priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
is holy be ye holy because God is holy In a word study an holiness that knows no limits but what it shall have in Heaven an holiness without any stint still pressing after further degrees of conformity unto Jesus Christ unless your holiness be of this impression you can never hope to see Gods face and if your hope be a true Scripture hope your holiness will be a right Scripture-holiness 1 John 3.3 S◠diaeeru fot est periisti He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Where ever you stick you perish Labour for such an holiness as will give you admittance not into the Church only but into Heaven without which no man shall see God no men of what classis or form soever they be whether such as have no holiness and care for none all profane persons Shall eyes full of adultery ever see God the holy God Shall eyes full of anger and revenge see God! the meek merciful God Et sic in caet All such as deride holiness or despise holiness or persecute holiness such as have neither name nor thing yea that perfectly hate both shall they enjoy God The Apostle sends them this word expresly There is no room for them in Heaven And indeed what should such do there There is nothing in Heaven but what is holy holy Angels and holy Saints and above all a thrice holy Trinity Father Rev. 4.8 Son and Holy Ghost Holy Holy Holy the Lord God Almighty the beauty of whose face is holiness alas there is nothing for them to see or hear but what is an abomination to their souls Holy words yea the very word Holiness they now stop their ears at it it is vinegar to their teeth they make faces at it holy Ordinances they cannot bear them the impurer the Ordinance is the better they like it An Holy God they say of him Isai 30.11 Cause the holy One of Israel to depart from before us preach as much as you will of the merciful One of Israel and of the bountiful One of Israel c. but tell us not so much of the holy One of Israel Molest us no more with messages of holiness and the severities thereof yea See learned Gataker in loc they say not only so of God but they say as much to God to his very face They say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes they say so by interpretation if not in words at length he that can expound actions as well as language tells us they say so yea they are not ashamed of the very language it is a piece of their gallantry to profess to them that reprove them or but meekly admonish them I say to answer with scorn enough We are none of your Saints Proud scorner what art thou then An unclean swine yea an unclean spirit incarnate Devil a profane Hellitean as one faith for thy speech betrayeth thee What need farther proof Ex ore suo c. Put such an herd of Swine into Heaven and verily they would need no other damnation But God made Heaven for better purposes than to be an Hell for the haters of holiness Tophet is prepared of old for them Isai 30.33 and thither they must be packt away with the reprobate Angels down they came when they had laid aside their holiness and shall such maligners of holiness and holy ones ever come there Let them not fear the company of Saints shall never molest them they would have none of their society on earth and they shall have none of their society in heaven Possibly with their elder brother Dives they may have a prospect of Heaven where they may see * Luk◠16.23 Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and with others of the reprobate family they may see Abraham Luke 13.28 Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire Et ante praeteritur conspectum perire but that vision will be so far from beatifical as that it will be the aggravation of their damnation for as it follows verse 28. They themselves shall be thrust out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast out with as much contempt and violence as ever they themselves cast the Saints out of their Societies Certainly that vision will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth These haters of holiness would have none of God Psal 81.11 They said to the holy One of Israel Depart from us When it was too late And now God will have none of them I know you not whence ye are they bad the first word but will have the last They said depart from us Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity not a man of them shall stand in Gods presence but be cast out for ever into utter darkness Then shall the back slider in heart be indeed filled with his own wayes Mal. 25.41 They banished God and his Saints out of their company and now they themselves shall be punished from the presence of the Lord and his Saints and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 Second Use Vse 2 Labour to see God on this side glory to begin your vision on Earth which shall never cease in Heaven Indeed the vision in Grace and the vision in Glory are one and the same vision the object is the same God and the faculty is the same the eye of the Soul they differ only in two circumstances First In the Medium Here we see in glasses the Works of God Psal 19.1 2. the Creatures are a glass the Heavens declare the glory of God Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum and the providences of God are a glass Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Every dayes experience and every nights experience is a glass wherein much of God is to be seen and the Gospel is a glass wherein we all as in a mirrour 2 Cor. 3.18 behold the glory of the Lord And lastly the glass of Ordinances Preaching and Prayer and Sacraments all these be glasses and meditation is a glass faith is another way of vision by faith Moses saw him who is invisible all these I say Heb. 11.27 are glasses wherein we may see God But alas The glass takes away from the object and darkens our vision as painted glass in the Church windows they let in some light but keep out more but in Heaven we shall see without glasses face to face the Lamb shall be the light in that Temple Secondly These visions differ in their degree of light and clearness here we see in part this is but a partial vision that in glory is extensive a full-eyed vision as one calls it a most ample perfect vision we shall know as we are known the understanding here is dark dim and narrow there clear and vastly capacious Now that which this word of Exhortation calls
dispersions into all the quarters and corners of the world should be revolved back again bone to bone and skin to skin and every dust to its own dust it shall clearly be expounded in the mirror of the divine understanding Acts 26.8 The Saints themselves are both Instances and Expositions of that Text. and exemplified in the counter-part thereof the bodies of the Saints then it shall no longer be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead All the hard places of Scripture that vex the profoundest Divines and make the Believer sigh out his How can I understand except some man should guide me shall then be expounded in the Original text of eternal verity Acts 8.31 without looking into any other Commentary and oh what joy will that be to understand the whole Bible without study 2 Peter 3.17 There shall be in the glorified understanding at the Schools say Cognitio clara lucid clara fixa contemplatio omnium naturaliter scibilium even above its primitive capacity The Soul shall be indeed at its full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then the meanest understanding shall be able to confute all the depths and fallacies of Jesuitical seducers whereby they have darkened the Truth and led away the willingly ignorant into their pernicious errors and doctrines of Devils In a word All the Arcana of Nature and all the Mysteries of Philosophy properly so called with all occult things under the Sun and the highest speculations of this neather Orb in the painful and knotty disquisition whereof the greatest Masters of secular learning have tired themselves almost to distraction and upon the gaining of some little supposed satisfaction wherein they have so much gloried and insulted over other men shall now be made easie and familiar to the Saints the very A B C of Heaven and only worth a cast of their eyes either as such knowledge came from God or as it leads them unto God again For the use of this last branch of the heavenly vision Vse It may serve to moderate and restrain that inordinate curiosity in our natures to be looking into dark and hidden mysteries There is a concupiscence in the understanding lusting after forbidden knowledge as there is in the will after forbidden fruit we inherit both from our first Father and Mother they affected a knowledge above the capacity of their natures they would know as God knoweth universally intuitively and at once but by such an ambition of knowing more than they ought they forfeited what they had which was sufficient to have made them happy and while they aspired to be as God which made them they became like the beasts that perish It was the presumption of the Bethshemites they would be prying into the Ark though they died for it and there is a pride and wantonness in our nature 1 Sam. 6.19 which sets us a prying into Arcana Coeli the hidden and secret councels of God Adam's Children are yet sick of his disease they would fain be as wise as God and know all things But the secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may do them And in these revealed things there is matter enough to exercise our studies had we Methusalem's lease of life sealed to us In the revealed things of God there is so much yet unrevealed and therefore left unrevealed that we might search and dig into them Prov. 2 3 4. with the addition of a promise to encourage industry Then shall we know Hosea 6.3 Ars longa vita brevis Mâ—aeima pars corum quae scimus est minima pars eorum qua nescimus if we follow on to know the Lord so much I say that when we have travell'd many years in the disquisition and search thereof we may fit down and complain our lives are too short for our work and truly confess that the greatest part of what we know is nothing to what we are ignorant of Oh that upon those studies Christians would lay out their time and spirits proving what is that goood and acceptable and perfect will of God And therefore study to know it that they may do it for to such is the promise John 7.17 If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Oh this is excellent when Christians study to know that they may do and not that they may know only and so doing they shall know and so knowing they shall do this will keep open the passage between the head and the heart That the man of God may be perfect 2 Tim. 3.17 thoroughly furnished unto all good works But in the time according to the Apostle his Caution Rom. 12.3 It is our duty to be wise to sobriety and it is our sobriety not to be wise where God would have us to be ignorant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels of heaven behold the very Angels of God who for their knowledge are called Angels of light Mark 12.32 are yet in this point of the last day contented to be in the dark and the Evangelist hath an addition of a higher consideration neither the Son but the Father whether the sence be that the humane nature of Christ is absolutely ignorant of that day or knoweth it only by revelation from the divine nature the document is the same viz. on this side glory to be contented to know no more than God hath revealed where Scripture is silent there to be willing to be ignorant And for our encouragement and satisfaction keep this consideration alive upon your hearts we shall not alwayes be ignorant secret things shall not alwayes be secret the time is coming when Mysteries shall be Revelations when we shall be able to read that in the original which we cannot now so much as spell out in the translation nor in any measure understand with the help of all our Commentaries It was that which much comforted that precious Saint and Martyr Mr. Câ—lamy c. Mr. Christopher Love while he was prisoner in the Tower The day before he died divers of his learned godly Brethren came to take their last farewell of him as being never to see him more untill they saw him ascending to and with their common Lord and Redeemer they fell into a discourse of the joyes of Heaven a discourse sutable to that solemn parting and in that discourse meeting with some difficulty which the Scripture had not determined and so being silenced that holy man with a smiling countenance and looking upward to Heaven brake forth into these words or others like them Well said he to morrow by this time I shall fully understand this mystery and it will be no difficulty unto me It is indeed a most satisfying contemplation that the time is coming when we shall be ignorant of nothing but know
Pet. 1.19 He bought the Inheritance for them and them for the Inheritance at the same price This is the first thing implyed in Fruition Propriety without which the vision were no way beatifical for how can that make me happy which I have no title to or interest in Tolle meum tolle Deum Take away mine and ye take away Heaven yea take away mine and ye take away God good is no farther good to me than as it is mine and as I may warrantably claim my right to it and interest in it A second Property of Fruition is Possession 2. Ingredient Possession the Saints have not only propriety in Heaven but Possession of Heaven when their dearest and sweetest Lord left the world and ascended to his Father they took possession of Heaven in him as in their great Representative and Head Joh. 14.2 But when they ascended to him now they take possession of it in their own persons They had livery and seasin given them by the Father upon the consummation of their marriage with his dear Son Jesus Christ their Royal Bridegroom And it was done in the presence of the eternal Spirit the publick Notary of Heaven 1 John 5.8 All the holy Angels standing by as so many Witnesses so that God himself could not make Heaven surer to them than he hath made it While the Saints were upon earth Heaven was theirs but it was only in reversion and they counted themselves blessed in that Matth. 5.3 But now reversion is turned into possession the Saints hold nothing in Heaven by reversion that title ceaseth there All the Beatitudes in Heaven are present possession God and Christ and the Holy Ghost Angels and Saints and all the glory of the upper world are so many possessions the Saints are possest of God and possest of Christ and possessed of the Holy Ghost and possest of glory as on the contrary the damned in hell are possest of the Devil they are possest of hell and of utter darkness and of the worm that shall never dye c. Oh dreadful possession Hope was once their tenure Titus 1.2 Rom. 5.1 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye c. And they rejoyced in it Ye rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God and they blessed God for it Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus which hath begotten us again unto a lively hope c. of which hope faith was the substance and basis Heb. 11.1 and even this hope was very precious unto them a little heaven upon earth save that now and then some clouds of fear and doubts did interpose between heaven and their dim eye and so eclipsed their vision But faith and hope did set them down at the gate of heaven and then with Moses died in the mount and took leave of them for ever And if faith was so precious to them then what is sight now If hope made their hearts not seldom leap for joy how doth possession now fill them with joy unspeakable and glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all hyperbolye of expression Object If any should be so critical as to object In heaven the Saints live in the hope and faith of the continuance of heaven We make use of the Apostles Maxime for Answer Hope seen is not hope Rom. 8.24 All the glory of heaven is seen and all is present there is no futurity in heaven heaven iâ— but one point of eternity 1 Cor 13. last the Saints have all beatitudes and all at once in God now abideth indeed faith and hope but then possession Mat. 18.1 They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs and they shall sit by it All the precious priviledges of the Gospel which cost Christ so dear are now perfected into full possession Adoption is now perfect now they are the Sons of God and they know what it is to be the Sons of God Justification is now compleat Sanctification is now at perfect age In a word all their hopes are now their inheritance This is fruition A third Ingredient of which Fruition doth consist 3. Property Intimacy is Intimacy Propriety and Possession are not sufficient to constitute fruition Mutual converse will not serve the turn without intimate communion Communion not with one anothers persons only but with one anothers spirits this is fruition when friends are possest of one anothers heart and one anothers spirits In Heaven there is not mutual cohabitation only but mutual inhabitation 1 John 4.16 This is the great beatitude of heaven even vital vision with all the beatifying objects thereof mutual in dwelling and mutual in being God dwells in the Saints and the Saints dwell in God It was so here God is Love He that dwells in love dwelleth in God and God in him The Saints love to God is now made perfect without a figure and as their love is so is their mutual in being perfect I in them John 17.23 and they in me that they may be made perfect in one Perfect according to the supreme Exemplar verse 21 As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may he one in us This also had its imitation on earth it hath now its consummation in heaven the Saints can be no nearer God than they are Essential union is the sole prerogative of the glorious Trinity They dwell also in Christ I in them and they in me Eternity is their wedding day Heaven their bride-chamber their bed of love is the heart of Christ and it is alwayes green alwayes fresh and alwayes flourishing with interchangeable loves There the Saints see the place where they were conceived from all eternity and read the very original thoughts wherewith their Redeemer and Bridegroom loved them when as yet they were not formed in their Mothers belly and their Epithalamium or Nuptial song is I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 2 1â— they began this Song in the day of their espousals and continue it in their everlasting wedding-day which they celebrate in mutual embraces and festivities joying in one another and glorying in one another delighting themselves in mutual appropriations and appreciations mutually contemplating and commending one anothers beauties and perfections Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee The Angels and Saints in light behold they dwell not with one another only but in one another they inhabit as it were in one anothers hearts That primative Congregation Acts 4. was a lively type of this Royal Congregation of the first-born Acts 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crederes unam aniâ—am in omnibus â—esse divisam Chap. 4.32 They are all with one accord in one place so these one place holds them all and one soul animateth and acts them all The whole multitude of Saints in heaven are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
felicity amongst sensual men who live no higher than the brate beasts of the earth meerly by sight and sence but when all is done the pardoned man is the blessed man yea he is blest and blest and blest again double and treble blessednesses are his portion for ever In like manner we may conceive our holy Apostle calling after sinners and even beseeching them not to loose themselves and their precious souls in the pursuit of a lye They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies Jonah 2.8 Here therefore he discovers to them who are blessed and what it is that will make them happy for ever only with this difference David's Maschil in the Psalm describes initial blessedness the holy Apostle here describes perfect and consummate blessedness David describes the blessedness of the way Paul sets forth to us the blessedness of the Country and state whither the Saints are travelling David speaketh of the blessedness which lieth in order and tendency to blessedness Saint Paul of ultimate and supreme blessedness the summum bonum the chief and most transcendent good which either the Creature is capable of or God can confer on it even immediate vision and fruition of himself to all eternity Ever with the Lord. Adam by that first candle which God lighted in his first creation clearly saw in what his summum bonum did confist and for a moment enjoyed it but the Angel who kepe not his first estate envying his happiness Ad solamen calomitat is suae incipit perditus pordere well remembring the method of his own apostacy tempts him by the same medium of pride to cast himself down from the pinnacle of happiness whereon he stood whereby himself fell down from heaven and the temptation unhappily took for while Adam was ambitious to be a sun he miserably put out his candle and so lost his way and himself too since which time none of his unhappy posterity could ever by the help of that snuff which remained find their way again to true happiness How miserably did the great Sophiâ—s of the world the Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 21. In their ratiocinations those Secretaries of Nature the reputed Masters of Knowledge and Learning cum ratione insanire and in the Apostles language Grow vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened How did they weary themselves with the blind Sodomites to grope out the door which openeth to happiness but lost themselves instead of finding the truth Varro the learnedst of the Romans maketh report of no less than two hundred and eighty Opinions in his time concerning mans chiefest good Aul. Gol. each differing from the other and all from the truth as Basilis is reported to have asserted one hundred sixty five Heavens To this very day we see all the sons and daughters of Adam seeking for happiness but few or none finding what they seek for all agree in the notion but they differ in the object People generally go for happiness to the worlds Trinity Scil. The lust of the flesh 1 John 2.16 Scil. The lust of the eyes 1 John 2.16 Scil. The pride of life 1 John 2.16 But alas Nihil dat quòd non bobâ—â— these have it not to give men would fain squeeze that out of the world which God never put into it As an evidence whereof it is highly observable that the wisdom of God who best knows the worth of things hath not in that Scripture 1 John 2.16 dignified these elements of the world with those innocent titles of their primitive institution pleasures riches honours but calls them by the odious names which the first apostacy and the habitual degeneracy of nature hath justly imposed the lust of the flesh instead of pleasures the lust of the eyes instead of riches and the pride of life instead of honours in which respect the Apostle denieth them their original from the Father and sends them to fetch their pedigree from a lower extraction nim from the world ver 16. And behold if these objects which contain in them the utmost latitude of all worldly excellency and that in their puris naturalibus were never ordained by the great and wise Creator for any higher service than of the inferiour part of man the sensitive part wherein he differs little from the beasts that porish now when by the malice of the Devil and the corruption of mans heart they are debauched and poysoned into so many snares and temptations how totally I say uncapable are they become of being an adequate blessedness for immortal souls Such of the sons and daughters of Adam as have had the candle of the Lord which was put out by the fall lighted anew by the Sun of Righteousness are mightily enabled by the irradiation of the Holy Ghost to discern the airiness and emptiness of all sublunary and elementary happiness and to make choice of more solid supercelestial excellencies for their summum bonum to sing with the sweet singer of Israel In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16. â—â— and at thy right hand there are pleasunes for evermore Moses in the Old Testament and Paul in the New stand as two pillars of fire to light men the way to true blessedness Moses was courted by all the honours pleasures and treasures of Egypt to espouse them as his ultimate and supreme beatitudes but he shakes them off all as once Paul the Viper into the fire not less full of poyson than that venomous beast was Acts 28. â—4 First Pride of life the honour and grandeur of Pharaâ—h's Court came to do him homage every one in the Kings Court for there he was brought up bowed the knee and saluted Moses by the Prince-like title of the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter which signified no less than Heir apparent to the Crown of Egypt Pharach having then no other Child but that only Daughter nor she but Moses whom she had adopted to be her Son from the Cradle of Bul rushes yet all this glory did Moses when he came to years able to make his own choice refuse by faith seeing what an hollow insignificant advancement this was iâ— was not the Egyptian Monarchy which could make Moses happy especially in the terms he must take it namely to turn Egyptian and forsake the society of Gods people no said Moses I 'le have none of it to suffer with Gods people here and to reign with God hereafter is a felicity infinitely to be preferr'd before all the Empires in the world This temptation failing next succeeded in the second place Pleasure called by the Apostle the lust of the flesh with her face painted her locks curled breasts naked and impudently sollicits Moses his embraces All the beauties of the Kings Court delicious fare ravishing musick beautiful gardens stately walks fruitful orchards pools of water princely sports and pastimes in a word all the delights of the sons of men the sensual fruitions of an
