01.08. Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
Concerning our Employment in the State of Glory, until our Lord shall descend from thence, at his Second Coming. As at death mortality will be swallowed up of life, and saints hereby will be immortal, so they will be fitted for perpetual exercise and employment in that state of eternal glory they will then enter upon. The state the saints of God are now in we style the state of grace; because, as it is altogether of grace that they should be called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, so whilst in this state, and to the very close of it, there is a most glorious display of the grace of the Eternal Three towards them. They are sinners, and sinful in themselves to the very moment they quit the body to enter heaven; therefore they are looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. But when they are changed in their bodies by death, they enter on the state of glory. We call it by that term, because it is the state in which their souls are with Christ, and glorified, together with him. It is difficult with us to apprehend what it is for the soul to be glorified; nor can we form any ideas of it, but from the word of revelation. The soul, or mind, or thought, or thinking faculty, is wholly intellectual. This will be without the body by death; when it is, it will be all life and activity it will be immortalized and raised up by the omnipotent power of Christ, so as to be immediately exercised in beholding Christ, in converse with him and this is to be glorified together with him, as the mind will be so enlightened by Christ, and he will so possess and dwell in it, as to be the object of blessedness and center of rest to the soul for ever. Like as, whilst in the body, saints in views of Christ receive that concerning him into their minds which sanctifies their affections, makes him glorious in their affections, and high in their esteem; so in heaven, saints having a sight of Christ by the open vision of his Person, receive the same into their immortal minds, and a actual worship of him in heaven is the fruit thereof. It is a sight of Christ which glorifies the mind of the saint on his entrance into the state of glory, in which the glory of Christ is so displayed that it gives the title to it, and we say of it, such an one is removed to the state of glory.
Now, to speak of the employment of the glorified, it seems necessary to attend to the following particular, What those objects are which saints in heaven will see and converse with; what those subjects are which will engage their minds what that glory is which will be put upon them: and how long the present state of the glorified will continue whilst the state of the glorified will never be discontinued, yet the state or degree they are now in will be succeeded by a far more glorious one. The present state of the glorified will be succeeded by a glorious resurrection of their bodies to life immortal; therefore, it is the employment of saints in the state of glory, until our Lord shall descend from heaven at his second coming, which is our subject. To speak of the employment of the glorified saints. Life is a perpetual activity. The spirits of just men made perfect are constantly engaged and employed in the state of glory; their minds have incorporeal objects and subjects before them, most exactly suited to their disembodied spirits they have the person of Christ, as the Man in God, the God-Man; they see him; they behold all the glory of the essential majesty in him. The Three in Jehovah are not seen, but all their love is reflected on the saints in heaven, in the person of Christ, so as for all the love wherewith the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, have loved the elect in Christ from everlasting, is enjoyed by them, and they have real fellowship with the Three in the Incomprehensible Essence, in the vision of Christ. This is one of the great objects and subjects then in which their minds are employed, the person of Christ, whom they see face to face; they see him as he is; and in him they worship Father, Son, and Spirit, and give then glorious praise for all the acts of their eternal good-will towards them in Christ Jesus. . Saints in heaven will have friends and companions to converse with; they will have fellow-saints and fellow-worshippers; they will see each other in their own glorious disembodied forms. This will realize each to other, and make them familiar with each other; they will see elect angels in their glorious forms, and join them in worshipping God and the Lamb. Heaven, as a place, is the seat of worship for the glorified church. Christ, in person, is their immediate object of worship; it is in him they worship the Father and the Spirit. It is the vision of Christ which is their ordinance of worship, whom at present they see and behold, not so much in his essential and personal glory as in his Mediatorial glories. They see him as the Lamb that was slain, and worship him as such. John says, The four beasts, and four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And hast made us unto out God kings and priests: and zap shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Revelation 5:8-12. This seems to denote that Christ, as Mediator, is most peculiarly honoured in heaven by elect angels and saints: they unite to praise him for his most precious blood shedding and death; they view him as the Lamb that was slain; they worship him as such; they ascribe their whole redemption to him; they worship God and the Lamb with equal,worship. Hence, then, the Prophet adds, And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. He adds, And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever: Revelation 5:13-14. It appears, that in worshipping Christ as Mediator, the Eternal Three in the one Incomprehensible Essence are included; and also, that at present the worship of heaven, or the worshippers in heaven, are most peculiarly engaged in extolling the Lamb of God, in triumphing in his complete salvation, in singing to the honour of his majesty, and in making his praise glorious for his conquest and victory over death; and also for his righteous government of this present evil world, and his providential acts respecting his church in it. We have Gabriel, who standeth in the presence