the highest things that a body can be in without any weariness Thirdly there must be a great deal of power to be able to bear the weight of glory that shall be put upon them 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory such a weight as certainly if the body were not by the power of God upheld it were impossible it should bear it here we finde when there is great joy in the heart the body is not able to bear it but then there shall be a power to bear the weight of glory they shall have And the last is that which I finde expressed in Luther namely The bodies of the Saints shall have that power as to toss the greatest mountains in the world like a Ball. And I finde it in an expression of Anselem It shall be such power as they shall be able to shake the whole earth at their pleasure and we cannot think this incredible upon that ground that was named before there is not so much difference between the raising a thing from the lowest degree of power to the highest possibility as in raising a thing from nothing to the lowest degree of power Suppose a creature had but so much power now as to stir the least mote that is in the Sun to raise this power so high as to stir the whole earth does not require so much power as to make a thing out of nothing and if God do intend to manifest his power in glorifying the Saints and in making of them powerful why should we not think that God will extend that possibility of power that is in the body to that heighth certainly glorious shall be the power of the bodies of the Saints and that is the third thing Fourthly it is sowen a natural body and it shall be raised a spiritual body not that it shall be turned into a spirit It shall remain a body but the spiritualness consists in three particulars First that it shall be in a spiritual condition they shall have no more need of meat or drink or clothes or marriage or the like that now the body stands in need of the Angels themselves shall have as much need of meat and drink and clothes as their bodies shall so says Christ They shall not be married nor given in marriage but they shall be as the Angels in Heaven Secondly the spiritualness of the body consists in the absolute subjection of the body to the spirit as to be fully and absolutely serviceable to the spirits of the Saints which here they are not Here many times is a strife between the spirit and the flesh the spirit is willing when the flesh is not but then there shall be an absolute subjection of the body to the spirit As here the spirit of a carnal man is called flesh because his soul is serviceable to the flesh to make provision for the sins of the flesh his soul is counted carnal the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God As the soul now is as it were carnal because it is serviceable to the flesh so the body shall be spiritual because it shall be serviceable to the spirit for you to have such a body as to be serviceable to your souls as you would desire it were a great blessing time will come when it shall be so Thirdly the spiritualness of the body consists in the agility of the body the ability it shall have to move up and down which way it will and that suddenly they shall move in the Heavens as the birds do in the ayr I remember an expression that Luther hath that the body shall move up and down like a thought And Augustine saith They shall move to any place they will as soon as they will These words we do not finde in Scripture but lay this for a ground that whatsoever we can expect for the excellency of a body it is that we speak of or beyond it and then we have a great deal of liberty to invent what expressions we can for our comfort certainly there shall be that happiness of the body that shall come to that we speak of or to more Fourthly some make the spiritualness of the body to consist in the transparency of it Aquinas says It shall be so clear and transparent that all the veins and humors and nerves and bowels shall be seen as in a glass Now brethren the reasons why God will reward the Saints in this part are First because humane bodies as well as humane souls have an hypostatical union with the second person of the Trinity and therefore God rejoyces to raise humane bodies as well as humane souls unto happiness Secondly Christ suffered so much in his body therefore God will glorifie the bodies of the Saints Thirdly our bodies are part of the members of Christ our bodies are joyned in a mystical union with Jesus Christ Fourthly our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost and God will glorifie his own temples Fifthly our bodies are in part sanctified as well as our souls and therefore shall also be glorified Lastly our bodies shall be glorified for the further terror and confusion of the damned because they in their bodies shall see the glory of the Saints and be confounded Here you see a way to get your bodies in a blessed condition here is a stir for clothing of our bodies but there shall be a cloathing with immortality you that have sickly and weak bodies remember this you shall one day receive your bodies in another maner then you have them now Eusebius tels us of one of the children of the Macchabees that were put to death for the profession of the truth when they cut off his members says he I have received these from Heaven and now I do give them unto the God of Heaven and I hope I shall have them again Let us be willing to put our bodies to pain if our bodies suffer hunger or thirst or nakedness or be tyred or suffer Imprisonment or any violence be offered to our bodies in the cause of God What great matter is it we shall receive our bodies in another maner The overcoming of the flesh is the destruction of it but the overcoming the flesh is the glory of it When we speak of the happiness of our souls we are not so capable of it but when we speak of the happiness of our bodies we are sensible of that Now certainly there shall be much more for our bodies here is a way to provide for your bodies Lay up provision for your flesh is spoken as an argument of a carnal heart in Rom. 13. 