Destruction The Word in the Original is from his Face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now God's Anger or Wrath is as well and very frequently expressed by his Face in Scripture as his Favour useth to be For the Face as well holds forth Anger and Wrath as Favour and Grace Thus Lev. 20. 6. I will set my Face against that Soul and will cut him off that is I will put forth mine Anger to destroy him And Lament 4. 26. where it is translated the Anger of the Lord in the Hebrew and in your Margents it is The Face of the Lord. As there is the Light of God's Countenance in which is Life so the rebuke of God's Countenance at which we perish Psal 80. 16. Even as the Wax is said to melt at the Presence of the Fire Psal 68. 2. and often elsewhere So then to be destroyed from his Face and Presence is all one as to say from his Anger and Wrath. And we have both exegetically met in one Scripture Rev. 6. last They said to the Mountains Fall on us to hide us from the Face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb and suitably this Destruction here in 2 Thess 1. is said to be both from God and Christ Even as the Happiness of Heaven is immediately from the Presence of God and Christ Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it For the Glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof Thus on the contrary is it in Hell and so at the day of Judgment it is the Face of God and the Face of the Lamb that the Wicked most of all do dread as that which is the Inflicter of their Torment As for any Objection from those words in flaming Fire c. I shall answer it afterwards III. Scripture Rom. 9. 23. CHAP. III. This Passage explicated only so far as concerns the Execution Several Particulars in the Words that shew the Power of God's Wrath to be the inflicting Cause and immediately inflicting this Punishment An Explication of a fourth Scripture Rom. 2. 8 9. added for the confirmation of all I Shall insist on this Passage but so far as it respects the Execution of this Destruction in Hell after much Long-Suffering passed and not to touch at all upon any thing of that Point of Rejection from Eternity whether intended or not But that the Words should respect the Execution in Hell which is the Point only before us I take that as clear and much for granted And the Reason is because it is the Glory of Heaven which in the next Words the Apostle joins with it and sets by it as Parallels illustrating each the other So ver 23. And that he might make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory In Heaven namely The only thing which by the way I observe is That the Sin of the Creature is that which prepareth or fitteth the Creature for the execution of this Punishment And a difference may be observed in this though otherwise a Parallel as put in cautiously by the Apostle that God himself prepareth the Saints to Glory ver 23. but the other are fitted that is by themselves unto Destruction ver 22. ere he destroyeth them The Point afore me is that God's Wrath and his Power are to be the immediate Inflicters of that Destruction There are several Particulars in the Words which taken singly might perhaps be sufficient to prove this but laid all together will become a strong eviction thereof 1. That God's Wrath and his Power or the Power of his Wrath are spoken of as the inflicting or executing Causes is evident For it is a Power of Efficiency here spoken of as whereby God produceth this Destruction as a Cause doth its proper Effect and accordingly He is said to make known and shew his Power and Wrath therein like as the force and virtue of an efficient Cause is made known and demonstrated in and by the Effect it produceth And so is spoken to the same Effect with what in Chap. 1. 20. he had said that his Power and Godhead is clearly seen from the Creation of the World and understood by the things that are made He that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mighty one as the blessed Virgin there by way of Eminency styles him Luke 1. 49. is said to shew strength with his Arm Ver. 51. And here to make known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word suited to that other his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posse or what is possible to be done by him It is then a power of Strength and Energie or Efficacy with his own Hands and Arm and that according to the utmost of his Ability as the word imports And so the Power here spoken of is an inflicting Power that works and effects this Destruction and not that of Authority only or a Power of Liberty to do as one pleaseth as the Potter with the Clay For that kind of Power he had afore ascribed to God in this matter in the foregoing Verse which this Word here is distinct from And this is one step unto which add 2. It is his Power joined with his Wrath that is the Power of his Wrath or his Wrath in the Power of it For thus Moses the Man of God Psal 90. 