the Children to the Fathers 3. If all these places of Scripture might be solved and answered with a vertual and effectual presence and appearance of Christ yet the Faith and desires of the spouse cannot be satisfied without the Personal presence and enjoyment of her glorious Head and Bride-groom who is more to her then all whom having not seen she loves in whom though she see him not yet believing she rejoyces with joy unspeakable and full of glory and what hath she an eye for but to see him and why did he take our Nature and Form but to be so contemplated and enjoyed by his people especially when we take in this that in every line in every feature of that all-glorious face and person we shall see Divinity sparkling forth and if we could entertain our selves here with his good things without his person yet he cannot so satisfie himself to withhold himself in the most full and perfect way of enjoyment from us He that left the Fathers bosome to die for us will he refuse to drink the fruit of the vine the wine of joy with us in the Kingdom of his Father If there were no other reason that I confess sticks with me and is of it self alone sufficient that our Saviour saith Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory will Christ then send them from his presence to the earth and not accompany them thither if the Scriptures had said nothing of it or will he come down with them and not continue with them there while they continue there How can we ever be with the Lord as from the change it is said we shall if Christ keep in Heaven and we be upon the Earth How did it animate Stephen when the stones were about his Eares Act. 7 5◠with what sweetness did it fill his spirit when the Heavens opened upon him and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God How will it animate how will it raise and influence the whole Body mystical to see Christ with his Heaven and all his glory to come down and dwell in the midst of them which is no more then the spirit affirms shall be for behold the Tabernacle of God which is the person of the Lord Jesus and that not without his humanity for that properly is the Tabernacle of God is with men for so it is said of his incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Tabernacled in the midst of us as the Tabernacle of old was pitcht in the midst of the Tribes in their encamping in the wilderness But besides this there are many other reasons as well as Scriptures to induce to believe this Article of Christ's personal glorious appearance and residence with his people in that glorious state of his Kingdom as being that point to which the eye of our Faith and expectation is constantly directed both as the necessary produceing and conserving cause of all that felicity It is the center into which all the lines from the whole circumference do strike and wherein they meet It is the Crown and perfection of all the antecedent and inchoate Salvations without which they would be but Embrio's and abortives To Philalethes Himself SIR I Have now done with your argument my greatest task behind is to address a few lines to your selfe a task so great that I can truly say by the difficulty I laboured under in the prospect of it I was hindered from putting Pen to Paper longer then the Angel was withstood by the Prince of Persia Dan. 10.13 The difficulty arose from a twofold ground first the common and general nature of opposition and controversie which as is observed of War is a sluttish thing and requires more than ordinary skill and circumspection that we wound not our friends instead of releiving them against their mistakes 2. From the peculiar nature of your cause and your singular way of mannaging it your cause carrying spirituality in its banners and your way of mannaging it with reference to my self being with all christian candor and friendly respect and that not only in your Epistle Dedicatory but through all the parts of your discourse How I have comported with the spirituality of your design I must leave to your self and the impartial Reader to judge I can truly say I heartily desired and endeavoured to be found in a full compliance with it being sorry for nothing more then to find so fair so lovely an Image of your mind engaged in so unhappy an opposition and dismembred from it self And sure no other then the Enemy hath done this for as the Woman is not without the Man nor the Man without the Woman in the Lord so neither is Letter without Spirit nor Spirit without Letter the outward form without the inward nor the inward without the outward in the Lord no more than the Soul is without the Body or the Body without the Soul in living man The outward form in Christs Kingdom being as the Woman the Letter the Body which is the image and glory of the Man i. e. of the inward form and spirit It is so in the Lord. There is indeed a state wherein they are not found together and thence arises your disgust because in Anti-christs kingdom you find the letter without the Spirit and not only form without power but the outward form exalting it self and behaving it self uncomely against the inward spirit and life denying it laying it by setting up it self in the room of it and this not only among the Papists but those that call themselves Reformed yea what form what judgment what perswasion can wash their hands of this guilt more or less how few even among our purest Churches but have defiled their garments this way But Sir let us remember It is not so in the Lord nor will it be so in his day and Kingdom While things are thus carried it is Antichrists day not Christs day It will then be otherwise This makes us look and long for his appearing I confess if we must have but the one the Spirit or inward glory were by infinite degrees to be preferred before the outward form and glory by all that have tasted that the Lord is gracious for he is a living Stone that puts life into all that are joyned to him There is no life and peace but in the Spirit Rom. 8.6 To such a one To be carnally minded is death If we seek an outward kingdom an outward glory that shall not be all Spirit It is as the stretching out our hands to a strange God Psal 44.20 and forgetting the name of the Lord our God and will not God search this out But on the other hand consider what the Spirit himself saith not only as before The Man is not without the Woman in the Lord 1 Cor. 6.13 but the body is for the Lord and the Lordfor the body the Spirit and the inward glory
