by Disappointments nor made unfortunate by the Follies or Sufferings of those we dearly love is absolutely the most agreeable pleasant and satisfactory Employment in the World. And amidst all these Companions shall the Righteous be Perfect in this Love Answ. Yes most Perfect For God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in Love 1 Joh. 4. 16. Quest. Will all that blessed Company entirely love us Answ. Yes as they do their own Souls they were full of Love while they lived here loving even their Enemies after Christ's Precept and Example but especially the servants of God in whom they discern'd his Image But in Heaven they shall love us in Perfection and be full Ripe and Compleat in this as they are in all other Graces Quest. And shall we entirely Love all them Answ. Yes they shall all be so absolute in all amiable excellencies and continually discover such a boundless Love for us and our Natures will be so wholly framed for Love and Kindness that we cannot chuse but love them and that with the greatest fervour and intenseness of Affection And this will be all Pleasure and no Pain because they are incapable of doing any thing that may either shame or disgust us God is all in all in them and therefore they can do nothing but what we who entirely love God and them may perfectly delight in Quest. If we shall have such entire Love for all the Saints in Bliss we shall as all true Friends do partake in all their Joys and all their Happiness will be ours Answ. It will be so for Love of Happy Persons multiplies Happiness as oft as it multiplies Objects Because when we entirely love them we esteem and are pleased with all their Happiness as with our own And this way every Saint will be as full as if they had a Monopoly of Bliss and draw all the Happiness of Heaven to themselves Quest. But amidst all these inward excellencies and happy Company and Blissful intercourse of kindness shall they live in Honour and be eminent in Place Answ. Yes as Kings and Princes They shall Sit on Thrones and wear Crowns and Scepters and be Sons of God and Brethren and Joint-heirs with Christ they shall inherit all things and not only have the Priviledge to stand about Christs Throne but what would surpass belief if Truth it self had not assured us of it sit down with him thereon To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3. 21. And besides this glory of their State and eminence in Place their Bodies as I observed shall be cloathed with the most Radiant Light and surpass even the Sun it self in Brightness Quest. In what place must they live to wear these Glories and Feast on all this immense Happiness Answ. In the Heaven of Heavens a Place scituate on High †far above all visible things unspeakably vast in extent and magnificent in structure and illustrious in Glory the Presence Chamber of the great God and King where he lives incircled with Lustre and Light inaccessible which no mortal Eye can approach unto for no Man as he told Moses can see my Face and live Exod. 33. 20. Here shall all Righteous Persons with their immortal Eyes ever see God and shine in his Glory and feast on all the forecited joys and fulness of Pleasure which is at his Right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. Quest. But if this happy enjoyment last long will they not grow weary of it in the end since humane Appetites are wont to love change and loath the best things if held constant to them Answ. No as the enjoyments are so is the desire and relish of them always the same The Goods are pure having no ungrateful mixtures to be discover'd and tasted by time and the Appetite and Relish perfect subject to no ebbs or flows no weariness or alterations So that we shall still desire as well as enjoy these pleasant things and find an inexpressible sweetness and satisfaction in them Quest. And to Crown all and render us secure in this Blessed State shall the happiness of it be no fading transitory Thing as all worldly pleasure is but everlasting Answ. Yes it will be always in its Spring and look fresh and flourish thro' Eternal Ages The Pleasures at God's Right Hand are for evermore Ps. 16. 11. the weight of Glory is Eternal 2 Cor. 4. 17. the Kingdom cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. the Crown is incorruptible 1 Cor. 9. 25. that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. 'T is not a limited happiness held only for a term of years or Ages but an Eternal Life 1 John. 5. 11. Quest. This is such a perfection of Bliss as is enough to make all Righteous men impatient of living here and long to dye as St. Paul did thereby to be possess'd of it Answ. It is so indeed if it contain'd no more than I have described But when they come to enjoy it they will find infinitely more than I have said yea than any Tongue can express or heart imagine and apprehend For Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive the Things God has prepared for those that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. Quest. I perceive how Blissful the Eternal Life of the Righteous is But the Wicked too shall be raised to an Eternal State and what shall their Life be Answ. The most perfect misery both of Body and Soul whence in Scripture when by Life is meant not only the continuance in being but the happiness of it their state is call'd everlasting death 2 Thes. 1. 8 9. Rev. 2. 11. Quest. What sorrow and torment shall the Wicked for ever endure in their Souls Answ. The torment of all vexatious Passions being continually wracked with Envy Anger Fruitless Cares and Boundless Fears utter despair of all relief and yet extream desires of it And the Sting of Conscience which shall pierce them thro' with bitter remorse and gnaw perpetually like a Worm upon their Hearts and Vitals their Worm dieth not Mark 9. 44. Quest. Indeed all these mention'd Passions when at the heighth are so many Furies especially distracting and amazing Fears and Horrors And shall wretched Souls be wholly seized by these Answ. Yes as much as we may imagine they can possibly who are surrounded on every side with the most mischievous and spiteful Enemies and are left among them in the Dark which were it possible would magnify their Fears by fancy and make them infinite To express which utter uncomfortableness and insecurity they are said to be cast into utter Darkness Mat. 22. 13. and reserved unto Blackness of Darkness for ever 2 Pet. 2. 17. Quest. What is implyed in the Worm of Conscience Answ. Bitter and cutting remorse for their own wretched folly which has call'd down upon
excellent Glory of God the Father we heard when we were with him in the Holy mount and were eye-witnesses of his Majesty 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18. And the same he repeated again a third time before a Multitude when Andrew and Philip brought the Greeks to him For before them all Jesus Prayed Father Glorifie thy Name And thereupon came a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again John 12. 28. And this is a most sensible and satisfactory way of God's declaring himself not meerly by shows and resemblances of things which are impressed by Visions and Dreams upon Mens imaginations but by plain proper and significant words such as he used in conversing with Adam in paradise Genesis 3. 8 9. and with Moses at the bush Exodus 3. 4. when assuming a Glorious Light the usual way of shewing himself particularly present he spoke to Men out of it in an audible Voice as sensibly and intelligibly as a Man can talk and discourse with his Friend Quest. Did the Father also testifie Jesus to be the Christ by raising him from the Dead and shewing him openly in full possession of his pretences Ans. Yes on the third day he rose again as we profess in the Creed And Almighty God as S. Peter saith raised him up And hereby he did plainly testifie and vouch for him For after the Jews had done their worst condemning and cruelly executing him in raising him up again God visibly reversed their Sentence and undid what they had done and justified him as one that deserved not to continue under the Power of Death but to live again He was put to Death in the Flesh but justified in the Spirit viz. by that Divine Spirit which raised him from the Dead 1 Tim. 3. 16. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. Nay after his Resurrection he set him in Heaven at his own right Hand surrounded with a Divine Glory the usual Symbol of God's Presence and Majesty In which august form he shewed him to Stephen to prepare him for his Martyrdom and to Saul at his Conversion Jesus appearing to them from God's right Hand in a Glory that surpassed the Brightness of the Sun. And having enthroned him there he intrusted him with the Holy Ghost to dispose of it as he pleased a plain Evidence of his having all Power in Heaven as well as on Earth as he pretended Which Power he visibly manifested to all Men not only by sending down the Holy Spirit in all variety of most stupendious Gifts upon his own Apostles but enabling them by imposition of Hands in his Name to confer the same upon innumerable Multitudes of his followers as appears from the Acts of the Holy Apostles and from other Scriptures Quest. I will not ask you for any more Evidence in this great point of Jesus being the Christ such demonstrations as you have insisted on being abundantly sufficient to gain belief from every honest mind that is careful to inquire and willing to be informed And as for others who are wantonly captious or wilfully blind and incredulous they are not to be convinced by Reason and Arguments But building on this now as most unquestionably sure That Jesus is the Christ doth not that undeniably prove the Divine Authority of the New Testament which is his Word Ans. Most certainly it doth For that contains only what he either spoke or acted himself in his Life or ordered his Apostles to do and teach in his Name after his Death The same Proofs and Testimonies which justifie him do authorize it since it only sets out to us all that Word in declaration whereof all the Evidences urged hitherto are to gain him credit Quest. I am fully satisfied of the certainty and have heard enough to convince me of the usefulness and efficacy of Faith in Christ. I would desire now to hear something more of the particular points of that Faith whereof we are to be thus firmly persuaded and whereby such admirable things are to be performed Ans. Those as I hinted at first are summed up in that short Creed into the profession whereof we are all Baptized And that I shall next endeavour to discourse on and explain to you THE Knowledge of GOD OR AN EXPLICATION OF THE Divine Attributes AND PROVIDENCE The Knowledge of God or an Explication of the Divine Attributes and Providence CHAP. I. Of the Being and Attributes of God. The Contents The World declares there is a God. He is an eternal Spirit on whom all things depend Of God's Holiness Several things explained which seem to infringe it as when God is said to harden Mens hearts To inflict Spiritual blindness and a reprobate sense To send a false Spirit to deceive Ahab and strong delusion God oft gives Men up to the delusion of evil Spirits Cautions to prevent this To give Men a Spirit of slumber An account how notwithstanding God's irreconcileable hatred of sin it is still suffered in the World. Of God's Goodness Several false Notions of it In what things it chiefly consists Of God's Justice or Righteousness This shown in giving Righteous Laws And passing Righteous Judgments according to them without respect of Persons His Punitive Justice cleared from misplacing punishments in punishing one for another's sins And from misproportioning them in allotting eternal punishments to momentany sins Some false aspersions on this just God wiped off Of God's Presence in all places The effect of this Of his Faithfulness This shown by inviolable performance of his Promises And interpreting them without evasion or secret reserve according to their plain meanings And by constant adherence to his Friends and Faithful Servants which is no encouragement for any to return to their former sins Of God's Wisdom This shown in setting a just rate and estimate on all things so that he is neither gained nor lost by worthless services In discerning the just power and force of all Means and success of all Methods which should beget the greatest Reverence for all his Ordinances In seeing the best times and seasons for every purpose so that we must never think any Deliverance too long delayed or Affliction too fast hastened No reason to pretend to the Love of God without loving and imitating these Divine Excellencies Question WHat are the Articles of Christian Faith or particular points which we Christians are to believe Answer They are all contained in this Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right Hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the
Justification Rom. 4. 25. and who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8. 34. Quest. Was his Resurrection necessary on any other Accounts Answ. Yes for 2. In virtue of his death he was to be our Mediator to intercede with God for us and our Saviour and Deliverer to protect and rescue us from our Spiritual Enemies And these great works suppose a live man and are not to be performed by a dead person And being thus necessary to discharge his continual care of us it must be equally so to support our Faith and Trust in him When men are dead we expect no service or succour from them And therefore were he still in the Grave we should not fix our Hope and Trust in or make our Addresses to him Quest. Was it necessary to shew him to be the Messiah and to prove his Religion Answ. Yes for he had appealed to it as a sign of his being a true Prophet Mat. 12 38 39 40. And therefore by the way of tryal which God prescribed the Jews viz. the accomplishment of predictions he had appear'd to be a false Prophet had he failed in it So that if Christ be not risen saith St. Paul your Faith is vain 1 Cor. 15. 14. Quest. In his Death and Resurrection methinks we have a plain and palpable instance of the immortality of Humane Souls and of a future Life beyond the Grave where God may reward or punish us Answ. So we have For his Soul manifestly did exist apart from his Body during the time of their Separation till on the third day it was reunited again So that mens Souls can subsist without as well as in their Bodies and when they depart hence go into another place where they are capable of being called to account for all they have done in this life On which account as well as others St. Paul might well say That God hath given assurance of a future Life and Judgment by raising Christ from the dead Acts 17. 31. And St. Peter That God hath begotten us to the hope of an Eternal Inheritance thro' the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Quest. We read of several others that rose from the Dead as well as Christ had he any thing singular in his Resurrection above them Answ. Yes he raised himself by his own power but they were all raised by him he was not only the first that rose but as the First-Fruits and all the World besides rise as the ensuing Crop which depends upon him Destroy this Temple saith he and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2. 19 21. I lay down my life and take it up again Joh. 10. 18. He is the first-born from the Dead Col. 1. 18. Rev. 1. 5. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order Christ the First-fruits afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming 1 Cor. 15. 22 23. Quest. But did not Lazarus rise before Christ John 11. 44. and Jairus's Daughter Luk. 8. 55. and the Widows Son of Nain Luk. 7. 12 14 15. and how then is he said to be the first of the Dead that returned Answ. They returned to die again but he was the first that rose to life everlasting He being raised dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. Quest. By his Resurrection Christ got Glory and Happiness to himself even that Joy for which St. Paul says he endured the Cross Heb. 12. 2. But did he thereby acquire any Power over us Answ. Yes his Death purchased and his Resurrection invested him with an absolute Power and Dominion over us For this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14. 9. And after his Resurrection saith he All Power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Mat. 28. 18. Quest. If so his Resurrection lays an obligation upon us to obey him Answ. Yes like as he rose from the dead so must we rise to newness of life Rom. 6. 4. Quest How long stay'd he upon Earth after he was risen again Answ. For the space of forty days discoursing and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God Acts 1. 3. Quest. Whither went he when he left it Answ. To Heaven whither he was taken up in a bright Cloud all the Apostles looking up after him till he was taken up out of their sight Acts 1. 3 9. And now he is there he sitteth at the right hand of God. Quest. What mean you by his sitting at the right hand of God Answ. His advancement to the heighth of Dignity and Authority in the presence of God. The Right-hand of a Prince is the place of peculiar Favour and of highest Honour and Respect as Solomon when he would do Honour to his Mother Bathsheba set her at his Right-hand 1 King. 2. 