conjecture that we should not too soon forget the Affliction and the Misery the Wormwood and the Gall but that our Souls having them continually in remembrance might be humbled in us Lam. 3.19 20. Possibly that the Children being every way alike both in Person and in Disposition one and the same Plaister might give ease and cure to the wound and one and the same Monument perpetuate their Memorial unto Posterity Truly they were a pair of lovely Babes Babes in Age though men in knowledg and understanding of whom we may in their Capacity sing as David once in his Funeral Elegies of Saul and Jonathan They were pleasant in their lives in their death they were not divided Their lives indeed were short so it seemed good to the Divine Wisdome after He had shewed two such excellent pieces in the Light for a while timely to lay them up amongst his Jewels lest they should receive hurt or stain from a present evil world But although their lives were short yet verily they were precious such as allowing them this Abatement that they were Children neither Parents nor Standers-by could rationally have wished they had been otherwise then they were And though there were some distance of years yet there was the greatest parity of Persons observed between them that though they were but the Brother 's and Sister 's Sons you could not had they been together have distinguished them from natural Brethren or Tynnes rather of the same Birth For Elegancy of Person Loveliness of Countenance Solidness of Judgment Acuteness of Wit Tenaciousness of Memory Sweetness of Disposition Vniversal Innocence and Modesty in behaviour Obedience to Parents Next or Remote Submission to Governours Observance to Superiours Love to Equals Condescention to Inferiours and candor to all And that which deservedly is of higher value with God Reverend Attention to his Word Read or Preached together with some suitable ability to give a methodical repetition of both Studious in learning Catechisms of which they were able to give such a rational account as if they had been Candidates for the Vniversity as many both of the Nobility and others in the Parish of Giles 's in the Fields can at this day witness Love to the best things and a due respect to the best men with a more then a Childish dislike of and adversness to what they understood to be evil c. These Desirablenesses according to yea and above the rate of Children rendered them so like one another as if one Soul had animated two bodies or one and the same Conception had been formed up into two Patterns though reserved to be seen successively to the end as it were that the Elder might out-live himself in the Younger Aut Utrumque putabis esse verum aut Utrumque putabis esse pictum You would have deemed them to be either the same Person or two Pictures one the Original the other a Copy Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat He that had seen one might have known them both And as they were alike in their Lives so in their Death they were not divided or if a little in time not at all in the manner and Circumstances They both Lived with us but died with you they lived with the Divine but died with the Physitian to shew that neither Religion doth kill nor Physick can keep alive Nevertheless though they died with you they came not to dye any further than the hidden Decree of the Divine will had before determined They died alive as it were Death gave them so little warning Neither Parents or Children understood wherefore they came until within a very few days Death shewed his Commission and as soon Executed it They died both of them in the absence of their Trustees who though one step higher in the Parental line were not I am sure half a step lower in Parental affection which the Divine eye Saw and pittied and therefore out of Compassion hiding from us what he was about to do As he snatched us from the Elder by sending us abroad So He snatched the Younger from us by sending him Home to his Fathers House So pittying our Infirmity who otherwise possibly might not have parted with them so willingly nor have born their loss so patiently The loss of two such choyce Patterns of Divine workmanship could not but have been an heart-breaking object to us as it was to you but that their constant absence from you was a preparative whereby the terrour of death was somthing abated their very absence so long before was a little death That which sweetneth it to us all is that God hath not left us to mourn as men without hope that in the Context before us The Children are not dead but sleep they sleep in Jesus If any Stander-by shall judg possibly that my affection hath transported my Charity into their excess my Apology is this that I had rather be guilty of an Excess in Charity than a Defect in thankfulness I know we cannot expect such rational accounts of Grace in Children as may be found in Adult Saints but that that doxologie out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordeined strength Psal 8.2 doth not exclude Children though not confine the meaning of the words so narrow is the judgment of the old St. Ignatius who from those Scripture instances of Samuel Josiah and others denieth not but that the Spirit of God working in young ones doth many times give out early discoveries of the Grace of the Covenant when Elder Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Magn. do only carry their Gray-haires as a badg of their Ingratitude to God As for your dear Children God hath not left himself without fuâ—ther witness in their death of an interest in them Those heavenly whispers which the tender Aunt laying her ear to the pale lips of her dying Nephew as he lay upon his back with eyes fixed Heaven-ward when he wanted strength to make his heart audible God Christ Grace c. And her own dear Childs delight in that little Book A Guide to Heaven a book little in bulk but great in Excellency which as it caused him to make it his Vade Mecum while he lived his Golden Cup out of which he drank his Mornings draught every morning in his Bed So it caused him to take it with him as his Viaticum to Heaven when he came to dye For it was found with him when dead These I say are overplusses of Divine Grace and witnesses of Divine Love to those dying Babes from their Heavenly Father Wherefore Dear Children let not the Consolations of God seem small unto you but improve them for your own Comfort and quickning in the holy Education of the surviving Treasures of your Blood that if they live you may have comfort in their Lives or if they dye you may have hope in their Deaths Be steadfast and immoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord for as
12. Ch. 5.8 Their patient bearing of the Cross Their keeping of the word of God in the precepts of it and keeping close to it in the Truth of it Their superlative Love to Christ Math. 10.37 Their Cordial Love to the Saints 1 Jo. 3.14 Their Contempt of the World 1 Jo. 2.15 Their Love of Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 In a word Their conformity to Christ their Head Rom. 8.29 These and the like Divine Vertues although not seldome more visible to a judicious stander by than to themselves and not to be weighed but with some graines of allowance in the ballance of the Sanctuary these I say may administer abundant matter of hope and rejoycing to surviving Friends that those Relations which are fallen asleep were a people whom God hath set apart for himself pretious in his sight honourable and beloved of him a people formed for himself to shew forth his praise Col s 1.13 and made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Yea even in them whose Sun goes down in the morning of their Youth A teachable Spirit Math. 13.16 Isa 28.9 71 Psal 5. Jo. 16.8 1 John 2.13 John 17.3 Pious Inclinations Sense of a lost Estate by Nature A Competent knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in his Offices A real sense of the need and use of Christ 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Tim. 3.15 Ps 119.13 An early acquaintance with the Scriptures A good understanding of the Word Preached not without some savour of it Respects to Gods Sabbaths And in a word 1 Kings 14.13 Any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel These early Impressions I say where ever they are found though according to different ages and capacities more or less legible in them are so many hopeful Indiciums that God hath been at work upon their hearts betimes and that he doth not untimely take them away in judgment but are polished Jewels which he hath of special grace laid up and secured from the violence and prophanation of a reprobate world Nay once more Those very Babes and Sucklings whom God is pleased to remove from us very early snatched from their Mothers Breasts yea possibly who pass swiftly from the Womb of their Natural Mother unto the belly of the Earth their Original Mother even these I say they being A Covenant seed Appendices of their believing Parents Children of promise Act. 2.39 Consecrated unto God by their Baptisme or by the Tears and Prayers of their holy Parents in the want of it having a right to the mercies 1 Cor. 7.14 Rom. 9.11 Mar. 10.4 Luk. 1.44 Gal. 1.15 Renatiante quam nati Aug. priviledges of the Covenant as well as to Baptisme Among whom is dispersed God the Father's Election God the Son's purchase God the Holy Ghost's Influence and Operation Even these are not to be looked upon as a lost Generation but may in the warrantable judgment of Scripture Charity be hopefully reputed for an Holy Seed Gods adopted Children owned by Christ and in him heires co-heires of the Kingdome of Heaven by special prerogative advanced to their Inheritance as it were before their time Upon this Foundation stands our hope concerning our Godly Relations which are fallen asleep of what age or state soever we are not to mourn for them even as others which have no hope Let them mourn excessively who know not the Scriptures nor the power of God in raising the Dead who bury their Relations and their hopes together in one Grave but you that upon these Scripture evidences have good hope through grace concerning your deceased Friends that while you are mourning on Earth they are rejoycing in Heaven that whiles you are Cloathed with black they are Cloathed in white even in the long white Robes of Christs Righteousness while you are rooling your selves in the Dunghil they are sitting with Christ upon his Throne Do not I beseech you profane your Scriptural hope with an unscriptural mourning give not the world occasion to judge either your selves to live without Faith or your Relations to dye without hope but let your Christian moderation be known to all men that it may be a visible Testimony to all the world of God's grace in them and of your hopes of their glory with God Therefore comfort one another with this word also A third word of comfort followeth and that is A third word of Comfort Our gratious Relations are not alone in their Death The Captain of their Salvation did march before them through those black Regions of Death and the Grave Jesus died this is implied in the following words If we believe that Jesus died This is a third consolatory Argument and it carryeth in it strong consolation Our sweet Relations in dying run no other hazard than Abraham Isaac and Jacob did no other hazard than all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles did in their generations they all died and were resolved into their first dust Yea what shall I say They run no other hazard than the Lord of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles did Jesus died this is wonderful indeed the Lord of Life died The eternal Son of God was laid in the Grave If our Children die we know we begot them mortal The Son of God had no principle of mortality in him * i.e. No sin in him to deserve it nor disease to cause it and yet he died Be our Children never so precious to us they cannot be so pretious to us God forbid they should as the Lord Jesus was to His Father who testifies concerning him from Heaven with a loud voyce This is my well-beloved Son Math. 3.17 in whom my Soul is well pleased And yet God gave up this well beloved of his Soul to the death Jesus died And we indeed justly Death is but our wages wages as truly earned as ever was a penny by the poor hireling for his days labour both we and our Off-spring have forfeited our lives over and over again by continual reiterated Treasons against the supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth yea the best blood which runs in our veins is Traytors blood by succession from our first Rebellious Parents for which God might justly have executed the sentence at first imposed even as soon as ever we draw our first breath Thou shalt dye the death Gen. 3. But He what evil had he done He was holy harmless undefiled Heb. 7.26 Isa 53.61.71 Heb. Ho hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him separate from sinners He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth He fulfilled all Righteousness and yet Jesus dyed And why so Surely he was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed we all like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity
hath made them sc by vertue of their Union with Jesus Christ Doth Christ call God his Father and his God behold He Heb. 2.11 being not ashamed to call them Brethren lets them know that he is their God and Father God to my Brethren and say to them John 20.17 I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Once more Hath the Father appointed him a Kingdom so doth he appoint unto them a Kingdom Luk. 22.29 Hath the Father assigned him a Throne so doth Christ assigne unto his Saints a Throne also To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me Rev. 3.21 in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne My Brethren what a Soul-enriching beatifical Union is this There be Unions in nature which convey nothing communicate nothing but empty and insignificant titles which make the person admitted into them not a whit the richer the better not a jot the more noble or happy but this Union as that divine essential Union between the Father and the Son doth invest Christ into all divine properties and prerogatives with the Father so this between Christ and the Believer invests the Believer into the whole Christ and all his riches and all his glory in so much as the Spouse gives in the whole accompt in this vast and invaluable sum Cant. 2.16 My Beloved is mine and I am his he is mine the whole Christ is mine in his natures offices excellencies prerogatives and inheritance In all he is and in all he hath it is all mine for my good and for my glory This is the voice of her Faith and then I am his this is the voice of her love I am his in all I am in all I have in all I can make by my interest in the world and if it were a thousand times more he should have it all and all too little for him who hath loved me and washed one in his own Blood and hath taken me into so rich and glorious an Vnion with his own self To him be glory for ever Amen This is the fourth Property I proceed to a fifth property of the Union Fifth Property an intimous Vnion and it is a near inward intimous Union To hint the intimateness of this Union the Holy Ghost in Scripture carries us through the climax of all Unions under Heaven and compares it with them of what nature and kind soever Whether Artificial Whether Political Whether Natural Wherein although you may find different degrees one exceeding another yet all falling short of this blessed Vnion in respect of closeness and intimacy It tells you that look how the house and foundation are one so are Christ and Believers 1 Pet. 2.4 5 6. yea higher It tells you that look how Husband and Wife are one so is Christ and his Saints Hos 2.19 Eph. 5.30 only with this incomparable difference Husband and Wife make but one flesh 1 Cor 6.16 17. but Christ and the Believer make one Spirit ut supra It tells us yet higher that look how the Head and Members are one so is Christ and his Church 1 Cor. 12.12 how root and branches are one John 15.1.6 so Christ and Believers and closer yer the Scripture tells us that look how Food and the body are one so also is Christ and the Believer one hence we hear of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood John 6.51 53 54 55 56. and nearer yet if nearer can be It 〈◊〉 that look how the Soul and Body are one how Life and the subject wherein it resides are one so is Christ and the Believer Colos 3.4 when Christ who is our life shall appear c. Behold here Christians is an Union which amounts tantum non to an identity say only with Cyprian it is not such an Union as is between the two natures in Christ Non miscet personas nec unit substantias Cypr. It is indeed an Union of persons but not a personal Union Mystici Theologi A Believer trans-essentiated into God and Bread and Wine transsubstantiated into Christ are much of a Language So they call the Holy Ghost auram zephyri caelestis and pardon of sin Deos superos manesque pacare Card. de Bemb which makes them but one person not such an Union as is between the three glorious Persons in the blessed Trinity who notwithstanding the distinction of their personality are but one nature and essence and you cannot say or think too highly of this Vnion yea whatsoever you can say or think will be short of the intimacy and excellency of this Union Onely we must tell the world that those mystical divines amongst the Papists as they call themselves who talk of the Saints being trans essentiated into God and those Seraphicks amongst us as they would be called but Phanatiques more truly and properly who rant at the same rate Christed with Christ and Godded with God these speak as men so ambitious of being accounted sublime and Angelical in comparison of all other men whom they scorn as illiterate Literatists that they think it a lessening to them to speak in a common and sober Dialect and rather then not speak bigger words then other men they fear not to speak Blasphemy The Lord convince them Notwithstanding I must add this to what I have said that because no Union under Heaven was close enough to express the oneness which is betwixt Christ and the Believer therefore our Lord Jesus himself carries us up to Heaven there to contemplate the essential Union which is between the Father and the Son Jo. 17. and puts them into the same parallel As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us yet still we must be careful to understand the words of Christ in a sober sense lest whil'st our Lord doth honour our Union with himself by comparing it to divine Union in the Trinity we do in the least dishonour that Union by levelling it with ours we must duly remember that this comparative particle as doth not here intend equality but likeness oâ—â—y the truth of the intimacy and not the nature or the degree of it to lift up this mystical Union above all other Unions in nature but we must still keep the divine Union in its own place This is the fifth property The sixth property Sixth property total It is a total Union The whole Christ is United to the whole Christian as the whole humane nature in Christ is joyned to the whole divine nature so the whole person of a Believer is joyned to the whole person of Christ yet not so as to make Christ and the Believer but one person but as in the conjugal Union between Man and Wife making up one mystical body or as in the body natural every Member is joyned to the head and the head to every member so is Christ and the Believer Yea once
thoughts of death O ye Saints of God! and why do you indeed what the Jews supposed Mary did John 11.31 go so oft to the Sepulcher to weep there behold your beloved Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth yea that which is of an infinitely higher consideration he sleeps in Jesus Did he live in Christ behold he died in Christ also Did he dye in Christ behold he sleeps in Christ Christ is nearly related to the Saints dust their ashes are not laid up in the Grave so much as in Christ yea though after death they should pass through never so many changes and revolutions and should be scattered at length into all quarters and corners of the world Dormire in Christo est conjunctionem retinere in morte quam habemus cum Christo Calv. in loc he that calls the Stars by their own names knows every dust of their precious bodies keeps them in his hand and is as really united to them as to his own humane nature in Heaven This may be as Jonathan's honey upon the top of the rod taste of it oh ye mourners of hope and your eyes will be enlightned look not on your pretious Relations so much as they lye rotting in the Grave or resolved into dust as upon their dust as it is laid up in a sacred Vrn in the hand and bosome as it were of Jesus Christ for which he himself will be responsible and bring it forth safely and entirely in the morning of the Resurrection there shall not be so much as a dust wanting for so it followeth Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which is a wider breach The sixth Word of Comfort Sixth word of Comfort God will bring his Sleeping Saints with him God will come and when he cometh He will bring them with him which sleep in Jesus God will or God shall c. Some understand it of God the Father others of God the Son I know not why they should be separated they that say God the Father include God the Son i. e. God the Father shall bring them with him in Christ of by Christ referring he shall bring unto the former clause in Jesus The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Erasmus and Tertul. Or by Jesus so reading it God shall bring them by Jesus And they who understand here God the Son exclude not God the Father And verily the order of working which is between the three glorious Persons in Trinity will not allow us to seclude either in this place For as all the external works of the Trinity are common Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa and undivided so Divines observe this method or order in their working The Father worketh all things of himself in the Son by the Holy Ghost The Son worketh from the Father by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost worketh from the Father and from the Son by himself The Original of the action is ascribed to the Father The Wisdom and manner of working to the Son The Efficacy of the operation to the Holy Ghost All external operation begins in the Father is continued in the Son and terminated in the Holy Ghost This is a mystery rather to be adored Psal 139.6 than curiously to be pried into such knowledg is too wonderful for us it is high we cannot attain unto it But as to the words of the Text God will bring them with him I conceive they relate more properly and peculiarly to the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Lord. For so it follows The Lord himself shall descend c. And when he cometh he will bring them with him that sleep in him The propriety of the work is ascribed to Jesus Christ God-man the Mediator between God and man he shall bring them with him when he descendeth from Heaven And that in a four-fold respect 1. Their Spirit or Souls from Heaven 2. Their Bodies from the Grave 3. Body and Soul united he shall take up to himself into the Clouds 4. And then carry all his Saints back with him into Heaven First when the Lord shall descend he will bring the spirits of just men made perfect with him from Heaven The Souls of all his glorified Saints whose bodies to this moment have slept in the Grave shall follow Christ out of the gates of the New Jerusalem to attend that glorious solemnity so it is prophesied Behold Jude v. 14. the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints When Christ cometh to judg the world there shall not be a Saint left in Heaven saith Chrysostom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven shall as it were be left empty to attend the King of Glory going forth out of his Royal Palace to finish the work of the great and last Judgment of the world he shall come attended with all his Saints they shall fill up his Train Secondly As Christ will bring their Souls with him from Heaven so he will bring their bodies from the Grave It is noted how that in the Transfiguration the body of Moses which was hid in the Valley of Moab appeared in the Mount of Tabor which assures us that the bodies of the Saints where-ever they be lodged are not lost but laid up to be raised to glory the same numerical body that was laid down in dust Christ at his coming to Judgment will first go to the Graves of the Saints and cry to them aloud in some such language as once he did to their Souls in the days of their unregeneracy when dead in sins and trespasses in the Gospel-call Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee Life Or as somtimes in the days of his flesh he did to Lazarus John 11.41 when he had lien four days rotting in the Grave Veniet aliquando Christus cum potestate et majestate carnem illam quaerere illud corpus cadaverosum configurare corpors claritatis suae Bern. a lively Emblem and Type of the general Resurrection Lazarus come forth and they that are dead shall come forth It was the tenour of his own prediction while yet in the world The hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man and shall come forth c. I shall not stay here to inquire into the nature and properties of the Saints bodies when Christ shall raise them up out of their Graves that inquiry will be more proper and seasonable in some of the following clauses of this context Concerning the manner of it for the help of our Infant-understandings briefly The manner of the Resurrection we may conceive it after this method First The holy Angels of God shall be sent abroad to gather together the scattered dust of the Saints though separated one from the other at never so great a distance into all the quarters and extremities of the earth Math. 24.31 and
Jesus Christ They shall neither go forth to meet this glorious Bridegroom one moment sooner than their Brethren that are in their Graves nor shall they see him coming in his Glory one moment sooner nor consequently be owned by Christ or received by him or taken up to him or be placed upon Thrones with him or receive their absolution and justification from him or their glorification with him one moment before their fellow-Saints that are yet in their dormitories And truly this is a comfortable word even in the negative part of it Believers may lye down to sleep in their beds of dust not only with the Psalmist's even-Song I will both lay me down in peace and rest Psal 4.8 for thou Lord only wilt make we dwell in safety but with the Lord Jesus his Triumph Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth Psal 16.9 10. my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell c. Christ will not forget his dead in the Grave the living Saints at his coming shall not be made happy without them nor one moment sooner happy in any of the Beatitudes of Christ his coming at the end of the world This comfort I say the very negative part of the Apostles answer to the Objection doth import But then How much stronger Consolation doth the affirtive part afford which although it lye in the close of the next verse yet it being the main branch of the Apostle's accompt whereby he satisfieth the doubt of the dying Servants of God ut suprà we must of necessity speak of it here also with the Negative at least so far as it referrs to the Apostle's scope reserving the consideration of what special and peculiar Import the words carry in them to their own place We are therefore to take notice that the affirmative part of the Apostles satisfaction to the Saints doubt or objection lieth in these words The dead in Christ shall rise first He doth exactly state the method of Christ's procedure at the last Judgment Affirmatively vers 16. viz. That the first business which shall be then transacted shall be the awakening and raising all the Saints of God out of their Graves which from Adam until that moment have slept in the dust The dead in Christ shall rise first nothing shall be done till that be done The very first work Christ will do at his Coming will be to send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet first to awaken the Elect out of their sleep Math. 24.31 Awake you that sleep in the dust and then to gather them from the four winds from the one end of Heaven to the other and when they shall have put on their Wedding garments to conduct them in State and Triumph to meet with their Royal Bridegroom now comn forth more than half way to meet them and to consummate the Marriage which was long since Contracted in the day of their Espousals It were easie to enlarge here but in a word the sum of this Affirmative account is this That the Saints who sleep in the Grave at Christ's coming shall be so far from being made less happy or later happy in the coming of Christ than the Saints who then shall be found alive that they shall be first remembred the first care Christ will take when he comes in the Clouds shall be not about the living Primitiae Resurrectionis but the dead Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first They shall be the first Fruits of the Resurrection They that have slept so long in their beds of dust Ab illis ordo Resurrectionis incipiet shall be first awakened before any thing be done about them that never slept They that were uncloathed and saw corruption in the Grave must first have their bodies cloathed upon with incorruption and then the surviving-Saints at Christ's coming shall be joyned to them that have for so many years and ages slept in Jesus The dead in Christ shall rise first and both be presented together before the Judge It were too little to say Use This may much alleviate the bieterness of death our own or our godly Relations surely it may greatly augment our joy They and we shall be so far from being losers by laying down our earthly Tabernacles in the dust before we see Christ coming in his Glory that it shall be our advantage If there be any priviledg any joy any glory any triumph at that day it shall be theirs who sleep in Jesus and theirs as soon as their surviving-Brethrens The first dawnings of the Sun of Righteousness coming in his Majesty shall shine upon their faces the first-fruits of that Jubilee shall be reserved for a recompence of their long sleep in the Grave they shall begin the health in this cup of Salvation the primacy of all that blessed solemnity belongs to the departed Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first Oh Christians Comfort one another with this word And the rather because this is not an uncertain conjecture which the Apostle laies down here but an assertion of infallible certainty which he had from the divine Oracle Second branch of this Comfort The Authority quoted the Word of the Lord which brings me to the second branch in this seaventh word of Comfort and that is The Authority which the Apostle brings for this Doctrine sc the Word of God This I say unto you by the word of the Lord. He quotes divine Authority for what he delivereth It being a Doctrine of so much encouragement and satisfaction unto dying Saints Praefatur nihil se preferre vel suum vel humanum Calv. a Doctrine above humane capacity and it seemeth not commonly understood by the Churches Saints of God at that time he doth not pass it in his own name or upon his own Authority When he speaks as one that hath obtained mercy to be saithful then it is 1 Cor. 7.12 I speak not the Lord i.e. not by express dictate of the Spirit but by way of Faith Christivice as agreeable to the word but when he speaks as an Apostle insallibly inspired then it is not I but the Lord and so it is here but tells us from whence he had it q.d. What I deliver now unto you I speak not of my self sed ex ore Domini from the mouth of him that is the truth it self the mouth of Jesus Christ This we say unto you in the word of the Lord. Qu. But where or when had the Apostle this Doctrine from Jesus Christ Ans Others are of opinion he had it by immediate Revelation but as to the time they differ Some conjecture 1 Cor. 12.2.4 the Apostle had this mysterie revealed to him at what time he was rapt up to the third Heaven and there heard unspeakable words amongst which one was this comfortable Doctrine that the living Saints shall not prevent the dead Saints in any glorious