14. the Apostle exhorts them not to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but there is a way of laying up provision for the flesh that is lawful and that this day I exhort
Lord is pleased to condescend to our weakness to express his especial presence with his Church and therefore it is good to be with them these are the expressions of it But wherein does the presence of God with his people appear more then with other people In these two things especially First because there God makes himself known reveals himself there and makes his beauty to appear Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple It is the glory of Heaven to see God in his beauty and this is one of the greatest promises of God to his Church that they shall see the King in his majesty We may see some glimmering light of God in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars but in the Church there God shews his beauty there we may see the face of God and this is that which Moses did desire Lord-shew me thy glory It is much granted to us in the Church in enjoying his Ordinances and there is no way to see Gods face so clearly as this way Every childe of God that is in the Temple shall speak of Gods glory for they see God in his glory in a special maner Secondly the especial presence of God with his people is especially manifested in that he communicates to his people as namely First the choice mercies of God are communicated to his people If you would have any share in Gods choice mercies his peculiar mercies come amongst Gods people joyn with them as that place is observable in Psal 134. 3. The Lord that made Heaven and earth bless thee out of Sion He does not say the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Heaven and Earth but the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Sion as if he should say The blessings that come out of Sion are the choice blessings and the peculiar mercies of God even above any that come out of Heaven and Earth Secondly God communicates his mercies more fully then any where else Isa 25. 6. And in this mountain that is in the Church I will make a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow c. and Psal 36. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures In a private way there may be some drops of pleasure from God but there is not that full communication from God as with his people in his Ordinances there is in the world in the creature drops in private communion there are ponds but in a pulique Church-communion there are rivers of pleasure and that is the height of all Thirdly God communicates his mercies more powerfully in the Church then any where else Psal 133. 3. For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore God did not onely speak and said there should be a blessing but spake in a commanding way There Where is that There in the Church amongst his people there God commanded the blessing even life for evermore Lastly God blesseth more universally with all kinde of blessing and therefore he is more present there and in that respect the Psalmist says Psalm 87. 7. All my springs are in thee This whole Psalm is to set out the excellent condition of the Church and he concludes the Psalm with this All my springs are in thee Now this expression is very emphatical Spring is taken two or three ways in Scripture The Law of God the Doctrine of Gods Law is compared to a spring and heavenly knowledge is compared to a spring and then it is thus All my springs All the truths I have all the knowledge I come to be made partaker of are all in the Church Again All my springs all the comforts of my heart and that good and joy my spirit receives and all the graces of the Spirit that I have and all the quickning and strengthning I have is communicated to me this way And upon this ground the Church is called the very perfection of all beauty Psal 50. 2. Out of Zion the perfection of all beauty God hath shined Out of Zion there is his glory wonderfully apparent The word that is translated the perfection of beauty is translated by some the universality of beauty all kinde of beauty all kinde of excellency as if the Psalmist should say Put all excellencies together that possibly you can imagine to make a thing comely and lovely they are all in the Church Thus you see it is good being with Gods people when as God is thus present with them in a special maner Eighthly it is good being with Gods people because there is Gods special protection others are but as the wilderness the Church is as a garden enclosed Cant. 4. 12. A man regards his garden that he hath enclosed and bestowed cost about more then a wilde field the fields have hedges to keep out the beasts but gardens have brick wals or wood walls Isa 27. 