XI. Some advantages and helps for raising and affecting the soul by this meditation
And so much for the fourth part of the direction, by what steps or acts we must advance to the height of this work: I should clear all this by some examples, but that I intend shall follow in the end.
CHAP. XI Some Advantages and Helps, for raising and affecting the Soul by this Meditation SECT. I. Fifthly: The fifth part of this directory is, to show you what advantages you should take, and what helps you should use, to make your meditations of heaven more quickening, and to make you taste the sweetness that is therein. For that is the main work that I drive at through all; that you may not stick in a bare thinking, but may have the lively sense of all upon your hearts; and this you will find to be the most difficult part of the work: and that it is easier barely to think of heaven a whole day, than to be lively and affectionate in those thoughts one quarter of an hour. Therefore let us yet a little further consider what may be done, to make your thoughts of heaven to be piercing, affecting, raising thoughts.
Here, therefore, you must understand, that the mere pure work of faith hath many disadvantages with us, in comparison of the work of sense. Faith is imperfect, for we are renewed but in part; but sense hath its strength, according to the strength of the flesh: faith goes against a world of resistance, but sense doth not. Faith is supernatural, and therefore prone to declining, and to languish both in the habit and exercise, further than it is still renewed and excited; but sense is natural, and therefore continueth while nature continueth. The object of faith is far off; we must go as far as heaven for our joys; but the object of sense is close at hand. It is no easy matter to rejoice at that which we never saw, nor ever knew the man that did see it: and this upon a mere promise which is written in the Bible: and that when we have nothing else to rejoice in, but all our sensible comforts do fail us; but to rejoice in that which we see and
feel, in that which we have hold of, and possession already, this is not difficult. Well, then, what should be done in this case? why, surely it will be a point of our spiritual prudence, and a singular help to the furthering of the work of faith, to call in our sense to its assistance: if we can make us friends of these usual enemies, and make them instruments of raising us to God, which are the usual means of drawing us from God, I think we shall perform a very excellent work.
Surely it is both possible and lawful, yea, and necessary too, to do something in this kind: for God would not have given us either our senses themselves, or their usual objects, if they might not have been serviceable to his own praise, and helps to raise us up to the apprehension of higher things: and it is very considerable, how the Holy Ghost doth condescend to the phrase of Scripture, in bringing things down to the reach of sense; how he sets forth the excellencies of spiritual things in words that are borrowed from the objects of sense; how he describeth the glory of the New Jerusalem, in expressions that might take even with flesh itself: as that the streets and buildings are pure gold, that the gates are pearl, that a throne doth stand in the midst of it, &c. (Rev. 21:22.) That we shall eat and drink with Christ at his table in his kingdom; that he will drink with us the fruit of the vine new; that we shall shine as the sun in the firmament of our Father: these, with most other descriptions of our glory, are expressed as if it were to the very flesh and sense; which, though they are all improper and figurative, yet doubtless if such expressions had not been best, and to us necessary, the Holy Ghost would not have so frequently used them: he that will speak to man's understanding, must speak in man's language, and speak that which he is capable to conceive. And, doubtless, as the Spirit doth speak, so we must hear; and if our necessity cause him to condescend in his expressions, it must needs cause us to be low in our conceivings.
Those conceivings and expressions which we have of spirits, and things merely spiritual, they are commonly but second notions, without the first; but mere names that are put into our mouths, without any true conceivings of the things which they signify; or our conceivings which we express by those notions or terms, are merely negative: what things are not, rather than what they are; as, when we
mention spirits, we mean they are not corporal substances, but what they are, we can tell no more, than we know what is Aristotle's
'Materia Prima.' It is one reason of Christ's assuming and continuing our nature with the Godhead, that we might know him the better, when he is so much nearer to us; and we might have more positive conceivings of him, and so our minds might have familiarity with him, who before was quite beyond our reach.
But what is my scope in all this? is it that we might think heaven to be made of gold and pearl; or, that we should picture Christ as the papists do, in such a shape; or, that we should think saints and angels do indeed eat and drink? No; not that we should take the Spirit's figurative expressions to be meant according to strict propriety;y or have fleshly conceivings of spiritual things, so as to believe them to be such indeed: but thus to think, that to conceive or speak of them in strict propriety, is utterly beyond our reach and capacity; and therefore we must conceive of them as we are able; and that the Spirit would not have represented them in these notions to us, but that we have no better notions to apprehend them by; and therefore that we make use of these phrases of the Spirit to quicken our apprehensions and affections, but not to prevent them; and use these low notions as a glass, in which we must see the things themselves, though the representation be exceeding imperfect, till we come to an immediate perfect sight; yet still concluding, that these phrases, though useful, are but borrowed and improper. The like may be said of those expressions of God in Scripture, wherein he represents himself in the imperfections of creatures, as anger, repenting, willing what shall not come to pass, &c. Though these be improper, drawn from the manner of men, yet there is somewhat in God which we can see no better yet, than in this glass, and which we can no better conceive of, than in such notions, or else the Holy
Ghost would have given us better.
