proposed the divine light to their minds so he also illuminated their minds to discern and comprehend it he raised and exalted their intellectual faculties and as a vital form to the light of their reason did actuate and thereby enable it to comprehend his Revelations And hence Acts 19.6 we are told that the Disciples who upon St. Paul's laying his hands on them received the Holy Ghost spake with Tongues and Prophesied i. e. explained the deep Mysteries of the Gospel for so Prophesying in the New Testament doth most commonly signifie hence 1 Cor. 13.2 the Apostle makes Prophecy to consist in understanding divine Mysteries and Knowledge and in ver 9. We know in part saith he and we Prophesie in part so that the effect of their receiving the Holy Ghost you see was Prophecy that is a clear understanding of and ability to explain the Mysteries of Religion A plain evidence how effectually he taught them in that they no sooner became his Scholars but they were fit to be the Teachers of the World. For though it seems probable that he as well as our Saviour instructed them gradually in the knowledge of the Gospel since it was some time after this first descent that the Mystery of the calling of the Gentiles was revealed to them yet it is very apparent that he instructed them much faster than our Saviour had done and much fuller and that those impressions of divine truth which he made upon their understandings were much more vigorous and clear and therefore could not be so easily either forgotten or mistaken by them And accordingly our Saviour himself tells them that he had many things to say unto them but they could not bear them such was the narrowness of their capacity and the way of his teaching Howbeit saith he when the spirit of truth is come he shall lead you into all truth John 16.12 13. and teach you all things John 14.20 Thus the Holy Ghost fully instructed them what Doctrines they were to preach to the World and by his immediate inspirations enabled them to deliver down the truth to us the whole truth and nothing but the truth Thirdly The Holy Ghost enabled them to give the most convincing evidence of the Truth and Divinity of their Doctrines without which it was impossible they should ever have succeeded in their Ministry But the only certain evidence they could give that their Doctrine was divine was the testimony of Miracles For there is nothing which pretends to be divine can any otherwise evidence it self to be so but by something that is apparently divine and there being nothing apparently divine but what is plainly and evidently a miraculous effect of divine power it follows that Miracles only can attest the Divinity of any Doctrines Wherefore to enable the first Planters of the Gospel to convince the World that their Doctrine was divine it was highly requisite that they should be endowed with this divine power of working Miracles and accordingly so they were upon this miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost upon them For so Acts 2.43 upon this coming of the Holy Ghost on them we are told that many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles so also Acts 4.30 31. that upon their praying that God would stretch forth his hand to heal and that signs and wonders might be done by the name of Iesus God in answer to their Prayer filled them with the Holy Ghost that is enabled them by his Spirit to effect these signs and wonders they had prayed for It is true indeed they had in some measure this gift of the Holy Ghost before this miraculous Descent even while our Saviour was among them but that was very sparingly and only upon some particular occasions and for the effecting some particular Miracles but our Saviour promised them that upon his going to the Father to send the Comforter to them They who believed on him should not only do the Works which he did but greater works than those John 14.12 and accordingly when after his Ascension the Holy Ghost came upon them he continued with them and upon all occasions impowered them to do all kinds of Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine so that whereas before the greatest part of these miraculous signs of the divinity of the Christian Doctrine were performed by Christ himself in his own Person and by that means confined to the place of his Personal habitation which was too narrow a Theatre for many Spectators to behold them the Holy Ghost by working Miracles in his name of all sorts and upon all occasions in and by his Ministers who were presently to be dispersed over the face of the whole Earth did much more amply display his divine power and with greater speed spread the renown of it through the World and by constantly impowering so many persons in so many parts of the World to perform so many miraculous things in Christ's name did as it were carry him in open Triumph through the World and at once display his Majesty and Power over the face of the whole Earth For what Christ did in his own Person while he was on Earth that and much more the Holy Ghost did in the persons of all his Ministers and the Holy Ghost did that at the same time in a thousand parts of the World which Christ did only in one and by these miraculous effects which are therefore called the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.4 the Holy Ghost asserted to the World the truth and divinity of those Doctrines which the Ministers of Jesus taught For this gift of Miracles expired not with those Primitive Ministers but was continued down to their Successors for several Generations together until the Christian Doctrine was propagated through the World and then when it had done its work and accomplished its end it was withdrawn as being no longer necessary Fourthly and lastly The Holy Ghost conducted them by his own infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry For the work wherein they were ingaged was attended with difficulties that were utterly insuperable to Humane Wisdom and Power For first their work being such as required an invincible courage and firm integrity of mind a watchful prudence and spotless purity of manners it was highly needful especially at first a good beginning being of vast importance to all great undertakings that they should be infallibly directed what persons were fit to be ordained to it and which of those were mosâ— fit and proper for the several Countries and Provinces of the World and then through the whole course of their Ministry they were fain to contend with all the united Wit and Malice of the World and were very often sent to preach among strange Nations whose Tempers and Manners they understood not and still where-ever they came they had Spies upon them to watch their Designs and observe their actions and ever and anon they were accused and impleaded by subtil and
word of my Patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth Rev. 3.10 By which it is plain that the power of protecting and defending his Subjects is inherent in Christ as an essential part of his Regal Authority and this power he continually exercises now he is is heaven for it was for this end among others that he promises to be with his Church to the end of the World Mat. 28.20 namely to guard and defend it by his Providence against the outragious attempts of its numerous enemies For it is for this end that the Father hath put all things in subjection under him and that he hath left nothing that is not put under him Heb. 2.7 8. that so having the Universal Government of all things in his hand he might by his over-ruling Providence render them all subservient to the interest of his Church For so Eph. 1.21 we are assured that the Father hath put all things under his feet and given him to be head over all things to his Church i. e. hath vested him with an universal power over all things that so he might order and direct them all to the interest and advantage of his Church And accordingly now he is in heaven the defence and preservation of his Church is the great business which he intends upon earth there he now sits looking down from his Throne with a watchful eye to observe all the motions and trace out all the dark designs of her enemies and from thence he stretches forth his Almighty hand to guard and defend her against them to repel or over-rule their malice to drive back their venemous Darts upon themselves or to temper their Poyson into Physick and extract a healing Balm out of the Stings of those Scorpions In which how careful and diligent he hath been is abundantly manifest from the glorious success for considering the vast opposition that hath been made against it even from its infancy how is it possible it could ever have subsisted had it not been guarded by an invisible hand No sooner did this light upon a Hill appear in the World but all the four Winds immediately conspired to blow it out yet which is miraculous to consider still the harder they blew the brighter it flamed and though for the first 300 years it was the main and almost constant exercise of the Power and Policy the Wit and Cruelty both of Devils and Men to suppress and ruine it yet still it thrived and encreased under the most powerful means of its extirpation It conquered by suffering gathered strength by bleeding and like a head-strong Floud still the more it was checked the more it swelled and over-flowed till at length it filled the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea. Which if well considered is an amazing instance of the vigilant and powerful Providence of our Saviour which hath not only preserved this burning Bush from consuming but made it spring and flourish in the flames And though since those Primitive Persecutions he hath many times for wise and gracious ends let loose the Wolves upon his Flock and permitted them to worry and sometimes almost to devour it yet still he hath kept a strict and steady Reign upon their Power and Malice and when they have served his ends hath check'd and stop'd them in their