have taken it for the last and general Judgment whereof it was a lively figure and representation Revel 6. from 12. to the end 5. The next coming of Christ is his coming upon the man of sin after he had by the space of a thousand years fixed his throne and Usurpation over all Christendome for the generallity of it called the Holy City Setting himself in the Temple of God whom the Lord by the Spirit of his mouth in his witnesses and reformers consumes and brings to a skeleton in order to destroy him with the brightness of his coming Now as all the appearances of Christ to the Fathers and the Prophets were gradual and preparatory workings to his first Personal appearance wherein and wherewith also he ministred the light and notice of his second appearance so all these several comings of Christ since his ascention are so many gradual steps and preparations to his second and glorious Personal appearance and coming And as none of those appearances of his to the Fathers and the Prophets were his first personal appearance such as was promised and intended by God and expected by those that believed the promises so neither do any of these comings since Christs ascention discharge the promise of God or the expectation of believers but that they groundedly expect not only a farther and fuller Revelation of Christ but a Personal appearance and descending of the Son of man from Heaven bodily after the same manner as he appeared the first time and as he ascended though in a far greater glory which second appearance of his in person will finish our Salvation as his first did perfect our reconciliation The necessity of this second and personal appearance for these ends will appear more clearly after we have removed one objection which may lie in the minds of many it is this Christ is a spirit a quickning spirit the Lord that spirit His Body is spiritual a spiritual body can act at a distance why therefore may not all that is to be performed for the Church be done by Christ without changing his place why must we needs understand his descending from Heaven to be Local visible and bodily Why may not a vertual presence serve the turn and especially when the phrase of Scripture favours such a sence for it is said he cometh in a cloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 21.27 and he shall descend from Heaven in a shout in the voice of the Archangel in the Trump of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the shout the voice of the Archangel the Trump of God were the vehicle and the vertue or power of Christ put forth therein were all the appearance he makes and all the voice he puts forth and not his Organical voice It was the voice of Angels that shook the earth at the giving of the Law though it be call'd his voice he putting forth his power therewith and with that voice and with that effect is this shaking of Heaven and Earth parallel'd Heb. 12. To which may be added that Christ is God as well as Man and hath all power in Heaven and Earth and his very humane Nature is carried up to the right hand of power and in association with his Divine Nature is thereby qualified to act as a spirit yea as God and the Centurion could say when he sought Christ for his servant and Christ told him he would come and heal him speak but the word and thy servant shall be healed as much as to say no need of Local motion or corporal application to all which I answer 1. Of the power of Christ who is the true God and eternal life there is no dispute He can do whatsoever he pleases by a word by a Beck by a motion of his will nor do we limit circumscribe or give Laws to a spiritual body which in the spirit is and can act as the spirit so that the question is not of what is simply possible to Christ but the question is what is the will the counsel the determination and appointment of the Father 2. The same argument will lie against the necessity of Christ's first Personal appearance for Christ was the Lamb slain from the Foundations of the world in the eye of God and his Sacrifice did operate as an atonement with and on the behalf of all the faithful from the begining and they beheld this Sacrifice and reaped the comfort of it in all their Sacrifices under the Law yet all this made not the personal appearance of the Lamb of God in flesh needless for all those figures had their vertue from this and all the Faith of the Saints look unto this in those shadows Now if notwithstanding all this it was necessary that Christ should come in the flesh and fulfil those shadows that pointed to him which had else all been in vain The cause is the same here in respect of his second appearance for all the judgments that have been hitherto shewed and executed on Jews or Heathens for resisting Christ or on the Antichristian world for mocking of Christ have not yet succeeded so as to make Christ's Victory perfect to put all Enemies under his feet nor all the Salvation outward or inward that he hath wrought for his followers have not given them rest from all their labour and sorrow Isa 14.3 and hard Bondage wherein they have been made to serve both inward and outward they have not yet received the hope Gal. 5.5 or Harvest of the righteousness of Faith but wait for it they have not yet received the quiet and full possession and fruition of their inheritance Eph. 1.14 neither of Heaven nor Earth but only the earnest of it The whole payment awaits this second glorious Personal appearance of the Lord Jesus from Heaven Not but that the things are great which have been