171 Of the happiness of good men, in the future ftate. SERMON CLXXXV. I JOHN iii. 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he hall appear, we shall be like him ; for we fhall fee him as he is. T The firft fermon on this text. HE great defign of this epiftle, is to perfuade men to purity and holiness of life, without which we can lay no claim to the promises and privileges of the gofpel. Chriftians are called the children of God; and this is a great privilege indeed, a mighty argument of God's love and favour to us, to own us for his children. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath beftowed upon us, that we should be called the fons of God. This is the happiness of our prefent condition: now we are the fons of God; and if fons, then heirs; this gives us a title to a future inheritance. And it does not yet appear what we shall be; the circumftances of our future happiness and glory are not perfectly revealed to us, only thus much in general is difcovered to us, that we fhall be very happy, because we shall be admitted to the immediate fight and enjoyment of God; and we cannot fee him and enjoy him, unless we be like him; and, to be like God, is to be happy. We know that, when he hall appear, save, that is, when it shall appear. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when it shall appear, that is, when our future happiness fhall be revealed to us: it is not yet particularly difcovered to us, but thus much in general we know of it before-hand, that we shall be like P. 2 God, God, for we shall fee him as he is. In which words there are these four things worthy of our confideration : First, The prefent obfcurity of our future fate, as to the particular circumftances of that happinefs which good men fhall enjoy in another world: It doth not yet appear what we fhall be. Secondly, That thus much we certainly know of it in general, that it fhall confift in the fight and enjoyment of God; We know that, when it shall appear, we shall fee him as he is. Thirdly, Wherein our likeness to God fhall confift: We Shall be like him. Fourthly, The neceffary connexion between our likenefs to God, and our fight and enjoyment of him: We fhall be like him, for we fhall fee him as he is that is, becaufe we shall fee him as he is, therefore, it is certain e fhall be like him; for, unless we be like God, we are not capable of feeing and enjoying him. Firft, The prefent obfcurity of our future ftate, as to the particular circumftances of that happiness which good men fhall enjoy in another world: It doth not yet appear what we shall be. The fcripture tells us, that it is a glory yet to be revealed: that there fhall be fuch a state of happiness for good men in another world, though it was in a great measure obfcure to the world before, both to Jews and Gentiles, yet it is now clearly revealed to us, by the appearance of Jefus Chrift, who hath brought life and immortality to light by the gofpel. But the particular circumstances of this happiness are ftill hid from us; and as it is a needlefs, fo it would be a faulty curiofity in us to pry and enquire into them. It is enough that we certainly know there is fuch a ftate; the knowledge of this in general is enough to quicken our diligence, and excite our endeavours for the obtaining and fecuring of it: it is enough to mortify all evil affections in us, and to baffle all temptations to fin, to know that it will rob us of fo great a felicity, as God hath promised to us; it is enough to fupport and comfort us, under all the miferies and afflic tions of this prefent time, to be fully affured that, after a few days of forrow and trouble are over, we fhall be unSpeakably and eternally happy. A firm perfuafion of this, is argument enough to our obedience, and a fufficient fupport to our faith and patience, and we need enquire no further. Thus much God hath revealed to us for our comfort and encouragement; the rest he hath concealed from us; and it would be a bold intrusion into his fecrets, to pry and fearch any farther; and, if we should, it would be to no purpose. For, in things which depend upon divine revelation, it is impoffible for us to know any more than God is pleased to reveal to us. In matters of pure revelation, we cannot go beyond the word of the Lord; The things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God, or he to whom the fpirit of God fhall reveal them. If one fhould come from a ftrange country, never known and difcovered before, and fhould only tell us in general, that it was a moft pleasant and delightful place, and the inhabitants of it a brave, and generous, and wealthy people, under the government of a wife and great King, ruling by excellent laws; and that the particular delights and advantages of it were not to be imagined by any thing he knew in our own country, and should fay no more of it; if we gave credit to the person that brought this relation, it would create in us a great admiration of the country defcribed to us, and a mighty concern to fee it, and live in it. But it would be a vain curiofity, to reafon and conjecture about the particular conveniencies of it; because it would be impoffible, by any difcourfe, to arrive at the certain knowledge of any more, than