Chapter 9: The Fourth Prerogative Royal

Let the Lucianists and Epicures place their happiness in this life; a believer's is in reversion; the golden world is yet to come. I pass to the next Prerogative, which is:

4. The blessed inheritance (Colossians 1:12): Giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. This world is but a tenement, which we may be soon turned out of; heaven is an inheritance, and a glorious one. Heaven has no hyperbole: if the skirts and suburbs of the palace, namely the stars and planets be so glorious, that our eyes cannot behold the dazzling lustre of them, what glory then is there in the chamber of presence? What is the Sanctum Sanctorum? Of this blessed place, we have a figurative description (Revelation 21). John was carried away in the Spirit, and had a vision of heaven (verse 2). That it was the Jerusalem above, is clear, if we consult with verse 22: And I saw no temple therein: while we dwell upon earth, there is need of a temple; we shall not be above ordinances till we are above sin: but in heaven, God will be in stead of a temple, He shall be all in all. And verse 25: There shall be no night there: no city is to be found, not the most glorious metropolis under heaven, where it is always day: for though some regions which lie immediately under the pole, have light for several months together; yet when the Sun withdraws from the horizon, they have as long a night as before they had a day: but says the text, There shall be no night there: in hell it is all night; but in heaven, the day will be ever lengthening. Now this blessed inheritance, or kingdom which the saints shall possess, has six properties, or rather privileges, worth our serious thoughts.

1. Sublimeness — it is set out by a great and high mountain (Revelation 21:10). It is placed above the airy and starry heaven, says Musculus; it is the Empyrean heaven, which Saint Paul calls the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2). For the situation of it, it is far above all heavens, where Christ himself is (Ephesians 4:10). This is Sedes beatorum, the royal palace, where the saints shall dwell. The men of this world are high in power, and in pride; but if they could build their nests among the stars, the elect shall shortly be above them; they shall take their flight as high as Christ: here is a preferment worth looking after.

2. Magnificence — it is set out by pearls and precious stones, the richest jewels (Revelation 21:19). If the streets are of gold, what is the furniture and hangings; what is the cabinet of jewels? I wonder not, that the violent take it by force (Matthew 11:12). I rather wonder others are no more violent: what are all the rarities of the world to this? The coasts of pearl, the islands of spices, the rocks of diamonds? What a rich place must that needs be, where God will lay out all his cost; where wisdom does contrive, and bounty does disburse?

Fulgentius beholding the pomp and splendor of the Roman senate-house cried out, O how beautiful is the celestial Jerusalem, if the terrestrial senate-house be so glorious! In this blessed inheritance there is nothing but glory; there is the King of glory; there are the vessels of glory; there are the thrones of glory; there is the weight of glory; there are the crowns of glory; there is the kingdom of glory; there is the brightness of glory. This is a purchase worth getting. What will men adventure for a kingdom? The worst come to the worst; it is but venturing our blood, we need not venture our conscience.

3. Purity — heaven is set forth under the metaphor of pure gold, and transparent glass (Revelation 21:21). The Apostle calls it an inheritance undefiled. Heaven is a pure place. It is compared to the sapphire (Revelation 21:19). The sapphire is a precious stone, of a bright sky color, and it has a virtue in it, says Pliny, to preserve chasteness and purity. Thus heaven is represented by the sapphire; it is a place, where only the refined sublimated spirits do enter. And heaven is compared to the emerald (verse 19), which (as writers say of it) has a precious virtue to expel poison. Heaven is such a pure soil, that as no fever of lust, so no venom of malice, shall be there, with the emerald; it will expel poison. There shall not enter into it anything that defiles (Revelation 21:27). It is a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness (2 Peter 3:13). In this lower region of the world, there is little righteousness, they set up wickedness by a law (Psalm 94:20), and the wicked devours his neighbor, which is more righteous than he (Habakkuk 1:13). Homo homini lupus. The just man is oppressed because he is just. One says, There is more justice to be found in hell, than here among men: for in hell no innocent person is oppressed; but here righteousness is the thing that is persecuted. A man can hardly tread two steps, but either into sin or into suffering. In this world the law is made only for the righteous man. The sinner need not fear any punitive vindictive act of justice, rather he that reproves sin may fear. Holiness is the white that the devil shoots at. But heaven is a kingdom, wherein dwells righteousness: there is the Judge of the world; who puts on righteousness, as a breastplate: who loves righteousness. There is the Sun of righteousness. There is the robe of righteousness. There is the crown of righteousness.