19. To be placed at hand by the priviledge of nearness gives opportunity for Conference and Address And to be placed at the Right-hand the Hand of use and business is to be in the way both of presenting all Offers and receiving of Returns whence it is a known mark of special Favour and Honour with all Potentates And so by Christ's sitting at God's Right-Hand is expressed his Soveraign Honour and Power in the presence of God. Or perhaps moreover his sitting in his humane shape on the Right-hand of that Bright Throne or Resplendant Glory which visibly accompanies and manifests some extraordinary presence of God as he appeared to Stephen in his Vision who saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the Right-hand of God that is I suppose at the Right-hand of that visible Glory wherewith God appeared Acts 7. 55. And this probably is what the Scripture means by his sitting at the Right-hand of Power Mat. 26. 64. and on the Right hand of Majesty Heb. 1. 3. That is on the Right-hand of such Glory or bright Appearance which is the usual Symbol of God's Power and Majesty which at other times is expressed by his sitting on the Right-hand of the Throne of God Heb. 12. 2. or on the Right-hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8. 1. Quest. It was most just that he should be exalted thither in recompence of his meritorious sufferings as the Apostle notes Phil. 2. 8 9. and Heb. 12. 2. But is he gone thither to carry on any Designs for us Answ. Yes and those of the greatest importance For there in the highest manner and to the fullest effect he exercises all his Offices in our behalf Quest. I pray you explain the Designs he carries on for us there Answ. First The work of Intercession as our Priest. For he stands before God to mediate on our behalf and to obtain for us whatsoever God has promised or he has purchased or we stand in need of He is enter'd into
cut off as a Malefactor by corrupt Judgment noting the main circumstances both previous and concomitant and the particular and then unusual manner of his punishment And that after his Death he should return from the Grave and appear alive again All this the Psalmist and the Holy Prophets plainly foretel of him When we shall see him says Isaiah it will be without form or comeliness he is despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. 2 3. He is to be betrayed and sold to his Adversaries for thirty pieces of silver Zach. 11. 12. And when he is in their Hands he shall be judged as a prisoner Isaiah 53. 8. his back shall be scourged and his face shall be spit on Isaiah 50. 6. He shall be tried and condemned and cut off out of the land of the living Isa. 53. 8. And as for the manner of his Death that shall be by the piercing of his hands and feet and keeping his Body between them so at stretch saith the Psalmist that they may tell all his bones a plain description of a Death on the Cross which being a Roman punishment and brought in among the Jews by their Conquest must needs be unknown in David's Age and so more observable to be foretold by him so many hundred Years before in describing the sufferings of Messiah Besides under this Execution they relate the very words wherein he should express the bitterness of his Sorrows and wherein the starers on would vent their cruel Scoffs and how they should seek to sharpen his Pains by a draught of vinegar and pierce or thrust him through as Zechary declared in a Text which the old Rabbins applied to Christ and when he was Dead share his garment by casting Lots for it They pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Whilst they stare upon me and laugh me to scorn saying He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him says the Psalmist Psalm 22. 1 7 8 16 17 18. Which Psalm and these passages of it according to the Letter never fully verified in the Story of David after the Jews of old the New Testament applies to Christ Matth. 27. 35 43 46. John 19. 24. These places evidently foretel the method of his Death and Humiliation And then after Death the same Prophets as evidently foretel that he should not lie to see corruption but return from the grave to a long happy and successful Life When he shall make his Soul an offering for Sin he shall prolong his days so that after his dying as a Sacrifice he was to be a live Man. Nay the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied so that he was also to be an active undertaking and successful Man verse 10. yea I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong that is be most Wealthy Potent and Victorious amongst Men verse 12. All which long active and happy Life was to be bestowed on him not only after his Death but as a recompence and reward of it He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors that is was condemned and executed in the herd of Malefactors verse 12. Quest. I see all this was plainly prophesied of Messiah and was it fully made good in Jesus Christ Ans. Yes For he appeared in a poor and despicable condition as a carpenter's son He was sold by his own Servant for thirty pieces of silver which did the Traytor no good but by an over-ruling Providence was cast to the Potter or to buy the Potters Field for a Burying place as Zechary had foretold He was put in Bonds as a Prisoner and led about before the high-priest Herod and the Roman Governour They scourged him and spit upon him they condemned and cut him off according to the word of Isaiah not only as a Malefactor but also in company with them executing him †between two thieves as the Evangelists relate of him And as for the manner of his Death though Crucifixion was no Jewish but a Roman Punishment and after the High Priest had pronounced him guilty of Blasphemy by the constitution of the Jews and the Law of Moses he should have been stoned yet by the special ordering of God he suffered by the piercing of his hands and feet and hanging so at stretch upon the Tree that his bones might be numbered according to the words of David In his extremities though the custom of the Nation was to offer stupefactives as Wine and Myrrh to benum the Sense and ease the pains of dying Persons yet to verifie the saying of the Psalmist they brought him Vinegar to whet and sharpen his The chief Priests with the Scribes and Elders most inhumanly staring on him said with cruel scorn He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him the very words which the Holy Psalmist had so long before set down for them and he himself cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The very words again which that Holy Prophet spoke for him in his extremity As he hung upon the Cross a Soldier pierced his side and thrust him through to fulfil the words of Zechary And when they saw he had expired the four Soldiers that stood by and were to share his Cloathes would not divide his seamless coat but cast lots for it according to the Prediction of the Psalmist Amidst all which strange congruities he had one other qualifying circumstance which the Prophet Isaiah remarks viz. to make his grave as with the wicked by dying for a pretended crime so with the rich in his death Isaiah 53. 9 which was verified by his being wrapt in fine linen and Entombed as by his care so in Joseph of Arimathea's own Sepulchre who was a rich man and an honourable counsellor And then as for his return to life again to be an undertaking successful and most potent happy Person that has been most notoriously and eminently made good in our Blessed Saviour's Resurrection and in the unparalleled success of his Religion in all places since that time And this again especially his Resurrection is another note which as it fits Jesus to be the Messiah so beyond dispute excludes all other Men. For though Theudas and Judas as Gamaliel observed and other false Christs in just reward of their Impostures have been condemned and slain yet was never any of them seen to return to life again to carry on their pretences and to prosper and thrive in them Quest. Have you any other notable and appropriating marks to add from
