clap on the wound of conviction of sin in the promise of the seed of the woman that should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 Lest the wound should take cold fester and by delay prove incurable all the Promises in Scripture they are but so many Receipts written down beforehand in the Book of the great Physitian of souls for the use of all Gods Family the Saints of God from the beginning of the world there are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises i. e. concerning exceeding great and precious things 1 Pet. 1.4 and they are all yea and Amen in Jesus Christ verity and infallibility Thither therefore let all Gods Patients go and search and read and take whatever Receipt suiteth best with their Malady and they shall rightly applied find present ease and infallible cure in the constant and believing use thereof For whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Gods compassions over his mourners are great and therefore his consolations are not small Though God would have his people deeply humbled and tried to the quick yet he would not have their spirits sink under the temptation and therefore when he observes them to begin to faint he ceaseth contending with them and begins his comforting work for the iniquity of his covetousness Isa 57.18 I smote him and was wrath but when God saw that would do no good he trieth another course I will restore comforts to him Just as when a Parent is correcting a Child and the Child cryes and swoons presently away goes the rod and the strong-water-bottle is snatcht up and applied to the mouth of the Child so compassionately dealeth God with his fainting Children It is a wonderful expression which God useth towards Ephraim Jer. 31.20 My bowels are troubled for him Ephraim saith I smote upon my thigh and presently God smites upon his heart and cryes out My bowels are troubled for him I will have mercy upon him O ineffable sympathy answerable whereunto God hath a cup of consolation prepared in his hand which he putteth to their mouths and bids drink yea drink abundantly of it till they forget their sorrows even that overflowing cup Fulness of joy and pleasures for ever at his right hand Ever with the Lord. Psal 103.13 Surely as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him and such compassions would he have to fill the bowels of all his Evangelical Messengers Isa 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith their God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem c. Thus doth God fill up his Title brim-full and running over The Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort In the fourth place 4. Branch of Information here you may see the absolute and indispensable necessity of faith without which all the choicest consolations and richest cordials the Word can afford are but so much water of life in a dead mans mouth or as Elisha's Staffe upon the face of the dead Child â— King 4. which causeth neither voice nor motion Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith an unbelieving man is but a dead man for as faith is the first principle of spiritual life so it is the constant medium whereby the spiritual fewel and restoratives of that life are brought in and made vital to the soul The life I now live in the flesh I live it by the faith of the Son of God Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed but it is to faith only it is not meat indeed if there be not faith indeed He that cometh to me shall never hunger What 's that He that believeth on me shall never thirst The Word of God is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 but it is to them only who believe God hath provided a cup of consolation for his fainting people in their swooning fits but it is the hand of faith that must take it and the mouth of faith only that can drink it The unbeliever is an unhappy man nothing can do him good Heb. 4.2 The word doth not profit not being mixt with faith The body and blood of Christ proves poyson instead of divine nutriment because it is not received by faith This is the will of him that sent me saith our Lord that he that believeth on me may have everlasting life Divine Cordials so magisterial that they are able as it were to put life into a dead man give them to an unbeliever they signifie no more than water in the shooes Oh get faith Saints act your faith or else ye are undone Great notions are but small comforts to a natural man and the reason is because they are above him nothing can act above its principle you can never comfort a Swine with arguments of reason no more can ye comfort a carnal heart with heavenly consolations the reason is Quiequid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientu because both are above the constitutive principles of either Divine notions may serve a man without faith to discourse by but they will never serve him to live by reason may discourse upon them but faith must live upon them The life I now live I live by the faith c. Therefore doth the Apostle there put the cup of consolation into the hand of faith ver 14. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again c. There is an inexhaustible fulness of comfort in Christ and in the Promises but not one drop to be drawn forth without faith The breasts of Scripture-consolation are full they even drop again but it is the mouth of faith that must suck them out the still-born Child may as well-draw the Mothers dug as a faithless Christian make the teats of Scripture to afford any drop of divine influence to his drooping soul but to the believer it is cried at least by way of accommodation Suck ye Isa 66.11 12. and be satisfied with the breasts of consolation milk out and be delighted with the abundance of glory A man may as well live and laugh without a soul as have true evangelical comfort without faith which is the bond of union between Christ and the Soul and so being united to the fountain 1 Pet. 1.18 Believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious This is that golden pipe through which all the golden oyl of grace and comfort is derived into the heart Zech. 4.12 The men of the world may have vast proportions of knowledge both natural and divine but meer knowledge is light without heat but faith warms the heart as they said one to another Did not our hearts burn within us when he spake unto us If I assent and consent to the glorious Doctrine of the Resurrection knowing with Job that my Redeemer liveth c. I can in that triumph over all occurrent
conjecture that we should not too soon forget the Affliction and the Misery the Wormwood and the Gall but that our Souls having them continually in remembrance might be humbled in us Lam. 3.19 20. Possibly that the Children being every way alike both in Person and in Disposition one and the same Plaister might give ease and cure to the wound and one and the same Monument perpetuate their Memorial unto Posterity Truly they were a pair of lovely Babes Babes in Age though men in knowledg and understanding of whom we may in their Capacity sing as David once in his Funeral Elegies of Saul and Jonathan They were pleasant in their lives in their death they were not divided Their lives indeed were short so it seemed good to the Divine Wisdome after He had shewed two such excellent pieces in the Light for a while timely to lay them up amongst his Jewels lest they should receive hurt or stain from a present evil world But although their lives were short yet verily they were precious such as allowing them this Abatement that they were Children neither Parents nor Standers-by could rationally have wished they had been otherwise then they were And though there were some distance of years yet there was the greatest parity of Persons observed between them that though they were but the Brother 's and Sister 's Sons you could not had they been together have distinguished them from natural Brethren or Tynnes rather of the same Birth For Elegancy of Person Loveliness of Countenance Solidness of Judgment Acuteness of Wit Tenaciousness of Memory Sweetness of Disposition Vniversal Innocence and Modesty in behaviour Obedience to Parents Next or Remote Submission to Governours Observance to Superiours Love to Equals Condescention to Inferiours and candor to all And that which deservedly is of higher value with God Reverend Attention to his Word Read or Preached together with some suitable ability to give a methodical repetition of both Studious in learning Catechisms of which they were able to give such a rational account as if they had been Candidates for the Vniversity as many both of the Nobility and others in the Parish of Giles 's in the Fields can at this day witness Love to the best things and a due respect to the best men with a more then a Childish dislike of and adversness to what they understood to be evil c. These Desirablenesses according to yea and above the rate of Children rendered them so like one another as if one Soul had animated two bodies or one and the same Conception had been formed up into two Patterns though reserved to be seen successively to the end as it were that the Elder might out-live himself in the Younger Aut Utrumque putabis esse verum aut Utrumque putabis esse pictum You would have deemed them to be either the same Person or two Pictures one the Original the other a Copy Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat He that had seen one might have known them both And as they were alike in their Lives so in their Death they were not divided or if a little in time not at all in the manner and Circumstances They both Lived with us but died with you they lived with the Divine but died with the Physitian to shew that neither Religion doth kill nor Physick can keep alive Nevertheless though they died with you they came not to dye any further than the hidden Decree of the Divine will had before determined They died alive as it were Death gave them so little warning Neither Parents or Children understood wherefore they came until within a very few days Death shewed his Commission and as soon Executed it They died both of them in the absence of their Trustees who though one step higher in the Parental line were not I am sure half a step lower in Parental affection which the Divine eye Saw and pittied and therefore out of Compassion hiding from us what he was about to do As he snatched us from the Elder by sending us abroad So He snatched the Younger from us by sending him Home to his Fathers House So pittying our Infirmity who otherwise possibly might not have parted with them so willingly nor have born their loss so patiently The loss of two such choyce Patterns of Divine workmanship could not but have been an heart-breaking object to us as it was to you but that their constant absence from you was a preparative whereby the terrour of death was somthing abated their very absence so long before was a little death That which sweetneth it to us all is that God hath not left us to mourn as men without hope that in the Context before us The Children are not dead but sleep they sleep in Jesus If any Stander-by shall judg possibly that my affection hath transported my Charity into their excess my Apology is this that I had rather be guilty of an Excess in Charity than a Defect in thankfulness I know we cannot expect such rational accounts of Grace in Children as may be found in Adult Saints but that that doxologie out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordeined strength Psal 8.2 doth not exclude Children though not confine the meaning of the words so narrow is the judgment of the old St. Ignatius who from those Scripture instances of Samuel Josiah and others denieth not but that the Spirit of God working in young ones doth many times give out early discoveries of the Grace of the Covenant when Elder Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Magn. do only carry their Gray-haires as a badg of their Ingratitude to God As for your dear Children God hath not left himself without fuâ—ther witness in their death of an interest in them Those heavenly whispers which the tender Aunt laying her ear to the pale lips of her dying Nephew as he lay upon his back with eyes fixed Heaven-ward when he wanted strength to make his heart audible God Christ Grace c. And her own dear Childs delight in that little Book A Guide to Heaven a book little in bulk but great in Excellency which as it caused him to make it his Vade Mecum while he lived his Golden Cup out of which he drank his Mornings draught every morning in his Bed So it caused him to take it with him as his Viaticum to Heaven when he came to dye For it was found with him when dead These I say are overplusses of Divine Grace and witnesses of Divine Love to those dying Babes from their Heavenly Father Wherefore Dear Children let not the Consolations of God seem small unto you but improve them for your own Comfort and quickning in the holy Education of the surviving Treasures of your Blood that if they live you may have comfort in their Lives or if they dye you may have hope in their Deaths Be steadfast and immoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord for as
shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds every one walking in their uprightness Death is nothing else but a Writ of ease to the poor weary Servants of Christ a total Cessation from all their labour of nature sin and affliction Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours c. While the Souls of the Saints do Rest in Abrahams Bosome their bodies do sweetly sleep in their Beds of dust as in a safe and Consecrated Dormitory Thus Death is but a sleep Secondly And then again as they that sleep in the night do awake in the morning so shall the Saints of God do This heaviness may endure for a night this night of mortality but joy cometh in the morning In the morning of the Resurrection they shall awake again Psal 17.15 it will not be an everlasting night an endless sleep but as sure as we awake in the morning when we have slept comfortably all night so sure shall the Saints then awake and shall stand upon their feet and we shall behold them again with exceeding joy Oh Blessed morning How should we long and wait for that morning more than they that watch for the dawning of the day It is an errour in Philosophy to call Death a total privation of the habit Divinity hath corrected that errour while it hath taught us to call the dissolution of Nature in the Saints at the most but a sleep Mors ista quam adeò perhorrescimus adeò timemus non est exitus sed transitus veni et eterum qui nos in lucem reponat dies Sen. which in the Philosophers own notion is but a partial privation and doth admit of a Regress or returning again to the habit or former state and capacity more beautiful active and vigorous than ever as hereafter shall appear A comfortable notion which were it realized by Believing would be able to silence our complaints and to still all our moan-makings over our departed Christian friends and Relations how sweet and precious soever they have been to us For do we indeed take on so when any of the Family are gon to Bed before us in the Evening Do we indeed cry out woe and alas my Father is fallen asleep my Mother is laid to Rest my dear Yoak-fellow is gone to bed before me my sweet Child the delight of mine eyes the joy of my heart his eyes are closed the Curtains drawn close about him and I cannot awake him Do we I say thus take on and afflict our selves in this case no surely he would be accounted little better than a Mad-man or a Fool that should do so Oh fie then fie for shame why do we so here the case is the same only if the night be a little longer which yet no man can determine before hand the morning will be infinitely more joyous and make us more abundant compensation for our patience and expectation why are we so unlike our selves in one and in the other Surely because we either forget our notions or believe them not we call the absence of our Friends by a wrong name We say my Father is dead my Mother is dead my Isaack is dead my dear Yoak-Fellow is not and these be killing words Dead the Letter killeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the most terrible of all terrible things the very name of it strikes a chilness and coldness into our hearts enough to kill us before our time for even worldly sorrow many times causeth death Call we then things as God calls them make we use of the notions which God hath suggested to us say we my Parent is gone to bed my Yoak-Fellow is at Rest my beloved Babe is fallen asleep * So also in Scripture is death tearmed a departure 2 Tim. 4.6 an absence from the body a going from home an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5 4.8 Job 15.11 An entring into peace a going to rest Isa 57.2 and behold the terrour of death will cease If God hath cloathed this horrid thing Death with softer notions for our comfort let not the Consolations of the Almighty be a small thing with us Oh how comfortable lives might we live had we but the right notions of things and Faith to realize them Our Friends are not dead but sleep Comfort one another with this Word The second Consolatory Argument is The hopeful condition of these our sleeping Relations 2d Word of Comfort Blessed be God we are not without hope of their happiness even while they thus sleep There be indeed that dye and neither carry away any hope with them nor leave any hope behind them to thâ—â— surviving Relations but the Righteous hath hope in his 〈◊〉 Prov. 14.23 when our gratious Relations dye we nâ—â—â—â—â—se the word sometimes that we may be understood there is hope They are infinite gainers by their death Sometimes they dye full of hope in their own sense Job 19.25 26 27. I know saith Jâ—b that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worme destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God c. Oh Blessed hopeâ— And thus holy Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Glorious Triumph And thus again we may find him in his own name and in the name of other of his Brethren and Companions in Tribulation and in the Kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ marching out of the field of this world in a Victorious manner with Colours flying and Drums beating and thus insulting over Death as a Conqueror 1 Cor. 15.56.57 Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus 2 Pet. 1.11 An abundant entrance is administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Oh the superabundant Consolation of the Heires of promise And if any of the Saints of God at any time their Sun have set under a Cloud so that they are not able to express their own hopes yet they leave behind them sollid Scripture evidences of God's everlasting Electing Love and of their effectual vocation out of the world into the Kingdome and Fellowship of his dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord Evidences of saving vocation Gal. 5.22 23. such as are The Fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Their Poverty of Spirit Holy Mourning For Their own and Other mens Sins Math. 5.3 Their hungering and thirsting after Righteousness 6. v. 8. Their purity of heart visible in the holiness of their lives Their peaceable and peace-making dispositions 9.10 11
12. Ch. 5.8 Their patient bearing of the Cross Their keeping of the word of God in the precepts of it and keeping close to it in the Truth of it Their superlative Love to Christ Math. 10.37 Their Cordial Love to the Saints 1 Jo. 3.14 Their Contempt of the World 1 Jo. 2.15 Their Love of Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 In a word Their conformity to Christ their Head Rom. 8.29 These and the like Divine Vertues although not seldome more visible to a judicious stander by than to themselves and not to be weighed but with some graines of allowance in the ballance of the Sanctuary these I say may administer abundant matter of hope and rejoycing to surviving Friends that those Relations which are fallen asleep were a people whom God hath set apart for himself pretious in his sight honourable and beloved of him a people formed for himself to shew forth his praise Col s 1.13 and made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Yea even in them whose Sun goes down in the morning of their Youth A teachable Spirit Math. 13.16 Isa 28.9 71 Psal 5. Jo. 16.8 1 John 2.13 John 17.3 Pious Inclinations Sense of a lost Estate by Nature A Competent knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in his Offices A real sense of the need and use of Christ 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Tim. 3.15 Ps 119.13 An early acquaintance with the Scriptures A good understanding of the Word Preached not without some savour of it Respects to Gods Sabbaths And in a word 1 Kings 14.13 Any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel These early Impressions I say where ever they are found though according to different ages and capacities more or less legible in them are so many hopeful Indiciums that God hath been at work upon their hearts betimes and that he doth not untimely take them away in judgment but are polished Jewels which he hath of special grace laid up and secured from the violence and prophanation of a reprobate world Nay once more Those very Babes and Sucklings whom God is pleased to remove from us very early snatched from their Mothers Breasts yea possibly who pass swiftly from the Womb of their Natural Mother unto the belly of the Earth their Original Mother even these I say they being A Covenant seed Appendices of their believing Parents Children of promise Act. 2.39 Consecrated unto God by their Baptisme or by the Tears and Prayers of their holy Parents in the want of it having a right to the mercies 1 Cor. 7.14 Rom. 9.11 Mar. 10.4 Luk. 1.44 Gal. 1.15 Renatiante quam nati Aug. priviledges of the Covenant as well as to Baptisme Among whom is dispersed God the Father's Election God the Son's purchase God the Holy Ghost's Influence and Operation Even these are not to be looked upon as a lost Generation but may in the warrantable judgment of Scripture Charity be hopefully reputed for an Holy Seed Gods adopted Children owned by Christ and in him heires co-heires of the Kingdome of Heaven by special prerogative advanced to their Inheritance as it were before their time Upon this Foundation stands our hope concerning our Godly Relations which are fallen asleep of what age or state soever we are not to mourn for them even as others which have no hope Let them mourn excessively who know not the Scriptures nor the power of God in raising the Dead who bury their Relations and their hopes together in one Grave but you that upon these Scripture evidences have good hope through grace concerning your deceased Friends that while you are mourning on Earth they are rejoycing in Heaven that whiles you are Cloathed with black they are Cloathed in white even in the long white Robes of Christs Righteousness while you are rooling your selves in the Dunghil they are sitting with Christ upon his Throne Do not I beseech you profane your Scriptural hope with an unscriptural mourning give not the world occasion to judge either your selves to live without Faith or your Relations to dye without hope but let your Christian moderation be known to all men that it may be a visible Testimony to all the world of God's grace in them and of your hopes of their glory with God Therefore comfort one another with this word also A third word of comfort followeth and that is A third word of Comfort Our gratious Relations are not alone in their Death The Captain of their Salvation did march before them through those black Regions of Death and the Grave Jesus died this is implied in the following words If we believe that Jesus died This is a third consolatory Argument and it carryeth in it strong consolation Our sweet Relations in dying run no other hazard than Abraham Isaac and Jacob did no other hazard than all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles did in their generations they all died and were resolved into their first dust Yea what shall I say They run no other hazard than the Lord of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles did Jesus died this is wonderful indeed the Lord of Life died The eternal Son of God was laid in the Grave If our Children die we know we begot them mortal The Son of God had no principle of mortality in him * i.e. No sin in him to deserve it nor disease to cause it and yet he died Be our Children never so precious to us they cannot be so pretious to us God forbid they should as the Lord Jesus was to His Father who testifies concerning him from Heaven with a loud voyce This is my well-beloved Son Math. 3.17 in whom my Soul is well pleased And yet God gave up this well beloved of his Soul to the death Jesus died And we indeed justly Death is but our wages wages as truly earned as ever was a penny by the poor hireling for his days labour both we and our Off-spring have forfeited our lives over and over again by continual reiterated Treasons against the supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth yea the best blood which runs in our veins is Traytors blood by succession from our first Rebellious Parents for which God might justly have executed the sentence at first imposed even as soon as ever we draw our first breath Thou shalt dye the death Gen. 3. But He what evil had he done He was holy harmless undefiled Heb. 7.26 Isa 53.61.71 Heb. Ho hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him separate from sinners He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth He fulfilled all Righteousness and yet Jesus dyed And why so Surely he was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed we all like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity
of us all Jesus Christ was the Center in whom the sins of all the Elect of God did meet and unite together to make Him as it were the common sinner For God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him and under the insupportable burthen of our sin he swet and wept and bled and groaned and gave up the Ghost Behold Rom. 8.31 So God the Father Loved us that he spared not his own Son but delivered him up to the death for us all and shall we think much to give up the dearest Treasures of our blood in death to Him So much did God the Son love us that He died for love of us he died the first death that we might not die the second death he died for us that we might live with him And shall we count our lives or the lives of our dearest Relations too dear for him especially when no such advantage can accrue to the Lord Jesus by our death as did accrue to us by his death also in as much as neither we nor ours are in any capacity to reap the fruit and advantage of his death until we dye also and the sooner we dye the sooner shall we reap those fruits Behold God's First-borne was laid in the Sepulchre and shall we think God deals hardly with us if we follow our first-born to the Grave and leave them there till our Lord himself come to awaken them Especially since therefore Jesus died and was buried that he might sanctifie death to us by his death and by his being buried might perfume the Grave and make it a sweet Dormitory or bed of spices for his members to rest in until the Morning of the Resurrection Oh Christians Let us comfort our selves and one another with these words also Jesus dyed The fourth word is yet more Cordial A fourth word of Comfort and that is although Jesus dyed yet He rose again He died indeed but he rose again from the dead God suffered his dear Son to be laid in the Sepulchre but he did not leave him there nor suffer any taint of Corruption to seize upon his precious Body And to that end Christ made hast to rise again out of the Grave he rose the third day and that very early in the Morning saith the Text as soon as ever it could be called day The Alarm no sooner went off as it were but the Lord Jesus did lift up his Royal head and put on his Glorious Apparel and came forth out of his Grave as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber in State and Triumph And this was the Cordial which our Lord himself took before his passion Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell Psal 16.10 neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth c. This was his Triumphant Song And it may be ours as well as his yea therefore ours because his whether in reference to our selves or to our gratious Relations For therefore was not Christ left in Hell i. e. in the state of the dead that he might lift up us also out of the pit and therefore his body saw i. e. sustained no corruption or putrefaction no not for the least particle of time that our mortal bodies might not inherit Rottenness and Oblivion in the dust for ever And indeed in this phrase in the Text Jesus arose again there be three things implied which interest every believer in this Triumph of Christs Resurrection c. Jesus rose again implieth three things First Power Secondly Right Thirdly Office First 1st Power 〈◊〉 Jesus Rose again it implieth Christs power Viz. That Jesus Christ rose by his own power It is not said Jesus was raised which might have spoken Him passive onely in his Resurrection but Jesus rose which speaketh Him active namely that he rose as a Conquerour by his own strength as Himself professeth I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again Joh 10.18 What power that was Rom. 1.4 will tell us declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead It is true it is elsewhere said that Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 And likewise that he was quickned by the Spirit Pet. 3.18 To shew that neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost were excluded from a joynt share and concurrence in his Resurrection but here as elsewhere it is said also that Christ rose to shew that he was not merely passive in his Resurrection as the Children of the Resurrection are but that he rose also by the mighty power that was seated in his own Royal person The divine Nature in Christ to which the humane nature was personally united Alteram Christi naturam intelligamus nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbi incarnati potentiâ was that Spirit of Holiness by which the Lord Jesus did rise Triumphantly from the dead In the same language speaks another Apostle he was put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit i.e. by the Divine essence which was in Christ Death and the Grave had swallowed a morsel which they could not keep but as the Whale when it had swallowed Jonas in this the Type of Christ was forced to vomit him up again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being impossible Christ should be holden by death The power of the word incarnate loosed or dissolved the bonds of Death as a thread of Tow is broken when it is touched with the fire Yea Sampson-like herein also another type of his Jesus Christ did break in sunder the bars of the Grave and carried away the Gates of death upon his shoulders making a shew of them openly Thus Jesus rose again as a Conquerour by his own power and this is our Triumph and Rejoycing For surely He that thus raised up himself can raise up us also and will indeed raise us up by the same power Phil 3 21. whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself Secondly Jesus rose again it implieth his Office Second Office he rose as a Jesus a Saviour the Mediator of our peace who having finished the work he came about namely to satisfie divine Justice and to bring in everlasting Rightcousness so making peace by the blood of his Cross God the Father sent a publique Officer from Heaven to open the Prison doores Math. 28.2 an Angel to rool away the stone from the mouth of the Sepulchre thereby proclaiming to all the world that the debt was paid and that God had received full satisfaction for the sins of the Elect saying as it were Deliver him for I have received a Ransom This is another ground of our Triumph that Jesus rose that is he rose as our Jesus our Saviour and so by dying hath
safely brought in thither also onely it must stay its time appointed by the great Husband-man whose method is this first Christ the first Fruits and afterward they that are Christs at his coming Be of good cheer Christians weep not it is the Fathers good pleasure that not a Sheaf not an Ear not one grain be lâ—st so witnesseth the Truth and the Life the Truth to testifie it and the Life to make it good John 6.39 this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing of all that c. i.e. not the least Person nor the least Member of the least person how mean and contemptible soever Will this content thee Christian Thy sweet Relation is not lost but sowen and that which is sowen is not quickned unless it dye At the Harvest time thou shalt have thy seed again revera faenore interitu injuria usura lucro damno Tertul. de Resur when that which thou callest perishing shall be thy improvement thy treasure is not cast away but put to use and thy loss shall be thy gain Christians This believed is a word of Comfort indeed so the Text tells us If we believe that Jesus died and rose again thy dead men shall live Together with his dead body shall they arise Obj. But what not else Answ Oh not so not our Resurrection or the Resurrection of our gracious Friends depend upon our Faith but our assurance and comfort of their Resurrection depends upon our Faith The Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our Faith it stands upon a four-fold foundation as you have heard Sc. The Merit Influence Design Vnion which is between Christ his Saints A Foundation which stands surer than Heaven and Earth Heaven and Earth may pass away but not one of these Foundations shall ever pass away or faile The Foundation of the Lord stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 So then not their Resurrection but our comfort in their Resurrection is that which depends upon our Faith Sence stands blubbering and crying my Parent is dead my Yoke-fellow is lost my dear Child is perished No saith Faith no such matter they are alive they are safe they are happy And all this Faith inferreth upon Christ His Resurrection So that whosoever hath Faith enough to put Christ's Resurrection into the premises may by the same act of Faith put the Saints Resurrection into the conclusion He that by an eye of Faith can look upon Christ's Resurrection as past may by the same eye of Faith see the Resurrection of the Saints as to come he that by Faith can say Christ is risen may with the same breath of Faith say also The Saints shall rise because I live you shall live also as a pledge and instance whereof when Christ arose many of the Saints which slept were enlarged out of the Prison of the Grave the heart strings whereof were now broken to attend the Solemnity of their Lord's Resurrection Math. 27.52 53. and were as an other kind of first fruits of the last Resurrection of all Believers By all these evidences and demonstrations Jesus Christ now in Heaven speaks to his mourners as once he did in the days of his flesh to Martha thy Brother shall rise again so he speaks to us man woman thy Yoak-fellow shall rise again thine Isaac whom thou loved'st shall rise again And oh that we had but Faith enough to answer with Martha I know he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day This would be a soveraign Cordial to keep our hearts from fainting under our sorrows If indeed we have not Faith to realize this comfortable truth our dear Relations if they could speak would cry to us out of their Graves in some such language as that in which our Saviour rebuked the women which followed him to his Cross Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me c. So ours Son Daughter Husband Wife Father Mother and whatever other dear Relations weep not for us but weep for your selves and for the unbelief of your own hearts I Christians there is the spring-head of all our misery Hinc illae Lacrymae our unbelief It is unbelief which robs us first of our sweet Relations and afterwards of our comfort in their gains and if we look not to it the better it will keep us and them asunder to all Eternity we cannot enter in to their rest if we continue in our unbelief Mark 9.24 cry we then with the Father of the Child I believe Lord help my unbelief If we believe that Jesus rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which brings me to the fifth word of Comfort Them that sleep in Jesus The first word of Comfort in this model was Fifth word of Comfort the Saints sleep in Jesus that our Christian Relations departed this life are not dead but fallen asleep Here followeth a word of Comfort of a richer import which tells us that as they do but sleep so they sleep in Jesus This expression noteth to us that blessed and admirable Vnion which is between Jesus Christ and his Saints 1 Cor. 15.18 They who are fallen a sleep in Christ an Union frequently set out to us in Scripture under a twofold notion Scil. 1. Christ in the Believer 2. The Believer in Christ First Christ in the Believer Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead c. Colos 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory and here in the Text they are said to be in Jesus Secondly The Believer in Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made c. 2 Cor. 5.14 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Colos 1.2 the Saints in Christ See both together John 14.20 You in me and I in you 15.4 Abide in me and I in you 5. He that abideth in me and I in him These expressions are the same for substance both setting forth to us the Vnion it self a mutual intimate in-dwelling or in-being between Christ and his Saints He in them and they in him so making one They differ somewhat in the notion and import of the phrase hinting to us a different mode and fruit of this mutual In-being viz. Christ is in the Believer by his Spirit 1 Jo. 4.13 and 1 Cor. 12 13. The Believer in Christ by Faith John 1.12 Christ in the Believer by Inhabitation Rom. 3.17 The Believer in Christ by Implantation Jo. 15.2 Rom. 6 35. Christ in the Believer as the Head in the Body Col. 1.18 as the root in the branches Jo. 15 5. Believers are in Christ as the Members are in the Head Ephes 1.23 as the Branches in the Root John 15.1.7 Christ in the Believer implieth Life and Influence from Christ Col. 3.4 1 Pet.
