SECT. V.

OF THE GLORY OF HEAVEN ENJOYED BY BLESSED SOULS.

How often have I begged of my God, that it would please him to shew me some little glimpse of the Glory of his Saints ! It is not for me, to wish the sight, as yet, of the face of that Divine Majesty this was too much, for a Moses to sue for: my ambition only is, that I might, if but as it were through some cranny or key-hole of the gate of heaven, see the happy condition of his glorious servants.

I know what hinders me; my miserable unworthiness, my spiritual blindness. O God, if thou please to wash off my clay with the waters of thy Siloam, I shall have eyes: and, if thou anoint them with thy precious eye-salve, those eyes shall be clear; and enabled to behold those glories, which shall ravish my soul.

And now, Lord, what pure and resplendent light is this, wherein thy blessed ones dwell! How justly did thine ecstatical Apostle call it the inheritance of the Saints in light! Col. i. 12: light unexpressible, light unconceivable, light inaccessible! Lo, thou, that hast prepared such a light to this inferior world, for the use and comfort of us mortal creatures, as the glorious sun, which can both enlighten and dazzle the eyes of all beholders; hast proportionally ordained a light to that higher world, so much more excellent than the sun, as heaven is above earth, immortality above corruption. And, if wise Solomon could say, Truly the light is sweet; and a pleasant thing it is, for the eyes to see the sun; Eccl. xi. 7: how infinitely delectable is it, in thy light to see such light, as may make the sun, in comparison thereof, darkness! In thy presence is the fulness of joy, and at thy right-hand are pleasures for evermore. What can be wished more, where there is fulness of joy? and, behold, thy presence, O Lord, yields it.

Could I neither see saint nor angel in that whole imperial heaven, none but thine Infinite Self, Thyself alone were happiness for me more than enough. But, as thou, in whom, here below, we live, and move, and have our being, detractest nothing from thine all-sufficiency; but addest rather to the praise of thy bounty, in that thou furnishest us with variety of means of our life and subsistence: so here, it is the praise of thy wonderful mercies, which thou allowest us, besides thine immediate presence, the society of thy blessed angels and saints, wherein we may also enjoy thee.

And, if the view of any of those single glories be enough to fill my soul with wonder and contentment; how must it needs run over at the sight of those worlds of beauty and excellency,

which are here met and united! Lo here, the blessed hierarchy of innumerable Angels; there, the glorious company of the Apostles: here, the goodly fellowship of the Patriarchs and Prophets; there, the noble army of Martyrs here, the troops of laborious Pastors and Teachers; there, the numberless multitudes of holy and conscionable Professors. Lord, what exquisite order is here; what perfection of glory!

And if, even in thine eyes, thy poor despised Church upon earth be so beautiful and amiable, fair as the moon, clear as the sun; Cant. vi. 10: which yet, in the eyes of flesh, seems but homely and hard favoured: how infinite graces and perfections shall our spiritual eyes see, in thy glorified spouse above! what pure sanctity! what sincere charity! what clear knowledge! what absolute joy! what entire union! what wonderful majesty! what complete felicity! All shine alike in their essential glory, but not without difference of degrees. All are adorned with crowns; some also, with coronets: some glister with a sky-like, others with a star-like, clearness: the least hath so much, as to make him so happy, that he would not wish to have more; the greatest hath so much, that he cannot receive

more.

:

O divine distribution of bounty, where is no possibility of either want or envy! O transcendent royalty of the Saints! One heaven is more than a thousand kingdoms; and every Saint hath right to all: so as every subject is here a sovereign; and every sovereign is absolute, under the free homage of an Infinite Creator. Lo here, crowns, without cares; sceptres, without burden; rule, without trouble; reigning, without change. Oh, the transitory vanity of all earthly greatness! Gold is the most during metal; yet even that yields to age: Solomon's rich diadem of the pure gold of Ophir, is long since dust these crowns of glory are immarescible, incorruptible; beyond all the compass of time; without all possibility of alteration. Oh, the pressing and unsatisfying contentments of earth! How many poor great ones below have that, which they call honour and riches, and enjoy them not; and, if they have enjoyed them, complain of satiety and worthlessness! Lo here, a free scope of perfect joy, of constant blessedness, without mixture, without intermission: each one feels his own joy, feels each other's; all rejoice in God, with a joy unspeakable and full of glory; and most sweetly bathe themselves, in a pure and complete blissfulness. This very sight of blessed souls is happiness; but oh, for the fruition!

Go now, my soul, and, after this prospect, doat upon those silly profits and pleasures, which have formerly bewitched thee; and, if thou canst, forbear to long after the possession of this blessed immortality; and repine at the message of this so advantageous a translation; and pity and lament the remove of

those dear pieces of thyself, which have gone before thee to this unspeakable felicity.

SECT. VI.

WHEREIN THE GLORY OF THE SAINTS ABOVE CONSISTETH, AND HOW THEY ARE EMPLOYED.

SUCH is the Place, such is the Condition, of the Blessed. What is their Employment? How do they spend, not their time, but their eternity?

How? but in the exercise of the perpetual acts of their blessedness; Vision, Adhesion, Fruition?