go and do so as Christ bid Judas when he went out to betray him as also the Devils when they entred into the herd of swine not thereby commanding and authorizing his Practice but only taking off his restraint and letting him loose to his own wicked purposes by way of permission and sufferance 1 King 22. 19 20 21 22. Quest. And is that S. Paul's meaning when under the great mystery of iniquity or Man of sin he says God shall send men who loved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness strong delusion 2 Thess. 2. 11. Ans. Yes that delusion was to be by giving evil Spirits Licence to delude them It shall come with all deceivableness of power and signs and lying wonders after the working of Satan verse 9 10. So that God's sending strong delusion in those days is letting Satan loose and permitting him to give plausible proofs and shows to seduce Men. Which with those that loved unrighteousness and had no love for the truth but would be glad of any pretence to embrace a pleasing error instead of it would be like enough to prevail Quest. Doth God often give Men up thus to evil Spirits to delude them Ans. Yes evil Spirits have a general influence in producing the errors as well as the sins and transgressions of all Men. But they have often a more especial Licence and extraordinary power of delusion in degree sometimes greater and sometimes less according as any Persons or Places through their own wickedness their pride and wantonness are left more or less to themselves and thrown out of God's protection Thus the darkness of the Heathen World or Age S. Paul ascribes to the spiritual wickednesses in high or heavenly places or to the wicked Spirits in the Air called Heaven in the Jewish Books who were the Rulers of it Eph. 6. 12. And in account of the deluded nations we are told that the old Serpent which is the Devil and Satan had deceived them Rev. 20. 2 3 8. And the general Apostasie and Delusion by the Man of sin is ascribed by the Apostle as I noted to the working of Satan 2 Thess. 2. 9 10 11. And on the rising of any notable Hereticks and perverters of the truth the crafty and malignant Devil is usually said to stir and rage in the Ecclesiastical Language The great deceits and delusions of the World are not owing only to the darkness of Mens own minds and hearts but to the malignant fraud of wicked Spirits who by themselves and their instruments miserably blind and mislead such as are forsaken of God and delivered into their hands And therefore it need not seem strange to us if we see Men abused into such gross absurdities as are against the plainest Scriptures Reason and common Sense Nay though they be as confident of them as if they received them by immediate inspiration and a voice from Heaven and think they have as sure Revelations for their sensless and absurd dreams as ever the blessed Apostles and Evangelists had for the Holy Scriptures For though several of these seem too gross for the natural folly of Men yet are they not for the malignity of a delusive Daemon When he has gained a Licence to besot and abuse Mens minds we need not stand astonished at the most extravagantly sensless or ridiculous Opinions Quest. If this is one method of God's Justice to give up those who abuse the Light and the means thereof to Satan's delusion must not this make us all exceeding careful with Humility and Reverence to keep in his ways and appointments that so we may abide under his Protection Ans. Most certainly And therefore by all means we must have a care not to set our selves above Ordinances to vilifie Prayers or Preaching to despise Sacraments to disparage the Sacred Scriptures to contemn superciliously and outbrave our Ministers making our selves wiser than our Teachers to cast off the Government of our Lawful Pastors or break the Unity of the Church or such things For this is breaking all God's Bounds and discarding his Methods appointed to keep us all stable in the knowledge and practice of the Truth And if we thus leave him and wantonly leap out of all his ways we have just cause to fear lest he leave us and then we are ready to become a prey to evil Spirits who as they get leave in more or less degrees will carry us away with their delusions Quest. You think then that there is less danger of these delusions whilst Men keep humbly and awfully in the Unity and Communion of Christ's Church than when they depart from it Ans. Yes by breaking out thence they are got into a place more insecure and more full of danger As out-lying Deer no more under the Eye and Care of the Keeper are ready to become a prey to every Hunter Or as Sheep without the Fold whilst they straggle from the Flock and out of the compass of that special Providence which protects it are in danger by every hurtful Beast to be made a prey and picked up Or as near an Enemies Quarters they who will run abroad without the Camp are in danger of being seized or slain by Adversaries so are Men without the Church by evil Spirits For they are more at liberty and let loose in the World though chain'd and fetter'd in the Church and if they find any leap'd out thence are more likely to seize them as straves in their own Dominions Quest. Indeed that which restrains their malice is the Protection of God which is called the Hedge that fenced off Satan from Job Job 1. 10. And since all have not an equal share in the Guardianship of Almighty God and of his good Angels 't is obvious to infer that these impure Spirits have more power in some Places and over some Persons than over others Ans. Yes and this the Daemon in Tertullian urged for himself who being charged by some that in those days of Miracles came to eject him and rebuked for daring to attempt and possess a Christian Woman who was listed under Christ's Protection constantly pleaded his seisure was most just because he found her in his own Precincts viz. at the lewd bloody and ungodly shows in the Heathen Theatres This Power of evil Spirits is greatest in the unhallowed World as the Scripture sufficiently intimates when Satan is called by our Lord the Prince of this world John 12. 31. and chap. 14. 30. and 16. 11. and by S. Paul the God of this world 2 Cor. 4. 3. and when the Apostle ascribes the darkness of the Heathen world to wicked spirits who had the rule and Empire of it Eph. 6. 12. and wrought in those that were disobedient or the unpersuadable part of Mankind Eph. 2. 2. So that they are able to do most before Men are entred into the Covenant and Church of God as from the danger Moses was in before he had Circumcised his Son the
nearest to us God can turn them off by a thousand ways nay make them serve as means to accomplish our advantage Quest. Since he is to give the end of all actions may we not safely trust him with that and do what we ought to do though thereby we foresee danger of displeasing others or of prejudicing our worldly interests Ans. Yes we must be careful to do our duty that is our part and trust him with events for that is his God oft surprizes us with issues so that a Man cannot foresee the end of his own way which frequently will be better than he expects it And this in the most perillous and threatning times should teach all Men to be more thoughtful and concerned for the exact doing of their duty than for escaping the cross which may seem to accompany it For if then they can be so happy as to consider wisely and perform what they ought they may leave Providence to give it a good effect and take care they be no losers by it Quest. And since we can bring no business about but by God's Blessing must not this teach us never to seek to gain our end by any sin Ans. Most certainly for that is the way to offend God and move him not to bless but to blast our design If we hope to succede as I have observed from Solomon we must commit our work to him and that can be only in well-doing we must acknowledge him and then not seek help from any sin since that were to renounce him Let thine eyes look straight on so as to aim only at just ends and ponder the way of thy feet so as to take none but lawful methods and then thy paths shall be established Prov. 4. 25 26. Quest. And the same you will say of driving Trade by false Weights and Measures or by belying Wares or setting exacting Prices or otherwise using indirect Arts or deceitful Speeches and Pretences Ans. Yes for all these in God's Eyes are an abomination and so can never bring down but may well stop a Blessing Which every Man ought seriously to consider who believes a good Trade to be of God's sending Quest. If we are to have all the good effect of our pains and projects from God we must have it at his time And ought we not to think his the best Season Ans. Yes he sees what opportunities are fittest and brings about a good event with most advantage to those that wait his time and trust him with it as he did to Joseph the rule over his brethren and to David the possession of the kingdom I the Lord will hasten it in its time Isaiah 60. 