easie and convenient as well as glorious habitation wherein it shall for ever forget those dismal Cries O my Head my Heart my Bowels and enjoy everlasting rest and freedom Now she is in a travelling condition and the Inn she lodges at is mean and inconvenient her Provision is course her Bed hard and her Rest continually interrupted with noise and tumult but when she is once got home to her own House her house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens she shall there live in perfect ease and pleasure free from all the annoyances of flesh and blood from all the disturbances of pain and sickness and from all the toil and fatigue the noise and hurry of this mortal condition and with splendid State delicious fare soft and quiet repose recompence her self a thousand fold for all her present travel and weariness IV. And lastly The Bodies of good men will be changed from corruptible and mortal into incorruptible and immortal So ver 42.53 it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption and this corruptible must put on incorruption this mortal must put on immortality i. e. Whereas this body which we lay down hath in the very constitution of it the seeds of mortality and corruption at the Resurrection it shall spring up into an incorruptible and immortal substance perfectly refined from all mortal and corruptible principles for so our Saviour pronounces of those who shall be accounted worthy to attain to this blessed Resurrection that they cannot die any more Luke 20.36 which is a plain argument that our mortal body shall not be merely varnished and gilded over with an external glory and beauty but that all inward principles of corruption shall be utterly purged out of its nature so that it shall not be preserved immortal merely by the force of an external cause but be so far immortal in it self as not to have any tendency to death in its nature and constitution For either it will be so liquid that should its parts be separated by any external violence like the divided Aether they will immediately close again or else so firm and compact that no external violence will be able to divide them and thus having no alloy of corrupt principles in its nature no quarrels or discords between contrary qualities and being perpetually acted by a most happy sprightly and vivacious soul which will every moment diffuse a vast plenty of life and vigour throughout all its parts it will be also secure from all inward tendencies to mortality and being thus fortified both within and without against all attempts towards a dissolution what should hinder it from living for ever and flourishing in immortal youth And thus I have endeavoured to give an account of the happy Changes which good mens Bodies will undergo in the general Resurrection But though they shall all of them be raised with unspeakable advantages and improvements yet it is apparent from this 1 Cor. 15. that they shall vastly differ in the degrees of their glory so ver 41. There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the stars for one star differeth from another star in glory so also is the resurrection of the dead i. e. As the Sun is more glorious than the Moon the Moon than the stars and one star than another so shall our bodies at the Resurrection be arrayed with different degrees of glory and doubtless these differences of Glory in our raised bodies will arise from those different degrees of perfection to which their respective Souls have arrived for the more perfect those souls are the more improved and accomplished bodies they will require because according as they rise in degrees of perfection their powers will be enlarged and their faculties rendered more active and consequently will require bodies more active and powerful And therefore since at the Resurrection God will accommodate every soul with a body sutable to it in its utmost exaltations and improvements we may reasonably conclude that the several bodies that are raised shall be more or less glorious as the several souls to which they appertain are more or less advanced in degrees of perfection For the fitness and congruity of souls to glorified bodies consists in their moral perfection and if upon an impossible supposition a wicked soul should be mistaken for a pious one and thrust into a glorified body it would not know what to do with or how to behave it self in it but like a Swine in a Palace would soon be weary of its habitation and impatiently long to be restored to its beloved stye and mire For a glorified body is an Instrument proper only for a glorified soul to act and work with It is purposely framed and composed for contemplation and love for joy and praise and Adoration and what should a vicious soul do with such a body to whom those heavenly exercises it was designed for are unnatural 'T is piety and vertue that fits and disposeth a Soul to animate and act in a glorified body and therefore I am apt to think that as the animal disposition of our soul doth now co-operate with the divine Providence in the forming its animal body in the womb so that divine and spiritual disposition which the Soul doth contract before and improve after its separation from the body will co-operate with the Almighty Power of our Saviour in the forming its new body at the Resurrection and that as by the Animal Plastick power of our souls God did first form our Animal bodies so by this spiritual Plastick power of it which is nothing but its moral perfection he will hereafter form our spiritual bodies and if so then the more of that perfection the Soul arrives to at the Resurrection the more it will spiritualize and glorifie its body and so still the more perfect it grows the more it will improve its glorified body in beauty lustre and activity so that as through a transparent Glass we plainly discern the size and colour of the substance contained in it so perhaps through the still encreasing degrees of the bodies glory the degree and size of the Souls perfection will appear But whether this be true or no which I confess is only my conjecture thus much is certain that the bodies of men will be raised with different degrees of glory and therefore since we are assured that the great end of the last judgment will be to distribute to every one according to his Works we have sufficient reason to conclude that the bodies will be glorified more or less in proportion to the perfection of their Souls And thus I have endeavoured to give a brief account of those happy changes which good mens bodies must undergo at the Resurrection I proceed therefore in the next place to shew the woful change that will then also be made in the bodies of wicked men In which I shall be very brief because we have but a very short
into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall be ever with the Lord. For to be sure that rapturous love which the sight and sentence of their Saviour hath by this time kindled in their pious breasts will wing their souls with vehement desire to be with him and then being cloath'd with glorified bodies that are as vigorous and active as their Souls as nimble and expedite as their thoughts and wishes it will be in their power soon to accomplish their desire and fly from hence up to the Throne of their Lord. And now this being the first general meeting of the blessed Jesus and his Church the first Interview that ever was between the heavenly Bridegroom and his holy Bride O the dear welcomes the infinite mutual congratulations that will pass between them How will they now melt in love and dissolve in mutual flames now when like long absent Lovers they are safe arrived into each others Arms never never to be parted more And now this joyful meeting being consummated they begin to prepare for a most dreadful solemnity and that is the Iudgment of the Wicked In order to which the Judge will reassume his Throne and place his Saints all round about in shining Circles ten thousand thousand together that so as his Assessors they may bear a part in the ensuing Judgment for this the Apostle asserts as a notorious principle of our Christian faith Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World 1 Cor. 6.2 that is that they shall not only accuse and condemn the wicked World by the holy example of their lives but also