A35583:1129
Mount Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter…Movnt Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter…
Mount Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter of the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, from the 13th verse, to the end of the chapter, divided into three parts / by Tho. Case ...Movnt Pisgah, or, A prospect of heaven being an exposition on the fourth chapter of the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, from the 13th verse, to the end of the chapter, divided into three parts / by Tho. Case ...
London: printed by Thomas Milbourn for Dorman Newman, 1670
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And if the justice of God gives eternity both to the torment of hell, and the tormented also to sustain it, how much easier and sweeter is it to conceive; the shine of Gods face is both the eternity of the blessed in glory, and of their bliss also.
And if the justice of God gives eternity both to the torment of hell, and the tormented also to sustain it, how much easier and sweeter is it to conceive; the shine of Gods face is both the eternity of the blessed in glory, and of their bliss aso.
It is true indeed, of the nether heavens it is said, they shall perish—yea, all of them shall wax old as doth a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed; but hath he any where said so of the upper heavens too, the seat of the blessed souls, the mansion house of the great King? Surely no: Yea (to use those words in an accommodated sense at least) saith God, 1The new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me. However, even in contemplating the consummation of these nether heavens, the Psalmist hath a (savoury) But, which will save all harmless, But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
It is true indeed, of the neather heavens it is said, they shall perish—yea, all of them shall wax old as doth a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed; but hath he any where said so of the upper heavens too, the seat of the blessed souls, the mansion house of the great King? Surely no: Yea (to use those words in an accommodated sense at least) saith God, 1The new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me. However, even in contemplating the consummation of these neather heavens, the Psalmist hath a (savoury) But, which will save all harmless, But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Behold, God is the heaven of his Saints, what can put a period to this heaven.
A seventh Attribute is Love: 1Which way should the glory of the Saints come to be extinguished, or so much as eclipsed? If such a thing could be, it must arise from a cessation of divine love, which cannot be supposed: Will God grow weary of their company? Behold! he made them (when he brought them into that state of glory) as perfect as he would have them be (I had well nigh said) ⟨p. 95⟩as perfect as he could make them, that they might be a meet Bride for his first-born, his only begotten Son; and now behold, he that hated putting away in the fantastical Jew (unless it were in case of adultery) will he give the Lambs Wife a Bill of divorce, and put her out of doors in whom (since her first reception) there was never sound the least disloyalty, no not in thought, but remaineth without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, as immaculate as the elect Angels? or must they also fare no better than the Angels that kept not their first estate? Must all be cast out for ever, and heaven stand now as an house to be let, without a Tenant? 2Were not this more than a shadow of turning? Of the Lord and Head of the Saints in the days of his flesh it was said, having loved his own, he loved them to the end: And is his love less now in heaven than it was on earth? Is Christs love to his Church, now she is his wife, less sincere and intense, than when she was but his Spouse? Did Christ love more ardently at a distance, than now in their mutual embraces? These are prodigious blasphemies, 3not once to be admitted into our thoughts: Nay, saith God, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
A seventh Attribute is Love: 1Which way should the glory of the Saints come to be extinguished, or so much as eclipsed? If such a thing could be, it must arise from a cessation of divine love, which cannot be supposed: Will God grow weary of their company? Behold! he made them (when he brought them into that state of glory) as perfect as he would have them be (I had well nigh said) ⟨p. 95⟩as perfect as he could make them, that they might be a meet Bride for his first-born, his only begotten Son; and now behold, he that hated putting away in the fantastical Jew (unless it were in case of adultery) will he give the Lambs Wife a Bill of divorce, and put her out of doors in whom (since her first reception) there was never sound the least distoyalty, no not in thought, but remaineth without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, as immaculate as the elect Angels? or must they also fare no better than the Angels that kept not their first estate? Must all be cast out for ever, and heaven stand now as an house to be let, without a Tenant? 2Were not this more than a shadow of turning? Of the Lord and Head of the Saints in the dayes of his flesh it was said, having loved his own, he loved them to the end: And is his love less now in heaven than it was on earth? Is Christs love to his Church, now she is his wife, less sincere and intense, than when she was but his Spouse? Did Christ love more ardently at a distance, than now in their mutual embraces? These are prodigious blasphemies, 3not once to be admitted into our thoughts: Nay, saith God, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
An eighth Attribute is Justice. 1The cessation of heaven and hell would utterly destroy divine justice, and make that cease also for ever. Take away those two tremendous patterns of Reward and Punishments, heaven and hell, by which the Saints (here below) do justify God, and vindicate the truth of the Christian Religion against all other Religions in the world, and you cut the very sinews of Religion, and make Laws of God vain and insignificant; you starve the hope of the godly, and extinguish the fear of the wicked.
