Omnipotent because the glorie of God wherewith he is glorified is every where or because the Power or Right-hand by which he is strengthned is a Power Omnipotent Omnipotencie it self Thus much of that Absolute Infinitie or Infinitie in Act unto which Christs Humane Nature was not Exalted and yet it was Exalted in some sort Infinitly above all other created substances and so Exalted or at least declared to be so Exalted specially by the Ascension of it into heaven and by its Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father 8. That is Infinitum actu or actually Infinite Extra quod nihil est which is so perfect and compleat that nothing in the same kind can be added unto it That is Infinitum potentia or potentially Infinite unto which somewhat may successively be added without end or ceasing Thus Philosophers have taught that In continuâ quantitate non datur minimum in discretâ non datur maximum There is not the least quantitie but is divisible into infinite parts There is no member so great but may still be made greater by Addition and albeit Addition were made every moment unto the worlds end yet the Product could not be actually infinite some number might be added unto it which as yet is not contained in it In this manner the participated Power or Glorie of God or the participation of this Power or Glorie may be infinite The participation of this Power or Being may every moment whilest the world lasteth or whilest immortall creatures continue in being be greater then other and yet never come to be so great but that it may be augmented or bettered and that which may be augmented or bettered cannot be actually Infinite The least parcel of earth could not subsist without the participation of Gods Power or Being and the least or dullest part of the earth which participates of his Being doth in a sort infinitly exceed Nothing or that which is not Nothing could have any Being but by participating of his Being who is infinite No power besides Infinite Power could out of Nothing produce Something Trees and plants and other workes of the 4 th and 5 th dayes creation excell the earth Beasts of the field excell them Man excelleth the beasts of the field and the Angels excell man in nobilitie and dignitie of being And yet the most excellent amongst the Angels is but a participation of Gods Power or Excellencie and as Divines collect God hath not made any creature so excellent but he may make it more excellent every day then other yet this supposed should not the Excellencie of it be Actually infinite because it may be still bettered Yet may that which is not actually infinite in any one kind or according to any one branch of Infinitie actually contein greater Excellencie or perfection in it then the addition of perfection unto some other creature though by succession infinite can attain unto And thus Christs Humane Nature by reason of the Personall Union which it hath with the Godhead or with the Son of God containes greater Excellencie in it of diverse kinds then any other created substance not so united though the faculties or perfections of it were continually bettered could reach unto 9. But omitting the Dignitie of Christs humane Nature in the general it will be a more profitable search to examin the particular Effects or Efficacie which his Humane Nature now Exalted hath in respect of us These may not be measured much lesse limited by other mens most noble Faculties or perfections The most dull sight on earth may see as far as the Sun or Starrs and the most quick sight cannot see beyond them No mans eye-sight can pierce through the thickest clouds much lesse through the heavens above or through the rockes here on earth Though thus to do were absolurely impossible to man or any other creature endued with sight we might not hence thus collect Christs glorified eyes are humane eyes as ours are created eyes as ours are Therefore He cannot with these bodily eyes look down from heaven and behold what is done or lyes hid in the most secret corners of the earth or that his facultie of hearing because a created facultie cannot apprehend all the blasphemies or oathes even the most secret murmurings of his enemies either against him or his Church Or admitting any Saints eyes already glorified in bodie in heaven could by vision of the Divine Nature see all things that are done in earth or that his eares could hear all the Conference that passeth in this Kingdom for some one day yet this excellencie of his outward senses being supposed his internal or intellective faculties were not able to distinguish betwixt every thing so heard or seen or to censure every word or deed as it deserves Nor could his memorie perhaps perfectly retain what for the present the apprehends or conceives Yet may we not hence argue Christs intellective Faculties are but Humane not divine Ergo he cannot distinctly and infallibly Judge or censure every thing he sees or hears or infallibly retayne the Records of his Judgment or censure inviolate and entire unto the day of Judgment Bound we are rather to beleive that Christ as Man or with his Humane eyes sees all our wrongs and as Man hears all our prayers and takes notice of all our doings Or that he who as Man shall bee our Judge is in the mean time an Eye-witnesse of all our misdeedes or well doings an Eare-witness of all our speeches good or bad Nor may we again by broken Inductions gathered from the effects or efficacie of natural bodies or created substances upon other bodies take upon us to limit or bound the Efficacie of Christs Bodie upon the bodies or soules which he hath taken to his protection We may not collect that Christs bodie because comprehended within the heavens can exercise no reall Operation upon our bodies or soules here on earth or that the live Influence of his glorified Human Nature may not be diffused through the world as he shall be pleased to dispense it or to sow the seeds of life issuing from it sometimes here sometimes there 10. This Real though Virtual Influence of Christs Humane Nature is haply that which the Lutherans call the Real Ubiquitarie presence of Christ Bodie Luther himself never denyed Christs very bodie or Humane Nature to be comprehended within the heavens and yet he affirmed it to be present with us in such a manner as the sound is present with us which is really made or caused a great way from us And we may not deny This Real Influence or Virtual Presence of Christ to be in a manner Infinite or at least to extend it self to all created substances that are capable of it in what created distance soever they be from his bodie whose Residence we beleive to be in the highest heavens at the Right hand of God This kind of Infinitie of his Presence can seem no Paradox or improbable Imagination to
observe did report of Them to the Asiaticks who slandered and persecuted them Take notice saith he of the late and daily Earthquakes compare our estate with theirs They he means Christians have more confidence to God-ward then you have 15. This was The solid Truth whose liveless Lineaments or obscure Picture nature had drawn unto the Heathen in the former indefinite Notions or Suggestions The best fruits of a good conscience the principal end why we are to study and labor for the preservation of our Consciences void of offence towards God and man throughout the whole course of our life is that we may be enabled in that last day to stand without horror or confusion before the Son of Man As peace of conscience breedeth confidence so the onely Fountain whence this peace of conscience can issue must be our reconciliation to that supreme Judge whose doom or Censure the Consciences of meer natural men implicitly or by instinct of Nature dread albeit they cannot apprehend the express manner of the Judgement to come or who it is that shall be Judge Both these and all like points which are necessary unto true Christian Faith must be learned out of the Book of Life Thus much of the First General viz. Heathen Notions of a Judgement to come c. we proceed to the second according to the method proposed in the 9 th Chapter CHAP. XI By what authority of Scripture the Exercise of this Final Judgement is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ 1. THat there was to be a Judgement general to all but most terrible to the wicked and ungodly was a Truth revealed before any part of the sacred Books now extant were written But if it be a Revelation more ancient then the written Canon what warrant can we have to believe it besides Tradition Is then Tradition a sufficient warrant for us to believe unwritten verities or Revelations made to Gods Saints for many thousand years ago It is not unless the Tradition be expresly avouched by some Canonical Writer But then it or rather the Vouchers authority concerning the truth of the Tradition is to be believed So that our Belief in this Point must be resolved into a written verity or a parcel of Canonical Scripture The Revelation concerning the final Judgement whereof we now speak was made to Enoch before the Flood The Avoucher of this Revelation is St. Jude ver 14 15. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Besides the authority of St. Jude which makes this Tradition to be no more a meer Tradition but Canonical Scripture we have other more special Grounds to believe that Enoch did thus Prophesie then we have to believe any other pretended Revelations which are not contained in Scripture The truth and certainty of this Judgment denounced by Enoch was so publickly and notoriously known that the Hebrew Church before our Saviours incarnation did begin the Writ or Instrument of their Great and terrible Excommunication with the first words of Enochs Prophesie Dominus veniet the Lord shall come As if they meant to bind the party whom they excommunicated besides all other punishments or infamies over to this Grand Assize But is there in this Prophecie any particular character of Christ Any pregnant intimation that this Great Judge of the world should be the Second Person in the Trinity rather then The First In the words themselves there is no peculiar Character of Christ save only in The Title LORD which as we said before is peculiar to Christ whether it be in the Original exprest by the word Jehovah or Adonai whensoever Judgment or visible exercise of Jurisdiction Regal is the subject or matter of the prophetical discourse as in this Prophecy of Enoch it is Besides this Character in the words of the prophecie the Prophet himself Enoch was a lively Type of Christ the great Prophet in the very ground of his Title to Lordship and Jurisdiction Enoch was translated that he should not see death but before his translation had this testimony that he Pleased God Hebr. 11. 5. Before his Translation he denounced this Wo or Curse against all that continue in ungodliness fore warning the world withal that the Lord himself whose Embassador he was should come to put his Embassage in execution The congruity of the Fact or Type with the Body fore-shadowed implies that this Propheeie was then to be fulfilled after the Prince of Prophets had been translated as Enoch was from earth but in a higher degree then Enoch was into heaven it self And albeit before his translation he had a more ample Testimony then Enoch had this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased yet was he not made Lord and King and Judge till after his Resurrection and Translation From that time the Angels and Principalities and Powers even all the Hoast of Heaven intimated by Enoch became by that Title subject unto him That Christ is that very Lord against whom those ungodly men whom Enoch mentions did speak such bitter words our Apostle St. Paul though obscurely yet fully implies in the conclusion of his first Epistle to the Corinthians chapt 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let him be accursed or excommunicated with that Great and terrible Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lord shall come for so they call their Excommunication as we do Writs by the first words of the Writ or Instrument and these were the first words of Enochs Prophecie Veniet Dominus The Lord shall come The full meaning or implication of the Apostle is That whosoever doth not love the Lord Jesus shall be liable to all the Iudgments or Woes denounced by Enoch against the hard speeches of ungodly Sinners which they have spoken against their Lord and Iudge 2. That God is Judge of all the Earth that there shall be a final Judgment generally awarded to all the Inhabitants of the Earth by God himself the places of the old Testament are infinite I shall only touch the principal or more pregnant testimonies to this purpose To begin with the First Gen. 18. 22. When the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom Abraham stood yet before The Lord and drawing neer he said wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked ver 23. And again ver 25. To slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee Shall not The Judge of all the Earth do right Thus he spake in the case of Sodom whose Judgment this Lord and Judge of all the earth was then
Gideon exempt his Successors from the like or greater fear upon notice of Gods extraordinary presence For so Manoah Samsons father after long Conference with the Lord after he knew that it was an Angel of the Lord which had brought the Message to him of Samsons birth said unto his Wife Judg. 13. 22. We shall surely die because we have seen God But his Wife said unto him if the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things neither would he at this time have told us such things as these ver 23. So then Gods extraordinary presence is terrible even to his servants to flesh and blood without exception though in the issue it will prove comfortable to such as truly fear him and faithfully rely upon his promises St. Peter long after this time was a man less conscious of many grievous sins then most of us alive this day are yet not upon any sight or spectacle of Gods Extraordinary Presence but only upon an instinct or secret apprehension of his Peculiar Presence in Christ as man notified unto him by the miraculous draught of fishes which he took by his direction and command cries out Lord depart from me for I am a sinful man Luke 5. 8. And St. Paul before his conversion fell to the earth upon a suddain glimpse or representation of that glorious light wherein Christ shall appear at the last day Acts 9. 3 4. And after he had heard A Voyce saying unto him though in no extraordinary manner for terror Saul Saul why persecutest thou me He trembling and astonished at the name of Jesus said Lord what wilt thou have me to do ver 6. No marvel if St. Paul being conscious of persecution intended by him against Christs Church and having by Fact and Resolution declared himself to be Christs Enemy were thus affrighted at the Sight and Voice when as St. Peter St. James and St. John after long and peculiar familiarity with Christ and after many gracious promises made unto them of Gods special protection over them were thrown down to the earth with a more placid and comfortable Voice then that which St. Paul heard The Voice which they heard out of the cloud was this This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And when they heard it saith the text Matth. 17. 6. they fell on their faces and were sore afraid until Christ came and touched them and said arise and be not afraid This strange dejection of these three great Apostles at so mild and gentle a Voice yet a Voice uttered from the extraordinary presence of God gives us a Remarkable Document or grounded Observation of the truth of that saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 50. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Christ had told these Three Matth. 16. 28. that they should see not God but the Son of man coming in his Kingdom Peter had a desire to have inherited that joy wherewith his heart was ravished at the sight of our Saviours Transfiguration which as you heard before was but a representation of his coming in glory to Judge the world and out of this desire he said Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias Yet as soon as he heard the Voice the Antipathie between sinful flesh and the fruition of Gods presence or the inheritance of that Kingdom of Christ which was then represented begun to shew it self And what shall We do then which are conscious of more grievous sins then St. Peter S. Iames or S. John then were unto whom both the Spectacle of Christs glorious presence and the Voice or Sound which in that day shall be heard from heaven will be far more terrible then any manifestation of Gods presence whether made by Voice or Sight unto our First Parents unto Gideon unto Manoah or unto any of his Apostles recorded in Scripture 4. Let us now take a view of such representations or descriptions of the Terrible Spectacles which shall be seen and of the Terrible Voices or sounds which in that last day shall be heard as Gods Prophets or Evangelists have framed to us These representations are of Two Sorts either Charactred out unto us in meer Words or in Matters of Fact historically related To begin with the Terrible Spectacles which shall appear before the last day or at the least before the Process or Judgment begin These are most punctually exprest by the Prophet Joel Cap. 2. 30 31. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come And Ioel 3. 15 16. The Sun and the Moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withdraw their shining The Lord also shall roar out of Sion utter his voice out of Jerusalem the heavens the earth shall shake The Terrors here foretold were really represented by the first desolation of Iudah and destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians and Chaldeans whose approach to execute Gods Judgments upon that land and people was prophesied of by this Prophet in the beginning of this Second Chapter yet so foretold by him as the plagues there threatned might by Repentance have been prevented So could not the Terrors foretold in the Second Prophecie at least the Prophet expresseth no means for averting these fearful signs in the heavens and earth This later prophecie is in particular exemplified by our Saviour Matth. 24. 27 29 30. For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West So shall also the coming of the Son of man be Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of heaven shall fall and the Powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Both the Prophecie of Joel and this prediction of our Savior were in part fulfilled shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus by the burning of the Mount Vesuvius in Campania a Province of Italy the manner and effects whereof how fearful and terrible they were not to Rome onely or Italy but to a great part of Africa to Egypt to Syria and to Constantinople with the Countries adjoyning and how consonant they were unto the Prophet Joels and our Saviors Prediction may be gathered from Dion in his 66. and 68. Books and from other Roman Heathenish
him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened The Fiery Wheels are Emblems of his suddain approach or of the swiftness of his Judgements to overtake his Enemies Though the Vision was new and uncouth yet the Branches of the things seen or revealed unto Daniel were known before unto Gods Prophets His Seat or Throne was prepared of old so faith the Psalmist Psal 9. 4. Thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the Throne Judging right And again ver 6 7. O thou enemy destruction is come to a perpetual end and thou hast destroyed Cities their memorial is perished with them But the Lord shall endure for ever he hath prepared his Throne for Judgement See Psal 96 ver 10. 13. And Psal 98. ver 8 9. But Daniel saw more seats and Thrones then one albeit he mention as perhaps he saw none sitting in them This as one wittily commenteth upon this place of Daniel is an Emblem of the Law which was an Emptiness or vacuum in respect of the Gospel and as all things else in the Law prefigured or forepainted were solidly accomplished in the Gospel So these Seats which are here indefinitely represented unto us by Daniel without any specification of their number without intimation of any sitting on them are pictured unto us by St. John with 24. Elders sitting upon them Rev. 4. 4. And round about the Throne were 24. seats and upon the seats I saw 24. Elders sitting and clothed in white raiment and they had on their heads Crowns of Gold Our Savior had said unto his Apostles Matth. 19. 28. that They should sit upon twelve seats Iudging the twelve Tribes of Israel And twelve Heads of the Tribes of Israel or the like number of Select Ones who lived under the Old Testament may make up the number of 24. That as all the Truths of both Testaments will consummately be fulfilled so the Saints of Both may then be most perfectly united in the Church Triumphant 9. But to proceed to such other Representations as are to be found in the Scripture This manner of Christs coming to Judge the earth or of his appearance in glory was represented unto Moses and to the Israelites Exod. 24. 10. 17. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel And this fire had devoured them if they had approached the mountain or Gods presence without Gods invitation But Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and 70. of the Elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a Saphir stone and as it were the body of Heaven in its clearness And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand This was a Peculiar Priviledge or dispensation Also they saw God and did eat and drink and in this they represented the state of the Elect which notwithstanding the terror of that last day shall be invited by Christ and be admitted to eat and drink with him in his Kingdom But this dispensation during the time of the Law was not granted to all Israel but to Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and to the 70. Elders or Nobles of Israel only unto all the rest whom God did not vouchsafe to invite the Spectacle though seen afar off was Terrible so terrible that they durst not approach unto it So shall the coming of the Son of Man be to all the kindreds of the earth which have not hearkned to his sweet and loving Invitations here on earth All such as have neglected them or make their appearance before him without a garment or habit in some sort suitable to the Marriage unto which they have been invited shall be everlastingly excluded and cast into utter darkness where shall be nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth But the thred which I am now to follow is the forementioned Prophecie Dan. 7. v. 9. 10. Now whether in the vision of the Ancient of days God the Father were personally represented or whether it were a representation of the Godhead or Divine Power onely as it is indivisibly in the Blessed Trinity without any note of Personal difference or whether at the last day there shall be any distinct representation of Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father or whether The Throne of the Son of God shall then onely appear are Questions which I will refer wholly to the Schools It sufficeth us to believe and know that the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement especially this Final Judgement to the Son and that the SON OF MAN shall then appear in the Glory of his God-head in Glory equal to God the Father What Manner of appearance this shall be and how the world shall be affected with it we are now to inquire so far as is fitting taking the description of it from Gods written word And haply lest we should conceive of God the Father as more ancient for dayes then the Son which Transformation of the Divine Nature the pictures of the Blessed Trinity seen and allowed by the Roman Church do naturally and inevitably suggest to the unlearned St. John doth describe the Son of Man or that glory wherein the Son of God and the Son of Man shall then appear much what after the same manner that Daniel had done the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7. 9 10. The description of the Son of God and of the Son of Man taken by St. John is Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. And I saw in the middest of the 7. Candlesticks one like unto the Son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle His head and his hairs were white like wooll as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire And his feet like unto fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength You have heard before out of the seventeenth of St. Matthew that St. Peter Iames and John when they were spectators of his transfiguration which was but a representation of the Son of Mans coming in his kingdom when they heard the voice out of the cloud fell on their faces and were sore afraid until he came and touched them and said arise be not afraid This sight or vision of his glory Apoc. 1. 17 18. was more terrible then the Voice which they then heard When I saw him saith St. John I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am be that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore
A Discourse about Thou art Peter c. Book 2. ch 30 Valentian his Inchanted Circle Anton. Fernand. See Book 8. Ch. 7. And Book 10. Chap. 15 16. See Matth. 16. 16 19. Two Fundamental points collected by collating Scripture with Scripture The Exaltation of Jehovah as King is that Kingdom of Heaven which S. John Baptist preached to be then approaching The Septuagint Deut. 32. 43. reconciled with Psal 97. 7. See Chap. 2. §. 5. and ch 3. §. 11. The Grounds of Christs Title to be Lord. Other grounds of Christs Title to be the Lord. Revel 5. 13. An universalitie of Duties as well as of Tongues is included in this confession The same will of God is declared by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ but more fully by Christ The first Instance how Christians are bound more strictly to obey now then Jews were before Christ Mal. 4. 2. Matth. 4. 16. Luke 2. 32. John 1. 6. What service of men is forbidden 1 Cor. 7. 23. A second instance of obedience more strictly enioyned Christians then it was the Jews See the 10 Book Chap. 39. pag. 3187. * So Christ saith Joh. 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples See how Salvian answers the like Objection in his 5 Book De Providentia Deut. 4. 5 6 7 8. See the Application Chap. 2. §. 5 6. f. 3316. An Advertisement concerning H. Scripture Experiments in Nature and in our selves or Consciences confirm the truths of H. Scripture Five General Points Heathen Notions of Two Sorts The Pythagorean Notion S. G. Nazianzen's story of Bishop Marcus Arethusus is in his third Oration or former Invective against Julian S. Austins story of Bishop Firmus Metaphrastes hath a story of Anthimus Bishop of Nicomedia partly like This. The opinion of the Stoicks How Virtue is a Reward to it self Gen. 15. 1. Hebr. 11. 26. Philip. 3. 14. Heb. 12. 2. Rom. 2. 7. Notions of Good and Evil as fresh as those of True and false ☞ ☞ The Jealousie and inquisitiveness of Conscience shews that it is deputed by God as our visitor or supervisour The Checks Gratulations of our Consciences be tastes or pledges of the Two-fold award that shall be given at the last day Rom. 2. 6 7 c. The Heathen Notions of a final Judgement vanished like dreams A Discourse about Dreames Though Heathen Notions were like Dreams Christian Divines may see realities of Truth in them Touching Epicurus See Book 10. fol. 3139. How Epicurus did collect That Nature detested Vice See the conference betwixt Dionysius and Daâ—ocles Tull. Tùscul Lib. 5. And Philip Comines of Lewis the eleventh See Wisdom 17. ver 11. See Juvenal Set. 13. See Horace Epist Lib. 1. Epist 1. Hic murus abenevâ— esto Nil conscire sibi Psalm 3. 6. and 23. 4. and 27 1. and 46 1. Prov. 28. 1. Wisd 5. 1. That there was to be a Judgement was known to the original world It was foretold by Enoch See Book 10. Chap. 38. num 11. p. 3171. Enoch a lively Type of Christ Testimonies of the Old Testament That God That Christ shall be Judge See Book 7. Chap. 36. It was revealed by degrees That Christ should be Judge Two Conclusions one Corollary An useful General Rule Christs Answers to the Jews were but Comments upon the Prophets A main Branch of That Good Confession which Christ witnessed was His Title to be Judge The Adversative Particle Nevertheless The blasphemous and treacherous Jews condemn Christ of Treason and Blasphemy The Application So God took away the Author of this Book some 16. or 17. years ago It is 〈◊〉 this was preacâ—'d at Newcastle where he was Vicar divers yeers The literal meaning of Dan. 7. 13. enquired Polanus his restriction of Dan. 7. 13. to Christs Ascension One Prophesie may in the literal sense have two verifications yea contrary senses lib. 7. cap. 17. An answer to all Texts bâ—ought for the Rom Churches great Glory by distinction Inchoativè and Completivè See chap. 12. §. 8. An Exposition of Jerem. 31. 34. Mal. 3. 2. meant Inchoativè of Christs first coming Completivè of his second By first coming he means His coming to judge and punish the Jews The coming spoken of John 21. 22. Such a discrimination of Elect and Reprobate as was then may not be lookt for till Doomes-day See Book 10. chap. 37 38. Dan. 7. 13. fulfilled Acts 1. 9. The manner of Christs going up to Heaven shewd the manner of his coming to Judge the Earth The Place or Term from which Christ shall come to Judgment To what Place Christ probably shall come See Book 9. Chap. 43. Two Senses chiefly apt to receive the impressions of Terror Terrors of Sounds and Terrors of Sights A view of the terrible Spectacles and Sounds preceding Doomsday See Book 1. Chap. 24. See Book 1. chap. 24. §. 4 5 c. The terrors on mount Sinai Types of the Terrors of Doomsday A special Observable It was Christ that shook the earth at the giving of the Law The dreadful sounds that will be heard at Doomsday Clavius Another Author tells that the Birds fell to the earth upon a great shout given by a multitude in an Army or at some great solemnity The Process of the final Judgement Of this Rule see chap. 11. §. 9. Christs Exercise of the power of the Keys of Hell and Death not fully manifested till Doomsday The great Excellencies of Christs Name The Word The Real Dignity Emblemed in the Sharp Sword going out of Christs mouth is Defender of his Church Whether S. John and S. Paul by The Word of God mean our Lord Jesus Christ An Explication of Heb. 4. 12 13. The Word writ or preached not only nor chiefly meant Heb. 4. 12. Most high perfections implyed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Books to be opened at Christs coming See ch 10. §. 9 Psal 32. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 23 ☜ Three Errors about the last Judgment See Tully De Senectute Two Points proposed Pythagoras his broken Notion of a Resurrection See Juvenal 15. Sat. v. 174. The Solid Truth extract out of Pythagoras his Opinion of Transmigration Vid. For catulum lib. 1. pag. 87 90. Points wherein Heathens held consort with Christianitie The opinion of the Genethliaci This Error of the Genethliaci may Facilitate the Christians Belief of Gods Power Some Christians erre as much as the Genethliaci Three principal Propositions That there is a Logical Possibilitie presupposed to the working of Gods Power See Book 10. Fol. 3177. The bringing Possibilitie into Act doth not impair Gods power but shewes the exercise of it pro hac vice See §. 9. These differ as Addition and Substraction ☞ The Jesuite makes a Sinister use of this Truth touching The Power of God The several Shifts of Romish Writers to maintain their Doctrine of Transubstantiation Of Christs virtual influence See Book 10. ch 55 56. The Corinthian Naturalist his Two curious
place of more honourable attendance yet the warlike Princes of ancient times made choice of men most trusty and valourous for their Favourites But the Almighty unto whose future designs the Rites and Customs of the Kings of Judah were haply praefashioned needs no Defendant no assistant either on the Right-hand or on the Left The former occasion of imbecillitie or need of Defendants being set apart as the Right-hand is ordinarily more worthy then the Left so to be on the Right-hand of Supreme Honour is simply more honourable then to be on the Left specially according to the Custome of the Jews The Sons of Zebedee or their Mother or both were not ignorant in rerespect of the general matter but in the particular Form or Manner or Circumstance of their Petition when they desired that the one might sit on their Masters Right-hand and the other on the Left in his Kingdome To sit by him in his Kingdom was to their apprehension and according to the custome of their Native Country a greater Dignity then to stand by him or to go in and out before him To sit on the Right-hand was affected by the Mother as a place of praecedence for her elder Son and therefore rank't in the former place in her Petition She saith not That the one may sit on the Left-hand and the other on the Right but that one may sit on the Right-hand and the other on the Left Mat. 20. 21. That to sit on the Right-hand of Majesty was the greatest honour whereof any Subject or inferiour Prince in Jurie was capable may be gathered from the honour which Solomon did unto his Mother Bathsheba 1 King 2. 19. The King rose up to meet her and bowed himself unto her and sate down on his Throne and caused a seat to be set for the Kings Mother and she sate on his Right-hand Nor hath the Royall Psalmist any better place for the Spouse whose Dignity he sought to emblazon Psal 45. 9. Kings daughters were among thine honourable women upon thy Right-hand did stand the Queen in a vesture of gold of Ophir To have the power of superiours on the Right-hand or for the enemy to have the Right-hand is in Sacred Heraldrie a sign of victory or pre-eminence whether in Civil or Warlike proceedings The greatest plague and root of curses which David did wish unto the enemies of his God and which did afterwards fall on Judas the greatest enemy of Davids Son and Lord was that the wicked might be set over him and that the adversary might stand at his Right-hand for so he knew that he should be condemned when he was judged and that his prayers should be turned into sin Psal 109. 6 7. The surest Anchor of Davids Confidence was Gods being on his Right-hand Psal 16. 8. The Lord is at my Right-hand therefore I shall not slide or fall And the final Consummation of all the happinesse which he hoped for whether in his own person or in the person of his expected Son the Messias was to be placed at the Right-hand of God In thy presence is fulnesse of joy and at thy Right-hand there are Pleasures for evermore Psal 16. 11. And so will it be found at the last Day when The Son of Man shall set the Sheep on his Right-hand and the goats on the Left and shall say to them on his Right-hand Come ye Blessed But to them on the Left Go ye cursed Mat. 25. 33. c. 2. So then This Article of Christs sitting at the Right-hand of God is as A Trophie of his Victory gotten over death and over all the temptations of the World and the divel whilest he lived on earth and a certain Prognostick of his final Triumph over all his succeeding enemies for he must sit at the Right-hand of God until all his enemies be made his foot-stool But before we come to decypher the Real Dignity here described it may be questioned whether the Description it self be meerly Metaphorical or Symbolical that is a language borrowed from the visible customes of men without any real sensible Similitude between the things signified by the same words That this Phrase of Sitting at the Right hand of God is a meere borrowed speech most Divines do hold giving us withal this General Rule That no Corporeal Substance Quality Habit or Gesture can be attributed unto God otherwise then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by a kind of Poetical Fiction or Figurative speech borrowed from the fashions of men The proper Logical Subject notwithstanding of this Rule or Maxim must be the God-head or Divine Nature in the Abstract It holds not so truly of God or at least of every Divine Person The Divine Nature or God-head is Simple Pure and Immixt The God-head hath neither eyes nor eares nor body much lesse can there be in it any distirction of Right-hand or Left yet may we not deny but the Son of God who is truly God hath eyes and eares feet and hands Right-hand and Left-hand and all the parts of the humane body which any perfect man hath His Blood though humane blood is as truly the Blood of God as of Man His Blood is the Blood of God his Body the Body of God in such a sense as neither the body nor blood of any other creature are said to be Gods whose all things are in heaven and earth His Flesh and Blood and all the parts of his humane Body are the Flesh Blood and parts of God in as strict and proper sense as our hands are said our own that is by strict and Personal Propriety The Son of God hath flesh and blood hands and feet in such a sense as God the Father or God the Holy Ghost hath not 3. But when it is said that Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God this must be understood of God the Father not of God the Son for so it is expressed in the Apostles Creed that The Son of God who was Crucified dead and buried and who rose the third day from the dead now sits at the Right-hand of God the Father Almightie Now if God the Father have no bodie no Right-hand or Left-hand as God the Son hath the case seems clear that Christs sitting at the right-hand of the Father must needs be a speech meerly Metaphorical borrowed from the custom of earthly Princes to be placed at whose Right hand is the greatest honour that can be to their chief Peers or Subjects This is most certain if we speak of the Nature or Essence of the God head or of the Divine Person of the Father Yet all this hinders not why the Divine Majesty or Person of the Father who is every where Essentially present may not be more Conspicuously present in respect of created sights in some visible heavenly Throne then in any other place The Father for ought we know may have a distinct Throne and the Son another or they may have distinct manifestations of Glory upon the same
Throne Rev. 3. 21. To confine the presence of God the Father of God the Son or of God the Holy-Ghost to any visible Throne were a grosse Heresie But that there may be Real Emblems or Representations of the Blessed Trinitie in heaven as conspicuous and sensible to blessed Saints and Angels as the representations which have been made of them to Gods Saints or people here on earth who can conceive improbable The representations or pledges of the Blessed Trinitie have been diverse Daniel law the Glory of the Father shadowed by the Ancient of daies the Glory of the Son represented by the similitude of the Son of man At our Saviours Baptism there was A voice from heaven as an audible Testimonie of the distinct Person of the Father Christ as Man was the conspicuous seat or Throne of God the Son and the Dove which appeared unto John a visible pledge of the Holy-Ghost And may not the Church Triumphant have as punctual representations or pledges of this Distinction no lesse sensible though more admirable then the Church militant hath had here on earth 4. It is not then altogether so clear that this Title of Christs Sitting at the right hand of God the Father is borrowed from the Rites or customes of the Kings of Judah as it is questionable whether this Rite or custome amongst them were not framed after the Patern of the heavenly Thrones or representations of coelestial dignities so we know the earthly Sanctuarie was framed according to the patern of the heavenly Sanctuarie Our Fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen Act. 7. 44. Ex. 25. 40. And our Apostle saith Heb. 8. 5. Those served unto the patern or shadow of heavenly things as Moses was warned by God when he was about to finish the tabernacle See saith he that thou make all things according to the patern shewed to thee in the mount But it may be the patern shewed to him in the Mount was but a Shew or Mathematical Draught of the material Tabernacle which he was to erect and yet is stiled an heavenly patern or heavenly thing because it was represented from heaven by God himself yet so represented without any real Tabernacle answerable to it in heaven I could subscribe to this interpretation if the Apostles Inference Heb. 9. 23 24. did not prove or presuppose something more It was then necessary that the similitude of heavenly things should be purified with such things but the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices then these for Christ is not entred into the holie places made with hands which are similitudes of the true Sanctuarie but is entred into very heaven to appear now in the sight of God for us But hath he the whole heavens for his Sanctuarie or is there as real a Distinction of places or Mansions in the heavens as there was of Courts or Sanctuaries in the material or in Solomons Temple We have such an high Priest saith Saint Paul as sitteth at the right hand of the throne of the majestie in the heavens and is a Minister of the Sanctuarie and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man and Eph. 1. 20. The father of glory set him at his own right hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the heavenly places Some Distinction between the Throne of Majestie and Christs humanitie was apprehended surely by Saint Steven Act. 7. 55. He being full of the Holy-Ghost looked stedfastly into heaven and saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Object of his sight was surely Real not a meer vision in the air for he saw the heavens open and by their opening found opportunity to prie with bodily eyes but bodily eyes extraordinarily enlightned by the Spirit of God into heaven it self and to take a view of the land of Promise and the Sanctuary pitched in it The Divine Essence or Person of God the Father he could not see and yet he saw the Glorie of God and Christ at the Right-hand of this Glorie But he saw Christ Standing and not Sitting as here it is said All is one It is the height of Christs Exaltation that He hath the pre-eminence to Sit upon his Throne in the immediate presence of God the Fathers Glorious Throne But this prerogative of Sitting upon his Throne doth not tye him to such perpetual Residence that he may not Stand when it pleaseth him and it seems it was at this time this great Judge his pleasure to Stand as a Spectator of his blessed Martyrs Combat and for the present as a Witness against these his malicious Enemies which afterward were to be made his Foot-stool Now was that of the Psalmist Psal 102. 19. verified He hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuarie out of the heaven did the Lord behold the earth 5. But if Christ have a Visible Throne or Sanctuarie in heaven how is it true which Saint Steven saith Acts 7. 48 49. The most high dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as saith the Prophet Heaven is my throne and earth is my foot-stool what house will ye build for me saith the Lord or what place is it that I shall rest in hath not my hand made all these things And if God dwell not in any Sanctuary which he hath made how can he have any Visible Sanctuary in heaven For even the heaven of heavens every creature whether visible or invisible are the works of Gods hands To this the Answer is easie when the Prophet saith God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands he excludeth only the works of mens hands not all created Thrones or Sanctuaries made immediately by God himself For as the Apostle saith Heb. 8. 2. Christ is a Minister of the Sanctuary which the Lord hath pitched and not man And Hebr. 9. 11. Christ being come a high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this building c. Thus much of the Grammatical or Literal meaning of these words As for this Opinion of Distinction of Thrones in heaven as I dare not boldly avouch it so I am afraid peremptorily to deny it For Peremptorie Negatives in Divine Mysteries oft-times sway more dangerously unto Infidelitie then Affirmative Paradoxes do to Heresie The Affirmative in this Mysterie is in my opinion more safe and probable then the Negative However The Point which all of us are bound absolutely to Believe is That this Article of Christs sitting at the Right-Hand of God doth contain the height of His Exaltation far above all principalitie and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come Eph. 1. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith the same Apostle Phil. 2. 9. hath very highly
God It could not There had been indeed an Exaltation of the bodie so assumed but none of the Nature or Person assuming it How then is the Son of God said now to be Exalted by his bodily Ascension into Heaven or by his Sitting at the Right-hand of the Father in our Nature wherein he was formerly humbled Take the Resolution plainely thus God the Father had remained as glorious as now he is although he had never created the world For the creation gave much even all they had to things created it gave nothing unto God who was in Being infinite yet if God had created nothing the Attribute of Creator could have had no real Ground it had been no real Attribute In like manner Suppose the Son of God had never condescended to take our nature upon him he had remained as Glorious in his Nature and Person as now he is yet not glorified for or by this Title or Attribute of Incarnation Or suppose he had not humbled himself unto death by taking the Form of a Servant upon him he had remained as glorious in his Nature and Person and in the Attribute of Incarnation as now he is but without these glorious Attributes of being our Lord and Redeemer and of being the Fountain of Grace and Salvation unto us All these are Real Attributes and suppose a Real Ground or foundation and that was his humbling himself unto death even unto the death of the Cross Nor are these Attributes only Real but more Glorious both in respect of God the Father who was pleased to give his Only Son for us and in respect of God the Son who was pleased to pay our ransome by his humiliation then the Attribute of Creation is The Son of God then not the Son of David only hath been Exalted since his death to be our Lord by a new and Real Title by the Title of Redemption and Salvation This is the Sum of our Apostles Inference concerning our Saviours Exaltation Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confesse that Jesus Christ is The Lord unto the Glorie of God the Father To shut up this Point Though Christ Jesus be both our High-Priest and Lord not only as he is the Son of David but as he is the only begotten Son of God and so begotten from all Eternitie yet was he neither begotten a Priest nor Lord from all Eternitie but made a Priest and made a Lord in time The Word of the Oath saith the Apostle Heb. 7. 28. which was since the Law maketh the Son a Priest who was consecrated for evermore And in the very same Charter wherein this Word of the Oath or uncontrollable Fiat for making the Eternal Word an Everlasting Priest is contained this Peculiar Title of Lord is first inferred For so that 110 th Psalm begins Jehovah said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine Enemies thy foot-stool Not that Adonai importeth lesse Honour or Majestie then Jehovah doth as the Jews and Arians ignorantly and impiously collect but with purpose to notifie that this Title of Lord or Adonai was to become as peculiar to Jehovah the Son of God as the Title of Cohen or Priest But this Title of Lord as peculiar to Christ will require and doth well deserve a peculiar discourse and the place allotted it is in the beginning of the second Section 5. Now for Use or Application These insuing Meditations and Considerations offer themselves What branch of sorrow of bodily affliction or anguish of soul or Spirit can we imagin incident to any degree condition or sort of men to any son of man at any time unto which the waters of Comfort may not plentifully be derived from this inexhaustible Fountain of Comfort comprised in This Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father Almighty No man can be of so low dejected or forlorn estate for means or friends re or spe either by birth or by misfortune but may raise his heart with this Consideration that it is no servitude or beggerie but freedom or riches to be truly entitled A Servant to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings to whom Angels and Principalities as Saint Peter speaks even those Angels and Principalities to whom not Kings and Monarchs but even Kingdoms and Monarchies are Pupils are subject and his fellow servants Or in case any poor dejected soul should be surprized with distrust or jealousie lest his Lord in such infinite height of Exaltation and distance should not from heaven take notice of him thrown down to earth let him to his comfort consider That the Son of God and Lord of Glorie to the end he might assure us that he was not a Lord more Great in himself then Gracious and loving unto us was pleased for a long time to become a Servant before he would be made a Lord and a Servant subject to multitudes of publick despights disgraces and contempts from which ordinarie servants or men of forlorn hopes are freed If he willingly became such a Servant for thee to whom he owed nothing wilt not thou resolve to make a vertue of necessitie by patient bearing thy meannesse or misfortunes for his sake to whom even Kings owe themselves their Scepters and all their worldly glorie But though it be a contemplation full of comfort to have him for our Supreme Lord and Protector who sometimes was a Servant cruelly oppressed by the greatest Powers on earth without any power of man to defend or protect him yet the sweet streams of joy and comfort flow more plentifully to all sorts and conditions of men from the Attribute of his Royal Priesthood To be a Priest implies as much as to be a Mediator or Intercessor for averting Gods wrath or an Advocate for procuring his Favours and blessings * And what could Comfort her self wish more for her children suppose she had been our mother then to have Him for our perpetual Advocate and Intercessor at the Right-hand of God who is equal to God in Glorie in Power and Immortalitie and yet was sometimes more then equal unto us in all manner of anguish of grievances and afflictions that either our nature state or casual condition of life can be charged with * Albeit he knew no sin yet never was the heart of any the most grievovs sinner no not whilest it melted with penitent tears and sorrow for misdoings past so deeply touched with the fellow-feeling of his brothers miseries of such miseries as were the proper effects or fruits of sin as the heart of this our High-Priest was touched with every mans miserie and affliction that presented himself with prayers unto him his heart was as fit a Receptacle for others sorrows of all sorts as the eye is of colours Who was weak and he was not weak who was grieved and he burned not who was afflicted and he not tormented 6. There be Two more special and remarkable Maxims of our Apostles for our comfort The One Heb.
