by Disappointments nor made unfortunate by the Follies or Sufferings of those we dearly love is absolutely the most agreeable pleasant and satisfactory Employment in the World. And amidst all these Companions shall the Righteous be Perfect in this Love Answ. Yes most Perfect For God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in Love 1 Joh. 4. 16. Quest. Will all that blessed Company entirely love us Answ. Yes as they do their own Souls they were full of Love while they lived here loving even their Enemies after Christ's Precept and Example but especially the servants of God in whom they discern'd his Image But in Heaven they shall love us in Perfection and be full Ripe and Compleat in this as they are in all other Graces Quest. And shall we entirely Love all them Answ. Yes they shall all be so absolute in all amiable excellencies and continually discover such a boundless Love for us and our Natures will be so wholly framed for Love and Kindness that we cannot chuse but love them and that with the greatest fervour and intenseness of Affection And this will be all Pleasure and no Pain because they are incapable of doing any thing that may either shame or disgust us God is all in all in them and therefore they can do nothing but what we who entirely love God and them may perfectly delight in Quest. If we shall have such entire Love for all the Saints in Bliss we shall as all true Friends do partake in all their Joys and all their Happiness will be ours Answ. It will be so for Love of Happy Persons multiplies Happiness as oft as it multiplies Objects Because when we entirely love them we esteem and are pleased with all their Happiness as with our own And this way every Saint will be as full as if they had a Monopoly of Bliss and draw all the Happiness of Heaven to themselves Quest. But amidst all these inward excellencies and happy Company and Blissful intercourse of kindness shall they live in Honour and be eminent in Place Answ. Yes as Kings and Princes They shall Sit on Thrones and wear Crowns and Scepters and be Sons of God and Brethren and Joint-heirs with Christ they shall inherit all things and not only have the Priviledge to stand about Christs Throne but what would surpass belief if Truth it self had not assured us of it sit down with him thereon To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3. 21. And besides this glory of their State and eminence in Place their Bodies as I observed shall be cloathed with the most Radiant Light and surpass even the Sun it self in Brightness Quest. In what place must they live to wear these Glories and Feast on all this immense Happiness Answ. In the Heaven of Heavens a Place scituate on High †far above all visible things unspeakably vast in extent and magnificent in structure and illustrious in Glory the Presence Chamber of the great God and King where he lives incircled with Lustre and Light inaccessible which no mortal Eye can approach unto for no Man as he told Moses can see my Face and live Exod. 33. 20. Here shall all Righteous Persons with their immortal Eyes ever see God and shine in his Glory and feast on all the forecited joys and fulness of Pleasure which is at his Right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. Quest. But if this happy enjoyment last long will they not grow weary of it in the end since humane Appetites are wont to love change and loath the best things if held constant to them Answ. No as the enjoyments are so is the desire and relish of them always the same The Goods are pure having no ungrateful mixtures to be discover'd and tasted by time and the Appetite and Relish perfect subject to no ebbs or flows no weariness or alterations So that we shall still desire as well as enjoy these pleasant things and find an inexpressible sweetness and satisfaction in them Quest. And to Crown all and render us secure in this Blessed State shall the happiness of it be no fading transitory Thing as all worldly pleasure is but everlasting Answ. Yes it will be always in its Spring and look fresh and flourish thro' Eternal Ages The Pleasures at God's Right Hand are for evermore Ps. 16. 11. the weight of Glory is Eternal 2 Cor. 4. 17. the Kingdom cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. the Crown is incorruptible 1 Cor. 9. 25. that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. 'T is not a limited happiness held only for a term of years or Ages but an Eternal Life 1 John. 5. 11. Quest. This is such a perfection of Bliss as is enough to make all Righteous men impatient of living here and long to dye as St. Paul did thereby to be possess'd of it Answ. It is so indeed if it contain'd no more than I have described But when they come to enjoy it they will find infinitely more than I have said yea than any Tongue can express or heart imagine and apprehend For Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive the Things God has prepared for those that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. Quest. I perceive how Blissful the Eternal Life of the Righteous is But the Wicked too shall be raised to an Eternal State and what shall their Life be Answ. The most perfect misery both of Body and Soul whence in Scripture when by Life is meant not only the continuance in being but the happiness of it their state is call'd everlasting death 2 Thes. 1. 8 9. Rev. 2. 11. Quest. What sorrow and torment shall the Wicked for ever endure in their Souls Answ. The torment of all vexatious Passions being continually wracked with Envy Anger Fruitless Cares and Boundless Fears utter despair of all relief and yet extream desires of it And the Sting of Conscience which shall pierce them thro' with bitter remorse and gnaw perpetually like a Worm upon their Hearts and Vitals their Worm dieth not Mark 9. 44. Quest. Indeed all these mention'd Passions when at the heighth are so many Furies especially distracting and amazing Fears and Horrors And shall wretched Souls be wholly seized by these Answ. Yes as much as we may imagine they can possibly who are surrounded on every side with the most mischievous and spiteful Enemies and are left among them in the Dark which were it possible would magnify their Fears by fancy and make them infinite To express which utter uncomfortableness and insecurity they are said to be cast into utter Darkness Mat. 22. 13. and reserved unto Blackness of Darkness for ever 2 Pet. 2. 17. Quest. What is implyed in the Worm of Conscience Answ. Bitter and cutting remorse for their own wretched folly which has call'd down upon
Luke 8. 15. And to draw us near to God with a full assurance of faith we must joyn a true heart and a clean conscience Heb. 10. 22. and the charity which the Law requires flows then only from an unfeigned faith when 't is accompanied with a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. And therefore in Simon Magus it bore no Fruit because his heart was not right in the sight of God Act. 8. 13 21. So that we must not wonder if we see a crue Faith prove barren and producing no obedience in a dishonest and false Man. Since it is not Faith alone but Honesty that must make a Man careful to remember and perform his undertaking and false unjust Persons how right soever they may be in their belief and apprehensions will be as like to break their word with God as they are with their Neighbours Quest. Must it also lastly be resolute and fully fixed after all things are well considered That so when any hardships arise in the way of Faith we may not be soon staggered in mind and put to deliberate anew whether or no to go on in it Ans. Yes when they want this resolvedness Men are not like to hold on in a way of difficulties and such as do every where occur in Faiths race Every true Believer must have cast up all the cost and pains of his way beforehand as our Saviour tells us in the Parables of the wise builder and of the king going to war Luke 14. 28 31. They must stand prepared to run all hazards and sustain all losses setting Faith above all things else and resolving to stick to it whatever prove its trials and discouragements And such Believers as these the Scripture calls grounded and settled in the faith Col. 1. 23. and rooted built up and established in it Col. 2. 7. And the believers or receivers of the word who fell off in tribulation are said to have had no root in themselves Matth. 13. 21. A deliberate resolution is a sure Ground-work and what is built on that may be like to stand a Storm and after all the Assaults that are made upon it remain unshaken Quest. So that the Faith whereon all the fore-mentioned Fruits are like to grow must not be a meer pretence of Faith but sincere and undissembled it must not be â—n empty profession and formal out-side out inward in the apprehension of the mind â—t must not be a wavering Opinion but confident and well assured it must not â—e a speculative cool and unmoving Notion but hearty concerning and affectionate it must not be in a careless forgetful and failing but in a conscientiously careful just and performing Man it must not act on an irresolute heart which will be easily daunted or soon staggered but one that upon good reason and after due deliberation is fully fixt and resolved to follow it Ans. Yes the Faith that influences the Heart and Life and stands in all times and trials must be thus qualified And the Faith which is either dissembled formal wavering unaffecting careless or irresolute some one or other of which the Faith of all Sinners is is like to have no such Blessed Fruits proceding from it As Simon Magus's had not whose heart was not right â—or Agrippa's whose Faith was but almost â—or the Temporary Believers whose faith â—ell away because it wanted root So that these different attendants and various qualifications of Faith make the difference in its Fruits and Effects and distinguish the Faith of Saints from the Faith of Sinners Quest. It has been often said of Faith by some that it is an act of Recumbency or leaning and rolling our selves on Christ for Salvation Are such Phrases applicable to Faith in a literal and common understanding of them Ans. No for Faith is an act of our Spirits and though Bodies lean and rest on Bodies yet Spirits have none of these Bodily Gestures and Affections When such words are used in expressing mental acts they are Metaphors which are applied to them on account of some Similitude and Resemblance Quest. What acts can the Faith of a Man's mind exert about a Person which may answer these forms of recumbing or leaning upon him Ans. Either Believing some Doctrine which he teaches or relying on some Promise which he makes These may be set off by the acts of recumbing leaning and rolling For as these are ways of Bodies resting and depending so are those of a Man's mind's doing the same upon any Person They acquiesce and rest on his Judgment in what he says and on his Fidelity in what he promises which gives them the same ease and settlement as the acts of rolling leaning and recumbing do to Bodies Quest. Faith is also called by some the hand of the Soul that reaches at and apprehends and applies Christ's Merits What is there in this Spiritual Grace that can answer these expressions Ans. Reaching at them is assenting to some Propositions about them And laying hold of and applying them is consenting and complying with some Overtures or fulfilling some terms and conditions whereby they become our own Putting out these mental acts has the same effect and use to our Souls as stretching out the hand to apprehend and apply things has to our Bodies that is to bring the thing desired down to our selves Quest. So that to roll and lean upon Jesus Christ is in plain English only to believe what he says and to rely upon what he promises And to apprehend or lay hold on Christ and apply his Merits in clearer and more intelligible Language is only to fulfil the Gospel-terms or to have Faith with its fore-cited effects that is to believe and repent whereby his benefits become ours Quest. Yes that I take to be the true meaning and explication of these obscure Phrases I confess I am a great lover of plain and intelligible Speech And above all things else I love to hear Men speak plain in the great Truths of Religion and Points of Salvation wherein there is the most need of all to inform and edifie Men's understandings And therefore I heartily wish these dark and intricate words were less used or wholly laid aside in these important matters they being words of Mens invention which the Holy Scripture no where uses about them and such words too as I am sure do more amuse than instruct those that hear them But if any think fit still to use them or meet with Faith set off by them in Books or Discourses this and no more in a true sense and in plain intelligible English I think is the meaning of them Quest. If Faith in Christ be a Faith in his Word then is it no part of Faith for any Man to believe his sins are pardoned nor of Infidelity to doubt of it because particular Men have no word of his for that Ans. Very right He tells us in the general he will pardon Penitents but in his Word he has not descended to
