory our ears hear more then our eyes can see we hear of glorious things done in all parts of the World and yet no ear ever heard of such glory our hearts can conceive more then our eyes can see or ears can hear or we can fancy greater things then can be presented to the eye yet we cannot conceive the glory of the Sons of God Our glory doth not appear we have treasures of happiness but they are hidden in the field our Transcendent happiness is like a curious piece of Arras roled up not put down and exposed to the view of men we are glorious Stars but yet we do not appear above the Horizon the Earth doth interpose it self between us and the set Sun and hides his light from us so these earthy bodies of ours do interpose themselves between us and our glory that it cannot be seen The happy and glorious estate of the Children of God doth not now appear 1. Not to the Wicked the glory and beauty of the Saints in this life is internal and spiritual The Kings Daughter is all glorious within Psal 45.13 They are full of riches of glory and strength but it is in the inner man Eph. 3.16 And so it is not obvious to carnal eyes which if it were it would turn the most sensual Epicures into mortified Saints but the wicked want a spiritual eye to discern spiritual glory Gods people are worth Millions of men but they are Gods hidden ones Psal 83.3 The world knoweth them not because they know not God 1 John 3.1 And as Moses his face when it shone had a vail over it so the glory of grace hath a vail over it that not a glimpse of it appeareth to the wicked much less doth the life of endless glory appear to them These things do hide the glorious condition of the godly from the wicked 1. Their outward troubles their outward mean and base condition obscureth their glory so that wicked men think godliness to be a contemptible thing What hid the Majesty of Christ from the eye of the Jews why was he a man rejected and despised among men it was the baseness of his outward condition that hid the glory of the only begotten Son of God he
of evils you can suffer for Christ yet what comparison is there between this death and that life which you shall live in Heaven Had you as many lives as hairs on your heads as a Martyr wished he had had you millions of lives to lose for Christ yet the loss of all these are not worthy to be compared to the life which suffering Christians shall live in Heaven put all together and you shall see there is no comparison between your present sufferings and your future enjoyments of good See what Christ saith Mark 10.29 30. There is no man that hath left House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time c. There is no comparison between your present losses and present gains your present sufferings and present reward your present reward is an hundred-fold more then all you can lose the grace of God is present the savour of God is present the right to Heaven which Believers have for the present is far above all their present sufferings Now if the reward which suffering Christians have in this life be an hundred-fold better then their sufferings then doubtless their glory in Heaven shall be a thousand-fold more transcendent SECT II. II. THere is no proportion or comparison if you respect the properties of our present sufferings and our future glory 1. There is no comparison between earthly and heavenly things your present sufferings are earthly the goods of which you are spoiled are earthly your liberty your houses your lives your joys your ease are earthly things but your glory is heavenly every part every degree of your future glory is heavenly 2. There is no proportion between that which is transient passing away and cannot endure and that which is permanent enduring your present sufferings are transient they pass away they endure not Athanasius said of persecution Nubecula est quae cito transiret There is nothing more transient and swift then time your sufferings pass away together with time they cannot endure always all you which are the subject of them shall not endure always now your glory is permanent it shall abide and endure when time shall be no more 3. There is no proportion or comparison between a moment and eternity a moment a minute and for ever and ever your present sufferings are but for a moment a short space of time your glory is eternal for ever and for ever your pain and torment is but for a moment your ease and rest is for ever and ever your suffering imprisonment is but for a moment your glorious liberty is eternal you suffer death but for a moment your life is eternal what comparison is there between the twinkling of an eye and eternity You say you have suffered long as Asaph you are plagued every morning you have been in bitterness all your days ever since you began to look after Heaven you have been afflicted from your youth up to your age even to the day of your death Grant all this to be true yet thy whole life is but a moment compared to eternity the sufferings of a thousand years is but a moment to eternity yea millions of years are but a moment compared to eternity nor will they pass for so much if we did but consider what eternity is 4. There is no comparison between light things and heavy between a feather and a rock between chaff and a mountain of lead your present afflictions are light your future glory is ponderous and weighty 2 Cor. 4.17 observe what a most elegant opposition the Apostle makes he opposeth glory to afflictions he opposeth eternal to momentany he opposeth weight to light and he addeth a most transcendent expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate it A far more exceeding weight of glory Some by adding some other words do give this sense Our afflictions are out of measure moment any our glory is out of measure eternal our afflictions are out of measure light our glory is out of measure weighty Whatsoever your afflictions are and how grievous soever they are in themselves and how long soever yet they are but light being compared with the glory of Heaven and with the weight of it If you look only on your sufferings and judge of them according to your sense so they are not light but judge of them as opposed to future glory and so they are out of measure nothing 5. Afflictions do not seize on us at all times Christians have their lucida intervalla their moments of ease as well as their moments of trouble their present times of rejoycing as well as their present times and Now 's of sorrowing they even they have their times to sing and dance as their times to weep and mourn Paul had his raptures as well as his pressures David had his time to play on the Harp as times to hang it up and there is no Christian that is afflicted at all times they have their sad Eclipses but now and then but now their glory shall be at all and every moment during eternity they shall have perpetual glory without one moment of shame perpetual joy without one moment of sorrow God will wipe away all tears from their eyes they shall continually sing for superabundant joy of Soul and Body their eyes shall ever see God they shall not see sorrow any more they shall be as the Angels of God who never felt sorrow since their Creation they shall be as very strangers to sorrow as the Damned shall be to joy this present time shall be no more then the afflictions of this present time shall be no more That was an arrogant and false self-deceiving speech of Babilon Lo I sit as a Queen and shall see no more sorrow The godly when taken up into glory shall say it truly now we sit as Kings and shall not see any sorrow no not for a moment whilst eternity lasteth Eternity is nothing else but a perpetual moment of unspeakable and glorious joy and happiness 6. There is no proportion because afflictions are justly due are ye hated of all men ye deserve it and more ye deserve to be hated of God of his Angels for ever Are ye cast by men into Prison into Dungeons ye deserve it and more even to be cast into Hell fire are ye banished from your Countrey friends and acquaintance you deserve that and more ye deserve to be banished from Heaven from your God from your Saviour to Eternity Are ye spoiled of your goods ye deserve it and more even to be spoiled of eternal mercies of eternal Salvation Are your bodies condemned to be burnt or to be cast to Lyons and wild Beasts to tear them to pieces you deserve this and more even to have both body and Soul condemned to Hell fire to be cast to Devils to be devoured ye that sin daily deserve to suffer daily ye that
attend the Sepulchre yet notwithstanding our Saviour who had wrought many miracles upon others hath wrought a greater upon himself the sealed stone iâ— removed the watchmen are deceived and a dâ—ad carâ—cass revived 2. The Antients makâ— Isaac a type of Christ's passion and resurrection as namely Abraham's taking Bâ—â—a in Geâ—es 22. Isidor dâ—â—ccâ—es offic lib. 1. cap. 29. binding and laying his Son upon the Altar was a type of Christ's death and passion and as Isaac carried wood for himself so did Christ Jesus carry the wooden Cross Now will ye see a rising without death or sleep behold Isaac as near the stroke as the hand of his Father arising from the funeral pile he had taken the knife in his hand stretched out his hand to slay his Son and then between the sacrificing knife and Isaac's throat God sheweth favour to Abraham bidding him to stay his hand and a Ram was brought by the power and providence of God to rescue and redeem Isaac from death here was a sacrifice offered yet not slain and though not slain yet accepted Heb. 11.8 Thus Abraham received his Son Isaac from the dead in a figure verse 19. being a type of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead who by the power of his Divinity raised his Humanity from death to life 3. But perhaps it will more gratefully affright you to see a man taught to be buried alive and more yet to out-live his funeral behold then Joseph a most excellent type of Christ Joseph is basely betray'd and sold by his Brethren into Egypt is falsly accused by his Mistress and cast into prison and after three years imprisonment is delivered so Jesus is betray'd to the Jews by Judas his own Apostle Friend and Follower and falsely accused before Pilate by the Jews and is put to death but on the third day Christ is raised up from the dead and as Joseph after his deliverance out of prison is advanced in the Kingdom of Egypt so Christ after his resurrection is glorified in the Kingdom of Heaven Behold then Joseph from the Tomb-stone of his Prison rising into a triumph as eminent as innocency which before had conquered his passion and now his affliction behold in Joseph the mystical Body of our Saviour a Body admirably mortal and incorruptible a Body that suffered rather the Grave then Death 4. Sampson was also a type of Christ as in many things so in these two especially of his his death and resurrection for after he had slept at Gaza when the Gazites compassed him in and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the City that they might kill him in the morning he arose at midnight and carried away the gates of the City upon his back carrying them up to the top of an Hill that is before Hebron carrying away the doors of the gates of the City and the two posts bar and all upon his shoulders So maugre the watch that the Jews set to keep Christ's Sepulchre Vide Ferum in Matth. p. 292. Christ arose with the mystical Gates of Hell and Death upon his back no marvel Hell-gates cannot prevail against his Church together with the Posts and Pillars thereof and as Sampson by pulling down the House upon the heads of the Philistines was avenged of his Enemies so Christ by opening the sealed Sepulchre hath subdued Death yea conquered him in his own Den and Cabin 5. But what more proper type can there be then Christ makes of himself and that is Jonas Matth. 12.40 which is thus fitted and parallell'd Jonah's casting into the Sea was a sign of Christ's Death his being taken by the Fish and received into his Belly a sign of his Burial and his casting on shore again a sign of his Resurrection Three days he lay in his new night of astonishment as if he had found an Egypt in the belly of the Whale and did acknowledge the watry Purgatory at last the grave of the Prophet casts up the living he had surely died had he not been buried here 's a resurrection of this rare Anchorite though not a reviving for he and his Tomb were both alive But the Tomb of our Saviour was as desperate as his Death yet was it not possible that he should be holden of it Acts 2.24 for he arose on the third day from the Grave the Humane Soul of Christ did not of it self return and quicken his Body but his Divinity which rested raised his Humanity that suffered that is by the vertue and omnipotent power of his God-head whereby he is able to do all things he reduced and brought back his reasonable Soul and re-united it to his organical Body and this Body that arose was altogether glorious being void of all infirmities and weakness whatsoever being now no more subject to hunger thirst cold weariness or the like True it is he called for meat after his resurrection Luke 24.41 42. and did eat it truly but not that he needed any meat or nourishment his Body being then immortal Edebat Christus non ut necessitati satisfaceret sed ut veritatem humanae naturae ostenderet Pet. Mart. and impassible but he doth it to prove himself to be really risen again for as when he had restored others to life as Jairus's Daughter Lazarus and others to prove that they were truly restored to life he caused meat to be set before them so to manifest and declare the truth of his own resurrection he calleth for meat and eateth it before them and that it might appear there was no falshood nor forgery in the business he brought not his meat with him but he takes such things as he found them furnished with and which they had provided and although he eateth he doth it not for his own sake by reason of the necessity of nature or the infirmity of the flesh but for the sake of his Disciples for the strengthening of their faith and not for the nourishing and cherishing his own flesh Though the necessity of eating and drinking in glorified bodies be taken away saith Augustine yet it was free and in his power to eat if he would Peter Martyr tells us he did sometimes after his resurrection ad testandam veritatem humani Corporis to testifie the truth of his humane Body as namely his affording himself to be seen and felt of Thomas and others and his eating and drinking with his Disciples And some again ad suam gloriam demonstrandam to shew forth his glory of which sort was his conveying himself from them they knew not how and his coming in among them clausis januis the doors being shut If you demand what became of the meat that Christ did thus eat I answer it was a most easie matter for him that made all things of nothing to cause a little meat and drink to consume and vanish to nothing Stell Enarrat in Luc. 24. Stella out of Chrysostome saith that Christ laid aside all accidental properties in