the other to be more Prophane and then taking occasion by the increase of their prophanenesse to be more irregularly Precise Both parties being by their daily Bandyings far worse then being sundred they would have been Whilest in the mean time true Religion and sober Devotion suffers on both hands betwixt them Thus upon the Lutherans Hyperbolical manner of expressing the Exaltation of Christs Man-hood the Helvetian Churches took occasion to grant a lesse measure of Dignitie then was fitting and the lesse They granted the more the Lutherans still added to the advancement of his Humanitie or the miraculous manner of his Bodily Presence in the Sacrament as if they had thought themselves bound in conscience to make a Super-allowance for the others Arrears or detractions as they at least conceiv'd And thus the missed Truth oft times lies betwixt disagreeing Parties as it were offering it self to be surveyed by unpartial by-standers or sorrowful Spectators of causelesse ruful broyses betwixt brethren To add any Excellencie to Christs Divine Nature by derogating from his Humanitie we cannot for being Infinite It cannot admit of any addition And to derogate any thing from his Humanitie whereof it is or for ought we know may be Capable from That Special Union which it hath with the Divine Nature we dare not For this were to derogate from or deny the Power of God But doth he derogate any thing from Christs Humane Nature that denyes it to be Infinitely Exalted It may be he doth that doth deny the Exaltation of his Humane Nature since his Ascension and Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father to be in Any sort Infinite The diverse acceptions of Infinitie or diverse branches of it to mans apprehension are almost infinite more by many then are fit to be displayed or mentioned in this place It shall therefore suffice First to shew In what Sense we must denie Christs Humane Nature to be infinitely Exalted And this must quash the Lavish Hyperboles of some modern Lutherans Secondly In what Sense Christs Humane Nature may be said to be or at least may not be denyed to be infinitely Exalted 4. Christs Bodie may be conceived to be Absolutely Infinite or to be Actually Infinite only but not absolutely or to be Potentially Infinite only To be Absolutely Infinite or to be Infinite Simply in Being is proper to God who is Very Being it self and as he hath no Cause of Being so he can have no limits or bounds of Being either for number of several sorts of Being or for degrees of several Perfections What kind of Perfection soever we can conceive to be in any created Substance that we must acknowledge to be Infinitely greater in him Again we may conceive an Actual Infinitie of Being only in One or Two Kinds as in respect of Place of Strength or Power And though God be not Infinite only in respect of these Two Branches of Being yet he Only is Actually Infinite according to these Two Branches of Infinitie The One we call his Immensitie the other his Omnipotencie No created substance can actually be every where at once No creature can be Omnipotent or actually Infinite in strength for so it should be as strong as God though not so wise or eternal as God Now upon these Two Branches of Divine Infinitie that is upon his Immensitie and Omnipotencie the modern Lutherans make the Humane Nature of Christ to incroach as a Real Participant or equal sharer with the Divine Nature or Blessed Trinitie if we may judge of their meaning by their words or of their intended Conclusions by their Premisses expresly avouched and stiffly maintained After their Doctrine of Christs Real presence in the Sacrament by Consubstantiation began to be impugned and shaken the later Lutherans sought to support it by A new Butteresse or pillar which the Ancienter did not rely upon in this Argument and that was the Ubiquitie of Christs Bodie or Humane Nature Indeed if Christs Bodie were every-where present it should be Consubstantially present in the Sacrament But so it should be present in many other places where none of the Ancients did ever imagine it to be where no good Christian is bound to seek it 5. But to hunt out their Meaning at least the Truth concerning which their Meaning I hope is better then their Expression When they say Christs Glorified Bodie is Every-where they grant it to be in Heaven They should then in the First place tell us whether in heaven it be not as visible and conspicuous to Angels and Saints as it shall be to all men at his coming to Judgement Secondly Whether this Visibilitie of it doth not include a visible or comprehensible Distinction of parts in it as of his Head from his Feet or his Right-hand from his Left This I presume they will not deny for Christ shall only visibly change the place of his Residence not the substance form or fashion of his Bodie when he shall come from the Right-hand of God to Judge the quick and the dead This being granted when they say Christs Bodie is every where they should in the Third place tell us Whether it be Every-where according to this Distinction of Parts or no. Si di Christi If that of Christ which they hold as somewhat of Christ besides his Divine Nature they hold to be Every where have no Distinction of parts Let them call it what they list it is not in any Language besides their own and the Modern Romish Churches a Bodie as having no Properties of a Bodie If they will be content to deny all Distinction of parts in That of Christ which they make to be the Subiect of this Ubiquitarie presence we shall be content to take this their Real denyal for an approach to a Comprimise or agreement If they will call that A Bodie which we would call A Spiritual Influence or a Virtual presence so we may know what they really mean by this Word Bodie let them enjoy their Dialect If they admit a Distinction of Parts in that which they call Christs Bodie and which they make the Subject of this Ubiquitarie presence they should tell us whether it be Every where present according to every part or whether it be Every where present according to all its parts respectively As whether the Hands of Christ be Every where his Heart Every where his Head Every where or whether there be no place in the world wherein some Part of Christs Bodie or Humane Nature is not yet so that they will have his Head to be in one part his Feet in another his Right-hand in a third and his Left-hand in a fourth place or dimension of this visible world If they say Christs bodie is in this Latter sort present Every where they make him a Gyant not such a Man as we conceive him to be they do not Exalt but rather Extend him according to his Humane Nature the intire frame of whose bodie no man shall see no not at the day
of Judgement and yet by this Tenent according to some parts of his Humane Nature he shall be Consubstantially present with the Damned in hell If they say that Christs whole bodie is intirely Every where or every part of it Every where then either he hath no Right-hand or his Right-hand is in his Left either he hath no Humane Bodie or else his whole Bodie is in his Little Finger But to be after this manner intirely Every where is Proper only unto God 6. It may be we shall hit their Meaning better by tracing their footsteps Thus then they proceed The Right-hand of God is every where Christ according to his Humane Nature sitteth at the Right-hand of God Ergo Christ according to his Humane Nature sitteth every where and if his Sear according to his Humane Nature be every where his Humane Nature is present every where for Session or Residence according to his Humane Nature includeth his Presence according to his Humane Nature First admitting the Major The Right-hand of God is every where were absolutely true according to the literal meaning of this Article they stand bound by the Rules of Logick to rectifie the Minor and make it thus But Christ according to his Humane Nature is the Right-hand of God And if Christ according to his Humane Nature be the Right-hand of God then if the Right-hand of God be every where it would directly and perpendicularly follow that Christ is every where according to his Humane Nature But this i. e. the words of the minor they will not say Now the minor not being thus rectified the Conclusion must be corrected and in stead of saying Christs Humanitie is every where it must be taught to say That Christs Humanitie or Christ according to his Humane Nature Sitteth at that or by that which is every where Secondly If we take that Definition which some good Divines make of Christ's Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father that is to be a person equal to the Father by whom the Father doth immediately rule the world but the Church especially the Inference will be a Fallacie à rebus ad voces The Connexion between the Terms howsoever placed will be no better then if a man should naile a piece of solid timber at the one end to the Aire and at the other end to the Water Lastly If by the Right-hand of God in this place be Literally meant A visible or comprehensible Throne wherein the God head is after the like but a far more glorious manner conspicuously present as it was in the Ark of the Covenant here on earth then the Major proposition on which the whole structure of Christs Ubiquitie according to his Manhood depends will be a great deal too narrow for the Right-hand of God the Father Almighty taken in this Sense is not every where That Glorie of God at whose Right-hand Saint Steven saw Christ standing was not on earth but in heaven nor in every place of heaven but in that place only where he saw the heavens to open and on which he fixed his eyes 7. But they further add That Christs Humane Nature is glorified with that Glorie which he had with the Father before the world was made Now that Glorie doubtlesse was no created Glorie but Glorie uncreated and if uncreated then questionlesse Infinite and if this Glorie wherewith his Humane Nature is glorified be Infinite then his Humane Nature is infinitely Exalted or exalted to a Real communication of all the Divine Attributes as to be every where to be Omnipotent c. To This some answer Christs Divine Nature or Person may in that place John 17. ver 5. be said to be Glorified after the same manner that it was Exalted But though it be true that Christ meant the Glorification of his Divine Person in that place yet this no way contadicts the Glorification of his Humane Nature but rather supposeth it For his Divine Person was glorified by the glorification of his Humane Nature that is The world should not have known the Glorie of the Son of God or of him as their Lord and Redeemer unlesse this Glorie had appeared in his Man-hood or Humane Nature Now if the Humane Nature were glorified with that Glorie which was before the world it was glorified with an uncreated Glorie And uncreated Glorie is Absolutely Infinite If this consequence were sound the First Branch of it would be This That Christs Humane Nature was glorified with Infinite glorie before the foundation of the world and so the conclusion should contradict the Article of Christs Incarnation in time as also the whole course of his Humiliation here on earth The same Arguments which they bring to prove the Glorie of his Humane Nature to be Infinite in respect of place or power will prove his Humane Nature to have been Infinite and glorious in respect of its Duration or Christ as man to be Co-eternal with God the Father or else they prove just nothing at all That Real communication of the Divine Attributes which they so eagerly contend for is but a dream or Fancie which could not possibly have come into their brains but either for want of Logick or of Consideration The root of their Error is that they distinguish not between the uncreated Glorie which is the Incomprehensible Fountain by participation whereof Christs Humane Nature is immediately Glorified and the Participation or Communication of it The Glorie of the God-head which dwelleth Bodily in Christ is Infinite But it is not Communicated to Christs Humane Nature according to its infinitie The Communication of it or the Glorie communicated is Created and therefore finite The Sun truly and Really Communicates his light unto the Moon and we properly say That the Moon is enlightned or made glorious by the light of the Sun yet will it not hence follow That the Light Communicated or imparted to the Moon is equal to the light of the Sun which doth communicate it or impart it Much lesse will it follow that the Glorie wherewith Christs Humane Nature is glorified should be equal to that Glorie of the God-head which doth communicate or impart Glorie unto it or from which all the Glorie which it hath above other Creatures is derived To conclude this Point The best Frame whereunto the Lutherans Arguments in this Controversie can be drawn is this The glorie of God is infinite Christ as Man is glorified by the glorie of God Ergo His glorie as Man is infinite Yet the connexion is not as good as this following The light of the Sun doth by his presence make the day but the Moon is enlightned by the light of the Sun Ergo The Moon by presence of its light makes the day Sooner shall the Lutheran turn night into day by this or the like Sophism then prove that Real communication of the Divine Attributes to Christs Humane Nature which he dreams of As that Christ as man should be Really present every where or
any good Christian that will but raise his thoughts above the earth by this or the like Experiment of nature Albeit this bodily Sun which we dayly see were much further distant from the earth then now it is yet could we easily conceive it to be of force and efficacie enough to enlighten the earth whereon we dwell and those coelestial Spheres which are or might be as farre above it as it is above the Center And in the greatest distance we can imagin it is or might be distant from the earth it would give life and vigour to things vegetable or capable of vital heat It were a silly Argument to infer that because the hottest fire on earth cannot impart his heat to bodies 10 miles distant from it therefore the Sun cannot communicate vital heat and Comfort to vegetables more then ten-hundred-thousand miles distant from it This Inference notwithstanding is not so foolish in Philosophie as This following is in Divinitie The Sun cannot quicken trees or herbs which have lost their root and sap Ergo the Sun of righteousnes or Christs Humane Nature in which the Godhead dwelleth Bodily cannot quicken the dead or raise up our mortal bodies to immortalitie The only sure Anchor of all our hopes for a joyfull Resurrection unto the life of Glorie is the Mystical Union which must be wrought here on earth betwixt Christs Humane Nature glorified and our mortal or dissoluble nature The Divine Nature indeed is the Prime Fountain of Life to all but though inexhaustible in it self yet a fountain whereof we cannot drink save as it is derived unto us through the Humane Nature of Christ 11. Although it be most true which Tertullian in the 17 Chapter of his Apologie hath observed That even those Heathens which adored Jupiter Capitolinus and multiplied their Gods according to the number of the places wherein they worshiped them when they were throughly stung with any grievous affliction or calamitie were wont to lift up their eyes and hands not to the Roman Capitol but to heaven it self as knowing that by instinct of nature to be the seat or throne of Divine Majestie And the Hill from whence came their help Yet notwithstanding the truth of this Observation and the profitable use which that Father there makes of it it was an extraordinary Favour of God unto the Israelites that they were permitted and instructed to worship God in his Sanctuarie and to present their devotions towards the Ark of the Covenant or the Mercy-seat before which they might adore him in such manner and sort as they might not in any other place or before any other creature They knew much better then the heathen that Gods Throne of Majestie was in heaven and yet were to tender their devotions unto him as extraordinarily present in his Temple or Sanctuarie here on earth For as our bodily sight doth scatter or dazle without some sensible Object to gather and terminate it So our cogitations though of heaven and heavenly things do float or vanish without some determinate and comprehensible Object whereon to fasten them Now albeit the Temple of Jerusalem wherein Gods People only were to worship were long since demolished yet the Sanctuarie wherein they were to worship God is rather translated or advanced from earth to heaven then destroyed For it was Gods Presence that made the Temple and That is more extraordinary in Christs Body which the Jewes destroyed but which he raised again in three dayes then ever it had been in Solomons Temple in the Glorie of whose goodly structure and manifestation of Gods Glorie in it the true Israelites did much rejoyce and the later Iewes too much boast and glorie But this Prerogative we have in respect of the ancientest and truest Israelites that since the vail of the Temple was rent we may at all times reflecting upon that modell the Scripture hath imprinted in our mindes look within the vail and behold the Ark or Mercy-seat and use the most holy Sanctuarie or inner place made with hands as a Perspective Glasse or instrument for surveying the heavenly Sanctuarie which God hath pitched and not man This hope have we saith S t Paul Heb. 6. 19. as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek He is gone before us into the Sanctuarie to make perpetual intercession who before had made an everlasting attonement for us here on earth He is now become to us the Temple of God the Ark of the Covenant the Propitiatorie or Mercie-seat the fulfilling of all things and unto him now placed in his Sanctuarie at the Right-hand of God we are not only to direct our Cogitations or devotions but to transmit our affections to the Divine Nature by him The Son of God after he had suffered in Our flesh and made a full sufficient satisfaction for all our sins did in our nature rise again did in our nature ascend into heaven and in our nature sitteth at the Right-hand of God not only to gather our scatered contemplations and broken notions of the Godhead but withall to draw and unite our affections unto him which otherwise would flagg droop or miscarry if we should direct them to heaven at large or to the incomprehensible Majestie of the Godhead without a known Advocate or Intercessor to present them and to return their effects or issues Hence saith our Apostle Colos 3. 1. If ye be risen with Christ that is if you sted fastly believe that Christ who was the Son of God and as incomprehensible for his Divine Nature as God the Father to whom he was equal did dye in your flesh and comprehensible nature and in the same nature did rise againe from the dead then seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God Set or settle or fasten your affections on things above not on things on the earth And as we are to settle our dearest affections on him so are we to direct our prayers unto him in his heavenly Sanctuarie 12. That we may direct our prayers unto the Blessed Trinitie according to the Rule of Faith which is the first Degree of praying in Faith take for the present these short Directions The First and Fundamental Object of Belief as Christian is the acknowledgement of the Blessed Trinitie And by this Belief we acknowledge such a Distinction of Persons or Parties between God the Father God the Son and God the Holy-Ghost that God the Father doth Personally and in proprietie of Person exact Satisfaction for all the offences committed against the God-head or Blessed Trinitie and that the Son of God doth by like Personal Proprietie undertake to make Satisfaction and Reconciliation for us He it is that doth avert the wrath of God from us and inhibit the proceedings of Divine Justice against us We are then in the First
place either expresly or implicitly to direct our prayers to God the Father that he would be pleased to forgive us our sins to be reconciled unto us and bestow such blessings upon us as he hath promised to such as shall be reconciled unto him In the Second place either expressly or implicitly we are to beseech him to forgive us our sins to be reconciled and blesse us for the merits of his only Son who hath made satisfaction for us This is a Point which every Christian is bound expressely to believe that God the Father doth neither forgive sins nor vouchsafe any Term or Plea of Reconciliation but only for the merits and satisfaction made by the sacrifice of the Son of God who by the eternal spirit offered himself in our humane nature upon the Crosse In the next place we are to believe and acknowledge that as God the Father doth neither forgive nor vouchsafe Reconciliation but for the merits and satisfaction of his only Son so neither will he vouchsafe to conveigh this or any other blessing unto us which his Son hath purchased for us but only through his Son not only through him as our Advocate or Intercessor but through him as our Mediator that is through His humanitie as the Organ or Conduit or as the only Bond by which we are united and reconciled unto the Divine Nature For although the Holy Spirit or Third Person in Trinitie doth immediately and by Personal Proprietie work faith and other spiritual Graces in our Souls yet doth he not by these Spiritual Graces unite our souls or Spirits immediately unto himself but unto Christs Humane Nature He doth as it were till the ground of our hearts and make it fit to receive the seed of life But this seed of righteousnesse immediately flows from the Sun of Righteousnesse whose sweet influence likewise it is which doth immediately season cherish and ripen it The Spirit of life whereby our Adoption and Election is sealed unto us is the real participation of Christs Bodie which was broken and of Christs Blood which was shed for us This is the true and punctual meaning of our Apostles speech 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul or as the Syriack hath it Animale Corpus an enlivened bodie but the second Adam was made a quickning spirit and immediately becometh such to all those which as truely bear his image by the Spirit of Regeneration which issues from him as they have born the Image of the first Adam by natural propagation And this again is the true and punctual meaning of our Saviours words John 6. 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life For so he had said in the verses before to such as were offended at his words what if you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before The Implication conteined in the Connexion between these two verses and the precedent is this That Christs Virtual presence or the influence of life which his Humane Nature was to distil from his heavenly Throne should be more profitable to such as were capable of it then his Bodily presence then the bodily Eating of his flesh and blood could be although it had been convertible into their bodily substance This distillation of life and immortalitie from his glorified Humane Nature is that which the Ancient and Orthodoxal Church did mean in their Figurative and lofty speeches of Christs Real presence or of eating His very Flesh and drinking His very Blood in the Sacrament And the Sacramental Bread is called His Bodie and the Sacramental Wine His Blood as for other reasons so especially for This that the vertue or influence of his Bloody Sacrifice is most plentifully and most effectually distilled from heaven unto the worthy Receivers of the Eucharist And unto this Point and no further will most of the Testimonies reach which Bellarmin in his books of the Sacraments or Maldonat in his Comments upon the sixth of Saint John do quote out of the Fathers for Christs Real Presence by Transubstantiation or which Chemnitius that Learned Lutheran in his Books De duabus in Christo naturis and de Fundamentis sanae doctrinae doth avouch for Consubstantiation And if thus much had been as distinctly granted to the Ancient Lutherans as Calvin in some places doth the controversie between the Lutheran and other Reformed Churches had been at an end when it first begun Both Parties acknowledging Saint Cyrill to be the fittest Umpire in this Controversie The end of the Third Chapter A Transition of the Publisher's IT must not be dissembled that I had no Intimation much lesse Commission of the Author's to Insert the Two following Chapters herein this place Yet besides that I knew not of any fitter place where to dispose of them I had these Reasons so to do 1. I held it fit that His Powerful Disputes against the Church of Rome about The Lords Supper in the fourth Chapter and about another Point in the fifth should immediately follow his Learned Argument with the Lutheran 2. The sequence seems very Methodical The Subject of the first Chapter being partly About Christs Exaltation by becoming The Chief Corner-Stone cut out of the Rock or quarrey by his Resurrection from The New Scpulchre lifted up by his Ascension and placed at the Chief Corner by his Sitting at Gods Right-hand and partly about The Union of Christ with true Christians which Union is both a Considerable part of the fourth Chapter and was happily touched upon in the Close of the Third 3. In case any Restive soul should perhaps some faint Dejected Spirit having read Christs Great Exaltation may say Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Such an one besides the quickenings he may hear from other Remembrancers Saint Peter telling us that we are pilgrims here and Saint Paul that we seek a Countrie and look for a Citie Jerusalem that is Free and that being Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of Gods hous-hold our Conversation or Traffick is to be in heaven for those things which are above where Christ sitteth at Gods Right-hand c. may receive mightie encouragement by Experimenting the Contents of these two next Chapters The avowed neer approach and Intimacie of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Believing and Receiving Christian The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart When the holy Sacramental pledges be in the mouth and Faith in the heart The Word the Eternal Word that was made flesh is nigh indeed For Verily Verily He that eateth my Fesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him CHAP. 1111. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of St. John In what sense Christ's flesh is said to be truly Meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of eating and drinking Spiritual and Sacramental And whether of them is meant
