there are, it seems, some royal majestic robes belonging to this high office which he hath not yet put on. O how much should we desire to have him clothed with them! how earnestly should we look to behold him decked with that majesty, and arrayed in his most glorious attire! It should not be enough to us to believe that he reigns, but we should long to see the last exercise and the greatest proof of his kingly authority; which is to judge the world in righteousness, and to reward all men according to their works. O God, (should every true Christian say,) who, according to thy faithful word, hast glorified thy Son Jesus, and committed all judgment to him; hasten the day when thou wilt complete the glory thou hast given him, and gather all nations before him. Clothe him in the glorious robes of thy majesty, and let him appear in his meridian brightness. Send him forth of thy sanctuary, and let him outshine the sun in his strength. O that he would shine forth, and shoot his rays as far as this earth. Let them not be confined to these highest heavens; but let the air and these inferior regions be all gilded with the splendour of his beams. O blessed Jesus, that we might behold thy light breaking out, to banish all this smoke, and disperse these vapours wherein we are enclosed! Let the troops of thy holy angels come and expel those evil spirits which have possessed themselves of these aerial places. Let thy glorious throne be set there, where they have so long ruled. Arise and show thyself, O thou Judge of the world. Let them all know that they are subject to thy tribunal. And sentence them to their proper habitations; that after thy appearing they may disappear, and never break loose to infest or trouble us any more. Then will thy faithful servants shout aloud for joy, and triumph in thy praise. They will sing a new song before thy throne, and magnify thee in some such words as these: Who in the heavens can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord×? Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall x Psalm lxxxix. 6. not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy all nations are come to worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. IV. And upon this account we should be the more desirous to see that great day; because till then he will want the glory of having us and all his faithful subjects attend upon him in his heavenly kingdom. It is a very small glory indeed, you may be apt to think, that he can receive from such poor things as we are who must acknowledge that we are unworthy, utterly unworthy of the favour to approach unto him; and if we should be so vain as to think otherwise, deserve to be banished for ever from his blessed presence. But when we remember how great his love is, and what he hath promised to do for us, we must likewise confess, to the glory of his grace, that he can and will raise us so much above ourselves, that it shall be an honour to him to have such subjects, who by his Almighty power are so nobly preferred. The magnificence and greatness of his kingdom will appear in the greatness and splendour of all his friends and followers. It shall be seen in them what he is, and how highly God the Father hath exalted him; whom he gave him to be the head over all things to the church; which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all2. Certain it is he cannot be perfect (as he is the head of the church) without all his members. In which regard several both of the Greek and Latin fathers a think that his body, the church, is called his fulness; because he will not be absolutely completed and consummated till all his members be knit together in one body, and joined to him in such a glory as is befitting those that are so nearly related to him: who is able to communicate to them out of his fulness what excellencies he pleases. "This," says St. Chrysostom, "is the hope of our calling, (which the apostle speaks of before,) the riches of the glory of the inheritance, the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe." For whom he hath such an affection, and loves us with so y Rev. xv. 3,4. z Ephes. i. 22, 23. a V. S. Chrys. [in loc. tom. xi. p. 19 F.] Ecumenium, [p. 12 D.] S. Hieron. [tom. xi. col. 998 F.] great tenderness, that he doth not think himself entirely happy unless we be promoted to be with him where he is, and to reign with him for ever. So much is his heart set upon our advancement, that he accounts himself to be but in part glorious, till we be numbered among his saints in glory everlasting. с Then will he shine in greater splendour and majesty than ever; according to those words of St. Paul in another place, where he saith, He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believeb. For first of all, (as Ecumenius hath collected the sense of the ancient fathers about this business,) it will be a glory to him that he hath so many saints, to whom he will distribute his goods, and make illustrious with him. For as his riches, saith he, is our salvation, so it will be a glory to him. And, secondly, he will be glorified also by his saints, when they shall behold him sitting èv tŷ tatpwą dókn, &c. 