Rags of mortality before they put on the Robes of Glory and this must be done Partly that the Statute of Heaven may not be broken Heb. 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decreed wherein it is appointed for all men once to dye It was a Statute Law past in the Parliament of Heaven Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Heb. in dying thou shalt dye Christ himself as man submitted himself to this Statute and so must all the Sons and Daughters of Adam they must dye either literally or analogically Death makes a change in some and this change is a death in others a death to mortality and a death to corruption Partly that hereby they may also be made partakers of the Resurrection Our Saviour's prediction of the Resurrection comprehends all the Saints of God and the living Saints at that day can by no other means be counted the Children of the Resurrection than as they are begotten again as it were by this mysterious and ineffable change Math. 19.28 whence possibly it is called the Regeneration because all the Elect of God shall then begin to live their new perfect life all over in their bodies and Souls both the quick and the dead From these Premises we draw this Conclusion c. That our Apostle here doth not start any new doctrine of his own or as * 1 Cor. 7.12 somewhere he doth deliver his own judgment as an holy knowing man and not as one infallibly inspired from above but he doth expound Christ unto us and gives us the sense of His words who was both the Truth and the Resurrection So that the doctrine here laid down as it is a word of exceeding comfort to dying Saints and to their surviving Relations Non primi extitimus Resurrectionis testâ—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so here is a consideration which may adde great weight to it and make it so much the stronger consolation in as much as it hath the stamp and sanction of Christ's own Authority Christ himself hath made assidavit to it we have the word of him that cannot lye the Apostle being in this but Christs Interpreter From hence by the way we are informed of these two things Use of Inform. worth our notice First Vse 1 There is no sure and infallible foundation for our faith to stand upon but the word of God Thither therefore the Holy Ghost sends us Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them The Apostle himself would not aver such a solemn truth as this is but from the mouth of Christ himself Uncertain Revelations dubitable Traditions Authority of the Church and all humane Testimony whatsoever is too weak a foundation to build our Faith upon in any Article of Religion Search the Scriptures for in them ye hope to have Eternal Life Jo. 5.39 Secondly We gather hence that Scripture-Inference Vse 2 is Scripture that is to say That which may be inferr'd from Scripture by natural and necessary consequence is to be received as the Scripture it self The word of God rightly interpreted is the word of God Thus our Lord himself Luk. 12.27 proves the Resurrection out of the old Testament by inference and deduition from the words which God spake to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he thence inferrs God being not the God of the dead but of the living that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive in their better part sc their Souls and shall live again in their inferiour part sc their bodies So the holy Apostle here inferreth this comfortable truth that the dead Saints shall lose nothing by their not being found alive at Christs coming from Christ's own doctrine of the Resurrection in general And doubts not to honour it with this Title The Word of the Lord This I say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Let the Ministers of the Gospel take heed how they Preach any doctrine opinion or practise 1 Caution to Ministers which cannot either in terminis or at least by just and necessary consequence be justified to be the word of God lest they incurre the brand and censure of false Prophets Jer. 29.9 And let Christians take heed how they reject any doctrine which is so evidenced 2 Caution to private Christians lest they be found to reject the Word of the Lord Jer. 8.9 I have done with the second branch of the seventh word of Comfort sc the Authority quoted for it save only that there is one scruple yet to be removed and that is Quest Why the Apostle in delivering this truth doth use this phrase we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord and not rather they which are alive for Did the Apostle indeed think that he himself should live to see Christ coming in glory to judg the quick and the dead Ans Certainly No for 1. Grotius aliter opinatur quem vide in loc arque etiam Bez. The event shews that that had been a mistaken presumption in him that day is not yet come and the Apostle is long since fallen asleep 2. We hear him Prophesying of his own dissolution and that as a thing hard by 2 Tim. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Gr. it is instant upon me See the Apostle was far from flattering himself with any such conceit of being one of them that should live and remain unto the coming of the Lord. What means the expression then Ans The holy Apostle divides all the Elect of God into two ranks sc 1. Such as are fallen asleep from the fall of the first Adam to the coming of the second or 2. Such as should survive and remain unto that day not making himself of the number of either the one or of the other but one of the whole number of Gods Elect some of whom should sleep some should live till Christ's last coming and when he saith we that are alive and remain it signifies no more but this in general such of us as are then alive shall not prevent such of us as are then asleep this is all he intends in this expression Beza and others spy out a mystery in this manner of speech Doct. as if hereby the Apostle would hint unto us the uncertainty of Christ's Coming Vult omnes suspensos tenere ne sibi tempus aliquod promittant that for ought that was revealed of that day Christ might come while some of that generation were superstites living upon the face of the earth If that doctrine be in the Text Vse Christ himself hath made the use of it Lanet ultimus dies ut expectetuâ— singulis ut fideles emnibus horis parati essent Math. 24.36 of that day and hour knoweth no man no not
of his humiliation Thirdly Third Reas to finish his Mediatory Office Our Lord Jesus Christ must come himself at the last day to perfect and finish his Mediatory-Office At his first coming his Mediatory-work was to pay a price to divine Justice 1 Per. 1.19 So he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to purchase us of his Father At his second coming his Mediatory-work will be to gather all his Redeemed ones together and to present them a glorious Church to his Father not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but holy and without blemish in some such language as was long before Prophesied Behold here am I and the Children whom thou hast given me Isa 8.18 And again as when he was going out of the world he gave his account to his Father of all whom thou hast given me Joh. 17.12 I have lost none but the Son of perdition At his first coming his Mediatory-work was to fight with the Devil Act. 26.18 Colos 1.13 Luk. 11.21 22. In this respect he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.26 and all the powers of darkness and to rescue what he had bought of the Father out of the power of Satan that strong man armed who kept his goods in peace At his second coming his Mediatory-work will be to vanquish all those Enemies out of whose dominion he hath freed his Elect to bind them with chains to cast them into everlasting darkness and to seal the bottomless pit upon them for ever And when he hath done this the Lord Jesus shall deliver up the Kingdome to his Father His Office is not compleated till this be done God's Oath is past upon it and cannot be reverst Isa 45.23 c. The Text is applyed to Christ presently upon his Exaltation to this very purpose Phil. 2.20 Well then we have now found out the person of the Judg. The Lord Himself c. And for the Use it may serve 1. For infinit terror to the Wicked 2. For unspeakable Consolation to the Godly First it serves for infinit terror to the Wicked Use 1 That the Judgment now should be put into the hand of Him Terror to the Wicked whom of all the world they counted their Enemy at least if they did not call him so they used him so Oh what a dreadful sight will his Appearance be If Ahab cryed out with so much discomposure of spirit at the suddain appearance of Elijah the Prophet of God Hast thou found me Oh mine Enemy With what horror and affrightment will Reprobate Gaitiff's cry out when they shall be drag'd from before the Tribunal of the Lord Jesus the Lord of the Prophets Hast thou found us Oh our Enemy If Josephs Brethren were so astonished at the presence of Joseph when he said unto them I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt How will all the world of ungodly men be confounded at the presence of the Lord now coming in the glory of his Father to Judg them when he shall say unto them I am Jesus I am Jesus whom ye sold for less than ever Judas sold me even for the price of a base Lust I am Jesus whom ye Crucified over and over again to your selves and put me to an open shame I am Jesus whose Person you have slighted whose Government you have spurn'd at crying in the Pride and Rebellion of your obstinate spirits We will not have this man Reign over us I am Jesus whose Counsel you have rejected whose Threatnings you have laughed to scorn whose Promises you have derided and set at nought I am Jesus whose Blood you have trampled under your feet as an Vnholy thing even doing despite to the Spirit of grace c. I say Now will the Reprobate world be confounded at the presence of their Judg Behold in the days of his Flesh when he appeared in the forme of a Servant and was even led away as a Sheep to the Slaughter and as a Lamb before the Shearer not opening his mouth by way of murmur against his Father or reviling against his Enemies yet how did that Lamb-like Word I am He fill the hearts of those sturdy Souldiers who came to apprehend Him with horror and strike them to the ground like a blast of Thunder and Lightning Oh how will that word when he shall come cloathed with Majesty and terror with all the glorious Host of Heaven attending his Person I am he fill Reprobate Souls with astonishment and distraction and even strike them backward into Hell before their time How will it cause them to woo the Mountains and Rocks now as hard and inexorable as their hearts once were in the day of God's patience crying out to them to the amazement of Heaven and Earth Mountains Fall on us Rev. 6.26 27. Rocks cover us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the presence of the Lamb for the great day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand But all in vain As the Lord Jesus once in the day of his grace cryed unto them and they would not answer c. So they shall now cry to Heaven and Earth to Rocks and Mountains Prov. 1.24 25 26. Psal 50.22 and they shall not answer yea the Judg shall laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear cometh Oh consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Second Use Second Use of Comfort to the Saints Christ Himself will be their Judg. But on the contrary unspeakable Consolation may this doctrine of Christ's personal Appearance speak to the Godly the Sheep of Christ which have heard his voyce speaking to them in the Gospel of peace and have obeyed it Behold He that in the days of his flesh came to be their Redeemer now in the day of his power shall come to be their Judge He that so often pleaded for them to his Father and for whom they so often pleaded and contended with a disobedient and gain-saying Generation I say He shall now be their Judg and pass sentence upon them their Friend their Brother their Head their Husband What need they fear that Tribunal where not their Enemies who were wont fasâ—y to accuse and condemn them no not their prejudiced and imprudent Friends who somtimes have rashly and causelesly mis-judged them much less the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 who accused them before their God day and night none of these I say shall sit in Judgment But their dear Redeemer who for their sake came down from Heaven that loved them so dearly that he died for love of them that he might Redeem them and wash them in his own Blood He that Regenerated Sanctified Justified Preserved and Perfected them He to whom both in Life and Death they were so nearly and inseparably Vnited and by vertue of which Conjunction they are now
scil Non implent plenum postulatum legis justitiae neque super impios neque super pios Streso in Act. 17.31 exemplary Vengance to shew there is a Providence that God is not an idle Spectator in the world And somtimes it is let alone to tell the world that there is a Judgment to come the full punishment of sin is not till then Thus Reason says He may Come But now Faith goes further and says He must Come He shall Come The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven It is a truth not only which God can make good but a truth which God cannot but make good Witness Christ must come 1. His Purchase says so 1. His Purchase would Christ buy a people at so dear a rate and then go away and come no more at them Nay 2. Witness also his promise And if I go John 14.3.2 His Promise I will come again He will especially considering the design of his leaving them for a time it was but to go and prepare a place for them and he hath done it the place is prepared Mansions in his Fathers house are made ready for them ver 2. Why now Christ being gon to this very end and all things prepared for their entertainment if he should not come again he should certainly fail not his promise only but his project too this cannot be He that never yet failed his own promise Fidelis Deus in Omnibus in extremo non desieret nor his peoples expectations will not now do it No I will come and receive you He that went from them only to prepare the place for them will certainly come again to receive them into that place now it is prepared He loves them so well that he will not he cannot be without their company I will come and receive you that where I am there you may be also Heb. 11.11 Faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it 3. Witness The Sacrament of his last Supper 3. The Sacrament of his last Supper 1 Cor. 11.26 which is nothing else but a pledg and seal to keep alive the memorial of his second Coming As oft as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come Now when the Lord Jesus Christ hath engaged the expectation of his people by so solemn a Covenant if he should fail their expectation this Grand Institution had been in vain Nay surely He never said to the Seed of Jacob Seck ye my face in vain He speaketh Righteousness Isa 45.19 4. And lastly Witness his Resurrection that is 4. His Resurrection the Assurance given in the Text Act. 17.31 He will judge the world by that man whom he hath appointed How may we be sure of that why he hath given the world assurance of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non quod omnibus fidem in Christum dederit Sed quod omnibus argumentum dederit Streso in loc what assurance in that he hath raised Christ from the dead He hath given assurance Gr. he hath offered Faith the meaning is God could not have confirmed his purpose and promise of sending Christ to Judge the world at the last day by a more firm and solemn Argument than by raising him from the dead after he had paid the debt made satisfaction to divine Justice upon the Cross Partly in as much as Jesus Christ was hereby openly declared to be the Son of God with power To judg the world is an act of divine Power and Authority and what fitter person in the Trinity is there to judg the world righteously than He that was unrighteously judged by the world put to death in the Flesh but quickened in the Spirit raised by his own divine power Partly because that after his Resurrection God the Father took him up into Heaven Vid. Strev in loc and placed him at his own right hand A certain evidence that when the whole number of his Redeemed shall be accomplished he will send him the second time to take Vengeance in his own Person on the Shedders of his Blood and the Oppugners of his Gospel Else it had been all one as if Christ had been left to lye still in the Grave Thus you see Christ his personal Coming at the last day established upon its four-fold Foundation 1. Use His Purchase 2. His Promise 3. His Supper 4. His Resurrection Now therefore O ye Saints of God cast not away your Confidences either in respect of your selves or of your sweet Relations which have out-run you to the Sepulcher He that shall come will come and will not tarry In the mean time let the just live by their Faith keep up your Faith and your Faith will keep up your hearts from sinking 2 Cor. 4.16 for this Cause we faint not c. I proceed to the third Circumstance The manner of Christ his coming In the Description whereof we find a three-fold Summons or Citation to all the world to make their appearance at this great Oecumenical Assize 1 Summon◠A Shour sc 1. A Shout 2. The Voyce of an Arch-Angel 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hortatorius clamor The Trump of God The first solemn summons is a Shout the Lord shall descend from Heaven with a Shout The word in the Greek signifies such a Shout as is to be heard amongst Marriners and Seamen when after a long and dangerous Voyage they begin to descry the Haven crying with loud and united voyces a shore a shore as the Poet describes the Italians when they saw their Native Country lifting up their voyces and making the Heavens ring again with Italie Italie Italiam Laliam laeto clamore salutani Virg Aeneid Irgenti Angelorum jubile acclamatione Atetius Or as Armies when they joyn battail rend the air with their loud Acclamations In like manner shall the mighty Angels of God with united clamour proclaime the Advent of their Lord crying aloud with a voyce that shall be heard from one end of the Heavens to another the Earth and Sea and Hell it self shall hear and tremble Behold the Lord cometh Jud. v. 14. Jud. v. 14. Math. 25.5 Behold the Bridegroom cometh Math. 25. v. 6. The second Summons is the Voyce of the Arch-Angel Expositioric vice Calv. This clause some take to be Exegetical to the former expounding that hortatory clamour or shout mentioned before q. d. with a shout i. e. with the voyce of the Arch-Angel Arch-Angelus praeconts fungetur officio citet vivos mortues ad Christi tribunal Others conceive it to be added by way of eminency All the Angels shall shout for joy but the Voyce of the Arch-Angel shall be heard above all the rest The greatest Angel hath the greatest voyce lowder and shriller than all the other Angels as Captain General to them all The third Summons is the Trump of God Great Trees Trees of God High
Mountains Mountains of God A great fire 〈◊〉 fire of God Job 1.16 it may signifie a mighty Trump after the manner of the Hebrew phrase which useth to call works and wonders of unusual proportion works of God and wonders of God so the Trump of God i. e. a mighty Trump a voyce of more dreadful horror than all that went before But whether it be to be understood metaphorically or properly is questioned amongst Expositors Some understand it only metaphorically and in an Analogical sense signifying no more than the Vertue and Power of Christs Voyce and Proclamation summoning both the living and the dead to appear at his Tribunal But why we may not take it literally and in propriety of speech I see no reason so for the voyce of an audible Trump which shall be lowder than all the former And it may well be the same with that which the Apostle calls the last Trump this sounding last of all 1 Cor. 15.52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 24.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sonora vocalissima tuba Bull. Numb 10.1.9 In quo specimen quoddam editum fuit hujus ultima populi Dei congregationis Id. or continuing longer than the former our Lord calls it The great sound of a Trumpet Thus are these three Summons distinct and each of them lowder and shriller than the former And it may allude to the manner of the calling together of the Jews to their publick worship and that possibly typical to this signifying thus much to the world that like as their Assemblies were summoned by the sound of Trumpets so the last and solemn day of judgment that great general Assembly of the Living and the Dead shall be summoned together by the sound of Trumpets from Heaven the vastest and most universal Assembly that ever was beheld by the eye of Creature But a clearer Type and Prophecy hereof seems to be that at the giving of the Law when Christ came down on Mount Sinai to give the Law it was in a very glorious manner sc with Thunder and Lightnings Numb 19.16 and a thick Cloud upon the Mount with the voyce of the Trumpet exceeding loud c. This did Typifie Unto us Christ his second Coming at the end of the world to require the Law which surely ought to excel in glory Let us compare these two Comings together a little At his coming to give the Law 2 Pet. 3.10 Deut. 33.2 Jud. v. 14. Dan. 7.10 Exod. 19.19 Mount Sinai was all in a flame Now the whole world shall be on fire Then Christ came with ten thousands of his Saints but Now thousand thousands shall Minister unto him and ten thousand times thousands shall stand before him Then the voyce of the Trumpet sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder In like manner Now there shall be first a shout of all the Angels of God with a joynt acclamation Next the voyce of the Arch-Angel which shall be lowder and shriller than they And last of all the Trump of God by way of eminency distinct from the two former lowder shriller than either God then spake with a voyce the voyce of a Law-giver commanding the Law God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God c. Exod. 20.1.2 Now God shall speak with the voyce of a Judg requiring an account of the Law viz. what men have done with that Law whether they have obeyed or rebelled against that holy Command and he shall accordingly Judg them This now is the third Circumstance or considerable particular which the Holy Ghost commends to our notice in the Coming of Christ which is the Eighth word of Comfort in this Model sc The manner of his coming And this is to set forth unto us the Glory and Majesty of Christ his coming to Judgment These fore-runners of the coming of Christ these various Heraulds which shall proclaime his Advent scl 1. The Hortatory clamour 2. The voyce of the Arch-Angel 3. And the Trump of God These shall add much to the State and Solemnity of this great Judg his approach When he came into the Flesh his Herauld was John the Baptist a man of a mean and contemptible presence Math. 3.2 a Preacher of Repentance Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Now his fore-runners and Heraulds shall be The mighty Angels of God Then he came in a still soft voyce Math. 3.3 the voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his path straight Now he shall come with a loud and terrible voyce Voyce upon Voyce Trump upon Trump Alarm upon Alarm Each lowder and more dreadful than other in comparison whereof the lowdest Thunder which was eyer heard from the Clowds of God shall be but as the shooting off of a pistol or the blowing of a Rams Horn A dreadful shout which shall even shake the Heavens and the Earth Heb 12.26 and Hell it self And it makes much for the terrour and astonishment of the wicked Use A Terror to the wicked who in the pride of their hearts would not lend an obedient ear to the sweet and gentle summons of the Word saying Repent Deut. 29.19 and believe the Gospel but blest themselves in their hearts saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart and add Drunkenness to Thirst Oh to all such surely this will be a tremendous blast which shall not so much raise as affright them out of their Graves Some of the Jewish Doctors have a Conceit that wicked men shall never rise again which they ground upon their own mistake of that Scripture Isa 26.14 But though it cannot be properly said they Rise yet they shall be raised not from Death to Life but from one Death to another from the first Death to the second Death from Death to Judgment and from Judgment to Execution to torment with horrour and amazement Behold the Judg cometh Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment This will be the dreadful meaning of that Ministerial Excitation in the Consciences of the Reprobate world Appear in Court there to answer for all the Contempt to the Calls and Counsels of Jesus Christ in his blessed Gospel Oh what would Drunkards and Swearers and Adulterers give that they might never be raised out of their Graves or being raised What would they give then for a Rock or a Mountain to fall upon them that might hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb but all in vain Then to hide will be impossible and to appear will be intolerable Use 2 But as glorious and acceptable is this description of Christ's coming to the Saints Comfort to the Saints for whose sake this clause is added as a word of Comfort even to them that sleep in Jesus This three-fold Alarm Shout and Voyce and Trump shall be no more terror or amazement to them than the
