BOOK 10. THE JUDGEMENT.
CHAPTER 2.
10.2.2. Of Considering Jesus in that Respect.
Of Considering Jesus in that Respect.
Let us consider Jesus carrying on this work of salvation, at his second coming. It is not enough to know, but we must meditate, and seriously consider of it. A mere student may know Christ, and study Christ, as he knows and studies other things; he may heap together many notions concerning Christ, and his coming to judgment, but he hath no impression of the holiness of Christ upon his heart; and in this respect, he is a stranger to Christ, and to all his actings; alas! he studies Christ, but he doth not rightly, seriously, and inwardly consider of Christ; he doth not look unto Jesus, as one that looks to his pattern, or as one that looks to his refuge, hope and help: true and spiritual consideration is a serious matter: it is not some few and fleeting thoughts that are the discharge of this work, but thoughts resting, dwelling, fixing, and staying upon Christ, until they come to some profitable issue: O! it is another manner of business than many are aware of, it is a thinking with thought upon thought, it is a reiteration and multiplication of the thoughts of the mind upon the subject propounded, so the scripture expresseth it, "I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought; and in the next verse, "I returned to see," Eccl. ii. 11, 12. He looked upon, and considered his works, and he returned to behold them; he thought on them before, but now he returned to think; he renewed his thoughts upon the matter, and took a new view of them. Indeed when the understanding works seriously and spiritually, it will fetch things into sight, and not only so, but it will held them there, and fasten upon them, and when they are gone, it will fetch them again, "My soul hath them still in remembrance," Lam. iii 20. My soul in remembering doth remember them, and will not off till the end be obtained; so a man eyes Christ, till he have more of Christ, more of his presence, and more of his light, and more of his favour, and more of his image. O! let this be our work, let us thus consider Jesus in reference to his second coming to judgment. And that we may do it in order.
1. Consider Christ's preparing for judgment; realize it, as if thou sawest or heardest the same; no sooner the time determined which God hath appointed, but Christ commands; "Make ready ye angels to wait upon me, and make ready ye glorious souls that now are with me; it is the Father's pleasure, and it is my pleasure to go down into the nether world, and to call before me all the men and women that ever lived in it; there will I pass my doom upon all flesh, and reward every one, good and bad, according to his works." Oh! what a shout may I imagine in heaven at this news; what joy is in the souls of saints, that now they must go to their bodies, end enter into them, that both their souls and bodies, which sometimes lived together, may now dwell together with Christ in glory, and never part more; if those that live on earth are commanded by Christ, "To lift up their heads because their redemption draweth nigh;" how much more shall their joy in heaven, who also have "waited for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of their bodies?" Rom. viii. 23. That now the long-looked for day is come, it is come; O! the exultation of the saints and angels at these tidings! this is worthy of a pause, a Selah to be set upon it.
2. Consider Christ's coming to judgment. All now in readiness, the Son of God comes forth with all his glorious attendants, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels," Matth. xvi. 27, and with the souls of saints, that for a time have been in paradise. Oh! what a goodly sight is here! In this meditation I may see with John, "the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," Rev. xxi. 2. Down comes Christ, and down comes the angels, and down comes the spirits of the just made perfect; and as they come along, see how they shake the heavens, and dim, and dark the very lights of heaven; see what a flood of fire goes before them, see how they pass into the cloud, where Christ makes a stand, and erects a throne for himself to sit on. Sure it will be a gilded glorious cloud, when Christ, with all his celestial servants, shall sit upon it; a morning's cloud, gilded with the beams of the sun, is admirably fair and shining; but what a shining cloud is that, where the Sun of righteousness, with all his morning stars, do sit and shine? Here is enough to dazzle my eyes, and to take up my thoughts, O my soul think on it!
