shall see clearly whether Iezabel had more minde to keep a fast or to get Naboths Vineyard then we shall see whether Herod had more minde to worship Christ or to worry him all the secrets of mens hearts shall be laid open Me thinks it would be worth dying to see this sight We shall then see who is the Achan who the Iudas the womens paint falls off from their faces when they come neere the fire before the scorching heat of Gods justice the hypocrites paint will drop off and the Treason hid in the heart will be visible These mysteries will God reveal to us our knowledge shall be clear CHAP. XI The sixth Prerogative Royal. THE next priviledge is Our Love shall be perfect Love is the Jewell with which Christ's Bride is adorned in one sense it is more excellent then Faith for Love never ceaseth 1 Cor. 13.8 The Spouse shall put off her Jewel of Faith when she goes to heaven but she shall never put off her Jewel of Love Love shall be perfect 1. Our love to God shall be perfect The Saints love shall be joyned with Reverence for a filial disposition shall remaine but there shall be no servile feare in Heaven Horrour and trembling is proper to the damned in hell though in Heaven there shall be a reverencing fear yet a rejoycing fear we shall see that in God which will work such a delight that we cannot but love him And this love to God shall be 1. A fervent love we love him here secundùm studium there secundùm actum as the Schoolmen speak Our love to God in this life is rather a desire but in Heaven the smoak of desire shall be blown up into a flame of love we shall love God with an intensenesse of love here our love is lukewarme and sometimes frozen a childe of God weeps that he can love God no more but there is a time shortly coming when our love to God shall be fervent it shall burn as hot as it can the damned shall be in a flame of fire the elect in a flame of love 2. A fixed-love Alas how soon is our love taken off from God! other objects presenting themselves steal away our love Your goodnesse is like a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away In the morning you shall see the grasse covered with drops of dew as so many pearls but before noon all is vanished so is it with our love to God perhaps at a Sermon when our affections are stirred the heart melts in love and at a Sacrament when we see Christs blood as it were trickling downe upon the crosse some love-drops fall from the heart but within a few dayes all is vanished and we have lost our first love this is matter of humiliation while we live But O ye Saints comfort your selves in Heaven your love shall be fixed as well as fervent it shall never be taken off from God any more such beauty and excellency shall shine in God that as a divine loadstone it will be alwayes drawing our eyes and hearts after him 2. Our love to the Saints shall be perfect Love is a sweet harmony a tuning and chiming together of affections It is our duty to love the Saints 1. Though they are of bad dispositions sometimes their nature is so rugged unhewn that grace doth not cast forth such a lustre it is like a gold ring on a leprous hand or a Diamond set in iron yet if there be any thing of Christ it is our duty to love it 2. Though they in some things differ from us yet if we see Christ's image and portraiture drawn upon their hearts we are to separate the precious from the vile But alas how defective is this grace how little love is there among Gods people Herod and Pilate can agree wicked men unite when Saints divide For the divisions of England there are great thoughts of heart Contentions were never more hot love never more cold Many there are whose musick consists all in discords whose harp is the Crosse that pretend to love truth but hate peace Divisions are Satans Powder-plot to blow up Religion Sin brought forth separation and this daughter of separation hath brought forth the grand-childe of division For these things there are great searchings of heart It were not strange to hear the harlot say Let the childe be divided but to heare the mother of the child say so this is sad If Pope Cardinall Jesuite all conspire against the Church of God it were not strange but for one Saint to persecute another this is strange For a Wolfe to worry a Lamb is usuall but for a Lamb to worry a Lamb is unnatural For Christs Lily to be among the thorns is ordinary but for this Lily to become a thorne to teare and fetch blood of it self this is strange How will Christ take this at our hands Would he not have his Coat rent and will he have his Body rent Oh that I could speak here weeping Well this will be a foyl to set off heaven the more there is a time shortly coming when our love shall be perfect there shall be no difference of judgement in heaven there the Saints shall be all of a piece Though we fall out by the way and about the way we shall all agree in the journies end When once the blessed Harp of Christs voice hath sounded in the ears of the Saints the evill spirit shall be quite driven away When our strings shall be wound up to the highest peg of glory you shall never hear any more discord in the Saints Musick In Heaven there shall be a perfect Harmony CHAP. XII The seventh Prerogative Royal. THe next glorious priviledge to come is the Resurrection of our bodies This is an Article of our faith Now for the illustration of this there are three things considerable 1. That there â—s such a thing as the Resurrection 2. That this is not yet past 3. That the same body that dies shall rise again 1. I shall prove the Proposition that there is a Resurrection of the body There are some of the Sadduces opinion that there is no resurrection then let us eat and drink for to morrow we die 1 Cor. 15.32 To what purpose are all our prayers and tears and indeed it were well for them who are in their life-time as bruit beasts if it might be with them as beasts after death but there is a resurrection of the body as well as an ascension of the soul which I shall prove by two Arguments 1. Because Christ is risen therefore we must rise the head being raised the rest of the body shal not alwayes lye in the grave for then it would be an head without a body his rising is a pledge of our resurrection 1 Thes. 4.14 2. Ex AEquo in regard of justice and equity the bodies of the wicked have been weapons of unrighteousnesse and have joyned with the
Debt-book is crossed in his blood Quest. How is Death ours Answ. Two wayes 1. It is the Out-let to Sin 2. It is the In-let to happiness 1. Death to a Beleever is an Out-let to Sin we are in this life under a sinful necessity even the best Saint There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Evill thoughts are continually arising out of our hearts as sparks out of a Furnace Sin keeps house with us whether we will or no the best Saint alive is troubled with In-mates though he forsakes his sinnes yet his sinnes will not forsake him 1. Sin doth indispose to good How to performe that which is good I finde not Rom. 7. ver 18. When we would pray the heart is as a Voyal out of tune When we would weepe we are as clouds without rain 2. Sin doth irritate to evil The Flesh lusts against the Spirit There needs no winde of Tentation we have Tide strong enough in our hearts to carry us to Hell Consider sinne under this threefold notion 1. Sin is a body of death and that not impertinently First It is a body for its weight The body is an heavy and weighty substance so is Sin a body it weighs us down When we should pray the weights of Sin are tied to our feet that we cannot ascend Anselm seeing a little Boy playing with a Bird he let her flie up and presently pulls the Bird down againe by a string So saith he it is with me as with this Bird when I would flie up to heaven upon the wings of meditation I finde a string tied to my leg I am over-powered with corruption but Death pulls off these weights of sin and le ts the Soul free Secondly Sin is a body of death for its annoyance It was a cruel torment that one used he tied a dead man to a living that the dead man might annoy and infest the living Thus it is with a childe of God he hath two men within him Flesh and Spirit Grace and Corruption here is the dead man tied to the living a proud sinful heart is worse to a childe of God then the smell of a dead Corps Indeed to a natural man sinne is not offensive for being dead in sinne he is not sensible of the body of death but where there is a vitall principle there is no greater annoyance then the body of Death Insomuch that the pious soule oft cries out as David Wo is me that I dwell in Mesek and sojourn in the tents of Kedar So saith he Wo is me that I am constrained to abide with sin How long shall I be troubled with inmates How long shall I offend that God whom I love When shall I leave these Tents of Kedar 2. Sinne is a Tyrant it carries in it the nature of a Law the Apostle calls it the law in his members There is the law of Pride the law of Unbelief it hath a kinde of jurisdiction as Caesar over the Senate perpetuam dictaturam What I hate that do I The Apostle was like a man carried down the streame and was not able to beare up against it Sinne takes us prisoners whence are our carnal fears whence our passions whence is it that a childe of God doth that which he allows not yea against knowledge only this he is for a time Sinnes Prisoner The Flesh oft prevailes though in coole blood the elder shall serve the younger whence is it that he who is borne of God should be so earthly The reason is he is captived under sin but be of good chear where grace makes a Combate death shall make a Conquest 3. Sin is a leprous spot It makes every thing we touch uncleane We reade when the Leprosie did spread in the walls of the house the Priests commanded them to take away the stones in the wall in which the Plague was and take other stones and put in the place of those stones and take other morter Levit. 