22. He will arise and have mercy upon Sion when the time of favour yea the set time is come Psal. 102. 13. And this must teach all Men in any hopes or pursuits of good never to be too hasty or by any indirect or evil ways of their own to take the matter out of God's hand but patiently to wait his time and stay till he sees fit to fulfil their expectation He that believeth will not make haste Isaiah 28. 16. Quest. But when Providence is slow in bringing longing desires to pass and lays fair opportunities in their way may not Men turn aside a little to anticipate and prevent God's orderings Ans. No for that is to take the matter out of God's hand where it must needs succeed to best advantage and thereby endanger both the loss of God's favour and all the concurrent Mercies depending on those methods whereby in his own time he has determined to promote or save us Joseph when the keeper of the prison had put the keys into his hand might very probably have made his own escape But had he impatiently catched at that opportunity before God's time he had not been preferred as he was when God delivered him And his Father Jacob when he would hastily snatch the promised birth-right by a falshood underwent therefore great hazards and a long banishment all which would probably have been saved had he patiently stayed till God's Wisdom had found a way for it Quest. If God must thus give success to all means then no design can take effect though never so wisely laid or powerfully backed if it crosses the designs of his Providence Ans. No neither such as are managed by the deepest Counsel and Advice for there is no wisdom nor counsel nor understanding against the Lord Prov. 21. 30. Nor such as are pushed on by the most violent and powerful force For though the horse is provided against the day of battel yet safety is from the Lord verse 31. And therefore let Men always take care wisely to fix their hearts and hopes on such things as they have reason to believe God will support and then be confident that though to try their Faith and Patience he may suffer them to be endangered or distressed for a while as he suffered Joseph to be imprisoned and David to be persecuted and the Church in the * Revelations to be obscured and driven from places of habitation and resort into the wilderness yet at last he will visibly stand by the things he doth espouse and make them prove too hard for the most Politick or Puissant adversaries Quest. If no work can take effect without God then no work of our Enemies And may not this comfort us to think that whilst he designs well for us no contrivance or power of Men or Devils can harm us Ans. It may most justly As it did holy David who when his Enemies devised to take away his life made this his support that whatever they contrived his times were in God's hand Psal. 31. 13 15. This says Isaiah is the heritage of God's servants no weapon shall prosper that is formed against them and every tongue that shall implead them in judgment shall they condemn Isaiah 54. 17. So that no craft or cruelty can destroy whilst God is minded to preserve us Quest. I perceive we must acknowledge God the Donor of success to every work or design but is it he also that gives promotion Ans. Yes both riches and honour come of him in his hand is power and might and in him it is to make great and to give strength to all 1 Chron. 29. 12. Promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south But God is the judge he puts down one and setteth up another Psal. 75. 6 7. And therefore no Man must ever seek to exalt himself by any sinful or indirect means as vile flatteries and sinful compliances and serving wicked turns and undermining others and the like For if promotion is not wholly in the will of sinful Man but depends on the over-ruling Providence of God these certainly are not the way to make an interest Quest. When a Man is a rising then I perceive it is in no wise safe to step aside or take up the least sin though it seem to
to the day of judgment to be punished 2 Pet. 2. 9. And in proportioning this continuance he uses great care and tenderness to his Servants that their sufferings may not outlast their patience or wear out their hope in him The rod of the wicked shall not rest or make a fixt abode and stay too long upon the lot of the righteous lest it put them upon desperate counsels and the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity Psal. 125. 3. Quest. If wicked Men are thus an instrument in God's Hand then whatever evils we suffer from them we must not look only at the immediate actors but see beyond them to Almighty God and own his Providence Ans. Yes and that will not only teach us to please him and to apply our selves to him for redress but teach us patience too because how undeserved soever they may be from others yet we have deserved a thousand times worse at his hands Let him curse says David of wicked Shimâ—i and would return no ill again for the Lord hath bidden him 2 Sam. 16. 10 11. and I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it Psal. 39. 9. nay it will teach us willingness in submission For be the Cup untoothsome and bitter as Gall and Wormwood yet he is both our God and our Father that offers it and we should not suspect any hurt in what comes from his Hand The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it said our Blessed Lord of the unparallelled injuries he suffered John 18. 11. Quest. But if when Men wickedly afflict us you say God sends these afflictions will it not excuse them to say God gives them success against us and they follow Providence Ans. No in no wise For God doth not excite or tempt them to injure us But when they are injurious of themselves his Providence sets us in their way that their wickedness may spend it self upon us to exercise our Faith and Patience or to chastise our disobedience So that they are accountable for their own wickedness and when they will be wicked all he doth is to over-rule it to serve his own designs as he did in the murder of our Blessed Saviour which he ordered for the Salvation of the World though the Jews slew him by wicked hands Act. 2. 23. When we suffer by other Mens sins God who punishes us by them will punish them for them as he declared of the Assyrian the rod of his indignation Is. 10. 5 12 17. and as all wicked Slanderers Oppressors Thieves Rebels and Murderers shall find to their cost in the end It is not acting successfully but acting according to our Duty which will justifie what we do when God comes to judge us Quest. But if 't is Providence that sends wicked and violent Oppressors since it is the Patron of Justice as well as the Chastiser of Undutifulness sure God will not continue to such Men the Power to oppress always Ans. No the more violent and boisterous any wicked Oppressor is the sooner will his Power fail him and spend it self The wicked Oppressor says Solomon passes as a whirl-wind which may for a while storm terribly and bluster but is quickly over Prov. 10. 25. The rod of his anger shall fail that is the Might or even the Authority whereby he scourges shall not bear him out or preserve him in unjust violence but by abusing Power he shall soon lose it and then reap that trouble he has justly deserved Prov. 22. 8. And therefore when any are oppressed by Potent Neighbours or Men of Violence they may support themselves to think that God sees all their wrongs and in due time will give them ease Quest. I see those evils which befal our selves in our own particulars are the allotment of Providence But if there be any miscarriages of State and Government must the People look upon these too to be of God's sending Ans. Yes and generally as a punishment for the wickedness and provocations of a Nation For the transgressions of a land many are the princes thereof Prov. 28. 2. And through the anger of the Lord being kindled against Israel God moved David that is left him to be won by Satan moving him to number the people 2 Sam. 24. 1. So that in any publick miscarriages we must not spend our selves in exclaiming against Ministers of State and the Instruments concerned therein but look up to the Justice of Almighty God and reflect with patience and penitent hearts upon our own sins which are punished in them Quest. But must we think God's Providence directs and disposes when Publick Affairs are most tumultuary and irregular and seem to shew forth fewest footsteps of his perfections Ans. Yes the Lord reigns though the people tremble through convulsive and distracting fears he sitteth between the cherubims though the earth be moved with the violence of stirs and tumults Psalm 99. 