is God himself the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End and he is all good and perfectly perpetually endlesly and eternally Good and he is their Portion and their Exceeding Great reward Whence this happy state Psal 16.5 6. and 73.26 Gen. 17.1 The strength of their hearts here and their PORTION FOR EVER But Quest why or whence is it that the Death and End of the Righteous is such and so good as is said and above all that can be said Ans Negatively 1. Not from themselves nor from the desert of their righteousness they being in themselves earthly frail and sinful creatures could not possibly do or act any such goodness or righteousness much less of our selves as should deserve or render them worthy of such an end and recompence nor could a finite obedience of a finite creature be commensurate with an infinite reward in its worth and vertue and therefore neither shall they make themselves the burthen of their endless rejoycings and everlasting songs but rather shall say Not unto us Not unto us give we glory It is true that righteousness is better in it self than wickedness and God is just to difference them in his retributions but neither is their righteousness that he rewards of themselves or their owne righteousness but their righteousness is of the Lord Isa 54.17 Nor is that righteousness so perfectly embraced and walked in by them but that in many things they offend and sin so as should God enter into jugdment with them and be strict to observe what they do amiss they could not stand or be justified in his sight as themselves have acknowledged Psal 130.3 4. and 143.2 they could have no salvation or deliverance from wrath and the portion of the ungodly much less reward and much less yet such a reward for their works but through the forgiveness of their sins Luc. 1.77 and therefore also when God promises his people what he will do for them in the last days in their restauration the great substance of which is the glory to be injoyed in the Kingdom of Christ he puts in such a Caution against ascribing it to themselves Not for your sakes do I do these things Not for your sakes be it known to you oh house of Israel be ashamed and confounded saith the Lord Ezek. 36.22 32. even as Moses did before upon their first entring the Land of Canaan the type and figure of this promised inheritance Speak not in thime heart after that the Lord thy God hath cast out these nations saying for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land not for thy righteousness nor for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go to possess this Land c. Deut. 9.5 6. and yet it is the reward of righteousness that God will give and that wherein he will testifie his great love to righteousness and to the righteous As it is said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom for I was hungry and ye fed me naked and ye clothed me c. Math. 25.35 36. rendring that as the reason of their receiving that reward As also the Apostle saith God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love c. Heb. 6.10 11. It is true therefore that God doth and will reward the righteous and with respect to their righteousness and not the unrighteous otherwise it would be no motive or incouragement to righteousness But true it is also that neither is that righteousness of themselves nor deserves it those rewards as it is in and from them But positively 2. It is from God himself He is as the End Ans Affirmatively so also the beginning of their welfare as the Last end of their desires and injoyment so the First cause spring and original whence it all had its rise and issue He is the Alpha as well as the Omega of all their felicity Isa 41.4 and 44.6 and 48.12 and to him they must acknowledge it and will sing Hallelujahs or praise ye the Lord To thy Name be the glory Rev. 19.1 4 6. Psal 155.1 For 1. It springs from his good pleasure this love and good will to man whom as he created in his own image and likeness at first by and for his only begotten Son the express character of his own Majesty so he so loved him as both to prepare an infinite reward for him being righteous or for such or so many of them as should be found righteous before him for the manifestation of the riches of his grace and glorious bounty and goodness to him and also when he fell from his primitive and created righteousness in which he made him he made his Son the increated image of his person and of his essential righteousness to be in the image and likeness of the fallen man in the likeness of sinful flesh and under sin and curse and condemnation only without sin in him that he being clothed as it were with mans unrighteousness as imputed to him and swallowing up the sin and curse might himself become his perfect righteousness and conforming him to himself in holiness and righteousness might make him also the subject in and with himself of that infinite reward prepared for the righteous even that infinite glory and inconceivable happiness which he had before the world prepared for them as it is said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundations of the world Math. 25.35 and Fear not little Flock it is my Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luc. 12.32 Thence the Praedestination to the adoption of children and to the obtaining of the inheritance is said to be according to the good pleasure of his will and according to his good purpose Ephes 1.5 11. 