14.42 But when the Plague spread againe in the wall then he must break downe the house with the stones and timber thereof Vers. 45. Thus in every man naturally there is a fretting leprosie of sinne pride impenitency c. These are leprous spots now in conversion here God doth as it were take away the old stones and timber and put new in the roome he makes a change in the heart of a sinner but still the leprousie of sinne spreads then at last death comes and pulls down the stones and timber of the house and the soule is quite freed from the leprousie Sinne is a defiling thing it makes us red with guilt and black with filth 'T is compared to a menstruous cloath we need carry it no higher Pliny tells us that the Trees with touching of it would become barren and Hierom saith Nihil in lege menstruato immundius there was nothing in the Law more uncleane then the menstruous cloath this is sinne Sinne drawes the Devils picture in a man malice is the Devils eye oppression is his hand hypocrisie is his cloven foot but behold death will give us our discharge death is the last and best Physician which cures all diseases the aking head and the unbelieving heart Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis mors erit sepulchrum peccati Sinne was the Mid-wife that brought Death into the World and Death shall be the Grave to bury Sinne O the Priviledge of a Beleever he is not taken away in his sinnes but he is taken away from his sinnes The Persians had a certaine day in the yeare which they called vitiorum interitum wherein they used to kill all Serpents and venemous creatures Such a day as that will the day of death be to a man in Christ. This day the old Serpent dies in a Beleever that hath so often stung him with his temptations this day the sinnes of the godly these venemous creatures shall all be destroyed they shall never be proud more they shall never grieve the Spirit of God more the Death of the body shall quite destroy the Body of death 2. Death to a Believer is an Inlet to happinesse Sampson found an honey-combe in the Lions carcase so may a childe of God suck much sweetnesse from death Death is the gate of life death pulls off our rags and gives us change of rayment all the hurt it doth us is to put us into a better condition Death is called in Scripture a sleepe 1 Thes. 4.14 Those that sleepe in Iesus as after sleep the spirits are exhilarated and refreshed so after Death the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Death is yours Death opens the portal into Heaven as Tertullian speakes The day of a Christian's death is the birth-day of his heavenly life it is his Ascension-day to glory it is his Marriage-day with Jesus Christ. After our Funerall begins our Marriage Well then
joy and pleasure length of time makes them better Heavens Eminency is its Permanency Things are prized and valued by the time we have in them lands or houses in fee-simple which are to a man and his heirs for ever are esteemed far better then leases which soon expire The Saints do not lease heaven it is not their Landlords house but their Fathers house And this house never falls to decay it is a mansion-house Iohn 14.2 There is nothing excellent saith one of the Fathers that is not perpetual The comforts of the world are fluid and uncertain like a fading garland therefore they are shadowed out by the Tabernacle which was transient but Heaven is set out by the Temple which was fixed and permanent It was made of strong materials built with stone covered with Cedar over-laid with gold This is the Heaven of Heaven We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. ver 17. Eternity is the highest link of the Saints happinesse the soul of the believer shall be ever bathing it selfe in the pure and pleasant fountaine of glory As there is no intermission in the joyes of heaven so no expiration When once God hath set his Plants in the celestial Paradise he will never pluck them up any more he will never transplant them never will Christ lose any member of his body you may sooner separate light from the Sunne then a glorified Saint from Jesus Christ. O eternity eternity what a Spring will that be that shall have no Autumne what a day that shall have no Night Me thinks I see the morning-Star appear it is break of day already And this inheritance of glory fades not away 1 Pet. 1.4 Had it not been enough for the Apostle to have said It is an inheritance incorruptible Nay but he addes It fadeth not away There is a sacred climax in this the meaning is heaven doth not lose its glosse or vernancy A Rose may continue in its being when it doth not retaine its beauty The substance of it may be preserved when the colour and savour is lost but such is the glory of this inheritance that it cannot be made so much as to wither but like the flower we call Semper-vivens it keeps fresh to eternity Concerning the glory of this blessed inheritance let me super-adde these foure things 1. The glory of heaven is ponderous and weighty It is called A weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Immensum gloria calcar habet God must make us able to beare it This weight of glory should make sufferings light This weight should make us throw away the weights of sinne out of our hands though they be golden weights who would for the indulging of a lust forfeit so glorious an inheritance Lay the whole World in scales with it it is lighter then vanity 2. It is infinitely satisfying there is no vacuity or indigency This Encomium can be given properly of nothing but heaven You that Court the world for honour and preferment remember the creature saith concerning satisfaction It is not in me The world is made in manner of a circle the heart in manner of a Triangle a circle can never fill a triangle heaven only is commensurate to the vast desires of the soul. Here the Christian cries out in a divine extasie I have enough my Saviour I have enough Thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures not drops but rivers and these onely can quench the thirst It shall be every day festivall in Heaven there is no want at a feast There shall be excellency shining in its perfection The world is but a Jaile the body is the Fetter with which the soule is bound if there be any thing in a Jaile to delight what is the Palace and the Throne what is Heaven If we meet with any comfort in Mount Horeb what is in Mount Sion All the world is like a Landskip you may see Orchards and Gardens curiously drawn in the Landskip but you cannot enter into them you may enter into this heavenly Paradise 2 Pet. 1. ver 11. For so an entrance shall be made abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome c. Here is soul-satisfaction 3. Though an innumerable company of Saints and Angels have a part in this inheritance there is never the lesse for thee Here is a propriety in a community another mans beholding the Sunne doth not make me to have the lesser light Thus will it be in glory Usually here all the land goes to the Heire the younger are put off with small portions In Heaven all the Saints are Heires the youngest Believer is an heire and God hath land enough to give to all his heires All the Angels and Arch-angels have their portion paid out yet a Believer shall have never the lesse Hereditas illa non minuitur copiâ possessorum non fit angustior numero cohaeredum Aug. in Psal. 49. Is not Christ the heire of all things Heb. 1. vers 2. and the Saints co-heires Rom. 8. vers 17. They share with Christ in the same glory 'T is true one vessel may hold more then another but every vessel shall be full 4. The soules of the Elect shall enter upon possession immediately after death 2 Corinth 5. vers 8. We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. There are some that say the soules of the Elect sleep in their bodies but the Apostle here confutes it for if the soule be absent from the body how can it sleep in the body There is an immediate transition and passage from death to glory The soule returnes to God that gave it Christs Resurrection was before his Ascension but the Saints Ascension is before their Resurrection The body may be compared to the bubble in the water the soule to the winde that fills it you see the bubble riseth higher and higher at last it breakes into the open aire so the body is but like a bubble which riseth from infancy to youth from youth to age higher and higher at last this bubble breakes and dissolves into dust and the spirit ascends into the open aire it returnes unto GOD that gave it Be of good comfort we shall not stay long for our inherirance it is but winking and we shall see God O the glory of this Paradise when we are turned out of all let us think of this inheritance which is to come Praemium quod fide non attingitur faith it selfe is not able to reach it it is more then we can hope for There can be no want where Christ is who is all in all Ephes. 