4. Amplitude — the inheritance is sufficiently spacious for all the saints. The garner wide enough to receive all those infinite grains of wheat that shall be laid in it: and he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, etc. The city lies foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth, and he measured the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs (Revelation 21:15-16). Or, as I find it in some Greek copies, [illegible]. Twelve times twelve thousand furlongs. Here is a finite put for an infinite; impossible it is that any arithmetician should number; or rhetorician express these furlongs. It is a phrase only that darkly shadows out the amplitude and largeness of this celestial city, though there be innumerable company of saints and angels in heaven, yet there is infinitely enough room to receive them (John 14:2). Some are of opinion that every believer shall have a particular mansion in glory. Every saint shall have his kingdom, says Jansenius. We know our Savior told his Apostles that they should sit upon twelve thrones (Matthew 19:28). Certainly the saints shall not be straitened for room. The continent of glory is wide enough for the most vast sublime spirits to expatiate in.

5. Light, It is called an inheritance in light. If every star were a Sun it could never shadow out the bright lustre of this celestial Paradise. Light is a glorious creature; what were all the world without light but a dark prison? What beauty is there in the Sun when it is masked with a cloud? Light does actuate the colors, and make every flower appear in its fresh beauty. Heaven is a bright body all over embroidered with light, not like the starry heaven, here and there bespangled with stars, but other parts of it like checker-work interwoven with darkness. Here Christ as a continual Sun shall give light to the whole heaven. The lamb shall be the light thereof; indeed all other light in comparison of this, is but like the twilight, or rather the midnight. Here alone are the shining rays of beauty, which every glorified eye shall be enabled both to behold and to possess; and this light shall have no night to eclipse it, no snuffers of death to extinguish it; when once the Sun of righteousness has risen upon the soul it shall never set any more. This is a high gradation of the glory of heaven, it is an inheritance in light. When the Scripture would set forth the blessedness of God himself, it makes it consist in this, He dwells in light.

6. Permanency, It is an inheritance incorruptible. It runs parallel with eternity: Eternity is a circle, that has neither beginning nor end; a sea that has neither bottom nor banks. This is the glory of the celestial Paradise; it abides for ever. The world passes away (1 John 2:17). Every thing is passing: it is good to look upon the world, as the heathens did upon pleasure; they looked upon the back-parts of pleasure, and saw it going away from them, and leaving a sting. The world is passing away, but Heaven never passes; therefore it surpasses — evil things (as pain and misery) length of time makes them worse, but good things (as joy and pleasure) length of time makes them better. Heaven's eminence is its permanence. Things are prized and valued by the time we have in them, lands, or houses in fee-simple which are to a man, and his heirs for ever, are esteemed far better than leases which soon expire: the saints do not lease heaven, it is not their landlord's house, but their Father's house: and this house never falls to decay, it is a mansion-house (John 14:2). There is nothing excellent (says one of the Fathers) that is not perpetual; the comforts of the world are fluid and uncertain like a fading garland; therefore they are shadowed out by the Tabernacle, which was transient, but Heaven is set out by the Temple, which was fixed and permanent: it was made of strong materials, built with stone, covered with cedar, over-laid with gold. This is the Heaven of Heaven, we shall be ever with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Eternity is the highest link of the saints' happiness; the soul of the believer shall be ever bathing itself in the pure and pleasant fountain of glory. As there is no intermission in the joys of heaven, so no expiration. When once God has set his plants in the celestial Paradise, he will never pluck them up any more; he will never transplant them: never will Christ lose any member of his body: you may sooner separate light from the Sun, than a glorified saint from Jesus Christ. O eternity, eternity! what a spring will that be, that shall have no autumn? what a day that shall have no night? I think I see the morning star appear, it is break of day already.

And this inheritance of glory fades not away (1 Peter 1:4). Had it not been enough for the Apostle to have said, It is an inheritance incorruptible? Indeed, but he adds, It fades not away. There is a sacred climax in this — the meaning is heaven does not lose its gloss or freshness. A rose may continue in its being when it does not retain its beauty. The substance of it may be preserved when the color and savor is lost: but such is the glory of this inheritance, that it cannot be made so much as to wither but like the flower we call Semper-vivens, it keeps fresh to eternity. Concerning the glory of this blessed inheritance, let me add these four things:

1. The glory of heaven is ponderous and weighty; it is called, A weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). God must make us able to bear it. This weight of glory should make sufferings light: this weight should make us throw away the weights of sin out of our hands, though they be golden weights: who would for the indulging of a lust, forfeit so glorious an inheritance? Lay the whole world in scales with it, it is lighter than vanity.

2. It is infinitely satisfying; there is no vacancy, or deficiency, this commendation can be given properly of nothing but heaven. You that court the world for honor, and preferment, remember, the creature says concerning satisfaction, It is not in me. The world is made in manner of a circle, the heart in manner of a triangle; a circle can never fill a triangle; heaven only is commensurate to the vast desires of the soul. Here the Christian cries out in a divine ecstasy, I have enough, my Savior, I have enough. You shall make them drink of the rivers of your pleasures (Psalm 36:8), not drops, but rivers; and these only can quench the thirst. It shall be every day festival in Heaven; there is no want at a feast. There shall be excellency shining in its perfection. The world is but a jail, the body is the fetter with which the soul is bound; if there be any thing in a jail to delight, what is the palace and the throne, what is Heaven? If we meet with any comfort in Mount Horeb, what is in Mount Zion? All the world is like a landscape, you may see orchards and gardens curiously drawn in the landscape, but you cannot enter into them; you may enter into this heavenly Paradise (2 Peter 1:11). For so an entrance shall be made abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom, etc. Here is soul-satisfaction.

3. Though an innumerable company of saints and angels have a part in this inheritance, there is never the less for you: Here is a propriety in a community; another man's beholding the sun does not make me have the lesser light: Thus will it be in glory. Usually here, all the land goes to the heir, the younger are put off with small portions: In heaven, all the saints are heirs; the youngest believer is an heir, and God has land enough to give to all his heirs: All the angels and archangels have their portion paid out; yet a believer shall have never the less. [Hereditas illa non minuitur copia possessorum, non fit angustior numero cohaeredum: Augustine, Psalm 49.] Is not Christ the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2), and the saints co-heirs (Romans 8:17)? They share with Christ in the same glory. It is true, one vessel may hold more than another, but every vessel shall be full.

4. The souls of the elect shall enter upon possession immediately after death (2 Corinthians 5:8): We are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. There are some that say the souls of the elect sleep in their bodies; but the Apostle here confutes it; for if the soul be absent from the body, how can it sleep in the body? There is an immediate transition and passage from death to glory. The soul returns to God that gave it: Christ's resurrection was before his ascension; but the saints' ascension is before their resurrection. The body may be compared to the bubble in the water, the soul to the wind that fills it: you see the bubble rises higher and higher, at last it breaks into the open air: so the body is but like a bubble, which rises from infancy to youth, from youth to age, higher and higher; at last this bubble breaks, and dissolves into dust, and the spirit ascends into the open air: it returns to God that gave it.