been exercised in extending themselves and mercy to the poor be for ever bound by the ingratitude of death shall those knees which have bowed with such willing reverence be so held down by the violence of mortality that they can never rise up again Where are then thy tears O David if thine eyes shall not enjoy the happiness of their own sorrow What then O Job is become of thy faith and patience if thy body be now as much without hope as before it was without rest Where are then O Esaias thy victorious sufferings if after the ignorant fury of the saw and schism of thy body thy body suffer a wider disordation from thy soul for tedious eternity Where are thy travels then O Paul if after thy Christian Geography and Conquest of Paganism thou art for ever confin'd to the dull peace of a Grave No the Almighty which hath made man with wisdom of Art will neither lose his glory nor his work but as he made the greater Heaven for his Angels so made he the less and mortal Heaven of Man's Body as I may so speak for his Soul and will have it eternal as his Soul SECT VII THere is more excellency of workmanship in the Soul but more variety in the Body the Soul doth more truly express God the Body more easily the Soul judgeth best but the Body first and though the eyes of the Soul do behold the work of God more clearly yet doth the eye of the Body most properly Nay should not the Body be raised to life and Heaven how great a part of Heaven and that life would be lost whiles not enjoyed and be as unnecessary as it is wonderful God hath prepared joys for the Saints which the eyes have not seen nor the ears heard but which the eye shall see and the ear shall hear and without the pleasure of a trance for ever possess as much without error as without measure such honour will the Creator of our Bodies do to the Bodies of all his Saints They shall acknowledge Corruption yet overcome it they may in their journey be the Guests of the Grave but at last they shall be the Inhabitants of Heaven Yet the Lord cannot hereafter honour Humane flesh by raising it as he hath already by assuming it it was before his Servant now his Companion that was a resurrection of the flesh when it was raised unto God but the only resurrection of our flesh is when it is raised unto the Soul At the last day of Judgement though there be no Marriage of sexes yet there shall be of parts when Souls shall be united to Bodies in so entire and so inexorable a Matrimony that it shall admit no hope nor fear of a divorce nor need we fear in the jealousie of this Match the Ignoble Parentage of the flesh since what it wanteth by Birth is supplied by Dowry and flesh now is become such refined earth being made wonderful in shape and office that the Soul may be thought scarce more noble but that it seems more reserved by being invisible this mortal body shall put on immortality this Body sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption it shall not only be freed from death but also from corruption yea and whatsoever savoureth of mortality or the least decay And notwithstanding these principles of earth fall into such an heap of dust that they are with as much difficulty to be seen as numbred yet thus divided among themselves retaining still though not an appetite yet an obedience to a resurrection Nature hath not lost this and God will supply that and as easily unite as distinguish each dust to yield to this is the Creed of the Creed If any mans faith in the assent to this mystery be as weak as his reason he may help both his faith and his reason by sense by which he shall be either convinced or perswaded If you will be but as hardy as Antiquity you may propose to your selves the solemn Poetry of the Phoenix a Creature rarer then the Resurrection though not so admirable in whose ashes you may find the fire of life expecting but to be fann'd to the resurrection of a flame as if this Creature by a riddle of Fate would by a fire both perish and revive But without the courtesie of supposition you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot forth new quills wherewith may be written and testified his endeavor of immortality thus doth God teach Nature how to teach us mysteries and without the magical learning of the language of Birds to understand without their voice their secret instruction But perhaps you will think that to discern this truth in the nature of Eagles would require a sight as sharp as the Eagles Remove then your eyes from the Fowls of the Air but to the Trees whereon they nest and with a negligent view you may observe how after the nakedness and death of Winter they bud forth afresh into life and beauty yet why should we in the sloth of this easie contemplation study so broad an object let our eye with more grateful industry confine it self with the small seed of corn and at least take the pains to see the pains of the Husbandman and shall we not admire at his delightful Arithmatick of nature to behold a seed whose hope seems as small as it self by being cast away to be found by destruction to receive increase from the same furrow to take both a Burial and a Birth He that shall now see a little drop of man's seed in a glass and a lump of earth together would think the one as unlikely to become a man as the other and yet we see how miraculous and curious a work the Lord makes every day of the principle of seed which made David cry out I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139. and he can easily restore our Bodies out of a praeexistent something which may confute the erronious opinion of the Sadduces who denied the resurrection Matth. 22.23 of the Athenian Philosophers who derided it Acts 17.18 holding the Pythagorean transmigration of Himeneus and Philetus who said the resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 and lastly of all those Atheists and Epicures Isai 22.13 that cry out and say Mors ultima linea rerum SECT VIII BUt now the Soul will have its old Companion again for should the Soul for ever want the Body it should want both perfection and wonder Is not the Soul most perfect when it is most noble is it not most noble when it is most bountiful and is it not most bountiful when it gives life to the dead Is it not likewise most full of wonder when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect when it mixeth with corruption and yet is incorruptible when it is most burthened and yet is most variously active Thus by this necessary inclination of the Soul the Resurrection is as natural in respect of the union as it is above Nature in respect of
the manner But now see the curious zeal of the Soul it will not only have a Body again but in a precise society it will have only its own again not any other new created Bodies but the same numerical and substantial Bodies shall rise again and be re-united to their proper Souls 1 Cor. 15.53 54. Phil. 3.21 Job 19.26 27. St. Paul saith This corruptible shall put on incorruption and Christ shall change our vile Bodies And Job saith in his flesh he should see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me There may be some general alteration in respect of their stature deformities superfluities c. to a glorified perfection but still it shall remain the same essential Body and good reason there is for it 1. The justice of God requireth that the same Body which hath been instrumental in the actions of righteousness or unrighteousness should be rewarded or punished The Godly must receive their rewards according to what good they have done in these Bodies 2 Cor. 5.10 It were injustice that this flesh should be killed and that should be crowned that the same Body in which we served God wherein God was glorified Absurdum Deo indignum ut haec caro lanietur illa vero coronetur ut corpora quae in via sacta fuerint membra Christi in patria aliis suffectis in eorum locum arcerentur Tertul. de Resurrect cap. 56. which suffered for God and was for Christ exposed to all the injuries indignities and torments of wicked Persecutors should be eternally laid up in the dust and another Body should be created to receive the reward due to the Body in the grave 2. Because if God should not raise the very same Bodies of his People in which they lived and served God in their generation then God shall not deal so honourably with the dead Saints as with those that shall be found alive at Christ's coming for their very same Bodies shall be delivered from the bondage of mortality and corruption into incorruption and immortality 3. Because Christ who is the pattern of the resurrection did not rise in another Body but in that in which he was fastened to the Cross in which also after his death appeared the prints of the nails in his hands and the holes in his side John 20.27 Therefore Christ after his resurrection for the cure of Thomas his unbelief whose faith lay in his fingers bids him put his finger into his hands and side and not be faithless but believing It seems those scars remained in Christ's Body after his resurrection Vulnerum signa virtutum insignia Aquinas else how could Thomas see and feel them as he is willed to do But these scars were no blemishes in his Body then they were no signs of defect but ensigns of Victory For as that worthy and renowned Captain Caius Marius being on a time accused of Treason in the Senate tore his clothes and shewed his wounds and scars and slashes he had received in the Wars in the service and for the safety of his Country saying Quid opus est Verbis Vulnera clamant What need is there of my Words my Wounds cry loud enough So Christ might shew his pierced Side goared Hands and Feet not only to shew that it was the very same organical Body of his that was crucified on the Cross but also to shew his love to his People and what he did and suffered for them And when the eleven Disciples were gathered together at Jerusalem Jesus appeared to them and they being affrighted supposing they had seen a Spirit he said unto them Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet it is I my self a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me to have Luke 24.39 40. A Spirit hath not parts members and dimensions as I have therefore you may be sure being infallibly taught by your sense that it is my very Body which you see in which I long conversed with you suffered and was buried which is now truly risen again Whence as Theodoret saith he proveth it was his true Body that was crucified on the Cross that was now raised from the dead 4. Should not the Saints rise with the same Bodies it were no resurrection but a new creation Moreover the same Souls do rise unto Grace from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness which is called in Scripture the first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 therefore the same Body shall rise unto Glory in the second Resurrection 5 Consider that Death in Scripture is called a Sleep a Dream and the Resurrection an awaking from Sleep Psalm 17. ult therefore as the same Body that lies down to sleep at night awaketh in the morning so the same Body that lies down to sleep in the dust shall awake and rise again in the morning of the Resurrection Hence we see that the Soul will have its own numerical Body again for the preserving of such numerical identity there shall be wonderfully restored the substantial union which is but formally distinguished from the parts united there shall be restored a personality and lastly the native temperament which doth contain the individuating dispositions whereby such a matter hath a peculiar appetite to such a form which matter by vertue of such inclination remains as formerly the same though it may be varied by extension as when the Infant shall be raised into a Man the person shall be enlarged but not multiplied Object But that of the Apostle may be objected who saith That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 Resp St. Paul speaks of corruptible qualities of flesh and blood not of the substance of it Identitas formae in quacunque materia consistit q. ex identitate formae consequitur identitas materiae cum materia nullam per se habeat actualitatem sed esse suum accipit à forma Numerica identitas non continetur in sola identitate primae materiae nudae sed etiam identitate corporis humani Durand sent 4. distinct 44. plura de resurrectione Vide Synops purior theol disput de resurrect as is manifest in the last clause of the verse neither doth corruption inherit incorruption But flesh and blood by the Almighty power of God may be without corruption as the Body of Christ was after his Resurrection incorruptible immortal and spiritual not converted into a spirit but to the distinction of a living body that must be maintained by food Luke 24.39 This then may confute those that deny the identical resurrection of the Body and affirm that our Bodies at the resurrection must be aerial of a more subtil nature not consisting of flesh and members such were divers of the Anabaptists of Germany and Socinus with his Followers who call into question this Article of our Creed Credo resurrectionem carnis I
