CHAPTER IX
The chief employment of the Millennium, DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION.
WE have now done with the substance of our Discourse: which is comprehended in these Three Propositions:
I. After the Conflagration of this World, there will be New Heavens and a New Earth: And that Earth will be inhabited.
II. That there is an happy Millennial state; Or a future kingdom of Christ and his Saints, prophesied of and promis’d in the Old and New Testament: and receiv’d by the Primitive Church, as a Christian and Catholick doctrine.
III. That this blessed Millennial state, according as it is describ’d in Scripture, cannot take place in the present Earth, nor under the present constitution of Nature and Providence: But is to be celebrated in the New Heavens and New Earth, after the Conflagration.
These three Propositions support this Work; and if any of them be broken, I confess my design is broken, and this Treatise is of no effect. But what remains to be spoken to in these last Chapters, is more circumstantial or modal; and an error or mistake in such things, does not wound any vital part of the argument. You must now therefore lay aside your severity, and rigorous censures; we are very happy, if, in this life, we can attain to the substance of truth: and make rational conjectures concerning modes and circumstances; where every one hath a right to offer his sence, with modesty and submission. Revelations made to us from Heaven in this present state, are often incompleat, and do not tell us all: as if it was on purpose to set our thoughts a work to supply the rest; which we may lawfully do, provided it be according to the analogy of Scripture and Reason.
To proceed therefore; We suppose, as you see, the new Heavens and the new Earth to be the seat of the Millennium: and that new Creation to be Paradisiacal. Its Inhabitants also to be righteous Persons, the Saints of the most High. And seeing the ordinary employments of our present life, will then be needless and superseded, as Military affairs, Sea-affairs, most Trades and Manufactures, Law, Physick, and the laborious part of Agriculture: it may be wonder’d, how this happy People, will bestow their time: what entertainment they will find in a state of so much ease, and so little action. To this one might answer in short, by another question, How would they have entertain’d themselves in Paradise, if man had continued in Innocency? This is a revolution of the same state, and therefore they may pass their time as well now, as they could have done then. But to answer more particularly, besides all innocent diversions, ingenuous conversations, and entertainments of friendship, the greatest part of their time will be spent in Devotion and Contemplation. O happy employment, and next to that of Heaven it self. What do the Saints above, but sing praises unto God, and contemplate his Perfections. And how mean and despicable, for the most part, are the employments of this present life, if compar’d with those intellectual actions. If Mankind was divided into ten parts, nine of those ten employ their time to get bread to their belly, and cloaths to their back; And what impertinences
we may reasonably suppose that there will be greater effusions and irradiations of the Holy Spirit, than we have or can expect in this region of darkness: and consequently, all the strength and comfort that can arise from private devotion.
And as to their publick Devotions, all beauties of holiness, all perfection of divine worship, will shine in their Assemblies. Whatsoever David says of Sion and Jerusalem are but shadows of this new Jerusalem, and of the glory that will be in those Solemnities. Imagine what a Congregation will be there of Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Christian Martyrs, and Saints of the first rank, throughout all Ages. And these all known to one another by their Names and History. This very meeting together of such Persons, must needs create a joy unspeakable: But when they unite in their praises to God and to the Lamb, with pure hearts full of divine Love: when they sing their Halleluiah's to him that sits upon the Throne, that hath wash’d them in his blood, and redeem’d them out of every Kingdom, and Tongue, and People, and Nation. When, with their Psalms in their hands, they triumph over Sin, and Death, and Hell, and all the Powers of Darkness: can there be any thing, on this side Heaven, and a Quire of Angels, more glorious or more joyful?