3.11 In Heaven there is health without sicknesse plenty without famine riches without poverty life without death There is unspotted chastity unstained honour unparallel'd beauty there is the Tree of Life in the middest of Paradise there is the river that waters the garden there is the Vine flourishing and the Pomegranates budding there
soul in sinne their eyes have been a casement to let in vanity their hands have been full of bribes their feet have been swift to shed blood therefore justice and equity require that they should rise again and their bodies be punished with their souls Againe The bodies of the Saints have been members of holinesse their eyes have dropped down tears for sinne their hands have relieved the poor their tongues have been trumpets of Gods praise therefore justice and equity require that they should rise again that their bodies as well as their soules may be crown'd There must be a resurrection else how should there be a remuneration We are more sure to arise out of our graves then out of our beds the bodies of the wicked are lockt up in the grave as in a prison that they may not infest the Church of God and at the day of judgement they shall be brought out of the prison to tryall and the bodies of the Saints are laid in the grave as in a bed of perfume where they mellow and ripen against the resurrection Noah's olive-tree springing after the flood the blossoming of Aaron's dry rod the flesh and sinews coming to Ezekiel's dry bones what were these but lively emblems of the resurrection 2. That this resurrection is not yet past some hold that it is past and make the Resurrection to be nothing else but Regeneration which is call'd a rising from sinne and a being risen with Christ and do affirme that there is no other resurrection but this and that only the soul is with God in happinesse not the body Of this opinion were Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.18 But the rising from sinne is call'd the first resurection Rev. 1.6 which implies that there is a second resurrection and that second I shall prove out of Dan. 12.2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake he doth not say they are already awake but they shall awake And Iohn 5.28 The houre is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Observe Christ doth not say they are come forth of the grave already but they shall come forth Here a question may be moved Whether the bodies of some of the Saints are not in Heaven already then it will seem that their resurrection is not yet to come as we read that Elias was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot and Enoch Heb. 11.5 was translated that he might not see death Answ. I know the Question is controverted among Divines But there are some reasons do perswade me that Enoch and Elias are not yet bodily in Heaven nor shall be till the resurrection of all flesh when the rest of the Elect like a precious crop being fully ripe shall be translated into glory The first is Heb. 11.13 where it is said These all died in faith where Enoch was included Now why we should restraine this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these only to Abel Noah Abraham and not also to Enoch I see no rational ground Quest. But is it not said he was translated that he might not see death How can these two stand together that Enoch died yet he did not see death Answ. This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not see death I conceive with some Divines the meaning is that he might not see it in that painful and horrid manner as others his soule had an easie and joyful passage out of his body he died not after the common manner of men so saith Peter Martyr Seeing and feeling are in Scripture oft exegetical the one is put for the other as Rom. 7.23 I see a law in my members that is I feel a law 2. My second Argument is 1 Iohn 3.2 It doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he shall appeare we shall be like him We read in Scripture but of two Appearings of Christ his appearing in the flesh and his appearing at the day of judgment Now his appearing in this text must needs be meant of his last appearing And what then then saith the Apostle we shall be like him that is in our bodies Phil. 3.21 The spirits of just men being already made perfect Heb. 12.23 Whence I infer Enoch is not yet ascended bodily into heaven because none of the bodies of the Saints shall be fully made like Christ till his second appearing 3. Besides this may be added the judgement of many of the Fathers who were pious and learned It is not probable that Enoch and Elias should be taken up in their bodies into heaven saith Peter Martyr and he urgeth that saying of our Lord No man hath ascended into heaven that is saith he corporeally but the Son of man that descended from heaven Of this opinion also is Oecolampadius Martinus Borrhaeus and learned Doctor Fulk who in his marginal notes upon the 11th to the Hebrews hath this descant It appeareth not saith he that Enoch now liveth in body no more then Moses but that he was translated by God out of the world and died not after the common manner of men And concerning Eliah the same reverend Authour hath this passage It is evident that he was taken up alive but not that he continueth alive And again because we read expresly that he was taken up into heaven 2 King 2.11 It is certaine saith he that his body was not carried into heaven Christ being the first that in perfect humanity ascended thither 1 Cor. 15.20 Christ is become the first-fruits of them that sleep He is called the First-fruits not only because he was the most excellent and sanctified the rest but because he was the first Cluster which was gathered the First that went up in a corporeal manner into the Seat of the Blessed For my part I see not how Christ could properly be called the First-fruits if Enoch and Eliah were bodily in heaven before him Hence we see that the Resurrection is yet to come 3. The third thing is That at the resurrection every soul shal have its own body the same body that dies shall arise Some hold that the soul shall be cloathed with a new body but then it were improper to call it a Resurrection of the body it should be rather a Creation It was a custome in the African Churches to say I believe the resurrection hujus carnis of this body I confesse the doctrine of the resurrection is such that it is too deep for reason to wade here you must let faith swim For instance Suppose a man dying is cast into the Sea several Fishes come and devour him the substance of his body goes into these fishes afterwards the fishes are taken and eaten and the substance of these fishes goes into several
a flinty is now become a fleshy heart The heart is fearful of sin the least haire makes the eye weepe so the least sin makes the heart smite Davids heart smote him when he cut off the lap of King Saul's garment what would it have done if he had cut off his head A tender heart is like melting wax to God he may set what seale he will upon it A tender heart is like adamant to the threatnings of men in this sense the more tender the heart is the more hard 2. A childe-like heart is a praying heart The Spirit of adoption is a Spirit of supplication Ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father Before the childe is out of the womb it cannot crie While men lie in the womb of their natural estate they cannot pray so as to be heard but when they are born again of the seed of the Word then they crie Abba Father Prayer is nothing else but the souls breathing it selfe into the bosome of its Father Prayer is a sweet and familiar intercourse with God He comes down to us upon the wings of his Spirit and we go up to him upon the wings of prayer It is reported in the life of Luther that when he prayed it was tanta reverentia ut si Deo tanta fiducia ut si amico it was with so much reverence as if he were praying to God and with so much boldnesse as if he had been speaking to his friend This prayer must have constancy and instancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.12 continuing constant The heart must boile over Prayer is compared to groanes unutterable it alludes to a woman that is in pangs we should be in pangs when we are travelling for mercy such prayer commands God himselfe 3. A childe-like heart is a loyall heart it is moulded into obedience 't is like the flower that opens and shuts with the Sun so it opens to God and shuts to tentation This is the language of obedience it is written in the volume of my heart I delight to do thy will O my God 4. A childe-like heart is a zealous heart 'T is impatient of Gods dishonour Moses was cool in his own cause but hot in Gods When the people of Israel had wrought folly in the golden calfe he breaks the Tables As we shall answer for idle words so for sinful silence It is dangerous in this sense to be possessed with a dumb devil David saith the zeale of Gods house had eaten him up Many Christians whose zeal once had almost eaten them up now they have eaten up their zeal Let men talk of bitternesse for my part I can never believe that he hath the heart of a childe in him that can be patient when Gods glory suffers Can an ingenuous childe endure to heare his father reproached Though we should be silent under Gods displeasure yet not under his dishonour When there is a fire of zeal kindled at the heart it will breake forth at the lips Zeale tempered with holinesse this white and sanguine is the best complexion of the soule Of all others let Ministers be impatient when Gods glory is eclipsed and impeached Let not them be either shaken with fear or seduced with flattery they are Gods ensign-bearers his warriours and therefore must discharge against sin God never made Ministers to be as false glasses to make bad faces look fair â—or want of this fire of zeale they are in danger of another fire even the burning lake Rev. 21.8 into which the fearfull shall be cast CHAP. V. Shewing that things to come are a Believers AND so I slide into the second part of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things to come are yours here is portion enough It is a great comfort that when things present are taken away yet things to come are ours Me thinks the very naming this word Things to come should make the spirits of a Christian revive It is a sweet word our happinesse is in reversion the best is behinde all is not yet come that is promised Truly if we had nothing but what we have here we were miserable here are disgraces martyrdomes we must taste some of that Gall and Vineger which Jesus Christ drank upon the Crosse but O Christian be of good chear there is something to come The best part of your portion is yet unpaid All things to come are yours God deals with us as a Merchant that shews the worst piece of cloath first We meete sometimes with course usage in the world that piece which is of the finest spinning is kept till we come at heaven It is true God doth chequer his work in this life a white spot with a black he gives us something to sweeten our pilgrimage here the Praelibations and tastes of his love these are the earnest and first-fruits but what is this to that which is to come Now we are the sonnes of God 1 Iohn 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be expect that God should keep his best wine till last Things to come are yours CHAP. VI. The first Prerogative To Come BUt what are those things that are to come Answ. There are twelve things yet to come the which I call twelve Prerogatives Royal wherewith the Believer shall be invested The first is set down in the Text which I will begin with 1. Death is yours Death in Scripture is called an Enemy 1 Cor. 15.26 Yet here it is put in a Christians Inventory Death is yours 'T is an enemy to the mortal part but a friend to the spiritual It is one of our best friends next to Christ Death is a part of the joincture When Moses saw his rod turned into a serpent it did at the first affright him and he fled from it but when God bade him take hold of it he found by the miraculous effects which it wrought it did him and the people of Israel much good so death at the first sight is like the rod turned into a serpent it affrights but when by Faith we take hold of it then we finde much benefit and comfort in it As Moses rod divided the waters and made a passage for Israel into Canaan So death divides the Waters of Tribulation and makes a passage for us into the land of promise Death is called the King of Terrours but it can do a childe of God no hurt the sting is pull'd out The Bee by stinging loseth its sting While death did sting Christ upon the Crosse it hath quite lost its sting to a Believer It can hurt the soule no more then David did King Saul when he cut off the lap of his garment Death to a Believer is but like the Arresting of a man for a Debt after the Debt is paid Death as Gods Sergeant at Armes may Arrest us and carry us before Gods Justice but Christ will shew our discharge the
before you die Death is yours An earthly Saint is a contradiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a man refined and separated from the earth if an Astronomer in stead of observing the Planets and the motions of the Heavens should take a reed in his hand and fall a measuring of the earth would not this be counted a solecisme and is it not as great a solecisme in Religion when men that pretend to have Christ and heaven in their eye yet minde earthly things Phil. 3.19 Our souls me thinks should be like to a ship which is made little and narrow downwards but more wide and broad upwards So our affections should be very narrow downwards to the earth but wide and large upwards towards heavenly things Thus we see death is a priviledge to believers death is yours the heire while he is under age is capable of the land he is borne to but he hath not the use or the benefit of it till he comes of age be as old as you will you are never of age till you die Death brings us of age and then the possession comes into our hands CHAP. VII The second Prerogative Royall of a Believer NOw I proceed to the second Prerogative which is yet to come what holy David saith of Sion Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Psalm 87.3 I may apply to these blessed things in reversion 2. The second Prerogative royall of a Christian is he shall be carried up by the Angels In this life a believer is carried by the Saints they lift him upon the wings of their prayers and when they can carry him no longer after death the Angels take him and carry him up thus shall it be done to the man whom God will honour Wicked men who are of the Devils life-guard when they die they shall have a black-guard of Angels to carry them Thou who art an old sinner that hast an hoary head but thy heart is as young in sinne as ever I may say to thee as Christ said in another sense to Peter When thou art old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not So I say Thou old sinner the time is shortly coming when thou shalt stretch forth thy hands on thy death-bed and another shall binde thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not thou shalt be carried by a black-guard but a believer shall be carried by the Angels into Heaven The begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham 's bosome Abraham's bosome is a figurative speech representing the seat of the Blessed thither was he carried by the Angels Poore Lazarus when he was upon earth he had no friends but dogs to come at him when he was dead he had â— convoy of Angels After our fall the Angels as well as God fell out with us and became our enemies hence we reade that the Angels set out by the Cherubims stood with a flaming sword to keepe our first Parents out of Paradise Gen. 3.24 but being at peace with God we are at peace with the Angels Therefore the Angell comes with an Olive-branch of Peace in his mouth and proclaimes with triumph the newes of Christs incarnation Luk. 2.11 For unto you is borne in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord the Angels blesse God for mans Redemption Ver. 13. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly hoast praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest The Angels love mankinde especially where there is the new-man and are ready to do all friendly offices for us as in our life-time they are our supporters Psal. 91.11 He shall give his Angels charge to keep thee So after death they are our Porters Lazarus was carried up by the Angels The Angels are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring Spirits they are willing to minister for the good of the Saints Hence some observe it is said Lazarus was carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Angels in the plurall not by one Angel as if the Angels had been ambitious to carry Lazarus and every one strived which should have a part wicked men do not strive more who shall have a part in the death of the godly then the Angels do who shall beare a part in their ascension O in what pomp and triumph did Lazarus's soule now ride never was Dives so honoured in his life as Lazarus was at his death For a King to help to carry the Hearse of one of his Subjects were an high honour but a believer shall have a guard of Angels to conduct him Amasis King of Egypt that he might set forth his magnificence would have his Chariot drawn with foure Princes which he had conquered in the War but what was all this to the Chariot in which Lazarus and the soul of every believer shall be drawn at their death they shall be carried by the Angels of God CHAP. VIII The third Prerogative Royal of a Believer THe next great Prerogative is The Believer shall be with Christ in glory Phil. 1.23 I desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved or loosen anchor and to be with Christ This is a priviledge of the first magnitude surely we can be no losers by being with Christ. A graft or scion though it be taken out of the tree it doth not perish but is set into a better stock thus it is with a Christian while he is here even after Conversion there is much of the wilde Olive still in him now when this scion by death is cut off he doth not perish but is set into a more noble and generous stock he is with Christ which is farre better a state of perfection is better then a state of imperfection Our graces are our best jewels but they are imperfect and do not give out their full lustre they are like the Moon which when it shines brightest hath a darke spot Our faith is mingled with unbeliefe our humility is stained with pride the flame of our graces is not so pure but it hath some smoake grace is but in its infancy and minority it will never be of full growth till we are with Christ. This is the highest link in the chaine of glory we shall be with Christ. What is it the pious soule desires in this life is it not to have the sweet presence of Christ he cares for nothing but what hath aliquid Christi something of Christ in it he loves duties only as they are manuductions to Christ why is prayer so sweet but because the soul hath private conference with Christ Why is the Word precious but because it is a meanes to convey Christ he comes down to us upon the wings of the Spirit and we go up to him upon the wings of Faith An ordinance without Christ is but feeding upon the dish in stead of the meat Why doth the wife â—ove the Letter
saith Musculus it is the Empyraean Heaven which Saint Paul calls the third Heaven For the situation of it it is far above all heavens where Christ himselfe is This is Sedes beatorum the Royall Palace where the Saints shall dwell The men of this world are high in power and in pride but if they could build their Nests among the Stars the elect shall shortly be above them they shall take their flight as high as Christ here is a preferment worth looking after 2. Magnificence It is set out by pearls and precious stones the richest jewels If the streets are of gold what is the furniture and hangings what is the Cabinet of Jewels I wonder not that the violent take it by force Mat. 11.12 I rather wonder others are no more violent What are all the rarities of the world to this the Coasts of Pearle the Islands of Spices the Rocks of Diamonds What a rich place must that needs be where God will lay out all his cost where Wisdome doth contrive and Bounty doth disburse Fulgentius beholding the pomp and splendor of the Romane Senate-house cried out O how beautiful is the celestial Hierusalem if the terrestrial Senate-house be so glorious In this blessed inheritance there is nothing but glory there is the King of glory there are the Vessels of glory there are the Thrones of glory there is the Weight of glory there are the Crownes of glory there is the Kingdome of glory there is the Brightnesse of glory This is a purchase worth getting What will men adventure for a Kingdome The worst come to the worst 't is but venturing our blood we need not venture our conscience 3. Purity Heaven is set forth under the Metaphor of pure gold and transparent glasse Revel 21.21 The Apostle calls it an inheritance undefiled Heaven is a pure place It is compared to the Saphyr Rev. 21.19 The Saphyr is a precious stone of a bright skie-colour and it hath a vertue in it saith Pliny to preserve chastnesse and purity Thus Heaven is represented by the Saphyr it is a place where onely the refined sublimated spirits do enter And Heaven is compared to the Emerald ver 19. which as Writers say of it hath a precious vertue to expell poison Heaven is such a pure soile that as no fever of lust so no venome of malice shall be there with the Emerald it will expell poison There shall not enter into it any thing that defileth Revel 21. vers 27. It is a Kingdome wherein dwells righteousnesse 2 Pet. 3.13 In this lower Region of the world there is little righteousnesse They set up wickednesse by a law Psal. 94.20 and the wicked devours his neighbour which is more righteous then he Hab. 1.13 Homo homini lupus The just man is oppressed because he is just One saith There is more justice to be found in hell then here among men for in hell no innocent person is oppressed but here righteousnesse is the thing that is persecuted A man can hardly tread two steps but either into sin or into suffering In this world the law is made only for the righteous man The sinner need not feare any punitive vindictive act of justice rather he that reproves sinne may feare Holinesse is the white that the devil shoots at But heaven is a kingdome wherein dwells righteousnesse there is the Judge of the world who puts on righteousnesse as a Brest-plate who loves righteousnesse There is the sun of righteousnesse There is the robe of righteousnesse There is the crown of righteousnesse 4. Amplitude The inheritance is sufficiently spacious for all the Saints The garner wide enough to receive all those infinite graines of wheat that shall be laid in it and he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the City c. The City lieth foure-square and the length is as large as the breadth and he measured the City with the reed twelve thousand furlongs Or as I finde it in some Greek Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Twelve times twelve thousand furlongs Here is a finite put for an infinite impossible it is that any Arithmetician should number or Rhetorician expresse these furlongs It is a phrase only that darkly shadows out the amplitude and largenesse of this celestial City though there be innumerable company of Saints and Angels in heaven yet there is infinitely enough roome to receive them In my fathers house are many Mansions Some are of opinion that every beleever shall have a particular Mansion in glory Every Saint shall have his Kingdome saith Iansenius We know our Saviour told his Apostles that they should sit upon twelve thrones Certainly the Saints shall not be straitened for roome The continent of glory is wide enough for the most vast sublime spirits to expatiate in 5. Light It is called an inheritance in light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If every star were a Sun it could never shadow out the bright lustre of this celestial Paradise Light is a glorious creature what were all the world without light but a dark prison What beauty is there in the Sunne when it is masqued with a cloud Lumen actuat colores saith the Logician Light doth actuate the colours and make every flower appear in its fresh beauty Heaven is a diaphanum or bright body all over embroydered with light not like the Coelum stellatum or starry heaven here and there bespangled with starres but other parts of it like checquor-work interwoven with darknesse Here Christ as a continual Sunne shall give light to the whole heaven The lamb shall be the light thereof indeed all other light in comparison of this is but like the twilight or rather the midnight Here alone are the shining rayes of beauty which every glorified eye shall be inabled both to behold and to possesse and this light shall have no night to Eclipse it no snuffers of death to extinguish it when once the Sunne of righteousnesse hath risen upon the soule it shall never set any more This is an high Gradation of the glory of heaven it is an inheritance in light When the Scripture would set forth the blessednesse of God himselfe it makes it consist in this He dwelleth in light 6. Permanency It is an inheritance incorruptible It runs parallel with eternity Eternity is a circle that hath neither beginning nor end a Sea that hath neither bottome nor bâ—nks This is the glory of the celestial Paradise it abides for ever The world passeth away 1 Joh. 2.17 Every thing is passing 'T is good to look upon the world as the Heathens did upon pleasure they looked upon the back-parts of pleasure and saw it going away from them and leaving a sting The world is passing away but Heaven never passeth therefore surpasseth evil things as paine and misery length of time makes them worse but good things as