believe the resurrection of the flesh or body SECT IX SEe here the sacred eagerness of the Soul it will neither lose nor change a dust nor will it only possess but adorn the Body In the day of the resurrection mankind shall feel and express a youthful spring the walking-staff and the wrinckle shall be no more the help and distinction of age and Death it self shall suffer climacterical fates Oh how the wonder will almost out-act faith when the Infant and the Dwarf shall be made a proper man when the limbs exhaled with famine shall be replenished with as much miracle as faith when the Child that left its own Soul before it left the Womb shall in an instant without growth be as big as the Mother when sleep shall be commanded from the eye-lids no more by care but by immortality which shall chase Death out of Nature and with importunate triumph cry out O Earth Earth Earth hear the word of the Lord Thy dead men shall live with their primitive Bodies shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for your dew is as the dew of Herbs The Bodies of the Saints shall then have nothing cleaving to them that may in the least degree impair their blessedness darken or blemish their glory St. Paul saith Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might cleanse and sanctifie it by the washing of water through the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish both in Soul and Body Ephes 5.25 26 27. First it is said He gave himself to it that he might cleanse and sanctifie it by the washing of water through the word and that he might not only cloathe it with his own righteousness made over and imputed to it but also that he might really purifie it by the water of sanctification that he might present it a glorious Church to himself not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing It is one thing to present his Church and each Member of it to his Father a glorious Church in himself as a Mediator cloathed with his righteousness as with a spotless robe of glory but 't is another thing to present the Church a glorious Church to himself which he doth without a Mediator for although there be a Mediator between God the Father and his Church even the Man Christ Jesus yet there is no Mediator between Christ and his Church God the Father looks on his Church mediante Christo but Christ looks on the Church immediately and therefore when he presenteth the Church to himself a glorious Church without spot c. it is evident that the Church shall then be glorious and spotless not only in way of imputation in God the Father's acceptation through Jesus Christ his Beloved but also really and in it self although it shall receive all this from the overflowing fountain of Christ's fulness through the freeness of God's love and the riches of his grace and for the greater consolation of the Saints the Apostle saith when Christ shall present his Church to himself as glorious it shall be without spot or wrinkle no spot of defilement or wrinkle of deformity shall be in it nor the least imperfection for what are wrinkles but signs or effects of natural defect when the moisture of the Body is exhausted or consumed Nature beginning to decay and wanting matter to fill up the Body but then there shall be no wrinkle in the Body or defect in the Soul for both shall have their full measure of glory And to this the Apostle addeth those general terms nor any such thing that he might cut off all conceits of any defect imaginable as if he had said Imagine what you can that may in the least degree impair or lessen the glory of the Church I assure you there shall not be any such thing SECT X. ANd we may most easily remember by whom we rise by remembring him by whom we fell yet if we behold the original of their humanity we shall find they were both without sin and that the first Adam had his best Paradise within himself but when he was fallen by the weakness of the Woman that was made for his help never did Woman prove a strong help to Man before the Virgin-mother of Christ God and Man then though the first Adam had eaten up the fatal Apple the second Adam swallowed up Death he had before made the poor Man take up the Bed of his sickness and walk but he himself was the first that ever took up Death's Bed and walked Yet some before our Saviour borrowed a fantastical resurrection as Saul's equivocal Samuel and some rose again in earnest but to die again in earnest as supererrogating Lazarus that paid to nature one death more then he owed but our Lord Jesus is risen with as much perfection as power and with as much power as love and glory The Poetical Chymick tells us plainly of an Alchymistical man at the Earth's centre who by a spherical diffusion of his vertue doth like a subterranean Sun improve Mettals to a metamorphosis which as it is bold in the Fable so by a devout mithology may be modest in the moral this secret Workman shall be our Saviour whose vertue was dispersed into the bowels of the Grave that at his resurrection he improved Carcasses into Saints who rose with him went into the holy City and appeared unto many as the Witnesses and Attendants of his power of which something hath been already spoken Indeed to advance the head without the members were so unnatural that it were rather like an execution then preferment and it were stranger to see a Captain or Leader without his Souldiers then without his Arms Besides were it fit when the Master is risen the Servant should lie still thus then they were raised as much to holiness as to life it was not only a resurrection but a consecration and Christ was the first-fruits of them that rose he had the precedency both in order and vertue The first-fruits under the Law were the first handful as acceptible as ripe by a bountiful mediation obtaining holiness and entertainment for the rest this first offering did commend it self to the Lord rather by the speed then the quantity the Jew offered this at his own home and it was as domestick as his thoughts being a present of eloquent simplicity which at the same time did honour and overcome the Almighty Oh how our Saviour made this figure solid when at once he conquered for us Death and Heaven as I may so speak He was but the first handful of Corn and yet as powerful as small making all the rest of a like holiness though not of an equal But there were greater first-fruits which the Jews went to pay at Jerusalem and as the first were an offering of humility so those of pomp Those did
more set forth the thankfulness of the Labourer and these the magnificence of the Lord. If you will take the words of the Rabbins whom in story of custom we have no more cause to distrust then to feign they will tell you when the Husbandman carried up those Fruits to the holy City he had a Bull went before him whose horns were guilded and an Olive-garland upon his head this was the picture of his Master's affection and state as if by the impetuous Beast he would express the courage of his joy by guilded horns the riches of his plenty and by the Olive-garland the Crown of peace Behold the displayed Herauldry of his happiness and that it might be increased by applauses a Pipe played before him to charge all to take notice of it until they came to the Mountain of the Lord. Shall not these first-fruits be likewise paid at our great resurrection shall they not be brought to our heavenly Jerusalem the City of the great King shall they not have Angels go before them shall there not likewise be Crowns and shall they not likewise be ushered by the voice of a Trumpet It was the sound that the Jews used at their braver Funerals and may it not then fitly be used when they shall be awaked from their Tombs Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if we once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let us no more say that they are dead but that they sleep yet all before the resurrection shall not sleep some instead of rising shall be only new dressed by being cloathed with incorruption and so have rather a change of rayment then of life they shall not put off their bodies but their mortality and be made like unto Christ both in the truth of the resurrection and of glory The Eutychian shall then confess that the two natures in Christ are not mixed though joyned and that his Humanity though exalted is not changed the Pythagorean shall then recover the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond Soul the Sadduce shall then rise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with the eyes of his body see the errour of his Soul the Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seen and it shall certainly prove that it is not everywhere by being not in the same grave whence it was risen that is in respect of his corporal presence for otherwise as he is God he was there and in all other places of the World CHAP. XVI SECT I. Of the glory of the Bodies of the Saints in Heaven and first of the beauty and clarity of glorified Bodies BUt now to speak more particularly of the glory of the Body the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.43 the Body is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory that which is here called glory is by Divines generally termed clarity and this no way varying from the sense of the Apostle for vers 41 42. he saith that the glories of the Saints Bodies in Heaven at the general resurrection shall be different and divers one exceeding another in clarity as one Star differs from another in glory so shall the resurrection of the dead be St. Paul saith in Phil. 3.21 Christ shall change our vile bodies and fashion them like unto his glorious body This is very admirable that a poor sinful Creature should be so changed transformed exalted as to be like the Son of God in glory Our Bodies now are but as loathsome Carcasses what a vile Body had Job when he sate upon the Dunghil what a vile Body had Lazarus when he lay at the Rich Man's gate full of sores When Children are young break out in the face in hands and body there is no beauty in them so sin breaks out in these mortal Bodies and makes them ugly in God's eyes there are many corporal imperfections in mens Bodies now but when Christ shall appear then our Bodies shall be as his Body beautiful and glorious Tradition upheld by reason teacheth us that he was beautiful without art that the Holy Ghost who formed his Body in the Virgins Womb would have it adorned with comliness he consecrated beauty in his Person when he took our nature upon him though he assumed the pain of sin he would not assume the ugliness thereof and as there was no ignorance in his Soul so was there no deformity in his Body His very types in the Old Testament were all comely David and Solomon the one of which represented his Victories the other his Triumphs were both of them famous for their beauty the Angels took upon them his visage when they treated with the Prophets while they spoke in his name they would appear in his form Jacob had the honour to see him when he wrestled with him before the break of day the three Children that were thrown into the fiery Furnace saw him in the midst of the flames But how gloriously did the face of Christ shine at his Transfiguration Christ's face did shine upon Earth and now in Heaven doth shine like the Sun And our Saviour intimateth that the Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Matth. 13.43 Lazarus his Body shall be a beautiful Body he shall have no imperfection Sampson shall then have his eyes which the Philistines pulled out Mephibosheth shall not be lame in Heaven there shall be no imperfection in a glorified Body The Scripture mentioneth some Persons eminent for beauty as David Joseph and especially Absalom who though he had a deformed Soul yet for his out-side was without blemish and had no peer among those many thousands of Israel There was none to be so much praised for beauty as Absalom for from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him 2 Sam. 14.25 But the most exquisite earthly beauty is but skin-deep and but like the painting of a rotten post it is but a fresh colour laid on mortality the foundation of it is weak and crasie and therefore it soon fadeth but he that is like to Christ in holiness shall be like to him in heavenly beauty and glory the beauty of glorified Bodies shall be a shining beauty The expression of Divines is thus As Iron when it is heated in the Fire we cannot see the Iron for the Fire it appears nothing else but fiery so in Heaven we shall not be able to see the Body for the glory thereof and as the Air is now fully possessed with the light so shall our Bodies be fully possessed with glory and the Soul full of the light of glory shall be diffused thorow the whole Body Lessius de summo bono lib. 3. cap 5. and all the parts of it according to the opinion of the Learned therefore it behooveth that the whole Body be resplendent according to the dignity of the Soul inhabiting it Yea it is conceived that the glory of the Soul
