thy self that speakest to my Soul that I may say It is the voice of my Beloved c. Christians I know God may and doth oftentimes convey his comforts by the lips of his faithful Messengers and Servants Isai 40.1 Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem c. speak to her heart as the Hebrew phraseth it I say the Prophets were but Gods mouth to deliver the message and so are the Ministers of the Gospel and other of his Saints but be sure the comforts which you administer be Gods comforts see that ye can say with the Apostle in another case 1 Cor. 11.13 That which I have received of the Lord deliver I unto you Be sure what you dispence from God be these words be sure your words of comfort be none but such as Christ himself would speak were he upon the place Do not my words do good Mic. 17. Jer. â—3 28. saith the Lord Yes they be Gods words only that can comfort fainting souls But what is the chasse to the wheat saith the Lord It is true the Devil and the World have their counterfeit Cordials their guilded Pills and Plaisters which like Quacksalvers make quick Cures but they never heal to the bottom they may for a time stupifie the sense but they do not mortifie sensuality ease the smart but not cleanse the wound Saul when the evil Spirit was upon him calls for a Fiddle and when God hath forsaken him he goes to the Witch as if because God would not answer him the Devil should Most people have learn'd a way of their own some to drink down their sorrow and sleep out the sense of those breaches which God hath made upon their Relations or in a crowd of worldly business can lose their sorrows yea many carnal Professours there are when they have disturbed their peace and wounded their Consciences can make a shift to lick themselves whole with their duties a few Pater-nosters Church-absolution a morsel of Sacramental bread and a drop of the Sacramental cup will make them as well as ever though that which stilleth conscience never killeth corruptions what a world of souls doth Satan gain by such cures Eating and drinking damnation to themselves 1 Cor. 11.30 In this affliction of the loss of dear Relations the World when she comes to visit the surviving Mourners wants not her Cordials but oh what pitiful puddle water instead of water of life doth she administer We must be contented say they there is no remedy God will have it so we cannot help it and however their friends have lived in-grace-a-God they are well we must live by the living and not by the dead and with such dirty rags as these they bind up one anothers dreadful stinking wounds or peradventure others there be that with the stout shoulder of fortune may bear their wounds without complaining some Porters can carry greater loads than others can or else on the other hand some corky spirits ye have whom much lead will not make sink in the waters of affliction But alas all these are but lying vanities and will stand men in least stead when they stand in most need of comfort Oh that men had faith to believe that all these are Physitians of no value Christs words are the only words of comfort Then shall we be ever with the Lord. So our Lord again Let not your heart be troubled John 14.1 2. ye believe in God believe also in me in my Fathers house are many mansions With thee is the fountain of life Psal 36.9 and in thy light we shall see light These these indeed are Apples of gold which when they meet with Pictures of silver Prov. 25.11 hearts truly capable of such consolation are very beautiful Comfort one another with these words Hence be we instructed 7. Branch of Information If it be the duty of Christians to administer words of comfort to Mourners then it is also the duty of Mourners to open their ears and hearts to receive those words if those Apples of Gold meet not with pictures of silver they are lost and cast away If God should send an Angel or any Messenger of peace to comfort you in your trouble what a sin would it be to make him go away ashamed with an Who hath believed our report Or Lord I have delivered thy message and all thy precious Cordials were of no value I know there be few or none of Gods Mourners that dare do this in terminis in express language but what and if a deaf ear and a dejected countenance and a dead heart unchearful conversation alter all the words of comfort which God sends thee by his Messengers be soâ— with God by interpretation May not this provoke God to afflict thee more and to increase thy sorrows until the pride of thy heart be abated May I not say unto thee as Joab to David when he grew sullen upon the death of Absalom Thou hast shamed the face of Gods Messengers â— Sâ—m 19.5 and hast declared that the consolations of God are small in thine eyes Now therefore arise and thankfully embrace their message of peace or else it may be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now Surely it is as great an indignity to slight Gods comforts as it is to scorn Gods counsels this spurns against Gods Authority that tramples upon his compassion this man doth resist the Spirit that man doth grieve the Spirit and if thou grieve away the Comforter who shall comfort thee at length If David took the affront which Hanun put on his Messengers sent to comfort him over his Fathers death so heinously that he armeth Joab and all his men of war against him to avenge the indignity how justly may God send forth Armies of afflictions against thee for thy sullen refusal of his tender hearted consolations Surely there is more pride in such refusals than Christians are easily convinc'd of for is it not by interpretation to say my loss is not to be repaired my wound is incurable there is no balm in Gilead that can heal thy hurt Is it not as if thou shouldst say there was but one intollerable thing in the world and God must needs send that upon thee Dear Christian be afraid by thy frowardness of running the hazard of such an interpretation That Question of Eliphaz to Job Jâ—b 15.11 Are the consolations of God small with thee implieth greater unkindness in refusing divine comfort than Mourners are willing to believe God could not do thee wrong in taking away thy amiable Relation from thee it was but calling for his loan again which he lent thee and yet doth he send to comfort thee Oh how thy head and worship and say Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to thy Word Poor disconsolate soul know thou that every crumb of comfort which falls from Christs mouth is