2. It springs from his love to righteousness even to the righteousness of faith or to his only blessed Son made in the vertues of his abasement obedience and sufferings righteousness to them as his love and pitty to man led him to give his Son to ransom him from his unrighteousness and to be his righteousness so his love to righteousness even to his Son made mans righteousness leads him so to love man as found therein as to think nothing too good or great for him even himself and all his fulness of grace and glory to be his portion in life and death but most fully and manifestly in the life to come Thence the care of the Apostle to be found in Christ in order to his apprehending that for which he was apprehended of Christ and to his obtaining the price of Gods high calling in him Philip. 3.8 9 12 14. God loving them that love Christ because they love Christ with this manner of loving of them whence he so rewards them Joh 16.27 28. whence also their election though before the foundation of the world is said to be in Christ and their praedestination to the adoption of children to be
Balaams Wish OR The Reward of Righteousness in and after Death Considered and explicated by occasion of the Late Decease of M rs BARBARA WHITEFOOT Late of HAPTON in the County of NORFOLK Who Deceased April 9. and was Interred April 11 1667. By JOHN HORNE Preacher of the Gospel in former times in the Parish of Lin-Allhallows in the same County Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their labors and their works follow them Psal 31.19 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Prov. 12.26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor but the way of the wicked seduceth them Quid prodest cum magnis difficultatibus cultum Dei tenere quae est summa virtus nisi eum Divinum Praemium Beatitudinis subsequatur Lactan. Divin Institut lib. 7. De Divino Praemio cap. 1. LONDON Printed in the Year 1667. To Mr. Daniel Whitefoote and Mrs. Barbara Waller the onely Son and Daughter of the Deceased Mrs. Barbara Whitefoote late of Hapton Mercy Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be extended and multiplyed Dear Friends I Have you may see though with some reluctancy as being conscious to my self of my own weakness in speaking to the great things of God and Christ accomplished your desires for publishing what was upon my thoughts and as to some Heads thereof was spoken to and in the Family of your Deceased Mother by occasion of her Death and Burial I pray God add his blessing with it that it may provoke some at least yea all that read it if it may be to consider their ways whether they be good and righteous and what the end toward which they tend so that they that believe and live amiss may be there-through awakened to repentance and to seek after righteousness even the righteousness which is of God by Faith not resting with Balaam in good Wishes and Desires or rather in Wishes and Desires of Good so as to miss as he did of the good they wish but that awakening from sin to righteousnesse and following after it in seeking the Lord they may both desire and attain what is truly good and that they that are in the way of righteousness may through the consideration of its good and glorious end and reward hold on their way to the end So should my labour herein be well bestowed And oh that both I and you may our selves do what we desire and have herein in some measure endeavoured for others that while we seek their good we also minding the good way may share with all that are good or get good hereby in the reward This briefly in General Besides which I would adde a word to either of you Severally And First to you Mr. Daniel let me say Remember the good and grave counsel and advice of your Dear deceased Mother especially her dying farewell and endeavour so to seek after the Lord read and mind his good word believe his love and grace toward mankind in his Son and yield up your self to obey and follow his heavenly Counsels preferring the Gospel as your good Mother advised you not onely above the pleasures of sin for a season and what vain Companions sports and pastimes can afford or vain persons entice you to but also above your worldly estate and so adhere to the good advice of such as be sober staid and godly friends that she may at least reap the fruit of all her serious wishes desires prayers and tears for your good and of all her tender affectionate love to you in her receiving you in the resurrection of the just at the comming of the Lord in the lot and state of the righteous and holy Saints and servants of God You are young and need help and direction I would have you think so and be sober minded not thinking your self so wise as that you may chuse for your self your ways and need none to guide and counsel you mind Solomons saying Prov. 27.10 And thine own friend and thy Mothers friend forsake thou not Not taking any for your friends that would flatter you into vain courses to follow your will and pleasures to your ruine in all things mind Gods word and call upon him for his grace and blessing in and through Christ Jesus and he will bless you and do you good Seriously peruse also this Treatise and let its contents be ever with you And the Lord bless it to you That 's all I shall say to you at present As for thee Dear Sister thou hast cause to bless God for the good he hath done to you and the mercy and grace he hath shewed you both in your self and in your Dear deceased Mother Oh let not his goodness ever be forgotten by you or slip out of your heart follow yet on after righteousness and seek the Lord the prize is before you and ascertained in Christ to you in following after it onely watch and take heed of what may divert or subvert you from it especially of knowing your self in what you know and in the gifts God hath bestowed on you and so of