insensible State would have brought him no Advantage Phil. 1. 21. And when we are absent from the Body we are present with the Lord which presence notes happy enjoyment 2 Cor. 5. 68. And Lazarus when he dyed was carried into Abraham's bosom and Dives lift up his eyes in Hell being in Torment Luk. 16. 22 23. All which shew the Deceased Righteous to be Happy as the Wicked Wretched not only in expectation but present enjoyment Quest. You speak this of all the Righteous Answ. Yes for the Scripture makes no Difference This Day shalt thou be with me in Paradise said Christ to the Penitent Thief tho' he had been a very great Sinner and was but a very young Convert And the usual way of expressing the Death of good Men is by their falling asleep which notes Ease and Refreshment And in general it is said of these that dye in the Lord that from henceforth they are blessed and rest from their Labours Rev. 14. 13. So that this Present Life as our Lord notes in the Story of Lazarus is the Time of their receiving evil things And they are no longer exercised with Torments but what is inconsistant with them enter upon ease and comfort in degree more or less according to the difference of their virtuous Attainments immediately upon their Deaths Quest. But is the Happiness of the one or the Misery of the other so full then as it shall be after the last Judgment Answ. No for now their Souls only are Happy but then their Bodies shall be raised too and the Bliss of the whole man both Soul and Body shall be compleat And then they shall be happy in a fuller degree and have a more perfect measure of it This increase of Happiness they shall receive at the last Judgment and therefore it is called the Time of their being crown'd or rewarded 2 Tim. 4. 8. and they are represented as desiring it So the Souls under the Altar slain for the Testimony of Jesus do in the Revelations asking how long God would delay to judge the World for the Consummation of their Reward and of their Persecutors Punishment Rev. 6. 9 10 11. And so it is with the damned Spirits too the heaviest part of their Doom being still to come and their present Miseries tho' very great being but Foretastes and Beginnings of what they are to be consign'd to at the last Day Thus the Devils are said to be reserved in Chains against the Judgment of the Great Day their present State it seems in comparison of it being no more than the Misery of a Prison compared to that of the Day of Execution 2 Pet. 2. 4. and Jude 6. And the Devils ask Christ if he were come to torment them before the time plainly intimating that the Fulness of their Torment was not to be till the Great Day comes Mat. 8. 29. Quest. These Private Judgments then are much short of the Last Judgment because then is the Consummation of Reward and Punishment Answ. Yes And also because that Judgment shall be Solemn and Publick in full Audience and open Court before Angels and all the World Luk. 12. 8 9. and General whereat all both Angels and Men shall be Convened and Tried Quest. And must not this be till the End of the World Answ. No for it is Christ's last Act in Discharging his Mediatory Office and therefore must not be concluded till all Things are at an End. All the Time before the Judgment is a State of Trial for proving Persons wherein Christ gives Laws to direct us and sufficient Opportunities and inward Grace to help us to perform them But all the Time after it is a State of irreversible Recompences in sharing and dispensing promised Rewards and Penal Executions After the last Sentence is once pass'd there is no more place for Intercessions and making Friends but a New and Unalterable State of Eternal Joys or Miseries commences And thus Christ having consummated his Trust as Mediator will surrender up his Power and deliver the Kingdom to God the Father 1 Cor. 15. 24. Quest. The General Judgment you say is at the End of the World Has God decreed a set Time and fixed a Day for it Answ. Yes he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness Act. 17. 31. Which Day is called the Coming of Christ 1 Cor. 15. 23. and the Day of the Lord 1 Thess. 5. 2. 2 Thess. 2. 2. Quest. If every Mans Case must then be fully scann'd and all Actions inquired into and Pleas heard methinks that should be more than one Days Work Answ. So I suppose it will the continuance perhaps of a thousand Days nay it may be of a great number of Years For Day in Scripture is any Continuance of Time which is allotted for any Business As the Time of Israels forty Years Travel in the Wilderness is call'd the Day of Temptation Heb. 3. 8 9. and the Time of God's scourging and correcting the Day of Visitation Isa. 10. 3. 1 Pet. 2. 12. and the Time of the Gospel is the Day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. And so the Day of Judgment is not the Space of twenty four Hours but all that Time which Christ shall spend upon it Quest. It seems God has fixed the Day within himself but is that determinate Day known to any besides himself Answ. No For of that determinate Day knoweth no Man no not the Angels in Heaven nor the Son himself as Man but the Father only Mat. 24. 36. Mar. 13. 32. It shall surprise the World and its coming shall be sudden and unexpected as a Thief in the Night or Travel upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess. 5. 2 3. Quest. Who shall be the Judge at that Great Day by whom all Men shall be tried and sentenced Answ. Jesus Christ. For God will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordain'd and he hath assured them of it by raising him from the dead Acts 17. 31. He only is able to discharge this transcendent Trust having an Authority Paramount which none can question or appeal from an Infinite Understanding that can search the Hearts and discover the naked Truth of every Mans Case and the just Validity of their Pleas an incorruptible Integrity that cannot in the least be byassed by any Flatteries Offers Intercessions or Intreaties and an Almighty Power that can reward the greatest Services and punish the most high and haughty as well as the meanest Criminals And as he alone is qualified to Discharge so he is also to sustain the Honour of it For who is fit to sit as Judge of Princes and Potentates Men and Angels but he who made and governs them who is over all in Power and next in Dignity to the Father even the Son of God himself All Judgment is committed to the Son that all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Joh. 5. 22 23. Quest. Who
Luke 8. 15. And to draw us near to God with a full assurance of faith we must joyn a true heart and a clean conscience Heb. 10. 22. and the charity which the Law requires flows then only from an unfeigned faith when 't is accompanied with a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. And therefore in Simon Magus it bore no Fruit because his heart was not right in the sight of God Act. 8. 13 21. So that we must not wonder if we see a crue Faith prove barren and producing no obedience in a dishonest and false Man. Since it is not Faith alone but Honesty that must make a Man careful to remember and perform his undertaking and false unjust Persons how right soever they may be in their belief and apprehensions will be as like to break their word with God as they are with their Neighbours Quest. Must it also lastly be resolute and fully fixed after all things are well considered That so when any hardships arise in the way of Faith we may not be soon staggered in mind and put to deliberate anew whether or no to go on in it Ans. Yes when they want this resolvedness Men are not like to hold on in a way of difficulties and such as do every where occur in Faiths race Every true Believer must have cast up all the cost and pains of his way beforehand as our Saviour tells us in the Parables of the wise builder and of the king going to war Luke 14. 28 31. They must stand prepared to run all hazards and sustain all losses setting Faith above all things else and resolving to stick to it whatever prove its trials and discouragements And such Believers as these the Scripture calls grounded and settled in the faith Col. 1. 23. and rooted built up and established in it Col. 2. 7. And the believers or receivers of the word who fell off in tribulation are said to have had no root in themselves Matth. 13. 