Heaven there is eternity but no old age the joyes of heaven are alwayes young The flowers of Paradise of which the Saints Posie is made do neither wither nor change colour the drops of their morning dew standing thick upon them like orient Pearls preserve them in their perpetual verdure and odoriferousness God himself the fountain and spring of all those glorious beings is not a moment older than he was from all eternity and therefore all their fresh springs being in God their roots feed their branches with continual and unchangeable moisture and influence God who is an Object of infinite fulness doth alwayes feast the glorified Saints and Angels with fresh visions of delight and wonder Yea God himself the fountain and spring-head of all those glorious Beatitudes doth wash their roots perpetually with fresh moisture and influence though God be but one and the same ineffable essence yet he being an Object of such infinite fulness it cannot be conceived but he must needs feast the eye of the glorified Angels and Saints with fresh discoveries of delight and wonder to all eternity so that they can never be cloyed or furfeited with the same beatifical vision All the joyes of Heaven are present 9. Property Present there is nothing in the beatifical vision antecedaneous or future but as God himself is but one pure Act or Being alwayes the same from eternity to eternity so are all the felicities of Heaven There are no fragments in glory There is nothing in glory which shall be and is not nor any thing in fruition which shall ever cease or change Glory borrows that immense title of the God of Glory what the Jews say of the ten Commandements is Rev. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was and is to come a name that is not to be divided or taken asunder but must be spoken all together in one word So Is as that it was so was as that it shall be so shall be as that it is Eternity is a single Point such are all the blessednesses of the Saints were and are and shall be so Past as to come and so to come as present this is a mystery and it is marvellous in our eyes Out of these nine Ingredients or Properties there ariseth a tenth the very top of all scil Delight and Complacency 10 Property Complacency and this makes Heaven to be Heaven indeed the joy of the Lord even the same joy which God himself possesseth the same for kind though not for degree Propriety Possession Intimacy Suitableness Satiety Reflexion Immutability they all meet in God essentially making up an infinite delight and complacency in the Saints and Angels they are perfectly though bounded and limitted according to the capacity of the Creature We cannot conceive it until it receive us making up a delight and joy which on this side Heaven passeth all understanding of which the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Behold faith in the glorious Redeemer doth at times raise the Soul of the poor Believer to a marvellous high pitch of joy and ravishment 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though ye now see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The expression is very full faith brings the Soul in love with an unseen Christ and fills the heart with joy not ordinary joy such as men do easily express upon all occasions but unspeakable the heart conceives such joy that the tongue cannot utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ineffabilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea it is not to be uttered by the tongue of men or Angels it cannot be spoken it is ineffable and that is not all it follows it is glorious and our translation gives it an addition very emphatical Of the Saints jâ—y and delight in heaven see incomparable Mr. Baxter's Saints everlasting rest p. 41 part 1. And else where abundantly full of glory and yet that reacheth not the top of this joy for the Greek signifieth not glorious only but Glorified faith fills the heart with glorified joy a joy that rivals as it were the joy of the glorified Saints a joy which sets the Soul for the present above it self and puts it into Heaven before its time Oh Christians if faith which must not enter in within the veil can transport the Soul into such extatical raptures what can vision and fruition do Oh the mountings of mind the ravishing joys of heart the solace of soul which glorified Saints possess in the beatifical vision The Soul shall live in joy and be filled with delight in the mirrour of all delights love and joy shall run in a circle and mutually empty themselves into one another love shall dissolve into joy and joy shall resolve into love a River an Ocean of unmixed Complacency wherein the Soul shall bathe it self for ever The Saints are so pleased with their own beatitudes that as they cannot spare any joy they have so they know not what their souls can wish for more This is pure complacency there are none above them that they need envy none beneath them capable of their pity Oh blessed state The fourth and last Priviledge contained in cohabitation is Conformity Even in the Evangelical state below Conformity is the fruit of vision vision produceth Assimilation We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Surely the heavenly vision will beget so much more full and perfect conformity by how much the mirrour is more vital and energetical The Apostle reacheth forth this blessed truth and the reason of it together as a known Doctrine Beloved now we are the Sons of God 1 John 3 2. that were dignity enough for a poor sinner one would think I but that 's not all it is well and it shall be better God hath laid out much upon us but how much glory he hath laid up for us we cannot conceive it doth not yet appear what we shall be This only we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him That 's infinite honour indeed But how doth he prove it Why he proves our conformity from our vision we shall be like him for we shall see him Him ver 3. God in Christ the Godhead in the glorified humane nature of Jesus Christ even while he was here in the dayes of his flesh the flesh of Christ was a veil 1 Tim. 3 1â— through which the deity of Christ did appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God was conspicuous in the humane nature John 1.14 the invisible God was as it were made visible in a body of flesh We beheld his glory sayes the Evangelist if it were so upon earth how much more will it be verified in heaven The
clap on the wound of conviction of sin in the promise of the seed of the woman that should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 Lest the wound should take cold fester and by delay prove incurable all the Promises in Scripture they are but so many Receipts written down beforehand in the Book of the great Physitian of souls for the use of all Gods Family the Saints of God from the beginning of the world there are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises i. e. concerning exceeding great and precious things 1 Pet. 1.4 and they are all yea and Amen in Jesus Christ verity and infallibility Thither therefore let all Gods Patients go and search and read and take whatever Receipt suiteth best with their Malady and they shall rightly applied find present ease and infallible cure in the constant and believing use thereof For whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Gods compassions over his mourners are great and therefore his consolations are not small Though God would have his people deeply humbled and tried to the quick yet he would not have their spirits sink under the temptation and therefore when he observes them to begin to faint he ceaseth contending with them and begins his comforting work for the iniquity of his covetousness Isa 57.18 I smote him and was wrath but when God saw that would do no good he trieth another course I will restore comforts to him Just as when a Parent is correcting a Child and the Child cryes and swoons presently away goes the rod and the strong-water-bottle is snatcht up and applied to the mouth of the Child so compassionately