Chapter 8: The Third Prerogative Royal of a Believer

The next great prerogative is, the believer shall be with Christ in glory (Philippians 1:23). I desire [in non-Latin alphabet], to be dissolved, or loosen anchor, and to be with Christ. This is a privilege 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 does 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 wild olive still in him; now when this scion, by death is cut off, he does not perish, but is set into a more noble and generous stock, he is with Christ, which is far better: a state of perfection, is better than a state of imperfection. Our graces are our best jewels, but they are imperfect and do not give out their full luster: they are like the moon, which when it shines brightest, has a dark spot. Our faith is mingled with unbelief, our humility is stained with pride; the flame of our graces is not so pure, but it has some smoke; 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 chain of glory, we shall be with Christ. What is it the pious soul desires in this life? Is it not to have the sweet presence of Christ? He cares for nothing, but what has aliquid Christi, something of Christ in it — he loves duties, only as they are manuductions to Christ — why is prayer so sweet, but because the soul has private conference with Christ? Why is the Word precious, but because it is a means 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 instead of the meat. Why does the wife love 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; in fact, he is more than we can desire. A man that is thirsty, he desires only a little water to quench his thirst; but bring him to the sea, and here is more than he can desire. In Christ, there is not only a fullness of sufficiency, but a fullness of redundancy; it overflows all the banks: a Christian that is most sublimated by faith, has neither a head to devise, nor a heart to desire all that which is in Christ; only when we come to heaven, God will enlarge the vessel of our desire, and will fill us as Christ did the water pots with wine, up to the brim (John 2:7). Now this privilege of being with Christ, has six privileges growing out of it.

SECT. 1. The first privilege of being with Christ.

1. Vision (Job 19:26). In my flesh shall I see God; 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 has no form or comeliness: the light of the divine nature was hid in the dark lantern of the human: 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 delights: then his veil was upon his face, but what will it be when the veil shall be taken off, and he shall appear all in his embroidery? In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). Such glittering beams 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 human nature, and to see that nature sitting in glory above the angels; Ipse Deus sufficit ad praemium: it is heaven enough to see Christ. Whom have I in heaven but you? There are, says Musculus, angels and archangels; but they do not make heaven: Christ is the most sparkling diamond in the ring of glory. Therefore the Apostle does not say, I desire to be dissolved, and to be [in non-Latin alphabet], in heaven, but to be [in non-Latin alphabet], with Christ: because his presence is the heaven of heaven.

If Jesus Christ be so beautiful here in his ordinances, namely Word, Prayer, Sacraments, (they are the beauties of holiness) if there be so much excellency in Christ, when we see him by the eye of faith, through the perspective glass 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 (Matthew 17:2). His clothing 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 Mordecai, we shall see him in the presence of his Father, arrayed in royal apparel, and with a great crown of gold upon his head (Esther 8:15). Oh look often upon him with a believing eye, whom you shall shortly see with a glorified eye.

That which will add to the saints' vision, and make it truly beatific, is, that (through Christ) the dread, and terror of the divine essence shall be taken away; majesty shall appear in God, to preserve reverence, but withal, majesty clothed with beauty, and tempered with sweetness to excite love and joy in the saints. Through the face of Christ as through a bright mirror, or crystal the glory of God, his wisdom, holiness, mercy shall be sweetly transparent. We shall see God as a friend; not as guilty Adam did, who was afraid and hid himself (Genesis 3:10); but as Queen Esther looked upon King Ahashuerus holding forth the golden scepter (Esther 5:2). We shall have the smiles of God's 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 always be beholding the King's face; while they live here in the world God's 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 luster of his glory, the more they shall be ravished both with desire, and delight. God must make us able to bear the sight of all this. We are no more able to bear a sight of glory, than a sight of wrath, but we shall be qualified, and made fit to receive these penetrating beams.

SECT. 2. The second privilege of being with Christ.