savage career and when they have thought the trembling Prey their own hath stretched out his own Almighty Arm and snatched it from their devouring jaws So that while they are clubbing all their Power and Policy against it he that sits in the Heavens laughs them to scorn the Lord hath them in derision and doth contemn their impotent malice which he can manage as he pleases he can either prevent the mischievous effects of it or cause them to recoile upon themselves or make those very persecutions with which they design to destroy his Church the means of its enlargement and propagation and what in his own infallible Wisdom he thinks best that he hath always done and will always do for his Church and People For many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel or the Church of Christ now say many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me the Plowers have plowed upon my back they have made long furrows but the Lord is righteous he hath cut asunder the Cords of the wicked and in his own due time will confound and turn back those that hate Sion And as he exerciseth a most vigilant Providence over his Church in general so doth he also over all the faithful and obedient Subjects of it whose interest is as dear and precious to him as his own bloud for they are not only the purchase of his bloud but also the Trophies and Conquests of his Spirit which makes them his by a double Propriety and more peculiarly entitles them to his care and protection they are living Members of his own Body and as such he feels their pains by a most tender sympathy and therefore his Providence is as much concerned for their defence as his Eye-lid is to defend the Apple of his own Eye Zech. 2.8 and therefore though he exercises a merciful Providence over all men yet these he incloses out of the Common of the World and fences about with a peculiar care These are his Iewels and he keeps them in his Treasury under the strongest and most inviolable security He is always watching over them for good and it is his peculiar and continual concern to protect and defend them to keep off Temptation from their Souls and Calamities from their Bodies and so to over-rule and direct the course of things as that whatever befals them may concenter in their happiness For though he many times corrects them with his own hand and permits them to be oppressed and afflicted by others yet still he doth it with a most gracious intention either to cure or prevent some disease in their minds or to excite and exercise their graces or to wean them from the love of this vain World and discipline them for a blessed Eternity and whatsoever evils happen to them in the course of his Providence still he takes care to extract good out of them and so to contrive and order the whole Scene of Affairs as that in the issue all things may still work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 IV. And lastly Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and doth always continue to perform in his blessing and rewarding all his faithful Subjects in the Life to come for this as he himself declares he hath power to do so Rev. 2.7 To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God i. e. I will admit him in a
participation of the blessed immortality of Heaven so also Rev. 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Throne And he promises the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in particular Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 In all which places he expresly declares his Royal Authority to reward his faithful Subjects when they leave this World with the joys and felicities of the World to come and this Authority he is continually exercising in his heavenly Kingdom For when ever any faithful and obedient Souls depart from their bodies he presently sends forth his Angelick Messengers to conduct them safe to the immortal Regions and there to lodge them in some one of those blissful Mansions in his Fathers House which he went before to prepare for them where free from all the disturbances of flesh and blood and of a vexatious and tumultuous World they live in continued ease content and joy wrapt up with the ever-growing delights of contemplating loving and imitating God and of the most wise and amicable Society and Communication with each other in the enjoyment of an endless bliss and pleasure for so we are assured from Scripture that the happiness of the righteous doth commence from the moment of their departure hence So Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them and with St. Paul it was the same thing to depart from hence and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 which necessarily implies that upon his departure he expected to be immediately with Christ and elsewhere he teaches that to be at home in the body was to be absent from the Lord and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. neither of which can be true if the Souls of good men go not to Heaven immediately when they go from hence but that they do so is as plain as words can express it in that promise of our Saviour to the Penitent Thief Verily verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 From whence it evidently follows that even in the very Article of a true Penitents death Heavens joys do attend his departing Soul to receive it immediately when it is dislodged from the body Thus in the very moment of its departure hence the Pious Soul is transported to those blessed abodes beyond the Stars which are the proper seat and pure Element of Happiness where the blessed inhabitants live in a continued fruition of their utmost wishes being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing Scenes of pleasure where all their happiness is eternal and all their eternity nothing else but only one continued Act of Love and Praise and Ioy and Triumph where there are no sighs or tears no intermixtures of sorrow or misery but every heart is full of joy and every joy is Quintessence and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment But of this blessed state I have given an account at large Part. 1. Chap. 1. and 3. And this is that blessed reward with which our Saviour crowns his faithful Subjects immediately upon their departure hence so that he doth not permit them to lie sleeping in the dust unrewarded till the end of the World but as soon as they have finished their work upon Earth admits them to the joy of their Master to all the felicities that their separated spirits are capable of in those several degrees and measures of perfection which they there arrive to in which happy state they remain during their separation from the body expecting the farther completion of their happiness in a glorious Resurrection by which their Bodies and Souls being reunited their whole Humane Nature shall be filled with bliss to the utmost stretch of its Capacity And now having shewn what those Regal Acts are which Christ hath always performed and doth always continue to perform I proceed in the III. And last place To shew what those Regal Acts are which are yet to be performed by him before he surrenders up his Kingdom and these are reducible to three Heads First He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by the Conquest of its enemies Secondly He is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection Thirdly He is yet to judge the World. I. He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of its Enemies For if we consult the ancient Prophesies concerning the vast extent of our Saviours Kingdom we shall find that there are a great many of them which as yet were never accomplished So Psal. 2.8 9. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel whereas hitherto it is certain Christ was never possessed of the uttermost parts of the earth nor did he ever yet break his incorrigible opposers with a Rod of Iron or dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel so also Dan. 7.4 it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominionâ— should serve and obey him ibid. ver 27. so also Dan 2.34 35 44 45. that the stone cut out without hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ should become a great Mountain and fill the whole earth and that it should break in pieces and consume all those other Kingdoms Thus also it is foretold that the Lord should be King over all the Earth Mich. 5.4 and that there should be but one Lord and his name one Zech. 14.9 and that he should have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the Rivâ—r to the 〈◊〉 of the Earth Psal. 72.8 and that all Kings should fall down before him and all Nations serve him ibid. ver 11. and that all the ends of the earth should remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him because the Kingdom shall be the Lords and he shall govern among the Nations These and sundry other such like Prophesies there are which as yet it is certain were never accomplished according to the full import and intent of them Wherefore we may certainly conclude that there is a time yet to come before the consummation of all things wherein our Saviour will yet once more display the victorious Banner of his Cross and like a mighty man of War march on conquering and to conquer till he hath confounded or converted his Enemies and finally consummated his victories in a glorious Triumph over all the Powers