grow unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 9. Christ as you heard before is not the Corner-stone or Foundation only but the Temple of God A Greater and more spacious Temple then all the building which is erected upon him which groweth up in him We must be living stones we must be Pillars in the house of God we must be Temples of God that is an habitation of God through the Spirit but no Foundations no chief corner-stones these are Christs prerogatives Behold I have graven thee to wit the Spiritual Sion saith the Prophet Isa 49. 16. upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me that is as a late Interpreter of the Romish Church saith I have pitched thy foundations in my hands by the wounds which I received in them By whose diduction or rent a place was opened for this future edifice to be erected in him And for this cause Christ who is the Rock was every way digged into in his side in his hands in his feet The mysterie whereof is that he might exhibit a firm foundation out of which the fabrick of the Church should grow That we then become living stones in this edifice it is from our immediate Union with this chief corner-stone being united to him he is fashioned in us and by him fashioned in us we become living stones growing stones we grow from living stones to living pillars from living pillars to living Temples or habitations for our God That the children of God are not onely living stones but from living stones grow into pillars our Saviour himselfe hath taught us by S. John Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make A Pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and if wee be pillars in the temple of God we must be as immediately placed on the foundation or chief corner-stone as S. Peter or Christs other Apostles were We must be as intire Temples as they were And for this reason our Saviour adds upon every one whom he makes a pillar the name of God and the name of the City of God the new Jerusalem which cometh out of Heaven Know ye not saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19. That your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost As wee say the Kings presence makes the Court So it is Gods Holy Spirits extraordinary presence in man which makes him his Temple And the Reason why Christ is called The Temple of God is because the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily And for the like reason every one in whom Christ dwelleth by faith is in a participated sense called The Temple of God And as visible Cities consist of severall houses and as the beautie of every Citie consists in the Uniformitie of houses well built and joyned together so the heavenly Jerusalem consists of several Temples whose beautie or Uniformitie consists in this that Christ Jesus is the life and light of every severall Temple and that his spirit is uniformely diffused through all 10. Christ as you have read before Communicates his Titles unto his Saints but not the Reall Prerogative of his Titles He is The Rock so was Peter a rock so are wee rocks but not The rock on which the Church is built He is the Chiefe Corner-stone we are living stones he is the temple and the Priest of the most high God and he makes us both temples and Priests unto his God So saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 5. Yee all as lively stones are built up a spirituall house an holy Priest-hood to offer up Spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ The Modell of this spirituall Temple and Priest-hood that is of the new Jerusalem and the service of God performed in it was exhibited by Moses Exod. 24. 4 5. at the making of the first covenant Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up earely in the morning and builded an altar under the Hill and twelve pillars according to the 12. tribes of Israel And he sent yong-men of the Children of Israel which offered burnt offrings and sacrificed peace offerings of Oxen unto the Lord. Immediately after this Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu saw the God of Israel and there was under his feete as it were a paved work of a saphire stone and as it were the bodie of Heaven in his clearnesse ver 9. The yong men which he sent to offer sacrifices as the best interpreters observe were the first-born of their families For till that time and at that time which was before the consecration of Aaron and his sonnes it was Lawfull for the First born male of every family to execute the office of the Priest This was his dutie So that every family was as a little parish-Church and had his Priest to performe this service of God Now though all that are built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles are not admitted to be Architects or master-builders though all be not publick teachers or pastors yet all that are or hope to be parts of this building have the same Prerogative which the First-born males of Israel had before Aaron was consecrated All must be Priests to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices unto God But seeing wee must grow unto an holy temple and growth as was said before supposeth nutrition let us now see what is the nourishment by which we must grow from living stones to be living pillars from pillars to be living Temples yea Kings and Priests unto our God 11. The nature and qualitie of the Nutriment by which wee must grow cannot in fewer words be more pithily exprest than it is by S. Peter 1 Pet. 2. cap. vers 2. It is the sincere milk of the word But how good soever the nutriment be it doth not kindly nourish unlesse wee have an appetite to it Therefore the same Apostle addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire or long after the sincere milk of the word We must then desire to have the word dwell in us plentifully and wee must desire to have it sincere that is pure and unmingled Now this milk may become unsincere or mingled sometimes by the default of the Pastor or teacher sometimes by the default of the hearers The dutie which concernes us teachers is that wee do not mingle the word with the Traditions of men how ancient soever they be This is the fault of the Romish Church which the Church our mother hath sufficiently prevented by publick edicts or decrees But many otherwise averse enough from Traditions of the Romish or other ancient Church ofttimes corrupt it with their own Conceits or Phansies which will easily mingle themselves with the word unlesse we speak out of premeditation and have both art and leasure to revise and examine aswell our own meditations as the meditations or expositions of others whose help wee use Since the ordinary Gifts of the Spirit did cease there is no facultie under the sun which more requires the help of art and study than the
to the Jews which had answer'd him rightly that the Messias was to be the Son of David is unanswerable and most satisfactorie If the expected Messias were not to be the Son of God and truly God the supreme Lord as well of the dead as of the living why did David in spirit call him Lord before he was the Son of David It is a point to be observed that the Iews in our Saviours time did not or could not deny that this Psalm was literally meant of their expected Messias albeit the later Iews seek to wrest it but most ridiculously some to Ezekiah some to Abraham But that the word Adonai is of no lesse value or importance then Iehovah but only imports Iehovah or God incarnate or the Messias his Exaltation to be Lord or King may be evinced against the Iew for that the same sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving which One Psalmist solemnly offers unto Iehovah Another Psalmist or perhaps the same doth alike solemnly offer up to Adonai or to the expected Messias in another Psalm As Psal 57. which is a Prophetical Song of David and containes the Exaltation of his God and Lord Exalt thy self O God above the heaven and let thy glory be upon all the earth ver 5 11. This Prophecie was then punctually fulfilled and Davids prayer or request signed by the mouth of God when our Saviour after his Resurrection said All power is given to me in heaven and in earth go therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holie Ghost Mat. 28. 18. Unto this Iehovah or God whose Exaltation he foresaw and heartily prayed for and unto whom he had directed his prayers ver 1. He offers the Sacrifice of praise ver 9. under the title of Adonai I will praise or confesse thee among the people O Lord I will sing unto thee among the Nations The verie self-same sacrifice David offers unto the same God under the title of Iehovah Psal 108. 1 2 3 4 5. O God mine heart is prepared so is my tongue I will sing and give praise Awake Viol and Harp I will awake early I will praise thee O Lord among the people I will sing unto thee among the Nations For thy mercie is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds Exalt thy self O God above the heavens and let thy glorie be upon all the earth which last words were twice repeated in the 57. Psam 2. These Fundamental Points of Faith are clear from this collation of Scripture First That Adonai or Lord was the known Title of the Messias whom the Jews expected in our Saviours time and this was the reason that the Pharisces had not a word to answer or rejoyn unto our Saviour when he avouched that the Messias was to be The Son of God because David in Spirit called him Adonai Lord Matth. 22. 45. The second That he that was Adonai or the Messias was likewise Jehovah truly God because David did not in spirit onely call him Lord but did in spirit worship him as his Lord and God with the best sacrifice that he could devise as appears from Psalm 57. 8. A great part of the Book of Psalms even all those passages if my observation fail me not without exception which mention the extraordinary manifestation of Gods glory or his exaltation as King run the same way and as it were pay Tribute unto the infinite Ocean of Gods mercy first manifested in our Saviours Exaltation to the right hand of God The more remarkable Passages are these Psal 97. ver 1. Jehovah reigneth let the earth rejoice let the multitude of the Isles be glad Whilest Jehovah was onely known in Jurie the multitude of the Isles or Nations had no special reason to be glad for Iudah was then his Sanctuary and Israel his dominion but after God had given our Saviour Christ the utmost parts of the earth for his possession that is after our Saviours Ascension into Heaven and the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom unto all Nations the multitude of the Isles the whole Earth had reason to rejoyce Then was that fulfilled which followeth in that Psal ver 6. The Heavens declare his righteousness and all the people saw his Glory That this Psalm is literally meant of Christs Exaltation to be Lord of Lords and of his Inauguration to his everlasting Kingdom The Apostle St. Paul Heb. 1. 6. puts out of question amongst all Christians when he bringeth in his first begotten Son into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him so the Psalmist had said in this 97. Psal ver 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images worship Him all ye Gods or as the Septuagint upon which our Apostle often Paraphrased Worship him all ye Angels of God The matter or subject of this Psalm is almost the same with Psal 2. Both of them contain Prophesies concerning the Declaration of Christ to be the Son of God And from this harmonie between this 97. and the second Psalm and from the common Prenotion or Rule of interpreting Scriptures known to the Learned or unpartially observant in those days the Apostle adds that Preface unto his Testimonie when he bringeth in his onely begotten Son into the World He supposeth that the Learned among his Countrie-men should or might have known that both these Prophecies were to be punctually fulfilled upon the Exaltation of the Messias or of those times wherein God should be manifested in the Flesh 3. Yet some conjecture that our Apostle Heb. 1. 6. hath reference rather to Deut. 32. ver 43. in the Greek Translation then unto the 97 Psalm in the Hebrew The words indeed in the Greek or Septuagint are the very same though in the Hebrew not the same by any Equivalencie of the literal sense At nec sic quidem malè There is a varietie of sense yet no discord but rather a full and perfect Consort between the Literal and Grammatical sense of the Hebrew and the mystical and real sense which the Greek or Septuagint in both places expresseth First The 97 Psalm as many others are is a Poetical descant upon Moses his divine Prophetical Song Deut. 32. And the 70 Interpreters whether out of some Prenotion or out of the admirable Concord between that song of Moses and the 97 Psalm or out of a divine Instinct wherewith as St. Augustine is of opinion they were impelled sometimes to intersert a more express meaning of the Holie Ghost then an ordinary Commentator could out of the Hebrew have observed whether this way or that way moved they have given the same Paraphrase upon Deut. 32. ver 43. which our Apostle hath made upon Psal 97. ver 7. which is no other then the Septuagint had made before but literally more consonant to the Hebrew then their Paraphrase upon Deut. 32. is But
sins whereof as St. Iude intimates the supream Iudge will take special notice in that day and the harborers of it without repentance shall have a large portion of the wo or curse denounced by Enoch There is no sin for its quality more opposite to Iustice or that can more provoke a just gracious Iudge then intrusion into his Office without Warrant or Commission and yet so they all do that without warrant will become Magistrates or Censurers or Judges of others Such as affect the name of Zealous Professors in our times cannot more directly impeach themselves of gross Hypocrisie then by nursing this censuring humor in themselves orr applauding it in others whilest they profess to believe this Article of appearing before the Judgement seat of Christ The Belief whereof were it true or sound would not suffer this censorious humour of all others whatsoever to lodge in the same brest with it as being most directly opposite unto it most incompatible with it Nor did our Apostle St. Paul himself know any other Medicine or possible cure of this Malady then the pressing this Article upon such as were tainted with it Who art thou saith he Rom. 14. 4. that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth What more would you have said or have left un-said to such as take upon them to judge or censure their lawful Magistrates and Pastors And again ver 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother seeing we shall all stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ and ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God As for the Magistrate or such as have taken the charge of souls upon them they must give an account to God not of themselves onely but of others committed to their charge but their flock or inferiors are not bound to give account of them and for this reason should in conscience be more ready to be directed or censured by them then to direct or judge their Actions 8. The former Point might pass without further Addition or Annotation were it not that a late Divine of deserved note seems to deny the place avouched Dan. 7. 13. to be literally meant of a final Judgement of which if it were not literally meant our Saviors Allegation of it was not concludent nor should the conviction of the High Priest for giving wrong Judgement upon our Savior be so notorious and manifest as we suppose it to be and at the last day it will appear The prejudice of one modern Divines authority in a Negative of this nature cannot be great especially seeing this Negation is grounded onely upon an inconsiderate or careless Inference This place of Daniel saith he is literally meant of Christs ascending to his Father and of his investiture in the Kingdom of Heaven This no man denies And necessary it was that he should ascend into Heaven and be established in his Throne before he came to the accomplishment of Jurisdiction Royal such is the exercise or execution of final Judgement The Argument then will hold much better Affirmatively then Negatively The forecited place of Daniel is literally meant of Christs Ascension and Enthronization Ergo it is principally meant of the execution of final Judgement of such a Judgement as is to reverse or rectifie whatsoever hath been wrongfully done or adjudged by the most potent Monarchs or supream Tribunals of the earth So it is expresly foretold Dan. 2. 44 45. That this Kingdom whereof the Son of Man did take possession should destroy or break in pieces the Babylonian the Persian the Macedonian and the Roman Monarchy with all their appurtenances and attendances or reliques And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the Iron the brass the clay the silver and gold the great God hath made known to the King what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure To omit all Question how Christs Kingdom here foretold being not erected till the Roman Monarchy was at the height should destroy the Babylonian the Persian or the Macedonian Monarchy all which three were in the wane before the Roman was Crescent Certain it is that the Roman Monarchy being at the height when Christ ascended was to be destroyed by him yet not destroyed at his Ascension The Case then is clear that the forementioned Prophecie of Daniel cannot be terminated by the time of our Saviours Ascension but is to be extended to all succeding ages yea after time shall be no more If the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession be for duration everlasting for power most Soveraign so absolute and independent that all other Kingdoms which have been are or shal be depend on it and are responsible to it the execution of all Judgement whether past or to come whether temporal or eternal must either be ratified or reverst or immediately awarded by This everlasting King Polanus himself the principal Author or Abettor of the former Opinion viz. That the place of Dan. 7. 13. is not literally meant of Christs coming to Judgement grants That the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession shall be consummate in the life to come and not before And in granting thus much he is concluded to grant withal that the former places are principally or consummatly meant of Christs coming to Iudge the World and to translate the Kingdom of God begun here on earth into the Heaven of Heavens in which so translated all shall be Kings all shall be Judges all shall be perpetual Laws unto themselves there shall be no place for after Judgement especially for any sentence of condemnation 9. To let the former mis-interpretation of the Prophet Daniel pass as a private error or oversight rather which wants the general consent as well of the Roman Church as of the Reformed it is now God be praised on all hands agreed on and acknowledged by the best learned of both Churches that many places of the Old Testament are literally and truly meant both of Christs first coming in humility to be judged of men and of his second coming in glory to give Iudgement upon the world And not of these two Periods of times onely but of all the times intermediate or interjacent Howbeit of these times onely Inchoativè consummately finally or punctually of the life to come which takes beginning from the last Iudgement That this place of Dan. 7. is Inchoativè meant of Christs first coming that is that it first began literally to be verified then but shall not be consummated or