shall be seen through the Body in such a sort as the life of the Soul is seen and observed in and by the vivacity and liveliness which it imparts by action and motion to the outward visible parts of the Body Dr. Rich. Sheldon of mans last end and not only did the face of Christ shine as the Sun at his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor but also his rayment was white as the light Matth. 17.2 St. Mark addeth that his rayment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them Mark 9.3 Now his garments did cover his Body yet such was the glory and clarity of his Body that his rayment became white as snow for it became not Christ or the Angels to appear in naked Bodies Cyril Hierosol Catech 18. Cyril of Jerusalem speaking of this point saith The Just shall shine as the Sun and as the Moon and as the brightness of the Firmament And God foreseeing the incredulity of Men Ut Anima ista dum exercet functiones suaâ— in corpore impertit ei colorem totam hanc externam Corporis gloriam ita tum cum Deus erit omnia in omnibus spiritus Christi in nobis habitam induet Corpora nostra gloriosissima quibusque qualitatibus Rolloc in Johan cap. 5. hath given unto little Worms called Glow-worms a shining Body that they might shine therewith that from those things which do appear we might believe what we do expect he that hath made a Worm so to glister will make the Bodies of the Saints much more bright and shining SECT II. Of the agility of glorified Bodies THe Bodies of the Saints in Heaven shall also have a wonderful agility whereby they shall be able to move from place to place with incredible swiftness this agility is a glorious quality whereby the Bodies of the glorified are totally subject to the Souls as to most powerful movers to be moved by them without the least reluctancy or resistance for the Soul shall then as some Learned men say have a most absolute dominion over the Body and by a redundancy and emanation impart to it a glorious quickning and vivacity far beyond that which any mortal Creatures in their bodily heavy parts can have for glorified Souls shall then be made perfect and glorified Bodies shall have more perfect instruments for motion then those which corruptible Bodies usually have and the weight of their Bodies shall not in the least hinder their motion And albeit the same Father saith Certe ubi volet Spiritus ibi protinus erit Corpus that the Body will presently be there where the Soul would have it Yet may we not grant unto the same Bodies any instantanean motion so that in an imagined instant of time they may make any true real corporal motion for time in a proper speech hath no true or real instant either as part or period or end of it self for then a glorified Body must pass thorow the beginning middle and end of a space at once if it move from place to place in an instant which were more then utterly impossible involving a contradiction and would be destructive to the nature of a true Body Yet the motion of glorified Bodies may be very sudden and in so short a time as it were imperceptible Augustine compares it to the Sun-beams August Epist 4â— the which as it were in an imperceptible moment of time do fill this whole Hemisphere with their glorious lustre The Author of the Book of Wisdom saith The Righteous shall shine and as sparks among the stubble they shall run too and fro Sap. 3.7 Whereby some think the agility of the Saints Bodies in Heaven and their facility for motion is figured One saith that its agility will be so great that it will out-pass the winds and lightning it will flie without wings through the spacious Regions of the Air it will walk upon the water and not sink and in a very short time passing from one end of the World to the other will be no longer a clog and torment to the Soul Moreover which way soever they shall move they shall have the glorious presence of God with them in Heaven the Saints live move and have their glorious being in him they live of him by partaking of his glorious life move before him like the holy Angels by a most prompt and ready obedience and are in him being entered into the joy of their Lord. SECT III. Of the spirituality of glorified Bodies A Farther degree of the happiness of a glorified Body is that it shall be spiritual It is sown a natural Body but it riseth a spiritual Body 1 Cor. 15.44 It is called a spiritual Body not as though the Body were changed into the Soul and Spirit for so that which is raised should not be Man consisting of a Soul and Body but a third distinct thing differing from Man it shall not then cease to be a Body it shall change condition but not change nature were its nature changed the mystery of the resurrection of the flesh should be quite taken away and so the same thing that fell should not be raised again Neither is it called a spiritual Body as though the Body after the resurrection were rarified like the Air and Wind as the Eutychians of old affirmed denying glorified Bodies to be palpable but I call it spiritual 1. Because as the Body shall be re-united to the Soul so it shall be perfectly submitted to it as the Spirit serving the Flesh may not unfitly be called carnal so the Body obedient to the Soul is rightly termed spiritual The Soul shall have a more powerful influence upon and dominion over the Body after the resurrection then it ever had or could have in the time of her mortality it shall no longer be the Prison but the Temple of the Soul then the Body shall readily yield to every motion of the Spirit 2. The Body shall be endued with spiritual properties the Bodies of the Saints shall be even as the Angels are now in Heaven they shall be able to live without sleep without eating and drinking without marriage they shall need none of such things as these natural Bodies in this mortal condition do Our Bodies now are but so many clogs to our Souls subject to toyl and weariness but then the Body will have such advantages as will free and clear it from all such corporal imperfections and defections as bodily and corporal substances are obnoxious to the corruptible Body overladeth and oppresseth the Soul and this earthly tabernacle presseth down the mind meditating on heavenly things but in Heaven when the Souls of the Blessed shall see the glory of God and be for ever in the contemplation of him they shall then be freed from all clogs and hinderances that so they may bend themselves with all their might to the contemplation love and fruition of God whose goodness will then be most clearly and fully presented
to them But as for subtilty which properly signifies a property whereby such things as are spiritual have a penetrative vertue to pass through the corpulent parts of any thing that hath a Body having parts and dimensions I cannot see how it can be attributed to glorified Bodies which after the resurrection shall have the same extensive and bodily parts for quantity and material substance as they had before and can no more pierce thorow any true bodily substance which hath the dimensions of quantity as length breadth thickness then they could before their resurrection during the time of their mortality and corruption Although divers of the Antients affirm that Christ after his resurrection entered into the room where his Disciples were the doors being shut John 20.26 by passing thorow the door yet if it were so we may not attribute the same as a thing natural to his glorified Body it having the same dimensions of quantity for fulness of matter it had before but must rather be attributed to the power of his God-head to whom nothing is impossible but I suppose though the doors were shut presently before and after his passage yet they opened of their own accord or by his Divine power at the instant of his passage as Acts 12.10 the Creature giving place to the Creator otherwise we must hold the Body of Christ made a penetration thorow the doors and then there must be two solid Bodies in one place at the same time which were impossible And St. Augustine saith even of glorified Bodies Tolle spatia corporibus corpora non erunt take away spaces from the Bodies and they will cease to be bodies SECT IV. Of the impassibility of glorified Bodies MOreover the Bodies of the Saints in glory shall be made impassible in this life we are subject to many infirmities to thousands of miseries our Bodies are Butts against which miseries and afflictions which are the Arrows of the Almighty are shot but glorified Bodies are subject to none of these they suffer no pain Christ will wipe away all tears from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall flee away and be sent packing to Hell among the Devils and damned Wretches their afflictions are their portion Heaven and the blessed state of the Saints in Heaven is as free from misery as from sin this World to the godly is as the Prison to Joseph as Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace to the three Children as the Lions Den to Daniel this World to the godly is like an House of Correction wherein is much toyl and labour and very much scourging besides We are born to be miserable we shall do nothing else but suffer but we shall be taken out of Prison our Bodies shall be drawn out of the Furnace freed from the House of Correction and no grief nor misery shall evermore touch our glorified Bodies Their impassibility will then free them from all the injuries of the Elements the natural heat which now wasteth them shall no more consume the natural moysture the contraries that compose man will then agree and the Body being no longer tormented with hunger and thirst will stand in need neither of meat nor drink he will be in a state of consistency wherein he will have his just proportion The Apostle tells us that what is sown in weakness shall be raised in power and vertue so that the Body shall not need that propping up as the weak pillars thereof do now need support in this state of mortality But this power is no supernatural vertue making the elementary parts and qualities to be of another nature then now they are for there must be no change nor destruction but only a perfection of Nature neither shall these elementary qualities by the power of God be limited or obstructed in their operations that they shall not fight against each other to their mutual destruction for then the impassibility of glorified Bodies should not be an internal vertue as abiding in the Body which is against the Apostle's intent but only an external assistance of God Aquinas saith Aquin. supplem qu. 82. art 1. that this vertue and power of impassibility floweth immediately from the Soul her self which informing the Body doth so fully and perfectly subdue all the powers and qualities of the same unto her self that no contrary Agent can be able to make any violent impression upon or act violently against the Body either to corrupt or destroy it or in the least to be able to draw it from that quiet and peaceable state wherein it resteth SECT V. Of the incorruptibility and immortality of glorified Bodies FInally the glory of the Body shall be so firm and stable that it can never wither or decay it shall be incorruptible The Body is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption 1 Cor. 15.42 This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality verse 53. The Bodies of the beatified shall then be embalmed with the Spirit that shall cause them for ever to be incorruptible their Bodies shall be made incorruptible and immortal like the glorious Body of Christ these earthly Tabernacles or demicilia Animae must be taken down and then these Bodies of dust must return to dust we must say to Corruption thou art our Mother and to the Worm thou art our Sister and the Soul must suffer a divorce from the Body But when Christ shall appear our mortality shall be swallowed up of life then our corruption shall put on incorruption these vile dusty Bodies of ours shall be made glorious Mansions for our Souls and our Souls shall be for ever united to our Bodies again so that they shall never suffer a divorce from the Body and the Body shall never see corruption any more We shall then enjoy an eternal spring of years which shall never wither our days will pass on yet shall we never feel any decay or declension in our selves our budding verdure will fear no Winter the Lillies and Roses of our Countenances will keep their freshness and as original Righteousness served to Man as a Garment in the state of Innocence so Glory will be instead of a Robe to the Blessed God hath made the Soul of so powerful a nature August Epist 66. ad Dioscor saith one of the Antients that from her glorious happiness there redounds to the Body the vigour of incorruption and so long as the glorified Soul shall be subject to God and the glorified Body be subject to the Soul so long it shall be impossible for any bodily agent whatsoever to have any transient action or impression which may any way change or hurt the same But as St. Paul saith Rom. 6.10 In that Christ died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God so we shall then live with God and unto God as Christ for ever SECT VI. ALbeit glorified Bodies shall be impassible and incorruptible so that they shall not be subject to any contrary or
violent impressions yet may we not deny but that there shall be such sensitive actions of seeing hearing c. and consequently answerable passions which include not corruption as may be fitting for that glorious place each sense shall there have its own proper delight and glory doubtless the Bodies of the Saints shall not be destitute of their senses but be compleatly furnished with most perfect organs and spirits fit for their use and therefore shall have the most perfect use of their senses and verily in vain should the Body be resumed if there might not be the use and delight of the senses seeing the Body of man is not necessary or useful to the Soul but for the use of the senses neither shall there be wanting objects which may be perceived and may delight and refresh the senses 1. Because the Soul is not only rational but also sensitive and in both parts is capable of taking its delights therefore it must not only be made happy in the rational part which shall be done by the vision and fruition of God but also in the sensitive part which shall be brought to pass by the perception of the most excellent sensible objects fitted to every sense 2. The Saints in this life had many grievous afflictions and mortifications for Christ's sake in their senses for the greatest part of the torments which the holy Martyrs endured was in their senses They were tortured they had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprâ—sonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder they were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11.36 37. And the greatest part of the work of mortification lies in the mortification of the senses there is by nature an inordinateness in all our outward and inward senses thence we read in Scripture of a wanton eye 2 Pet. 2.14 Genes 21.7 of itching ears 2 Tim. 4.11 the lust of the palate Numb 11.4 5. of the lust of the nose Prov. 7.18 so of the touch Prov. 7.13 so that we cannot with safety trust them without Job's covenant Job 31.1 or the Prophet Hosea's hedge Hos 2.6 or Solomon's knife Prov. 23.7 or David's bridle Psalm 39.1 Not only the rational and