you wee can doe no more Math. 10. 14. If they will not retaine it saith he shake off the dust of your feete as a testimony against them If yee looke not to your selves in this life this will be the event of it Oh how will it fret you to the heart what inutterable perplexities will you be in when you see others follow Christ to his glory and you your selves have that curse denounced against you Goe you cursed c. Alasse then it will bee too late to get Heaven oh what terrour and amazement what bitter anguish to thinke Heaven came neere unto me it was offered me and yet because I would not part with some darling sinne some beloved corruption some base lust I have lost my interest in it I must not partake of those rivers of pleasures in Heaven This certainely will be the issue except here whilst you have space you make sure this Crowne to your selves by Faith and Repentance 3. Cause I proceed in the third place to the exemplary cause and the greatnesse of this glory appeares from this and this is the glory of Jesus Christ himselfe consider the great glory of the Lord of glory is the neerest patterne of it and therefore in Scripture that glory the Saints shall have in Heaven is said to be like his wee shall be like the Lord of glory hee is not onely made the efficient and meritorious cause but also the exemplary cause of this glory what can bee said more then this we shall be made like to Christ Jesus who is the Lord of glory the eye of all things the first-borne of every living creature in whom all excellencies remaine and all fulnesse dwels oh then what infinite glory to bee like what Jesus Christ now is why thou shalt bee made like to him Iohn 17. 24. That they may behold my glory which thou hast given me but that is not all though this was sufficient to make us happy A beggar may behold the glory of a King and bee never the happier for it nay bee more sad in his thoughts because none of his glory reflects upon himselfe but saith our Saviour Iohn 17. 22. The glory which thou gavest mee I have given them that they may bee one even as wee are one we shall weare the same kinde of glory which Christ weares and hee weares all the glory both of Heaven and earth about him at all times what kind of glory shall wee then weare We shall be made like unto his glorious body As we were all borne like Adam so wee shall be made like Christ wee are said to be predestinated to be made conformable according to the Image of his sonne so that as wee were predestinated to be made like him in grace and sufferings here so likewise in glory wee see here but as in a glasse the glory of Christ and yet are changed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 5. last But we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord If we seeing him here upon earth as an holy and a righteous man conceive and have such glory in him consider brethren what that shall be when we shall see him as he is what a comfort will that be when we shall see him face to face in Heaven and be made partaken of his glory we shall be like him 1 Iohn 3. 2. Behold now wee are the sonnes of God and it doth not yet appeare what wee shall be but wee know that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him In the fourth place let us consider the matter of this glory both Materia in qua circa quam the obiect and subject of this glory And first the object of this happinesse why it is not any other creature but God himselfe no creature in Heaven and Earth is the matter of our happinesse but God himselfe will be made happinesse to us he will not onely be the efficient cause but the materiall cause of our happinesse Gen. 17. He sums up all in himselfe I will bee an al-sufficient God unto thee he promises himselfe not heaven separated from himselfe but he will give us his owne glory he doth not onely promise us great and glorious things to bee created by him but hee himselfe will be our Heaven Psalm 73. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none that I desire on earth besides thee marke the phrase indeed there are all other things here on Earth which we may stand in need of but saith David though I have neede of them why yet none of them all I desire besides thee God alone made David happy for indeed God himselfe makes Heaven though there were neither Saint nor Angell indeed they are all there but wee need nothing but God and Christ to make us happy of this glorious City which is the forerunner of Heaven if it be not Heaven it selfe yet of that glorious condition which indeed is the immediate forerunner of Heaven Revel 21. 23. The City had no need of Sunne or Moone to shine in it for saith he The glory of God did lighten it and the Lambe is the light thereof why my brethren though there be many glorious things in Heaven though there be the fruition of the company of Saints and Angels yet that is not it which makes us happy but God is our happines Indeed the glorious societies of the glorified bodies of Saints is very delectable and ten thousand times excels all the delights of creatures here below yet I say we have no need of them to make us happy it is but overplus God himselfe and Christ Jesus make our Heaven happinesse Thinke now my brethren with your selves what Heaven is are you all able to consider what it is to have God to be our happinesse It is impossible for you to conceive it and for me to expresse it I can no more reveale what God will doe to you then this light can reveale the light of the Sunne which can bee knowne by no light but its owne In the first place God containes all things all manner of divine perfections are bound up in him The pleasures of this earth are scattered here and there and therefore the soule goes wandering up and downe from one creature to another from one flower to another because some part of his happinesse is in one some part in another but my brethren in God we have all happines summed up and wrapped together all our delights are together in him Revel 21 7. He that overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and hee shall be my sonne Consider with your selfe that God himselfe can but inherit all things and indeed he is all things and if we have God for our God wee shall inherit all things hee will be meate and drinke wife husband and whatsoever else unto
