01.06. Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI. Of our actual Entrance into Heaven, and how zee shall be received there. An Account of which is given from the Scriptures of Truth.
IT is conceivable, that the moment we expire in the body, the soul of the believer enters into glory, by which I mean heaven, which is rather the seat or place where we are glorified, than the glory with which we are in our souls invested. Our Lord is pleased thus to speak to us concerning this subject in the word: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In nay Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3. These are the gracious words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he spake in his incarnate state, and are upon record for our consolation. Death is an instantaneous act on the body; by it the soul leaves it, and departs out of this world. An eternal change passes on the mind, by which it is clothed with immortality and eternal glory, it goes to the rather, and is received by Christ, and admitted into heaven. It is said of our Lord, when he knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father; having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. John 13:1. Our Jesus loved his people from everlasting; he loved them all the while he was in his incarnate state; he loved them to the end of his own life; he loves them now that he is in heaven; he loves them all the while they remain in this world; he loves them when heart and flesh fail; he loves them in their dying moments; he has then such an opportunity of exercising his love as he never had before. Our Lord is pleased to support some of his dying saints very remarkably; but it is not always his pleasure so to do; yet, be this as it may, our Lord is very particularly present with all his saints whilst their bodies are dissolving. This is for the most part concealed from us. We know lie bath said, I will never, never, never leave you; I will not; no, 1 will never, never forsake you; therefore he must be present with his saints at death he being at that season, when all the springs of natural life fail and expire, about to open to them the springs of eternal life, glory, and immortality. The apostle Jude closes his epistle with the following doxology: Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. From which we learn what the Lord Christ hath yet to do, and of what he will do for all his saints immediately on their departure from their bodies. He will, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, deliver them from the whole inbeing of sin; he will receive them to himself; he will introduce them into heaven. His first act there will be to present them faultless. Their souls will be as pure as the light; their minds perfectly cleansed from every spot and stain. He will keep up their minds, so as that under immediate views of his righteousness, sacrifice, and presentation of them, they shall be sustained in his immediate sight, and under their immediate views of him in his glorious person and majesty; he will present them faultless. This is a most blessed subject for consideration: this he will do before the presence of his glory; this he will do with exceeding joy.
We here see what awaits us, on our actual entrance into heaven. We shall not die alone; we cannot die out of Christ; we cannot die without him. It is he must set us at liberty from our bodies; it is he must open heaven to us; it is he must admit us; it is he must receive us; it is he must present us before our heavenly Father; this he will do with exceeding joy. All which yields strong consolation to the mind, which is enlightened with clear scriptural apprehensions hereof. With respect to heaven and eternal glory, and the hope of a blessed immortality, the apostle Paul thus expresses himself: For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God. an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; which is very expressive, that as soon as our bodies drop by death, we have a house ready to receive us, and we shall be received immediately into it. The same apostle, speaking of heaven, entitles us citizens thereof. We have our conversation or citizenship in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Php 3:20. Heaven is the very place where all saints are to be admitted: it was prepared for us before the foundation of the world. Hence our Lord says: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, Matthew 25:34. It is there the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven, are to meet; and in the issue, all to live and unite together in one glorious and perpetual act of worship to God and the Lamb. It is a place fitted for bodies and minds both. There are Enoch and Elijah, Moses, Christ, and the saints, who were raised up from the grave, after his resurrection, in their bodies of glory; there are an innumerable company of angels and disembodied saints. These converse with Christ, and saints who are glorified in their bodies, and there is the most perfect communion with them. Without all doubt, the. admission, of every saint into glory increases the joy of all the. glorified. Our Lord expresses his love to every particular heir of glory on their entrance into heaven, in a way beyond what he ever did before. It is, indeed, a day of the gladness of his heart; he is more pleased to receive each of his to the everlasting embraces of his love, than can ever enter into our minds. Were we truly sensible