21. A deliberate resolution is a sure Ground-work and what is built on that may be like to stand a Storm and after all the Assaults that are made upon it remain unshaken Quest. So that the Faith whereon all the fore-mentioned Fruits are like to grow must not be a meer pretence of Faith but sincere and undissembled it must not be â—n empty profession and formal out-side out inward in the apprehension of the mind â—t must not be a wavering Opinion but confident and well assured it must not â—e a speculative cool and unmoving Notion but hearty concerning and affectionate it must not be in a careless forgetful and failing but in a conscientiously careful just and performing Man it must not act on an irresolute heart which will be easily daunted or soon staggered but one that upon good reason and after due deliberation is fully fixt and resolved to follow it Ans. Yes the Faith that influences the Heart and Life and stands in all times and trials must be thus qualified And the Faith which is either dissembled formal wavering unaffecting careless or irresolute some one or other of which the Faith of all Sinners is is like to have no such Blessed Fruits proceding from it As Simon Magus's had not whose heart was not right â—or Agrippa's whose Faith was but almost â—or the Temporary Believers whose faith â—ell away because it wanted root So that these different attendants and various qualifications of Faith make the difference in its Fruits and Effects and distinguish the Faith of Saints from the Faith of Sinners Quest. It has been often said of Faith by some that it is an act of Recumbency or leaning and rolling our selves on Christ for Salvation Are such Phrases applicable to Faith in a literal and common understanding of them Ans. No for Faith is an act of our Spirits and though Bodies lean and rest on Bodies yet Spirits have none of these Bodily Gestures and Affections When such words are used in expressing mental acts they are Metaphors which are applied to them on account of some Similitude and Resemblance Quest. What acts can the Faith of a Man's mind exert about a Person which may answer these forms of recumbing or leaning upon him Ans. Either Believing some Doctrine which he teaches or relying on some Promise which he makes These may be set off by the acts of recumbing leaning and rolling For as these are ways of Bodies resting and depending so are those of a Man's mind's doing the same upon any Person They acquiesce and rest on his Judgment in what he says and on his Fidelity in what he promises which gives them the same ease and settlement as the acts of rolling leaning and recumbing do to Bodies Quest. Faith is also called by some the hand of the Soul that reaches at and apprehends and applies Christ's Merits What is there in this Spiritual Grace that can answer these expressions Ans. Reaching at them is assenting to some Propositions about them And laying hold of and applying them is consenting and complying with some Overtures or fulfilling some terms and conditions whereby they become our own Putting out these mental acts has the same effect and use to our Souls as stretching out the hand to apprehend and apply things has to our Bodies that is to bring the thing desired down to our selves Quest. So that to roll and lean upon Jesus Christ is in plain English only to believe what he says and to rely upon what he promises And to apprehend or lay hold on Christ and apply his Merits in clearer and more intelligible Language is only to fulfil the Gospel-terms or to have Faith with its fore-cited effects that is to believe and repent whereby his benefits become ours Quest. Yes that I take to be the true meaning and explication of these obscure Phrases I confess I am a great lover of plain and intelligible Speech And above all things else I love to hear Men speak plain in the great Truths of Religion and Points of Salvation wherein there is the most need of all to inform and edifie Men's understandings And therefore I heartily wish these dark and intricate words were less used or wholly laid aside in these important matters they being words of Mens invention which the Holy Scripture no where uses about them and such words too as I am sure do more amuse than instruct those that hear them But if any think fit still to use them or meet with Faith set off by them in Books or Discourses this and no more in a true sense and in plain intelligible English I think is the meaning of them Quest. If Faith in Christ be a Faith in his Word then is it no part of Faith for any Man to believe his sins are pardoned nor of Infidelity to doubt of it because particular Men have no word of his for that Ans. Very right He tells us in the general he will pardon Penitents but in his Word he has not descended to
appropriated to it without that separate Honour and visible Reverence which is due to them is to unhallow and prophane him which he says in Ezekiel the Priests did when they put no difference between the holy and prophane Ezek. 22. 26. Our great and matchless Creator must have a distinguishing respect and honour visibly paid him in our outward behaviour And when in Gifts and Presents some would shew visible neglect and dishonour of him he complained they did not treat him as a Great and Dreadful King adding that herein their undutifulness might evidently appear because they durst not go so to pay respect to any Temporal Governour or Superiour Mal. 1. 8 13 14. But though this hatred of External irreverence be one thing implied in it yet is it but the outside of God's Holiness And therefore no Man must ever think to content him by Ceremonious Formalities as being extreme nice and scrupulously careful about the Place the Garb the Posture or other decent Dress or circumstance of his Worship and Service except at the same time he shun all sin and wickedness which affront him most of all and bear the directest opposition to his Holiness As this without the other is Spiritual ill Breeding and Clownish Rusticity so is the other without it mere Form and Complement and an empty unprofitable Ceremony Quest. If this Holy God is so irreconcileably set against sin sure he can never be the Author of it Ans. No let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither doth he tempt or incite any man to it James 1. 13. The Devil tempts us who is called the Tempter in the Scriptures Matth. 4. 3. And wicked men who are his Instruments And our own Lusts most of all when they draw us away and intice us to evil as S. James says James 1. 14. But as for the most Holy God the concern he has about our sins is in no wise to decree or help them on but only to forbid and punish them He has no pleasure in wickedness or as the Septuagint translate it he doth not will it Psal. 5. 4. Quest. But doth not God himself say That he had hardned Pharaoh's heart and the heart of his servants Exod. 10. 1. and Chap. 14. 4 17. and is it not also said that he moved David to number Israel and Judah 2 Sam. 24. 1. Ans. Yes but God did these not by way of positive influence and efficiency as a concurrent cause but only by withdrawing his Grace and leaving Men to be hardned by their own Lusts and by evil Spirits And thus of Pharaoh 't is said that he hardned his own heart Exod. 8. 15 32. and of David that Satan moved him to number the people 1 Chron. 21. 1. Quest. But doth not his withdrawing of his Grace show a willingness to have sin take place and that although he is loth to do it himself yet he is free Men should be hardned by others Ans. No 't is only when he is put to it as a Wise and upright Judge in way of Justice For he never withdraws his Grace and thereby leaves Men to their own Lusts and malignant Spirits till they have first made a forfeiture of it by reiterated repulses and affronts or some high provocations Thus in the Story of Pharaoh in Exodus except what is said Chap. 7 13. he bardned Pharaoh's heart which as the Learned note may as well be rendred Pharaoh's heart was hardned as the same word is rendred verse 22. God is not said thus to harden Pharaoh's heart and send all his plagues upon his heart chap. 9. 12 14. till Pharaoh had several times wickedly disobeyed and wilfully hardned his own heart chap. 8. 15 32. And when 't is said that God moved David to number the people 't is added that their sins had provoked him to Anger which made him give him up to it 2 Sam. 24. 1. God's Grace and Holy Spirit is always repulsed and driven away before he recals it from Men and thereby gives them up to an evil Lust or an infernal Spirit to harden and work in them Quest. What say you when God threatens Men with Spiritual Blindness that they shall look on without seeing and hear without understanding Isaiah 6. 9. Which Judgment S. Paul testifies was befallen the unbelieving Jews Rom. 11. 7 25. As our Lord himself also noted Matth. 13. 14 15. Ans. Not that he instils into them any errors or pushes and precipitates them on to any wicked act without opening their Eyes But only that he leaves them to their own violent and blind prejudices which will neither let them hear nor see any thing that makes against them and withdraws clear means of knowledge after they have long slighted and abused them as our Saviour did from the blinded Jews therefore as he says speaking to them in Paxables because seeing they saw not and hearing they heard not that is they would not be made to see and hear by plain Speeches Matth. 13. 13. This infliction of Spiritual blindness S. Paul in the case of the Romans calls giving up to a reprobate sense Rom. 1. 28. Whereto God then gave them up when they of themselves having already gone far in wickedness contracting it he justly left them to it Whilst they knew God they gave him no due glory and acknowledgment and thereupon he gaue them over to a reprobate mind verse 21 28. Their reprobate sense verse 28. was the woful consequent of their own foul lusts and precontracted foolishness noted verse 21 23 25 26. God did not leave them till they had first by false worship and filthy practices not only deserted but driven him and his enlightening Spirit away from them Quest. But what say you to Ahab's case did not God himself deceive him Ans. No but only left him to be deceived by a wicked Spirit and that not till Ahab had sold himself to work wickedness and thereby most justly deserved to be deserted by him The wicked Spirits though they have will enough to hurt us yet are held in Chains and Fetters and are not let loose or in power to work their wills till they have God's Licence And therefore when the good Angels from their several earthly charges return back to God to make their reports some wicked ones as 't is represented in the Story of Job still croud in among them to gain Commissions either for trial or punishment and see who will be delivered into their hands Thus Satan did when he obtained power against Job for a trial of his patience Job 1. 6. And thus on another set day when God publickly decreed the fall of Ahab an evil Spirit presents himself and voluntarily offers to be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets to encourage him to his fall at Ramoth Gilead in deserved punishment of his wickedness And God not only foretels that Ahab would hear him but bids him
