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I Come now to handle the second Proposition, which is this.
Prop. 2. That Heaven is a continu∣ing City. In the prosecution of this point, I will shew you first how it is a City, then how it is a continuing City: That it is a City, will appear by these demonstrations.
1. In a City there be divers streets, divers houses in those streets, wherein
some are bigger, some are lesser; a City is large and spacious; so our Sa∣viour saith, In my Fathers house (the City of the great King) are many Mansions, Joh. 14.2. It is a most mag∣nificent City, no greatness in the world can be compared with the greatness of it; it is the Royal Palace of the great God, who inhabiteth Eternity, whom the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens are not able to contain, there he vouch∣safeth to dwell, and in a most glorious manner to communicate himself to his Angels, and his Saints.
2. Heaven is populous as a City: If you desire to know the number of the Inhabitants of this City, S. John will tell you, Revel. 7.9. that he saw in Spirit such a great company of blessed Saints (that no man was able to reckon them) gathered together of all kinds of Nations, people and tongues, which stood before the Throne of Al∣mighty God, and of the Lamb, ap∣parrelled in white garments, and with Triumphant Palms in their hands, sing∣ing praise unto Almighty God. Here∣unto doth that of the Prophet Daniel agree, Dan. 7.10. Thousand thousands ministred unto him, and ten thousand-times
ten thousand, stood before him.
3. It is full of glorious riches as a City: It is said of Tyre, that the Merchants thereof were Princes; so all the Inhabitants of this City are No∣ble Personages, there is no one among them of base Lineage or extraction, forasmuch as they be all the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almigh∣ty, and instated into a rich and glorious Inheritance.
4. It is a City compact, and at uni∣ty within it self: We must not think that the greatness of the number of these Citizens causeth any disorder among them; for there the multitude is no cause of confusion, but of grea∣ter order; there must needs be good agreement, there being none but God and good company there; there is no matter of discontent or discord among the Citizens; for these commonly arise about partition and division either of ho∣nors or offices; here is ambition: or else of goods or possessions; here is co∣vetousness: Now neither of these shall ever come there; for heavens happy ex∣cess shall not be diminished, nor any whit impaired by reason of the multi∣tude of sharers in it; for as S. August.
tells us, the glory of heaven shall be, Tanta singulis, quanta omnibus, such to every one in particular, as it shall be to all in common; and although there shall be dispar gloria singulorum, yet there shall be communis laetitia om∣nium; they all live so lovingly toge∣ther, that they are all as it were one heart, and one soul. All the Citizens of heaven live so harmoniously and peaceably together, that the very City it self is called Jerusalem, the Vision of Peace. Although all the Saints shall be like Christ in glory, yet one Saint will exceed another in glory. God will cloathe all his children alike, yet their garments shall be made propor∣tionable to their stature; all the Saints shall be Vessels of Mercy, yet one Saint shall be a larger and a more ca∣pacious Vessel than another. Christ in his answer to that curious request of Zebedees wife, Mat. 20.23. Granting that some shall sit at his right hand, and others at his left in his Kingdome, im∣plieth, that there shall be degrees of glory, to some more, to others less; they all shall have the same glory and happiness, Ratione objecti faelicitat is & gloria non ratione participationis: In
regard of the object of happiness (God in Christ is the object of happi∣ness) they shall all enjoy God; but in regard of the participation of the ob∣ject, one may and shall see him more clearly than another. In my Fathers house are many Mansions, saith our Sa∣viour. Patris Domus, the Fathers House is put for one and the same ob∣ject of glory: Pluralitas Mansionum; there be many Mansions, that sheweth there are divers degrees of glory, saith Aquinas.* 1.1 This is his comparison; there is but one Center unto which all things tend, but some bodies are neerer than other bodies; so God in Christ is the Center of all our happiness (Seneca calleth God,* 1.2 Animae Centrum, the Center of the Soul.) But one Saint tendeth more neer to God than ano∣ther; one shall partake more of glory than another,* 1.3 yet notwithstanding they shall be all full of glory and happiness, as Christ is; Christ will give to every Saint his measure of glory. Danaeus saith well; the Saints in heaven shall want envy; one Saint shall not envy a∣nother Saints greater measure of glory, because they shall be all full of glory; and there shall be no want of whatso∣ever
pertaineth to make a creature happy: Every Saint shall have and enjoy such fulness of happiness, that nec plus quaeret quam habebit, nec mi∣nus habere se dolebit, quam habet: He that hath the least measure of glory shall seek for no more, nor grieve that he hath so little.
5. The end of building Cities was, that people might be free from the fear of their Enemies abroad, and live qui∣etly among themselves at home: Now this heavenly City is too high for any Adversary to approach to, and there∣fore free from being assaulted with any Forreign Enemy: There is no Enemy can shoot an arrow into this City, nor scale the walls, nor incamp against it, nor make any battery in it, nor set it on fire, nor so much as draw a line about it; great is their peace, and nothing shall offend them.
6. It is a City in respect of its Go∣vernment: A City is a Corporation of men enjoying the same priviledges, living under the same Government. Heaven is a City, saith St. August. whereof the holy Angels and Saints are the Citizens, the Eternal Father the Temple, the Son the Brightness, the
Holy Ghost the Love: How can it be ill in that City where God himself is the Governour, his will and pleasure the Law, and none but the good Angels and Saints the Inhabitants thereof? In this City God manifesteth himself gloriously, and ruleth immediately, not by outward compulsion, but by ta∣king full possession of the soul and bo∣dy of every Saint and Citizen; they esteeming it to be their glory and hap∣piness to be subject to him fully, he ru∣ling in love, and they obeying in love; he governing them as a Father, and they yeelding filial subjection to him.
Aquinas.
Seneca.
Carent omni invi∣dia, & ••arent om∣ni rerum ad beati∣tudinem necessaria∣rum indi∣gentia. Danae ••8.