help of this Rule For Instance to lay this Rule unto St. John Baptists speech Matth. 3. 10 11 12. Now also the ax is laid unto the root of the tree Therefore every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire I indeed Baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the Garner But will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire This Prediction cannot be exactly fulfilled until the Final Sentence be given and put in execution And yet within 43 years after his Baptism by John there was a manifest and lively representation exhibited to the World of his second coming unto Judgement and this representation was exhibited upon the Nation of the Jews The full accomplishment whereof shall at his second coming and not before be universally and exactly accomplished in all Nations and Languages and People Wherein then doth this representation of Final Judgement which at his first coming was exhibited in the Jewish Nation punctually consist In this especially There was such a notorious and manifest Crisis or distinction between the Elect and Reprobate of the Jewish Nation or seed of Abraham at his first coming as in no Nation or People had been experienced before nor shall be experienced in any before the day of Final Judgement in which this distinction of Elect and Reprobates shall not be onely universally manifested but solemnly declared in respect of all mankinde Every Son of Adam shall in that day be irrevocably marshalled or ranked either amongst the absolute Reprobates or absolute Elect In the one or other rank of which estates neither all nor most of every Nation or Church are at all points of time in the Interim to be accounted no not in respect of Gods Eternal Decree Nor may the Verdicts or Aphorisms whether of our Saviour himself or of his Apostles after his death concerning Election or Reprobation be extended to other times or Nations in the same measure or Tenor wherein they were verified and experienced in the Nation of the Jews at or upon our Saviors first coming Thus far to extend them in respect of all Times or Nations were to transgress the Analogie of Faith or received Rules of Interpreting Scriptures and to dissolve the sweet and pleasant Harmony between the Law and the Gospel or between the Evangelists and the Prophets And thus far of the second Point in handling whereof divers passages have intruded themselves which are not impertinent to the third Point CHAP. XII Of the manner of Christs coming to Judgement which was the third General proposed in the ninth Chapter 1. IT is said in the former Prophecie of Daniel chap. 7. ver 13. that One like the Son of Man came in the clouds of Heaven unto the Ancient of days The literal fulfilling of this Prophetical vision is recorded Acts 1. 9. And when he to wit Christ the Son of Man had spoken these things whilest they beheld He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight But whither he was carried in the Cloud which received him they could not distinctly see Their bodily eyes could not see so much by day as had been revealed to Daniel in vision by night But admit that this cloud did carry him into the presence of the Ancient of days or of God his Father What is this manner of his going into Heaven unto the manner of his coming to Judge the Earth which is The Point in hand Certainly much for so the Angels ver 11. admonished his Disciples which stedfastly beheld the Manner of his Ascension Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven But shall the manner of his coming to Judge the World be in every point like unto the manner of his ascending into Heaven No! then it should not be so terrible as we believe it shall be The chief parts then of this similitude are these Two The First As he did locally and visibly go into Heaven so he shall locally and visibly come to judge the earth The second As he was received into Heaven in a cloud so he shall come to Judge the World as he himself foretold the High Priest and his Complices Matthew 26. 64. in the clouds of heaven The literal meaning of both places and the intent and purpose as well of the Angels as of our Saviour in this prediction infers That this Son of man whom they now beheld with bodily eyes was that very God whose glorious kingdom and reign the Psalmist describes Psal 104. 3. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariots who walketh upon the wings of the wind Who maketh his Angels Spirits or the Spirits his Angels his Ministers a flame of fire So they will appear when they attend him Coming to Judgment which will be in flaming Fire In all the manifestations of Christ to be the Son of God The Cloud is still a Witness First In his Transfiguration upon the Mount A Cloud did overshadow him and out of the Cloud this testimony was given him by God the Father Matth. 17. 5. this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him 2. Whilest he ascends to God his Father Acts 1. 9. A Cloud receives him And 3. When he shall come from heaven or from his Fathers presence to judge the earth he shall have a Cloud for his Canopy For more particular Description of the Manner of his Coming the next Point is From what place he shall come Now it is expresly said in our Creed That Christ Jesus our Lord who was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended into hell who the third day rose again from the dead ascended into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God shall thence come to Judge the quick and the dead But this word Thence is of ambiguous Reference It may be referred in general either to the Heavens into which he ascended or unto the Right hand of God or unto both Certain it is that he shall come from Heaven as visibly and locally as he ascended thither Yet whether he shall come from the Right hand of God is questionable but not by us determinable unless it be determined already in the first Chapter of this Book what is literally meant by The Right hand of God either in the Creed or in those places of the New Testament out of which This Article is taken If Christs Body as Lutherans did contend chapt 3. § 6. be every where or if
be our High-Priest unless we suffer him whilst it is called to day to cleanse and purifie our Consciences If our heart condemn us not saith S. John 1. Joh. 3. 22. then have we confidence towards God To shut up all with that of the Prophet Malachi chap. 3. 2 3. which is fully Parallel to the former place of S. Paul Heb. 12. 12 13. He shall sit as a refiner and parifier of silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness So then they must be Sons of Levi that is men consecrated unto the service of the Lord and even in this life as gold and silver though mingled with dross which hope to escape that last and Fiery Tryal And such as hope to be made Kings and Priestes unto our God for ever must in this life be careful and diligent to practise upon themselves daily presenting unto Him First The Sacrifices of God a troubled and broken spirit breathing out Prayers and sending forth Tears and then Their Bodies a Living Sacrifice holie and acceptable And Lastly The Sacrifice of Praise that is the calves or fruit of the lips withall not forgetting to do good and to communicate for with such sacrifices God is well pleased 19. The Use of all that is said in this whole third Section concerning Christs coming to Judgment is most flagrantly set down in Powerful and moving Expressions by S. Peter 2. Epist 3 Chap. And the short of his Three Inferences is this Beloved I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance knowing that there shall come in the last daies scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming But the Lord is not slack concerning his promise but is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And the day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night Seeing then that all these things must be What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God Seeing that ye look for these things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without spot and blemish and account that the long suffering of the Lord is Salvation Ye therefore Seeing ye know all these Things before beware lest ye also being led away with the Error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST To Him be Glorie both now and for ever AMEN S. Ambrose's Creed Lord Jesus We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge We therefore pray Thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood Make them to be Numbred with thy Saints in Glorie Everlasting SECTION IV. Of the Resurrection of the Dead OF The Five General Heades Proposed in the so oft mentioned ninth Chapter wee have after a sort dispatched The First Three The Fourth was The Parties to be judged viz. The Quick and the Dead Of Those that shall be found alive at the Coming of our Lord I shall say no more then This Till I come to the fift Head touching the Final Award The One Distinction shall stand with great Boldness and with joy lift up their heads that they being caught up in the Clouds may meet the Lord in the air and so be ever with the Lord. The Other Retchless and most wretched part of mankinde shall but all in vain cry to the Hills to fall upon them and to the Rocks to cover them from His eys to whom night and Hell are manifest Of those that sleep in the Dust The Dead in Christ shall rise first and having happily passed the Judgement of Discussion shall be amazed at the strangeness of their own salvation so far beyond all they looked for Then shall The Dead in Sin be raised also to receive the Dreadfull sentence of Our most worthie Iudge Eternal and to put on such immortalitie as shall onely make them Capable of The Wages of Sin which is eternall Death or Endless vivacitie unto Torments The proof of the Resurrection of Both these is our next Design CHAP. XIII 1. Cor. 15. 12 13. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the Dead How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the Dead But if there be no resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen Job 19. vers 25. I know that My Redeemer Liveth and that he shall stand at the later day upon the earth And though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within mee Ezekiel 37. 4. O ye drie Bones hear the word of the Lord. Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live c. John 5. 28. Marvel not at This for the hour is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear His voice And shall come forth They that have done Good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of Damnation John 9. 24. Martha said I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last Day Iesus said I am the resurrection and the life c. The Beleif of This Article of the Resurrection of High concernment malignantly oppugned by Satan and his agents needs and deserves our best Fortification The Heathen had implicit Notions of A Resurrection The Obstacle of impossibilitie removed by Proof of This Conclusion That though all things were annihilated yet God is able to retreive or recover The numerical same 1. SO Admirable is the Constancie of the Celestial Bodies in their courses that every unusuall Spectacle in the heavens be it but the appearance of a Comet in the air or of 2 Sunnes whereof the one is in the air not in the heaven doth alwaies imprint a Terror or amazement in the inhabitants of the earth Whence if wee could out of a serious apprehension of both rightly compare the face of the heavens as now it is with that strange alteration described by St. John Rev. 6. 12 13. as that the pale moon shall be turned into blood that the Sun which now dazles our eyes with its brightnes shall becom as black as a sackcloth of hair or that the fixed stars which have continued their March from East to West without check or controll for almost 6000 yeares and yet have kept their ranks without any declination to the right hand or to the left shall then begin to reel and stagger like so many drunken men and fall to the earth like as when a figtree casteth her green figs being shaken of a mighty wind The very cogitation of this sudden change or confusion would make death
very Bodie and Blood to be locally present in every place where and at all times when that blessed Sacrament shall be celebrated This we deny And the former Principle or Antecedent That God is able to create the self same body as often as it pleases him will never infer their intended Conclusion Not to question what God can do we further add For Christs body or whole Christ God and man to be bodily present by this means in many places at once or in all places at all times wherein that blessed Sacrament shall be celebrated is one of those things which according to their rules as well as ours cannot be done as implying an evident Contradiction in nature It may not be believed nor imagined because God did never bind any man to believe such an impossibilitie or Contradiction as is involved in this doctrine It is altogether without the compass of the most miraculous work which God hath at any time wrought or ever promised to work All the former Instances or Cases possible concerning Gods Power to make one and the same man again after he had been annihilated are most unlike to their intended Conclusion All the former Instances or suppositions are free from all color or suspition of Contradiction in nature This supposed Creation of Christs Body often since his death implies as many and as manifest Contradictions as there have been Masses in the Romish Church Not only these Assertions but the dissimilitude also of the Case in question to the former Cases will be immediately made clear from the very Definition of Creation To create a body is to make it of nothing and to make the self same Body which formerly had been but is resolved into Nothing out of Nothing again is but a second exercise of his Creative Power and whatsoever God before hath done he is able to do the same again But the Body of Christ they acknowledge to be immortal and absolutely exempted not only from Annihilation or resolution into Nothing but from all danger of Corruption or diminution Again whatsoever is Created whether at the first second or third time hath no Actual being until it begin to be by Creation Now to make that very thing begin to be or to begin to be out of nothing which already actually is is something is immortal and more glorious then any other creature implies a manifest Contradiction But Christs Body they grant to be immortal since his Resurrection more unalterable then the heaven of heavens so immortal that it can never cease to be what it is therefore it is impossible that it should begin to be by a new creation or be created again For that which is created or may be created again must first be resolved into nothing or cease to be before it can be created again seeing creation is the making of that which is not out of Nothing or be made again by means miraculous If then Christs Body be locally present in the Sacrament it must either be created again and this supposeth either annihilation or dissolution of it or else it must be brought out of the heavens into the Priests hands or else the presence of it in many places must be created but Local Presence is altogether uncapable of Creation for it is a Meer Relation which can neither be created nor made but resulteth from or followeth upon the motion of things created from one place to another or from their creation or beginning to be in that place wherein they are said to be created 12. So it fares with our Adversaries in this Argument as it doth with Boot-halers or night-riders which have caught an unlawful prey being hotly pursued by the right owners Now their manner is to divide the spoil and their company that they may carry one part one way and another part another way that so whilst one is pursued others may escape without pursuit or rescue of the prey Through the ignorance or carelesness of Gods people which should have kept a better watch over their own souls the Romish Priests had made a gainful prey by transporting the native sense of our Saviours Words in the institution of the Sacrament to justifie the doctrine of Transubstantiation And since they have been pursued by reformed Writers as Cozeners and Cheaters of Gods people some of them run one way some another Some of them seek to maintain Christs local presence or Transubstantiation by the former doctrine of Gods Almighty Power which is able to create one and the same body often Others seek to maintain the same doctrine and carry away the prey by the manner of Angelical motion from one place to another in an instant or moment of time And if they could draw such as pursue them into these straits and subtilities they hope to make their part good against such as are not much conversant in the School-mens nice disputes concerning the nature or motions of Angels or know not the difference between the nature and motions of Spirits and Spiritual Bodies Others seek to maintain the same doctrine by the infinitie of divisible quantities as if it were possible for a flies wing to overspread the whole earth as a hen doth her chickens And that Christs Body may by this kind of Infinitie be in many places at once in as many as God shall appoint hoping by this means to cast a mist before the eyes of such Readers as know not the difference betwixt a real material or substantial and a mathematical or imaginary quantitie But all these fictions or suppositions they cast forth only to offer play unto their adversaries or to gain some time for invention of new shifts None of them dare pitch upon any or all of these wayes or imaginations or put the Case upon this issue Whether any of them be in nature possible or agreeable to the Analogie of Faith The only point wherein they agree is the submission of their judgments or imaginations to the authoritie of the Church which is no better agreement then if amongst a multitude of unlearned men one of them should maintain that snow is white another black another pawn his estate that it is blew and a fourth that it is green and yet in the end refer themselves to be tried by some Philosopher which had written of the nature of Snow in a language that none of them understands whose books they know not where to find For what the Church is that cannot err or of whom it consists the French and Italian Catholicks do not agree Or if we take the Church for the Trent Council confirmed by the Pope the Jesuites themselves cannot agree about the meaning of it in this point Divers of them do in Effect deny any Transubstantiation in this Sacrament albeit that Council under pain of curse enjoyneth all Christians to believe That there is a true Conversion of the bread into the substance of Christs Body and of the wine into the substance of his Blood and
the first day preserved but here was a new creation out of that which Philosophers properly term The mater that is the common mother of generation or corruption And thus God at the last day shall command not the earth only but the Sea also with the other Elements to give up their dead Rev. 20. 13. Lastly they extended this similitude too far which hence imagined that as the corn often dies and is often quickned and dies again So by the doctrine of Christians there should be a death after the Resurrection and a Resurrection after death or such a continual vicissitude between life and death as is between light and darkness This objection is punctually resolved by Tertullian in the 48. Chapt. of his Apologie The sum of his answer is That so it might be if the Omnipotent Creator had so appointed for he is able to work this continual interchange or vicissitude of life and death as well in mens bodies as in the bodies of corn sown or reaped or as he doth the perpetual vicissitude of light and darkness in the two Hemispheres of the world but he hath revealed his Will to the contrary And the reason is not the same but rather contrary in Gods crop or harvest as it is in the crops or harvests of mortal men As men in this life are mortal so is their food or nutriment and for this reason their nutriment must be supplied by continual sowing and reaping But God is immortal and so shall the crop of his harvest be Our Resurrection from the dead is his general crop or harvest and this needs to be no more then One because our bodies being once raised up to life again shall never die but enjoy immortalitie in his presence Heaven is his Granary and what is gathered into it cannot perish or consume 10. The general use of this Doctrine is punctually made to our hands by our Apostle in the last verse of this Chapt. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. And more particulary 1 Thessal 4. 13. c. I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them which are a sleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope c. The Apostle there doth not forbid all mourning for the dead but the manner of mourning only that they mourn not as they which have no hope no expectation of any Resurrection after death Nature will teach us as it did these Thessalonians to mourn for the death of our friends and kindred And our belief of this Article will give us the true mean and prescribe the due manner or measure of mourning Our sorrow though natural and just yet if it be truly Christian and seasoned with Grace will still be mingled with comfort and supported by hope To be either impatient towards God or immoderatly dejected for the death of our dearest friends whose bodies God hath in mercy committed to the custody of the earth of the sea or other Elements is but A Symptome of heathenish ignorance or infidelity of this Article A Barbarism in Christianitie If we of this Land should live amongst Barbarians whom we had taught to make bread of Corn and accustomed to the tast of this bread as unknown to their forefathers as Manna at first appearance was to the Israelites but not acquainted them with the mystery of sowing and reaping they would be as ready in their hunger or scarcitie of bread to stone us as the Israelites were to stone Moses in their thirst if they should see us offer to bury that corn in the earth with which their bowels might be comforted yet if they were but so far capable of reason as to be perswaded or we so capable of trust or credit with them as to perswade them that there were no possibilitie left either to have bread without supply of corn or for corn to increase and multiply unless it did first die and putrifie in the ground hope of a more plentiful crop or harvest would naturally incline them to brook the present scarcity w th patience and to be thankfull towards such as would so carefully provide for them Now besides that the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God the committing of their bodies to the grave is but as a solemn preparation of seed for a future crop or harvest If in these premisses we do rely and trust in God our sorrow and heaviness for the dead though it may endure for a while will be swallowed up in comfort our mournfull tears and weeping will be still accompanied with praises and thanksgiving unto him that hath so well provided for them that live in his fear and die in his favour 11. But as this Doctrine administreth plentie of comfort in respect of friends deceased so it should move us to make choice of such only for our dearest friends as we see inclined to live in the fear of the Lord. Or if we have prevented our selves and this advice in making such choice yet let us never be prevented by others for making the main and principal end of our friendship or delight in any mans company to be this A serious study and endevour to prepare others and to be prepared by them to live and die in the Lord. As there is no greater comfort in this life then a faithfull and hearty friend So can no greater grief befall a man at the hour of death then to have had a friend trusty and hearty in other offices and services but negligent and backward in cherishing the seeds of faith of love or fear of the Lord or other provision of our way-fare towards the life to come No practise of the most malicious or most inveterate or most provoked foe can breed half so much danger to any man as the affectionate intentions of a carnal friend always officious to entertain him with pleasant impertinences which will draw his mind from the fear and love of God and either divert or effeminat his cogitations from resolute pitching upon the means and hopes of a joyfull Resurrection to everlasting life Even to minds and affections already sweetned with sure hope of that life to come what grief must it needs breed in this life if he be a loving husband to think he shall be by death eternally divorced from the companie of his dearest consort Or if he be an affectionate friend to consider that the league of mutual amitie in this life never interrupted but secured from danger of impairment whilst their pilgramage lasts here on earth should be everlastingly dissolved after the one hath taken up his lodging in the dust that all former dearest kindness should not only be forgotten but be further estranged from performance of any common courtesie then any Christian in this life can be in regard of any Jew or Turk or any Jew or