men now how this body thus devoured and as it were crumbled into a thousand fractions should be raised idem numero the same numerical body is infinitely above reason to imagine we have scarce faith enough to believe it Quest. How can this be Answ. To such I say as our blessed Saviour Matth. 22.29 Ye do erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God 1. Not knowing the Scriptures The Scripture tells us expresly that the same body that dies shall rise again Iob 19.26 In my flesh shall I see God not in another flesh And vers 27. My eyes shall behold him not other eyes So 1 Cor. 15.53 This mortal shall put on immortality not another mortall but this mortall And 2 Cor. 5.10 That every one may receive the things done in his body c. not in another body Death in Scripture is called a sleep it is farre easier with God to raise the body then it is for us to awake a man when he is asleep 2. Ye erre not knowing the power of God that God who of nothing created all things cannot he reduce many things to one thing when the body is gone into a thousand substances cannot he make an abstraction and bring that body together againe Do we not see the Chymist can out of several metals mingled together as gold silver alcumy extract the one from the other the silver from the gold the alcumy from the silver and can reduce every metall to its own species or kinde and shall we not much more believe that when our bodies are mingled and confounded with other substances the wise God is able to make a divine extraction and re-invest every soul with its own body Use 1. This is comfort to a childe of God As Christ said to Martha John 11.23 Thy brother shall rise againe so I say to thee thy body shall rise again The body is sensible of joy as well as the soul and indeed we shall not be perfect in glory till our bodies be re-united to our souls Therefore in Scripture the doctrine of the resurrection is made matter of joy and triumph Isa. 26.19 The dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake sing ye that dwell in the dust Death is as it were the fall of the leafe but our bones shall flourish as an herb in the spring of the resurrection That body wich is mouldred to dust shall revive Sometimes the Saints do sowe the Land with their bodies Psal. 142.7 and water it with their blood Psal. 79.3 But these bodies whether imprisoned beheaded sawn asunder shall arise and sit down with Christ upon the Throne O consider what joy will there be at the re-uniting of the body and soul at the resurrection As there will be a sad meeting of the body and soul of the wicked they shall be joyned together as briars to scratch and teare one another So what unspeakable joy will there be at the meeting together of the soul and body of the Saints how will they greet one another they two being the nearest acquaintance that ever were what a welcome will the soul give to the body O blessed body thou didst suffer thy self to be martyrd and crucified thou wert kept under by watchings fastings c. when I prayed thou didst attend my prayers with hands lifted up and knees bowed down Thou wert willing to suffer with me and now thou shalt reigne with me cheare up thy self my deare friend thou wert sowne as seed in the dust of the earth with ignominy but now art raised in glory thou wert sowen a natural body but now art raised a spiritual body O my dear body I will enter into thee again as an heavenly sparckle and thou shalt cloath me againe as a glorious vestment I will I say enter into thee againe and both of us will enter into our Masters joy Use 2. It shews the great love and respect God bears to the weakest believer God wil not glorifie the bodies of his dearest and most eminent Saints not the Patriarchs or Prophets not the body of Moses Elias till thou risest out of thy grave God is like a Master of a Feast that stayes till all his guests are come Abraham the father of the faithful must not sit down bodily in Heaven till all his children are born and the body of every Saint perfectly mellow and ripe for the resurrection 3. If the bodies of the Saints must arise then consecrate your bodies to the service of God these bodies must be made one with Christs body The Apostle makes this Use of the Doctrine of the resurrection 1 Cor. 6.14 And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power there is the Doctrine Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot ver 15. there is the Use. It is enough for wicked men to adulterate and defile their bodies The drunkard makes his body a tunnel for the wine and strong drink to run thorow The Epicure makes his body a living tombe to bury the good creatures of God The adulterer makes his body a stewes The body is called a vessell in Scripture these vessels will be found musty at the resurrection fit only to hold that wine which you read of Psal. 75.8 In the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red this is the wine of Gods wrath It is enough for those bodies to be defiled which shall be joyned to the devil but you that are believers that expect your bodies shall be joyned with Christs body oh cleanse these vessels take heed of putting your bodies to any impure services Present your bodies a living sacrifice Rom. 12.1 Have a care to keep all the passages and cinque-ports sometimes the devil comes in at the eye therefore Iob made a covenant with his eyes and goes out at the tongue therefore David set a watch before his lips Surely those that have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience that is the guilt of known sinne will have a care to have their bodies washed with cleane water CHAP. XIII The Eighth Prerogative Royal. I Proceed now to the next Priviledge which is to come viz. The bodies of the Saints shall be enamel'd with glory In this life the body is infirme Physicians have much ado to piece it up it is like a Picture out of frame or an house out of repaire every storm of sicknesse it raines thorow O anima quà m deforme hospitium nacta es How doth the excellent soul oft lodge in a deform'd body The body is like a piece of rotten wood diseases like wormes breed there feavers plurisies aches c. But this body shall be made glorious at the resurrection it shall neither have diseases nor defects Leah shall no more complain of her blear eyes
nor Barzillai of his lamenesse There are five Properties of the glorified bodies 1. They shall be agil and nimble the bodies of the Saints on earth are heavy in their motion and subject to wearinesse but in Heaven there shal be no elementary gravity hindering but our bodies being refined shall be swift and facile in their motion and made fit to ascend as the body of Elias In this life the body is a great hindrance to the soule in its operation The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak The soul may bring its action against the body when the soul would flie up to Christ the body as a leaden lump keeps it down 't is vivum sepulchrum but there is a time coming when it shall be otherwise the bodies of the Saints shall be agil and lively they shall be made fully subject to the soul and so no way impede or hinder the soul in its motion 2. The bodies of the Saints shall be transparent full of clarity and brightnesse as Christs body when it was transfigured Matth. 