The next privilege is Union; our being with Christ is not only local, but conjugal: We shall so behold him as to be made one with him. What nearer than union? What sweeter? Union is the spring of joy, the ground of privilege; by virtue of this blessed union with Christ, all those rare beauties with which the human nature of the Lord Jesus is bespangled, shall be ours. Let us compare two Scriptures, (John 17:24) Father, I will that they also whom you have given me, be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory. That is, the glory of the human nature; but that is not all, (verse 22) The glory that you have given me, I have given them. Christ has not his glory only for himself, but for us: we shall shine by his beams: Here Christ puts his graces upon his Spouse, and in heaven he will put his glory upon her. No wonder then the Queen's daughter is all glorious within (Psalm 45:14), and her clothing of wrought gold. How glorious will the Spouse be, when she has Christ's jewels upon her? Judge not of the saints by what they are, but by what they shall be: It does not yet appear what we shall be (1 John 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 changes her condition, but here she changes her complexion: not that the saints in glory shall receive of Christ's Essence (a Socinian error,) They shall have as much glory, as the human nature is capable of: but though Christ conveys his image, yet not his essence. The sun shining upon a glass, leaves a print of its beauty there; and it is hard to distinguish between the glass and the sunbeam: but the glass is not the beam, the sun conveys only its likeness, not its essence.

Section 3: The Third Privilege of Being with Christ.

The next privilege, 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' reign: then surely, the Church of God should not be militant upon earth, but triumphant. But, behold the honor of the saints, they shall be all Kings! (though I say not in this life) all Christ's subjects are Kings: therefore you read of, 1. Their royal [reconstructed: robe] (Revelation 6:11). 2. Their throne (Revelation 3:21): To him that overcomes, I will give him to sit upon my Father's throne. Perhaps here he had but a poor thatched house, but there a throne. 3. Their crown. In this world, the saints wear a crown of thorns, but there a crown of glory: and this crown has two properties.

1. It is incorruptible (1 Peter 5:4), it fades not away; it does not wither: but after millions of years is as bright and flourishing, as at the first day's wearing; eternity is a flower of the saints' crown.

2. It is unmixed, it has no cares woven into it: Kings' crowns are so weighty in regard of the cares and sorrows attached, that often they make their head ache. Cyrus the Persian King was wont to say, Did men but know the cares which he sustained under an imperial crown, he thought no man would stoop to take it up. The royal crown, though it may be made of pure gold, yet it is mixed metal: but the saints' crown in glory, is without mixture: it is not mingled with care of keeping, or fear of losing: oh then, let us be willing to suffer for Christ; if we bear the cross, we shall wear the crown.

A second part of the saints' honor is, they shall sit with Jesus Christ when he judges the world: Know you not that the saints shall judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:3)? The saints shall sit with Christ in judicature, as the justice of the peace with the judge: the saints are Christ's assessors; they shall be with him upon the bench, applauding his righteous sentence. O, what a glorious tribunal will that be! here the world judges the saints, but there the saints shall judge the world.

3. They shall sit nearer the throne than the angels: the angels are noble and sublime spirits, but Christ having taken our flesh, the knot being tied between the divine and human nature in the Virgin's womb, we shall be ennobled with greater honor than the angels: the angels are Christ's friends, but not his brethren; we are flesh of his flesh. He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:11): and surely, Christ will see them of the blood royal advanced. To what angels has Christ said, You are my brethren? This honor have all his saints. As the saints' robes in glory shall be brighter than the angels', (theirs being only the righteousness of creatures, but these having upon them the righteousness of God) so their dignity shall be greater. O infinite! here we are prisoners at bar, but there favorites at court: the saints shall sit down in glory above the angels (Jeremiah 23:6).

Section 4: The Fourth Privilege of Being with Christ.

The next privilege is joy: This joy of the saints proceeds from union; when our union with Christ is perfect, then our joy shall be full (Revelation 21:4): And God shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be no more sorrow.