crucified dead and buried he descended into Hell. Quest. What did Christ suffer Answ. Besides his previous Sufferings particularly in the Garden where the wrath of God was strongly represented and Hell let loose upon him under which 't is said he was exceeding sorrowful even unto death Mat. 26. 37 38. and thrown into an Agony wherein he sweat great drops of Blood Luke 22. 44. Besides these previous Sufferings I say he suffered also after his Apprehension all manner of rudeness from the inraged Rabble and Soldiery who mocked him spit upon him buffeted and scourged him bound his Head about with a wreath of sharp Thorns which every where like Darts pierced his tender flesh and at last nail'd his Hands and Feet to a Cross a most acute and lingring Death and to make that most ignominious Suffering more ignominious still hung him in the midst between two Thieves Quest. Who were the Executioners of all these Cruelties Answ. The Jewish Rulers and People went as far in it as they could But because the Romans who had conquer'd them had not left among them as they say any Power and Authority to put any man to death Joh. 18. 31. they drew in Pontius Pilate the Roman Governour to sentence his Crucifixion against his Conscience Quest. Did not Pilate believe Christ to deserve all this Answ. No he knew they had delivered him for envy and malice Matt. 27. 18. He declared he was a just person Matt. 27. 24. and that upon examination he found no fault at all in him Luk. 23. 4 14. No nor yet Herod when he sent him to be judged by him v. 15. But because by their importunity a tumult was made he yielded to pass sentence against him for his own quiet Matt. 27. 24. and to content the people whom he durst not offend Mar. 15. 15. Luk. 23. 23 24. Quest. What need had he to fear them that such an abject fear should betray him into so unjust and vile an Action Answ He had incensed them and made himself obnoxious to be articled against by his former violences being a man very Cruel and Tyrannical for which on the complaint of the Samaritan Jews he was presently after removed as Josephus reports And in this case they terrified him moreover by threatning to accuse him to his jealous Governour Tiberius Caesar as no friend to him for letting Christ go who called himself a King which they said was speaking against Caesar Joh. 19. 12. Quest. Christ did testify indeed before Pilate that he was a King and that for this end he came into the World that he should bear witness of this Truth Joh. 18. 37. And did not this give Caesar just cause to be afraid of him Answ. No because as he declared his Kingdom was not of this World neither should his Servants fight for him as the Subjects of worldly Princes do for them Joh. 18. 36. so that he would take nothing from the Emperor nor pretend to thwart him or resist his just Power But his Kingdom was in relation to another World a Spiritual Kingdom set up in men's Hearts and administred by the expectation of future Rewards and Punishments leaving Princes still to govern as they did in all the Affairs of this life And this did not intrench any thing upon the Prerogatives of the present Powers whom he left all in the same Authority and their Subjects under the same Duty as he found them As Pilate plainly perceiv'd by Christ's Answer wherewith he was satisfied and pronounced him innocent upon it Quest. These Sufferings of Christ you mention were most barbarous and horrible things But amidst all these bodily Tortures had he not ease within and great support of inward spiritual Comforts as he afforded the Martyrs and Confessors afterwards in theirs Answ. No the Horrours of his Mind were beyond the Anguish of his Body as if he were design'd to suffer the extremity of what Nature could bear His Soul was troubled Joh. 12. 27. very heavy Mat. 26. 37. Sore amazed Mark 14. 33. Exceeding sorrowful even unto death Mat. 26. 38. and in such an Agony as I noted at the apprehension of the Divine Wrath he was conflicting with as put a most unwonted force upon Nature and made him sweat as it were great drops of Blood Luk. 22. 44. Under all which he was so over-born with the Burden that he needed an Angel to be sent to strengthen him v. 43. Quest. Could Christ have avoided these Sufferings if he would Answ. Yes he could have had Legions of Angels for his Rescue Matt. 26. 53. But for our sakes he voluntarily submitted to them I have power to lay down my life and to take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self Joh. 10. 18. Quest. And was God consenting to them Answ. Yes they came about not only by his Permission but by his Counsel and Determination He did no ways excite the Jews to this abominable Act but left them to their own envy and malice which were more than enough to push them forward But when they of themselves were wicked enough to do it he by his infinite Wisdom accomplishes what his Son and he had before agreed viz. the working our Redemption by it He suffered according to what was determined Luk. 22. 22. He was delivered to them by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God Acts 2. 23. Herod and Pontius Pilate did only what his Hand and Counsel had determined before to be done Act. 4. 28. And he was a Lamb fore-ordain'd to be slain before the foundation of the World 1 Pet. 1. 19 20. His death and his exaltation therefore to be a Mediatory King and our Redeemer was a Bargain driven and a Matter concerted long before betwixt him and his heavenly Father My Father hath appointed the word is covenanted to me a Kingdom that is in the everlasting agreement between God and him it was promised as the Reward of his undertaking Luk. 22. 29. And on this account his Servants are said to be given to him as a Retribution He gave himself for them that is to purchase them Tit. 2. 14. Thine they were says he to his Father and thou gavest them me that is on this consideration Joh. 17. 4 6. Quest. But since the things he endured were the absolute perfection of shame and sorrow why should Christ submit or God bring Christ to that end was it to punish his own sins Answ. No he did no sin 1 Pet. 2. 22. He was tempted in all points of Natural Infirmities as we are but yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. Quest. For whose sins was it then for all death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23 Answ. For ours for we had sinned and were all to die but he comes by the Allowance of God and bears our iniquity by dying in our place God laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa. 53. 6. He tasted death for every man Heb. 2.
it cut off all hopes of impunity and utterly discourage all future offenders Answ. Because God has no more Sons to die for us and when he was sollicited to remit the punishment of our sins he would not do it upon a less exchange When man sinn'd against the Law of unerring Obedience upon the Merits and Death of his Son God pardon'd that and admitted them to favour again upon their Repentance But if they shall offend against this Law too and be finally impenitent there are no Sons of God to suffer again to purchase their Forgiveness Quest. So that Christ's Suffering for us salved all the Honour of God's Attributes and served all the Purposes of his Justice that would have been served by our suffering for our selves Answ. It did so and to the full as well too the punishing of his own Son when he answered for Sinners shewing a more implacable hatred of sin and inexorable Justice than he could have shewn by punishing all the World who were Sinners themselves And therefore his death was a satisfaction to God for the sins of the whole World. Not only a satisfaction to Benevolence and yielding Goodness as when easy and indulgent Natures are appeas'd by any small returns and incompetent Recompences but a Satisfaction to Justice by way of full Compensation and Equivalence Christ by his one suffering displaying the Honour of all God's Attributes as much as God could have display'd them by punishing the whole Humane Race Quest. If the Death and Sacrifice of Christ were so full a satisfaction at first there is no more now to be paid and it need never be repeated Answ. No nor ever must it The Jewish Sacrifices needed constantly to be repeated because being of little worth and very imperfect their virtue was soon spent so that year by year they were continually offered Heb. 9. 25. and 10. 1 3. But his being full and perfect from the first and leaving nothing to be added He is not to be offered often but at once hath he put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 25 26. and 10. 14. But altho his Sacrifice is no more to be really acted as it needs not the whole effect of it being as fresh and full now as it was at first yet is it daily still commemorated and the virtue thereof apply'd in every good Prayer but especially in every Sacrament Quest. What learn you from Christ's dying a Ransom for our sins Answ. 1. To abhor sin since it is so odioâ—â— to God that he can spare it in no person no not in his own Son when he took other men's sins upon him And if he spared not him when he would bear the punishment for us how can we hope he will in the least spare us when we come to undergo it for our selves If these things were done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry Luk. 23. 31. 2 To give our selves up to the service of Christ who hath bought us for his own property at so dear a rate This is the least we can do in Equity and Justice Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Bodies and Spirits which are God's by such costly purchase 1 Cor. 6. 20. And if there is any spark of Love and Gratitude in our Hearts we can do no less in Resentment of such stupendious kindness For the Love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if Christ died for all they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Quest. Ought it not also to teach us Faith in God and to beget in us a firm Trust that he will perform whatsoever he has promised Answ. Yes as plainly shewing that nothing is too great for his love to make good He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. Quest. Must not his Patience and Charity in his Sufferings not reviling again but praying for his Enemies teach us the same when we are called to suffer Answ. Yes for in suffering thus without threatning and when he was reviled not reviling again he hath left us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2. 21. 23. Quest. Should not God's imposing so many and great secular hardships and sufferings on his own most dear Son make us have easier thoughts of these things than others have and reconcile us to Affliction Answ. In all Reason it should For it shews how inconsiderable worldly Goods and Glories are in Gods Eyes how temporal evils are allotted to the dearest persons how proper they are to Discipline and improve the most virtuous how they perfect Piety and what a step they are to Felicity and Glory Jesus himself tho' he were a Son yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered Heb. 5. 8. He was made perfect through suffering Heb. 2. 10. He ought to suffer and so enter into his Glory Luk. 24. 26. We see him for suffering death crowned with Glory and Honour Heb. 2. 9. And seeing Sufferings not only thus providentially allotted but also thus profitably undergone and highly recompenced in him the blessed Apostles and primitive Saints whose Ambition it was to be in all things his true followers did not repine and mourn but rejoyce and glory in them Quest. And since in dying for us he has shewed us such stupendious Love must not that mutually endear us and teach us if we would be his followers most tenderly to love one another Answ. Yes if God so loved us we ought also to love one another 1 Joh. 4. 11. Nay since hereby we perceive the love of God to us because he laid down his life for us we ought upon just occasion to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 16. Quest. In the Creed you say dead and buried When Christ expired upon the Cross was his Body taken down and buried Answ. Yes it was laid in a Tomb and a great Stone roll'd before its mouth according to the Jewish Custom And for fear his Disciples should come by night and steal him away the Jewish Rulers when they had sealed the Stone got a Guard from the Governour to watch it Mat. 27. 64 66. Quest. What mean you by Christ's descent into Hell Answ. His abode in that state of Death and Separation or his Soul 's being in the place of Separate Souls till it was united again to his Body at his Resurrection as it is written Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell Acts 2. 27. which St. Peter there says was fulfilled in the Resurrection of Christ when he ceased to continue under the power of death and gloriously arose to triumph over it v. 30 31. Quest. Doth the word Hell sometimes signifie only the state of the Dead or the place of Souls departed Answ. Yes as David says of all men What man is he that
liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of Hell Psal. 89. 48. And as Jacob talked of going down to Hell to Joseph when he thought some evil Beast had devoured him Gen. 37. 33 35. In both which places the word translated Grave in our Bibles in the Greek is Hades the very word that stands for Hell here in the Creed Oft-times indeed especially in the New Testament Hell fignifies not in general the state of the Dead but particularly the state of the Wicked and the place of Torment In which sense it is not likely that Christ descended into Hell after his death because in his dying hour he told the Penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. CHAP. III. Of the Resurrection of Christ and his sitting at God's Right-Hand The Contents An Account how Christ may be said to have been three days in the Earth His Resurrection proved The necessity of it He ascended to Heaven What is meant by his sitting at the Right-Hand of God. There he 1. Intercedes for us as our Priest. This intercession not vocal by Words and formal Pleas but by presenting himself and his own meritorious Sacrifice He intercedes only for Covenant-Mercies and on Covenant-Terms He is an Intercessor of absolute Power with God and truest Affection for us One part of his intercession is to hand and present our Prayers to God. Therefore whensoever we pray for any thing 't is both our duty and wisdom to apply by him 2. Governs his Church as a King. In what Acts this consists 3. Instructs his Church as a Prophet by sending to it the Holy Ghost Christ's Body having now taken up its fixt abode at God's Right-hand we are not in any Ordinances to expect his Bodily Presence but only a Presence by his Spirit which is more to be desired Some Inferences from Christ's sitting at God's Right-hand Quest. How long did Jesus Christ abide in the state of the Dead till his Body was corrupted Answ. No he staid not so long God did not suffer his Holy one to see Corruption Acts 13. 35 36 37. but reunited his Soul and Body and raised him from the dead on the third day before the time Corruption usually seizes the Bodies of dead men Quest. Christ said of himself as the Jews told Pilate That after three days he would rise again Mat. 27. 63. And as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly so says he shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. But if he died as we commemorate his death upon Good-Friday and rose early on Easter-day in the morning there were only part of two days and one entire day between Answ. That is three days according to common computation of days both Ancient and Modern and particularly in Scripture reckoning Thus Lazarus is said four days dead though the fourth day whereon Jesus raised him up was one of them Joh. 11. 39. And eight days are said to be accomplished for Christ's Circumcision but the day of his Birth and Circumcision too went both in to that Reckoning Luk. 2. 21. And the Priests in their courses were appointed and reputed to Minister before the Lord eight days though the time of Entrance and Release was every Sabbath day morning And accordingly what in the currant way of expression is thus sometimes termed three days our Saviour speaking more exactly at other times expresses by on the third or within three days Jesus shewed his Disciples he should rise again the third day Mat. 16. 