11. had long afore put them together when he speaks of this very Wrath in Hell of which here the Apostle doth For after he had 1. set out the Time and Condition of Man in this Life The days of our years are threescore years and ten c. and then 2. We fly away so expressing Death and our going into another World Then 3. follows Who knows the Power of thine Anger As that which succeedeth and seizeth after Death upon the most of Mankind dying in their Sins The Apostle here mentions Power and Wrath apart but Moses there maketh Power an Attribute of his Wrath and so considered it hath a double meaning and both serving our purpose 1. That Wrath stirs up his Power and draws it out unto this Execution and therefore Wrath is the first of the two here mentioned yea further that it is his Power as it becomes heated inflamed and intended by Wrath that inflicteth this And as a Man in his Anger strikes a greater blow so may God be supposed to do when represented as thus smiting in his sore displeasure And 2. That God's very Wrath and Anger if but shewn and revealed by him to Mens Souls hath such a Power in it that that alone is enough to destroy them The nearest resemblance that the Scriptures Fiery Indignation in the Text. Psal 22. 14. make of this Wrath is that of Fire of which anon and that as Fire melting Wax by the very Presence of it As therefore when we would express the Power of Fire we say the Power of the Heat that
great Reward And so we come to connect this fifth Head with the foregoing Gen. 15. 1. And therefore if the being his God moved him to prepare that City against his death as hath been said then surely his being his Reward doth also then take place I shall not omit it because it falls in the next Chapter Heb. 12. 23. that in that stupendious Assembly of Heaven God the Judge of all is mentioned between the Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven this afore and the Spirits of justified Men made perfect this after it For there are none of these First-born or the Spirits of just Men do come to sit down there but they pass the award of this Judge first for they sit down by him and surely having done all their Work in the time of that day is allotted to each man to work in it is a righteous thing with God to give them a Reward in the evening of this day which is Christ's time set for rewarding and it is the twelfth and last hour succeeding the eleventh of the day Matth. 20. 6 9. See Brugensis Maldonat c. Lev. 19. 13. compared which is when the night of death comes Now there is a Law given by God that the wages to a man hired should be given him by him that set him awork in his day that is says the Septuagint the very same day so as his Work or the wages of his Work abide not with thee all the night until the morning Deut. 24. 15. says God Deut. 24. 15. Did God take care for hirelings when their Work was done not to stay any space of time no not a night and doth he not fulfil this himself unto his Sons that serve him Surely yes he defers not nor puts them off to the morning of the Resurrection as the Psalmist elegantly calls it Psal 17. last It abides not with him all that dark and longsome night or space after death in which their bodies rest in the grave which is termed Man's long home and Eccles 12. 5. The days of darkness are many says Solomon No he rewards them in the evening of the day besides what he will add to it in the morning It is observable that Rev. 6. 9 10. concerning the separate Souls slain for Christ that whilst they cry for Justice on their enemies only And when he had opened the fifth Seal I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held and they cryed with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth that they had white robes given them to quiet them in the mean time ver 11. And white Robes were given unto every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season till they heard that vengeance also was executed on that Roman Empire for their blood shed And thus to deal is a righteous thing with God Thus you have seen the Point confirmed from all sorts of relations that God bears unto us by congruous Reasons that so it becometh God the great God to do He that hath wrought us for this thing is God And so much for this first Branch of this second Doctrine §. The II. Branch of the second Doctrine That there is a glorious Contrivement and Workmanship carried on in this Dispensation of his like unto the great God indeed This carries on this Point yet higher For it is not onely an Ordination becoming God upon the respects mentioned but there is an Artifice a Workmanship in it such as he useth to shew in his Works of Wonder even in this That he should work upon Men's Souls in this life and then bring them into a Glory he had in the mean space been a working also for those their Souls This is the great God indeed When God secretly bestows Cost and Curiosity in preparing matters for such or such an end and then again as hiddenly hath laid out a greater Art Skill and Workmanship upon that end it self and then hath exactly suited and matched the one to the other when All comes to be finish'd and both wrought and brought together then will an infinite surpassing Glory arise unto God out of all which deserveth to have this Notoriety that is here put upon it He that hath wrought this for that Is GOD and lo this is found here which is demonstrated if we view 1. Each of these Workmanships singly and apart 2. Joyntly as designed and fitted each to the other §. 