BOOK 10. THE JUDGEMENT.
CHAPTER 1.
10.1.7. Of Christ and his Saints going up into heaven, and of the end of this World.
Of Christ and his Saints going up into heaven, and of the end of this World.
For Christ and his saints going up into heaven, and so for the end of this world; no sooner are the reprobates gone to their place, but the saints ascend; now Christ ariseth from his judgment-seat, and with all the glorious company of heaven, he marches towards the heaven of heavens. Oh! what a comely march is this? what songs of triumph are here sung and warbled? Christ leads the way, the cherubims attend, the seraphims wait on, angels, archangels, principalities, powers, patriarchs, prophets, priests, evangelists, martyrs, professors, and confessors, of God's law and gospel following, attend the Judge and the King of glory; singing with melody, as never ear heard; shining with majesty, as never eye hath seen; rejoicing without measure, as never heart conceived. O blessed train of soldiers! O goodly troop of captains! each one doth bear a palm of victory in his hand, each one doth wear a crown of glory on his head; the church militant is now triumphant; with a final overthrow have they conquered devils, death, and hell; and now must they enjoy God, life, and heaven; sometimes I have, with much wonder and admiration, beheld some regiments passing our streets; but had I seen those Roman armies, when they returned victors, and made their solemn triumphs in the streets of Rome, oh then how should I have admired; never was the like sight to this of Christ and his army in this world. O the comely march they make, through the sky, and through the orbs, and through all the heavens till they come to the heaven of heavens! Was ever so many glittering suns together in one day? Was ever so many glories together this side the kingdom of glory? Not to speak of Christ or his angels, "O who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" Cant. vi. 10. Are not in the head of those regiments, Adam, and Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the patriarchs, and all the prophets, and all the apostles? And (if thou art a saint that readest this) art not thou one sun appointed by God amongst the rest to follow Christ? Here is enough to fill thy heart with joy before hand, as sure as yonder sun now shines in the firmament, shalt thou that believest pass through that sun in its very orb, and by reason of thy glory it shall lose its shine; oh then! what spreading of beauty and brightness will be in the heavens as all the saints go along? What lumps of darkness shall those glittering stars appear to be, when all the saints of God shall enter into these several orbs and spheres? And thus as they march along higher and higher, till they come to the highest, at last heaven opens unto them, and the saints enter into their master's joy. What is there done at their first entrance, I shall discover another time; only for a while, let us look behind us, and see what becomes of this nether world.
No sooner Christ and his company in the imperial heaven, but presently this whole world is set on fire: to this profane authors seem to assent; As, --
- Philosophers, especially the Stoics, were of this mind. 'Humor primordium , exitus ignis,' said Seneca, "Moisture was the beginning, and fire shall be the end of this world." And speaking of the sun, moon, and stars; "Mark (says he) whatsoever now shines in comely and decent order, shall at last burn together in one fire."
- The poets grant this, Lucan speaking of those whom Caesar left unburnt at the battle of Pharsalia, 'Hos Caesar populos sinunc non usserit ignis, uret cum terris.' "If fire shall not now burn those, when heaven, and earth, and all shall burn, then must they burn." -- Ovid, in like manner. 'Esse quoque in fatis -- quo mare, quo tellus -- ardeat.' "A time shall come, when sea, and earth, and all the frame of this great world shall be consumed in flame."
- The Sybils grant this, to which the Roman missal seems to allude, joining them with the profit David, though I know not by what warrant. 'Dies irae, dies ilia, solvet saeculum in favilla, teste David cum Svbilla.' "A day of wrath, a day of fire, So David with the Sybills doth conspire."
