Chapter 41: What is this recompense of reward

NOw the third thing that we are to come to is, to show what this reward is; we can but give you a little glimpse of it: Whatever will be said, it will rather even darken it then otherwise, in regard of the wonderful excellency of it; all the stars in heaven, if they were all Suns, they would be but a dark shadow to set out this reward, and therefore it is reserved to eternity to be known; but yet, because the Lord has been pleased to let out a beam of light unto us in his word, we shall endeavor to give a little glimpse of it to you, so that the hearts of Christians may be revived in their way, and they may gather up their feet to go on chearfully in their course, having respect with a discerning, experimental, spiritual, fixed, believing eye, unto the glorious recompence of reward.

First, take all the beauty, excellency, the sweet and good that there is in all the world; if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good, in all creature in this world, and all to be communicated to one man, yet it were but as a dark shadow of the glory that is to be revealed.

Secondly, this reward, certainly it is that which is beyond all the expression that we have in Scripture of it: Great things are spoken in the word, but there is more to be revealed and to be enjoyed, then is yet revealed in all the Book of God, Isa. 64:4 For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besides you, what he has prepared for him that waiteth for him. And therefore in 2 Thess. 1:10 it is said, Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and to be admired in all them that believe: Now the cause of admiration, it is the sight of something more then was known before, that was not thought of, and was not understood; even then at the first coming of Christ, he shall appear in so much glory, as he shall be admired; as if the Saints should say, We heard much concerning Christ and his glory, but we never thought that there was so much glory in Jesus Christ, as now we finde; and therefore we stand admiring at the glory of Christ.

Thirdly, all those consolations, those admirable soul-ravishing comforts that the Saints of God have ever had in this world, have all been but the first fruits of those glorious things that are hereafter to to be revealed, they are but as the Clusters of grapes that that blessed Land of Canaan is so full of.

Fourthly, then all the expressions that man can give of those things that are to be hereafter, must needs be but dark resemblances of what shall be revealed hereafter: As the infant in the womb knows not what the light, the glory and beauty of the world is; so we, while we are in this darkness, know little of the beauty and glory of heaven. St. Augustine speaking concerning what we can say of it, says, It is but as a little drop of the sea, and a little spark of thegreat furnace: Those good things of eternal life are so many, that they exceed number; so great, that they exceed measure; so precious, that they are above all estimation. Augustine in one of his Epistles has this relation, That the very same day in which Jerome dyed, he was in his study, and had got pen, ink and paper to write something of the glory of heaven to Jerome, suddenly he saw a light breaking into his study, and a sweet swell that came unto him, and this voyce he thought he heard, O Augustine, what doest you? doest think to put the sea into a little vessel? when the heavens shall cease from their continual motion, then shall you be able to understand what the glory of heaven is, and not before, except you come to feel it as I now do, this therefore is beyond the expression of man.

Fifthly, all the desires of all the souls of Gods Saints in the world, they come infinitely short of that which shall be hereafter. We are straightned here in our spirits, in our desires; if we could enlarge our desires in a spiritual way, it would hereafter adde much to our glory; our desires are not only straighter then that we shall have, but the straightness of our desires here hinders much the capacity of the good that hereafter is to be revealed and communicated; and therefore Christians should labor in a spiritual way to enlarge their desires to the utmost, to get their hearts to be working after great things here, so that they may by them engreaten their hearts, and extend their hearts, to prepare them for the great things that are to be revealed. I may say concerning our straight desires, as the Prophet did to Joash, 2 Kings 13. 18, 19. where the Prophet bade him strike upon the earth, and he struck thrice; the Prophet was angry, and said, You should have struck five or six times, and so often should you have smitten your enemies: So according to the truth and spiritual working of our desires here, shall we be made capable of glory hereafter; but now if we be straightened in our hearts, and we desire to be in heaven, and to have some good thing there, but our hearts are not after great things, not enlarged in our desires, it will be in some measure, in some proportion according to our desires, and therefore it is an evil thing for Christians to have their desires straightned here. There are glorious things to be had in God, and therefore our desires should be more enlarged then they are. It is an excellent expression of Basil, It grieves, it irks, it is tedious to our most munificent, great, glorious King (he has one word that expresses as much as all these) if we ask any thing little of him; he would have us ask great things of him.

Again, they are beyond all our hopes: It is said of Abraham, He believed above hope; we cannot believe above hope in this sense, that is above the great things that are hoped for, and yet God loves to have his people raise their hopes high.