1. Each singly If there were no such ordination of the one for the other yet so considered they deserve to have each an He that hath wrought this is God to be written under it 1. For his Artifice in working us in this life Learned Cameron hath but one In his Myrothecium Note upon this whole fifth Chapter and and it falls to be upon this very Word who hath wrought and it is this This word says he as used by the Septuagint signifies Rem expolire rudem informem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To polish a thing that is rude and without fashion for which he gives instance out of Exod. 35. 33. in Bezaleel's work whom as the 31 32 verses speak of him God had filled with his Spirit in all Wisdom in all Workmanship to devise cunning Work And again the same word is used of the Temple-work that other was for Mose's Tabernacle 1 King 6. 36. by Solomon which how transcendent a structure it was you have all read or heard An infinitely surpassing Art then hath the Spirit himself who is the immediate worker in this shewn in the framing and hewing and curiously carving and engraving those living Stones that grow up into a Temple unto God 1 Pet. 2. 5. especially considering the utter remoteness indisposedness yea crookedness and perverseness in the matter wrought upon our souls fill'd with the contrary form and workmanship of Satan Ye are his workmanship says the Apostle Eph. 2. 10. And truly if we could enlarge upon all the varieties of dealings God useth to each Soul to work it the several sorts of gracious dispositions he impresseth and carveth upon it the manifold actings of every Soul drawn forth by him you may take a view of some in the very next chapter to that of my Text 2 Cor. 6. from the 4. ver In much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses v. 5. In Stripes in Imprisonments in Tumults in Labours in Watching in Fastings ver 6. By Pureness by Knowledge by Long-suffering by Kindness by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned ver 7. By the Word of Truth by the Power of God by the Armour of Righteousness on the right-hand and on the left ver 8. By Honour and dishonour by evil Report and good Report as deceivers and yet true ver 9.
it self out fairly to its full length yet some last but a very little while and those of the greatest size cannot long Oh but how many intervening Casualties are there that afore do put it out The Candle of the Wicked shall be put out and Destruction cometh upon them Job 21. 17. that is ab extrinseco from without How many Thieves in the Candle or fatal Accidents do Men meet with that unawares consume it Immoderate Sorrows and Cares swale it Intemperance like too much Oyl poured thereon to feed it choaketh and extinguisheth it Too much Intention of Mind turns the Flame downwards upon it self and so it evaporates Often another Mans Breath in seasons of Malignity which fall out more or less every year blows and puffs it out A Friends Breath comes in with an infectious Vapour and throws his Soul out who visits him Yea an unskilful or else a mistaking hand of a Physician who undertakes to snuff and brighten it unwarily clean snuffs the Candle out Yea Men strong and vigorous go to the Grave in a moment as in the same 21. chapter of Job ver 13. Yea as Psal 55. 15. they go quick to Hell it is an allusion to Corah Dathan c. Numb 16. 30 33. of whom 't is said twice They went alive to Hell Many die so suddenly that they are in Hell in a trice and as it were ere quite dead And truly the most of Men live in this World like silly Sheep in a Pasture as David's Similitude is Psal 4. 9. 14. They are See Ainsw put into Hell like Sheep so some It notes out their Security in respect of that slaughter which comes upon them This Man dies then that then another and they regard it not even as the Sheep do not when the Butcher as his Pleasure is takes out first one then another and carries them to the Shambles whilst the rest feed on and know not that themselves are a fatting to the day of Slaughter also Let us consider also what millions of Transgressions are we guilty of in one Day Oh then what in thy whole Life And what a reckoning will the Sins of thy whole Life come to when every Commandment shall bring in their Bills and that thou hast to do with a God who 1. hath all thy Sins before him Isa 65. 