2.5 The Believer in Christ implieth Communion and fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 When Christ is said to be in the Believer we are to understand it in reference to sanctification When the Believer is said to be in Christ it is in order to justification It is Christ without us 1 Cor. 1.30 Righteousness that justifieth it is Christ within us that sanctifieth Grace in the Apostles phrase is Christ formed in the heart Gal 4.19 These and the like expressions hold forth that transcendent and mysterious Vnion which is between Christ and the Believing Soul whereby they are not only joyned together but in a sober Gospel-sense united oned as it were Christ becomes one with them and they one with Christ This Union with Christ for the clearer and safer understanding of so great and precious a mystery Six or seven properties of this Union I shall endeavour more fully to open in these six or seaven distinguishing properties It is a 1 Spiritual Union It is a 2 Real Union It is a 3 Operative Union It is a 4 Enriching Union It is a 5 Intimous Union It is a 6 Total Union It is a 7 Indissoluble Union The first property It is a Spiritual Vnion First property It is Spiritual When we speak of this Union we must abstract from all that is gross and fleshy there is nothing in it obvious to sense perceptible by the eye or by the ear or by the touch or tast it is not effected by any corporeal contact Christ and the Believer are not tied together by any material bonds and fleshy sinews but their Union is a pure immaterial sublime Vnion altogether Spiritual and that upon a double accompt First partly in as much as by this Union Christ 1 Cor. 6.17 and the Believer are made one Spirit He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit not onely one Spiritually but one Spirit not as exclusive to the body it self Ephes 2.29 for we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones but expressing to us the top and perfection of this Union He that is joyned to an Harlot is one flesh in an impure and carnal sense Man and Wife 1 Cor. 6 16. though their conjunction be more honourable yet are but one flesh also in a conjugal sense For two saith he shall be one flesh I but he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit an Union infinitely more honourable than that in Marriage the Believer is joyned to Christ into one and the same Spirit he is animated and acted by one and the same Spirit with Christ though in a different degree and measure for God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Jo. 3.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ as Mediator for in that capacity Believers are United unto him and not merely as second person received the Spirit without measure * Christ was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal 15. ◠〈◊〉 he had a larger effusion of the Spirit poured out upon him than all other Kings and Priests and Prophets Believers have but their stinted measure and proportion and yet notwithstanding the Spirit of God dwelling as truly in them as it did in Christ himself though not essentially they thereby become one Spirit with Christ And then again It is a spiritual Union 2. Partly because the bones and ligaments of this Union are not Carnal but Spiritual Scil. the Spirit whereby Christ Unites himself to the Believer on Christs part The presence of the Spirit maketh this Union by vertue of which God communicates with us as with his Sons and we communicate with God as with our Heavenly Father The exercises of Communion on both sides are managed by the Spirit of Christ Gal. 4.6 And the bond of Faith on the Believers part whereby the Believer is Vnited to Christ as the Cion is engraffed into the Stock and thereby grows up to be one with the Stock So is the Believer implanted into Christ by Faith Ephes 3.17 grows up in him receiveth life and nourishment from him and is preserved in him to life eternal kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1. Behold 〈…〉 here is the subordination of these two bonds Faith keeps the Believer and the power of God keeps his Faith ‖ Per organum â—â—lei Spâ—ritus Christi virtuâ—â—â—â— now the Spirit of God is that power Upon this twofold account then is this Union a spiritual Vnion viz. 1. Because an Union of Spirit 2. Because effected by spiritual bonds A second property of this Union It is a real Vnion A second Property Real in a tenfold opposition Entia Rationis and that in a tenfold distinction First In opposition to an imaginary Union it is no metaphysical notion or like those things which Logicians call Intellectual beings or your Mathematical Lines which have their existence only in the understanding and fancy Secondly Nor is it a Relative Vnion only as Father and Child Master and Servant are united such an Union there is between Christ and Believers but that is not all Thirdly Neither is it a legal Vnion only Christ and the Believer are not one only as the Debtor and the Surety are one in Law in a forinsecal sence i.e. in the interpretation and judgment of the Court. In this sence they are one indeed viz. in the judgment of God as a Judge as I have formerly shewed but not only so Fourthly Nor is it an Union only of assent in point of doctrine and judgment though so much it is for saith the Apostle in the name of all Believers We have the mind of Christ 2 Cor. 2.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Believer so far as he is a Believer is of the same mind judgment and opinion with Jesus Christ in all things And this truly gives them a kind of oneness whence a firm and stedfast continuance in the Faith i.e. in the doctrine of Jesus Christ Fides quae creditur is called an in being in Christ John 15.4.6 and an abiding in Christ 1 John 2.24.28 Scil. a professional or doctrinal Union with Christ This the Saints of God have but neither is this all Fifthly Nor yet is it merely an Union of consent The Believer is not one with Christ only by consent of wills The Arrians whilst they blasphemously deny the Deity of the Son betray a double ignorance and if but ignorance there sin is the less the one in the doctrine or assertion it self the other in the ground which they alledge for it which is Christs own words praying to his Father for Believers John 17.22 that they may be one even as we are one whence they supposing Believers to be one with the Father and the Son only by consent of wills do infer neither are the Father and the Son one in any other sence But say we they err in the very foundation we acknowledg
of his humiliation Thirdly Third Reas to finish his Mediatory Office Our Lord Jesus Christ must come himself at the last day to perfect and finish his Mediatory-Office At his first coming his Mediatory-work was to pay a price to divine Justice 1 Per. 1.19 So he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to purchase us of his Father At his second coming his Mediatory-work will be to gather all his Redeemed ones together and to present them a glorious Church to his Father not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but holy and without blemish in some such language as was long before Prophesied Behold here am I and the Children whom thou hast given me Isa 8.18 And again as when he was going out of the world he gave his account to his Father of all whom thou hast given me Joh. 17.12 I have lost none but the Son of perdition At his first coming his Mediatory-work was to fight with the Devil Act. 26.18 Colos 1.13 Luk. 11.21 22. In this respect he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.26 and all the powers of darkness and to rescue what he had bought of the Father out of the power of Satan that strong man armed who kept his goods in peace At his second coming his Mediatory-work will be to vanquish all those Enemies out of whose dominion he hath freed his Elect to bind them with chains to cast them into everlasting darkness and to seal the bottomless pit upon them for ever And when he hath done this the Lord Jesus shall deliver up the Kingdome to his Father His Office is not compleated till this be done God's Oath is past upon it and cannot be reverst Isa 45.23 c. The Text is applyed to Christ presently upon his Exaltation to this very purpose Phil. 2.20 Well then we have now found out the person of the Judg. The Lord Himself c. And for the Use it may serve 1. For infinit terror to the Wicked 2. For unspeakable Consolation to the Godly First it serves for infinit terror to the Wicked Use 1 That the Judgment now should be put into the hand of Him Terror to the Wicked whom of all the world they counted their Enemy at least if they did not call him so they used him so Oh what a dreadful sight will his Appearance be If Ahab cryed out with so much discomposure of spirit at the suddain appearance of Elijah the Prophet of God Hast thou found me Oh mine Enemy With what horror and affrightment will Reprobate Gaitiff's cry out when they shall be drag'd from before the Tribunal of the Lord Jesus the Lord of the Prophets Hast thou found us Oh our Enemy If Josephs Brethren were so astonished at the presence of Joseph when he said unto them I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt How will all the world of ungodly men be confounded at the presence of the Lord now coming in the glory of his Father to Judg them when he shall say unto them I am Jesus I am Jesus whom ye sold for less than ever Judas sold me even for the price of a base Lust I am Jesus whom ye Crucified over and over again to your selves and put me to an open shame I am Jesus whose Person you have slighted whose Government you have spurn'd at crying in the Pride and Rebellion of your obstinate spirits We will not have this man Reign over us I am Jesus whose Counsel you have rejected whose Threatnings you have laughed to scorn whose Promises you have derided and set at nought I am Jesus whose Blood you have trampled under your feet as an Vnholy thing even doing despite to the Spirit of grace c. I say Now will the Reprobate world be confounded at the presence of their Judg Behold in the days of his Flesh when he appeared in the forme of a Servant and was even led away as a Sheep to the Slaughter and as a Lamb before the Shearer not opening his mouth by way of murmur against his Father or reviling against his Enemies yet how did that Lamb-like Word I am He fill the hearts of those sturdy Souldiers who came to apprehend Him with horror and strike them to the ground like a blast of Thunder and Lightning Oh how will that word when he shall come cloathed with Majesty and terror with all the glorious Host of Heaven attending his Person I am he fill Reprobate Souls with astonishment and distraction and even strike them backward into Hell before their time How will it cause them to woo the Mountains and Rocks now as hard and inexorable as their hearts once were in the day of God's patience crying out to them to the amazement of Heaven and Earth Mountains Fall on us Rev. 6.26 27. Rocks cover us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the presence of the Lamb for the great day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand But all in vain As the Lord Jesus once in the day of his grace cryed unto them and they would not answer c. So they shall now cry to Heaven and Earth to Rocks and Mountains Prov. 1.24 25 26. Psal 50.22 and they shall not answer yea the Judg shall laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear cometh Oh consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Second Use Second Use of Comfort to the Saints Christ Himself will be their Judg. But on the contrary unspeakable Consolation may this doctrine of Christ's personal Appearance speak to the Godly the Sheep of Christ which have heard his voyce speaking to them in the Gospel of peace and have obeyed it Behold He that in the days of his flesh came to be their Redeemer now in the day of his power shall come to be their Judge He that so often pleaded for them to his Father and for whom they so often pleaded and contended with a disobedient and gain-saying Generation I say He shall now be their Judg and pass sentence upon them their Friend their Brother their Head their Husband What need they fear that Tribunal where not their Enemies who were wont fasâ—y to accuse and condemn them no not their prejudiced and imprudent Friends who somtimes have rashly and causelesly mis-judged them much less the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 who accused them before their God day and night none of these I say shall sit in Judgment But their dear Redeemer who for their sake came down from Heaven that loved them so dearly that he died for love of them that he might Redeem them and wash them in his own Blood He that Regenerated Sanctified Justified Preserved and Perfected them He to whom both in Life and Death they were so nearly and inseparably Vnited and by vertue of which Conjunction they are now