1. And this must support all good Men in the most dangerous and distracted times because even then they are still under God and are not at the Mercy of all the ill chances and threatning evils that fly round about them which how loose soever they may seem to fly abroad are yet all bound up in God's Hand Quest. If 't is God that sends all these evils then whensoever any of them threaten and hang over us we must look up to him and have Faith in his Providence Ans. Yes and that too though we seem reduced almost to irremediable extremities For God loves to delay deliverance to the last that our Faith and dependance may be more throughly tried and then shows himself nearest to us when we have no more hope left in our selves or in any humane means Thus he appeared not to save Isaac's life till Abraham's hand was stretched out to take it away Gen. 22. 10 11. And then God comes as a present help when we are in the very time of need Psalm 46. 1. Heb. 4. 16. He chuses the time of our distress to give us a more affecting sense of our deliverance And then too he often works it by those very things which seem not only unprofitable but opposite and apt to hinder it that no part of the honour of it may go to humane means but that the whole of it may be ascribed to himself Quest. You have shown that God orders all those ill events which cross accidents or ill Men bring upon us But what say you to those which we bring upon our selves by our own gross faults or follies Must they be ascribed to God's Providence Ans. No this Solomon taxes in fond sinners that when the foolishness of man perverteth his way and he falls because he is Ignorant or rash and hasty with his feet yet for all this his heart fretteth against the Lord as if not his own pure folly but God had brought him to it Prov. 19. 2 3. The most Holy God forbids all our faults and the most Wise God
the potters hand to form it into a Vessel either honourable or base so are ye in my hand saith the Lord Jer. 18. 6. The heaven is his and the heaven of heavens Deut. 10. 14. the earth and all the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein Psal. 24. 1. And being thus absolute and universal a Proprietor he places and alters grants and resumes all things at pleasure And when he takes away says Job who can hinder him or say unto him What dost thou Job 9. 12. Quest. I see that all the good and evil both of this World and of the next are in God's Hand to allot as he sees fit Doth he allot them according to any rules and in recompence of Mens predispositions or Arbitrarily out of Sovereign Will according as he pleases Ans. In allotting the principal things particularly the Eternal pains and pleasures of another life and in general all rewards and punishments he has graciously bounded his own unlimited Power by Laws and Compacts But as for all good and evil things which are not under Promises or Covenants he dispenses them Arbitrarily as he sees fit And as those allotments of good and evil which he makes in recompence to Mens Deeds and according to the direction of his own Laws and Promises may be called the Legal Distributions and Covenant-Justice so may those wherein he has not limited himself by any such Contracts be called the Prerogative Power and Arbitrary Will of this Almighty Potentate Quest. In what things doth God act with us out of his Power of Prerogative allotting good or evil things or states of life according to his own unlimited Will and not according to Mens qualities and predispositions Ans. I do not say he acts constantly so but oft-times he doth 1. In allotting Mens different state and worldly circumstances as that one should be born of Noble Parents to great Fortunes or honourable Employments with a well-shaped healthy Body or pregnant parts and another should be born mean or servile or sickly or mis-shaped or poor or foolish Thus when the Jews asked the reason of a man's being born blind whether for his parents sin or his own our Saviour told them there was no need for that to seek out for such precedent desert either in him or them but 't is enough to say it was that the works of God might be made manifest in him John 9. 2 3. 2. In allotting their different outward helps for Religion and Spiritual opportunities as that one should be born of Christian Parents trained up in an Orthodox Belief and pure Worship in the Eyes of good Examples and under the care of skilful Pastors and that another should be deprived of some or perhaps of all these Thus the difference both in Secular and Ecclesiastical Priviledges which God put between the Jews and Edomites the elder serving the younger not being intended or verified of Jacob and Esau's Persons Jacob rather serving Esau than Esau him Gen. 33. 3. but of their Posterities of whom God expresly speaks it when he first declared it to Rebekah Gen. 25. 23. and to whom Malachy from whom also S. Paul cites this passage doth apply it Mal. 1. 2 3. this difference says the Apostle was an allotment out of God's Sovereign Will and not out of their precedent deserts God declaring that to Rebekkah while the children were yet unborn and had neither done good nor ill to prepare them for this discrimination Rom. 9. 11 12 13. These different allotments of National Priviledges to Jews above Edomites and afterwards as he there notes to Gentiles above Jews when the Jews were cast off and the Gentiles taken into the Church in their place was no unrighteousness in God who hath mercy on whom he will have mercy verse 14 15. Lastly to name no more when he offers what is sufficient to all to enable them to do his will if they are not wanting to themselves which renders all without excuse yet allotting more eminent and efficacious degrees of Grace to some Persons and shewing more respite and forbearance towards some offenders than he doth to others whom he strikes with a swifter vengeance cutting them off it may be in their very first attempts Thus his sparing Pharaoh and still raising him up again to a new trial after numerous repulses S. Paul ascribes to God's Sovereignty who has mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom. 9. 17 18. In allotting these different worldly Circumstances and external Priviledges and Opportunities and more eminent degrees of inward Grace and shewing this different forbearance God uses the same Prerogative Power and absolute Sovereignty over his Creatures which the potter doth over the clay as S. Paul says forming one vessel to honour and another to dishonour not because of any different fineness of the matter but taking both out of the same lump out of his own will and pleasure Rom. 9. 21. Quest. But in these allotments where God dispenses Arbitrarily doth he not always dispense Wisely and Reasonably Ans. Yes most certainly Mans will is too oft a blind precipitate resolution But God's Will is never without Reason and the highest Counsel directs him where he seems most Arbitrary in acting He works all things according to the counsel of his own will Eph. 1. 11. So that he is said to act out of Will not as if he did not Will upon good Reason but because that Reason is not his being directed so by any of his Laws or Covenants or to recompence any pre dispositions of his Creatures 'T is Arbitrary because uncovenanted and left to himself But whatsoever is left to him is sure to be managed with the highest Equity Wisdom and Goodness as will appear to all when we shall be let in to behold the Counsel of God's actings Quest. Doth God use this Prerogative-Power in allotting Saving Grace so that one shall have the help of his Spirit in a good way and another shall be denied it though he seeks it earnestly and sincerely only because God pleases Ans. No this is under Promises and Compacts and is to be dispensed and measured out to Men according to their readiness to comply with and their care to seek and make use of it If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally Jam. 1. 5. God will give the holy spirit to those that ask him Luke 11. 13. and to every one that hath that is improves his talents shall be given Matth. 25. 29. These are the Covenant-Rules for allotting Saving Graces Quest. Or doth he use it in allotting Heaven and Hell and dispensing Eternal Rewards and Punishments Ans. No these are not given in way of Arbitrary Dispensations but of Legal Trials At the last day men must all appear before Christ to receive according to what they have done in the body whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. they must all be judged according to their works Rev. 20. 12 13. Quest.
liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of Hell Psal. 89. 48. And as Jacob talked of going down to Hell to Joseph when he thought some evil Beast had devoured him Gen. 37. 33 35. In both which places the word translated Grave in our Bibles in the Greek is Hades the very word that stands for Hell here in the Creed Oft-times indeed especially in the New Testament Hell fignifies not in general the state of the Dead but particularly the state of the Wicked and the place of Torment In which sense it is not likely that Christ descended into Hell after his death because in his dying hour he told the Penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. CHAP. III. Of the Resurrection of Christ and his sitting at God's Right-Hand The Contents An Account how Christ may be said to have been three days in the Earth His Resurrection proved The necessity of it He ascended to Heaven What is meant by his sitting at the Right-Hand of God. There he 1. Intercedes for us as our Priest. This intercession not vocal by Words and formal Pleas but by presenting himself and his own meritorious Sacrifice He intercedes only for Covenant-Mercies and on Covenant-Terms He is an Intercessor of absolute Power with God and truest Affection for us One part of his intercession is to hand and present our Prayers to God. Therefore whensoever we pray for any thing 't is both our duty and wisdom to apply by him 2. Governs his Church as a King. In what Acts this consists 3. Instructs his Church as a Prophet by sending to it the Holy Ghost Christ's Body having now taken up its fixt abode at God's Right-hand we are not in any Ordinances to expect his Bodily Presence but only a Presence by his Spirit which is more to be desired Some Inferences from Christ's sitting at God's right-Right-hand Quest. How long did Jesus Christ abide in the state of the Dead till his Body was corrupted Answ. No he staid not so long God did not suffer his Holy one to see Corruption Acts 13. 35 36 37. but reunited his Soul and Body and raised him from the dead on the third day before the time Corruption usually seizes the Bodies of dead men Quest. Christ said of himself as the Jews told Pilate That after three days he would rise again Mat. 27. 63. And as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly so says he shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. But if he died as we commemorate his death upon Good-Friday and rose early on Easter-day in the morning there were only part of two days and one entire day between Answ. That is three days according to common computation of days both Ancient and Modern and particularly in Scripture reckoning Thus Lazarus is said four days dead though the fourth day whereon Jesus raised him up was one of them Joh. 11. 39. And eight days are said to be accomplished for Christ's Circumcision but the day of his Birth and Circumcision too went both in to that Reckoning Luk. 2. 21. And the Priests in their courses were appointed and reputed to Minister before the Lord eight days though the time of Entrance and Release was every Sabbath day morning And accordingly what in the currant way of expression is thus sometimes termed three days our Saviour speaking more exactly at other times expresses by on the third or within three days Jesus shewed his Disciples he should rise again the third day Mat. 16. 21. and 17. 23. and 20. 19. And destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2. 19. or within three days as the Jews who otherwhere call it after three days related it Mark 14. 58. Quest. How doth it appear that Christ was raised again from the dead Answ. It might appear to any who had the curiosity to look into the Sepulchre for they would see he was gone Quest. What said the Watch who stood to guard him Answ. They knew it full well for when the Angel with a Countenance like Lightning descended in an Earth-quake to roll back the Stone the Keepers saw it and shaked and became as dead men Mat. 28. 2 3 4. But the Jewish Rulers bribed them to say his Disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept v. 11 12 13 14. which was a foolish lie and bore along with it its own Confutation Quest. How so Answ. Because if they were asleep how could they tell any one stole him If they had any thoughts of what others did then it could be only in a Dream unless they would pretend to sleep with their Senses awake and their Eyes open Quest. But this saying saith St. Matthew is commonly reported among the Jews and passes for a Truth with them Mat. 28. 15. And by what other ways can you convince them that Christ is risen Answ. By those that saw him and conversed with him after his Resurrection For he appeared for the space of forty days to his Apostles and to satisfie them he had a real Body eat and drank with them after he was risen Acts 10. 41. Luk. 24. 43. He appeared to Thomas who searched the holes the Nails had made in his Hands and thrust his Finger into his Side where the Spear had pierced it before he would believe him Joh. 20. 27 28. To five hundred Brethren all at one time 1 Cor. 15. 6. To Stephen in a bright Glory from Heaven at his Martyrdom Acts 7. 56. and to Saul at his Conversion Acts 9. 3 4. Yea after he was risen and gone to Heaven he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and followers which shewed not only that he is alive again but also that he lives in Power Quest. The Apostles seem extraordinary careful to confirm the Resurrection of Christ and call the ordaining one to be an Apostle ordaining him to be a witness of it Acts 1. 22. Was it necessary that Christ should rise from the dead Answ. Yes to shew the debt he died for was discharged and that his satisfaction was accepted He died as a Sacrifice to satisfie for our sins and till God raised him up again it did not appear that he was satisfied with what Christ had done for us If Christ be not risen ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15. 17. Quest. But was not his death a full payment and on the Cross did he not relate to that when he said it is finished Joh. 19. 30 Answ. It was so indeed the price of Redemption then was fully paid But till he raised him up again God had given no publick Acquitrance nor done any open Act to shew we were discharged by it So that by his Resurrection we are said to be justified that is declared to be so He died for our sins and rose again for our
be Active when he is at Rest and he may be doing Good to the Worlds End. Of these and all such Good Works of permanent Effects it may be said as St. Paul did of Abel's Faith whereto God gave witness that by it he being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Quest. And is it thus also in bad Actions Answ. Yes For thus the wicked Opinions a Man broaches may infect after-Ages or his corrupt Example or Advice live in his Posterity and Acquaintance Or if he corrupt and seduce others into any Sins they may persist in them after he is reclaimed from them But then he will sin most of all in his Grave if he has introduced wicked and irreligious Laws and Customs which are hardly altered even where there is the plainest and greatest Reason for it or abused the Laws to possess himself of other Mens Rights which derives down the Crime and Curse of Detaining ill-gotten Goods on all his Posterity or writ Pestilential Books or establish'd any ungodly or injurious Thing the Mischief whereof no one knows when it may determine Quest. And when God comes to judge us will he take notice and have respect to these continued and multiplied Effects of our Actions Answ. 'T is just he should they being all imputable to us and reasonable to believe he will. For Jeroboam is taxed for sinning long after he was dead because other Mens Sins were owing to him he having establish'd Iniquity by a Law and formed an Idolatrous Schism and made Israel to sin 2 Kings 10. 29. And to this I suppose we may in part at least ascribe the Trouble and Concern of Ghosts and their sometimes appearing to make Satisfaction after any great Injuries have been done and not repaired in their Life-time Which may shew not only God's Care in doing Justice but their own in lessening their Account too On which Inducement I believe Dives was sollicitous to have his Brethren advertised of the Place of Torment by one sent from the other World Luke 16. 27 28. For he being the Head of his Family and a vicious Man might have done much in corrupting his Kindred and Acquaintance that resorted to him And they being made the worse by his Example and Influence the Growth of their Guilt and Fructification of the ill Seed he had sown would accumulate and increase his Sufferings Which Principle of Self-Love I take to be a better Reason of that Care of his than any Charity for others for which we have cause to think there is no Room in that Place For God is Love and he that dwells in Love dwells in God which certainly they do not who are excluded from his Presence into that State of Torment 1 Joh. 4. 16. And this should make all Men careful how they broach any ill Opinions or give others any evil Example or Advice But especially how they introduce or revive or any ways support Irreligious Customs or enrich themselves and Families by Injustice or establish any Wickedness lest thereby they sin in their Graves and have Power to offend God when they have no Power to serve him and continue daily adding Sin to Sin when they can no longer repent of them And on the other hand it should as much encourage them in any good and useful Deeds whose Effects when they spread beyond their Expectations or last beyond their Times they may reasonably hope that God who is more ready to reward than punish will impute to them Quest. I see at the last Day Men shall be judged for the Actions of their Lives But shall they be judged not only for their more Open and Publick but also for their most Secret Deeds that were committed under Concealment and in the Dark Answ. Yes for God shall bring every Work into Judgment with every Secret Thing whether it be Good or whether it be Evil Eccl. 12. 