dealeth God with his fainting Children It is a wonderful expression which God useth towards Ephraim Jer. 31.20 My bowels are troubled for him Ephraim saith I smote upon my thigh and presently God smites upon his heart and cryes out My bowels are troubled for him I will have mercy upon him O ineffable sympathy answerable whereunto God hath a cup of consolation prepared in his hand which he putteth to their mouths and bids drink yea drink abundantly of it till they forget their sorrows even that overflowing cup Fulness of joy and pleasures for ever at his right hand Ever with the Lord. Psal 103.13 Surely as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him and such compassions would he have to fill the bowels of all his Evangelical Messengers Isa 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith their God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem c. Thus doth God fill up his Title brim-full and running over The Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort In the fourth place 4. Branch of Information here you may see the absolute and indispensable necessity of faith without which all the choicest consolations and richest cordials the Word can afford are but so much water of life in a dead mans mouth or as Elisha's Staffe upon the face of the dead Child â— King 4. which causeth neither voice nor motion Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith an unbelieving man is but a dead man for as faith is the first principle of spiritual life so it is the constant medium whereby the spiritual fewel and restoratives of that life are brought in and made vital to the soul The life I now live in the flesh I live it by the faith of the Son of God Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed but it is to faith only it is not meat indeed if there be not faith indeed He that cometh to me shall never hunger What 's that He that believeth on me shall never thirst The Word of God is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 but it is to them only who believe God hath provided a cup of consolation for his fainting people in their swooning fits but it is the hand of faith that must take it and the mouth of faith only that can drink it The unbeliever is an unhappy man nothing can do him good Heb. 4.2 The word doth not profit not being mixt with faith The body and blood of Christ proves poyson instead of divine nutriment because it is not received by faith This is the will of him that sent me saith our Lord that he that believeth on me may have everlasting life Divine Cordials so magisterial that they are able as it were to put life into a dead man give them to an unbeliever they signifie no more than water in the shooes Oh get faith Saints act your faith or else ye are undone Great notions are but small comforts to a natural man and the reason is because they are above him nothing can act above its principle you can never comfort a Swine with arguments of reason no more can ye comfort a carnal heart with heavenly consolations the reason is Quiequid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientu because both are above the constitutive principles of either Divine notions may serve a man without faith to discourse by but they will never serve him to live by reason may discourse upon them but faith must live upon them The life I now live I live by the faith c. Therefore doth the Apostle there put the cup of consolation into the hand of faith ver 14. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again c. There is an inexhaustible fulness of comfort in Christ and in the Promises but not one drop to be drawn forth without faith The breasts of Scripture-consolation are full they even drop again but it is the mouth of faith that must suck them out the still-born Child may as well-draw the Mothers dug as a faithless Christian make the teats of Scripture to afford any drop of divine influence to his drooping soul but to the believer it is cried at least by way of accommodation Suck ye Isa 66.11 12. and be satisfied with the breasts of consolation milk out and be delighted with the abundance of glory A man may as well live and laugh without a soul as have true evangelical comfort without faith which is the bond of union between Christ and the Soul and so being united to the fountain 1 Pet. 1.18 Believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious This is that golden pipe through which all the golden oyl of grace and comfort is derived into the heart Zech. 4.12 The men of the world may have vast proportions of knowledge both natural and divine but meer knowledge is light without heat but faith warms the heart as they said one to another Did not our hearts burn within us when he spake unto us If I assent and consent to the glorious Doctrine of the Resurrection knowing with Job that my Redeemer liveth c. I can in that triumph over all occurrent
three glorious persons in Trinity and that other like unto it between the two natures in Christ profound and ineffable 1 Cor. 2.14 Quia nihil animal animali superius cogitare potest the heart of man is not able to conceive it nor the tongue of an Angel to express it the natural man knows it not at all no more of it than a Swine knows what the Union is between the Soul and body in man it is above his principle 1 Cor. 2.14 The spiritual man understandeth it very imperfectly all we know is rather that it is than what it is the full and perfect knowledg of it is reserved for the future state so our Lord hath told us John 14.20 At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you then and not till then we shall never perfectly understand this Union until we come fully to enjoy it In the mean time if a short improvement of such a rich point might not be judged too much improper in such a contemplative discourse as this is a few things might be hinted from hence by way of Use Use First Here we may discover the main Foundation 1 Perseverance stands not in the nature of Grace and Reason of the Saints perseverance surely it consists not in the nature of Grace infused in their Regeneration this differs not specifically from the Grace which Adam received in his first Creation that was the Image of God Gen. 1.26 27. and so is this Colos 3.10 and therefore of it self cannot produce any higher or more noble effects under the one Covenant then it did under the other Secondly 2. Nor in freedom of will Nor doth it consist in the liberty and rectitude of their own Wills though Regenerate for if Adams free will did him so little service in his perfect state when it was entire free without any mixture of servility how little security think you can the liberty Ex nolentibus facit volentes Aug. wherewith Christ maketh the will free in the new Creation afford the Saints wherein the state of Grace is yet imperfect and the freedom of their wills mixt with so much bondage that it made the holy Apostle look upon it little different for the present from a captivity Rom. 7.24 and to cry out to astonishment for a Redeemer to come in and make a rescue O Wretch that I am who shall deliver me c. He found by experience that if it were not more for a Christ than for the freedom of his own will that body of death which he carried about him would infallibly prove