the Sheavs into his Barn I will say to the Reapers but gather the Wheat into my Barn Behold this is the Angels Office their work is not done till the good Corn be Inn'd This in the Metaphor of the Marriage of the Lamb is nothing else but the Angels attendance on the Saints the Lambs Wife while She is making ready Revel 19.7 8. that when She is arayed in fine Linnen clean and white they may then take her up in their winged Arms and conduct her in state to the place where her Royal Bridegroom is staying for her Thirdly Third Medium The Spirituality of the Saints bodies The Spirituality and Power wherewith the bodies of the Saints are endowed in the Resurrection may well concurr also to this Ascention By vertue of that marvellous Spirituality and Agility wherewith the Resurrection shall if I may so say inform the Saints bodies they shall be able to mount upward ut sup and move with admirable celerity up and down to and fro in the Air as Swallows in a Sun-shine day dart themselves through the skie or as the Angels themselves who with equal facility Descend and Ascend with a motion as swift as their Wills In the Resurrection indeed the Saints were purely passive as passive as when their bodies were first formed out of the dust and had the breath of Life breathed into them But now in their Ascention they shall be active and agil Mooved indeed they shall be by an extrinsick power why else are they said to be caught up into the Air But yet not so but that they may move themselves by an intrinsick Principle Else 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. God and Nature do nothing in Vain those supernatural affections of their re-divine bodies might seem to be superfluous and insignificant Sutably to this it is storied of Elijah his Ascention a Prophesie and figure of this universal Translation of the Saints that although a Charet of fire parted Him and Elisha yet He went up by a whirlwind into Heaven He was carryed and yet he went up so the Saints c. Thus I have shewed the probability at least of a threefold Medium in the Saints Ascention 1. Christs Power 2. The Angels Ministry Object 3. The Agility of the Saints bodies But it may be Objected What meaneth this Concurrence of Mediums For if any one of these be sufficient What use of them all For Answer Ans Twofold I shall offer two things to your consideration First This Concurrence of Mediums is no other than we meet with in the Ascention of our Lord in his own Person For First Act. 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Lord Jesus Himself after his Resurrection it is said He was taken up or lifted up the phrase may import the Power of the Father as formerly in raising him up from the dead So now also in lifting him up into Glory according to that Act. 5.31 Him hath God the Father exalted with his right-hand Here is the power of the Father in the Sons Ascention And then you have the subserviency of second Causes added first a Cloud is prepared as a Royal Charet to carry up this King of Glory to his Princely Pavilion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24.51 He was carryed up into Heaven A Cloud received him out of their sight And then a Royal Guard of mighty Angels surround the Charet if not for support yet for the greater state and solemnity of their Lords Ascention He was carried up into Heaven Luk. 24.51 Yet notwithstanding all this it is said of the Lord Jesus He went up Act. 1.10 while the Disciples looked stedfastly towards Heaven He went onward or he went upward as implying that his motion was not only passive but active he mounted up into Heaven by his own divine power He Ascended Behold here we have a perfect Pattern of the Saints Ascension in all the Mediums of it they hold exact proportion with their Lord. The Father lifted up the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus He lifts up his Saints A Cloud received Him the Saints also are caught up in the Clouds Angels attend upon their Lord in his Ascension nor do they refuse their attendance on the Saints in their Ascension Jesus Christ notwithstanding Ascended by the Power of his own glorified Person The Saints likewise Ascend by vertue of those supernatural properties wherewith their bodies were adorned in the Resurrection I Answer Secondly Second Answ That in both Christ's and the Saints Ascention this variety of Mediums is neither superfluous nor inconsistent but signal instances of that sweet harmonious subordination of Causes which the only wise God hath established in his own Counsel for the managing of his works and wonders of providence viz. Second Causes working together in their several Sphere and Orb. The supream cause ordering influencing and actuating the second causes to his own ends and designs And lastly See a notable instance of this subordination Hos 2.21 22. Rev. 11 12. Particular Beings and Persons lest to act according to the mpressions of their own individual natures notwithstanding their subordination All these Mediums we may observe once more concurring in the Resurrection of the Witnesses mentioned in the Revelations There you have 1. A great voyce from Heaven calling them Come up hither There 's th Power of Christ It was a great voyce a voyce of Power a voyce which did what it commanded Second The subserviency of the Clouds the Witnesses rode upon a Cloud into Heaven in Triumph Thirdly And to shew their motion was not violent but free also and voluntary it is said they Ascended Fourthly And there is yet one Circumstance more of special remark and that is This was in the sight of their Enemies Their Enemies beheld them beheld them with great fear verse 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horrour and Astonishment took hold of their Persecutors Envying their Advancement and vexing themselves that they should have no more power to Persecute the Witnesses and add to all this confounded in the expectation of their own succeeding judgment This one Scripture is a perfect prediction and model of the general Resurrection of the Saints in the last day The Lord Jesus from his Throne shall call them up by a powerful voyce Come up hither Clouds shall be their Chariots and Horses to carry them And yet they shall Ascend upwards by a supernatural principle spontaneously and of their own proper motion While in the mean time the whole world of reprobate Men and Angel shall be left below upon the Earth looking upward and gnashing their Teeth to see such a sudden and tremendous Turn of things the Saints whom they despised and persecuted snatcht out of their reach and ascending in so much pomp and royalty to meet their glorious Redeemer they themselves being left behind with a certain looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the adversaries Then shall begin their weeping and
wailing and gnashing of Teeth which shall never have an end For Use In the first place it may serve as a Cordial to the Saints of God Use 1. A Cordial whether in reference to their own dissolution or the dissolution of their precious Relations already fallen asleep Behold the descent of the Saints of God into the Grave is not with so much weakness ignominy and abasement as their Ascent after the Resurrection to meet their Lord in the Air shall be with Power Triumph and Glory Christ shall draw them Clouds shall carry them Angels shall conduct them Yea they shall mount up to Heaven by vertue of those Christ-like impressions stampt upon their glorified bodies in the Resurrection Each one of these were sufficient All these must needs be exceeding Glorious yet Such honour have all the Saints Secondly There is Caution in it as well as Comfort Use 2. Caution And that is Begin this Ascention betimes Labour to experience this Heavenly motion on this side of the Grave Sursum corda Lift up your heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up Oh ye everlasting Doors behold The Resurrection and Ascention in the future state of happiness have their spring and rise in the present state of holiness they are linke in and joyned one to another in the eternal counsel and purpose of God with the very same Connexion wherewith Birth and Conception are lincked together Harvest and Seed-time So that look what impossibility there is in nature that there should be a Birth where was no Conception or an Harvest where no Semination the same impossibility there is that such a person should share in the Resurrection of Glory that is a stranger to the Resurrection of Grace the new Birth or that a Man or Woman should Ascend to meet Jesus Christ in the Clouds who in the state of Regeneration labours not often to meet Christ in the Mount of holy Meditation If therefore ye be risen with Christ Colos 3.1 2. seek those things which are above where Christ sits at Gods right hand set your affections on things above Christ after he arose from the dead did often ascend to his Father till at the end of 40 days He went up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples Acts 1.9 10. Do ye also imitate your blessed Lord in your frequent ascentions after him and thereby evidence to your selves not only that you are already risen with Christ in the Resurrection of Holiness but that ye shall also arise with Him and Ascend to Him at his coming in his Glory Christians let not that man think ever to be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air who is patient of being a stranger to Christ in the Spirit without God in the world Eph. 2.12 and without hope he burieth his hope of Ascending where Christ is who burieth his heart and affections in the dunghil of worldly and sensual fruitions Oh labour to say with the Apostle though our Commoration be on Earth our * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Traffique Burgesship Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Phil. 3.20 though ye walk below Aug. The Saints do uti mundo but frui Deo Carnal men do uti Deo frui mundo Corpore ambulamus in terra corde habitamus in coelo Aug. yet live above Though ye use the world yet labour to enjoy God and to be able to say with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.26 Though ye have your converse with men let your Communion be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Labour to say with Augustine Our bodies are on Earth our hearts in Heaven while the men of the world Earthlize Heavenly things do you study how to Heavenlize Earthly things labour as he did to eat and drink and sleep Eternal Life So may you with an holy Confidence go along with the Apostle from whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christians can no further look for the Lord Jesus to Descend from Heaven then as they themselves in the mean time labour to be often Ascending with him into Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is the Saints Evidence and first-fruits of their Heavenly-blessedness I have done with the second Consequent I come to the third Consequent of Christ's Coming Thirdly Third Consequent of Christs Coming The Saints joyful meeting and it is two-fold 1. One with another 2. With Christ their Head The one is Implied the other Exprest The Saints meeting one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is implied in this Adverbial particle Vnà Together we shall be caught up together with him i. e. We which shall be found alive upon the face of the Earth at Christs coming together with them which being fallen asleep before of elder or later time Christ hath now raised up out of their Graves we and they shall All be caught up together c. This I say presupposeth their meeting together antecedaneous to their Ascention how else can they co-Ascend if not congregated before they Ascend And therefore in order of nature though the Saints meeting together should have been spoken to before their Ascention yet the series of the words not well admitting this method it will not be improper to consider it where it meets us The Scripture takes notice of the Saints meeting one with another as distinct from their meeting with the Lord Jesus Mat. 24.31 The Elect shall be gathered together from the four winds from one end of the Heavens to another At what distance soever imaginable they were disperst and scattered they shall all meet together into one distinct body or Assembly And then co-ascend to meet their Lord. Some of the School-men apply that passage of the Prophet Isa 10.34 They shall Mount up with wings as Eagles to this ascention of the Saints after the Resurrection Whether that be so or no we may not incongruously suppose the Elect of God to be gathered together into some one * Some suppose the Valley of Jehâ—shaphat vast capacious tract or region of ground on the right hand of the Judgment-seat from thence to take their flight together to meet the Judg in the Air. We must understand the placing of the Sheep on the right hand and the Goats on the left hand to be upon the ground for the Wicked shall not Ascend to meet Christ and the Godly when Ascended shall be placed on Seats round about the Throne Mat. 25.33 And of this Congregation of the Elect the Scripture assigneth a two-fold Cause 1. CHRIST the principal efficient Cause The Son of man shall come in the Clouds and shall send his Angels and shall gather the Elect from the four winds from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven He not They Christ not the Angels shall gather his Elect together Christ Autocratorically by
on the contrary as to true real Saints God owneth what themselves dare not own but though they have forgotten God is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love which they have shewed towards his Name Math. 2◠7 in ministring to the Saints but all shall be remembred even from the Alabaster-box of costly Spikenard to the Cup of cold water given in the name of a Disciple and proclaimed in the Audience of that general Assembly Math 25 40. For as much as you have done it to one of these little ones ye have done it unto me yea those very acts of Charity which have been done so secretly that the left hand did not know what the right hand did Math. 6.3 shall be now published upon the house-top the great house of Heaven and Earth they were not so closely done but they shall as openly be rewarded the book of God's remembrance shall be brought forth and opened and publickly read that all the good which any of the Saints of God ever did may be mentioned to their everlasting praise and that with a double circumstance of signal honour First A twofold advantage of the Recital made of the Saints Graces That in that large Recital which shall then be read of the Saints lives there is not the least mention made of sin they had sure enough the remainders of their original corruption surviving their conversion defiling molesting their most holy Services which were as so many scourges in their sides and Thorns in their eyes uncessantly tempting them and exposing them to temptation forcing from them sad laments and out-cryes Rom. 7.24 O Wretch that I am who shall deliver me They had and not rarely their actual Surprises and Seductions their Lapses and Relapses which brought them upon their knees with holy Job's Confession Job 7.20 I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men but none of these things come up into remembrance against them in that day As here below God saw no Iniquity in Jacob nor perversness in Israel to impute it to them so in their appearance before the Judge God remembreth no iniquity against the Saints to charge it upon them or to reproach them with it In the petty Sessions which Christ held with some of his Saints and Churches here on Earth amongst their Commendations there were some Exceptions and some faultinesses were charged upon them an Howbeit 2 Chron. 22.33 a Nevertheless Ch. 33.17 as abatements of their excellencies Nevertheless I have a few things against thee Rev. 2. So in the Process against the Church of Ephesus verse 4. Nevertheless a But against Pergamos verse 14. Against Thyatira v. 20. a Notwithstanding c. But now in the judicial Process of this last and Vniversal Assizes there is not found in all those voluminous Records which shall be opened so much as one unsavoury But to blemish the fair Characters of the Saints as if even before they got into Heaven they had obtained that priviledg to be just men made perfect This is very wonderful Had Reprobate men and Angels had the drawing up of the Report of the Saints lives Heb. 12.23 See the reason of it page 134. sub fine what a black Bill of Inditement would they have preferred against them to be sure all the evil which they ever did in their whole lives with all their blackest aggravations should have been raked up and produced against them Yea if the Saints themselves had been trusted with giving in the story of their own lives they would not have dealt much more kindly by themselves than the Seed of the Serpent would have done to be sure if there were any thing worse than other they would not have concealed it vilifying the good and aggravating the bad as somtimes they were wont to do in their desertions even beyond truth and justice as if Satan had hired them to bely themselves I but now the Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth He is far from dealing so with them but as if he himself had never known any evil by them he brings in Omnia bene in his presentment all fair and well and so it is proclaimed in that High Court of Justice This is no small Encouragement for the poor self-accusing Saints of God! Use Rev. 12.10 Although the accuser of the Brethren and his seed do not cease to accuse them before God day and night yea and doth often taking advantage of their natural distempers even to force them to accuse themselves not much more Righteously then He himself doth yet will not the Righteous Judg accuse them But is it not Prophesied of the day of Judgment Object Eccles 12.14 that God shall bring every work into judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil How then is there no mention made of their sins That Scripture is to be understood Respective Sol. sc with a just respect to the two great parties which are to be judged good and bad godly and ungodly that is to say All the good of the good shall be brought into the judgment of mercy and all the evil of the wicked into the judgment of Condemnation the godliness of the godly that it may be gratiously rewarded and the wickedness of the wicked that it may be righteously punished Here Caution I say is encouragement for the Saints howbeit not to sin such a vile Conclusion would ill become such Premisses and were sufficient evidence to un-Saint any person that should deliberately make such Inferences as being a Logick taught in the Devils School not in Christ's and exploded by all real Saints with the greatest abhorrency Ab sit God forbid Rom. 6.1 Comfort then here is for the Saints but such as will make them more Saints 1 Jo. 3.3 Every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure But Secondly Secondly The Crown of praise is put on the Saints Head Another Circumstance of honour in Christ's acknowledgment of the Graces in and Duties performed by his Saints is that although their Graces were nothing else but so many drops of Christ his own fulness Grace for Grace and their duties so many operations of his own Spirit in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.16 nothing their 's but the very act of Believing and the act of Repentance and the act of Love to Christ and the act of Prayer sic in caeteris yet Christ is pleased to ascribe all the Praise and all the Glory both of their Graces and Duties unto the Saints assuming nothing to himself to whom the whol was wholly due as if not only the act it self but the principle also from whence they acted had been their own This is truly wonderful here is the bredth and length depth and height of the Love of Christ Eph. 3.18 19. which passeth knowledg Christ then will indeed be glorified in his Saints and admired in
no more for ever yea the Lord Jesus nailed all their sins to his Cross Colos 2.14 Rom. 4.15 and buried them all in his Grave yea and crossed the debt-book with the red lines of his own blood If now he should call them to remembrance to charge the Saints with their sins he should undo what he had done he should cross the great design of his Cross Rom. 4.25 upon the matter deny himself to be risen again from the dead and disown his own hand and seal Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that sin the least sin the least circumstance of sin should be so much as once mentioned by the Judg in the process of that judicial tryal unless it be in a way of Absolution and so sin shall be mentioned indeed The Saints Absolved of Sin in the day of Iudgment in what sence 1 In their own Conscience but in order to the magnifying of their Pardon and Absolution Their sins may then be said to be blotted out in a two-fold respect First Because the Saints shall then be fully and finally Absolved in their own Consciences It is true there be some of the Saints even in this life to whose Consciences the Spirit of God doth evidence and seal up Remission of sin who are not only safe but sure and possess not only the blessedness of a pardoned estate but the comfort and assurance of that blessedness nevertheless 1. Not all the Saints 2. Nor any at all times 3. Nor alwaies in the same degree as they have their lucida intervalla so they have also and more frequently their dark times their Eclipses as well as their Transfigurations and no wonder since the Sun of Righteousness himself suffered an Eclipse upon the Cross so dreadful as forced the great Master of Astrology in Egypt to cry out Either the God of Nature suffers Aut Dâ—us naturae patitur aut mit di machina dâ—ssolvituâ— or the whol frame of nature is dissolved and caused the Lord Jesus Himself to the just astonishment of Heaven and Earth to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Is it any wonder then if many of the poor Saints of God with Paul and his Ship-wrack't Company see neither Sun-light nor Star-light for many days together and no small tempest doth often lye upon them Act. 27.20 so that all hope of being saved is taken away yea not a few precious deserted Hemans are there Psal 38.15 who from their youth up are afflicted and ready to dye and while they suffer the terrors of God are even distracted yea and that which is more tremendous their Sun as to any observation which Standers by could make though very rarely hath set in a Cloud I but now at this blessed day the Judg of the Quick and the Dead shall Absolve the Saints of God not only at the Tribunal of his own Justice but at the Tribunal of their Conscience He will proclame that Name in their Bosoms which he Proclamed before Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin c. And He will speak so audibly that every Saint shall hear the voyce and so particularly that every one shall know he speaketh to him and shall all eccho back again with joy and joynt acclamation Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 pardoning Iniquity c Nor shall any reflexion either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more Though the Saints cannot plead Not-guilty in regard of fact yet they shall be acquit by the Sentence of Christ Not that they never sinned but that they are before the Judg as if they had never sinned Not in His Account only but even in their own Consciences and that will fully and finally resolve the Question which all the Ministers in the world while they lived on Earth could never resolve with all the Absolutions which ever they applied to their doubting Souls though it were even Clave non errante from the testimony of the Word This Proclamation shall do it and leave no room for doubting or misgiving thoughts for ever Secondly 2ly The Saints absolved in open Court The Saints are then said to receive their full and final Absolution because then their Absolution shall be Proclaimed in open Court the Judg in Person shall pronounce their Absolution in the Audience of God and all the Elect Angels and of the whole world of Men and Devils what Christ in the days of his flesh said to one poor trembling Penitent he will now say to all Sons and Daughters be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you This will be good Cheer indeed These be the times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord when the sins of the Saints shall be blotted out Acts 13.19 blotted they were before out of God's book but now they shall be blotted out in the sight of all the world so that now indeed Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect since Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self must be witnesses to the Crossing of the book and to the Cancelling of the Bond wherein they stood obliged to Divine Justice Oh what inexpressible inconceivable refreshment will this be to the Saints of God even the perfecting of all their former refreshments The sense of their pardon pronounced by the Spirit to some of their Consciences within was wont to be exceeding sweet yea any Scriptural hopes of purdoning mercy though apprehended by a weak and trembling hand of Faith were a reviving to their drooping Spirits What must needs then the highest plerophory ratified by the most solemn Proclamation of the great Judg before the upper and neather world as well as to Conscience be but life from the dead Surely it will be even Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Nor shall any reflection either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more nor shall Willow-boughs mix with the Palms of the Saints Triumph in that blessed Jubile but everlasting joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and sighing shall flee away The Second Branch of the Saints Justification is that the Judg will pronounce them perfectly Righteous This may seem superfluous as supposed to be included in the sentence of Absolution Not to be a Sinner seemeth to imply a Saint To be pardoned all sin and all the degrees of sin and all kinds of sin omissive as well as commissive all defects of perfection all want of conformity to as well as transgression of the Law of God this seemeth to be perfection Answ It doth seem so and truly it doth but seem so for Pardon relates to what is past only Rom. 3.25 Remission of sins that are past it is but privativum quid a freedom from Guilt and a freedom from Punishment it doth not suppose any real and positive Righteousness which may set a man rectus in
it up every drop leaving nothing behind for his Redeemed but large draughts of Love and Salvation in the Sacramental Cup of his own Institution saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood 1 Cor. 11.25 Math. 26.8 for the remission of sins This do ye in remembrance of me Thus my B. look upon Christ as a Mediator in which capacity only he Covenanted with the Father for the Salvation of man-kind and there was not so much as a shadow of any receding from or repenting of what he had undertaken 3. As for the Elect whose Salvation lay at stake there was no doubt to be made of their free consent to the Contract For though they were not originally consulted à parte antè yet as soon as in their several ages and successions they come to be acquainted with the compact between the Father and the Son and begin to understand how deeply they are concerned in it they do not only give in their own affirmative vote but falling down on their faces they break out into joyful acclamations Rom. 7.24 and sing We thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord and again Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Cor. 15 57. 4. Lastly The whole Astipulation between the Father and the Son was solemnly Transacted in open Court in the presence of a publick Notary the Holy Ghost Who being a third Person in the Glorious Trinity of the same divine essence and of equal power and glory makes up a third legal Witness with the Father So the King writes Teste Meipso 1 Jo. 5.7 and the Son They being after the manner of Kings their own Witnesses also For there be three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Behold what can be desired more to make commutations of parties in publick contracts authentique in Courts of Justice than Consent of all parties the Allowance of the Judg and Publique Record And if this self-same commutation of Pennance must be allowed of by those who are for justification by way of satisfaction only Bellar. de justific li. 2. ca. 7. Sec. 4. Stapleâ—on c. Their own argument will serve to prove the necessity of imputation of Christs active obedience to the Law for justification because Nothing say they can satisfie for sin which is an infinite wrong to God but that only which is infinite in value By the same reason Nothing can give us right and title to Eternal Life which is an infinite reward but that which is of infinite worth why should it seem incongruous in this other branch of justification sc by imputed Righteousness Surely God would have the Active as well as the Passive obedience as near the same required by the Law as might be that he might dispence with as little of the Law as was possible It only admits one Objection more and that is Object This Doctrine seemeth to reduce the Law again into Office and to put the crown of Justification upon the head of works against the universal suffrage of the holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament To which I reply Answ This doctrine neither destroys the Law with the Antinomian nor establisheth it as a Covenant of works with the Papists But As the great Office of the Lord Jesus Christ was to reconcile all things Colos 1.20 whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Ex. gr God's Justice and God's Mercy God and Man Jew and Gentile Man and Himself So herein hath our blessed Lord and Mediator magnified his infinite Wisdome and Power in reconciling the Law and the Gospel in this great mystery of Justification wherein the material cause of our Justification is still the Righteousness of the Law so that the Law hath no cause to complain Christ hath done it any wrong And the other Causes are supplied by the Gospel Ex. gr The efficient cause Christ his fulfilling the Law Rom. 10.4 The formal Cause God's Imputation Rom. 10.4 The Instrumental Cause so our Divines phrase it Faith And the moving Final Cause the exaltation of free Grace Rom. 1.20 Accordingly we find the Righteousness of Justification to take its various denominations that is to say In respect of the Material Cause it is called the Righteousness of the Law In respect of the Efficient Cause the Righteousness of Christ Rom. 5.17 1 Cor. 1.30 In respect of the Formal Cause the Righteousness of God the imputing it Rom. 3.22 Phil. 3.9 In respect of the Instrumental Cause the Righteousness of Faith Phil. 3.9 And in respect of the moving and Final Cause we are said to be justified freely by Grace Rom. 3.24 Tit. 3.7 In a word The Law as it was a Covenant of works required exact and perfect obedience in mens proper persons this was legal Justification In the New Covenant God is contented to accept this Righteousness in the hand of a Surety this is Evangelical Justification Thus hath our blessed Lord reconciled The Law also The and also The Gospel also I have done with the Second Accompt I come now to a Third Accompt The Necessity of a Sinner 3d. Accompt The necessity of a Sinner The state and condition of a Sinner doth necessarily require a Righteousness should be imputed to him for his Justification and that to a two-fold End 1. The Setling of solid Peace in his Conscience 2. The Securing of his Appearance in the day of Judgment 1. A positive Righteousness is necessary for the setling of solid Peace in the Conscience of the Sinner The Peace and Comfort of a poor sensible Sinner can never stand firm and stable but upon the basis of a positive Righteousness This is one of the great Arguments whereby the great Apostle in his Christian Caâ—chism so some of the Fathers were wont to call the Epistle to the Romans doth invincibly prove Justification by Faith chap. 5.1 The argument lyeth thus That way of Justification which tends most effectually to settle Peace in the Conscience of a poor Convinced Sinner that must needs be God's way of Justification But Justification by Faith is the most effectual medium to this end Ergo. The first Proposition is founded upon that blessed Truth which the Holy Ghost witnesseth Heb. 6.18 19. the willingness of God that the Heirs of Promise may have strong Consolation the result thereof is this that what-ever medium is aptest to beget strong Confidence and Assurance in their hearts God is graciously pleased to make use of it for their abundant satisfaction The second Proposition namely that Justification by Faith in the sense before explained is the aptest medium to establish solid peace in the bosom of a poor sensible Sinâ—â—r may appear by comparing Works and Faith together Send a poor Sinner to his own Righteousness which is of the Law sc his own good works Holmess Fasting Prayer or the best Service that ever he did for
