The Christians Charter, Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. The third Prerogative Royal of a Believer.
THe next great Prerogative is, The Believer shall be with Christ in glory, Phil. 1.23. I desire foreign, to be dissolved, or loosen anchor, and to be with Christ*Phil. 1.23. This is a priviledge of the first magnitude: surely, we can be no losers by being with Christ. A graft or scion, though it be taken out of the tree, it doth not perish, but is set into a better stock: thus it is with a Christian; while he is here, (even after Conversion) there is much of the wilde Olive still in him; now when this scion, by death is cut off, he doth not perish, but is set into a more noble and generous stock, he is with Christ, which is farre better: a state of perfection, is better then a state of imperfection. Our graces are our best jewels, but they are imperfect and do not give out their full lustre: they are like the Moon, which when it shines brightest, hath a darke spot. Our faith is mingled with unbeliefe, our humility is stained with pride; the flame of our graces is not so pure, but it hath some smoake; grace is but in its infancy and minority, it will never be of full growth till we are with Christ. This is the highest link in the chaine of glory, we shall be with Christ. What is it the pious soule desires in this life? is it not to have the sweet presence of Christ? he cares for nothing, but what hath aliquid Christi *Bucer., something of Christ in it▪ he loves duties, only as they are manuductions to Christ▪ why is prayer so sweet, but because the soul hath private conference with Christ? Why is the Word precious, but because it is a meanes to convey Christ? he comes down to us upon the wings of the Spirit; and we go up to him upon the wings of Faith: An ordinance without Christ, is but feeding upon the dish in stead of the meat. Why doth the wife …ove the Letter, but because it brings news of her husband? Here we enjoy Christ by letters, and that is sweet; but what will it be to enjoy his presence in glory? Here is that which may amaze us, we shall be with Christ, Christ is all that is desirable; nay, he is more then we can desire. A man that is thirsty, he desires onelyonly a little water to quench his thirst; but bring him to the Sea, and here is more then he can desire. In Christ, there is not onelyonly a fulnesse of sufficiency, but a fulnesse of redundancy; it overflows all the banks: a Christian that is most sublimated by Faith, hath neither an head to devise, nor an heart to desire all that which is in Christ; onelyonly when we come to Heaven, God will enlarge the vessell of our desire, and will fill us as Christ did the Waterpots with Wine, *Joh. 2.7.up to the brim. Now this priviledge of being with Christ, hath six priviledges growing out of it.
SECT. I. The first Priviledge of being with Christ.
1. VIsion, Job 19. ver. 26. In my flesh shall I see God *Job 19.26; the sight of Jesus Christ will be the most sublime and ravishing object to a glorified Saint. When Christ was upon earth, his beauty was hid. He hath no forme or comelinesse *Is. 53.2.: the light of the divine nature was hid in the darke lanthorne of the humane: it was hid under reproaches, sufferings; yet even at that time, there was enough beauty in Christ to delight the heart of God. My Elect in whom my soul delighteth *Isa. 42.1.: then his vaile was upon his face, but what will it be when the vaile shall be taken off, and he shall appeare all in his embroydery? In him dwels the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily, Col. 2.9. Such glittering beames shall sparkle forth from Christ at that day as will infinitely amaze and ravish the eyes of the beholders. Imagine what a blessed sight it will be to see Christ wearing the robe of our humane nature, & to see that nature sitting in glory above the Angels; Ipse Deus sufficit ad praemium:Bern. 'Tis Heaven enough to see Christ. Whom have I in heaven but thee *Ps. 73.25? *Ibi sunt Angeli & Arch-angeli.There are, saith Musculus, Angels and Arch-angels; I but they do not make Heaven: Christ is the most sparkling Diamond in the ring of glory. Therefore the Apostle doth not say, I desire to be dissolved, and to be foreign, in heaven, but to be foreign, with Christ: because his presence is the heaven of heaven.