The imperfection of all Contentments incident to this life discovers it self these Two Wayes First The several capacities are too narrow and feeble in themselves to give entertainment to any portion of sincere and true joy the very best Contentments which here they find in any Object are mingled with dregs Secondly The satisfying of one capacitie defrauds another of that measure of contentment whereof in this life it was otherwayes capable And commonly the satisfying of the baser facultie or meanest capacitie doth deprive the more noble facultie of its due Men given to their bellies or solicitous in purveying for the grosser senses of taste or touch defraud the sense of sight which is the gate of knowledge and the ear which is the sense of discipline of their best Contentments For as the old saying is Venter non habet aures the Belly hath no ears And too much insight in the means which procure bodily pleasures doth blind or darken the Common sense Others not so solicitous to feed the belly with meat as the ear with pleasant sounds or the eye with delightful spectacles do by both means rob the reasonable soul of her best solace and as it were block up these ports and havens by which provision should come into her Every handy-craft or art of husbandry requires an ordinary capacitie not of the Common sense only but of the understanding And yet such as have their minds exercised in these and the like imployments are thereby dis-enabled for bearing Rule or Government over more civil and ingenuous men as may be collected from the wise Son of Sirach Ecclus. 38. from the 25. to the 33. Even amongst the capacities or faculties of the reasonable soul there is not that harmony or concord which were requisite for her better contentment Some men in a manner freed from the servitude of their outward senses and able to command their service for contemplation by too much contemplating upon one sort of objects make themselves uncapable of reaping that delight which other objects would more plentifully afford to these Contemplators Some by studying the Mathematicks too much do benum their apprehensive faculties or capacities of prudence or civil knowledge Others whiles they seek to give too much satisfaction to their desires or capacities of civil wisdom or humane Prudence do infeeble their capacities and starve their desires of divine Mysteries or spiritual understanding Quite contrary it is in the life to come First The Capacitie of every sense or facultie is improved to the uttermost and no object shall intrude or offer it self but such as are able to give severally full Contentment without satietie Secondly The Harmony or Consent between the several Capacities and desires of every Sense and Facultie is most exact the satisfying of one doth no way prejudice but rather further another Every one is apt to bear its part for making up of that full harmony which is required to true happiness And For those grosser Senses of Touch and Taste â—ith the Appetite of meat and drink All the pleasures in this life wherewith that are commonly overtaken are as we said before medicines of diseases rather than any true Contentments The first degree or step to happiness is To be freed from those diseases wherewith they now are pestered For though it be a miserie for a man to want food when he is an hungry or drink when he is thirstie or rayment when he is cold or needs it for ornament yet we all conceive it to be a far greater happiness to enjoy continual health and liveliness without either hunger or thirst or to have perfect comeliness without clothing or rayment And for this reason that branch of happiness which consists in satisfying the Capacities of these Senses is in Scripture described by Negatives As there shall be no hunger there no thirst no greif no pain These are the Symptomes of those grosser Senses in this life which in the life to come shall not enjoy the pleasures or Contentments which are contrary to these annoyances as we say in kind but by a happy Exchange by such an exchange as he that turns lead into silver doth forego a great deal of dross or baser metal but gains that which contains the full value of it in a small waight or compass Of all and every one of the bodily Contentments we can possibly imagine the very immortalitie of glorified Bodies is for qualitie more then the Quintessence or Extraction It containeth health and chearfulness of Spirit with all the pleasures that accompany them as we say Eminenter that is As one pound waight of Gold fully contains in its worth many hundreds of lead so one Moment of immortalitie the least waight of glory we can imagine is worth a full Age of all the health and happinesse that can be had on earth Instead of material food which perisheth with the use and whose fulness doth alwayes breed satietie the appetite of meat and drink shall be continually satisfied with the Tree of Life which or rather the Emblem or Type of which our First Parents were not admitted to touch in Paradise 6. When the Sadduces captiously demanded Which of those seven brethren should have that woman to his wife in the world to come which had been successively married to all the seven Our Saviour answers The children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more for they are equal to the Angels What then shall such as have enjoyed the comfort of wedlock be utterly deprived of that comfort in heaven which was allotted to Adam in Paradise even in the state of innocencie They shall not have it in kind for seeing flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven there shall not be there any Two in one flesh but in lieu of this comfort such as observe the Commandements of Christ shall be more neerly espoused and joyned in spirit unto Christ For as man and wife make one body so he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. This is the consummation of that Great Mystery which is here begun on earth and whereof the first marriage in Paradise was but the visible sign or shadow This is the very perfection of all pure and chast love As for those other purer Senses of Sight and Hearing they shall enjoy their former Contentments both Eminenter and Formaliter both in kind and by happy exchange Though enabled they shall be to see far more glorious sights and to hear more heavenly sounds then in this life they could either hear or see Yet shall they not be disenabled to see the same sights or hear the same sounds which sometimes in this life they did But these they shall hear and see with infinite more delight and joy because the Capacitie of these senses shall
or Title of being called the sons of God And under this style it is promised ver 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the sons of God 13. Yet all these qualifications were not sufficient unless they be accompanied with a firm and constant resolution to suffer persecution all the persecution that flesh and blood can in this life devise against them rather then they should forego their humilty their mourning their meekness their love of righteousness their mercifulness and puritie of heart towards God There must be a greater love of all these qualifications here mentioned then of our selves otherwise we shall be uncapable of the least portion of the Blessedness here so often promised This patience in suffering or constant resolution to endure persecution is the very girdle or tie of all other Christian vertues and for this reason it is twice repeated Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness sake ver 10. And again ver 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you c. 14. Many may be forward to suffer persecution yea to affect it but as he said Res ingeniosa est esse Christianum It is a matter of extraordinary wit to be a true Christian unto true Martyrdom there is required not only sobrietie of spirit but of Iudgement for none can be a Martyr but he that suffers for Righteousness sake or for Christs sake who is such a fountain of righteousness as the sun is of light Now to discern true righteousness from pretended or to sever Christs Cause from our own particular Interest or engagements is a point of extraordinary skill Whereas it is an easie matter to pawn our fame or credit our very lives in maintenance of that which we have boldly avouched to be true and just None were more forward to sacrifice themselves for their Religion then were the Jews which yet blasphemed the name of Christ and the wayes of truth after they had crucified the Lord of truth and of glory none more forward then they to raise up persecution against the Apostles and disciples in every City and albeit many of them were put to cruell and ignominious deaths for their stiff adherence to Moses Law as they imagined yet Martyrs they were not because they died not for Moses sake nor for his sake for whom Moses wrote but for maintenance of their own perverse opinions and affections For though they abhorred the Idols of the heathen yet they committed more abominable sacriledge then the Heathens did for of all kinds of Idolatry or Sacrilegious worship the most untoward and least to be pittied is when men are prone to sacrifice themselves to their own pride or head-strong ignorance 15. The truth is that no man can suffer persecution for righteousness sake but he that is a follower of righteousness and a son of peace No man can suffer persecution for Christs and the Gospels sake but he that hath learned of Christ to be humble and meek And for this reason haply it is that unto such as suffer persecution whether in their body or good name so they suffer it for Christs name the blessedness of the life to come is promised First under the same Style or Title that it was unto the poor in spirit He had said of these ver 3. That theirs is the Kingdom of heaven and of those ver 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven As also secondly under the same Title that it is promised to the meek of whom he had said ver 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth And unto such as are reviled and persecuted falsely for his sake he addeth verse 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven 16. And thus hath our Saviour taught us the Use and application of all that hath been delivered concerning Eternal Life And the Use or application of it is as General and large as are the commandments of God There is no duty enjoyned whereunto the hope or belief of this Eternal Reward doth not enable and bind us This was the first Lesson our Saviour taught after he entred upon his Propheticall function and it is the last Article in our Creed It is as Christ himself is Imus angularis lapis et suminus It is both the foundation stone and that which bindeth all the building nor need we be afraid to do well Intuitu mercedis with respect to recompence or reward seeing Christ himself when he first begun to Preach the glad tydings of the Gospel did make no promise of reward save only to such as continue in weldoing or suffer evil with patience And his Apostle Saint Paul exhorting us to cheerfulness in weldoing and patience in suffering proposeth the like hope of reward making Christ Iesus himself a patern for us to follow Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Heb. 12. 1 2. Nor is it possible for flesh and blood to resist either their proper Enticements or the temptations of Satan much lesse to vanquish this tempter by any other means then by serious meditation upon the several Rewards proposed unto such as shall overcome and of the several punishments which are threatned and shall be awarded unto all such as forsake the field and neglect the service of God And though it be true that we must obtain this victorie by the spirit of God yet one special means by which the spirit of God obtaines this victory for us is by representing and imprinting such punishments or plagues as are dreadful and fearful even to flesh and blood so that the flesh must be affrighted and deterred from or forth of the wayes of sin by the wages of sin And the spirit of God which is in man must be daily animated and encouraged by the hope of heavenly joyes whose very nature and qualitie is spiritual The flesh or sensitive part cannot truly apprehend the joyes of the spirit nor is the spirit so capable or so apprehensive of deadly punishment or pain as the sensitive or animal part is 17. To branch this Use or Application which our Saviour makes of this point into his proper particulars Though it be true that all of us are the seed of rebellious parents and have gone astray from the womb as well by sins of omission as of commission yet that which the heathen Philosopher long since observed if it be candidly interpreted and with such charity as becometh Christians is likewise true Nemo sponte malus No man in his
death The sense or Tast or Overture of the second death doth make the least rellish of the second resurrection unto Life to seem more sweet and pleasant Now it is the rellish or secret intimation of Celestial joyes which must animate and incourage us to undertake all the dangers or discontents wherewith the way unto the heavenly Canaan the land of promise and of our rest is beset The most forcible Reasons which the Divinest Orator can use or the best words wherewith he can apparel his reasons or perswasions are but vain unless he can with them or by them instill this secret tast or rellish into mens souls All the descriptions which the Leaders of the Gaules could make of the pleasures or Commodities of Italy all the newes or reports which they could devise or cause to be made in their publique meetings as it were upon our Royal Exchange could not so much animate their followers to adventure upon the strait and difficult passages over the Alpes as did the tast of the Italian Grape And that which did especially aggravate the Israelites Dastardy for not undertaking that sacred warre whereunto God had called them against the Canaanites the Amorites and the Hittites c. was the sight of those Grapes which such as were sent to discover that good Land had brought from Eschol Their unusual greatness which all the host might have seen and their extraordinary rellish which many did or might have tasted was a pledge or assurance of the truth of Gods promises concerning the fertility or pleasantness of that Land For as we say Ex ungue Leonem The terrour of the Lion which we never saw may be taken from his paw Or as Pythagoras did take the just quantity of Hercules his body by the print of his foot so might the Israelites have taken the true estimate of the Land of Canaan from the unusual quality and extraordinary quantitie of that bunch of grapes which their mutinous spies or Intelligencers could not deny to be the native fruit of that soil But of the Israelites disobedience and dastardy and what both these and the slanderous reports which their spies or intelligencers did raise of that good Land mystically import we shall take occasion if God permit hereafter to handle 7. Such a pledge as these Israelites had of Gods promises concerning the Land of Canaan we may have and must have of the pleasures of the Celestial Canaan before we become valorous in our undertakings for it And if we once attain to a true Tast or rellish of its goodness the least portion of it will serve as a true measure to notifie the incomparable excess of those joyes in comparison of any earthly pleasures or annoyances the one or other of which and nothing besides them can occasion our diversion from the wayes which lead unto them The force or efficacie which experienced pleasures or contentments have upon mens souls or affections Mahomet and his successors too well foresaw and so by a known representation of a counterfeit heaven and by a reall and experienced tast of imaginary or feigned pleasures in the life to come did make their followers more zealous and confident in propagating their Empire and Religion then either Christian Preachers or Magistrates can make their Christian people The obedience of Turkish children to their parents of their greatest Nobles to their Soveraign of their souldiers to their Commanders of inferiour Commanders to their Superiors or Generals far exceeds any obedience which we Christians usually perform to our Superiours in what kind soever One Erroneous principle notwithstanding they have That all things are so decreed by God as nothing can fall out otherwise then it doth and from this prejudicate conceipt when opportunitie suggests fair hopes unto the son of obtaining his fathers Crown they account it no sin but a religious Act for the Son to depose the Father as presuming it is Gods Will thus to have it whensoever he offers opportunity But when there is no hope to gain a Crown by rebellion no intimation given by the signes of the time that God will prosper their attempts against their Superiors there is no subject in any Christian Kingdom that will accept the greatest dignity whereto his Soveraign Lord can advance him with such Loyal respect and submission as the sons or grand-children of their Emperours will imbrace the sentence of death though no way deserved only in obedience to his designes and pleasure There is no malefactor amongst us though openly convicted of capital crimes that will submit himself to the sentence of the Law with that cheerfulness of mind or unregreting affections as their inferiour Commanders or common souldiers will surrender their lives into their Superiors hands be the service whereunto they appoint them never so dreadful or desperate 8. Now the great motives by which Turkish Priests or their Magistrates work this absolute submission and compleat obedience in inferiors is either fear of Hell or torments after this life in case they shall disobey or hopes of Heaven if they continue loyal and obedient and yet the hell which they fear is no way so terrible as that Hell with whose torments we dayly threaten the disobedient Their hopes of heaven are nothing so glorious as those hopes which God promiseth and we professe we believe them to be the reward of our obedience to our God to our Prince and to his just Lawes whether Ecclesiastick or Civil Whence then doth this great difference or odds arise between their obedience and ours From no other root then this They propose unto their followers such an heaven such contentments after this life as they may have a true tast or rellish of in this life by whose multiplication the incomparable excesse of future contentments in respect of present may by ordinary capacities be easily taken There is no delight or pleasure which men in this world can take in the dayes of plenty security and peace no pleasures of the outward senses of touch or tast which they do not hope to enjoy in far greater measure in heaven without annoyance interruption or disturbance then their Emperour or Grand-Segnior in this life can do The meanest amongst them perswades himself he shal have more consorts or concubines then their Luxurious Emperors have all more beautiful then any earthly creatures can be There is no delight again in War or feats of arms which their Common souldiers hope not to enjoy without danger or defatigation of their bodies in far greater measure then the greatest Commanders or Generals of their Armies do And being thus possessed with this Two fold perswasion First That Obedience to Superiors doth merit heaven Secondly That the joyes of heaven are for nature and quality the same with such earthly pleasures and contentments which they have tasted but infinitly exceed them for quantity and duration To perswade them to lay down this life in hope of attaining the life to come by obedience to their