smallest threds and fibres of their hearts laid open and exposed to the view of men and Angels their own shame and the intolerable rack of their consciences will force them to confess their Charge and proclaim themselves guilty before all that vast Congregation of Spirits But O the inexpressible horror and confusion these wretched Souls will then be seized with when they shall see themselves thus publickly unmasked and turned inside outwards and be forced to stand forth like so many loathsom spectacles before God and his Angels without any excuse or retreat for their shame without any vail to hide their infamy and blushes when their filthy practices shall be no longer confined to the talk of a Town or a Village but be proclaimed in the hearing of all the rational World O now it would be happy for them if as formerly they could drown the retorts of their conscience in noise and laughter and forget its cutting repartees which were always uneasie to bear but impossible to Answer But alas those jolly days are gone and now in despite of themselves they must listen with horrour and confusion of face to what those two great Judges Iesus and their own Consciences unanimously give in charge against them Thus he whose piercing Eye doth now penetrate their hearts and ransack every corner of their souls will in that great day of discoveries bring forth all that secret filth that is there reposited and expose it for an infamous spectacle to the publick view of men and Angels IV. Another particular implied in this judgement of wicked men is their Sentence Their Trial being now over in which their guilt hath been sufficiently evinced and detected to their everlasting infamy and reproach they will by this time have received the sentence of death within themselves and stand condemned in the judgment of all the World the Righteous Iudg who is too great to be overawed too just to be bribed and too much provoked to be intreated whose Ears are now for ever stopped and whose Bowels are impenitrably hardened against all further Overtures of mercy will with a stern look and terrible voice pronounce that dreadful doom upon them Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels which though it be of a horrible import will appear so just considering the horrible things which have been charged and proved against them that it will be immediately seconded with the unanimous suffrage of all that bright Corona of glorified Saints that sit as Assessors round the Throne who with one consent will all cry out together Iust and righteous art thou O Iudge of the World in all thy ways But O the fearful shrieks and lamentations that will then be heard from those poor condemned Creatures For if A Lord have mercy upon thee A take him Iailor from an earthly Iudge be able to extort so many sighs and tears from a hardened Malefactor what will A go ye cursed do from the mouth of the Righteous Iudge of the World and when so many millions of men and women shall be all involved together in the same doom and all at once lamenting their dismal fate Lord what a horrible outcry will they make Now in the bitter Agonies of their souls they will cry to heaven for mercy mercy but alas poor souls they cry too late their Iudg was once as importunate with them to have mercy upon themselves but because when he called they refused when he stretched forth his hands they regarded not now when they call he will not answer when they cry he will not hear but will laugh at their calamity as they did at his counsel and mock when their fear and destruction is come upon them V. And lastly Another particular implied in this Iudgment of the wicked is the execution of their Sentence For immediately after their sentence is past by which they stand doomed to everlasting fire an everlasting fire shall be kindled round about them a fire which within a few moments shall spread it self over all this lower World and convert the whole Almosphere about us into a furnace of inquenchable flames For then all those fiery particles which are every where intermingled with these terrestial Bodies and have hitherto been kept within their proper limits shall be disintangled and set free from those more gross and sluggish ones that now bind and fix them and swarm together like so many sparks into one huge globe of Fire which from the lower-most centre of the Earth shall spire up and kindle upon all that Airy Heaven above and with one continued flame fill all the vast expansum all that fiery matter which is now dispersed up and down within the entrails of the Earth shall by degrees gather together into Rivers of Fire which rolling to and fro within to force their way into the open Air will perhaps produce those prodigious Earthquakes of which our Saviour speaks by which at length the Earth being cleft and torn it shall every where vomit out Torrents of Fire from its flaming bowels and at the same time the Sea shall boil and swell and roar like water in a seething Pot till 't is all evaporated by the strugling flames from below which having rarified its waters into vapours shall kindle those vapours into flames and at the same time also the Heavens above shall groan and crack with incessant Thunder accompanied with thick and fearful flashes of Lightning which joyning with those vast streams of Fire that will be continually issuing out of the Earth and Sea will make such a prodigious deluge of flames as will quickly overflow the whole World. For thus we are assured from Scripture that the Element shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 So also St. Iohn in his Vision of the day of Judgment Rev. 20.11 I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them not that the matter of them shall be annihilated but the form of them shall be destroyed by their being converted into an everlasting Fire and in this Fire shall those condemned wretches live and suffer to eternal Ages Hence it is called the vengeance of eternal fire and we are told that it will be in flaming fire that the Lord Jesus will render vengeance to all that know not God and obey not his Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 And that this flaming fire shall be the conflagration of the World that of St. Peter seems plainly to imply 2 Pet. 3.7 But the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men and being reserved unto fire against the day of perdition of ungodly men we may justly conclude that the fire it is reserved to will be the Perdition of ungodly men Thus upon our Saviours pronouncing
Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain to his Disciples the Doctrine he had taught them and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles For as Elias the Great Prophet of Israel when he was snatched up into Heaven let drop his Mantle and with that derived that holy Spirit on his Disciple Elisha by which he Prophesied and wrought his Miracles so Iesus the Great Prophet of the World when he ascended into Heaven derived that divine Spirit upon his Apostles and Disciples by which he himself Prophesied and confirmed his Prophecies by miraculous Evidences while he was upon Earth Vid. supra p. 66 67 c. For in all likelihood the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost not only on the Apostles but also upon all the rest of the hundred and twenty Disciples of whom we read in Acts 1.15 For of these consisted the Prophetick School of our Saviour who in all probability separated them while he was yet upon Earth from the rest of his Followers to be the Heralds and Preachers of his Gospel to the World and if so we may reasonably conclude that the Holy Ghost fell on them all as well as on the Apostles to qualifie them for that work which together with the Apostles they had been fore-ordained to Indeed as the Apostles were placed in a higher station than any of the rest as being authorized by Christ to superintend and preside over them so they received a peculiar Gift of the Holy Ghost in which none of the rest communicated with them and that was conferring by imposition of hands the Holy Ghost upon others For so in Acts 8. we find that when Philip had converted the People of Samaria he could not confer the Holy Ghost on them but Peter and Iohn are sent thither for that purpose who laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost verse 17. Now by thus deriving his Holy Spirit on his Apostles and Disciples the blessed Iesus still proceeded by them to Prophesie to the World till through their Ministry he had fully consummated his Prophetick Office and revealed and explained the whole Doctrine of the Gospel For till such time as the whole New Testament was compleated his Ministers generally preached by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost who as I have shewn at large p. 67 c. not only recollected to their memories those Doctrines which Christ himself had taught them but also explained them fully to their minds and thereby enabled them to explain them fully to the World and when this was once finished and the whole Doctrine of the Gospel committed to Writing and collected into a Volume the Spirit of Prophecy was withdrawn from the Ministers of Christianity who were from thenceforth obliged to supply the want of it by their own study and industry For now the Gospel being fully revealed there needed no farther Revelation and for the Holy Spirit to reveal over again to mens minds what he had plainly enough revealed already and set before their eyes would have been but actum agere to multiply actions to no purpose Whilst the Gospel lay hid in the Eternal Counsel of God out of the reach and prospect of humane understandings it was necessary that the Holy Ghost should immediately reveal it to the minds of those who were to declare it to the World otherwise it is impossible it should ever have been known to Mankind but when once he had fully revealed it to them and declared it by them and transmitted their declaration by a standing Scripture to all succeeding Generations to what end should he still proceed to make new Revelations of it unless it were to gratifie mens sloth and idleness and excuse them from the trouble of searching and studying that Scripture in which he had taken care to transmit his Gospel to them But though that blessed Spirit hath never been wanting to Mankind in any necessary assistance yet when once he hath put things within our own power he always expects that we should do them and not sit still with our hands in our Pockets expecting that he should do them for us Since therefore by transmitting to us the Scripture he hath put it within the