21. and 17. 23. and 20. 19. And destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2. 19. or within three days as the Jews who otherwhere call it after three days related it Mark 14. 58. Quest. How doth it appear that Christ was raised again from the dead Answ. It might appear to any who had the curiosity to look into the Sepulchre for they would see he was gone Quest. What said the Watch who stood to guard him Answ. They knew it full well for when the Angel with a Countenance like Lightning descended in an Earth-quake to roll back the Stone the Keepers saw it and shaked and became as dead men Mat. 28. 2 3 4. But the Jewish Rulers bribed them to say his Disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept v. 11 12 13 14. which was a foolish lie and bore along with it its own Confutation Quest. How so Answ. Because if they were asleep how could they tell any one stole him If they had any thoughts of what others did then it could be only in a Dream unless they would pretend to sleep with their Senses awake and their Eyes open Quest. But this saying saith St. Matthew is commonly reported among the Jews and passes for a Truth with them Mat. 28. 15. And by what other ways can you convince them that Christ is risen Answ. By those that saw him and conversed with him after his Resurrection For he appeared for the space of forty days to his Apostles and to satisfie them he had a real Body eat and drank with them after he was risen Acts 10. 41. Luk. 24. 43. He appeared to Thomas who searched the holes the Nails had made in his Hands and thrust his Finger into his Side where the Spear had pierced it before he would believe him Joh. 20. 27 28. To five hundred Brethren all at one time 1 Cor. 15. 6. To Stephen in a bright Glory from Heaven at his Martyrdom Acts 7. 56. and to Saul at his Conversion Acts 9. 3 4. Yea after he was risen and gone to Heaven he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and followers which shewed not only that he is alive again but also that he lives in Power Quest. The Apostles seem extraordinary careful to confirm the Resurrection of Christ and call the ordaining one to be an Apostle ordaining him to be a witness of it Acts 1. 22. Was it necessary that Christ should rise from the dead Answ. Yes to shew the debt he died for was discharged and that his satisfaction was accepted He died as a Sacrifice to satisfie for our sins and till God raised him up again it did not appear that he was satisfied with what Christ had done for us If Christ be not risen ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15. 17. Quest. But was not his death a full payment and on the Cross did he not relate to that when he said it is finished Joh. 19. 30 Answ. It was so indeed the price of Redemption then was fully paid But till he raised him up again God had given no publick Acquitrance nor done any open Act to shew we were discharged by it So that by his Resurrection we are said to be justified that is declared to be so He died for our sins and rose again for our
right Hand of God there to intercede and mediate for us till at last he shall come again to judge the World and eternally reward or punish all according as their lives have been good or bad Quest. So that I perceive Faith in Christ is our believing the Gospel and all things contained therein concerning God our Selves or another World upon Christ's Authority And particularly believing what he therein declares concerning his being the Christ and Son of God who died roâ—e again ascended to God's right Hand and shall return again to judge the World as is also expressed in the Creed And that for the sake of his death to expiate sins God will be reconciled to Sinners upon their true Repentance Ans. Yes this is the true Faith in Christ upon profession whereof the Apostles at first enter'd Men as Disciples S. Peter without more ado Baptizing the three thousand that gladly receiv'd the Word wherein he had declared to them these very things Act. 2. 41. And the Christian Church ever since admitting them to Baptism upon their professing Faith of the Apostles Creed which contains the same particulars Quest. By this I perceive what Faith in Christ is Pray what wants this to make it saving and available unto Righteousness Ans. Only that it suitably affect us or work in us such Godly Affections Purposes and Practices as may justly be expected from Men of such persuasions Quest. Pray what are these suitable affections Ans. They will best appear by running over briefly some of the chief of those particulars which we believe on the word of Christ and which are to produce them in us Quest. We believe that God is our Father who at first made us and still preserves and provides for us with Paternal care and tenderness How must this affect us Ans. With Love Honour and dutiful Obedience If I be a Father where is my honour Mal. 1. 6. Quest. We believe him to be infinite in Justice and Almighty in Power able and ready as to conâ—er whatsoever is desirable on those that fear so to inflict whatsoever is dreadful on those that affront him What should this beget in us Ans. Reverence and godly fear Fear him who when he hath killed hath Power to cast both Body and Soul into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Luk. 12. 5. Matth. 10. 28. Quest. We beâ—ieve him to be perfectly Righteous that is most Holy and Just and True and Faithful and Merciful and Patient and pleased only with what is so How ought we in reason to be influenced by this belief Ans. Made Holy and Righteous as he is that so we may be like him the Supreme Object of all imitation and find favour in his Eyes If we know that he is Righteous we know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of him 1 Jo. 2. 29. Quest. We believe his Providence orders all events What should we do upon this Ans. Be content under all that happens and say as the Holy Psalmist I opened not my mouth because thou didst it Psal. 39. 9. or as old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. Quest. We believe that this Providence will never leave nor forsake those that fear God Heb. 13. 5. that it will make all the evil they meet with here to work for their good Rom. 8. 28. That the desire of the Righteous shall be granted Prov. 10. 24. That they shall not want any good thing Psal. 34. 10. And that when they seek first the kingdom of God all other things shall be added to them without their being solicitous about them Matth. 6. 33 34. What would one in reason expect from Men so persuaded Ans. That they trust in the living God 1 Tim. 6. 17. that they lay aside all distracting solicitude and thoâ—ghtfulness for outward things Matth. 6. 25 31 34. That they be careful for nothing but making their case known to God cast all their care upon him who careth for them Phil. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 7. Quest. We believe he will not forget his word although the performance of it be long delaied but remember it faithfully and in due time give it effect What should this work in us Ans. Patience and Perseverance of Hope whereof all have need that after they have done the will of God they may receive the Promise It being God's way for some time to exercise Mens Faith of a Promise before he accomplish it Heb. 10. 36 37. Quest. We believe he is able to fulfil it when it is most improbable and unlike to take effect there being no word impossible with God Luk. 1. 37. and that he will do it What should be the effect of this Ans. To beget in us a firm Faith and unshaken confidence in his Promise such as Abraham's was for having a Child when both He and his Wife were past Age for Children and of having a numerous Issue by him when at Gods command he was just about to slay him Rom. 4. 20 21. Heb. 11. 19. Quest. We believe that for Christ's sake God will give good things to those that seek to him for them and that if they ask it shall be given Matth. 7. 7. What should follow upon this opinion Ans. Prayer and Devotion So that whatsoever Temporal or Spiritual Blessings Men stand in need of they should seek to God the Author and by Jesus Christ the procurer of them Quest. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ that was to come into the World. What would any serious and considerate Man do that is so persuaded Ans. Confide in him and worship and submit to him as a most just Object of our Homage Trust and Adoration Quest. We believe this same Jesus to be our Lord. What should he in reason do who believes and professes that Ans. Keep his Commandments and observe his Orders For why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say Luke 6. 46. Quest. We believe that he came down from Heaven in love to us to restore us to God's Favour and Eternal Happiness What would any ingenuous Person do that is convinced of this Ans. Love him most dearly that so loved us and thank him most heartily and intirely for having done and suffered so much for our sakes Quest. We believe the cause of his dying so painful and ignominious a Death upon the Cross was not any ill that he had done himself but only our sins and that at last they will bring us to Eternal Death unless we repent of them What can be expected of all that have this persuasion Ans. Irreconcileably to hate sin and to repent and sin no more lest they come to â—eel the same at last intolerably and that too without all hopes of remedy in their own Persons We must die to sin says the Scripture since he died for it Rom. 6. 6 8 11. And if we judge that he died for us his love
cut off as a Malefactor by corrupt Judgment noting the main circumstances both previous and concomitant and the particular and then unusual manner of his punishment And that after his Death he should return from the Grave and appear alive again All this the Psalmist and the Holy Prophets plainly foretel of him When we shall see him says Isaiah it will be without form or comeliness he is despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. 2 3. He is to be betrayed and sold to his Adversaries for thirty pieces of silver Zach. 11. 12. And when he is in their Hands he shall be judged as a prisoner Isaiah 53. 8. his back shall be scourged and his face shall be spit on Isaiah 50. 6. He shall be tried and condemned and cut off out of the land of the living Isa. 53. 8. And as for the manner of his Death that shall be by the piercing of his hands and feet and keeping his Body between them so at stretch saith the Psalmist that they may tell all his bones a plain description of a Death on the Cross which being a Roman punishment and brought in among the Jews by their Conquest must needs be unknown in David's Age and so more observable to be foretold by him so many hundred Years before in describing the sufferings of Messiah Besides under this Execution they relate the very words wherein he should express the bitterness of his Sorrows and wherein the starers on would vent their cruel Scoffs and how they should seek to sharpen his Pains by a draught of vinegar and pierce or thrust him through as Zechary declared in a Text which the old Rabbins applied to Christ and when he was Dead share his garment by casting Lots for it They pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Whilst they stare upon me and laugh me to scorn saying He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him says the Psalmist Psalm 22. 1 7 8 16 17 18. Which Psalm and these passages of it according to the Letter never fully verified in the Story of David after the Jews of old the New Testament applies to Christ Matth. 27. 35 43 46. John 19. 24. These places evidently foretel the method of his Death and Humiliation And then after Death the same Prophets as evidently foretel that he should not lie to see corruption but return from the grave to a long happy and successful Life When he shall make his Soul an offering for Sin he shall prolong his days so that after his dying as a Sacrifice he was to be a live Man. Nay the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied so that he was also to be an active undertaking and successful Man verse 10. yea I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong that is be most Wealthy Potent and Victorious amongst Men verse 12. All which long active and happy Life was to be bestowed on him not only after his Death but as a recompence and reward of it He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors that is was condemned and executed in the herd of Malefactors verse 12. Quest. I see all this was plainly prophesied of Messiah and was it fully made good in Jesus Christ Ans. Yes For he appeared in a poor and despicable condition as a carpenter's son He was sold by his own Servant for thirty pieces of silver which did the Traytor no good but by an over-ruling Providence was cast to the Potter or to buy the Potters Field for a Burying place as Zechary had foretold He was put in Bonds as a Prisoner and led about before the high-priest Herod and the Roman Governour They scourged him and spit upon him they condemned and cut him off according to the word of Isaiah not only as a Malefactor but also in company with them executing him †between two thieves as the Evangelists relate of him And as for the manner of his Death though Crucifixion was no Jewish but a Roman Punishment and after the High Priest had pronounced him guilty of Blasphemy by the constitution of the Jews and the Law of Moses he should have been stoned yet by the special ordering of God he suffered by the piercing of his hands and feet and hanging so at stretch upon the Tree that his bones might be numbered according to the words of David In his extremities though the custom of the Nation was to offer stupefactives as Wine and Myrrh to benum the Sense and ease the pains of dying Persons yet to verifie the saying of the Psalmist they brought him Vinegar to whet and sharpen his The chief Priests with the Scribes and Elders most inhumanly staring on him said with cruel scorn He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him the very words which the Holy Psalmist had so long before set down for them and he himself cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The very words again which that Holy Prophet spoke for him in his extremity As he hung upon the Cross a Soldier pierced his side and thrust him through to fulfil the words of Zechary And when they saw he had expired the four Soldiers that stood by and were to share his Cloathes would not divide his seamless coat but cast lots for it according to the Prediction of the Psalmist Amidst all which strange congruities he had one other qualifying circumstance which the Prophet Isaiah remarks viz. to make his grave as with the wicked by dying for a pretended crime so with the rich in his death Isaiah 53. 9 which was verified by his being wrapt in fine linen and Entombed as by his care so in Joseph of Arimathea's own Sepulchre who was a rich man and an honourable counsellor And then as for his return to life again to be an undertaking successful and most potent happy Person that has been most notoriously and eminently made good in our Blessed Saviour's Resurrection and in the unparalleled success of his Religion in all places since that time And this again especially his Resurrection is another note which as it fits Jesus to be the Messiah so beyond dispute excludes all other Men. For though Theudas and Judas as Gamaliel observed and other false Christs in just reward of their Impostures have been condemned and slain yet was never any of them seen to return to life again to carry on their pretences and to prosper and thrive in them Quest. Have you any other notable and appropriating marks to add from