But why did I except Angels? Why may not they be thought to be present at these Assemblies? In a Society of Saints and purified Spirits, Why should we think their converse impossible? In the Golden Age, the gods were always represented, as having freer intercourse with Men; and before the Flood, we may reasonably believe it so. I cannot think, Enoch was translated into Heaven without any converse with its Inhabitants before he went thither. And seeing the Angels vouchsaf’d often, in former Ages, to visit the Patriarchs upon Earth, we may with reason judge, that they will much more converse with the same Patriarchs and holy Prophets, now they are risen from the Dead, and cleans’d from their sins, and seated in the new Jerusalem. I cannot but call to mind upon this occasion, that representation which St. Paul makes to us, of a glorious state and a glorious Assembly, too high for this present Earth: ’Tis Hebr. 12. 22, &c. in these words. But you are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels; To the general Assembly and Church of the First-born, which are written in Heaven; and to God the Judge of all, and to the Spirits of just men made perfect. This, I know, several apply to the Times and state of the Gospel, in opposition to that of the Law; and it is introduc’d in that manner; But here are several expressions too
suppose the Heavens to open, and the Son of God to appear in his glory, with Thousands and Ten Thousands of Angels round about him; That their eyes may see him, who, for their sakes, was crucified upon Earth, now encircled with Light and Majesty. This will raise them into as great transports as humane nature can bear: They will wish to be dissolv’d, they will strive to fly up to him in the clouds, or to breath out their Souls in repeated doxologies of Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, to him that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever.
But we cannot live always in the flames of Devotion. The weakness of our nature will not suffer us to continue long under such strong Passions, and such intenseness of Mind. The question is therefore, What will be the ordinary employment of that life? How will they entertain their thoughts, or spend their time? For we suppose they will not have that multiplicity of frivolous business that we have now: About our Bodies, about our Children: in Trades and Mechanicks: in Traffick and Navigation: or Wars by Sea or Land. These things being swept away, wholly or in a great measure, what will come in their place? how will they find work or entertainment for a long life? If, we consider, who they are that will have a part in this first Resurrection, and be Inhabitants of that World that is to come, we may easily believe that the most constant employment of their life will be CONTEMPLATION. Not that I exclude any innocent diversions, as I said before: The entertainments of friendship, or ingenuous conversation, but the great business and design of that life is Contemplation: as preparatory to heaven and eternal Glory. Ut paulatim assuescant capere Deum, as Irenæus says: That they may, by degrees, enlarge their capacities, fit and accustom themselves to receive God. Or, as he says in another place, That they may become capable of the glory of the Father, that is, capable of bearing the glory and presence of God: capable of the highest enjoyment of him, which is usually call’d the Beatifical Vision; and is the condition of the blessed in Heaven.
It cannot be deny’d, that in such a Millennial state, where we shall be freed from all the incumbrances of this life, and provided of better Bodies and greater light of Mind: It cannot be doubted, I say, but that we shall then be in a disposition to make great proficiency in the knowledge of all things, Divine and Intellectual:
That he descended like a Dove upon our Saviour: Like cloven Tongues of fire upon the Apostles; The Place being fill’d with a rushing mighty Wind: That he over-shadowed the Blessed Virgin, and begot the Holy Infant. That He made the Apostles speak all sort of Tongues and Languages ex tempore, and pour’d out strange Vertues and miraculous Gifts upon the Primitive Christians. These things we know as bare matter of fact, but the method of these operations we do not at all understand. Who can tell us now, what that is which we call INSPIRATION? What change is wrought in the Brain, and what in the Soul: and how the effect follows? Who will give us the just definition of a Miracle? What the proximate Agent is above Man, and whether they are all from the same power? How the manner and process of those miraculous changes in matter, may be conceiv’d? These things we see darkly, and hope they will be set in a clearer light, and the Doctrines of our Religion more fully expounded to us, in that Future World. For as several things obscurely exprest in the Old Testament, are more clearly reveal’d in the New; So the same mysteries, in a succeeding state, may still receive a further explication.
The History of the Angels, Good or bad, makes another part of this Providential Systeme. Christian Religion gives us some notices, of both kinds, but very imperfect; What interest the Good Angels have in the government of the