to the day of judgment to be punished 2 Pet. 2. 9. And in proportioning this continuance he uses great care and tenderness to his Servants that their sufferings may not outlast their patience or wear out their hope in him The rod of the wicked shall not rest or make a fixt abode and stay too long upon the lot of the righteous lest it put them upon desperate counsels and the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity Psal. 125. 3. Quest. If wicked Men are thus an instrument in God's Hand then whatever evils we suffer from them we must not look only at the immediate actors but see beyond them to Almighty God and own his Providence Ans. Yes and that will not only teach us to please him and to apply our selves to him for redress but teach us patience too because how undeserved soever they may be from others yet we have deserved a thousand times worse at his hands Let him curse says David of wicked Shimâ—i and would return no ill again for the Lord hath bidden him 2 Sam. 16. 10 11. and I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it Psal. 39. 9. nay it will teach us willingness in submission For be the Cup untoothsome and bitter as Gall and Wormwood yet he is both our God and our Father that offers it and we should not suspect any hurt in what comes from his Hand The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it said our Blessed Lord of the unparallelled injuries he suffered John 18. 11. Quest. But if when Men wickedly afflict us you say God sends these afflictions will it not excuse them to say God gives them success against us and they follow Providence Ans. No in no wise For God doth not excite or tempt them to injure us But when they are injurious of themselves his Providence sets us in their way that their wickedness may spend it self upon us to exercise our Faith and Patience or to chastise our disobedience So that they are accountable for their own wickedness and when they will be wicked all he doth is to over-rule it to serve his own designs as he did in the murder of our Blessed Saviour which he ordered for the Salvation of the World though the Jews slew him by wicked hands Act. 2. 23. When we suffer by other Mens sins God who punishes us by them will punish them for them as he declared of the Assyrian the rod of his indignation Is. 10. 5 12 17. and as all wicked Slanderers Oppressors Thieves Rebels and Murderers shall find to their cost in the end It is not acting successfully but acting according to our Duty which will justifie what we do when God comes to judge us Quest. But if 't is Providence that sends wicked and violent Oppressors since it is the Patron of Justice as well as the Chastiser of Undutifulness sure God will not continue to such Men the Power to oppress always Ans. No the more violent and boisterous any wicked Oppressor is the sooner will his Power fail him and spend it self The wicked Oppressor says Solomon passes as a whirl-wind which may for a while storm terribly and bluster but is quickly over Prov. 10. 25. The rod of his anger shall fail that is the Might or even the Authority whereby he scourges shall not bear him out or preserve him in unjust violence but by abusing Power he shall soon lose it and then reap that trouble he has justly deserved Prov. 22. 8. And therefore when any are oppressed by Potent Neighbours or Men of Violence they may support themselves to think that God sees all their wrongs and in due time will give them ease Quest. I see those evils which befal our selves in our own particulars are the allotment of Providence But if there be any miscarriages of State and Government must the People look upon these too to be of God's sending Ans. Yes and generally as a punishment for the wickedness and provocations of a Nation For the transgressions of a land many are the princes thereof Prov. 28. 2. And through the anger of the Lord being kindled against Israel God moved David that is left him to be won by Satan moving him to number the people 2 Sam. 24. 1. So that in any publick miscarriages we must not spend our selves in exclaiming against Ministers of State and the Instruments concerned therein but look up to the Justice of Almighty God and reflect with patience and penitent hearts upon our own sins which are punished in them Quest. But must we think God's Providence directs and disposes when Publick Affairs are most tumultuary and irregular and seem to shew forth fewest footsteps of his perfections Ans. Yes the Lord reigns though the people tremble through convulsive and distracting fears he sitteth between the cherubims though the earth be moved with the violence of stirs and tumults Psalm 99. 1. And this must support all good Men in the most dangerous and distracted times because even then they are still under God and are not at the Mercy of all the ill chances and threatning evils that fly round about them which how loose soever they may seem to fly abroad are yet all bound up in God's Hand Quest. If 't is God that sends all these evils then whensoever any of them threaten and hang over us we must look up to him and have Faith in his Providence Ans. Yes and that too though we seem reduced almost to irremediable extremities For God loves to delay deliverance to the last that our Faith and dependance may be more throughly tried and then shows himself nearest to us when we have no more hope left in our selves or in any humane means Thus he appeared not to save Isaac's life till Abraham's hand was stretched out to take it away Gen. 22. 10 11. And then God comes as a present help when we are in the very time of need Psalm 46. 1. Heb. 4. 16. He chuses the time of our distress to give us a more affecting sense of our deliverance And then too he often works it by those very things which seem not only unprofitable but opposite and apt to hinder it that no part of the honour of it may go to humane means but that the whole of it may be ascribed to himself Quest. You have shown that God orders all those ill events which cross accidents or ill Men bring upon us But what say you to those which we bring upon our selves by our own gross faults or follies Must they be ascribed to God's Providence Ans. No this Solomon taxes in fond sinners that when the foolishness of man perverteth his way and he falls because he is Ignorant or rash and hasty with his feet yet for all this his heart fretteth against the Lord as if not his own pure folly but God had brought him to it Prov. 19. 2 3. The most Holy God forbids all our faults and the most Wise God
disclaims all our follies which we must not ascribe to him but take to our selves As all Persons must do when they throw away themselves in foolish Marriages or throw away their Estates by extravagance and foolish projects or are any other ways the direct Authors of their own miseries which they bring upon themselves by going against his will either in such sins as he forbids or in such follies as he disapproves When our calamities are thus of our own seeking we must not remove the blame from off our selves by casting it on God and say they are of his sending Say not thou as the wise son of Sirach most piously and justly cautions it is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth Say not thou he hath caused me to err for he hath no need of the sinful man Ecclus 15. 11 12. Quest. By this I perceive when any Persons have made a foolish Marriage or otherwise done foolishly for themselves you would not have them say as too ordinarily they do that such match was made in Heaven and is what God had decreed for them Ans. No by no means For that is only to make God accountable for their faults And is it fit when they are ashamed of a thing to lay it upon God to excuse themselves God bids no Man do foolishly or wickedly nor tempts him to it Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil neither doth he tempt any man James 1. 13. Quest. But doth God no way allot these for us Ans. Yes he allots the miseries as a punishment after we have been so faulty or foolish but he doth not allot that foolish miscarriage whereby we bring the misery upon our heads For God is not the Author either of the sins or follies of Men being in himself all Holiness and Wisdom What is well done by us we must ascribe to him but all that is ill we must take to our own selves Quest. But is he not sometimes concerned in sending Mens faults and follies too as well as the miseries in punishment of former provocations For when Men have been great sinners he is oft provoked as you noted above to withdraw his Grace in just Judgment and leave them to themselves whence they fall still into more folly and wickedness Ans. Yes by way of punishment God sometimes gives Men up thus to sin and folly Not that he tempts or inclines Men to be either foolish or wicked as I said but that when they are throughly prepared of themselves to be so in his just Judgment he withdraws his abused Grace the continuance whereof might help to prevent it and leaves them to themselves and the incitation of evil Spirits as I have before declared Quest. So that if any Persons would ascribe any share in their miscarriages to God it must only be in owning his Justice and taking shame to themselves confessing he Righteously gave them up to them in punishment of former sins Ans. Yes Quest. You have instanced in foolish Marriages and I see we must not impute them to Destiny and God's irresistible Decrees which is only a throwing the blame on God to clear our selves But do not you think that the Providence of God which numbers even the Hairs of our Heads is more than ordinarily concerned in making Marriages which are an affair of highest importance Ans. I make no doubt of it Houses and lands are the inheritance of fathers but a prudent wife is from the Lord Prov. 19. 