To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me on my Throne even a I have overcome and am set down with my Father on his Throne Rev. 3.21 Believers are the greatest Heirs in all the World for as the Apostle speaks They have the Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come And says the same Apostle All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Life or Death or things present or things to come all is yours and you are Christ's and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 Secondly The Certainty of a future state of Glory and Happiness may be demonstrated from the great Undertaking of the Lord Jesus Christ And indeed this was a Work fit for none but him to undertake for none else were able to accomplish it Whatever worth or excellency there is either in all the Men on Earth or in all the Saints and Angels in Heaven should they have proffered to have done and suftered all that their Natures are capable of to have purchased the Love and Favoun of God to have been enjoyed though but by one Soul and that but for one moment of time in Heaven it would have been rejected and despised by God But now the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ were of equal worth and value with Heaven and the Enjoyment of God to eternity for his Blood was the Blood of God and therefore the shedding of it deserved the Presence Love and Favour of God to be bestowed upon Believers as their Portion for ever This Jesus Christ hath done for this he hath both suffered and died and because he hath made a Purchase of these things with his Blood Believers shall therefore enjoy them for Christ will not lose his Purchase nor shall Believers therefore lose their Happiness The bringing many Sons unto Glory was the End which Christ designed in the laying down of his Life and therefore he willingly submitted unto the Way by which he was to accomplish it and that was by his suffering Death and from hence therefore the People of God are said to obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith in him Thirdly Another Ground or Reason we have to believe a state of Glory and Happiness hereafter may be taken from the Spirit 's introductory or preparatory working in the Hearts of Believers here in this Life By this now I mean the Beginning of Grace wrought in the Soul for Grace and Glory are one and the same thing Grace is Glory and Glory is Grace all the Difference between them is only in the degree Grace is Glory begun and Glory is Grace perfected And when the Spirit of God works Grace in any Soul he then gives the first Fruits the Earnest or Fore-taste of Glory Grace therefore is sometimes called Glory in Scripture so we read 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory unto Glory that is from one degree and measure of Grace unto another And Grace there is called Glory because when Grace is advanced unto its highest degree of perfection it is Glory Now where ever any receive the first fruits of Heaven in Grace and Holiness they shall receive the full Harvest of Glory it self Grace therefore is called the Spirit 's forming or fitting of the Soul for Glory Hence the Apostie speaking of himself and others as groaning and longing to be cloathed with their House which is frown Heaven that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life In 2 Cor. 5.3 4. he adds in the 5th verse He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit which in Ephes 1.14 is called the Earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased Possession Where ever Grace is in truth it is always in Growth and it shall be in perfection So saith the Apostle Phil. 1.6 He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the Day of Jesus Christ Where the Spirit gives unto any the Nature and Disposition of the Children of God he thereby gives them an undoubted Right and Title unto Heaven and Glory yea such a Right and Title as shall never be lost or broken off So saith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 17. For the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint-Heirs with Jesus Christ and if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Fourthly and lastly Imight argue the Certainty of a future state of Glory and Happiness from the constant believing Hopes and Expectations yea and Sufferings also of the Saints and People of God in all Ages If Believers had hope only in this Life they were then as the Apostle speaks of all men most miserable But it is not so for their Hopes and Happiness lies in those things that are to be enjoyed beyond Time even in Eternity And hence it is that they have such strong Consolation as bears up their Souls above all the Sufferings that they meet with in this present Life because they have sled for Refuge to lay hold on the Hope that is set before them which Hope they have as an Anchor of the Soul that is sure and stedfast because it entreth into that within the Vail Heb. 6.18 19. It is the Nature of the New Creature where-ever it is to cause the Soul to look upwards and hence it is that the People of God are said to be begotten again unto a lively hope of an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them 1 Pet. 1.3 4. From this now springs great Joy and Consolation and therefore upon this account it is that Believers are said to rejoyce in hopes of the Glory of God Rom. 35.2 Should I now attempt to lay down a Description of Heaven that Place of perfect Bliss and Happiness I should prevent my self in what I intend to speak more fully and largely to afterwards Only in the General to excite and quicken our Desires and Affections after it take this following short Sum of it Heaven is a Place where there is a total and everlasting exclusion of all that is evil and imperfect and where there is a full perfection and perpetual enjoyment of all that is Good and that in the largest latitude and extent of it In Heaven there is nothing to afflict or torment but every thing that is satisfactory and delightful There is nothing of Sin there and therefore nothing of Sorrow Saint in Heaven enjoy the best Company There is the Great and Glorious God seen and known in all his glorious Excellencies and Perfections There is the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Life