done by the spirit and were Faith improved what a glorious improvement farther might be made of our present state and interest but as that first ministration of the Law though glorious in its end and tendency Yet as that end drew near did Sink and became less powerful in the Letter and even declined as a shadow and came to nothing so this ministration of the Gospel from Christ's first appearance may be expected to be with the generallity of professors of Christianity as Christ's second appearance comes on insomuch that the very Faith of it will be even vanished out of the Earth Luk. 18.8 And little but the form of goodliness without the power to be found among many if not the most of professors yea the sincere the true seed will be sensible of great sailours great decayes of spirit Isa 32 1◠to relieve which is that promise of the spirit to be poured from on high on the wilderness the latter raine and of sending Elias Joel 2.23 Mal. 4.5 to turn the heart of the Fathers to the Children and
not all though this is a great change the first Adam was without sin and was holy but spirituality of holiness shall be the product of this glorious appearance of the second Adam and as he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead so shall his brethren his members in their proportion be by the removing of sin shall the hurtfulness be taken away that is in all the Creatures but by this spirit or spirituality of holiness shall a spiritual glory break forth upon all the Creatures whom in that day we shall see to be all of God as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.50 That holiness in that day shall be universally diffused displayed upon all things all employments all enjoyments Zeck 14.20.21 Every Pot in Jerusalem holiness to the Lord. Holiness writ upon the Bridles and Bells of the Horses this is the spirituality of that day it will turn all into spirit a conversation in Heaven a walking in the truth not in a vain shew the truth filling all things and exhibiting it self in every Shadowy form so filling it and making it substantial this is the inside as I may say of the appearing of Jesus Christ his appearing is the appearing of power the appearing of life when Christ Joh. 6.63 who is our life shall appear and he is all life his words were spirit and life his very body now is life and spirit It is a great vail before our eyes the Nature of a Body framing the conceptions and taking in the notion of it from the bodies that we know which are only natural but a spiritual body is another thing though a real body still and another vail is Time that Christ's appearance should depend on time or be governed and ruled by time looking on time in an abstract notion from its work whereas Christ and his times are one Hitherto the Father worketh and I work when the work of Faith is finished when patience hath had its perfect work when the sins of the Amorites are full and when the measure of the sufferings of Christ are fil'd up in his body mistical which are all set and numbered and time doth but serve to measure those or rather is measured by these Christ doth not turn up vain hour-glasses and sit idle till so much time be run out but when his work is done when God hath glorified himself in the tryed Faith Joh. 10.12 and patience of the Church when God hath wrought out that peice of glory he designes in and under the suffering state then enters the blessed hope which is but one peice with the other and shall receive illustration from it Of this state I have many things to say and those hard to be understood we are so carnal and dull of hearing and indeed De Deo nil nisi in Deo of God and his Kingdom nothing can be worthily spoken but in the spirit of that Kingdom and therefore we may well apply that of the Apostle here The day shall declare it in this day was John when he had the vision of it this was the Lords day undoubtedly he there meant a day that will knock off from this world Rev. 1.10 and the concernes thereof in that carnal sinful way that we now incumber our selves about them which this appearance of Christ as hath been expected inward and powerful as well as visibly glorious will only prove sufficient for by giving us in exchange such entertainment of another kind as will teach us the right use of all things Then indeed shall the Saints be Spiritual persons strangers shall stand feed your flocks and the Sons of the Alien shall be your Plow-men and Vine dressers but ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God Esa 61.6 So that though they may have the use of flocks and fields and Vines yet they shall not encumber themselves with them and their use of them shall be highly Spiritual Indeed their whole course and time shall be as a continued Feast of Tabernacles as we read Zach. 14.16 to the 19. Now Sir if you say all this may be effected by a powerful and spiritual appearance of the Lord Jesus though his person keep still in Heaven as in the primitive times when by the falling down of the spirit upon believers they sold their possessions and laid them down at the Apostles feet and no man said any thing was his own but they had all things common I shall not deny but if this were all that were to be done it might be done so without the appearance of Christ's visible person Though yet 〈◊〉 â—uestion is not of what may possibly be done but of 〈◊〉 way and meanes God hath ordain'd and appointed this new state of things to be ministred into the world by whether he hath not consign'd this honour peculiarly to Christ to bring in these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things as when he wrought reconciliation for us he appear'd in flesh so now that he brings Salvation to appear in glory I am sure the scripture speaks in such a stile as to favour yea to prompt us to such an understanding saying the Lord shall send Jesus and bring again the first begotten into the world and these times of refreshing they are said to be from the presence of the Lord. But this inward worke is not The All that is to be done in that day but the dead are to be raised and as I conceive at the very erection of the glorious estate of this Kingdom else the Surviving Saints should prevent them which the Apostle saith must not be and the surviving Saints must be changed at the same time or else it would be a disadvantage to survive to Christ's coming Now if the dead be raised in the beginning of this Kingdom then Christ must appear from Heaven for by his voice must they be raised and least any should say this may be by a voice from Heaven the person of Christ keeping still in Heaven the Apostle prevents that by saying the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven 1 Thâ—s 4.16 Now we do not read that after Christs descending he shall return to Heaven again nor is it probable he should leave all the raised Saints here on Earth all the time of his raigne But that he may give forth the glory of his glorious person gradually I do not deny that is in such proportion as may stand with the ends of it which I note because some cannot tell how to reconcile building and planting and procreation with this new state whâ—… the Prophets mention with it Esa 65. which maâ—… 〈◊〉 this be qualified For though the passing away of sin and death be a great change yet that brings us no higher then the state of Adam in innocency which may be done by Christ and by his personal appearing though he give
and the Holy Ghost entirely within themselves in the unity of the God-head where God and his Kingdom God and all his works are one This is the Original Kingdom the head of all here both God and his Kingdom are properly invisible to any created Eye 1 Kings 8.12 or understanding dwelling in thick darkness as Solomon saith possessing all entirely to and within himself in an incommunicable glory this is properly the Kingdom of the Father The Kingdom of Christ is the Mediatory Kingdom wherein Christ as God-man is set up from everlasting in Heaven in a heavenly state and glory to make forth to created understanding the invisible glories of God and of his Kingdom as a living Image and representation thereof Of this state of Christs Person and Kingdom before the world Solomon speaks by the Spirit in a most high and divine strain Prov. 8. from v. 12. to v. 32. and our Saviour himself recognizeth it in those expressions of the Son of Man in Heaven and in that Prayer Joh. 17. Joh. 3.13 Glorâ— thou me with the glory I had with thee before the world was And the Apostle Paul Phil. 2. saith He was in the form of God Both these Kingdoms which are one though distinguished are eternal from eternity and to eternity suffering no dammage or diminution by time or any the chances changes or injuries of time In both which known to God and known to Christ Act. 15.18 are all their works from the foundations of the world In the Kingdom of God there Christ as a Mystery and all things else created and increated lay in the Bosom of the Father In the Kingdom of Christ in this Heavenly state The world and all the times of it lay in the Mediatory bosom before they were brought forth into actual existence in themselves So the Apostle saith We were chosen in him before the foundations of the world Eph. 1.4 and he is before all things Col. 1.17 and in him all things consist and stand in a most harmonious frame and he is the head of the body the Church 1 Cor. 11.3 Rev. 5.5.20.16 who is the beginning and the head of every man the head of this world In this state is Christ properly the rooâ— of David and of all things which lay eternally as a Mystery hid in him and there lay his own humanity which in time he was to take up of the Virgin as He and all his Mediatory Kingdom and glory was a mystery hid in God Eph. 3.9 But now in the second place there is a state of this glorious Mediator and of his Kingdom revealed on earth which is properly the Subject of our debate that the will of God may be done on Earth by the Son of Man on earth and in the state of his Kingdom on earth as it is done in Heaven in and by the Son of man in Heaven and in the heavenly state of his Kingdom there which is the second Petition that follows in that Doctrine of Prayer which our Saviour instructs us in immediately following upon the first Thy Kingdom come Now this Kingdom of Christ may also be considered in a twofold state viz. In a state of exercise and suffering and this state lasts from the fall of man who being set in honour continued not and runs down through all the times of this degenerate world till Christs second and glorious appearance 1 Rev. 9. and is called by John in his Revelation the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ The other state of Christs Kingdom is the Victory and Triumph Esa 25.8 when he even his Father who hitherto worketh with the Son Joh. 5.17 and the Son worketh also shall have put all Enemies under his Feet 1 Cor. 15.24 27. and shall put down all Rule Authority and Power as it is inimical or contrary to him and this state of the Kingdom is called Peace Esa 9.7 and rest ch 11.10 