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
3. Earnestly beg the Spirit of God 3. Help Beâ— the Spirit His Office is twofold as to assurance 1. Mediate To clear your evidences The Office of the Spirit twofold 1. Mediate This he doth two wayes 1. By helping the soul to know and believe the evidence as it lyeth in the word such as these He that believeth shall be saved Rom. 10.9 They that through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live Rom. 8.13 Hereby we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 John 3.14 18. cum 19. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 The heirs of glory are only such as God hath made meet for the Inheritance Col. 1.12 He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.12 We groan to be cloathed upon that mortality might beswallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 These and many other are the Graces and Qualifications to which God hath infallibly annexed heaven and glory And to these evidences the Holy Ghost helps the Soul to set his seal as to the infallible testimony of God that they are true John 3.33 2. The Spirit clears the evidence by the Candle of the Lord enabling the Soul to read it evidently written in the heart by his own finger the Spirit enlightens the understanding to see that these graces in the Soul are real and genuine The believer dan say I believe I through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body I keep under my body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9. ult I love the brethren and the more of God I see in them the more my heart cleaves to them I have the Son as a fountain of light and life dwelling in me I am in some measure made meet I hope to be partaker of the inheritance c. Now from the premises the Spirit enables the believer comfortably to issue this blessed conclusion Therefore I shall be saved Therefore I am a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Behold this is the first office of the Spirit Oh pray for it Christians that in judging of your evidences neither on one hand you may be deceived with shadows instead of substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 1.22 Bristol-stones instead of Diamonds as hypocrites deceive themselves and perish for ever nor on the other hand still lye trembling under a causeless suspition that all is but counâ—erfeit when there is no just ground for it and so for the present loose your comfort be sure not to trust your own spirit in so infinite a concern and if at first you cannot so readily make this practical Syllogisme wait and pray for the Spirit which is of God That you may know the things that are freely given to you of God! Cry with David Search me O God 2 Cor. 2.12 and know my heart c. Psal 139.23 24. It is good to be afraid to deceive our selves The second Office of the Spirit is that which some Divines call immediate 2. Office Immediate and it is a bright irradiation of the Holy Ghost beaming out upon the soul not only giving iâ— a clear distinct discerning of its own graces that we referr'd to in the former Office but immediately witnessing to the soul its adoption by Jesus Christ and right and title to the Kingdom of God wherein God speaks to the soul in some such like language as that I am thy salvation Psal 35.3 Making the soul to hear joy and gladness Psal 51.8 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins Isai 44.22 I have redeemed thee like that in the Gospel Thy sins be forgiven thee Matth. 9.2 Now this act is usually called immediate i. e. without the mediation of signs and evidences as in the former Office not but that there are signs and evidences in the person testified but that the Spirit makes no use of them in the act of testification there are gracious qualifications in the soul sufficient to distinguish and justifie it from all the false witness of the lying Spirit upon all seasonable occasions but the Spirit of God doth not refer to any of these qualifications in this act but immediately darts in light and comfort which fill the soul wich joy unspeakable and full of glory This act of the Spirit is sometimes called in Scripture 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seal of the Spirit Ephes 1.13 The office of a Seal being like that of an Oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.16 an end of all strife to put the matter beyond doubt or disputation So a Believer sealed is set beyond all fear or danger and God as it were leaves himself no possibility of receding or going back from his word and promise Heb. 6.18 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This act is called an earnest 2 Cor. 5.5 Who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit Now the office of an earnest is not only to assure but to give possession an earnest is part of the purchase or bargain so is this act of the Spirit an act whereby the soul is not only assured of but put into possession of the heavenly inheritance it is as it were part of it the joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul enters into the joy of the Lord assurance is nothing else but antidated glory heaven on this side heaven This is my B. the second Office of the Spirit which I well know some eminently learned and godly Divines deny acknowledging no other act of the Spirit in assurance but the former But I resolved at the entrance of this work not to dispute but thetically to assert my own opinion and judgment in any point that admits of debate In this case therefore I know and believe there is enough in the former Office of the Spirit to carry a believer to heaven yet this second Office can be no useless redundancy or over plus a Believer will need all the assurance that is to be had and therefore if God be so bountiful to give both let a Believer pray and wait for the promise of the Spirit in both these Offices mediate and immediate if he speed it will be a labour well bestowed if he speed not it will be a labour well lost I have done with this third Help or Means to attain assurance I come to the fourth and shall more briefly dispatch them that remain A fourth Help to get assurance is this 4. Help Be very tender of the Spirit Make much of the Spirit surely it concerns us highly to be very tender of the Spirit for if both kinds of assurance be the fruit of the Spirit we had need to hear as it were founding in our ears Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 whereby ye are sealed to the
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
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
awakened and set upon their feet again in a most beautiful perfect state I say where He and none but He who long since became their Adocate shall now by the appointment of the Father be their Judge Oh what matter of Joy and Triumph will this administer unto the Saints at that day How may they lift up their heads with joy because their Redemption and Redeemer shall then draw nigh Second branch of Comfort in reference to the Saints departed Again The Doctrine of Christ his Personal Appearance at the last day affords no less Consolation in reference to the Saints departed and to this very end doth the Holy Ghost mention it in this place The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative consideration I told you the words have a Relative consideration in them as they do imply an account why the Saints which are alive at the coming of Christ shall not prevent them which are asleep why it immediatly follows For the Lord himself shall descend The Saints of God need not doubt of this either in reference to themselves or to their Relations whom they have sent before them to the Grave The Lord that bought them will see to Their Resurrection in the first place It was the will of him that sent him that of all which he hath given him Joh. 6.39 he might lose nothing but that he should raise it up again in the last day And Jesus Christ is so punctual to his trust that He will not delegate it to any of the Angels or Seraphims but will come in Person to accomplish that charge that so not any one of his little ones may possibly be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing may be lost neither Person nor Member nor Dust but that Christ may present it entirely to his Father at his coming in the same language he spake when he went out of the world Those that thou gavest me John 17. I have kept and none of them is lost He bought them at too dear a rate to leave any one of them in the Grave and therefore to make all sure He will come in Person and finish his work Himself As sure as He ascended up into Heaven after his own Resurrection so surely shall he descend from Heaven to perfect that Resurrection in his Saints which brings me to the second Particular The second particular in this Eighth word of Comfort The second word of Comfort He shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is The Certainty of his coming couch'd in the Verb here He 〈◊〉 shall descend from Heaven He shall i.e. most certainly and infallibly And so all the Scriptures which mention the Coming of the Lord speak of it in the notion of a most unalterable Decree and Statute of Heaven thus the Apostle to the Athenians God hath appointed a day wherein he will judg the world in righteousness Act. 17.31 by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given us assurance c. See how many words here are heaped one upon another to assure our Faith of the infallible certainty of Christs Coming First he hath appointed a day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Statuit diem There is the divine Appointment and Decree past upon it in Gods Eternal purpose and Counsel It is a Statute enacted in Heaven that there shall be a future Judgment a Statute more sure than ever the Laws of the Medes and Persians for Heaven and Earth may pass away but Gods Decree shall stand c. And then there is a certain Day appointed for it a stated time by the same Power A day which can neither be adjourned nor accelerated The time is fixed He hath appointed a day and it cannot be altered And then the Work is determined as well as the day and that is judgment wherein He will Judge The Judgment is not left Arbitrary or Contingent but God is resolved on 't He will Judg not peradventure he may Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as sure as He is God he will Judg. The Persons to be judged are also specified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not less than the whole world He will Judg the world not a single Person shall escape that Judgment 2 Cor. 5.10 we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ As the Persons to be Judged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise the Person that is to Judg is named and designed to it already That man that special that peculiar man the man Christ Jesus And to make all sure he hath his Commission already That man whom he hath Ordained the Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 6.27 is Elected and commission'd under the broad Seal of Heaven is passed And if all this be not enough there is yet further Assurance and evidence given of it already to the world open and evident demonstration if men will not shut their eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fide palam facta omnibus of which he hath given assurance unto all men what that assurance is I shall shew anon In the mean time see how the Holy Ghost useth all the words and expressions which may create a firm assent to the doctrin of Christs coming to Judgment that there may be no room for doubting left Formid Oppositi as the Schools calls it no hesitancy in the minds of men And not here only but in many other Scriptures 2 Cor. 5.10 that hinted even now We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ c. Not we may only but we must Christ must Judg and we must all appear But not to multiply Scriptures take we a brief account of the Grounds And Behold 1. Reason says Reasons or Grounds of the certainty of Christs coming He may Come 2. Faith says He must Come 1. Reason saith He may Come The very Course of Providence shews it The Godly are not the happiest in this world 1 Cor. 15.9 If in this life only says the holy Apostle we had hope in Christ we were of all men most miscrable Vertue hath not a full reward nor Vice sufficient punishment in this life Dives the Representative of the Voluptuous world flowed in ease and pleasure while Lazarus a godly man afflicted with pain and hunger was glad to dine with his Dogs at the dore The Dogs were both his Almoners and his Chirurgeons Things must not go after this rate for ever Sooner or later a man shall say i. e. He that is no more than a man that hath no better eye in his head than the eye of Sense and Reason shall be convinced of this and compelled to confess of a truth There is a reward for the Righteous Verily he is a God that judgeth the Earth Sin is now somtimes punished with * In judicijs suis quae Deus in hoc mundo exercet non est ista plena mensura justitiae quae erit in judicis ultimi Dici
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
cheeks with Tears asking solicitously of every one they met Saw ye not him whom my Soul loveth I say To meet him now on the Throne of his glory of whom could they have had but a glimpse in a glass darkly in the Evangelical Ordinances Can. 6.12 their Souls would have made them like the Chariots of Aminadab To see him whom having not seen they loved and in whom though they then saw him not yet believing they rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of glory I say now to see him and so to see him as to have a full sight of his unveyled face shining more gloriously than ten thousand Suns at Noon-day Once more So to see him as never to lose the sight of him to all Eternity How will this transport their Souls with unspeakable extasies of joy which will cause them to break forth into Triumphant Hymns yea and to call to their now fellow Angels to help them with their Coelestial Hallelujahs Behold such and infinitely more than tongue can express or heart conceive will be the mutual joy triumph between Christ and his Saints at his blessed appearance Go forth in the mean time Use Oh ye Daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown Cant. 3.11 wherewith his Father will Crown him in the day of his Marriage and in the day of the gladness of his heart Gird up the loyns of your minds 1 Pet. 1.13 be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Ch. 4.13 that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad with exceeding joy Thus I have done with the first thing considerable in this meeting The Persons meeting Christ and the Saints I come to the second The place of meeting and that is In the Air. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air That is the place where Christ stays for his Saints There they meet him and there this great Oecumenical Assize will be held The Judge shall sit upon the Throne and all the Saints shall be placed on bright Clouds as on seats or Scaffolds round about him The Wicked remaining below upon the Earth there to receive their final doom and sentence and from thence to be drag'd away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance Infernal Spirits to the place of Execution the bottomless-Pit yet standing and to the greater aggravation of their horror looking on If it be demanded Qu. Why this Solemn Meeting must be in the Air. Answ It may suffice for answer The Lord Jesus hath made choyce of this place It is the priviledg of earthly Judges in their Circuits to appoint the place where they will keep their Assizes or Sessions wherein if stat pro ratione volunt as their will is a sufficient reason surely it is not less the prerogative of this great Judg of the quick and the dead to appoint the place where he will hold this last and tremendous Judgment And we may well acquiesce in the choyce not only because his will is the soveraign Law of the Creature but as his insinite Wisdome hath judged it the place most convenient for the designe And yet if it be lawful to make our Conjectures where Scripture is silent we may humbly suppose this two-fold Account of it 1. The Capacity of the Place 2. The Conspicuity of the Judgment 1. The Capacity of the Place Vast For the Capacity of the Place and as to us insinite will be the numberless numbers of those that do meet in this universal Assembly Behold the Lord will come with ten thousands of his Saints Jude 14. Yea thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him All the Saints that slept in Jesus from the Creation of man and all the Saints which are found alive upon the Earth at Christs Coming must all appear before the Lord Josus And besides these the Judge cometh with his Royal Satellites his Officers of State Myriads and Legions of Angels All his holy Angels Math. 25.31 There shall not be an Angel as it were left in Heaven as it were Jacob met two Hosts or Camps of Angels of God in his Travel Gen. 32.12 Our Saviour mentions more then 12 Legions which as a commanded party Math. 26 53. would have been in an instant sent out for his rescue if there had been need What an infinit Army of Angels must it needs be then when all the Angels come in Christ's Train An innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12.22 And all these must not appear in confused heaps and multitudes but in their distinct ranks and order and the Saints are to sit in Order in their several degrees round about the Throne Why now the Place had need be of an huge extent and circumference that will suffice to receive and contain such variety of multitudes So that even in this respect no place so fit for this August and solemn Convention as the Air for its vast extensiveness and capacity But Secondly Much more in respect of Conspicuity that so the Judg and Judgment with all the Assessors and Attendants might be more eminently visible from Heaven above to the Earth beneath that the whole process of this general Assize may be heard and seen by all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Heaven and Hell Heaven would be too high the Earth would be too low the smoke of the bottomless pit would obscure this glorious vision The Air where is no interposition of Hills and Mountains and now serened and brightned by the confluence of so many glorious Suns will render this last tremendous Transaction visible and audible to every Creature Behold he cometh with Clouds Clouds which will not obscure him but bright Clouds which filled with the beams of his glory shall render him most visible and conspicuous Math. 24.30 Rev. 1.7 So it is Prophesied Every eye shall see him c. Thus it shall be and this will make for the exceeding Glory and Majesty of the Judg For thus it is even in humane Judicatories upon Earth the Tribunal of the Judg and Bench of Assessors is erected in open Court and lifted up on high in the sight of all the people that all may see and hear the whole judicial procedure of the Law with the posse Comitatus attending in Arms for the greater solemnity and honour of the Judge Upon the same accompt hath our Lord made choyce of the Air to keep his great Arsize in there to erect his Royal Throne and to place seats of Judgment for all the Saints to sit upon round about him all the holy Armies of Angels surrounding them This will make Christ very glorious in the eyes of all the Spectators Hence it is said He shall come in the glory of his Father and his own glory The Father sends the Son about this great Work of the last Judgment with as much pomp and glory as can