his total and final ruine but I thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord there was his security But 1. In the Covenant of Grace Where then shall we bottom the stability and fixedness of the Saints surely upon a two-fold Foundation First Divine Compact Grace in the Saints is under a Covenant God the Father hath Astipulated with the Mediator for his spiritual believing seed not only to repair the Ruines of the first Creation his Image in them but to uphold and secure it from ever dissolving decaying again totally or finally partial temporary decays and recidivations there may be but saith the word of the Covenant to the Redeemer in Reference to his divine off-spring my Spirit which is upon thee Isa 59.21 and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Adams grace was under no such Covenant and therefore left to it self it was exposed to the power of Temptation and perished This is one account of the Saints perseverance But Secondly Secondly Union with Christ The next and immediate Foundation of it is this blessed Vnion whereof we are now speaking by vertue whereof the true Believer is so made one with Christ as Christ is one with his Father ut supr As we are one as that is as it hath been expounded spiritually really operatively enrichingly intimously indissolubly in a word infallibly and availeably to all saving intents and purposes Here is the ground and foundation of the Saints perseverance Rev. 3.1 They are not only fixt Stars in Christs right hand if no more it would be hard pulling them thence But their lives are bound up in the same bundle with Christs own life Jo. 14.19 our life is hid with Christ in God Christ and his Saints have as it were but one life between them and that life is Christs whence Christ himself makes the inference because I live Col. 3.3 you shall live also Upon such an instance it may be questioned and possibly without breach of charity whether they who deny the infallible perseverance of the Saints did ever truly study or believe the notion and nature of the happy and glorious Vnion which is betwixt Christ and them * The inseparableness of the Union is given as the account of the Saints perseverance Nothing can separate us Rom. 8 39. If we should form what hath been said unto such a Syllogism as this namely They that are United to Christ by a spiritual real operative enriching intimate inseparable Union can never totally or finally fall away But all true Believers are so United Therefore they can never so fall away I say cast all into such a form and we find that both the Premisses and the Conclusion are of Christ's own making Because I live ye shall live also And therefore until I hear that Christ is dead the second time which I am sure I shall never do for Christ being raised dieth no more Rom. 6.9 death hath no more dominion over him c. I dare not believe this doctrine The possibility of the Saints total and final Apostacy Only because Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light and the heart is deceitful above all things Caution and desperately wicked my earnest advice and obsecration to all such as do pretend to this blessed Vnion as to mine own Soul is To give all diligence upon solid Scripture-evidence that is to say by the precious and powerful influences of this Vnion upon their Souls and by the gracious Reciprocations of Faith and Love and sweet holy communion with the Father and the Son c. by these I say and the like to secure the Assumption But I am thus Vnited to Christ And the Conclusion need not fear the gates of Rome or Hell but the Believer may boldly send forth St. Pauls challenge Who shall condemn What shall separate 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ In the second place Second Use Hence we may take notice of the honour and dignity of the Saints how meanly and basely so ever reputed in The Dignity of the Saints 1 Cor. 4.13
Mountains Mountains of God A great fire 〈◊〉 fire of God Job 1.16 it may signifie a mighty Trump after the manner of the Hebrew phrase which useth to call works and wonders of unusual proportion works of God and wonders of God so the Trump of God i. e. a mighty Trump a voyce of more dreadful horror than all that went before But whether it be to be understood metaphorically or properly is questioned amongst Expositors Some understand it only metaphorically and in an Analogical sense signifying no more than the Vertue and Power of Christs Voyce and Proclamation summoning both the living and the dead to appear at his Tribunal But why we may not take it literally and in propriety of speech I see no reason so for the voyce of an audible Trump which shall be lowder than all the former And it may well be the same with that which the Apostle calls the last Trump this sounding last of all 1 Cor. 15.52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 24.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sonora vocalissima tuba Bull. Numb 10.1.9 In quo specimen quoddam editum fuit hujus ultima populi Dei congregationis Id. or continuing longer than the former our Lord calls it The great sound of a Trumpet Thus are these three Summons distinct and each of them lowder and shriller than the former And it may allude to the manner of the calling together of the Jews to their publick worship and that possibly typical to this signifying thus much to the world that like as their Assemblies were summoned by the sound of Trumpets so the last and solemn day of judgment that great general Assembly of the Living and the Dead shall be summoned together by the sound of Trumpets from Heaven the vastest and most universal Assembly that ever was beheld by the eye of Creature But a clearer Type and Prophecy hereof seems to be that at the giving of the Law when Christ came down on Mount Sinai to give the Law it was in a very glorious manner sc with Thunder and Lightnings Numb 19.16 and a thick Cloud upon the Mount with the voyce of the Trumpet exceeding loud c. This did Typifie Unto us Christ his second Coming at the end of the world to require the Law which surely ought to excel in glory Let us compare these two Comings together a little At his coming to give the Law 2 Pet. 3.10 Deut. 33.2 Jud. v. 14. Dan. 7.10 Exod. 19.19 Mount Sinai was all in a flame Now the whole world shall be on fire Then Christ came with ten thousands of his Saints but Now thousand thousands shall Minister unto him and ten thousand times thousands shall stand before him Then the voyce of the Trumpet sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder In like manner Now there shall be first a shout of all the Angels of God with a joynt acclamation Next the voyce of the Arch-Angel which shall be lowder and shriller than they And last of all the Trump of God by way of eminency distinct from the two former lowder shriller than either God then spake with a voyce the voyce of a Law-giver commanding the Law God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God c. Exod. 20.1.2 Now God shall speak with the voyce of a Judg requiring an account of the Law viz. what men have done with that Law whether they have obeyed or rebelled against that holy Command and he shall accordingly Judg them This now is the third Circumstance or considerable particular