he who only knew it was pleafed to tell us. This is the cafe as to our heavenly country. Our bleffed Saviour, who came down from heaven, from the bofom of his Father, hath revealed to us a ftate of happinefs and glory in general, that there is fuch a kingdom prepared for us; and, when he was leaving the world, he told us that he was going thither by the way of the grave, and when he was rifen again from the dead and was afcended into heaven, he promised to come again at the end of the world, and to raise us out of the grave, and to carry us into those celeftial manfions, where we shall be for ever with the Lord. And, beyond this, he hath made no particular difcovery to us of the felicity of that place; he hath given us no punctual reprefentation of the glory of it; he hath not declared to us, in a spe P3 cial cial manner, what our work and employment fhall be, in what way God will communicate himself to us, nor what kind of converfation we fhall have with the bleffed angels, and with one another, and how far we shall know, `or be known to one another, or whether we fhall ftand affected in any peculiar manner to thofe who were our friends, and relations, and acquaintance in this world. These, and perhaps a thoufand things more, which may concern the glories of that ftate, and the happiness and employment of the fpirits of juft men made perfect, our Saviour hath told us nothing of, but only in general; and it is impoffible for us, with any certainty, to make out the reft, any more than children can make a conjecture of the defigns and reafonings of a wife man; not only because it would be of no great ufe to us, but because the imperfection of human nature, and of our faculties, in this state of mortality, is not able to bear a full and clear representation of fo great a glory. When our Saviour was transfigured upon the mount, and a little image of heaven was fhewn to men, the difciples were ftrangely amazed, and knew not what they faid. And St Paul tells us, that, when he was taken up into the third heaven, the things which he faw and heard there, were not to be uttered. So that, well might the Apoftle fay here in the text, It doth not yet appear what we fhall be. Our future ftate is very obfcure to us while we are in this world, as to any diftinct and particular knowledge of it. There are a fort of idle men in the world, I mean the fchoolmen, who have been very bufy and bold in their enquiries, very peremptory in their determinations of feveral things relating to it; but, after all our fearch and study, it is impoffible for us to advance one step farther in the knowledge of it, than God hath been pleased, in his holy word, to reveal it to us. And how much God hath revealed, I fhall, in difcourfing of the Second particular, confider; namely, That thus much we know of it in general, that it fhall confift in the bleffed vifion of God; It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but, when he shall appear, we shall fee him as he is. Thus much all Chriftians know, because our Saviour hath plainly plainly revealed it to them, that the bleffednefs of the faints fhall confift in the vifion of God. Matth. v. 8. Bleed are the pure in heart; for they shall fee God. Which the Apoftle expreffeth, with a little variation, Heb. xii. 14. without holiness no man fhall fee the Lord. Here is a great thing expreffed to us in a few words, we fhall fee him as he is; for the better understanding of which, it will be convenient to enquire into these three things: I. What is meant here by feeing God. II. What by seeing him as he is. III. The fitnefs of this metaphor, to exprefs to us the happiness of our future ftate. I. What is meant by feeing God. The fchoolmen have fpun out abundance of fine cobwebs about this, which, in their language, they call the beatifick vifion of God; and they generally defcribe and explain it fo as to render it a very dry and fapless thing. They make it to consist in a perpetual gazing upon God, and contemplating the divine effence and perfections, in which, as in a clearer mirror, they fuppofe men to fee and know all other things. But this is a very jejune and infipid notion of happiness, but yet fuitable enough to the guft and inclination of those that devifed it. And, indeed, men are naturally apt to form fuch notions of God and heaven to themselves, as are moft agreeable to their own appetites and inclinations. So the heathen world framed to themselves gods after their own image and likeness, of like paffions, and inclinations, and lufts with themselves; and fuch a heaven as pleafed themfelves, and was most fuitable to their own grofs imaginations of pleafure and happiness; and, therefore, they defcribed it by pleafant fields, and clear rivers, and fhady walks. So likewife Mahomet framed fuch a paradife, as is moft agreeable to our fenfual appetites and Jufts. In like manner the schoolmen, who addicted themfelves wholly to contemplation, would have the happiness of heaven to confift in that which they themselves took moft delight in. But furely the fcripture understands fomething more, by the fight of God, than a bare contemplation of him. It is a known rule given by divines for the understanding of fcripture; The words that fignify fenfe |