power of its Ministers to understand and teach the Gospel he expects that they should exercise that power in a diligent study of those things which lead to the true understanding of Religion and not depend upon new Revelations for the understanding of that which he hath already sufficiently revealed to them For thus till the whole Old Testament was finished God continued the Spirit of Prophecy in the Iewish Church after which he immediately withdrew it and wholly remitted his People to the conduct of the Priests and Levites who in their forty eight Cities which were so many Vniversities for their education in divine Learning diligently read and studied the Law and thereby accomplished themselves to preach and explain it to the People And in like manner God continued the same Spirit of Prophecy in the Christian Church till the whole New Testament was revealed and written and Copies of it dispersed through all the Churches and from thenceforth the Spirit of Prophecy ceased and in the room of its first inspired Ministers there succeeded an ordinary standing Ministry who by their Learning and Industry and diligent search of Scripture were to supply the defect of immediate Revelation and to qualifie themselves to teach and instruct the several Flocks that were committed to their Charge In short therefore the Spirit of Prophecy remained upon the Ministers of Christ till such time as it had fully revealed and clearly explained the Gospel to them and when this was done and they had transmitted its Revelations to writing there could be no farther need of it unless it be supposed either that he had not sufficiently revealed the Gospel to them or that he hath some new Gospel to reveal And thus you see what it is that our Saviour hath done in the discharge of his Prophetick Office. And considering all I know not what farther he could have added to compleat and perfect it and to render his Prophecy effectual to teach and instruct the World. So that if after all these mighty performances we still remain in darkness and ignorance the blame of it wholly redounds upon our selves for he hath in all respects abundantly performed his part towards the enlightening of the World and chalked out to us the way to our happiness with such plain and visible lines that if we are but willing to walk in it we cannot mistake or wander from it but if we will be so supine and negligent as to concern our selves no more about it than if it were only a Fanciful description of the Road to Vtopia or the High-way to the World in the Moon it is impossible we should be throughly acquainted with it how plainly soever it is described It is true there are some Doctrines in
bestows upon us he bestows by the hand of Jesus Christ whom upon his first Oblation of his precious Sacrifice in heaven and continual intercession with it he constituted and continues the Royal distributer of all his graces and favours to the World. And therefore since there is no doubt but that that which he obtains by his intercession is the thing which he intercedes for it necessarily follows that the thing which he intercedes for is power to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant because he hath actually obtained that power by his Intercession Having thus given as plain and as brief an account as I could of this second Priestly Act of our Saviour viz. his Intercession for us in Heaven by the continual Oblation of his Sacrifice there I proceed in the second place to shew the admirable tendency of this method of God's communicating his Graces and Favours to us through the intercession of our Saviour to reduce and reform Mankind which will plainly appear by considering the following particulars First This method naturally tends to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of God's Majesty Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins Thirdly It also tends most effectually to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins Fourthly It tends to encourage us to draw near to God with Chearfulness and freedom Fifthly It tends to give us the most ample assurance of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and return to our duty I. This method of God's communicating his Favours to us through our Saviour's intercession is naturally apt to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of the divine Majesty For in this degenerate condition wherein our Nature is inverted and turned upside down and our sensitive faculties have got the ascendant of our Reason rational Objects have incomparably less force on and prevalence with us than material and sensitive And hence it is that we are so unapt to be affected with the Majesty of God though in it self infinite and incomprehensible because it being purely spiritual is objected only to our Faith and Reason and doth not strike upon our sense with the Rays of a visible glory And hence it was that under the Old Testament God so frequently exhibited himself to mens eyes in sensible appearances as particularly sometimes in a humane shape and sometimes in a body of light or of shining flame that so by making an impression of his great Majesty on their sense he might affect them with a sutable aw and dread of it And for the same reason that he conversed with them in these sensible appearances he also treated with them by a Mediator on Mount Sinai for God commanded that bounds should be set round about the Mountain which the People were forbid upon peril of death to break through unto the Lord to gaze and only Moses their Mediator together with his Brother Aaron were permitted to ascend the Mount and to have immediate access to him and by thus keeping them at a distence from his sacred presence and only suffering them to approach him by their Mediator he took an effectual course to inspire their minds with a reverential aw of his divine Majesty which is in it self so infinitely sacred and August that it seems it would have been an high Prophanation in them to have conversed with it immediately And accordingly God by keeping us at a distance from him and allowing us to have access to him only by our Mediator expresses the greatness of his Majesty which is too sacred to be mingled in conversation with us too sublime to admit of the immediate addresses of poor Mortals yea and which no Mortal must approach without the Mediation of his own Eternal Son for thus Plato in his Sympos gives it as an instance of the Majesty of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God doth not mingle himself with men but all the converse and intercourse between him and us is transacted by the Mediation of Demons And if it were thought so great an instance of God's Majesty that he would not be approached by us without the Mediation of Angels to what an infinite height must he be exalted above us when no less a person than he who is God-man can so much as give us access to him or present our Prayers and Supplications at his feet O! what an awful sense therefore of the Majesty of God should this consideration beget in our minds For how can we think of him without dread and reverence when we consider how he is secluded by the infinite sacredness of his own Majesty from all immediate converse and intercourse with us and how he is exalted so infinitely above us as that we cannot have access to him so much as by our Prayers and Supplications without the interposition of a Mediator who is greater than the greatest of all the Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven Surely he who can thus think of God without being struck into a profound aw and reverence of his Majesty must have a mind so hardened against all the impressions of Reason as that no wise thought can ever move or affect it II. This method of God's communicating his favours to us through our Saviour's Intercession tends also to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins For doubtless to convince us how deeply he resents our sinful behaviour towards him the most effectual course he could take next to that of banishing us from his presence for ever was to exclude us from all immediate intercourse with him and not to admit of any more addresses or supplications from us but by the hand of some Mediator Hereby he plainly demonstrates how infinitely pure and abhorrent to sin his nature is that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him but by Proxy nor accept of a service from a guilty hand nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful mouth till it is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator If therefore we are not infinitely conceited of our selves this procedure of his cannot but lay us low in our own eyes and make us deeply sensible of our own vileness and baseness For how infinitely detestable must our sins be in his eyes when notwithstanding all his kindness and benevolence towards us he keeps us at such a distance from him and will not be prevailed with without some powerful intercession so much as to hear our Prayers or to have any kind of communication or intercourse with us And accordingly you find that when the three Friends of Iob had treated him so despitefully and uncharitably God to manifest his displeasure against them commands them to make use of Iob's Mediation Iob 42.7 My wrath saith he to Elephas is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that