If Jesus Christ be so beautiful here in his ordinances, viz. Word, Prayer, Sacraments, (they are the beauties of holinesse) If there be so much excellency in Christ, when we see him by the eye of faith, through the prospective glasse of the promise: O what will it be, when we shall see him face to face! When Christ was transfigured on the Mount, he was full of glory, Mat. 17.2. His rayment was white as the light. If his transfiguration was so glorious, what will his inauguration be? What a glorious time will it be, when, as it was said of Mordec…i *Est. 8.15, we shall see him in the presence of his Father, arrayed in royall apparel, and with a great crown of gold upon his head. Oh look often upon him with a believing eye, whom you shall shortly see with a glorified eye.
That which will adde to the Saints vision, and make it truly beatificall, is, that (through Christ) the dread, and terrour of the divine Essence shall be taken away; Majesty shall appeare in God, to preserve reverence, but withal, Majesty cloathed with beauty, and tempered with sweetnesse to excite love and joy in the Saints. Through the face of Christ as through a bright Mirrour, or Crystall the glory of God, his wisdome, holinesse, mercy shall be sweetly transparent. We shall see God as a friend; not as guilty Adam did, who was afraid and hid himselfe *Gen. 3.10; but as Queen Esther looked upon King Ahashuerus holding forth the Golden scepter *Est. 5.2.. We shall have the smiles of Gods face, and the kisses of his lips. O what a blessed sight of God will this be! surely it will not be formidable, but comfortable; and to set off this vision the more, the Saints shall alwayes be beholding the Kings face; while they live here in the world Gods eye is never off from them, and in heaven their eye shall be never off from God; they shall be ever looking on that blessed object, and the more they behold the shining lustre of his glory, the more they shall be ravished both with desire, and delight. God must make us able to beare the sight of all this. We are no more able to beare a sight of glory, then a sight of wrath, but we shall be qualified, and made fit to receive these penetrating beames.
SECT. II. The second Priviledge of being with Christ.
THe next Priviledge is Union; our being with Christ is not only locall, but conjugall: We shall so behold him as to be made one with him. What nearer then union? what sweeter? Union is the spring of joy, the ground of priviledge; by vertue of this blessed union with Christ, all those rare beauties wherewith the humane nature of the Lord Jesus is bespangled, shall be ours. Let us compare two Scriptures, Ioh. 17.24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory. That is, the glory of the humane nature; but that is not all, Ver. 22. The glory that thou hast given me, I have given them. Christ hath not his glory onelyonly for himselfe, but for us: we shall shine by his beames: *Non tantum aderit gloria sed ine…it. Bernard.Here Christ puts his graces upon his Spouse, and in heaven he will put his glory upon her. No wonder then the Queens daughter is all glorious within, Psal. 45.14. and her cloathing of wrought gold. How glorious will the Spouse be, when she hath Christ's jewels upon her? Judge not of the Saints by what they are, but by what they shall be: It doth not yet appeare what we shall be, 1 Joh. 3.1. Why, what shall we be? We shall be like him. The Spouse of Christ shall not only be made one with Christ, but she shall be made like Christ: in other marriages, the Spouse changeth her condition, but here she changeth her complexion: not that the Saints in glory shall receive of Christ's Essence (a Socinian errour,) They shall have as much glory, as the humane nature is capable of: but though Christ conveys his Image, yet not his Essence. The Sun shining upon a glasse, leaves a print of its beauty there; and it is hard to distinguish between the glass and the sun-beam: but the glass is not the beam, the sun conveys only it's likenesse, not it's essence.
SECT. III. The third Priviledge of being with Christ.
THe next priviledge, is, Nobility: which consists in Three Things. 1. Every Saint shall be a King: There are some that aspire after earthly Scepters, as if here were the place of the Saints reigne: then surely, the Church of God should not be militant upon earth, but triumphant. But, behold the honour of the Saints, they shall be all Kings! (though I say not in this life) all Christs Subjects are Kings: therefore you read of, 1. Their Royal …obe, Revel. 6. v. 11. 2. Their Throne, Revel. 3, v. 21. To him that overcomes, I will give him to sit upon my Fathers throne. Perhaps here he had but a poor thatched house, but there a Throne. 3. Their Crown. In this world, the Saints weare a crown of Thornes, but there a crown of Glory: and this crown hath two Properties.