Be of good comfort, we shall not stay long for our inheritance; it is but winking, and we shall see God. O the glory of this paradise! When we are turned out of all, let us think of this inheritance which is to come — Praemium, quod fide non attingitur; faith itself is not able to reach it; it is more than we can hope for. There can be no want, where Christ is, who is all in all (Ephesians 3:11). In heaven, there is health without sickness, plenty without famine, riches without poverty, life without death. There is unspotted chastity, unstained honor, unparalleled beauty: there is the tree of life in the midst of paradise; there is the river that waters the garden; there is the vine flourishing, and the pomegranates budding; there is the banqueting-house, where are all those delicacies and rarities with which God himself is delighted: while we are sitting at that table, Christ's spikenard will send forth its smell. There is the bed of love, there are the curtains of Solomon, there are the mountains of spices, and the streams from Lebanon; there are the cherubim, not to keep us out, but to welcome us into paradise; there shall the saints be adorned, as a bride with pearls of glory; there will God give us abundantly, above all that we are able to ask or think. Is not here enough? What cannot an ambitious spirit ask? Haman's aspiring heart could have asked not only the king's royal robe and the ring from his hand, but the crown from his head too; a man can ask a century of kingdoms, a million of worlds. But in heaven God will give us more than we can ask. Nay, more than we can think. An high expression! What cannot we think? We can think, what if all the dust of the earth were turned to silver, what if every stone were a wedge of gold, what if every flower were a ruby, every pile of grass a pearl, every sand in the sea a diamond; yet, what were all this to the New Jerusalem which is above. It is as impossible for any man in his deepest thoughts to comprehend glory, as it is to measure the heaven with a span, or drain the great ocean. O incomparable place! Surely, were we carried away in the spirit, I mean, elevated by the power of faith, to the contemplation of this royal and stately palace, I know not whether we should more wonder at the luster of heaven, or at the dullness of such as mind earthly things. How is the world adored, which is but a pageant or apparition! It is reported of Caesar, that travelling on a time through a certain city, as he passed along, he saw the women for the most part playing with monkeys and parrots: at which sight, he said, 'What? have they no children to play with?' So I say, when I see men toying with these earthly and beggarly delights, What? are there not more glorious and sublime things to look after? That which our Savior says to the woman of Samaria, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water;' the same may I say, Did men know these eternal mansions, and what it were to be digging in these rich mines of glory: would God give them a vision of heaven a while, as he did Peter, who saw heaven opened (Acts 10:11), how would they fall into a trance (being amazed and filled with joy!) and being a little recovered out of it, how importunately would they beg of God, that they might be adopted into this stately inheritance! But what do I expatiate? These things are unspeakable and full of glory. Had I as many tongues as hairs on my head I could never sufficiently set forth the beauty and resplendency of this inheritance. Such was the curious art of Apelles in drawing of pictures, that if another had taken up the pencil to draw, he had spoiled all Apelles's work. Such is the excellency of this celestial paradise, that if the angels should take up their pencil to delineate it in its colors, they would but stain and eclipse the glory of it. I have given you only the dark shadow in the picture, and that but rudely and imperfectly. Such is the beauty and bliss of this inheritance, that as Chrysostom says, if it were possible that all the sufferings of the saints could be laid upon one man, it were not worth one hour's being in heaven.

Augustine is of opinion, we shall know our friends in heaven. Nor to me does it seem improbable, for sure our knowledge there shall not be eclipsed, or diminished, but increased. And that which Anselm does assert, that we shall have a knowledge of the Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles, all that were before us and shall be after us, our predecessors and successors, to me seems very rational; for society without acquaintance is not comfortable, and I think the Scripture does hint this much; if Peter and James, having but a glimpse of glory (when our Lord was transfigured on the Mount) were able to know Moses and Elijah whom they had never seen before: how much more shall we, being infinitely irradiated, and enlightened with the Sun of righteousness, know all the Saints, though we were never acquainted with them before? And this will be very comfortable. Certainly there shall be nothing wanting that may complete the Saints' happiness.

Now that this glorious inheritance is the Saints' prerogative, I shall prove by two arguments.