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
divine essence is an arbitrary and voluntary glass manifesting all mysteries not by necessity but according to the freedom of his own will there the Saints may read to the full the Mystery of the blessed Trinity how three in one and one in three Father Son and Holy Ghost God blessed for ever That thrice glorious and till we come to Heaven not to be fathomed Mystery the wonder and adoration of the believing world that immense ocean over which so many daring Spirits having essayed to fly have fallen in and been drowned that burning light unto which so many presuming to approach too near have scorcht their wings and lost both their eyes and themselves together that sacred Ark into which too many presumptuous Bethshemites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having dared over boldly to look have been smitten What is essence And what is person And how they differ How the Father begets and the Son is begotten and how the Holy Ghost proceeds from both how they are distinguished by their order their personal properties and manner of working upon the Creature how the Father worketh from himself the Son worketh from the Father and the Holy Ghost worketh both from the Father and the Son How there should be alius alius and not aliud aliud c. These will be Lectures which shall be read in the Trinity it self in glory and that in a most clear and intelligible notion then shall the Saints be able to understand the mystery of the incarnation of the second Person the Son of God that Mystery of Godliness of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 because it transforms sinners into Saints and mystery because it containeth so many deep and mysterious wonders in it The blessed blessed-making Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ scil Why the second Person in Trinity rather than the first or third should be incarnate Why he should take the nature of man rather than the nature of Angels and that when it was at the worst how he could take the nature of sinful man and yet not take the sinfulness of his nature the Hypostatical union between the divine and humane natures in the Lord Jesus in one person how there should be there aliud aliud and yet not alius alius That mysterious union between the Lord Christ the Head and all Believers the true Members of his body what it is and how they are made one with Christ as the Father and the Son are one this precious Mystery I say shall then be made manifest Jehn 14.20 at that day you shall know both what it is and how it is that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you c. then and not till then How he that is every where filling Heaven and Earth with his presence should yet be included in the narrow limits of a Virgins womb How he that made the Law should be made under the Law How the Ancient of dayes should become an Infant of moments How he that was begot before all time should be born in the fulness of time Ephes 3.10 How a Virgin and yet a Mother These and a thousand difficulties more wherein doth meet that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiform multivarious wisdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.12 Ephes 3.10 as lines in a center where into the very Angels desire to peep and for some imperfect discoveries whereof they are glad to be beholding to the Lectures read in the Churches by their * Hoc vâ—rd nostra altior no titis praedicatur quam Anclorum tan 〈◊〉 intelligit Petrus ea nobu promitti quorum complementum videre cupiunt Cal. in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alludit ad propuiatorii formam c. Jam tum indicante figurâ fore ut in Christo cujus typur erat arca omnes sapientiae intelligentiae insiderent thesauri per Evangelii praedicationâ—m patesaciendi avidâ— ipsis Angelâ— beatâ— totum hoc mysterium cognoscare cujus etiam exhibitionem jam inde ab ipâ—is Christi noscentu incunabilu ecclesiae enarrâ—rant Beza in loc earthly Angels the Ministers of the Gospel these I say shall be clearly read and understood in that original wisdom wherein they were first conceived That profound and dark Mystery of Election and Reprobation why God should chuse one and leave another Why God should love Jacob and hate Esau Why the one should become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why first the Jews should be a Church and the Gentiles Aliens should afterward be adopted into the Covenant and the Jews broken off and cast out That God should break open the heart of a rebellious sinner by efficacious Grace and deny sufficient aid to one that hath improved his present strength far better With all other the dark profound Mysteries of Gods Decrees shall then be made glasses And lastly That mystery of wickedness and abominations and why God hath suffered him so long to reign and to usurp so great a part of Christs purchased and promised possessions with all his witchcrafts and sorceries whereby he hath deceived the Nations they shall all be discovered and brought to light to his eternal shame and confusion That God should shine out only upon some few spots of ground with the light of the Gospel and shut up the rest in palpable darkness The Creation of the World shall then be more clearly understood in the cause than now it is in the effect how all things were made out of the first matter and that out of nothing Rev. 13 10 14.12 Those hard mysteries of providence which do now try and exercise the faith and patience of the Saints scil Why they that are best should speed worst That there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked and again That there be wicked men Eccl 8.14 unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous In so much that now we call the proud happy Mal. 3.15 and they that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered Why the worse cause should many times have the better success Why God should suffer his dearest Children to be abused and insulted over when wickedness in the mean while triuÌ„mphs securely Why wickedness should be set up in high places and innocence should be trod under foot Somewhat of these Riddles the Word doth now interpret unto the Saints blessed be God to command their silence and submission to God but then shall they return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not all this will be then seen in God to infinite satisfaction The grand Article of the Faith The Resurrection of the dead being then already past shall be fully understood how the body after thousands of years in some through unutterable varieties of mutations and vast
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
which shall fill the memory and the remembrance of them comparing the type with the antitype if I may so say things past with things present will fill the Soul with admiration and delight If any thing of evil do occur whether of sin affliction as soon as ever it enters within that glorious firmament it loseth the nature of evil and is naturalized into matter of rejoycing and thankfulness In a word the entire Image of God Eph. 5.1 It was their duty in the state of grace it shall be their infinite dignity in the state of glory which was imprinted upon the Soul in the first Creation and reprinted upon it though in an imperfect character in the new Creation shall now be perfected to the life in the Regeneration the Saints shall be as like God as ever they can look as like God as ever Children were like their Father so that there will be nothing but looking and liking the one upon the other Prevent that holy gaze now oh ye children of the most high God be often taken up in the beholding and contemplation of the face of your heavenly Father behold will it not Quicken you to duty Comfort you in your droopings Cause you to overlook the contempt of the world with an holy pride And even be the dawnings of glory upon your faces whereby some line and lineaments of beauty shall be added daily to that blessed draught begun already against that day Once more before we go off from this pleasing contemplation add we The very bodies of the Saints shall share in this blessed conformity as well as the soul It had its degree in the first Paradise man had a kind of resemblance to God in the very make of his body The bodies of the Saints Os homini sublims dâ—dit caelumque tueri jussit c. beautiful upright active no such visible picture of God in Heaven or Earth as man was not Sun Moon or Stars not Earth and Sea or the visible Heavens themselves have so much of their Maker in them as the body of man his very corporeal sences had much of God in them they were Vestigia Dei though not Imago one might easily have known who was their Father But now in glory saith the Apostle Our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The glorified body of Christ next to the divine essence to which it is hypostatically united shall be the glory and the wonder of Heaven and our body saith the Apostle shall be like his conformable unto his glorious body What a mirrour of glory will the Saints be in their souls conform'd to the divine nature and their body conform'd to the glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Oh wonderful astonishing transfiguration Well said the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be surely eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man c. This will be an infinite compensation to the Saints of God for all their holy endeavours of being like to God that as obedient Children they have been followers of their heavenly Father Eph. 5.1 and for all the reproaches and abasements they susteined from a reprobate world because of those endeavours The earth was not able to bear the hard speeches wherewith the enemies of God have reproached the footsteps of Gods anointed ones labouring to insist in the steps of their heavenly Father willing to be Nonconformists to the will and lusts of men and striving to be conformable to the will and pattern of their holy King and Law giver the Lord Jesus the King of Saints Now I say it shall be no shame nor grief of heart unto them when they shall reap the fruit of their weak and imperfect conformity on earth in the most full and perfect consummation of that conformity in heaven when behold whatsoever is glorious and wonderful in the person of their glorious Redeemer or in the thrice glorious and blessed Trinity the very print and Character of it shall be stampt upon the glorified Saints in their created capacities causing them to appear not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as so many Angels but even to resemble God himself and to shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father and they that laughed them to scorn shall see it and their faces being filled with shame their consciences with horrour and their hearts with envy they shall now revile and curse themselves howling out Wisd 5.4 We fools accounted their lives madness c. Oh how much better are the reproaches of Christ than all the grandieur and applause in the world Be of good chear all ye Servants of God the time is coming when you shall not repent of your conformity to God and Christ in holiness but shall ever sing I thank the Lord who gave me counsel and taught me to chuse the better part which shall never be taken away from me I come now to the Complement and perfection of this last fruit and consequent of Christ his coming the Saints cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord namely The extent and duration of it in this particle ever We shall ever be with the Lord. The extent and duration ever Ever a little word but of immense signification a Child may speak it It was a witty reply of a Grandchild of Doctor Reynolds now Bishop of Norwich He asking the Child How long Eternity is The Child answered If you will tell me how long half eternity is I will tell you how long whole eternity is but neither Man nor Angel can understand it Oh who can take the demensions of eternity Yea who can tell me how long half eternity is Behold I shew you a Mystery half eternity is eternity yea every part and particle of eternity is eternity for eternity is not made up of hours or dayes or years or lustrums or jubiles or ages or millions of Ages the whole space between the creation of the world and the dissolution of it would not make a day in eternity yea so many years as there be dayes in that space would not fill up an hour in eternity Eternity is one entire Circle beginning and ending in it self This present world which is measured out by such divisions and distinctions of times is therefore mortal and will have end 2 Cor. 4.18 If eternity did consist of finite times though never so large and vast it would not be eternity but a longer tract of time only that which is made up of finite is finite Eternity is but one immense indivisible point wherein there is neither first nor last Deus est octus simplicissimus ex quo omnia sâ—nt in â—uem omnio redeuâ— beginning nor ending succession or alteration but is like God himself one and the same for ever From hence we infer this Doctrine The blessedness of the Saints in Heaven is everlasting Their