3. I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day How full is this his care over it is such as he threatens those which shall but touch it Jer. 12. 14. to pluck them out of their land Zach. 2. 5. God promiseth he will be a wall of fire round about his people alluding to the custom of travellers in the wilderness who used to make fires round about them in the night for their safety because then none of the wilde beasts durst come near them such a defence is God to his people There is nothing in the Book of God wherein God is so full in his expression as when he comes to this argument to manifest his affection to his Church Christ is the Shepherd and when sheep are together they are under the protection of the Shepherd when the sheep are scattered the Shepherds eye is not so over them And therefore in Hosea 4. 16. God threatens his people he would feed them as a Lamb in a large place as a Lamb getting from the fold goes up and down bleating so when Gods people are scattered they are as a Lamb in a large place and when God would threaten the sorest judgement against his people Ezekiel 34. he says He will scatter them and they shall become to be meat to the beasts of the field And hence it is that the condition of the Church is so stable a condition and therefore in Isaiah 60. 15. the Church is called an eternal excellency because it is under the Lords protection and is it not good being there to be under the wing of God Ninthly to be amongst Gods people is a blessed thing because they have so many
and said He that could save others let him come down and save himself Again consider the great mercy of God in concealing the secret sins of your thoughts there are none let them be never so innocent in the world yet there is so much filth and baseness within the heart that if God should but turn the inside outward and discover all to the world certainly it would make them ashamed of the society of men make them ashamed to come into the Congregation what confusion and what matter of reproach would there be then Now seeing God in his goodness favors his people so far as he keeps in much secret evil that he could discover before the world if he should withdraw himself a little from you he could let you fall into such sins as your secret sins should be discovered but God favors your names so as that he hath kept in that secret evil that you have had secret inclinations unto now the consideration of Gods goodness in tendring you so far may very well quiet your hearts when you begin to be troubled for every reproach that is cast upon you Now I see my adversaries are fain to watch and search and pry for occasion of reproach God might have given them matter enough and therefore its mercy they have such little matter as they have It is a great work of nature to keep the filth of the body when it is in a man from being unsavory unto others so the filth of the soul though it be unsavory to God yet it is Gods mercy that keeps it from that unsavoriness that it might be to men Fifthly consider how much reproach the name of God hath endured for your sakes and is it so great a matter for your names to be reproached for his sake It is a notable speech Chrysostom hath That for us and for our life our Lord should be blasphemed is worse then if we perished Hath not the name of God been reproached for your sakes not onely in the time of your ignorance but since have there not been occasion given by you to cause others to reproach the name of the blessed God and if God comes to you in your names do you take it so ill Again consider who those are that do reproach you and for what it is It is the speech of an Ancient That a reproacher is beneath a man but the reproached that bear it well are equal to the Angels The Hebrew word that signifies scorners hath many other significations which set out the vileness the dangerous evil there is in a scornful spirit the Seventy besides that of scorning have five other words to shew the signification of it as first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first Psalm in the chair of scorners they translate it by a word that signifies the plague in the chair of plagues because scorners are a plague to the place where they live and do infect many a second word that they use to express it by is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 20. 1. which signifies incorrigible that which cannot be tamed because scorners are such Wine is a scorner res indomita an unruly thing that cannot be tamed because it makes men to be so and so are scorners there is little hope of such Thirdly sometimes they translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 9. 12. as such as are given up to all kinde of vice and so are scorners And fourthly by a word that signifies proud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 3. 34. for such likewise are scorners Fifthly by a word that signifies to deal unjustly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 119. 51. because scorners are injurious Thus you see what kinde of men those who scorn and reproach the ways and professors of Religion are But besides they are especially such as have been brought up superstitiously or prophanely such as have been bred in superstitious Popish families are many times bitter scorners and reproachers of those who are most forward in the ways of godliness We read 2 Kings 2. 