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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29689	A golden key to open hidden treasures, or, Several great points that refer to the saints present blessedness and their future happiness, with the resolution of several important questions here you have also the active and passive obedience of Christ vindicated and improved ... : you have farther eleven serious singular pleas, that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, that speak of the general judgment, and of that particular judgment, that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death ... / by Tho. Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.; Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. Golden key to open hidden treasures. Part 2.	1675 (1675)	Wing B4942; ESTC R20167	340,648	428

A GOLDEN-KEY TO OPEN Hidden Treasures OR Several great Points that refer to the Saints present blessedness and their future happiness with the resolution of several important questions Here you have also The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ vindicated and improved against men of corrupt minds c. Who boldly in Pulpit and Press contend against those glorious Truths of the Gospel You have farther Eleven serious singular Pleas that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament that speak of the general Judgment and of that particular Judgment that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death The Godhead and Manhood of Christ is here largely proved and improved against all Gainsayers by what names and titles soever they are distinguished and known among us Several things concerning Hell and hellish torments opened cleared and improved against all Atheists and all others that boldly assert that there is no Hell but what is in us Some other points of importance are here cleared and opened which other Authors so far as the Author hath read have passed over them in great silence all tending to the confirmation of the strong and support peace comfort settlement and satisfaction of poor weak doubting trembling staggering Christians By Tho. Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets-New-Fish-street LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's-Arms in the Poultrey and at the Ship and Anchor at the Bridg-foot on Southwark side 1675. To his much Honoured and Worthily esteemed Friend Sir NATHANIEL HERNE Kt. Sheriff of London and Governour of the East-India Company Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplyed upon you and yours SIR MUch might be said were it necessary for the Dedication of Books unto persons of worth interest service and honour this having been the constant practise of the best and wisest of men in all the Ages of the world And therefore I need not make any farther Apology for my present practice What is written is permanent litera scripta manet and spreads it self farther by far for time place and persons than the voice can reach Augustine writing to Volusian Aug Epist 1. ad V●●●s saith that which is written is always at hand to be read when the reader is at leysure There are those that think and as they conceive from Scripture grounds too that the glory of the Saints in heaven receives additions and encreases daily as their holy walk and faithful service when here on earth doth after they are gone bring forth fruit to the praise of God amongst those that are left behind them If this be so what greater encouragement can there be to write print preach and to walk holily in this world I must also confess that that general acceptation that my former labours have found both in the Nation and It was a saying of 〈◊〉 concerning his first portraicture I● 〈◊〉 liked I will ●raw 〈◊〉 bei●e 〈…〉 this in forreign parts and that singular blessing that has attended them from on high hath been none of the least encouragements to me once more to cast in my Mite into the common Treasury Besides I am not unsensible of your candid esteem of some forme endeavours of mine in this kind neither do I know any way wherein I am more capacitated to serve the glory of God the interest of Christ the publick good reproached truths and the interest of the Churches in my Generation than this as my case and condition is circumstanced And I am very well satisfied that there is nothing in this Treatise but what tends to the advantage comfort support settlement and encouragement of those whose concernment lies in peace and truth in holiness and righteousness throughout the Nations Sir The points here insisted on are of the greatest use worth weight necessity excellency and utility imaginable they are such wherein our present blessedness and our future happiness yea wherein our very all both as to this and that other world is wrapped up It will be D●u● 30. 15 19. cap. 32. 47. your life honour and happiness to read them digest them experience them and to exemplifie them in a suitable conversation which that you may let your immortal soul lye always open to the warm powerful and hourly influences 2 Cor. 5. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ambitiously labour we count it our highest honour and glory to ●● accepted of God of heaven Let it be the top of your ambition and the height of all your designs to glorifie God to secure your interest in Christ to seve your Generation to provide for Eternity to walk with God to be tender of all that have Aliquid Christi any thing of Christ shining in them and so to steer your course in this world as that you may give Mat. 25. 