Sect. II. 1. Go to, then, when thou settest thyself to meditate on the joys above, think on them boldly, as Scripture hath expressed them; bring down thy conceivings to the reach of sense. Excellency without
familiarity doth amaze more than delight us; but love and joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance. When we go about to think of God and glory in proper conceivings, without these spectacles we are lost, and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon. We set God and heaven so far from us, that our thoughts are strange, and we look at them as things beyond our reach, and beyond our line, and are ready to say, That which is above is nothing to us; to conceive no more of God and glory, but that we cannot conceive them, and to apprehend no more, but that they are past our apprehension, will produce no more love but this,—to acknowledge that they are so far above us that we cannot love them; and no more joy but this,—that they are above our rejoicing. And therefore put Christ no further from you than he hath put himself, lest the divine nature be again inaccessible. Think of Christ as in our own nature glorified; think of our fellow-saints as men there perfected; think of the city and state as the spirit hath expressed it, only with the cautions and limitations before mentioned. Suppose thou wert now beholding this city of God, and that thou hadst been companion with John in his survey of its glory; and hadst seen the thrones, the majesty, the heavenly hosts, the shining splendour which he saw; draw as strong suppositions as may be from thy sense for the helping of thy affections. It is lawful to suppose we did see for the present, that which God hath in prophecies revealed, and which we must really see in more unspeakable brightness before long. Suppose, therefore, with thyself thou hadst been that apostle's fellow-traveller into the celestial kingdom, and that thou hadst seen all the saints in their white robes, with palms in their hands; suppose thou hadst heard those songs of Moses and of the Lamb; or didst even now hear them praising and glorifying the living God. If thou hadst seen these things, indeed, in what a rapture wouldst thou have been! And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thyself, the more will the meditation elevate thy heart. I would not have thee, as the papists, draw them in pictures, nor use such ways to represent them. This, as it is a course forbidden by God, so it would but seduce and draw down thy heart; but get the liveliest picture of them in thy mind that possibly thou canst; meditate of them as if thou wert all the while beholding them,
and as if thou wert even hearing the hallelujahs, while thou art thinking of them; till thou canst say, Methinks I see a glimpse of the glory; methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise; methinks I even stand by Abraham and David, Peter and Paul, and more of these triumphing souls; methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds, and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom; methinks I hear him say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," and even see them go rejoicing into the joy of their Lord. My very dreams of these things have deeply affected me, and should not these just suppositions affect me much more? What, if I had seen, with Paul, those unutterable things, should I not have been exalted, and that, perhaps, above measure, as well as he? What, if I had stood in the room of Stephen, and seen heaven opened, and Christ sitting at the right-hand of God? Surely that one sight was worth the suffering his storm of stones. Oh, that I might but see what he did see, though I also suffered what he did suffer! What, if I had seen such a sight as Micaiah saw: the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing on his right-hand and on his left? Why, these men of God did see such things; and I shall shortly see far more than ever they saw till they were loosed from this flesh, as I must be. And thus you see how the familiar conceiving of the state of blessedness, as the Spirit hath in a condescending language expressed it, and our strong raising of suppositions from our bodily senses will further our affections in this heavenly work.
Sect. III. 2. There is yet another way by which we may make our senses here serviceable to us, and that is, by comparing of the objects of sense with the objects of faith; and so forcing sense to afford us that medium, from whence we may conclude the transcendent worth of glory, by arguing from sensitive delights as from the less to the greater. And here for your further assistance, I shall furnish you with some of these comparative arguments.
And First, You must strongly argue with your hearts, from the corrupt delights of sensual men. Think, then, with yourselves when you would be sensible of the joys above: Is it such a delight to a
sinner to do wickedly, and will it not be delightful, indeed, then to live with God? Hath a very drunkardb such a delight in his cups and his companions, that the very fears of damnation will not make him forsake them? Hath the brutish whoremaster such delight in his whore, that he will part with his credit, and estate, and salvation, rather than he will part with her? Surely, then, there are high delights with God. If the way to hell can afford such pleasure, what are the pleasures of the saints in heaven? if the covetous man hath so much pleasure in his wealth, and the ambitious man in power and titles of honour, what then have the saints in the everlasting treasure? and what pleasure do the heavenly honours afford, where we shall be set above principalities and powers, and be made the glorious spouse of Christ? What pleasure do the voluptuous find in their sensual courses? How closely will they follow their hunting, and hawking, and other recreations, from morning to night! How delightfully will they sit at their cards and dice, hours and days and nights together! O the delight that must needs then be in beholding the face of the living God, and in singing forth praises to him and the Lamb, which must be our recreation when we come to our rest!
Sect. IV. 2. Compare also the delights above with the lawful delights of moderated senses. Think with thyself, How sweet is food to my taste when I am hungry, especially, as Isaac said, that which my soul loveth, that which my temperature and appetite do incline to! What delight hath the taste in some pleasant fruits; in some relished meats, and in divers junkets! Oh, what delight, then, must my soul needs have in feeding upon Christ, the living bread, and in eating with him at his table in his kingdom! Was a mess of pottage so sweet to Esau, in his hunger, that he would buy them at so dear a rate as his birth-right? How highly then should I value this never-perishing food! How pleasant is drink in the extremity of thirst! The delight of it to a man in a fever, or other drought, can scarcely be expressed. It will make the strength of Sampson revive. Oh, then, how delightful will it be to my soul to drink of that fountain of living water, which whoso drinks shall thirst no more! So pleasant is wine, and so refreshing to the spirits, that it is said to make glad the heart of man:
how pleasant, then, will that wine of the great marriage be; even that wine which our water was turned into; that best wine, which will be kept till then! How delightful are pleasing odours to our smell! How delightful is perfect music to the car! How delightful are beauteous sights to the eye; such as curious pictures, sumptuous, adorned, wellcontrived buildings; handsome, necessary rooms, walks, prospects; gardens stored with variety of beauteous and odoriferous flowers; or pleasant meadows, which are natural gardens! O, then, think every time thou seest or rememberest these, what a fragrant smell hath the precious ointment which is poured on the head of our glorious
Saviour, and which must be poured on the heads of all his saints, which will fill all the room of heaven with its odour and perfume!