being puffed up with any spiritual pride Though not of that only but also of every way of the world or sinful temptation by which the adversary will not be wanting to endeavour your harm and whereof this Treatise also affords some notice and warning but that 's one main temptation he uses against such as are going on the right way to make them reflect so upon their own beauty put upon them by Christ as there-through to adulterate from Christ as in Ezek. 16.14 15 16 17 c. It was probably the way he fell himself the looking upon and falling in love with his own created excellencies and thence lifting up himself to desire that that was proper to the Creator and its the way he sets upon many persons knowing persons especially to corrupt them from the simplicity of Christ and an humble faithful dependance on him and walking in the fâ—â—â— of God through him in whom all their fulness and safety is But I hope he that hath called you by and into his grace will keep you through his grace from that and every other evil thing and so cleanse sanctifie and make you perfect in every good thing as that you shall without fail attain to the glory and glorious kingdom that he hath prepared for and promised to them that love him And in that hope and perswasion for you I commit you to him and to his blessing And so taking my leave of you both and desiring that this treatise may further both your happinesses I rest Your truly Loving Friend JOHN HORNE From my House in Lin Regis Jan. 6. 1667. ERRATA Courteous Reader thou art desired with thy Pen to correct these ensuing escapes of
2 Cor. 4.4.17 18. Rom. 8.18 6. To moderate their affections to and endeavors after these earthy worldly things that so they may be the more given up to seek and serve the Lord seeing the time is but short and uncertain that we shall or can be here to enjoy them or want them 1 Cor. 79.2 30. 1 Joh 2.16 17. The world passeth away the lust of it 3. He orders it to give us more abundant sence and perception of the odiousness of sin to him and so to admonish us not to sin against him but to stand in awe of him while we see and find that notwithstanding all that Christ hath done for our Reconciliation and Restauration into his favour yet he will have such things pass upon us still in our persons and be sustained by us for Death is the wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 and if for our sinning once in Adam God will have such a punishment lye upon us all in all generations though Christ also hath interposed between God and us what may we not fear will befall us if we dare still in our persons to sin again and again against him 4. He orders it to occasion in us a deeper sense of the love of God and Christ to us of God in abasing Christ and of Christ in abasing himself for us so low as to dye for us while we have the experiments of it and of the things that tend to it in our selves though without the curse and sting in it which our Lord by suffering them took away we are aptly minded to consider what it was to him that endured it as the curse of the Law and so with its sting and venom in it and so how great love that was that led him so to do for us 5. He orders it to be an end or put an end to our sorrows labours temptations and exercises here that we may rest from them all and be at quiet from molestations from men and Devils for there the wicked cease to trouble and there the weary be at rest they hear not the voice of the Oppressors Job 3.17.18 they enter into peace and rest in their beds c. Isa 57.1 2. 6. To conform us to his blessed Son in sufferings and death and so in exercising such faith in God and submission to him in resigning our selves to his merciful dispose as he also exercised in resigning up his spirit to him depending upon him to dispose of it and in due time to raise him Rom. 8.29 30. Luc. 23.46 with Psal 31.5 7. To give them advantage of their more abundantly testifying their love and obedience to God and Christ in laying down their lives for him as he may call any of them thereto and so to magnifie him in their deaths as Philip. 1.20 It is the desire of Lovers to have some advantages or occasions given them to shew the greatness and reallity of their love to them they love whence that What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits Psal 116.112 and it s some satisfaction and rejoycing when such advantages are given them Now herein Christ gives us a possibility of such advantage of that desireable satisfaction of love to him that we may sometimes shew it in dying or exposing our lives to dangers of it for him Rev. 12.11 8. To shew forth more abundantly the excellency of his power and glory in the Resurrection in raising them up again from the dead For his power is made manifest in weakness and is perfected in infirmities how much more when we are so altogether under the power of death and the grave that it may seem impossible to be revived or brought up again If the greatness of the power of God was seen in raising up Christ from the dead sure the greatness of the power and glory of Christ will be seen in raising up his people again and making them therein conformable to himself Eph. 1.19 20. Philip. 