Yea lastly, it is beyond all imagination; if men and Angels should set themselves to imagine what they would have, they would think if such and such things were, that would be a glorious condition, this reward shall be beyond imagination; we may imagine that which we could not almost desire, but whatever you can invent or imagine, you shall have that happiness, or that which is beyond it: sometime we think, what a sweet thing will it be in Heaven to meet our Father, our Mother, our Brother or Sister, our Husband or Wife? these relations shall cease there; but we may conclude, though we have not that there, we shall have that which shall be better, and that which we would rather choose.

But then if it be thus, that all the world be but a dark shadow, if that which is revealed in the word be but a glimpse, if all the comforts of the Saints here be but the first-fruits, if all the expressions of men come beneath, if all our desires come short, if all our hopes reach not to it, if all be above the imagination of men and Angels, what is it then? what is that which is thus great? we can tell you somewhat of this recompence of reward negatively, and somewhat comparatively, but very little of it positively; yet somewhat that way too.

First, negatively: There shall be no evil, there shall be such an estate of Gods people, in which they shall be fully, absolutely, everlastingly free from all kinde of evil; in this world evil sticks to every Christian, but there they shall be in an estate beyond all evil. When the Sun is got to the heighth, there is no shadow; so when Gods people come to the top of their blessedness, there shall be no shadow of any evil at all: that God that is infinite in good, certainly will not suffer evil to be always in his people: Freed from all evil of sin, and that is the greatest evil of all; never troubled with any hard heart any more, never pestered with an unbelieving straightned heart any more, never dull and heavy in Gods service any more; there shall never be any more blindeness and ignorances, any unconstancy, any mistake, any weariness in Gods service, delivered wholly from sin; yea, delivered not only from the sin that we have, but from the very savor of sin, and from all the remainders of sin: A man may be delivered out of prison, but he may smell of the prison; men may be healed of a wound, and yet have a scar remain; so it is with Gods people here, they are delivered from the guilt and power of their sin, but they smell of their prison garments, and there are some scars upon them, but all the smells and scars of our sin shall be taken from us; yea, delivered from the very possibility of sin: To be in an estate without sin, is a blessed estate, but to be in an estate in which there shall be no possibility to sin, that is a blessed condition indeed: It is a kinde of misery that a godly man counts himself to be in, not only that he does sin, but that he may sin, that he has a possibility to sin; but to be free from that, that is a blessed condition: And this is the happiness of God himself, that there is no possibility that he should do any thing in the least degree to sin.

And as they are delivered from sin, so from sorrow, for that is the immediate consequent of sin: All tears shall be wiped from their eyes. And as from moral evil, so from natural evil; from external and internal evil, from all weakness of parts, and from all pains, and sickness, and deformities, from all labors, all incumbrances here in the world; freed from the company, and madness, and opposition, and tyranny, and injustice of wicked men; they shall be above Satan, and above the men of the world. Gal. 1:4 It is said, that Christ has given himself to deliver us from this present evil world; it is a part of the purchase of Christ, to be wholly freed from all the evils of this present world; and this purchase of Christ we shall have. Under the highest regions are the tempests and storms, but above there are none; so in this world the Saints meet with tempests and storms, but above are none. As the Psalmist says, In your light O God we shall see light: so in the light of God we shall see nothing but light: now when Gods light does shine into us, it does discover darkness; but time will come, though Gods light shall shine never so brightly, we shall see no darkness, but altogether light. We read concerning Moses and Elias in Luke 9. in the transfiguration of Christ, the Text says, They did confer about his decease that should be accomplished at Jerusalem: the Saints of God shall meet together, and Moses, and Elias, and the Patriarchs, and shall confer no more about deceases, about troubles and sufferings that shall be accomplished; all those evils shall be done away. We may say of evils all, as Moses did to the people of Israel concerning the Egyptians, Those your enemies that now you see, you shall never see any more: So we may say to Gods people that go out of the world to partake of the recompence of reward; be quiet, be still: those evils of sin, of sorrow that now you see, and feel, you shall never see, never feel any more; that is something though it be negatively.

Secondly, comparatively, and herein are three things. First, to compare the good, the happiness that shall be hereafter, with all the good and happiness that we have here. Secondly, compare it with the condition of Adam in the estate of innocency. Thirdly, compare it with the happiness of the Angels.