that they shall give their votes and suffrages to that dreadful sentence which Christ shall pass upon them And now the Iudge and his Assessors being set proceed we to the II. Second Judgment which is that of the wicked in which there are also five particulars included First their Citation Secondly their personal Appearance Thirdly their Trial Fourthly their Sentence Fifthly their Execution I. Their Citation For the first Judgment being finished it 's probable a new summons will be given by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel to assemble the wicked World to their Judgment upon hearing of which all those wicked souls that have left their bodies and been hitherto confined in some dark prison of the Creation shall be forced to leave their dismal habitations in which they would a thousand times rather chuse to continue for ever if they might have their own option than to undergo that fearful Iudgment whereunto they are cited but being dragged into the open light again by those Devils who have been hitherto their Jailors they shall every one be forced to put on those old accursed bodies of theirs in which they contracted those crimson guilts which now they must expiate in eternal flames and now the souls of the dead being shut up in their bodies again like prisoners in a sure Hold and there secured by an immortal tie from ever making another escape the bodies of the living shall by a miraculous change be render'd at once so tender and sensible that the least touch of misery shall pain them and yet so strong and durable that the greatest loads of misery shall never be able to sink them and thus being all of them put into an immortal capacity of suffering and thereby prepared to undergo the fearful doom which awaits them they shall from all parts of the World be driven before the Judgment Seat of Christ. For. II. This Iudgment of the wicked implies also their personal Appearance at our Saviours Tribunal for so S. Iohn in his prophetique Vision of the day of Judgment saw the dead both small and great standing before God Rev. 20.12 and in Mat. 25.31 32. we are told that when the Son of man sits down upon the Throne of his Glory all Nations shall be gathered before him that is the impure Goats as well as the innocent Sheep as he afterwards explains himself And now good Lord what a Tragical spectacle will here be An innumerable number of self-condemned wretches assemble together before the Tribunal of an Almighty and implacable Iudge quaking and trembling under the dire expectations of a fearful and irrevocable doom and with weeping eyes pale looks and gastly countenances aboding the miserable fate that attends them For thus it is represented Rev. 1.7 Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him and well they may considering how they treated him and what little reason they have upon that account to expect any favour at his hands for to be sure the sight of him must give a dreadful Alarm to their consciences and suggest to them the sad remembrance of the innumerable provocations they have given him Look up O ye miserable creatures see yonder is that glorious person whose Authority you have so insolently affronted whose Name you have so impiously blasphemed whose Mercies you have so obstinately rejected behold with what a stern and terrible Majesty he sits upon yonder flaming Throne from whence he is now just ready to exact of ye a dreadful account for all your past rebellions against him but O unhappy and furlorn see how they droop and hang their heads as being both ashamed and afraid to look their terrible Iudge in the face whose incensed eye sparkles upon them with such an insufferable terror and indignation as they are no longer able to endure but are forced in the bitterness anguish and despair that ever humane souls were seized with to cry out to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. III. Another particular implied in this judgment of the wicked is their Trial for so 1 Cor. 4.5 we are told that in this fearful day of reckoning God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the very counsels of the heart and this will be no hard matter to effect considering that he who is to be the Iudge of these guilty Criminals hath been a constant witness to all their actions that his All-seeing Eye hath traced them all along through all their secret mysteries and dark Intrigues of Iniquity and hath kept an exact record of them in the book of his remembrance so that to convict them of their guilts he will need do no more but only produce his own registers and expose what he hath there recorded to the view of the World and there the wretches will see themselves transcribed and all their abominable actions exactly copied from their first Originals there they will find all their secret machinations their dark cheats their leud imaginations and hypocritical intentions recorded in the most legible Characters and perceiving themselves thus shamefully unstript and uncased before the World their very inwards dissected and the
fourfold first from base and humble into glorious bodies 511. secondly from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and Heavenly 513. thirdly from weak and passive into active and powerful 514. fourthly from corruptible and mortal into incorruptible and immortal 517. They will differ in degrees of Glory proportionably as they differ in degrees of perfection 518. Of the woful change which the bodies of the wicked will undergo 521. The third and last of these regal Acts of Christ is his judging the World where first the thing is proved that he shall judg the world 523. Secondly an account is given of the signs and fore-runners of his coming to judgment 524. Thirdly the manner and circumstances of his coming 526. as first the place from whence he is to come ibid. 527. secondly the State wherein he is to come 528. thirdly the Carriage on which he is to come 530. fourthly the train and equipage with which he is to come 533. fifthly the place to which he is to come 536. Fourthly the process of this judgment 538. And first of the judgment of the righteous wherein is implied first their citation or summons 539. secondly their personal appearance 540. thirdly their trial 54â— fourthly their sentence 543. fifthly their assumption into the clouds of heaven 545. The Iudgment of the wicked implies also first their citation 547. secondly their personal appearance 548. thirdly their trial 549. fourthly their sentence 551. fifthly their execution 552. SECT XII Concerning Christs surrendring his Kingdom Christ hath a twofold Kingdom viz. His Essential Kingdom which is co-eternal with him and can never be surrendred and his Mediatorial Kingdom which is founded upon a solemn compact and agreement with the Father and this is the Kingdom which shall be surrendred p. 556 c. At the conclusion of the day of Iudgment the whole Mediation will cease the end of it being fully accomplished 557. An account of the cessation of the Mediatorial Kingdom from 1 Cor. 15.24 25 26 27 28 558. the whole passage resolved into five propositions ibid. First that the Kingdom there spoken of was committed to him by God the Father 559. secondly that he is to possess this Kingdom so long and no longer as till all things are actually subdued unto him 560. thirdly that during his possession of this Kingdom he is in a state of subjection to the Father 561. fourthly that when he hath delivered it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now 562. fifthly that he being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall be thenceforth immediately exercised by the Deity 565. SECT XIII Of the Reason and Wisdom of this Method of Gods governing sinful men by his own Eternal Son in our Nature Five reasons of this Method assigned First that he might govern us in a way more accommodate to this degenerate state of our nature 567 c. secondly that he might the more effectually cure and prevent the spreading contagion of Idolatry 573 c. thirdly that thereby he might give us the more powerful encouragement to Obedience 582. fourthly that he might the more powerfully excite our Gratitude and Ingenuity 585. fifthly that he might thereby give us the more ample assurance of our future Reward 588. SECT XIV That Jesus is this Mediator