The following is taken from a sermon preached in 1687 by the Puritan divine, Dr William Bates. The occasion was the funeral of a colleague, Dr Thomas Jacomb.
We are to consider the final reward of Christ’s servants under two heads.
1. The Order of the Reward.
The order, in giving it after the service of Christ faithfully and constantly performed. It is the revealed will of God, that “all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father:” the Son is the heir of his love and glory, and in serving him the Father is honoured and obeyed. And as our Saviour reigns eternally in heaven, after the finishing his work enjoined him by the Father, so according to his example, we receive the crown of life after the course of our obedience. This is the tenor of the promise: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne; even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3: 21.
The order in dispensing the blessed reward, does not in the least eclipse the honour of God’s grace, or afford the least shadow of presuming upon any merit in our best services. “The wages of sin is death”, it is the just desert of it; “but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” The eternal elections of persons to life, the preparing of them by sanctifying grace for glory, and the actual possession of it, is from the most free favour of God. Election is “the first fountain of water springing up to eternal life: for what could induce God when all mankind was equally involved in guilt and misery, to choose some to be vessels of grace and glory, but his sovereign pleasure and pure grace! The elect were in the eye and heart of God from eternity, appointed to supernatural happiness, but that free and insuperable decree is accomplished according to the “Law of faith,” the unchangeable order of the gospel; and that is, that heaven shall be the reward of the faithful servants of Christ; not for the true desert of their service, but the most gracious and rich bounty of God. The angels of glory cannot from a plea of justice claim any reward from God: for the rights of justice suppose some equality between those who respectively are obliged by them, though not in all regards, yet so far as a certain common rule makes them equal: but there is such an immense distance between the divine majesty and the highest creatures, that there is no foundation for such a plea between them.
Besides, the duty of obedience is absolute: for all our natural powers and supernatural strength are his gifts, and were there no reward assured to us, are to be faithfully employed in his service. Now the payment of a debt cannot deserve a reward. Our best services are blemished with many imperfections, and without the mercy of the gospel that mollifies the strictness of the law, would make us liable to law, would make us liable to punishments; “God spares us, as a father spares his son, that serves him:” now pardon and merit are utterly inconsistent. And what proportion can there be between our mean and short services, and “the eternal weight of glory?” Even martyrdom, which is the most signal act of love and obedience to our Redeemer, the highest advancing of his glory, the most noble testimony of his truth: when our example works upon others, and engages them to Christ, and entitles us to a kind of interest in all they do and suffer for his name, yet even the laying down our lives is by infinite degrees below the glory of heaven, that is the promised reward to it. This St Paul testifies from his deliberate judgment, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” From hence in scripture the reward is often expressed by mercy: the apostle prays for Onesiphorus, whose valiant love in visiting and supplying him in the time of his imprisonment, was set off illustriously by the discouragements and inconsistency of others who neglected him; “The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.” And we are exhorted to “Keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” But although there is no merit in our service of the reward, yet God has wisely established an order and consequence between them, as the most conducing for his glory and our good. For not only the super-abundant mercy, but the righteousness and truth of God appear with an eminency of glory in this way of making us happy. The promise of the reward was from excellent goodness, but the performing it to his faithful servants is from his justice and fidelity. He was unlimitedly free, but having pleased with such condescending favour to make a covenant with us, upon our sincere compliance with the terms of it, he is obliged for the honour of his truth and righteousness to accomplish it: though in strictness he can owe nothing to us, yet is a debtor to his promise. From hence the apostle saith, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course; from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which God the righteous Judge shall give unto me.” The honour of his truth is sacred and inviolable: thus he is proclaimed in a style expressing how glorious his truth is, and how dear to him, “The Lord thy God, he is God;” and the only attribute that is annexed is, “the faithful God, keeping covenant and mercy.” At the last day he will be glorified not only as the free and magnificent donor of all the treasures of heaven, but as the God of truth, who has fulfilled all the exceeding great and precious promises made to his servants.