21. up your account at last with joy All other ambition is base and low Ambition saith one is a guilded misery B●rnard Cardinal Burbon would not lose his part in Paris for his part in Paradise Act. and mon. Fol. 899. a secret poyson a hidden plague the Engineer of deceipt the mother of hypocrisie the parent of envy the original of vices the moth of holiness the blinder of hearts turning medicines into maladies and remedies into diseases In the enthronization of the Pope before he is set in his chair and puts on his triple Crown a piece of tow or wad of straw is set on fire before him and one appointed to say sic transit gloria mundi the glory of this Act 25. 23. world is but a blaze St. Luke calls Agrippa's pomp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a phantasie or vain shew and indeed all worldly pomp and state is but a phantasie or vain shew St. Matthew calls all the world's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 4. 8. an opinion and St. Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mathematical 1 Cor. 7. 31. figure which is a mere notion and nothing in substance The word here used intimateth that there is nothing of any firmness or solid consistency in the creature it is but a surface out-side empty thing all the beauty of it is but skin-deep Mollerus upon that Psal The Roman● built Virtue 's honours Temples close together to shew that the way to true honour was by Virtue Aug. 73. 20. concludeth that men's earthly dignities are but as idle dreams their splendid braveries but lucid fantasies High seats are never but uneasie and Crowns are always stuffed with Thorns which made one say of his Crown Oh Crown more noble than happy shall the spirit of God the grace of God the power of God the presence of God arm you against all other sins evils snares and temptations as you are by a good hand of heaven armed against worldly ambition and worldly glory Sir you know he was a Saul that said honour me before 1 Sam. 15 30. 2 King 10 16. the people and he

when Angels Devils Men shall stand before the Lord Jesus whom God the Father hath ordained to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Act. 17. 31. Now to this great Question I Answer that the sins of the Saints the infirmities and enormities of Believers shall never be brought into the Judgment of discussion and discovery they shall never be objected against them either in their particular day of Judgment or in the great day of their Account Now this truth I shall make good by an induction of particulars thus First Our Lord Jesus Christ in His judicial proceedings in the last day which is set down clearly and largely in Math. 25. 34. to ver 42. doth only enumerate the good works they have done but takes not the least notice of the spots and blemishes of the infirmities or enormities Deut. 32. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24. of the weaknesses or wickednesses of his people God has sealed up the sins of his people never to be remembred or lookt upon more In the great day the book of Gods Remembrance shall be opened and publickly read that all the good things that the Saints have done for God for Christ for Saints for their own Souls for Sinners and that all the great things that they have suffered for Christ's sake and the Gospels sake may be mentioned to their everlasting praise to their eternal honour And though the choicest and chiefest Saints on Rom 7. 23 24. Gal. 5. 17. Earth have 1. Sin dwelling in them 2. Operating and working in them 3. Vexing and molesting of them being as so many Goads in their sides and Thorns in their eyes 4. Captivating and prevailing over them yet in that large Recital which shall then be read of the Saints lives Math. 25. There is not the least mention made either of sins of Omission or Commission nor the least mention made either of great sins or of small sins nor the least mention made either of sins before Conversion or after Conversion Here in this world the best of Saints have had their buts their spots their blots their specks as the fairest day hath its Clouds the finest Linnen its spots and the richest Jewels their specks but now in the judicial process of this last and universal Assizes there is not found in all the Books that shall then be opened so much as one unsavory but to blemish the Rev. 20. 12. Dan. 7. 10. Num. 23. 21. fair Characters of the Saints Surely he that sees no Iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel to impute it to them whilst they live he will never charge Iniquity or perverseness upon them in the great day Surely he who has fully satisfied his Fathers Justice for his peoples sins and who hath by his own Blood ballanced and made Isa 53. up all Reckonings and Accounts between God and their souls he will never charge upon them their faults and follies in the great day Surely he who hath spoken so much for his Saints whilst he was on Earth and who hath continually interceded for them since he went to John 17. Heb. 7. 25. Heaven he won't though he hath cause to blame them for many things speak any thing against them in the great day Surely Jesus Christ the Saints Pay-master Heb. 10. 