14. 18. 22. But when God's Providence orders and accomplishes Marriages it is not by fate and irresistible ways but only by affording such opportunities and inducements as though oft-times they may very potently induce yet leave a liberty in the Persons themselves I suppose especially ere they are suffered to proceed too far to refuse When God brings them about it is in a way agreeable to free Creatures who have a liberty to refuse and voluntarily of themselves take hold of these offers and facilitating turns of Providence to bring about their own Marriages whence being a matter of their own doing they are accountable for them and deserve Praise when they bestow themselves wisely and blame when they do foolishly Quest. As for all the actions which we do then I perceive we must believe that God observes them And as for all the good or ill events which we meet with we must believe he orders and allots them for us and be accordingly affected with them Ans. Yes and that is walking before God as Abraham was bid to do Gen. 17. 1. and owning Providence which is the ground of all Religion and the great Character through all the Scriptures of good Men and is not only the perfection of our affection and service to Almighty God but the only ground of solid comfort and tranquillity of mind under all the various accidents of this World. Quest. Is this Great and Good God that made and still preserves and carefully provides for us not only our Friend but also our Father Ans. Yes he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and for his sake he is our Father too And so he has taught us to call him and pray Our Father which art in Heaven c. Quest. What must this teach us Ans. Not only to take the freedom of access and the confidence but withal to pay the Reverence and dutiful Obedience of Children If I be a father where is mine honour Mal. 1. 6. To imitate the ways and virtues of our Heavenly Father and turn followers of God as dear children Eph. 5. 1. this being a Natural Fruit of Spiritual as it usually is of Secular Relation It must engender noble thoughts and pursuits worthy of this high Alliance and not suffer us to debase our selves and dishonour our Race by sinking into sensuality or doting on and taking up with any vain and perishing goods of this life In summ it must cause us to depend on him with trust and affiance to receive what he sends with submission and cheerfulness and an opinion that it proceeds from kindness with other such like which are filial tempers Quest. And this God and Father the Creed says is Almighty and the maker of Heaven and Earth Ans. Yes that is added and is next in course to be explained CHAP. III. Of God's Almightiness The Contents God's Almightiness implies 1. God's Might and Strength to effect all things viz. all that are the object of any Power And that are not repugnant to his own Nature The exerting this Power creates God no labour He can do whatsoever any things of the World can do This an encouragement to all generous Enterprizes And to build on Providence especially where we have a Promise The value and acceptance of this trust in a seemingly most improbable case And whatsoever any things of the World are inclined or wont to do he can
on being under his Protection and going on lawful Errands Matth. 8. 24 25 26. God very commonly suffers good Mens dangers which at last he designs to remove to go on first to the greatest extremities that their Faith and Trust may pass through a more full trial and illustrious exercise Quest. Must it teach us any thing else Ans. Yes Secondly in no case to forsake God and fly to any Foreign and unlawful Aids For if we stick to him this over-ruling Power when things are at the worst can with a Word put all the evil by and rescue us And if we forsake him he can as easily turn that Power against us and make us fall by our own succours For as this Almighty Arm is able to bring all things about for us so when it pleases can it also bring them about against us in spite of all probabilities Quest. This is a stupendious height of Power how will God employ it Ans. In making good all his Promises and executing all his Threatnings heaping Favours on his Friends and faithful Servants and Judgments on his Enemies So that all Holy Men shall taste the sweetness of it in endearing Providences in this World as Jacob Joseph David and the Patriarchs and pious Men of old did and in Glorious and endless Rewards in the next And wicked Men shall feel the smart of it in all the crosses and penal inflictions of this Life and in the everlasting torments of the Life to come Quest. If this irresistible Power were not to be thus justly and kindly used though we should basely fear and dread yet should we not love and value him that has it Ans. No for nothing is so hateful as power in the hands of malice which makes us have such an utter hatred of the powers of darkness And this must teach all ambitious Men never to covet and all Potent Men never to employ their Power to oppress or tyrannize to accomplish unlawful Lusts or to work their wills on others But only to encourage Virtue and reward it to protect the innocent relieve the oppressed curb the vicious or some way or other to do good with it Quest. Another Branch of God's Almightiness you said is his Sovereignty and Power to command and order all things What mean you by God's Sovereignty Ans. His Supreme Authority being accountable to none but having Power to order and injoyn all things as seemeth fittest to his own Wisdom Quest. What doth this imply Ans. Two things both Empire that is a Power to injoyn and command as a Ruler and Dominion that is a Power to allot and dispose as a Proprietor God may give any Commands and exact them of any Persons as an absolute Governour and make any distributions of Things or allotment of States and Conditions as an absolute Lord and Proprietor And he is Sovereign in both these being bound to please none but only to order as seems best to himself Quest. Doth God exercise over the World a Sovereign Empire Ans. Yes all other Rulers as the Apostle says are but his ministers Rom. 13. 4. but he still keeps the controlling Power and the Reins of Government in his own Hands being the blessed and only Potentate King of kings and Lord of lords 1 Tim. 6. 15. He hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdom ruleth over all Psalm 103. 19. And this Empire he exercises in giving and exacting all Commands and guiding and directing all Actions and turns in the World as he pleases Quest Has God an absolute and unlimited Power to command all things Ans. Yes all that his Creatures by his Grace are capable of doing and all that his most Holy and Perfect Nature is capable of injoyning Quest. Why do you say all his Creatures by his Grace are capable of doing Ans. Because his most just and equitable Government cannot impose an impossible thing His Laws indeed might be impossible to us considered naked in our own strength but not as consider'd under those assistances and that strength which he is ready to afford us He doth not reap where he has not sown and whatsoever his Laws require his Spirit will assist Men to perform His commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. and his yoke is easie and its burden light Matth. 11. 30. Quest. Why do you add also all that his most Holy and Perfect Nature is capable of injoyning Ans. To shew he doth not give Commands out of unlimited Will and Arbitrariness but doth all according to unalterable Principles of Goodness and Justice He may command whatsoever he will but then he cannot will all that we may fancy but only all that is like himself i. e. all that is Wise and Good. He never Wills against the Perfection of his Nature because he will do it Quest. I perceive then that God having commanded Holiness and Justice and Mercifulness and Truth and Faithfulness and the like which are his own Natural Perfections there is no possibility of his reversing these Commands to shew unlimitedness of Will and commanding their contraries Ans. No in commanding these Virtues he only commands us to be like himself to be holy as he is holy perfect in kindness as he is perfect as the Scripture says And being Transcripts of his own Perfections these Virtues are a limitation to his Will and whilst he is himself he can never will them to be otherwise Indeed it is his Command which makes them become duties to us and instances of our obedience but that which made him command them was the Goodness they had antecedent to his Command as being Draughts of his own Perfections He willed them because they were Good and like himself And he being unchangeable they must be always like him and upon that account he must always will them whence they are said to be duties of Essential and Eternal Goodness and Obligation Quest. Doth God exercise this Empire also in guiding and directing all Actions and Turns in the World as he pleases Ans. Yes he doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What doest thou as Nebuchadnezzar most justly acknowledged when he returned to himself Dan. 4. 35. He presides in all Councils and directs and over-rules all Actions and Events I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Isaiah 45. 7. And this Administration of things is called his Providence which has already been discoursed of Quest. Has God also a Sovereign Dominion to dispose of all things and allot all their different states and conditions as a Supreme Proprietor Ans. Yes his Hand made all things bestowing upon them both the Workmanship and the Materials and his Power still preserves them and all this for what uses he pleases Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 11. As the clay is in