Predictions and which startled Cicero when the Quindecemviri who had the custody and exposition of them were bringing out thence the news of a King into the Senate were spoke of Christ and fully verified in him who was no abandoned Person And did not Demons here foresee and foretel such futurities as depend on God and were wrapt up as you said in his Counsel Ans. No for very probably the Spirit that revealed those things to these Heathen Sibyls was not any infernal Spirit but the Spirit of the true God which sometimes inspired Heathens as it did Balaam the Aramite to Prophesy of several events particularly of Messiah thereby even among the Gentile World to raise an expectation of him who was to be the desire of all Nations Or if they had it not from the Spirit of God at the first hand yet had they it thence at the second viz. by reading it in the Jewish Prophets by whom God had before foretold these things which is a thing not improbable since they express them sometimes in their very Forms and Allegories The Demons revealed not these things to their Prophets or if they did the Prediction was not their own but as Tertullian says they stole their Divination Quest. The powers of darkness then can only guess at such futurities whose causes are at work and whereof they see signs and appearances like Politicians or discover things ready to take effect when they have been in the club of the Actors and Conspirators or presignifie what they intend to do with such as God has delivered into their hands or repeat Predictions from God's true Prophets in the Holy Scriptures in some one or other whereof did their fore-sight consist in Heathen Divinations But as for the voluntary actions of all under God's Protection and all such remote and contingent futurities as are not determinable by natural causes but depend upon Mens free-will and God's free Providence they are above their reach so that we are sure of the true God where we have such Predictions Ans. Yes and therefore it is evident Jesus came from God because he as I said and his Apostles after him by his Spirit did foretel such as these as I have shewn in several instances Quest. What other Miracles did Jesus work which are peculiar to God and above the power of a wicked Spirit Ans. Secondly He saw into Mens hearts and secret thoughts discovering before any outward proofs and manifestations the fickleness of some Disciples John 2. 24. and the veil'd falshood of the Scribes and Pharisees who stood as insidious Spies upon him Luke 6. 8. and adapting his Answers and Discourses not only to Mens Questions but also to their inward Thoughts and Surmizes before they expressed and proposed them to him as he did with the Pharisees Matth. 12. 25. and in several other places And this is another work which God claims as peculiar to himself stiling himself the searcher of hearts and trier of reins yea claiming the knowledge of them for this reason which is peculiar to him because he is to judge and recompence them I the Lord search the heart and try the reins to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 17. 10. And thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men saith Solomon 1 King. 8. 39. Quest. Did Jesus any more Miracles which are performable only by the finger of God and are above the force of Magick Ans. Yes Thirdly He raised the dead as Jairus's daughter and the widows son of Nain when he was carried out to be buried and Lazarus after he had been four days dead And this again is peculiarly God's work For when once Souls are separated from their Bodies they undergo God's Sentence and are secured in such places as he allots whence they cannot return or be remanded but by his Licence and Power that effects all things There is no God with me for I kill and I make alive saith God by Moses Deut. 32. 39. All separate Souls are under Locks and Keys and 't is a Divine Hand which holds the keys of hell and of death Rev. 1. 18. Quest. Have you any more instances Ans. Yes Fourthly Casting out Devils And those not only where they were of the most stubborn sorts which had proved too hard for his Disciples but also where they were in greatest numbers the Devils ejected by him out of one Man being called by themselves Legion which notes a Roman Army of six thousand Men Mark 5. 9. Yea not only expelling but as their awful Judge whose Rod they dread and at whose frown they tremble terrifying them and forcing them often to cry out Let us alone thou Holy One of God thou Son of God we beseech thee torment us not art thou come to torment us before the time Mark 1. 24. Luke 8. 28. Nay he impowered the seventy Disciples and afterwards the very meanest of his followers in virtue of his dreadful Name with like Triumph to eject them Luke 10. 17. And what is more when some that did not adhere to him would try to scare and controul them by his Sacred Name the trembling Devils fled before them Mark 9. 38. And this is another work peculiar to God which whatsoever some Potent Demons can to be sure they never will imitate Indeed in some particular instances the higher Orders may command and eject some particular inferiour Spirits and thereby serve their own designs But to go on ejecting all Ranks and Orders and those where they are in the greatest numbers and combinations and that with terrors consternation and torments is plainly to commence an open War among themselves which as our Saviour argued must needs destroy the Devil's Kingdom and therefore is a thing too foolish and absurd to be imagined of intelligent subtle and designing Spirits Matth. 12. 25 26. Quest. I see the Miracles of Jesus were evidently distinguished from the lying wonders of Satan by the very kind of them in these instances Pray now show also how they were as convincingly discriminated by their intent and design in all others Ans. Because all the Miracles of Jesus were apparently wrought to exalt the honour and service of the true God and to promote the real good of Men and to plant Tempers and Practices diametrically opposite to the way and genius of evil Spirits aiming to root out all those Errors and Superstitions which they had cultivated with utmost care through all former Ages to overthrow their Altars reduce their Worshippers and utterly exclude them from all that Domination which they had so long usurped among Men. And 't is certain that a worker of Miracles for these Pious Heavenly and Charitable purposes is not acted or directed by wicked Spirits For if they cease to be God's Enemies and ours they cease to be Devils If they turn Preachers of Humility Purity the Love of God and of
Business greatness of Temptations Bodily Indispositions For Pitiable Defects of Degrees in Duties Great Latitude on the side of Bliss and all not required to be of the same Size He will Reward Good Things tho' done with Difficulty and Reluctance yea when Pitiably stain'd with impure mixtures Our Judge will shew all this Candor and would have us expect it In Recompencing good Men he will consider the Difficulties and Oppositions And the hazard and cost of their Services And the hardships of Providence allotted to exercise good Men in this Life Of the Condemnation of ill Men. The Fire which is to torment them shall burn up and dissolve the World. Practical Inferences from the last judgment ☞ Through a Mistake there is neither 5th 6th nor 7th Chapters But tho' in the numbering of the Chapters there is this mistake yet there is no omission of matter CHAP. VIII OF the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is God. What he hath done for our Salvation Of his extraordinary Gifts bestowed on Apostles and Evangelists which were for the Planting and Propagating Christ's Religion 1. The gift of inspiration in Revelations This bestowed upon the Apostles These Revelations they have fully set down in the Holy Scriptures after which we are not to look for any others This Gift of knowing Religion by immediate Revelation necessary only in Apostles and Evangelists And design'd for the Infancy of the Church Other Rules whereby to examine new Lights and Revelations in Religion As try them by the Scriptures Call for their Miracles wherewith God still empower'd men when he sent them to reveal new Things No need of Miracles when men pretend only to revive old and acknowledged Revelations If they shew Miracles for things plainly against Scripture they must work more than were wrought to confirm the Scripture An account of Joel 2. 28 29. Which seems to foretell the commonness of Revelations among Christians The first Inspirations were not only in Doctrinal Points but also in Devotions And about Temporal matters Subservient to this Gift of Revelations was the Gift of discerning Spirits This done afterwards by ordinary Rules And the Gift of utterance and boldness Their minds not influenced by this constantly and at all Times But ordinarily they were and especially when they had most need of it 2. Of the Gift of Miracles Miracles a Proof of Divine Revelation How discernible from Lying Wonders by the Doctrines built on them By their ends and usefulness and being wrought on needful Occasions Of the miraculous Gift of healing Diseases This sometimes by annointing with Oyl And Prayers Of casting out Devils and other Miracles Of delivering to Satan what it was and why so call'd Of Joy in Tribulations and what was extraordinary in that of the Apostles To the working these Miracles there was always required Faith in him that wrought them And sometimes Faith in him that received them 3. of the Gift of Strange Tongues The ends of this And of the Gift of Interpreting such Strange Tongues What is meant by the Holy Ghost being a Comforter The Sin against the Holy Ghost is a Sin against these extraordinary Gifts Why Blasphemy against him more irremisable than against the Father or the Son. Extraordinary Gifts no mark of a justified State. Of Offices appointed by the Holy Ghost Some of these Temporary others to continue through all Times the present Officers ordaining Successors of the Holy Ghost's ordinary Graces By these we may know he dwells in us Our care required towards these Of Preventing Grace in outward advantages and inward good motions Directions how we are to endeavour after saving Graces in six Particulars How God gives them though we are thus to acquire them The Holy Ghost works also in us Spiritual Joys and Comforts This he doth not in all the minds he sanctifies because some are unfit for them through intrinsick impediments But they are with-held from none through his Arbitrary withdrawing which some count Spiritual Desertion CHAP. IX OF the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints No assurance of Salvation by Christ but in his Church This Church Holy. And Catholick Admission into it by Baptism when regularly perform'd in any one valid in all Churches Excommunication is so too This Church is one Body by external visible unity Of the Communion of Saints in this Church Of their visible Union in Faith or Doctrine And in Prayers and Devotion Of communicating in Publick Prayers A Sin to separate without just cause Imposing Sins or Errours as Conditions of Communion is a just cause Not Lawful to separate for Things indifferent Nor for better means of edification Just to separate from a Church that doth not impose her Corruptions when her Errors in Faith overthrow the Foundation That is when she ceases to own the one true God. Or denys Jesus to be the Christ or Salvation by his Merits and Mediation Owning Jesus to be the Christ implies owning the Articles of the Apostles Creed which contains all Fundamentals Whilst any Churches hold to this Creed which is the Foundation Errors in other things do not unchurch them But such Erroneous are in a worse state than Orthodox Christians Nor is her Communion to be deserted meerly for such Errors tho' very gross if she doth not impose them Just to separate from a Church of a corrupt Worship when sinful things pollute her Publick Offices Or when good Devotions are put up in a strange Language not for Rites and Customs about indifferent matters Nor just to separate for scandalous Members where a Churches constitution is faultless Nor tho' it neglect Discipline which should reform them Of keeping Fellowship with the Apostles by submitting to our lawful Bishops their Successors Christians to communicate in Affections in Alms and Temporal good Things CHAP. X. OF the Forgiveness of Sins What Sin is Of wilful sins Of sins of Ignorance Surreption Passion Forgiveness of sin is the Release of its Punishment When Eternal Punishments are remitted Present and Temporal are often exacted What is the Time of Relaxing these Punishments Remission of all Sins but Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost And wilful Apostacy from Christianity Wilful sins forgiven when we Repent and forgive others Sins of Ignorance and inadvertence upon our Charity to others This forgiveness outwardly dispensed in Baptism The Eucharist And Sacerdotal Absolution The Power of the Keys lies in Retaining as well as Absolving which ought to beget a just dread of Excommunication What is meant by our Forgiving sins What use we are to make of the Forgiveness of Sins CHAP. XI OF the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a