How delightful is the music of the heavenly host! How pleasing will be those real beauties above, and how glorious the building not made with hands, and the house that God himself doth dwell in, and the walks and prospects of the city of God, and the beauties and delights in the celestial paradise! Think seriously what these must needs be.
The like may be said of the delight of the sense of feeling, which, the philosopher saith, is the greatest of all the rest.
Sect. V. 3. Compare also the delights above with the delights that are found in natural knowledge. This is far beyond the delights of sense, and the delights of heaven are further beyond it. Think, then, can an Archimedes be so taken up with his mathematical invention, that the threats of death cannot take him off, but he will die in the midst of these his natural contemplations? Should I not much more be taken up with the delights of glory, and die with these contemplations fresh upon my soul? especially when my death will perfect my delights; but those of Archimedes die with him.e What a pleasure is it to dive into the secrets of nature; to find out the mysteries of arts and sciences; to have a clear understanding in logic, physic, metaphysics, music, astronomy, geometry, &c.! If we make but any new discovery in one of these, or see a little more than we saw before, what singular pleasure do we find therein! why, think then what high delights there are in the knowledge of God, and Christ, his Son. If the face of human learning be so beautiful, that sensual pleasures are to it but
base and brutish, how beautiful then is the face of God! When we light on some choice and learned book, how are we taken with it; we could read and study it day and night; we can leave meat and drink and sleep to read it. What delights then are there at God's righthand, where we shall know in a moment all that is to be known.
Sect. VI. 4. Compare also the delight above with the delights of morality, and of the natural affections. What delight had many sober heathens in the rules and practice of moral duties! so that they took him only for a honest man who did well through the love of virtue, not only for fear of punishment. Yea, so highly did they value this moral virtue, that they thought the chief happiness of man consisted in it. Why think, then, what excellency there will be in that rare perfection which we shall be raised to in heaven; and in that uncreated perfection of God which we shall behold? What sweetness is there in the exercise of natural love, whether to children, to parents, to yokefellows, or to friends? The delight which a pair of special, faithful friends do find in loving and enjoying one another, is a most pleasing, sweet delight. It seemed to the philosophers to be above the delights of natural or matrimonial friendship, and I think it seemed so to David himself; so he concludes his lamentation for him: "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." (2 Sam. 1:26.) Yea, the soul of Jonathan did cleave to David. Even Christ himself, as it seemeth, had some of this kind of love; for he had one disciple whom he especially loved, and who was wont to lean on his breast. Why think, then, if the delights of close and cordial friendship be so great, what delight we shall have in the friendship of the most high; and in our mutual amity with Jesus
Christ; and in the dearest love and comfort with the saints! Surely this will be a closer and stricter friendship than ever was betwixt any friends on earth. And these will be more lovely, desirable friends than any that ever the sun beheld; and both our affections to our
Father and our Saviour, but especially his affection to us, will be such as here we never knew; as spirits are so far more powerful than flesh, that one angel can destroy a host, so also are their affections more
strong and powerful. We shall then love a thousand times more strongly and sweetly than now we can; and as all the attributes and works of God are incomprehensible, so is the attribute and work of love. He will love us many thousand times more than we even at the perfectest are able to love him. What joy, then, will there be in this mutual love!
Sect. VII. 5. Compare also the excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the creation which our eyes do now behold. What a deal of wisdom, and power, and goodness, appeareth in and through them to a wise observer! What a deal of the majesty of the great
Creator doth shine in the face of this fabric of the world! Surely, his works are great and admirable, sought out of them that have pleasure therein. This makes the study of natural philosophy so pleasant, because the works of God are so excellent. What rare workmanship is in the body of a man, yea, in the body of every beast, which makes the anatomical studies so delightful! What excellency in every plant we see! in the beauty of flowers; in the nature, diversity, and use of herbs; in fruits, in roots, in minerals, and what not! But especially if we look to the greater works; if we consider the whole body of this earth, and its creatures, and inhabitants; the ocean of waters, with its motions and dimensions; the variation of the seasons, and of the face of the earth; the intercourse of spring and fall, of summer and winter; what wonderful excellency do these contain! Why think, then, in thy meditations, if these things, which are but servants to sinful man, are yet so full of mysterious worth; what, then, is that place where God himself doth dwell, and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ! When thou walkest forth in the evening, look upon the stars how they glisten, and in what number they bespangle the firmament. If, in the daytime, look up to the glorious sun; view the wide-expanded, encompassing heavens, and say to thyself, What glory is in the least of yonder stars; what a vast, what a bright resplendent body hath yonder moon, and every planet! Oh, what an inconceivable glory hath the sun! Why, all this is nothing to the glory of heaven. Yonder sun must there be laid aside as useless, for it would not be seen, for
the brightness of God. I shall live above all yonder glory; yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Father's house. I shall be as glorious as that sun myself; yonder is but as the wall of the palace-yard; as the poet saith, "If in heaven's outward courts such beauty be,
What is the glory which the saints do see!"
So think of the rest of the creatures. This whole earth is but my Father's footstool: this thunder is nothing to his dreadful voice: these winds are nothing to the breath of his mouth. So much wisdom and power as appeareth in all these; so much, and far much more greatness, and goodness, and loving delights, shall I enjoy in the actual fruition of God. Surely, if the rain which rains, and the sun which shines on the just and unjust, be so wonderful; the sun, then, which must shine on none but saints and angels, must needs be wonderful and ravishing in glory.