Grace and Holiness where thy Employment shall always be in Holy and Spiritual Delights and Exercises unto all Eternity If thou hast no believing Hopes and Expectations of such a Heaven as this is certainly thou hast no Right and Title unto that Inheritance that is incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for Believers Nothing so plainly demonstrates what men are whither they are going and unto whom they belong as the daily course of their Lives and Conversation The Apostle therefore in Galat. 5.19 20. reckoning up the Works of the Flesh which are manifest As Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Drunkenness Murder and such like of the which says he I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And in 1 Corinth 6.9 10. he speaks the same thing again Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Adulterers nor Idolaters nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And on the contrary He that doth Righteousness is of God says the Apostle 1 John 2.29 And blessed is he that doth Righteousness at all times says the Psalmist Psal 106.3 For the Grace of God that hath appeared in the Gospel having taught them to deny all ungodliness and Worldly Lust and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Tit. 2.12 13. Looking for the Blessed Hope and the Glorious appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ These are they and only they who according to Scripture Warrant can lay any claim unto Heaven And these may for they that are made free from Sin and are become the Servants of God they have their Eruit unto Holiness and their end shall be Everlasting Life Rom. 6.23 Wouldst thou therefore know O Christian without deluding thy own Soul whether thou art one that hast a Right and Title unto Heaven call thy self to an account what thy Works and Actions are The matter is not so difficult to be resolved it may be as thou imaginest What says the Apostle Gal. 6.7 8. He that soweth unto the Flesh shall of the Flest reap Corruption And he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting And the same Apostle tells us Rom. 8.13 If we live after the Flesh we shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body we shall live What now is thy way and course what is thy general carriage and practice is it earthly and vain is it sensual and wicked according to the course of the World and after the manner of the men of the World If vain and sinful Society be thy delightful Companions if wicked and ungodly ways be thy daily practice thou art not of an Heavenly Extraction nor canst thou upon Scripture grounds have any expectations of the Heavenly Glory for unto such only doth it belong who by their lives and actions declare their opposition of and contrariety unto the ways and courses of the men of this World Shew me thy Faith by thy Works says the Apostle James 2 18. Thou art one that professest to believe a Heaven and a State of blessedness to be enjoyed there and hopest thou art one that shalt be a partaker thereof hereafter shew me now thy Faith herein by thy Works and assure thy self of this That all thy Faith in and all thy Hopes of Heaven and Glory will fill thee with nothing but shame and disappointment hereafter unless they evidence themselves by Works and Actions suitable thereunto for as the Apostle says James 2.26 As the body without the Spirit is dead so all Faith in and Hope of Heaven without Works and Actions corresponding thereunto is dead also and will leave the Soul short of Heaven and Happiness Sixthly Is there such a State of Bliss and Happiness provided for and assured unto Believers in Heaven hereafter let then the consideration hereof Reconcile to them the thoughts of their own Death and moderate their sorrows for the Death of their Godly Friends and Relations First Let the consideration of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven Reconcile to a Believer the thoughts of his own Death It is no strange thing that Heathens who have only the Light of Nature to be their Instructor should not be able to overcome the Fears of Death though indeed some of them have not only expressed great Courage in contempt of but great confidence in and desire after Death though notwithstanding all their boasting we may well imagine that they speak greater things than they lived up unto much more than they died under for it is said of one of the chief of them that Eloquent Orator Cicero that a little before his Death he did ingeniously confess That those Remedies he had prepared against this Enemy Death proved he knew not how too weak and feeble to support and strengthen him in its near approach unto him And indeed