9. He died for our sins 1 Cor. 15. 3. He poured out his Soul a Sin-Offering Isa. 53. 5 10. Quest. What are we the better for his dying for them Answ. Infinitely the better every way but particularly his death will save us from dying for them if we truly repent of them He hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law by being made a Curse that is enduring a cursed death for us Gal. 3. 13. 2 Cor. 5. 21. He bought us off from death by dying for us whence he is called our Redeemer and our Ransom 1 Tim. 2. 6. Quest. But has not his death bought us off from the Punishment of our Sins till we repent of them Answ. No for we must Repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out for his sake Acts 3. 19. and being made perfect that is inaugurated into his Princely Power by suffering he became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Quest. If men remain impenitent then they must die for their own sins I perceive notwithstanding Answ. Yes Except they repent they must all perish Luk. 13. 3. Quest. But since Christ hath died for them once already will not that be dying twice and so being twice punished for the same sin Answ. No for he profered and God accepted his death not as an unlimited exchange for all Sinners but only for those who will leave their sins and repent of them He died indeed for all men but he died as their Sacrifice Eph. 5. 2. and Sacrifices were accepted in lieu only of Penitent Offenders and as God still told the Jews would never put away sins without the Repentance of those they were offered for To what purpose is the number of your Sacrifices said he to those who went on still in their wickedness Isa. 1. 11. The Sacrifice of God is a broken Spirit that is the Sacrifice God accepts must be accompanied with it a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Psal. 51. 17. Quest. But was not his death a satisfaction for sins And if he has satisfied for them already what need we do more must we satisfie for them again Answ. All the fruit and estimate of his Satisfaction must be taken from the Argument between God and him His death who was an innocent man would have signified nothing at all towards our release unless God had been graciously pleased to admit of him in commutation and exchange for our Suffering It avails and operates nothing by it self alone but only so far as God accepted him And the nature and effect of his Satisfaction as it was joyntly designed and concerted between his Father and him was not that no sinner whatsoever should be accountable for his own sins but only that none should who had repented of them Quest. What then were his merits or that which he deserved and obtained of God for us by his death Answ. The Grace and Favour of Repentance or that if we truly repent we shall not die for our selves So St. Peter expresses that benefit the Gentiles had received in being admitted Christians then hath God also to the Gentiles granted Repentance unto life Acts 11. 18. And again God exalted him to be a Saviour to give Repentance unto Israel and remission of sins Acts 5. 31. So that the merit of Christ's death is the Pardon of all our sins on true Repentance and likewise the Grace to enable us thus to repent of them Quest. Is this Pardon on Repentance a Grace and Favour which we needed him to purchase for us Answ. Yes for the Law of Works which condemned us all was Do this and live not as thro' Christ the Gospel is either do it or repent where you fail So that God was not bound to pardon Sinners when they did repent Nay the Honour of his Holiness and Justice the maintaining the Authority of his Laws and the seriousness and veracity of his threatnings were ready to interpose and hinder him from doing it But when Christ came to die in our stead and pay his own Blood as a price to induce God pardon Penitents Then since he doth it not without such a valuable Recompence he might pardon them without any Reflection on those glorious Attributes And this is the fruit of his Satisfaction and the Merit and Purchase of his Death viz. the Favour of Pardon of sin upon Repentance Quest. Is there no other Merit and Fruit of Christ's Death Answ. Yes besides the forgiveness of sin and the gift of Eternal Life thereupon he has also merited as I said the Grace to cure it But this is so much favour and indulgence as he ever sought or has procured of God towards the pardon of it Quest. But if we cannot partake of the benefit of his death but upon these terms how is all the favour we receive by it said to come freely and to be of free Grace Answ. Grace may be called Free on two accounts either as it is not given us for our deserts or as it is not given upon any conditions Quest. Is the Grace of God free in the first sense as that excludes all Merits or so free as not to be given us for our deserts Answ. Yes and this is the Scripture-sense of Free-Grace for there Free-Grace is the same as Undeserved-Grace Quest. How doth that appear Answ. Because Free-Grace is there opposed to Boasting which has place only on the Plea of Merit or desert We are justified freely by his Grace then where is Boasting it is thereby excluded Rom. 3. 24 27. And by Grace ye are saved not of works i. e. by the desert of any works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Quest. If the Scripture had been silent 't is easie to apprehend this Grace must needs be undeserved by us because all we can do is by the help of his Spirit and is but his just due which we do not give but pay as Debters and were it our own it is yet defective and mean and utterly unwâ—rthy of so vast a Recompence But tho' it be thus absolutely undeserved by us yet has not Christ fully merited and deserved it for us Answ. Yes he was bound to nothing but voluntarily subjected himself to the Law and took our Nature upon him All the perfect Obedience he shewed either in doing or suffering the Will of God was his free and gratuitous Offering and was good in the highest degree and perfection and received an infinite estimate from the Divinity of his Person and gratified the Father in his greatest designs for his own Glory and mens Salvation So that by his Services so free and gratuitous in themselves and so worthy of the most infinite Recompence he has justly merited all that Grace which for his sake God bestows on us Quest. The Grace of the Gospel I see is absolutely free to us in the first sense that is it comes to us without the least of our deserts But
Justification Rom. 4. 25. and who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8. 34. Quest. Was his Resurrection necessary on any other Accounts Answ. Yes for 2. In virtue of his death he was to be our Mediator to intercede with God for us and our Saviour and Deliverer to protect and rescue us from our Spiritual Enemies And these great works suppose a live man and are not to be performed by a dead person And being thus necessary to discharge his continual care of us it must be equally so to support our Faith and Trust in him When men are dead we expect no service or succour from them And therefore were he still in the Grave we should not fix our Hope and Trust in or make our Addresses to him Quest. Was it necessary to shew him to be the Messiah and to prove his Religion Answ. Yes for he had appealed to it as a sign of his being a true Prophet Mat. 12 38 39 40. And therefore by the way of tryal which God prescribed the Jews viz. the accomplishment of predictions he had appear'd to be a false Prophet had he failed in it So that if Christ be not risen saith St. Paul your Faith is vain 1 Cor. 15. 14. Quest. In his Death and Resurrection methinks we have a plain and palpable instance of the immortality of Humane Souls and of a future Life beyond the Grave where God may reward or punish us Answ. So we have For his Soul manifestly did exist apart from his Body during the time of their Separation till on the third day it was reunited again So that mens Souls can subsist without as well as in their Bodies and when they depart hence go into another place where they are capable of being called to account for all they have done in this life On which account as well as others St. Paul might well say That God hath given assurance of a future Life and Judgment by raising Christ from the dead Acts 17. 31. And St. Peter That God hath begotten us to the hope of an Eternal Inheritance thro' the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Quest. We read of several others that rose from the Dead as well as Christ had he any thing singular in his Resurrection above them Answ. Yes he raised himself by his own power but they were all raised by him he was not only the first that rose but as the First-Fruits and all the World besides rise as the ensuing Crop which depends upon him Destroy this Temple saith he and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2. 19 21. I lay down my life and take it up again Joh. 10. 18. He is the first-born from the Dead Col. 1. 18. Rev. 1. 5. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order Christ the First-fruits afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming 1 Cor. 15. 22 23. Quest. But did not Lazarus rise before Christ John 11. 44. and Jairus's Daughter Luk. 8. 55. and the Widows Son of Nain Luk. 7. 12 14 15. and how then is he said to be the first of the Dead that returned Answ. They returned to die again but he was the first that rose to life everlasting He being raised dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. Quest. By his Resurrection Christ got Glory and Happiness to himself even that Joy for which St. Paul says he endured the Cross Heb. 12. 2. But did he thereby acquire any Power over us Answ. Yes his Death purchased and his Resurrection invested him with an absolute Power and Dominion over us For this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14. 9. And after his Resurrection saith he All Power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Mat. 28. 18. Quest. If so his Resurrection lays an obligation upon us to obey him Answ. Yes like as he rose from the dead so must we rise to newness of life Rom. 6. 4. Quest How long stay'd he upon Earth after he was risen again Answ. For the space of forty days discoursing and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God Acts 1. 3. Quest. Whither went he when he left it Answ. To Heaven whither he was taken up in a bright Cloud all the Apostles looking up after him till he was taken up out of their sight Acts 1. 3 9. And now he is there he sitteth at the right hand of God. Quest. What mean you by his sitting at the right hand of God Answ. His advancement to the heighth of Dignity and Authority in the presence of God. The Right-hand of a Prince is the place of peculiar Favour and of highest Honour and Respect as Solomon when he would do Honour to his Mother Bathsheba set her at his Right-hand 1 King. 2. 19. To be placed at hand by the priviledge of nearness gives opportunity for Conference and Address And to be placed at the Right-hand the Hand of use and business is to be in the way both of presenting all Offers and receiving of Returns whence it is a known mark of special Favour and Honour with all Potentates And so by Christ's sitting at God's Right-Hand is expressed his Soveraign Honour and Power in the presence of God. Or perhaps moreover his sitting in his humane shape on the Right-hand of that Bright Throne or Resplendant Glory which visibly accompanies and manifests some extraordinary presence of God as he appeared to Stephen in his Vision who saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the Right-hand of God that is I suppose at the Right-hand of that visible Glory wherewith God appeared Acts 7. 55. And this probably is what the Scripture means by his sitting at the Right-hand of Power Mat. 26. 64. and on the Right hand of Majesty Heb. 1. 3. That is on the Right-hand of such Glory or bright Appearance which is the usual Symbol of God's Power and Majesty which at other times is expressed by his sitting on the Right-hand of the Throne of God Heb. 12. 2. or on the Right-hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8. 1. Quest. It was most just that he should be exalted thither in recompence of his meritorious sufferings as the Apostle notes Phil. 2. 8 9. and Heb. 12. 2. But is he gone thither to carry on any Designs for us Answ. Yes and those of the greatest importance For there in the highest manner and to the fullest effect he exercises all his Offices in our behalf Quest. I pray you explain the Designs he carries on for us there Answ. First The work of Intercession as our Priest. For he stands before God to mediate on our behalf and to obtain for us whatsoever God has promised or he has purchased or we stand in need of He is enter'd into
