the Spring but the Resurrection of them again unto a new Life And what is Death unto us but a pulling down of these Clay Houses of our Bodies into the Dust And what is the Resurrection but a raising or rebuilding of the same Houses of our Bodies out of the same Dust again And this shall as certainly be accomplished by God as any of the former have been Moreover God hath given great Encouragement to our Faith to believe the Truth hereof by raising many from the Dead already both in the Old Testament and in the New as the Shunamite's and the Widow of Naim's Sons with Tabitha and Lazarus who had lain four days in the Grave together with many others that at the Death of Christ arose out of their Graves and went into the Holy City and were seen of many Now what God hath already done to some he can and will do unto all at the last Day For as our Lord saith The hour is coming wherein all that are in their Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 29. And O what great encouragement is here unto Believers both against their own Death and the Death of their Godly Friends and Relations How sweet upon this account may the Thoughts of Death be unto Believers themselves Therefore maist thou O believing Soul chearfully yield unto the stroak of Death for though by it thou art carried unto the Grave that Place of silence where thou shalt moulder away into Dust and Rottenness yet maist thou die in the assured Belief of this great Truth That as certainly as now by Death thou goest down intothe Grave so certainly shalt thou ere long be raisedr up out of it again and then shall thy Soul and Body have a comfortable meeting together again never to be parted any more but be made happy together in an eternal Enjoyment of God in Glory Here is also matter of great Comfort against the Death of our godly Friends and Relations What a blessed Support is this to a Believer when Death comes and takes away any such from him How comfortably may he take his leave of them delivering them up unto Death and the Grave knowing assuredly that they shall rise again unto Glory and Happiness Those that die in Christ and sleep in Jesus them he will certainly raise out of their Graves and bring with him unto Judgment Cease therefore thy immoderate Grief drown not thy self in Tears for those whose Souls are at present triumphing in Glory and whose Bodies shall shortly be raised up unto a participation of the same Glory and Happiness Whenever therefore O believing Soul either thou thy self shalt come to lie upon a Death-Bed taking thy last Farewell of thy godly Friends and Relations in this World or when any such godly Friends and Relations shall upon their Death-Beds take their last Farewell of thee let this great Truth of the Resurrection of the Body teach thee how thou shouldst do it not as one without hope but as it becomes a Christian and that is willingly and chearfully not because thou art thereby rid of a Trouble or Charge or because by their Death thou shalt be a gainer in thy worldly Concerns this shews a very evil sinful frame of Spirit and is no way becoming a Christian but let let thy willingness herein proceed from a more excellent Motive even this comfortable consideration that there is but a little short space of Time between thy Death and theirs as also between all your Deaths and the Time of your Resurrections which will quickly shde away whilst you and they are sleeping quietly in your Graves and then shall both you and they be raised up together thence with great Joy and Rejoicing so saith the Prophet Isa 26.19 Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust for then shall there be everlasting Joy upon your Heads But I must not forget that this is not the Subject I am treating upon it being that which comes in here only as a necessary Introduction unto that Happiness which the Bodies of the Saints shall partake of in Heaven unto which I now come to treat more particularly Now in speaking unto this I shall reduce all that I have to say unto these four Heads the Incorruptability the Spirituality the Power or Agility and the Glory and Beauty of the Body First The Bodies of the Saints in Heaven shall be incorruptible Their Souls are always immortal for when they leave their Bodies which by Death drops from them into the Grave yet they die not but returning unto God are adjudged to and initated in an everlasting state of Blessedness But now in Heaven the very Bodies of the Saints shall be as immortal as their Souls In this World the best carry up and down with them weak frail dying Bodies always yielding to Decays exercised with Pains and Aches that insensibly waste and wear them away till at length Death by some incurable Disease lays them from the Second Death yet have they thereby no exemption from the First Death but they as well as others must taste thereof because they as well as others have sinned It is true the Sting of Death shall never reach them that they are delivered from and gain Victory over by Jesus Christ but the stroke of Death must and will reach them Death cannot hurt them that 's certain because it hath no Poison in it but Death will have Dominion over them for a time But though Death play the Tyrant here on Earth sparing none either for their Greatness or their Goodness yet hath it no admittance into Heaven For when the Saints shall be cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven then shall Death and Mortality be swallowed up of Life and the Life of the Body as well as the Life of the Soul shall then be everlasting The Apostle 1 Corinth 15.42 speaking of the Body tells us it is sown in Corruption but it is raised in Incorruption So in verse 52. in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and this Mortal must put on Immortality And O how comfortable must the Thoughts hereof needs be to the Saints to think that though now they have sickly diseased yea dying Bodies yet there is a time coming when they shall have Bodies free from all manner of Aches and Pains not subjected to Decays nor Death but always lively and vigorous The Resurrection will do more for the Bodies of the Saints than a Colledge of the ablest Physicians ever could do for it will at once perfectly cure them of all their Infirmities and Distempers which all the Physicians here on Earth could never do Alas they could only give some case and relief under some particular Distempers and that but for a little time but they soon returned again or