17.2 our bodies shall have a divine lustre put upon them here they are as iron when it is rusty there they shall be as iron when it is filed and made bright they shall shine tanquam Sol in fulgore saith Augustine as the Sun in its splendour nay seven times brighter saith Chrysostome here our bodies are as the gold in the oar drossy and impure in heaven they shall be as gold when it spangles and glisters so cleare shall they be that the soule may sally out at every part and sparkle through the body as the wine through the glasse 3. They shall be amiable beauty consists in two things 1. Symmetry and proportion when all the parts are drawn out in their exact lineaments 2. Complexion when there is a mixture and variety in the colours white and sanguine thus the bodies of the Saints shall have a transcendency of beauty put upon them Here the body is call'd a vile body Vile ortu in its birth and production de limo terrae of the dust of the earth The earth is the most ignoble element And vile officio in the use that it is put to the soul oft useth the body as a weapon to fight against God but this vile body shall be ennobled and beautified with glory it shall be made like Christs body How beautiful was Christs body upon earth in it there was the Purple and the Lily it was a mirrour beauty For all deformities of body issue immediately from sinne but Christ being conceived by the holy Ghost and so refined and clarified from all lees and dregs of sin he must needs have a beautiful body and in this sence he was fairer then the children of men Christs body as some Writers aver was so fair by reason of the beauty and grace which did shine in it that no limner could ever draw it exactly and if it was so glorious a body on earth how great is the lustre of it now in heaven That light which shone upon Saint Paul surpassing the glory of the sunne was no other then the beauty of Christs body in heaven O then what beauty and replendency will be put upon the bodies of the Saints they shall be made like Christs glorious body 4. The bodies of the Saints shall be impassible free from suffering We read that Iob's body was smitten with biles and Paul did beare in his body the marks of the Lord Iesus but ere long our bodies shall be impassible not but that the body when it is glorified shall have such a passion as is delightful for the body is capable of joy but no passion that is hurtful as cold or famine it shall not be capable of any noxious impression 5. They shall be immortall here our bodies are still dying quotidiè en im dempta est aliqua pars vitae cúm crescit vita tum decrescit It is improper to ask when we shall die but rather when we shall make an end of dying first the infancy dies then the childhood then youth then old age and then we make an end of dying it is not only the running out of the last sand in the glass that spends it but all the sands that run out before Death is a worm that is ever feeding at the root of our gourds but in Heaven our mortal shall put on immortality As it was with Adam in innocency if he had not sinned such was the excellent temperature and harmony in all the qualities of his body that it is probable he had not died but had been translated from Paradise to Heaven Indeed Bellarmine saith that Adam had died though he had not sinned but I know no ground for that assertion for sinne is made the formal cause of death however there 's no such thing disputable in Heaven the bodies there are immortal Luke 20.36 Neither can they die any more If God made Manna which is in it selfe corruptible to last many hundred years in the golden pot much more is he able by a divine power so to consolidate the bodies of the Saints that they shall be preserved to eternity Rev. 21.4 And there shall be no more death our bodies shall run parallel with eternity CHAP. XIV The Ninth Prerogative Royal. THE next Priviledge is we shall be as the Angels in Heaven Matth. 22.30 Christ doth not say we shall be Angels but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels Qu. How is that R. Not only that we shall not die but in regard of our manner of worship The Angels fulfill the will of God 1. Swiftly 2. Perfectly 3. Chearfully 1. Swiftly When God sends the Angels upon a Commission they do not hesitate or dispute the case with God but presently obey The Angels are set out by the Cherubims which had wings this was not to represent their Persons for spirits have no wings but their Office to shew how swift they are in their obedience it is as if they had wings Dan. 9.21 The man Gabriel this was an Angel was caused to flie swiftly as soone as ever God speaks the word the Angels are ambitious to obey now in Heaven we shall be as the Angels This is a singular comfort to a weak Christian alas we are not as the Angels in this life when God commands us upon service to mourne for sinne to take up the Crosse O what a dispute is there how long is it sometimes ere we can get leave of our hearts to go to prayer Jesus Christ went more willingly to suffer then we do often to pray how hardly do we come off in duty God had as good almost be without it Oh but if this be our grief be of good comfort in Heaven we shall serve God swiftly we shall be winged in our obedience we shall be even as the Angels 2. The Angels serve God perfectly they fulfill God's whole will they leave nothing undone
felt no paine Time was when conscience was tender but by often sinning he is like the Ostrich that can digest iron or as it is said of Mithridates that by often accustoming his body to poyson it never hurt him but he could live upon it as his food That sinne which was before as the wounding of the eye now is no more then the cutting of the naile Well there is a time coming when this sleepy conscience shall be awakened Belshazzar was drinking wine in bowls but there came out fingers on the wall and his countenance changed there conscience began to be awakened Conscience is like a looking-glasse if it be foul and dusty you can see nothing in it but wipe away the dust and you may see your face in it clearly there 's a time coming when God will wipe off the dust from the glasse of a mans conscience and he shall see his sins clearly represented Conscience is like a Lion asleep when he awakes he roars and tears his prey when conscience awakes then it roars upon a sinner and tears him as the devil did the man into which he entred Mark 9.22 he â—ent him and threw him into the fire When Moses rod was turned into a Serpent he was afraid and fled from it oh what is it when conscience is turned into a Serpent Conscience is like the Bee if a man doth well then conscience gives honey it speaks comfort if he do ill it puts forth a sting it is called a worm Mark 9.44 Where the worm never dies It is like Prometheus's Vulture it lies ever gnawing it is Gods blood-hound that pursues a man When the Jaylour saw the prison-doors open and as he thought the prisoners were missing he drew his sword and would have killed himselfe when the eye of conscience is opened and the sinner begins to look about him for his evidences Faith Repentance c. and sees they are missing he will be ready to kill himselfe a troubled conscience is the first-fruits of hell and indeed it is a lesser hell That it is so appears two wayes 1. By the suffrage of Scripture Prov. 18.14 A wounded spirit who can bear a wound in the Name in the estate in the body is sad but a wound in the conscience who can bear especially when the wound can never be healed for I speak of such as awake in the night of death 2. By the experience both of good and bad 1. By the experience of good men when the storme hath risen in their conscience though afterwards it hath been allayed yet for the present they have been in the suburbs of hell David complaines of his broken bones he was like a man that had all his bones out of joynt What is the matter you may see wherein his pain lay Psal. 51.3 My sin is ever before me he was in a spiritual agony it was not the sword threatned it was not the death of the childe but it was the roarings of his conscience some of Gods arrows stuck fast there though God will not damn his children yet he may send them to hell in this life 2. By the experience of bad men who have been in the perpetual convulsions of conscience I have sinned saith Iudas before he was nibling upon the silver bait the thirty pieces but now the hook troubles him conscience wounds him such was Iudas his horror being now like a man upon the rack that he hangs himself to quiet his conscience This shews what the hell of conscience is that men account death easie to get rid of conscience but in vaine it is with them as with a sick man he removes out of one room into another and changeth the aire but still he carries his disease with him Thou mayest think O sinner to laugh thy sinnes out of countenance but what wilt thou do when conscience shall begin to flie upon thee and shall examine thee with scourgings it is a mercy when conscience is awakened in time but the misery is when the wound is too late there being then no balm in Gilead §. II. The second thing to come His appearing before the Judge For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ Hierome thought he ever heard that sounding in his ears Surgite mortui Arise ye dead come to judgement What solemnity is there at an Assizes