insensible State would have brought him no Advantage Phil. 1. 21. And when we are absent from the Body we are present with the Lord which presence notes happy enjoyment 2 Cor. 5. 68. And Lazarus when he dyed was carried into Abraham's bosom and Dives lift up his eyes in Hell being in Torment Luk. 16. 22 23. All which shew the Deceased Righteous to be Happy as the Wicked Wretched not only in expectation but present enjoyment Quest. You speak this of all the Righteous Answ. Yes for the Scripture makes no Difference This Day shalt thou be with me in Paradise said Christ to the Penitent Thief tho' he had been a very great Sinner and was but a very young Convert And the usual way of expressing the Death of good Men is by their falling asleep which notes Ease and Refreshment And in general it is said of these that dye in the Lord that from henceforth they are blessed and rest from their Labours Rev. 14. 13. So that this Present Life as our Lord notes in the Story of Lazarus is the Time of their receiving evil things And they are no longer exercised with Torments but what is inconsistant with them enter upon ease and comfort in degree more or less according to the difference of their virtuous Attainments immediately upon their Deaths Quest. But is the Happiness of the one or the Misery of the other so full then as it shall be after the last Judgment Answ. No for now their Souls only are Happy but then their Bodies shall be raised too and the Bliss of the whole man both Soul and Body shall be compleat And then they shall be happy in a fuller degree and have a more perfect measure of it This increase of Happiness they shall receive at the last Judgment and therefore it is called the Time of their being crown'd or rewarded 2 Tim. 4. 8. and they are represented as desiring it So the Souls under the Altar slain for the Testimony of Jesus do in the Revelations asking how long God would delay to judge the World for the Consummation of their Reward and of their Persecutors Punishment Rev. 6. 9 10 11. And so it is with the damned Spirits too the heaviest part of their Doom being still to come and their present Miseries tho' very great being but Foretastes and Beginnings of what they are to be consign'd to at the last Day Thus the Devils are said to be reserved in Chains against the Judgment of the Great Day their present State it seems in comparison of it being no more than the Misery of a Prison compared to that of the Day of Execution 2 Pet. 2. 4. and Jude 6. And the Devils ask Christ if he were come to torment them before the time plainly intimating that the Fulness of their Torment was not to be till the Great Day comes Mat. 8. 29. Quest. These Private Judgments then are much short of the Last Judgment because then is the Consummation of Reward and Punishment Answ. Yes And also because that Judgment shall be Solemn and Publick in full Audience and open Court before Angels and all the World Luk. 12. 8 9. and General whereat all both Angels and Men shall be Convened and Tried Quest. And must not this be till the End of the World Answ. No for it is Christ's last Act in Discharging his Mediatory Office and therefore must not be concluded till all Things are at an End. All the Time before the Judgment is a State of Trial for proving Persons wherein Christ gives Laws to direct us and sufficient Opportunities and inward Grace to help us to perform them But all the Time after it is a State of irreversible Recompences in sharing and dispensing promised Rewards and Penal Executions After the last Sentence is once pass'd there is no more place for Intercessions and making Friends but a New and Unalterable State of Eternal Joys or Miseries commences And thus Christ having consummated his Trust as Mediator will surrender up his Power and deliver the Kingdom to God the Father 1 Cor. 15. 24. Quest. The General Judgment you say is at the End of the World Has God decreed a set Time and fixed a Day for it Answ. Yes he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness Act. 17. 31. Which Day is called the Coming of Christ 1 Cor. 15. 23. and the Day of the Lord 1 Thess. 5. 2. 2 Thess. 2. 2. Quest. If every Mans Case must then be fully scann'd and all Actions inquired into and Pleas heard methinks that should be more than one Days Work Answ. So I suppose it will the continuance perhaps of a thousand Days nay it may be of a great number of Years For Day in Scripture is any Continuance of Time which is allotted for any Business As the Time of Israels forty Years Travel in the Wilderness is call'd the Day of Temptation Heb. 3. 8 9. and the Time of God's scourging and correcting the Day of Visitation Isa. 10. 3. 1 Pet. 2. 12. and the Time of the Gospel is the Day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. And so the Day of Judgment is not the Space of twenty four Hours but all that Time which Christ shall spend upon it Quest. It seems God has fixed the Day within himself but is that determinate Day known to any besides himself Answ. No For of that determinate Day knoweth no Man no not the Angels in Heaven nor the Son himself as Man but the Father only Mat. 24. 36. Mar. 13. 32. It shall surprise the World and its coming shall be sudden and unexpected as a Thief in the Night or Travel upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess. 5. 2 3. Quest. Who shall be the Judge at that Great Day by whom all Men shall be tried and sentenced Answ. Jesus Christ. For God will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordain'd and he hath assured them of it by raising him from the dead Acts 17. 31. He only is able to discharge this transcendent Trust having an Authority Paramount which none can question or appeal from an Infinite Understanding that can search the Hearts and discover the naked Truth of every Mans Case and the just Validity of their Pleas an incorruptible Integrity that cannot in the least be byassed by any Flatteries Offers Intercessions or Intreaties and an Almighty Power that can reward the greatest Services and punish the most high and haughty as well as the meanest Criminals And as he alone is qualified to Discharge so he is also to sustain the Honour of it For who is fit to sit as Judge of Princes and Potentates Men and Angels but he who made and governs them who is over all in Power and next in Dignity to the Father even the Son of God himself All Judgment is committed to the Son that all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Joh. 5. 22 23. Quest. Who
himself in all things towards them and was correspondently treated by them as a Brother In any common Debates and particularly in the Council of Jerusalem he did not so much as preside as St. James there seems rather to have done but as an Equal gave his Reasons and his Voice among them Act. 15. 7. When his actings seem'd very Novel and Doubtful as his going in to Cornelius and his Gentile Friends the Brethren of the Circumcision freely required an Account thereof and stifly contended with him Act. 11. 2. And when they were really Blame-worthy as his dissimulation was at Antioch St Paul like his Com-Peer Apostle openly withstood and rebuked him Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14. These with sundry other like Passages shew how unknown such Universal Headship was in the Apostles time And the same may be made appear of the Church in the Ages following But that visible Unity which all Christians were obliged to endeavour after in the Church was preserv'd as I say by their joint readiness to communicate externally as Brethren not by a profest subjection of all Churches to one Visible Head and submitting to his Authority and Jurisdiction Quest. In this one Church indeed as it follows in the Creed there must be a Communion of Saints what is meant by Saints Answ. Christians By their Enemies they were styled Hereticks or Nazarenes But the Names they gave themselves were the Elect the Brethren the Christians or many times the Saints as is very commonly seen in the inscriptions or salutations of the Epistles writ to them by the holy Apostles Quest. And what is the Communion of these Saints or Christians Answ. Their joining in common in those things which make them Christians or in the common Offices and concerns of Christianity There must be Communion because of their Unity as one Body And this Communion must be in something sensible to shew a visible Unity which the World shall see and reflect upon as I noted from our Saviour Quest. In what doth this Communion consist Answ. In adhering to the same Doctrine Government and Worship both in Prayers and Sacraments For in these St. Luke places the Communion of the Primitive Church They continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and breaking of Bread and in Prayers Act. 2. 42. Quest. How must they keep to the same Faith and Doctrine Answ. By adhering to the Holy Scriptures which ought to be every where the same Rule of it And this Unity of Faith requiring not only that they inwardly believe the same things but also that they outwardly profess that Belief to make Unity in this Profession in the first days there is mention of its being drawn up into a Form of Sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. This Form was as some think the Apostles Creed which contains all that Catholick Doctrine that is necessary to make any Man a Good Christian and which accordingly has been always received as the Form in Baptism the most learned not professing more thereat nor the most ignorant less through all Ages of the Church Quest. This united Adherence to the same Rule and Form will keep up a visible Union in Faith or Doctrine But how can they all be thus united in Prayers and Devotions not having one and the same Forms of Prayer and Liturgies Answ. By making them all according to the same Rules and for the same intents and purposes For all their Prayers are put up to one and the same God for one and the same common mercies on the same common terms and expectations through the same common Merits and Mediation and with the same common Affection and Brotherly concern for each other Which make them in Substance the same Worship and Devotions though put up in far distant places or in different Forms of expression or Languages Quest. According to what you said before of the Unity of the Church the Members of this one Body must not only worship and pray like each other but be ready to worship and pray together But how can we communicate or joyn in the use of Prayers and Sacraments with all Christians who are so far spread and widely distant in their Habitations Answ. With Foreigners we are bound to joyn only as we meet with them When we happen to be amongst them or they amongst us to shew we are all of the same Body and that the Church is one we must mutually Associate in worship and receive each other to Communion not sticking at any different Rites and usages we find in other Churches whilst there is no Sin in them And as for the Christians of our own Country there is no difficulty of joining thus in Worship yea and Government too with them because we are all under the same Laws and spiritual Guides and live among them Quest. Do you lay much weight upon Publick Prayers and think the People ought to place much in attending the Churches Service and Praying along with the Minister Answ. Yes For though God is ready to hear any Good man by himself alone Yet for the Countenance of the Publick Worship and the maintenance of good order he sets particular marks of Favour on those Prayers which are offer'd to him in Publick in concurrence with his Minister Thus in the Jewish Law he appointed the Priests to Offer and burn incense twice a Day for a Daily Service the end whereof was to present those Prayers which the People offer'd up during this Ministration as a sweet smell to God in these Perfumes And David when he would desire a great Recommendation to his Prayers begs they may come fortifi'd with this advantage to be set forth in God's sight like Incense Psal. 141. 2. In like manner the four and twenty Elders in the Revelations that is the Bishops or Pastors of the Church are represented as having every one like the Jewish Priests Golden Vials full of Odors which are the Prayers of the Saints Rev. 5. 8. And when any Persons in sickness would have Recourse to Prayers St. James directs them to present them by their Pastors and send for the Elders of the Church Jam. 5 14. And Jesus Christ that Angel who at the Golden Altar offers up the Prayers of all Saints is set out particularly as presenting those Prayers of theirs which came up with the smoke of incense Rev. 8. 3 4. Not to mention the many other Advantages of Publick Prayer as its being an addressing to God in a Body and united Number which in all Addresses is confessedly a way of most Force and Power and among them perhaps in conjunction with some of the best Souls and very likely with several more Holy and dearer to him than our selves for whose sake he may be more like to hear our joint supplications as he would hear Job for his Friends when he would not accept either their Prayer or Sacrifice at their own hands Job 42. 7 8. And therefore it is a most fond
their Trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you Mat. 6. 14 15. And therefore when we pray for forgiveness our Lord allows us to do it only upon these terms Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us Quest. What if we have wronged any Persons is it not enough towards forgiveness to do so no more Answ. No it is not but withal we must make Restitution and amends for the wrong we have done already If thou bring thy Gift to the Altar and there remembrest thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy Gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy Gift Mat. 5. 23 24. Quest. I see we must hope to have forgiveness of our Sins of willfulness and also of our Sins of Passion which you shew'd to be of like guilt with them only upon our true Repentance and amendment of them But upon what terms shall our slips of ignorance and inadvertence be pardon'd since they are never perfectly amended but hang about us more or less as long as we are in this World Answ. Upon our great Charity to other men especially to their Souls in endeavouring their Conversion and Salvation And therefore that St. Peter recommends above all other Virtues and for this Reason Above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4. 8. And if any of you err and one convert him let him know that he who converts a Sinner from the Error of his way shall save a Soul from Death and shall hide a Multitude of sins Jam. 5. 19 20. Quest. For whose sake doth Almighty God allow us all this Benefit of Forgiveness Answ. For Jesus Christ's who as you have seen dyed for our Sins and gave his blood a Ransom to purchase for us all this Pardon of them He is set forth a propitiation for the remission of Sins that are pass'd thro' Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 25. And then for his sake we shall receive all this mercy when with the dispositions before express'd in his Name we devoutly pray to God for it Quest. By the promises of the Gospel I see this forgiveness is assured to all Christians upon the terms you have described But is it in any Signs and Tokens outwardly dispensed to them Answ. Yes both in the Holy Sacraments and in Sacerdotal Absolution Which ways of ministring this forgiveness as well as the forgiveness it self are noted in some Ancient Creeds This Article being thus profess'd in St. Cyprian's Form at Baptism I believe the Remission of Sins by the Church Quest. Is this forgiveness dispensed to us in the Sacrament of Baptism Answ. Yes and that most amply the water of Baptism washing off the stain of all former Sins Be Baptized and wash away thy Sins said Ananias to Saul Acts 22. 16. Repent and be Baptized for the Remission of Sins said St. Peter to the Jews Acts 2. 38. And he hath saved us by the Laver of Regeneration i. e. the water of Baptism and the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3 5. So that whateve pollutions men had before upon them if they come to Baptism with true Faith and Repentance they are thereby made clean again Quest. Is it also dispensed in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Answ. Yes if after the Baptismal cleansing they relapse and contract new guilt in that they are admitted to renew the same Covenant of Grace again and seal the Pardon of it For therein Christ gives us his own Blood which as he says particularly was shed for the Remission of Sins Mat. 26. 28. He entertains us there at his own Table which is an open profession to all worthy comers that he is reconciled to them and receives them again as Friends And therefore when any Baptized Christians are startled and terrified with the Conscience of their Sins let them repair to that Holy Sacrament to seal and assure the forgiveness of them But let them come with Faith and Repentance and Reconciliation to their Brethren which as I said are the Terms of our being Forgiven For the Holy Sacraments dispense this forgiveness to none but such as worthily receive them and those they do cleanse from all former Pollutions Quest. Is there also a dispensation of this Pardon in Priestly Absolution Answ. Yes for therein Christ has authoriz'd his Ministers that act in his place and stead to pronounce the Sentence of Pardon upon all true Penitents and bid them expect that what they regularly thus declare on Earth in his Soveraign Court in Heaven he will make good He breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever Sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever Sins ye retain they are retained Joh. 20. 22 23. And therefore when a true Penitent hears his Pardon solemnly pronounced by an Officer whom God has deputed and Commission'd for it he may quiet his heart as one whose case is judged and firmly hope God will pronounce the same at the last Judgment But this I say he must do only after true Repentance For 't is only the Ministry of Reconciliation saith St. Paul which God hath committed unto us 2 Cor. 5. 18. but the direction and ratification of it he has reserved to himself and then only ratifies what his Ministers do when they pronounce according to his own Rules and Orders So that if the Priest pronounce by mistake and absolve the impenitent God will judge right tho' he judge wrong and Condemn at last whom he had before erroneously absolved in his Judgment Quest. Christ says what they retain shall be retained as well as what they remit shall be remitted Ought not that to beget in all Christians a great dread of Excommunication and Reverence for Church-Censures Answ. Yes questionless when they proceed upon just Cause for then Christ will maintain the Honour of his Deputies and make good their sentence He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10. 16. If any Offender will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican Mat. 18. 17. In these Acts what his Ministers do Regularly and according to his Direction they do it as representing him by vertue of his Commission and Authority which having given to be sure he will stand by And accordingly St. Paul and the Church-Governours at Corinth under him exercising their Power by virtue of Christ's Commission Declares that both in binding and relaxing or forgiving he acted with the Power and in the Person or place of Christ 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. and 2 Cor. 2. 10. Quest. Do all Censures of the Church then where the Truth is on its side cut men off as from the Church which is his Body so from Jesus Christ who is the Head of it Answ. All those do which are passed for such sins or errors as are Damnable by
the Tenor of Christ's own Laws For then they only speak the Language of Christ's own Rules and as Tertullian says are a true anticipation or Fore-hand Draught of the great Judgment And when his Officers only pronounce and say after him there is no doubt but he will confirm what they have pronounced in his Name Quest. But from what you have formerly discoursed I perceive that some things in Religon being against the Prime and Fundamental Doctrines are so Damnable in themselves as not to be capable of any Favour or Allowances And that others being only against inferior Truths are Damnable only as accompanied with an Evil Mind but capable withal of being incurred under Pardonable circumstances Now in these last Points many Persons that mean well and serve Christ sincerely in the main and essentials of a Christian may yet be unhappily mislead into wrong Opinions or Practices And if for their fixedness and obstinacy in these they happen to be cast out of any Church do you think they are always cut off from Christ too and that he will Finally Anathematise and condemn them in his Sentence Answ. No. For the Church as all humane Judges being unable to see into Mens Hearts give sentence in these cases according to outward Actions But Christ in his judgment of them looks also at the mind and heart of the Actors Rateing exactly not only the Punishableness of the Offences but also the Degrees of voluntary and involuntary which makes a Pardonableness or Punishableness of the Offenders And making these Allowances on such scores as fall not under their Notice 't is reasonable to believe he will still own and receive several compassionably mislead who are cast out on these accounts by the Churches Censures Quest. This validity and effect of Church-Censures you say is when they proceed according to Christ's own Rules and upon just cause But if they bind where the Gospel says they should loose and Excommunicate against Reason I suppose those Censures are meer Scare-crows that may serve to make a show but bring no hurt with them Answ. Very true Blessed are ye says our Saviour when Men shall separate you from their Company and expunge or cast out your Name as evil for the Son of Mans sake for so persecuted their Fathers the Prophets Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for your Reward is great in Heaven Luk. 6. 22 23. If good Christians are Excommunicated in any Church for not going against the Scriptures and complying with it in ill things as poor Protestants are by the Romish Church they lose nothing thereby with God who will not ratifie a wrong sentence but will increase their Reward for having bravely suffer'd in his Cause Quest. By what you have said I see how God forgives Sins But when they are committed against us we are bid to forgive them too and that as we our selves hope to be forgiven I pray you what doth that imply Answ. Not our remitting Future punishments which lye at God's mercy not in ours Nor always that we sit still without offering to defend our selves when we are assaulted or to seek redress when we are injured But only that we bear no malice to them in our hearts and if the case require Redress that we seek it not in Spiteful ways and that beside the Reparation of our own Wrong we aim not at our Adversary's Prejudice nor seek his hurt afterwards nor Pray to God or to the Magistrate for vengeance as the Jews might to ease an angry mind when we are able to do no more against him our selves Quest. What use must we make of this Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins Answ. Admire the mercy of God who can forgive such Profligate and Provoking Offenders And the wonderful love of Jesus Christ who could dye to procure this Forgiveness for his utter Enemies And not despair of mercy but stedfastly hope there is place of Pardon after any of our sins And above all to shew true Repentance and forgive others and perform all those things which are the condition and Terms of Forgiveness thereby to secure it to our selves Quest. And when we are once forgiven may we embolden our selves from God's readiness to forgive to Repeat our sins Answ. No by no means Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound in pardoning God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Now thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee said our Saviour Joh. 5. 14. Such ingratitude and abuse of Grace is not only most provoking to the Spirit and tempts him to withdraw from us and calls down from God heavier and surer Punishments But also it brings in force against us all the old scores which were all struck off as I said only on presumption of our Perseverance in repenting of them CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting The Contents The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a Place of Bliss Of Eternal Life wherin there is Full and unmixed Happiness Of the satisfaction of their Senses Their clear and distinct Knowledge Perfect Holiness And without Reluctance Blissful Companions Perfection of Love and Kindness Honour and Eminence of Place All these to be injoy'd in the Highest Heavens without satiety or weariness For evermore Of the miseries of the Damned in Tormenting Passions The worm of Conscience Fire and Flames Disgrace Under all which no favour of God. No company but of Tormenting Devils and damned Spirits None to condole when they cannot relieve No rest and sleep for Recruit of Spirits No end of their miseries The Use of this Quest. WHat is the Eleventh Article of the Creed Answ. I believe the Resurrection of the Body Quest. May not the Resurrection be interpreted only of a Spiritual Resurrection from sin Answ. So some taught of old as St. Paul testifies saying the Resurrection is passed already i. e. when Men rose from a State of sin to the fear of God and these says he get credit and overthrow the Faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 18. But the Resurrection we expect is a Resurrection of the Body Our Bodies after we have laid them down by Death shall at the Day of Judgment be quickned and raised up again Then all that are in the Graves shall hear Christ's voice and come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 28 29. This mortal Body must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on Incorruption that so all that being revived which Death destroyed Death may be swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. Quest. The
Resurrection of a Body which had been crumbled into Dust seemed an incredible thing when it was preach'd at first When the Philosophers heard of a Resurrection some mocked Act. 17. 32. What can make it credible or fit to be Believed Answ. The Omnipotent Power of God when that is ingaged for it For no one can think it impossible for God to raise up a Body out of dust that at first made it out of dust yea that raised all things out of nothing Ye err saith our Saviour to the Sadduces about the Resurrection not knowing the Power of God Mat. 22. 29. And this Power he has given us a sensible proof of by raising up Christ. If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the Dead i. e. in regard his Rising is such an irrefragable instance and example of it 1 Cor. 15. 12. Quest. Shall the Bodies of the Saints be raised up by the Power of the Holy Ghost Answ. Yes he that now makes them his Temples by displaying in them his Holiness shall at last display in them his Omnipotence breathing into their scatter'd dust the Breath of Life as at first he breathed Life into all things If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall at last also quicken your mortal Bodies as he quickned his Rom. 8. 11. Quest. The Rising of the Saints will no doubt be very Glorious But what Perfections shall their Bodies receive at the Resurrection Answ. First Immortality Nothing after that shall ever be able to pain decay or annoy them they shall not be liable to suffer nor to dye any more This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality 1 Cor. 15. 53. They cannot dye any more Luke 20. 36. Secondly Spirituality it is sown a Natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body 1 Cor. 15. 44. Whereby is not meant that it shall be a Spirit in Substance but that it shall have those Perfections of Spirits wherein they excel Bodies As 1. being above the gross Pleasures of Sense such as Eating Drinking and carnal Injoyments In the Resurrection they neither Marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels Mat. 22. 30. And Meats for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God shall shortly destroy both it and them viz. in the Resurrection when men shall live without them 1 Cor. 6. 13. 2dly Vigor and Activity such as may answer and keep pace with the vehement Transports and quick Emotions of Glorified Souls and be capable to support their Joys bear their Raptures and express their Activities And 3dly Agility or Spriteliness in their motions moveing towards all Points upwards into the Air and Clouds as St. Paul notes of the Saints in their new Bodies as well as downwards And to Places at any distance with the quickness of Spirits whence they are able in a moment to appear or disappear as the Soul pleases as our Saviour's Body did after his Resurrestion and our raised Bodies must be like his being in this respect also equal to the Angels Luke 20. 36. Quest. Shall they receive any more Perfections Answ. Yes Thirdly not only a perfect Beauty instead of any Mishape or Deformity but also a marvellous Brightness or Glory It is sown in Dishonour but it is raised in Glory 1 Cor 15. 43. The Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Mat. 13. 43. Christ shall change our vile Body that it may be like unto his Glorious Body Phil. 3. 21. And that was full of glittering Splendor Whilst he conversed with his Disciples after his Resurrection here on Earth he laid it aside because fleshly eyes were not able to behold it as appeared by its Striking Saul blind Acts 9. 3 9. But in Heaven he shines with a dazeling Lustre Thus he appeared from thence to Stephen Acts 7. 55. and to Paul who describes the light of his Presence to have been above the brightness of the Sun Acts 26. 13. And his head and his hairs were white like Wooll yea as white as Snow his Eyes as a Flame of Fire his Feet like fine Brass burning in a Furnace and his Countenance as the Sun shining in its strength in that Vision St. John had of him in the Revelations Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. Quest. This will be a most happy Resurrection of the Just But what kind of Bodies shall the Wicked have shall theirs be immortal too Answ. Yes but to their cost and for no other end but that they may be immortally punished For when they always fry in Eternal Fire they shall never be consumed by it Quest. And shall their raised Bodies be sensible of Torment Answ. Yes far more than their Bodies are now and they shall always have the smartest and most terrible things in Nature to Torment them viz. Eternal Fire Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire Mat. 25. 41. There they shall be tormented in the Flames and not have so much as a drop of Water to cool their parched Tongue Luke 16. 23 24. Quest. If it be thus extream violent it will soon consume them or as extremity of pain sometimes causes dictraction so over-power their Souls that they shall not be able to mind or attend to it Answ. No as their sense of pains shall be most exquisite and insensible so shall their Bodies be indissoluble and their sense insuperable As an Almighty Vengeance shall ever inflict the most tormenting strokes upon them so at the same time an Almighty Power shall continue their strength to bear and an exquisite sense or feeling to be most piercingly affected with them Quest. Must not this Belief of the Resurrection of the Body comfort us upon the death of Friends when we lay their Bodies in the Graves Answ. Yes because those Bodies are not perished but only faln asleep and shall be infinitely more perfect and glorious and full of strength when they awake out of it I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them that are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thess. 4. 13 14. Quest. And ought it not to arm us against the fear of our own death too Answ. Yes for since when our earthly House of this Tabernacle is dissolved we have a Building of God Eternal in the Heavens in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloath'd upon with our House which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. Quest. What is the Twelfth and last Article of the Creed Answ. I Believe the Life Everlasting Quest. When good mens Souls leave their Bodies what becomes of them Answ. They are carried into a place of Bliss and Refreshment which Christ in his discourse to the Penitent Thief called Paradise and
in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Abrahams Bosom And the care of conducting them thither as Christ noted in the account of Lazarus is committed to some good Angels For some of these as ministring Spirits always attend the death-beds of God's Saints and receive the departed Soul into their care to guard it from all frights and molestations of envious Fiends as it passes thro' the Regions of the Air which are the Principality or Territory of the Powers of Darkness and to guide it in all that long passage of new and unknown ways which lead to the Blessed Receptacles of departed Spirits Whereas the Souls of the Wicked when they are thrust out of their Bodies are left naked and defenceless to be seiz'd by those greedy and implacable Furies and hurried away upon the award of their most just Judge in extream anguish and despair to their most wretched Prisons Quest. But at the Resurrection I see both Good and Bad shall return to their Bodies again And shall that Life last for ever Answ. Yes for after once they are reunited their Souls and Bodies shall never part any more but the good shall continue in everlasting pleasure and the wicked in everlasting pain Quest. What happiness is there in that Eternal Life of the Righteous Answ. All possible happiness their hearts can wish or their Nature is capable of They shall see and enjoy God who will give himself to them and that implies every thing that is Beatifying all the Blessedness we can imagine and infinitely more being contain'd in God and communicated together with him Quest. And shall this Blessedness never be imbitter'd to them with any care or fear or grief or crosses as all the happyness of this present Life is Answ. No They shall neither hunger nor thirst any more Rev. 7. 16. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more Death nor sorrow nor crying nor Pain for all those former things are passed away Rev. 21. 4. Quest. Shall all their Senses be gratified with the most delightful and agreeable enjoyments Answ. Yes such as the Scripture is wont to set off by Feasts and Banquets and Marriage-Entertainments by melodious Songs and joyful Hallelujahs by transporting sights of all the Beauty the Glory and Magnificence of the Heavenly Court the Majesty of God's Throne and the Splendor of all the Heavenly Host that do surround it Indeed their exalted and refined Senses are above the gross delights of Eating and Drinking and giving in Marriage But such as these the Scripture uses because our present state places so much in them And whatsoever delight and satisfaction they may express to our present Capacities that and abundance more shall the enjoyments of that life yield to our glorified and improved Bodies Quest. 'T is a great heappiness to have clear and distinct knowledge of things and not to be distracted with doubts or posed with difficulties Shall the Righteous in that Eternal Life have such clear and advanced understandings Answ. Yes they shall get rid of all darkness and doubtfulness of mind and know every thing they desire without study or pains Now we see as in a Glass darkly but then face to face Now we know in part but then shall we know even as also we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Quest. 'T is a singular Point of Bliss to be perfect in Holiness which is one of the most Blissful Attributes of God himself Shall they also be such perfectly Holy Persons Answ. Yes they shall excel in every Virtue and Grace wherein Christ himself doth for when he appears we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3. 2. And those they shall enjoy free of all those weaknesses and defects whereby their Virtues are obscur'd and lessen'd in this World. For in new Jerusalem the Spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12. 23. Quest. And shall they exercise all this Holiness without trouble and reluctance which makes the practice of it painful here on Earth Answ. Yes for they shall neither have any inward Lusts to oppose it nor outward Temptations to draw them from it They hear no advice nor see any example but of what is good Their inclinations are all rectified and become Holiness to the Lord. Their Nature is perfect in good and duty is become their delight so that in conforming entirely to the will of God they do in the highest measure gratifie their own wills too Quest. And with this height of knowledge and of Holiness shall they also be inwardly pleased in their own minds and think themselves happy without which no man is happy Answ. Yes they must needs be infinitely pleased in every thing they have and in every thing they do for whatsoever comes to them is pure happiness and whatsoever proceeds from them is full of Wisdom and Goodness without the least word or action to repent of Their State is all Joy and Peace enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Mat. 25. 21. It is not bid to enter into them being infinitely more than they can hold but they into it as into a vast Ocean of Bliss whereof they shall always drink to the full but never empty or exhaust it Quest. Indeed such compleat Knowledge and perfect Holiness must needs give them cause of greatest satisfaction from themselves But what sort of Company must they keep will they be equally happy in that too Answ. Yes unimaginably happy For they will live always in the presence of God who will ineffably Communicate himself to them and of Jesus Christ who will infinitely rejoyce to see how happy he has made them and of the Holy Ghost who will eternally Congratulate the reward of his own Graces in them and converse with Angels Apostles and Glorified Saints and all their Godly dear Friends whom they valued as their own Souls and whom they clave so fast to in their hearts that they could have followed them into the other World when they were taken from them Quest. And all this God-like Society are every way fitted to be the most happy and delightful Companions Answ. Yes to be the most Blissful that possibly can be thought of For they are all light and quickness in their understandings and all love and tenderness in their Affections and most sweet and obliging in their carriage being perfectly free from all Anger Crossness Scorn or Contempt and every thing that may give offence They all look pleased and inviting in their countenances and are exquisitely wise useful and entertaining in all their Discourses and all agree in the same Opinions and speak the same things and pursue the same ends and are pleased in the same Objects and have no strife among them but who shall love highest and oblige most and be most like to God and agreeable to each other for evermore Quest. You say there shall be no strife but who shall love most Indeed a state of love which is not cooled by any unkindnesses nor crossed
them those intolerable miseries and utter and horrid despair of ever removing or abating them Quest. Is this Sting of Conscience so extreamly tormenting to mens Souls that it should be compared to a Worm preying upon their vitals Answ. Yes for they who feel it and such only can tell the smart of it think it more exquisite and insupportable than the pangs of death it self And therefore they run greedily after Death and seek by any means to make away themselves in hopes thereby to get quit of it The Spirit of a man will sustain all other his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. And if 't is so intolerable here where they have only some beginnings and small fore-tastes of it what must it be when horror is at the heighth and despair and anguish is consummate and the rage of all infernal Spirits is let loose to represent at full the most formidable Phantasms and imprint Anguish and all sorts of Agonies and painful Horrors with the utmost activity of Furious and powerful Spirits as it will be in the next World. Quest. But whilst their forlorn Souls are racked with all these horrible pangs what shall become of their Bodies Answ. They shall Frye in Flames as I said and endure all the Torment which men can feel in the hottest Fire They shall be cast into a Furnace of Fire Mat. 13. 42. and have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21. 8. Quest. This must needs cause excessive pain But shall they not have something to mitigate and make it easier Answ. No not so much as a drop of water to cool their Tongue when 't is parched and tormented in the Flame Luke 16. 24. Nor that poor relief of those who are extream weary and sore to shift sides or change their posture Bind him hand and foot that he cannot stir says our Lord when he Condemns the Sinner to this Lake of Fire Mat. 22. 13. Quest. And shall desperate shame and disgrace be added to all this Answ. Yes For they are all as vile and hateful to God and all good men yea and to themselves too as they can be made and it is purely their own wilful and wretched Folly and desperate wickedness which has brought them to it Quest. But will not God the hope and comfort of all that are in utter distress look upon them and shew them countenance in this wretched state Answ. No they shall never see his face nor receive the least glimpse of favour from his Countenance He will say to them depart from me ye Cursed Mat. 25. 41. And they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord 2 Thes. 1. 9. He will not look upon them but in wrath and fury and never think of them in mercy any more Quest. But when God deserts them shall they be quite forsaken or will they not be allowed some Company in this distress Answ. Yes but that shall be the Company of Devils and tormenting Spirits who thirst more after Blood than ever the most starved Appetite did after food and who have no other way to ease their own pains but by the satisfaction of augmenting theirs Go into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25. 41. Quest. But amidst all this horrid Crew that take such pleasure to despite them shall there be none to help them when they are unable to help themselves at least to pity and condole with them Answ No there are none but Partners in destruction who are all too full of their own miseries to attend theirs And all these in Nature are perfect Furies that have no love and tenderness for others For Hell is no place for pity and kindness since he that dwells in Love dwells in God as St. John says 1 Joh. 4. 16. So that there they shall have no Friend either to help or hearten or sympathize with them But all about them shall spitefully vex and reproach them and add more to their burden which is already heavier by far than they can bear Quest. But there is one thing still that in the extreamest Torments gives some ease and recruit of Spirits tho' it cannot give a full deliverance and that is Rest and Sleep And shall not miserable wretches have some rest from these Torments Answ. No for the smoke of their Torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Rev. 14. 11. Quest. But if this Torment be thus without all intermission and thus violent sure it will not last long but they will câ—â—â—e in good time to an end of it Answ. No it shall never end Their Bodies as I noted shall be made indissoluble and immortal only that their pains may be immortal Their worm dieth not and their Fire never shall be quenched Mark 9. 43 44. Quest. Good God! how intolerable and irremediable is this State will not every man that believes he shall unavoidably suffer all this for persisting wicked take any pains and endure any hardships in Religion and the amendment of his Life to prevent it Answ. Yes most certainly and this is the wise use we are to make of it Knowing the Terrors of the Lord in executing the Wicked after the last Judgment we perswade men to live well here without which there is no avoiding them 2 Cor. 5. 11. Quest. And since the happiness of the Righteous is so infinitely lasting and large must not the belief of that make us contemn all the short pleasures of Sin which would bereave us of it and think all the sufferings of Virtue nothing in comparison of the reward that doth attend it Answ. Yes for since the sufferings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us neither Death nor Life nor Things present nor Things to come nor any other Creature â—â—all be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8. 18 38 39. FINIS Books lately Printed for Robert Kettlewell 1. THe Measures of Christian Obedidience By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire The second Edition In Quarto Price bound 8s 2. An Help and Exhortation to worthy Communicating By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire In Twelves Price bound 2s 6d 3. A Discourse Explaining the Nature of Edification By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire In Quarto Price 6d 4. A Funeral Sermon for the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Digby By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire In Quarto Price 6d 5. The Religious Loyalist Or A good Christian taught how to be a Faithful Servant both to God and the King. By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire 6. A Funeral Sermon for the Right Honourable Simon Lord Digby By John Kettlewell Minister of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire 7. A Journey into Greece by Sir George Wheeler in