1. It is Incorruptible, 1 Pet. 5.4. it fades not away; it doth not wither: but after millions of years is as bright and flourishing, as at the first dayes wearing; eternity is a flower of the Saints crown.
2. It is unmixed, it hath no cares woven into it: Kings crowns are so weighty in regard of the cares and sorrowes appendant, *Non ita …rona circundat ca…ut S…cut a…m…m solli…citudo.that often they make their head ake. Cyrus the Persian King was wont to say, Did men but know the cares which he sustained under an Imperiall crown, he thought no man would stoop to take it up. The Crown Royall, though it may be made of pure gold, yet it is mixt mettal: but the Saints Crown in glory, is without mixture: it is not mingled with care of keeping, or feare of losing: oh then, let us be willing to suffer for Christ; if we beare the Crosse, we shall wear the Crown.
A second Part of the Saints honour is, they shall sit with Jesus Christ when he judgeth the world: Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world *1 Cor. 6.3? The Saints shall sit with Christ in Judicature, as the Justice of Peace with the Judge: the Saints are Christs Assessors; they shall be with him upon the Bench, applauding his righteous sentence. O, what a glorious Tribunal will that be! here the world judgeth the Saints, but there the Saints shall judge the world.
3. They shall sit nearer the Throne then the Angels: the Angels are noble and sublime Spirits, but Christ having taken our flesh, the knot being tied between the Divine and Humane Nature in the Virgins womb, we shall be ennobled with greater honour then the Angels: the Angels are Christs friends, but not his brethren; we are flesh of his flesh. He is not ashamed to call them brethren *Heb. 2.11.: and surely, Christ will see them of the blood royall advanced. To what Angels hath Christ said, Ye are my brethren? This honour have all his Saints. As the Saints robes in glory shal be brighter then the Angels, (theirs being only the righteousnesse of creatures, but these having upon them the Righteousness of God *Jer. 23.6.▪) So their dignity shall be greater. O infinite! here we are prisoners at bar, but there Favourites at Court: the Saints shall sit down in glory above the Angels.
SECT. IV. The fourth Priviledge of being with Christ.
THe next priviledge is Joy: This joy of the Saints, proceeds from Union; when our union with Christ is perfect, then our joy shall be full, Rev. 21.4. And God shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be no more sorrow.
1. There shall be no weeping. Jesus Christ hath provided a Spunge to wipe off the tears of the Saints. Here the Spouse is in Sable, it being a time of absence from her Husband*Mat. 9.15: But in heaven Christ will take away the Spouses mourning; he will pull off all her black, and bloody robes, and will cloath her in white robes, Revel. 7.13. White, as it is an Embleme of the Saints purity, so it is a type of their joy; heaven should not be heaven, if there were weeping there: hell indeed is called a place of weeping; they that would not shed a teare for their sinnes, while they lived, shall have weeping enough; but we never read of weeping in heaven. Christ will take downe our harps from the Willows; there he will call for his Heralds and trumpeters: the Angels, those blessed Quiristers, shall sing the divine anthems of praise▪ an… the Saints shall joyne in that heavenly Consort. If it were possible, that any teares could be shed, when we are with Christ, they should be the teares of joy, as sometimes we have seene a man weepe for exessive joy; Christ will turne all our water there into wine.