towards heaven from whence they came And are these the things which are proper to make up to a man a standing holding selicity No saith the Apostle the things which are not seen are eternal God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect and Heaven and Glory c. these are the only beatifying objects as being only of a pure spiritual fixed immutable nature the things that are not seen are eternal and upon that account only able to constitute an adequte blessedness for an immense and an immortal soul an intellectual being Corporeal delights like so many sparks may make a crack and vanish Sapientl nihil est magnum cui nota est aeternitotu magnitudo Luth. nothing can seem great and excellent to him that knows the infinite vastness of eternity Ever with the Lord here 's a summum bonum for an heaven-born soul this Moses kept his eye upon and therefore all terrestrial felicities were but as sounding brass and a tinckling cymbal much noise but no harmony he saw him that is invisible an elegant contradiction q. d. he saw him that could not be seen he saw him by an eye of faith whom he could not see by an eye of sence and so did Saint Paul and so did all his fellow Apostles and Saints We look on the things which are not seen i. e. we look on them and them and them alone as our ultimate unmixt and supreme good Men and women who have none but eyes of flesh such as beasts have may chuse their good as beasts do by sight and sence but man that is in honour and understands not is like the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 Man that understands not what a bubble what a shadow Ratio humans tantum in praesenti sta◠haeret nihil aliud audit sentit intelligit vider cogitat Luth. in Isai 54.7 what a dream all sublunary glory is man that understands not what immarcessible Crowns of glory are prepared for them that love God this man shall be like the beasts that perish he shall have the burial of an ass though he hath swayed a Scepter he shall fall like a brute into the ditch and dye there though he hath flourished like a green Bay-tree rottenness shall be upon his root and his blossom shall go up into smoak Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye people of the earth spend not your strength in vain and your labour for that which satisfieth not strive not to force that out of the Creature which God never put in you may as well extract fire out of the Ocean mollifie rocks into syrup wash the Ethiopian white as squeeze happiness out of mortality Behold vast sums are required to make up a summum bonum scil Goodness Fulness Sutableness and Immutability Find me such a Creature under the Moon Psal 47.4 Lam. 3.24 and do with it what you please but saith the Church Lord thou shalt chuse our inheritance for us yea the Lord is my portion saith my soul It is impossible to churn happiness out of a Chest of gold it will never come you can never make immarsible crowns of fading flowers Or I will tell you when pleasures profits honours will make you blessed when you can sow your fields with Grace and fill your barns with sheaves of Saffron when the Lord Jesus is your wine the Word of God your bread the bosom of Christ your bed of love the honour of Christ your trade the graces of the Spirit your gold then and not till then you may write happiness upon these things These are the pleasures which are for evermore this is the enduring substance these the Crowns that wither not here you may find that which your soul seeketh for here is the mine here is the vein here the spring of happiness Ever with the Lord. Loose not I beseech you eternal glory for a flash of impure joy sell not an eternal inheritance cheaper than ever Esau sold his birth right for one draught of swill out of the swine-trough of sensual pleasures The Devil offers you the glory of the world God offers eternal glory put not a scorn upon Gods offers nor a cheat upon your own souls the Devils offers are not only inconsiderable but fraudulent he offers that which is none of his own to give the world or if it were it would be insinitely too short of the price he will have for it your precious and immortal souls What shall a man give in exchange for his soul And suppose thou shouldst repent of thy bargain the Devil will not repent of his nor will he sell as he buyeth shouldst thou say to him here Devil take the world and give me my soul again I repent he 'd but laugh at thee and say as the Priests said to Judas See thou to that what is that to me thou hadst what thou agreed'st for I have done thee no wrong The sinners feast is soon served in but the Messengers of divine Justice are preparing the reckoning and then are ready to take away And how sad will the catastrophe of that pleasure be when the sting of the shot must survive in Conscience of the sinner to all eternity Glorified Saints are entertained upon freecost no affeighting thoughts need discompose them so as to break any one draught of those pleasures wherewith their cup runs over or to hinder the pleasing swallow of those delicate morsels wherewith their table is full fraught no army of evils or of devils can break in upon them to make them forsake their Nuptial feast sensitive pleasure is contracted to the narrow point of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sense hath no delight but by the enjoyment of the present object and indeed so is glorified pleasure too but with this difference that Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is eternity it self They shall ever be with the Lord. Oh what a prodigious forfeiture of reason is this for the momentany satisfaction of a sordid lust to loose eternal cohabitation with God this transcendent beatitude ever with the Lord Yea to plunge ones self into that opposite gulf of misery never with the Lord but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2. Thes 1.9 and from the glory of his power The life from God the life with God the life of God can never expire Christians here is your summum bonum chuse it and your souls shall live Use the second It may serve in the next place Vse 2 not only to inform the erroneous judgment 2. It shews how much we are concern'd to secure our interest in this blessed state but also to awaken the sleepy Conscience Is this heaven Is this the summum bonum of immortal souls Then oh how much is every one of us concern'd to secure our interest in this glory What a folly is it for men to take such indefatigable puns to make sure
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
shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds every one walking in their uprightness Death is nothing else but a Writ of ease to the poor weary Servants of Christ a total Cessation from all their labour of nature sin and affliction Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours c. While the Souls of the Saints do Rest in Abrahams Bosome their bodies do sweetly sleep in their Beds of dust as in a safe and Consecrated Dormitory Thus Death is but a sleep Secondly And then again as they that sleep in the night do awake in the morning so shall the Saints of God do This heaviness may endure for a night this night of mortality but joy cometh in the morning In the morning of the Resurrection they shall awake again Psal 17.15 it will not be an everlasting night an endless sleep but as sure as we awake in the morning when we have slept comfortably all night so sure shall the Saints then awake and shall stand upon their feet and we shall behold them again with exceeding joy Oh Blessed morning How should we long and wait for that morning more than they that watch for the dawning of the day It is an errour in Philosophy to call Death a total privation of the habit Divinity hath corrected that errour while it hath taught us to call the dissolution of Nature in the Saints at the most but a sleep Mors ista quam adeò perhorrescimus adeò timemus non est exitus sed transitus veni et eterum qui nos in lucem reponat dies Sen. which in the Philosophers own notion is but a partial privation and doth admit of a Regress or returning again to the habit or former state and capacity more beautiful active and vigorous than ever as hereafter shall appear A comfortable notion which were it realized by Believing would be able to silence our complaints and to still all our moan-makings over our departed Christian friends and Relations how sweet and precious soever they have been to us For do we indeed take on so when any of the Family are gon to Bed before us in the Evening Do we indeed cry out woe and alas my Father is fallen asleep my Mother is laid to Rest my dear Yoak-fellow is gone to bed before me my sweet Child the delight of mine eyes the joy of my heart his eyes are closed the Curtains drawn close about him and I cannot awake him Do we I say thus take on and afflict our selves in this case no surely he would be accounted little better than a Mad-man or a Fool that should do so Oh fie then fie for shame why do we so here the case is the same only if the night be a little longer which yet no man can determine before hand the morning will be infinitely more joyous and make us more abundant compensation for our patience and expectation why are we so unlike our selves in one and in the other Surely because we either forget our notions or believe them not we call the absence of our Friends by a wrong name We say my Father is dead my Mother is dead my Isaack is dead my dear Yoak-Fellow is not and these be killing words Dead the Letter killeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the most terrible of all terrible things the very name of it strikes a chilness and coldness into our hearts enough to kill us before our time for even worldly sorrow many times causeth death Call we then things as God calls them make we use of the notions which God hath suggested to us say we my Parent is gone to bed my Yoak-Fellow is at Rest my beloved Babe is fallen asleep * So also in Scripture is death tearmed a departure 2 Tim. 4.6 an absence from the body a going from home an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5 4.8 Job 15.11 An entring into peace a going to rest Isa 57.2 and behold the terrour of death will cease If God hath cloathed this horrid thing Death with softer notions for our comfort let not the Consolations of the Almighty be a small thing with us Oh how comfortable lives might we live had we but the right notions of things and Faith to realize them Our Friends are not dead but sleep Comfort one another with this Word The second Consolatory Argument is The hopeful condition of these our sleeping Relations 2d Word of Comfort Blessed be God we are not without hope of their happiness even while they thus sleep There be indeed that dye and neither carry away any hope with them nor leave any hope behind them to thâ—â— surviving Relations but the Righteous hath hope in his 〈◊〉 Prov. 14.23 when our gratious Relations dye we nâ—â—â—â—â—se the word sometimes that we may be understood there is hope They are infinite gainers by their death Sometimes they dye full of hope in their own sense Job 19.25 26 27. I know saith Jâ—b that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worme destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God c. Oh Blessed hopeâ— And thus holy Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Glorious Triumph And thus again we may find him in his own name and in the name of other of his Brethren and Companions in Tribulation and in the Kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ marching out of the field of this world in a Victorious manner with Colours flying and Drums beating and thus insulting over Death as a Conqueror 1 Cor. 15.56.57 Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus 2 Pet. 1.11 An abundant entrance is administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Oh the superabundant Consolation of the Heires of promise And if any of the Saints of God at any time their Sun have set under a Cloud so that they are not able to express their own hopes yet they leave behind them sollid Scripture evidences of God's everlasting Electing Love and of their effectual vocation out of the world into the Kingdome and Fellowship of his dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord Evidences of saving vocation Gal. 5.22 23. such as are The Fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Their Poverty of Spirit Holy Mourning For Their own and Other mens Sins Math. 5.3 Their hungering and thirsting after Righteousness 6. v. 8. Their purity of heart visible in the holiness of their lives Their peaceable and peace-making dispositions 9.10 11
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
more By vertue of this Union with Christ the Believer is likewise united to the whole divine nature and essence in the Deity though not essentially and he is likewise united to each person in the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as to the Son John 17.21 Behold that thus it is done to the man whom God will honour Thanks be to God for this unspeakable Grace This is the sixth Property The Seaventh and last Property This Union is an indissoluble Vnion Seventh property Indissoluble This Union between Christ and the Believer is not capable of any separation They are so one that all the violence of the world or all the powers of darkness can never be able to make them two again Hence the Apostle's Triumph Challenge Rom. 8.35 who shall separate us from the love of Christ If the question did not imply a strong negation ver 38 39. the Apostle himself doth give us a negation in words at length neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us c. A long Catalogue consisting of a large induction of various particulars but in all these 't is observable he only instanceth in the creature nor any other creature he leaveth out God and why because God himself is the Author of this Union 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus It is of God and that Upon a three-fold Account 1. It is of God's Preordination This Union of Christ and his Saints was the design of God's everlasting Electing Love Ephes 14. He hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World As the Vnion so the very purpose of it was founded in * Tanquam in capite though not tanquam in causâ not as the cause of Election but as the cause of the good of Election for it is not said for him but in him Vid. Twiss vindic grattae lib. 1. part 2. Digres Prim. Secund. Tert. Christ He hath chosen us in him 2. It is of God the Fathers efficiency the Father tyeth this Marriage knot between his Son and his Spouse for we are his Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus c. The new Creation it is God's work and it is founded on Christ or in Christ created in Christ Jesus c. 3. It is of Gods support As in the first Creation when God had finished the world he took not his hand off but upholds it still by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 So in this second and new Creation when he hath wrought it he takes not off his hand if he should it would quickly collapse into its first nothing How comes it then to pass it doth not why saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.5 you are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation Faith keeps the Believer in this Union but the power of God keeps Faith Why now if after all this God should at any time suspend the influence of this power or by any malice or fraud of men or Devils suffer this Union to miscarry he should fail and cross his own project he should desert his own design this cannot be Here is the Foundation then upon which the Apostle erecteth this Triumph God who only can dissolve this Union will not the Creature which only would dissolve this Union cannot so it stands on a surer bottom then Heaven and Earth our life is hid with Christ in God The Believer is in Christ as Christ is in God hence the unseparableness of this Union John 10.28 29. There is no more pulling the Believer out of the bosome of Christ then there is of Christ out of the bosome of his Father And therefore once more upon this account it is that our Lord compareth this blessed Vnion to that substantial Vnion between the Father and the Son that they may be one as we are one namely to express as the reality and inwardness so also the indeficiency of this spiritual Vnion as thou Father art in me and I in thee As i.e. as fixedly as inseparably as immutably This is the transcendent excellency of this Union above all others it is Eternal Indeed it had a beginning but it shall never have an end All other Unions may suffer a dissolution a Whirl-wind may throw the house off from its foundation Job 1.18 19. as we see in the case of Job's Children a Bill of Divorce may dissolve the Union betwixt Man and Wife in case of the violation of the Marriage Bed Math. 5.31 32. An Axe may dissolve the Union between the Head and Members Death dissolves the Union between the Soul and body c. I but nothing can dissolve the Union between Christ and the Believers nothing shall be able to separate us c. My Text gives us a further instance of this the Saints sleep in Jesus The Union ceaseth not no not in the Grave The Saints sleep in Jesus Observe the progress of it it began in their Regeneration then they received their first Implantation into Christ Rom. 6.3 4 5. whence the Apostle makes Regeneration and being in Christ synonimous Rom. 6.3 4. Next they are said to live in Christ and Christ in them Gal. 2.20 Then to shew there is no in and out * In to day and out to morrow in this Union as some fondly dream we read of their abiding in Christ not only by way of precept which might possibly imply duty only as John 15.4 5. but by way of promise also as 1 John 2.27 Ye shall abide in me which certainly doth express assurance and establishment for ever Rom. 4.16 Therefore they are said in the next place to dye in Christ Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord so verse 16. after the Text makes mention of the dead in Christ so that that which dissolves all other Unions dissolves not this death it self when the Union between body and Soul is dissolved the Union between Christ and Believers dissolveth not Yea see one strain higher yet not only in death but even after death The Soul sleeps not Heb. 12.23 this Vnion holds the Saints are said to sleep in Jesus that part of the Saints which is capable of sleep is not capable of separation from Christ while their more noble part is united to Christ in Heaven amongst the Spirits of just men made perfect Christ is United to their Inferiours and more ignoble part in the Grave their very dust they sleep in Jesus Thus I have opened unto you the blessed and admirable Union which is between Christ and his Saints and it 's most excellent and transcendent properties scil as it is 1. Spiritual 2. Real 3. Operative 4. Enriching 5. Intimous 6. Total 7. Indissoluble Opened did I say Alas it is impossible This Union is a mystery a great mystery Ephes 5.32 next to that Union betwixt the