6. Behold it is written afore me but I will recompence c. 2. That will never forget any one of them Amos 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn Surely I will never forget any of their Works 3. With a God who will bate thee nothing Every Transgression shall receive a just recompence of reward He spared not his own Son Rom. 8. and will not thee unless by regeneration thou hast a Portion in his Son Think with thy self what a case thou art in if thou must answer Justice for all and every one of these DAVID's Meditation Psal XLIX The most of these things hitherto by way of Use spoken by me are no other than what David himself spends one whole Psalm together upon it is Psal 49. and styles it The Meditation of his Heart vers 3. which caused me to entitle that former about what it is to dye a Meditation rather than an Vse as I had done that of Moses also Psal 90. This of David's I shall here add to set the deeper seal and weight upon all that hath been treated He begins the Psalm and shews the moment of these matters though in view but ordinary with as solemn a Preface and Proclamation calling upon attention and heed hereto as any where we find in Scriptures 1. In the first verse he summons all the World into a Ring about him Hear ye this all the People give Ear all the Inhabitants of the World And 2. particulariseth forth his Auditors into all sorts of Conditions vers 2. Both low and high rich and poor together For why what he was to utter to them did as much concern the one as it did the other and behoved them all alike to look to as being that which especially concerned them in respect unto their Being in the other World how different soever their Condition was in this And 3. he cries up the matter it self as the greatest Wisdom vers 3. and a deep mysterious Parable and dark saying vers 4. My Mouth shall speak of Wisdom and the Meditation of my Heart shall be of Vnderstanding I will incline mine Ear unto a Parable I will open my dark saying upon the Harp Now what should this matter be It was to declare two things which take up that whole Psalm The first how in the style of a Be it known to all Men for we have seen he publisheth it to all he aloud declares I for my part am not afraid to die and go into that other World Which confidence of his he greatens by this Supposition superadded That if when he should come to die all the Sins of his whole Life were presented afore his view yet notwithstanding he should not be afraid thus ver 5. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the Iniquities of my heels shall compass me about A strange confidence which yet he found reason for from God For he challengeth all or any thing to bring in reason to the contrary let them all say Wherefore should I fear And yet his other Psalms as well as his Story tell us what an infinite number of Sins were upon his score and how sensible he was thereof And that this bold Speech of his relates specially to the day of Death or days wherein he might have cause to fear it though I will exclude no other times of Trouble that were yet to come before in this Life to be intended by him which Interpreters wholly carry it unto that this is his scope I shall make appeal to the whole drift of what follows throughout the Psalm which concerns the state of wicked Men in their Death which I shall by and by shew But specially I argue it from the reference and correspondency this Speech hath with and to vers 15. God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah There you have the reason or ground of this his Confidence which he had at first uttered in ver 5. perfectly expressed as that which he opposed unto all Therefore 's or Wherefore's to the contrary yea though they should be fetch'd from his very Sins that might if any thing make him afraid But there in that resolve of his ver 15. he centers and landeth this which he had so confidently uttered in ver 5. And all the rest of his discourse that comes between is apparently about the opposite condition of wicked Men As that they must die and what their estate is in and after Death all which was but to illustrate this Confidence of his He plainly in this ver 5. puts himself into the supposition as if he were then to die and as if Death
Graces set in opposition unto our Outward Man the Body with its Appurtenances which he saith daily perisheth that is is in a mouldring and decaying condition Chap. 5. ver 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens In this first verse of this fifth Chapter he meets with this Supposition But what if this outward Man or earthly Tabernacle be wholly dissolved and pull'd down what then shall become of this inner Man And he resolves it thus That if it be dissolved we have an House a Building of God in the Heavens And what is the We but this inner Man he had spoken of renewed Souls which dwell now in the Body as in a Tabernacle as the Inmates that can subsist without it And it is as if he had said If this inward Man be destituted of one House we have another God that in this Life was so careful over this inner Man to renew it every day hath made another more ample provision against this great Change It is but its removing from one House to a better which God hath built As your selves to speak in your own Language if Wars should beset you and your Country-House were plundered and pull'd down you would comfort your selves with this I have yet a City-House to retire unto Neither is the terming the Glory of Heaven and that as it is bestowed upon a separate Soul an House alien from the Scripture-Phrase Luke 16. 