intellectual but also the whole sensitive part of man is subject to lust and much of the work of mortification lies in subduing the inordinateness of the bodily senses so in Heaven likewise the sensitive parts and faculties which have been instruments of the Soul in the exercises of righteousness and in suffering for righteousness sake shall also receive their appointed rewards and consolations which shall be accommodated to every one of the senses 3. This is confirmed by the contrary for the damned in Hell shall be greatly tormented in all their senses the wanton eyes shall always be terrified with the sight of ugly Devils which should they behold here when they are alone would almost scare them out of their wits the delicate ears shall be affrighted with the horrid noise of damned Ghosts crying and roaring out with doleful shriekings cursing the day that ever they were born they shall famish and pine away for ever without one bit of bread to stanch their hunger and without one drop of water to cool their tongues tormented in the infernal flames your dainty delicate persons that now cannot brook the least unsavoury smell shall lie down in a stinking dungeon in a loathsome lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever Now if the Damned in Hell shall be so grievously tormented in their senses then shall the senses of the glorified Saints be exceedingly refreshed for God is not more severe in punishing then bountiful in rewarding SECT VII HEre let us consider some of the particular Senses and parts of the Body and take notice what notable things might be spoken of them 1. The Eyes those windows in the upper story how lightsome shall they be and what high and glorious objects shall they behold the Eyes shall then be renewed and made more bright and clear then the light of the Sun the very act of seeing shall be most clear and perfect they shall be freed from all darkness dimness obscurity and defect no glorious object shall dazle the eyes of the Inhabitants in Heaven for the brightness of the heavenly Bodies shall not trouble the spirits of the eyes as the light of the Sun troubleth them now but shall most sweetly strengthen them We may conceive that those that are in this place of blessedness at one single aspect may perfectly see from one end of the Heaven to the other there being no defect in the objects medium or organ or any thing to intercept the sight the objects being so transparent and glorious here we may see a Star in a dark night at many thousand miles distance but as the objects in Heaven shall be most glorious so the eyes of the Saints shall be enabled perfectly to behold them Again the medium shall no way be defective here the thickness or darkness of the Air often dulls our sight but in Heaven there shall be nothing but a perfect serenity round about them as in Hell is utter darkness so in Heaven there shall be most perfect light The organ also the instrument of sight the eye shall be wholly free from all dimness and be able to discern any glorious object presented to it it shall be free from weakness able to bear the brightest splendor nor shall it be any way offended with the glory of any visible thing though never so transcendently glorious I shall now speak of the glorious objects which the bodily eye shall behold in Heaven I. It shall behold the glory of God himself in a most glorious manifestation of himself to it It is a question whether we shall see God with our bodily eyes But I will not burden you with variety of opinions but take these things in answer to the question The sight of God in Heaven is to be referred to the understanding to the eye of the mind not to the eye of the body The Reasons of it are these Reas 1. Because the Divine Essence is most spiritual therefore it altogether exceeds the power of bodily eyes though glorified and raised to a far more admirable ability to discern far above what now it possibly can see Potentia organica ultra corpora non potest extendi by the sight of sense with our bodily eyes we can only see corporal things and materially bodily objects and so we cannot see our own Souls much less the Essence and Substance of God Reas 2. Because the Apostle saith of God that he is absolutely invisible 1 Tim. 6.16 whom no eye hath seen nor can see namely with bodily eyes And though it be said of Jacob that he saw God face to face Genes 32. and that God talked with Moses mouth to mouth as a man talketh with his friend Numb 13. yet they saw not
God in his nature essence and substance wherein he is invisible but in some visible created form which it pleased him to assume and wherein he appeared to them Athanasius saith that they saw God in some manifestations of himself but not in his own nature so it is conceived that the Servants of God even after this life when they be perfectly sanctified and glorified shall not see God the Father and the Holy Ghost in their essence for they shall still have their true bodies and true eyes and therefore they shall see but their proper objects Reas 3. Because the Angels who have no bodily eyes and stand continually before the Lord and the blessed Souls of Saints in Heaven do now see God and yet have no bodily eyes wherefore their sight of God is only mental not ocular Reas 4. Because the Apostle expresseth the seeing God face to face by perfect knowledge 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known where to know God as he knows us is to see him face to face II. Although we shall not see God with our bodily eyes yet notwithstanding the glorified organ of a glorified body informed by a glorified Soul shall have most glorious objects to look upon in Heaven as 1. Heaven it self is a most glorious sight for our glorified eyes what a glorious sight is the outside of Heaven bedeckt with the Sun Moon and innumerable Stars if the outside be so glorious what is the inside wherein the glory of God is displayed if the porch and pavement of this Palace be so glorious what then is the Presence-Chamber It was Chrysostom's wish that he could see Christ in the flesh Paul in the pulpit Rome in her glory In Heaven you shall see Christ not in his state of humiliation but in the highest degree of glory not Paul in the Pulpit but Paul sitting on a Throne of glory not Rome but Heaven it self the heavenly Jerusalem in its fulness of glory 2. These eyes of our bodies shall see the glorious man Christ Jesus in whose Humane nature as in a glass God will in an ineffable manner manifest the glory of his Divine essence hence the Apostle calls him the brightness of his person the beam the splendour of his person In Rev. 21.23 it is said The City hath no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the Glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof that is Christ himself is the light by which we shall see God Oh what a glorious ravishing object will Christ's body be to the eye A Philosopher was so ravished with the Sun that he thought himself made for no other end but to look upon the Sun Christ's Body in Heaven is a thousand times more bright then the Sun Non in forma servi sed in forma the Sun is blackness of darkness in comparison of it here we see Christ as he will manifest himself to us otherwise but there we shall see him as he is 1 John 3.2 Ferus expounds the words thus we shall know him as he is that is Ferus in 1 Joan. 3.2 saith he we shall know Christ no more under the notion of a Servant we shall not know Christ as the Son of Man but then we shall know him as God as he is the Son of God the King of glorious state the Lord of glory Cajetan Cajetan in loc saith that this particle sicut as he is excludit omnem visionem per representans excludeth our knowledge of Christ from any thing that represents him sed sicuti est sicut ipse seipsum offert i. e. we shall know him by himself and not by the creature or any thing whatsoever Much of Christ is discovered here in the Word in the the Gospel and in the Ordinances and great manifestations of Christ are made to the Souls of his People by the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation but all comes short of this when they shall see him as he is in himself see him face to face as Friends talking together do look one another in the face so shall Christ and godly Men see one anothers face There 's a great difference between the sight of a Picture though it be a true Picture of a dear Friend when he is many hundred miles distant from us and the sight of his own face far more blessed shall the Children of God be when they shall see Christ as he is then now they can discern him while they are in the body and absent from him and can see him only by representations If old Simeon when he saw Christ as he was in his infancy embraced him in his arms and said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luke 2.29 How then shall the sight of him as he is transport the Souls of the Saints with unspeakable joy and admiration if it were so delightful to see Christ in his infancy in his swadling cloathes what joy will it be to see him in Heaven all glorious if the fight of Christ in the types and promises which were but prefigurations of him were so sweet to the Saints of old what will the sight of Christ himself the Antitype be Abraham foresaw by the eye of faith the first coming of Christ in the flesh he saw my day afar off saith Christ and was glad Qui bona egerint fulgebunt sicut Sol cum Angelis in vitam aeternam cum Domino nostro Jesu Christo videntes eum semper ab eo visi incessabili laetitia quae apiso provenient perfruentes Damascen lib. 4. de Fide John 8.56 Much more glad would he have been with old Simeon to have seen Christ himself If John Baptist leaped in the Womb for joy at the presence of Mary the Mother of our Lord how will our hearts dance for joy when we shall see the Lord Jesus himself in his great Majesty and glory if it be sweet to behold him in his Image and in his People who are but shadows of Christ if sometimes an heavenly vision of Christ hath driven a man into an extasie and hath ravished him out of himself Oh then what shall it be to see him as he is if the inward sight of him by a few beams darted upon us by this glorious Son of righteousness doth transform us from glory to glory Oh how will it then ravish our hearts when we shall have both an ocular and intellectual sight of the Lord Jesus Oh what running thronging and posting was there to see Christ when he was upon earth in his state of abasement Zacheus being a man of a low stature climbed up a Sycamore-tree that he might see Jesus passing by Luke 19. what then will the sight of Jesus be when you shall see the Son of man coming in power and
findeth such a wonderful change in the Body transformed unto such a glorious perfection even as it is a great refreshment to the mind of a man after a perfect cure to find the Body lightsome full of spirits and in perfect health after a lethargy or some other dulling disease that hath debilitated nature exhausted the spirits and indisposed it for action Then shall the happiness of man be perfect when a glorified Soul shall be united to an immortal Body and mutually communicating all their advantages the Soul shall be happy in the felicity of the Body and the Body happy in that of the Soul all their differences shall then be composed in this general peace the Soul shall then forget all the revolts of the Body nor shall the Body any more complain of the severities of the Soul but both of them remembring only the good they have done each other they shall reign in Heaven in a community of glory CHAP. XIX Of the more distinct blessedness of the Soul SECT I. Of the perfection of the apprehensions of the Saints in glory LEt us now more distinctly consider of the blessedness of the Soul first laying this general rule that it shall be perfect for the Apostle plainly sheweth that the Spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12. Now the perfection of the Soul principally consisteth in the knowledg of God Now there is Scientia directa intuitiva a direct knowledg of God upon view and sight Now this is either perfect or imperfect A full and perfect knowledg of God himself none hath but God himself no creatures no man no Angel is capable of it God himself fully and perfectly seeth himself which no other can do for a full and perfect knowledg of an infinite Beeing is infinite as that Beeing is He that hath a full and perfect knowledg of any thing whatsoever it be hath the full measure of that thing in his understanding which he fully and perfectly knoweth Now what is the shallow and narrow capacity of any created understanding of Man or Angel that it should measure the infinite essence and excellency of the God-head it is not so much as a spoon to the Ocean and there is less disproportion between the water of the Sea and the capacity of a spoon then the understanding of Man or Angels and the infinite majesty and excellency of God Now God knoweth himself fully and perfectly in himself If the Sun-beams were animated and living creatures endued with reason how clearly and perfectly would they know and see through themselves every way being altogether light and transparent God is the light of lights a most pure bright and glorious Beeing and he is of infinite wisdom and so fully and perfectly knoweth himself On the other side there is a knowledg of God direct and intuitive or upon view which is not perfect and this is of those blessed Creatures already possessed of glory such knowledg have the Angels who see God face to face as our Saviour saith Matth. 18.10 The Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven They do not only see his back-parts as Moses did but his face by an immediate view beholding the beauty and glory of the Lord. Whether the Saints departed before the resurrection of the Body do thus see the face of God I determine not doubtless they do already enjoy a great degree of blessedness the fruition whereof is more sweet for one day then the enjoying of all the World for a mans life howsoever after the resurrection when they shall be fully possessed of glory they shall see the face of God as the Angels do Job 19.25 26 27. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and not another c. So David compareth the temporal prosperity of Worldlings which they enjoy in this life with the blessed estate which he expected after the resurrection of the Body he calleth them Psal 17.14 15. Men of the World which have their portion in this life and whose belly the Lord filleth with his hid treasures which are full of Children and leave the rest of their substance to their Babes This was their seeming happiness all worldly and temporary Now on the other side he speaketh of his own condition As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness He cared not for those hidden treasures locked up in the mines and bowels of the earth nor for a portion in this life nor for large portions for his Posterity c. but to behold the face of God in righteousness to see him face to face which he was assured of by faith and so to be satisfied with his Image Object But why is this knowledg said to be imperfect sith the Apostle speaking of this glorious condition of the Saints saith That then that which is perfect shall come and that which is imperfect shall be done away Sol. I answer this knowledg of God which the Angels have and the Saints shall have in God himself is Perfect in regard of the Subject in which it is Imperfect in regard of the Object of whom it is Perfect in regard of the Subject and that in two respects 1. Because it filleth the understanding and satisfieth the spirit with a fulness of light resulting from so glorious an object so that the Soul hath a beatifical vision of God so far as it is capable And as the eye is refreshed by an object fitly proportioned and hurt or dimmed by a disproportionable eminency or excellency in the object surpassing its strength and ability so the Soul perfected and glorified and the Angelical Spirits have such a knowledg of God in himself as filleth them not such as confoundeth them and this is perfect in regard of them because it is such a perfection as they are capable of and can contain 2. It is perfect in respect of the subject in which it is in that it is as much as is due and requisite to make their happiness compleat and perfect without any defect it is so perfect that they need no more knowledg of God then that which they have and who can deny but that this is a perfection of knowledg in respect of the subjects they are as blessed every way and so especially in regard of the knowledg of God as such creatures can be and that is a perfection though relative and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they say in relation to the subjects in whom it is Secondly on the other side this knowledg which these glorified spirits have and shall have of God in himself is imperfect in respect of the Object of whom it is viz. God whom they know in himself that is it is not a knowledg matchable to the infinite essence and
have no hope such as are all that are imbued with those Epicurean principles of the Soul's Mortality and it's resolution into nothing such mens sorrow finds no case because that good whose absence they bemoan in their opinion is irrecoverably lost and to shake hands with a dying friend is with them as much as to bid them everlastingly farewel But a Christian's tears like drops from a cloud may sometimes fall they must not like a River be alwayes running He may sorrow because he is parted from some good suppose from a loving friend bur this sorrow must be tempered with this hope that he shall see his friend again and that good which as yet continues the object of his sorrow while considered as stoln and taken from him must after a while become the subject of his hope and comfort being put in mind that God who for a time laid it out of his sight will restore it back again unto him This the Apostle alloweth to be his meaning by bidding us comfort one another with these words for if otherwise it would fully answer the Apostle's meaning to say it is enough that God raise those that sleep to glory though he exile them from a mutual knowledge of each other Then let us see what comfort this interpretation can afford to a pensive and lamenting Soul which may suggest unto it self on this wise God will restore my friend unto himself but not to me he will bring back the Jewel into the Cabinet but will lock it up from my sight he vvill restore the thing but not repair my loss and it seemeth all one to me to lose him in an eternal nothing and not to be allowed to know that he is a glorious somthing now what comfort can we place in such a meditation This perswasion of a restauration to a mutual knowledge of each other containeth also some advantages and motives to a Godly life for the fear of being eternally divided from those I sincerely love on earth will draw me to an imitation of their sanctity if herein they be exemplary or give me the courage to lead them into the way if their course be irregular and exorbitant for those who unfeignedly desire to meet at the journeys end will study to preserve each other in the way and they who would wear the same crown of rejoycing in the presence of Christ will assist each other here that they perish not in the agony and conflict it gives an edge and sharpness to those affections which are employed for each others good when we consider that that heat and fervency which they spent in desire and travel for one another shall be turn'd into an excess and extremity of delight in each other The Egyptians embalmed the Carcasses of the dead to preserve them if it were possible through all the parts of time being guided by an opinion that so long as the body continued undissolved the soul would not forsake the earth but continue hovering about the place where the bodies lay in like manner the Souls of men which by many kinds of association may be united into one masse and heap and as it were become parts of one another will continue the more vigilant and active for each others everlasting welfare so long as they are perswaded against an eternal divorce and dissolution and do contrarily believe they shall be rewarded by a sense of each others happiness and that that union which is among themselves as of one member to another shall not be dissolved but perfected by that union which shall unite them to Christ as to their Head and through him unto God CHAP. XXIII Of the perfection and purity of the wills of glorified Saints IN the next place I will shew how the wills and affections of glorified Saints shall be raised to a fulness of glorious perfection now it is evident God must be first gloriously united to the Soul and her powers before she can by her understanding see and by her will and affections love and embrace God in Heaven God shall be immediately united to the very nature of the Soul her self which is chief in man yea formally man which can be no otherwise done than by a glorious change and immutation made in the Soul it self by communicating to her by grace a glorious and perfect estate of participated eternity which is the root and foundation of all that most glorious exercise about which the Saints in Heaven are conversant This being so the wills and affections of glorified Saints shall be perfectly pure and holy without the least tincture of defilement they shall be holy as God is holy not infinitely holy but perfectly holy without mixture of any thing contrary to holiness their wills shall suit and meet exactly in every thing with the pure and holy will of God they shall will what he willeth and nothing but what he willeth their wills shall give full consent to the will of God in all things There shall be compleat holiness in the will our wills like to the will of Christ shall be altogether conformable to the will of God we shall fulfil the will of God the conformity of our wills to God is the glory of our wills which in this life are like Nebuchadnezzar's Image partly clay partly gold here we are partly regenerate partly unregenerate but in Heaven we shall be all gold all holy glorified Saints shall never find any grudgings of their old diseases sin and corruption in them in the least degree they shall see themselves perfectly cured of all the sicknesses and distempers of their Souls they are no longer constrained to resist the motions of the flesh because this Rebel is subdued and losing in the resurrection what ever they drew from Adam in their birth they have now none but just and holy inclinations the Spirit of a glorified Saint is now no longer busied to maintain a war against sin because this monster cannot set its foot within the gates of Heaven he groaneth not now under the revolt of his passions his will cleaves to God as strongly as he can desire CHAP. XXIV SECT I. MOreover the affections of the Saints in glory are much enlarged and are most quick and lively our affections in this life are subject to distractions but then they shall be composed and rightly placed 1. In Special the Saints shall love God with all their hearts Sicut magnes impetum quendam imprimit ferro quo illud ad magnetem trahitur ei se arctè jungit ita Deus clarè conspectus impetum quendam imprimit animae quo ipsa potentissimè in illum trahitur Lessius de summo bono Ca. 11. with all their souls with all their strength from the cleer contemplation of God presently there ariseth in the blessed a love which most powerfully draws them unto God and the greater any good is that is propounded so much the more strongly doth it draw the affection to it especially if it be
cleerly discerned But God is a good of infinite excellency containing all things which the Saints can desire and is cleerly discerned by them therefore he most strongly draws their affections to himself They shall in Heaven see so much excellency in God and be so fill'd with his love that their hearts shall be full of holy flames of love toward him there shall be nothing either within them or without them to draw away their love from God or lessen or cool their affections toward him all things that they shall see or hear or understand shall serve to fill them with his love and keep up and confirm their love in the height of it for ever they shall be so fully like to God that it shall be impossible for them not to love him perfectly God shall dwell in them and they shall wholly possess him and they shall dwell in God and he shall wholly possess them they shall be knit to each other in mutual love to all eternity The principal employment of the Saints in Heaven is to love God and all the vertues in Heaven are useless except charity and enjoyment which is the rest of love and is also its recompence saith S. Augustine for as desires do disquiet lovers when they possess not what they long for so being now in the possession of him whom they love they are satisfied The love of the Saints in Heaven is much perfecter than ours upon the earth whatever pains we take to love God on earth our love is never without some notable defect to enfeeble it iâ— is blind because faith that enlightens it is as one saith a candle whose lamp is alwayes surrounded with a cloud or smoak it is faint and drooping because we possess not the supream good we passionately affect and being separated from him we are as well his Martyrs as his Lovers Here our love is also divided because self-love is not yet extinguished and the greatest Saints if they mannage not their intentions well do rob God of all the love wherewith they indulge themselves In brief it is almost ever interested we love not God so purely as not to seek our own pleasure with it when we seek his glory and we are more earnest with God for riches and honours than for heavenly graces but the Saints in glory have not one of these imperfections in their love their love is not blind because they love him whom they see and the brightness of glory that illuminates them is a ray dispelling all the darkness of their understandings it languisheth not as ours doth nor spends it self in its longings because they possess what they love and being intimately united to God are eternally inseparable from him their love is not divided because self-love enters not into the celestial Jerusalem but is quenched by the flames of true charity finally it is not interested because God's glory is the end of their desires yea in Heaven it self they seek not so much their own happiness as his glory SECT II. 11. AS the Saints shall love God entirely so they shall love each other in the Lord they shall see the Image of God shining cleerly and gloriously in each other and so shall love God in each other and each other in God Peter shall admire Christ in the glory conferred on Paul and Paul shall admire Christ in the glory conferred on Peter The Saints shall find themselves all agreeing in God and so among themselves they shall see nothing in any of their brethren but what shall be most lovely nothing to estrange their hearts or damp their affections they shall not be capable of any touch of envy for every one of them shall be full of glory and blessedness And albeit some have higher degrees of glory than others yet this causeth no emulation or jealousie among them The variety of the world as one observeth is one of its rarest ornaments the flowers which checker a walk do embellish it the Stars which make an hundred several figures in the firmament do set a lustre upon its beauty neither doth any thing make a Countrey more pleasant than the diversity of the parts that compose it the riches and glory of a state dependeth upon its diversity if all subjects were of the same condition there would neither be diversion for strangers nor accommodation for the naturals The ornament and profit of the body politique appeareth in this agreeable mixture of rich and poor Artists and Husbandmen Souldiers and Merchants Magistrates and Ministers but here is the mischief that attends it that this variety of conditions which begets its beauty breeds envy and jealousie among the subjects for as their goods are not common because their conditions are different one is jealous of what another possesseth Great men are apt to be proud and to despise their inferiours Men of low degree are envious and murmure at those that are above them But in Heaven the difference of degrees produceth their beauty and giveth no occasion of envy or jealousie the Crowns of glorified Saints are proportionable to their labours and sufferings for Christ They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the Sun Dan. 12. Peace bears rule among all the Inhabitants of Heaven love which uniteth them renders their contentment common though the justice that rewardeth them maketh their condition gradually different Every one is glad of anothers happiness and without interesting in any one they find that the felicity of particulars contributeth to that of the publique In Heaven love is in its full perfection Ludovic granat Meditat. the property whereof is to cause all things to be common there all the elect shall be more straitly united to one another than the Members of one and the same Body because all shall participate of the same spirit which gives unto all one and the same being one and the same blessed life What is the cause why the members of one and the same body have so great an unity and love one to another is it not because they are all partakers of one and the same form one and the same Soul giveth the same being and life to them all Now if the spirit of a man hath power to cause so great an unity between the members that are so different in Offices and Natures is it any wonder if the Spirit of God Almighty by whom all the Elect do live which Spirit is as it were the common soul to them all should cause a greater and more perfect unity among them especially considering that the Spirit of God is a more noble cause and of a more excellent vertue and power and gives also a more noble being now if this manner of unity and love do cause all things to be common as we see in the members of one body who rejoyce every one at each others felicity as its own what delight then shall each one of the Elect take in the glory of all the rest considering that he shall entirely