his rest shall be glorious and this properly is that Kingdom whereof we enquire Now Sir having premised this distinction of the Kingdom of God and his Christ let us apply it This state of Christs Kingdom in peace in rest and victory in the visible manifestation of it to every created understanding and eye you can by no means say was from everlasting nor hath been all the times of this world but hath its proper times to be exhibited and those in the end of this old corrupt degenerated world by its appearing it will make all things anew and will be the restitution of all things That which may be a vail before our eyes in discerning this Truth is the glorious things that are spoken of this present state of the City of God and the Kingdom of Christ in the present state of it in Faith in which it is truly a Kingdom though a suffering Kingdom and gets the better of all its opposers though not without blows and blood and it gives rest and peace to all the subjects of it mystical inward and spiritual rest and peace Heb. 4.3 1 Pet. 1.8 Isa 26.3 Philip. 4.7 Psal 110.2 in the midst of enemies and troubles for we which have believed do enter into rest and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory and our minds are kept in perfect peace even with a peace which passeth all understanding and so Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies and God hath given us the Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 through our Lord Jesus Christ yea we are come to Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Eph 2.6 1 Joh. 5.4 Joh. 12.31.16.17 and are set down with Christ in heavenly places having overcome the world by Faith and the Prince of this World is judged and cast out and we inherit all things But we must remember all this glory is in death and suffering and under the Cross both inwardly and outwardly and all the life and glory that we feel and experience is but to carry us up under the Cross and dying of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle at large discourses 2 Cor. 4 from the 7. verse to the 15. and in that refreshing Ordinance of the Supper we shew forth the Lords Deaâ—h till he come which death being the gate of life all Believers in their successive generations are passing through and will or must be so till the Lord come This is the gate to the City Rev. 22.14 call'd there Gates because through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and as Christs suffering was his great Obedience called obedience unto Death and is that which is meant by that phrase Lo I come to do thy will O God So this is the doing of Gods will and commandments by Believers the presenting their Bodies a living Sacrifice thereby proving by experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God This is the way to the City which the fool that is drunken with the Spirit of
Apostles and Evangelists and Pastors and Teachers might all with one voice cry out and complain we have laboured in vain nor what follows of Christs ascending and giving gifts to men for the perfecting of the Saints for faith and vision must eternally remain distinct saith was never ordain'd to give forth that perfection that is reserved to vision faith is perfect in its kind that is it carries us up to Christ to enjoy a relative perfection there and the Prophets and Apostles as to that have not lost their labour but it doth not subjectively reveal or bring forth perfection upon us that is reserved for vision I know there are that fancy and imagine themselves to have attained or at least do assert it in Theâ—i that some have and that more may attain that perfection but come to the Hypothesis Have they themselves attain'd it I have not met with that confidence in any to assert it nor should I ever the sooner believe them if they should For this perfection is a Feast that is not to be opened till the guests are all come and the house of God is full nor till Christ the Feast-maker is present among them visibly and gloriously For as much as this point of the time of Christs glorious Kingdom on Earth is of so main consequence as that which will strike so great a stroak in the controversie depending between us I shall therefore according to the evidence that shines forth unto me in the Scriptures clear this up more particularly with the grounds of it 1. And my first ground is that for all the works of God done under the Sun his works of Salvation as well as judgment there is an appointed time as Solomon shews at large Eccl. 3.1 and so on Therefore the Church dealing with God about her deliverance urges it upon this ground Thou wilt or thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favour her even the set time is come Psal 102.13 The instances are so copious and known for this that it were loss of time to insist on them Israels deliverance out of Egypt was set for the time and God kept his time to a day when the 430. years were expired the very same day did God bring them forth by their Armies Gen. 15.13 Exod. 12. last their deliverance from the Babilonish Captivity was set and promised after 70. years and was punctually observed so for our Saviours Incarnation it was in the fulness of time and when he entred upon his Ministry he makes this way for himself to be received by them Mark 1.15 The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel what can be plainer than this that there is a time and season for every season and manifestation of the Kingdom of God This was the time for Christs first appearance there are