certainty of Faith of his present estate in saving Grace Yet no man knows anothers heart he hath no tast or experimental knowledge of those gifts and graces which God bestows upon others yet unless he know the nature and quality of those Gifts and Graces wherwith others are indowed as he doth the nature quality of those Graces wherewith his own heart is seasoned it will be impossible for him to determine whether the Graces which God hath bestowed upon him be for their nature or specifical quality the very same with those which others have had and finally lose them Yea whether the Grace whereby one man is finally saved be for specifical quality the same with that by which another is saved Only this we know and believe That whosoever is saved is saved only by the free grace of God not as it is a Quality inherent in us but as it unites us unto Christ who is the Author and Fountain of all heavenly Gifts and Graces As for the particular manner how God doth work in us or by us me thinks the Observation of the Wise King might long since have put a Period to all the curious disputes of this Age. So he said Eccles 11. 5. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit by the Spirit I take it he means Vis Formatrix nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child even so thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good 2. Wherefore to wave all these and the like Curious Questions which rather breed Contention then Edification we will build this Discourse upon these Two sure Foundations The First That the Illumination of our minds and Spirits that the Tast of the heavenly Gift the participation of the Holy Ghost the rellish of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the Life to come are all of them True Graces of God through Jesus Christ The Second That from these Graces some men have fallen and may yet fall both totally and finally The former Principle to wit That the participation of the Holy Ghost the Tast of the heavenly Gift c. are Graces of God through Jesus Christ none but a Pelagian will question The Second That from these Graces a man may fall both totally and finally no Christian should question For it is supposed by our Apostle Hebr. 6. 4 5 6 7. For no man fals into the sin against the Holy Ghost but he which hath had these Graces and is fallen from them But shall we hence conclude that every one which hath had the Tast of the Good Word of God and of the powers of the Life to come and loseth it for a while or for a long time doth thereby fall into the Sin against the holy Ghost God forbid It is not every falling away from these Gifts and Graces but a falling from them into Apostacie which makes up the measure of that irremissible sin It is not every sin but the sin of blasphemie against the Holy Ghost which is unpardonable And blasphemie against the Holy Ghost alwayes includes a slanderous disposition against the wayes of truth a renunciation of Christ as their Redeemer and a back-sliding either into Atheism Judaism or Mahumetanism Now many there be who live a dissolute and ungodly life whose practises are as bad as may be which yet do not slander the way of truth which do not so much as wish in heart much less profess themselves to be Jews Turks or Mahumetans rather then the Disciples of Christ Nor do all which slander Christ and his profession fall into this unpardonable sin but only such as have tasted of his Goodness and afterwards fall from him and speak and think contumeliously of him and of the Religion which he hath taught us 3. The whole Host of Israel some few excepted did murmur against God and against his Servant Moses yet all that murmured were not cut off from seeing of that Good Land but only those which had seen his wonders in Egypt at the red Sea and in the wilderness and being of years to lay them to heart provoked him ten times that is as often as they had seen them As the rejection of those murmuring Israelites from the Land of Canaan was a Type of such as are Reprobated from the Kingdom of Heaven So the sin of those that were sent to view the Land was a peculiar Type or shadow of the sin against the Holy Ghost These men after they had seen this good and pleasant Land after they had tasted the fruits of it brought a malicious slander upon it that it was a Land which ate up its own Inhabitants that it was not worth the pains and danger which they were to undertake in encountering the Anakims and others which were much stronger then they and would not be put out of their own possessions but by strong hand and much blood on both parts In this manner if any man after God hath endowed him with the heavenly Gift and with the Tast of the Powers of the Life to come shall so farre fall away from Christ as to think that the promises of that Blessed Life are not worthy of that spiritual warfare without which it cannot be obtained unworthy of that sincerity and integrity of life which is peremptorily enjoyned all that seek after it And in this resolution rather in this want of true Resolution for sake the Church of God and despite the Spirit of Grace he by thus doing fals into this irremissible sin But as our Apostle saith unto these Hebrews so may I say of you I hope better things of you yea I am perswaded that all and every of you are free from this sin None of you can pretend ignorance of the wayes of Life Let me therefore exhort you in the words of our Apostle Hebr. 6. 11 12. This we desire that every one of you shew all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that you be not slothful followers of them which through faith and patience inherit the promise Or as St. Peter speaks Give all diligence to make your election sure Not by way of Syllogism but by good Practise and Conversation 4. Reason not thus with your selves He that hath once tasted of saving Grace cannot lose the tast of it But I have tasted of saving Grace Therefore I cannot lose the Tast of it To prevent the uncertain or ticklish issue of such Collections Remember First That God doth not promise the Kingdom of Heaven to subtil disputers but to faithful practisers Secondly Consider how easie a matter it will be for Satan when temptations arise to shake all the joynts of the former Syllogism and to dissipate and break the Jamor Proposition He that once tasted of saving Grace cannot lose it into shivers For That in any ordinary or intelligible sense is saving Grace from which if a man do not fall or lose the
greater part of men we do necessarily breed a greater scruple or nurse a more dangerous Doubt of salvation in all men as yet not effectually called then the Romish Church doth For Gods Intention or purpose to save men is without all question more Essential to the Efficacie of the Word preached or of the Sacraments administred then the Romish Church can conceive the Intention of her Priests to be Besides all this If their Doctrine were true who teach That all such men as in the issue prove Goats or Reprobates were such from their birth or irreversibly destinated to death before they were born God should with-hold or withdraw his Purpose or Intention of Salvation from farre more hearers of the Word and partakers of the Sacraments then the Romish Priests usually do 8. But many you will say which hear the Word are already assured of their Estate in Grace or of their salvation And this Doctrine cannot occasion any doubt or distrust in them It cannot indeed whilst they are thus perswaded But even this Perswasion it self if it be immature or conceived before its time doth secretly nurse A Presumption which is far worse then Doubt or distrust of salvation And sometimes occasions a worse kinde of distrust or Doubt then the former doctrine of the Romish Church doth For suppose A man which is to day strongly perswaded of his present Estate in saving Grace and certain of his salvation should to morrow or the next day fall into some grosse or grievous sin and continue in it or the like for many dayes together If his former assurance remain the same it was it is No Assurance of Faith No true Confidence but Presumption Or if his former Confidence or Assurance upon consciousness of new sins fail or abate The Former Division of All Mankinde into Goates and sheep into Elect and Reprobates will thrust him into Despere For the Consciousnesse of freedom from grosser sins or of practise of good works cannot be a surer token of his Estate in Grace or salvation then the consciousness of foul and grievous sins is of Rejection or Reprobation if it were true that every man is at all times either in the state or condition of an Elect person or a Reprobate For The Rule of life and Faith is as plain and peremptory that no Adulterer no murtherer no foul or grievous offender shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as it is That all such as live a godly and a sober life shall enter into it And yet our own consciences can give a surer Testimony that we have committed grosse and greivous sins then that they are cleansed from the guilt of former sins Seeing the heart of man is more deceitful or more deceivable in its perswasions or Judgement of its good deeds or resolutions then in its apprehension of grosser facts committed by us And for this Reason I cannot perswade my self That any man which hath any sense or feeling of True Religion or rightly understands himself in these or the like Points can in the consciousness of grosse and fouler sins rest perswaded that he is in the same Estate of Grace wherein he was or in the same way to life Howbeit even in the consciousness of foulest sins he may and ought to have hope that he may be renewed by repentance And yet to have such an hope were impossible unlesse he were perswaded that there is a Mean or middle Estate or condition between the estate and condition of the Elect and the Reprobates 9. But let us take a man that hath been long perswaded that he is and hath been in the irreversible state of salvation and is not conscious to himself of any grosse or palpable sin or at least of continuance in any such sins since this perswasion did possesse him Yet if he have embraced this opinion or perswasion before his soul were adorned with that golden chain of spiritual vertues which St. Peter requires 2 Pet. 1. whether for making our election sure in it self or for assuring it unto us This immature or misplaced perswasion may fill his soul with the self same presumption which the absolute infallibilitie of the present Romish Church doth breed or occasion in all such as beleeve it And that is A presumption worse then heathenish For though an Heathen or Infidel kill men uncondemned by law live in incest and fall down before stocks and stones or other dumb creatures Yet such a man being called in question for killing men uncondemned by Law will not justifie his Action If his incest be detected he will be ashamed of it or being challenged for worshipping stocks and stones he will not allege any sacred Authoritie for his warrant But if you challenge a Romanist with some like practises and tell him that he transgresseth the Law of God in those particulars as grossly as the Heathens do his Reply will be Though our facts be outwardly the same yet our practises are most dislike Our practises cannot be against the Law of God seeing they are warranted by the authoritie of the Church and Pope who is the faithful Interpreter of Gods Laws and cannot erre in matters of faith or practice authorized by him In the like case if you shall oppose a man that makes himself thus certain of his salvation before his time in this or the like manner Sir you are as covetous as great an oppressor of the poor as uncharitable as malitious as proud and envious as are the Heathen or others whom you condemn for Infidels and no good Christians And press him with such evident particulars in every kind as would amate or appall an ingenuous Heathen or other meer moral man that were conscious of the like yet you shall find him as surely locked up in his sins by this his immature perswasion of his own infallible estate in Grace as the Romanist is by his Implicit Belief or the Churches absolute Infallibilitie So long as this Perswasion lasts that he shall certainly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven no Messenger of God shall ever perswade him that he hath done or continues to do those things which whosoever continues to do shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Grosse and palpable or open sins might happily shake or break this perswasion how stiffe soever it had been before but so will not secret or lurking sins It rather animates or quickens those secret sins of envy ambition pride or malice And of all other fruits of this preposterous perswasion or misplaced Truth this is the worst that it makes men mistake their malice towards men whose good parts or fame they envy to be zeal towards God or to his Truth 10. Unless Sathan had put this Fallacie upon some men in our times it were impossible that they could sleep upon the consciousness of such uncivil behaviour as they use or such unjust aspersions as they cast upon all others without respect of persons which dissent from them in Opinions often disputed between
in his time yet herein indued with wisdom in an higher rank then the stateliest Potentates are wont to trouble themselves withal in that he could so well foresee There was no counsel against the Lord whose Decrees concerning any Land or People then usually take place when as Posterity seeks earnestly by secular Policie to patch up the rents and breaches of a State decayed ruinate by the heavie burthen of their Predecessors sins Such was the temper of Iosiah's States-men Princes though his heart was of another metal and had been fashioned in another mold Wherefore the Book of the Law which had long laid buried is now risen out of the dust to proclaim Ierusalems downfal and Sions burial in her ashes And this sentence of the Law now found is ratified by the Prophetess Huldahs mouth Gods wrath shall presently be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched But unto good Josiah who sought the Prophetesses and not the Politicians advice is this sole comfort left To the King of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord so shall ye say unto him Because thine heart did melt and thou hast humbled thy self before the Lord when thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the Inhabitants of the same to wit that it should be destroyed and accursed and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me I have also heard it saith the Lord. Behold therefore I will gather thee to thy fathers and thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place 2 King 22. 18. 8. But should not his righteousness have saved him Or is this to be put in his grave in peace to be slain by his enemies Yes this his burial was in peace in that he was buried in the Sepulchres of his Fathers and mourned for by all his people without the molestation of their enemies This was a blessing of peace which none of his Sons or Successors enjoyed For of them all not one but dies captive in the enemies Land or in their own without the decencie of Princely funerals And who knows Whether Iosiah's violent death was deserved by going to battel without the Lords advice Yea who knows whether the Lord did not thus suddenly take him away partly to prevent the increase of that disease wherewith no Prince of all the stock of Iudah but had been more or less infected and which now as it seemeth was growing on him All of them in their prosperity began to trade in secular Policie whose practise was Jerusalems ruine and Iudahs wreck howsoever right dear in the sight of the Lord was the death of this holy and religious King who if he had lived the longer should have died the oftner His Childrens and peoples sins are now full ripe for the sword and their vengeance hastens on so fast that either he must suddenly die or else see their manifold miseries farre worse then so many several deaths For what pangs would it have caused in his tender heart which melted even whilest the noise of Ierusalems curse did but approach his ears if his eyes should have beheld the flames of Gods fierce wrath devouring her gates and his ears had been filled with her woful out-cries in the dayes of mourning For Ieremie or Baruch two Prophets so poor that their fore-warnings of these miseries could not merit any credit with this politick generation to live and see the event was a blessing of God and bare life given them a bountiful prey But what benefit could so great a Prince have reaped by life What comfort in length of dayes to have seen the children of his loins born unto higher hopes then any Princes of the world besides either led captive into the enemies land or made a prey unto the birds of heaven in their own Much better an enemies arrow stick once for all fast in his side then that the sword should continually pierce thorow his soul whilst he should see his dearest people cut down like grass and Iudah the Lords inclosure laid open like a common field to their bordering enemies spoil and Ierusalem his hearts joy which the Lord had hedged and walled about laid waste like a forlorn vineyard whose grapes were wild and naught Yet such are the dayes which immediately ensue his death The Land is one while ransackt by the Egyptian another while made tributary to the Chaldean another while forraged by the Aramite Ammonite and Moabite until it was utterly laid waste For judgment is here begun already at the house of God and in godly Iosiah's fall might the ungodly Iudah read her Fatal Destiny registred in Characters of blood And doubtlesse at this his sudden unexpected end the execution of Gods fierce and violent wrath did begin Of the successive degrees whereof I shall God willing hereafter speak For the Manner of it I only note thus much now in general That not all the wisdom of their most Politick Enemies albeit the Lord had given them libertie to have plotted this peoples overthrow at their pleasure could have invented so readie and sure a course for their swift destruction as this people themselves in great Policie to their seeming still make choice of Not one project which they can forecast but proves an inevitablegin to intrap themselves and is as a fatal snare unto their owne feet 9. First good Josias without Warrant from God or his Prophets advice thinks it in Policie the safest course to assault the Egyptian in the confines of his Country lest afterwards he should be enforced to defend himselfe upon harder termes nearer to the heart of Judah from his Enemie strengthned with the spoile of her borders so jealous he is of Nechoh's purpose which meant him no harm that his word will not serve him for warrant albeit his words as the Text saith were from the mouth of God The issue of his policie is that he himself is slain and Pharaoh Nechoh by this his unseasonable provocation took a fair pretence of invading the Land after his death and condemns it in an hundred talents of Silver and a talent of gold And for the effecting of this his purpose the people themselves had given occasion for they no doubt out of some politick purpose had preferred the * younger brother Iehoahaz to the Kingdom who poor Caitiff in stead of swaying Davids Scepter in the promised Land is after three months space led Captive in chains like a Bond-slave into Egypt whence the Lord had redeemed the meanest of this peoples forefathers So contrary hath Iudah been in all her courses that all the glorious hopes of Davids Line run backwards So farre is the Calendar of Ierusalems good dayes run out of date such are the revolutions of times that this Light which they had set up for David hath taken darkness for its habitation The Sun of their Comfort is set before it came to the
put the two first words and the four last together And so the Expression will appear to be not only more full but a great deal more elegant in the Original then it is in the ordinary Latin or then I know how to make it in our English As thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. About translating the Original in the last words of my Text there is some diversitie amongst Interpreters The Vulgar Latin which the Romish Writers are bound to follow translate the last words thus Ad quem nobis est Sermo that is as they would express the Hebraism De quo Loquimur of whom we speak but much amiss and far from the meaning of the Original Beza much better Cui nobiscum est negotium To the same effect our English doth With whom we have to do But the Antient Gloss much better then both Cui nobis redenda est Ratio to whom we are to render an Account This indeed is the main business which we have to do with the Son of God or he with us And so the Syriack renders it save only that He puts it in the third Person plural To whom men must give an account which words according to the proprietie of that Tongue and of the Hebrew may be taken impersonally to whom account must be given And this Interpretation I find warranted by the Authoritie of S. Chrysostom and Theophylact two of the best Expressors of the Original or Greek Dialect And thus the Original will run clear without any Hiatus or interruption either in the Subject or Foundation or in the structure of the Attributes or several Propositions 9. According to this Importance of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Brest-plate the first of Aarons holy Garments made for Glory and for Beauty wherein the High-Priest did bear the names and the judgment of the Sons of Israel and wherein the Urim and Thummim were set was called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning of which is better exprest by the Latine Rationale then I know how to render either of them in English but so called it was with reference to the Son of God as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Abstract as he is Life it self and Light it self not carrying Spectacles on his Brest as the High-Priest did All the knowledg or Light of discovering Secrets which came by the Brest-plate or Rationale or by Urim or Thummim when it was in its prime use was but a glimmering Type or Shadow of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ratio or Verbum Dei The Word of God to whose sight and inspection the most secret thoughts which lurk in the Centre of mans heart the very temper and constitution of our souls are more perspicuous and clear then the inward parts of the Sacrifices were to Legal Priests after they had divided them joint from joint and broken them up For unto this Dissection or Anatomy of Legal Sacrifices our Apostle alludes in this description of the Son of God specially in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are open and naked unto his Eyes Soli Deo Gloria Dr. Iackson Dr. Iackson made Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Newlin Supervisors of his Will and entrusted his Papers with them Dr. Lany See the Preface to the First Book See his Sermons upon Jer. 26. p. 32. See this Book fol. 3716. See fol. 3373 Of the Author of the Work Of the Order of this and other his Works Of the Figuring the Folio Volumes Of the Matter of this Eleventh Book The whole Book consists of Six Sections The Use of the last Section Psa 58. 1 See Stows Annal. fol. 3043. Idem fol. 3044. See Gen. 48. 13 14 17. It is probable that there are distinct Thrones in Heaven Heb. 8. 1 2. See Mr. Mede Places appropriate Job 1. 6. See Mr. Mede upon 1 Cor. 4. 1 Christ was exalted according to both Natures See 8. Book Chap. 15. See 8. Book Chap. 11. See 8. Book Chap. 14. See Book 8. Chap. 1. The difference about the Ubiquitie of Christs Bodie rather Verbal then Real Christs Bodie is not every where A Lutheran Syllogism A Lutheran Objection that proves aut nihil aut nimium See Chap. 11. §. 11. See Book 10. Chap. 55. 56. Besides what may be found in Cyrill of Alex See Cyrill Hierosol in Cateches Mystag 1 3 4. * Hist lib. 5. So. Suetonius in Vespas Viz. At his Resurrection and Ascension See Book 9. Chap. 39. See St. Cyrill Alex. in his Gâ—aphyr on Exodus Of the inconstancie of Vulgar affections See Book 10. Ch 23. f. 3073 John 6. 32 33 41 48 50. c. 1. Cor. 15. 45. So the Church Leiturgie in the words of ministration Three Questions See Book 10. f. 3298 3304. Eating and Drinking meerly Sacramental not meant in St. John 6. 56. The 3d. or main Question Beza's Observation Jansenius and Dr. Hessells his opinion Vid. Tollet in 6. Johan Annot 26. By this Exposition one might as well Communicate by Receiving only the Cup as the Bread only A Rule to know when And may may be changed into Or. A Second Rule when And must be turned into Or. A difficultie arising from the words if literally meant of Sacramental eating The Application relating to the 1 st General Two Duties 1 To examine our selves 2. To Discern The Lords Bodie Of the first part of mans Redemption or the Ransom paid for all See Book 9. Chap. 5. Three Uses of the Doctrine that Christ paid the Ransom for all Joh. 1. 29 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 Heb. 2. 9 2 Pet. 2. 1 See Book 8. pag. 142. Dangerous to Dallie with Gods mercies See Book 10. Chap. 31. Book 10. Ch. 50 A Second Duty to Examine our selves The Second General Though a man be in the house as the Dweller The house may be in the Man as the right owner possessor hous-holder Two Difficulties Joh. 17. 11 21 22 23 26. The former difficulty explained Esai 8. 14. Rom. 9 33. 1 Pet. 2. 6. Anton. Fernandius Cited in the next Chapter The Second Difficultie explained See Joh. 15. 2 3 4 5 6 7. where the abode is mutuall Joh. 14. 27 Joh. 16. 33 Three Points to be Discussed * Anton. Fernand. Conimb visiones vet Test vis 2. Cap. 28. Gen. fol. 83. Sect. 6. num 9. And Benedictus Ferdinandius Borb Lusit in his 2 d Tom. of Comments upon Gen. Cap. 28. Sect. 2. Num. 8. Fol. 568. saith Rom. Ecclesia est Turris fundatur in Petri confessione at que in Domini promissiore And a little after he cites S. Athanasius Lib. 2. De Trin. Optimè S. Athanasius Unum hoc est immobile fundamentum una haec est felix fidei petra Petriore Confessae Tues Filius Dei vivi c. The 2 d Point Beza's Observation Pineda on Ch. 38. Job vers 6. The 3. Point propounded Paragr 2. See Book 3. Chap. 7. 8.