this life and they shall also have an everlasting enjoyment thereof 2. They shall likewise rejoyce in the good things of the mind and chiefly in the perfection of all their graces and that cleer knowledg they shall have of all things which shall wonderfully delight them They shall also be much affected with joy from the consideration of the evils and dangers as well temporal as eternal which they shall then perceive themselves to have escaped from the danger whereof they shall see themselves to be secure for ever and beholding the horrible fire of Hell and the numberless multitudes of those that are cast into everlasting burnings and the danger to which themselves were exposed how shall their hearts be fill'd with joy upon the meditation of God's infinite mercy by which they were saved from everlasting destruction and carried in safety into the Port of eternal blessedness 3. They shall likewise rejoyce in the glory of their bodies when they shall perceive their bodies to shine as the Sun to be swift as it were like lightening to be like a Spirit immortal incorruptible impassible 4. They shall rejoyce in the amiableness of their habitation seeing themselves now translated from Earth to Heaven into the glorious Kingdom of Heaven into the Paradise of all delights into the Region of light into the Vision of peace into the Land of the living into the celestial Jerusalem into the place of the Blessed a place abounding with all delights and with all good things and void of all discommodity grief and sorrow out of every one of these good things of their own ariseth to them unspeakable joy SECT III. FUrthermore they shall rejoyce every one in the good things of each other and in the felicity of all their companions for they shall most ardently love all as the Sons of God and their own Brethren and Sisters and fellow Heirs and withall they shall rejoyce in their splendour glory excellency wisdom vertues blessedness as in their own and that much more than any Parent in this life can rejoyce in the felicity of his Children or one Friend in the prosperity of another Quest But with what affection shall the Parent and the Child the Husband and Wife and one Friend greet another in Heaven Sol. We must not surely imagine that any of these conjugal or paternal affections which had their consummation on Earth can be of any use in Heaven nor that there shall be any return of by-past and mortal affections towards Friends Kindred and Children but as the body must put on incorruption and immortality e're it can be a fit companion for the Soul so must the soul likewise be devested of all such desires as are apt again to wed it to earthly and transitory delights before it can be received into the blessed communion of the Saints and as the Soul shall assume the hand the eye and every member of the body unto a participation of glory without soliciting them again to undergo the fore-past drudgeries in the flesh so the Father and the Child and one Friend may behold another without the intimation of such duties or any resultance of such mortal desires as are implied in those relations But as the Soul is permitted to resume its own body rather than another and reason exacts it should gratifie that flesh whose inmate it had been rather than another so likewise those persons whom some nearer relations had formerly united may be conceived to retain so much partiality in the dispensation of their joy as in the first place to rejoyce that they are again united in the participation of glory excluding none from being an argument of their joy but preferring some in the order of their rejoycing but it may be that this affection must comply with the justice of the divine bounty and that we shall there bestow a greater measure of our joy where he hath been pleased to confer a greater portion of his glory It would seem unreasonable that the Soul alone should inherit that glory which was procured perhaps by the torments and sufferings of the body as in holy Confessors and Martyrs and the same reason which makes the Soul and Body sharers of the same happiness begets a mutual claim among the Saints to each others joy for one man may be a powerful Instrument of another's blessedness the Father's care may preserve the Child and the piety of the Son may enflame the Father the Mothers tears may reduce the perverted Son the believing Husband may save the unbelieving Wife and one Friend may with happy success instruct admonish rebuke and pray for another Now is it more reasonable to think that these immortal benefits and obligations shall be promiscuously and undiscernably swallowed up in the Sea of glory or to say that these parties whom it may concern shall see each other face to face some gratefully rejoycing that the Instruments of their Salvation like Stars of a greater magnitude are more eminently glorious others alwayes rejoycing in beholding their labours so highly bless'd as to have procured the endless bliss of their fellow-creatures Our Saviour tells us what joy there shall be for the conversion of a Sinner in the presence of the Angels who by reason of their nature are strangers to us if Angels who are in the presence of God and but of a remote alliance to us be as it were turned aside from the contemplation of the chiefest good to behold with joy a repenting Sinner shall not men who are of the same stock and lineage be much more allowed some expressions of joy suitable to the greatness of the wonder when they behold one another no longer repenting Sinners but glorious Saints In those parts of the world near the Line where the Sun is near them all the year they are said to have no Winter the Earth and Trees being alwayes green as in a perpetual Spring so the Saints in glory upon whom the face of God and Christ shall shine for ever shall never see one cloudy day one winters night nor feel any sorrow or discomfort but shall enjoy a constant plenitude or fulness of joy as a perpetual Spring for ever To conclude the frame of their bodies and spirits the place of their abode their company the objects which they shall see and hear all things within them and without them shall concur to make their joy compleat and to cause their hearts to rest in everlasting peace CHAP. XXVI SECT I. AS for the affection of desire it shall have no place in Heaven the infinite sweetness which the Saints shall tast in God and Christ and in the love of God and Christ shall abundantly satisfie them and leave no place for desire their perfect enjoyment of God shall admit no hungring or thirsting after further delights they shall find it is enough they shall be fully satisfied but never cloyed nor satiated Whence S. August saith August Tract 3. in Joâ—n such shall that delight of beauty in
utter darkness but through God's permission Satan's chain is sometimes lengthened but then no more lengthening now he walketh up and down assaying to devour and seeking whom he may devour but then he shall walk no longer the Saints shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth and shall not in all their walks meet with a Devil to tempt them to any sin whatsoever 5. The state of glory is liberty from death from the fears of it and from all things tending to mortality bondage to death will be swallowed up of this life of liberty glory is triumphant over Death Hell and the Grave bidding defiance to them O Grave where art thou O Hell where art thou O Death where art thou 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.14 By Hell there we must understand the Grave Death and the Grave shall be damned as well as the wicked 6. The state of glory is a liberty from the rage wrath and persecution of all the wicked men in the world their rage and persecution is a bondage and captivity to the Saints hindring them from serving God with desired freedom they cannot put forth their godliness but they expose themselves to the scoffs hatred rage and persecutions of the world now the state of glory will put a great gulf between the Godly and the Wicked which will hinder them from all intercourse for know that if the damned could again be in company or in the place where the godly are they would persecute them again to the uttermost though they know they must be damned and therefore the Devils now hate and tempt them though they aggravate their own torments 7. It is a liberty from all imperfections of graces and weakness in their serving God 1. From all imperfections of their graces which in this present life are very imperfect we know but in part saith the Apostle so we believe but in part we love God but in part we are Holy but in part we are zealous for God but in part there is more doubts and ignorance than knowledge more unbelief than faith more want of love than love there is more sin than grace and holiness now the state of glory is a state of perfection we shall know as we are known our understandings will be enlarged that we shall know God fully and perfectly our faith will be turned into sight our hope into possession we shall then love God with all our hearts with all our souls c. The Angels are called Seraphims because as some say they burn in love and zeal toward God so shall all the Saints be filled with this Seraphical love we shall be as holy as our natures are capable The Church and people of God in this life are compared to the Moon because of those spots in her which are imperfections but in the state of glory they are compared to the Sun which hath no spots in it and as the Prophet speaks of the Sun and Moon that the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold more resplendent than now so the graces the holiness of the Saints shall be seven-fold more holy than now they are 2. It shall be a liberty from all weaknesses and infirmities in serving God this is the necessary consequent of the former for the more glorious and holy a man is the more able he is to serve God if perfectly sanctified then he serveth God perfectly the Angels fulfil the whole will of God because they are filled with grace they run yea they fly in the wayes of his commandements this liberty and enlargement shall all the Saints have in the state of glory while they are here they are in bondage to much spiritual deadness and slothfulness they pray they praise God acceptably though they cannot pray nor praise him perfectly they may pray and purpose to run the wayes of God's Commandements but cannot because they are too weak and are fettered with spiritual slothfulness and deadness glory will do away all this and make us as ready and able to do the whole will of God as Angels do 8. It is a liberty from all natural clogs which the body in this state of union fastens upon the soul insomuch that the body is animae ergastulum the prison of the soul it is pondus or onus animae the burden or weight of the soul the regenerate soul cannot act vigorously because the body is so unweildy the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak but when the soul and body shall be reunited and meet in a state of glory the body will be a nimble handmaid and pliable to all the motions and commands of the soul the body then which is now the souls prison will be the souls paradise and both soul and body will act most vigorously the soul will never tyre out the body nor will the body clog the soul they will both be unwearied in their glorious services the body then will be spiritual though not a spirit and become immortal incorruptible as the soul is 9. It is a liberty from many duties and services and spiritual exercises which are now required of us the Saints work shall be lessened in Heaven The Service of the Church and people of God under the Gospel is much less than it was under the Law hence the state of the Church under the pedagogy of the Law is by the Apostle called a state of bondage a state of subjection but the state of the Church under the Gospel is called a state of liberty but when the Church shall be taken up into glory then their services shall be far less than now they are many duties and graces shall be done away in Heaven we shall pray no more for any mercy for our selves all praying shall be turned into praising of God we shall not hear the Word nor receive the Sacraments any more nor fast and afflict our souls any more we shall no longer mourn for sin repentance will be done away yea faith it self as many Divines conceive shall be done away Pray we shall not because then we shall never be in want our souls shall be so abundantly satisfied with the fulness of God's house we shall mourn and repent no more because we shall sin no more Our service in the state of glory will be taken up in praising God in admiring God in loving God rejoycing in God giving him praise and glory for the riches of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus 10. In respect of the place it is a state of liberty indeed the vast Heaven of Heavens O ye Saints shall be the place of your habitation and delight what is the whole world compared to it it is but a narrow prison an house of correction an house of bondage to a gracious spirit it is but as a Cage to a bird so is the world to the soul of a Godly man 11. It is a liberty from all fears or dangers of everlosing their glory and blessedness