it is no wonder that thus it should be with them because they were greatly in the dark as to the reality of a future State of Happiness and much more at a loss how to find the right way to attain the enjoyment thereof Nor is it any strange thing to see a wicked Man under the light of the Gospel to be afraid of Death and to lead a Life accompanied with Fears and Terrours under the thoughts of it no the wonder rather is that such a one can have any case and quietness any freedom from horrours and perplexities of Mind that he is not a Magormissabib continually every moment of his Life encompassed about with fears and terrours And indeed did he rightly understand himself and his dangerous state and condition it would be thus always with him and the greatness of his Fears and Horrours would make him go mourning all his Days But though Heathens and prophane Sinners may and have cause to be afraid of Death yet it becomes not any of the People of God who have a well grounded Hope of Heaven to be affrighted at it there being no way for them to attain unto that State of Blessedness but by Dying I have read concerning the Turks who are not only Strangers but Enemies to the Christian Religion that they say they do not think Heaven to be a place of that Bliss and Happiness as Christians do profess to believe it is because they see so many that call themselves by the Name of Christian so backward and unwilling to go to it O what a disgrace is this unto Christianity and how should it concern Christians to labour with great industry to overcome all inordinate fears of Death that they may wipe off this reproach that is cast upon the most excellent Religion in the World and that which only can enable any to Die comfortably and joyfully upon the Hopes of a future State of Happiness All a Believer's fears of
THE GLORY and HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN OR A DISCOURSE Concerning the Blessed State of the Righteous after Death By Nathanael Ranew late of London Bookseller London Printed for N. R. and sold by J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat. 1694. TO THE READER Christian Reader I Dare not suppose thee in an Age of somuch Light and Knowledge to be ignorant of a future State and Condition that doth abide thee and all Men after this Life for this were to conceive of the contrary not only to the sentiments of all Christians but even of Heathens themselves Neither can I think any to be so far blinded and hardned as to believe that this State which shall befall all Men after Death to be the same unto all Persons whether they be good or bad for though the Wise Man tells us in Eccles 9.1 2. That in this Life All things come alike unto all Men and there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked to the Clean and to the Vnclean So that in the way of God's common Providential dealings with Men in this World no Man knoweth Love or Hatred by all that is before them Yet when Death and Judgment come a discriminating Sentence shall pass upon all Men According to what they have done in the Body whether it be good or bad And then as the Apostle speaks All those who have not obeyed the Truth but have lived in Sin and Vnrighteousness shall receive Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that hath thus done Evil But to them who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for Glory and Honour and Immortality shall be Eternal Life And of this none that live under the Light of the Gospel can be ignorant Now as to the former of these that State of Woe and Misery that is to be the Portion of Sinners in Hell it is not my design in the following Discourse to say any thing Having confined my Thoughts and Meditations therein unto the latter and that is that State of Bliss and Happiness that shall be the Portion of Holy Souls in Heaven All Men now will say they desire and seek after happiness but few there are that attain thereunto not that there is no such Thing or State attainable for Holiness always lays a sure Foundation for Happiness But Man being fallen from God and sunk into the Creature cannot without the help of Divine Grace raise up his Soul his Affections and Desires towards God towards Heaven and Heavenly things but takes up with what is suitable to his Earthly and Fleshly part and so the World and the Enjoyments thereof being adapted to the Inclinations of his present State and Condition here below accordingly with the greatest eagerness he pursues the Riches the Honours the Pleasures and Delights of this World as those things which when attained he vainly fansies will make him truly Happy but when he comes to enjoy them meets with Frustration and Disappointment All Men being forced sooner or later to subscribe unto what the Wisest of Men faith as a great Truth concerning all things under the Sun that they are but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Wouldst thou not Christian Reader when thou comest to die be eternally deceived in thy Hopes and Expectations of Happiness Let not the World and the Enjoyments thereof take up thy Thoughts and Affections now God hath provided the good things thereof and by his Care and Providence brings them to thee daily for thy use that with this Gracious and Liberal Allowance of his thou mayest serve him with the greater Chearfulness and Delight of Soul in thy Passage through this World But he never intended thou shouldst take up with them as thy Happiness Believe it God