3.20 21. this will be such an evidence of his power as shall make them indeed to know how infinitely great he is and how true and faithful in his promises Thence it s said I will open your graves oh my people and cause you to come out of your graves and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves O my people and brought you out of your graves and put my spirit into you and ye shall live then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and have performed it c. Ezek. 37.12 13 14. To such purposes and for such like good holy and gracious and glorious ends doth God order death upon the righteous also and indeed in all this chiefly to magnify the greatness and glory of the Lord Jesus and his own in him and for the benefit and profit of us Whence it s said that death also is ours the believers not they its but it theirs their advantage mercy and priviledge 1 Cor. 3.21 22. and according to these several considerations might we apply it And especially To provoke us to consider our mortallity that we must die and Vse 1 therefore submitting our selves to the will and appointment of God therein through Jesus Christ which we may the better do because it s ordered through Christ as the Mediator of God and us and so in love and faithfulness to us for our profit and commodity to live and pass our times here as those that know and believe that we must die So little setting our hearts and affections upon this life and world either to seek or delight in the enjoyment or grieve for the want and loss of the things thereof as they that know that they and our enjoyments or wants of them are but very momentany and as having better things in Christ prepared for us to be the more earnest and diligent in seeking after them in seeking his face and favour and serving him in our generation being so much the more earnest therein as we know our times here are short and uncertain and not giving way to our hearts to wander after vanity and iniquity lest he putting an end suddenly to our lives we be found wandered from him out of the way of understanding and so miss of his salvation 2 And seeing we must die and death will put an end to our present sufferings temptations and afflictions stablish we our hearts in the way of God to hold fast the profession of our faith and the practice of godliness firm without wavering to the end as knowing that our sufferings here will not nor can be everlasting Yet a little while and Christ will put us to bed in the grave where we shall rest from all our labours and sorrows and be out of the reach either of Satan to tempt us or of the world to persecute or oppress us The worst that men can do against us is but to kill our Bodies and our Bodies must die though we do not yeild them up to the Lord
groan under it and seek to God through Christ for his further increase of grace in it and conformity to God and his will thereby and in sight of aberrations and swarvings from the ways of God and his grace to seek diligently for pardon and healing in the blood of Jesus and that the heart and soul may be turned in to Gods testimonies waiting upon God in his word and ordinances and so cleansing the heart and washing the hands in innocency not approving themselves in any wickedness and way of iniquity Prov. 28.13 1. Joh. 1.7 8 9. and 2 1 2. Psal 119.59 60. and 73.13 2 Cor. 7.1 And they that so believe in Christ and walk after the Spirit of God are indeed upright men and righteous ones and such as Balaam wisht he might be like in his Death and latter end 2. What is meant by the Death of the Righteous here A proper Death of the righteous 1. There is a Death of the righteous that is so properly their Death as it is not common to any else with them and its a Death properly of their soul too and possibly Balaam might mean here of that though if he did he took nor the course to obtain it but only rested in the desire and wish of it and that is a Death unto sin and self and world through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ of which the Apostle speakes in 1. Pet. 2. 24. Mentioning it as 1. A Death unto sin as we translate or read it Christ himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin may live to righteousness Wicked men are dead in sin Eph. 2 1 5. and the righteous die to sin Thence in Rom. 6.2 How shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein And reckon your selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 11. And this is effected by the discoveries of the grace of God in Christ towards the soul and the abundance of the grace brought unto it in him causing the soul so to love God and like the injoyment of his love and favour and so the ways leading to it and in which it is to be perfected and maintained as therefore to abandon and hate every false way every way of iniquity and sin either as to judgment or conversation as in Psal 119.104 and 97. 10 11. so as to be as dead to the allurements and inticements thereof and lively apt and ready to the Lord and his service and so to every good way and work for his sake 2. A Death to self as ceasing through the same grace discerned to have or look to have its rejoycing from its self its hope confidence or spiritual life in and from its own fleshly excellencies or priviledges that iâ—sometime in the state of ignorance of Christ it hath finding the life of its owne hand as is said Isa 57.10 This is that the Apostle saith Gal. 2.29.20 I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live to God I am crucifyed with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me c. And Philip. 3.3 We rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the soul parts with and yeilds up that confidence and rejoycing it had in its owne works frames righteousness after the Law or in any thing of the flesh as seeing an emptiness and insufficiency therein and lives upon Christ and the fulness in him And herein is a Death to the Law also 3. A Death to the world when through the perception of the same grace and hope of glory and reception of the same it is taken off from having its glorying or rejoycing in the Worlds injoyments love favour fellowship friendship riches honours approbation principles and rudiments as also from all indeavours with purpose of heart thereafter contenting it self with the approbation love and fellowship of God in Christ and with his care provision and protection being as a crucified thing or person to the world through the cross Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 15. 