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
God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 And says our Lord My Sheep hear my Voice and they follow me and I give unto them eternal Life Rom. 6.23 The Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mortality is the Disgrace of all earthly Enjoyments To a carnal Eye indeed the things of this World appear great and glorious but the brevity and shortness of their continuance should not only disparage but render them contemptible to a gracious Soul No Man can greatly delight in that which he knows will quickly be taken from him It must needs spoil our carnal Mirth and Jollity when we find our pleasant and delightful things dying in our hands No Man can cast a greater Reproach and Disgrace upon any thing of the greatest Excellency than to call it a frail perishing thing Now such are all worldly Enjoyments they will soon be at an end for as the Apostle speaks they pass away yea they will quickly not be at all What says the Psalmist Psal 39.6 Surely every Man walketh in a vain shew he disquieteth himself in vain he heapeth up Riches and knows not who shall enjoy them Why wicked Men reckon that they themselves shall enjoy them It is true they do so but so short and uncertain is the Life of Man that the Psalmist doth as it were pass by him that is the gainer of them as one not fit to be mentioned for an enjoyer of what he hath taken so much pains for because by that time he hath with great toil and labour and it may be with a great deal of sin and guilt also obtained what he desired his Life is at an end and he forced to leave it unto others but who shall enjoy it he knows not O this shortness of our Lives and the uncertainty of our Enjoyment of all wordly Things should put a check to our eager pursuits after them for they and we must soon part again There may be indeed some ignorant and forgetful Persons who may have no such sad and melancholy Thoughts to disturb them in their carnal Pleasures and Delights and such may for the present be outwardly merry and jovial but what will become of this Mirth and Jollity when they come to lie upon a Death-bed It will be but a poor relief that the Thoughts of having enjoyed abundance of worldly Things will yield unto any at such a time It 's a sorry Happiness and that which deserves not the Name of it that consists in an ignorance or forgetfulness of an approaching Misery But now in Heaven a Saint's Happiness is eternal Once in Heaven and for ever there Oh blessed Eternity Happy are those Souls that arrive in that state of perfect Bliss for none are there perplexed with any sad and melancholy Thoughts nor are the Joys of those blessed ones interrupted with any Fears of the Expiration of their Happiness All that enter into that holy Place become Pillars in the Temple of God where they abide for ever Rev. 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the house of my God and he shall go out no more Into that earthly Paradise wherein God put our first Parents there was a way out but no way in again But into the Heavenly Paradise there is a way in even a pleasant and delightful way unto Believers though a thorny and bloody way unto Christ But there is no way out again What says Abraham to the rich Man in Hell Luke 16.26 They that would pass from hence unto you cannot What a strange kind of Expression is that Can it be thought that any would pass from Heaven a place of inexpressible Joy and Happiness unto Hell a place of inexpressible Misery and Torment if they might Certainly Hell is not a place so desirable nor is Heaven a place so contemptible that any of those happy Souls that are now in Glory should be desirous to make an Exchange of the Bliss and Happiness of the one for the Pain and Torment of the other No that is not the meaning of the place but it is an Expression spoken only to shew the impossibility of the Saints losing the Happiness of Heaven They may as well be thought to be covetous of exchanging the Happiness of that blessed place for the Anguish and Torment of the Damned in Hell as it can be supposed that they should ever be deprived of the Happiness of Heaven for says Abraham if it were possible to suppose this of the Saints in Heaven that they should be willing to do this yet says he They cannot that is they cannot nor shall not to Eternity ever lose the Happiness they enjoy in Heaven Misery it self to Eternity may as soon be desired and embraced by them as Happiness it self can be supposed to be parted with and lost by them For they that would come from us to you cannot Oh happy and blessed State who would not with the greatest diligence contend to be a partaker of it O my Soul loose then thy hold of the World and all the Enjoyments thereof All thy Pleasures and Delights here below are but Dreams and Fancies compared with what the Saints shall Eternally enjoy in Heaven Chearfully therefore quit thy Interest in what is but appearing and uncertain for that which hath the greatest Reality and Permanency in it Let it not grieve thee that thou partest with thy dearest Friends and Relations nay let it not trouble thee tho' thou partest with thy life it self if thy parting with these be the way of God's appointment through which thou must pass to enter upon that State and Condition where not only all thy Fears and Troubles shall cease and come to an end but where they shall all be changed into an Eternity of Joy and Delight as they shall most certainly be in Heaven And now O Christian Reader let me persuade thee for some little time once a day to withdraw thy self from the World and the business and affairs thereof and seriously consider with thy self of this great Word or rather State of Eternity Doth it not highly concern thee nay is there any thing that can be of greater moment unto thee than to know how it shall go with thee to all Eternity Holy Souls are sure to enjoy a state of Eternal Happiness in Heaven this the Scripture abundantly confirms and thou thy self dost believe to be a great Truth but is this state of Eternal Happiness like to be thine hast thou it made sure unto thee upon such grounds as will not deceive thee another day That an Eternal State doth abide thee is beyond all doubting but whether is it a State of Eternal Happiness or Eternal Misery is the great question thou art to be resolved in Consider O Soul it is thy being Eternally in either of these states that will make thee Miserable or Happy indeed It is not thy being among the Damned in Hell comparatively that will make thee miserable but