of, God, sent to inform Daniel what should befall the Jews in the latter time. See Daniel 10:10. And why may it not be conceivable, that what is done on earth is recited in heaven especially as in the visionary scenes of the Revelation we have the repeated acclamation of saints pronounced: We give thee , thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and vast, and art to come, because thou hast judged thus. I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. If so shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, ALLELUIA, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Revelation 11:17. Revelation 12:10. Revelation 15:3-4. Revelation 19:6. Now the taking all this into consideration, in its lowest degree, that it means only what is transacted in the church on earth; yet, as saints in heaven have still an interest in the saints on earth, it may be a part of their employment in glory to praise the Lord for what he doth for his church below, and for his fulfillment of his vast purposes and designs respecting his church, the world, and every creature in it. Some conceive concerning the intellect of angels, that they see all things in their causes and effects: not as God doth; at once, and in one point of view, but under and by the knowledge and comprehension which he is pleased to impart to their created minds. I should think the intellect of angels and of saints in heaven are equal; why then, seeing in Christ the whole volume of inspiration is contained, and the whole volume of grace, nature, providence, and every act and circumstance connected with it is unfolded; may it not be the pleasure of our Lord to admit his beloved in heaven, into such views of what he is doing on earth, as may be entertaining to their minds, and engage the same to him in fresh acts of worship and praise? The vision of Christ; what he is to his church in heaven and earth; the glory he hath put on his saints, who are in his immediate presence; the grace he exercises on his saints in this our world; his constant translation of saints from earth to heaven; the personal and particular presentation of each saint on its arrival in heaven. Surely we may safely conclude these are the subjects on which the minds of glorified saints are perpetually exercised. And great and vast these are, such as none but the glorified can have any tolerable ideas of. With respect to the glory which is enjoyed by the glorified, I should conceive it to be inward and outward. The first sight of Christ, and the first shine of his glory on the soul when it first enters heaven, must be when he receives it, and presents it faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy. This will transcend all that Christ ever yet did for us believers: he will look on us; he will shine within us. This will fill our minds with glory. We shall be fit for no other state but that of glory for ever; we shall by this sight of Christ, by his own act upon us, and within us, be immortal, impeccable, and glorious in our souls. This will be reflected by our minds, so as that rays of light and luster will be apparent; but the shine of Christ on all this, and the vision of him in his glory, will lift up beyond all description; so that the glory of all the glorified, both saints and angels, will be no glory, in compare with Christ’s glory. When Christ shone first on us, it was a shine so glorious, that Peter styles it light, yea, marvelous light; yea, Christ’s marvelous light. Who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9. When Christ shines on the soul, immediately on its entrance into his immediate presence in heaven, it is a glorious shine, such as fits the intellectual faculties of the mind for such views of Christ, with which it is to be favoured. It is this which puts an inward and outward glory on the disembodied mind; it prepares it for an everlasting sight and converse with Christ for evermore: like as the revelation of Christ is the grace which fits us to live on Christ in the real exercise of faith on him, and communion with him; and notwithstanding we are born again before this revelation of Christ is made in us, yet we did not, we could not live Christ in our minds, until he was revealed in us, from the word, and by, the Spirit; so we cannot be glorified, and live with Christ in heaven, until he receives our spirits, and shines in his own glory on them, and presents them before the presence of his glory, which he will do with exceeding joy. This will take place on our immediate entrance into heaven and by it we shall be fitted for the heavenly state, for the vision of Christ, and immediate communion with him in glory, and for living in his immediate presence for ever and ever. How our minds will be elevated, raised and glorified, with Christ’s shining immediately within us, and upon us, we can have no correct conception of. What glory we shall behold in Christ, we shall never be able fully to comprehend. What the intuitive knowledge we shall receive of Christ into our minds, when we see him in his glory, and are filled immediately and fully with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, who will then fill us with actual and personal knowledge of the Father’s everlasting love to us in the person of Christ; what, 1 say, we shall then be the subjects of, and what we shall then know of Christ, never yet entered into any mind out of heaven. We shall not only be glorious, and glorified, by Christ looking upon us in his glory, and shining within us, and thereby making us inherently glorious, and by shining on us, and thus making us in our souls inwardly and outwardly glorious; but he will reflect his own glory in which he is seen, also upon us, which shall be the consummation of our souls in everlasting blessedness. All the saints of God will be thus blessed, thus engaged, and thus employed until our Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: -and the dead in Christ being raised, and the living saints being changed, then will be brought to pass the saying that is written,. Death is swallowed up in victory. But of this I shall say nothing; but having finished the subjects proposed, concerning the employment of saints in the state of glory, until our Lord shall descend from thence at his second coming, I will turn the substance of it into meditation and prayer.