Sect. VIII. 6. Compare the things which thou shalt enjoy above, with the excellency of those admirable works of providence which God doth exercise in the church and in the world. What glorious things hath the Lord wrought! and yet we shall see more glorious than these. Would it not be an astonishing sight to see the sea stand as a wall on the right-hand and on the left, and the dry land appear in the midst, and the people of Israel pass safely through, and Pharaoh and his people swallowed up? What, if we should see but such a sight now! If we had seen the ten plagues of Egypt, or had seen the rock to gush forth streams, or had seen manna or quails rained down from heaven, or had seen the earth open, and swallow up the wicked, or had seen their armies slain with hailstones, with an angel, or by one another; would not all these have been wondrous, glorious sights?
But we shall see far greater things than these: and as our sights shall be more wonderful, so also they shall be more sweet: there shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled. We shall not then cry out as David,
"Who can stand before this holy Lord God?" Would it not have been
an astonishing sight to have seen the sun stand still in the firmament, or to have seen Ahaz's dial go ten degrees backward?
Why, we shall see when there shall be no sun to shine at all: we shall behold for ever a sun of more incomparable brightness. Were it not a brave life, if we might still live among wonders and miracles; and all for us, and not against us: if we could have drought or rain at our prayers, as Elias; or if we could call down fire from heaven to destroy our enemies; or raise the dead to life, as Elisha; or cure the diseased, and speak strange languages, as the apostles? Alas! these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God; and all those wonders of goodness and love. We shall possess that pearl and power itself, through whose virtue all these works were done: we shall, ourselves, be the subjects of more wonderful mercies than any of these. Jonas was raised but from a three days' burial, from the belly of the whale in the deep ocean; but we shall be raised from many years' rottenness and dust; and that dust exalted to a sun-like glory, and that glory perpetuated to all eternity. What sayest thou,
Christian? Is not this the greatest of miracles or wonders? Surely, if we observe but common providences; the motions of the sun, the tides of the sea, the standing of the earth, the warming it, the watering it with rain as a garden, the keeping in order a wicked, confused world, with multitudes the like: they are all very admirable.
But then to think of the Sion of God, of the vision of the divine majesty; of the comely order of the heavenly host: what an admirable sight must that needs be! O what rare and mighty works have we seen in Britain: what clear discoveries of an almighty arm; what magnifying of weakness; what casting down of strength; what wonders wrought by most improbable means; what bringing to hell, and bringing back; what turning of tears and fears into safety and joy; such hearing of earnest prayers, as if God could have denied us nothing that we asked! All these were wonderful, heart-rising works.
But, oh! what are these to our full deliverance; to our final conquest; to our eternal triumph; and to that great day of great things?
Sect. IX. 7. Compare also the mercies which thou shalt have above, with those particular providences which thou hast enjoyed thyself,
and those observable mercies which thou hast recorded through thy life. If thou be a Christian indeed, I know thou hast, if not in thy book, yet certainly in thy heart, a great many precious favours upon record: the very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet: how much more sweet was the actual enjoyment! But all these are nothing to the mercies which are above. Look over the excellent mercies of thy youth and education, the mercies of thy riper years or age, the mercies of thy prosperity, and of thy adversity: the mercies of thy several places and relations, are they not excellent and innumerable? Canst not thou think on the several places thou hast lived in, and remember that they have each had their several mercies: the mercies of such a place, and such a place; and all of them very rich and engaging mercies? O! how sweet was it to thee, when God resolved thy last doubts; when he overcame and silenced thy fears and unbelief; when he prevented the inconveniences of thy life, which thy own counsel would have cast thee into; when he eased thy pains; when he healed thy sickness, and raised thee up as from the very grave and death; when thou prayedst, and wept as Hezekiah, and saidst, "My days are cut off; I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed and removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off with pining sickness: from day to day wilt thou make an end of me, &c. Yet did he, in love to thy soul, deliver it from the pit of corruption, and cast thy sins behind his back, and set thee among the living, to praise him as thou dost this day: that the fathers to the children might make known his truth. The Lord was ready to save thee, that thou mightest sing the songs of praise to him in his house all the days of thy life." (Isa. 38:10–20.) I say, were not all these most precious mercies? Alas! these are but small for thee in the eyes of God: he intended thee far greater things than these, even such as these are scarce a taste of. It was a choice mercy, that God hath so notably answered thy prayers; and that thou hast been so oft and evidently a prevailer with him. But, oh! think, then, are all these so sweet and precious, that my life would have been a perpetual
misery without them? Hath his providence lifted me so high on earth, and his merciful kindness made me great? How sweet, then, will the glory of his presence be; and how high will his eternal love exalt me; and how great shall I be made in communion with his greatness! If my pilgrimage and warfare have such mercies, what shall I find in my home, and in my triumph! If God will communicate so much to me while I remain a sinner, what will he bestow when I am a perfect saint! If I have had so much in this strange country, at such a distance from him; what shall I have in heaven in his immediate presence, where I shall ever stand about his throne!