for Jesus sake but with this Counsel and design That the Lâ—fe also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body yea in our Mortal flesh which expectation and hope he casts into the times of the Resurrection vers 14. Or the day of Judgment as it is in the next Chap. vers 10. when we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Text may be rendred that he may receive such things by or through his Body according to that he hath done where the Body is brought in not as the instrument of those things done as the Translation in the English would carry it but for that state of man wherein he shall receive his full reward whether for good or bad which is when the Body shall be reunited to the Soul as in the Resurrection for if the Apostle should refer the doing of good or bad only to the Body or those things wherein the Body was the Agent or Instrument it would be too short to take in all good and bad there being many both good and bad fruits wherein the Body hath no hand as all mental Sins and spiritual wickednesses and so spiritual vertues and graces his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad For this cause it is that he says in the former Chap. vers 16. We faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us c. While we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen c. Here lies the knot what are these things NOT SEEN This is the strength of your Argument if there be any strength in it The Apostle shews both before and after what he means They are things that relate not only to the Soul but to the Body the mortal Flesh the Earthen Vessel or the Earthly house of this Tabernacle which shall be exchanged for a Building of God an House not made with hands a House from Heaven a Vessel of Gold which the same Apostle in the former Epistle Chap. 15. calls a Spiritual body Now is all this a meer INWARD SPIRITUAL AND INVISIBLE Glory Give me leave Sir to tell you what hath led you out of the way it it the taking of the things not seen for things Invisible whereas the Apostle is not heard to speak so in this place The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not things simply or in their own nature absolutely invisible but with respect to the present time as it is restrained in a parallel case and instance of Noah Heb. 11.7 Noah warned of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching things not seen as yet viz. The destruction of the old World by the Flood a thing which they saw and felt to their cost in the season appointed And so the recompence of reward that Moses had respect unto and the promises unto Abraham that he should be the Heir of the World they were things not seen as yet but not in their nature invisible but were seen in their time in bringing Israel into Canaan as an Earnest of the whole world to be given in due time to the seed of the Antypâ—â—â—l Abraham So also the Apostle speaks of this hope that remains still to the People of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we see not yet all things put under him He doth not say we shall never see but implies the contrary nay we have earnest of it in the glory and honour with which our Lord Jesus the head of this mystical body is Crowned Such is the Apostles Argument and such is his sence and so is he to be taken in this your place of the Corinths the things the Apostles lookt unto and comforted themselves in were things not seen as yet for they take not place till the Resurrection and the day of Judgment which I suppose you overlooking or not considering the time of this glorious visible Administration but thinking I took up as perhaps too many do in a corruptible state of things in changes made by men on this side the Resurrection of the Dead hath been a stumbling block that hath turned you out of the way whereas it is not till the Resurrection of the Just that we look for this reward as our Saviour himself determines Luk. 14.14 When the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we that survive shall be changed Now to deny a visible and outward Kingdom and Glory when the bodies of men shall put off Mortality and there shall be an universal change in the whole nature of things in Heaven and Earth and all Creatures and in all Administrations is without any plausible pretence either of Reason or Scripture It must be granted that all along in all times there have been by dispensation certain visible Earnests and foretasts of this recompence serving as Types and Prefigurations for the confirmation of our Faith and Expectation as in Enoch during the times of the Old World in the bringing of Israel out of Egypt in Moses time in the flourishing raign of Solomon c. In the Translation of Elijah in the transfiguration of our Saviour and there have been some rare examples that have pressed farr and bid high for perfection as Paul even for the Resurrection of the Dead to pass by those in every age who put themselves forward in their own spirit which will come to nothing but never any in their mortal flesh attained the full glory of this state but only a little portion of it it being the glory of another time and that which awaits the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints as Enoch the first of these Instances witnesseth in his Prophecy And now Sir I have done with this your second proof and I thank you for bringing it into the field it hath done us more service then you though I hope all is a service to you and you will find and acknowledge it so in the end but I speak with reference to your present cause and engagement you must needs be sensible that your own weapons are turned upon your self for these things that are not seen to which the Apostles and Believers do look have been proved to be the things of the resurrection such as concern the glory of our bodies and the restitution of all things as well as the perfecting of our spirits and to be called things not seen not for the invisibility of their nature but for that the time of their appearing is not yet So that now unless you will say which I know you will not that the putting all things even Death it self in subjection under Christ and his Saints is no part of the Kingdom of God and of Christ you cannot say it is wholly inward and invisible Your third Quotation may