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
the Angels of Heaven but the Father there 's the doctrine and then the use is verse 42. Watch therefore for ye know not the hour when the Lord doth come Therefore indeed is the last day concealed from us that we may watch every day And therefore Christians look about you what have you been doing so many years together under the ministry of the Gospel are your accompts yet ready are your evidences cleared is your pardon sealed your interest in Christ secured your calling and Eleclion made sure have ye wrought out your salvation with fear and trembling Luk. 12 35 36. Are your lights burning and your loynes girded and you your selves like unto men that wait for the coming of the Lord that when he cometh and knocketh you may open to him immediatly up and for the Lords sake yea for your own sakes make haste this may be the day the hour when the Son of man may come Wo unto that man to whom the coming of the Lord will be a surprize Therefore I say again watch what you do do quickly I come now to the third branch of this seventh word of Comfort sc Third branch of the seventh word of Comfort The ground and reason of this comfortable truth which lieth in the first clause of the next verse For verse 16. the Lord himself shall descend c. The words are of a twofold consideration sc Absolute And Relative The absolute and positive holds forth a main Article of our Faith sc Christ's last coming to judgment in person The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative and so they are a confirmation of this comfortable truth They which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep and why so For the Lord himself shall descend c. In their absolute sense the words are as I say a main Article of our Faith concerning Christ's coming to judgment in person and therefore may justly challenge their room to make up one entire and distinct word of Comfort in this divine context And so I will first consider them and then in their relative tendency sc as they are a ground or reason of the former Comfort In the order of this second part they are the second but in the method of the whole Context 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are The Eighth word of Comfort Eighth word of Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself shall Descend Here the Apostle describes unto us the last coming of Christ to judgment In which description we have three considerable particulars sc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person that shall come The Lord himself 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The certainty of his coming He shall come 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of his coming With a shout I begin with the first of these The Person that shall come 1. The Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself i. e. Jesus Christ God-Man the Mediator between God and Man He that came at first to purchase and redeem the Elect of God the same person will now come to raise them out of their Graves to gather them together and to bring them with him unto Glory He will not send a Deputy-Angel about the solemn work of that day but will descend Himself in Person to finish that last and grand trust of his Mediatory-Office And that upon a twofold account 1. R. Why Christ will come personally sc because the Judgment must be visible 1. The Lord himself will Descend in his own Person Because the judgment must be visible and therefore the Judge must be so too There is a dispute whether Christ shall sit on a visble Throne and it is very probable he shall sure we are from the Scripture that he shall appear in the Clouds of Heaven that He may be heard and seen of all Behold Rev. 1.7 he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him Clouds are visible things and these Clouds shall not obscure him but rather render him more conspicuous Every eye shall see him He shall so come with Clouds that they shall be a Throne to exalt and lift him up to the view of all the world therefore is the posture noted as well as the Throne Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power Math. 26.64 and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Clouds shall be his Throne and sitting will be the posture the posture of a Judge To judge the world is an act of supream Authority and therefore it must be done by one of the three Persons Now the Father and the Spirit are invisible therefore hath the Father appointed a day Act. 17.31 wherein he will judge the world by the man Christ Jesus The Flesh of Christ is a Veil to his Deity by which God is made visible to an eye of Flesh Christ is God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God conspicuous in the humane nature and in that humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin will Jesus Christ appear in Judgment that so every eye may see him the wicked to their terror but the Godly to their unspeakable joy Isa 66.5 Secondly 2. R. for the recompence of his abasement The Lord himself shall appear for a recompence to his abasement It is requisite that he that was judged by the world should now come to judge the world He came at first humble lowly despised sitting upon an Ass spit upon Crucified but he shall come again in power and great glory It is good somtimes to compare the two Comings of Christ together At first he came into the Flesh In Carâ—â—â— he shewed himself in the nature of man to be judged But at his second coming he shall come in the flesh In Carne He shall come from Heaven in the same humane nature which he carried up with him into Heaven there to be the Judg both of the quick and the dead His fore-runner then was John the Baptist the voyce of one crying in the Wildeâ—ness At his second coming his fore-runner shall be an Arch-Angâ— With the voyce of an Arch-Angel and the Trump of God as in the Text. Then his Companions were poor Fisher-men Now his Attendants shall be the mighty Angels of Heaven 2 Thes 1.7 Then he came riding on an Ass a Colt the Foal of an Ass Now he shall come riding on the Clouds sitting on a Throne At his first coming he appeared in the form of a Servant Now he shall come as a Lord in the glory of his Father Then he came in the likeness of sinful Flesh to suffer as a Sinner for Sinners Now he shall appear the second time to them that look for him Heb. 9. last without sin unto Salvation Then he drunk of the brook in the way but now shall he lift up his head This for the recompence
a while and all will not do but down it will come Roof and Walls and Props and All. Or again Natural i. e. such as hath natural motions operations and affections such as are proper only to the fallen Nature of man feeble slow limited and temporary But now behold in opposition to all these acceptations it is raised a spiritual body not in regard of the substance of it as if it were turned into a Spirit but 1. Because animated and acted by the Soul now in its glorified capacity made perfect with all heavenly qualifications and so Spiritualized in all its faculties and operations Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of just men made perfect that it is called no more by the name of a Soul but of a Spirit To the conduct and motions whereof the body NOW shall yield absolute and immutable obedience and conformity Here the Soul depends as it were upon the body Anima sequitur temperamentum Corporis because though the body be acted by the Soul yet the Soul acts according to the temperament of the body and the disposition of the Organs The difference if we take notice of it between men and men in respect of Wisdome and judgment and other natural excellencies Omnes animae sunt ejusdem perfectionis ariseth not from any disparity that is between their Souls for all Souls are of a Size the Soul of a Fool is as perfect as the Soul of a Wise man But the difference ariseth from the Crasis and Complexion of the body which many times puts Yokes and Manacles upon the Soul so that at the best it is but as a close Prison or dark Lant-horn which obstructs and restrains the more noble and liberal operations of the Soul and penn's in those beams of light which if within more transparent Walls would send forth a greater luster to enlighten the world But now in the Resurrection it shall not be so the body then shall depend wholly upon the Soul and be acted properly and indistarbedly by the Soul Here the Soul seems to be flesh it self because acted by the flesh Every way subject to the motions and desires of the Soul Spiritui subdita and is oft subservient to the flesh but then the very body shall seem to be a Spirit because acted by the Spirit and shall be universally and uniformly serviceable to the Spirit The Soul shall immediatly be acted by God and the body shall immediatly be acted by the Soul thus it shall be a Spiritual body Secondly It is raised a spiritual body because it shall subsist as a Spirit it shall stand in no need of those gross material Aliments of meat and drink and sleep by which it is now underpropt but it shall be susteined meerly by vertue of its union with the Soul as the Soul by vertue of its union with Jesus Christ this is to be a spiritual body when the body shall subsist as a Spirit or as an Angel doth subsist Thirdly Spiritual because the motions operations Care Angelica Angelified flesh Tert. de Res and affections of the body shall then be all Spiritual it shall be in the Resurrection of so pure and refined a Complexion that it shall be diaphanous and transparent and move up and down with the agility and celerity of a Spirit Zanchius resembleth it to the motion of birds in the Aire Zanch. De Operibus Dei that the body being hatcht as it were in the Resurrection shall be able to mount up into the Heavens and as lightly flie through the skies as if it had wings David shall then need to wish no more for the wings of a Dove but be able to contend with fouls of the swiftest flight Augustin hath an higher streyn and saith that Miraceleritate The body shall move from place to place with what celerity it listeth and after him Luther expresseth it by the swiftness of a Thought as instantaneous as the Lightning which in the twinkling of an eye passeth from one end of Heaven to another Likewise the operations of the body shall then be all spiritual operations It shall then be abased no more to any of the servile drudgeries of this present state it shall work no more toyl no more sin no more the Offices of the body shall be as far above its present functions as the work of a King transcends the imployment of a Swine-herd or Scullion they shall for ever be freed from all those uses which do imply a state of infirmity and shall be taken up wholly in Heavenly and Angelical Services sc to stand before the Throne of God and of the Lamb and to praise him for ever and ever And lastly the body shall then be Spiritual because it shall be indued with Spiritual Affections it shall not be liable to weariness sickness pain or external injuries no more than a Spirit is It shall not indeed be an Aerial and Spiritual body as the Socinians and others do inconsequentially inferr from this and other Scriptures but it shall be no more capable of a stroke or wound or any other violence than the Air or Sun or the Heavens themselves It shall be a true real body but no more vulnerable or penetrable than if it were a Spectrum an imaginary body a meer Apparition It is true Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God but the meaning is not that in the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints shall cease to be flesh and blood Ver. 50 51. but that they shall be devested of all the defects and infirmities of flesh and blood This is the mystery of it The Fire of the last day the only Purgatory We shall be changed The fire of the last Judgment that only Purgatory of the Saints that we dull Protestants know shall not consume the bodies of the Saints but their corruption only it shall not destroy the substances but refine their qualities as the Goldsmith maketh a new Vessel of old Plate not by altering the mettal but by changing the form and fashion The furnace of the Resurrection shall purge out all the slime and dross and filth and imperfection out of the bodies of the Saints and refine them into a body that shall exceed the Celestial bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars in clarity and purity This is that Affection and Property which the Schools call Impassibility No more capable of a blow or wound than the Air or Heavens or the Sun it self they shall be put into a blessed incapacity or irreceptiveness of any even the least injury or prejudice incident to the humane nature in this state of mortality They shall be no more liable to suffering than the glorified Angels in Heaven or the Spirits of just men made perfect Behold these be now the beatifical properties wherewith the very bodies of the Saints shall be arayed and beautified in the Resurrection Of Corruptible Ignominous Weak Natural It shall be made Incorruptible
God they can afford him little ground of Confidence alas hinc illae lachryâ—ae hence his fears and doubts and diffidence do arise His Prayers need Pardon his Tears need washing Job 10. his very Righteousness will Condemn him here is no place for the sole of his foot to stand uponâ— If thou Lord should'st mark iniquity O Lord Psal 30.3 who shall stand Gal. 2.19 This was that which scared Paul from coming to the Law for Justification Why saith he I through the Law am dead to the Law q. d. That I seek not to the Law for Justification and Life The Law may thank it self I come to the Law for Justification and it convinceth me of sin I plead my innocence that I am not so great a Sinner as others are I plead my Righteousness my duties and good meanings and good desires and it tells me They are all too leight the best of my duties will not save me but the least of my sins will damn me It tells me mine own Righteousnesses do Job 9.20.21 as filthy rags defile me and my duties themselves do witness against me I plead Repentance and it laughs me to scorn It tells me my Repentance needs Pardon and my Tears need washing Besides if they were never so good What careth it for my Repentance It looketh for my Obedience perfect and personal which because I have not it tells me I am Cursed and pronounceth Sentence and when it hath so done it hath no mercy at all for me though I seek it carefully with Tears What can I expect from so severe a Judg I l'e come no more at that Tribunal Behold I appeal to the Gospel there Repentance will pass and Tears will find pitty there imperfect obedience so sincere will find acceptance though not to Justification There there is a better Righteousness provided for me an exact perfect Righteousness as perfect as that of the Law for it is indeed the very Righteousness of the Law though not performed by me yet by my Surety for me The Lord my Righteousness I here 's a foundation for the feet of my Faith to stand upon here I can have pardon of all my debts though the Law will not abate me one farthing here be long white Robes though I never spun a thread of them with my own fingers To this Tribunal will I come and here will I wait for my Justification If I Perish I Perish Yea here Obj. may one say is foundation for presumption to stand on here 's a Bed for Security to sleep in here 's a doctrine to send men merrily to Hell while they break the Law to tell them There is one that hath fulfilled it for them while they sin Christ hath Righteousness enough to justifie them Surely this is a doctrine that makes God not only the Justifier of Sinners but the Justifier of sin too So disputed the Free-will men of those times against the Apostles and so the Free-will men of our times against us but for Answer 1. Answ The Apostle disclaims the Consequence with a vehement negation Absit q. d. God forbid any one should be so impudent to force such a scandalous Conclusion upon such immaculate Premises 2. He shews the reason of it and the reason is taken from the New Covenant wherein God hath inseparably joyned the merit of Christs Cross and the power of Christs Cross together in so much that whosoever hath a share in the merit of the Cross for Justification hath also an interest in the power of his Cross for Mortification He instanceth in himself Verse 20. I am Crucified with Christ q. d. While through grace I appeal to the merit of Christ's death for my Justification I can also through grace evidence my appeal to be Scriptural by the power of the Cross whereby the World is Crucified to me and I to the World Gal. 6.14 And as