of whom we have been treating Three ways by which God hath testified that Iesus is the true Mediator First by Prophesie secondly by Voice from Heaven thirdly by Miracles 591. The last of these only insisted on as being that to which our Saviour most commonly appeals 592. This together with the goodness of his Doctrine a most certain evidence of his being the Mediator ibid. The Miracle of his Resurrection was that which both our Saviour and his Apostles most insisted on 594. The reality of this attestation capable of being proved only by credible Testimony 596. The Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection accompanied with all the most credible circumstances which are six 597. First they who testified it were most certainly informed whether it were true or no 598. secondly there was a concurrence of several Witnesses to the truth of the Fact 600. thirdly there was no visible reason to suspect their honesty and integrity 603. fourthly there was no apparent motive to induce them to testifie falsly 609. fifthly they gave the greatest security for the truth of what they testified 612. sixthly they gave certain signs and tokens that what they testified was true 614. What a most convincing argument this of Miracles and particularly of Christs miraculous Resurrection was of the truth of his being the Mediator shewn in four particulars First that it was the most proper and convenient Evidence 622. secondly that it was the most certain and infallible Evidence 625. thirdly that it was the plainest and most popular Evidence 629. fourthly that it was the shortest and most compendious Evidence 631. OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PART II. VOL. II. CHAP. VII Of the necessity of acknowledging Jesus Christ to be the one and only Mediator between God and Man in order to our Leading a Truly Christian Life HITHERTO we have treated of the common Principles of Religion in General but as for this last it is the great Principle of Christian Religion strictly so called as it is distinguished from the Religion of Nature and as such is properly the Religion of the Mediator as containing only the Doctrines which concern the Mediator and the Duties which result from those Doctrines and owe their Obligations to them both which being taken away all the remaining Religion is purely Natural and Moral So that this Principle we are now treating of contains in it all that Religion which is strictly Christian without believing of which and practising upon it we cannot be truly said to lead a Christian Life how well soever we may live For there is no doubt but upon the Motives and Principles of natural Religion a man to whom Christianity was never sufficiently proposed may upon due consideration and a hearty endeavour reclaim himself to a very pious and vertuous life as it is apparent many of the Heathen Philosophers did but no man can be pious or vertuous in the Christian sence who is not so upon the Christian Obligations for the Principles from and by which we act are the very life and soul of our Religion and therefore as it is the Rational Soul that specifies the Man a Rational Animal so it is our Christian Principles that specifie our Religion Christian Religion Wherefore though the Piety and Vertue of an Heathen may be materially the same with that of a Christian yet it is impossible it should be formally Christian unless it be animated and acted with the belief of Christianity So that if we leave out this and practise only upon the above-named Principles we are at best but wise and honest Heathens and there is nothing in all our Religion but the simple Dictates of mere natural reason 'T is
infinite power with the vigorous activity of a glorified Soul II. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and heavenly So ver 44. It is sown saith he a natural body it is raised a spiritual body where those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render a natural body may perhaps be better translated an animal Body i. e. a body suted and adapted to this animal life which the beasts that perish enjoy in common with us a body that is sustained by animal operations and recreated with animal pleasures and which by reason of its gross substance doth continually crave to be supplied with suitable nourishment and treated with gross and carnal pleasures which is the very thing that renders it so great a Cumber to the immortal Spirit that animates it But at the Resurrection it will be improved into a spiritual body not that it will be converted into a spiritual substance for the Apostle's own words do assure us that it will still remain a body but the spirituality of it will consist in this that being wrought into a purer and finer substance it will no longer need or crave these animal nourishments and pleasures but be perectly fitted for and contemper'd to the soul and intirely resigned to its use and service for it will then be refined from all those animal appetites of eating drinking and carnality which do now too often not only render it unserviceable to the soul but also hurtful and injurious so that then it will be in intire subjection to the mind and all its members will be devoted Instruments to the service of Righteousness so that now there will be no longer any Law in its members to wage war against the Law in the mind but the mind will govern and the body obey without any contest or reluctancy and as the body will be wholly obedient to the mind so it will be perfectly adapted to its service for whereas now by reason of its gross consistency it is an unwieldy Luggage to the Soul and doth very much clog and incumber her in her operations it will then be wrought into so fine and tenuious a substance as that instead of a clog it will be a wing to the Soul for its consistence will be subtil as the finest Aether and active as the purest flame it will have nothing that is gross or burdensom in it to retard or weary it in its flights to rebate its vigour or slacken its motion but it will be all life and spirit and wing and like a perpetual motion be carried on with unwearied swiftness by its own internal springs and being freed from all that weight which now renders it so slow and heavy it will be able to move like a thought and to keep pace with the most nimble wishes of the Soul so that what Hierocles saith of his spiritual Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that it is such a body as is every way fitted to the intellectual perfections of the Soul will be true of this resurrection body which will be perfectly attempered to a perfect mind and fashioned into a most convenient Organ for it whereby to exert its purest and most spiritual operations III. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from weak and passive into active and powerful Bodies so ver 43. It is sown in weakness it is raised in power that is whereas the body which we sow in the grave is exceeding weak and infirm liable to infinite passions and diseases and can do but little but suffers much it shall be raised with a temperament so pure and just so hail and vigorous that no disease or infirmity shall ever find any place in it or be able to cramp it in its operations For besides that its elementary qualities if any such remain in it shall be turned into such an exquisit temper that they shall never jar or disagree with each other it shall be so spirited and invigorated by the blessed Soul that animates it that nothing shall be able to impair its health or discompose its Harmony So that it shall live for ever without decay move for ever without weariness fast for ever without hunger and wake for ever without either need or desire of refreshment And indeed considering for what purpose our Bodies shall be raised they have need to be very strong and vigorous for they shall be raised on purpose to be the Organs and Instruments of the operations of our glorified Souls which being exceeding active as they are spirits but exceedingly more active as they are glorified spirits will require bodies suitably strong and vigorous such as can support their joys express their activities and keep pace with their raptutous emotions to do which will require a mighty firmness and vigour of temper Since therefore at the Resurrection God will fit and adapt our