An eighth Attribute is Justice. 1The cessation of heaven and hell would utterly destroy divine justice, and make that cease also for ever. Take away those two tremendous patterns of Rewarde and Punishments, heaven and hell, by which the Saints (here below) do justifie God, and vindicate the truth of the Christian Religion against all other Religions in the world, and you cut the very sinews of Religion, and make Laws of God vain and insignificant; you starve the hope of the godly, and extinguish the fear of the wicked.
- 18. Attribute, The justice of God.
Ninthly, A cessation of the joys of Heaven, and of the torments of Hell, would turn Heaven into nothing else but the carnal dream of a Turkish Paradise, and Hell into the ⟨p. 96⟩ridiculous fancy of a Popish Purgatory. If ever we be happy, we must be assured of the perpetuity of our state, or else the whole vision will be but as a pleasing dream, wherein we may fancy our selves to be happy, but are indeed miserable in ignorance and mistake.
Fear of loss will not only lessen the joy of heaven, but turn joy it self into anguish; yea, the damned in hell might seem to have the better of the Saints in glory, by how much hope of deliverance out of present misery is better than the expectation of the loss of present fruitions.
Surely the love of God never prepared such bitter sweets for his children: neither could I have been induced to have spent so much time in fortifying so grand an Article of our Faith against supposed violence of atheistical spirits, had it not been by occasion hereof to discover the beauty and strength of those pillars, by which this dearbought truth is supported.
To conclude, It was not (possibly) without a type that the first Sabbath is mentioned without an evening, and the new Jerusalem had no night, 1both were prophetic to the eternal Sabbatism of Heaven; my Text assureth all the Saints of an everlasting fruition of God; Ever with the Lord.
To conclude, It was not (possibly) without a type that the first Sabbath is mentioned without an evening, and the new Jerusalem had no night, 1both were prophetick to the eternal Sabbatisme of Heaven; my Text assureth all the Saints of an everlasting fruition of God; Ever with the Lord.
There was an ever in the will of the Saints to holiness, 1and God who takes the will for the deed, doth put an •ver to their future reward; that hell may be the everlasting witness of divine justice, and heaven the perpetual monument of divine grace.
- 1Hell is wrath to come, and Heaven the Saints remaining rest.
Christians, this is the measuring Reed of the new Jerusalem, the Cube of the heavenly Temple, the breadth, and length, and height whereof, none but he that can lay his right hand on the one end of Eternity, and his left hand on the other end, hath given unto us; the computation whereof infinitely exceeds our Arithmetic, yea, the Arithmetic of all the Angels in heaven.
Christians, this is the measuring Reed of the new Jerusalem, the Cube of the heavenly Temple, the breadth, and length, and height whereof, none but he that can lay his right hand on the one end of Eternity, and his left hand on the other end, hath given unto us; the computation whereof infinitely exceeds our Arithmetick, yea, the Arithmetick of all the Angels in heaven.
Those comparisons of the running out of an hour-glass by a single sand once in the revolution of a thousand years, (by which computation there would be scarce six sands lessened in the glass since the Creation of the world to this day) or, a little birds carrying away a mountain of sand by one small dust once in a twelve-mouth; the emptying of the Sea by a drop once in an age, and whatever of the like nature, these are but like the span of an Infant to measure the circle of the heavens, so many empty cyphers without a figure to calculate eternity by, though they may seem Hyperboles to our childish capacities; oh who can describe eternity! It is an Ocean without a bottom, it cannot be fathomed, a Sea that can never be sailed over from shore to shore.
Those comparisons of the running out of an hour-glass by a single sand once in the revolution of a thousand years, (by which computation there would be scarce six sands lessened in the glass since the Creation of the world to this day) or, a little birds carrying away a mountain of sand by one small dust once in a twelve-mouth; the emptying of the Sea by a drop once in an age, and whatever of the like nature, these are but like the span of an Infant to measure the circle of the heavens, so many empty cyphers without a figure to calculate eternity by, though they may seem Hyperbolies to our childish capacities; oh who can describe eternity! It is an Ocean without a bottom, it cannot be fathomed, a Sea that can never be sailed over from shoar to shoar.
Ever is that which cannot be measured but by it self; ever is that out of which take never so many ages, and worlds of time, there is not a moment less to come, ever is still to begin, never to end; eternity is still entire, a spring which fills as fast as it empties; a vast circle, which begins where it ends, and ends where it begins.
Ever is that which cannot be measured but by it self; ever is that out of which take never so many ages, and worlds of time, there is not a moment less to come, ever is still to begin, never to end; eternity is still entire, a spring which fills as fast as it emties; a vast circle, which begins where it ends, and ends where it begins.
And now Christians, is this the duration of Heaven? Is this, nothing less than this, the measuring line of the Saints cohabitation with God.
Their Presence with God Their Vision and of God Their Fruition of God Their Communion with God Their Conformity to God
What? ever with the Lord?