1. There shall be no weeping. Jesus Christ has provided a sponge to wipe off the tears of the saints. Here the Spouse is in sable, it being a time of absence from her husband: But in heaven Christ will take away the spouse's mourning; he will pull off all her black and bloody robes, and will clothe her in white robes (Revelation 7:13). White, as it is an emblem 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 tear for their sins, while they lived, shall have weeping enough; but we never read of weeping in heaven. Christ will take down our harps from the willows; there he will call for his heralds and trumpeters: the angels, those blessed choristers, shall sing the divine anthems of praise, and the saints shall join in that heavenly consort. If it were possible, that any tears could be shed, when we are with Christ, they should be the tears of joy, as sometimes we have seen a man weep for excessive joy; Christ will turn all our water there into wine (Matthew 9:15).

2. There shall be no sorrow; one smile from Christ's 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 grief dropping into rain: 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 anything to breed it: there shall be no sin to humble; heaven is such a pure soil, 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: 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. God will keep the heavenly Paradise with a flaming sword, that none shall come near to hurt: Upon all that glory shall be a defense. 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 frowns of great men: how ambitious are men of the Prince's smile? But alas, that quickly sets in a cloud, and then their comforts are on the wane, they are sad! But when we are with Christ, we shall have a perpetual smile from God: the saints shall never be out of favor, 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 Christ's beauty, and being part of Christ.

2. The loss of dear friends: a friend imparts secrets; friendship is the marriage of affections, it makes two become one spirit. David and Jonathan took sweet counsel together, their heart was knit in one: now here is the grief, when this precious knot must be untied: but be of good cheer, if your friend belongs to the election, after you have parted with your sins, you shall meet with him and never part. If your friend be wicked, though he were your friend on earth, you will cease to be his friend in heaven. The pious wife shall not complain she has lost her husband, nor the religious parent, that he has lost his child; all relations are infinitely made up in Christ, as the whole constellation in the sun, that great lamp of heaven. When a man comes to the sea, he does not complain that he lacks his cistern of water: though you did draw some comfort from your relations; yet when you come to the ocean, and are with Christ, you shall never complain, that you have left your cistern behind. 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 you into the joy of your Lord. Here joy enters into us, there we enter into joy: the joys we have here are [illegible], those are [illegible]. These are from heaven, those are in heaven: the joys that we shall have with Christ, are without measure, and without mixture: In your presence is fullness 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 Christ's 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 gulf fixed between heaven and hell? What joy when Christ shall take us into the wine cellar? And kiss 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.

All the senses shall be filled with joy, and at once. The eye shall be filled; what joy to see that orient brightness in the face of Christ? There you may see the lily and the rose mixed, white and ruddy (Song of Solomon 5:10). The ear shall be filled; what joy to the spouse to hear Christ's voice? The voice of God was dreadful to Adam, after he had listened to the serpent's voice: I heard your voice in the garden, and was afraid (Genesis 3:10). But how sweet will the bridegroom's voice be? What joy to hear him say, My love, my dove, my undefiled? What joy to hear the music of angels, even the heavenly host praising God? If the eloquence of Origen, the golden mouth of Chrysostom did so affect and charm the ears of their auditors, oh then what will it be to hear 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 fragrance and perfume that comes from Christ? All his garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia. The sweet breath of his Spirit blowing upon the soul, shall give forth its scent, as the wine of Lebanon. The taste shall be filled; Christ will bring his spouse into the banqueting house, and she shall be intoxicated with his love; oh 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 (Luke 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 fullness of joy, there shall be no surfeit; the soul 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 far better. Great is the joy that faith breeds. Whom not seeing, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. If the joy of faith be such, what will the joy of fruition be? There is joy when we fall into temptations (James 1:2). If Christ's sufferings are full of joy, what then are his embraces? If the dew of Hermon hill be so sweet, the first fruits of Christ's love; what will the full crop be? In short, there will be nothing in heaven but what shall add 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 rejoice when he sees the vengeance; the elect shall rejoice upon a double account to see God's 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 speak (2 Corinthians 12:4). We read that Joseph gave his brothers money and provision for the way; but the full sacks were kept till they came at their father's 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 corn are kept for heaven. Oh what joy to be with Christ? Surely if there were such joy and triumph at Solomon's coronation, that all the earth rang with the sound of it; what joy will be on the saints' coronation day, when they shall be eternally united to Jesus Christ? This shall enhance the joy of heaven; it is forever (1 Thessalonians 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 sweetness. But certainly, if we could by our arithmetic reckon up more millions of ages than there have been minutes since the creation; after all this time (which were a short eternity) the joy of the saints shall be as far from ending, as it was at the beginning.