And the connexion between our duty and the reward, has a powerful influence to excite our sincere and earnest endeavours to please God: it is the strongest engagement to universal sanctity and obedience. For the gospel is an everlasting covenant, and the condition of it is unalterable: heaven is not promised as an absolute irrespective gift, but as a reward consequent of services. There can be no lively regular hope of future happiness, but according to the revelation of God’s will, who gives it: the accomplishment of his promise has a dependance upon our duty. The crown of life is promised to “those that love God; and love is the fulfilling of the law:” if any one aspires to that dignity, he must from love, which is the internal character and disposition of a saint, obey and serve God. To presume of obtaining our last and blessed end, without a diligent use of the means prescribed in the gospel, is such idle preposterous folly, that men would be ashamed of with respect to the gaining of temporal things. Can he that sows no seed, expect a harvest? or that plants no vineyard, expect a vintage? Can a merchant hope for rich returns from a foreign country, without trading thither? And it is as vain to hope for the eternal reward, without following holiness. The presumption is heightened and more fatal, when any shall think, if they are predestinated to glory, they shall obtain it without their best diligence in making “their calling and election sure.” This is to make a diametrical opposition between the decrees of God, and the record of his will in the gospel. Election is a chain that reaches from heaven to earth, to draw men from earth to heaven: it has intermediate links that must not be left out. Between election and glorification the faith and obedience of the gospel intervenes: the apostle informs us, “that we are chosen to salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth.” The decrees of God are a secret we cannot dive into. We can discover what is secret only by what is revealed; our election by our effectual calling, which is the infallible and sensible effect of it. To lie down securely in the secret decree, neglecting to “work out our own salvation,” is such pernicious sophistry, as can only be inspired from the father of lies. If ever such a thought is suggested, that if I am elected, I shall be happy though careless of my duty, chain it up, there is folly and frenzy in it. Heaven is bestowed as a gift of his infinite grace and power, but according to the wise and immutable order set down in the gospel; which is so far from lessening and obscuring the glory of his mercy, that it makes it more conspicuous: for holiness, to which we are so strictly obliged as preparatory for heaven, is our most divine perfection, and qualifies us for the enjoyment of God.
2. The Excellence of the Reward.
The excellence of the reward is to be considered: “He that serves me, him will my Father honour.” Such is the wisdom and equity of God in his moral government, that he has by a graceful order annexed honour as the reward to virtue. The general rule is, “Those that honour me, I will honour; and those that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed.” There is such a majestic beauty in holiness as commands the esteem and affections of men, unless they are prodigiously degenerate and corrupted by their lusts. The heathens were convinced that honour is the intrinsic tribute always due to virtue; and some were so strict, and had such divine thoughts as to maintain that virtue is the only true nobility. It is foretold in scripture, “The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance:” they leave an honourable evidence of their graces and virtues in their works, and are of precious memory, “when the name of the wicked shall rot.” But the reward our Saviour promises, is “the honour that comes from God only:” and as his majesty infinitely transcends all earthly principalities; so in proportion, the honour that he confers upon his servants is above all the titles of honour, all the swelling praises of men. This reward is given in the next world. Here the servants of Christ are sometimes darkened with many afflictions, and buried in sad obscurity before they are dead; they are the objects of scorn and contempt: St Paul who was an incarnate seraphim, whose zeal in the service of his Divine Master exceeded all the apostles, yet was, as he declares, vilified as the offscouring of the world. Now such is the excellent goodness of God, that he will certainly in the next life reward with the highest honour all who have advanced his honour.
The honour and glory of the future state is concealed at present, it is wrapped up in a cloud; only some glimmerings of it glance upon our eyes: “Light is sowed for the righteous,” the plenary revelation is hereafter. It is true the apostle tells us, “that life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel:” but that is only to be understood of a comparative revelation, to what was under the law: it is brought to the light of faith, which is like to break of day, when the shadows of the earth and the light of heaven are mixed. There is a veil between us and the glory of heaven, partly to try our faith, whether we will believe the promise of God without sensible discoveries of it; and to try the sincerity of our love, whether we love God for himself, without the distinct unfolding of that excellent glory: and to comply with the weakness whilst we are in such tempered tabernacles of flesh. If the beams of his glory were displayed before our eyes, we should be struck with blindness, as Saul was at the brightness of Christ’s appearing to him: the flood of light would swallow us up in ecstasy and amazement. Our faint faculties cannot sustain his glorious presence. As God told Moses, “No man can see my face and live;” St John tells believers, “Now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:” now our names are written in the book of life, in the rolls of eternity; now we are adopted into the line of heaven; now we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ; the royal purple robe died in his blood; we have the privileges of the justified state; we have a right to the eternal kingdom by our Saviour’s purchase, and the firm covenant of grace; we have the “Holy Spirit of promise,” who is “the earnest of our inheritance, and the seal of God’s love to us:” but the full partaking of that glory is reserved till we leave this visible world.
I will briefly glance at the several degrees of the reward that shall be conferred upon all whom “the King of glory delights to honour in the next world.”