which the Holy Ghost commends to our notice in the Coming of Christ which is the Eighth word of Comfort in this Model sc The manner of his coming And this is to set forth unto us the Glory and Majesty of Christ his coming to Judgment These fore-runners of the coming of Christ these various Heraulds which shall proclaime his Advent scl 1. The Hortatory clamour 2. The voyce of the Arch-Angel 3. And the Trump of God These shall add much to the State and Solemnity of this great Judg his approach When he came into the Flesh his Herauld was John the Baptist a man of a mean and contemptible presence Math. 3.2 a Preacher of Repentance Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Now his fore-runners and Heraulds shall be The mighty Angels of God Then he came in a still soft voyce Math. 3.3 the voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his path straight Now he shall come with a loud and terrible voyce Voyce upon Voyce Trump upon Trump Alarm upon Alarm Each lowder and more dreadful than other in comparison whereof the lowdest Thunder which was eyer heard from the Clowds of God shall be but as the shooting off of a pistol or the blowing of a Rams Horn A dreadful shout which shall even shake the Heavens and the Earth Heb 12.26 and Hell it self And it makes much for the terrour and astonishment of the wicked Use A Terror to the wicked who in the pride of their hearts would not lend an obedient ear to the sweet and gentle summons of the Word saying Repent Deut. 29.19 and believe the Gospel but blest themselves in their hearts saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart and add Drunkenness to Thirst Oh to all such surely this will be a tremendous blast which shall not so much raise as affright them out of their Graves Some of the Jewish Doctors have a Conceit that wicked men shall never rise again which they ground upon their own mistake of that Scripture Isa 26.14 But though it cannot be properly said they Rise yet they shall be raised not from Death to Life but from one Death to another from the first Death to the second Death from Death to Judgment and from Judgment to Execution to torment with horrour and amazement Behold the Judg cometh Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment This will be the dreadful meaning of that Ministerial Excitation in the Consciences of the Reprobate world Appear in Court there to answer for all the Contempt to the Calls and Counsels of Jesus Christ in his blessed Gospel Oh what would Drunkards and Swearers and Adulterers give that they might never be raised out of their Graves or being raised What would they give then for a Rock or a Mountain to fall upon them that might hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb but all in vain Then to hide will be impossible and to appear will be intolerable Use 2 But as glorious and acceptable is this description of Christ's coming to the Saints Comfort to the Saints for whose sake this clause is added as a word of Comfort even to them that sleep in Jesus This three-fold Alarm Shout and Voyce and Trump shall be no more terror or amazement to them than the
bodies shall be transfigured into the likeness of his own Glorious body How according or suitably to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself God can do what he will and that 's enough And thus I have opened the first Consequence of Christ his Last Coming sc The Resurrection of the Saints as formerly in respect of the 1. Author The Lord Jesus 2. The Precedency of it they that are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep they shall rise first So also now 3. In respect of the manner of it the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with four glorious qualities 1. Incorruptible 2. Glorious 3. Powerful 4. Spiritual By all which it shall be conformed to the Glorious Body of our Lord Jesus It may be of Use 1. For Counsel 2. For Comfort and but a word of either First It may serve by way of Counsel 1. Use Of Counsel and that unto all indefinitly You that would secure unto your selves an interest in the glory which shall be put upon the Saints bodies in the Resurrection labour to experience this beatifical transfiguration first in your Souls on this side of the Grave Labour to get your vile spirits to be made like to his glorious Spirit Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ put Him on by an holy and universal Imitation Labour to be meek as He was meek Holy as He was Holy Pure as He was Pure Merciful as He was Merciful Heavenly as He was Heavenly And Joh. 4.34 Let it be your meat and drink to do the will of him that sent you and to finish his work * A. Christ was the brightness of his Father's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insculpta forma the express Image of his Person So do ye study in your finite capacity to be the brightness of Christ his glory the express Image of his Person Oh labour to get his Image and similitude to be deeply engraven upon your hearts and to scatter the beams of it in your Conversations Philip. 2.15 for the enlightning of a dark world Behold this shall be the evidence and first-fruits of your future conformity to Him in the Resurrection of the just The ground and Reason is because that blessed Transfiguration which shall conform the Saints to Christ their Head and Husband in the Resurrection and from thenceforth to all Eternity hath its beginning here in Regeneration Ephes 4.23 24. or the New Birth wherein they are renewed in the Spirit of their minds Bâ—ta referts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit upon twelve â—nâ—â—nes and do put on habitually the New man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true holiness Jesus Christ is formed in their hearts And upon this very account is the Resurrection styled also the Regeneration Math. 19.28 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit i. e. in the Resurrection ye also shall sit c. And it is therefore called the Regeneration because the Resurrection shall perfect in the Saints what the Regeneration begun sc Conformity to Christ their Head and Husband in Holiness Yea at the Resurrection the Image of Jesus Christ shall be compleated as on their Souls so on their bodies also because that Image was begun upon their Souls on this side the Grave in their New Birth accordingly as they were predestinated to both in the purpose of God Rom 8.29 from all Eternity The Resurrection to Grace here and to Glory hereafter is but one and the same Regeneration Whosoever therefore is a Stranger to this Transformation of Spirit in the Resurrection to Grace shall never partake of that Transfiguration of body in the Resurrection to Glory The bodies of the wicked shall be raked out of their Graves with all their defects and excesses all their mis-shapes and deformities which they carried with them to their Graves in their perfect ugliness which were the shame and curse of the fallen nature an abhorrency to God and Angels c. Yea to the very Devils themselves whom they shall have to be both their Companions and Executioners The Saints of God were the world 's derided persecuted Non-Conformists here but themselves shall be Christs and his Saints Non-Conformists hereafter when their Carcasses shall be cast out for a spectacle of shame and abhorrency unto all flesh for ever Isa 66. ult Christians as you love your Souls and would bear the Image of the Son of God in his Kingdom and glory Study this Soul-Conformity now and make it your business Labour to feel this blessed change wrought in your hearts and let the world behold it in your lives without which all your Confidences concerning that day will prove but so many delusions Rom. 5.5 to aggravate your shame and everlasting dispair Hear oh hear how the Disciple of Love doth argue When He shall appear we shall be like Him Glorious But why 1 Joh. 3.2 cum c. 4.17 Because As He is so are we in this world He disputes from Conformity to Christ in the Gospel-state to Conformity to Him at this Appearance We shall c. because we are c. By such Argumentations Christians Philip. 