It is so, first, in respect of the many obligations that lie upon God for performing this. First, in regard of his promise (Titus 1:2): in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie has promised. God's promise is better than any man's bond. Second, in regard of his oath: he who is truth has sworn (Hebrews 6:17). Third, in regard of the price that is paid for it — Christ's blood. Heaven is not only a promised possession, but a purchased possession (Ephesians 1:14). Fourth, in regard of Christ's prayer for it: Father, I will that they also whom you have given me, be with me where I am. Now God can deny Christ nothing, being the only favorite. I know you always hear me (John 11:42). Fifth, in regard of Christ's ascension: he is gone before to take possession of heaven for us. He is now making preparations against our coming (John 14:2): I go before to prepare a place for you. We read that our Lord sent two of his disciples before to make ready a large upper room for the Passover (Mark 14:15). So Jesus Christ is gone before to make ready a large upper room in heaven for the Saints. Sixth, in regard of the anticipation of the Spirit in the hearts of the godly, giving them an assurance of, and stirring up in them passionate desires after this glorious inheritance; hence it is, we read of the earnest of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22), and the first-fruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23), and the seal of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). God does not still his children with rattles. Heaven is already begun in a believer, so that the inheritance is certain. You see how many obligations lie upon God; and to speak with reverence, it stands not only upon God's mercy, but upon his faithfulness to make all this good to us.

The second argument is in respect of the union which the Saints have with Jesus Christ. They are members of Christ, therefore they must have a part in this blessed inheritance; the members must be where the head is. Indeed, the Arminians tell us, that a justified person may fall finally from grace, and so his union with Christ may be dissolved, and the inheritance lost. But how absurd is this doctrine? Is Christ divided? Can he lose a member of his body? Then his body is not perfect; for how can that body be perfect which lacks a limb? And if Christ may lose one member from his body, why not as well all by the same reason? And so he shall be a head without a body; but be assured, the union with Christ cannot be broken (John 17:12), and so long the inheritance cannot be lost. What was said of Christ's natural body, is as true of his mystical: a bone of it shall not be broken. Look how every bone and limb of Christ's natural body was raised up out of the grave, and carried into heaven: so shall every member of his mystical body, joined to him by the eternal Spirit, be carried up into glory. Fear not, O you Saints, neither sin nor Satan can dissolve your union with Christ, nor by consequence hinder you of that blessed place where your Head is.

Question: Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24:3)? Who shall be a citizen of this new Jerusalem, which is above?

Answer: The new creature — this you read of (2 Corinthians 5:17). This new creature does prepare for the new Jerusalem. This is the divine and curious work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, forming Christ in us: the same Holy Spirit that overshadowed the Virgin Mary, and formed the human nature of Christ in her womb, does work and produce this new creature. O you blessed man and woman, in whom this new creature is formed! I may say to you as the angel to Mary: that which is conceived in you is of the Holy Spirit. Of all God's creatures, the new creature is the best. Then let me ask, are you a new creature? Are you a scion, cut off from the wild olive of nature, and grafted into a new stock, the Tree of Life? Has God defaced, and dismantled the old man in you? Does some limb drop off every day? Have you a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26)? Until then, you are not fit for the new heaven. Are you new all over? Have you a new eye, to discern the things that differ? Have you a new appetite? Does the pulse of your soul beat after Christ? It is only the new creature which shall be heir of the new Jerusalem. When you were sailing to hell (for we have both wind and tide to carry us there), has the north and south wind awakened? Has the gale of the Spirit blown upon you, and turned your course? Are you now sailing to a new port? Has the seal of the Word stamped a new and heavenly print upon you? Then I am speaking all this while to you — this blessed inheritance is entailed upon you.

But if you are an old sinner, expect that heaven should be kept as Paradise, with a flaming sword, that you may not enter. Be assured, God will never put the new wine of glory into an old musty bottle. Heaven is not like Noah's Ark that received clean beasts into it, and unclean: this inheritance does not receive all comers. It is only the wheat that goes into Christ's garner — what has the chaff to do there? This inheritance is only for them that are sanctified (Acts 20:32). Is your heart consecrated ground? We read that in the time of Ezra after the return of the people from the captivity, some who were ambitious of the priesthood, sought the writings of the genealogies, but they were not found among the numbers of the priests, therefore they were put by as polluted from the priesthood. So whoever they be that think to have a part in this blessed place, if their names be not found; that is, if they are not new creatures, they shall be put away as polluted from this inheritance.