Seed of the Woman nor è contrà but there shall be a perfect separation The Sheep shall be separated from the Goats the Elect from the Reprobate there shall not be a Servant of the Lord amongst the Worshipers of Baal nor a Son of Beltal among the Sons of God Sinners and none but Sinners Saints and none but Saints shall make up these two distinct Congregations Nay so terrible will the glory which Christ will put upon his Saints be upon the faces of the Reprobates and so great the horrour of their own guilty Consciences that they shall now as much dread their Society as once they hated it and chuse rather to leap alive into the burning Lake then to mix themselves unto them or so much as to put their head within that holy Assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praestituto tempâ—re Verse 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Christ assureth to his Mourners shall be effected in the appointed time if not in our time yet in Gods time in the time of Harvest But what shall we do in the mean time why saith our Lord Suffer them to grow together suffer them not by sinful toleration in Rulers nor by sinful compliance in people Expectardo non temeâ—è occupando If we cannot separate from Churches yet separate from their Corruptions and defilements 2 Use but suffer them by patient expectation in case of necessity having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reproving them If you cannot avoyd the Workers yet avoyding the Works of darkness and then in your patience do you possess your Souls 2. This Circumstance of the Saints separation from the Wicked is improved for comfort by our Lord Jesus Christ himself In case of undue exclusion from Church Ordinances of such as Christ would not have excluded Our Lord Jesus hath foretold that the power of the keys should fall sometimes into such hands as would so diametrically pervert the use of them as that oft-times none should be excluded but whom Christ would have admitted nor admitted but such as Christ would have shut out They shall put You out of their Synagogues 1 Joh. 16.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Excommunicate you You my Disciples you my Friends Hard measure I but here is comfort the time is coming wherein all the Elect shall be Congregated into one universal Assembly never to suffer exclusion or ejectment any more to all Eternity And then their unrighteous Excommunicators shall be righteously Excommunicated yea they shall be Excommunicated with the highest sort of Excommunication higher than any Church of Christ ever used Excommunicated for ever delivered unto Sathan not for the destruction of the flesh only but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.9.10 and from the glory of his Power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints That 's a dreadful Excommunication indeed the Anathema Maranatha in the highest sense quum Dominus venit quia Domino quasi in manus citra veniae spem dedentur Jude 14. Now the Saints of God are glad to get into Corners by twoes and by threes and blessed be God not without a promise to seek the face of God so making the Harlot's Text Prov. 17.17 speak chast language Stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant But in that glorious Morning of the Resurrection they shall meet by millions and myriads of millions and there shall be none to disturb or offend them yea their Enemies shall look on and gnash their Teeth for anguish and vexation of Spirit to see them now got for ever out of their power 3. 3 Use And lastly for Comfort in case of the Saints separation one from another whether by the unrighteous hand of Violence or the righteous hand of Providence Now by means of Dispersions Imprisonments Exile c. the people of God are like Arms and Legs torn out of the body and lye bleeding in their separations Yea God Himself is pleased to make sad breaches between them and their sweetest Relations by Death Under which they are many times like Rachel not without sin weeping for her Children and refuse to be Comforted because they are not lifting up their voyces and crying Oh! my Father Abraham and Oh! my Son Isaac O Absolon my Son my Son Absolon would God I had dyed for thee I will go down to the Grave to my Son mourning c. But here is Comfort the time is coming when the Parent and Child Husband and Wife Friend and Friend with the whole Family of Heaven and Earth from all their dispersions from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven shall meet together and embrace one another Everlasting Joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and mourning shall flee away In a word how may all the Saints of God in what state or condition so ever for the present solace themselves in the fore-contemplation of the Triumphant gathering together of the Elect of God What a joyful Sight will it be when all the Saints and Servants of the most high God which ever saw one anothers faces or heard of one anothers names yea and all they which never saw or heard each of other All of every Tongue Nation Kindred or Family of the Earth of what Age Sex Generation soever from the day wherein God made time to the day wherein time shall be no more shall meet together and stand on tip-toe ready to take their flight to meet their Lord and Bridegroom coming in the Clouds with his mighty Angels Yea what a glorious sight will it be to see all The glorious Company of the Apostles The goodly Fellowship of the Prophets The whole Army of Martyrs with The holy Church throughout all the World A Congregation of Kings and Priests in all their Royal Robes Yea as I may so say a Congregation or Constellation of Morning-Starrs yea of so many Noon-day Suns arising from the Earth co-Ascending through the several Regions of the Air to meet the Sun of Righteousness now descending from his own Orb of Supream Glory and Majesty in the highest Heavens to Judg both the quick and the dead Surely such an Assembly eye never saw ear never heard of nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive how immense how august how exceeding it will be in glory While in the mean time the Congregation of the Reprobate the Malignant Church that are left below upon the Earth on the left hand shall stand trembling looking upwards and gnashing their Teeth to see this sudden and tremendous turn of things the Saints whom they despised and persecuted before thus snatched out of their cursed power and fellowship Ascending in so much Pomp and Royalty to meet their glorious Redeemer They themselves left behind to curse themselves and one another for their Prejudices Envy and Rage which once they breath'd out against Gods people
be put upon him for the recompencing of the ignominy and abasement of his first coming in the flesh I come now to the ends of this Meeting And the ends why the Saints ascend to meet Christ in the Air we may conceive to be such as these 1. Their publick Reception and owning by Christ 2. Their full and perfect Justification 3. The Consummation of their unptial Contract 4. Their Consession or Sitting together with Christ in the Judgment 5. Their compleat and sinal Benediction or blessed Sentence 6. Their solemn and triumphant Attondance on the Judg going to take possession of the Kingdom These or the like ends of the Saints meeting with the Lord in the Air are not obscurely hinted to us in Scripture The first is Their publick reception and owning by Christ come now to judge the world The Elect Angels having gathered together the Elect Saints according to the Commission upon which they were sent forth Go ye and gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and having carried them up into the Air where the Judge stayeth for them for he will do nothing until they come I say their Angels shall now present them before Him in the rich and glorious attire of their now perfected Resurrection wherein their once vile bodies are now made like to Christ his glorious body With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought into the King's presence and the first publick Act which the King shall do is solemnly to receive them Come ye blessed of my Father and embraceing them in his armes and kissing them as it were as Joseph once did his Brethren in the open view of Heaven and Earth he will solemnly own them and acknowledg them and that First in their Persons and Relation unto himself A Prerogative long-before promised Mal. 3.17 Christ will own the Saints 1. In their persons They shall be mine when I make up my Jewels That is the very work which Christ is now come about to make up his Jewels to lay them up in their Heavenly Cabinet And the first word he will speak is These are mine he appropriates them for his own they be mine my Jewels my Gems my * Sâ—gullah precious Treasure As the Saints have not been ashamed of Christ before men so neither will Christ now be ashamed of them before his Father Luk 9 Heb. 1.11 2 In their Relations and all his mighty Angels he will not be ashamed to call them Brethren yea he will appropriate them as his Children a Seed given him of his Father as the great reward of is Passion saying These be the Children which God hath given me Ver. 13. my Sons and my Daughters who have served me thus he owns them in their Relations Secondly 3. In their Duâ—ies and attendance He will own and acknowledg all the holy duties publick and private which they have done in obedience to his Commands their hearing praying fasting and afflicting their Souls for their own sins and for other mens sins their fearing of God and laying to heart the reproaches of Religion and Blasphemies cast upon his Name their mutual holy conferences Mal. 3.16 one with another c. All these were written in a book of Remembrance of old and laid up before him that they might never be forgotten and now the Book shall be brought forth and read in the Audience of the world for their greater honour even the very secret duties which they have performed in their Closets when no eye saw them but God's even they shall be proclaimed in the Audience of this Universal Assembly at the last day Mat 6.6 Thy Father which saw in secret will now reward thee openly not a prayer but it was filed up not a sigh Psal 56.8 nor groan but it is booked not a tear but is botled not an holy ejaculation but was upon Record and shall be now publickly produced and acknowledged I know your Works and your Labour and your Charity and your Service Rev. 2.19 and your last Works to be more then the first c. Thirdly 4. In their fidelity and perseverance Rev. 2 13. Jesus Christ at that day will own the fidelity of his Saints their constancy and perseverance in their holy Profession and confess them before all the world I know your Works and where you have dwelt even where Satan's seat was and you have held fast my Name Chap. 2.10 and have not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. were my faithful Martyrs who were slain among you where Satan dwelleth behold to you who have been faithful to the death do I now give a Crown of Life To you who have overcome do I grant to sit with me in my Throne Chap. 3.21 as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne 5 In their sufferings Fourthly He will own and acknowledg the Saints in their sufferings for his sake All the reproaches hard speeches * Lâ—quntur lapides incivilities abuses scandals persecutions which ever they sustained in their names persons lively-hoods and lives upon Christ's and the Gospels account he will acknowledg and bespeak them in some such language as this Isa 66.7 Your Brethren which hated you that cast you out for my names sake said * So mocking God and deriding the Godly for their confidence in God Luk. 22.28 29 30. 