10 12 14. Matth. 18. 24. Col. 2 14. who hath discharged their whole debt at once who hath paid down upon the nayl the ten thousand Talents which we owed and took in the Bond and nailed it to the Cross leaving no back-reckonings unpaid to bring his poor Children which are the travail of his soul afterward Isa 53. 11. into any danger from the hands of Divine Justice he will never mention the sins of his people he will never charge the sins of his people upon them in the great day Our dear Lord Jesus who is the Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth in the great day of account He will bring in Omnia bene in his presentment all fair and well and accordingly will make Proclamation in that High-Court of Justice before God Angels Devils Saints and Sinners c. Christ will not charge his Children with the least unkindness he will not charge his Spouse with the least unfaithfulness in the great day yea he will represent them before God Angels and Men as compleat in him as all fair and spotless as without spot or wrinkle as without fault before the Throne of God as holy and Col. 2. 10. Cant. 4. 7. Ephe. 5. ●7 Rev. 14 5. unblameable and unreproveable in his sight as immaculate as the Angels themselves who kept their first Estate This honour shall have all the Saints and thus shall Christ be glorified in his Saints and admired in all 1 Th●s 2. 10 them that believe The greatest part of the Saints by far will have past their particular judgment long before Heb 9. 27. the general judgment and being therein acquitted and discharged from all their sins by God the Judge of the quick and dead and admitted into Heaven upon the credit 2 Tim. 4. 1. of Christs Blood Righteous satisfaction and their free and full justification It cannot be imagined that Jesus Christ in the great day will bring in any new charge against his Children when they have been cleared and absolved already Certainly when once the Saints are freely and fully Absolved from all their sins by a Divine Sentence then their sins shall never be remembred they shall never be objected against them any more For one Divine Sentence cannot cross and rescind another the Judge of all the world had long since cast all their sins behind his back and will he now set them before his face Isa 38. 17. and before the faces of all the world surely no he has long since cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea bottomless depths of everlasting Oblivion that they might Micah 7. 19. never be buoyed up any more He has not only forgiven their sins but he has also forgotten their sins And Jer. 31. 34. will he remember them and declare them in the great day surely no God has long since blotted out the transgressions Isa 43. 25. of his people This Metaphor is taken from Creditors who when they purpose never to exact a Debt will blot it out of their Books Now after that a Debt is strucken out of a Bill Bond or Book it cannot be exacted the Evidence cannot be pleaded Christ Col. 2. 14. having crost the debt-Book with the red lines of his Blood If now he should call the sins of his people to remembrance and charge them upon them he should cross the great design of his cross Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that any sin that the least sin yea that the least circumstance of sin or the least aggravation of sin should be so much as mentioned by the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth in the process of that

do not 4. Psal 37. 1 2. Psal 73. 21. Prov. 3. 31. Psal 9. 17. envy the prosperity and flourishing estate and condition of wicked and ungodly men for God has given it under his hand that they shall be turned into Hell The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God 'T was a wise saying of Marius to those that envy great men their honour let them saith he envy them their burdens I have read a story of a Roman who was by a Court-marshal condemned to die for breaking his rank to steal a bunch of Grapes and as he was going to execution some of the souldiers envied him that he had Grapes and they had none saith he do you envy me my Grapes I must pay dear for them Ah sirs do not envy wicked mens grapes do not envy their riches their honours their greatness their offices their dignities for they shall one day pay dear for these things high seats to many are uneasie and the down fall terrible How art Isa 14. 12. thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning 't is spoken of the Chaldean Monarch who though high yet had a suddain change befel hm It is not a matter of so great joy to have been high and honourable as it is of grief anguish and vexation to be afterwards despicable and contemptible Come down and sit in the dust Babylon Isa 47. 1. was the Lady of Kingdoms but saith God sit in the dust Take the mill-stones and grind The Lord of hosts ●ers 2. ●sa 23. 9. hath purposed it to stain Heb. to pollute the pride of al glory and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth He shall bring down their pride together Wo to the Isa 25. 11. ●sa 28. 