whom God shall bring with his Son at his next appearing and then there were Peter James and John as representing the whole number of Disciples or Surviveing Saints and there was between both these departed and Christ and between Christ and his Disciples familiar converse and discourse in and during that Scene of Glory Now such as the earnest is such must the full payment be in the same Coyn it were a grand Soletism to state a glorious Kingdome of Christ with out Christ appearing in glory in that Kingdom and therefore David in the prophetical view he takes of this day Psal 68.17 Sees the Lord among them as in Sinai in the holy place and the Prophet Micah when he sees by the same spirit the full reduction of Israel sees their King passing before them and Lord on the head of them Mich. 2. last But Secondly how can it be otherwise but that the Lord must appear from Heaven in this glorious state of his Kingdom because of the great the Stupendiously great and ineffable works that are then to be done the ministry and effecting whereof is committed to Christ and to this his glorious appearing so that here is a complex argument the things to be done are singular rare extraordinary effects and they are such as will yeild to no power but that of the Lord Jesus in person as the raising of the dead and the judgment of the quick and dead and the changing of the surviving Saints there is no man in his wits will say these are the works of every time nor of any times but Christ's being reserved to those times for the glory of Christ and of his appearance as it was his voice that shook the earth at the giving of the Law so it is his voice that must now shake Heaven and Earth both Heb. 12. last It is his Voice must raise the dead Joh. 5.28 Not only the Mystical dead in Sins and Trespasses by his mistical or Spiritual voice put forth in the Ministry of the Gospel of which he may be understood to speak ver 25. in manifest difference from his way of speaking here but the dead properly and therefore whereas of the other he had said ver 25. The hour is coming and now is He saith not so of this hour ver 28. that it now is but that it is coming which is meant of his personal voice even as by his personal voice he raised Lazarus This is indeed marvelous in comparison wherewith the other though very marvelous yet hath no marvel in it and therefore out Saviour says marvel not at this yet Christ having said it who shall dare to question it So likewise Christ in person is to be Judge of all men Christ appearing as man in that forementioned 17th of Acts. though this man is God also So also the times of refreshing depend or derive themselves from the presence of the Lord they issue and now from that Bosom Act. 3.19 and that we might not put it off with a spiritual presence the next words shew it is personal and he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you not Christ shall send the comforter but the Father shall send Jesus again whom the Heavens must receive untill the times of the restitution of all things what violence must be offered to these and 20 other Scriptures if we allow not these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things to be not of all times but special times and to come in with the revelation of Christ's glorious person from Heaven therefore he is called in Malachy the Sun of righteousness who with his chearing warming enlivening rayes and influence shall both enlighten and quicken his own dead body first through them all things in their just order I confess they that state the utmost glory of Christs Kingdom to lie in the reformation of the old state of things to a better degree only are not obliged by that their judgment to expect Christ's personal appearance in the work his spiritual appearance or the power of his spirit in the way of Faith having already succeeded in that work and done much and being able to do more but it is not a higher or better degree of what now is that will answer the heart and design of this Love nor the grounded hopes and expectations of the Saints but a new state of things an old thing is but an old thing still be it repaired never so firmly and so is an old state the new state hath a new root and springs up in a new Image But these are but Terms let us attend the thing the Root of this new state is the person of the Lord Jesus called the Lord from Heaven the Lord that spirit that quickening spirit and such as he is such must the state be that is brought forth by him as is the Heavenly such must they then appear to be when he shall appear for he shall then appear in glory in the glory of the Father in the glory of a quickening spirit he is a quickening spirit now and we are now the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear but is hid in God his appearing is when he shall appear in us in changing us we mistake Christ's appearance if we look on it only us an objective appearance as a glorious object that shall affect our natural sences though he is and will then be a most glorious object but if we be not furnished with Spiritual sences to take in his glory we shall be confounded by it as all his enemies on whom he shall let it forth will be but if Christ should do no more but set himself in the eye of his people as a glorious object this were not to appear as a quickening spirit to appear as a quicknening spirit is to appear in a work of transformaâ—ion throughout to the transforming of Soul and body therefore it is said when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is that is we shall see him as a quickening spirit by the power whereof our very Bodies shall be changed and made like unto his glorious body and this he shall do in an instant in the twinkling of an eye for that is the working of a spirit much more of this quickning spirit therefore ir is said his reward is with him and his work before him a quickening spirit carries his own effect in his own efficiency certainty presently at once and in an an instant It works not long and leisurely gradually and successively that is the difference between the present state and that how long are we getting Victory over corruption but no soone shall Christ appear as a quickening spirit but sin shall be so utterly annihilated as if it had never been neither root nor Branch of it left to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex secundo the second time without sin unto salvation But this is