2. There shall be no sorrow; one smile from Christs face will make us forget all our afflictions: sorrow is a cloud gathered in the heart upon the apprehension of some evil: and weeping is the cloud of griefe dropping into raine: but in heaven the Sun of righteousness shall shine so bright, that there shall not be the least interposition of any cloud; there shall be no sorrow there, nor any thing to breed it: there shall be no sin to humble; heaven is such a pure soile, that the Viper of sin will not breed there; there shall be no Devil to tempt; the old Serpent is cast out of the heavenly Paradise. There shall be no Enemy to molest: When Israel had conquered Canaan, yet they could not get rid of all the Canaanites, they would live among them; But the Canaanites would dwell in that land *Judg. 1.27.: But when we are with Christ, we shall never be troubled with Canaanites more. In that day (I may allude to that of the Prophet) there shall be no more the Canaanite dwell in the house of the Lord *Zac. 14.2 Nullus ibi hostium metus, nullae infidiae Daemonum. Bern.. God will keep the heavenly Paradise with a flaming Sword, that none shall come neere to hurt: Upon all that glory shall be a defence *Isa. 4.5.. There shall be nothing to breed sorrow in heaven. There are two things that usually raise the clouds of sorrow, and both shall be removed when we are with Christ.
1. The frownes of great men: how ambitious are men of the Princes smile? but alas, that quickly sets in a cloud, and then their comforts are in the wain, they are sad! but when we are with Christ, we shall have a perpetual smile from God: the Saints shall never be out of favour, Jesus Christ is the great favorite at Court; and as long as God smiles upon Christ, so long he will smile upon the Saints, they having on Christs beauty, and being part of Christ.
2. The losse of deare friends: a friend imparts secrets; friendship is the marriage of affections, it makes two become one spirit. David and Ionathan tooke sweete counsel together, their heart was knit in one: now here is the grief, when this precious knot must be untyed: but be of good cheare, if thy friend belong to the election, after thou hast parted with thy sinnes, thou shalt meet with him and never part. If thy friend be wicked, though he were thy friend on earth, thou wilt cease to be his friend in heaven. The pious wife shall not complaine she hath lost her husband, nor the religious Parent, that he hath lost his childe; all relations are infinitely made up in Christ, as the whole constellation in the Sunne, that great Lamp of Heaven. When a man comes to the sea, he doth not complaine that he wants his Cisterne of water: Though thou didst suck some comfort from thy relations; yet when thou comest to the Ocean, and art with Christ, thou shalt never complaine, that thou hast left thy cistern behinde: There will be nothing to breed sorrow in heaven; there shall be joy, and nothing but joy: Heaven is set out by that phrase, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord *Mat. 25.21.. Here joy enters into us, there we enter into joy: the joyes we have here, are foreign ▪ those are foreign. These are from heaven, those are in heaven: the joyes that we shall have with Christ, are without measure, and without mixture:*Ps. 16.11 In thy presence is fulness of joy.
1. The heart shall be filled. Nothing but Christ can replenish the heart with joy: the understanding, will, affections, are such a triangle, that none can fill but the Trinity. As Christs beauty shall amaze the eye, so his love shall ravish the heart of a glorified Saint; must it not needs be joy to be with Christ? what joy when a Christian shall see the great gulfe shot between heaven and hell? What joy when Christ shall take us into the Wine-celler? and kisse us with the kisses of his lips? What joy when the match shall be at once made up, and solemnized between Christ and a believer? these are the more noble and generous delights.