1. vers 3. crown of pride the crown of pride shall be trodden under feet God will bring down the Crown of pride to the dust to ashes yea to hell and therefore do not envy the Crown of pride Croesus was so puffed up with his Crown of pride with his great riches and worldly glory that he boasted himself to be the happiest man that lived But Solon told him that no man was to be accounted happy before death Croesus little regarded what Solon had said unto him until he came by miserable experience to find the uncertainty of his riches and all worldly glory which before he would not believe For when he was taken by King Cyrus and condemned to be burned and saw the fire preparing for him then he cried out O Solon Solon Cyrus asking him the cause of the outcry he answered that now he remembred what Solon had told him in his prosperity Nemo ante obitum foelix that no man was to be accounted happy before death Who can summ up those Crowns of pride that in Scripture and History God has brought down to the dust yea to the dunghil Have not some wished when they have been breathing out their last that they had never been Kings nor Queens nor Lords nor Ladies c. Where is there one of ten thousand who is advanced and thereby any thing bettered Solus Imperatorum Vespasianus ●n melius mutatus Few men believe what vexations lie under the pillows of Princes You look upon my Crown and my Purple Robes saith Artaxerxes but did you know how they were lined with thorns you would not stoop to take them up Damocles highly extolled Dionysius his condition Dionysius to convince him of his mistake provides a royal feast invites him to it commands his servants to attend him no meat no mirth no musick is wanting but withal caused a sharp sword to be hung over his head by an horse hair which made Damocles tremble and to forbear both meat and mirth Such even such saith Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant is my life which thou deemest so pleasant and happy O sirs there is a sword of wrath which hangs over every sinners head even when he is surrounded with all the gay and gallant things of this world Outward prosperity is commonly given in wrath as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margin Hos 13. 11. Psal 73. Psal 78. 30 31. Prov. 1. 32. Luk. 12. 16. to the 22. Eccl●s 5. 12 13. together Prosperity kills and damns more than adversity The Germans have this proverb That the pavement of Hell is made of the glorious Crests of Gallants It had been infinitely better for the great men of this world that they had never been so great for their horrid abuse of God's mercy and bounty will but encrease their misery and damnation at last That Ancient hit it who said because they have tasted so liberally of God's kindness Augustine and have imployed it only against God's glory their felicity shall be short but their misery shall be endless and therefore to see the wicked prosper and flourish in this The whole Turkish Empire is nothing else but a crust cast by our Father to his dogs and it is all they are likely to have let them make them merry with it said Luther world is matter rather of pity than envy 't is all the heaven they must have These are as terrible Texts as any in the whole book of God Mat. 6. 2. Verily I say unto you they have their reward Luk. 6. 24. Wo to you that are rich for you have received your consolation James 5. 1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankred and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Gregory being advanced to places of great preferment professed that there was no Scripture that went so near his heart and that struck such a trembling into his spirit as that speech of Abraham to Dives Luk. 16. 25. Son remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things They that have their heaven here are in danger to miss it hereafter It is not God's usual way saith one to remove a deliciis ad delicias from delights J●rom to delights to bestow two Heavens one here and another hereafter and doubtless hence it was that David made it his solemn prayer Deliver me from the wicked from men of the world which have their portion in this life Psal 17. 14. and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure It is a very hard thing to have earth and heaven too God did not turn man out of one Paradise that he should here provide himself of another Many men with the Prodigal cry out give me the portion that belongs to me give Luk. 15. 12. me riches and give me honour and give me preferment c. and God gives them their desires but 't is with a vengeance As the Israelites had Quails to choke them and afterwards a King to

vers 12. Yea surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment It would be high injustice in a magistrate to punish the same offence twice and it would be high blasphemy for any to assert that ever God should be guilty of such injustice Whilst Christians set up a righteousness of their own and build not upon the Rom. 10. 3. righteousness of Christ how unsetled are they how miserably are they tossed up and down sometimes fearing and sometimes hoping sometimes supposing themselves in a good condition and anon seeing themselves upon the very brink of hell but now all is quiet and serene with that soul that builds upon the righteousness of Christ for he being justified by faith hath peace with God observe Rom. 5. 1. that noble description of Christ in that Isa 32. 