therefore no Persons to whom God has given Estates must think them a priviledge for being idle and careless or for spending them wholly upon sports and pastimes as if wealthy Persons were made for no other business but diversions and much less for laying them out in ostentation of Pride and Vanity or in ministring to Vice and Luxury Health and Wit and Wealth and other Temporal advantages being only Loans of God are to be Faithfully stewarded and laid out not slothfully neglected wasted embezelled or abused Quest. Are we to learn from it any thing further Ans. Yes Fifthly to be humble and think modestly and soberly of our selves under any preeminence of Body or Parts Power or Possessions When these advantages puff Men up with pride and vain fondness and self-conceit they arrogate all the fancied honour and estimation of them to themselves as if they were Proprietors But when they own them as God's Gifts and Trusts and themselves as holding them only during Pleasure by uncertain Tenures they will ascribe all the Honour of them to him and learn Modesty Care Dependance and Thankfulness And withal never insult or deride the want of them in others remembring that he who mocketh the poor and the case is the same in all other Natural Defects or Calamities reproacheth his Maker who disposed of him in that condition as Solomon says Prov. 17. 5. Quest. By this I see God Almighty is an immensly Great Being How must the thoughts of such an irresistible Might and absolute Sovereignty affect us Ans. With the greatest submission of Humility and Reverence For such immense Greatness and Majesty should strike us with holy fear and submission in the highest degree every time we think or speak of this Great God especially in all acts of Adoration and Worship which we pay to him Thou must fear this glorious and fearful name the Lord thy God Deut. 28. 58. He is the excellency of Jacob Amos 8. 7. the most high over all the earth Psal. 83. 18. a great God a mighty and terrible Deut. 10. 17. glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Exod. 15. 11. Holy and reverend is his name Psalm 111. 9. Quest. By this Almighty Power 't is easie to believe God made the World. Ans. Yes thereby in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth Gen. 1. 1. And by the same Power he still Governs and Preserves it as I have before explained The End of the First Part. Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Practical Believer Part II. Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. á Sacr. Domest June 28. 1688. THE Practical Believer PART II. OR THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST By John Kettlewell Minister of Coles-Hill in Warwick-shire LONDON Printed for Robert Kettlewell and are to be sold by R. Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard and W. Rogers at the Sun in Fleetstreet 1689. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Office and Natures of Jesus Christ. In what Salvation by Christ consists Being Christ notes his being 1. A Prophet to teach his Church We must hear and learn of him in the Holy Scriptures and at the mouths of his Ministers 2. A Priest to Redeem and Intercede for it 3. A King to Govern it by his Laws And by his Officers whom we are to submit to in his place Also to Protect it against all visible and invisible Enemies Jesus Christ is the Son of God as having receiv'd from the Father the Nature of God. And the Power of God. On both these Accounts and others he is our Lord. And to be worshipped What we learn from his being our Lord. Of Christ's being Conceiv'd of the Holy Ghost and Born of a Virgin. He was truly Man. And why he was so CHAP. II. OF the Sufferings of Christ. An Account of what Christ suffer'd and from whom Both he and God the Father were consenting to it What he suffer'd was for our sins to save us from suffering for them when we truly repent of them Pardon on Repentance the design of his Satisfaction and the Merit of his Death This is a free Grace which implies that it is not given in Recompence of our Deserts not that it requires no Conditions An Account why God would not grant this Grace of Pardon to Penitents without Christ's dying to satisfie for them And how his Death serv'd all the designs of God's Justice full as well as their own would have done Christ's Sacrifice but once offered but daily commemorated Several useful inferences from Christ's dying for us Christ's dead Body was Buried Of his descent into Hell. CHAP. III. OF the Resurrection of Christ and his sitting at God's Right-hand An Account how Christ may be said to have been three days in the Earth His Resurrection proved The necessity of it He ascended to Heaven What is meant by his sitting at the Right-Hand of God. There he 1. Intercedes for us as our Priest. This intercession not vocal by Words and formal Pleas but by presenting himself and his own meritorious Sacrifice He intercedes only for Covenant-Mercies and on Covenant-Terms He is an Intercessor of absolute Power with God and truest Affection for us One part of his intercession is to hand and present our Prayers to God. Therefore whensoever we pray for any thing 't is both our duty and wisdom to apply by him 2. Governs his Church as a King. In what Acts this consists 3. Instructs his Church as a Prophet by sending to it the Holy Ghost Christ's Body having now taken up its fixt abode at God's Right-Hand we are not in any Ordinances to expect his Bodily Presence but only a Presence by his Spirit which is more to be desired Some Inferences from Christ's sitting at God's Right-hand CHAP. IV. OF the Future Judgment The necessity of the Future Judgment All men are judged and made happy or miserable at their Deaths But not so fully then as they will be afterwards The Compleat and General Judgment is at the end of the World. In that Jesus Christ is to be the Judge Who are to be Judged In that Judgement no Condemnation but for breaking God's Laws So not for indifferent things Men shall be tryed and sentenced for all their sinful Actions with regard to their lasting Effects For their most secret ones And such ill deeds as were disguised under the fairest Pretences For their sinful Omissions And Neglecting to employ and improve their Talents For sinful Words And Thoughts and Desires For all these Men shall be judged impartially without respect of Persons But with Equity and Candor not in Rigor The Benign Judge will be very ready to observe what makes for us and make the best of our Performances And interpret the seemingly Rigorous Expressions of his own Laws with great condescension to Humane Measures He will allow for involuntary Failings And judge Candidly and Favourably of that involuntariness And for Natural Infirmities And for Providential disadvantages as Multiplicity of
Justification Rom. 4. 25. and who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8. 34. Quest. Was his Resurrection necessary on any other Accounts Answ. Yes for 2. In virtue of his death he was to be our Mediator to intercede with God for us and our Saviour and Deliverer to protect and rescue us from our Spiritual Enemies And these great works suppose a live man and are not to be performed by a dead person And being thus necessary to discharge his continual care of us it must be equally so to support our Faith and Trust in him When men are dead we expect no service or succour from them And therefore were he still in the Grave we should not fix our Hope and Trust in or make our Addresses to him Quest. Was it necessary to shew him to be the Messiah and to prove his Religion Answ. Yes for he had appealed to it as a sign of his being a true Prophet Mat. 12 38 39 40. And therefore by the way of tryal which God prescribed the Jews viz. the accomplishment of predictions he had appear'd to be a false Prophet had he failed in it So that if Christ be not risen saith St. Paul your Faith is vain 1 Cor. 15. 14. Quest. In his Death and Resurrection methinks we have a plain and palpable instance of the immortality of Humane Souls and of a future Life beyond the Grave where God may reward or punish us Answ. So we have For his Soul manifestly did exist apart from his Body during the time of their Separation till on the third day it was reunited again So that mens Souls can subsist without as well as in their Bodies and when they depart hence go into another place where they are capable of being called to account for all they have done in this life On which account as well as others St. Paul might well say That God hath given assurance of a future Life and Judgment by raising Christ from the dead Acts 17. 31. And St. Peter That God hath begotten us to the hope of an Eternal Inheritance thro' the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Quest. We read of several others that rose from the Dead as well as Christ had he any thing singular in his Resurrection above them Answ. Yes he raised himself by his own power but they were all raised by him he was not only the first that rose but as the First-Fruits and all the World besides rise as the ensuing Crop which depends upon him Destroy this Temple saith he and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2. 19 21. I lay down my life and take it up again Joh. 10. 18. He is the first-born from the Dead Col. 1. 18. Rev. 1. 5. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order Christ the First-fruits afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming 1 Cor. 15. 22 23. Quest. But did not Lazarus rise before Christ John 11. 44. and Jairus's Daughter Luk. 8. 55. and the Widows Son of Nain Luk. 7. 