bodies to the utmost activity of our glorified spirits they must necessarily be supposed to be endued with unspeakable strength and agility upon which account they are called by the ancient Hebrews Eagles wings upon which they suppose our glorified Souls shall be able to fly as fast and as far as they please and this I am apt to think is intimated in that passage of S. Paul 1 Thes. 4.17 And they that are alive and whose bodies are changed in the state of the resurrection shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air the meaning of which is not that they shall be snatched up from the Earth by any external cause of Agent but that their Bodies being changed into pure aetherial flame they shall of their own accords ascend in them as in so many fiery Chariots to the Throne of their Redeemer in the Clouds and from thence when the judgment is concluded shall as nimbly ascend with him through all those spacious Fields of Air and Aether that lie between that and the eternal Paradise of Blessedness For that they shall be caught up by Angels as some imagin I see no reason to think since our Saviour himself assures us that at the Resurrection they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore shall not need their help in this angelified state either to waft them up into the Air or from thence into the Heaven of Heavens and if by their own activity they shall be able to perform so vast a flight as 't is from the earth into the uppermost Region of the Air and from thence into the supreme Region of everlasting glory we may from thence collect what a vast power they will be endued with at their Resurrection But this is most certain that then they shall be perfectly released from all dolorous passion and continue in perfect strength and health and vigour for ever So that whereas now our Bodies are exceeding weak and passive a kind of walking Hospitals of pains infirmities and diseases the time will come when our soul shall be accommodated with a much more
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after
the Tribulation of those days in that prodigious irruption of Vesuvius in Campania the woful effects whereof were felt not only in Rome and Italy but in a great part of Africa in Syria Constantinople and in all the adjoyning Countries Vid. Dion Cass. lib. 66.68 but it is apparent that our Saviour here prophesies of the Judgment of Ierusalem as it was a Type and Representation of the general Judgment so that though his Prophesie respects Ierusalems doom immediately yet through this it looks forward to the final Doom of the World and therefore as in foretelling the former he prefigures the later so in foretelling the foregoing signs of the former he prefigures the foregoing signs of the later And since he here intended the signs of Ierusalems dooms-day only for Types and Figures of those signs which shall forerun the dooms-day of the World and seeing that Types have always less in them than are in the things which they typifie and prefigure there is no doubt but those signs which shall forerun the last judgment will be much more eminent and illustrious than those of Ierusalems judgment which were intended only to Typifie and prefigure them and accordingly St. Ierom tells us of an ancient Tradition of the Jewish Doctors to which our Saviour in this Prediction seems plainly to refer that for fifteen days together before the general judgment there shall be transacted upon the Stage of Nature a continued Scene of fearful Signs and Wonders the Sea shall swell to a prodigious height and make a fearful noise with its tumbling Waves the Heavens shall crack day and night with loud and roaring Thunders the Earth shall groan under hideous Convulsions and be shaken with quotidian Earthquakes the Moon shall shed forth purple streams of discoloured light the Sun shall be cloathed in a dismal darkness and the Stars shall shrink in their light and twinkle like expiring Candles in the Socket the Air shall blaze with Portentous Comets and the whole frame of nature like a funeral Room shall be all hung round with mourning and with Ensigns of horrour and when these fatal symptoms appear upon the face of the Universe then shall the Inhabitants of the earth mourn and the Sinners in Sion shall be horribly afraid being loudly forewarned by these astonishing Portents of the near approach of their everlasting Doom Having thus briefly shewn what shall be the Signs of our Saviours coming to Judgment I proceed to the III. The Third general which was to shew the manner and circumstances of his coming and here we will first consider the place from whence he is to come Secondly the State in which he is to come Thirdly the Carriage on which he is to come Fourthly the Equipage with which he is to come Fifthly the place to which he is to come I. The place from which he is to come which is no other than the Highest Heavens where he now lives and reigns in his exalted and glorified Humanity for him must the Heavens receive till the time of the Restitution of all things Acts 3.21 in that bright Region of eternal day that Kingdom of Angels and of spirits of just men made perfect he is to reign in Person till the last and terrible day and from thence he is to begin his Circuit when he comes to keep his general Assizes upon earth for he is to be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thess. 1.7 and to descend from Heaven with a shout 1 Thess. 4.16 so that in the close of those dreadful Alarms which he will give the World by the preceding signs of his coming he will arise from his imperial Seat at his Fathers right hand and descend in person from those high habitations of inaccessible light and every eye shall see him as he comes shooting like a Star from his Orb and the sight of him shall affect the whole World with unspeakable joy or consternation the righteous when they see him shall lift up their heads and rejoyce because they know he is their Friend and brings the day of their redemption with him they shall congratulate his Arrival and welcome him from Heaven with Songs of Triumph and deliverance but as for the wicked they shall shreik and lament at the sight of him as being conscious to themselves that by a thousand provocations they have render'd him their implacable Enemy the sense of which will cause them to exclaim in the bitter Agonies of their souls O yonder comes he whose mercies we have spurned whose Authority we have despised whose Laws we have trampled on and all the methods of whose love we have utterly baffled and defeated and now forlorn and miserable that we are how shall we abide his appearance or whither shall we flee from his presence O that some Rock would fall upon us or that some Mountain would be so pitiful as to swallow us up and bury us from his sight for ever But wo are we within these few moments the Rocks and Mountains will be gone the Heavens and Earth will melt away and nothing will be left besides our selves for his fiery indignation to prey on Thus shall the sight of the son of man descending from his Throne in the Heavens to judge the World inspire his friends with unspeakable joy and strike his enemies with terrour and confusion II. We will consider the State in which he is to come which shall be far different from that in which he came sixteen hundred years ago Then he came in an humble and despicable condition clouded with poverty and grief and oppressed with all the innocent infirmities of humane nature but at the last day he shall come in his glorified state cloathed in that Celestial Body which he now wears at the Right hand of God. For so Acts 1.11 the Angel assures his Disciples This same Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven that is he shall return to Judgment in that self-same glorified Body wherein you now see him ascend and what a glorious one that is we may partly learn from that majestick description of it Rev. 1.13 14 15 16. In the midst of the seven Candlesticks was one like the Son of man his head and his hair were white as wool as white as snow his eyes were as a flame of fire and his countenance was as the Sun shining in its strength And partly from his transfiguration on the Mount which was but a short essay and specimen of his Glorification for it 's said that his face did shine as the Sun and that his Raiment was white as the light white with those beams of Glory which from his transfigured Body shone through all his Apparel Mat. 17.2 When therefore he descends from Heaven to judg the World it shall be with this glorified Body this Body of pure and immaculate splendor with its hair shining like threds of light its eyes sparkling with