of this from the scriptures of truth, it would make our hearts dance for joy. I confess, I should tremble to enter heaven, and the state of glory, were it not for Christ. He is to have the presenting me; I am only safe, blessed, holy, and happy in him now; I shall only be safe, blessed, holy; and happy in him, then. From eternity he loved me, and undertook for me; he engaged to save me from all my sins; he came down from his Father’s bosom to accomplish this. He loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. This is now a subject for faith to contemplate. When we are first admitted into heaven, it will then be the subject of sense, and for us to enjoy in our minds to all eternity. We shall see Christ visibly with the eyes of our minds; lie will receive us into his presence with all the love of his heart; lie will behold us with joy and complete satisfaction; he will view us as he did in the everlasting settlements of his Father’s gracious will towards us; he will view and review us; he will present us before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. As righteous in him, who is the Lord our righteousness; as pure in him, without all spot or wrinkle; yea, glorious as though we had never been the subject of the least defilement. We shall be received into heaven by Christ himself; he will rejoice in us; he will rejoice over us; he will present us before the three in Jehovah with exceeding joy. Thus we have some blessed supports from the word of revelation, and from it may learn what we may expect when we enter into heaven. We shall be present with the Lord; Christ will receive us to the glory of God; all the love of the Eternal Three will be afresh displayed before us, and manifested unto us in such a way as we can at present have no conceptions of. Our Lord’s ascension into heaven, and glorification there, may give us some faint ideas and apprehensions of the subject. He was received up into glory; he entered with the utmost pomp and majesty within the vail; he sat on the right-hand of God. Ail heaven was illumined with his presence and glory; an everlasting triumph was ascribed unto him; and all the saints, both angels and men, who saw him enter, fell down and worshipped him. Christ entered as the head, surety, saviour, and representative of all his saints. He entered heaven in his own right; we enter in his right. He is the first-born among many brethren; we, as children of God, are heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ; and we are to be conformed to Christ in glory, in such a measure and degree as will suit us, as members in him our glorified head. The apostle says, speaking of God in the person of the divine Father: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justfied, them he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30. As Christ entered into heaven as our forerunner, we shall enter by him as the medium of our access, and with boldness and liberty through him into heaven, and enjoy the immediate presence of God. As Christ entered triumphantly, we shall also; as Christ, when he entered heaven, took possession of it, and sanctified it by his living there, so he will admit us to our respective mansions, and give us the most perfect happiness and contentment in them. We shall no sooner be admitted, and blessed with the shine of Christ on our immortal and glorified minds, but the place will be as natural and as well suited to our spiritual senses and faculties as if we had been there for a thousand years. We shall be before the throne of God; we, shall serve him day and night in his temple; we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on us, nor any heat; for the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed us, and shall lead us to living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears, from our eyes. No doubt, but as all the hosts of saints and angels rejoiced at the entrance of our Lord into heaven, so there will be universal joy when the elect are individually admitted into glory. It is the coronation of saints: their crowns are eternal glory, for which they praise God and the Lamb, The everlasting love of the Father, the person and glories, and salvation of Christ, the eternal indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the mind, constitute the feast in glory. Heaven will consist in the perpetual shine of God’s favour upon us, so as for the mind to have an unspeakable enjoyment of the same; we shall there be filled with all the fullness of God This must consist in having our understandings so enlarged, to comprehend God in Christ, as to be wholly satisfied with him, and in the enjoyment of him. Our wills will then be perfectly satisfied with the will of God; we shall rejoice in his essential blessedness; we shall have a clear and proper idea of the essence and persons in Jehovah, so, as to give glorious praise to Father, Son, and Spirit, for all. their love to us, and vast and eternal designs towards us in the person of Christ. In heaven we shall be for ever clothed with immutable holiness; we shall be blessed with immediate communion with God; we shall shine in Christ; we shall be as so many jewels in his Mediatorial crown. He will shine on us and within us, and we shall reflect his shine back again on him. He will be our everlasting heaven of light and glory, of perfection and bliss. We shall be swallowed up in him, so as for him to dwell supremely, transcendently, and inexpressibly in