The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 1 · Chapter 7 · Section 3
SECT. III.§ 3.
THirdly.8It is the Saints peculiar. The third comfortable Attribute of this Rest is, That it is the Saints prop and peculiar possession. It belongs to no other of all the sons of men; not that it would have detracted from the greatness or freeness of the gift, if God had so pleased, that all the world should have enjoyed it: But when God hath resolved otherwise, that it must be enjoyed but by few; to finde our names among that number, must needs make us the more to value our enjoyment. If all Egypt had been light, the Israelites should not have had the less; but yet to enjoy that light alone, while their neighbors live in thick darkness, must make them more sensible of their priviledg. Distinguishing, separating Mercy, affecteth more then any Mercy. If it should rain on our grounds alone; or the Sun shine upon our alone habitations; or the blessing of Heaven divide between our flocks, and other mens, as between Jacobs and Labans; we should more feelingly acknowledg Mercy, then now, while we possess the same in common. Ordinariness dulleth our sense; and if Miracles were common, they would be slighted. If Pharoah had passed as safely as Israel, the Red Sea would have been less remembred. If the first-born of Egypt had not been slain, the first-born of Israel had not been the Lords peculiar. If the rest of the World had not been drowned, and the rest of Sodom and Gomorrah burned, the saving of Noah had been no wonder, nor Lots deliverance so much talked of. The lower the weighty end of the ballance descends, the higher is the other lifted up; and the falling of one of the sails of the Wind-Mill, is the occasion of the rising of the other. It would be no extenuation of the Mercies of the Saints here; if all the world were as holy as they, and the communication of their Happiness is their greatest desire; yet it might perhaps dull their thankfulness, and differencing grace would not be known. But when one shall be illightened, and another left in darkness; one reformed, and another by his lusts enslaved; it makes them cry out with the Disciple,John 14.22. Luk 4.24, 25, 26, 27. Lord what is it, that thou wilt reveal thy self to us, and not unto the world? When the Prophet shall be sent to one Widow onelyonly of all that were in Samaria, and to cleanse one Naaman of all the Lepers; the Mercy is more observable. O that will sure be a day of passionate sense on both sides; when two shall be in a Bed, and two in the field, the one taken, and the other forsaken. For a Christian who is conscious of his own undeserving, and il-deserving, to see his companion in sin perish; his Neighbor, Kinsman, Father, Mother, Wife, Childe, for ever in Hell, while he is preferred among the Blessed! To see other mens sins eternally plagued, while his are all pardoned! To see those that were wont to sit with us in the same seat, and eat with us at the same Table, and joyn with us in the same Duties, now to lie tormented in those flames, while we are triumphing in Divine Praises! That Lot must leave his sons in law in the flames of Sodom, and the wife of his bosom as a Monument of Divine Vengeance, and escape with his two Daughters alone. Here is chusing, distinguishing Mercy! Therefore the Scripture seems to affirm, That as the damned souls shall from Hell, see the Saints Happiness to increase their own torments; so shall the Blessed from Heaven, behold the wickeds misery, to the increase of their own Joy. And as they looked on the dead bodies of Christs two Witnesses slain in their streets, and they that dwell on the Earth rejoyced over them and made merry; and as the wicked here behold the calamities of Gods people with gladness, so shall the Saints look down upon them in the burning lake, and in the sense of their own happiness, and in the approbation of Gods just proceedings,Rev. 11.9.10. they shall rejoyce and sing. Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast thus judged: For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy. Alleluja, Salvation, Rev. 16.5.6. Rev. 19 7.2.and Glory, and Honor, and Power to our God; for true and righteous are his Judgments. And as the command is over Babylon, Rev. 18.20.so will it be over all the condemned souls, Rejoyce over her, thou Heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. By this time the impenitent World will see a reason for the Saints singularity, while they were on Earth; and will be able to answer their own demands, Why must you be more holy then your neighbors? even because they would fain be more happy then their neighbors. And why cannot you do, and live as the World about you? Even because they are full loath to speed as those others, or to be damned with the VVorld about them. Sincere singularity in Holiness, is by this time known to be neither Hypocrisie nor Folly. If to be singular in that Glory be so desirable, surely to be singular in godly living is not contemptible. As every one of them now knows his own sore, and his own grief, so shall every one then feel his own Joy: and if they can now call Christ their own,2 Chro. 6.29. Psal. 67.6. & 33.12. & 78.71. & 16.5. and call God their own God, how much more then upon their full possession of him? For as he takes his people for his inheritance; so will he himself be the inheritance of his people of ever.