judgment seat whence every Eye shall see him shine in his own his Fathers and his Angels glory who in a bright Corona shall sit round about him like so many Stars about a Sun and where as the Prophet Daniel describes him Chap. 7. ver 9 10. he shall exhibit himself to publick view cloathed in garments as white as snow with the hair of his head like the pure wooll sitting on a Throne like the fiery flame and its Wheels as burning fire with a fiery stream issuing out from before him and a thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him whilst the Iudgment is set and the Books are opened And thus I have given a brief account from Scripture of the manner and circumstances of his coming from whence I proceed to the IV. And last general I proposed to treat of viz. to explain the whole Process of this Iudgment And that we may proceed herein the more distinctly we will consider it with respect to those twofold objects viz. the Righteous and the Wicked about which it is to be exercised for it is plain from Scripture that they are not to be judged promiscuously one among another as they come but the Sheep are to be separated from the Goats the Good from the Bad and to be tried and sentenced apart from one another Mat. 25.32 33. And he i. e. the Son of Man shall separate them from one another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his Right hand and the Goats on the left in which separation the precedency will be given to the Sheep or Righteous who are to be judged first for so the Scripture assures us that the dead in Christ are to rise first and that after they have undergone their Iudgment they are immediately to be wasted up into the Air there to meet the Lord and to sit as Assessors with him in that Judgment which he shall afterwards pass upon the wicked vid. 1 Thes. 4.15 16 17. compared with 1 Cor. 6.2 In explaining therefore the Process of this Iudgment we will treat of it in the same order wherein it will be transacted beginning first with the Iudgment of the Righteous in which according to the Scripture-account of it there are these five things implied 1. Their Citation or Summons 2. Their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. 3. Their Trial. 4. Their Sentence 5. Their Assumption into the clouds of heaven I. This Judgment of the Righteous includes their Citation or Summons which as was observed before is to be performed by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel i. e. by an Audible shout or noise made by the Prince of Angels and sounding throughout the Universe like the mighty blast of a Trumpet For as it was anciently the manner of Nations to gather their Assemblies by the sound of a Trumpet so by the same sound the Scripture tells us God will assemble the world of men to judgment and that this shall be a real Audible sound like that of a Trumpet though proceeding from no other instrument than that of the Archangels mouth I see no reason to doubt because with such a noise we read God did descend upon Mount Sinai Exod. 19.16 and why may we not as well understand the one in a literal sense as the other it being no more improper in the nature of the thing for God to proclaim by such a sound his coming to judge the World than it was his coming to give Laws to Israel But then together with this mighty Voice or Trump of the Archangel there shall proceed from Christ a divine power even his holy Spirit by which he raised himself from the dead by whose omnipotent Agency all those holy Reliques of the bodies of his Saints which are now scattered about the world shall be gathered up reunited and reorganized into glorious bodies for so the Apostle attributes the Resurrection of our bodies to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 For if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us and the old materials of their bodies being thus reunited and reformed by the powerful energy of the Holy Ghost accompanying the sound of the Archangels Trump those Saintly Spirits which anciently inhabited them and which are now come down from heaven with their Saviour shall every one re-enter its own proper body and animate it with immortal vigour and activity and whilst the dead Saints are thus arising those who shall then be living and have not tasted death shall by the same Almighty Power be changed transformed and glorified in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. which being transacted they shall all be gathered together by the Ministry of the holy Angels from all parts of the Earth before the judgment Seat of Christ Mat. 13.27 For II. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. What this Iudgment Seat will be hath been briefly hinted before viz. a vast body of luminous aether condensed into the form of a bright and radiant Cloud and placed in the Region of the Air at a convenient distance from the Earth streaming with light from every part and casting forth an unspeakable glory for which cause it is called the Throne of his glory and is described by S Iohn to be a great white or refulgent Throne Rev. 20.11 out of which Lightnings and Thunders are said to proceed Rev. 4.5 which implies that it will be a Cloud it being from Clouds that Thunders and Lightnings do proceed And before this glorious Tribunal or bright Iudgment-Seat shall all the Assembly of the Righteous appear to undergo a merciful Trial and receive a happy Doom Here shall the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the holy Church throughout all the World both Militant and Triumphant meet and in one entire body present themselves before their blessed Redeemer who looking down from his exalted Throne shall at one view see all the Congregation of his Saints before him and with infinite complacency surveigh the fruit of the travel of his Soul and the mighty purchase of his precious bloud for so the Apostle tells us that we must all stand before his Iudgment Seat. Rom. 14.10 III. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Trial for so the Apostle assures us We must all appear i. e. we Righteous as well as others before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body 2 Cor. 5.10 which plainly implies that even the Righteous shall undergo an impartial trial of their deeds that so they may receive a reward proportionable to them and more expresly Rom. 14.12 he tells us that we must every one of us give an account
of himself to God and if every one then to be sure the Righteous must as well as the wicked not that there will be any doubt of the righteousness of the Righteous in the breast of the Judge to whose all-seeing Eye the darkest secrets of all hearts lie open but yet for otheâ—â—â—asons it is highly convenient they should undergo a trial as well as others As first for the more solemn and publick vindication of their wronged innocence that all that infamy and scandal with which their malicious Enemies have bespattered them may be wiped off before men and Angels and that being assoiled before all the World they may triumph for ever in a bright and glorious reputation And secondly That all those brave and unaffected acts of secret Piety and Charity to which none but God and themselves were conscious may be brought into the open light and to their everlasting renown proclaimed throughout all the vast Assembly of Spirits for now we shall see all those modest souls unmask'd whose silent and retired graces do make so little shew and noise in the world and all their humble pieties and bashful beauties which scarce any Eye ever saw but Gods shall be exposed to the publick view and general applause of Saints and Angels Thirdly They shall be tried also for the vindication of Gods impartial procedure in proportioning their reward to their vertue that so the degrees of each mans proficiency in piety and vertue being exposed to the view of the world by an impartial trial Angels and Men may be convinced that in distributing the different