it is with me so it is with all truly justified persons for they that are Christ's have Crucified the flesh with the Lusts and Affections thereof They have Crucified them Gal. 5.24 and they do Crucifie them they are upon the Cross and with their Lord and Redeemer refuse to come down till they can say with him It is finished therefore let the scandal of the Cross and of Justification cease for ever The Sinner's necessity to such a justification in the day of Judgment Phil. 3.6 Inveniri in Christo tacitam habet relationem ad Dei judicium in ijs nullam invenit condemnationem quia justitiá qualem esse requirit i. e. perfectâ ac cumulatâ exornatos nos invenit nempe justitia Christi per sidem nebis imputaâ—a Bern. in loc Secondly The other indispensable necessity the Sinner hath of such a Righteousness to his Justification is For the securing of his Appearance in the day of Judgment The great Apostle who had as fair a shew for a legal Justification as any other in the world protesteth he dares not think of appearing without this positive Righteousness in the last and dreadful Judgment But oh that I may be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law In Him in Christ not in my self in his Mediatory Righteousnes not in mine own Personal Righteousnesses away with them they are but filthy Rags rotten Clouts dogs-meat in comparison of Christ's Robes Give me the Righteousness which is of God by Faith of Gods Ordination and of Faith's Application That that the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled by Christ in my behalf and then the Law cannot say black is mine eye I fear it not In that if I appear not I am undone for ever Behold here is the Sinner's necessity of such a Justification Peace of Conscience and Boldness in the day of Judgment I come to the fourth Accompt The Excellency of the Redeemer This way of justifying believing Sinners doth infinitely become the excellency of our glorious Redeemer set forth Heb. 7.26 Such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle who is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners made higher than the Heavens Holy By Gods special and immediate Vnction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Consecration of him to his office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harmeless He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 He that would expiate the guilt of others must have none of his own so expounded Verse 27. Vndefiled Immaculate in respect of his humane Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as of the divine without the lest stain or spot of a sinful Nature in him to the same end also he must be Separate from Sinners conceived and born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not after the Law of other the Sons Daughters of Adam for that which is born of flesh is flesh Made higher than the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of an higher Perfection than all created Powers in Heavenly Places whether Angels or
one another and yet unseparable by reason whereof when but one of them is mentioned both of them are to be understood 6. If satisfaction be imputed Righteousness must be imputed also both being the peculiar and proper Office of the Mediator neither of them falling within the capacity of the Creature standing at the Bar of Divine Justice The third end of the Saints meeting with Christ in the Air â— Psal 116. 3d. End Consummation of the Saints Nuptials is The solemn Consummation of the Saints Nuptials with Christ their Bridegroom They were Contracted here on Earth when Christ and the Saints gained one another's consent Jesus Christ did then solemnly Espouse the Saints to himself Hos 2.19 20. I betrothed thee unto me for ever yea I betrothed thee unto me in Righteousness and in Judgment and in loving kindness and in Mercies I even betrothed thee unto me in faithfulness Indeed the Church in her self when Christ came to make Love to her was a very unlovely Creature whose emblem therefore is a poor wretched Infant in the Blood of its Nativity Ezek. 16.4.6 But Jesus Christ did first Love her with a Love of Pity Ezek. 16.6 I saw thee polluted in thine own Blood I saw thee that is I cast an Eye of Pity upon thee my bowels yearned towards thee And then as Love-less as she was that he might have a Legal right to her Eph 5.25 he Purchased her of his Father He Purchased her at a dear rate for He gave himself for her first He gave himself for her and then He gave himself to her They were wont to buy their Wives of the Father of the Damosel but never did Husband buy a Wife at such a Rate as the Lord Jesus did the Church Shechem bid fairly for Dinah Gen. 34.12 Jacobs Daughter Ask me never so much dowry and gift and I will give according as ye shall say unto me Jacob served seven years for Rachel as it fell out twice over c. yea but the Lord Jesus gave himself for his Church he purchased her with his own blood Act. 20 2â— Thirdly That he might love her with a love of Complacency he doth sanctifie her Eph. 5.27 and cleanse her by the washing of water by the word As he doth purchase the Church with his blood so he doth purifie the Church by his Spirit compared to water for the cleansing vertue thereof in the Ministry of the word as Ahashuerus had the Virgins first purified and perfumed before he took them into his bed Fourthly He woeth her by the Ministers of the Gospel who love their Lord and poor Souls so well that they will take no denial at her hand as Eleazer Isack's Steward Gen. 24.33 would not eat before he had sped for Rebeccah to Wife for his Master's Son 2 Cor. 11.2 And when they have gained her consent then they present her as a chast Virgin unto Christ Fifthly Christ and his Church upon their mutual interview like one another so well that they mutually engage and contract themselves one to another Cant. 2.16 they do mutually give away themselves one for and one to another My Beloved is mine and I am His. Sixthly Christ doth nourish her and cherish her until she be of age fit for his Marriage-Bed Seventhly And then He cometh for her and meets her by the way as Isaack met Rebeccah sc in the Air as here in the Context Lastly Consummation of the Marriage Then and there he Consummates the Marriage before God and Angels and Men and Devils he doth take her to himself as his Royal Queen saying Come my Love my Dove my Vndefiled one He embraceth her and kisseth her with a Marriage kiss and takes her to Wife The Marriage knot is knit Heaven and Earth are witnesses to it thousand thousands yea ten thousand times ten thousand even a great multitude whose voyce is as many waters and as the voyce of mighty thunderings This was the Wedding unto which John was invited Rev. 21.9 Come hither I will shew thee the Bride the Lamb's Wife He that had the Bride was the Bridegroom the Lord Jesus King of Kings c. but John the Friend of the Bridegroom Jo. 3 29. stood and rejoyced greatly to hear the Bridegrooms Voyce then indeed was his joy fulfilled At the Consummation of this Marriage what inconceivable Triumph and Rejoycing will there be the loud Musick of Heaven shall sound the voyce of mighty thundrings all the Angels Cherubims Seraphims with all the Blessed Quoire of Celestial Spirits who attend this glorious King of Saints shall praise God with the still Musick of their Hallelujahs yea all the Saints of God whether Patriarchs or Prophets and Apostles all the Martyrs and Confessors of Jesus Christ with the whole number of the Redeemed who are both Guests and Bride in this glorious solemnity will make the Arches of Heaven to Eccho when they shall be joyful in glory and the high praises of God shall be in their mouths Rev. 19.7 singing one to another Let us rejoyce and be glad for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready The Gates of Hell and the very foundations of the Kingdom of darkness shall tremble and be confounded at the report of this Triumphant Jubilâ—e This Nuptâ—ll solemnity finished Fourth end of Saints meeting Christ To sit as Assessors with him Psal 45.9 the next and fourth act in that solemn meeting will be that the Bridegroom will take the Queen his Bride and set her upon his Throne at his right hand as King Agrippa did Bernice Act. 25.27 as a Confessor with himself in the following part of the Judgment which He as Judg shall pass upon the Reprobate world of men and Devils who have all this while stood trembling below upon the Earth beholding to their infinite shame and horror all this glory put upon the Saints and fearfully looking for their own Judgment and that fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries which now succeeds For the Elect Angels who are appointed to be the Satellites or Posse comitatus to attend the Judg shall now drag that miserable company of Jale-birds those reprobate Caitifs of infernal Spirits The judgment of the wicked and wicked Men before the Tribunal of the great Judg there they shall pass under a most impartial exact and severe Tryal Mal. 3.16 the books shall be opened the book of Gods Remembrance and the book of their own Consciences and out of them they shall be judged for all the evils which ever they committed from the time they first had a being in the world The Reprobate Angels shall then be judged for their first Apostacy Ad solomen calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi perdere Min. Fel. Oct. and for all their malice and revenge which since that cursed defection they ever acted against God and against his Saints yea and against the
shall be said to all Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire where the Worm never dyeth and the fire is not quenched into utter darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth there to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels for ever Now during all this tremendous transaction the Saints shall sit in judicature as Assessors or Justices of the Peace with Christ upon the Bench seeing and hearing all that is done by the Judg voting with him approving and applauding him in his judicial proceedings crying out with loud acclamations Thou art Righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus and other Saints shall eccho to them saying Even so Lord God Almighty true and Righteous are thy Judgments Thus the Saints shall judg the world Rev. 16.57 1 Cor. 6 2. yea they shall judg the Angels the Reprobate Angels but of this I have spoken more largely in the former part of this Treatise I come now to the Fifth end of the Saints meeting with Christ sc To receive their compleat and final Benediction Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world A blessed Sentence indeed every word in it is Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Come my Love my Dove my undefiled One stand at no longer distance come and follow me whither I go I will that where I am there you may be also Ye Blessed Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places Your Enemies on Earth accounted you the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.13 and the off-scouring of all things Sathan hath desired to have you that you might be accursed with him for ever but ye are blessed and shall be blessed for ever Blessed of my Father Blessed in the eternal electing love of the Father Blessed in the Son's purchase you have washed your garments white in the blood of the Lamb Blessed by the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 and renewing of the Holy Ghost Inherit Ye are Children Heirs Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ behold I have adopted you to be follow-heirs with my self and the Father hath made you meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Oh come now and take possession of your Inheritance behold it is not less than a Kingdom for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk. 12.32 the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Glory behold it is Prepared In the Father's decree God hath laid it out for you before the foundation of the world was laid and it is prepared by my purchase and by my taking possession of it long since in your Name Jo. 14.2 I went before to prepare a place for you For you whom I also prepared for it and for every one of you personally every one of you shall receive an intire Kingdome to your selves and you shall live and reign with me for ever and ever As Heaven hath been kept for you so you have been kept for it by the power of God through Faith to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Oh come now and take possession Behold This is the Saints full and final Benediction I should have spoke to this before I spake of the Sentence passed upon the Reprobate for in our Lord's method it doth precede Mat. 25.34 compared with ver 41. yet because Execution of the Sentence begins with the wicked and ends with the godly as ver 46. to the end that the Saints may behold with their eyes the Sentence Executed and seeing they may as God himself doth laugh at them saying Psal 52.7 Lo these are the men that made not God their strength but trusted in the abundâ—nce of their riches and strengthened themselves in their wickedness I have I say therefore chosen to speak of the Sentence of blessedness which the Judg shall pass upon the Saints in this place that from thence I might pass immediatly to the happy Execution thereof upon them nothing intervening as to the persons of Saints which is the Sixth and last end of the Saints meeting with Christ in the Air sc Their solemn and triumphant Attendance on the Judg The Sixth and last end of the Saints meeting with Christ is Their taking possession to take possession of the Kingdom This last judicial process being thus solemnly finished Sentence on both sides pronounced by the Judg the Reprobate already dragged away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance to the place of Execution where they shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels for ever and ever immediatly the Bench will rise the Court shall be broken up that great Occumenical assembly shall be dissolved and forthwith the Judg shall ascend his Majestick Chariot waiting ready for him and all the Saints shall follow him in their Wedding-garments glittering as the Sun in his Meridian glory upon their several Chairs of State all the holy Angels of God attending round about them with their Ensigns of glory flying Trumpets sounding Angels singing the Saints themselve shouting all the Regions of the Air resounding with their Celestial harmony the like whereunto never entred the Ear of man from the day wherein God laid the foundations of the Heaven and Earth to this happy moment In this triumphant posture shall they march till they come to the walls of New Jerusalem where the Gates of pearl to whom it shall be proclaimed Lift up your heads oh ye Gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting Doors and the King of glory shall enter in shall stand wide open to receive them An entrance shall be administred unto them abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ through the Streets whereof which are of pure gold as it were transparent glass they shall ride in Triumph till they come to the Throne of his Majesty where the Ancient of days sitteth Dan. 7.9.13 whose garment is as white aâ— Snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his Throne is like the fiery flames and his wheels as burning fire c. Then shall the Son of God come to Him and taking his new Bride in his hand shall present her to his Father and bespeak him in some such language as this Rev. 7.16 Chap. 5.9 Chap. 12.11 These are they which come out of great Tribulation who have washed their Robes white in my blood These are they which have kept the word of my patience these are they that overcame by my blood and by the word of their Testimony John 17.6 Verse 12. Thou gavest them me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled I have given them thy word and the world hath
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