23. when Elisha went to Bethel there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto him Go up thou bald head go up thou bald head that is observable they came out of Bethel which was that idolatrous city in Israel where the Calf of Jeroboam was set up that place was full of scorners at the Prophets of the Lord you may know the temper of the place by the disposition of the little children they usually heard their parents and those who were elder scorn at the Prophets of the Lord they were brought up in that way and because it was at Bethel the curse of God was the rather upon their children to destroy them although they were but children yet two and forty of them were presently destroyed Hosea 7. 5. we read of those who were elder the great ones in that City even Jeroboam himself and his Courtiers what scorners they were In the day of our King the Princes have made him sick with bottles of wine he stretched out his hand with the scorners The Princes Nobles Officers great ones of the Countrey jeered and scorned at those who would not yield to that way of worship that Jeroboam had set up namely of the Calves O they must be so precise as no worship will serve their turn but going up to Jerusalem to worship there such as ventured the loss of their estates their offices their liberties they accounted them fools and reproached them as a company of simple silly people And as superstition is a cause of this so prophaneness and sensuallity causeth it likewise that is observable in the forenamed place of Hosea when he was made sick with wine then he streched out his hand with scorners when wicked men pamper themselves with good cheer and their hearts are hot with wine then they scorn at Religion and reproach such as are more strict and forward then others blessing themselves in the brave life they live contemning the ways of godliness and the professors of them as such who want those brave delights they enjoy and in regard of that they scorn at and reproach the ways of God and his people at those times Psalm 35. 16. with hypocritical mockers in feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth the most cruel scornful reproaches against the Saints are at feasts That place is observable Deut. 32. 33 34. Their wine is the poyson of dragons and the cruel venom of asps because of the bitterness of their spirits against those who are godly when they are at their cups but mark what follows Is not this laid up in store and sealed up among my treasures to me belongeth vengeance and recompence their foot shall slide in due time God will remember this it is laid up in store with him it is surely sealed up and shall certainly be brought forth one day And yet further Who are your reproachers They are those that
delight to a man when he goes about a work if he have his end though a man have some benefit by his work yet if he be crost in his last end all his joy is taken away and this is the evil of sin sin seeks to cross God in his highest end that he aims at but the Saints in heaven shall give God his full end God shall have the highest end that he did aim at he shall see it accomplished and fulfilled in them now those objects in which God 's highest end is fulfilled he must needs take delight in and that shall be in the Saints Again the delight of God must be full because God hath no other object but rational creatures Angels and Saints to let out his delight to if God does take any delight in any creature here it is in order to the Angels and the Saints Now when God hath no other object to himself and his Son and his Spirit to let out his delight unto but the rational Creatures Saints and Angels joyned in one for the Lord Christ shall be the head of the Saints and Angels surely his delight in them shall be full Thirdly this delight shall be actual and that is necessary to communion for though there be delight yet if it should lie dead in the habits there is no communion If two friends have habitual delight one in another they are not said to have communion but when it is actual so this delight shall be actual the nature of delight is to be lively and active even in us though it be but an affection in us but God being a pure act there will be an infinite activity in his delight and it is always vigorous and fresh so as God shall make the souls of his people to be sensible of the activity of his delight Fourthly this delight shall be mutual it shall be on the Saints part as well as on Gods part As God delights in the persons of the Saints so they delight in God himself not in that they receive from God but their greatest delight is in the being of God himself and as God delights in their glory so they do delight in all the glory of God in essential glory that they see in God and in all the glory that is reflected upon God by his creatures and they delight in his presence in being with him and in his love and in that they can give any glory to him they delight in all they have more because God hath glory by it then in that themselves are blessed in it And it is full likewise the delight of the Saints of God is full as well as the delight of God in the Saints is full and that for the very same grounds that the delight of God in them is full namely The fulness of Gods delight in them is their relation to Christ so the ground of their full delight in God is because God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and because they see their likeness in God what ever excellency they have in themselves they see it to be infinitely in God and as God delights in them