of Truthes The Philosophers Rapt with Joy in Contemplation and Invention * The former of the Two Philosophers was Pythagoras The later was Archimedes Of both see Plutarch in his Book intituled Non posse hominem suaviter vivere secundum Epicurum Much more Joy in the knowledge of saving truths How this tast'd of eternal life is preserved Of questions touching falling from Grace See the Authors Opinion more fully about Sin against the Holy Ghost Book 8. Chap. 3. which Book though published 21. years since I suppose was written after This. They only enjoy and keep this Tast that diligently seek after it and truly prize it The danger of seeking to enjoy worldly Contentments together with this heavenly Tast See this Fallacie in Aristotles Rhetor. Tast of unlawful pleasures deads and looseth the heavenly Tast Unlawful pleasures and sinful acts destroy the heavenly tast both by Efficiency and Demerit How worldly pleasures and temporal contentments come to prevail against the tast of Eternal life Faculties natural and Grace Two Scales Moderating of worldly desires and natural affections necessary for gaining and preserving the heavenly tast ☜ ☜ Seneca Watchfulness and sobrietie also are necessary Sobrietie consists not only in temperance of meat and drink but in Ruling our thoughts and words The final Recompence of our doings Good or bad Chemnitius's Rule The Romanists Allegation from the force of the word merit Hor. de Arte. The Romanists second proof of Merit The Answer The Rom-third Argument Bellarmine his Reasons The Causal Particles For Because and the like imply not merit of Works And see more of them Book 8. Chap. 15. The Freenesse of the Pardon excludes not all qualification but rather requires sincere performance of good Duties Works not properly meritorious but indeed Unworthy of eternal life How Christs temporal sufferings were of infinite merit Why the pleasures of sin though temporary deserve eternal punishment See this Book Fol. 3498. Of the word Gift or Grace Whether the Grace of God or the Effects of his Eternal Favour can be merited by us See Book 10. Fol. 3285. Gods Justice and righteousness in rewarding us does not imply the merit of our works The divers acceptions of Justice or righteousness Should such a thing be our meriting derogates from Christs merits See the fourth Book Chap. 11 16. c. About merit and justification The place perhaps related to in the next paragraph Of Justification the doctrin whereof is corrupted by the doctrin of Merit ☞ How works are excluded from Justification Two rocks to be avoide here Confid in merit of Works and Praemature conceit or presumption of our Election ☞ Eternal life a most Free Gift of God Gods infinite Freedom The true way of laying hold on General Promises It follows not God cannot deny himself ergo I am in and shall persevere in the state of Salvation Equally dangerous to confide in Merit and to presume of Election See Book 10. Chap. 42. Fol. 3228. The Free Gift of eternal life excludes not due Qualifications in the receiver * This was preached at Newcastle upon Tine For whom was the Kingdom of heaven prepared See the 10. Book Chapt. 42. Fol. 3236. c. Humilitie a necessary qualification The third Point The Qualification for receiving this Free Gift Why Christ instanceth in the Scribes and Pharisees Turkish mercie See the discourses following upon that precept Do as you would be done to Two Generals 1. A sentence and that Twofold 2 The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Positive verities or Conclusions See The Fathers cited by this Author in his fourth Book Chap. 11. c. about the inseparableness of Faith and works Good works necessary to Salvation Omission of Good Works forfeit our interest in the promises Damnation awarded for Omissions The Romanists wresting Hebr. 11. 6. to maintain merit of Works The third Positive truth mentioned §. 1. handled Chap. 31. ☞ See this Authors Treatise of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. See this Authors Treatise Of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. A Sinister exposition of Saint James 2. 10. ☞ Why Christ instances in works of Charitie rather then of Pietie ☞ ☞ * About Newcastle upon Tine where these were preached The worse the poor be the more we may be charitable unto them All neglect of the poor is sin This spiritual neglect is a sin exceeding sinful Jansenius his Observation A Catholick verity The Definition of merit The state of the Question Consider three things Increase of Grace no more merited then the First Grace About Free-will See an elaborate Treatise Book X. Chap. 24. c. A Syllogism If there be not Ratio Dati Accepti A promise is no Ground of merit How the Papists and Pharisee agree in this point rather how they exceed him The Objection drawn from the Causal Particle For in the text framed and answered Jansenius his Argument The Author his Answer See the 27th Chapter of this Book where this Argument is most fully answered and that with some variation of what is here The miserie and mistakes of man The short or summe of mans Dutie The Coherence The Authors Method Severus Two Grounds of this Rule or Law of Nature Cyrus Scipio Exceptions against these two Rules The Answer to the former Exceptions ☞ More exceptions against that Rule and Answers to them This Rule must be understood of a 〈◊〉 Will. Rigid censuring a Pronostick of falling Q. If nature alone binde men to do good to their enemies How Christ fulfilled the Law * See §. 8. Rom. 12. 20. The Application ☜ Ps 35. 13 Esai 22. 12. Ezek. 21. 10. How this Precept Do as you c containeth all the Second Table So Christ said to St. Peters Lovest thou me Feed my sheep So David said to God Psal 16 My goodness extendeth not to thee But to the Saints that are in earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight See St. Aug De Civit. Dei Lib. 10. Cap 4. and 15. Cap. 22. and Lud. vives's Comment An Objection against this precept thus improved and expounded An Answer to the Objection A Second Objection Mens affections are right balanced when they be as ready to do as to receive good A double oversight ☞ Good things are only pleasant whilst they rellish of Gods Goodness ☞ Pro. 16. 8. See the 6. Book 2 part chapt 11. page 95. Titus 2. 11 A Dutie semblable to every desire See §. 13. ☜ See St. Basil de 40. Martyr * See the Sermons upon that Text. Chapt. 35 36. The bestmeans to put the dutie in practise Keep an exact Register or Calendar of our Good and evil dayes Deu. 24. 19 ☞ ☞ Ecclus. 11. 25. 27. Psal 41. 1. Beatus qui intelligit super pauperem ☞ Two great inconveniences of wealth and greatness unduly sought See Fol. 3586. ☞ Such mixt deeds are like a Linsy-wolsey Garment or plowing with an Ox and an Ass yoked or lowing miscellan See Chap.
shelter of his ey lids which his cruell enemies for increasing his pain and lingring torture had cut off Others again which wanted no contentment either of the outward or internal senses have died through meer grief and sorrow first conceived either from losse of goods or friends or for fear of disgrace and shame and some through excessive and suddain joy So that in this life it is universally true and undoubtedly experienced in all the bodily senses and most other faculties of the soul Nullum violentum est Perpetuum There is no grief no pain or sorrow whether inflicted by external Agents or whether it breeds within us or be hatched by the reflection of our own thoughts upon others wrongs or our own oversights or misdeeds but if it be violent or excessive it becomes like a raging flame which both devours the subject whereon it exerciseth its efficacie and puts an end to its own Being by destroying that fuel which fed it 7. This then is the propertie of the second death and the miserable condition of such as must receive the wages of sin That after the Resurrection of the body the capacitie aswell of the bodily senses as of other faculties are so far improved so far inlarged that no extremity of any external Agent no virulency of any disease which breeds within them no strength of imagination or Reflection upon what they have in time past foolishly done or what they suffer for the present or may justly fear hereafter can either dissolve or weaken their passive capacities or strength to indure the like Every facultie becomes more durable then an Anvil to receive all the blows that can be fastned upon them and all the impressions how violent soever which in this life would in an instant dissolve or dead them So that the second death as is said before is a life or vivacitie continually to sustain deadly pains The Dimensions of this death may be deduced to these three heads First to the intensiveness of the pain or grief which is more extream then any man in this life can suffer because the capacities of every sense or passive facultie are in a manner infinitely inlarged and so is the strength or violence of external Agents and the sting of conscience or perplexed thoughts wonderfully increased Secondly to the duration of all those punishments for it is a death everlasting Lastly to the uncessant perpetuitie of these everlasting pains for they are not inflicted by fits but without all intermission though but for a moment There is not an ill day and a good not an ill hour and a good not an ill minute and a good not an ill moment and a good in hell All times are extreamly evil varietie of torments breed no ease Thus much appeared by the Parable of the rich glutton who could not obtain so much of Abraham as a drop of water to cool his tongue which if it had been granted could not have effected any intermission or intercision of pain nor any abatement for the present which would not have inraged the flame as much in the next moment So that such as suffer the second death know not how to ask any thing for their good because indeed nothing can do them any good but all things even their own wishes conspire unto their harme and increase their wo and miserie 8. Some taking occasion from this Parable have moved a question not much necessarie whether the fire of hell be material fire or no that is such as may palpably or visibly scorch the body and torment the outward senses Sometimes this fire is described by a flame as in the Parable of the rich glutton sometimes by the blackness of darkness as in Saint Jude It is not the flame or visibilitie of this fire which argues it to be material the flame is least material in our fire And palpable it may be though not visible But with this question I will not meddle being impossible to be determined without sight or experience which God grant we never have It shall suffice therefore in brief to shew how this fire or rather the pains of the second death are decyphered or displayed in Scripture Now As the joyes of Heaven are set forth unto us under such Emblemes or representations as are visible or known unto us and yet we do not beleive that they are formally or properly such as these shadows or pictures represent but rather eminently contain the greatest joyes that by these representations we can conceive or imagine So we are bound to beleive That the pains of Hell are at least either properly and formally such as the Scripture describes them to be or more extream and violent then if they were such as the characters which the holy Ghost hath put upon them do without Metaphor import or signifie More extream they are then flesh and blood in this life could endure for a minute For as flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven so neither can they endure or inherit the kingdom of Satan there must be a change of this corruptible nature before it be capable of these everlasting pains So much the description of it in holy Scripture doth import The first and that a Terrible description of it is Esai 30. 33. Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared the pile thereof is fire and much 〈◊〉 the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it The like but more terrible hath Saint John Rev. 20. 10. The Divel that deceived them was cast into the Lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever and as he adds ver 14. This lake of fire is the second death And Saint Jude tels us that The destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah and the cities about them is set forth as an example or type of this eternal fire that is such fearful torments as that people suffered for a moment the damned shall suffer in hell eternally The ruines of Sodom and Gomorah and the dead sea or brimstone Lake wherein neither fish nor other creature liveth was left unto all future ages to serve as a map or picture of that lake of fire and brimstone which Saint Iohn mentions that is of Hell Now the very steam of such a Lake would stifle or torment flesh and blood to death in a moment the outward senses are not capable of its first impressions 9. Some School-men have moved A more pertinent Question whether this punishment of sense which or the instrumental mean of which is thus described unto us by a Lake of fire and brimstone be greater or lesse then the Poena damni that is Whether their imprisonment or confinement to Hell and their subjection to tormenting Fiends be worse then their Exclusion out of Heaven and the perpetual loss of Gods joyful presence The most Resolve That Poena damni the loss of Gods
presence is of the two the worse And certain it is that it cannot be less seeing that Everlasting Life which is The Gift of God and Crown of holiness is at the least so much better as the second death or pains of hell are worse then this mortal life But if I mistake not the Members of this Distinction concerning the punishment of losse and the punishment of sense by pain are not altogether Opposite but Co-incident The very conceit or remembrance of this infinite loss and of their folly in procuring it cannot but breed an insufferable measure of grief and sorrow unto the damned which will be fully equivalent to all their bodily pain And this fretting remembrance and perpetual reflection upon the folly of their former wayes is as I take it That Worm of Conscience that never dies But of this hereafter The miserable estate of the damned or such as shall suffer the second death may be reduced to these two Heads to Punishment Essential or to Punishment Accidental or concomitant The Essential Punishment comprehends both Poena damni and Poena sensus The positive pains of that brimstone Lake and the Worm of Conscience which gnaweth upon their souls The Punishment Accidental or concomitant is that Loathsomnesse of the Region or place wherein they are tormented and of their Companions in these torments In this life that Saying is generally true Solamen miseris Socios habuisse doloris it is alwayes some comfort to have Consorts in our pain or distress But this Saying is out of date in the Region of death the more there be that suffer these pains the less comfort there is to every one in particular For there is no concord or consort but perpetual discord which is alwayes so much greater by how much the parties discording are more in number And to live in continual discord though with but some few is a kind of Hell on earth And thus much in brief of the second death wherein it exceeds the First 10. If any one that shall read this should but suspect or fear that God had inevitably ordained him unto this death or created him to no better end then to the day of wrath This very cogitation could not but much abate his love towards God Whom no man can truly love unless he be first perswaded That God is good and loving not towards his Elect only but toward all men towards himself in particular But this opinion of Absolute Reprobation or ordination to the day of wrath I pray may never enter into any mans brains But flesh and blood though not polluted with this Opinion will if not repine and murmur yet perhaps demur a while upon another Point more questionable to wit How it may stand with the Justice of the most righteous Judge to recompence the pleasures of sin in this life which is but short with such exquisite and everlasting torments in the life to come Specially seeing the pleasures of sin are but transient neither enjoyed nor pursued but by interposed Fits whereas the torments of that Lake are uncessantly perpetual and admit no intermission The usual Answer to this Quaere is That every sin deserves a punishment infinite as being committed against an infinite Majestie But seeing this answer hath no Ground or warrant from the Rule of Faith in which neither the Maxim it self is expresly contained nor can it be deduced thence by any good Consequence we may examine it by the Rule of Reason Now by the Rule of Reason and proportion the punishment due to offences as committed against an infinite Majestie should not be punishment infinite for time and duration but infinite for qualitie or extremitie of pain whiles it continues If every minute of sinful pleasures in this world should be recompenced with a thousand years of Hell-pains this might seem rigorous and harsh to be conceived of him that is as infinite in Goodness as in Greatness as full of Mercie as of Majestie But whatsoever our thoughts or wayes be his wayes we know are equal and just most equal not in themselves only but even unto such as in sobrietie of spirit consider them But wherein doth the equalitie of his wayes or justice appear when he recompenceth the momentany pleasures of sin with such unspeakable everlasting torments It appears in this That he sentenceth no creatures unto such endlesse pains but only such as he had first ordained unto an endlesse life so much better at least then this bodily and mortal life as the second death is worse then it Adam had an immortal life as a pledge or earnest of an eternal life in possession and had not lost it either for himself or us if he had not wilfully declined unto the wayes of death of which the righteous Judge had fore-warned him Now when life and death are so set before us as that Hold is given us of life to recompence the wilful choice of death with death it self this is most equal and just And if the righteous Lord had sentenced our first Parents unto the second death immediately upon their first transgression his sentence had been but just and equal their destruction had been from themselves Yet as all this had been no more then just so it had been less then justice moderated or rather over-ruled by mercie Now instead of executing justice upon our first Parents the righteous Lord did immediately promise a gratious redemption and as one of the Antients said Foelix peccatum quod talem meruit Redemptorem it was a happy sin which gave occasion of the promise of such a Redeemer 11. But did this extraordinary mercy promised to Adam extend it self to all or to Adam only or to some few that should proceed from him Our publick Liturgie our Articles of Religion and other Acts of our Church extend it to Adam and to all that came after him But how the Nations whom God as yet hath not called unto the light of his Gospel or whose fore-elders he did not call unto the knowledge of his Laws given unto Israel how either Fathers or Children came to forsake the mercies wherein the whole humane nature in our first Parents was interested is A Secret known to God and not fit to be disputed in particular This we are sure of in the General That God did not forsake them till they had forsaken their own mercies But for our selves All of us have been by Baptism re-ordained unto a better estate then Adam lost Now if upon our first second third or fourth open breach or wilful contempt of our Vow in Baptism the Lord had sentenced us unto everlasting death or given Satan a Commission or warrant to pay us the wages of sin this had been but just and right his wayes in this had been equal because our wayes were so unequal But now he hath so long time spared us and given us so large a time of repentance seeking to win us unto his love by many blessings and