when the Judge comes to the Bench and the Trumpets are sounded Thus Christ the Judge shall be accompanied with Angels and Archangels and the Trumpets shall be blown 1 Thes. 4.16 For the Lord himselfe shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God This is the great and general Assizes Then shall Christ sit down upon the Throne of Judicature holding his sword in his hand and a flame coming out of his mouth Now the sinner being summoned before him as a prisoner at bar he hath his guilt written in his forehead he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned before he comes I mean in his conscience which is the consistory or petty Sessions and appearing before Christ he begins to tremble and be amazed with horrour and not being covered with Christs righteousnesse for want of a better covering he cries to the mountains to cover him And the Kings and the great men said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Nothing so dreadfull as the sight of mercy abused Now the Lamb will be turned into a Lion and he who was once a Saviour will be a Judge §. III. The third thing to come is His Charge reade I will reprove thee and set thy sinnes in order before thee Psal. 50.21 As God hath a bottle for tears so he hath a book to register mens sins Rev. 20.12 The books were opened Oh what a black charge will be read against a sinner not only the sins which have damnation written in their forehead as drunkenness swearing blasphemy shall be brought into the charge but those sinnes which he slighted As 1. Secret sinnes such as the world never took notice of many a man doth not forsake his sins but grows more cunning with the Vintner he pulls down the bush but his heart gives as much vent to sinne as ever his care is rather that sinne should be covered then cured Not unlike to him that shuts up his shop-windows but follows his trade within doors he sits brooding upon sinne he doth with his sins as Rachel did with her fathers Idols she put them under her that he might not finde them so doth he put his sins in a secret place all these sinnes shall be set in order before him Luk. 12.2 For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed God hath a key for the heart 2. Little sinnes as the world calls them Though I know no such thing as little
which as the Primum mobile or master-wheel carries the whole soul with it 4. The believer consents to have Christ pro termino interminabili never to part more he desires an uninterrupted communion with him he will part with life but not with Christ indeed death when it slips the knot between the soul and the body it ties it faster between the soul and Christ. 5. The Believer doth so consent to have Christ as he makes a deed of gift resigning up all the interest in himself to Christ he is willing to lose his own Name and sirname himselfe by the Name of Christ to lose his own will and be wholly at Christs dispose Ye are not your own he resigns up his love to Christ. In this sense the Spouse is said to be a spring shut up She hath love for Relations but the best of her love is kept for Christ The world hath the Milke of her love but Christ hath the Cream of it the choisest and purest of her love is a Spring shut up it is broached onely for Christ to drink This is the second Act of faith §. III. Opening the nature of Recumbency The third thing is Recumbency The soul having given its consent that the match should be made up and done it out of choice now it casts it selfe upon Christ as a man that casts himselfe upon the stream to swim it makes an holy adventure it clasps about Christ and saith My Lord my Jesus which is as it were the joyning of hands This Act of Recumbency is sometimes in Scripture call'd a coming to Christ sometimes a leaning upon Christ This is that faith which justifies Now concerning this faith I shall lay down two Rules 1. That faith justifies not as a formal cause but purely as an instrument viz. as it lays hold on Christ the blessed object and fetcheth in his fulnesse and in this sense it is call'd a precious faith the worth lies not in faith but in Christ on which it doth centre and terminate Faith in it selfe considered is not more excellent than other graces Take a piece of Wax and a piece of Gold of the same Magnitude the Wax is not valuable with the Gold but as this Wax hangs at the lavell of some Will by vertue of which a great Estate is confirmed and conveighed so it may be worth many hundred pounds So faith considered purely in it self doth challenge nothing more than other graces nay in some sense it is inferiour it being an empty hand But as this hand receives the precious Almes of Christs Merits and is an instrument or channell thorow which the blessed streams of life flow to us from him so it doth challenge a superiority above other graces Indeed some affirme that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Act of believing without reference to the Merits of Christ justifies To which I shall say but this 1. Faith cannot justifie as it is an Act for it must have an object we cannot if we make good sense separate between the Act and the Object What is faith if it do not fix upon Christ but fancy It was not the people of Israels looking up that cured them but the fixing their eye upon the Brazen Serpent 2. Faith doth not justifie as it is a Grace This were to substitute faith in Christs roome it were to make a Christ of Faith Faith is a good Grace but a bad Christ. 3. Not as a Work which must needs be if as some affirme it be in lieu of obedience to the Moral Law Then we should be justified by Works contrary to that Ephes. 2.9 where the Apostle speaks expresly Not of works So that it is clear faith's excellency lies in the apprehending and applying the object Christ therefore in Scripture we are said to be justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through faith as an Instrument deputed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for faith as a formall cause The second Rule is that Faith doth not justifie as it doth exercise grace It cannot be denied but faith hath an influence upon the graces it is like a silver thred that runnes thorow a Chain of Pearl it puts strength and vivacity into all the vertues but it doth not justifie under this Notion Faith begets obedience By faith Abraham obeyed But Abraham was not justified as he obeyed but as he beleeved Faith works by love but it doth not justifie as it works by love For as the Sun shines by its brightnesse not by its heat though both are inseparably joyned so faith and love are tyed together by an indissoluble knot yet faith doth not justifie as it works by love but as it layes hold on Christ. Though faith be accompanied with all the graces yet in point of justification it is alone and hath nothing to do with any of the graces Hence that speech of Luther in the justification of a sinner Christ and faith are alone Tanquam sponsus spomsa in thalamo As the Bridegroom and Bride in the Bed-chamber Faith is never separated from the graces yet sometimes it is alone And thus I have shewn you the Essentials of faith §. IV. Shewing what are the fruits and products of faith I proceede to the Consequentials of faith There are many rare and supernatural fruits of faith 1. Faith is an heart-quickning grace it is the vitall Artery of the soul The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2.4 When we begin to believe we begin to live Faith grafts the soule into Christ as the cion into the stock and fetcheth all its sap and juyce from that blessed Vine Faith is the great quickner it quickens our graces and our duties 1. Faith quickens our graces the Spirit of God infuseth all the seeds and habits but faith is the fountain of all the acts of grace it is as the Spring in the Watch that moves the Wheels not a grace stirs till faith set it a work How doth love work By faith When I apprehend Christs love this doth pullize and draw up my love to him again How doth humility work By faith Faith humbles the soul it hath a double aspect it looks upon sin and a sight of sin humbles it looks upon Free-grace and a sight of mercy humbles How doth patience work By faith If I believe God is a wise God who knowes what is best for me and can deliver not onely from affliction but by affliction This spins out patience Thus faith is not only viva but vivifica it puts forth a divine Energy and operation into all the graces 2. Faith animates and quickens our duties What was the blood of Bulls and Goats to take away sin It was their faith in the Messiah that made their dead Sacrifices become living Services What are Ordinances but a dumb shew without the breathings of faith in them therefore in Scripture it is called the prayer of faith the hearing of faith and the obedience of