Vision the glorified Saints They shall see the glorified Saints in their souls as well as in their bodies all the elect of God that ever were in the world * In their souls as well 〈◊〉 in their bodies from Adam until the second coming of Jesus Christ and it will be a glorious sight to see the King and all his Peers and Nobles in their Parliament Robes with Crowns and Embellishments of honour fitting in their state and order is a â—ight which every one covets and crowds to see What will it be to see the King of Saints with all the Redeemed ones of God in their Robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb and Crowns of gold upon their heads and palms of victory and triumph in their hands a Parliament all of Kings and Priests every one of them shining forth as the Sun Mat. 13.63 in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father The Sun when it breaks forth out of a cloud and displayes its refulgent beams in full lustre and brightness what a glorious Creature is it and with what a beauty doth it guild and adorn the world Oh my soul what a sight will that be when I shall see an Heaven full of Suns scattering their rayes of glory through all those celestial Regions There is another Scripture which makes the glory of this Vision yet more splendid and radiant every one of the glorified bodies of the Saints shall be made conform to Christs own glorious body Phil. 3.21 the glory of the Father shines forth in the Son and the glory of the Son shall shine forth in the Saints He in his Fathers glory is even in his humane nature and they in his Surely the Luminaries of the first magnitude in the visible heavens the Sun and Moon will be turned into darkness before the glory of this Vision they shall shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their Father that will be a glorious Vision indeed Not to speak any thing of the several degrees and orbs of Saints orbs of several degrees of Grace and orbs of several degrees of offices and services in the Church Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors c. of which the Apostle gives us not an obscure hint 1 Cor. 15.41 As one star differeth from another in glory so also is the resurrection of the dead q. d. as the Luminaries of these visible heavens are of a different magnitude and brightness each above the other in their orbs and sphears so also is the Kingdom of glory there be different forms of Saints one excelling another in brightness and glory I say to pass by this in silence which yet certainly hath somewhat in it for the heightning of the beauty of this vision as we see in the Luminaries of this inferiour world their different orbs and magnitudes contribute not a little to the beauty and ornament of these visible heavens We may add this before we go off viz. That the communion and converse with the Saints in heaven will be as sweet to the tast as the vision of them will be glittering to the eye there will be heaven in both Behold their fellowship and converse here was so sweet that David could say All my delight is in the Saints that are in the earth Psalm 16.3 and in the excellent ones David could take no pleasure in the company of any in the world but only in Gods holy Ones who were beautified with his Image Oh what will their communion and fellowship think you be in heaven when they shall be totally divested of all their sinful corruptions their ignorance their pride their passion their peevishniss their tenaciousness their impurity their envy their impatience their câ—nsoriousness their unseriousness their infincerity and their unsavouriness whereby they are apt to offend and hurt one another Yea when they shall have put off their natural infirmities as well as their sinful their impertinencies their mistakes their weaknesses their indispositions their hunger and thirst their drowsiness their vanity their mutability whereby they are not more unlike to other men than to themselves sometimes their diversions and reservedness c. whereby they are less able to do one another good What will their converse be when they shall put off all their defects and all their imperfections When there shall be no dissent amongst them much less dissention but when they shall all speak the same thing and there shall be no division but they shall be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment which the Apostle commends so passionately even to the Saints on this side Heaven 1 Cor. 1.10 When there shall be such a perfect harmony amongst the Saints as if there were but one soul to act that whole Assembly of the first-born When there will be nothing in them to converse with but pure grace grace without mixture grace and nothing else but grace Yea not pure grace only but perfect grace when every grace shall be in its perfect state and have its perfect works when every grace shall act to the highest degree yea when there will be â—o use of those inferiour graces which are but for the way as patience repentance simpathy pity fear hope yea none of the highest of all the graces hath faith it self now abideth faith hope now is in this imperfect state faith it self belongeth unto the imperfect state but when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away when sight is come then faith shall cease and the Saints shall converse one with another only in their superiour graces their marriage-graces their glorious graces that are proper to their adult state love joy delight in God mutual complacency zeal obedience praising God thankfulness when they shall love God as much as they would love him yea as much as God would be beloved and obey God as much as God would be obeyed and praise God as much as God would be praised c. Oh when the Saints are cast into such an heavenly mold yea and we our selves are capable of such pure converse for here in this imperfect state the Saints of God are not alwayes in the same frame one with another or with themselves whâ—n one Saint is up the other is down like an Instrument out of tune jarring and disharmonious when one is alive the other dead when this is hot the other is cold when one is ready to give the other is not fit to receive the communications of grace But oh when now I say all the Instruments of Glory are alike strung and equally tuned in their several capacities what sweet ravishing harmony what heavenly musick will they make Oh might we but see such a Saint on earth as one of these are how would every one be ready to kiss his lips yea to kiss his very feet and hardly forbear even to worship him Acts 10.25 Rev. 22.9 as Cornelius would have worshipped Peter or as John
the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Object But it will be objected What profit is there then of the beatifical Vision Or What advantage have they who see God in Heaven above the Saints who see him in the Evangelical vision Answ I answer Much every way Concerning which not to say any thing that exceeds sobriety and yet to say somewhat that may help our understandings I would ascend to the highest pitch of what my weak narrow apprehension can reach unto of this blessed Vision by these several steps and gradations First First Step. We shall see more of God than either we or any of the Worthies of God ever saw We shall know more of God than ever we understood of him in this life either by faith or by the highest revelation that ever God made of himself to our Souls more than ever the best of the Saints discovered by faith or divine manifestation yea we shall know more of God than ever the most holy of the Patriarchs the most illuminate Prophet the most seraphick Evangelist the most inspired Secretaries and Amanuenses of the Holy Ghost à secretioribus on this side Heaven did ever know yea what Abraham the freind of God Jacob who at one time had God in his arms Gen. 13.24 ver â—0 and at another time had his Peniel the facial vision of God Moses the savourite of Heaven Exod. 33.11 to whom God is said to talk as a man speaketh to his friend and to know face to face Elijah Deut. 34.10 James 5.17 who wore as it were the keys of Heaven at his girdle and could open and shut them as he pleased and at length ascended thither in a fiery Chariot Daniel who had the visions of God John the Evangelist whose Patmos was turned into a Paradise Dan. 10.6 7 8 where he had and writ the Revelations of Jesus Christ and finally holy Paul who was wrapt up into the third Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12 4â— and heard things inessable what these I say or any of these knew of the most high God was but as the Primier learning of Children to the vast readings of the greatest Masters of learning in comparison of that of God which shall be known to blessed Souls the least of Gods elect Infants going from their Mothers womb to the grave shall know more of God the first moment it entreth into glory than the profoundest Divine in the Church of God could by study or revelation ever attain to in this world this is much Secondly Second Step. The glorified Saints shall know more of God and the divine nature than Adam did in Paradise he was prevailed upon by the Tempter to affect a greater and higher degree of knowledge than he had above what the Creator saw fit to bestow more than belonged to his nature and state he would have known as God knows that is to full satisfaction and complacency Thirdly Third Step. The glorified Saints know God affirmatively The greatest part of our knowledge of God in this life is either By 1. Dem cognoscitur per mo dum Negationâ— Eminentiae Causationis Denying or 2. Comparing or Ascending 3. By way of Causation First By denying we come to know God in this life by removing all imperfections and defects and limitations by taking away all things which are inconsistent with a Deity conceive a spiritual being and pare off whatsoever is imperfect or defective and that which remains is God we can go in our conceptions or descriptions of God very little farther Or Secondly We come to know or rather to ghess what God is by comparing God with the Creature take in all that is amiable or formidable in the Creature go over all imaginable perfections and excellencies in the Creatues Men Heavens Sun Moon Stars Angels and ascribe them all to God and there you lay a foundation of knowing God but infinitely short and narrow of what he is therefore we must ascend For when we have gone through all the ranks and gradations of perfections in the subordinations of created beings when we have searched out the utmost excellency of each classis we may say this is in God and more whether Man or Angels go higher and higher till we come to the top of Jacobs Ladder still all this is in God and infinitely more The Creature must be winnowed from all imperfection and the finest of them must be taken to give some weak resemblance of a Deity Thirdly Per modum Causationis Whatever is in the effect is more perfectly in the cause God is Causa fontana a fountain essence of all the perfections which sparkle in the Creature we know God by the Creature as the cause by the effect as the fountain of all power goodness and perfection whatever is lovely and illustrious we must needs say this is in God and infinitely more God is stronger than the mightiest Man or Angel wiser than the wisest holier than the holiest Saint or Angel he being the fountain and cause of all perfection This I say is all we can reach to in spelling out God for be it said we must add infinite to all these perfections and that is God this is also by denying for what is infinite but without bounds and limits That is to say God is strong without weakness wise without ignorance holy without impurity c. If we would conceive these excellencies which seem to us to be affirmative we are glad to be beholding to negation As for example if I would know what is Gods eternity the negative must help me it is his being without beginning and without end What his holiness I cannot tell affirmatively but must answer my self it is to be without the least sin defilement or shadow of impurity c. In all this there is little to satisfie the covetous inquiry implanted in the Soul Quid sit What is holiness And what wisdom But now in Heaven our knowledge of God shall be affirmative we shall be able to apprehend God though not to the utmost extent of his esse yet without being beholding meerly to his non esse we shall be able to say as well what God is as what God is not and when we have said what he is we shall not need to expound our meaning by what he is not Fourthly Fourth Step. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 22.30 We shall know God as much as the Angels in Heaven do They behold the face of God Matth. 18.10 Glorified Saints are with the Angels Rev. 4.8 and are said to be like Angels and equal to the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Angels Angels incarnate And what inconsistency is there to the analogy of faith to conceive that the Saints shall enjoy as full a prospect of God in Heaven as the Angels themselves do 5. Gradation for though their bodies be united to their souls yet shall not their bodies be any hindrance to their
the more impurity the dimmer the vision Blessed are the pure in heart Mat. 5.8 for they shall see God Why now in glory all these maculae and spots shall be perfectly wiped off and the vessel shall be made a clear burning glass to receive and contain the glorious rayes of divine excellency which do immit themselves into it Hence this vision of God is called by Divines a clear distinct and perfect sight of God not as if the blessed did see all whatever is in the divine essence but as opposed to our present dim glassy vision 1 Cor. 1â— so that it perfectly takes in what the divine will is pleased to reveal without any the least obstruction or diminution Thirdly 3. Perfection Capacity The faculty in glory shall be widened and extended to a vast capacity now the understanding is large there is no bounding or limitting of it it is higher than the Heavens and deeper than the Sea and wider than the World it is said of Solomon in respect of his understanding 1 Kings 4.25 that he had wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart even as the sand that is upon the Sea-shore but all that was specially in order to the mysteries of nature as it follows there in his character from verse 30 to 34. But in glory the understanding shall be widened to a vaster capacity scil to take in not the little things of the Creature only Magnalia Dei but the infinite God I do not say infinitely but apprehensively though not comprehensively for then the vessel must be as large as the object yea larger since the thing containing must be somewhat bigger than the thing contained but the understanding shall apprehend God clearly certainly and fully the object it self shall extend the faculty and make it capacious for it self It is worth our notice to compare those two expressions of the beatifical vision the one Matth. 18.10 where it is said The Angels do alway behold the face of God the other where the Angels and Saints the number of whom is said to be Rev 5.11 ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands are described surrounding Gods Throne they are round about the Throne compare them together They alwayes behold the face of God and yet are round about and it hints us this blessed notion God hath no back parts in Heaven God to the blessed Inhabitants there is all face and they are alwayes beholding it how should not so transplendent an object confound the spiritual organ with the immense splendor and glory thereof but that the object it self doth sustain and nourish the faculty A fourth Perfection is Sanctity 4. Perfection Sanctity Heb. 12.23 the understanding shall be made perfect in holiness In the state of separation The spirits of just men are made perfect and surely the soul looseth nothing of its sanctity by being united to the body in glory Now of all divine qualities none doth more capacitate the Soul for the vision of God than holiness witness that holiness is called the divine nature 1 Pet. 1.4 Holiness assimilateth unto God and the perfection and delight of vision is founded in conformity it is so in the Evangelical vision Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God according to the purity of the heart is the vision of God What a glorious vision of God will that be which the perfection of holiness shall advance the soul unto when the glorious object shall both enlarge and purifie the faculty The fifth Perfection is Strength 5. Perfection Strength The vision of God doth fortifie the understanding In nature the more vehement and intense the object the more it hurts and crâ—sheth the sence the vision of God though but under a veil Câ—â—e vehement sensibile destruit sensum Dan. 10.7 8 Rev. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lumen gloriae superaddita perfectio qua intellectus confortatur ad videndum Deum Tho. Aquin. did undo the Prophet Isaiah Holy Daniel's vision though but a vision did dispirit him and left him without strength Saint John his vision though but the darker side of the beatifical sight of God stayeth him outright for a time I fell at his feet as dead The souls of the blessed in Heaven are set beyond all fear of such a surprise of glory while God fills their faculty he doth also sustain and perfect it by means whereof the faculty shall never be weary of its object but still behold it with fresh vigour and delight So it follows A sixth and last Perfection is Fixednese 6. Perfection Fixedness In the state of grace the mind is exceeding slippery like that of little Children whom you cannot six we lye upon spiritual objects as upon a bank of ice where we slide and slide and never leave sliding till we be in the dirt and this comes to pass by reason of those mixtures of impurity which are in these natural minds of ours the objects are pure and simple James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the faculty is wofully clogged with superfluity of naughtiness hence the lubricity and floating that is in the understanding like the Sea it self but now in glory all that mixture is abolished so that there is nothing remaining to divert or distract the faculty yea the object it self still shall unite the faculty to it self though not so as to make it its self yet so as to make it like its self to make it capable of its self in all the communicable dimensions of the divine nature In a word the faculty shall be made perfectly sutable to the object not only in the properties but in the very nature of it whereby it shall be enabled to know it and understand it to perfection Oh blessed and blessed-making vision Glorious things are spoken of thee oh thou vision of God! Truly beatifical for ever Eye truly hath not seen c. Before we leave this Vision let us make some use of it And the Use may be two-fold 1. Study holiness 2. Labour to see God before you come to Heaven First Study holiness there be two Visions of God mentioned in Scripture First The Vision of God in Grace Secondly The Vision of God in Glory The Evangelical Vision The Angelical Vision The Vision of God in Ordinances The Vision of God Without Above Ordinances In the Vision of Grace the Evangelical vision the Saints see Gods back parts but in the Vision of Glory the Angelical vision they see God face to face in the Evangelical vision they see God darkly and know him in part but in the Angelical vision they know him even as they are known by him the Saints shall have a full prospect of God in Heaven But of both these Visions holiness is the indispensable qualification without holiness there is no admission into Heaven Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth And when entred