hath provided better things for holy Souls in another World he intends himself to be their Portion his Heaven to be their Habitation and Dwelling place Angels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles to be their Associates and Companions where they shall live in the light of God's Countenance see his Face behold his Glory and be filled with his Love to all Eternity O blessed State of infinite Bliss and Happiness beyond what words is able to express Well may holy Souls with wonder and amazement cry out with the Apostle and say Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor can it enter into the heart of Man to conceive what God hath provided for them that Love him And why mayest not thou who now castest thine Eyes upon these lines make one of that great number of holy Souls that shall be thus Eternally Happy and Blessed God hath not Excluded thee out of Heaven and why shouldest thou exclude and shut out thy self God is now displaying before thee the Excellencies and Glory of that Blessed State and wherefore doth he do so but to invite and draw Sinners to come and partake of this Happiness not that God needs us or any thing that we can do for he is as Happy without us as he can possibly be with us But we need him and cannot be happy without him Now therefore since he is pleased to continue the offers of such rich Grace and Mercy let none be found slighters and contemners thereof Disappoint not O Sinners the design of God in seeking to bring Souls to Heaven Frustrate not your own Expectations of Bliss and Happiness Make not your selves Eternally miserable by choosing any sinful course or walking in any allowed way of Wickedness Nor yet provoke God by any sinful delays or any sluggish and lazy desires and endeavours in seeking to obtain this Everlasting Happiness to deal with you as obstinate despisers and contemners thereof and swear in his Wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest If God may be Glorified and Souls receive benefit hereby unto Eternal Life the Author hath the desire of his Soul and an abundant Reward for what he hath done in the ensuing Discourse and that a Blessing from Heaven may make is thus Successful unto all that shall read it is and shall be the Prayer of the Publisher The CONTENTS CHAP. I. AN Introduction A State of Future Glory and Happiness proved What it is that makes the Happiness of Heaven so Excellent and Glorious with a short and brief Description thereof CHAP. II. A more particular Consideration of the Happiness of Heaven Of the Company and Society Believers shall enjoy in Heaven As 1. Communion with all the People of God 2. Communion with Angels 3. Enjoyment of Jesus Christ their Redeemer 4. Sight and Fruition of God What kind of Sight or Vision of God Saints shall have in Heaven Which shall be 1. Immediate and Clear 2. Transforming 3. Joyful 4. Permanent and Perpetual This Sight and Vision of God in Heaven will be a great Happiness because God is 1. An Vniversal Good 2. A Pure and unmixed Good 3. A Suitable Good 4. An All-sufficient Good 5. A Satisfying Good 6. An Everlasting Good
of Working It is true the Work there is not toilsome and laborious but sweet and pleasant and that makes the Saints delightfully spend an Eternity therein In Heaven therefore the Saints are to perform an eternal Work as they are there to enjoy an eternal Reward both go to the making up the Happiness of Heaven First In Heaven there is an eternal Work for the Saints to be employed in Much hath been said concerning that Happiness which the Saints shall enjoy in Heaven and more is there of Sweetness and Excellency in it than Words can express But yet we are not so to conceive of the Happiness thereof as some ignorant Persons do grossly imagine and wish to themselves as if Heaven were a Place where the blessed Inhabitants thereof were altogether unactive and unemployed enjoying only their Ease and Rest and so void of Cares and Fears passed away an Eternity This may be the low and brutish Apprehensions that profane Sinners may have concerning Heaven but they are such as are no way becoming the Glory and Dignity the Honour and Happiness of that holy Place for that Rest the People of God shall enjoy in Heaven is an operative working Rest or it is Rest and Exercise at once for though in Heaven the Saints do rest from their labours yet they do not rest from their working Now if any ask what that Work is in which the Saints shall be employed in Heaven I answer they shall always be blessing and praising of God there according to that in Rev. 5.13 Blessing Honour and Glory unto him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Continually are those blessed ones beholding admiring and adoring of God and burning in Love to each other and mutually rejoicing all in God and in one another This now is that eternal Work that a Saint shall be for ever employed about in his everlasting Rest a Work so full of Pleasure and Delight that it cannot be intermitted or forborn by the Saints to Eternity Secondly In Heaven there is an eternal Reward that shall be bestowed upon the Saints A Reward so great and so glorious as is beyond the Thoughts and Imaginations much more beyond the Words and Expressions of poor mortal Creatues to discover When all hath been said of it that can be still is there something of Glory and Excellency of Sweetness and Delight in this glorious Reward that exceeds all Expressions and Apprehensions Rack and torture the