2. And a man that is the man Christ Jesus shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land When a man is clothed with the righteousness of Christ who is God man it is neither wind nor tempest it is neither drought nor weariness that can disturb the peace of his soul for Christ and his righteousness will be a hiding place a cover and rivers of water and the shadow of a great rock unto him for being at perfect peace with God he may well say with the Psalmist Isa 26. 3. Psal 4. 6 7 8. I will lay me down in peace The peace and comfort of an awakened sinner can never stand firm and stable but upon the Basis of a positive righteousness When a sensible sinner casts his eye upon his own righteousness holiness fastings prayers tears humblings meltings he can find no place for the sole of his foot to rest firmly upon by reason of the spots and blots and blemishes that cleaves both to his graces and duties He knows that his prayers need pardon and that his tears need washing in the blood of the Lamb and that his very righteousness needs another's righteousness to secure him from condemnation If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 130. 3. Psal 1. 5. that is rectus in curia stand that is in judgment Extremity of justice he deprecateth he would not be dealt with in rigour and rage The best man's life is fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars or the furnace of sparks and therefore who can stand in judgment and not fall under the weight of thy just wrath which burneth as low as hell it self i. e. none can stand were the faults of the best man alive but written in his forehead he was never able to stand in judgment when a man comes to the Law for Justification it convinceth him of sin when he pleads his innocence that he is not so great a sinner as others are when he pleds his righteousness his duties his good meanings and his good desires the Law tells him that they are all weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary and found Dau. 5. 27. too light the Law tells him that the best of his duties will not save him and that the least of his sins will damn him the Law tells him that his own righteousnesses are as filthy rags do but defile him and that his best services do but witness against him The Law looks for perfect and personal obedience and because the sinner cannot come up to it it pronounceth him accursed and though the Gal. 3. 10. sinner sues hard for mercy yet the Law will shew him none no though he seeks it carefully with tears but Heb. 12. 17. now when the believing sinner casts his eye upon the righteousness of Christ he sees that righteousness to be a perfect and exact righteousness as perfect and exact as that of the Law yea it is the very righteousness of the Law though not performed by him yet by his surety the Lord his righteousness and upon this foundation he stands firm and rejoyces with joy unspeakable and full of glory The Saints of old have always placed their happiness peace and comfort in their perfect and compleat Justification rather than in their imperfect and incompleat sanctification as you may see by the Scriptures in the margent with Jer. 23. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Luk. 7. 48 50. Rom. 4. 6 8. cap. 5. 1 3. Isa 38. 16 17. cap. 45. 24 25. Phil. 4. 7. many others that are scattered up and down in the blessed book of God That text is worthy to be written in letters of Gold Isa 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord saith the sound believer my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation He hath imputed and given unto me the perfect holiness and obedience of my blessed Saviour and made it mine he hath covered me all over from top to toe with the robe of righteousness as a bride groom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth her self with her jewels Though a Christian's inherent righteousness be weak and imperfect ●maimed and stained blotted and blurred as it is yet it affords much comfort peace joy and rejoycing 1 Chron. 29. 9. J●b 27. 4 5 6. Neh. 13. 14 22 31. Isa 38. 3. Prov. 21. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 1 Pet. 3. 3. 4. cap. 5. 4. as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the Margent together Job was much taken with his inherent righteousness Job 29. 14. I put on righteousness and it cloathed me my judgment was as a robe and a diadem unto me Look as sober modest comely apparel doth much set forth and adorn the body in the eyes of men so doth inherent grace inherent holiness inherent righteousness when it sparkles in the faces lips lives and good works of the Saints much more beautifie and adorn them in the eyes both of God and man Now if this garment of inherent righteousness that hath so many spots and rents in it will adorn us and joy us so much what a beauty and glory is that which the Lord our God hath put upon us in clothing us with the robe of his son's righteousness for by this means we shall recover more by Christ than we lost by Adam the robe of righteousness which we have gotten by Christ the second Adam is far more glorious than that which we were deprived of by the first Adam But Seventhly Then know for your comfort that you 7. Gal. 6. 14. have the highest reason in the world to rejoyce and triumph in Christ Jesus Phil. 3. 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus we rejoyce in the person of Christ and we rejoyce in the righteousness of Christ 2 Cor. 2. 14. Now thanks be to God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ Deo gratias was ever in Paul ●s