6. In all the Offices of love done to him or his Let the Lord be glorified but now I appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Or as he once encouraged his Disciples in the days of his flesh You are they which have continued with me in my temptations and behold I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome c. Fifthly and lastly The Lord Jesus will own all the Services and Offices of Love done to Himself or to any of his Members Cloathing Feeding Visiting them when Sick coming to them when in Prison He will acknowledge all before Heaven and Earth yea what they themselves have forgotten never thought-worthy of their own notice much less of Christ's notice Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c Observe by the way the difference between Saints and Shadows Hypocrites can boast of what they never truly did they can own what God will disown We have fasted say they nay saith God In the day of your fast ye find pleasure ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness c. We have say they afflicted our Soul no such thing saith God Ye have bowed down the head like a bul-rush for a day ye have spread Sack-cloath and Ashes under you Is this a Fast will you call this Soul-afflicting if you will I will not I but now
3.13 This Obligation he fulfill'd by Doing That he sustained by Dying 7. Prop. This double Obligation could not have befallen the Lord Jesus Christ upon any natural account of his own but upon his Mediatory account only as he voluntarily became the Surety of this new and better Covenant Heb. 7 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the fruit and benefit of Christ's voluntary subjection to the Law redoundeth not at all to Himself but unto the persons which were given him of the Father Joh. 17. whose Sponsor he became for their sakes he underwent the Paenal Obligation of the Law that it might do them no harm he being made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 and for their sakes he fulfilled the Praeceptive Obligation of the Law Do this that so the Law might do them good This the Evangelical Apostle clearly asserts Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Weigh the Text. Christ is the end of the Law the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not finis destructivus to destroy the Law such he had been indeed had he come to have brought in any other Law in the room of this holy and perfect Law Mat. 5.17 but saith he I came not to destroy What end then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christus Finis legis i. e. eompletiâ— legis Remâ—g why Finis perfectivus the perfection and accomplishment of the Law not to destroy but to fulfill sc the end of the Law for Righteousness i. e. to the end that by Christ his active Obedience God might have his perfect Law perfectly kept that so there might be a Righteousness extant in the Humane Nature every way adaequate to the perfection of the Law And who must wear this Garment of Righteousness when Christ hath finished it surely the Believer who wanted a Righteousness of his own for so it follows for Righteousness to every one that believeth that is that every poor naked Sinner believing in Jesus Christ might have a Righteousness wherein being found he might appear at Gods Tribunal but his nakedness not appear but as Jacob in the Garment of his Elder Brother Esau so the Believer in the Garment of his Elder Brother Jesus might inherit the Blessing even the great Blessing of Justification This leads me to an 8th Proposition and that is 8. Prop. Faith which is commonly called the condition of the new Covenant is not in its self a new Righteousness but as it were an instrument or hand to apprehend and apply the Righteousness of the first Covenant as fulfilled by the great Sponsor Rom. 8 3. Perfectionem habet Legis qui in Christum credit and Surety on the believer's behalf That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us sc in our Nature to our justification Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth 9. * As imitation of Adam only made us not Sinners so imitation of Christ only makes us not Righteous but imputation Down of Justifit Prop. This Mediatory Righteousness of Christ for his Personal and essential Righteousness falls not at all under this consideration can no way become the Believer's but as the first Adam's obedience became his Posteritie's who never had the least actual share in his transgression sc By an act of Imputation from God as a Judg. The Lord Jesus having fulfilled the Law as a second Adam God the Father imputeth it to the believing Sinner as if he had done it in his own person I say not God the Father doth account the Sinner to have done it but he doth impute it to the believing Sinner as if he had done it unto all saving intents and purposes Thus Abraham the Father of the faithful was justified his Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness his Faith i. e. objective the Righteousness which his Faith apprehended sc Christ his fulfilling of the Law as the Surety of the New Covenant And so are all the Children of Abrahams Faith justified also unto whom it shall be imputed also if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus from the dead Who was delivered for our sins and was raised again for our justification 10. h. and last Prop. The believing sinner appearing at the Tribunal of the great God and pleading his Righteousness thereupon standeth rectus in curiâ and is pronounc'd Righteous in the Court of divine Justice Thus the Sinner is brought in as it were in a way of judicial Process Isa 45.24 holding up his hand at the Judgment Seat the Judg on the Bench bespeaking him thus Sinner thou standest Indited for breaking the holy and just and good Law of thy Maker Rom. 3 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is verbum forense Sign Legally proved and hereof art proved Guilty Sinner what hast thou to say for thy self c To this the Sinner upon his bended knee Confesseth Guilty but with-all humbly craves leave to plead for himself full satisfaction made by his Surety It is Christ that died Rom. 8.34 And whereas it is further objected by the Judg I but Sinner the Law requireth an exact and perfect Righteousness in thy personal fulfilling of the Law Sinner Where is thy Righteousness The believing Sinner humbly replyeth My Righteousness is upon the Bench in the Lord have I Righteousness Christ my Surety hath fulfilled the Law on my behalf to that I appeal and by that I will be tried This done the Plea is accepted as good in Law The Sinner is pronounced Righteous and goeth away glorying and rejoycing Righteous Righteous In the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory If this be not the Righteousness whereby a poor Sinner is justified sc the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled by a Mediatour on behalf of Gods Elect I would gladly enquire What is become of the Do this in that first Covenant Is it indeed abolished Then hath Christ destroyed the Law destroyed it I say not fulfill'd it at least in one great and main design of it Secondly If so I would fain be satisfied what succeeds in the room of the Fac hoc to supply the office of a justifying Righteousness what can First Not surely Inherent Righteousness that being quidimperfectum and an imperfect Cause can never produce a perfect Effect which some observing have had no other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 left them Bell. de justif li. 2. ca. 7. S 3. but in down right language to affirm Habitual Righteousness to be perfect whom we shall leave to the confutation of fire in the last day Secondly Eph. 2.12 Nor can it be Adoption The terminus à quo in Adoption is a state of alienation from God The verminus à quo in Justification is a guilty Malefactor as to Absolution and of want of Righteousness as to the Condition of the Covenant Thirdly Much less can faith in its own nature considered supply this office For if faith
Principalities c. Such an High Priest became us An High Priest of an inferiour perfection would not have done our business for us And as such an High Priest became us so truly such a way of justifying believing Sinners became him namely it was becoming a person of such a transcendent worth and excellency to justifie his Redeemed in the most ample and glorious way c. by working out for them and then investing them with a Righteousness adaequate to the Law of God a Righteousness that should be every way commensurate to the miserable estate of fallen Man and to the holy design of the glorious God It was a becoming thing that the second Adam might restore as good a Righteousness as the first Adam lost that this should justifie as sully as the other did condemn Rom. 5. from verse 15. to the last This is the very designe of that famous Parallel instituted by the Apostle between the two Adams namely to signifie an equality not of number in the persons receiving but of efficacy in the persons deriving and communicating what was their own to either of their Seeds The first Adam to his natural Seed and the second Adam to his Spiritual Seed to the end that Men and Angels might take notice that Jesus Christ the second Adam was not less Powerful to save than the first Adam was to destroy To which purpose it is of great use to observe how exact the Apostle is in setting the specialties of either Adams Legacy one over against the other the wound and the cure the dammage and the reparation Observe the Parallel The first Adam Propagates his Offence Guilt Death vers 15. Condemnation Bondage Slavery Sin ver 19. The second Adam obtains Forgivness for many offences A gift of Righteousness 17. Life vers 18. Justification ibid. Reigning in Life Righteousness Every way the Salve is as Soveraign as the Wound was Mortal the Cure as Vital as the Sickness deadly yea the Apostle winds up with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the second Adams part and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold Absolution for Condemnation Righteousness for Sin Reigning for Slavery Life for Death and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal Life into the bargain Thus it became our High Priest to justifie his Redeemed The great Apostle cannot pass it by without special notice He is able to save to the uttermost such as come to God through him To the uttermost of what To the uttermost Obligation of the Law preceptive as well as