'in his Father's glory, the God and the Judge of all.' And, thirdly, we may add that the saints will procure him glory from the spiritual powers, when they shall see what a recompense of reward he hath vouchsafed to his servants: who, as they shall give occasion to his being glorified, so to his being admired also; because it will be a most wonderful and amazing sight to see those, who were thought so vile and abject in this present life that they were persecuted and murdered, accounted worthy then of such and so great good things as he will bestow upon them. And truly, as our Lord will be thus magnified and admired at that day, so this ought now to be very wonderful in our eyes: who have little consideration, if we be not exceedingly in love with his appearing, when self-love so strongly inclines and prompts our affection to it. Can we find in our hearts to turn away our eyes from that, or cease to long for it with ardent desire, which nature itself calls for as the greatest good? Here our own interest combines with his to make us wish for that blessed day, which shall make him more illustrious by the brightness of our glory. Here two great seas meet and run into one; to make our souls swell and rise up in bigger expectations of his happiness. Come, should your heart and mine say, come, O blessed c [In loc. tom. ii. p. 191 A.] b 2 Thess. i. 10. Jesus, and at once make us and thyself entirely glorious. Arise, O thou Sun of righteousness, and shed thy beams so plentifully upon us, that we may shine with thee as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. Great are the things which are spoken of thy coming, when the exceeding greatness of thy power shall appear to us-ward who believes. O come, and complete thine own fulness, by filling us, out of thine exuberant goodness, with all the blessings of thine heavenly inheritance. Do not want that happiness any longer, which will make us happy too, together with thee. Delay not to put on those kingly robes, wherein when thou appearest, we shall be promoted to reign as kings with thee for ever. How will our ravished spirits then rejoice in that great salvation! How will they triumph to see every knee bow to thine exalted name! nay, to see thee admired in us, when thou shalt exalt the honour of thy people, the praise of all thy saintsd! O come, that the greatness of thy glory and majesty may appear in thy saints, and thy wonderful power and love in all those that believe. And till thou comest, let all thy saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud in perfect quiet and repose. Yea, let the high praises of our God be in their mouth; who hath given us hope of victory over all our enemies. Let them never cease to praise him, who takes pleasure in his people, and will beautify them with his salvation. Praise him, who hath promised to come and visit us in greater love than ever. Praise him who is the head over all things to the church: and will present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Let his name be alway engraven upon our hearts; who hath comforted us with the blessed hope of seeing him in all his glory. Let the memory of his transcendent love be ever most dear unto us; who intends to lift us up to sit with him in heavenly places. Let us never forget to rejoice in his holy name; with whom we expect to rejoice in the highest happiness of endless life. с e [Eph. i. 19.] d Psalm cxlviii. 14. e cxlix. 5, 6. May it And, O blessed Jesus, that we may be so happy now as to long for that day, on thy account as well as our own. delight us to think how thou wilt be admired and highly praised in our exaltation. Make us so much in love with thee, as to desire to see ourselves raised unto honour; because it will make thee also appear in greater glory. CHAP. XII. Other reasons why we should love his appearing, drawn from the love we have to ourselves. THUS I have made a fair way to introduce the second thing which I propounded, for the completing of this discourse. Wherein I am to show how the natural affection we all bear to ourselves should powerfully dispose us to love the appearing of our Lord Jesus. And this will admit of no less than these ten considerations; which will instantly, at the very first hearing, win our assent to the truth of them. For, I. First, we cannot but passionately desire, if we have any belief of this appearing, to see so great an honour as will then be done to our nature: so great, that no soul who is possessed with a lively sense of it can be tempted any longer to envy the greatness of the noblest persons; no, not the high dignity of the blessed angels. The brightest of the cherubims should not be so grievous to us as to hurt our eyes; nor the flames of the seraphims touch us with the least spark of indignation, to see ourselves so much excelled by them but we should rather wish they were more glorious and illustrious, because the greater they are, the greater will the advancement of our nature be, which, at the appearing of Christ, will shine in a place so far above the highest of them. Those heavenly creatures indeed are so splendid, that we poor mortals, even the holiest of us, were wont to be afraid at their appearance. They are too glittering for our weak eyes to behold: too full of lustre for us, who dwell in these caves of darkness, to converse withal. Whence it was that some pious PATRICK, VOL. III. F f |