12 14 15. and how then is he said to be the first of the Dead that returned Answ. They returned to die again but he was the first that rose to life everlasting He being raised dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. Quest. By his Resurrection Christ got Glory and Happiness to himself even that Joy for which St. Paul says he endured the Cross Heb. 12. 2. But did he thereby acquire any Power over us Answ. Yes his Death purchased and his Resurrection invested him with an absolute Power and Dominion over us For this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14. 9. And after his Resurrection saith he All Power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Mat. 28. 18. Quest. If so his Resurrection lays an obligation upon us to obey him Answ. Yes like as he rose from the dead so must we rise to newness of life Rom. 6. 4. Quest How long stay'd he upon Earth after he was risen again Answ. For the space of forty days discoursing and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God Acts 1. 3. Quest. Whither went he when he left it Answ. To Heaven whither he was taken up in a bright Cloud all the Apostles looking up after him till he was taken up out of their sight Acts 1. 3 9. And now he is there he sitteth at the right hand of God. Quest. What mean you by his sitting at the right hand of God Answ. His advancement to the heighth of Dignity and Authority in the presence of God. The Right-hand of a Prince is the place of peculiar Favour and of highest Honour and Respect as Solomon when he would do Honour to his Mother Bathsheba set her at his Right-hand 1 King. 2. 19. To be placed at hand by the priviledge of nearness gives opportunity for Conference and Address And to be placed at the Right-hand the Hand of use and business is to be in the way both of presenting all Offers and receiving of Returns whence it is a known mark of special Favour and Honour with all Potentates And so by Christ's sitting at God's Right-Hand is expressed his Soveraign Honour and Power in the presence of God. Or perhaps moreover his sitting in his humane shape on the Right-hand of that Bright Throne or Resplendant Glory which visibly accompanies and manifests some extraordinary presence of God as he appeared to Stephen in his Vision who saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the Right-hand of God that is I suppose at the Right-hand of that visible Glory wherewith God appeared Acts 7. 55. And this probably is what the Scripture means by his sitting at the Right-hand of Power Mat. 26. 64. and on the Right hand of Majesty Heb. 1. 3. That is on the Right-hand of such Glory or bright Appearance which is the usual Symbol of God's Power and Majesty which at other times is expressed by his sitting on the Right-hand of the Throne of God Heb. 12. 2. or on the Right-hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8. 1. Quest. It was most just that he should be exalted thither in recompence of his meritorious sufferings as the Apostle notes Phil. 2. 8 9. and Heb. 12. 2. But is he gone thither to carry on any Designs for us Answ. Yes and those of the greatest importance For there in the highest manner and to the fullest effect he exercises all his Offices in our behalf Quest. I pray you explain the Designs he carries on for us there Answ. First The work of Intercession as our Priest. For he stands before God to mediate on our behalf and to obtain for us whatsoever God has promised or he has purchased or we stand in need of He is enter'd into
fit to come to a most holy God from the Hand of no other Mediator but him who has not only the acceptableness of his Person to prefer but the Merit of his Sacrifice too to atone for them Quest. By this it should seem that whensoever we pray for any thing to Almighty God we should not seek after other Mediators but apply by him And since he is so Powerful in Mediation this is not only our bounden Duty but our truest Wisdom Answ. So it is For he is our Advocate with the Father 1 John 2. 1. the one Mediator between God and Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. Whatsoever says he you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you John 16. 23. We are sure he is now in the immediate Presence of God to prefer any Suit but we are not sure that Departed Saints are there who for ought we know may be kept till the last Day in some inferior Place of Comfort and Refreshment Good Souls as I shall note hereafter not receiving their Consummation before the last Judgment When we address by him we only take that way of Application God himself has prescribed and in all Justice and Reason we should allow God the Direction how we shall seek his Favours since he is the most Free and Soveraign Disposer of them Nay since the Prayers we put up are uttered by sinful Lips and mingled with our own Frailties and Defects they can come worthy and pure to God from him alone whose Blood as I said has Merit enough to purge as well as his Person Favour enough to prefer them Tho a perfect Prayer had not God otherwise order'd it might in it self be presented especially from a perfect Man by an acceptable Mediator yet a sinful Prayer from sinful Men doth plainly need such a Mediator as in the same Person is both Intercessor and Redeemer Thus the Altar of Incense among the Jews which stood without the Vail before the Mercy-seat daily to perfume and present the Peoples Prayers was once a year to be sprinkled with the Blood of Atonement plainly intimating that the Means of presenting Prayers must be endow'd withal with a Power of expiating them Exod. 30. 6 7 8 10. And accordingly the Apostle mentions Christ's Mediation as joyn'd to and founded on his Redemption One Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. And If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father who is also the Propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. Quest. What other Design doth Christ carry on for us in Heaven Answ. 2. The Care of Governing his Church as a King. He is at the Right-hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being subject unto him 1 Pet. 3. 22. and all Authority in Heaven and Earth being put into his Hand Mat. 28. 18. This Power he purchased by his Death but was put in full Possession of it when he came to claim it by his Intercession Quest. Wherein doth he exercise this Plenitude of Power Answ. In Giving Laws to his Church For he is the one Law-giver that is able either to save or to destroy Jam. 4. 12. And since he is the Legislator in Religion 't is an Usurpation upon his Prerogative for any to form to themselves a new-fangled Worship and beat out other Paths to Heaven of their own devising In Protecting it from all both outward and intestine Enemies whether the World the Flesh or Men or Devils For he sits at God's Right-hand till his Enemies be made his Foot-stooll Psal. 110. 1. and Heb. 10. 12 13. and he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his Feet 1 Cor. 15. 25. And lastly in judging all the World to their present Portion of the Eternal State when they leave the Body and to the full Consummation of it at the last Day For now the Father judgeth no Man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son Joh. 5. 22. 27. Which as it makes for the unspeakable Comfort of all his Faithful Servants since they are to be judg'd by their own Advocate who has preferr'd their Ease and Happiness to his own Life so will it be to the eternal Terrour of all those his Enemies who would not have him to reign over them Luk. 19. 27. And all this Power he exercises himself from Heaven besides what he doth by his Bishops and Pastors who are the Officers of his Kingdom and his Deputies and Substitutes here on Earth Quest. Has he any other Business to do for us at God's Right-hand as our King Answ. Yes to prepare a Place for us and allot us Royal Habitations with himself I go to prepare a Place for you and I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also Joh. 14. 2 3. The First Adam lost Paradise and the Second Adam was to restore us to it Who after he had merited it for us by his Cross ascended into Heaven to instal our Nature there and claim his Purchase And discharging the mighty Angel whose flaming Sword after the Fall was set to guard the Passage to it from our Intrusions open'd the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Quest. What further Concern did he transact for us by going to Heaven Answ. 3. As a Prophet he sent down the Holy Ghost to instruct his Church in his Absence and to be with us in his stead It is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you but if I depart I will send him unto you Joh. 16. 7. Being by the Right-hand of God exalted he received the Promise of the Holy Ghost Act. 2. 33. and sent him on his Apostles to abide with them for ever Joh. 14. 16. Quest. How did the Holy-Spirit supply his Absence Answ. By endowing them with such miraculous Gifts as enabled them to propagate his Religion thro the World as effectually as if he had staid with them and with such inward Graces as would fit themselves for those Mansions he had provided for them Of both which I shall say more in their proper place Quest. And these Gifts you say he ascended to bestow upon his Church Answ. Yes the Holy-Ghost was not to be given till after Jesus was glorified Joh. 7. 39. but when he ascended up on high he received Gifts for Men that the Lord might dwell among them Psal. 68. 18. and Eph. 4. 8. Quest. Now our Saviour Christ is Ascended is not his Glorified Body to take up its Mansion and fixt Abode at God's Right-hand Answ. Yes as St. Peter told the Jews the Heavens must receive him unto the Times of Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. And then as the Angel told his Apostles he shall so come again to judge the World from Heaven in like manner as they then saw him go into Heaven Act. 1. 1â— Quest. If his Bodily Presence and Local
