The Glory of Christ in His Glorified Saints
Meditations of the glory of Christy in his glorified saintSy and of the thankful admiration of believers, when he shall come again from heaven which shall be continued to all eternity.
The terror of our Lord’s appearance to judgment cannot be greater to the wicked, than the comfort and joy of it will be to the saints. When they shall see him whom their souls love, ascend with him to heaven, and be welcomed, according to his promise, with those endearing words, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world,” “It was for your sakes I assumed flesh, lived on earth, and died on the cross, to purchase this glorioas kingdom for you, which I now come to give you the possession of: it was for this I prayed and sofiered on earth, for this I interceded ever since in heaven: I was heard in that prayer, accepted in those sufferings, and my intercession granted; that, where I am, ye may be also, to behold my glory.’ Come, therefore, good and faithful servants, enter into r Lord’s joy,” Ob I what ravishing words will e be! what an ecstacy of love and kindness is lied in them I what matter of rejoicing may it - give me to admit the hope that my blessed iour will say such words as these to me, and bid stand on his right hand among his sheep! Ohi t an exulting frame of soul will such expressions 3! How shall all my doubts, and fears, and ows, be scattered in a moment, and cease for: I O glorious day, when my blessed Lord shall 3 publicly acknowledge me for his own, and plead cause against all the accusations of Satan, and malicious calumnies of all his instruments! when lall be able to say of all ray sins and sufferings, my Lord upon the cross, It is finished I it is shed I” My warfare being accomplished, being than conqueror over all, through him who iA me, and died for me, and now is come to wipely all tears from mine eyes, as it were, with the kin that was bound about his head when laid in
grave, all being the fruit of his meritorious th; then shall I have nothing more to fear, or h, or beg. 1 shall offend, provoke, and dislour him no more; nor, by my folly and scandal, sredit his holy name and gospel; but, by conamate holiness, be fitted to rejoice in his presence I love, and celebrate his praise for ever. I shall rer more lament his absence, or complain of his rer; never see a cloud on his face, or a frown in
look, any more. Now, I must wait and pray, iiggle and strive, labour and suffer, desire and lect, believe and hope, &c. but then, perfect rest 1 holiness, love and joy, vision and {TluXloxi^v<%
&nd glory, unutterable and everlasting, shall take place.
All the attributes of Ood, all the wonderful perfections of Christ, will then be glorified in believers, and admired by them. His invariable truth will then be honoured, which they trusted to, and waited for: for now they shall know, and find, they did not wait in vain, they hoped in his word, and ventured their salvation upon it: and now they shall receive the end of their faith and hope, infinitely beyond what they ever expected or believed.
The glory of divine wisdom will then appear, when the constitution, administration, and design, of the Mediator’s kingdom shall be fully known, in the admirable order and beauty of every part of it, with the exact tendency of all the particulars to one glorious end, and the whole undertaking crowned with 80 blessed an issue. What is now a mystery, even to the believers themselves, and hath a veil upon it, shall then no longer be so; all the riddles of God’s grace and providence shall be plainly understood. Oh! how transporting a view must it needs be, when the glory of all the divine attributes, which God intended to accomplish in and by Christ, shall be manifest to his redeemed saints! the whole method of our salvation will then appear to be the fruit of unsearchable wisdom, when we shall all see the reality, and substance, and entire scheme of all that God designed in and by him; all that was typified of him, and foretold concerning him in the Old Testament. How will it all appear to be “the manifold wisdom of God!”
As, in uniting heaven and earth together in the person of our Mediator, fulfilling the truth of a terrible threatening in his death, and, by the same way, accomplishing many gracious promises; satisfying justice, and, at the same time, showing mercy; manifesting infinite grace and kindness by shedding of blood; conquering death by dying, and disarming the law by obedience to it, Sac, afterwards, subduing the world to the faith of the gospel, by the foolishness of preaching; making men wise to salvation, by the knowledge of the cross; and spreading that faith the more, by all the opposition made against it, &c. How wonderfully will a clear view of these things discover and glorify the wisdom of God!
But the love and grace of Christ, the infinite goodness and compassion of God, will then be magnified in an especial manner. What, but sovereign love, in the whole contrivance and counsel of God about our redemption! What admirable love and grace in the whole management of that design! What unparalleled kindness in the accomplishment of it, by the sacrifice of the Son of God! And how glorious will this love appear, when he shall come again to give us the full harvest of all his purchase! With what admiring thankfulness shall believers then contemplate the unsearchable riches of his grace! In all the parts and instances of his humiliation, from his conception to his crucifixion and burial; in all the evidences and discoveries made of it, from the first promise to its completion; yea, from before the foundation of the world, in the covenant of peace between the Father and the Son, until his second coming to judge the world, and deliver up the kingdom to his Father.
How shall we then admire and adore his powerful grace, which snatched us, as fire-brands, out of everlasting bufirthgs; that effectually shone into our minds byff&aveniy light; conquered the oppitioo of our stubborn wills; sanctified our camaJ hearts rescued us from the tyranny of Satan, and the dominion of lust; giving, cherishing, and preserving, the holy seed of grace, and making it spring up to eternal life; defeating the malicious and silbtle endeavourslof the devil to destroy it; enabling us to endure>^tribulation, and persevere to the end; giving us victory over death; conducting us through the dark valley; raising our bodies; reviving and reuniting them to our souls, and rendering them glorious like his own body; and, at length, rewarding our imperfect services with eternal life! Yea, though our best services were mixed with sin, our holiest duties spotted, our most courageous sufferings mixed with unbelief, yet rewarded with a blessedness that hath no alloy of evil, but all the ingredients of a perfect felicity, and nothing to lessen and interrupt it. How shiiil we then admire the bounty of our gracious Lord, the freeness, tenderness, riches, and the exceeding greiitness and glory, of his infinite goodness and grace to poor believers!