us he will be all things to us himselfe and therefore it is said 1 Cor. 14. 18. That at the day of Iudgement when Christ shall give up the kingdome then all things shall bee put under him that God may bee all in all which implies two things First that God himself will be our happinesse hee will be happinesse enough for he is all in all Secondly That hee will be all unto us in a more transcendent manner than the glory of the creatures I may compare these joyes of Heaven to those receipts which containe the very spirits of things the very life and quintessence of things extracted out a little quantity whereof as much as will lie on a knives point is of more vertue and efficacy to work upon a mans body because they are the spirits than a great quantity of all other drugs so now these contentments which God gives are the very spirits of comforts which will adde more happinesse than all the drugs of worldly pleasures can administer unto us for all the happinesse that could bee had here nay further all the happinesse God could create to men as men here on earth are but as one drop to the bottomlesse Ocean of Gods glory and yet this fals short this is too scant a comparison for I say infinite millions of drops will at length make an Ocean but ten thousand millions of the glories of this World cannot make up one drop of the glory which is in God Thus God will be all things to us and all things in a transcendent manner Againe thirdly God will poure out himselfe unto us he will give us cōmunication with himselfe of this his infinite happinesse he will poure out all his glory unto us Ephes 3. 19. That yee might be filled with all the fulnesse of God which will give all comfort open thy mouth wide he is able to fill it for one drop of God will fill thee full I will fill thee with fulnesse fulnesse of the best kind oh what ineffable comfort will this be when the vessels of mercy shall be throwne into this bottomlesse sea of glory Therefore doe but thinke with your selves what a happinesse this will be when you shall be made partakers of Gods glory of all the blessednes that is in God for although he cannot giue us his glory essentially yet it shall as truly seeme to make us happy as it doth to make him glorious Fourthly we shall be made one with him they are Christs owne words Iohn 17. 21 22 23. That they all may bee one as thou O Father art in mee and I in thee even that they may bee also one in us that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent mee and the glory that thou gavest mee I have given them that they may be one as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me My brethren what is it that makes God happy but God himselfe and yet what is that which makes Christ so happy but that he is equall with God the Father Now if God make himselfe happy how happy shall wee be then when wee communicate with God in this his happinesse To bee one with him then must needs make us happy indeed wee cannot bee one with him as Christ is for hee is the brightnesse of his glory the expresse Image and character of his person he is the naturall Sonne of God and of the same nature with God but we shall be made one with him so far as the creature is capeable of and the next union to that which God and Christ have one with another we shall have that they may bee one even as wee are one And againe being made one with God we shall rejoyce in all that God rejoyceth in that God is so glorious a God it shall make thee glorious thou shalt have all those joyes by revenues of which hee now lives in Heaven thou shalt rejoyce more in Gods happinesse than in thine owne the more happinesse riseth to God the more riseth to thee that which is the matter of GODS glory shall bee the matter of ours it is the nature of love that it rejoyceth in the love of the person beloved Iohn 14. You are my friends if you doe whatsoever I command you Ioh. 3. And therfore saith Iohn in that he increaseth I must decrease in this my joy is fulfilled Our Saviour saith also to his Disciples If ye loved me you would have reioyced because I said I goe to the Father Now my brethren if wee shall rejoyce in the same God rejoyceth in both in that joy which is intrinsecus within him and in that joy which is extrinsecus whereby hee delights in all his workes and providence if both these I say shall be in us how glorious shall wee be Iohn 15. 11. Christ saith These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remaine in you and that your ioy might be full And this is not to be understood of our Saviours joy of the hopes he had of them but that the joy which is in Christ shall be in us that my ioy saith he may be in you 25. Matth. 25. We shall enter into our masters joy Rom. 5. 2. And reioyce in the hope of the glory of God and not onely so but we ioy also in God through our Lord Iesus Christ wee shall not onely rejoyce in a created glory which hee shall bestow upon us but further wee rejoyce in Gods owne glory I should come to shew you the subject of this glory namely the soule of man But my brethren I will first make some short use of this which hath beene spoken Let us therefore take God for our portion whatsoever else becomes of us whatsoever befals us let what will come what afflictions what throbs what miseries or crosses will come Heaven will make amends for all for thy pleasures of sinne and worldly contentments God will be better to thee than all put them all in one ballance and God with that glory he will bestow on you in another ballance and hee will over-waigh them all they are not worthy to be compared to this glory this was it that made the Martyrs runne through so many persecutions and tortures that with cheerfulnesse they tooke God for their portions so they had him they cared not what became of their bodies For saith Paul Wee looke not to things which are corruptible but to things which are eternall And because it is probable yea and more then probable that there are degrees of glory in Heaven that God will reward every one according to their workes why then doe not onely content your selves to goe to Heaven but endeavour to serve God more that you may have great glory in Heaven be abundant in good workes hoord up good works according to which glory shall bee waighed to