2.12 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 1 Joh. 4.17 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling that ye may have boldness in the day of Judgment c. Secondly It may serve by way of Comfort Second Use Consolation and for that end it is written by the Comforter Himself in this model for Comfort I say in reference to our sweet Relations that sleep in Jesus over whom not seldom we spend our fruitless Tears take we heed lest sinful also while we compare their once lively sweet amiable Countenances which sparkled so much beauty and delight in our eyes with their pale ghastly Visages in the Grave where they say to Corruption Job 17.14 thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister We look upon them I say not without a kind of trembling and horrour as if their Ghosts appeared to us out of their Graves or that we our selves were buried with them alive in the same Coffin Ah Sirs why stand ye not with the men of Galilee Act. 1.11 gazing up into Heaven but with Peter stooping down and looking into the Sepulcher Behold I bring you glad tydings of great joy The day is coming when that Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and that Mortal shall put on Immortality when that poor dust over which thou now mournest that vile body shall put on its Angelical Robes and shall more surpass it self in its freshest and liveliest colours while yet in the land of the living than that beautiful pile of flesh and blood did exceed it self when it was resolved into rottenness and dust Look not then oh ye Children of God upon your Selves or your Relations as they lye in the Grave but contemplate them as
you to is to exercise your selves much in the vision of God here and to that end I would have you 1. Make much of your glasses But 2. Take heed of resting in and being satisfied with your glasses First Make much of your glasses Be thankful for them How many Churches of Jesus Christ have their glasses taken away or broken Robb'd and spoiled of all their precious things and have not so much as a glass left wherein they might have some glimpses of divine light conveyed into their understanding Oh Christians before it be so with you make use of your mediums While you have the light walk in the light c. Bless God that the Sun is not totally gone down upon your Prophets Mich. 3 6 nor the day dark over them God hath done that for you in as much wonder and more mercy that once he did for Joshua caused your Sun to stand still in your Gibeon c. Oh bless God for it Make his praise glorious And secondly Make good use of your mediums attend Reading and Hearing and Prayer and Sacraments while you have them take heed of that dangerous notion of being above Ordinances it is a Precipice upon which many have stumbled into darkness Oh that it may not prove utter darkness the blackness of darkness for ever There is a living above Ordinances which hath a good sence in it that is First When God hath taken away Ordinances or permitted men to take them away then to live above them i. e. to be able to live immediately upon God as knowing that though God hath tied us to means he hath not tied himself to means he that converts and saveth by Ordinances can do his work without them the means can do nothing without God but God can do what he will without the means so to live by faith is exceeding precious Secondly In the use of Ordinances to look above Ordinances to look up to God whose Ordinances they are as only able to make his own Institutions effectual to the accomplishing of his own ends thus to use Ordinances and to trust God is excellent but for a people while they have Ordinances to slight them and neglect them and talk of living above Ordinances this is intollerable pride and folly yea it is a mocking of God to be wiser than God and instead of living above Ordinances to live without God Oh learn to make much of the Ordinances lest that angry question come and sweep away all Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 seeing he hath no heart to it A second thing I would call you to is while you use Ordinances to take heed of resting in and of resting contented with Ordinances an Ordinance of God without the God of the Ordinance what an empty glass is it There is a vision of Ordinances and there is a vision in Ordinances oh take not up with that without this pray for such a spirit as he had whose voice it is Psal 63.1 My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee David was now in the wilderness banished from the Tabernacle and Ark Altars those legal Ordinances of the Sanctuary I but it is not the bare Ordinances that will serve his turn but God in the Ordinances thee thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Oh Christians let the same mind be in you which was in holy David make God the object of your vision in your Evangelical attendances God commands it Seek ye my face Psal 27.8 Seek the Lord and seek his strength and seek his face evermore Psal 105.4 Oh let your hearts eccho with David's Thy face Lord will I seek or as it may be read Let my face Lord seek thy face What he meaneth by the face of God and so by thee thee in the 63. Psalm he expounds himself ver 2. That I may see thy power and thy glory in the Sanctuary namely the powerful and glorious manifestations of God in his Ordinances the manifestation of all his divine attributes and excellencies that which God offered unto Moses Exod. 33.23 and which our Lord promiseth to all his loving and obedient Disciples John 14.21 He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him yea Father and Son ver 23. we will come and make our abode with him This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height and altitude of our Gospel vision as God told Moses thou shalt see my back-parts the face of God the vision of God his essence whatever it is that is reserved for an higher form the vision in glory yea I must tell you the clear manifestation of any divine truth in the brightness of it upon the understanding and in the sweetness of it upon the heart is this Evangelical vision as well as those higher manifestations of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in divine ravishments I say when it pleaseth God by the Spirit to beam in Gospel-truth from the very face of Christ not into the head only but into the heart with such a glorious light 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Peter 2.9 that it