2. All the senses shall be filled with joy; and, at once; The eye shall be filled; What joy to see that Orient brightnesse in the face of Christ? there you may see the Lily and the Rose mixed, white and ruddy, Cant. 5.10. The Eare shall be filled; What joy to the Spouse to heare Christs voice? The voice of God was dreadful to Adam, after he had listened to the Serpents voice: I heard thy voice in the garden, and was afraid, Gen. 3.10. But how sweet will the Bridegrooms voice be? What joy to hear him say, My Love, my Dove, my undefiled? What joy to heare the musick of Angels, even the heavenly hoast praysing God? If the eloquence of Origen, the golden mouth of Chrysostome did so affect and charme the eares of their auditours, Oh then what will it be to heare the glorious tongues of Saints and Angels, as so many divine Trumpets sounding forth the excellencies of God, and singing Hallelujahs to the Lamb? The smell shall be filled; What joy to smell that fragrancy and perfume that comes from Christ? All his garments smell of myrrhe, aloes, and Cassia. The sweet breath of his Spirit blowing upon the soule, shall give forth its sent, as the wine of Lebanon. The taste shall be filled; Christ will bring his Spouse into the banqueting house, and she shall be inebriated with his love; O what joy to be drinking in this heavenly nectar? This is the water of life: This is the wine on the lees well refined. The touch shall be filled; the Saints shall be ever in the embraces of Christ; Behold my hands and my feet; handle me▪ and see me, Luk. 24.39. That will be our work in heaven; we shall be ever handling the Lord of life: Thus all the senses shall be filled. Yet though there be a fulnesse of joy, there shall be no surfeit; *Ibi nec fames, nec fastidium. Bern.the soule shall not be so full, but it shall desire: nor shall it so desire, but it shall be full: That which prevents a surfeit in heaven, is that there shall be every moment new and fresh delights springing forth from God into the glorified soul: Well might the Apostle say, to be with Christ is farre better. Great is the joy that faith breeds. Whom not seeing, yet believing, ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory *1 Pet. 1.8.. If the joy of Faith be such, what will the joy of fruition be? There is ioy when we fall into temptations, Jam. 1.2. If Christs sufferings are full of joy, what then are his embraces? If the dew of Hermon hill be so sweet, the first fruits of Christs love; what will the full crop be? In short, there will be nothing in heaven but what shall adde infinitely to the joy of the Saints. The very torments of the damned shall create matter of joy and triumph. I may allude to that of the Psalmist, The righteous shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance *Ps, 58.9.; the elect shall rejoyce upon a double account to see Gods justice magnificently exalted, and to see themselves miraculously delivered. There shall be no unpleasant object represented; nothing but joy. Such will that joy be, when we are with Christ, that as it is not possible, so neither is it fit for a man to speake, 2 Cor. 12.4. We read that Ioseph gave his brethren money and provision for the way; But the full sacks were kept till they came at their fathers house; God gives us something by the way; some of the hidden-manna: some taste of his heavenly joy in this life, but the full sacks of corne are kept for heaven. O what joy to be with Christ? surely if there were such joy and triumph at Solomons coronation, That all the earth rang with the sound of it *1 King 1.40.; What joy will be on the Saints coronation-day, when they shall be eternally united to Jesus Christ? This shall inhance the joy of heaven; It is for ever: 1 Thes. 4.17. Then shall we ever be with the Lord. If this joy should after many years have a period, it would much abate the sweetnesse. But certainly, if we could by our Arithmetick reckon up more millions of ages then there have been minutes since the Creation; after all this time (which were a short eternity) the joy of the Saints shall be as farre from ending, as it was at the beginning.
SECT. V. The fifth Priviledge of being with Christ.
I Proceed to the next priviledge, which is Rest *Felix transitus à labore ad requiem, à pe…g…i…atione ad patr…am. Bern.. A Christian in this life is like Quick-silver, which hath a principle of motion in it self, but not of rest: We are never quiet, but as the Ball upon the Racket, or the ship upon the waves· As long as we have sinne this is like the quick-silver: A childe of God is full of motion and disquiet; I have no rest in my bones by reason of my sinne, Psal. 38.3. While there are wicked men in the world, never look for rest. If a man be poor, he is thrust away by the rich: if he be rich, he is envied by the poore; sometimes losses disquiet, sometimes law-suits vex: 'Tis onelyonly the prisoner lives in such a Tenement as he may be sure none will go about to take from him: one trouble doth succeed another, Velut unda supervenit undae: sometimes