because of his works he sees in them so the Saints shall see all the good that ever they have done does redound to the glory of God howsoever the works of Gods people for the present seem to be mean yet it shall appear all the gracious works of the people of God shall be the most glorious things in the world For God shall own them for the setting out of his glory as the greatest things in the world and this should be an infinite encouragement to us to be abundant in good works because God will glorifie our good works and as the fulness of the delight of God in the Saints is because God attains his end in them how full must the delight of the Saints in God be because the Saints do attain their end in God the end of all their thoughts and ways and performances and they shall have no other object to let out their delight to but onely God here though we have some grace yet the stream is divided we let out so much to one creature and so much to another the children so much to the Parents and the Parents so much to the children and husband so much to the wife and the wife so much to the husband and so much to our friends that the stream we let out to God is but little but when all the delight that we let out to the creatures shall be taken away and God shall be the onely object of our delight then our delight must be full And as this delight is mutual so it shall be continual for being withdrawn from all other objects it will work upon that both of them Gods delight in the Saints and the delight of the Saints in God shall be for ever the Saints shall be an eternal excellency in which God shall delight and God shall be an eternal excellency in which they delight they shall be always keeping that feast of the Lamb. We read of Ahasuerus he kept a glorious feast and the gloriousness of it is set forth by the continuance of it Esther 1. 4 5. it is observable the difference between the feast that he made with his Nobles and the feast that he made with the common people and that may lively set out the difference of the goodness of God that he lets out to his own people and that he lets out to other common people he made a feast of a hundred and fourscore days to his Nobles and but seven days to the common people so when God comes to make a feast of joy to his people it shall be everlasting Men in the world have some content but it is but for a little time but the comfort and joy that is to be between God and the Saints in Heaven is to be eternal because it is such a feast as is made to his Nobles and to shew the riches of his glorious Kingdom and the honor of his Majesty Secondly in communion there is a mutual wishing and willing of good to one another now God shall will all good to the Saints and they wish all good to God It is true that God from all eternity did will all good unto his people but here his people are not of a capacity to receive much there is a great deal of difference in willing and determining good to them before they were in being or before they were capable of receiving this good and willing good to them when they shall be made vessels fit to receive good the bodies and souls either of the Saints or the wicked being united after the resurrection they shall be vessels infinitely enlarged capable of abundantly more then they are here and then to have God will good to them is far better then to have good willed to them here The men of the world would fain have good here
speak of the Triumphant Church The Angels shall admire at it O that these poor worms should be raised from this low estate to such a glorious condition they pry into the mystery of Salvation Then the love of Christ shall be enflamed to his people that love which caused him to plead with God for his people from all eternity that caused him to undertake this great work for his people from this love there will be most glorious embracements If at one salutation of the mother of our Lord John Baptist springs in the Womb for joy how shall the heart of a glorified Saint spring at the glorious embracements of Christ himself when he is in his glory And when we shall be in such a condition as we shall be fitted for communion with him we shall be able to understand Christ in another way we shall know the hypostatical union of his two natures and know Christ fully and be fitter to entertain the manifestation of his love whereas here we are not able to entertain much Christ looks through the lattess and we have but some few drops of his love but then when his love shall be enflamed and fully let out we shall be fitted for it And it shall be such a communion with Christ as we shall never leave but follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes There shall be no moment to all eternity wherein Christ shall be out of the sight of so many thousand thousands of Saints And though that Text in the Revelations be meant of the Church in this world and the following of Christ wheresoever he goeth here following of him in the ordinances but if it be an happiness here to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes much more in heaven You that are willing to suffer any thing to follow the Lamb in his ordinances here know there is enough to pay for all you shall be always following the Lamb in heaven and you shall always be in the company of Christ and this is the fifth particular namely The communion that the souls of Gods people shall have with Christ There are yet two things