14. And therefore all Men are infinitely concern'd not to commit any Wickedness under the fancied Security of Privacy or act shamefully even in the Dark since all those Secret Works shall then be exposed to Publick View and they shall be put to shame and condemned for them before Angels and Men all looking on Quest. This is most terrible to all impenitent Sinners who will then be punish'd for these Sins But is it not discouraging to the Righteous too who have repented of them and are forgiven For their Secret Sins which cost them so much Sorrow here will then renew their Grief and put them to an open Shame if there must be such Publick Mention and Exposal of them Answ. No they are in no danger of any more trouble from them For when they are brought to light as Solomon says God will bring every Work into Judgment whether it be good or bad Eccl. 12. 14. that shall be only to set off the Impartiality of this Scrutiny and the Riches of Gods pardoning Mercy but they shall not be upbraided with them or lessen'd in the esteem either of Glorified Angels or of Men. For as God himself doth so do they esteem of Penitents as if they had always lived innocent and when once they have left them forget all their former Offences as if they had never been done So that as to all real Effects of their suffering from them either in their own Persons or in the Estimation of others the Sins of the Righteous at that Day are as if they were not mention'd but conceal'd And this will make out those Expressions of the Scriptures which speak of the Lord 's not imputing Sin to them and of their Sins being cover'd and of God's remembring their Sins and Iniquities no more They will not be mention'd so as to make them either afraid or ashamed which is as good as if they were wholly hid and never mention'd at all Quest. Among the Deeds of Men all those are not really Good which are so in outward Appearance and which the World takes for such Answ. No Several good Actions Hypocritical Men put on only in Disguise As the Pharisee seemed to be devout in making long Prayers when that was not to serve God but to get Trust among Men that he might be able to devour Widows Houses without suspicion Mat. 23. 14. And when the Precious Ointment was poured on Christ's Head Judas pretended great Care of the Poor and cried out of the Waste on that pretence when in truth that which made him speak was not his Charity but his Covetousness John 12. 5 6. Absalom pretends the Payment of a Vow in Hebron but the Design was to execute a fore-laid Rebellion 2 Sam. 15. 7 10. Many Men pretend Kindness only for Self-ends Religion for Secular Interests the Publick Good when they only seek to satisfie their own By-ends or private Resentments Quest. But when under this Hypocritical Mask Men commit ill Deeds under fair Colours will Christ at that Day bring this Hypocrisie to Light and condemn these Actions which the Authors justified to
or will he do it with Equity and Candor as one plainly inclined to shew all reasonable favour Answ. He will be the most Fair Equitable and Candid Judge our Hearts can wish for He is our Judge who is our Advocate and has all along espoused our Cause our Friend that Loved us better than his Life and shed his Blood for us So that when we are brought before him we may promise our selves all the Favour that is consistent with Justice Quest. Will he favourably interpret our Performances when they come before him and make the best of every thing that it can justly bear and be as ready to note what may make for us as what may make against us Answ. Yes for in the Description of the last Judgment Mat. 25. he assigns good deeds to those on his right-Right-hand viz. the Feeding and Cloathing and Visiting him which in strict Truth they had not done having never seen him but only by a favourable interpretation from their having done so to his Brethren for his sake which shews had they seen him in that want they would much more have done it to himself Come ye Blessed of my Father for I was an hungred and ye gave me Meat thirsty and ye gave me Drink c. And when they shall answer Lord when saw we thee to do any of these things for thee He tells us he will reply in as much as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me v. 34. to 41. Nay to assure us further of his extraordinary Favour in Censuring of his Friends behold his marvellous Candor in judging of the worst Actions of his Enemies and that too at a Time when if ever he should have been prone to pass a hard Construction For representing the most Barbarous Murder of himself to God as he hung upon the Cross and had a most pungent sense of it he imputes it to the most Pardonable Principles and says they acted so through Ignorance the only possible thing that could be suggested for their excuse censuring that horrid Act which he of all Men had cause to make the worst of not as an Accuser but rather like a retain'd Advocate Luk. 23. 34. Thus in that Day will the most benign Judge be of Counsel for all the Prisoners and spye all their Virtues and make the best he reasonably can of every bad Case And as for good Men he will impute their Failures to the most pardonable Causes and Remember their good Services when they have forgot them setting them off by a kind interpretation and thinking better of them than their own Humility and Modesty would allow themselves to do Quest. But what say you to the seeming Rigor of his own Laws which require us to Love and serve him with all our Heart and strength And if this be drawn out to a full stretch and strained to mean our utmost Possibilities no Candor to our Performances can construe them to come up to this pitch Answ. The seeming Rigor of that Expression he will interpret with great condescension to the Measures of Men. He will reasonably allow and abate for our many Temptations and Distracting Thoughts our Natural Backwardness and Forgetfulness and other Frailties so incident to our present State and Circumstances And when all that is candidly deducted the rest which in our Circumstances we are honestly and fairly able to Do will pass for serving him with all the heart and strength according to the Commandment Quest. How will you make that out Answ. Because the Scripture Declares he will bear in Reason with our Infirmities Heb. 5. 2. And because he has done so in several judged Cases expresly declaring of several that they have kept this Commandment when they needed these abatements Thus of Asa it is said that his Heart was Perfect before God 1 King. 15. 14. And of David that he followed God with his whole Heart Yea that he turned not aside from any thing he commanded him all his days except in the matter of Uriah 1 King. 14 8. and c. 15. 5. And of Josiah that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord neither declining to the Right Hand nor to the left 2 King. 22. 2. And of Zachariah and Elizabeth that they walked before God in all the Ordinances of the Law Blameless Luk. 1. 6. Now all these were Persons of our own Frailties and Infirmities They were defective in their Care as we are and though they went beyond the pitch of others yet fell below the utmost of their possibilities as the Scriptures have recorded of them in several instances They served God indeed with all their Souls in one sense of the Precept as that notes their adhering only to his Worship and allowing no part of their Heart to any Idol God. But as it note◠the intireness of Degrees in serving him Such failings as were pardonable under humane Circumstances and infirmities were first taken out and so much as they were able to do after that abatement was judged their serving God with all their Heart according to the Commandment Quest. Will Christ then after he has thus made the most of their good Performances make reasonable Allowances also for mens Slips and Failures either in committing ill or in omitting Good things Answ. Yes when they fail in either through some innocent and well meant Error or Ignorance Or when they slip through pure haste and unadvisedness and are surprized into some ill Thoughts or sudden Passions or rash words but correct themselves as soon as they consider what they have done and do not continue in it with Observation He will then have Compassion on these when he comes as our Judge as now he has when he acts as our Priest and intercedes for us For as the Jewish Priests had so can he have compassion on the Ignorant and Erroneous or as the †word notes he can Suffer in moderation or reasonably bear with them Heb. 5. 2. Quest. But what if men are Ignorant because they neglect to learn their Duty nay perhaps stop their Eyes and Ears and Refuse to see or be told of it Answ. Then that will be no excuse to them where they fail of performing it they being as St. Peter says willingly Ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. Quest. I perceive he will shew Favour towards our involuntary Failures But this will not avail us if he be Strict and Rigorous in judging of that Involuntariness For alas what man doth all that is Possible to prevent Ignorance or Surprize And if we do not all we can against them he may say they come through our own wills and sufferance if he will judge in Srictness Will he therefore shew Candor in judging any escapes to be Pitiable and unwill'd Miscarriages without which all his Candor in other Things will not support us in his Presence Answ. Yes He will shew all Reasonable Favour in admitting Actions for involuntary