3. Consider Christ's summons of the elect to come under judgment. No sooner in the cloud but "he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," Matth. xxiv. 31. Will not this be a strange sight, to see Christ a coming, with trumpets sounding before him, causing all the dead to waken out of their sleeps of death? The very sound of this trumpet was ever in Jerome's ears, "Arise ye dead, and come to judgment," and no question but their ears shall be filled with the blast thereof; the trumpet shall sound that shall be heard over all the world, and then shall the dead arise out of their graves, and every saint's soul shall re-enter into his own body, by virtue of the resurrection of Christ their head. Can I pass this meditation without some reflection on myself! O my soul! how joyfully wilt thou greet thy body, when thou shalt enliven it again? How wilt thou say, O my dear sister! whom I left behind me in the dust when I went to heaven, how sweet is thy carcase, how comely is thy countenance? How do I enter into thee, and animate thee, and I will never more leave thee; thou wast my yoke-fellow in the Lord's labours, and my companion in persecution and wrong; now shall we enter together into our Master's joy: see, lift up thy head, behold, Jesus Christ yonder, sitting in the cloud, and, lo! here the angels waiting on us, and coming to take us with the rest of the saints into the air, to meet our Redeemer there. Could I but realize this summons, this resurrection, this meeting of the soul and body, and going with the angels into the judgment-seat. Oh! how would it work, and -what work would it make within?
4. Consider Christ and the saints meeting at the judgment-day. Oh! how shall the saints look, and stare, and gaze at the beauty of Jesus Christ? Oh! how will they break out into admiration at the first view of those glories, which never before appeared on this side heaven? Is not this he (will they say) of whom we read so often. That he was fairer than the sons of men! That he was white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousands, That his countenance was as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars, glorious as when the sun shineth in his strength? But was ever the half told us, of what now we see and behold? O the super-excellent transcendent beauty of this Sun of righteousness! O the treasures of loveliness in this Jesus Christ never seen before! and thus as they admire, so they adore; now they begin those Hallelujahs that never, never shall have an end; they fall at the feet of Christ, and the Lord Christ takes them up with his hands, and folds them in his arms: Oh! what mutual reciprocal salutations are these betwixt Christ and his members! Oh my head! and, oh.my body! oh my husband! and oh my spouse! oh my dear! and, oh my darling! never two lovers met with such heat of love as Christ and his saints; "Come saith Christ, and sit you down here at my right hand, and let the world be on my left hand: it was otherwise with you in your life-time, my gold, and my jewels were then cast in the dust; you were then clothed with infamy, and the vilest of men were then gilded with honour: but now I will set all right, now the dust shall be swept away, and the jewels of my kingdom shall be gathered up: now the goat shall be driven into the desert, and you, who are the sheep, shall be brought into my fold." Oh my soul! what a meeting is this! What a sight will this be, to behold the saints in this condition, and thyself amongst them? Couldst thou but realize this one very passage, it were enough to quench thy lust, and to kindle a flame of pure love in thy heart to Jesus Christ; it is a quickening, rousing, raising, rejoicing consideration.
5. Consider Christ's sentencing his saints for eternal glory. Then shall the books be opened, and all the good works of the saints shall be revealed and made known; and then shall the judge, from his throne of Majesty, (in the sight and hearing of all the world) pronounce that sentence, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," Matth. xxv. 34. q.d. "Come my saints, come with me into glory; come now from labour to rest, from disgrace to glory, from the jaws of death, to the joys of eternal life; for my sake ye have been railed on, reviled and cursed; but now it shall appear to all those cursed Esaus, that you are the true Jacobs that shall receive the blessing, and blessed shall you be; come now and possess with me the inheritance of heaven, where you shall be for love, sons; for birth-right, heirs; for dignity, kings; for holiness, priests; come, you may boldly enter in, for my Father hath prepared and kept it for you, ever since the first foundation of the world was laid.
O my soul! dost thou not remember, when sometimes thou hast been at the feet of Christ in the beauty of holiness, and there tookest in those droppings of his Spirit, which were better to thee than the feasts of kings? Dost thou not remember, when sometimes thou hast had the very beams of light darted from the face of Jesus Christ, when he whispered to thy soul the forgiveness of thy sins, saying, "Fear not, thy sins shall not hurt thee, I am thy salvation?" Oh what joy was then! what meltings, movings, stirrings, leapings of heart were then in thy bosom! but was that joy anything to this, or to be compared with this? That was a drop, but here is an ocean, here is fulness of joy; Oh! what leapings of heart, what ravishments will be within, when thou shalt see thyself in the arms of Christ, and shalt receive words of life from the mouth of Christ, in the face of all the world? What a thing will this be, when Christ shall pass a sentence of death on others, and speak words of life unto thee? When thou shalt see him frowning upon the world, (and, oh! those frowns will break the heart) and shall behold him smiling in the fulness of his love upon thyself! that Christ at such a time should be delighting thee with all the embraces of love, and with this sweet invitation to heaven, "Come thou blessed, inherit the kingdom," it were enough to spirit a soul half dead: the very meditation of this must needs be sweet.