the floodgates of persecution are opened; *Rev. 12.4, 5.sometimes the Tombstone of disgrace is laid upon the Saints: either the body is in trouble, or the minde, or both; The Saints in this life are in a pilgrim-condition: the Apostles had no certaine dwelling place, 1 Cor. 4.11. We are here in a perpetual hurry, in a constant fluctuation: our life is like the Tyde, sometimes ebbing, sometimes flowing: here is no rest: And the reason is, because we are out of our centre; every thing is in motion till it comes at the centre; Christ is the centre of the soule: the Needle of the compasse trembles, till it turns to the North-pole. Noahs Dove found no rest for the sole of her feet, till she came at the Ark: This Ark was a Type of Christ; when we come to heaven, the Kingdome that cannot be shaken *Heb. 12.28., we shall have rest, Heb. 4.9. There remaines therefore a rest for the people of God. Heaven in Scripture is compared to a granary, Mat. 3.12. *Mat. 3.12an emblem of rest. Wheat while it stands on the ground is shaken to and fro with the winde, but when it is laid up in the granary, it is at rest: the Elect are spiritual wheat, who while they are in the field of this world are never quiet, the winde of persecution shakes this wheat, and every one that passeth by will be plucking these sacred eares of corne, but when the wheat is in the heavenly Garner it is at rest. There remaines a rest, &c. Not but that there shall be motion in heaven (for Spirits cannot be idle) but it shall be a motion without lassitude and wearinesse. They that die in the Lord rest from their labours *Rev. 14.13.. The work which the Saints shall do in heaven shall be delightsome and pleasant, it shall be a labour full of ease, a motion full of rest. When a Beleever is in heaven, he hath his Quietus est. The lower Region is windy and tempestuous; when we are once gotten into the upper Region of glory, there are no winds or noxious vapours, but a serene calmnesse; this it is to be foreign, with Christ.
SECT. VI. The sixth Priviledge of being with Christ.
THe last is Security. 'Tis possible a man may have a few minutes of rest; but he is not secure, he knowes not how soon Eclipses and changes may come: he is still in feare, *foreign, &c. Antis…hen.and feare makes a man a servant, (saith the Philosopher) though he know it not. There is torment in feare, 1 John 4.18. He that hath great possessions, thinks thus; But how soone may I fall from this Pinacle of honour? how soone may the plunderer come? Nay, a beleever, that hath durable riches, yet is still pendulous and doubting concerning his condition.
1. He somtimes questions whether he be in the state of grace or no: and thus he thinks with himselfe; perhaps I believe; perhaps I do not believe: I have something that glisters, perhaps it is but a counterfeit chaine of Pearle? my Faith is Presumption, my Love to Christ is but self-love; and when the Spirit of God hath wrought the heart to some sound perswasion, he is soone shaken againe; as a ship that lies at anchor, though it be safe, yet it is shaken and tossed upon the water: and these feares leave impressions of sadnesse upon the heart.
2. But secondly, he feares, that though he be in the state of Grace, yet he may fall into some scandalous sinne, and so grieve the Spirit of God, sadden the hearts of the righteous, wound his own conscience, harden sinners, discourage new beginners, put a song into the mouth of the prophane; and at last God hide his face in a cloud. A childe of God after a sad declension, having by his sinne put black spots in the face of Religion, though I deny not, but he hath a title to the Promise; yet he may be in such a condition that he cannot for the present apply any Promise, he may go weeping to his grave.
These sad feares like black vapours, are still arising out of a gracious heart; but when once a believer is with Christ…, there is full security of heart: he is not onelyonly out of danger, but out of fea…e. Take it thus, a man that is upon the top of a Mast, he may sit safe for the present, but not secure. Perhaps the Pirates may shoot at the ship, and take it; perhaps the windes may arise suddenly, and the ship map be cast away in the storme; but a man that is upon a rock, he stands impregnable: his heart is secure. A Christian in this life is like a man upon the top of a Mast, sometimes the Pirates come abroad, viz. cruel persecutors, and they shoot at his ship, and oft, though the passenger (the precious soule) escapes, yet they sink the ship; sometimes the windes of tentation blow, those northern windes; and now the Christian questions whether God love him, or whether his name be enrolled in the book of life; and though being in Christ, there is no danger, yet his heart doth hesitate and tremble: but when he is with Christ, off from the top of the Mast; and is planted upon the rock, his heart is fully secure; and you shall heare him say thus, Now I am sure, I have shot the gulf, I am now passed from death to life, and none shall pluck me out of my Saviours armes.