down the head like a bull-rush Isa 58.5 receiving the Lords Supper Christ-murder c. All their Services were but so many sins and the aggravations of sin so many provocations of God as all done from a Carnal principle by a Carnal rule to Carnal ends nevertheless the Scripture tells us these woful wretches will be ready there to plead for themselves their duties and services which they have done for Christ as vile as they are as they did in the dayes of their flesh Isa 58.3 We have fasted they said we have afflicted our Souls so now also in the day of Judgment False Apostles and scandalous Ministers will then be so bold as to plead their Preaching in Christ's Name and that possibly not without success Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils peradventure even to the work of Conversion Judas might cast out the Devil and yet himself be a Devil John 6.70 he might convert others and yet be unconverted himself they will plead their doing of miracles healing the sick and raising the dead Mat. 7.25 making the Blind to see and the Deaf to hear and the Lame to go and in Christs Name done many mighty works Lkewise loose Christians and formal Professors will then also plead for themselves their hearing Sermons and receiving Sacraments Luke 13.26 c. take it in their own Language We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our Streets their external familiarities with Christ in the Assemblies of the Saints their common gifts and graces any thing then that hath but the likeness of grace upon it Christ shall hear of it Rev. 2.18 23. But all in vain The Judg whose eyes are a flame of fire to search the hearts and the reins will reprobate their persons and performances with an I know you not Luk. 13.25 and again with greater Emphasis I tell you I know you not verse 27. yea once more with a more dreadful note of abhorrency I never knew you Mat. 7.23 I never approved of you nor of any of your Services which ever you performed from the first to the last but my Soul hated both you and them Eightly There will be No begging further time of the Judg no adjourning the Tryal to another Assize-day That Court knows no Reprieve the Sinner's Tryal and Sentence 8. No begging of Day and Execution goe all together the day of Patience was out in the other world I gave her space to Repent and she Repented not and now the Judg swears in his wrath that Sinners shall never enter into his rest Ninthly No days-man tointercede with the Judg 9. No Intercessor Prov. 1.28 God will not he will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear cometh Oh dreadful Calamity which God will stand and laugh at Angels will not Job 5. ◠and to which of the Saints will those miserable Caitifs turn themselves they are upon Thrones round about the Judg but quite to other purposes than to become Advocates to those guilty Malefactors as will anon appear For Tenthly Therefore the Judg shall proceed to the last Acts of Judgment Two Acts of Judgment 1. The Judg will pronounce them guilty which are Two first to Pronounce them guilty of all the Treasons and Misdemeanors which those wretches have been Indited of The Judg indeed to vindicate the justice and equity of the Court will demand of the Convict Sinner Whether he hath any thing to say for himself why he should not receive Judgment to Dye and Sentence to be Executed according to Law but now Conscience shall speak impartially between the Judg and the Sinner justifying the Judg and Condemning the Sinner who having before hand received in himself the Sentence of Death shall now be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without-excuse Rom. 2.20 not able to make the least apology or defence on his own behalf but shall confess before that formidable Assembly Lord though thou judg me to everlasting flames yet thou dost me no wrong but art justified in what thou speakest Psal 51.4 and clear when thou judgest and alas What a miserable thing is this that all the time that the Sinner and his Conscience dwelt together under one Roof and Conscience would fain have spoken out the vile wretch should stop the mouth of his own Conscience and never suffer it faithfully to do its office till now when it will do him no good and tend to no other end but to justifie God and to aggravate his own Condemnation Oh that Sinners would seriously consider this and lay it to heart in time and hearken to the secret whispers of Conscience before it be too late 1 Jo. 3.21 and deal kindly with Conscience now that Conscience may deal kindly with them in that day when one good word from Conscience will be worth a thousand worlds Oh if the Sinner would have done that once willingly which now he doth whether he will or no if he would have judged himself in the day of the Gospel it might have prevented this fatal Judgment now he should not have been judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.31 Oh if the Judg would now speak such a word to the Convicted multitude of Reprobate Cast-aways as once he did to wretched Sinners Behold I make you this Offer that if yet before I proceed to Sentence you will unfeignedly judg your selves I will not judg you neither shall the Sentence of Condemnation pass upon you Oh what an uprore of joy would there be among those miserable Catiffs how would they down on their knees and judg themselves worthy of a thousand Hells and be content to suffer a thousand years Torment to expiate their guilt but though they would do this and if it were possible ten thousand times more no such word shall ever be spoken to them by the Judg their time of Sinning is past and their time of being judged is come and though they do now really judg themselves yet the Judg will proceed to judg them also The Sinner having thus justified the Judg the Judg shall now Condemn the Sinner out of his own mouth and solemnly setting himself down in the Judgment-Seat shall openly in the Court proclaim the Sinner guilty guilty of the whole Indictment preferred against him And then proceed to pronounce Sentence in some such words as these Sinner thou hast been Indited Arraigned and Convicted of High-Treason against the Supream Majesty of Heaven in the breach of his holy Law and in contempt of his blessed Gospel trampling the Son of God under foot Heb 10 29. Chap 6.6 and Crucifying him over and over again and putting him to an open shame c Hear now therefore thy sentence Thou art Accursed for ever the Wrath of God abideth upon thee thou shalt not see light Mat. 25.41 Go thou Cursed into everlasting burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels and what shall be said to one
hated them because they were not of the world even as I was not of the world O Righteous Father for these I opened my mouth and for these I opened my sides and my heart for those was I mocked and scourged and blindfolded and buffetted and Crucified for these I wept and sweatt bled and died Father I will that they whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou hast loved me before the Foundation of the world c. Then shall the Father rise from his Throne and say unto them Come near unto me my Sons and my Daughters that I may kiss you See the smell of my Children is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Then shall he call for Crowns to put upon their heads bracelets upon their Arms Rings upon their fingers palms of Victory Scepters of Royalty into their hands appoint them their several Thrones the Mansions which their Lord went before to prepare for them upon which they shall be placed that they may sit and live reign with Christ their Heavenly Bridegroom for ever and ever everlasting joy shall be upon their heads all Tears shall be wiped from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall fice away And so shall they ever be MOVNT PISGAH OR THE THIRD PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Come to the tenth and last word of comfort The Saints blessed cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord so shall we beever with the Lord. This consequent of Christ's coming is the perfection and crown of all the rest cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord together with the extent and duration of it Ever Now cohabitation containeth four glorious Priviledges viz. 1. Presence 2. Vision 3. Fruition 4. Conformity 1. 1 Priviledge The first Priviledge which cohabition implieth is presence The Saints after their triumphant reception by Christ into his glory shall ever be where he is The Scriptures abound with expressions of this nature appearing in Gods presence Psal 42.2 Col. 3.4 Luke 21. â—â— Psalm 15.1 Rev. 3.21 and 1.5 6 John 17.24 and 14.3 standing before him abiding in his tabernacle dwelling in his holy hill yea dwelling in him and he in us sitting upon his throne and following of him where-ever he goes if at least that Scripture be to be underderstood of Heaven a glorious priviledge certainly for it is the purchase of Christ's blood the fruit of his prayer and one of the great ends of his coming in person at the end of the world that his Saints may be where he is dwell in his family be as near him as â—ationally they can desire 1 Kings 10.8 even stand before him and enjoy â—â—terrupted cohabitation and fellowship with him If the Queen of Sheba accounted it the happiness of Solomon's Servants that they might stand continually before him and hear his wisdom how much rather may we proclaim them happy thrice happy whose feet may stand within the gates of the new Jerusalem for behold a greater than Solomon is here even he Psalm 16.11 of whom the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore A second Priviledge is Vision 2 Priviledge Vision The Saints shall not only be where Christ is 〈◊〉 but they shall enjoy the beatifical viston they shall see and beh'ld that which the seeing and beholding of will make them blessed for ever Now there are six beatifical Objects in Heaven 1. The seat and mansions of blessed Souls 2. The glorified Saints 3. The elect Angels 4. The glorified body of the Lord Jesus 5. God in the Divine essence 6. All things in God The first vision which the Saints shall see 1 Vision the seat of the blessed John 14.2 2 C◠〈…〉 Luke â—â— 4 2 Cor. 12.4 Rev. 2.7 is that which is called Sedes beatorum the seat or babitation of blessed souls the mansions of glory which our Lord hath purchased for his redeemed and which he went before to prepare for them the third Heavens the Palace of the great King A glorius place certainly for therefore it is called Paradise to set forth the beauty and pleasantness of the scituation that as the Paradise wherein God put man in his innocency was the beauty and delight of the whole neather world so Heaven the place which God hath prepared for man restored to perfection is the beauty and glory of all the upper Regions the top and perfection of the whole Creation Behold the outside of this stately Palace is very glorious beautified and adorned with all those bright and glittering Luminaries the Sun Moon and Stars what think you is the inside Consult that description which the Spirit of God hath made of it in the Revelations Chap. 21.18 19 20 21. the wall of jasper the City of pure gold the foundations of the wall of the City garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates of twelve pearls every several gate of one entire pearl the street of the City of pure gold as it were transparent glass and you will surely say Heaven is a glorious place and yet behold this description of it is levelled to the low and childish capacity of our weak and fleshly senses as we judge of things in this imperfect state of mortality what think you then will the glory of the new Jerusalem appear when glorified sense shall be â—levated and raised up to a perfection sutable to its object Surely Heaven will as much exceed the description of it in glory as the bodies of the Saints in the Resurrection shall exceed in beauty these vile bodies of ours when they are resolved into dust and rottenness What shall I need say more Heaven is a place as beautiful and glorious as the wisdom and power of God could devise to make it that it might be the Royal Palace of his own Residence That august and magnificent fabrick which the proud Babylonian Tyrant stood tracking and boasting over Dan 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty was but a prison or hovel in comparison of this building of God 1 Cor. 5.1 that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and those words are proper only for the mouth of God Is not this the new Jerusalem which I have built for the house of the Kingdom and for the glory of my Majesty What David spake of the Temple that little type of Heaven in decimo sexto The house that is for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory c. must be infinitely more august and magnificent in the antitype this the glorified Saints shall behold and it will beyond conception be marvellous in their eyes Secondly a
the Saints know one another upon the account of a temporal alms and shall they not know one another upon the account of spiritual offices performed one for another Lo here is probability if not demonstration for the stating of the Question the fruit of it certainly is as sweet as the truth it self is probable a mighty spur it is to holy and heavenly converse here on earth to converse with one another in grace so that we may promote our mutual converse in glory Ministers so to preach so to live Parents and Governours so to educate and govern their children and families as that they may mutually rejoyce one in another and for another in heaven It cannot but add much to their blessedness and joy in heaven and be matter of praise and glory to God to all eternity especially over such as to whom God hath made us instrumental either to their conversion or to their edification whiles in this vale of tears here we mourned and wept bitterly when we kissed their pale lips and cold cheeks when we follow the corps to the grave and laid them down in their cold beds of dust but there will be joy and glory with infinite compensation when we shall see and say The more unthankful are they that having received so infinite a mercy from God by their ministry would never in their liveâ— open their mouths to acknowledge it to their ministers for their encouragement oh here is my spiritual father who begot me to Christ under whose Ministry I drew my first spiritual breath how sweet are such acknowledgments here Certainly they are the richest rewards of Gods despised and persecuted Servants and Ambassadours here on earth oh what will it be in heaven when grace shall be seen what it is when grace shall have put on its royal apparel Oh what a joy to Parents by nature or by trust to see the dear Child that got into heaven as it were before its time and the Child to embrace the Parent oh this is my Father my Mother my Grandfather my Grandmother that travelled with me the second time till they saw Christ form in my heart oh blessed be God that ever I saw their faces on earth and now shall see them for ever in heaven and so for friends oh this was my soul-friend this was a brother that a kinsman who loved me with a spiritual love an heavenly love that loved me into Christ to heaven to this glory I now possess Christians if these things be not so Aug. Ep. 6. then Augustin mistook his Cordial which he wrote to the Lady Italica after her Husbands death telling her That she should know him amongst the glorified Saints yea know him and love him batter than ever she did in this life yea a greater than Augustin was mistaken else even the great Apostle who himself had been caught up to the third Heavens and saw what was done there even he was mistaken when 1 Thes 2.19 20 by an Apostolical Spirit he dignifieth his Thessalonians with those glorious titles his hope his joy the crown of rejoycing his glory and joy and that in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming Could they be all this to the Apostle in the resurrection and he not know them and be able to distinguish them from all other Saints of God that shall stand on Christs right hand at that day It cannot be What although all such relations do cease in Heaven must the remembrance of such relations cease also Or what if the glorified state make such an alteration in the Saints bodies that they are not the same for colour gesture and some other accidental circumstances as when we knew them in the valley of tears shall there be no lineâ—â—â—ent or property of individuation remaining whereby the quick acute eye of glorified sence may possibly discern who they were There want not instances in our experience of some who from their childhood even unto full age have been absent from their friends whom yet many years after upon a deliberate interview their relations have called to perfect memory again and if such a thing be possible in the imperfect state here why should it seem a thing incredible that the glorified eye and intellect should revive a distinct remembrance of their gracious relations even out of the imperfect bints and notions of their former knowledge If the resurrection do shew nothing of the old individual distinction of persons it may seem to be rather another Creation than a Resurrection and may shake a main Article of our Christian Faith But as clearer evidence than all this I demand further How did Adam know Eve upon the first sight even before God spake a word who she was or whence she came And did he own her as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Will ye say it was by divine instinct and revelation Grant then but so much in this case and it shall suffice especially the rather because this solution of the difficulty will take in the case of elect infants dying before their form and figure can well be discerned possibly stilborn surely a distinct knowledge who they are when glorified will be no small joy to the elect parents to consider that free grace made them the happy vessels to help to people Heaven with such Inhabitants We may not presume to speak definitively in cases not clearly stated by the holy Scriptures but this we may with safety and modesty conclude that if such a mutual knowledge of godly relations in heaven may contribute any glory to God and any addition to the joy of the Saints the absolute perfection of the glorified estate will not permit any doubt about this matter surely if our natural affections of love and delight and joy be not extinguished in heaven but perfected it cannot but add to the elect Mothers joy to see her elect Infant now adult in glory and so for other nearest relations will it not be some accent to their hallelujahs to say This was my precious yâ—ak-fellow this my holy parent this my gracious brother kinsman friend with whom I had sweet communion on earth in holy duties We went to the House of God as friends c. Especially when it may be added whom God made Instrumental to the pulling me out of the infernal lake where the Devil and his Angels are tormented for ever and for the bringing of me into this place of rest and glory Thanks be to God for ever and ever Object If it be objected Doth not this distinct knowledge of our elect relation infer a distinct knowledge also of the Saints reprobate relations in hell And may not that be a Vision of as much terrour as the other of rejoycing Answ I answer No And that upon a two-fold ground First It stands with the analogy of faith to believe that all those affections which imply defect or imperfection shall be totally abolished in Heaven as inconsistent with
the glorified estate Rev. 7.14 21.4 God shall wipe all tears from their eyes Secondly We answer that there shall be such a perfect conformity of will between God and the Saints that there will be no dissent in the least It shall not be then as it is now to the no little imbittering of their present estate first by sin and then by grief for sin but what pleaseth God shall abundantly please them This the Saints pray for here but there shall they be fully possessed of it here it is their duty but there it shall be their reward the Saints in glory would have nothing otherwise than God would have it so that now to the full and perpetual silencing of this Objection I answer That the glory of God shall so perfectly swallow up all private personal considerations that I am confident it is no breach of charity to say that the believing Husband shall rejoyce in the damnation of the unbelieving Wife the holy Parent in the damnation of the stubborn and ungodly Child Et sic in caet Gods Will is the Law and his Glory the triumph of the Heavenly Inhabitants Oh let Parents and Ministers and Governours and Tutors and Yoke-fellows Brethren Friends c. be but as good now as Dives was in hell I mean let them be but in as good carnest here as he was there that their Relations may never come into that place of torment and if they do wilfully cast themselves headlong into that irrecoverable Gulf it will be no grief of heart to them when they come to Heaven But even as God himself they being then swallowed up in God they will even laugh at their calamity and mock when they see their condemnation This shall suffice to have spoken of the second Vision in Glory A third Vision which the Saints shall have in Heaven is that of the elect Angels Gregor do Valent. in Thom. Aquin gives many reasons of that multitude of Angels asserted by Tho. Aquin. and ads Certum est in hac multitudins Angelorum nt mero differentium jus esse Hierarchlas quarum quaelibet contineat tres ordines ita in universum esse novem ordines Angelorum neâ—pe Seraphin Cherubin Thronos in primo Dominationâ—s Virtutes Potestates in secunda Principatus Archangelos Angelos in tertio Gregor tom 1. pa. 10â—6 1027. Certum est saith he de fide in his ipsis ordinibus alios Angelos esse afficio dignitate superiores alios inferiores The Platonists assert as many Angels as there are Species or sensible Creatures Aristotle makes as many Angels as Orbs. R. Moses affirms all the powers and operations of superiour and inferiour things to he so many Angels Tho. Aquinas confidently asserts the number of the Angels incomparably to eâ—ceed the number of material Substances Maniminus Arrianus saith there are ninety nine times more than the number of men in the world they shall see those glorious ministring Spirits those flames of fire the Angels of God by what names or titles soever they are dignified or distinguished in their Hierarchical orders if there be any which because it is a dispute of greater fancy than Scripture evidence and hath filled the world with more empty speculation than substantial knowledge I shall wholly wave it Heaven will be the place only where we shall exactly know their nature number order distictions if any and not so only but have sweet and heavenly converse and communion with them About the way and manner of the Saints knowing and conversing with the Angels is a query of some difference amongst the Learned Some are of opinion that the Angels shall assume aerial bodies to entertain the eyes of the Saints withall and to bring them into a nearer capacity of conversing with them Some è contra conceive that the bodily eyes of the glorified Saints shall be spiritualized and angelified that they shall be able to see the very essence of the Angels as not being so remote from materiality as the Divine Essence Others tell us of a vehiculum Caro Angelificata Text. dâ— Resur or a visible glory as the rayes about the Sun wherein the Angels do move and whereby they are discerned and distinguished from one another But all these are but so many uncertain Comments of mens brains As for that Opinion which makes them knowable only by their operations The Sadduces vigour and activity it is too narrow for so they are known unto us even in this life The immediate and continual converse which the Saints shall have with them in Heaven doth necessarily infer an higher way and manner of knowing them The seeing of them by the glorified eye of the understanding is the clearest and surest way we can pitch upon on this side the place of their constant Residency So they know one another and so they know the Saints and so for the Saints to see and know them is not inconsistent with the analogy of Scripture and Reason In what way and manner this mutual converse and communion betwixt the Saints and Angels in glory shall be managed is not determinable by us poor mortals until this mortal shall put on immortality how they communicate their minds and thoughts one to another is yet dark to us Concerning the Angels converse amongst themselves the Schools speak very rationally when they say it is by the opening of their wills one to another when ever they would communicate their minds and notions and meanings one to another it is done when they would be understood by one another they are understood And the same way they converse with one another it is most probable they converse with the Saints and the Saints with them the Saints may more rationally be conceived to communicate their thoughts to the Angels by opening their minds than by opening their mouths partly because the Angels have no corporeal organs to receive what the Saints express by their corporeal instruments of speech and partly because the superiour part of the Saints their glorified souls being of so spiritual and cognate a nature to the Angels that way of communication which is most agreeable to divine Spirits we may well conceive to be common to those heavenly Inhabitants Whatever the way or manner be this we may be sure of sc that the communion and converse with the Angels in Heaven will be no small augmentation of their happiness and of their joy if we consider their Angelical perfections especially those two of Knowledge and Zeal therefore called in Scripture flaming fire flames for brighiness of illumination and fire for the ardency of their love and zeal Oh what rare notions and experiences will the Angels be able to communicate to the Saints in Heaven having ministred about the Throne of God from the foundation of the world and been sent forth continually to manage the great affairs of the world but especially of the Churches The Apostle tells us they are beholden to the *