for our sakes or that God the Son will be unfaithful to the Father for our sakes both which suppositions are equally absurd and blasphemous Whilst therefore God proceeds with us in this established method of granting his mercy to us only through his Son and confining his Son to dispence it to us only upon the conditions of the New Covenant to flatter our selves with hopes of mercy while we continue impenitent is to presume both against reason and possibility IV. This way of God's communicating his Favours to us through the mediation of Christ is also most apt in it self to encourage us to approach him with Chearfulness and freedom For it is a natural effect of guilt to suggest to mens minds dreadful and anxious thoughts of God and whilst we are under such thoughts of him how is it possible for us to approach him immediately and without any Friend or Advocate to introduce and speak for us with any chearfulness or freedom For with what confidence can I address to an incensed and offended God purely upon my own fund or interest when I am conscious of a thousand times more evil in me to provoke him against me than of good to recommend me to his favour Unless therefore I am secured of some powerful friend in Heaven that is infinitely more acceptable to God than I can modestly hope to be and that will agitate for me and solicite my cause with all his power and interest my sense of the innumerable provocations I have given him to turn his back upon me must either render me quite desperate of success at the Throne of his grace or cause me to approach it with unspeakable horrour and confusion So that my intercourse with God must either be wholly interrupted or rendred very difficult and uneasie to me because my slavish dread of him must either chase me from his Altars or drag we to them with violence and reluctancy And hence it is that under the sense of our guilt we naturally fly to the Intercessions of others whom we believe to have more interest with God than our selves because we cannot modestly promise our selves a free admittance and access to him upon our own account Which probably was the Reason of the first institution of Demon-worship among the Heathens whose minds being stung with the sense of their own guilts they were not able to approach God without fearful despondence and anxiety whereupon they began to cast about as it is natural for guilty minds to do how they might procure some other Beings that were in great favour with God to interpose with him in their behalf and having learned by an universal Tradition that there was a sort of middle Beings called Angels or Demons between the Sovereign God and Men they began to address to these and to bribe them with Sacrifices and sacred honours to intercede with God in their behalf And hence Apuleius de Daemon Soc. calls these Demons Mediae potestates per quas desideria nostra merita ad Deos commeant inter terricolas coelicolasque vectores hinc precum inde donorum qui ultro citroque portant hinc petitiones inde suppetias seu quidam utrumque interpretes salutigeri i. e. They are middle powers by whom our desires and merits are presented to the Gods they go between Heaven and Earth and carry from hence the Prayers of men and from thence the Gifts of God from Earth they go with Petitions and from Heaven they return with Supplies or they are the Interpreters of both Worlds that do continually carry and report the mutual salutations of both to each other By which it is evident that they thought it very necessary in order to God's accepting their addresses that they should be presented and recommended to him by some better Beings than themselves their guilty minds it seems suggesting to them that it would be high presumption for such great offenders as themselves to approach the divine Majesty without being introduced and Patronized by some more pure and holy Beings And I am very apt to think that the great cause of that Spirit of bondage which possessed the ancient Iews and rendred them so diffident and tremulous in all their approaches to God was their want of an explicite knowledge of the Mediator For what dismal and melancholy expostulations do we frequently meet with in their addresses to God such as Wilt thou be angry for ever Hast thou forgotten to be gracious Wilt thou remember thy loving kindness no more Which plainly shews that their guilt suggested to them such frightful apprehensions of God as did very much cramp their hope and confidence in him And hence the Apostle opposes this Spirit of bondage in them to that Christian Spirit of Adoption by which we cry Abba Father i. e. by which we approach God with great freedom and assurance and go to him as Children to a kind and merciful Father Rom. 8.15 Now if you would know from whence this Christian freedom and assurance proceeds the Author to the Hebrews will inform you Heb. 10.21 22. Having therefore an High-Priest over the houshold of God i. e. to mediate and intercede for us let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith and Heb. 4.14 15 16 the Apostle urges our having a compassionate High-Priest in Heaven to intercede for us as an argument to encourage us to come boldly to the Throne of grace And indeed what greater encouragement can we have to draw nigh unto God with an humble confidence than this consideration that the highest Favourite he hath in Heaven or Earth is our Advocate and that he is not only infinitely concerned for us as being akin to us by nature and having a compassionate sense of our infirmities that he doth not only imploy in our behalf all the favour and interest he hath with God as he is the Son of his Essence and the Object of his delight but that he ever intercedes for us in the right and vertue of that Meritorious Sacrifice with which he bought and purchased all those heavenly blessings he intercedes for So that now all we have to do is to return to God by an unfeigned repentance which if we do he stands engaged to undertake our cause and what may we not expect from the Patronage of so great and powerful a Mediator For how great soever our past sins are his interest in Heaven is far greater how loud and clamorous soever our past Provocations are his Bloud and Wounds are far louder and how importunately soever our past guilts may imprecate the divine Vengeance upon us his Intercessions do far more importunately and prevalently deprecate it So that now we cannot reasonably doubt of a free admission to God in any case whatsoever wherein our Saviour will make use of his interest for us with God and therefore since in all cases he doth continually imploy his interest for us but only in that of our impenitence every Penitent
Messias and by the Serpent the Devil who in the form of a Serpent had tempted our first Parents to that fatal revolt which drew after it all those miserable consequents which their Posterity have groaned under ever since by the Messias his bruising the Serpent's head is meant his assaulting and crushing under foot the very seat of all his strength and power and finally rescuing mankind from under his Dominion and Tyranny For this Promise was the first dawning the morning Twilight of the New Covenant and so far as we can find the only discovery of it to the Old World and therefore in all probability was the sole ground and object of that faith by which Abel and Enoch were justified in the sight of God Heb. 11.4 5. For though that Promise was but a dark and obscure intimation of the Gospel-Covenant yet thus much it plainly proposed to them that from the first Parents of the World there should descend a certain Person who should conquer the Devil that had conquered them and thereby repair the damage of their Apostasie by believing of which it seems and acting accordingly they found grace and favour in the sight of God but however it is apparent that the New Covenant was in force in the time of the Old World because it is evident both that the faith of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs was actually accepted by God and that their faith could upon no other account have been accepted by him but only in the vertue of this New Covenant But after the Floud God more clearly and expresly renewed this gracious Covenant with Abraham and his Children Gen. 12.2 3. where he promises to bless him to make his name great and himself a blessing and to bless them that blessed him and curse them that cursed him and in him that is in the Messias who should descend from him vid. Gal. 3.16 to make all the Families of the Earth blessed which Covenant he again renews to him Cap. 13. and Cap. 15. and then in Chap. 17. he yet again renews it more largely and solemnly assuring him not only that he should be a Father of many Nations c. but that that Covenant should extend to his Posterity as well as to him and that he would be a God to him and to his Seed after him immediately after which he institutes the Ceremony of Circumcision for a perpetual Seal and Ratification of his Covenant between him and them and upon this Covenant it was that the Iewish Church was founded For so Circumcision which was the standing Seal of this Covenant was also the standing Rite of admission into that Church which is a plain argument that to be a Member of that Church and a Confederate in this Covenant was one and the same thing because they were admitted both by one and the same Rite Now from the New Testament it is evident that this Covenant with Abraham upon which the Iewish Church was built was the Gospel or New Covenant For so Gal. 3.8 the Apostle calls the delivery of this Covenant preaching the Gospel to Abraham which must be apparently fals if this and the Gospel Covenant were not the same and in verse 29. he tells them if ye be Christ's i. e. true Christians then are ye Abraham's Seed i. e. that spiritual Seed to whom the Covenant with Abraham extends and heirs according to the Promise i. e. of that Covenant but how could they be Abraham's seed by being Christians and heirs to the promise of Abraham's Covenant if the Seed with whom Abraham's Covenant was made were of a different Religion from Christians and the Covenant it self were of a different kind from the Christian Covenant But that it was the very same appears yet further because in the first place it requires the same Condition viz. an obediential or practical Faith. For so Gen. 15.6 it is said that Abraham believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness i. e. though he had formerly been guilty of many sins and at present could not challenge any reward from God yet upon that obedient faith which he exercised God