O my soul! it is good for thee, who must shortly be removed to the house eternal in the heavens, to consider what thy entertainment will there be; what the sights and objects are which thou wilt there see and converse with; what those subjects are which thy mind will there be exercised on; what thine employment will be. There are millions of saints got to heaven. There are more saints in heaven than there are now on earth; they were all alike received; they were all freely admitted; they all see Christ in his glory; they have alike the same vision of him; their glory and their glorification arise there from. O my soul! it is an apprehension of .what thy glorification will consist in, which will confirm thee in the true views of heavenly blessedness. As soon as thou hast left thy body, thou wilt be received by Christ into his kingdom of glory. He will shine on thee; he will present thee before the presence of his glory faultless. There- will be no sin in thee; thy Lord will present thee in his own perfection as pure as if thou had never sinned. Keep this, O my soul, in thy remembrance. Jesus hath loved thee, and washed thee from thy sins in his own blood. His righteousness hides all thy transgressions; it adorns and covers thy whole person. Thou art made the righteousness of God therein, and thus thou art in Christ; then it must be very acceptable to thee to be where he is, to behold his glory. Thou wilt have company sufficient: holy saints, and holy angels. Thou art to worship with them. Thy employment will be very suitable, even to the present state of thy mind. Thou art well pleased to give Christ the entire glory of thy salvation; to praise him for this will be a great part of thine employment there. It is the highest act of worship now on earth, to trust wholly in the blood and righteousness of the Lamb for everlasting life. It will be the constant act of all saints in glory to bless the Lamb for his most precious blood and death. Let me ponder on all this, and turn it into prayer.
0 thou most glorious Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast said, Because I live, ye shall live also. Thou livest as the head of thy church and people, a life of glory and immortality. It is thy pleasure to introduce all thy beloved, one and another of them, as seemeth good unto thee, into thy immediate presence within the vail. Thou wilt, in thine own appointed time, take me to thyself. I pray thee to help me, so to hold communion with thee in thy glory, that as I am a partaker of the glory which is to be revealed, I may live and die as an heir of glory; by having such conceptions of it kept up in my own mind, from thy word, and by the Spirit, that I may most joyfully look forward to the season when my bodily frame shall be dissolved, and I shall quit it, be absent from it, and present with thee, the Lord of glory. May it please thee to realize eternal life, glory, and blessedness in my mind, so that I may know as much of it as I can before the enjoyment of it; then shall I be wholly out of myself, and be living in the perpetual activity of my mind on thee, without the least variation from thee for ever. Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast as fully realized in my intellectual capacity, what may be conceived concerning absence from the body, and being present with thee, as in my present embodied state I can apprehend. All that remains is, for death to do its office, and for thyself to receive me into thy kingdom of glory. Be it according to thy word. Amen. THE END.
Samuel Eyles Pierce
Nichols, Printer, Earl’s Court,
Newport Street.