whole Creation extract the Quintessence of all the Glory Beauty Excellency and Goodness that is in all the Creatures in the World and let it be the Enjoyment of one Man for his Happiness yet all this is but a shadowy representation of that Glory and Happiness that the Saints shall enjoy hereafter Let the Desires Thoughts and Imaginations of Angels and Men be bent upon imagining and contriving what it is they could desire that would make the condition of any one happy in the Fruition of it the heavenly Reward there shall be a participating of that Happiness or that which is infinitely better and beyond it The Desires of Men's Souls may run out after great things which if they can attain they question not but the Enjoyment of them will make them happy But Men's Imaginations can go much farther even to the coveting after that in their Thoughts that they cannot tell how almost to desire But let the Desires and Imaginations of Men's Souls be enlarged and widened never so greatly and insatiably after a Happiness that may satisfieand content them yet still they come infinitely short both in Desire and in Imagination of what shall be the heavenly Reward And if Desires if Thoughts if Imaginations cannot reach the Greatness of this Reward Surely all Words though nttered with the greatest Eloquence to represent the Greatness and Excellency thereof must fall infinitely short of it So many good things are contained in this Reward that they exceed Number So great things that they exceed Desire and so precious that they exceed Estimation Nay this Reward of the Saints is so great and glorious that it exceeds both the Faith and Hope of a Christian The People of God believe and trust in God for great things and God loves to have the Hopes and Expectations of his People greatned and enlarged towards himself Of Abraham it is said that against Hope he believed in Hope or above Hope But in this great and glorious Reward of the Saints in Heaven we cannot believe above Hope that is we cannot believe above the great things that are hoped for Whatever we believe and hope for in Heaven that which the Saints shall enjoy there will be above it and beyond it It is true at present we know not what these great things are but when we come to Heaven we shall certainly find that they exceed both our Faith and our Hope And to add no more the Greatness and Glory of this Reward is that which exceeds all those Expressions which the Spirit of God in Scripture is pleased to set forth the the Greatness and Glory of it to us by Great Things are there spoken concerning this Happiness of the Saints But there is still abundantly more to be revealed and enjoyed than what that Holy Book hath discovered to us so great shall be the Reward of the Saints in Heaven that it exceeds Words exceeds Thoughts exceeds Faith exceeds Hope It is too great for Words to express too great for Thoughts to conceive too great for Faith to believe too great for Hope to expect For though Faith believes the Truth and Hope expects the Certainty of the things promised yet Faith doth not believe nor doth Hope expect the Greatness and Fulness of what shall be hereafter enjoyed by the Saints For saith the Evangelical Prophet from whom the Apostle makes use of the same Words Isa 64.4 and 1 Cor. 2.9 Since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for them that love him and wait for him So great shall this Happiness of the Saints in Heaven be that it can never be known but by Enjoyment There shall be nothing to Eternity that shall be afflictive or troublesome but an aggregation or meeting together of every thing that is pleasing and delightful with the continuance of them for ever That is a sweet Scripture and gives us the fullest Description of that State of Blessedness in so few Words Rev. 21.17 He that overcometh shall inherit all things and God will be his God And what can be said more to make any one happy For in this Scripture we have both the certainty of a Saint's Reward and the Fulness of it the certainty of his Reward in these Words He shall inherit I will be his God The fulness of it in these Words He shall inherit all things and God will be his God and who can tell what God is or
an account for that great estrangedness that is in it unto God and a Heavenly Life and for time to come leave off thy pursuits of Vanity and bend thy Soul with all seriousness to the Study of what thy Eternal State and Condition shall be busily employ thy Thoughts about the Happiness of a Life to come inure thy self to a Life of Divine and Heavenly Contemplation and let not the thoughts of Heaven be seldom slight and cursory but accustom thy self to them let them be fixed and abiding in thee dwell in thy Thoughts upon such Contemplations let thy Soul recreate it self with these Heavenly Delights And whenver thou findest thy Heart begin to flag and draw back or thy Thoughts to take liberty to flie out and ramble towards other things speedily call them back and keep them close to this pleasurable Employment let them not wander from their work indulge not thy self in Sloathfulness be quick and smart upon thy Soul for the least neglect that may be and for thy encouragement herein know that when once thou hast conquered the Difficulties and overcome the Obstructions that would hinder thee from experiencing so sweet and comfortable a Life and got the Mastery over thy Thoughts and Affections by an accustomed Obedience and Conformity unto the Practice