acquitted and justified him or which is the same thing dealt with him as if he had been perfectly righteous and accordingly his Circumcision which was the Ratification of that Covenant is in Rom. 4.11 called the Seal of the righteousness of faith i. e. of his Iustification or being accounted righteous and dealt with accordingly by God upon his Faith or practical Assent to God's Promise And accordingly the Apostle Gal. 3.9 thus concludes so then they which be of faith i. e. sincere Believers as Abraham was are blessed with faithful Abraham in which words he expresly asserts that Abraham and Christians are blessed upon the same terms viz. upon an obediential and practical Faith. And as Abraham's required the same Condition with the New Covenant so it also contained the same Promises For although those Promises according to the outside and literal sence of them do contain only temporal blessings yet it is apparent that they had all the eternal blessings of that New Covenant lock'd and treasured up in the mystical sence of them For thus S. Paul expresly tells us that the Iustification of the New Covenant was couched in that Promise that was made to Abraham Gal. 3.8 The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached the Gospel before unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Natioâ—s be blâ—ssed which necessarily implies that in that blâ—ssing was included their Iustification in the sight of God. And as for divine Grace and Assistance to inable men to repent and persevere in well-doing the Prophet Micah tells us that one part of God's performing his truth unto Iacob and his mercy to Abraham consisted in his subduing our iniquities and casting our sins into the depths of the Sea Micah 7.19 20. And lastly as for eternal life the Apostle plainly tells us that God gave the inheritance i. e. of Justification to eternâ—l life to Abraham by promise Gal. 3.18 upon which gift we are assured that Abraham looked for a City which hath fâ—undations whose builder and makâ—r is God Heb. 11.10 Since therefore both the conditions required and the blessings promised in Abraham's and the New Covenant were in all particulars the same it necessarily follows thâ—t they were one and the same Covenant It is true indeed as to the manner of the revelation of it there was a vast difference for whereas in the Gospel it is revealed throughout with the greatest clearness and perspicuity and in plain and literal terms it was delivered vailed to Abraham and his Posterity under general and obscure expressions which at best exhibited to them but a dark and confused apprehension of it But however it is still the same Covenant notwithstanding it be thus differently expressed even as it is the same Sun that sometimes is overcast with clouds and other times shines forth with a full splendor Thirdly From the very
he actually forgave sins Matth. 9.2 compared with the sixth where he doth not only pronounce to one that was sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee but declares that he did it by that power and authority which he had upon earth to forgive sins All which being acts of Regal power do sufficiently manifest that even whilst he was upon Earth he was vested with Royal Authority and that by assuming our nature he did not divest himself of his ancient Royalty but still continued King of the Iews so long as they continued a Church Sixthly That though the main body of the People of Israel rejected Christ and were thereupon rejected by him yet there was a Remnant of them that received and acknowledged him for their rightful Lord and King. For so as S. Paul observes it is foretold of Isaiah concerning Israel Though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea a remnant shall be saved Rom. 9.27 and accordingly it proved in the event For though the much greater part of the Jewish Nation obstinately persisted in their Infidelity and Rebellion against the blessed Iesus their King notwithstanding all those powerful Arts and Methods he had used to reclaim and save them yet there was a great number of them that willingly received and loyally adhered to him For not only the Disciples which he gathered whilst he was upon Earth but also the first Converts after his Ascension into Heaven were generally of the Iewish Nation within which not only his own Personal Ministry was confined but also the Ministry of his Apostles for some time after his Ascension For so S. Paul and Barnabas tell the Jews that it was necessary the Word of God should first have been spoken to them Acts 13.46 But this Proposition is so manifest from the whole Gospel that I shall not need to insist any farther upon it Seventhly Therefore that this Remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with the former though very much reformed and improved For it still remained upon the same basis with the former as having the self-same Covenant for its Charter which is the form that Identifies all Societies and notwithstanding the perpetual change and renovation of their parts still continues them the same individual Politick bodies Since therefore that remnant of Israel who believed in Christ continued still in the same Covenant with that whereupon the old Jewish Church was founded it necessarily follows that they were not a new or distinct Church but still remained the same individual sacred society with the old So that they were the unbelieving Jews that revolted from their old Church by rejecting the Mediator of that Covenant by which it was formed and constituted but as for the believing Jews who imbraced and acknowledged him they still continued in it and so remained the same continued Church as being still united and incorporated by the same Charter But though it was the same continued body with the old Jewish Church yet was it very much reformed and improved by our blessed Saviour For in the first plâ—ce whereas before it was extremely corrupted through the many false glosses and superstitious traditions of their Elders and like an unâ—â—est Garden was all overgrown with Thorns and Weeds its Religion being almost dwindled away into Ceremonies and outward observances and evaporated into a dead shew and formality our blessed Saviour repaired its ruines and decays removed its rubbish and reformed its disorders and restored it to its primitive beauty and purity For the great design of all his Sermons and Parables was to explain the Laws of it into their Genuine sence and to rescue them from the false Glosses and Comments of the Scribes and Pharisees to reprehend and expose its hypocrisie and formality and to refine its Religion from all those corrupt and heterogeneous mixtures with which it was dasht and sophisticated That Remnant of the Jews therefore who believed in Christ and submitted to his Doctrine when all the rest of them finally rejected him were the same individual continued body with the Old Jewish Church as purified and reformed from its errors and corruptions For by submitting to our Saviour's regulations they did not commence into a new Church but still continued the same body only with this difference that whereas before it was distempered with sundry corrupt humours now it was throughly purged and recovered And as our Saviour restored that Church to its ancient purity so secondly he advanced and improved it to a far more perfect state than it was in even under its primitive Constitution It is true as for the Religion of that Church it was for substance the same with that which our Saviour and his Apostles taught it proposed to them the same Covenant and the same Mediator and the very same Doctrines and Articles concerning this Mediator to create in them the same belief and oblige them to the same practice only with this difference that whereas it proposed him to their belief as hereafter to be incarnate and sacrificed to rise and to ascend into heaven it proposes him to ours as actually incarnate and sacrificed and as actually risen and ascended but this is only a circumstantial difference since that as to all the purposes of his Mediation his future Incarnation and Sacrifice c. had the same vertue and influence with his actual But though as to the main the ancient Iewish Religion was the same with ours yet in respect of clearness and easiness and amplitude there is a vast difference between them For first as to clearness it is evident that it was much more darkly and obscurely revealed to the ancient Iews than it is to us for to them it was revealed only either in general Promises out of which they were fain to argue and deduce particulars or in temporal Promises that carried a mystical sence with them and obscurely implied the spiritual blessings which the Gospel proposes or in dark Types and material Figures and Emblems which were Prophetick Pictures or as the Apostle calls them shadows of good things to come For thus in that general Promise In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed was included Christ and all those particular blessings which we receive by and through him under those temporal promises of deliverance from their enemies and peaceâ—ble possession of Canaan was couched their deliverance from sin and hell and their eternal rest and happiness in heaven and under their legal Sacrifices the all-sufficient Sacrifice of the blessed Mediator was exhibited and represented to them and in a word under the High Priest's offering the bloud of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies was intimated the Mediator's intercession for them in heaven Thus both the Promises and Types of the Iewish Religion were all of them obscure revelations of Christianity which is nothing but Mystical Judaism or Judaism explained into its spiritual sence and meaning And accordingly