to be opened in this branch to shew what the recompence of reward of Gods people is and they are the enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints and the keeping a perpetual Sabbath in Heaven The enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints The Angels and Saints are joyned together under one head the Angels rejoyce here in being ministring spirits unto the Saints O what rejoycing will there be then in communion with them the Saints of God shall enjoy communion with the Angels in a familiar way they shall be fitted for communion with God and Christ himself much more fitted for communion with Angels yea the Angels shall account it part of their happiness to have communion with the Saints The sight of an Angel to us now in the flesh though he comes to bring good tidings is a great amazement but then the sight of the Angels shall be no amazement but we shall look upon them as our fellow creatures to have communion with them Heb. 12. 23. Ye are come vnto Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels This is spoken of the priviledge of the Gospel before by the Law there was nothing but terror that made Moses to fear and quake now we are not to come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God Before without Christ we were vagabonds wandring up and down in the wilderness of the Word but by Christ we are gathered unto the City of the living God and the heavenly Ierusalem there were nothing but troubles before but now they are gathered to Ierusalem into peace and to an innumerable company of Angels Before the Angels were as Gods Host ready to revenge the quarrel of God upon us but now we are come to the innumerable company of Angels who are ministring spirits to us here and we shall enjoy communion with them The Angels are full of wisdom and therefore when the Scripture would set forth the excellency of wisdom it sets it forth by the wisdom of the Angels Doctor Taylor the Martyr rejoyced that he came into prison with Master Bradford that Angel Bradford though he was but one that had the likeness of an Angel and in prison yet he rejoyced in being with him What rejoycing will there be to be with all the Angels that are Angels indeed and that in our Fathers house The way and maner of the converse of Saints with Angels is very obscure how spirits do converse one with another we know but little we converse one with another by speaking there can be no such way of converse with Spirits The Schoolmen say By the act of their wills they come to make known what is in their mindes but we shall know more of the maner of converse with them afterwards CHAP. LI. The happiness of enjoying communion with the Saints in glory BUt it is more familiar to us to know our excellency in the converse with the Saints Heb. 12. 23. To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven c. To enjoy communion with the Saints here is sweet to enjoy communion with all the Saints with all the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Iacob and Moses and Aaron and Ioshua and all the good Prophets and the good Kings and all Martyrs and Worthies of the Lord If to have communion with one or two be sweet then to have communion with all at once must needs be sweet it is worth the enduring much to get to heaven if it were onely to have communion with the Saints Secondly to have communion with none but them to have communion with the Saints is sweet though we are forced to have communion with the world but to have communion with the choicest of Gods servants with none else that is sweet indeed Thirdly to have communion with them made perfect The best now have many weaknesses and many frampold moods and offensive carriages that there must be a great deal born in communion with the best but then we shall be delivered from imperfections there shall be no ignorance but we shall have communion with those that are knowing and perfectly glorified The life of my Lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life it is the blessing of Abigail to David Now Interpreters expound it thus It is a Metaphor taken from binding up of yong plants that are removed from one place to be set in another Now there is a great deal of difference between a bundle of plants laid in the water to preserve them till they be set in the garden and those plants growing and flourishing in the garden It is a great blessing to be bound up amongst Gods people here that are plants that have life but we are here but as plants bound up and
loth to leave these things because he did not know whither he went but a soul that knows what inheritance it shall have hereafter it is not loth to go hence Many are loth to dye because they have treasures in the world as those ten men said in Isa 41. 