9. That when you fail they may receive you into everlasting Habitations Death is a Failing 't is your City-Phrase also when a Man proves Bankrupt a Statute of Bankrupts comes forth then upon your old House Statutum est omnibus semel mori and upon all you have and then it is a receiving or entertaining that otherwise desolate Soul into everlasting Habitations that is into an House eternal in the Heavens as the Text. Nor yet is the Phrase of terming Heaven a City-House remote neither for Heb. 11. 13. Abraham and the Patriarchs died in Faith Mark that In Faith or Expectation of what He had told us ver 10. He looked for a City whose Builder is God What is a City but an Aggregation and Heap of Houses and Inhabitants Multitudes had died afore Abraham and gone to Heaven from Adam Abel Seth downwards and God promiseth him Peace at his Death and a being gathered to those Fathers Gen. 15. 15. There was then a City built and already replenish'd with Inhabitants and amongst others an House provided for him that is his Soul built of God and ready furnished against this Removal Verse 2. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven In this Verse he utters the working of the Affections of Christians towards their being cloathed upon with this House and so in order to this enjoiment of it their desiring even to be dissolved which Paul also utters of himself Phil. 1. Now if the first Verse speaks of the Glory of a separate Soul when he calls it an House this second verse must intend the same Verse 3. If so be that being cloathed we shall not be found naked In this Verse he gives an wholesom Caution by the way and withal insinuates why he used the word cloathed upon in the fore-going Verse thus speaking of the Glory of such a separate Soul even because it is absolutely necessary that all our Souls be found cloathed first and renewed with Grace and Holiness and not be found naked at our Deaths that is not devoid of Grace and so exposed to Shame and Wrath as Rev. 16. 15. Verse 4. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life The fourth Verse gives a genuine and sincere Account why a Christian doth thus groan and that after dissolution it self in order to this Glory which he sets out with an accurate distinction of their desires of dissolution in difference from like desires in all other Men First Negatively not for that being burthened we desire to be uncloathed or dissolved that is simply for ease of those Burthens nor out of a despising of our Bodies we now wear as their Heathen Wise-men and Philosophers did and others do No. But secondly Positively For this as the top-ground of that Desire That we would be cloathed upon with that House spoken of Verse 1. and that still taken in the Sence spoken of in the second Verse to the end that this mortal animal Life which the Soul tho immortal in it self now leads in the Body full of Sins clogg'd with a Body of Death and Miseries each of which hath a Death in it and so it lives but a dying Life that this Life may be exchanged yea swallowed up by that which is Life indeed the only true Life the knowing God as we are known and enjoying him All which as to our Souls is truly performed at our Dissolution although the final swallowing up the Mortality of our Bodies also doth yet remain to be accomplished which will be done at the latter day at that Change both of Body and Soul tho in respect of the Body it will be compleated as then more fully This Interpretation and the suting of all the Phrases used in this 4th Verse to hold good of this Exchange at Death I cannot through straitness of time give an account of now I have lately and very largely done it elsewhere This for the Coherence I hasten to my Text. TEXT Verse 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit THe Current of the four former Verses running thus steadily along in this Chanel the Stream in this Verse continues still the same There is one word in this Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this self-same thing God hath wrought us which serves us as a Clue of Thread drawn through the Windings of the former Verses to shew us that one and the same Individual Glory hath been carried on all along and still is in this Verse also So then we see where we are What this self-same thing should be ask the first Verse and it will tell you it is that House eternal in the Heavens a Building of God prepared by him against the time that this earthly House is dissolved Ask the second Verse it is the same House we groan to be cloathed upon with when the other is pulled down Ask the fourth Verse and more plainly It is that Life which succeeds this mortal Life the Soul now lives in this Body and swallows up all the Infirmities thereof And then here it follows Even for this self-same thing c. So then if the Glory of the separate Soul be the Subject of any of these Verses then of all and so of this Verse