صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

work, and there is no use for it there. Faith is turned in to sight, and hope is swallowed up in the ocean of sensible and full enjoyment. All the rebels are subdued, the saints quietly set on their throne; and so the forces needful in the time of the spiritual warfare, are disbanded; and they carry on their triumph in profoundest peace.

Lastly, White Garments were worn on festival days, in token of joy. And so shall the saints be clothed in white raiment, for they shall keep an everlasting Sabbath to the Lord, Heb. iv. 9. "There remaineth therefore a rest (or keeping of a Sabbath) to the people of God." The Sabbath, in the esteem of saints, is the queen of days: and they shall have an endless Sabbatism in the kingdom of heaven; so shall their garments be always white. They will have an eternal rest, with an uninterrupted joy; for heaven is not a resting place, where men may sleep out an eternity (there they rest not day nor night); but their work is their rest and continual recreation, and toil and weariness have no place there. They rest there in God, who is the centre of their souls. Here they find the complement, or satisfaction of all their desires; having the full enjoyment of God, and uninterrupted communion with him. This is the point unto the which, till the soul come, it will always be restless; but, that point reached, it rests; for he is the last end, and the soul can go no farther. It cannot understand, will, nor desire more; but in him it has what is commensurable to its boundless desires. This is the happy end of all the labours of the saints; their toil and sorrows issue in a joyful rest. The Chaldeans measuring the natural day, put the day first, and the night last: but the Jews counted the night first and the day last. Even so the wicked begin with a day of rest and pleasure, but end with a night of everlasting toil and sorrow: but God's people have their gloomy night first, and then comes their day of eternal rest. The which, Abraham, in the parable, observed to the rich man in hell, Luke xvi. 25. "Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”

III. If one enquires where the kingdom of the saints lies? It is not in this world; it lies in a better country, that is, an heavenly, Heb. xi. 16. a country better than

the best of this world, namely, the heavenly Canaan, Immanuel's land, where nothing is wanting to complete the happiness of the inhabitants. This is the happy country, blest with a perpetual spring, and which yieldeth all things, for necessity, conveniency and delight. There men shall eat angels food; they shall be entertained with the hidden manna (Rev. ii. 17.) without being set to the painful gathering of it: they will be fed to the full, with the product of the land falling into their mouths, without the least toil to them. That land enjoys an everlasting day, for there is no night there, Rev. xxi. 25. An eternal sunshine beautifies this better country, but there is no scorching heat there. No clouds shall be seen there for ever: yet it is not a land of drought; the trees of the Lord's planting, are set by the rivers of water, and shall never want moisture; for they will have an eternal supply of the Spirit, by Jesus Christ, from his Father. This is the country from whence our Lord came, and wither he is gone again; the country which all the holy patriarchs and prophets had their eyes upon, while on earth; and which all the saints, who have gone before us, have fought their way to; and unto which, the martyrs have joyfully swimmed through a sea of blood. This earth is the place of the saints pilgrimage: that is their country, where they find their everlasting rest.

IV. The Royal City is that great city, the holy Jerusalem, described at large, Rev. xxi. 10, &c. (It is true, some learned divines place this city in the earth, but the particulars of the description seem to me to favour those most, who point us to the other world for it.) The saints shall reign in that city, whose wall is of jasper (ver. 16.) and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones (ver. 19.) and the street of pure gold (ver. 21.) so that their feet shall be set on that, which the men of this world set their hearts upon. This is the city God has prepared for them, Heb. xi. 16. A city that hath foundations (ver. 10.): a continuing city (chap. xiii. 14.) which shall stand and flourish, when all the cities of the world are laid in ashes; and which shall not be moved, when the foundations of the world are overturned. It is a city that never changeth its inhabitants: none of them shall ever be removed out of it; for life and immortality

reign there, and no death can enter into it. It is blessed with a perfect and perpetual peace, and can never be in the least disturbed. Nothing from without can annoy it; the gates therefore are not shut at all by day, and there is no night there, Rev xxi. 25. There can nothing from within trouble it. No want of provision there; no scarcity; no discord amongst the inhabitants. Whatever contentions are amongst the saints now, a vestige of their former jarrings shall not remain there. Love to God, and to one another, shall be perfected: and these of them who stood at great distance here, will joyfully embrace and delight in one another there.