Who knows not, that there is a contract passed betwixt God and the regenerate soul, here below? Out of the engagement of his mercy and love, he endows her with the precious graces of faith, of hope, of charity: faith, whereby she knowingly apprehends her interest in him: hope, whereby she cheerfully expects the full accomplishment of his gracious promises: charity, whereby she is feelingly and comfortably possessed of him, and clings close unto him. In the instant of our dissolution, we enter into the consummation of this blessed marriage. Wherein it pleaseth our bountiful God, to endow his glorified Spouse with these three privileges and improvements of her beatitude, answerable to these three divine graces: Vision answers to faith; for, what our faith sees and apprehends here on earth and afar off as travellers, our estate of glorification exhibits to us clearly and at hand as comprehensors; the object is the same, the degrees of manifestation differ: Adhesion answers to our hope; for, what our hope comfortably expected and longed for, we do now lay hold on as present, and are brought home to it indissolubly: Fruition, lastly, answers to charity; for, what is fruition, but a taking pleasure in the thing possessed, as truly delectable, and as our own; and what is this, but the perfection of love? Shortly, what is the end of our faith, but Sight? what the end of our hope, but Possession? what the end of our love, but Enjoying?

Lo, then, the inseparable and perpetual sight, possession, enjoyment, of the infinitely amiable and glorious Deity, is not more the employment than the felicity of Saints.

And what can the soul conceive matchable to this happiness?

The man after God's own heart had one boon to ask of his Maker: it must be, sure, some great suit, wherein a favourite will set up his rest: One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require: even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life; to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his holy temple; Psalm xxvii. 4. Was it so contenting a happiness to thee, O David, to behold, for a

moment of time, the fair beauty of the Lord in his earthen temple, where he meant not to reveal the height of his glory? How blessed art thou now, when thy soul lives for ever in the continual prospect of the Infinite Beauty and Majesty of God, in the most glorious and eternal sanctuary of heaven! It was but in a cloud and smoke, wherein God shewed himself in his material house; above, thou seest him clothed in a heavenly and incomprehensible light: and, if a little glimpse of celestial glory, in a momentary transfiguration, so transported the prime Apostle, that he wished to dwell still in Tabor; how shall we be ravished with the full view of that all-glorious Deity, whose very sight gives blessedness! What a life doth the presence of the sun put into all creatures here below! yet the body of it is afar off; the power of it, created and finite. Oh, then, how perfect and happy a life must we needs receive from the Maker of it, when the beams of his heavenly glory shall shine in our face! Here below, our weak senses are marred with too excellent objects: our pure spirits above cannot complain of excess; but, by how much more of that divine light they take in, are so much the more blessed. There is no other thing, wherein our sight can make us happy: we may see all other objects, and yet be miserable: here, our eyes convey into us influences of bliss.

Yet not our eyes alone; but, as the soul hath other spiritual senses also, they are wholly possessed of God: our adhesion is, as it were, a heavenly touch, our fruition, as a heavenly taste, of the Ever Blessed Deity; so the glorified soul in seeing God, feelingly apprehends him as its own; in apprehending, sweetly enjoys him to all eternity, finding in him more absolute contentment than it can be capable of, and finding itself capable of so much as to make it everlastingly happy. Away with those brutish paradises of Jews, and Turks, and some Judaizing Chiliasts, who have placed happiness in the full feed of their sensual appetite; inverting the words of the Epicurean in the Gospel: he could say, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die; they, "Let us die, for we shall eat and drink:" men, whose belly is their God; their kitchen, their heaven. The soul, that hath had the least smack, how sweet the Lord is, in the weak apprehension of grace here below, easily contemns these dunghill felicities; and cannot but long after those true and satisfying delights above, in comparison whereof all the pleasures of the paunch and palate, are but either savourless or noisome.

Feast thou thyself, onwards, O my soul, with the joyful hope of this blessed Vision, Adhesion, Fruition. Alas, here, thy dim eyes see thy God through clouds and vapours, and not without manifold diversions: here, thou cleavest imperfectly to that absolute goodness, but with many frail intercep

tions; every prevalent temptation looseth thy hold, and makes thy God and thee strangers: here, thou enjoyest him sometimes in his favours, seldom in himself; and, when thou dost so, how easily art thou robbed of him, by the interpositions of a crafty and bewitching world! There, thou shalt so see him, as that thou shalt never look off; so adhere to him, as never to be severed; so enjoy him, that he shall ever be All in All to thee, even the soul of thy soul: thy happiness is then essential; thy joy as inseparable as thy being.

SECT. VII.

IN WHAT TERMS THE DEPARTED SAINTS STAND TO US, AND WHAT RESPECTS THEY BEAR TO US.

SUCH is the Felicity, wherein the separate souls of God's elect ones are feoffed, for ever. But, in the mean time, what Terms do they stand in to their once-partners, these human bodies? to these, the forlorn companions of their pilgrimage and warfare? Do they despise these houses of clay, wherein they once dwelt? Or have they, with Pharaoh's courtier, forgotten their fellow-prisoner? Far be it from us, to entertain so injurious thoughts of those spirits, whose charity is no less exalted than their knowledge.

Some graces they do necessarily leave behind them. There is no room for faith, where there is present vision; no room for hope, where there is full fruition; no room for patience, where is no possibility of suffering: but charity can never be out of date; charity, both to God and man.

As the head and body mystical are undivided, so is our love to both: we cannot love the head, and not the body: we cannot love some limbs of the body, and not others. The triumphant part of the Church then, which is above, doth not more truly love each other glorified, than they love the warfaring part beneath.

Neither can their love be idle and fruitless: they cannot but wish well, therefore, to those they love.

That the glorified Saints then above, in a generality wish for the good estate and happy consummation of their conflicting brethren here on earth, is a truth, not more void of scruple than full of comfort.

It was not so much revenge, which the souls under the altar pray for upon their murderers; (Rev. vi. 10.) as the accomplishment of that happy resurrection, in which that revenge shall be perfectly acted. The prayer in Zechariah (and Saints are herein parallel) is, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation? Zech. i. 12.

We do not use to joy, but in that, which we wish for.