Sect. X. 8. Compare the comforts which thou shalt have above, with those which thou hast here received in the ordinances. Hath not the written word been to thee as an open fountain, flowing with comforts day and night? When thou hast been in trouble, there thou hast met with refreshing; when thy faith hath staggered, it hath there been confirmed. What suitable scriptures hath the Spirit set before thee! what seasonable promises have come into thy mind, so that thou mayest say with David, "If thy word had not been my delight, I had perished in my trouble." Think, then, if the word be so full of consolations, what overflowing springs shall we find in God! If his letters are so comfortable, what are the words that flow from his blessed lips, and the beams that stream from his glorious face! If Luther would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible, what would he take for the joys which it revealeth! If the promise be so sweet, what is the performance! If the testament of our Lord, and our charter for the kingdom, be so comfortable, what will be our possession of the kingdom itself! Think further, what delights have I also found in this word preached, when I have sat under a heavenly, heart-searching teacher; how hath my heart been warmed within me; how hath he melted me, and turned my bowels! methinks I have felt myself almost in heaven: methinks I could have been content to have sat and heard from morning to night; I could even have lived and died there. How oft have I gone to the congregation troubled in spirit, and returned home with quietness and delight! How oft have I gone doubting, concluding damnation against my own soul; and God
hath sent me home with my doubts resolved, and satisfied me, and persuaded me of his love in Christ? How oft have I gone with darkness and doubtings in my judgment, and God hath opened to me such precious truths, and opened also my understanding to see them, that his light hath been exceeding comfortable to my soul! What cordials have I met with in my saddest afflictions! What preparatives to fortify me for the next encounter! Well then, if Moses's face do shine so gloriously, what glory is in the face of God! If the very feet of the messengers of these tidings of peace be beautiful, how beautiful is the face of the Prince of Peace! If the word in the mouth of a fellow-servant be so pleasant, what is the living Word himself! If this treasure be so precious in earthen vessels, what is that treasure laid up in heaven! Think with thyself, If I had heard but such a divine prophet as Isaiah, or such a persuading, moving prophet as Jeremy, or such a worker of miracles as Elijah or Elisha; how delightful a hearing would this have been! If I had heard but Peter, or John, or Paul, I should rejoice in it as long as I lived; but what would I give, that I had heard one sermon from the mouth of Christ himself?
Surely, I should have felt the comfort of it in my very soul: why, but, alas! all this is nothing to what we shall have above.m O blessed are the eyes that see what there is seen, and the ears that hear the things that there are heard: there shall I hear Elias, Isaiah, Daniel, Peter,
John, not preaching to an obstinate people in imprisonment, in persecutions, and reproach, but triumphing in the praises of him that hath advanced them. Austin was wont to wish these three wishes:
First, That he might have seen Christ in the flesh: Secondly, That he might have heard Paul preach: Thirdly, That he might have seen
Rome in its glory. Alas! these are small matters all, to that which Austin now beholds: there we see not Christ in the form of a servant, but Christ in his kingdom, in majesty and glory; not Paul preach in weakness and contempt, but Paul with millions more rejoicing and triumphing; not persecuting Rome in a fading glory, but Jerusalem which is above, in perfect and lasting glory.
So also think, what a joy it is to have access and acceptance in prayer; that when any thing aileth me, I may go to God, and open my case,
and unbosom my soul to him, as to the most faithful friend; especially knowing his sufficiency and willingness to relieve me! Oh, but it will be a more surpassing, unspeakable joy, when I shall receive all blessings without asking them, and when all my necessities and miseries are removed, and when God himself will be the portion and inheritance of my soul.
What consolation also have we oft received in the supper of the Lord!
What a privilege is it to be admitted to sit at his table; to have his covenant sealed to me by the outward ordinance, and his special love sealed by his Spirit to my heart! Why, but all the life and comfort of these, is their declaring and assuring me of the comforts hereafter: their use is but darkly to signify and seal those higher mercies: when
I shall indeed drink with him the fruit of the vine renewed, it will then be a pleasant feast indeed. O the difference between the last supper of Christ on earth, and the marriage supper of the Lamb at the great day! Here he is in an upper room, accompanied with twelve poor selected men, feeding on no curious dainties, but a paschal lamb with sour herbs, and a Judas at his table ready to betray him: but then his room will be the glorious heavens, his attendants all the host of angels and saints: no Judas nor unfurnished guest comes there; but the humble believers must sit down by him, and the feast will be their mutual loving and rejoicing. Yet further, think with thyself thus: The communion of the saints on earth is a most delectable mercy: what a pleasure is it to live with understanding and heavenly Christians! Even David saith, they were all his delight.
(Psal. 16.) O, then, what a delightful society shall I have above! The communion of saints is there somewhat worth, where their understandings are fully cleared, and their affections so highly advanced. If I had seen but Job in his sores upon the dunghill, it would have been an excellent sight to see such a mirror of patience: what will it be then to see him in glory, praising that power which did uphold and deliver him! If I had heard but Paul and Silas singing in the stocks, it would have been a delightful hearing: what will it be then to hear them sing praises in heaven! If I had heard David sing praises on his lute and harp, it would have been a pleasing melody;
and that which drove the evil spirit from Saul, would surely have driven away the dulness and sadness of my spirit, and have been to me as the music was to Elisha, that the Spirit of Christ in joy would have come upon me; why, I shall shortly hear that sweet singer in the heavenly choir advancing the King of saints; and will not that be a far more melodious hearing? If I had spoke with Paul when he was new come down from the third heavens, and he might have revealed to me the things which he had seen; O what would I give for an hour's such conference! how far would I go to hear such a narration! Why, I must shortly see those very things myself; yea, and far more than
Paul was then capable of seeing; and yet I shall see no more than I shall possess. If I had but spoken one hour with Lazarus when he was risen from the dead, and heard him describe the things which he had seen in another world, if God would permit and enable him thereto, what a joyful discourse would that have been! How many thousand books may I read, before I could know so much as he could have told me in that hour! If God would have suffered him to tell what he had seen, the Jews would have more thronged to hear him, than they did to see him: O, but this would have been nothing to the sight itself, and to the fruition of all that which Lazarus saw.