swim how would it be possible for it in such a vast and unknown Continent ever to find its way to the Seat of the blessed without the conduct of some experienced guide And who can be better experienced in that Celestial Road than those winged Messengers of the Almighty King who in the execution of his high behests are always travelling to and fro between Heaven and Earth And therefore our Saviour hath committed the separated Spirits of his faithful Subjects to these most skilful and faithful Guides who in pursuance of his Commission are some or other of them still attending upon every good man's decease to receive his Soul into their Custody as soon as ever it is expired and to guard it against evil Spirits as it passes through the Air and thence to conduct it through all those spacious fields of Aether which extend themselves far and wide beyond all the visible lights of Heaven to those happy abodes which the divine goodness hath prepared for glorified Spirits VII And lasty Another instance of the Ministry of Angels to our Saviour in his Kingdom is their attending and assisting him in the great solemnity of the day of Iudgment for thus in all his most solemn and conspicuous works of Providence our Saviour hath still been pleased to make use of the Ministry of his holy Angels so when he came to ratifie his Covenant with Iacob the mysterious Preface of that great solemnity was a Ladder reaching from Heaven to Earth and the Angels ascending and descending upon it which was doubtless intended for an Emblem of that Everlasting Covenant by which Man was to ascend to God and God to descend to Man so also when the Law was delivered by him upon the Mount the Angels descended with him and pitched their Tents about it in Circles of flaming fire to signifie to the People those flames of vengeance that would certainly pursue and seize them if they were not obedient to those words that were thence delivered to them so also when he was born into the world the holy Angels came down to sing his Christmas Carol and at once to proclaim and celebrate his Nativity and it is the opinion of some learned men that that multitude of the heavenly Host which St. Luke speaks of and who sang that Anthem of Glory be to God on high at our Saviour's Nativity Luke 2.13 contained the whole Nation of Angels because in Heb. 1.6 it is said that when God brought in the first begotten into the world he said let all the Angels worship him that is as they understand it when our Saviour was born God gave order to all the Angels of Heaven to come down and do homage to him who was ere long to be their Sovereign Lord under the most high Father Thus also a little before Ierusalem was destroyed Iosephus tells us that the Heavens were spread with Troops of armed men who without doubt were the blessed Angels that by their phantastick combats in the Air did presignifie the ensuing Tragedy of that bloudy City It is no wonder then if the great solemnity of Doomsday of which Ierusalem's desolation was only a mournful Type shall also be adorned and illustrated with the presence and attendance of the holy Angels For this great Transaction is to be the winding up of the vast bottom of divine Providence over the whole Race of faln and degenerate Mankind and the close and conclusion of the Mediatorial Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour and therefore will without doubt be performed with the greatest Grandeur and Magnificence This is to be the great Day of our Saviour's Triumph wherein his Friends shall be Crowned and his Enemies made his foot-stool and such a solemnity may well deserve the attendance and Ministry of all the heavenly Angels who accordingly shall then descend with our Saviour from the highest Heavens in bright aetherial bodies such as shall render them gloriously conspicuous to all the lower world and so fit to adorn the Triumphs of that glorious day for so the Scripture assures us not only that he shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God 1 Thes. 4.16 but also that he shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him Matt. 25.31 and that he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels and that he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of his holy Angels Luke 9.26 and in a word that he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels Mar. 8.38 But what their Ministry is to be in that great Day I shall hereafter have occasion to shew when I come to discourse of that solemn transaction And now having explained the Ministry of the good Angels under Christ I proceed to treat of the Ministry of the evil Angels to him which principally consists in these four particulars First In trying and exercising the vertues of his Subjects Secondly In chastening and correcting their faults and miscarriages Thirdly In searing and hardening his incorrigible Rebels Fourthly In executing his vengeance on them in another World. I. The Ministry of evil Angels to Christ consists in trying and exercising the vertues of his Subjects for this being the state of our trial and probation wherein we stand Candidates for those everlasting preferments in the other World our blessed Lord hath thought meet to surround us with Difficulties and Temptations that so being in continual conflict with them we may never want opportunity to exert and exercise our vertues and to give the most glorious proofs of our Courage and Constancy For difficulty is the Spur of Endeavour and the Whet-stone of Vertue without which the fairest Graces that belong to Humane Nature would be altogether Vseless Worthless and Vnactive such as Faith and Patience Temperance and Equanimity Courage and Resignation to God all which would scarce deserve the name of Vertues if they had not some difficulties to contest withal Now one of the greatest difficulties with which our blessed Lord tries and exercises these Graces of our Nature is the Temptations of evil Spirits who as so many assisting Geniuses to the corrupt inclinations of our Nature are permitted by him to rove about the World in innumerable swarms to Tempt and Elicite those inclinations into action and these being Spirits have a much nearer access to the Souls of men than any material Agents whatsoever for though they are totally debarred from all kind of intercourse with the immediate operations of the reasonable Soul and can no more look into its thoughts than we can into the bowels of the Earth yet our Fancies and Imaginations lying open to them there is no doubt but they can and oftentimes do make what use they think fit of the Animal Spirits there and dispose and order and distinguish them just as the Painter doth his numerous Colours that lie confusedly before him in their several Shells into the Pictures
of his Supremacy over all indifferent things in all causes whatsoever but by his own Authority he not only convened General Councils and for the most part presided in them as particularly in that of Ephesus Chalcedon the sixth General one in Constantinople called Trullo and several others and inforced their Canons with his own Imperial Edicts but many times made Laws even in Church matters without them to which the Ecclesiastical Governours yielded the same Obedience as they did to the Decrees of the most oecumenical Councils for so not only Constantine who was the first Christian Emperour made Laws concerning the Festivals of the Church Ordaining what might and what might not be done upon the Lords Day and not only several of those Ecclesiastical Laws in Gratian's Collection are now confessed on all hands to be the Laws of Princes but the first Titles of the Code are all of them concerning Eâ—clesiastical matters and so also in the Laws of the Goths and Vandals the Authenticks and Capitulars of the French Kings there are numerous instances of the Legislative Power of Kings in Ecclesiastical matters and this power was openly asserted by the French Embassadours in the Council of Trent viz. that the Kings of France following the examples of other Christian Emperors had frequently made Laws for the Church which were so far from being countermanded by the Bishops of Rome that they received many of them into their own Canons and that the Gallican Church had been always governed by the Ecclesiastical Laws which were made by their Kings and Cardinal Cusanus tells us lib. 2. Cath. Concord c. 40. that he himself had collected Eighty six Chapters of Ecclesiastical Laws made by the ancient Emperors besides many others of Charles the Great and his Successors in which there are many things concerning the Popes and all other Patriarchs declaring that he never read that ever any Pope was asked to confirm those Laws or that ever they were accounted the less obligatory because they wanted the Papal confirmation And indeed before Pope Hildebrand who was the first Bishop that challenged the Supreme Legislation in Ecclesiastical affairs it is notoriously known that the greatest Prelates of the Church frequently addressed themselves to the Emperor for such good Laws as the present necessities of the Church called for Thus Pope Damasus intreated the Emperor Honorius to make a Law for the more Regular Election of the Popes Thus also Sergius Patriarch of Constantinople supplicated the Emperor Heraclius to forbid by a Pragmatick Sanction the admission of any man into the Clergy unless it were into a dead Place and it was as it is thought upon S. Ambrose's intreaty that Theodosius made a Law for the disanulling of Marriages within the Prohibited degrees so when the Emperor Iustinian turned the ancient Canons of the Church into Imperial Laws he was so far from being accused of being an Usurper of the Ecclesiastical Power that Pope Adrian IV. highly extolls him for so doing though in his 133 Novel that Emperor affirms that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing is impervious to the inspection and cognisance of the King in which S. Austin accords with him when he affirms the Kings do nothing but their duty Cum in suo regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae pertinent ad divinam Religionem i. e. when they make good Laws not only concerning humane Society but also concerning divine Religion by