But to wave all these, one text of scripture is to me more than all these -- 2 Pet. iii. 10. "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." Hence all our divines agree. That a fire shall seise on the universe, only some difference is amongst divines, Whether the world shall be wholly annihilated or renewed by fire; Jerome and Augustine, and many after them say, the end of this fire is for purifying and refining of the heaven and earth, for all corruptible qualities shall be burnt out of them, but they in their substance shall remain still; if we ask them, to what end shall this nether world be renewed? Some say (Mundus in melius immutatis aperte accommodabitur hominibus in malius immutatis. August, de civit. Dei. 1. 20. c. 16.) for an habitacle of the restored beasts, others, for a fitter accommodation of men and the glorified saints; others, for a perpetual monument of God's power and glory. Polanus, and some of our moderns are of opinion, (Polan. Syntag. 1. 6. c. 70.) "That these heavens, and this earth, when purified with those fires, and super-invested with new endowments, they shall be the everlasting habitations of the blessed saints." But, on the contrary, others are of the other opinion, that all the world with all the parts and works (except men, angels, and devils, heaven and hell, the two mansions for the saved and damned) shall be totally and finally dissolved and annihilated. And of this opinion were Hilary, Clement, and all the ancients before Jerome; and of our moderns not a few. For my part, I rather incline this way, because of the many scriptures that are so express, I shall mention only these. -- "Man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more." Job xiv. 12. "Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy bands; they shall perish, but thou shalt endure," Psal. cii. 25. 26. "All the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all the hosts shall fall down, as the leaf falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree," Isa. xxxiv. 4. To which prophecy John seems to allude, "And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places," Rev. vi. 14. Again, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, (saith Christ) but my word shall not pass away." Matt. xxiv. 36. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up," 1 Pet. iii. 10. And "the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doth the will of God abideth forever," 1 John ii. 17. And "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them," Rev. xx. 11. Now I would demand, whether "being no more," as Job; and "perishing," as David: "and rolling together, and falling down like a withered leaf," as Isaiah; and "passing away," as our Saviour and Peter: and "flying away," as John; do not conclude an utter abolition? If to these scriptures I should add one reason, I would argue from the end of the world's creation: Was it not partly for the glory of God, and partly for the use of man? Now for the glory of God, the manifestation of it is occasioned by the manifestation of the world unto man; if man therefore should be removed out of the world, and no creature in it be capable of such a manifestation, What would become of his glory? And for the use of man, that is either to supply his necessity in matter of diet, physic, building, apparel, or for his instruction, direction, recreation, comfort, delight; now, when he shall attain that blessed state of enjoying God, and seeing God face to face, these ends, or the like, must needs be frustrated. This argument is weighty, and we need no more. Only we shall hear our antagonists objections, and give them their answers, and so conclude.
The texts more especially objected against this opinion, are two:
1. the first is that in Rom. viii. 21. "The creature itself shall be delivered from bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Here, (say they) is an earnest expectation attributed to brute creatures, that they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. But I answer, that no immortal being of the brute creatures is here promised, but only a simple deliverance and dismission from the servitude they were in to ungrateful men. The birds, beasts, and fishes, do now suffer for our diet; horses, mules, and beasts of that nature, do now groan under the burdens of our pleasures, or necessities; their annihilation therefore to them must needs be a kind of deliverance; and, at last, they shall be delivered at the time of the glorious liberty ©f the sons of God; the text will bear it thus, ((eis pro dia,) Rom. viii. 21; 1 Cor. x. 2. as sometimes (dia pro eis,) Rom, iv, 11; 1 Cor. ii. 15. So Chrysostom expounds it, (eis pro dia.)) ('eis pro dia,') "The creature shall be delivered by the glorious liberty of the sous of God," (i.e.) When such a deliverance comes to men, these shall be freed from their servitude, by being not at all, having done all the business for which they were ordained, or created.