at that Day are to be judged Answ. All Men that shall either be found alive at his coming or were dead before For we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive for the things done in the Body 2 Cor. 5. 10. yea and the lost Angels too for know you not that we shall judge Angels i. e. sit with Christ and approve of his Sentence when he condemns them 1 Cor. 6. 3. Quest. What Proof will there be of Crimes and who shall be the Witnesses Answ. The Devils are the Accusers of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. and they will call for Justice But there needs no Testimony at that Day from the Father of Lies for God in his Omniscience keeps a Register and Record of all Mens Actions and that Book shall be opened and the Dead shall be judged by that unerring Book of his Remembrance Rev. 20. 12. Nay indeed there is no need of any Witnesses at all because the Guilty shall confess their Crimes and bear witness against themselves Their Consciences shall bear witness and their own Thoughts accuse or excuse one another in the Day when God shall judge the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2. 15 16. Quest. Shall all this be acted in great Solemnity with Pomp and Splendour Answ. Yes as much as may be For Christ will translate his Royal Court from Heaven to Earth and come at the Right-hand of that Glory by which he now sits in peerless Splendor and Majesty having all the Holy Angels glittering in their utmost Brightness to attend this Triumph He shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of all the Holy Angels Luk. 9. 26. Mat. 25. 31. He shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God 1 Thess. 4. 16. And when that sounds all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth Joh. 5. 28 29. and there shall be a Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust Acts 24. 15. All these shall stand before his Throne And after an exact Scrutiny and fair Trial of all Persons he will separate them one from another into two Companies as a Shepherd divides the Sheep from the Goats and as the Jews were wont to do in their Courts setting such as were to be Absolv'd together upon the Right and such as were to be Condemn'd upon the Left-hand of their Tribunals And then with great Solemnity pass Sentence bidding the Righteous Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you But saying to the Wicked Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire Mat. 25. 31 32 34 41. Quest. Where shall this Glorious Appearance be Answ. In the Air saith St. Paul 1 Thess. 4. 17. In the Clouds of Heaven says our Saviour Mat. 26. 64. Somewhere it will be near the Earth but in what particular Part it little concerns us to inquire or advantages us to understand Quest. When this Great Judge has passed Sentence shall all Parties concern'd acquiesce in it Answ. Yes he is the last Judge from whom there can be no Appeal And there will be no need of any For all shall acknowledge the Perfect and irreprehensible Justice of what he determines The Righteous being tried first and call'd up to surround him in Glorious Circles whilst he tries the rest shall approve and praise his Justice The Saints shall judge the World i. e. as his Assessors and the Comprobators of his Judgment 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. And the Mouth of all Wicked who suffer under it shall be stopped and they shall be convinced of it within themselves For he will then convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all the hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Jude 15. Quest. For what shall we be judged and condemned in this Judgment Answ. For all Transgressions of the Laws of his Gospel and for those only He will not judge Arbitrarily or condemn any for unforbidden Things or for no Cause but only because he pleases But the Laws of his Gospel are the Rule he will try and judge all Christians by God shall judge Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2. 16. and the Word that I have spoken the same shall judge Men at the last Day Joh. 12. 48. Quest. If we shall be condemn'd only by God's Laws then to be sure unforbidden Things which are not threatned in the Word of God and which there is no Law against will never condemn any Answ. Most certainly they will not and there is no Sin in them to be condemned For where there is no Law there is no Transgression Rom. 4. 15. And whosoever commits Sin transgresses also the Law for Sin is the Transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3. 4. And Sin is not imputed when there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. So that it is a vain Fear either in Religion or in Common Life when Mens Consciences scruple Things which they confess to be Indifferent i. e. forbid by no Laws as using a Form of Prayers Kneeling Standing or other Rites and Ceremonies no where forbidden in the Worship of God. In the last Judgment they shall answer only for the Breach of Laws and therefore are sure not to endanger their Souls or become accountable for such as these since there is no Law against them Quest. You say Men shall be judged for all their Transgressions of Gods Laws then to be sure for all their Sinful Actions Answ. Yes For we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive according to that he hath done in the Body whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. And the Dead are judged every Man according to their Works Rev. 20. 13. Quest. So that then we must answer for all the Actions of our Lives and receive Reward if they have been good or Punishment if they have been ill ones Answ. Yes Quest. The Actions of Men are quickly done and when they are over they are wont to think there is an end of them But do not the good or ill Effects of several survive and last long and make for a great while after as if the Action were still a doing Answ. Yes they do both in good and bad Actions So that Men may be sinning and serving God noâ— only whilst they live but when they are in their Graves Quest. I pray you instance to me how it is so in good Actions Answ. If a Man gains Proselytes to God this good Fruit will last and they will serve him when he is dead If he promotes Pious Truths or gives good Advice or shews an holy Example in this World the Truths may be remembred and the Advice followed and the Example copied out and imitated when he is gone out of it If he endows Churches or builds Hospitals or the like his Piety will
the World by these Pretences Answ. Yes For when the Lord cometh he will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of the Hearts 1 Cor. 4. 5. He shall be of quick Understanding in the Fear of the Lord and shall not judge after the sight of his Eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his Ears i. e. barely from outward Appearances but with Righteousness shall he judge the Poor and reprove with Equity even the Meek upon Earth where they are Trespassers Isa. 11. 3 4. And therefore it nearly concerns us to be sincere in all the Goodness we make shew of and to be the same to God as we appear to be to Men For if we dissemble in any thing he will pluck off the Disguise and shew us openly to be Hypocritical Pretenders and disguised Sinners to all the World. Quest. I see we shall be judged then for all our sinful Actions But shall we judged too for all our sinful Omissions Answ. Yes for we are as much bound to do what God injoyns as to forbear doing what he forbids and at that Day he will call us to an account for both Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire for in my poor Members I felt Hunger and ye gave me no Meat I was Thirsty and ye gave me no Drink a Stranger and ye took me not in Naked and ye Cloathed me not Sick and in Prison and ye visited me not All which are omissions of Duty and for them they are Sentenced Mat. 25. 41 42 43. Quest. I perceive we shall be sentenced for neglecting to fulfill Laws But will Judgment also pass upon us for neglecting to employ or improve our Talents Answ. Yes for the Lord orders the unprofitable Servant who had hoarded up his Talent and made no gain with it to be cast into utter Darkness Mat. 25 25 30. And therefore it concerns all men to whom God has given Leisure or Power or Wealth or Credit or Wit and Parts to look upon all these as Trusts and not to squander them away on Vice or Vanities Sports and Pastimes but as Wise and Faithful Stewards to employ them all for God's service remembring that all these were â—ommitted to them for their Master's â—se and that at the last Day they shall be called to give an account how they have spent them Quest. What say you to our words shall we be judged at the last Day for them too Answ. Yes for by thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be Condemned Mat. 12. 37. And this should make all men careful to Govern their Tongues since they must give so strict an account for the abuse of them Quest. Christ there says Men shall give account in the Day of Judgment for every idle word v. 26. what then will become of most men in this world For is not any man that Discourses with freedom liable to utter something that is Idle that is works no good or makes none the better for it Answ. By Idle word there is to be understood every False and Slanderous word such as the Jews had then cast out against him when they said he wrought Miracles through Beelzebub v. 24. Quest. But in this strict Judgment for all our sinful Actions and sinful Words will there be any account still further required for our inward Thoughts and Desires of ill which were never come to act Answ. Yes for at that Day God will Judge the Secrets of men Rom. 2. 