Once again, think with thyself what a soul-raising employment is the praising of God, especially in consort with his affectionate saints!
What, if I had been in the place of those shepherds, and seen the angels, and heard the multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men;" (Luke 2:13, 14;) what a glorious sight and hearing would this have been! But I shall see and hear more glorious things than this. If I had stood by Christ when he was thanking his Father,
(John 17,) I should have thought mine ears even blessed with his voice; how much more when I shall hear him pronounce me blessed!
If there were such great joy at the bringing back of the ark, (2 Sam.
6:15,) and such great joy at the re-edifying the material temple, (Neh.
12:43,) what joy will there be in the New Jerusalem! Why, if I could but see the church here in unity and prosperity, what an unspeakable joy to my soul would it be! If I could see the congregations provided
with able teachers, and the people receiving and obeying the Gospel, and longing for reformation in life and manners: O what a blessed place were England! If I could see our ignorance turned into knowledge, and error turned into soundness of understanding, and shallow professors into solid believers; and brethren living in amity and in the life of the Spirit; O what a fortunate island were this! Alas, alas! what is all this to the reformation in heaven, and to the blessed condition that we must live in there? There is another kind of change and glory than this; what great joy had the people, and David himself, to see them so willingly offer to the service of the Lord; and what an excellent psalm of praise doth David thereupon compose! (1
Chron. 29:9, 10, &c.) When Solomon was anointed king in Jerusalem, the people rejoiced with so great joy, that the earth rent at the sound of them; (1 Kings 1:40;) what a joyful shout will there be, then, at the appearing of the King to the church! If when the foundations of the earth were fastened, and the corner-stone thereof was laid, the morning-stars did sing together, and all the sons of God did shout for joy; (Job 38:6, 7;) why then, when our glorious world is both founded and finished, and the corner-stone appeareth to be the top-stone also, and the holy city is adorned as the bride of the Lamb;
O sirs, what a joyful shout will then be heard!
Sect. XI. 9. Compare the joy which thou shalt have in heaven, with that which the saints of God have found in the way to it, and in the foretastes of it; when thou seest a heavenly man rejoice, think what it is that so affects him. It is the property of fools to rejoice in toys, and to laugh at nothing; but the people of God are wiser than so, they know what it is that makes them glad: when did God ever reveal the least of himself to any of his saints, but the joy of their hearts was answerable to the revelation? Paul was so lifted up with what he saw, that he was in danger of being exalted above measure, and must have a prick in the flesh to keep him down: when Peter had seen but Christ in his transfiguration, which was but a small glimpse of his glory, and had seen Moses and Elias talking with him; what a rapture and ecstasy is he cast into! "Master," saith he, "it is good for us to be here; let us here build three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for
Moses, and one for Elias:" as if he should say, O let us not go down again to yonder persecuting rabble; let us not go down again to yonder drossy, dirty world; let us not return to our mean and suffering state: is it not better that we stay here, now we are here; is not here better company, and sweeter pleasures? But the text saith,
"He knew not what he said." (Matt. 17:4.) When Moses had been talking with God in the mount, it made his visage so shining and glorious, that the people could not endure to behold it, but he was fain to put a veil upon it: no wonder then if the face of God must be veiled, till we are come to that state where we shall be more capable of beholding him when the veil shall be taken away, and we all beholding him with open face, shall be turned into the same image from glory to glory. (2 Cor. 3:16–18.) Alas! what are the back parts which Moses saw from the clefts of the rock, to that open face which we shall behold hereafter? what is that revelation to John in Patmos, to this revelation which we shall have in heaven? How short doth
Paul's vision come of the saints' vision above with God. How small a part of the glory which we must see, was that which so transported
Peter in the mount! I confess these were all extraordinary foretastes, but little to the full beatifical vision. When David foresaw the resurrection of Christ, and of himself, and the pleasures which he should have for ever at God's right-hand; how cloth it make him break forth and say, "Therefore my heart was glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope!" (Psal. 16:9.) Why, think, then, if the foresight can raise such ravishing joy, what will the actual possession do! How oft have we read and heard of the dying saints, who, when they had scarcely strength and life enough to express them, have been as full of joy as their hearts could hold; and when their bodies have been under the extremities of their sickness, yea, ready to feel the pangs of death, have yet had so much of heaven in their spirits, that their joy hath far surpassed their sorrows. And if a spark of this fire be so glorious, and that in the midst of the sea of adversity; what then is that Sun of glory itself! O the joy that the martyrs of Christ have felt in the midst of the scorching flames!