times also proper times for his second coming and his illustrious appearance 1 Tim. 6.14.15 which in his times or in its own or proper times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall shew if it were not so if the issuings forth of all Gods counsels and purposes were not tymed what mean all those times that are set in Daniel and the Revelations Indeed the time is not always reveal'd to us but it is always appointed with God and therefore sometimes the Spirit speaks only in general as Dan. 11.35.36 and Habaâ— 2.3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time And of that day and hour knoweth no man faith our Saviour Mark 13.32 which yet shews the day and hour is set for his second coming And though this Scripture may seem to dash our confidence of knowing it because it is said no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father The answer is ready that as we could not know it without the Son or till it was reveal'd to him so he having received the knowledge of it as he did of the whole Systemâ— of the revelation after his ascention we are upon those advantages now that Christ himself was not in the days of his flesh when this was spoken Christ in his humiliation was in all things like to us but now all things are naked and open to him and he sent and signified his revelations by his Angel to his Servant John to shew to his Servants the things which must shortly come to pass and John according to command hath left them on Record for us and blessed is he that readeth c. for the time is at hand So that it is clear as the Sun that though God hath his foreknowledge of all things in Eternity and though Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world yet in the making forth and exhibition of the works and wonders of God to men there is a time set and appointed for every purpose orderly to appear and give forth its voice and particularly expresly and eminently the Apostle saith of this day for as much as he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 2. The time for the exhibition of the glorious state of this Kingdom is the second the visible the illustrious appearance of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 4 1. Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom where his appearing and his Kingdom are joyned together as contemporating and commencing together at the same time not his first appearance which was then past but his second appearance speaking of it as to come and therefore saith shall judge in the future tense For the furthur clearing of this let any one that is in good earnest set himself to consider how probable or likely it may be that the glorious state of Christs Kingdom can be exhibited without the personal revelation of the Lord Jesus in Glory appearing in it I am sure in that foretast given of it in the Transfiguration our Saviour's Person bare the great eminent part according as in the intimation he gave of it before hand by his words might be concluded and expected for though Mark who wrote to Greekes and in the Greek Tongue say only there are some standing here who shall not tast of Death till they see the Kingdome of God come with power yet Matthew who wrote to the Jews and pend his Gospel in Hebrew dilivers our Saviours intimation with this Accuracy of his person to appear in it Mat. 16. ult Till they see the Son of man comeing in his Kingdom That action was a little Model or draught of Christs Kingdom and therefore whatever was there we may conclude will be in Christ's Kingdom though there to be expected in a larger figure Now in the transfiguration there was the person of Christ in a Glory beyond what the Disciples could well bear and that not only on his countenance but his Garments Then Secondly there were Moses and Elias in glory representing the Saints departed
not forth the full glory of his spiritual body to the surviveing Saints that are to carry on the encrease of the new world as he doth to the raised Saints And again though in the increase of Christs government new Nations and people shall come in successively till there be none left that have not submitted yet this no way impeaches or is inconsistent with this Article of Christs personal appearance to lay the Foundation stone of this glorious state of his Kingdom for these reasons First If there be one glory of the Sun another of the Moon another of the Stars one star differing from another Star in glory in that state as the Apostle saith there shall then doth not Christ let forth equal glory upon all and if it differ in degree then may it likewise differ in order of time one before another there is such an order in the resurrection every one saith the Apostle in his own order Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming then cometh the end where there are three differing and long distant times for the resurrection so in this Kingdom or this glorious state of the Kingdom There are some to whom the first dominion shall come Mich. 4.8 And that is to the Tower of the flock to the daughter of Jerusalem at least in respect of those Barbarous Nations for I cannot think the believing Gentiles that have carried up the Buklers against Antichrist shall be postponed in that day but those Heathen Nations that pass under the Name of Sodom and Samaria as Egypt and Assiria c. which shall be given to Jerusalem as daughters though not by her covenant as the Prophet Ezekiel saith ch 16.61 And the Prophet Esay intimates there will be nations that have not heard of the fame of Christ nor seen his glory Esa 66. to whom those that escape of the terrible judgments to be executed in the beginning of this Kingdom shall go to the Nations a far off to Tarshish Pul and Lud that draw the bow to Tubal and Javan and the Isles a far off for it is probable the judgment will begin and so the first seat of Christ's Kingdom in that part of the earth that hath been the seat of the fourth Monarchy If this be thought to clash with what I have before asserted that Christ being a quickening Spirit and acting as such act 's not gradually but in an instant The answer is ready that where he appears and puts forth himself he carries his effect immediately irresistably but it doth not engage his appearance to be universally and at once imparted to the whole Earth though in process of time it shall spread over all which suits with that in the 9th of Esa of the encrease of his Government and of peace there shall be no end But if we should wave this Article of Christs personal appearance and not concern it in the beginning of this Kingdom or at least not his abiding residence which yet I do not forego yet our argument depends not on it for whether Christ personally appear or no till the very last hour of judgment yet it is universally agreed by all that make Christ Kingdom on earth an Article of their Faith that the glorious state of Christs Kingdom is not of any of every time but hath its own times to be revealed and that is in the last days as the Prophets unanimously declare and if we will believe the Prophets and Apostles we must be all of that mind The places are so many and so obvious that I shall not spend time to name them In the days of these Kings saith Daniel shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom In the last days saith Esay shall the Mountain of the Lords house be set up in the Top of the Mountains Can any thing be more plain is the new Jerusalem come down from God out of Heaven is the new Heaven and the new Earth come is the Earth full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Is the Lord King over all the Earth is the Lord one and his Name one throughout the world How then can you say this Kingdom of Christ or rather this state of Christ Kingdom of which we enquire is of all times one as well one as much as another and is to receive no accession of glory in the end of this old corrupt world more then it hath had already when the Prophet Esay from the mouth of God saith that Christ himself shall shine forth in a seven fold greater glory then he hath yet appeared in to men or to Saints and the Church shall take a degree proportionable for the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold as the light of seven days in the day when the Lord shall bind up the breach of his people and heal the stroke of their wound Esa 30.26 But to remove as much as in me is any stumbling block that may yet hinder your closing with me I shall open my selfe yet farther touching the personal appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ distinguishing it from those many powerful comings that are mentioned of him in the Scripture which though attended with glorious and powerful effects yet are not this Personal coming whereof we enquire There are many powerful and spiritual comings of Christ but there are but two Personal comings This I prove from that Text Heb. 9. last As it is appointed to all men once to dye and after that the judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex secundo THE SECOND TIME without sin unto salvation there are but his first and his second appearance Personal there are many comings mentioned without this specification ex secundo This therefore being here added distinguishes it from those and shews it to be of the same kind and in the same rank with his first coming in respect of Personality though in a far differing way in respect of glory His second personal appearance is also expresly distinguished from his other comings Acts 1.11 By two of the Angels who in the form of men stood by the Apostles as they were looking after him at the ascention in white apparrel who said unto them ye men of Galilee why stand ye Gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven the same Jesus and in the same manner that is visibly and bodily not spiritually only Now these characteristical notes of distinction in these places do distinguish his coming there spoken of from his coming mentioned in other places without them Though I grant in other places his Personal coming is many times mentioned without these and only in such Terms and Phrases
the Children to the Fathers 3. If all these places of Scripture might be solved and answered with a vertual and effectual presence and appearance of Christ yet the Faith and desires of the spouse cannot be satisfied without the Personal presence and enjoyment of her glorious Head and Bride-groom who is more to her then all whom having not seen she loves in whom though she see him not yet believing she rejoyces with joy unspeakable and full of glory and what hath she an eye for but to see him and why did he take our Nature and Form but to be so contemplated and enjoyed by his people especially when we take in this that in every line in every feature of that all-glorious face and person we shall see Divinity sparkling forth and if we could entertain our selves here with his good things without his person yet he cannot so satisfie himself to withhold himself in the most full and perfect way of enjoyment from us He that left the Fathers