seems to be the same in the Soul as it is in Jesus the very glory of God so that the Soul stands wondering at the light when in his light we see light divine truth by a divine irradiation not by borrowed mediums and natural representations only by its own native brightness and lustre This this Christians is Gospel vision which as it doth necessarily tend to so it will infallibly expire into the beatifical facial vision in glory How rare are those Christians that do experience this vision of God in the Ordinance yea how rare are they that do thus breath and pant and cry out for the living God with this holy Psalmist Hence darkness hence deadness hence formality a powerless profession hath wofully spread it self upon the face of Christianity yea upon the very reformed parts of it Let Christians stir up themselves and let their souls press hard after God when they come to Ordinances or else this very thing will be worse to them than all the evil that befell them from their youth until now it may provoke God to withdraw even the Evangelical vision from them here and without great repentance to deny them admission to the beatifical vision hereafter They that will not seek Gods face in Grace shall not see Gods face in Glory The sixth and last object of the beatifical vision is Sixth Object of the blessed vision All things in God All things in God God is the universal Library of all truth whether divine or natural yea all truth quà truth is divine and doth emanate from the God of truth in whom it is there to be read as in its original and lieth open for all the whole Vniversity of those heavenly Academicks to peruse Yet we must remember that the
like my God glorious in holiness this is not only an evidence of heaven but heaven it self Thirdly Evidence 3. Again an universal hatred of sin is a good token that heaven is designed for thee for hatred of sin is the negative part of holiness and heaven is a place provided by God on purpose that there the Saints may be as holy as they will without disturbance or reproach fear not to think much and often of heaven if sin be an offence to thee if sin be an hell on earth to thee heaven is designed for thee to be thy Paradise Learned men conceive the sin of the apostate Angels went no further than the first ambitious thought fear not to be often solacing thy self in the contemplation of that place where sin never entred or if it did it was cast out as soon as ever it was conceived Indeed it is but a fancy men have taken up that they love happiness while they continue to love sin a chast love of heaven can never consist with the love of impure lusts Sin is the Devils image holiness is Gods he loves not the beauty of holiness that would have the Devil advanced thither If men would not have it so why else do they give sin such free entertainment in their own bosomes and will by no means give it a bill of divorce Fourthly Evidence 4. A superlative love to him that hath purchased this state for us and us for it is an infallible evidence of our right to it and interest in it that is the Lord Jesus Christ and a strong motive upon which gracious souls are so often in heaven by their contemplations is that thereby an eye of faith they may behold not the purchase only but the purchaser whom having not seen we love and whom loving we would fain see and this is the glory of every one that is so affected so it is expresly said 1 Cor. 2.9 The good things prepared for them that love him Dost thou love the Lord Jesus Ascend often in the Chariot of love that thou mayest see his face and in his face the glory and beauty of heaven Surely such as love not Christ and yet think they love heaven are miserably mistaken they know neither Heaven nor Christ and may well cry out Isa 44.20 Is there not a lye in my right hand Well Christians you that would gladly have your portion in this glory shut your eyes downward I may invert the Angels Question to the men of Galilee and say Acts 1.11 Why stand ye paring upon the â—arth Yea why crawl ye with your bellies upon the ground as if you had inherited the Serpents curse as well as your own Sursum corda lift up your hearts let your souls often withdraw and bid the body farewell for a time that you may with Paul be wrapt up to the third heaven and then see things which may even ravish your souls out of your bodies seek the things above set your affections on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Pregustation by faith is a kind of prepossession an entrance beforehand into the glorious joyes of our Lord and Master an ascent into the Mount of transfiguration when the soul may truly say Master it is good for us to be here and the oftner ye come the more welcome Christ will make you they that know the divine relishes of such contemplation would not exchange them for the most delicious fruitions of the whole inferiour creation Oh strive to antidate glory and to get into heaven before your time Yet give me leave to add one Caution I do not say every one that hath a right to heaven hath an assurance of heaven or else no right or warrant to meditate on heaven but this I say 1. Though every Christian hath not assurance every one may if not by way of special prerogative and extraordinary revelation yet in a way of holy duty the mediums whereby Christians attain to assurance being common to all 2. Though all attain not to the same degree of assurance the plerophory of Gods love yet all may attain to such a degree of Scripture-hope good hope through Grace 2 Thess 2.16 as may quiet their hearts and cause them to go on their way rejoycing looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 16. 3. I say not it is the duty of all to have assurance in what degree soever but it is the duty of all to labour for assurance in the highest degree not to labour for assurance argues a defect of love to God true love can rest in nothing short of assurance and even this may sustain the soul till assurance comes 4. Therefore I say let not thy want of assurance be the fruit of thy sloth do not continue without assurance for want of holy industry in the pursuit of it for want of giving all diligence as the text saith to make thy calling and election sure and thy want of assurance need not discourage thee from taking a full and frequent prospect of heavens glory let God bear witness to thy Conscience that assurance is thy design and that you are not voluntarily and habitually wanting to God and your selves as to the pursuit of that design in a concurrent use of all those mediums which God hath sanctified for the attainment thereof and you may with as much boldness and considence get within the vail and there take a full prospect of the upper Canaan Northward Southward Eastward Westward in all the dimensions of it as God once spake to Abraham Gen. 13.14 concerning the â—â—ather Canaan and with the same promise All the land all the glory which thou seen to thee will I give it for ever I say with as much boldness as if thou hadst got the plerophory of faith and were already sealed with the Spirit of promise to the day of redemption and who knows but in the same Chariot wherein Love ascends into Heaven Assurance may come down from heaven and or ever thou art aware thy soul may make thee like the Chariots of Amminadib Quest But what are those mediums in the concurrent use whereof assurance of an interest in the heavenly inheritance may be had Answ The Question being but occasional 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall with much brevity but hint only at some special Helps 1. Take heed of determining before inquiry 1. Means 2. Study well your evidences 2. Help Take heed of false evidence and verily this is an evidence to be sollicitous about your evidences Take heed that neither your evidences be false evidences nor you make a false application of the true that you neither take exclusive evidences for inclusive i. e. Jam. 1.22 such as are only to shut out bold presumers as bare doing of duties hearing praying c. for such as do necessarily conclude a state of grace counterfeit graces for the fruits of the Spirit of God