have sought for or so much as to have thought of Such a wish in the standing Angels Oh that God would give his own essential eternaly begotten Son to take the humane nature upon him and therein to recover lost man would have been a presumption without doubt which no less than the first ambition of the Apostate Angels probably conceived only in thought might have justly merited their ejection also out of Heaven Oh for the second Person in the glorious Trinity to take upon him the nature of man and that too when it was at the worst when it was fallen and stript of all its original beauty and excellency was more than for all the Angels of light to have been degraded if I may so say into so many Chimney-sweepers or Kennel-rakers or to have been condemn'd to have been made hewers of wood and drawers of wtaer for the service of the reprobate world had it been to have stood for ever This this is the great stupendious mystery which may fill the understanding of men and Angels with wonder and delight to all eternity * Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh the Son of God incarnate Justly then may it swallow up our thoughts with horror and astonishment to descend step by step to the bottom of the Lord Christ his mediatory humiliation and abasement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex omni Scipsum ad nihilum redegit exhausit Tertul. lib. 5. adversus Maâ—cion v. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he debased or vilified himself to find him emptying of himself as it were to the last drop of his glory meekly submitting himself to all the affronts and insolencies of a reprobate world all the temptations and harassing of infernal Spirits and at length to death it self even the death of the cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the cross that death which was proper only to accursed slaves and therein drinking up the bitterest cup that ever was put into the hand of a sinner the cup of his Fathers wrath the venom whereof filled his soul with unconceivable anguish and made him cry out to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth My God my God why bast thou forsaken me In a word if you would come to the bottom of our Lords abasement you must dig to the very bottom of hell it self if there be a bottom there for though Christ did not suffer poenas inferni he did suffer poenas infirnales hellish pains though not the pains of hell Why now then if you would make any discovery of that glory wherewith the humane nature of our blessed Lord is invested at the right hand of God you must skrew up your thoughts to a glory every way adequate and commensurate to his inanition and abasement for less than that not only the love but the justice of his Father could not proportion to him It were good sometimes in our thoughts to compare the abasement of Christ and his exaltation together to set them as it were in columes one over against another He was born in a Stable but now he reigns in his Royal Palace then he had a Manger for his Cradle but now he sets in a Chair of state then Oxen and Asses were his Companions now thousands of Saints and ten thousand thousands of Angels minister round about his Throne then in contempt they called him the Carpenters Son now he obtains by inheritance a more excellent name than the Angels for to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Then he was led away into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil now it is proclaimed before him let all the Angels of God worship him then he had not a place to lay his head on now he is exalted to be the heir of all things in his state of humiliation he endured the contradiction of sinners in his state of exaltation he is adored and admired of Saints and Angels then he had no form or comeliness when we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him now the beauty of his countenance shall send forth such glorious beams that shall dazle the eyes of all the celestial Inhabitants round about him once he was the shame of the world now the glory of heaven the delight of his Father the joy of all the Saints and Angels once he was the obiect of the Reprobates scorn and the Devils malice now they shall be the objects of his most righteous vengeance he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Crucifiges will then be turn'd into Hallelujahs he that was called the Deceiver shall now be adored as the Amen of the Father the faithful and true witness a man of sorrows then but now the mirror of glory Prince of peace then accounted a servant of servants now he shall be called the Lord of Lords King of Kings then they put upon him a mock-robe a fools-coat but now he shall be cloathed with a royal garment down to the foot girt about the paps with a golden girdle the feeble reed shall now be turned into a massie Scepter of gold his Cross of wood into a Throne of glory and the Crown of Thorns into a Crown of Stars In the day of his abasement he was the foot-ball of his enemies kickt up and down the world by every prophane fool but now in the day of his exaltation his enemies shall be made his footstool yea Thrones and principalities being made subject unto him Surely the very prints of his hands and feet and the holes that were bored in his sides shall be so many signal marks and trophies of victory and Thomas 〈◊〉 set now above all doubting may sing in triumph My Lord and my God And lastly the Lord Jesus himself instead of his desertion the lowest step of all his abasement shall solace himself for ever in the vision and fruition of his Father and of the blessed Spirit and instead of my God my God why hast thou forsaken me shall be that triumph I and my Father are one thou Father in me and I in thee These be some crevices through which we may have a glimpse of the glory of our Lords once crucified body the full discovery of it you will never be able to make until you come eye to eye to see and enjoy it in the Kingdom of Heaven witness a second Consideration A second consideration evidencing what a glorious beatifying object the glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus will be in Heaven is 2. Consider The personal and hypostatical union which the humane nature hath with the divine nature of the Son of God Col. 2.9 the sulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily i. e. in his body the fulness of the divine essence dwells in the humane nature and is as it were transparent through his flesh and this makes it to be the most beatifying vision next to the vision of God
without holiness there is no vision for without holiness no man can see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And holiness doth dispose the Soul for this blessed Vision three wayes First By removing the distance between God and the Creature Secondly By assimilating the Soul to God Thirdly By causing mutual delight and complacency between them First Holiness disposeth the Soul for the seeing of God by taking away that distance which is between God and the Soul Sin is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Gulf In this respect sin is Hell which separates between God and the Creature and surely sin sets a vaster distance between the holy God and a sinner than there is between Heaven and Hell yea than there is between God and the Devil that is between God as a Creator and the Devil as he is a creature Until this distance be removed there is no possible access for the Soul to God this partition wall is broken down when holiness is set up and according to the degree of purity is the degree of vision as the Soul passeth from one degree of holiness to another so it passeth from one state and degree of vision to another 2 Cor 3. We all beholding as in a glass c. The purer the glass the brighter the vision Secondly Holiness disposeth for the vision of God by approximation and assimilating the Soul to God Holiness is the very Image of God the divine nature not in a fanatick sense not the divine being Indeed holiness in God is the divine essence but holiness in the Creature is but a gracious quality whereby the Creature resembleth God 1 Pet. 1.15 and is made pure as he is pure holy as he is holy This advanceth the Soul to a nearer vicinity to God whereby it is put into a passive capacity of seeing God passive I say for the formal visive power of seeing God is from the object more than the subject of it scil so far as God is pleased to beam in his glory into the faculty and enableth it to bear it Lumen confortans Schol. holiness only gives the Soul a sutableness to receive in those divine irradiations Thirdly Holiness causeth mutual delight and complacency between God and the Soul all liking is founded in likeness conformity is the fountain of complacency so that until holiness be formed in the Soul neither can God delight in the Soul nor the Soul in God verily without this mutual complacency the vision of God would be penal to the Creature rather than beatifical not much better than that vision which the damned themselves may be conceived to have of God in hell whose vision of God makes full one half of hell at least Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire they see God and despair this is the Worm that never dyeth they only see what they have lost Christians as ye love Gods face look to your boliness God loveth holiness more than he loveth the Creature saith Arminius and I say so too if we understand it of the holiness that dwelleth in God for that is his essential holiness Exod. 15 11 God himself so loving holiness he loveth himself Gods holiness is his glory glorious in holiness he accounts it the most radiant Jewel in his Crown Royal the very varnish and beauty of all his glorious Attributes for the love he beareth to which he loveth to see the very image and likeness of it in the Creature but he loved the Creature so well in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did elect the person unto the qualification though not for the qualification God chose the elect Eph. 1.4 not because he foresaw they would be holy but that they might be holy holiness was not the cause but the end of their election Oh love that dear Souls which God loves so much and loveth to see in his Saints who are therefore called Saints from their holiness There is nothing can make you so beautiful in Gods eye as holiness because in your holiness he seeth the reflection of his own beauty Ezek. 16.14 Taliter pigmentatae Dei habebitis Amorem Tert. Thou wast comely through the comeliness which I put upon thee God cannot chuse but love his own likeness where ever he seeth it oh love the Lord all ye his Saints and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Psal 30.4 Let your hearts leap within you as oft as you think what an holy God you have who if he can but see true holiness in your faces will admit you to see that holiness which is in his face for ever Love holiness I say but be sure it be such an holiness as God loves there is an holiness in the world which is but a thing like holiness but is not so moral righteousness an harmless innocence a sober retiredness from sensual excesses a pretty ingenuity a readiness to do offices of love a negative Religion concerning which you may better tell what it is not than what it is yea there is a thing called holiness in the world that hath not so much as the appearance or shaddow of holiness freedom from grossest impieties and that but partial too not to swear at the highest rate to be soberly drunk and privately unclean Apud vos optimi censentur quos comparatio pessimorum sic facit Arnob. not to be overmuch wicked c. in a word as Arnobius speaks of the Gentiles not to be so bad as the worst is a kind of being good even this Sirs will pass in the world for holiness And lastly there is a superstitious holiness which to the Evangelical holiness is no better than what the Ivy is to the Oak and hath eaten out the very heart of it a Brat which as * Gurnats Christians Compleat Armour p. 2. one saith the Devil hath put to nurse to the Romish Church which hath taken a great deal of pains to bring it up for him and it hath brought in no small revenue as to her self of worldly riches and treasure so to Him of Souls for such holiness is the very road to Hell the followers of Antichrist fill up the greatest part of it But hear our Lord plainly telling you Except your righteousness exceed the best of these ye cannot enter c. Oh Christians get you a copy of grace out of the Scripture-Records those Court-Rolls of Heaven which may be seen and allowed by God and Angels and Saints if ever you desire to see Gods face Holiness of a peculiar strain Titus 2.14 Perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Holiness to the Lord not an holiness that may approve it self to men only that is easily done but unto God Vnblameable holiness in Gods fight Colos 1.22 His holiness Heb. 12.10 That is An holiness which hath God for its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 16. An holiness which hath God for its motive 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Be ye holy as God
presence with God is ever Their vision is ever Their fruition is ever Their conformity to God is ever We shall ever be with the Lord. Quest But why What good have the Saints done to merit such an ever of bliss Answ Nay Christians if we go that way to work we shall be sure to fall short of this ever An Heaven proportionable to the Saints merit is not to be found unless it be amongst their Antipodes in the Regions of darkness if there be an heaven there The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6. ult Hell is the wages of sin pure and proper merit but Heaven is a free gratuitous gift a gift in regard of us though merit in regard of Christ Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that if it be demanded Why Heaven must be for ever The first and only account of merit is the blood of Jesus Christ the Saints were once a lost generation Reasons why the Saints reward in glory must be for ever 1. Christs merit that had sold themselves and their inheritance too and had not wherewithall to redeem either But they had a neer Kinsman even their elder Brother by the Mothers side to whom the right of redemption did belong who being a mighty man of wealth the Heir of all things undertook to be their Goel and out of his own proper substance to redeem both them and their inheritance them to be his own inheritance Ephes 1.10 and Heaven to be theirs 1 Pet. 1.4 And therefore had Heaven been but a moment short of eternity the Redeemer had over-bought it for he laid out the infinite treasures of his blood upon the purchase the blood of God Acts 20.28 had not Heaven been infinite also as in value so likewise in duration it had not stood with the justice of God or his love to his Son to have taken so dear for it It is this ever in the Text which makes Heaven to be but an even bargain were there a period of time though after the revolution of never so many Ages wherein the purchase were to expire Price and Inheritance and Heirs were all lost for ever Behold this is the first Reason A second account may be in respect of the elect themselves 2. Reason Saints have immortal Souls The Saints have immortal souls souls that have an ever stampt upon them an ever a parte post an enduring ever though not a parte ante a beginning ever or rather an ever without beginning of such an ever the Saints were uncapable God himself with holy reverence be it spoken could not have bestowed such an ever upon the Creatures for then he must have made them so many Gods and this God could not do and that because he is omnipotent there is but one supreme but one omnipotent but now an ever a parte post an enduring ever God by divine Covenant conferr'd upon their souls and will invest their bodies also with at the Resurrection that so eternal Beings might be capable of eternal Rewards the wicked of torments the godly of bliss both eternal If there were not this ever upon the beatitudes as well as upon the persons of the Saints they would be extreamly losers by it and outlive their own happiness Thirdly 3. Reason Saints Graces are eternal Such a cessation of the joyes of Heaven would be as inconsistent with the Saints Graces as it is with their beings God hath beautified their immortal souls with immortal graces 1 Cor. 13. ult their love abides for ever their zeal is eternal their holiness eternal and all their qualifications for glory are eternal and can their glory it self be mortal It were in vain to contend for perseverance in Grace should we admit falling away from Glory Poor Saints indeed if neither grace here nor glory hereafter could secure their happiness Were grace indeed amissable in this life and glory in the future the foundation of the Lord were not sure and the Saints of all men most miserable Such a cessation is totally inconsistent with the Orthodox faith as well as with the wisdom of God who certainly if he had furnisht the Saints with immortal principles and qualifications for an heaven which would or might determine had taken far more care upon the Mediums than upon the End And oversight incompatible with a wise man much more with the only wise God But the main pillars upon which this blessed Article of our faith everlasting life is built The Attributes of God the main pillars of Heavens eternity 1. The Wisdom of God are the glorious Attributes of God I shall therefore pursue the discovery of this delightful contemplation unto the Spring-head First then The Wisdom of God is the head corner stone upon which we build the belief of this Doctrine Heavens eternity Not to recur to any thing already spoken I shall only take the hint of the Psalmists Question Psal 89.47 Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain For the better understanding whereof we are to take notice that the rise of the Question is a passionate complaint of the Prophet concerning the brevity and misery of the present life in Job's phrase Heb. Short of dayes and full of trouble In the former part of the verse Lord remember how short my time is And in this latter part of the verse he doth as it were expostulate the case with God why God would have it so Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain In which words although he seem to ask God the question yet he giveth himself the answer and the answer is negative q. d. No God made not men in vain It is not possible that the Wisdom of God should make such an excellent Creature as man the master-piece of the whole neather world to no purpose It cannot be that God should bring in such a Creature only to take a turn or two in the world and then to disappear never to be heard of any more What then Why thence he doth rationally infer that certainly in mans creation God had a design upon him in order to a future estate And what was that But what the wise man discovers to us Prov. 16 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself i. e. for his own glory scil The wicked for the day of evil to the manifestation of his justice and the godly for the day of redemption to the exaltation of his free grace in both which however the wicked may seem in this world to go unpunished and the godly unrewarded yet God will have time enough to make reparations to his justice in another world hell and heaven will make amends for all But now after all this should there be a period wherein the flames of hell should be extinguished or the joyes of heaven annihilated if after the first creation suffered a miscarriage the second also should prove
work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord faithful is he that hath called you who also will do it Heaven will make amends for all Fourthly 4th Ground Gods morcy Such a supposed cessation of Heavens glory is totally inconsistent with the mercy and goodness of God that man of God holy David begins his Psalm of thanksgiving in this lower Quire of Saints with this strain Oh give thanks unto the Lord Psal 136.1 for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And having begun in that strain he can sing no other tune all the Psalm over it is as it were the burden of the Song For his mercy endureth for ever And shall we imagine he is now turning his Hallelujahs to a lower key in that celestial Quire to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb No Quicquid in Deo Deut. Rom. 9.23 mercy in God is not a moral or mortal vertue but an essential Attribute God himself eternal Mercy in God hath been from eternity and shall be to eternity it can no more out live its objects the vessels of merey prepared unto glory than it can cease to be mercy God is the Father of mercies and mercy can never go childless God must exercise the infiniteness of his mercy extensive to all eternity as well as intensive above all dimensions Fifthly 5. Attribute Omnipotence The omnipotence of God doth gratifie his mercy in this design for while mercy poureth in this strong liquor of the Lords joy immeasurably into the vessels of glory omnipotence doth support and strengthen those vessels that they split not with their own fulness it were not else imaginable how created vessels should hold uncreated glory and if the vessâ—l should run out or fail the I quor would be lost Sixthly 6. Attribute Eternity God is eternal and therefore Heaven must be eternal also In Heaven there are no second causes which are obnoxious to contingency or alteration all causes there are resolved into the first being and soveraign cause where they remain fixt and immutable as that immense Being himself and because he liveth eternally they shall so live also The eternity of Gods being layeth the foundation of the eternity of the Saints glory * Rev. 21.23 The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it the Sun that shineth there by day the Moon by night are no part of the first Creation which is to †Mat. 5.18 pass away but the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof there shall not be so much as a post of the old fabrick in this new building to infirm or endanger it God alone is the Roof and Foundation of Heaven the very Center and Circumference is God all the Arches and Pillars of Heaven are made of the Tree of life in which no worm can breed which may corrode or consume the Saints mansions no moth is there to fret and eat out the long white robes where with the Saints are adorned nor Thâ—ef to break into the Palace of the great King to steal away their crown from them There is malice enough indeed in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of the bottomless pit and all his cursed Goal-birds to act such hellish villanies not upon the Saints only but upon God himself even to pull him out of his Throne if they could but thanks be to God they are made fast enough in the lowest Dungeon where they are stak'd down by a perpetual Decree and reserved in â—bains of darkness for ever so that the Saints need not fear that Antichristian brood shall ever break loose to cast in one Granado or Fire-ball into the walls of the new Jerusalem or to break open the gates thereof to disturb their peace In a word the Manna of those upper heavens which is the Angelical food the Saints live on is not subject to breed worms which may corrupt their constitution behold the worm is only in the neather place of darkness and yet neither can that eat out any part of the subject on which it feedeth Oh how sweet would that worm be to the Reprobates if but once in a thousand years it might eat out but a piece of them till they were utterly consumed but wo and alas the worm knows only how to augment but not how to shorten the torments of the damned but as it is a never dying worm it self so is the miserable subject also upon which it feedeth there is fire in hell but it is such only as doth nourish its fuel not diminish it Whence should this be But because the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Isai 30. ult And if the justice of God gives eternity both to the torment of hell and the tormented also to sustain it how much easier and sweeter is it to conceive the shine of Gods face is both the eternity of the blessed in glory and of their bliss aso It is true indeed of the neather heavens it is said they shall perish yea all of them shall wax old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but hath he any where said so of the upper heavens too the seat of the blessed souls the mansion house of the great King Surely no Yea to use those words in an accommodated sense at least saith God Isa 66.22 The new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me However even in contemplating the consummation of these neather heavens the Psalmist hath a savoury But which will save all harmless But thou art the same and thy years shall not fail Behold God is the heaven of his Saints what can put a period to this heaven A seventh Attribute is Love 7. Attribute the Love of God Which way should the glory of the Saints come to be extinguished or so much as eclipsed If such a thing could be it must arise from a cessation of divine love which cannot be supposed Will God grow weary of their company Behold he made them when he brought them into that state of glory as perfect as he would have them be I had well nigh said as perfect as he could make them that they might be a meet Bride for his first-born his only begotten Son and now behold he that hated putting away in the fantastical Jew unless it were in case of adultery will he give the Lambs Wife a Bill of divorce and put her out of doors in whom since her first reception there was never sound the least distoyalty no not in thought but remaineth without spot or wrinkle or any such thing as immaculate as the elect Angels or must they also fare no better than the Angels that kept not their first estate Must all be cast out for ever and heaven stand now as an house to be let without a Tenant