all the faculties of our minds. It is hereby we shall be transformed into his glorious image, and be made completely happy and blessed in our souls It is good to have right, clear, and scriptural apprehensions of these sublime verities: it is only as we truly apprehend them, that we can have any holy longing and desire after the enjoyment of them. It would be well to have our minds properly impressed with the blessed thought, that heaven is prepared for us, and we are prepared for it; that it is open to receive us; and that we shall enter it the moment we leave the body. We shall find, every thing there suited to our spiritual taste: we shall have free admittance, a joyful entrance, a most blessed acceptance. Our Lord will shine on us as he never yet did; he will present us to the whole company of saints, to unite with them in their worship of him; he will open the glories of heaven to our view; he will place us where we are to be, and shine with such splendour on us as will fill our minds with immortal bliss and satisfaction. He will say: Come, ye blessed, enter ye into the joy of your Lord. It is not to be wondered at that saints are described by the apostle as earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with glory and immortality; to be swallowed up of life; to be in heaven; to enjoy eternal glory. He knew these subjects well: they had their existence in his mind; they were in him, and to him, eternal realities; he therefore prays thus on the behalf of the saints at Ephesus, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, might give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they might know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. He would they should know as much of glory and heaven, before they entered it, as possible. He requests the Lord on their behalf, that they might know the grounds of their calling; what they were called unto; and what they were to expect. God himself is the inheritance of his people; they are also his inheritance. His riches of grace and glory are in the saints; they are all to shine forth in them; they are all to be displayed on them; they are all to be made known unto them; they are all to be enjoyed by them God himself will be their glory. If God can make them happy, they shall be as completely happy as he can make them.
I would now, O my soul! turn this subject into meditation and prayer. I expect and believe that I shall soon be in heaven. How art thou, O my soul, affected with this? Dost thou, from the scriptures and the light of the Holy Spirit, apprehend spiritually and intellectually what heaven is? It is a supernatural world; a state of blessedness and glory. There are no joys and pleasures there but such as are suited to a heaven-born soul, to a holy and spiritual mind. Saints there live wholly on Christ; he is their immediate life of glory. Art thou, O my soul I fitted for this place and state? Will it suit thee to be wholly swallowed up in Christ? to have him for thy immediate object, and perpetual subject? Hast thou an inward spiritual conception of its being real blessedness, to be wholly living out of thyself, and off thyself, in continual sights of Christ, so as never to reflect on thyself for ever? The happiness of saints in heaven does not arise within, or from themselves: it is wholly without them; it flows from God and the Lamb into them, through the indwelling of the Lord the Spirit. They are not admitted to think one moment of themselves; all their thoughts flow into their immortal minds, as glorified, from Christ their head, and are formed in them by the Lord the Spirit, who fully possesses them as his true and proper temples. Will such a state, such a place, such a life, so continued a dependence on Christ for glory everlasting, as this amounts to, suit thee? If so, think much on it. Let it be the constant subject of thy mind. If the Holy Spirit makes it plain and clear to thee, thou wilt not be unwilling to die in thy body, that thou mayest live with Christ in glory. I will turn this, O my soul, into prayer.
0 thou, who art the God of glory, the Father of glory, the God of all grace, who hast called thy people unto eternal glory by Christ Jesus, I beseech thee to give me some supernatural views of it. Create in my mind such conceptions of heaven, glory, and immortal life, as may cause me to desire to depart out of this body and world, and be with Christ, which is far better than to be in it. I pray thee to grant me to be looking out for heaven; to be expecting a city which hath. foundations, which thou hast built and art the maker of; into which thou dost admit thy saints immediately on their leaving their bodies. Thou, O God, art not ashamed to be called their God, for whom thou hast prepared this city. Grant, holy Father, that my mind may be so enlightened from thy word, and by thy Spirit, into a knowledge of what is revealed in thy holy gospel concerning the inheritance of the saints in light, that my views and prospects of it may abound. O that it may please thee, so to let down from thy blessed self such supernatural views of heaven and heavenly glory into my mind, as may increase my longings and desires after it! . O Lord Jesus, there I am to see thee face to face! there I am to live as thou lost. There I am to live, in thee, and to thee, thou living in me for ever. O blessed Spirit, do thou, as the Spirit of glory and of God,, rest upon me, and reveal a real sense of this glory in me. Amen.