3. Earnestly beg the Spirit of God 3. Help Beâ— the Spirit His Office is twofold as to assurance 1. Mediate To clear your evidences The Office of the Spirit twofold 1. Mediate This he doth two wayes 1. By helping the soul to know and believe the evidence as it lyeth in the word such as these He that believeth shall be saved Rom. 10.9 They that through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live Rom. 8.13 Hereby we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 John 3.14 18. cum 19. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 The heirs of glory are only such as God hath made meet for the Inheritance Col. 1.12 He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.12 We groan to be cloathed upon that mortality might beswallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 These and many other are the Graces and Qualifications to which God hath infallibly annexed heaven and glory And to these evidences the Holy Ghost helps the Soul to set his seal as to the infallible testimony of God that they are true John 3.33 2. The Spirit clears the evidence by the Candle of the Lord enabling the Soul to read it evidently written in the heart by his own finger the Spirit enlightens the understanding to see that these graces in the Soul are real and genuine The believer dan say I believe I through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body I keep under my body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9. ult I love the brethren and the more of God I see in them the more my heart cleaves to them I have the Son as a fountain of light and life dwelling in me I am in some measure made meet I hope to be partaker of the inheritance c. Now from the premises the Spirit enables the believer comfortably to issue this blessed conclusion Therefore I shall be saved Therefore I am a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Behold this is the first office of the Spirit Oh pray for it Christians that in judging of your evidences neither on one hand you may be deceived with shadows instead of substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 1.22 Bristol-stones instead of Diamonds as hypocrites deceive themselves and perish for ever nor on the other hand still lye trembling under a causeless suspition that all is but counâ—erfeit when there is no just ground for it and so for the present loose your comfort be sure not to trust your own spirit in so infinite a concern and if at first you cannot so readily make this practical Syllogisme wait and pray for the Spirit which is of God That you may know the things that are freely given to you of God! Cry with David Search me O God 2 Cor. 2.12 and know my heart c. Psal 139.23 24. It is good to be afraid to deceive our selves The second Office of the Spirit is that which some Divines call immediate 2. Office Immediate and it is a bright irradiation of the Holy Ghost beaming out upon the soul not only giving iâ— a clear distinct discerning of its own graces that we referr'd to in the former Office but immediately witnessing to the soul its adoption by Jesus Christ and right and title to the Kingdom of God wherein God speaks to the soul in some such like language as that I am thy salvation Psal 35.3 Making the soul to hear joy and gladness Psal 51.8 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins Isai 44.22 I have redeemed thee like that in the Gospel Thy sins be forgiven thee Matth. 9.2 Now this act is usually called immediate i. e. without the mediation of signs and evidences as in the former Office not but that there are signs and evidences in the person testified but that the Spirit makes no use of them in the act of testification there are gracious qualifications in the soul sufficient to distinguish and justifie it from all the false witness of the lying Spirit upon all seasonable occasions but the Spirit of God doth not refer to any of these qualifications in this act but immediately darts in light and comfort which fill the soul wich joy unspeakable and full of glory This act of the Spirit is sometimes called in Scripture 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seal of the Spirit Ephes 1.13 The office of a Seal being like that of an Oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.16 an end of all strife to put the matter beyond doubt or disputation So a Believer sealed is set beyond all fear or danger and God as it were leaves himself no possibility of receding or going back from his word and promise Heb. 6.18 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This act is called an earnest 2 Cor. 5.5 Who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit Now the office of an earnest is not only to assure but to give possession an earnest is part of the purchase or bargain so is this act of the Spirit an act whereby the soul is not only assured of but put into possession of the heavenly inheritance it is as it were part of it the joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul enters into the joy of the Lord assurance is nothing else but antidated glory heaven on this side heaven This is my B. the second Office of the Spirit which I well know some eminently learned and godly Divines deny acknowledging no other act of the Spirit in assurance but the former But I resolved at the entrance of this work not to dispute but thetically to assert my own opinion and judgment in any point that admits of debate In this case therefore I know and believe there is enough in the former Office of the Spirit to carry a believer to heaven yet this second Office can be no useless redundancy or over plus a Believer will need all the assurance that is to be had and therefore if God be so bountiful to give both let a Believer pray and wait for the promise of the Spirit in both these Offices mediate and immediate if he speed it will be a labour well bestowed if he speed not it will be a labour well lost I have done with this third Help or Means to attain assurance I come to the fourth and shall more briefly dispatch them that remain A fourth Help to get assurance is this 4. Help Be very tender of the Spirit Make much of the Spirit surely it concerns us highly to be very tender of the Spirit for if both kinds of assurance be the fruit of the Spirit we had need to hear as it were founding in our ears Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 whereby ye are sealed to the