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
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
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
glorified body of our Lord will be as transparent glass through which the glorious beams of Divinity will display themselves to the eye of the blessed beholders And in the beholding whereof there will go forth a transforming vertue which will change them into the same Image if it were so I say in the Gospel vision how much more will it be so in the beatifical The Soul by enjoying God cometh nearer to the pleasure of God himself The sight of God hath a conforming power in it to assimilate the beholder into the likeness of God he converts all into its own nature God as he is a consuming fire to the wicked so he is a purifying refining fire to the Saints by purifying out their dross to make them partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 It was the design of their correction in this world and the perfecting of that conformity is the ultimate and supreme design of the facial vision we shall be like him for we shall see him we shall be as he is when we shall see him as he is we shall be like him Like him in Our Souls Our Bodies Like him in our Souls like him in all the faculties of our Souls The Saints like God in their understanding our understandings shall be like the divine understanding we shall know all things past present and to come we shall know all things as God knows them for we shall know all things and see all things in God ut supra Then Adam for the promise of a Redeemer being first preacht to him Gen. 3.15 and that by God himself giveth us more than a probable ground to believe that he is in heaven Adam I say shall have his ambition satisfied in a better sence than he intended oâ— the Tempter suggested of being like unto God knowing good and evil Gen. 3.5 now he knows universal good to be filled and satisfied with it and evil in all the distinctions of it as it is now through the infinite grace of a Redeemer the Tempters portion and not his own The will is made like unto Gods will not a fountain indeed but a large vessel full of goodness and holiness the Saints shall be holy as God is holy pure as God is pure perfect as he is perfect they were so on earth truly now in Heaven they are so perfectly the will shall be as holy as it would be as holy as the holy God would have it be so holy that there will be mutual joy and delight between God and the Saints in the contemplation of their holiness the Saints shall rejoyce in the holiness of God that they have such an holy God it was their duty in the state of Grace Psal 30.4 Sing unto the Lord oh ye Saints of his give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness They rest not and yet they are not wâ—â—â—y Rom. 4.8 It is their work and wages their labour and their rest now in the state of glory They rest not day nor night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty c. See how the Saints are ravished with the contemplation of Gods holiness they double and treble the mention of this glorious attribute they cry Holy holy holy for once Almighty c. And it seems God if I may so say is as much taken with the beauty of their holiness they have their denomination from their holiness Saints in English Holy ones such as God accounts to be his Inheritance yea the glory of it they were so while they were below Eph. 1.18 The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints What is it above where their holiness is consummate where the Saints are now presented by Christ a glorious Church even like their God glorious in holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having spot or wrinkle neither sin nor shadow of sin neither spot nor appearance of a spot but holy and without blemish immaculate holiness there is not so much as a stained thought not an inordinate motion in the whole Region of Heaven to defile that upper world this God delights in because in the holiness of the Saints he sees the reflection of his own face God pleaseth himself to see how like himself he could make a Creature such was the design in the first Creation Let us make man in our own image after our likeness Gen. 1.26 it was the counsel of the thrice blessed Trinity and now though once it suffered a miscarriage it is perfected with advantage by the second Adam They will what God willeth and nill what God nilleth An Argument that it was not a miscarriage of improvidence but of ordination In a word in Heaven there is but one will between God and the Saints and that will is Gods Moreover In their affections Love Hatred Joy His exaltation to the right hand of his Father Isai 62.5 the Saints are like God in their affections They love what God loveth and hate what God hateth their joy is Gods joy they rejoyce in God and in his glory they rejoyce in Jesus Christ their Bridegroom and he rejoyceth in them As the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee that was but the word spoken to the Church at her Espousals what must the joy be think we upon her wedding-day All the affections which either were inordinate or suitable only to the imperfect state as envy malice fear hope desire c. they are all abolished as either inconsistent with or useless to the heavenly state and therein consists no small part of their conformity to God as being capable of nothing which denoteth infirmity or imperfection The Saints are like God in their memories they shall have holy memories their memories shall be like the Ark of the Covenant which was overlaid with gold wherein according to the Apostles Inventory were The golden Pot that had Manna And Aaron's Rod that budded And the Tables of the Covenant The Ark of the Memory now overlaid with glory likewise shall contain the Manna that Angelical food of Word Sacraments Promises Ordinances Providences Experiences wherewith God was wont to feed the Soul while in the wilderness of the world Aaron's Rod that budded Gods fatherly Rod of correction which though for the present seemed not joyous but grievous yet afterward it yielded the peaceable fruits of Righteousness Heb. 12.11 in them that were exercised thereby And the Tables of the Covenant The two Covenants which God made with man the one of Works the witness of Gods holiness and perfection the other of Grace the witness of Gods goodness and commiseration The Covenant of Works the standing evidence of mans guiltiness The Covenant of Grace the standing evidence of Gods righteousness The Covenant of works the lasting monument of mans impotency and changeableness The Covenant of Grace the everlasting monument of Gods omnipotence and immutability These with all the particulars included in either are the chief things
an abortion if man should out-live his heavenly Paradise as he did the earthly though his lease should be made for never so many lives this would but aggravate the vanity of his creation and we must needs approve of Solomon's choice Wherefore I praised the dead more than the living Eccles 4.2 3. yea better is he than both they which hath not yet been Surely such an improvidence is totally inconsistent with that immense understanding whose most just tile is The only wise God This then is the first account of this ever here in my Text Gods wisdom Another Attribute upon which this beatifical Truth standeth is 2. Attribute The Truth of God The veracity and truth of God the future estate both of the reprobate and of the elect is every where in Scripture held out to us with a note of eternity That of the reprobate Eternal judgment Heb. 6. everlasting sire Mat. 18.8 and 25.41 Eternal fire Jude 7. unquenchable fire Matth. 3.12 Luke 3.17 fire that is not to be quenched ver 44. fire that never shall be quenched ver 43. after never so many years and ages of continuance it is still wrath to come everlasting darkness Jude 6. It seems though there be fire enough in hell there is no light in that fire even those flames are darkness and that darkness everlasting fire for heat but not for light whatever is afflictive within hell nothing that's refreshive that 's dreadful The worm that shall never dye Everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.9 And as that of the reprobate is so This of the elect is exprest under the like notions not a moment short of eternity the Father of Glory who best knew what he had begotten baptizeth it with that name Eternal glory 2 Tim. 2.10 1 Pet. 5.10 Everlasting life fourteen times so called in the new Testament and once in the old Dan. 12.2 Eternal life thirty times so called by the Evangelists and Apostles Everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 Enduring substance Heb. 10.34 An incorruptible Crown 1 Cor. 9.25 Pleasures for evermore Psal 16. ult A Kingdom that * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not fluctuating or floating up and down as all sublunary Kingdome and glory cannot be moved Heb. 12.18 An eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Heaven is a weight of glory both the Hebrew and Chaldee words signifie both weight and glory Heaven is made all of massy glory glory that would be too heavy even for the shoulders of glorified Saints were not underneath them the everlasting arms But as God puts forth omnipotence to cause the damned to subsist under their otherwise intollerable pains for the glory of divine justice so in Heaven he is pleased to exert the arm of his almighty power to sustain the Saints under their unconceiveable weight of glory for the more illustrious manifestation of his everlasting love But this is not all as there is a weight of glory to make heaven as big as the Saints can joyfully bear so that weight must also be eternal that so the glory may not be too short for them but every way commensurate to all the dimensions of their souls This this is the witness and testimony which God himself hath given to the Saints inheritance in light and to shew the infallibility of this testimony the Apostle gives that glorious character of God Titus 1.2 God that cannot lye and that in the very same Scripture wherein he makes this glorious promise Eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised before the world began Observe it as if the Apostle by the Spirit did foresee what atheisme might object or weakness of faith might call in question viz. the eternity of heaven How can that be Oh yes saith the Apostle it must needs be so God who cannot lye hath called it eternal life cannot he saith not will not but cannot lye whereas it might be objected why the least Child in the world can lye I but saith the Apostle God cannot lye Hoc solum omnipotens om nipotenter non potest Aug. it is against his essence It is omnipotence in God that he cannot lye as Augustine speaks if he could lye he were not almighty whoever calls the eternity of the Saints rest in question at the same time calls in question Gods omnipotence as well as his truth his being as well as his bounty If heaven were but a moment shorter than the measure which the Scripture giveth us the Apostle had ascribed to God a mistaken title God that cannot lye upon such a testimony as this from the mouth of God how securely may the Saints lye down in their beds of dust in confidence of enjoying an eternal rest after the Resurrection A third Attribute which mightily contributes assurance to the faith of heavens eternity A third Attriâ—ute is Immutability is Gods Immutability The unchangeableness of his counsel and purpose will set the ever of the Saints vision and fruition of God beyond all dispute and hesitation It was the very design and purpose of God upon the Saints in their regeneration and renewing by the Holy Ghost which he shed upon them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace they should be made heirs of eternal life Did God manifest his eternal purpose to the world of eternal life and make such solemn provision for the carrying on that purpose upon the heirs of promise by interesting the third Person in the glorious Trinity the Holy Ghost in it and after all this can Heaven become but a peradventure and the Saints everlasting communion with God prove a Scepticisin or ungrounded opinion only Nay Tit. 3.8 saith the Apostle in the very next verse This is a faithful saying i. e. a man may venture his soul upon it and these things I will that thou affirm constantly i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assert as a matter of greatest assurance of which there is no doubt scil this grand principle The eternity of the Saints blessedness that we should be made heirs of eternal life and that to this end that believers may be careful to maintain good works leave Christians at an uncertainty of an everlasting reward and farewell good works men will act arbitrarily where they work doubtfully Nay but tell them The foundation of the Lord stands sure his counsels and purposes are unchangeable with him is no variableness Jam. 1.17 neither shadow of turning fix their faith upon this bottom that Gods purpose of eternal life is as immutable as God himself this will set them on work to purpose in the use of all such means as tend to so glorious an end Did God from eternity purpose salvation to the elect to eternity A soul set beyond all suspition of the accomplishment of this blessed promise will be careful to maintain good works so the Apostle follows it home 1 Cor. 15. ult Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the