31. And this Death in each of these branches is a desireable Death though not to the flesh and carnal minde yet to the illuminated understanding as Balaams was or might be at this time when he saw the visions of the Almighty and had his eyes open 〈◊〉 â—um est illud Euâ—â—â—ides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To 〈◊〉 is to dâ— and tâ— dy is to live in these things for this Death leads to a Divine and heavenly life to and in God and Christ and in the faith of his grace and love whence also the stable peace safety and satisfaction of the soul springs up it is kept in perfect peace stayd upon the Lord delighted in and satisfied with him for the great disturbances and dangers of the soul are from its love of and living to sin its love of and living in or desiring to have its life and peace and comfort in its self and in the injoyments of the world for all these things being either full of mutability and vanity in themselves as the life of a mans own hands or his fleshly self-righteousness and the things of the world or else being directly opposed by the law of God and the discoveries of wrath and curse there against as in all ways of sin the soule can there have no setledness or peace But now being dead in its affections to and dependences on such things and having the heart set upon and confiding in Christ and God in Christ it is established and fixed so as not to be moved and lives because Christ lives Joh. 14.20 Who cannot cease to live and who lives to obtain life for and maintaine life in the soul Psal 112. 6 7 8. And this living in and to the Lord here leads assuredly to the injoyment of eternal life for ever a most blessed and desirable state but yet The Death of the righteous as to the natural Death better then that of the unrighteous 2. Though this would stand well enough with the words and possibly might be in Balaams sense yet it s most usually otherwise understood and there is more certainty or probability at least that he rather desired to die as the righteous in respect of his departing hence by bodily Death and so we carryed it all along in the former pro position and cannot exclude but must include it here as being that which without peradventure Balaam and many a wicked man hath desired and yet do nor may the Hebrew word that signifies my soul let my soul die the Death of the righteous inforce us to understand it in the former sense at least not in that only for both the word Soul is diversly used in the Scripture and oftentimes is put for the person indued with a soul as when it s said Gen. 2.7 man became a
this is signifyed by the white robes to be given them Rev. 6.11 whether they die a natural death and quietly in their beds or a violent sharp or shameful death all is one dying in Christ they die in Gods love and favour even as he did Thence it was the great desire of the Apostle Paul to win Christ and be found in him Philip. 3 8 9. knowing that otherwise it could not be well with him but in him he should be found of God in peace and without blame before him 2 Cor. 5.9 2 Pet. 3.14 15. Coll. 1.22 23. 3. They die in Covenant with God for Christ is given for a Covenant to the people an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Isa 42.6 7. and 49.8 and 55.3 2 Sam. 23.5 and so he is still their God even in death Psal 48.14 God having ingaged himself to Christ and to all in him to be their God and to own them for his peculiar ones and to do good to all in Christ according to the greatness of his love and mercy for Christs sake They that are Christs are Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise or to the Covenant made with Abraham the summe whereof was that he would be his God and the God of his seed after him Gal. 3.29 Gen. 17.7 Covenant and promise signifying one and the same thing with the Apostle Gal. 3.15.16.29 and the being Christs is a consequent of being in the faith of Christ and of having thereby put on Christ Ver. 26 27 28 29. So as that dying in Christ or in the faith of him they must needs be in the Covenant of God 4. They die in hope or have hope in their death Prov. 14.32 the righteous hath hope in his death by vertue of Christ Jesus who is our hope the heir of all the promises and blessings of God and the Covenant of them to us dying in him heires of God and his promises there must needs be great hope for them even of the injoyment of all the good that is promised and by Christs death and mediation assured and secured which respect the state after death and in the life or world to come for also in Christ 5. They are holy to God he being made holiness to them 1 Cor. 1.30 they are Gods portion as well in death as in life his Saints Psal 116.15 and God is not ashamed to be called their God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in their dying as well as in their living and therefore from and in all these 6. They are blessed in their Death Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Rev. 14.13 that is they are happy they are delivered from their sins for blessed the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Psal 32.1 2. they have nothing to be charged further upon them nay all blessing is theirs a happy and most desireable state 2. Exceeding