(1.) The scripture reveals, that “the souls of just men first come to the perfection of glory.” If Adam had continued in his holy state after a short immortality upon earth, he had been translated alive, and entire in soul and body, to heaven: the everlasting doors had been opened wide for his reception: but since our disobedience, though our guilt be pardoned, the gate is so strait that the gross spoils of our flesh must be left behind us. Now immediately upon the dissolution of the saints, God sends a guard of angels, his most noble creatures, to convoy their souls into “the courts of his honour”, into the chamber of his glorious presence. Divine dignity! This is the privilege of his chosen friends and favourites, of the most illustrious and blessed creatures. In heaven the divine majesty is seen in its glory: and if one ray of it, reflecting upon suffering Stephen, adorned him with angelical glory, how much more will the face of God most radiant and resplendent transform the soul into an admirable similitude of his perfections? “When we shall see him as he is, we shall be like him,” by his everliving Spirit, the principle of the divine life and beauty in the soul, as the soul is of the natural life and beauty in the body. There will remain no shadow of error in the mind, no mixture of evil in the will, no pollution in the affections, but the full likeness of God in holiness and joy. This is the highest honour an immortal spirit is capable of. The state of innocence wherein man was created is called a “state of honour”: the angels are dignified with the title of saints: and God is “glorious in holiness:” it follows therefore, when “the spirits of just men are made perfect” they partake of the heavenly and divine honour. If the joy that springs from believing whilst we are in this vale of tears be “unspeakable and full of glory,” how glorious is the joy that springs from the clearest sight and the most intimate fruition of the blessed God, the joy that is without defect or end? as the psalmist expresses, “In thy presence is fulness of joy, at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.”
(2) At the last day their bodies shall be raised and refined to a spiritual excellency, and transformed into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body. The apostle declares, that the consummation of the saint’s glory shall be at Christ’s appearance. Then their souls shall be reinvested with shining robes of immortality: they shall be placed at the right hand of the everlasting King, which implies the highest honour; as God’s being at our right hand, implies protection and defence: they shall then receive a most glorious testimony of his acceptance, “Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into your Master’s joy:” after they are approved, they shall sit upon thrones, and judge the world, even the prince of darkness with all his apostate trains; they shall give their solemn suffrages to the judgment pronounced by our Saviour, saying, “Hallelujah, salvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are the judgments.” And after the last act of his regal office, our Saviour will lead them into the kingdom of his glory to reign with him for ever and ever. Who is able to unfold this excellent glory? all human words are unworthy and too narrow to express it; only the lively and ravishing experience of that glory can fully reveal it to us. The meanest saint in that kingdom shines in glory that infinitely exceeds all the most solemn and magnificent representations of an earthly majesty, all the trophies and triumphs of the most famous conquerors. To raise our thoughts by a distinct comparison of them, consider:
The glory of saints is substantial and solid, it is inherent in them. The apostle says, “It is a glory that shall be revealed in us:” a plenary infusion of all glorious endowments both in soul and body shall conform us to the Son of God. The glory of this world is but an airy opinion, a verbal sound without substance, empty titles, external appearance, and confers no real dignity to the person that receives it. There is no greatness in worldly honour: it is a fancy which heightens some by comparison with those that are below them. But heaven is the kingdom of true glory, and every saint there is truly glorious. The psalmist declares God’s judgment of all the honour and prosperity of the world: “As a dream when one awakes, so, O Lord when thou awakest thou wilt destroy their image.” They are painted shadows, splendid toys. What difference there is between the clear and sound judgment of a person thoroughly awake, and the vain fugitive fancies of one that dreams, there is, and much more between the swelling images of worldly honour, and the real heavenly honour of the saints.
The heavenly glory brings entire satisfaction. “As for me,” saith David, “I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” When the morning of glory arises, and the soul awakes from the heavy eyelids of flesh, and sees the King of spirits in his beauty, and the impression of the divine excellencies conspicuous in itself, what a joyful satisfaction, as sweet as life, is diffused through all its powers? What a heavenly Sabbath composes all its vast and restless desires? The glorified saint sings with the psalmist, “Return to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee.” But how unsatisfactory is all secular greatness and honour? Of this we have the fullest testimony from some who ascended to the top of worldly glory: Solomon whose calm and flourishing state was scarce ever paralleled, yet declares that all was vanity. And the Roman triumphs, wherein the world was represented in its highest glory, was but an empty show: Vespasian the emperor in his triumphant way often reflected upon his folly in being induced to suffer such a tedious vanity. It is true the dreaming minds of men are deceived with vain complacency in it for a while, and this makes them unwilling to be convinced of their foolish prizing it; yet they cannot find any solid true satisfaction: they are charmed with a superficial pleasure, that cannot reach to the centre of the soul.
To sum up all, The honour of the servants of Christ is eternal: they will shine like the stars, that never faint in their watches and influences, with a durable glory. But the glory of this world, like a blaze of straw, presently vanishes: not one ray of secular glory shall enlighten the highest monarchs, in the shady valley of death, nor in the regions of darkness beyond it.