6. Consider Christ and the saints judging the rest of the world. No sooner are the saints sentenced, but Christ turns to the wicked, and bids them "go into everlasting fire;" in which sentence the saints shall join with Christ himself; "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" 1 Cor. vi. 2. When the saints appear, it is not only by a summons, but with commission; not only to be judged, but to judge; not only shall they stand at Christ's right hand, but they shall sit down on the throne of the Son of God, to judge the wicked angels and the world. O the torment! O the vexation of men and devils, when they shall see those very men whom they scorned, oppressed and persecuted, to be now advanced not only to glory, but to be their judges! it is as if some nobleman had wronged some poor man, and that the king should therefore deliver the nobleman unto the poor man to take his own revenge. "Surely the ungodly shall see this, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth for indignation, and melt away," Psal. cxii. 10. But on the contrary, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the ungodly," Psal. lviii. 10.
O my soul dost thou believe this truth? And art thou confident that thou shalt sit with Christ on his very throne to judge the world? Why then be joyful in afflictions, exercise thou patience in the censures and judgments of the world, know thou for thy comfort that there is a turn and time of judging, and therefore say, "With me it is a small matter that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment," as the original hath it, "of man's day," 1 Cor., iv. 3. Is it not enough to command patience, if God's day be at hand, when I shall judge my unjust judges? Hark what the apostle saith, "Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord; behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain: be ye also patient, stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Behold, the judge standeth before the door," James v. 7, 8, 9. Come exercise patience, let the world be judging; if they will needs slander, reproach and persecute thy soul, they had better abuse any judge on earth than thee; though thou art the poorest, weakest, meanest of God's saints upon the earth, they will know one day, that they have abused their own judge in abusing thee; and therefore be thou quiet, silent, patient. Say as David, "Let him alone, and let him curse, yea, let him judge, for the Lord hath bidden him; it may be the Lord will look on mine affliction, and will requite good for his judging this day; this is his day, but the day of the Lord is my day, and then shall I sit with Christ on his throne to judge the world." Oh the sweet that I may suck from this honey-comb, of Christ and his saints judging the world!
7. Consider Christ and his saints going up into heaven. No sooner hath he done his work with the world, and sent them away, but the# he shall conduct all his flock like a faithful shepherd to their fold; then shall he go with all his troops following him into heaven. Hath not Christ said so? "If I go away, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also," John xiv. 3. O those songs of joy, and shouts of praise that will fill the world at that day! and thus as they go along, heaven opens unto them, and they enter in; what welcomes they have there is past my telling; if we may imagine and guess. O the welcome that Christ will give! "Come my spouse, and come my dear, come all my saints; here be those mansions that I went before to prepare and make ready for you; here be those everlasting habitations wherein you and I will dwell together; here is your Father's house, the building of the wall is all of jasper, and the worst piece of it is all of pure gold, like unto clear glass, Rev. xxi. 18. Why this is your home, your house made without hands; here you and I will spend our time, eternity itself, in joying, enjoying, and beholding each other. And as thus Christ salutes them, so will the angels, those created citizens of heaven, salute them too; for if joy be in heaven at the conversion of one sinner, what joy will there be at the glorification of all the saints; what welcome entertainment will the angels give to these new guests at their first entrance into heaven?
O my soul! if thou art one of them that shall have this welcome, what wilt thou say when thou art admitted in thither, if weeping were in heaven wouldst thou not weep for joy? Sure these things are no fictions of man's brain, but truths and realities; and as they are true and real, so they are exceeding full of joy; all the excellencies of this world are but a dream in comparison of them; even the sun in its brightness is but darkness to this glory that shall then be seen. Come, think over these things, and be so enlarged in thy thoughts, that before they go, thou mayest feel the sweet, and taste of this goodness of the Lord.
