N01272:109
Meditations on the glory of the heavenly world. I. On the happiness of the…
Meditations on the glory of the heavenly world. I. On the happiness of the soul of believers, at the instant of their separation from their bodies. II. On the glory of the bodies of God's children, in the resurrection world, when they shall be as the angels of heaven. III. On the glory of both soul and body in the heaven of heavens, after the day of judgment, to all eternity. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston in N.E. printed: : Sold by Benjamin Eliot, at his shop in King Street., 1711
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
(2.) Believers whilst in this world, are subject to Afflictions from the World. For the World hated them. It hated Christ; ⟨p. 68⟩and the more a man does resemble Christ, and the more service he does for the Name of Christ, the more will the World hate him, Joh. 15. 19. And if they are Hated by the World, they will be Persecuted. It ever has been so, and ever will be so. The Seed of the Serpent will have an Enmity against the Seed of the Woman: 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer Persecution. The more Godly any man is, the more shall he be Persecuted by Ungodly men. If they can discover themselves to be the Seed of the Serpent in no other way, they will do it by their Venomous Tongues, in Reproaches and Revilings. But when the Bodies of Righteous men are in their Graves, the Wicked will cease from troubling; and when their Souls are in Heaven, that Promise in 2 Sam. 7. 10. will be fulfilled in the perfection of it, I will appoint a place for my People Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own• neither shall the Children of Wickedness afflict them any more. When their souls are placed in heaven, they are in a place of ⟨p. 69⟩their own. This world is not their own: It is not their home. On Earth they are Strangers & Pilgrims; not Earth, but Heaven is their home. This world is not to the Believer his own, but another mans, Luk. 16. 12.
(3.) Just men while their Spirits abide in Flesh, meet with many Afflictions from the holy Providence of God. In Love & Faithfulness He Orders Afflictions for them: