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
exhort and provoke all that are in the way of righteousness and following after it to hold on their way and be not turned aside by any means from it seeing it hath such an end and reward at last in death and after death Cast not away your confidence which hath a great recompence of reward but we have need of patience that after we have done the will of God we may receive the promises for yet a while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Now the just shall live by faith but if any man yea if he draw back my soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.35 36 37 38. as good not at all as not to the end better never to know the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment 2 Pet. 2.20 21. and therefore Rule 1. Abide in Christ in the minding and eyeing him and the grace given us in him and so in the likement of him and well pleasedness with him by that grace affected in us take heed of a decay of our first love or a leaving it but be diligent and daily in the consideration of him and the grace given us in him 1 Joh. 2.28 Joh. 15.4 5. Rev. 2.3 4 5. Heb. 3.1 2.7 and 12.2.15 and Rule 2. Let Christs word abide in us forget not nor let slip that which we have heard and received concerning him and from him they will admonish instruct and direct us every where yea they will strengthen and frame us to abide in the faith and likement of him and dependance on him for the Gospel of Christ is the power of God to Salvation for the preservation and keeping from falling of every one that believes Joh. 15.4 1 Joh. 2.24 25. Heb. 2.1.3 Col. 3.16 Rom. 1.16 and 16.25 26. Rule 3. Hold fast the ordinances traditions or observances delivered to us by the Apostles for our edifying our selves and one another in the faith of Jesus such as be our Christian communion and fellowship in the Gospel not forsaking the assembling of our selves together But exhorting one another while it is yet called to day and therein provoking one another to love and good works praying in the holy Ghost both by our selves and together with and for one another and for all Saints breaking bread or observing the Lords Supper and whatever ordinances of the Gospel the Apostles having received them of the Lord delivered to us for our helpfulness growth and preservation in grace 2 Thess 2.14 15. 1 Cor. 11.2.23 Col. 2.5 Heb. 3 12 13. and 10.24 25. and 13.1 Jud. 20 21. Eph. 6.11.18 19. Beware of Rule 4. watch and pray against all that may harm us and occasion our turning aside plucking out the right eye and cutting off the right hand or foot to that purpose where they offend us lest by retaining them they prejudice us mis-lead and undo us Mark 9.43.48 Math. 26.41 and so 1. Beware of false Prophets that under fair and specious pretences commend somthing as right or as righteousness to us Cant. 1. which is not so to deprive us of our reward in Christ by corrupting us from the simplicity in him the belief of his doctrine and of the sufficiency thereof and of the grace in him for us in all things directing us to some other law doctrine or observation as necessary for us beside him and what he proposes to us or as rendring something in and of him doubtful needless or vain for us Math. 7.15 16. and 24.4 5.23 24 25. 1 Joh. 2.18 19. and 4.1 2.6 2 Joh. 7.8 9. Gal. 1 8.9 Cease to hear the instructions that cause to erre from the words of knowledg Prov. 19.27 and go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lip of knowledg Prov. 14.7 Cant. 2. Beware of eyeing and looking upon our own attainments abilities or seeming excellencies and fulness and so of being there-through puffed up with pride and becoming high-minded pluck out that right eye and cast it away for it s exceeding dangerous for pride goeth before destruction and an haughty mind before a fall Be not high minded therefore but fear as knowing thou standest not upon thine own goodness but by faith in Christ Prov. 6.13 and 16 18 19. and 18.12 Rom. 11.20 21. Cant. 3. Beware of eyeing and looking upon the pomp and splendour of the world and their present portion power policy multitude and strength for oppressing the truth or on the contrary on the low estate persecutions troubles and afflictions that the seekers and followers of the Lord are here exposed to or that thou thy self meetest with or art threatned with and in danger of or likelihood to fall into for thereby some have been turned aside and have fallen from the way of righteousness Thus Asaph had like to have stumbled and to have turned aside therefore pluck out thy right eye here too and cast it from thee minding the Teâ—â—imony of God which declares the sad end of the wicked notâ—ithstanding all their enjoyments and the good end of the Lord â—â—ward the righteous in ordering their tryals and afflictions and 〈◊〉 good end he will make with them in the conclusion Psal 73 â— â—3 12 13 14 c. Cant. 4. Beware of the love of this world and the things of this world as its favour friendship flatteries and the like lest thy heart be snared with them either so as through lust after them if not had or through content taking in them or cares about them if enjoyed or griefs about them if mist or lost to have thy heart choked and the love of God eaten out of thee or to have thy heart surfeited and drunken with them or carried away with foolish and noysome lusts after and unsober use of any of them to thy destruction Love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Joh. 2. 15 16 17. and he that will be a friend of this world is an enemy of God Jam. 4.4 See also Math. 13.22 1 Tim. 6.9 10 11. Luke 31.34 35 36. if riches increase set not your hearts thereon Psal 62. 9 10. Cant. 5. Beware of poreing too much upon thine own barrenness deadness sinfulness unworthiness or the little profiting by the means of grace or by Gods dealing with us or the afflictions crosses temptations desertions thou meetest with from God in the hidings of his face or the like or what of that nature may and as they tend too discourage in thy attending to and following after him but cast away those weights that press down and consider what Christ sets before thee in Isa 51.1 2 3. c. Hearken unto me saith he ye that follow after righhteousness that seek the Lord. Look to the Rock out of which ye were hewn the hole of the pit out of which ye were digged Look to
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
and teaching them his way they that then wink not with the eye stop not the eare nor harden their heart against his discoveries calls and operations but listen and look to him in the power and grace preventing them and so turn at his reproofs and be converted they come to Christ and to God in and by him and are translated from a state of sin to a state of righteousness and from the power of Satan unto God to receive remission of sins and inheritance among the sanctified by faith in him Isa 42.18 19 and 45.22 23. Math. 13.16 16. Prov. 1.23 Joh. 6.44 45. Acts 3.19 and 26.18 Joh. 5.28 29. and these are all justified from all things from which they could not be justifyed otherwise and abiding in that grace into which they are called they shall have their portion among the Saints and righteous ones Act. 13.38 39. 1 Cor. 6.9.11 1 Joh. 2.24 25. 5. And for as much as this grace in Christ is prepared for all men and is in the Gospel declared and tendred to all he being the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and all invited and called to attend and listen to him that they might in the receit of this grace be saved there is a Doore opened and during the day of grace held open unto all so as by the grace afforded through Christ any man yeilding up to the calls of God and seeking and following on to know him may be brought into Christ and be justified and saved Isa 25.6 Rom. 3.22 23 24. and 5.18 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Isa 45.22 and 55. 1 2 6 7. Rev. 22.17 In a word 6. There is in Christ through his pretious Death and Sacrifice such plenteousness of redemption even forgiveness of sins and he so liveth for ever and makes such powerful intercession for transgressors and is so loving to man and patient toward sinners and God so loath any should perish having no delight in the Death of the wicked that as he calls such also and extend by and through Christ his holy Spirit to enable them to obey his calls so any wicked man obeying his call is by the blood of Christ washed from his sins and by his powerful intercession with God for him in coming to God by him who will in no wise cast out him that comes to him is accepted of God and saved Psal 130.4 7. Col. 1.14 Heb. 7.25 Isa 53.12 Ezek. 33.11 2 Pet. 3.9 15. Joh. 6.37 1 Cor. 6.11 These things considered it is not a vain thing for men even wicked men to wish desire seek and endeavour so as they submit to seek in the right way and in good earnest striving to enter the strait gate while it is yet open and not shut against them Luc. 13.24 25. to attain this end Deut. 3â— 46 47. But for men to wish and would desire and crave and yet be slothful and refuse to strive or to strive and labour in a wrong way rejecting the grace of God and his truth in the evidences and operations thereof or to wish to have the portion end and reward of the righteous and yet continue and keep on in the ways of errour and sin this is foolish absurd and bootless Such as Balaams wishing was who therefore notwithstanding this wish was slain by Israel and dyed the Death of and among the wicked Numb 31.8 The fluggard wishes and desires but hath not because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 13.4 and 21.25 and many in such ways as are wrong or when too late seek to enter and shall not be able Luc. 13.24 25. Rom. 9 30 31 32. But Seeing the wicked sometimes seeing the goodness of the death and latter end of the righteous in some measure desire them Que. Why do any wicked not endeavour it whence is it they become not righteous or walke not in the way to them To this many things might Ans Reasons of it be said I shall but touch upon some of them As to say 1. They see something of their end but not so fully and prevailingly as to make them love and like the way they walk in thereto because they wink with the eye and follow not on to know light comes upon them sometimes more than they desire but they desire not to minde much the light that comes upon them that they might get a further light into what it shews them They see and hate Joh. 15.24 and that because 2. They are sensual and love to please and satisfie their senses in present injoyments indeed because they apprehend sweetness and pleasure in the latter end of the righteous they desire them but because they feel and finde sweetness in the world and present ways of sin they love them and retaine them and being more affected with present sweets then futures the ways to which also would deprive them of much of what 's present they hold fast what they have or endeavour so to do though with hazzarding the loss of the other Nay because the light that discovers the end of the righteous reproves their ways and would deprive them of the pleasures of sin they therefore hate the light and put it from them or turn from it and so come not so to see as to be converted by it Joh. 3.19 20. Job 24.13 14 17. Math. 13.15 3. Winking with the eye and not abiding in or following the light Satan gets more power upon them to blind and harden them as 2 Cor. 4.4 stealing out the light or seed of life from their hearts Luk. 8.12 and so moving them to doubt of or disbelieve again what they have seen Gen. 3.1 3 4. or also filling them with strong delusions to believe lies 2 Thess 2.10.11 12. as perswading them 1. That they may have their present pleasures of sin and the future good things prepared for the just and righteous ones too Deut. 29.19 2. That they may repent soon enough hereafter Pro. 6.10 3. That God is gracious and will forgive their sins though they live in them upon the account of some outwardly religious injoyments or services or priviledges Jer. 7.4 5. Isa 28.14 15. and 66.1 3. Math. 3.7 8 9. Joh. 8.33 34. Math. 7.21 22. 4. Sometimes that there is no hope for them and that therefore they had as good sit still as strive to enter to no purpose Jer. 18.11 12. Or 5. That they are in the way already to that good end when they are not but quite out of it Pro. 30.12 Rom. 9.31 32. Rev. 3.14 15. and many such like deceits which God justly leaves them to for their having pleasure in unrighteousness and not receiving the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 12. 4. Their pride oftimes hinders them from seeking after God or accepting of his salvation and submitting to the simplicity of his ways as Hos 5.5 and 7.10 Psal 10.4 Joh. 9.25 26 40. they love the praise of men more than the praise of God Job 5.44 and 12.43
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
be an aftertime is requisite and necessary and that it shall be so is most certain For 1. The righteousness and stedfastness of his Law and Doctrine his love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity and his righteousness in rewarding vertue and punishing sin and wickedness must be declared 2 Thes 1.4 5 6. Heb. 6.10 11. He is the righteous Lord that loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 And He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. pâ— Ajax Flag but hates all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5 6. And therefore hath in his Law and Doctrine promised and proposed great rewards and blessings to the righteous and threatned great wrath and punishment to the wicked Levit. 26. Deut. 28. But 2. This Time is not the time in which these things are sufficiently manifested and fulfilled This is but the time of workings not of recompencing and rewarding All the time of this life is a time of work and labor and therefore there must be another time of reward For here neither are the righteous evidently rewarded with or enjoy the promised blessings Heb. 11.13 nor the wicked punished according to their wickedness so as may either sufficiently evidence Gods love and faithfulness to the one or his wrath and hatred against the other the truth of his threatnings True it is that God doth give some rewards or rather encouragements to goodness here in inward peace and comfort and oft-times in outward and signal preservations and deliverances from dangers and benefits conferred Especially to Societies and Companies of men as Cities and Nations doing righteously and cleaving to it For otherwise there would be no encouragements here to serve God and walk in his wayes that might induce the world thereto or such as are chiefly yet sensual But his service must needs be a sad and uncomfortable exercise and especially in communities or common bodies as Kingdoms Cities and Common-wealths as such which as one well observes shall never be restored into their publick capacities again to be as such rewarded Nor would it be known by experience or rationally thought that the giving such benefits here appertained to God or that he takes notice of mens righteous or evil doings if God should give such mercies to none that ask or desire them or that fear and serve him And again on the other hand true it is that some wicked men and especially Nations and Common-wealths for the reason above noted are punished here with severe and smart judgments for their wickedness as Egipt De civ Dei lib. 1 cap. 8. Si nulium peccatum nunc punires aperte diviniâ—as nulla esse divina providentia crederetur Babilon Jerusalem Pharaoh Saul Haman c. otherwise as St. Augustine also notes men would believe no Divine providence nor have sufficient evidence of Gods anger against wickedness to move them to beware of it and fear the judgements further threatned But yet neither are the encouragements here given to the righteous persons especially in their personal considerations such as either answer or evidence the greatness of Gods love to them or come up to such promises as The meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of Peace Psal 37.11 that they are blessed of the Lord and shall endure before him for ever And many the like nor are they common or general to all of them as to such at least as are outwardly and visibly testifyed Many of them in the eye of the world and to their own sense as some of themselves oftimes complain being plagued all the day long and afflicted every morning Mala corporis bona sunt anim Lact lib. 5. cap 7. So as they are ready to say and others to think that they in vain cleanse their hearts and wash their hands in innocency Psal 73.13 14. being as the Scripture saith else where oftimes killed all the day long and made as Sheep for the slaughter Rom. 8.36 Yea seem to the world to die miserably and receive no reward here for their love to righteousness and to God and Christ testified in their death As on the other hand the wicked oftimes prosper all their lives become old and grow great in power have none or no remarkable wrath testified against them either in their life their houses being safe from fear and they prospering in the world or in their Death having no bonds therein as Psal 73.3 4 5-12 Job 21.6 7 8 c. Yea and they of them that are punished here are not punished beyond what some one of their innumerable sins may deserve nay little more than what lays upon all good and bad commonly befalls them For what had Pharoah more than Josiah in being Drowned or Saul in being killed in the Battel or Haman in being hanged more than ordinarily is felt in men dying except the suddainness the frightfulness publickness and shame therein or some such concomitant making their falls exemplary and testimonies of vengeance Many a man that dies on his bed of the Colick or Stone or Strangury endures more torment yea and many righteous persons endure as suddain violent and shameful Deaths even for righteousness as many Martyrs and those mentioned Heb. 11.35 36 37. St. Lawrence on the Gridiron endured as much for Christ as Ahab and Keliah for Idolatry and Adultery whom the King of Babylon roasted in the Fire Jer. 29.22 23. as to what was visible Here all things happen to the outward eye promiscuously and to all alike as to the evil so to the good as to him that feareth the Lord so to him that feareth him not God now causing his Sun to shine on good and bad and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 he desiring the Death of none no not of the wicked invites them by his goodness long-suffering and forbearance to repentance And some of them doubtless are led to repent thereby though others harden their hearts there-against and in their impenitency treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelations of the righteous judgment of God Matth. 11.21.23 and 12.41 Rom. 2.4 5. and on the other side God often corrects both good and bad that he might exercise the faith of the one and more purifie and prepare them for his glory making them therethrough partakers of his holiness and that he might admonish and awaken the other to repentance that his soul might be kept from going down to the pit c. Job 33.29 and some are awakened thereby to repentance though some when Gods hand is lifted up will not see Deus non exclusit mala ut ratio virtutis constare posset Lact. Isa 26 9 10. though indeed the righteous have the greatest share of troubles and evils here for the greater evidencing and adding worth and luster to their faith and obedience And also for the preparing them for and magnifying or inhancing their after-rewards Their light and momentany
it as to be made simple and upright hearted unto him thereby obeying their Father and Mother God and his Grace or the Jerusalem above the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 and so walk after the teachings of his grace which is the same with walking after the Spirit it being the holy Spirit that breaths therein and teaches us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world not with the Edomites embracing this present world but with Jacob looking after the blessing the inheritance promised in Christ Jesus and so the blessed hope even the appearance of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us c. Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. 〈◊〉 these are Israelites indeed the upright and the blessed Seed being righteous as by all hereabout said may be seen in a double respect 1. In regard of Christ as their righteousness put on by them and made of God righteousness to them In what respect the godly are said to be righteous Gal. 3.26 27. 2 Cor. 1.30 accepted in him the beloved Eph. 1.6 and abiding in him are presented without rebuke and blame as in him in the sight of God Col. 1.21 22 23. 2. In regard of their being in a measure by and through Christ conformed to him and made righteous in their way and demeanour doing those things that are right and good in the sight of God and our Saviour the imperfections and defects wherein are taken away and covered in and by him believed on and that that is of his Spirit and spiritual operation in them made acceptable through him 1 Job 2.29 and 3.21 22. 1 Pet. 2.5 And in this latter consideration they are right or upright as the word in the Text signifies in and through Christ 1. In that they disclaim and renounce themselves and all things of themselves their own works worthiness and righteousness and only believe in close with and have their life and rejoycing in Christ Jesus living not by or upon their own works but by faith even by the Faith or Doctrine of the Son of God believed and minded and the grace therein testified in that he loved them and gave himself for them Gal. 2.20 which who so slight and are lifted up above as thinking it too simple and mean a ground for their hope their hearts are not upright in him Heb. 2.4 they that are seeking something else besides and above the vision of him that shall come and will come and will not tarry that is of Christ Jesus and the grace in him their Souls are not upright in Christ For the upright love him Cant. 1.4 and so content themselves there and keep them only and singly for all things to him as believing that in him they are compleat and have all things freely given them in and with him both pertaining to life and godliness and so wisdom righteousness holiness and redemption as was said before yea eternal life yea the promises both of this life and of that to come so as that in the knowledge believing and understanding of him and the grace in him they shall have all things administred to them Col. 2.9 10. 1 Tim. 4.8 2 Pet. 1.3 4. Rom. 8.32 and so they abide in him in the belief of his grace and obedience to his Counsels and Instructions looking to and depending upon him and God in and through him for all things And herein 2. They deny all ungodliness all evil unbeseeming and hard thoughts of God Atheism Idolatry or Idolatrous conceptions directing them to seek for life righteousness safety and satisfaction in something out of him or of some other power than of God in him as judging some insufficiency or want of graciousness in him with all prophane neglects of him his way worship and service so as that though evil thoughts temptations and motions may be suggested to them by Satan or spring up in them through their corruption as if there were no God or as if he loved them not or cared not for them because he afflicts and tryes them Or as if he minded not mens wayes or walkings because he prospers the wicked and afflicts the righteous or as if his testimonies were not true or it were in vain to worship and call upon him c. yet through the grace of God and his testimony the faith of Jesus kept to they reject these and deny them and do not yield up themselves to them to be carried away by them Psal 73.1 2 3.13 14 15 16. 3. Knowing him to be Lord and to have the dispose of all things in heaven and earth and that the promises of this life that is and of that to come are in him all Yea and Amen affirmed and confirmed for and with those that cleave to him and that he is wise in heart and holy in way loving faithful and merciful to all as is evident to them in what they believe he hath already ready done in his Death and Sufferings for all especially to them that wait upon him being the Saviour of all men and especially of them that believe they in the light direction and strength of this grace do also deny worldly lusts lusts of covetousness after more and greater honours preferments riches pleasures and delights to the flesh or whatever else the world hath in it and proposes to us to allure and draw us from him Knowing also and believing that in fearing God and cleaving to Christ in the conduct of his Word and Spirit they shall want nothing that is good for them Psal 23. and 34.9 10. and 84.11 Mat. 6.33 but shall have all their needs supplyed and a better portion here though in less having his love and favour with it than those that have far more without them Psal 37.16 Prov. 15.16 and 16.8 So that though discontentedness with their lot and portion here sometimes arises in them and lustings and covetings after more assail them yet they war against them and in minding and taking heed to the vision or testimony of Christ deny them Psal 73.22 23 24. 4. And knowing and beleiving that all their approach to and acceptance with God is only in and upon the account of Christ Jesus and that they in themselves are every where imperfect yea of themselves as of themselves to have no sufficiency to any good thing nor any thing truly good pleasing and acceptable to God dwelling in them they are sober in the thoughts of themselves not thinking of themselves above what is meet as if for their own betterness or goodness they were more favoured of God or were able of themselves as of themselves to do or perform any thing pleasing to God or profitable to themselves or others or able to find out the things of God and Christ otherwise and further than by his holy Spirit in his testimony he gives them understanding and discerning of them or were worthy to have them revealed to