great too are their advantages thereby as to say 1. Their fight is fought their labour and work finished and their race run they have now no more to do that may be looked upon as any condition to be performed by them upon which the promises of God and their injoyment of happiness is in any wise suspended while we live here there is yet an If upon us some thing to be done by us upon which our happiness is in a sort suspended so as in failing therein we may pull judgment upon our selves as in Coll. 1.22 23. Christ will present you blameless if you continue in the faith rooted and grounded and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Heb. 3.6 whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm to the end 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtain If we die with him we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. But now when death comes and passes upon the righteous they may say with Christ it is finished or as Joh. 17.4 I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do or as the Apostle Paul I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth no more work to do but only to go to God and the Crown is reserved and laid up for them to be given them at the day of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 their labour is at an end their warfare accomplished and they go to rest And so 2. Their sufferings and sorrows are at an end too here they have laboured and suffered reproach and many afflictions are while they are here endured by them through much affliction and tribulation we must enter the Kingdom Act. 14.22 Ye shall weep and lament saith our Saviour to his Disciples and ye shall have tribulation Joh. 16.20 21 22 33. This is their seed-time when they go forth weeping bearing forth their precious seed Psal 126.6 now they are in heaviness through manifold temptations if need be 1 Pet. 1.7 grapling sometimes with their own corruptions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death the Law in their members warring against the Law of their mind Rom. 7.23 24. they have lusts warring against their souls that they must abstain from and strive against 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 12. 3 4 sometimes with Satan winnowing tempting buffetting and every way playing their adversary 1 Pet. 5 8. Eph. 6.12 13 14. Luc. 22.31 2 Cor. 12.7 8. Sometimes with the world frowning threatning opposing persecuting them in sundry and divers sorts Joh. 15.16.19 1 Joh. 3.2 2 Tim. 3.12 13. Sometimes under the righteous and merciful hand of God afflicting and rebuking and sometimes more sharply scourging and filling with bitterness Heb. 12.6 7. Pro. 3.11 12. Job 19.21 Many are the afflictions of the righteous here Psal 34.19 But now in their death all these are at an end they then are delivered from the evil so as no more to be under the grief or vexation thereof Isa 57.1 neither evil men nor evil spirits shall any more afflict or exercise them nor will Gods hand go any further upon them to afflict them They rest from their labours in both senses even from their labouring under pains taking and sorrows too and hear the voice of the Oppressor no more Job 3.17 18. 3. Their dangers are now all past they are past the danger of sinning offending and provoking God to displeasure which they are in so long as they live there is need of watching and praying alwayes till that day be come Luc. 21.36 but in their yeilding up their spirits to God they are past those snares that before they were among then the Devil hath no more power to tempt them nor are they any more in danger to be tempted by him or overcome of him or of any of the flatteries or threats of the world the persons or things therein their
by Christ So as with respect to him namely Eph 2.4 5. And so 3. It springs from the infinite excellency of the person and the precious vertuousness of the abasement and obedience of the Lord Jesus to the death the death of the Cross and the force and prevalency of his mediation of the new Testament with God his Father in the vertues thereof that the called might receive the promise of the eternel inheritance Heb. 9.15 2 Thes 4.14 1 Pet. 5. 10. For though if man had abode in his innocency he I believe should have been very happy out of the love that God beares to righteousness and to man as his creature abiding righteous yet as it is no where said so neither find I sufficient ground to believe that he should have had the same happiness that now he shall have in and upon the account of Christ Jesus he not only delivering him from his sin but being made also such a righteousness to man as made in him as becomes a new and more glorious foundation of his future happiness then his owne personal righteousness as a pure creature could have been Therefore also it is said that Gods eternal purpose about the Gospel-contents were purposed in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.11 and that Christ at his coming shall be admired in all his Saints it being the glory of Christ that shall then be manifested in and upon them even that that he hath by the vertues of his abasement sufferings and death acquired into the nature of man for us and to be communicated by and with him to us 2 Thes 1.10 and 2.14 It s the great commendation and Manifestation of the strength and excellency of this foundation that it is counted worthy of and meet for such a glorious superstructure to be built upon it and that its able to support and uphold such a weight an exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Sure if our sufferings in and for him work for us such a weight of glory as some particular