degrees of happiness the Almighty Judge is no way biassed by a fond partiality or respect of persons but that he proceeds upon immutable Principles of Iustice and doth exactly adjust and ballance his rewards with the degrees and numbers of our deserts and improvements that so even those that are set lowest in those blessed Forms and Classes of glorified Spirits may not envy those that are above them or complain that they are advanced no higher but every one may chearfully acknowledge himself to be placed where he ought to be as being fully convinced that he is only so many degrees inferiour to others in glory as they are superiour to him in divine graces and perfections Fourthly and lastly The Righteous shall undergo this Trial for the more glorious manifestation of the divine mercy and goodness For which reason I am apt to think that even their sins of which they have dearly and heartily repented shall in this their trial be exposed and brought upon the Stage that so in the free pardon of such an infinite number of them the whole Congregation of the blessed may behold and admire the infinite extent of the divine mercies and be thereby the deeper affected with and more vigorously excited to celebrate with Songs of praise the goodness of their merciful Iudge For these reasons the Wise man tells us Eccles. 12.14 that God shall bring every secret thing to judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil which Proposition being universal must extend to the Righteous as well as to the Wicked But yet though their sores shall be then laid open it shall be done by a soft and gentle hand by a serene Conscience and a smiling Iudge who without any angry look or severe reflection or any other circumstance but what shall contribute to the joys and triumphs of that day shall read over all the Items of their guilt and then cancel them for ever For IV. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Sentence Although to us whose operations are so slow and leisurely by reason of the unwieldiness of these fleshly Organs with which we act such a particular trial as hath been before described of such an infinite number of men and women may seem to require an unreasonable length of time yet if we consider that then both the Iudge and those who are to be judged shall be array'd in spiritual bodies in which they will be able to act with unspeakable nimbleness and dispatch we shall find that a little time comparatively may very well suffice for so great a transaction for the Iudge being one that can attend to infinite causes at once without any distraction and they who are to be judged being by reason of their spirituality in a condition to attend to every ones trial while they are undergoing their own I see no reason we have to imagine that they shall be tried successively one after another and if not why may we not suppose that we shall all be tried together at the same time and consequently that the trial of all may be transacted in as short a time as the trial of one And that they shall all be tried together is very probable since it is apparent from Scripture that they shall all be sentenced together for thus Mat. 25.34 Then shall the King say to those on his right hand i. e. to them all together Come ye blessed c. Having first by an accurate and impartial Trial manifested their integrity to all the world he shall arise out of his flaming Throne and with an audible voice and smiling Majesty pronounce their Sentence all together in these or such like words Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world to which welcome Sentence they will doubtless all immediately resound a joyful Choir of Halelujahs through Heaven and Earth Allelujah Salvation and Glory and Power be to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Iudgments ' Salvation be unto our Lord that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for wonderful are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways O thou King of Saints And now all their business being finished here below they shall from henceforth be no longer detained in this Vale of tears and misery but with overjoyed hearts shall take their leave of it for ever For V. And lastly Another thing implyed in this their Iudgment is their Assumption into the Clouds of heaven For their blessed Lord having thus publickly acquitted and pronounced them blessed they shall immediately feel the happy effect of it for now he will no longer suffer them to stand below at the Bar but from thence will call them up to his Tribunal there to give them a nearer access to his beloved person and more intimate participation of his glory At which powerful call and invitation of his they shall in an instant all take wing together like a mighty flock of pure and innocent Doves and fly aloft into the air singing and warbling as they go to meet their Redeemer in the Clouds of Heaven For so the Apostle in 1 Thes. 4.17 Then that is after their Resurrection and Judgment we which are alive and remain who never died but only have been changed and glorified shall be caught up together with them who shall be raised from the dead
smallest threds and fibres of their hearts laid open and exposed to the view of men and Angels their own shame and the intolerable rack of their consciences will force them to confess their Charge and proclaim themselves guilty before all that vast Congregation of Spirits But O the inexpressible horror and confusion these wretched Souls will then be seized with when they shall see themselves thus publickly unmasked and turned inside outwards and be forced to stand forth like so many loathsom spectacles before God and his Angels without any excuse or retreat for their shame without any vail to hide their infamy and blushes when their filthy practices shall be no longer confined to the talk of a Town or a Village but be proclaimed in the hearing of all the rational World O now it would be happy for them if as formerly they could drown the retorts of their conscience in noise and laughter and forget its cutting repartees which were always uneasie to bear but impossible to Answer But alas those jolly days are gone and now in despite of themselves they must listen with horrour and confusion of face to what those two great Judges Iesus and their own Consciences unanimously give in charge against them Thus he whose piercing Eye doth now penetrate their hearts and ransack every corner of their souls will in that great day of discoveries bring forth all that secret filth that is there reposited and expose it for an infamous spectacle to the publick view of men and Angels IV. Another particular implied in this judgement of wicked men is their Sentence Their Trial being now over in which their guilt hath been sufficiently evinced and detected to their everlasting infamy and reproach they will by this time have received the sentence of death within themselves and stand condemned in the judgment of all the World the Righteous Iudg who is too great to be overawed too just to be bribed and too much provoked to be intreated whose Ears are now for ever stopped and whose Bowels are impenitrably hardened against all further Overtures of mercy will with a stern look and terrible voice pronounce that dreadful doom upon them Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels which though it be of a horrible import will appear so just considering the horrible things which have been charged and proved against them that it will be immediately seconded with the unanimous suffrage of all that bright Corona of glorified Saints that sit as Assessors round the Throne who with one consent will all cry out together Iust and righteous art thou O Iudge of the World in all thy ways But O the fearful shrieks and lamentations that will then be heard from those poor condemned Creatures For if A Lord have mercy upon thee A take him Iailor from an earthly Iudge be able to extort so many sighs and tears from a hardened Malefactor what will A go ye cursed do from the mouth of the Righteous Iudge of the World and when so many millions of men and women shall be all involved together in the same doom and all at once lamenting their dismal fate Lord what a horrible outcry will they make Now in the bitter Agonies of their souls they will cry