you in Heaven let not pleasures hinder thee of the least degree of glory for to have but one pearle added to thy Crown is more than the whole World commit therefore no sinne that might hinder your attaining of glory for what though God pardon thy sin yet thou loosest glory thou mightest have gotten whilest thou wast in committing it the least shred of which glory transcends all the glory of the World Now wee come to the subject of this glory the Materia in qua the Vessell which shall receive this infinite masse of glory and that is the soule it is called the salvation of our soules the soule which will hold so much is the vessels of this glory the body shall be exceeding glorious but the soule is the receptacle which must receive this glory Rom. 9. 23. And that hee might make knowne the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which hee had before prepared unto glory And S. Peter calleth Christ the salvation of our soules the end of your faith the salvation of your soules My brethren your soule howsoever you value it is capeable of more glory than this world can afford the pleasures of which will fill your soule no more than one droppe will fill a Cisterne or a little shower the place where the Ocean stands Eccles 3. 11. Now it is said that in this life God will put a World into the heart of man and yet all that World will not fill it why my brethren your soules are narrow in this life in respect of that they shall bee hereafter they hold but little in respect of that they shall hold in Heayen they are but little bladders which there shall bee blowne up they are but dunge bladders in respect of that they shall be in Heaven hereafter which may appeare in this Salomon had a very large heart he had as many notions in him as the sands of the sea shore for number and yet the soule of the least child in heaven happily but new come out of his mothers wombe exceedes all the knowledge which Salomon had on earth our soules are capeable of more joyes than the senses can give they are not able to satisfie it it will drinke up more glory even in one houre than the senses can provide in many hundred yeeres it will drinke them all up at one draught My beloved your senses cannot let in the King of glory such narrow gates cannot receive such infinite great glory Psal 24. In Heaven the doores of your hearts shal be opened and when those dores are open I say the everlasting dores of your hearts are open they cannot containe this glory you must bee contained in it Enter saith Christ into thy masters ioy If the joy of the holy Ghost in this life passe all understanding and beleeving wee reioyce with joy unspeakeable and full of glory how much more in the world to come shal our joyes passe all understanding when wee shall have fruition of Gods presence which is life it selfe My brethren your soules have two great gulphs viz. the understanding and the wil which must and shall bee satisfied Now saith Salomon The eye of the body is not satisfied with seeing it can comprize halfe the World in it and if the eye of the body be so hard to be satisfied much more the eye of the soule and yet in Heaven this shall be satisfied this gulph shall be satisfied Psal 17. 15. I shall bee satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse hee was to lay his head in the grave for a while but hee should arise when the Heavens shall bee no more As Iob said I shall see him againe so David I shall awake and then I shall bee satisfied with thy likenesse Iohn 14. 18. Show us the Father saith Philip and it sufficeth us you will say if you could but see God it would suffice and indeed you may well say so for the sight of God will suffice you why you shall see God Iohn 17. 24. for Christ doth desire this especially those that are his to make thē happy to be with him to behold his face Father I will that they also that thou hast given me to bee with mee where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me So Math. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God they shall bee able to behold him If the Queen of Sheba who had seene so much glory before and being a Queene had partaken of so much glory in her selfe if she I say was so astonished so amazed that shee had no spirit in her even to see Salomons wisedome and to see his magnificency in honour and riches how much more shall the glory of God ravish us part of which wee never saw no not the glimpse of it oh how wilt thou bee amazed with joy when thou shalt see his glory and see him as hee is when wee shall know as we are knowne and GOD knowes us as farre as can bee 1 Corinthians 13. 12. For now wee see through a glasse darkely but then face to face now wee know but in part but then we shall know even as we are knowne all our sight of him here it is but as in a glasse Now what a great difference is it to looke upon a man who is behinde us and to turne our face and to looke truely and sted fastly upon him why there is infinitely more difference betwixt that light wee have of God by faith on earth and that perfect light of him and fruition of his glory which wee shall have in heaven why as I said before the eye of a mans body as it is but a small thing and the apple of it much smaller and yet by the helpe of the sunne it is able to take halfe the World into it at once how much more shall the eye of our understanding conceive infinite joys pastour apprehension here when it hath the light of Gods glory shining about it Psal 36. 8 9. They shall bee abundantly satisfied with the fulnesse of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountaine of life in thy light shall wee see light when as the Sunne of glory comes to shine about us we shall even draw God into our soules and thus you see the first gulph shall be filled The second gulph of mans soule is the will thou hast a will and amongst all the affections of it love is most comfortable now that shall be fully satisfied wee shall be satisfied with Gods loving kindnesse for Psal 73. all other affections bring paine with them but love is alwaies comfortable Phil. 2. 1. If there bee any consolation of Christ if any comfort of love Wee love things here on earth that cannot love us againe as money riches and the like how much more shall wee love love it selfe Indeed as Salomon saith The love of friends is very delectable Pro. 27. 9.