rewards of them in that Kingdom what did his sufferings for us work whence all our sufferings for him have their foundation motive and value but even the whole Kingdom it self and all its glory Such was his unspeakable love and grace in abasing himself so low at the will and appointment of his Father and suffering so great things for man that as he is accounted worthy to receive of God his Father highest dignity honor and glory in the manhood and for men even power and riches wisdom and strength honor and glory and blessing Rev. 5.12 so also such is the infinite prevalency of his mediation with his Father through the same that he obtains of him what he desires and such is his infinite love and grace to his that love and obey him that as his Father loves him so he loves them Joh. 15.9 and therefore aim'd at askes and obtaines of his Father for them the highest and most inconceivable happiness and glory that may be injoyed by them whence also we may say that 4 It springs from Christs unspeakeable love to them as his Members Spouse Inheritance which is such as that he thinks nothing too good or great for them that he hath in his power or may by his power and prevalency obtain of God for them Thence he tells them that he appoints to them a Kingdom as his Father appointed him that they may sit and eat and drink with him at his table in his Kingdom and sit on thrones c. Luc. 22.28 29. Rev. 2.26 27. and 3.21 and to give to them to sit with him on his throne and he gave himself for his Church that he may sanctify it with the washing of water in the word to present it to himself a Glorious Church c. Ephes 5.26 27. improving all the infinite vertues of his Cross and Sufferings and all the authority and power he hath with his Father and over all things for the advancing them to the heighth of happiness How great must that happiness needs be how great that glory that shall be to the heighth of Christs power and interest by which also they are prepared for that glory and brought to it too Whence the Spouse glories also my beloved is mine He and all that he is and hath and I am his to love delight in and make me happy as well as also to obey and serve him Yea 5. It springs from the love both of the Father and Son to them which leads them so to accept of any their breathings after them love and services to them as to reward them not after their worthiness in themselves but according to the graciousness of their own acceptance of them in their love to them and according to the infinite munificence and magnificence of so great and glorious persons so as they may shew forth the glory of their grace and love therein to them and upon them 6 It springs from the truth and faithfulness of God and Christ for whereas love and goodness led or moved God and Christ to promise so great and glorious recompences to them that overcome their corruptions and lusts and wills and enemies in the power of his grace given them in Christ and that do not through sloth cowardliness or contempt of the riches of his goodness unbelief or the like yeild themselves to them his faithfulness truth and power are ingaged to perform and make good these ingagements to them To which he hath bound himself both by promise and oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye they may have strong consolation that flee for refuge to the hope set before them Heb. 6.13.17 18. Now God is faithful and able to perform that that he hath promised and will not faile his righteousness shall be seen and glorified therefore in the performance to the heires of promise 2 Thess 1.5 6. 7. Lastly it springs also from the great wisdom of God that such and so great a reward and End was prepared for and is promised by him that he may induce and incourage the hearts of poor mortal creatures to obedience to the faith of Jesus and to the way and practise of righteousness For such is the power of corruption errour and ignorance in us naturally such the powerful influences of this world and its allurements upon us such the force also of its threats frownes and hardships to be met with in the way of God and such the force and violence of Satan in thrusting against us in and with all afore-mentioned and endeavouring to ruine us that did not God bid so high for us and our service he would have few that would deny themselves of the baits and encounter with and stand against the difficulties and discouragements they meet with But the veiw of such a price or prize kept in the eye may and doth and will allure and draw and keep up the heart in and through Christ Jesus to all
exceeding misery for now they cannot be made senseless of pain and misery as they were while in their graves but everlastingly united with their spirits that both bodies and spirits that sinned together may be cast into destruction together and suffer together an everlasting punishment Math. 25.46 both body and soul being cast into hell fire Math. 10.28 To which purpose Christ whom they have sinned perpetually against despising his counsels slighting his instructions hating him and his reproofs and ways and truths and people and whose love and blood and all the grace thereby procured for and held forth to them they set at naught he shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance on them and gathering them before him the heavens shall reveal their iniquities and the earth shall rise up against them Job 20. 