Section 5: The fifth privilege of being with Christ.

I proceed to the next privilege, which is Rest. A Christian in this life is like quicksilver, which has a principle of motion in itself, 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 sin this is like the quicksilver: a child of God is full of motion and disquiet; I have no rest in my bones by reason of my sin (Psalm 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 poor; sometimes losses disquiet, sometimes lawsuits vex: it is only the prisoner lives in such a tenement as he may be sure none will go about to take from him: one trouble does succeed another, Velut unda supervenit undae: sometimes the floodgates of persecution are opened; sometimes the tombstone of disgrace is laid upon the saints: either the body is in trouble, or the mind, or both. The saints in this life are in a pilgrim-condition: the apostles had no certain dwelling place (1 Corinthians 4:11). We are here in a perpetual hurry, in a constant fluctuation: our life is like the tide, sometimes ebbing, sometimes flowing: here is no rest: and the reason is, because we are out of our center; every thing is in motion till it comes at the center; Christ is the center of the soul: the needle of the compass trembles, till it turns to the North Pole. Noah's 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 Kingdom that cannot be shaken, we shall have rest (Hebrews 4:9). There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. Heaven in Scripture is compared to a granary (Matthew 3:12), an emblem of rest. Wheat while it stands on the ground is shaken to and fro with the wind, 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 wind of persecution shakes this wheat, and every one that passes by will be plucking these sacred ears of corn, but when the wheat is in the heavenly granary it is at rest. There remains a rest, and so on. Not but that there shall be motion in heaven (for spirits cannot be idle) but it shall be a motion without lassitude and weariness. They that die in the Lord rest from their labors. The work which the saints shall do in heaven shall be delightful and pleasant, it shall be a labor full of ease, a motion full of rest. When a believer is in heaven, he has 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 vapors, but a serene calmness; this it is to be [non-Latin text], with Christ.

SECT. 6. The Sixth Privilege of Being with Christ.

The last is Security. It is possible a man may have a few minutes of rest; but he is not secure, he knows not how soon eclipses and changes may come: he is still in fear, and fear makes a man a servant, (says the Philosopher) though he know it not. There is torment in fear (1 John 4:18). He that has great possessions, thinks thus; But how soon may I fall from this pinnacle of honor? How soon may the plunderer come? Or rather, a believer, that has durable riches, yet is still pendulous and doubting concerning his condition.

1. He sometimes questions whether he be in the state of grace or no: and thus he thinks with himself; perhaps I believe; perhaps I do not believe: I have something that glistens, perhaps it is but a counterfeit chain of pearls? My faith is presumption, my love to Christ is but self-love; and when the Spirit of God has worked the heart to some sound persuasion, he is soon shaken again; as a ship that lies at anchor, though it be safe, yet it is shaken and tossed upon the water: and these fears leave impressions of sadness upon the heart.

2. But secondly, he fears, that though he be in the state of grace, yet he may fall into some scandalous sin, 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 profane; and at last God hide his face in a cloud. A child of God after a sad declension, having by his sin put black spots in the face of religion, though I deny not, but he has 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 fears like black vapors, 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 only out of danger, but out of fear. 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 winds may arise suddenly, and the ship may be cast away in the storm; 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, namely, cruel persecutors, and they shoot at his ship, and often, though the passenger (the precious soul) escapes, yet they sink the ship; sometimes the winds of temptation blow, those northern winds; 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 does 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 hear 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 Savior's arms.