going, his glory passing by; he saw posteriora, his hinder parts2; so I can see God in the memory of his blessings formerly conferred upon me; and Moses saw him too, in a burning bush, in thorns and fire and had I no other light, but the fire of a pile of fagots, in that light I could see his light, I could see himself. Let me be the man of this text, this Enosh, to say with Jeremy, I am the man that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath, let me have had this third concoction, that as I am Adam, a man of earth, (wrought upon that wheel) and, as I am a Christian, a vessel in his house, a member of his church (wrought upon that wheel) so let me be vir dolorum, a man of affliction, a vessel baked in that furnace, fitted by God's proportion, and dosis of his corrections, to make a right use of his corrections, and I can see God, è longinquo, afar off, I can see him writing down my name in the book of life, before I was born, and I can see him giving his angels, the Angel of the Great Counsel, Christ Jesus himself, and his spirit, charge of my preservation, all the way, and of my transmigration upon my death-bed, and that is è longinquo, from before I was, to after I shall be no more. There remains a word more; it is scarce well said; for there remains not a word more. There is not another word, and yet there is another branch in the text. This man, (not every man, as before) this Enosh, (not every Adam as before) he sees not only as before, but he beholds afar off; and so far we are gone; but what beholds he afar off? That the text tells us not. Before there was an illud, Every man may see that, ask what is that, and I can tell you, I have told you out of the coherence of the text, it is God's works, manifesting himself even to the natural man. But this man, this Enosh, raised by his dejection, rectified by humiliation, may behold, What? here is no illud, no such word as that, no object limited, and therefore it is that which no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived, it is God in the glory, and assembly of his immortal saints in heaven. How many times go we to comedies, to masks, to places of great and noble resort, nay even to church only to see the company? If I had no other errand to heaven, but the communion of saints, the 26 Lam. iii. 1, 25 Exod. xxxiii. 23. followship of the faithful, lo see that flock of lambs, innocent, unbaptized children, recompensed with the twice-baptized martyrs, (baptized in water, and baptized in their own blood) and that middle sort, the children baptized in blood, and not in the water, that rescued Christ Jesus, by their death, under Herod; to see the prophets and the evangelists, and not know one from the other, by their writings, for they all write the same things (for prophecy is but antedated gospel, and gospel but postdated prophecy ;) to see holy matrons saved by the bearing, and bringing up of children, and holy virgins, saved by restoring their bodies in the integrity, that they received them, sit all upon one seat; to see princes, and subjects crowned all with one crown, and rich and poor inherit one portion; to see this scene, this court, this church, this catholic church, not only Eastern and Western, but Militant and Triumphant church, all in one room together, to see this communion of saints, this fellowship of the faithful, is worth all the pains, that that sight costs us in this world. But then to see the head of this church, the Son, that sheds all these beams, the God of glory face to face, to see him sicuti est, as he is, to know him, ut cognitus, as I am known, what dark, and inglorious fortune would I not pass through, to come to that light, and that glory? How then hath God doubled his mercies upon those persons to whom he hath afforded two great lights, a sun to rule their day, honour and prosperity, and a moon to rule their night, humiliation and adversity, to whom he hath given both types, in themselves, to see this future glory, that is, titles and places of honour in this world, and spectacles in themselves to see this glory by afflictions, and crosses in this world. And therefore since God gives both these nowhere so plentifully, as in courts, the place of honour, and the place of crosses too, the place of rising, and the place of falling too, you, you especially, who by having your station there, in the court itself, are in the court exemplified, and copied in your own noble houses, you that have seen God characterized in his types, in titles of greatness, you that have beheld God presented in his spectacle of crosses and afflictions, the daily bread of courts, Bless ye the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever, and declare the wondrous works that he hath done for the sons of men; for certainly many woes, and invincible darkness attend those, to whom neither the hand of God in his works, nor the hand of God upon themselves, neither the greatness of this world, nor the crosses of this world, can manifest God; for what picture of God would they have that will neither have him in great, nor little? SERMON CXIII. PREACHED TO THE EARL OF EXETER, AND HIS COMPANY, IN REVELATION. vii. 9. After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. We shall have occasion by and by, to say something of the danger of curiosity, and something of the danger of the broad way, in which, too many walk: we will not therefore fall into either of these faults, at first, we will not be over curious, nor we will not stray, nor cast ourselves into that broad, and