With what ecstacies of joy and gratitude may we imagine that our Lord will be then admired by all his redeemed ones! Saying, This is he, who made our peace with God, and reversed the sentence of damnation, which we were under; who bought us with the price of his most precious blood, bore the wrath of his Father, and submitted to an infamous and accursed death for us; he assumed our nature, that we might partake of his; became the Son of Man, that we might be made the children of God; “for our sakes be became poor, that we, through his poverty, might become rich;” he stooped to bear the greatest ignominy and reproach, to confer honour on us; he was, for a time, forsaken of his Father, that we might not be so eternally; he felt the stroke of his anger against sin, that we might not perish under it; he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs, that we might rejoice; bis agonies and bloody sweat were for our refreshment, and by his stripes we -are healed; he bowed his head on the cross, that we might lift up ours in triumph; and, because we had eaten of the forbidden fruit, he hung on the accursed tree. It was for. us that he suffered the frowns of heaven, the enmity of hell, the rage of devils, the hatred and persecution of the world; he was judged, that we might not come into condemnation; he was crucified, that we might be glorified; and he is now come again finally and fully to effect it.
Othe height, and depth, and length, and breadth, of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,’’ but calls for admiration and everlasting gratitude! This is the blessed day we longed, and waited, and prayed for! This is our gracious, our glorious Lord, whose love melted our heart, whose promise was our support, whose word was our rule, whose Spirit was our comforter, whose cross was our crown, and the hope of his appearance our chief consolation.
Lord, what am I? what was I? that the ever blessed Son of God should do, and suffer, and purchase, all this for me! I can remember wYieti v9«a
G ignorant of God, a stranger to him, at enmity with him, under the power of darkness and the devil, serving divers lusts and pleasures, hastening to hell, and liable to his wrath. But he chose me out of the world, stamped his image upon me, pardoned my fldns, and embraced me in the arms of his unchangeable love. O happy change I and yet how little did I prize his grace, admire his love, and express my own, or promote his glory, and honour him in the eyes of others I How did I dishonour my profession and holy calling, as his disciple, by aggravated apostaqy! But he recovered me by repentance, and healed my backslidings, and received me graciously, because he loved me freely. O admirable grace! to pardon, and save, and bring to glory, such ah unthankful wretch as I have been! to make such a difference between me and others, whom I knew on earth! That the same power which makes them miserable now, makes me blessed I That, when they are banished from his presence into everlasting destruction, I am admitted to behold his glory, and shall dwell with him for ever!
Oh I how much more do I now see and find, than ever I believed, of the love of Christ, and his promised salvation! How much more glorious is the person of my Redeemer! How much more excellent is the heavenly state than ever I thought or expected 1 I could not have imagined the thousandth thousandth part of that which I now see and feel! I cannot but admire, and spend an eternity in admiring and praising, the incomparable grace and glory of my blessed Redeemer.
Such holy admiration will certainly produce the most thankful adoration of our Lord Jesus; saying* one to another, O bless the Lord of love and glory! who humbled himself so low, as our Mediator, and hath exalted us so high, as the blessed fruit of it! How can we ever enough adore and praise him, who condescended so far, and hath done and suffered so much for us! See how the holy angels worship this King of glory! And have not every one of us more reason to do so? O! let all the choir of heaven celebrate his glorious love! and let us, his redeemed, his glorified, ones, say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God, his Father,’’ and, through him, ours.
O merciful. Saviour! O glorious change! O happy society! with whom we shall eternally adore our common Lord. We can some of us remember, when we lived together on earth, how we wept and prayed, and fasted and mourned, together; how we suffered, and complained, and sinned, together. O! the marvellous change our Redeemer hath now wrought for us, and in us I these bodies, these souls, this life, this place, this company, these enjoyments, are not like those in yonder world. But, alas! who can describe what believers shall then think and say, to extol their Saviour! How small a portion is it we understand of that world I How little can I conceive, and how much less express I Blessed be God we know so much, as the matter of our joyful hopes! and for ever blessed be God, who hath promiKed and provided such a glory for ua, aa cannot now be fully known.
What inexpressible sweetness might believiera taste, by rejoicing in hope, did a more lively faith realize all this to their souls! We might listen, as it were, to the shouts and acclamations of the saints above, and say Amen to their thanksgivings. We might behold them about the throne of God, and of the Lamb, with palms of victory in their bands, a crown of glory on their heads, and songs of triumph in their mouths, saying, “Hallelujah I Worthy art thou, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” And again, “Blessing, honour, glory, and power, be unto him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever.”
Whence is it, O my soul! if indeed I believe and expect all this, that I can hear, and read, and think, and speak of, these great things, with no more ardent aflPection, suitable preparations importunate prayers, and vigorous ddsires? How should the believing thoughts of that day promote my heavenlymiudedness, self-denial, contempt of the world, patience, and perseverance; quicken my zeal, secure my steadfastness, and give life and spirit to my prayers for the hastening of it! How should my soul rise toward heaven by holy love and desire! Ascend and meet him, get as near him as I can, breathe after more of his presence, and beg biro to prepossess my heart, to anticipate his second coming by clearer discoveries of bis love» and fuller communications of his grace! Even so, come. Lord
J«SU8«”