2. The second text is that in 2 Pet. iii. 13. We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. These words (say some) imply a purging, rather than abolishing: a taking off the corrupt qualities only, not the substance. But I am of another mind, and if I must give my sense of the place, I say, --
(a). Negatively, that "by new heavens and new earth," is it not meant renewed heavens and earth, is it not punctually in the seventh verse, that the heavens and the earth, which are now, are "reserved unto fire against the day of judgment?" And doth he not descend unto particulars in the tenth verse, that the heavens which are now, "shall pass away with a great noise; that the elements shall melt with fervent heat; and that the earth also, and the works therein shall be burnt up?" And doth he not infer thereupon in the 11th and 12th verses, that all these things shall be dissolved? And in the 13th verse, that we are therefore to "look for new heavens, and a new earth?" 2 Pet. iii. 7, 10, 11, 12, 13. Dissolution mends not a fabric, but destroys it; how then should that which is dissolved, be said to be reserved, and let stand? Surely if Peter had thought of this refining only, some words of his would have intimated so much. The end of these creatures was for man's use, and man's using them no more, to what end should they be reserved! To say for a monument of what hath been, or for the habitation of the saints, or for an outlet for the saints, descending sometimes from the highest heavens to solace themselves here below; are but groundless surmises, and deserve no answer at all.
(b). Positively, by new heavens and new earth, is meant the heaven of heavens, and place of glory. Now these heavens are termed new, not in regard of their new making, but of our new taking possession of them for our new habitation; and they are called heavens and earth, because they come instead of that heavenly covering, and that earthly habitation which we now enjoy; so that the text may well bear this paraphrase, "We look for new heavens," i.e. the supreme court of God's presence, "and a new earth," i.e. a new habitation for us; which shall infinitely exceed the commodities and happiness of these heavens and earth which we now enjoy: thus John in his Revelations, "And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth; for the first heaven, and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea," Rev. xxi. 1. This new heaven, and new earth, is the place or habitation prepared for the blessed saints and people of God. A new heaven, where the moon is more glorious than our sun, and the sun as glorious as he that made it, for it is he himself, the Son of God, the Sun of righteousness, the Sun of glory; a new earth, where all their waters are milk, and all their milk honey; where all their grass is corn, and all their corn manna; where all their glebe and clods of earth are gold, and all their gold of innumerable carats; where all their minutes are ages, and all their ages eternity; where every thing is every minute in the highest exaltation as good as can be. Of these new heavens, and this new earth, I can never say enough, nor know enough, till I come thither to inhabit it. Something only we shall discover of it in our next sections; for now are the saints entered in with Jesus Christ.
Use. Only one word of use; Christians! what is the matter that we are so busy about this world! Why, look about you, not one of these visible objects shall that day remain, or have a being; those houses wherein we dwell, these temples wherein we meet, this town, this country, this isle, and the seas and waters that surround it, shall be all on fire, and consume to nothing; the sea shall be no more, and time shall be no more: Or, if we look higher, yonder sun, and moon, and stars, shall be no more; that glorious heaven which rolls over our heads, "shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all the host shall fall down as a leaf falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree," -- Isa. xxxiv. 4. "The heavens shall vanish away like smoke," (saith Isaiah) li. 6. 'Comminuenter in nihilum (as Hierom reads it) "They shall be battered into nothing," Alas, alas! what do we toiling all the day (it may be all our life) for a little of this little, almost nothing -- earth? You that have an hundred, or two hundred, or a thousand acres, if every acre were a kingdom, all will be at last burnt up; so that none should say, here was Preston, or here was London, or here was England, or here was Europe, or here was the globe of the earth on which men trode; let others boast as they will of their inheritances, but Lord give me an inheritance above all these visibles; heaven shall remain, when earth shall vanish, that imperial heaven, those seats of saints, those mansions above, prepared by Jesus Christ, shall never end; but for my riches, lands, possessions, moveables, goods real or personal, they will end in smoke, in nothing, "What, wilt thou set thine eyes upon a thing that is not?" Prov. xxiii. 5. Upon this the primitive Christians took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, it was but a little loss before the time, and they knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better, and an enduring substance, Heb. x. 34. O let this be our care! here we have no abiding city, but, O! let us seek one to come, even that one that shall abide forever and ever. Amen.