8. Consider all the several transactions that will follow in heaven; then will Christ present all his elect to God his Father; then will he give in all his commissions which he hath received from his Father; "Then will the Son himself be subject to the Father, that God may be all in all." I cannot stay to enlarge on these; only remember though God be all in all, that excludes not Christ, for he also is all in all to all his saints, even to all eternity; immediate visions and fruitions of Christ as God is the very top of heaven's joy: Christ is all in all; Christ is the centre of heaven's happiness; Christ is the well-spring that fills the capacities of saints and angels; Christ is the object of happiness itself, there is as much happiness in Christ as happiness is; whatever belongs to glory is in Christ, "in him dwelleth all the fulness." Whatever excellency is in heaven it is in Christ, not only in perfection, but connection; for all those excellencies meet together, and rest in Christ. Christ is all good things to all his saints in heaven; he is beauty to their eyes, music to their ears, honey to their mouths, perfume to their nostrils, health to their bodies, joy to their souls, light to their understandings, and content to their wills; he is time without sliding, society without loathing, desire without fainting, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending; wanting both, needing neither, yet the author of them both: he is all in all, from one, not all. Even all the strength, wit, pleasure, virtues, colours, beauties, harmony, and goodness that are in men, beasts, fishes, fowls, trees, herbs, and all creatures, are nothing but sparkles of those things which are in Christ. Christ himself will then supply their use; so that the best creatures which now serve the saints, shall not have the honour to serve them then; "There will be no need of the sun, nor of the moon to shine in that city, for the glory of God doth enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof," Rev. xxi, 23.
And hence the beholding of Christ is the all in all to his glorified saints; this was Christ's prayer, "Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;" to what end? "That they may behold my glory," John xvii. 24. Christ's heavenly presence is conspicuous, he is not present as some things that are not seen and yet are present, but his presence is, or certainly it shall be conspicuous to all his saints: when he was in the world his glory was covered under a mean outside, he was like a bright light in a dark lantern, and there were very few that knew him then; but in heaven he shall be as a cabinet opened, or as the sun in his full glory, "We shall know him, as we are known, and behold him face to face; we shall see him as he is," 1 John iii. 2. Nor only will he be conspicuous, but his presence shall be vital: a stone may be with us, and seen clearly, but there is little in the sight of that; in the beholding of Christ there will be an acting of kindness upon the saints, there will be visions with life and dear refreshing. O the influences that the sight of Christ will have on his saints in heaven! nor only will he be conspicuous and vital, but his presence shall be fixed: he shall abide with the saints, that they may forever behold him. Oh! if there were such running after Christ in this world, some getting on hills, and others on trees, that they might behold him when he passed by, what will the sight of Christ in heaven be, when he shall be always in the eye of his saints, and never out of sight, when they shall be always viewing of him, and be always satisfied with that view? Nor only will he be conspicuous, vital and fixed, but his very presence shall transform; "They shall see his face, -- and they shall reign forever and ever," Rev. xxii. 4, 5. O the influence of this sight! it is of such a transforming nature, that to see the king will make kings; this vision of glory amounts unto a fruition of glory; if ever thou art a spectator of Christ, thou art sure to be a partaker of Christ in all his glory, "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness," Psal. xvii. 15. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him:" and why so? "For we shall see him as he is," 1 John iii. 2. And no wonder, for if the imperfect beholding of his glory in the glass of his gospel, "Change the soul into the same image from glory to glory," 1 Cor. xiii. 12. How much more shall the full view of his glory in heaven transform both the souls and bodies of his saints into a fulness of glory? Here then is the top of heaven, here is the all in all; here is the satisfaction of souls to the very uttermost; if Christ's glory in his transfiguration was so satisfactory to Peter as that he desired his sight of it might never have end or interruption, "O! it is good to be here, let us here build tabernacles;" and yet Peter was only a spectator of this glory, for he had himself no share in it: O then! what infinite satisfaction mayest thou expect in the beholding of Christ's glory in heaven, which will be accompanied with an everlasting enjoyment? The lustre of his glory will be diffused unto all, so that some shall enjoy the glory of the sun, others of the moon, and others of the stars. O my soul! if thou art but a star there, yet if thou art filled with that light that comes from the Sun of righteousness, it is enough. Oh remember! Qh consider! Oh never forget this looking unto Jesus! as it is thy duty on earth, so it is thy privilege and highest happiness in heaven forever and ever.