Surely they had life and sense as we, and were flesh and blood as well as we; therefore it must needs be some excellent thing that must so
rejoice their souls, while their bodies were burning: when Bilney can burn his finger in the candle, and Cranmer can burn off his unworthy right-hand; when Bainham can call the papists to see a miracle, and tell them that he feels no more pain than in a bed of down, and that the fire was to him as a bed of roses; when Farrier can say, If I stir, believe not my doctrine: think then, reader, with thyself in thy meditations; surely it must be some wonderful foretasted glory that can do all this, that can make the flames of fire easy, and that can make the king of fears so welcome. O what then must this glory itself needs be; when the very thoughts of it can bring Paul into such a strait, that he desired to depart and be with Christ, as best of all!p when it can make men never think themselves well, till they are dead! O what a blessed rest is this! Shall Sanders so delightfully embrace the stake, and cry out, "Welcome cross!" and shall not I more delightfully embrace my blessedness, and cry, "Welcome crown!" Shall blessed Bradford kiss the faggot, and shall not I then kiss the Son himself. Shall the poor martyr rejoice that she might have her foot in the same hole of the stocks that Mr. Philpot's foot had been in before her; and shall not I rejoice, that my soul shall live in the same place of glory, where Christ and his apostles are gone before me? Shall fire and faggot, shall prisons and banishment, shall scorns and cruel torments, be more welcome to others, than Christ and glory shall be to me? God forbid. What thanks did Lucius the martyr give them, that they would send him to Christ from his ill masters on earth! how desirously did Basil wish, when his persecutors threatened his death the next day, that they might not change their resolution, lest he should miss of his expectation! What thanks then shall I give my Lord, for removing me from this loathsome prison to his glory! and how loth should I be to be deprived thereof! When Luther thought he should die of an apoplexy, it comforted him, and made him more willing, because the good
Duke of Saxony, and, before him, the apostle John, had died of that disease: how much more should I be willing to pass the way that Christ hath passed, and come to the glory where Christ is gone! If Luther could thereupon say, "Feri, Domine, feri clementer; ipse paratus sum, quia verbo tuo à peccatis absolutus;" "Strike, Lord,
strike gently, I am ready; because by thy word I am absolved from my sins;" how much more cheerfully should I cry, "Come, Lord, and advance me to this glory, and repose my weary soul in rest!"
Sect. XII. 10. Compare also the glory of the heavenly kingdom with the glory of the imperfect church on earth, and with the glory of Christ in his state of humiliation, and you may easily conclude, if Christ under his Father's wrath, and Christ standing in the room of sinners, were so wonderful in excellencies, what then is Christ at the Father's right-hand?r And if the church, under her sins and enemies, have so much beauty, something it will have at the marriage of the Lamb. How wonderful was the Son of God in the form of a servant!
When he is born, the heavens must proclaim him by miracles; a new star must appear in the firmament, and fetch men from remote parts of the world to worship him in a manger; the angels and heavenly host must declare his nativity, and solemnize it with praising and glorifying God. When he is but a child, he must dispute with the doctors, and confute them. When he sets upon his office, his whole life is a wonder: water turned into wine; thousands fed with five loaves and two fishes; multitudes following him to see his miracles; the lepers cleansed; the sick healed; the lame restored; the blind receive their sight; the dead raised. If we had seen all this, should we not have thought it wonderful? The most desperate diseases cured with a touch, with a word speaking; the blind eyes with a little clay and spittle; the devils departing by legions at command; the winds and the seas obeying his word; are not all these wonderful? Think, then, how wonderful is his celestial glory! If there be such cutting down of boughs, and spreading of garments, and crying, "Hosanna," to one that comes into Jerusalem riding on an ass, what will there be when he comes with his angels in his glory! If they that hear him preach the Gospel of the kingdom, have their hearts turned within them, that they return and say, "Never man spake like this man," then surely they that behold his majesty in his kingdom will say,
'There never was glory like this glory.' If when his enemies come to apprehend him, the word of his mouth doth cast them all to the ground; if, when he is dying, the earth must tremble, the vail of the
temple rend, the sun in the firmament must hide its face, and deny its light to the sinful world, and the dead bodies of the saints arise, and the standers-by be forced to acknowledge, "Verily this was the Son of God;" O then, what a day will it be when he will once more shake, not the earth only, but the heavens also, and remove the things that are shaken; when this sun shall be taken out of the firmament, and be everlastingly darkened with the brightness of his glory; when the dead must all arise, and stand before him, and all shall acknowledge him to be the Son of God, and every tongue confess him to be Lord and King! If, when he riseth again, the grave and death have lost their power, and the angels of heaven must roll away the stone, and astonish the watchmen till they are as dead men, and send the tidings to his dejected disciples; if the bolted doors cannot keep him forth; if the sea be as firm ground for him to walk on; if he can ascend to heaven in the sight of his disciples, and send the angels to forbid them gazing after him; O what power, and dominion, and glory, then, is he now possessed of; and must we for ever possess with him! Yet think further: Are his very servants enabled to do such miracles, when he is gone from them? Can a few poor fishermen, and tent-makers, and the like mechanics, cure the lame, and blind, and sick; open their prisons; destroy the disobedient; raise the dead; and astonish their adversaries? O then, what a world will that be, where every one can do greater works than these, and shall be highlier honoured than by the doing of wonders!
It were much to have the devils subject to us, but more to have our names written in the book of life. If the very preaching of the Gospel be accompanied with such power, that it will pierce the heart, and discover its secrets, bring down the proud, and make the stony sinner tremble; if it can make men burn their books, sell their lands, bring in the price and lay it down at the preacher's feet; if it can make the spirits of princes stoop, and the kings of the earth resign their crowns, and do their homage to Jesus Christ; if it can subdue kingdoms, and convert thousands, and turn the world thus upside down; if the very mention of the judgment, and life to come, can make the judge on the bench to tremble, when the prisoner at the bar doth preach this doctrine; O what then is the glory of the kingdom
itself! What an absolute dominion have Christ and his saints! And if they have this power and honour in the day of their abasement, and in the time appointed for their suffering and disgrace, what then will they have in their full advancement!