boundless way, by entering into those various, and manifold senses, which expositors have multiplied, in the handling of this place, and this part of this book; but we take the plainest way, and that in which, the best meet, and concur, that these words are spoken of the joys, and glory, reserved for them, who overcome the fraud, and the fury, the allurements, and the violences of antichrist; in whom, in that name, and person of antichrist, we consider all supplanters, and all seducers, all opposers of the kingdom of Christ, in us; for, as every man hath spontaneum dæmonem, (as St. Chrysostom speaks) a devil of his own making, (which is, some customary, and habitual sin in him) so every man hath spontaneum antichristum, an antichrist of his own making, some objections in the weakness of his faith, some oppositions in the I H perverseness of his manners, against the kingdom of Christ in himself; and as, if God would suspend the devil, or slumber the devil a day, I am afraid we should be as ill that day, as if the devil were awake, and in action, so if those disputed, and problematical antichrists, eastern and western antichrist, antichrist of Rome, and antichrist of Constantinople, Turk and Pope, were removed out of the world, we should not for all that be delivered of antichrist, that is, of that opposition to the kingdom of Christ, which is in ourselves. This part of the book of the Revelation, is literally, and primarily, the glorious victory of them, who, in the latter end of the world, having stood out the persecutions of the antichrist, enter into the triumph of heaven: and it extends itself to all, by way of fair accommodation, who after a battle with their own antichrists, and victory over their own enemies, are also made partakers of those triumphs, those joys, those glories, of which St. John, in this prophetical glass, in this perspective of visions, saw A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, &c. We are then upon the contemplation of the joys of heaven, which are everlasting, and must we wring them into the discourse of an hour? of the glory of heaven which is entire, and must we divide it into parts? We must; we will; we do; into two parts; first, the number, the great number of those that shall be saved; and then, the glorious qualities, which shall be imprinted on them, who are saved: first, that salvation is a more extensive thing, and more communicable, than sullen cloistral, that have walled salvation in a monastery, or in a hermitage, take it to be; or than the over-valuers of their own purity, and righteousness, which have determined salvation in themselves, take it to be; for, It is a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, &c. And then, in the second place, salvation is the possession of such endowments, as naturally invite all, to the prosecution of that, which is exposed and offered to all; that we all labour here, that we may all stand hereafter, Before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, &c. In the first of these, we shall pass by these steps; first, we shall consider the sociableness, the communicableness of God himself, who gives us the earth, and offers us heaven, and desires to have his kingdom well peopled; he would have many, he would have all, he would have every one of them have all. And then, the first word of the text, (After this) will carry us to the consideration of that which was done before; which was, first, that they which were of this number, were sealed, and then they which were so sealed before, were a great number, one hundred and forty-four thousand; but they who were made partakers of all this after, were innumerable, After this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number; and therefore we shall shut up that first part with this consideration, what sense, what interpretation may belong unto those places, where Christ says, That the way to heaven is narrow, and the gate strait of these pieces we shall make up our first part; and for the particulars belonging to the second, we shall fitliest open them, then, when we come to the handling of them. Our first step then in this first part, is, the sociableness, the communicableness of God; he loves holy meetings, he loves the communion of saints, the household of the faithful: Deliciæ ejus, says Solomon, His delight is to be with the sons of men, and that the sons of men should be with him: religion is not a melancholy; the Spirit of God is not a damp; the church is not a grave: it is a fold, it is an ark, it is a net, it is a city, it is a kingdom, not only a house, but a house that hath many mansions in it still it is a plural thing, consisting of many: and very good grammarians amongst the Hebrews, have thought, and said, that that name, by which God notifies himself to the world, in the very beginning of Genesis, which is Elohim, as it is a plural word there, so it hath no singular: they say we cannot name God, but plurally so sociable, so communicable, so extensive, so derivative of himself, is God, and so manifold are the beams, and the emanations that flow out from him. It is a garden worthy of your walking in; come into it, but by the gate of nature: the natural man had much to do, to conceive God: a God that should be but one God: and therefore scattered his thoughts upon a multiplicity of gods: and he found it, (as he thought) reasonable, to think, that there should be a god of justice, a god of wisdom, a god of power, and so made the several attributes of God, several gods, and thought that one god |