penal to bring in perfect Righteousness as well as perfect Innocence To the uttermost demand of divine Justice perfect Conformity to divine Will as well as perfect Satisfaction to divine Justice Perfection as well as Pardon To the uttermost Indigency and necessity of the lost Creature Qualification as well as Absolution To the uttermost of our High Priest's perfection in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Oh for such an one to have saved a cheap way to drive the Purchase to as low a price as might be by pardoning their sin and making reparation to divine Justice to satisfie for the wrong which man had done to the Creator and his Law This only with Reverence may we speak it had not become so August a Redeemer as the Son of God was But to set him upon his Legs again to make him as good a man as he was in his Created perfection one way or other such as all the Attributes of God should acquiesce in to put him into a capacity of demanding Eternal life not by gift only but by merit through a Redeemer yet so still as it is the Redeemers merit not Mans not that Christ hath merited that we might merit as the Papists would vainly varnish that proud doctrine of merit no all was done by Him and is Ours only by Imputation Such an High-Priest became us And such a glorious way of saving Sinners became him who was made higher than the Heavens i. e. than all created perfections whatsoever Angels Cherubins or Seraphims or what ever Order else may be possibly conceived This is the Righteousness Non est metuendum ne nimis divites simus in Christo wherewith our Redeemer saveth us and we need not sear to wrap up our selves in this fine Linnen to put on these Robes we need not fear to be made too rich by Christ who when he was Rich became Poor that we through his Poverty might be made Rich. 2 Cor. 8 9. And this Righteousness indeed was made over to the Saints of God by Imputation at the very first moment of their Conversion In this they lived In this they died as Standard-Bearers wrapt up and buried in their Colours And in this they shall arise and appear at that glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who will then and thus be glorified in all them that believe to the Admiration of all the Elect Angels the extream horror of the Reprobate and the infinite joy and ravishment of the Saints who shall then sing Isa 61.10 I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath Clouthed me with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with Ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels Oh how glorious will Christ be in his Saints when they shall all wear one and the same sparkling Livery with Christ and this shall be his Name Jehovah Tzed-kenu Jer. 23.6 The Lord our Righteousness Thus I have done with the Second End I should now immediately come unto the Third save that before we wholly dismiss this point we cannot but take a little notice of the insolency of the Papists in Reproaching and Blaspheming this blessed doctrine of Justification by imputed Righteousness at which though they scoff and laugh at with so much scorn and derision that the Earth is not able to bear their words calling it Spectrum cerebri Lutherani Staplet Putativa imaginaria justitia Bellarm. Amentissima insania Andrad Yet it seems to stand firm and unshaken upon these impregnable Arguments 1. That way whereby the guilt of the first Adam is made ours that way the Righteousness of the second Adam is made ours also Rom. 5.12 cum 15. 2. That way whereby the Redeemer is made a Sinner that way the Redeemed are made Righteous 2 Cor. 5. Vlt. 3. That way wherein Abraham was justified are all Believers justified also Rom. 4. The Father and the Children have all the same Righteousness and it is Communicated to them the same way Vt sup 4. The fulfilling of the Law communicatur eo modo quo communicari potest id quod transit nimirùm per Imputationem as Bellarm. himself confesseth in point of satisfaction 5. The Scripture is clear and express for those two branches as of absolute necessity to Justification scil Pardon Righteousness distinct from
shall be said to all Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire where the Worm never dyeth and the fire is not quenched into utter darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth there to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels for ever Now during all this tremendous transaction the Saints shall sit in judicature as Assessors or Justices of the Peace with Christ upon the Bench seeing and hearing all that is done by the Judg voting with him approving and applauding him in his judicial proceedings crying out with loud acclamations Thou art Righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus and other Saints shall eccho to them saying Even so Lord God Almighty true and Righteous are thy Judgments Thus the Saints shall judg the world Rev. 16.57 1 Cor. 6 2. yea they shall judg the Angels the Reprobate Angels but of this I have spoken more largely in the former part of this Treatise I come now to the Fifth end of the Saints meeting with Christ sc To receive their compleat and final Benediction Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world A blessed Sentence indeed every word in it is Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Come my Love my Dove my undefiled One stand at no longer distance come and follow me whither I go I will that where I am there you may be also Ye Blessed Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places Your Enemies on Earth accounted you the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.13 and the off-scouring of all things Sathan hath desired to have you that you might be accursed with him for ever but ye are blessed and shall be blessed for ever Blessed of my Father Blessed in the eternal electing love of the Father Blessed in the Son's purchase you have washed your garments white in the blood of the Lamb Blessed by the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 and renewing of the Holy Ghost Inherit Ye are Children Heirs Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ behold I have adopted you to be follow-heirs with my self and the Father hath made you meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Oh come now and take possession of your Inheritance behold it is not less than a Kingdom for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk. 12.32 the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Glory behold it is Prepared In the Father's decree God hath laid it out for you before the foundation of the world was laid and it is prepared by my purchase and by my taking possession of it long since in your Name Jo. 14.2 I went before to prepare a place for you For you whom I also prepared for it and for every one of you personally every one of you shall receive an intire Kingdome to your selves and you shall live and reign with me for ever and ever As Heaven hath been kept for you so you have been kept for it by the power of God through Faith to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Oh come now and take possession Behold This is the Saints full and final Benediction I should have spoke to this before I spake of the Sentence passed upon the Reprobate for in our Lord's method it doth precede Mat. 25.34 compared with ver 41. yet because Execution of the Sentence begins with the wicked and ends with the godly as ver 46. to the end that the Saints may behold with their eyes the Sentence Executed and seeing they may as God himself doth laugh at them saying Psal 52.7 Lo these are the men that made not God their strength but trusted in the abundâ—nce of their riches and strengthened themselves in their wickedness I have I say therefore chosen to speak of the Sentence of blessedness which the Judg shall pass upon the Saints in this place that from thence I might pass immediatly to the happy Execution thereof upon them nothing intervening as to the persons of Saints which is the Sixth and last end of the Saints meeting with Christ in the Air sc Their solemn and triumphant Attendance on the Judg The Sixth and last end of the Saints meeting with Christ is Their taking possession to take possession of the Kingdom This last judicial process being thus solemnly finished Sentence on both sides pronounced by the Judg the Reprobate already dragged away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance to the place of Execution where they shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels for ever and ever immediatly the Bench will rise the Court shall be broken up that great Occumenical assembly shall be dissolved and forthwith the Judg shall ascend his Majestick Chariot waiting ready for him and all the Saints shall follow him in their Wedding-garments glittering as the Sun in his Meridian glory upon their several Chairs of State all the holy Angels of God attending round about them with their Ensigns of glory flying Trumpets sounding Angels singing the Saints themselve shouting all the Regions of the Air resounding with their Celestial harmony the like whereunto never entred the Ear of man from the day wherein God laid the foundations of the Heaven and Earth to this happy moment In this triumphant posture shall they march till they come to the walls of New Jerusalem where the Gates of pearl to whom it shall be proclaimed Lift up your heads oh ye Gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting Doors and the King of glory shall enter in shall stand wide open to receive them An entrance shall be administred unto them abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ through the Streets whereof which are of pure gold as it were transparent glass they shall ride in Triumph till they come to the Throne of his Majesty where the Ancient of days sitteth Dan. 7.9.13 whose garment is as white aâ— Snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his Throne is like the fiery flames and his wheels as burning fire c. Then shall the Son of God come to Him and taking his new Bride in his hand shall present her to his Father and bespeak him in some such language as this Rev. 7.16 Chap. 5.9 Chap. 12.11 These are they which come out of great Tribulation who have washed their Robes white in my blood These are they which have kept the word of my patience these are they that overcame by my blood and by the word of their Testimony John 17.6 Verse 12. Thou gavest them me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled I have given them thy word and the world hath