all which it is evident that the Civil Powers for several ages after they became Christians did claim and exercise a supreme Legislative Power in causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and this without any contradiction from the Bishops and Governours of the Church for as for that saying Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do with the Church It was not the Language of the Church but of that fireband Donatus who was the Ring-leader of one of the most factious and turbulent Heresies that ever infested the Christian World and if in those instances wherein they exerted their Legislative Power in Ecclesiastical Causes the Church had no power to Controul or Countermand them then neither hath it in any other instance of the same nature and if so then notwithstanding their subjection to our Saviour they still retain their Supreme Commanding Power over all matters of indifference whether it be in Civil or Ecclesiastical causes But then Secondly By this their subjection to our Saviour they are not deprived of their natural Right of being unaccountable to any but to God alone through Jesus Christ for all the difference between the state of Sovereign Powers in this matter before and after their subjection to Christs Mediatorial Scepter is only this that before they were accountable to God only immediatly whereas now they are accountable to God only through Iesus Christ for Christ being Authorized by God to Mediate for him or which is the same thing to be his Vicegerent in the World all things are now subjected to him and God now rules and judges rewards and punishes all men by him whether they are Subjects or Sovereigns Vassals or Emperors for so in the great transaction of the last day we are told that the Kings of the Earth shall be arraigned before his Judgment Seat Rev. 6.15 16 17. but though they are now accountable immediately to Christ who during this Evangelical Oeconomy is to rule and judge for God yet in respect of any Earthly Tribunal they remain altogether as Sovereign and unaccountable as ever for to be Sovereign and unaccountable are convertible terms and it is nonsense to say either that any Power is unaccountable which hath any Superiour or that any Power is accountable which is Sovereign and Supreme so that by necessity of nature those Powers which are Sovereign upon Earth must be unaccountable to any Power upon Earth because to call to account is an Act of Superiority and that which is Supreme can have no Superiour to account to so that unless it be made appear that Christ hath erected some earthly Tribunal that is Superiour to the Tribunals of the Supreme Civil Powers he must of necessity have left them as unaccountable as he found them Now it is plain that our Saviour erected no other Tribunal in this World but only that of the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Government which he was so far from advancing above the Tribunal of the Civil Sovereign that while he was upon Earth he acknowledged himself to be subject and accountable thereunto though he was then the Supreme Bishop and Head of that spiritual Regiment and this he did not only by Recognizing Cesar's Right of receiving Tribute from him of which I have spoken before for by bidding them render to Cesar the things that are Cesars he leaves Sovereign Princes in the quiet possession of all those Rights which he found them possessed of and requires their Subjects to pay them whatsoever is
of the Earth For the Scripture not only foretels this universal conquest of his but also describes and delineates the whole method and progress of it which upon laying the Scripture Prophesies together in their proper Train and Series seems to me to be this that the opening of this great Scene of Providence will be the conversion of the Iewish Nation those obstinate and hitherto implacable Enemies of our Saviour whom notwithstanding they have been a thousand times over conquered slaughtered and oppressed and do to this day continue scattered over the face of the whole Earth he hath preserved by a strange and unparalleled Providence for above sixteen hundred years together a distinct and separate people from all the Nations of the Earth to shew his mighty power in them and once more render them what they have always been the Subjects of his miraculous conduct For by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon them such as that was on the day of Pentecost though far more extensive he will all of a sudden and in a most surprizing manner open the eyes of this blinded Nation and powerfully convince them of the error and wickedness of their infidelity and malice against him whereupon with one heart and one mind they shall return to the Lord and with penitent tears wash off the guilt of the blood of their Saviour which like an Heir-loom hath hitherto descended upon them from one Generation to another for thus Rom. 11.25 26. I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is hapned to Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer c. From whence it is plain that that blindness which then hapned to Israel and which continues on them to this day shall one day be removed viz. about that time when the Conversion of the Gentiles shall be compleated and that then all Israel and not a small remnant of them as at first shall be saved so also 2 Cor. 3.14 16. But their minds are blinded meaning the People of Israel for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away where he first supposes that Israel that till then was blinded and that till now remains so should turn unto the Lord and then asserts that then the vail of ignorance which hindered 'em from discerning Christ in the Figures and Prophesies of the Old Testament should be removed from before their eyes And now the Jews being thus converted by the power of our Saviour shall under his victorious Banners be conducted into the Holy Land and repossessed of their ancient native Country whither they shall be close pursued with mighty Hosts of the Eastern Infidels and be reduced by them into imminent danger of utter desolation in which extremity of theirs our blessed Saviour will make bare his Almighty Arm and in a most miraculous manner confound and scatter those mighty swarms of Infidels and crown his Israel with Victory and Triumph The fame of which miraculous events spreading far and wide even to the utmost ends of the Earth shall in a little time convince all the Heathen World of the truth of Christianity and prevail with the Kingdoms of the earth to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ And now the Kingdom of Christ in this World being arrived to its full extent and growth Truth and Peace Charity and Justice shall reign and flourish over all the Earth Now all the World shall be Christendom and Christendom shall be restored to its ancient Purity For now he who is to come with the Fan in his hand will throughly purge the Floor of his Church from all that Chaff of Superstition and Idolatry Schism and Heresie Irreligion and Immorality with which it is almost totally covered and the true Faith the sincere Piety the generous and unaffected Vertue which Christianity teaches and prescribes shall be the universal livery and cognisance of the Christian World For much about the time of this Conversion of the Iews and that glorious Call of the Gentiles thence ensuing that corrupt and degenerate Faction of Christians whom the Scripture calls the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist and which for several Ages hath been the great Nuisance of Christendom will in these Western parts of the World muster up all its Forces to destroy and extirpate the purer Professors of Christianity by a general persecution in which attempt for some time this Faction will be very prevalent and successful when all of a sudden the Kings and Princes of the Earth who have thitherto been partakers with it in its foul Impostures and corruptions being either awakened by those miraculous Conversions of the Jews and Eastern Gentiles or convinced of their errors by the powerful impressions of his Spirit in whose hands the hearts of Kings are will turn their Swords upon this Antichristian Faction whose Cause they have hitherto espoused and conspire to root it out from off the face of the Earth which being effected the Western Church will universally reform it self according to the Standard of the Church of Ierusalem which will then be in a literal sense the Mother of us all Thus partly by destroying and partly by converting its Enemies our Saviour will yet mightily enlarge the borders of his Kingdom and advance it to the utmost pitch of purity and splendour that this state of mortality will admit and in this happy state he will preserve and continue it for several Ages till a little before the commencement of the General Iudgment at which time the Devil who had been hitherto chained up will be loosed again to work in the Children of disobedience to excite them to delude and deceive the World again and to persecute the sincere Professors of Christianity with incessant cruelties when all of a sudden and while they are securely triumphing in the success of their Villanies they shall be surprized with the Day of Judgment which like a Thief in the night shall come upon them and put an end to all their mischiefs for ever II. Another of those Regal Acts which he is yet to perform is to destroy Death the last Enemy by causing a general Resurrection of the Dead which being one of the great Articles of our Creed I shall insist more largely upon it and endeavour First To prove the certainty of the Fact and Secondly To explain the manner how it will be performed I. I shall endeavour to prove the certainty of the Fact viz. that our Saviour shall raise the dead which is as plainly and frequently asserted in holy Scripture as any Proposition contained in it for so 2 Cor. 4.14 we are assured that God will
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after