bosome to die for us will he refuse to drink the fruit of the vine the wine of joy with us in the Kingdom of his Father If there were no other reason that I confess sticks with me and is of it self alone sufficient that our Saviour saith Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory will Christ then send them from his presence to the earth and not accompany them thither if the Scriptures had said nothing of it or will he come down with them and not continue with them there while they continue there How can we ever be with the Lord as from the change it is said we shall if Christ keep in Heaven and we be upon the Earth How did it animate Stephen when the stones were about his Eares Act. 7 5◠with what sweetness did it fill his spirit when the Heavens opened upon him and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God How will it animate how will it raise and influence the whole Body mystical to see Christ with his Heaven and all his glory to come down and dwell in the midst of them which is no more then the spirit affirms shall be for behold the Tabernacle of God which is the person of the Lord Jesus and that not without his humanity for that properly is the Tabernacle of God is with men for so it is said of his incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Tabernacled in the midst of us as the Tabernacle of old was pitcht in the midst of the Tribes in their encamping in the wilderness But besides this there are many other reasons as well as Scriptures to induce to believe this Article of Christ's personal glorious appearance and residence with his people in that glorious state of his Kingdom as being that point to which the eye of our Faith and expectation is constantly directed both as the necessary produceing and conserving cause of all that felicity It is the center into which all the lines from the whole circumference do strike and wherein they meet It is the Crown and perfection of all the antecedent and inchoate Salvations without which they would be but Embrio's and abortives To Philalethes Himself SIR I Have now done with your argument my greatest task behind is to address a few lines to your selfe a task so great that I can truly say by the difficulty I laboured under in the prospect of it I was hindered from putting Pen to Paper longer then the Angel was withstood by the Prince of Persia Dan. 10.13 The difficulty arose from a twofold ground first the common and general nature of opposition and controversie which as is observed of War is a sluttish thing and requires more than ordinary skill and circumspection that we wound not our friends instead of releiving them against their mistakes 2. From the peculiar nature of your cause and your singular way of mannaging it your cause carrying spirituality in its banners and your way of mannaging it with reference to my self being with all christian candor and friendly respect and that not only in your Epistle Dedicatory but through all the parts of your discourse How I have comported with the spirituality of your design I must leave to your self and the impartial Reader to judge I can truly say I heartily desired and endeavoured to be found in a full compliance with it being sorry for nothing more then to find so fair so lovely an Image of your mind engaged in so unhappy an opposition and dismembred from it self And sure no other then the Enemy hath done this for as the Woman is not without the Man nor the Man without the Woman in the Lord so neither is Letter without Spirit nor Spirit without Letter the outward form without the inward nor the inward without the outward in the Lord no more than the Soul is without the Body or the Body without the Soul in living man The outward form in Christs Kingdom being as the Woman the Letter the Body which is the image and glory of the Man i. e. of the inward form and spirit It is so in the Lord. There is indeed a state wherein they are not found together and thence arises your disgust because in Anti-christs kingdom you find the letter without the Spirit and not only form without power but the outward form exalting it self and behaving it self uncomely against the inward spirit and life denying it laying it by setting up it self in the room of it and this not only among the Papists but those that call themselves Reformed yea what form what judgment what perswasion can wash their hands of this guilt more or less how few even among our purest Churches but have defiled their garments this way But Sir let us remember It is not so in the Lord nor will it be so in his day and Kingdom While things are thus carried it is Antichrists day not Christs day It will then be otherwise This makes us look and long for his appearing I confess if we must have but the one the Spirit or inward glory were by infinite degrees to be preferred before the outward form and glory by all that have tasted that the Lord is gracious for he is a living Stone that puts life into all that are joyned to him There is no life and peace but in the Spirit Rom. 8.6 To such a one To be carnally minded is death If we seek an outward kingdom an outward glory that shall not be all Spirit It is as the stretching out our hands to a strange God Psal 44.20 and forgetting the name of the Lord our God and will not God search this out But on the other hand consider what the Spirit himself saith not only as before The Man is not without the Woman in the Lord 1 Cor. 6.13 but the body is for the Lord and the Lordfor the body the Spirit and the inward glory