Sect. XIII. 11. Compare the mercies thou shalt have above with the mercies which Christ hath here bestowed on thy soul, and the glorious change which thou shalt have at last with the gracious change which the Spirit hath wrought on thy heart; compare the comforts of thy glorification, with the comforts of thy sanctification.
There is not the smallest grace in thee which is genuine and sincere, but is of greater worth than the riches of the Indies; not a hearty desire, and groan after Christ, but is more to be valued than the kingdoms of the world. A renewed nature is the very image of God.
Scripture calleth it by the name of "Christ dwelling in us," and, "the Spirit of God abiding in us." It is a beam from the face of God himself; it is the seed of God remaining in us; it is the only inherent beauty of the rational soul; it ennobleth man above all nobility; it fitteth him to understand his Maker's pleasure, to do his will, and to receive his glory: why think, then, with thyself, if this grain of mustard-seed be so precious, what is the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God! If a spark of life, which will but strive against corruptions, and flame out a few desires and groans, be so much worth, how glorious, then, is the fountain and end of this life! If we be said to be like God, and to bear his image, and to be holy as he is holy, when, alas! we are pressed down with a body of sin; surely we shall be much liker God, when we are perfectly holy, and without blemish, and have no such thing as sin within us! Is the desire of heaven so precious a thing, what then is the thing itself which is desired? Is the love so excellent, what then is the Beloved? Is our joy in foreseeing and believing so sweet, what will be the joy in the full possessing? O the delight that a Christian hath in the lively exercise of some of these affections! What good doth it to his very heart, when he can feelingly say he loves his Lord! What sweetness is there in the very act of loving! Yea, even those troubling passions of sorrow and fear, are yet delightful, when they are rightly exercised. How glad is a
poor Christian when he feeleth his heart begin to melt, and when the thoughts of sinful unkindness will dissolve it! Even this sorrow doth yield him matter of joy. O what will it then be, when we shall do nothing but know God, and love, and rejoice, and praise, and all this in the highest perfection! What a comfort is it to my doubting soul, when I have a little assurance of the sincerity of my graces; when, upon examination, I can but trace the Spirit in his sanctifying works!
How much more will it comfort me to find that the Spirit hath safely conducted me, and left me in the arms of Jesus Christ! What a change was it that the Spirit made upon my soul, when he first turned me from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto
God; to be taken from that horrid state of nature, wherein myself and my actions were loathsome to God, and the sentence of death was passed upon me, and the Almighty took me for his utter enemy; and to be presently numbered among his saints, and called his friend, his servant, his son; and the sentence revoked which was gone forth; O what a change was this! To be taken from that state wherein I was born, and had lived delightfully so many years, and was riveted in it by custom and engagements, when thousands of sins did lie upon my score, and if I had so died I had been damned for ever; and to be justified from all these enormous crimes, and freed from all these fearful plagues, and put into the title of an heir of heaven, O what an astonishing change was this! Why, then, consider, how much greater will that glorious change then be; beyond expressing; beyond conceiving! How oft, when I have thought of this change in my regeneration, have I cried out, 'O blessed day, and blessed be the Lord that I ever saw it!' Why, how then should I cry out in heaven, 'O blessed eternity, and blessed be the Lord that brought me to it!' Was the mercy of my conversion so great, that the angels of God did rejoice to see it? Sure, then, the mercy of my salvation will be so great, that the same angels will congratulate my felicity. This grace is but a spark that is raked up in the ashes. It is covered with flesh from the sight of the world, and covered with corruption sometimes from mine own sight; but my everlasting glory will not be so clouded, nor my light be under a bushel, but upon a hill, even upon Sion, the mount of God.
Sect. XIV. 12. Lastly, Compare the joys which thou shalt have above, with those foretastes of it, which the Spirit hath given thee here.
Judge of the lion by the paw, and of the ocean of joy by that drop which thou hast tasted. Thou hast here thy strongest refreshing comforts, but as that man in hell would have had the water to cool him, a little upon the tip of the finger for thy tongue to taste, yet by this little thou mayest conjecture at the quality of the whole. Hath not God sometimes revealed himself extraordinarily to thy soul, and let a drop of glory fall upon it? Hast thou not been ready to say, 'Oh, that it might be thus with my soul continually, and that I might always feel what I feel sometimes! Dist thou never cry out with the martyr after thy long and doleful expectations, 'He is come; he is come?' Didst thou never, in a lively sermon of heaven, nor in thy retired contemplations on that blessed state, perceive thy drooping spirits revive, and thy dejected heart to lift up the head: and the light of heaven to break forth to thy soul, as a morning star, or as the dawning of the day? Didst thou never perceive thy heart in these duties, to be as the child that Elisha revived? to wax warm within thee, and to recover life? Why, think with thyself, then, what is the earnest to this full inheritance? Alas! all this light that so amazeth and rejoiceth me, is but a candle lighted from heaven, to lead me thither through this world of darkness! If the light of a star in the night be such, or the little glimmering at the break of the day, what then is the light of the sun at noontide? If some godly men that we read of, have been overwhelmed with joy, till they have cried out,
'Hold, Lord, stay thy hand; I can bear no more!' like weak eyes that cannot endure too great a light; O what will then be my joys in heaven, when, as the object of my joy shall be the most glorious God, so my soul shall be made capable of seeing and enjoying him. And though the light be ten thousand times greater than the sun's, yet my eyes shall be able for ever to behold it.
Or, if thou be one that hast not felt yet these sweet foretastes, (for every believer hath not felt them), then make use of the former delights which thou hast felt, that thou mayest the better discern what hereafter thou shalt feel.