of this Heavenly Duty thou wilt then find abundance of Sweetness and Delight therein and thy experience will confirm this to be a Truth of great Verity that the Life of Christianity is a Life of Joy that therein is to be found such abundant strong Consolations as will lift up thy Soul even into the very Suburbs of Heaven it self so that thou wilt seem to be as it were in a new World through the sense and feeling of those Joys which the Apostle tells us are unspeakable and full of Glory Now although the bare proposing of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven unto the Thoughts and Meditations of a Christian should be Argument strong enough to put him upon the practice of a Duty that is accompanied with so much Pleasure and Delight for certainly a more sweet delightful and desirable Life a Christian cannot live for this way of living is to bring down Heaven unto us before we are taken up thither it is to begin to live that life on Earth that we shall for ever live in Heaven and how then can there be any need of Arguments to press Christians to live such a life as this is Yet because sad experience tells us how hardly the best Christians are drawn to a daily practice of this Heavenly Duty I shall lay down some Arguments to excite and quicken them hereunto as First A Soul that lives in the believing views and contemplations of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven makes use of one of the strongest Cordials to support it self under Troubles and Afflictions that can be This will sustain a Christian's Spirit under Sufferings make them more easie to be born this keeps the Soul from murmuring and repining under the Hand of God makes it patient under all its Tribulations yea these believing views of Heaven and Glory will uphold and strengthen a Christian's Resolutions for God and holy Obedience and keep him from forsaking Christ and Religion for fear of Trouble and Persecution Alas will such a Soul say what if the Way be rough and unpleasant unto the Flesh yea what if it should be thorough Mud and Blood yet Heaven is at the end and that will make more than a thousand-fold amends for all the Sufferings that I can endure in the Way O sweet Pains and Torments O blessed Woes and Distresses O rich Poverty and Reproaches O happy Restraint and Imprisonment but much more happy Death however it comes that is accompanied with the joyful foretastes of a future Happiness in Heaven as no Bolts nor Bars no Restraints or Distresses can shut out or exclude the Joys and Consolations of Heaven from coming into the Soul Our Flesh that is these frail Bodies of ours may be confined within Walls of Stone or Bars of Iron but the Faith the Hope the Thoughts and Meditations of a Christian cannot still the Soul hath liberty in its flight towards Heaven from whence it fetches strong Consolations for its Support and Joy notwithstanding all the Severities that lie upon the outward Man Christ Faith and the Joys and Delights of Heaven are all spiritual and therefore it is not in the Power of any Prisons nor what the most malicious Persecutors can do to hinder a Soul that is a Spirit from sweet Intercourse and Commerce with them in John 20.19 when the Persecutions of the Jews were so hot against the Disciples that they were forced to meet privately and to shut the doors upon themselves for fear of the Jews yet even then Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said Peace be unto you And when those two blessed Servants of God Paul and Silas were kept close Prisoners to speak in the Language of our Times after their Bodies had been abused by Scourging being locked up in the Inner Prison and their Feet made fast in the Stocks yet notwithstanding when they were suffering thus as to their Bodies they had a Heaven in their Souls and their Work and Employment was the same with what the Saints are taken up in Heaven even to sing Praises unto God and so they did for so we read Acts 16.24 25. At Midnight they pray'd and sang Praises unto God They had more Joy in undergoing their Sufferings than their Enemies had in inflicting them Yea so great were the Consolations of Heaven in their Souls that their Enemies were more desirous to free them from their Sufferings than they were desirous to come out of them for when they sent their Officers to fetch them out of Prison they refused to go out and made their very Persecutors themselves to beg and entreat them to come out Oh what wonderful strong Joys and Consolations had ravished their Souls that made them so unwilling to come out of Prison not to be punished but to be set at liberty How come those Worthies of whom we read in Heb. 11. to endure such sore Trials as are there recorded of them being exposed to the Violence of the Flames having Trials of cruel Mockings and Scourgings being stoned sawn asunder destitute afflicted and tormented And yet notwithstanding all would not accept of Deliverance Whence was it that they came to suffer so courageously Why the Reason is given us in Verse 35. it was That they might obtain a better Resurrection They saw not only to an end of their Sufferings but they looked also unto the Glory that was to be revealed and this made them so bold and courageous It is no wonder that Afflictions and Sufferings should be painful and grievous unto that Man who cannot see to the end of them And whatever Death is unto others it must needs be the King of Terrors unto him who cannot behold Immortality and