to heaven for mercy mercy but alas poor souls they cry too late their Iudg was once as importunate with them to have mercy upon themselves but because when he called they refused when he stretched forth his hands they regarded not now when they call he will not answer when they cry he will not hear but will laugh at their calamity as they did at his counsel and mock when their fear and destruction is come upon them V. And lastly Another particular implied in this Iudgment of the wicked is the execution of their Sentence For immediately after their sentence is past by which they stand doomed to everlasting fire an everlasting fire shall be kindled round about them a fire which within a few moments shall spread it self over all this lower World and convert the whole Almosphere about us into a furnace of inquenchable flames For then all those fiery particles which are every where intermingled with these terrestial Bodies and have hitherto been kept within their proper limits shall be disintangled and set free from those more gross and sluggish ones that now bind and fix them and swarm together like so many sparks into one huge globe of Fire which from the lower-most centre of the Earth shall spire up and kindle upon all that Airy Heaven above and with one continued flame fill all the vast expansum all that fiery matter which is now dispersed up and down within the entrails of the Earth shall by degrees gather together into Rivers of Fire which rolling to and fro within to force their way into the open Air will perhaps produce those prodigious Earthquakes of which our Saviour speaks by which at length the Earth being cleft and torn it shall every where vomit out Torrents of Fire from its flaming bowels and at the same time the Sea shall boil and swell and roar like water in a seething Pot till 't is all evaporated by the strugling flames from below which having rarified its waters into vapours shall kindle those vapours into flames and at the same time also the Heavens above shall groan and crack with incessant Thunder accompanied with thick and fearful flashes of Lightning which joyning with those vast streams of Fire that will be continually issuing out of the Earth and Sea will make such a prodigious deluge of flames as will quickly overflow the whole World. For thus we are assured from Scripture that the Element shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 So also St. Iohn in his Vision of the day of Judgment Rev. 20.11 I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them not that the matter of them shall be annihilated but the form of them shall be destroyed by their being converted into an everlasting Fire and in this Fire shall those condemned wretches live and suffer to eternal Ages Hence it is called the vengeance of eternal fire and we are told that it will be in flaming fire that the Lord Jesus will render vengeance to all that know not God and obey not his Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 And that this flaming fire shall be the conflagration of the World that of St. Peter seems plainly to imply 2 Pet. 3.7 But the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men and being reserved unto fire against the day of perdition of ungodly men we may justly conclude that the fire it is reserved to will be the Perdition of ungodly men Thus upon our Saviours pronouncing
is actually and as they will be at the day of Judgment when the good are Crowned and the wicked consigned to that fearful Execution Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that did put all things under him which necessarily implies that then he should enter into a different state of subjection to the Father from that wherein he was before Why Then shall the Son himself be subject to him Was he not subject to him before Yes doubtless he was and therefore either this then must be impertinent or then he shall be so subject to him as he was not before before he was subject to him as he was his Mediatorial King or Viceroy as he reigned under him and by his Authority but then he is to be subject to him after a different manner For the explication of which it is to be considered that now the Son considered as Mediator reigns under God in the right of what he did and suffered in his human Nature Hypostatically united to his God-head for it was because he humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the Death of the Cross that God highly exalted him Phil. 2.8.9 Now 't was as he was Man that he became obedient to death and 't was in the right of that obedience that God exalted him to his Mediatorial Kingdom so that now as Mediator he not only reigns in his human Nature but in right of the passion of his human Nature his Mediatorial Kingdom is the purchase of his Blood by which he both obtained the new Covenant for us and Regal Power to execute it upon us When therefore he hath executed it to the full as we are sure he will do at the day of Judgment this Regal Power of his which he purchased with his Blood will cease as having fully accomplish'd that for which it was given and intended And now he being to Reign no longer in right of the sufferings of his human Nature his human Nature will be subject to the Father in a more different manner than it was before Before it was subject to him as Authorized in consideration of its passion to reign and govern under him but then having delivered up its Reign and Government it will be subject to him in a more private capacity as the Presidents of the Roman Empire were subject to Caesar while they governed under him but when they rendered back their Character they became his Subjects in a more private station Not that the humanity of Christ shall be any way depressed or degraded by his delivering up his Mediatorial Kingdom but as an Embassador after he is discharged of the burthen of his Embassie doth still retain the honour and dignity of it so the Human Nature of Christ after he hath surrendered up its Mediatorial Dominion shall still remain as highly exalted in Honour Dignity and Beatitude as ever and Angels and Saints shall for ever render to it the same religious respect and veneration as they did before he surrendered it for it shall still remain Hypostatically united to his Godhead and so God shall for ever reign in it tho it shall not for ever reign with God so that it being still the Temple of the Deity and all the glorious atchievements it made during its Humiliation and Mediatorial Reign reflecting still the same honour and praise and glory upon it it will to eternity be as great and glorious throughout all the Heavenly World as ever it was in the full splendor of its Kingdom so that in this respect what the ancient Fathers added to the Nicene Creed is most true his Kingdom shall have no end because without possessing it he shall for ever enjoy the Glory and Honour and Beatitude of it 5. And lastly That the Son being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall from thenceforth be immediately exercised by the Deity that is to say by God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost for so ver 18. Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that did put all things under him that God may be all in all Where the variation of the Person is very observable for it is not said that the Son shall be subject to him that did put all things under him i. e. the Father that he may be all in all but that God may be all in all that is the Triune Godhead subsisting in three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost for had he meant the Father only he ought according to the common rules of speech to have said he or the Father of whom he had been before speaking instead of God nor can it be reasonably supposed that after the resignation of the Mediatorial Kingdom the Father only shall act and reign and the Son and Holy Ghost sit still for ever and do nothing but the meaning is that this Mediatorial Kingdom ceasing in which the Son as Man as well as God now reigns there shall from thenceforth be no other Kingdom or Dominion exercised in that Celestial State but what is essential to the Godhead in which the Son and Holy Ghost subsisting together with the Father shall for ever reign together with him for this I take to be the meaning of that phrase that God may be all in all that is that he may rule and govern all things immediately by himself that his immediate Will may reign alone in all and be the proximate guide of all that blessed world that there may be no mediate or Mediatorial Governour between him and us to exact our obedience and convey to us his favours and rewards but that we may render all our duty immediately to him and derive all our happiness immediately from him so that as now Christ the Theantropos or God-man is all in all Col. 3.11 because the Father doth all things and governs all things by him having given him all power in heaven and earth so when this Oeconomy ceases God alone or the Triune Godhead shall be all in all because he shall do all things and govern all things by himself immediately Thus when the Son of Man is subjected to him that did put all things under him that one divine Essence whence all things did proceed and in which the Father Son and Holy Ghost subsist shall from thenceforth resume all Rule and Dominion to it self and only the Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost shall reign But yet in this purely divine Government there is no doubt but those divine persons will still continue to act in subordination to each other according to that natural subordination in which they are placed by their personal properties For the Godhead being communicated from the Father to the Son the Father in the order of nature must necessarily be Prior to the Son and the same Godhead being communicated to the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son both Father and Son must also in order of nature be Prior to
his own Fables or that the Author of the Seven Champions should have laid down his life in the defence of S. George's killing the Dragon would not all the World have concluded them incurably distracted But as for the Apostles their excellent Writings are a sufficient demonstration that they were men of very sound intellectuals and therefore tho we should suppose them to be so wicked as to love lying for its own sake we cannot suppose them to be so mad as to love it better than their own lives as they must necessarily do if their Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection were false But supposing that one or two of them should have proved so frantick yet it is incredible that so many hundreds of men and women should all agree together at the same time in the same mad project viz. to throw away their lives for no other purpose but only to cheat and abuse the World and that no one of them should be induced by all the hopes and fears that were set before them to confess and discover the mad conspiracy When they began to report the Story they could not but foresee the consequence of it viz. that they must either recant it and thereby proclaim themselves Impostors to the World or else lay down their lives for it So that had they known it to be false it would have been a Prodigy of Impudence in them and Folly together not only without hope of benefit but within prospect of a certain ruin to have divulged a known lye to the World and under the severest Persecutions to have persisted in it without the least regret of Conscience or concernment for their own ease and safety There never was the like instance among men and I dare say there never will be so long as men love themselves and continue in their Wits and to imagine that of the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection of which there is no parallel example among mankind is an Argument that we have much more inclination than reason to be Infidels This therefore is plain that the Witnesses of Christs Resurrection gave as great a pledge of the truth of their Testimony as it was possible for mortal men to do and if those men may not be believed who attest a thing upon certain knowledge and seal it with their blood there is no credit can be given to any human Testimony because a mans life is the greatest security that he can possibly give for his honesty VI. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the Witnesses do give some certain sign and token that what they testifie is true and this the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection did For in token that what they said was true they themselves wrought sundry Miracles in his name for so we read of the Apostles that they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following Mar. 16.20 and that with great power i. e. miraculous works the Apostles gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus Acts 4.33 and also at Iconium the Lord gave Testimony to the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands Acts 14.3 And the same was done by S. Stephen at Ierusasalem Acts 6.8 and by S. Philip at Samaria Acts 8.6 7. and by S. Paul at Ephesus Acts 19.11 And S. Paul assures us That from Ierusalem and round about unto Illyricum the Gospel had been preached by him with mighty signs and wonders and by the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.19 all which things being recorded in an Age wherein if they had been false they might easily have been disproved it had been the wildest project in the world for the Apostles to have pretended to them had they not been notoriously true for they must needs think that all the World being prejudiced against them would be sure to keep a very strict and watchful eye on them and that if upon the severest enquiry they were at any time taken tripping in this their pretence of working Miracles their fraud will soon ring through all the World which must unavoidably prejudice their Cause a thousand times more than all the Miracles they pretended to could advance it and for men that had the eyes of all the World upon them falsly to pretend to work such innumerable Miracles as they did and this not in corners but in publick view and to name the places where they wrought them and where they knew there were thousands that could and would certainly detect and disprove them would have been the most prodigious instance of impudence and folly together that ever was acted by men in their Wits But so notoriously true was the matter of Fact that their most inveterate Enemies amongst both Jews and Gentiles have not the confidence to deny it although indeed they attributed it even as the Jews did our Saviours Miracles to the power of Magick for so in their Talmud Tractat de Idol c. 1. the Jews celebrate S. Iames the Apostle as eminent for the gift of Miracles by whom the Nephew of Rab. Samuel being bit of a Serpent would not be cured because every Disciple of Jesus was wont to heal in his name And Lib. Sabbat Ierosol they tell us of a Son of Rab. Iose who having swallowed Poyson was cured by a Christian in the name of Jesus And as for the Heathen Iulian himself he confesses that S. Paul did very wonderful things for he says that he was the greatest and most expert Magician that ever was vid. Cyril Alex. lib. 3. and the same he pronounces of S. Peter also id lib. 9. So also Celsus frequently charges the Christians with doing their mighty works by the power of some Demon adding a fiction of his own viz. that they had received from Christ certain Magical Books by which they were instructed to perform all their Miracles vid. Origen cont Cels. p. 302. and several other places which is a plain confession that such Miracles were commonly performed by Christians But that they did not perform them by any confederacy with evil Spirits as these bad men affirm is evident because one of their greatest and most common Miracles was dispossessing these evil Spirits of mens Bodies and their own Temples and Oracles For the truth of which they often provoke their Adversaries in their Writings and Apologies to come and make experiment of it Thus S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Demetrian Proconsul of Africa O that thou wouldst but hear and see when the Devils whom thou worshipest are adjured and tortured by us and with the spiritual Rods and Torments of our Words are ejected out of the Bodies they possess when howling and roaring in a human voice they confess the Iudgment to come Do but come and see whether these things we say are not true And a little after If thou wilt come saith he thou shalt see those whom thou worshipest for Gods stand