passed from death to life and God hath given us eternal life Chap. 5.11 not only will give but hath given as sure as if we were there already and thus in many Scriptures more Now this is certain what hath been may be what some of the Saints have attained and not only by special prerogative others may attain also provided they be not slothful Heb. 6.11 curn 12. but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Thus heaven may be made sure But on the other side The world nor any part of it can be made sure earth cannot 1. It is not all the ensuring Offices in the world nor all the Law or Lawyers in Westminster-hall that can make an undefeazable entail to secure an inheritance upon the third or second generation not only in respect of the brevity and uncertainty of mans life the great mutability in the Creature the wiles and frauds of men who are cunning to deceive but even in regard of the methods and intricacies of the Law it self 1 Tim. 6.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hence the Apostle calls all sublunary possessions uncertain riches to which he opposeth the living God God only is immortal not mutable all the things in the world which men make their riches are uncertain heaven only by a true Copernicisme is fixed the earth moveable and unstable 2. And God would have it so God hath on purpose filled the whole Creation with emptiness and vanity that the heart of man might not be ensnared and beguiled with it for saith God Prov. 23. â— wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not How not Not that which it appears to be a meer non-ens a nothing Not that which the heart of man promises to it self from it happiness and satisfaction nothing less Not fixed and durable for riches verily make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven Supra from whence they came God gave them and when he calls them they take wings and are gone in a moment they cannot be secured as good secure the bird upon the wing as go about to secure the world in any of the elements thereof 3. God would have us sit loose from the Creature here God would have us contented to be at uncertainties Matth. 6. ver 25. Take no thought for your life 34. Take no thought for to morrow In the concerns of the present life God would have us live at an holy kind of adventure and leave all to providence i. e. as to the issues and events of things But oh how are men turned Gods antipodes What cannot be made sure and God would not have to be sure that vain man would make sure and that which may be made sure which God commands us to make sure and what the Saints have made sure this and this only he takes upon trust and leaves it upon Why nots and peradventures Thus man stands as one saith upon his head and shakes his heels against heaven It is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation A second Consideration may be this Motive 2. To get assurance of heaven is a work never unseasonable but never more seasonable than in times of danger and uncertainty when all sublunary things are in a doubtful and wavering condition in such a juncture of time he that can secure heaven by making his calling and election sure he is like the Philosophers good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four-square cast him which way you will he alwayes falls upon a square he is built upon a Rock and cannot be shaken or though he be moved he cannot be removed but stands like a pillar in the Temple of God even like those pillars in Solomon's Temple Jachin and Boaz stability and strength This is the most important business incumbent on us and it being about an Inheritance which is fixed and sure it is both our duty and our wisdom to be so too uncertainty in things of uncertainty is no solecisme but to be uncertain in things of greatest assurance and permanency is an intollerable shame Heaven secur'd our work is done a man may sit down and sing a requiem to his own soul in an holy security Rora hora brevis mora O sidurasset saying Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years for years of eternity eat drink and be merry and not fear the rebuke of O thou fool The joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul entreth into the Lords joy the Inheritance safe a man may well be merry for he can never be miserable He that is sure of Heaven knoweth also that whatever he hath more or less in this life he hath it as The fruit of Gods everlasting electing love The purchase of Christs blood With Gods love as well as with Gods leave By promise as well as by providence As part of his childs portion in earnest of what is to come He knoweth that whatever befalls him on this side heaven Honour or dishonour Good report or bad report Health or sickness Prosperity or adversity Peace or persecution Life or death All shall work together for good his best his spiritual his eternal good Rom. 8.28 Who but a mad man would leave such an estate upon uncertainties The world may call him if they will a wise man but a greater fool goeth not about the streets with a whisk and a batible And truly without this a man cannot rationally take any delight in these inferiour enjoyments this will be a care at the bottom yea it is well now but what it will be hereafter to all eternity I know not Consider in the third place Motive 3. The more wisdom any have attained to the greater hath been their care and diligence to secure to themselves an interest in this future blessedness Witness holy David and Paul Porphyry saith of Photinâ—â— that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose indifferency about the present and contention about the future estate was such as if they had forgotten they were in the body Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee so sings David Psal 73.25 And I forget the things that are behind and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus so professeth holy Paul Phil. 3.13 14. Oh happy security they were careless of the world that they might secure themselves of heaven Fourthly and lastly consider Motive 4. That disappointment is the most afflicting evil that a rational Creature is capable of And there be three Aggravations which render it intolerable First The more precious the concernment the more grievous the disappointment to be disappointed of a common preferment is very vexatious what is it then to be disappointed of a Crown a Kingdom Secondly The higher the confidence of speeding the deeper the anxiety of disappointment to come to the Church door in expectation
of a rich and honourable match and when hands come to be joyned then to be rejected this is enough to distract Thirdly The less hope of recovery the fadder and more killing is the disappointment to be cast in a Suit of Law for an Inheritance which is uncapable of a second trial is enough to put a man besides himself Behold oh precious souls disappointment at the day of Judgment falls under the terror of this threefold aggravation and that in the most dreadful notion that tongue can express or heart conceive 1. Here disappointment is in a matter of no less value than a Crown a Kingdom A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 Life Rev. 2.10 Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 A Kingdom of God Luke 13.28 29. Heaven Matth. 5.3 Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 1.11 Oh how dreadful will that disappointment be especially with that addition Everlasting kingdom 2. This will be the disappointment of highest confidences and presumption None are so confident of beaven as those who have nothing to shew for their right to it most Christians promiscuously so caled think themselves as sure of heaven as if they were there already and oh when these shall come and knock at the door with their bold Lord Lord Mat. 7.21 22 23. cum Luke 13.16 27. open to us crying loud and pleading hard what they have done how they have preach'd and pray'd and received Sacraments and possibly converted others expecting now to have the door opened and ready to set foot over the threshold of heaven and shall then be thrust back with that terrible blast I never knew you depart from me Oh what shame and confusion will this disappointment fill their faces and consciences with for ever Surely this will be the very emphasis of damnation to have been within a step of salvation and yet miss 3. And all this without the least hope of speeding or speaking to Christ any more for ever about the matter of salvation Now therefore fear and tremble and pray that this may not be the portion of your cup from the hand of the Lord. Another Consideration may be This will make you Motive 5. fruitful in the work of Grace Christians that make their calling and election sure will and cannot but be fruitful in good works for by these you must maintain your assurance as being the fruits and evidences of your salvation A third improvement of this point Vse 3 Is this the glory and happiness of the future estate in heaven Let it then excite in us an holy ambition to be often looking into this glory to anticipate it by our frequent contemplations the sweeter the vision the more taking it should be with men of ascending and ambitious spirits Can earth-worms take such complacential contentment from beholding a bag of gold or a field of corn or a sumptuous fabrick and please themselves in a peculiar manner with the reflexion of their interest Psal 108.8 this is mine that appertains to me as David sings Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine Ephraim also is the strength of my head And shall not Saints turn their song to an higher key and be joyful in glory singing upon their beds God is mine and Christ is mine and the Holy Ghost is mine Angels are mine and Saints are mine all the glory of Heaven is mine this for ever with the Lord is mine I knew a rich Mammonist near the place where I was born In Kent that would once a day take all his bage of silver and gold out of his trunks and laying them in several heaps for he was exceeding rich upon a large table would go to the utmost end of the room and there having glutted his eyes with so delightful an object for a good while would all on a sudden take his run to the table and with stretched out arms gathering all into one vast heap as a man overcome and distracted with joy cry out All is mine Quere all is mine Why may not the Children of the Kingdom rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and collecting those treasures of glory into several heaps and embracing them with the arms of faith Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos cry out in an holy extasie All is mine all is mine Shall the adult heir of a fair Lordship or principality be often enquiring into his patrimony search into his writings and even grow great with the thoughts and contemplations of what he is born to And shall not the Heirs of the Inheritance of the Saints in light much rather delight themselves with the fore contemplation of their incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 undefiled inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them Object Yes so we would if we were sure it were ours Sol. And is that the cause of your apathy and flatness of spirits to these heavenly fruitions Truly this very uncertainty should even startle and affright us into an earnest contention to make heaven sure so infinite a weight of glory and we not ascertained of our interest upon some good Scripture-evidence is enough to make us to forget to eat our meat enough to break our sleep and to keep our eyes waking all the night long and to make us take little comfort in the present comforts we possess Quest You will surely ask then Evidences of Heaven What are the Evidences Answ 1. Why Evidence 1. truly this one thing would amount to an evidence and not the least evidence viz. Active endeavour to assure our selves of a share in this Inheritance of the Saints this would argue an high appretiation of this estate in the practical judgment as most incomparably and absolutely eligible this is the very language of an heaven-born-soul What have I to count upon but my treasure which is in heaven What business have I on earth comparable to this to ensure my portion in heaven for this cause I was born and for this end I came into the world the whole earth in comparison of heaven is but a dunghill Cabul 1 Kings 9.13 as Hiram called the Cities which Solomon gave him dirty or displeasing This will argue a child-like spirit Children mind their inheritance absent Children long to be at home at their Fathers house they are often there in their thoughts and wishes so the Saints We groan within our selves desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Secondly Evidence â— Especially if the holiness of heaven do kindle those desires in us more than the happiness when a poor foul can truly say I should not account it an heaven were it not that it is a land of holiness a land flowing with milk and honey of pure and immaculate joyes that there the beauty of holiness shines forth with unconceivable lustre and glory and there saith the soul I shall be in some degree
it with all thy might Labour hard here 's eternal rest after thy labours Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours Thou hast but a moment to work in but an eternity to rest in be industrious now and anon thou shalt be glorious Enter now into thy Lords Vineyard and soon thou shalt enter into thy Lords Joy Take pains here there remains a rest an eternal rest not an eternity of being only but an eternity of well-being Ever be with the Lord. Ply the Oar of duty Christians a blessed Haven is at hand you look for more than others what do you do more than others Never did servants expect such a recompence of reward The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. ult Oh let the fear of missing this glory urge you to the greater diligence let it stir you up to the most severe and intensive acts of holiness and obedience Phil. 2.12 Work out your expected salvation with fear and trembling he that runs for a great prize fears he should fall short Let us fear Heb. 4.1 lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to fall short you cannot merit it by your diligence but your may forfeit it by your sloth Oh work and work out your salvation Hope calleth up a Saint to duty he is said therefore to be saved by hope Christ in the soul and hope of glory Rom. 8. 1 John 3.8 cannot be an idle and sluggish principle He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure There are no bounds to his holy endeavours after conformity to Christ his hope to live with Christ in heaven puts him upon utmost essayes to live the life of Christ here on this side heaven Momentany enjoyments are strong inducements to worldlings to greatest pains and labours and will not the everlasting fruition of God make you stedfast unmoveable and alwayes abounding in the Lords work 1 Cor. 9.52 They run saith Paul for a corruptible crown but we for an incorruptible Oh how should we run They rise early to build an house that in one hour may be consumed to ashes what pains should we take to get an interest in that house which is eternal with God in the heavens They toil and moil and sweat to heap up riches for an unknown possessor and shall not we labour for that better portion that cannot be taken from us Heb. 3.2 Moses was faithful and active in the house of him that appointed him Chap. 11.26 and this did in a great measure excite him he had respect to the recompence of reward and shall we fear to over-do our work who have a clearer prospect of heaven than Moses had His face was vailed we see with open face There 's no inducement to take pains comparable to this ever with the Lord 2 Cor. 3.13 18. Ever in the Presence-chamber of the greatest Monarch in the world may ever upon the Throne giving laws to Kingdoms ever increasing treasures of gold and silver and precious stones ever bathing in the full streams of sublunary pleasures is no wayes comparable to one moments enjoyment of the presence of the Lord in heaven Let that mans money perish with him said that noble Marquess Galeacius Caracciolus who esteemeth all the gold in the world worth one dayes society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit c. I have often thought with my self that if heaven were capable of grief those very rivers of pleasures would swell with the tears of glorified souls to think that they have served God no more served him no better did no more for that God who hath prepared such an heaven full of glory for such an unprofitable servant as I have been Oh how coldly did I pray for this inestimable blessedness How unaffectedly did I hear the report of this great salvation And what little pains did I take for this exceeding and eternal weight of glory which exceeds all hyperboly While slightest expressions are too big for my diligence What! all this joy and so little pains to obtain it All this glory and so little zeal for the glory of God! So great an harvest and so little seed sown So great a reward and so little service Surely there would be a day of humiliation kept in heaven and it might well take up half eternity to bewail the Saints remissness in the work of the Lord were heaven capable of it or did not the reflection of glorified souls upon the former iniquities of their holy things issue only unto the admiration of the riches of that grace which hath brought them to glory But though heaven will not admit of grief thy present estate will mourn therefore that thou hast been so dead and so dull in the service of God who hath set before thee no less a reward than the enjoying of himself to all eternity and let the sense thereof quicken thy dead heart to work after another rate for the little remnant of mortality yet behind Say not yet there is two much sand left in the glass for God and eternity say rather Oh that were it not to keep me so much the longer from my Fathers presence oh that every hour yet behind were a day every day a month every month a year every year a life it were all too little for that hope which is laid up for me in heaven Oh had I an hundred pair of hands they were too little to imploy in my heavenly Fathers work an hundred pair of feet they would not carry me fast enough in the way of his Commandments an hundred pair of eyes were not enough to behold God in every Creature round about me Col. 1.13 a thousand tongues were not sufficient to trumpet forth his praises who hath made me meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Oh Eph. 5.16 what shall I do If I cannot love God more serve him better bring him more glory than hitherto I have done I am undone I am undone Oh redeem Christians the eternal Jubile is at hand the trumpet is ready to sound and the glorious eternal liberty of the Saints and Servants of God ready to be proclaimed up and be doing now as ye would be found when Christ shall come with his mighty Angels and his reward with him that you may hear the blessed Euge Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord. Vse 4 In the fourth place This may serve as a preservative to the people of God to keep them from fainting and falling away in time of sufferings and persecution for righteousness sake after a moments sufferings they shall have eternity of rest they shall ever be with the Lord and thenceforth there shall be no more sufferings nor sorrow all tears shall be wiped from their eyes and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads once hous'd in
heaven and they are safe for ever Persecutors to be sure will not follow them thither but they shall be looked up in hell for ever bound in chains of everlasting darkness for their fury against the people of God suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Ever with the Lord here 's a short fight but an eternal triumph a short race but an immarcessable crown of glory a short storm but an eternal harbour who would not almost be covetous and ambitious of suffering upon such gainful terms One day with the Lord will more than pay for all the Saints sufferings how much more this ever with the Lord There is no proportion between a Christian his Cross and his Crown Rom. 8.18 if the Apostle have brought us in a true account I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Compare a Mole-hill with a Mountain a Glow-worm with a Sun beam a drop with the Ocean and more disproportionable are a Saints sufferings unto his glory here he lets drop a few tears there he swims in a river of pleasures for evermore To convince us of the odds the Apostle puts both into scales and the scales into the hand even of Reason it self see saith he how infinitely the reward praeponderates the sufferings 2 Cor. 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affliction light Glory heavy a weight of glory yea an exceeding weight yea a far more exceeding weight hyperbole upon hyperbole Affliction but for a moment Glory eternity let sense and reason give sentence what equality or proportion an heavy burden may be born a moment how much easilier a light one especially if ye add this consideration that after that little little moment past burden shall never be laid upon the back any more for ever We are apt to think that our sufferings are not only heavy but intollerable the only unparallel'd affliction in the world never sorrow like our sorrow but they will appear as they are poor and inconsiderable when we come to heaven then our Mountains will appear Mole-hills How will a prison look then when for a few dayes confinement we shall have the glorious liberty of the Sons of God in the highest heavens dayes without end How will then the reproach of Christ appear to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt when for a little shame and ignominy thou shalt shine as the Sun in the Firmament for ever How will thy former poverty for Christ look then 1 Pet. 1.5 when thou shalt be possessed of the inheritance of the Saints in light Incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for thee Nay if thou shalt loose thy life for Christ it shall seem but a poor stake when thou shalt be crowned with all the beatitudes of life eternal Oh labour for such thoughts of sufferings now as thou wilt have then and this will carry thee through fire and water for Christs sake and with the Daughter of Sion cause thee to shake thy head at them Though sufferings offend thee now and are very grievous to the fleshy part yet it will be no grief of heart to thee then when thou comest to put on thy Robe and thy Crown and to sit down with Christ on his Throne If there could be grief in heaven about sufferings it would grieve a Saint that he had suffered no more for Christ or suffered with no more patience courage and holy insulting over the persecutors 40. Martyrs in Basil now led by his sufferings into so much glory Pore not then upon thy sufferings but look up to the Crown that is prepared to be set upon thy head after thy sufferings behold Martyrdom it self shall be but as Elijah's Chariot to carry thee up to heaven in triumph If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him if we wear his Crown of thorns we shall wear his Crown of glory if we dye with him we shall also rise with him and reign with him for ever Think much of the Kingdom to expel base fears in sufferings This is the glorious recompence which Christ sets before his Church Luke 12.32 to encourage her in the midst of her persecutions Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom If a Kingdom yea the Kingdom of Heaven be able to make you amends for your sufferings you shall not be losers by them well you may be losers for Christ but to be sure you shall not be losers by Christ Our Lord Christ himself did set the joy of this Kingdom before himself in his temptations and sufferings Heb. 12.2 and the Apostle therein set Christ as an example before us Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy which was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame c. Surely the joy of our Lord may well make the servant willing to endure and able to despise the greatest sufferings to laugh at reproaches and to sing in prisons to be like the Leviathan Job 41.27 He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrows cannot make him flee sling-stones are turned with him into stubble darts are counted as stubble he laughs at the shaking of the spear c. Heaven in our eye will make us thus heroick in our persecutions Rom. 5.3 We glory not only in God but we glory in tribulation Hold out then faith and patience but one stile more said Doctor Taylor when he went to the Stake and I am at my Fathers house Oh this word at my Fathers house at home Ever with the Lord this made the holy man to leap over the stile as if he had been a young man going to be married to his Bride Ever with the Lord Vse 5 It may serve as a soveraign cordial against the fear of death man having an immortal soul naturally desireth and breatheth after eternity but man in his corrupt estate being ignorant and mindless of a blessed eternity with God is not willing to dye to leave the shore of this life and to venture upon the unknown immense Ocean of eternity therefore the ungodly mans soul is said to be taken from him Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Sinners do not willingly part with their souls they are torn out of their bodies by violent hands none but a Paul who is ballasted with the hope of everlasting cohabitation with the Lord can desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose from the shore to hoise up sail and make for the heavenly Canaan And well may he that hath made a rich though stormy voyage to the Indies set sail for his own native Country where he may sit down in peace and enrich himself with the gain of his adventure Come hither then oh you trembling souls who through the fear of death have all your lives time been subject to
not as men without hope but comfort one another Obs There is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not We are forbid an hopeless sorrow v. 13. but simply to mourn for the loss of our gracious Relations we are no where forbidden He that hath wrapt up natural affections in our bowels doth not prohibit the due and moderate exercise of them Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons without natural affections are in the black Roll amongst the most ulcerous and excrescent part of mankind To be without natural affections is to do violence against Nature her self and to violate the law of humanity Covenant breakers without natural affection are monsters not men Christ himself who knew no sin yet being acquainted with all our griefs even had this kind of sorrow for the dead John 11.35 Jesus wept and his tears do here instruct us in our duty Holy Paul blots his Epistle to the Ephesians with his tears for Epaphroditus Lest saith he I should have sorrow upon sorrow he was sorrowful for his sickness had he dyed there would have been another flood of tears sorrow upon sorrow Where mention is made of the death of publick persons there publick lamentations for them is mentioned also The Spirit of God doth no where reprove those tears but rather puts a value upon them as so many pearls As in the mourning for Jacob Gen. 50.11 for Josias 2 Chron. 35.24 for Samuel 1 Sam. 25.1 for Stephen Acts 8.2 It s reckoned amongst Gods thunderbolts Psal 78.64 Their widows made no lamentation The removal of Gods peace from a people and prohibition to mourn for their dead are twin-judgments or one the birth of another Enter not into the house of mourning neither go to lament nor bemoan them for I have taken away my peace from this people Tears are like wine you may pour them out but take heed of excess Be not drunk with tears wherein is excess you may weep but as those that weep not you may mourn but not as others which have no hope 1 Cor. 7.30 these affections are natural but this hope will baptize and regenerate them Secondly Hence we learn 2. Branch of Information There is another work or duty incumbent on Christians under the loss of gracious Relations Then only to mourn for them namely to enquire yea 1 King 20.33 with Benhadad's servants diligently to observe what words of comfort do fall from the lips of Scripture and hastily to catch at them q. d. Comfort another with these words yea Lord with these words do thou comfort thy servant We are usually either sensless under or swallowed up with great losses either our bowels are made of iron or they melt like wax and we faint away Vehement sorrow is like raging fire that turns every thing into its own nature It 's thy work therefore to study recruits as well as to pore upon thy losses to ballast thy soul with divine comforts If I go not away the Comforter cannot come John 16.7 Many times the best of our earthly enjoyments stand between us and our heavenly consolations But if I go away I will send him unto you It is good to resolve with our selves be my loss in this world never so great it is capable of a reparation For certainly if the loss of Christ in his bodily presence were to be repaired there is nothing under the whole heaven the loss whereof we can sustain but may much easilier be made up with advantage to be sure the presence of the Comforter is able to do it with an infinite overplus It is thy wisdom therefore to ballance thy soul with divine comforts as afflictions abound run to thy Cordial these words that thy consolations may abound also if the affliction scale be heavier than the consolation scale thou wilt certainly sink in thy spirit and then thy burden will break thy back Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man is able to sustein his infirmity Thou mayst mourn but that is not all thou hast to do 2 Cor. 4 14. it concerns thee to get a cordial to keep thy heart from fainting For this cause we faint not Mark the Apostle had alwayes his Cordial about him so do thou be equally just to thy self as to thy deceased friends Thou owest them a debt of tears hast thou paid it Now be just to thy self thou owest a care to thy soul that thou sin not to thy spirit that it sink not must thou needs dye because thy Husband thy Child thy Friend is dead Look after divine consolation let it not be a small thing to thee neither say thou by interpretation nay if God will have this comfort from me let him take all Take heed of weeping thy self blind as to the consolations of God as Hagar did there was a well spring of water close by her but she had cried out her eyes and could not see it Gen. 21.16 until God opened her eyes verse 19. There is too much of the pride and sullenness of the Babylonish Favourite in us who when he had made a large and boasting recital of his Court favours could throw away all in a pet for want of a complement Yet all this availeth me nothing Hest 5.12 13. so long as I see Mordieai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate In all things pray and give thanks Phil. 4.6 Oh labour for the quick eye of faith which can spy out a little mercy in a great deal of affliction and can fit down and give thanks A Christian is never in such an affliction but he hath as much cause to praise God as he hath to pray unto him Lum 3.2 yea many mercies for one affliction that it is not so bad but it might be worse to be sure it is not hell◠2. That when ever he takes away one comfort he leaves more 3. Psal 30.5 That heaviness may continue for a night but joy in the morning 4. And in the mean time he hath a God to go unto Oh love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 31.23 3. 3. Branch of Information Observe further the goodness and condescentions of God who hath laid in comfort before hand against a time of sorrow and mourning Cordials ready prepared to keep the hearts of his people from fainting in the hour of temptation like a good Chirurgeon he hath in his Chest a Salve for every Wound a Cordial for every Qualm there is not a fear in Gods peoples hearts but there is a fear not in Gods Book to antidote it withall and yea here in this model of divine comfort you have ten fear nots for one fear ten words of comfort for one grief conceived for the loss of a dear Relation These words 2 Cor. 1.5 that if our sorrow should abound our consolations may much more abound by Christ God dealeth in this case with his people just as he dealt with our first Parents providing a plaister before-hand to