16. And when the Lord comes to Judgment he will make manifest the Counsels of the Heart 1 Cor. 4. 5. Quest. But is not every man troubled more or less with ill Thoughts and unlawful Desires and like to be so whilst we bear these Bodies about us Answ. Yes for in the Regenerate themselves the Flesh Lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. Quest. How then can any man stand in the Judgment if for these they shall be Condemned Answ. If the bare sudden Thoughts and Desires were Damnable they could not But that for which God will then Condemn men is not all stirring of them but only all yielding to fulfill them Make no Provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. And this the Righteous do not commit or when they do before their Death they Repent of it and amend it Quest. What will be judged yielding to fulfill them Answ. 1. All inward Consent to the fulfilling of them in our hearts tho it may be we cannot do it for want of opportunity For when Lust has thus Conceived it bringeth forth Sin Jam. 1. 15. And our Saviour says Adultery may be committed in the Heart Mat. 5. 28. 2. All Contrivance for the acting and Fulfilling of them after we have consented to them He that Deviseth to do evil shall be called and dealt with as a mischievous Person Prov. 24. 8. And evil Thoughts that is Murderous Machinations and Contrivances are ranked in Guilt and Punishment with Murders themselves Mat. 15. 19. 3. All Actual accomplishment of them in Deed and Practice which is fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5. 16. And this is more provoking still if it be in a settled Custom and constant Tenor of action which is walking or living after the Flesh Rom. 8. 1. 4. 13. Quest. I perceive then when Christ comes to Judgment we shall all be called to Account for all the sinful Deeds we have done and all the sinful Words we have spoken and all the evil Thoughts or Desires we have consented or endeavoured to fulfill and Condemned for them unless we have sincerely repented of them Answ. Yes Quest. But how will Christ proceed in Judging us for these Things Will he pass Sentence impartially without respect of Persons Answ. Yes All that are equal in Guilt shall be sure to have equal Punishment For the Judge is not capable of being Byassed by Fear or Favour by any Fondness or Indulgence towards any Criminals by any of their Flatterâ—◠〈◊〉 Complements Gifts or Services their Crafty insinuations or tiresom importunities by their Kindred or Families Sects and Opinions But absolutely setting aside all by-Respects he will regard only the Merit of Causes and what doth really influence the Case and Sentence every Man according to the Evidence that lyes against him At that Revelation of his Righteous Judgment there is no Respect of Persons with God. They that have sinned without Law shall Perish without Law and as many as have sinned under the Law shall be Judged by the Law. God will render to every man according to his Deeds Eternal Life to those that have continued in well-doing but Wrath and Anguish on every Soul that doth evil whether Jew or Gentile Rom. 2. 5. to 13. God without respect of Persons judges as every Mans work shall be 1 Pet. 1. 17. Quest. But in judging upon all these Points will Christ do it in Rigor pressing all the Punctilio's and taking all the Advantages of Law
the Tenor of Christ's own Laws For then they only speak the Language of Christ's own Rules and as Tertullian says are a true anticipation or Fore-hand Draught of the great Judgment And when his Officers only pronounce and say after him there is no doubt but he will confirm what they have pronounced in his Name Quest. But from what you have formerly discoursed I perceive that some things in Religon being against the Prime and Fundamental Doctrines are so Damnable in themselves as not to be capable of any Favour or Allowances And that others being only against inferior Truths are Damnable only as accompanied with an Evil Mind but capable withal of being incurred under Pardonable circumstances Now in these last Points many Persons that mean well and serve Christ sincerely in the main and essentials of a Christian may yet be unhappily mislead into wrong Opinions or Practices And if for their fixedness and obstinacy in these they happen to be cast out of any Church do you think they are always cut off from Christ too and that he will Finally Anathematise and condemn them in his Sentence Answ. No. For the Church as all humane Judges being unable to see into Mens Hearts give sentence in these cases according to outward Actions But Christ in his judgment of them looks also at the mind and heart of the Actors Rateing exactly not only the Punishableness of the Offences but also the Degrees of voluntary and involuntary which makes a Pardonableness or Punishableness of the Offenders And making these Allowances on such scores as fall not under their Notice 't is reasonable to believe he will still own and receive several compassionably mislead who are cast out on these accounts by the Churches Censures Quest. This validity and effect of Church-Censures you say is when they proceed according to Christ's own Rules and upon just cause But if they bind where the Gospel says they should loose and Excommunicate against Reason I suppose those Censures are meer Scare-crows that may serve to make a show but bring no hurt with them Answ. Very true Blessed are ye says our Saviour when Men shall separate you from their Company and expunge or cast out your Name as evil for the Son of Mans sake for so persecuted their Fathers the Prophets Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for your Reward is great in Heaven Luk. 6. 22 23. If good Christians are Excommunicated in any Church for not going against the Scriptures and complying with it in ill things as poor Protestants are by the Romish Church they lose nothing thereby with God who will not ratifie a wrong sentence but will increase their Reward for having bravely suffer'd in his Cause Quest. By what you have said I see how God forgives Sins But when they are committed against us we are bid to forgive them too and that as we our selves hope to be forgiven I pray you what doth that imply Answ. Not our remitting Future punishments which lye at God's mercy not in ours Nor always that we sit still without offering to defend our selves when we are assaulted or to seek redress when we are injured But only that we bear no malice to them in our hearts and if the case require Redress that we seek it not in Spiteful ways and that beside the Reparation of our own Wrong we aim not at our Adversary's Prejudice nor seek his hurt afterwards nor Pray to God or to the Magistrate for vengeance as the Jews might to ease an angry mind when we are able to do no more against him our selves Quest. What use must we make of this Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins Answ. Admire the mercy of God who can forgive such Profligate and Provoking Offenders And the wonderful love of Jesus Christ who could dye to procure this Forgiveness for his utter Enemies And not despair of mercy but stedfastly hope there is place of Pardon after any of our sins And above all to shew true Repentance and forgive others and perform all those things which are the condition and Terms of Forgiveness thereby to secure it to our selves Quest. And when we are once forgiven may we embolden our selves from God's readiness to forgive to Repeat our sins Answ. No by no means Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound in pardoning God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Now thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee said our Saviour Joh. 5. 14. Such ingratitude and abuse of Grace is not only most provoking to the Spirit and tempts him to withdraw from us and calls down from God heavier and surer Punishments But also it brings in force against us all the old scores which were all struck off as I said only on presumption of our Perseverance in repenting of them CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting The Contents The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a Place of Bliss Of Eternal Life wherin there is Full and unmixed Happiness Of the satisfaction of their Senses Their clear and distinct Knowledge Perfect Holiness And without Reluctance Blissful Companions Perfection of Love and Kindness Honour and Eminence of Place All these to be injoy'd in the Highest Heavens without satiety or weariness For evermore Of the miseries of the Damned in Tormenting Passions The worm of Conscience Fire and Flames Disgrace Under all which no favour of God. No company but of Tormenting Devils and damned Spirits None to condole when they cannot relieve No rest and sleep for Recruit of Spirits No end of their miseries The Use of this Quest. WHat is the Eleventh Article of the Creed Answ. I believe the Resurrection of the Body Quest. May not the Resurrection be interpreted only of a Spiritual Resurrection from sin Answ. So some taught of old as St. Paul testifies saying the Resurrection is passed already i. e. when Men rose from a State of sin to the fear of God and these says he get credit and overthrow the Faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 18. But the Resurrection we expect is a Resurrection of the Body Our Bodies after we have laid them down by Death shall at the Day of Judgment be quickned and raised up again Then all that are in the Graves shall hear Christ's voice and come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 28 29. This mortal Body must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on Incorruption that so all that being revived which Death destroyed Death may be swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. Quest. The