V. The Royal Palace is Christ's Father's house; in which are many mansions, John xiv. 2. There shall the saints dwell for ever. This is the house prepared for all the heirs of glory, even these of them ho dwell in the meanest cottage now, or have not where to lay their heads. As our Lord calls his saints to a kingdom, he will provide them a house suitable to the dignity he puts upon them. Heaven will be a convenient, spacious and glorious house, for those whom the King delighteth to honour. Never was a house purchased at so dear a rate as this, being the purchase of the Mediator's blood! And no less could it be afforded for to them. Never was there so much ado, to fit inhabitants for a house: The saints were, by nature, utterly unfit for this house; and human art and industry could not make them meet for it. But the Father gives the designed inhabitants to his Son, to be by him redeemed; the Son pays the price of their redemption, even his own precious blood; that, with the allowance of justice, they may have access to the house and the Holy Spirit sanctifies them by his grace; that they may be meet to come in thither, where no unclean thing can enter. And no marvel, for it is the King's palace they enter into, Psal. xiv. 15. The house of the kingdom, where the great King keeps his court; where he has his throne, and shews forth his glory, in a singular manner, beyond what mortals can conceive.

VI. Paradise is their Palace-garden. "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," said our Saviour to the penitent thief on the cross, Luke xxiii. 43. Heaven is a Paradise for pleasure and delight; where there is both

wood and water: "A pure river, of water of life, clear as chrystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb and of either side of the river, the tree of life, which bears twelve manner of fruits, and yields her fruit every month," Rev. xxii. 1, 2. How happy might innocent Adam have been in the earthly Paradise, where there was nothing wanting for necessity nor delight! Eden was the most pleasant spot of the uncorrupted earth, and Paradise the most pleasant spot of Eden; but what is earth in comparison of heaven? The glorified saints, are advanced to the heavenly Paradise. There they shall not only see, but eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God, Rev. ii. 7. They shall behold the Mediator's glory, and be satisfied with his goodness. No flaming sword will be there, to keep the way of that tree of life; but they shall freely eat of it, and live for ever. And they shall drink of the river of pleasures (Psal. xxxvi. 8.) these sweetest and purest pleasures, the which Immanuel's land doth afford; and shall swim in an ocean of unmixed delight for evermore.

VII. They shall have Royal Treasures, sufficient to support the dignity they are advanced unto. Since the street of the royal city is pure gold, and the twelve gates thereof are twelve pearls; their treasure must be of that which is better than gold or pearl. It is an eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17. O precious treasure! a treasure not liable to insensible corruption, by moths or rust; a treasure which none can steal from them, Matth. vi. 20. Never did any kingdom afford such a precious treasure, nor a treasure of such variety; for, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things," Rev. xxi. 7. No treasures on earth are stored with all things: if they were all put together in one, there would be far more valuable things wanting in that one, than found in it. This then is the peculiar treasure of these kings, who inherit the kingdom of heaven. They shall want nothing, that may contribute to their full satisfaction. Now they are rich in hope: but then they will have their riches in hand. Now all things are theirs in respect of right: then all shall be theirs in possession. They may go for ever through Immanuel's land, and behold the glory and riches thereof, with the satisfying thought, that all they see is their own. It is a pity these

should ever be uneasy under the want of earthly good things, who may be sure, they shall inherit all things at length.

VIII. Albeit there is no material Temple therein, no mediate serving of God in the use of ordinances, as here on earth; yet, as for this kingdom, "The Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it," Rev. xxi. 22. As the temple was the glory of Canaan, so will the celestial temple be the glory of heaven. The saints shall be brought in thither as a royal Priesthood, to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever: for Jesus Christ will then make every saint a pillar in the temple of God, and he shall go no more out (Rev. iii. 12.) as the Priests and Levites did in their courses go out of the material temple. There the saints shall have the cloud of glory, the divine presence, with most intimate, uninterrupted communion with God: there they shall have Jesus Christ as the true ark, wherein the fiery law shall be for ever hid from their eyes and the mercy-seat, from which nothing shall be breathed, but everlasting peace and good will towards them: the cherubims, the society of holy angels who shall join with them in eternal admiration of the mystery of Christ, the golden candlestick, with its seven lamps; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, Rev. xxi. 23. The incense-altar, in the intercession of Christ, who ever liveth to make intercession for them, (Heb. vii. 25.) eternally exhibiting the merits of his death and sufferings, and efficaciously willing for ever, that these whom the Father hath given him, be with him; and the shew-bread table, in the perpetual feast, they shall have together, in the enjoyment of God. This leads me inore particularly to consider,

IX. The society in this kingdom. What would royal power and authority, ensigns of royalty, richest treasures, and all other advantages of a kingdom avail without comfortable society? Some crowned heads have made but a sorry life through the want of it; their palaces have been but unto them as prisons, and their badges of honour, as chains on a prisoner; while hated of all, they had none they could trust in, or whom they could have comfortable fellowship with. But the chief part of heaven's happiness, lies in the blessed society the saints shall have there. For clearing of which, consider these few things:

« السابقةمتابعة »