Christ's certain and sudden appearance to judgment. By Thomas Vincent, sometime Minister of Maudlins…

1. They shall have a clear discovery of the glory and happiness which they have missed; now they hear of heaven and the happiness which the Saints shall have in the vision and fruition of God: but there is avail of unbelief upon their minds, that they do not apprehend such a happiness as is spoken of; they have mean thoughts of God, & of heaven: they think there is no heaven like the Earth; and no happiness like the fruition of the Creatures; no glory like the glory of the world, no treasures like earthly treasures; and no delights like those which they find in the objects of their sense: but when their portion in this life shall be spent; and the good things which they enjoyed shall be taken away from them; when their honours shall vanish like smoke, or a thin vapour; their riches shall ••ie away like an Eagle, or sail like a ship out of their sight; when their sensual delights and pleasures shall fail them, and die like sweet flowers in their hands; when the bright cloud of earthly things, which shadowed the glory of heavenly things from their view, shall be blown away, and the veil shall be torn in pieces which was before them, and hindered them from looking into the Holy of Holies; and the scales shall fall off from their eyes: In a word, when the heavens shall pass away with a great ho•se, and the elements shall melt with fervent hear, and the earth, with the works thereof shall be burnt up; and they shall be awakened out of their long sleep in their graves, and shall be summoned before the tribunal seat of Christ, and stand there stripped and quite naked of all their enjoyments in the world, which they had set their hearts upon; and they shall be examined and condemned for their sins; Then, then, their eyes will be opened, and they will clearly see their mistake of happiness; then they will perceive and be fully persuaded of the fullness of joy and unspeakable pleasures at the right hand of God, the least taste of which would ravish their hearts ten thousand times more than all the full draughts, which they have taken in the sweetest of all their sinful delights: I say, they shall see this ⟨p. 97⟩happiness, and that which will v•x them to the heart will be, that they shall only see it, not enjoy the least share in it. O what high apprehensions will they then have of the glory of Heaven;