an earthly inheritance to run from Lawyer to Lawyer to attend eary in the morning and late at night to give see upon fee to spend half a patrimony or an estate to secure the rest and as if heaven and the beatifical vision were the only trivial worthless thing a meer accident that might adesse or abesse sine subjecti interitu be present or absent without the least prejudice at all to a mans happiness I say to take up that upon trust and to leave this ever with the Lord upon a peradventure Oh unspeakable folly and madness Oh that the sons of the earth should thus shame the heirs of heaven Hab. 2.6 that an earthly inheritance should be more valuâ—d by sense than the heavenly is by faith more care taken to be sure of dirt and dung thick clay than of that which is infinitely more valuable than câ—ral or pearls whose price is above rubies 1 Pet. 1.18 19 as bought not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Were this errour the fruit only of incapacity as it is in little Infants that cannot judge what belongs to their present or future good verily it were a thousand pities an infelicity upon the humane nature to be lamented with tears of blood but that rational Creatures furnished with such noble faculties for such divine and heavenly purposes should through a mere brutish sensuality be so willingly content to remain at such uncertainties is the most dreadful prodigy that can possibly enter into the heart of man That adult persons grown up to maturity should despise their birth-rights and desperately neglect to look into their writings which relate to such an immortal estate argues not only the woful degeneracy of the humane nature how rife and pregnant the seeds both of ignorance and atheism are therein but even a judicial blast upon their understandings as if the God of Heaven had given them up to the God of the world 2 Thes 1.9 to blind the eyes of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them Oh that men would consider seriously what avail will it be at death and judgment to have had assurance of many large earthly possessions while they lived and then to have neither scrip nor scrol as we say to shew for heaven that blessed inheritance of the Saints in light when they come to dye to be able to say now my house and my land and my silver and my crown and my kindom but not then my Lord and my God my heaven and my inheritance I have bestowed all my time and strength to assure my earthly possessions but now I can keep these no longer and can call nothing mine own but the dungeon of darkness there to be staked down to easeless and endless torments or at best to cry out with that heathen Emperour Animula Adrianus Imp. blandula vagula quo vadis nescio I know not whither thou art going O my precious darling my never dying soul Confident and presumptuous supposals may quiet and satisfie the sleepy and slothful Conscience in fair weather but in the hour of temptation Mat. 7.27 when the rain shall descend and the floods come and the winds blow then these foolish confidences will fall because they were built upon the sand and great will be the fall thereof Then when in hell the miserable soul made now as sensible as formerly it was secure shall from thence lift up its eyes and see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and it self thrust out what furious and fiery reflexions will then rend and vex the Conscience and the sinner cry out with horrour O damned wretch that I am I might have had pardon and glory as well as others I had as many means and motives I had as much need as they it was as much my concern as any others but I trifled and took up all upon trust and would not give diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end oh now a thousand worlds if I had them for a may be which once I had oh for one of those dayes of grace which I then sinned away and idled out in the pursuit of vanity for one of those tenders and offers of salvation which then pursued me and I would not hearken but thought I might have had heaven time enough when I had done with the world but now I see how miserably I have mocked God and deceived my self the day of grace is now gone and the time of peace is at its full stop and period and instead of ever with the Lord here I must lye and boil and broil in these flames with the Devil and reprobate spirits for ever Oh that sinners would therefore in this their day be wise As I Inâ—ew a prophane wretch in Kent who lived in all kind of wickedness and debauchery against the most passionate and compassionate cautions and expostulations of his godly Minister and would not hearken to him when he came to dye he sent for his Minister who coming and asking him why he had sent for him replyed only this Oh Sir my time is done and my mork a not begun and so died and know the things which belong unto their peace before they be hid from their eyes Consider as Motives Motives to labour for Assurance 1. It may be attained First Heaven way be made sure assurance may be attained 1. God commands it Phil. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 Heb. 6.11 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope And God doth not command impossibility the Law indeed did but he giveth more grace Jam. 4.6 God in the Gospel giveth what he commandeth To which end 2. It is observable that what is a precept in one place is a promise in another that if the command find work the promise may find strength Hence His Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 Phil. 4.13 and I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me So run the promises Mat. 7.7 Augustine desired no more of God but dâ— Domini quod jubes jube quod vis Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you A multiplied use of Gospel means will bring in a multiplied increase of Gospel grace and strength 3. Many of the Saints of God have attained assurance of their salvation holy Paul in the name of himself and his fellow Saints 2 Cor. 5.1 could say We know we have an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens not we hope only but we know So the Discâ—ple of love 1 John 3.14 We know we have
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
like my God glorious in holiness this is not only an evidence of heaven but heaven it self Thirdly Evidence 3. Again an universal hatred of sin is a good token that heaven is designed for thee for hatred of sin is the negative part of holiness and heaven is a place provided by God on purpose that there the Saints may be as holy as they will without disturbance or reproach fear not to think much and often of heaven if sin be an offence to thee if sin be an hell on earth to thee heaven is designed for thee to be thy Paradise Learned men conceive the sin of the apostate Angels went no further than the first ambitious thought fear not to be often solacing thy self in the contemplation of that place where sin never entred or if it did it was cast out as soon as ever it was conceived Indeed it is but a fancy men have taken up that they love happiness while they continue to love sin a chast love of heaven can never consist with the love of impure lusts Sin is the Devils image holiness is Gods he loves not the beauty of holiness that would have the Devil advanced thither If men would not have it so why else do they give sin such free entertainment in their own bosomes and will by no means give it a bill of divorce Fourthly Evidence 4. A superlative love to him that hath purchased this state for us and us for it is an infallible evidence of our right to it and interest in it that is the Lord Jesus Christ and a strong motive upon which gracious souls are so often in heaven by their contemplations is that thereby an eye of faith they may behold not the purchase only but the purchaser whom having not seen we love and whom loving we would fain see and this is the glory of every one that is so affected so it is expresly said 1 Cor. 2.9 The good things prepared for them that love him Dost thou love the Lord Jesus Ascend often in the Chariot of love that thou mayest see his face and in his face the glory and beauty of heaven Surely such as love not Christ and yet think they love heaven are miserably mistaken they know neither Heaven nor Christ and may well cry out Isa 44.20 Is there not a lye in my right hand Well Christians you that would gladly have your portion in this glory shut your eyes downward I may invert the Angels Question to the men of Galilee and say Acts 1.11 Why stand ye paring upon the â—arth Yea why crawl ye with your bellies upon the ground as if you had inherited the Serpents curse as well as your own Sursum corda lift up your hearts let your souls often withdraw and bid the body farewell for a time that you may with Paul be wrapt up to the third heaven and then see things which may even ravish your souls out of your bodies seek the things above set your affections on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Pregustation by faith is a kind of prepossession an entrance beforehand into the glorious joyes of our Lord and Master an ascent into the Mount of transfiguration when the soul may truly say Master it is good for us to be here and the oftner ye come the more welcome Christ will make you they that know the divine relishes of such contemplation would not exchange them for the most delicious fruitions of the whole inferiour creation Oh strive to antidate glory and to get into heaven before your time Yet give me leave to add one Caution I do not say every one that hath a right to heaven hath an assurance of heaven or else no right or warrant to meditate on heaven but this I say 1. Though every Christian hath not assurance every one may if not by way of special prerogative and extraordinary revelation yet in a way of holy duty the mediums whereby Christians attain to assurance being common to all 2. Though all attain not to the same degree of assurance the plerophory of Gods love yet all may attain to such a degree of Scripture-hope good hope through Grace 2 Thess 2.16 as may quiet their hearts and cause them to go on their way rejoycing looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 16. 3. I say not it is the duty of all to have assurance in what degree soever but it is the duty of all to labour for assurance in the highest degree not to labour for assurance argues a defect of love to God true love can rest in nothing short of assurance and even this may sustain the soul till assurance comes 4. Therefore I say let not thy want of assurance be the fruit of thy sloth do not continue without assurance for want of holy industry in the pursuit of it for want of giving all diligence as the text saith to make thy calling and election sure and thy want of assurance need not discourage thee from taking a full and frequent prospect of heavens glory let God bear witness to thy Conscience that assurance is thy design and that you are not voluntarily and habitually wanting to God and your selves as to the pursuit of that design in a concurrent use of all those mediums which God hath sanctified for the attainment thereof and you may with as much boldness and considence get within the vail and there take a full prospect of the upper Canaan Northward Southward Eastward Westward in all the dimensions of it as God once spake to Abraham Gen. 13.14 concerning the â—â—ather Canaan and with the same promise All the land all the glory which thou seen to thee will I give it for ever I say with as much boldness as if thou hadst got the plerophory of faith and were already sealed with the Spirit of promise to the day of redemption and who knows but in the same Chariot wherein Love ascends into Heaven Assurance may come down from heaven and or ever thou art aware thy soul may make thee like the Chariots of Amminadib Quest But what are those mediums in the concurrent use whereof assurance of an interest in the heavenly inheritance may be had Answ The Question being but occasional 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall with much brevity but hint only at some special Helps 1. Take heed of determining before inquiry 1. Means 2. Study well your evidences 2. Help Take heed of false evidence and verily this is an evidence to be sollicitous about your evidences Take heed that neither your evidences be false evidences nor you make a false application of the true that you neither take exclusive evidences for inclusive i. e. Jam. 1.22 such as are only to shut out bold presumers as bare doing of duties hearing praying c. for such as do necessarily conclude a state of grace counterfeit graces for the fruits of the Spirit of God
evils over the Grave it self though it swallow up my dearest Relations If I believe not I am like a thirsty man at a well without a bucket where I may sooner drown my self than quench my thirst Oh get the bucket of Faith and then with joy may ye draw water out of these wells of salvation These words Hence we are informed 5. Branch of Information that it is a special duty of Christians to administer words of comfort to their mourning friends according to their various temptations and trials It is the very law of those consolations wherewith the Holy Ghost doth comfort us in our afflictions that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God A lesson it seemeth Job's friends had learned and came to put in practice when by mutual consent they met together at Job's house Job 2 11. this was their end though unhappily they mistook their work by spicing their cup of consolation with too many bitter ingredients whose error may it be our caution Thus also we read in the Gospel of many friends who came to comfort Marthâ— and Mary concerning their brother supposed to be dead Christians your eyes are not your own we are commanded to rejoyce with them that rejoyce and to weep with those that weep in point of affection we should he like the primitive Christians have all things in common we should joy our brethrens joyes mourn their sorrows lament their sufferings and endeavour their comfort as our own else we turn engrossers yea we become guilty of Sacriledge in robbing one another of divine treasure our comforts are not given us for our selves only but for the afflicted Saints they have a common right one to anothers graces comforts and experiences and Christs word should alwayes sound in our ears Strengthen thy brethren How ornamental were those Christians in the once famous Roman Church of whom the Apostle presumeth I my self also am perswaded of you my brethren Rom. 15.14 that ye also are full of goodness filled with all knowledge able also to admonish one another Oh that as many as do abound in abilities would pray for wisdom to parcel out those abilities into all the Christian Offices commended to them by the Holy Ghost in their several seasons To warn the unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak c. Oh how beautiful are the feet of those Christians Tit. 3.1 who are ready to every good work as the hand in joynt ready to turn every way for the use and service of the body A Christian should nevor be unfurnished of a reproof for sinners nor of a word of comfort for distressed Saints Let none have cause from thee in their sorrows to complain as the blubbered Church in the Lamentation saying There is none to comfort me Oh that Christians would study to shew themselves good Scribes instructed to the Kingdom of God bringing out of their treasures things new and old Be not of the Sect of the stony-hearted Levite that had not one drop of pity to pour into the wounded Traveller lest thy wounds another day as so many mouths plead for pity to deaf ears Hast thou not thy self been comforted in thy troubles John 14.18 Hath not Christ made good that great promise I will not leave thee comfortless I will come unto thee How often have the everlasting arms kept thy soul from sinking How frequently have the Messengers of Christ refresht thy weary soul And hast thou forgot those arms of mercy as not to help thy brother with thy little finger Hath God conferred on thee such treasures of comfort and hast thou not one mite to bestow upon thy disconsolate Brother It is their infirmity sometimes that they are not in a capacity to close with comfort when it is tendred unto them but with Rachel weeping for her children they refuse to be comforted for their children or friends because they are not but it is thy sin and guilt if at any time they faint because thou drawest not forth thy soul unto them in a way of seasonable relief if they fall at thy door for want of bread It is angelical employment to comfort a weary soul a great part of their ministration is to comfort the elect in their temptations as you may see by comparing Matth. 4.11 with Heb. 1.14 It is the work of the malignant Angels to grieve and add to the sorrow of the Saints and the world may know by this whose work they do when they deride the tears and bitter moan-makings of Gods Isaacs Gen. 21.9 Gal. 4.29 upon which the Holy Ghost sets the black brand of persecution he mocked saith the Story he persecuted saith the Interpretation Well Christians do as much as ever you can of this Angelical work of which there will be no need in heaven to give or take the great work enjoyned here in my Text Comfort one another with these words which doth also hint unto us another instruction These words Gods words of comfort are the only words of comfort 6. Branch of Information God is the God of consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 The Father of mercies and the God of all comfort God is the causâ—â—ontanâ— of comfort all comfort doth emanate from God as water out of the fountain nothing can be in the stream but what was first in the fountain he is the Father of mercies there are no mercies pure and legitimate but what are of his begetting which can call God Father no waters are pure and vital but those that are fetched out of the fountain And therefore those Pronouns are very sweet and carry the greatest emphasis with them Thy comforts delight my soul Psal 94.10 My peace I leave with you John 14.27 A soul throughly awakened will never take its rest again or be comforted until God speak a word of comfort from his own mouth Make me to hear joy and gladness Psal 51.8 that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce It was not all the honours and pleasures of David's Dominions it was not all the victories and spoils of his enemies yea it was not all his prayers and tears though every night he made his couch swim with them Psal 6. that could whisper a syllable of comfort to his sin-scorched conscience until God himself spake them with his own hand that 's the specially of comfort which the Apostle begs for his Thessalonians Now the God of peace himself 2 Thess 3.16 Chap. 2.16 give you peace Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father i. e. himself comfort you That is right peace which God himself giveth and that is true comfort which Christ himself speaks Therefore prayeth the holy man Make me to hear joy and gladness q. d. Lord speak so loud that I may hear the voice and speak so distinctly that I may know whose voice it is that I may know it is thou
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