hated them because they were not of the world even as I was not of the world O Righteous Father for these I opened my mouth and for these I opened my sides and my heart for those was I mocked and scourged and blindfolded and buffetted and Crucified for these I wept and sweatt bled and died Father I will that they whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou hast loved me before the Foundation of the world c. Then shall the Father rise from his Throne and say unto them Come near unto me my Sons and my Daughters that I may kiss you See the smell of my Children is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Then shall he call for Crowns to put upon their heads bracelets upon their Arms Rings upon their fingers palms of Victory Scepters of Royalty into their hands appoint them their several Thrones the Mansions which their Lord went before to prepare for them upon which they shall be placed that they may sit and live reign with Christ their Heavenly Bridegroom for ever and ever everlasting joy shall be upon their heads all Tears shall be wiped from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall fice away And so shall they ever be MOVNT PISGAH OR THE THIRD PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Come to the tenth and last word of comfort The Saints blessed cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord so shall we beever with the Lord. This consequent of Christ's coming is the perfection and crown of all the rest cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord together with the extent and duration of it Ever Now cohabitation containeth four glorious Priviledges viz. 1. Presence 2. Vision 3. Fruition 4. Conformity 1. 1 Priviledge The first Priviledge which cohabition implieth is presence The Saints after their triumphant reception by Christ into his glory shall ever be where he is The Scriptures abound with expressions of this nature appearing in Gods presence Psal 42.2 Col. 3.4 Luke 21. â—â— Psalm 15.1 Rev. 3.21 and 1.5 6 John 17.24 and 14.3 standing before him abiding in his tabernacle dwelling in his holy hill yea dwelling in him and he in us sitting upon his throne and following of him where-ever he goes if at least that Scripture be to be underderstood of Heaven a glorious priviledge certainly for it is the purchase of Christ's blood the fruit of his prayer and one of the great ends of his coming in person at the end of the world that his Saints may be where he is dwell in his family be as near him as â—ationally they can desire 1 Kings 10.8 even stand before him and enjoy â—â—terrupted cohabitation and fellowship with him If the Queen of Sheba accounted it the happiness of Solomon's Servants that they might stand continually before him and hear his wisdom how much rather may we proclaim them happy thrice happy whose feet may stand within the gates of the new Jerusalem for behold a greater than Solomon is here even he Psalm 16.11 of whom the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore A second Priviledge is Vision 2 Priviledge Vision The Saints shall not only be where Christ is 〈◊〉 but they shall enjoy the beatifical viston they shall see and beh'ld that which the seeing and beholding of will make them blessed for ever Now there are six beatifical Objects in Heaven 1. The seat and mansions of blessed Souls 2. The glorified Saints 3. The elect Angels 4. The glorified body of the Lord Jesus 5. God in the Divine essence 6. All things in God The first vision which the Saints shall see 1 Vision the seat of the blessed John 14.2 2 C◠〈…〉 Luke â—â— 4 2 Cor. 12.4 Rev. 2.7 is that which is called Sedes beatorum the seat or babitation of blessed souls the mansions of glory which our Lord hath purchased for his redeemed and which he went before to prepare for them the third Heavens the Palace of the great King A glorius place certainly for therefore it is called Paradise to set forth the beauty and pleasantness of the scituation that as the Paradise wherein God put man in his innocency was the beauty and delight of the whole neather world so Heaven the place which God hath prepared for man restored to perfection is the beauty and glory of all the upper Regions the top and perfection of the whole Creation Behold the outside of this stately Palace is very glorious beautified and adorned with all those bright and glittering Luminaries the Sun Moon and Stars what think you is the inside Consult that description which the Spirit of God hath made of it in the Revelations Chap. 21.18 19 20 21. the wall of jasper the City of pure gold the foundations of the wall of the City garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates of twelve pearls every several gate of one entire pearl the street of the City of pure gold as it were transparent glass and you will surely say Heaven is a glorious place and yet behold this description of it is levelled to the low and childish capacity of our weak and fleshly senses as we judge of things in this imperfect state of mortality what think you then will the glory of the new Jerusalem appear when glorified sense shall be â—levated and raised up to a perfection sutable to its object Surely Heaven will as much exceed the description of it in glory as the bodies of the Saints in the Resurrection shall exceed in beauty these vile bodies of ours when they are resolved into dust and rottenness What shall I need say more Heaven is a place as beautiful and glorious as the wisdom and power of God could devise to make it that it might be the Royal Palace of his own Residence That august and magnificent fabrick which the proud Babylonian Tyrant stood tracking and boasting over Dan 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty was but a prison or hovel in comparison of this building of God 1 Cor. 5.1 that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and those words are proper only for the mouth of God Is not this the new Jerusalem which I have built for the house of the Kingdom and for the glory of my Majesty What David spake of the Temple that little type of Heaven in decimo sexto The house that is for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory c. must be infinitely more august and magnificent in the antitype this the glorified Saints shall behold and it will beyond conception be marvellous in their eyes Secondly a
which shall fill the memory and the remembrance of them comparing the type with the antitype if I may so say things past with things present will fill the Soul with admiration and delight If any thing of evil do occur whether of sin affliction as soon as ever it enters within that glorious firmament it loseth the nature of evil and is naturalized into matter of rejoycing and thankfulness In a word the entire Image of God Eph. 5.1 It was their duty in the state of grace it shall be their infinite dignity in the state of glory which was imprinted upon the Soul in the first Creation and reprinted upon it though in an imperfect character in the new Creation shall now be perfected to the life in the Regeneration the Saints shall be as like God as ever they can look as like God as ever Children were like their Father so that there will be nothing but looking and liking the one upon the other Prevent that holy gaze now oh ye children of the most high God be often taken up in the beholding and contemplation of the face of your heavenly Father behold will it not Quicken you to duty Comfort you in your droopings Cause you to overlook the contempt of the world with an holy pride And even be the dawnings of glory upon your faces whereby some line and lineaments of beauty shall be added daily to that blessed draught begun already against that day Once more before we go off from this pleasing contemplation add we The very bodies of the Saints shall share in this blessed conformity as well as the soul It had its degree in the first Paradise man had a kind of resemblance to God in the very make of his body The bodies of the Saints Os homini sublims dâ—dit caelumque tueri jussit c. beautiful upright active no such visible picture of God in Heaven or Earth as man was not Sun Moon or Stars not Earth and Sea or the visible Heavens themselves have so much of their Maker in them as the body of man his very corporeal sences had much of God in them they were Vestigia Dei though not Imago one might easily have known who was their Father But now in glory saith the Apostle Our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The glorified body of Christ next to the divine essence to which it is hypostatically united shall be the glory and the wonder of Heaven and our body saith the Apostle shall be like his conformable unto his glorious body What a mirrour of glory will the Saints be in their souls conform'd to the divine nature and their body conform'd to the glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Oh wonderful astonishing transfiguration Well said the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be surely eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man c. This will be an infinite compensation to the Saints of God for all their holy endeavours of being like to God that as obedient Children they have been followers of their heavenly Father Eph. 5.1 and for all the reproaches and abasements they susteined from a reprobate world because of those endeavours The earth was not able to bear the hard speeches wherewith the enemies of God have reproached the footsteps of Gods anointed ones labouring to insist in the steps of their heavenly Father willing to be Nonconformists to the will and lusts of men and striving to be conformable to the will and pattern of their holy King and Law giver the Lord Jesus the King of Saints Now I say it shall be no shame nor grief of heart unto them when they shall reap the fruit of their weak and imperfect conformity on earth in the most full and perfect consummation of that conformity in heaven when behold whatsoever is glorious and wonderful in the person of their glorious Redeemer or in the thrice glorious and blessed Trinity the very print and Character of it shall be stampt upon the glorified Saints in their created capacities causing them to appear not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as so many Angels but even to resemble God himself and to shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father and they that laughed them to scorn shall see it and their faces being filled with shame their consciences with horrour and their hearts with envy they shall now revile and curse themselves howling out Wisd 5.4 We fools accounted their lives madness c. Oh how much better are the reproaches of Christ than all the grandieur and applause in the world Be of good chear all ye Servants of God the time is coming when you shall not repent of your conformity to God and Christ in holiness but shall ever sing I thank the Lord who gave me counsel and taught me to chuse the better part which shall never be taken away from me I come now to the Complement and perfection of this last fruit and consequent of Christ his coming the Saints cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord namely The extent and duration of it in this particle ever We shall ever be with the Lord. The extent and duration ever Ever a little word but of immense signification a Child may speak it It was a witty reply of a Grandchild of Doctor Reynolds now Bishop of Norwich He asking the Child How long Eternity is The Child answered If you will tell me how long half eternity is I will tell you how long whole eternity is but neither Man nor Angel can understand it Oh who can take the demensions of eternity Yea who can tell me how long half eternity is Behold I shew you a Mystery half eternity is eternity yea every part and particle of eternity is eternity for eternity is not made up of hours or dayes or years or lustrums or jubiles or ages or millions of Ages the whole space between the creation of the world and the dissolution of it would not make a day in eternity yea so many years as there be dayes in that space would not fill up an hour in eternity Eternity is one entire Circle beginning and ending in it self This present world which is measured out by such divisions and distinctions of times is therefore mortal and will have end 2 Cor. 4.18 If eternity did consist of finite times though never so large and vast it would not be eternity but a longer tract of time only that which is made up of finite is finite Eternity is but one immense indivisible point wherein there is neither first nor last Deus est octus simplicissimus ex quo omnia sâ—nt in â—uem omnio redeuâ— beginning nor ending succession or alteration but is like God himself one and the same for ever From hence we infer this Doctrine The blessedness of the Saints in Heaven is everlasting Their