27. and all their sins and wickednesses shall be ript up in the sight and veiw of God and Angels and men with all their ugliness aggravations circumstances and then they shall by him be adjudged to and undergo that terrible sentence Depart devil and his Angels Math. 25.41 whereby they shall be for ever thrust out from God and Christ and from all his holy Ones with infinite shame reproach and ignominy never to taste of their happiness or felicity being everlastingly accursed of God and thrust away with most dreadful miserable and damned spirits whose company and counsel they here liked and followed after into a state of darkness or uncomfortableness distress and anguish in the sense and feeling of the most severe wrath and vengeance of God poured out like fire and burning for ever upon them without end Quanta satius est pro perpetuis bones maela brevia pensare quam pro brevibus ac caducis bonis mala perpetua sustinere Loct lib. 6. ease or intermission their worm never dying nor their fire ever quenched there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Lo such is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed of God for him Job 20.29 Oh dreadful heavy and infinitely wretched portion infinitely worse than the worst condition that any man is or can be here in and therefore how much more than that of the righteous in which are all things infinitely happy and glorious But I shall say no more to it this brief hint may suffice Why the unrighteous and wicked have so sad a death and latter end The reason of the sad end of the wicked divers reasons might be given reduceable to two heads I shall mention but a hint to either that is to say 1. It is of themselves only as to desert for though Satan tempt and the world allure and corruption move to disobedience and rebellion against God yet through the grace of God afforded they might resist and complying with the light truth and grace afforded might be helped but putting the fear of God from them they choose to walk after sin and Satan stubbornly persisting therein and refusing to turn at wisedoms reproofes or having begun to turn returned back again with the Dog to his vomit and to the Sow that is washed to wallow in the mire till death seized on them and therefore their sin being theirs their punnishment and destruction too is of themselves Prov. 1.20.24 25 26 c. Hos 13.9 Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. c. and their punnishment and misery is so great horrible and inexpressible 1. Because their sins are innumerable and every one of them exceeding great as there is therein a slighting or contempt of God and his authority power and goodness which is infinite a slighting also or contempt of Christ and all done and suffered by him for them and all his love therein testified and all the good there-through done and extended to them a grieving also and rejecting of the love and loving calls reproofs and strivings of the holy Spirit with them and withall making no account either of Gods favour to seek it or of his wrath to endeavour to avoid it an abuse of all his mercies and good things here bestowed and slighting all corrections used for their amendment and a careless despising all the glory and happiness by him tendered which things being against an infinite Deity and his infinite Attributes put an infiniteness into the demerits of their sins and so pull upon them an infinite punishment And then 2. Because they dying in their sins dye out of Christ and shall rise again our of him they have no forgiveness of their sins through him and so must answer for them and bear the punishment of them themselves which being not otherwise to be infinitely endured but in the infiniteness of their time of sufferings will occasion their endlesness to them 2. It is of God as to the decreeing sentencing and inflicting it as a most just and righteous Judge and the most unspeakably injured and provoked Majesty who will herein shew forth his righteous judgment Rom. 2.6.11 and therein 1. Testifie his infinite holiness and purity in his perfect hatred of sin and iniquity Isa 6.3 Apoc. 11.3 Prov. 1.24 25 26 29. 2. Avenge his own despised authority power love and goodness laws counsels c. slighted and contemned by them 3. Avenge the injuries done to Christ in their slighting all his love Psal 2.3 4. sorrows sufferings for them and Grace therein declared and tendered to them and therein also 1 Pet. 2 7 8 4. Magnify and glorify his Son and the infinite preciousness of his blood and sacrifice despised by them in taking such an unspeakable vengeance of their injuries to him upon them Zech. 7.11 12. 5. Avenge the abuses and slightings of all the addresses of the holy Spirit to them and gracious patient waiting upon them 6. Avenge the abuses of and unthankfulness for the Ministry and service of his holy Angels about them and of all other mercies in all his creatures afforded to them Rom. 2.4 5 6 11. 7. And in a word all their abuses of themselves and one another but chiefly of his Sion his people and servants sent to or living amongst them and deserving better use from them this last is particularly mentioned Math. 25.41 42 43 44. No marvail now if a wicked man enlightned to see any thing of these matters wisht to die the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like to his The latter part of the point considered in answer to two questions about which having spoken to the first and main business of the point about the excellency of the Death and latter end of the righteous or upright ones it remains that we speak a little as in the latter part of the Point we added that they be such as that even the wicked that care not to live their life or to have their beginning and progress yet understanding them desire to have their Deaths and latter ends like theirs Concerning which I shall only propound and speak to a Question or two