Not sufficient to capacitate the Saints for glory 2.139 Accusation the Saints shall not be accused by Christ 2.131 Adam most probably saved 3.78 Affections the Saints shall be like God in their affections 3.80 They may be moderately exercised 3.144 Air the place where Christ will stay to meet his Saints and why 1. Because of the capacity of the place 2.125 2. Because of the conspicuity of the judgment 2.126 Angels instruments of the Saints ascension divers wayes 2.106 They separate the sheep from the goats ministerially 2.114 They shall present the elect before Christ in the air 2.127 They shall drag the wicked to the Tribunal to receive their sentence 2.164 The reprobate Angels shall be judged for their first Apostacy and for all their malice against the Saints ever since 2.164 How Saints shall hereafter converse with them 3.15 How they converse among themselves 3.16 How they will be interpreters of God to the Saints in Heaven 3.18 Communion with them in heaven will be a great encrease of our happiness 3.16 They will communicate excellent notions to the Saints in heaven 3.17 Antinomians notion about Christ his being in us 1.29 Apology the sinner shall not make any Apology for himself at the great Assize 2.172 Apostles how they shall judge the twelve tribes 1.49 Appeal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 An appeal from Moses to Christ 2.169 Arrians in denying the deity of Christ discover a double ignorance 1.25 Ascension of the Saints one consequent of Christ his Resurrection It will be effected 1. By the power of Christ 2.104 2. By the ministry of the Angels 2.106 3. By the spirituality of the Saints own bodies 2.107 It is a continued resurrection 2.104 How the Saints ascension holds due proportion with their Lord 2.108 The Saints shall meet together before their ascension 2.112 Assessor the Saints shall be assessors with Christ at the judgment 2.164 Assurance some Saints have it but not all 2.136 Motives to it 3.111 It hath been obtained 3.112 A work never unseasonable and most seasonable in times of danger 3.114 It will make Christians fruitful 3.117 To endeavour after it an evidence of heaven 3.119 It brings divers priviledges 3.114 Whether every one that hath a right to heaven hath an assurance of it Neg. 3.121 What are the mediums to attain assurance 3.123 A twofold Office of the Spirit in attaining assurance 3.123 It is much hindred by our unkindness to Christ 3.128 Atheists and divers other sorts of sinners will be convinced at the day of judgment 2.165 Attributes of God a foundation of the Saints eternity 3.87 B Believers how said to be in Christ and Christ how said to be in believers 1.22 They are Kings Prophets Priests 1.31 They are the sons of God 1.31 They are united to the whole divine nature in the Diety and to each Person of the Trinity 1.35 Blessedness the blessedness of the Saints in heaven is everlasting 3.84 The reasons of it 1. Christs merit 3.85 2. The Saints immortal souls 3.86 3. The Saints graces eternal Ib. 4. The attributes of God 3.87 1. His wisdom ibid. 2. His veracity and truth 3.88 3. His immutability 3.91 4. His mercy 3.92 5. His omnipotency ibid. 6. His eternity ibid. 7. His love 3.96 8. His justice 3 92 Blood the blood of Christ is the fountain of merit but the spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy 1.122 Body the body shall be incorruptible 2.89 It shall be glorious 2.90 1. By vertue of a Principle within 2.90 2. By vertue of an external irradiation ibid. It will depend wholly on the soul at the resurrection 2.95 It is a vile body 2.97 The bodies of the saints shall be like unto God 3.82 Book the book of Gods remembrance and the book of conscience will agree exactly together 2 267 C Children of believers when they dye are not to be looked upon as a lost generation 1.8 Christ accounts not himself full without his members 1.17 His resurrection why called his youth 1.16 He rose as a publick head on which account 1. The saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2. They are assured they shall arise 1.15 He arose by his own strength 1.12 He is risen as our first fruits 1.19 How he is said to be in a believer and a believer said to be in Christ 1.22 How he is the hope of salvation 1.43 His own words more authentick than tradition or revelation 2.63 Whether he shall sit on a visible throne 2.70 He will appear in the same humane nature he assumed of the Virgin and why 2.71 He will appear personally for three reasons 2.70 His first and second coming compared 2.71 His being Judge great terror to the wicked 2.73 Great comfort to the godly 2.75 Two reasons of the certainty of his coming 1. Reason saith he may come 2.78 2. Faith saith he must come ibid. Witness 1. His purchase ibid. 2. His promise 2.79 3. Sacrament of the Supper ibid. 4. His Resurrection ibid. The manner of his coming it will be by a threefold summons 1 A shout 2.80 2 A voice of Archangel 2.81 3 The Trump of God ibid. His coming to give the Law and his coming to judgment compared 2.82 Separation from him the worst part of hell 2.105 His blood the fountain of merit but his spirit the fountain of efficacy 1.122 The benefit of his subjecting of himself to the Law redoundeth not unto himself but to the saints 2.145 He solemnly espoused the saints to himself 2.162 He had a twofold right to the Kingdom of glory 1 Natural 3.19 2 Constitutive ib. A superlative love to him an evidence of heaven 3.120 Christians must reject no doctrine warranted by the word 2.67 Church it is Christs outward not inward fulness 1.17 Comfort for them that are unjustly excluded 2.117 Closet closet duties shall be remembred at the last day 2.128 Cohabitation with Christ containeth four priviledges 1 Presence 3.2 2 Vision ibid. 3 Fruition 3.50 4 Confomity 3.77 Commendation Saints shall be praised and commended at the last day for their graces though wrought in them c. 2.132 Comfort we should administer comfort to mourning friends 3.150 All comfort is in God 3.153 Ministers must see that the comforts they administer be Gods comforts 3.154 Much pride in refusing comfort 3.157 It is as great an indignity to God to slight his comforts as to scorn his counsels 3.156 No comfort belongs to wicked men when they die 3.158 We should labour for comfort in our own death and leave matter of comfort to our surviving friends 3.160 Words of prayer to be joyned with words of comfort 3.165 Compassion compassions of God are great and therefore so are his consolations 3.148 Confidence many confident of heaven that have least right to it 3.117 Conformity of the saints to Christ in the resurrection hath its beginning in regeneration 2.101 Study soul-conformity to Christ 2.102 It is the fountain of complacency 3.42 Conscience the book
of conscience and the book of Gods remembrance will agree exactly together 2.172 Whispers of conscience to be hearkened unto 2.172 Conversion in conversion how sins past present and to come are pardoned and how not 2.134 Righteousness imputed to the saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 Converse knowledge of one another in heaven a great motive to converse one with another on earth 3.11 Covenant a comparison between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace 3.81 Creature we should sit loose from it 3.113 Cross the merit of Christ's cross is for justification and the power of his cross for mortification 2.156 Cup the cup that Christ drank was bitter but it was sweetned with three ingredients 1 But a cup not a sea 2.151 2 His Fathers cup not the Devils ibid. 3 A gift not a curse ibid. D Dead how to behold dead friends 2.103 Relations that die only fallen asleep 1.2 Death our Relations not alone in it 1.9 Our wages 1.10 Every person subject to it 2.65 At the hour of death the Saints are fully pardoned 2 134 Not terrible to a child of God 3.140 Death of some persons dreadful to themselves and to standers by 3.160 It is but a sleep 1.2 Resembled to it in two respects 1.3 Not a total privation of the habit 1.4 The godly infinite gainers by it 1.6 Degree different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 Delusion how are the whispers of God distinguished from the delusions of Satan 3.129 Denyal there will be no denying of sin at the great day 2.167 Desertion Saints under desertion often bely themselves 2.131 Devised the world have counterfeit cordials 3.154 Disappointment a most afflicting evil and admits of three aggravations 3.115 Divine essence we shall not have an intuitive vision of it 3.27 How far we shall have a vision of it 3.30 Do this and live not a commandment only but a covenant 2.144 Draw all men to me how to be understood 2.105 Duties all the Saints duties performed publick or private shall be owned at the last day 2.128 Duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 E Earth the place where the wicked will receive their sentence 2.124 It cannot be made sure 3.112 Election and purchase both perfected by the sanctification of the Spirit 2.123 Holiness not the cause of election but the end of it 3.43 Elect the future estate of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Endeavour after assurance an evidence heaven 3.119 Enjoyments worldly enjoyments not what we fancy them 3.70 Eternity a description of it 3.84 97 Souls not eternal a parte ante and why 3.86 The future estate both of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.88 Eternity of God is an assurance of heaven being eternal 3.92 Evidences of heaven 3.119 A good evidence to be sollicitous about evidences 3.123 Exaltation Christ his exaltation and abasement compared together 3.21 Examination we should examine our selves and suffer others to examine us 3.162 Excuse no excuse for sin at the great day 2.167 172 Eye Gods essence cannot be seen by the bodily eye though glorified but by the eye of the understanding 3.23 F Faith the great saving office of it is to unite the soul to Jesus Christ 1.43 It is an hand to apply the righteousness of the first covenant as fulfilled by our Surety 2.146 Many do believe and yet do not believe that they do believe 3.71 Fear there is never a fear in a Christian but there is a fear not in the Scripture as an Antidote 3.147 Fidelity the faithfulness of the Saints will be owned at the last day 2.128 Fruition whatever the Saints see they enjoy in heaven 3.58 It consists of a tenfold Ingredient 1 Propriety 3.58 2 Possession 3.61 3 Intimacy 3.63 4 Fulness 3.65 5 Suitableness 3.67 6 Fixedness 3.70 7 Reflection 3.71 8 Freshness 3.73 9 Present 3.75 10 Complacency ibid. G Glory different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 The glory of God will swallow up all private and personal considerations 3.14 God he can do what he will 2.100 His essence cannot be seen by the glorified corporeal eye but by the eye of the understanding 3.26 Godly Christ his being Judge great comfort to them 2.75 Good the good of the Saints will be mentioned not their evil at the great day 2.130 None of the good that ever the wicked did shall be mentioned to their honour 2.170 Gospel and Law reconciled in the mystery of justification 2.153 Tryal by the Gospel will be the most severe of any 2.166 Grace in the Saints is under a covenant 1.39 A comparison between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works 3.81 Graves the wicked raked out of them in their ugliness 2.102 They are beds wherein the bodies of the Saints are laid to rest 1.4 Guilty to be not guilty and to be righteous are two different capacities 2.139 H Happiness looking more after holiness than happiness is an evidence of heaven 3.120 Heaven it belongs to the Saints 1 By inheritance 3.60 2 By purchase ibid. In heaven none have the less for what others do enjoy but every one an whole God 3.65 It is a place of unmixed joy 3.69 It may be made sure 3.111 To look after an interest in heaven is an argument of wisdom 3.115 Evidences of it 3.119 Heavenly mindedness the evidence of 〈◊〉 heavenly blessedness 2.112 Hell separation from Christ the worst part of it 2.105 It is a place of unmixed sorrow 3.69 Holy Ghost why so called 2.122 Holiness by the Spirit of holiness Rom. 1.4 what meant 1.12 It doth best capacitate the soul for the Vision of God 3.39 41 In the Saints it is the divine nature not the divine being 3.42 God loveth it more than the creature how it is true and how in Arminius his sense not true 3.42 It is not the cause but the end of election 3.43 What holiness that must be that can capacitate us to see Gods face 3.44 Looking more after holiness than happiness an evidence of heaven 3.120 Humane nature of Christ the highest beatifical object in heaven next to the divine Essence 3.18 The glorifying of Christ's humane nature is the reward of his passion 3.19 Hypocrite no hypocrite in heaven 3.8 I Image that the Image of God suffered a miscarriage was not of improvidence but of ordination 3.80 Imitation it is the duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 Immutability the immutability of God giveth assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.91 Imputation of righteousness is the positive part of justisication 2.133 Imputed righteousness is the same materially that the Law requireth 2.149 Indictment the sinners indictment and plea 2.147 Innocence is no security against oppression and cruelty 1.51 Intercessor there is no Intercessor at the great assize 2.171 Interest to look after an interest in heaven an argument of wisdom 3.115 Justice of God an assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.95 Judge Christ must be the Judge of great terror to
the wicked 2.73 Of great comfort to the godly 2.75 Judgment-day whether the Saints that are then alive must die literally or analogically only 2.65 Why concealed 2.68 Whether Christ will sit upon a visible throne 2.70 Christ will appear in the same humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin and why 2.71 Christ will appear personally for three reasons 1 The judgment must be personal 2.70 2 A recompence to his abasement 2.71 3 To perfect his mediatory office 2.72 Justification the Saints shall be fully and finally justified at the last day which consists 1 In their publick absolution 2.133 2 In the Judge his pronouncing them perfectly righteous 2.138 God justifieth a sinner in that way wherein he may justifie himself 2.141 It is not by any intrinsick merit in faith but extrinsick object that faith layeth hold on 2.148 It is variously denominated according to its causes 2.153 Legal and evangelical what it is 2.154 Law and Gospel reconciled in the mystery of justification 2.153 K Kindness all kindnesses done to Christ or his members will be owned at the day of judgment 2.129 Knowledge whether the Saints shall know one another with a distinguishing knowledge in heaven affirm 3.8 Knowledge of one another in heaven a great motive to converse one with another on earth 3.11 Whether the knowledge of our elect relations in heaven do not infer a distinct knowledge of our relations in hell and whether that may not be terrible Neg. 3.13 How many wayes we shall have knowledge of God set forth by several steps 3.31 L Law pardon is not the qualification that the Law requireth but perfection 2.139 That which God at first wrote in mans heart and afterwards in two tables of stone was a law of a most holy and absolute perfection 2.143 The law the image of Gods nature and will 2.143 It was given to be 1 A rule and pattern of an holy life 2.144 2 A condition of eternal life ibid. It is of perpetual necessity 2.144 It is not to be dispenced withall 2.144 Christ did not bring in another law but another medium to fulfil the former 2.144 Christ as Mediator was born under the law 2.145 Christ his fulfilling the law was performed in and by the humane nature 2.149 Law and Gospel reconciled in the great mystery of justification 2.153 Likeness we shall be like God in 1 Our understanding 3.78 2 Our will 3.80 3 Our affections 3.80 4 Our memories 5 the whole image 1 The soul 3.81 2 the body 3.82 Loss fear of loosing of heaven would make it worse than hell 3.96 Love of God a great assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.94 A superlative love to Christ an evidence of heaven 3.120 M Marriage of the Lamb consummated at the last day and the solemnity of it 2.162 Marriage its happiness consists in suitableness 3.67 Maityrdom like Elijah 's Charriot 3.139 Means God not tyed to them 3.48 Memory the Saints shall be like God in their memories 3.80 Of the Saints shall be like the ark of the covenant 3.80 Mercy the mercy of God an assurance of heavens eternity 3.92 Ministers must preach nothing but what is warranted by the word 2.67 They may preach with success and yet be cast out 2.171 They must see that the comforts they administer be Gods comforts 3.154 Miscarriage of the image of God in Adam not of improvidence but ordination 3.80 Mistake no mistake of one anothers condition in heaven 3.7 Mixture of Saints and sinners will be here 2.116 Mortification exercise the duties of it 3 130 Motives to assurance 3.111 Mourners are to open their ears and hearts to words of comfort 3.156 Mystery divers mysteries mentioned namely 1 Of the Trinity 2 Of the Incarnation 3 Of Election and Reprobation 4 Of the Creation of the World 5 Of the Resurrection 6 Of all the Arcana Naturae 3.51 We must not pry too much into them 3.55 N Nature the fulfilling of the Law was performed in and by the humane nature 2.149 Negatives cannot fill a dying man with comfort 3.160 O Omnipotence all things are alike to it 2.100 It supports the Saints under their happiness as well as the wicked under their misery 3.90 92 It is omnipotence in God that he cannot sin 3 90 Ordinances a dangerous notion of being above them 3.48 In what sense it is good to live above them ibid. Not to rest in or contented with them 3.49 P Pardon pardon of sin is the privative part of justification 2.133 How sins past present and to come are pardoned in conversion and how not 2.134 Sin fully pardoned at death ibid. It makes sin as if it had never been 2.135 It is not sufficient to capacitate the Saints for glory 2.139 It looks backward Righteousness forward 2.142 It is not the qualification which the Law requireth but perfection 2 139 If God should only pardon and not justifie it would seem to reflect upon 1 Gods Wisdom 2 142 2 Gods â—ll-sufficiency ibid. 3 Gods Veracity and Justice ibid. It maketh not a man righteous 2.148 No pardon at the Judgment-seat 2.169 Perseverance stands not in the nature of grace 1.39 It stands not in the liberty or rectitude of the will though regenerate 1.39 It stands upon 1 Divine compact 140 2 Vnion with Christ ibid. Pleasure sensitive pleasures have only their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 108 Praâ—se Saints shall be praised for their graces at the last day though wrought in them c. 2.132 Prayer get the faithful to pray for thee and pray for thy self 3.131 Words of prayer are to be joyned with words of comfort 3.165 Presence the Saints shall ever be in the presence of Christ 3.2 Precepts in one place are promises in another 3.112 Pride there is much of pride in refusing comfort 3.157 Promises ought to be studied 3.163 Learn to which of Christs Offices each promise relateth 3.164 Promises in one place are precepts in another 3.112 Refer them to their distinct heads 3.163 They then bring comfort when they are applied by the Spirit 3.164 Propriety to enjoy heaven and to know I do enjoy it is the happiness of happiness 3.71 Punishment shall not be mitigated at the judgment 2.170 Purchase and election are both perfected by the sanctification of the Spirit 2.123 R Recompence Christ his speaking honourably of the Saints in the last day will abundantly recompence the reproaches they have here 2.133 Reconciliation God is first in reconciliation though sinners first in the transgression 2.169 Redeemer he undertook two great works for the redeemed 1. One to make satisfaction for sin 2. The other to yield absolute conformity to the Law of God 2.140 Regeneration Conformity of the Saints to Christ in the Resurrection hath its beginning in it 2.101 111 Relations ours not alone in their death 1.9 When dead they are not lost but sowen 1.19 Though they cease in heaven yet the remembrance of them ceaseth not 3.12 Remembrance the book of Gods remembrance and book of conscience
will agree exactly 2.167 Reproach Reproaches for Christ better than all the applause of the world 3.83 Reprobate the future estate of the reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Resurrection three things interest a believer in the triumph of Christ's resurrection 1 Power 1.12 2 Office 1.13 3 Right 1. ibid. Christ arose by his own strength 1.12 As a publick head 1.13 On which account 1 The Saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2 They are assured they shall arise 1.15 Resurrection of Christ why called his youth 1.16 An inseparable connexion between the resurrection of Christ and of the Saints 1 Of merit 1.15 2 Of power and influence 1.16 3 Of design 1.17 4 Of union ibid. Christ is risen as our first fruits 1.19 Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our faith 1.20 How Christ shall bring the Saints with him at the resurrection 1 Their souls from heaven 1.47 2 Their bodies from the grave and how 1.47 3 Body and soul he shall take up into the clouds and why 1.48 49 4 He shall carry them back with him into heaven 1.50 It shall put believers that are dead into as good a capacity as those that are alive 2.64 Saints that shall then be found alive will be no otherwise capable of it than under the notion of the dead 2.65 The manner of it 2.86 The admirable properties of it 1 Incorruptible 2.89 2 Glorious 2.90 3 Powerful 2.93 4 Spiritual 2.94 Saints shall rise with the same bodies they lye down with 2.87 The body will depend wholly upon the soul 2.95 Our bodies at the resurrection shall he moved by an extrinsic power but shall move themselves by an intrinsic principle 2.107 Why called the Regeneration 2.101 Three consequents of the resurrection 1 The resurrection of the Saints that are dead 2.86 2 The Saints triumphant ascension 2.104 3 The Saints joyful meeting 1 One with another 2.112 2 All with Christ where 1 The persons meeting 2.120 2 The place where 2.124 3 The ends of their meeting 2.126 Christ will welcome the Saints at the resurrection under a threefold relation 1 As the Fathers election 2.121 2 As the purchase of his blood ibid. 3 As the depositum of the Holy Ghost 2.122 Reward is an encouragement to good works e contra 3.91 Riches have wings 3.105 Righteous to be righteous and not guilty are two different capacities 2.139 Righteousness a positive righteousness is required to the justification of a sinner as well as absolution from guilt and punishment which appears on the account 1 Of the justice of God 2.141 2. Of the perfection of the Law 2.143 3 Of the necessity of the sinner 2.154 4 Of the excellency of the Redeemen 2.157 It looks forward pardon backward 2.142 Righteousness imputed to the Saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 The mediatory righteousness of Christ comes to be a believers as the first Adam 's disobedience came to be his posterities viz. by imputation 2.146 Imputed righteousness the same materially which the Law requireth 2.149 T Sacrament attend often upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 3.132 Saints the dignity of them 1.41 They that are alive at Christ his coming shall have no advantage above those that are dead 2.58 They that are dead shall be first remembred at the resurrection 2.60 Those that are alive will be no otherwise capable of the resurrection than under the notion of the dead 2.65 They shall be solemnly espoused to Christ 2.162 They shall be assessors with him at the judgment 2.164 Scripture inference is Scripture 2.67 It concerns us to search the Scriptures 3.163 In reading Scripture make a collection of the Promises 3.163 Secret whatever kindness was shewed to God in secret shall be openly rewarded 2.130 Self-denyal exercise it 3.130 Separation a perfect separation from the society of sinners at the last day 2.117 Sin why sometimes punished here sometimes not 2.78 The Saints sins not remembred at the last day 2.130 And why 2.134 This is no encouragement to sin 2.131 It is fully pardoned at death 2.134 They will appear as they are at the day of judgment 2.168 A vain thing to call any sin small 2.168 The smallest is dangerous 3.128 It sets us at a great distance from heaven 3.41 An universal hatred of it an evidence of heaven 3.120 It is the Devils image 3.120 Sinner the condition of a sinner doth necessarily require an imputed righteousness 1 To settle solid peace in the conscience 2.154 2 To secure his appearance in the day of judgment 2.157 Sinners are mixed with Saints here contra 2.116 They will dread the society of the godly at the last day as much as formerly they hated it 2.117 They were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Sleep Death but a sleep 1.2 Death resembled to sleep in two respects 1.3 Socinians deceived in saying we shall not have real but aerial bodies at the resurrection 2.96 Sorrow there is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not 3.144 Souls all of one size 2.94 Not everlasting a parte ante and why 3.86 Spirit the Spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy but the blood of Christ the fountain of merit 2.122 Spirit of God hath a twofold office about attaining assurance 3.123 Be tender of it 3.127 None but friends can properly be said to grieve the Spirit 3.128 Sufferings of the Saints will be owned at the resurrection 2.129 T Tears of the Saints are bottled 2.128 Terror it will be horrible terror to the wicked to see the Saints sit in judgment with Christ 2.164 Time no farther time will be granted at the great Assize 2.171 Transgression Sinners were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Translate no translating of sin upon others at the great day 2.168 Tribunal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 Trinity the external works of it are undivided 1.46 The order of their work 1.46 Trumpet one end of the Feast of Trumpets might be to put them in mind of the last day 2.114 Last Trump will not be only audible but articulate 2.115 V Vision six things shall be the object of the Saints Vision 1 The seat of blessed souls 3.3 2 The glorified Saints 3.4 3 The elect Angels 3.15 4 The glorified body of Christ 3.26 5 God in the divine Essence 3.18 6 All things in God 3.42 Of glorified Saints will be wonderful glorious 3.4 We shall not have an intuitive Vision of the divine Essence 3.27 How far we shall have a Vision of the divine Essence 3.30 Of God in Scriture is twofold 1 In Grace 3.40 2 In Glory ibid. How these agree and how they differ 3.46 Unbelief the spring of all our misery 1.21 Understanding the glorified understanding shall have a sixfold perfection 1 Spirituality 3.36 2 Clarity 3.37 3 Capacity 3.38 4. Sanctity ibid. 5 Strength 3.39 6 Fixedness ibid. Our understandings will be like unto God in heaven 3.78 Union