sure of his bargain and God never takes this earnest back again because it is so the earnest of our inheritance Praesentia quae jâ—m assecutus es de futuris tibi fidem faciunt Chrys in Rom. Homil. 9. until the redemption of the purchased possession as that it is an earnest also that in the mean time God establisheth us in Christ and that he hath created us even for this very thing namely to cloath us with immortality and eternal life Moreover God in giving earnest to assure the end unto us doth thereby undertake against all lets and impediments that should hinder the atchieving of that which is earnested thereby and therefore as Chrysostom saith the things present which thou hast already attained do assure unto thee those things which are yet to come But of this I have spoken before Chap. 4. And as in respect of their present estate so in respect of their future hope as well as their present earnest Futura sperant quicunque sperant August their hope of salvation confirmeth their certainty of it Rom. 8.24 Ye are saved by hope saith the Apostle though hope be properly of future things yet he speaks of salvation as of a thing present Indeed it is not with this hope as with worldly hope worldly hope doth many times fail a man but this doth never therefore it is called an anchor Hebr. 6.19 which hope we have saith the Apostle as an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast Non dixit fundamentum sed anchoram he did not say a foundation but an anchor saith Chrysostom foundations are many times so firm as that they are without any shaking or tottering at all but it is not with a Ship lying at anchor as with an house built upon a foundation a Ship when it lyeth at anchor in the Sea movetur non movetur it is moved and not moved it is moved as the winds stir it but not moved from the place where the anchor holds it Thus it is with the Christian that lies floating in the Sea of this world and yet hath cast anchor in Heaven movetur non movetur he may be both moved and not moved for he stands not like a foundation that cannot be moved the streams of temptation and trouble will agitate and toss him O thou afflicted and tossed with tempests Isa 54.11 yet not moved that he cometh in danger of being utterly overwhelmed for hope is an anchor sure and stedfast that fixeth and setleth him Where there is stedfastness of hope there is assuredness of salvation and that hope may be the anchor of the Soul saith must go before to sound the ground or hope cannot do its office for what more absurd than that hope should have any certainty at all without faith any more than an anchor should have any stay without ground to fasten upon this hope as Hilary noteth is not a presuming of things uncertain but an expectation of things known to us for that cause it is that S. Paul saith Hope maketh not ashamed They that hope saith Theodoret and are deceived of their hope do blush and are ashamed thereof now saith S. August we are certain of our hope for our hope is not uncertain that we should doubt thereof yea we are so certain thereof that S. Paul saith We rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 which confidence and rejoycing of hope groweth from that which the Holy Ghost termeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full assurance of faith that which the Saints hope for it cannot but come to pass the Spirit of God would never work this undoubted perswasion in their hearts if he did not intend their eternal good the promises of God are sure grounds to cast the anchor of our hope upon they are the pillars of hope David saith often in Psal 119. that he hoped in God's Word CHAP. XXX Sheweth that no afflictions or sufferings shall rob the Saints of their crown of glory Vse 2. HEnce we may be informed that no afflictions shall deprive the Saints of their crown of glory no temptations no trials that we suffer here shall be able to deprive us or to dis-inherit us of the Kingdom of Heaven what though through the malice of Satan the injustice and cruelty of our adversaries we may be put to endure much to suffer much yet when they have all done they shall not shut up Heaven against us we shall have our reward there for all that there we shall receive the crown of glory there are two reasons why they cannot deprive us of that crown 1. That which cannot animam laedere cannot caelo privare that which cannot hurt the soul cannot deprive him of Heaven I have Heaven sure as long as I have my soul safe but no afflictions can do that they cannot prejudice or hurt the soul not endanger the safety of it nor come neer the life of it all the hurt they can do is but to the body onely so far they can reach and no farther Our Saviour gives us that comfort Luk. 12.4 Be not afraid of them saith he that can kill the body and when they have done so there is no more that they can do indeed that 's a comfort worth a thinking on that whosoever our Enemies be or whatever our afflictions be they can onely reach to the hurting of the body but there 's no more that they can do it is a strange barbarousness of nature that some Tyrants will shew when they have killed and Martyred the poor Saints of God as if that were too little to satisfie their rage and that the fire of it could not be sufficiently quenched with their blood they 'l take pleasure to exercise fury upon their dead bodies mangle them hew them and tread them under their feet yea sometimes take them out of their graves when they have been buried as in the time of Queen Mary those merciless Popish persecutors of the Protestant Religion did by Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius when they had long lain sleeping in their graves Alas it onely shewed the barbarous fury of the bloody Papists it did no harm at all to the innocent bodies of the dead Saints when the body is once dead there is no more to be done as our Saviour saith The Heathen themselves apprehended this and cast it out as a Shield of defiance to all their Persecutors and Tormentors as Laertius writeth of Anaxarchus when he was condemned to be pounded to death in a Morter with Pestles of Iron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lâ—ert lib. 1. ca. 10. he returned the Tyrant this answer Do it saith he pound and break in pieces this case and vessel that holdeth Anaxarchus meaning his body but Anaxarchus thou shalt not touch he knew his soul was out of the Tyrants reach Afflictions and tortures hurt not the soul then 't is only sin hurts that let not sin destroy it nothing shall destroy it and if sufferings and
of it and so for some that are in affliction 't is possible for them to miss of Heaven yet 't is not their affliction that deprives them of it the good or evil use of either is that which makes all of us in either to be happy or unhappy Let it therefore prepare us for the constant and patient bearing of afflictions whensoever they shall come upon us especially if they shall come upon us for the testimony of the Gospel and for righteousness sake for if the crown of glory belong to any that suffer then certainly to those sufferers that our Saviour speaks of Matth. 5.10 Those that suffer for righteousness sake they of all other are blessed and to them belongeth the Kingdom of Heaven yea if in Heaven there be degrees of glory as we may perswade our selves there be we may withall perswade our selves that the chiefest mansions are for such they that most partake with Christ in his sufferings they shall most share with him in glory the faireâ—â— crowns of glory that Heaven hath to give shalâ— be set upon the Heads of Martyrs first the Crown of Martyrdom and then a Crown of Glory as God hath called them to their sufferings so doubtless he will strengthen them in their sufferings and crown them for their sufferings may they therefore stand fast unto the end and bear all their troubles and tribulations patiently constantly joyfully Patienter propter Deum confidenter propter auxilium gaudenter propter praemium patiently for God's sake because he hath called them to it constantly for his assistance sake because he will aid them in it joyfully for the rewards sake because he will crown them for it Upon this account it was that the Apostle commendeth the Hebrews that they passed thorow all manner of afflictions and cleaved fast to the Gospel and therefore bids them call to remembrance the former dayes in which after they were illuminated they endured a great fight of afflictions partly saith he while ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly while ye became companions of them that were so used for ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoilinâ— of your goods knowing in your selves that ye haâ— in heaven a better and an enduring substance Hebr. 10.32 33 34. Have any of us then received the beginning the earnest the first-fruits of eternal life then let it be far from us to think of leaving all these rich hopes of eternity for fear of the sharpest temporary sufferings and let me add that afflictions are so far from keeping us from Heaven as they be rather a way to bring us to Heaven We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God Act. 14.22 Certainly many persons had never come to Heaven if God had not brought them to his Kingdom this way CHAP. XXXII An Exhortation to Christians to believe the promise of God touching their salvation and so to lay claim to it 1. NOw seeing God will hereafter crown his people with glory then labour O Christian Reader in the first place to believe the promise of God touching the salvation of thy soul labour to have a full assurance of faith and a full affiance in God that he will save thee A man takes it ill if he be not believed on his Word and promise and so doth the faithful God who is truth it self and cannot lye The sum of that which every faithful soul professeth to believe in the Creed is as much as if he should say I believe that God is my God and Father by the mediation of Jesus Christ through the sanctification of the Holy-ghost whereby he hath made me a member of his Catholick Church which is the Communion and Society of his Saints to which and to all the members thereof and so namely to me he will give remission of sins and an happy resurrection of the body to be partaker with the soul of life eternal This was David's faith I believed to see the goodness of God in the Land of the living Psal 27.13 And Fulgentius saith it was not proper onely to David to say so for saith he the just man living by faith saith boldly I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living S. August speaks well to this purpose God hath promised thee O man that thou shalt live for ever dost thou not believe it that which he hath already done for thee is a greater matter than that which he hath promised thee Therefore let us labour to get an assured trust in God and his promise that when he that is our life shall appear we also may appear with him in glory which glory though we know it not yet we know that God hath given us the interest and title of it already and by faith do stand assured through the Spirit that he will in due time give us the full sight and fruition of it which none can know but they that have it revealed to them from God but God revealeth it by the Holy Ghost to every one that believeth in his promise and hopeth for his salvation therefore let no faithful soul whom God hath called into Communion with himself and to the hope of everlastingly life stand any longer in doubt of that salvation which God hath promised him 2. When once thou dost believe the promise of God touching the salvation of thy soul then mayest thou claim Heaven as thine own by a due debt God hath made himself a debtor to his people by promise faithful promise makes due debt the debt in that case ariseth not from any desert of him to whom the promise is made but only the word of him that promiseth We must therefore distinguish between debt of desert and debt of promise for debt of desert ariseth out of the nature and condition of the work it self which obligeth him to whose use and service it is done but debt of promise ariseth not from the thing that is done or yielded to another but onely from the promise it self whereby a man hath bound himself As August well observeth that it is one thing to say to a man Thou art a debtor to me because I have given to thee another thing to say Thou art a debtor to me because thou hast promised me debt of promise moveth the promiser for his own sake though there be nothing in the party to whom he hath made promise that may excite or cause him to perform his promise Now it is an act of justice in God to perform his promise made to his Children to bring them to Heaven and to bestow eternal life upon them for it is the justice of God that what is promised be paid or performed hereupon saith August we say not unto God Repay that which thou hast received but pay that which thou hast promised let us hold him therefore a most faithful debtor because we have him a most merciful promiser the promise was