8. Slay us not for we have treasures in the field of wheat and of barley and of oyl but a godly man is willing to dye because he hath treasures in Heaven Keep open the eye of faith exercise faith to see God that is now sending for his childe home And look upon Christ as having that prayer granted Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am by faith you shall see Heaven opened and the crown prepared and see God in his glory that you may express chearfulness of heart in going to take possession of that glorious recompence of reward behold the Angels of God coming to take you up into Heaven It was an expression of the honor of one Hugh Bishop of Lincoln that King John and his Nobles would carry him to the grave more honor shall the Saints have for God to send his Angels to convey them to that place of glory And further let you spirits work mightily after Heaven now when they draw near to it as the nearer any thing is to the center the more strongly and swiftly it moves As a stone that falls down from a high place it moves more swiftly when it is nearer the ground then when it was higher so at death the soul is nearer its center grace is changing to glory and when grace and glory is to meet there must need be a mighty working of heart and mighty shouts As it is reported of the Duke of Bulloin and his company when they went to Jerusalem as soon as his company saw the high Turrets they gave a mighty shout that the earth rang and so when the soul sees the turrets of this heavenly Jerusalem and when you see your selves ready to go and possess it what mighty workings and shoutings of your heart will there be And when you are to dye speak well of God and of the ways of godliness to all that are about you Christians should now labor so to live as there may appear a mighty difference between their deaths and the death of others whereas ordinarily such is the vanity and drossiness of the hearts of Christians in their lives as when they come to dye they are so heavy and sad as if no such things were prepared for them In 2 Pet. 1. 11. the Apostle having exhorted them before to adde one grace to another and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure says he So an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Christians should labor so to live as when they come to dye they may not onely have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord administred unto them but that they may have an entrance administred unto them abundantly Many make shift to get to heaven but they have not an entrance administred abundantly As a Ship may make shift to get into harbor but with the Anchors lost and Cables rent and Sayls torn and the Masts broke another Ship comes in with the Sayls up and the Flags up and Trumpets sounding and comes bravely into Haven so much difference is sometime between true Christians some through carelesness and unbelief and sadness and sullenness of Spirit although they make shift with much ado to get into Heaven yet so as their anchor of hope was even gone and they had little or no comfort at all but those that have added one vertue to another and have been diligent to make their calling and election sure they come to Heaven with much glory and joy and that should be our care so to live in adding one grace to another that when we dye our deaths may be glorious Yet further from the consideration of this glory revealed which God hath prepared for his Saints we are to draw this meditation If Heaven be so glorious then we had need fill up the comfort of our lives by doing and getting as much good as we can while we live here that we may as much as possibly we can recompence that which we suffer in the staying from the possession of such glorious things reserved for us when we hear of such things as these are we cannot but think in our selves it were better for us many ways to be in Heaven this life is but a bondage to us while we are absent from such things and therefore we had need have something to recompence this bondage we had need do much good and get much good while we live to pay the charges of our lives what a tedious thing is it to us to live so much to sense as we must necessarily do here when we are heirs of such glorious things if we do not do much good and get much good here what have we to sweeten and recompence this tediousness If a man be from home and by his absence suffers much loss of what he might have had at home he is the more diligent and careful in his journey to get something that may recompence this loss so it should be with us It costs us dear as I may so speak to live in the world for it costs us the forbearance of such glorious things if we fill not up our lives with service for God what have we to pay our charges to countervail this that our lives here cost us CHAP. LVII The great things of eternity to be much sought after THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation to all now to set your hearts to seek after these great and blessed things of eternal life that have been opened O that now the hearts of people that have been wandring after other things might be brought in and set upon eternal life and Heaven Let every soul reason with it self Are there indeed such things to be had hath God such intentions to communicate himself thus to mankinde And am I the man or woman that shall lose all this that shall never be partaker of this O wo unto me that ever I was born In Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets says Christ were till John but since that time the kingdom of God suffereth violence The Law and the Prophets did but darkly reveal the things of the Kingdom of God but St. John he did more clearly reveal the things of that Kingdom and since that time the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence O that it might be said concerning any man or woman that have heard this argument opened since that time that the recompence of reward was opened the kingdom of heaven hath suffered violence Surely there is strength enough in that which hath been said to draw forth the heart with violence after it I remember Plutarch reports in