thy being Eternally under the Torments of Hell this is that which makes thee truly miserable And on the other hand it is not thy being in Heaven comparatively that will make thee Happy but it is thy being Eternally there that makes thee truly Happy This this is that which Accents thy Misery or thy Happiness even the Eternity of it Oh Eternity Eternity thou art the bitterest and thou art the sweetest word in all the World to the Damned thou art the bitterest of all words because their Torments are to last to all Eternity And to the Godly thou art the sweetest word in all the World for their Joys and Happiness shall last unto all Eternity There is nothing either in Heaven or in Hell but what speaks Eternity There is nothing in Hell but what is Eternal Hell it self that place of Torment is Eternal The Sufferings and Torments of the Damned in Hell are Eternal The Wrath and Vengeance of God that is the cause of those Torments in Eternal Yea all the Damned themselves together with the Devil and his Angels are all to be sufferers under an Eternity of Torments in Hell O Eternity Eternity how miserable beyond all expression dost thou make the condition of the Damned to be And as there is nothing in Hell but what is Eternal so neither is there any thing in Heaven but what speaks Eternity There is the Great and Blessed God the Father of Eternity the Sum and Heighth of the Saints Happiness in Heaven to be Eternally enjoyed It is there that the Lord Jesus Christ the Saints great and blessed Redeemer is whose Meritorious Death and Sufferings hath Deserved and Obtained for them the Eternal Enjoyment of that Happiness which there they are partakers of Heaven that place of Bliss and Happiness where God manifests and displays all his Glorious Excellencies and Perfections is Eternal The blessed Company and Society of a Saint in Heaven the innumerable Company of Glorified Saints and Angels shall Eternally be their fellow Inhabitants in that Holy place Yea both the Happiness of Heaven and every Saint that shall participate of that Happiness shall both continue in conjunction together Everlastingly Here O my Soul is a Happiness most worthy of all thy thoughts a Happiness so great that it calls for and deserves all thy Time all thy Parts yea all the Labour and Pains thou canst possibly lay out for the obtaining of it O Eternity Eternity how pleasant how delightful a word art thou for Holy Souls to contemplate upon thou art not more full of dread and horror to the wicked in Hell than thou art full of pleasure and delight unto the Saints in Heaven thou art the Sweetness the Consummation the Perfection of a Saint's Happiness God himself who is the All of a Saint's Happiness if he be not enjoyed for ever cannot make a Saint always Happy Unless an Eternity of Enjoyment be added to a Saint's Happiness in Heaven he cannot be fully and compleatly Happy It is true whilst he enjoys the Happiness of Heaven he is in a Happy state but if Eternity be not added to that Enjoyment a time will come when that Happiness shall cease and have an end Take away Eternity from a Saint's Happiness and there not only will but there must come a time when a Saint must be miserable O Eternity Eternity thou art not only a Happiness added to a Saint's Happiness in Heaven but thou art that blessed Band that unitest and tiest all the scattered parcels of a Saint's Happiness together in one bundle for his satisfaction and security for ever O my Soul study this word Eternity well as it is the Crowning addition unto the Saints Happiness It is that which will revive and quicken thee yea it is that which will put a new life into thee in thy greatest Agonies and Sufferings which thou canst undergo here for they are but of short continuance Death at farthest will come and put an end to them all but the Glory and Happiness that remains for thee in Heaven that is Eternal and Everlasting and shall never never never know an end CHAP. V. Of the Efficient Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven namely the Free Grace of God Of the Meritorious Cause of the Saints Happiness namely the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Of the Final Cause of the Saints Happiness namely the Glory of God Holiness the Saints great Qualification for Heaven Wicked Men unsuitable to the Work of Heaven and to the Reward of Heaven both which are Holy In Heaven there is both an Eternal Work for Saints to be Employed in and an Eternal Reward for Saints to Enjoy THat which is next to be discoursed of in the handling of this Subject of the Saints Happiness according to my propounded Method is the consideration of that Happiness in the several causes of it Now in speaking unto this head I shall discourse a little upon these three particulars The Efficient Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven The Meritorious Cause of that Happiness And lastly the Final Cause thereof First The Efficient Fundamental Cause of the Saints Happiness in Heaven and that is the Free Grace of God Now for this the Scripture is very full Ephes 2.4 5 c. But God who is rich in Mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us Even when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses hath quickened us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God So in Rom. 6.23 The Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. All is from the free Grace of God And though this Happiness of the Saints be the highest that can be bestowed upon any yet is it that which is given freely What says our Lord Luke 12.32 Fear not little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom This is to act like a God to give most bountifully and yet most freely To give the highest and best Gifts and yet to give them freely and undeservedly Thus God gives himself Heaven Glory and Eternal Life freely All that he doth for his people from their first Conversion on Earth unto their Eternal Glorification in Heaven is all from his own free Grace and Good Will Their Conversion is of Grace James 1.18 Of his own good will begat he us by the Word of Truth Their Justification is of Grace Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace Their Sanctification also is of Grace Titus 2.11 12 13. The Grace of God that hath appeared unto all men teacheth us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lust we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present evil World Yea